Visitations
By Princess Alexandria
has other stories that can't be posted here.
Email: princess_alex24@hotmail.com
Alternate Universe Fiction2 weeks after birth
Elisa stared down into the bassinet at Delilah's frozen form while caressing her daughter's stone face. "I love you." Elisa whispered as if trying to not wake the child, but Delilah wouldn't be woken up like other babies. Elisa felt a pang of regret at that. She'd like to be with Delilah now, but summer had fewer night hours.
The knock on the door surprised Elisa. Normally people only visited at night now, so that Delilah would be awake.
"Fox?" Elisa opened the door a bit more so that the redhead could come in. Fox glanced at Elisa's messed up hair and wrinkled clothes. It made Elisa self conscious to be stared at.
"You need to get out of this room and see the daylight once in a while." Fox sounded a little concerned. "Delilah may be a gargoyle, but you aren't. You've been locked away all day every day for too long. You're going out to dinner with me."
Elisa glanced over at the nursery door. She couldn't leave Delilah alone.
Fox's voice got gentler. "Elisa, she's a gargoyle. She's not going to get into any trouble during the day. If you want I can have Owen check in on her, but she doesn't really need that. This place is a fortress. I swear she is safe here."
Elisa reluctantly agreed to go out for a brief dinner, and Fox waited patiently for Elisa to clean up and change. If this were a human child this would be abuse to leave her alone like this, but Fox was right. Elisa needed to accept that the rules were different with Delilah.
While Elisa glanced at the menu she found herself trying to figure out which meals would be faster for the cooks to prepare so that she could go home. When she realized that she was doing that she took a deep breath and just chose something that she liked. This was the first time she'd left the castle since she delivered Delilah. It was the first time she'd been away from her baby for any length of time.
Fox smiled at her with gentle understanding. "It does get easier. It's just so new to you now." Their dinner was relatively calm. Fox kept the conversation running whenever Elisa seemed distracted.
They got back to the castle an hour and a half after they'd left and Elisa went right for her rooms to make sure Delilah was still okay. She, of course, hadn't moved.
Fox leaned on the nursery door and smirked at Elisa. "You and I have a running date, one dinner every week to get you out. No excuses." She then glanced at Elisa's newly flat stomach. "And you should start working out with me. You don't want to get out of shape. The doctors gave you the green light for more activity. It's time." Elisa nodded as she thought about the fact that she was still wearing what she'd worn right before finding out she was pregnant. She hadn't regained all of her figure.
"Yeah, you're right." Elisa sighed and sat down in a chair next to Delilah. Fox moved forward and the smile on her lips when she looked at Elisa's little girl filled Elisa with a bit of pride. She'd been so worried that Delilah would come out wrong, and wouldn't be a real gargoyle. She had nightmares when she was pregnant of Delilah being malformed or her wings being useless. She remembered that moment of fear when she'd seen the tiny wings, and the gentle concern in Demona's eyes when the gargoyle realized that Elisa was upset.
Demona had visited every night when Elisa was in the hospital wing, and she didn't just visit Delilah. She'd sat and talked with Elisa as well. They'd avoided confrontations with the clan by having the doctors claim that the clan could only visit for the first two hours of the night and then Elisa had to rest, but Demona would come in on the third hour and stay for a few hours just holding Delilah and visiting with Elisa. Demona was so gentle, so soft and calm looking with her daughter in her arms. Elisa had found herself just staring at the two gargoyles on several occasions. It was hard to believe that this was the Demona that she'd fought so many times.
"Mrs. Xanatos?" Owen's voice tore both women's eyes to him. He'd obviously come in to do another check on Delilah. Elisa tried not to grin at the deep purple bruise over his eye. It was starting to heal, but Demona had managed to clock him pretty good even though she was in her human form at the time. That was a moment that she wasn't so soft and gentle. Elisa wasn't sure what set the gargoyle off so suddenly when Owen stepped into the medical wing to see how Elisa and Delilah were doing, but she had enjoyed watching it too much. She'd imagined doing that to him ever since she found out about that spell he did on her.
"Thank you for checking on her Owen, but we are back now." Fox dismissed him and Owen left quietly. Fox rested her hand on Elisa's shoulder and sighed softly. "I'm sure that you'll have visitors again tonight, so I'll let you mentally prepare for the onslaught."
"Thanks Fox." Elisa turned to look into Fox's eyes. Who would have thought that this woman would become her best friend? It still hurt that her relationship with Goliath was tense and that the gentle friendship that they had was now rocky, but having Fox there for her helped.
"You take care of yourself too." Fox spoke softly. "You aren't helping Delilah by neglecting yourself like you've been doing." Elisa smiled a little guiltily and nodded.
Delilah woke up at sunset and her tiny little roar was so cute it made Elisa laugh. "There's my little girl." She spoke tenderly while picking Delilah up. She'd have to vacuum the bassinet again. She did that every night to clean out Delilah's stone skin so the little one didn't hurt herself on it. It was agreed with the clan that they could visit, but not in the first hour that Delilah woke up. That was time for just the mother and daughter. "Are you hungry little one?" Elisa cuddled Delilah closer and tears filled her eyes. She'd given up on ever being a mother years ago, and now she had such a wonderful little girl. She should bring Delilah to see Demona tomorrow night. Demona hadn't seen her daughter in a week, and Elisa couldn't even imagine going half a day without that contact. It had to be hard on Demona.
She could almost set her clock to the clan visits in the past week. Angela, Lex, Evelyn, Broadway, and Theresa visited pretty often. Brooklyn had dropped by twice, briefly. Goliath visited when the rest of the clan left, and his visits were always so tense. Elisa could see that when he looked at Delilah he only thought about how he felt it should have been his hatchling that Elisa carried. He carried a cloud of depression around him that was hard to be around. It only lifted when he tried to tell her she was wrong to reveal his helpless anger, or when he occasionally tried to touch her. Just small caresses that spoke of his real desire to develop their relationship. He even talked about being a father to Delilah. Elisa grimaced at that memory. She'd tried to sidestep the issue so she didn't hurt his feelings, but she saw him realize what she was doing. She didn't want him that way, and now that she saw how he completely disregarded her own wishes, she just didn't trust him to listen to her about what she wanted for Delilah if he thought he knew better. The realization that she couldn't trust him to respect her rights as Delilah's mother hurt. It had to get better, because this hurt too much.
The knock on the door was right on time. Elisa sighed as she put Delilah back down in the bassinet and went to answer it. It was getting tiring how often the clan visited. The females had never seen a hatchling before and were so amazed at the tiny size that they came to look often. They'd started to speculate on what their own hatchlings would look like and talk about names. Apparently when Demona showed the clan Delilah that first night she'd really impressed Theresa and Evelyn with the naming ceremony. That's what they called it. Now those two wanted three names for their hatchlings and bemoaned the fact that figuring out one was difficult enough. Elisa could sympathize with that. Little Delilah Maza-Destine was lucky her gargoyle mother had such a flair for names and apparently theatrics. Elisa wished she could have seen that.
Evelyn smiled at Elisa broadly while waiting to come in with Lex. That meant that Angela and Broadway must have the first patrol tonight and would be dropping by in a few hours. Elisa let them in, but in her mind she was starting to try and figure out how to revise the visiting policy so that she wasn't entertaining every night. Delilah was new and Elisa understood the fascination, but she wasn't going to do this every night for much longer. She loved the clan, but she really missed her privacy.
Elisa had left Delilah in Lex's care as she went to the kitchen to get some snacks. When she got back she was surprised to find her daughter in Brooklyn's arms. It was cute, until she listened to what he was quietly saying to her daughter while Lex was tinkering with the dresser to fix one of the drawers that wasn't put together properly.
"You're lucky Elisa's raising you." Brooklyn spoke quietly. "Demona's a monster. Scary monster."
Elisa stepped into the room while glaring at him. "Give her to me." Her voice was quiet and very cold and commanding. He looked surprised at her comment, but handed Delilah over. When Evelyn came out of the bathroom she handed Delilah to her and motioned for Evelyn to take Delilah to her nursery. Once the baby was out of the room she marched up to Brooklyn and he actually took a step back.
"Don't ever badmouth Demona around Delilah again. Keep your opinions to yourself." Elisa growled under her breath as she thought of all the times that Angela had cried because of cruel things that Brooklyn had said about her mother. "I won't have you hurting her like that."
"I'm just warning her. It's not like she even understands." Brooklyn spoke quickly while glancing over Elisa's shoulder to see Lex staring at him from the doorway.
"Well, I don't care if she does understand yet, I don't want you saying things like that to her." Elisa crossed her arms in front of her, surprised at the urge to hit him for that small comment. "I'm her mother, and any negative talk about Demona doesn't happen in her presence. Demona is her mother too, and I'm not going to have this clan destroy that for her. I'm not going to watch you break my little girl's heart."
"You're still planning to let Demona see her aren't you?" Brooklyn sounded shocked, but Elisa had never made those plans a secret.
Elisa gritted her teeth and glared at his obvious disapproval. She was so tired of defending her right to make her own decisions. "I know you don't like Demona, and you can bitch about her all you want… away from my daughter. If you can't say nice things, then I don't want you bringing up Demona at all around Delilah… ever."
Brooklyn closed his open jaw and just nodded his agreement. Elisa turned to pass Lex on the way to her daughter. Evelyn handed her over and Elisa ignored the constant audience and she whispered to Delilah. "She's no monster baby. She loves you very much." Her voice caught and she felt tears in her eyes and just held Delilah closer. She didn't see Lex glare at Brooklyn as Brooklyn slinked out looking ashamed.
Lex walked around her and looked into Elisa's face with sympathy. "Do you know how many times his comments about Demona made Angela cry?" Elisa stared into her friend's eyes. "Do you know how badly they hurt her? I can't let anyone hurt Delilah like that."
"I'll tell him to ease up." Lex moved closer to rest a hand on Elisa's arm while she gently rocked Delilah in her arms.
"Thanks." Elisa gave him a watery smile and sniffled.
One good thing about that confrontation is that the remaining gargoyles cleared out, leaving Elisa alone with Delilah again. Elisa laid next to Delilah on the bed and just stared at her as she moved and squirmed just a little. She caressed the tail the moved like a tired snake, without direction or purpose. She watched the tiny talons curled into fists.
Delilah was taking a nap, because the stone sleep alone wasn't enough for a hatchling. It was close to dawn, and Elisa had strapped her baby into a car seat so that when the stone sleep took her she'd be portable. Delilah was placed on the couch so that Elisa could listen to her stereo and still be near her. She planned to go have dinner with Demona the next day and would be leaving the castle before sunset to do it. Elisa quietly listened to music in the living room, while reading the newspaper. The knock on the door made her get up quickly and try to keep the person from knocking again. Delilah needed her rest.
Goliath smiled at her gently. "Can I come in?"
Elisa just nodded and opened the door more. "Keep it down. She's sleeping."
He sat down on the couch gentle and stared at Delilah's slumbering form. "It's nice to have a hatchling in the castle again." Goliath glanced up at Elisa. "She really is quite beautiful."
"I know." Elisa wasn't at all modest about her little girl. She may not have seen other hatchlings, but Delilah was beautiful.
"What is she doing in this contraption?" Goliath asked curiously while staring at the car seat. Elisa sighed, as her hopes of skipping this conversation vanished.
"We're going to visit Demona tomorrow and I need her to turn to stone in that so that we'll be able to go. We're expected before sunset. Demona wants to see Delilah wake up." She could hear a hint of a challenge in her voice and watched his eyes widen. He'd refused to allow Demona in the castle. He didn't want her near Angela and Elisa was betting that he thought that would keep Elisa from having her near Delilah. He thought that Elisa wouldn't take her daughter across town in a car.
"You are actually going to take her there? Demona might not let you leave with her."
"She won't do that and she has a right to see Delilah." Elisa glanced at Delilah and managed to keep her voice down.
Goliath was quiet for a while. His voice softer when he finally spoke. "If you are determined to do that it would be better if she came here, where the clan could keep her from hurting Delilah or you."
"You're thinking guards aren't you?" Elisa could envision several of the clan sitting in her room glaring at Demona throughout the entire visit. Demona would never relax and just enjoy Delilah like that. Elisa couldn't relax either. "No. Thanks for the offer but I think Delilah and I will visit her instead. It'll be a nice drive."
"Don't go. Just wait until I wake up again and we can talk about this more." Elisa grimaced at him. They'd been talking about this for weeks. She'd made her decision and he kept trying to change it.
"No. Go get some rest. I'll see you Sunday night."
"You'll stay all night at her mansion?" He looked pretty upset. "Where is it so that we can check up on you?"
"Really you need to get going before you turn to stone here." Elisa ignored that question. They didn't have much time. She could tell by the changing colors of the sky.
"No. Elisa, just stay until I wake up again and we can come to an agreement." Elisa sighed as she heard the sound of stone encasing his body. It wasn't likely they'd ever come to an agreement.
"I guess you'll be staying the day." Elisa sighed heavily and picked up Delilah's car seat without looking at his pleading face. He seemed to suck all the energy out of the air lately. All they ever did was disagree anymore. All conversations turned to what he thought she shouldn't do with Delilah.
The Next DayElisa pulled up to Demona's driveway shortly before dinnertime. The gargoyle must have been watching for her because the gate opened before she even had a chance to buzz.
Demona came out dressed in black slacks and a short sleeve green cotton button up shirt. Demona gave Elisa a warm smile as she moved to help the detective grab the bag of diapers and other various things that Elisa was pretty sure Demona didn't have. "We can take her up to the nursery." Demona spoke softly while staring at the tiny stone female that Elisa pulled out of the car still in the car seat. Elisa noticed that Demona moved to open all the doors for her while she carried Delilah into the mansion for her first visit to her other mommy's home.
"I'm surprised you wanted me to come so early." Elisa spoke to fill the silence a little, but also she was puzzled as to why Demona would have her coming over three hours before sunset if she wanted to visit with Delilah.
"There are some things I wanted to talk about with you." Demona followed Elisa away from the nursery and Elisa felt a little strange leaving Delilah alone in a new room, even if it was her own. "You can drink wine again now. Would you like some?"
Elisa thought of the stone statue that she'd left in her room, and how Goliath was going to try to lecture her tomorrow night for not doing as he asked. "Yeah, maybe just one glass." She might as well enjoy this visit, she'd pay for it later.
As she followed Demona down the stairs she couldn't help but think that she'd missed visiting with the gargoyle. When she thought of how Demona had been with her during the delivery and how she'd continued to be concerned about Elisa's health even after she wasn't carrying Delilah anymore she decided that she didn't need to hide it anymore. "I'm glad you asked me over early." Elisa felt her heart beat a little faster as she worried about how this would be taken. "Seems like the only time most people want to spend time with me anymore is when Delilah is awake, and then I can't get rid of them." When Demona turned right before they got to the kitchen to look into Elisa's eyes with a little concern that wasn't hidden Elisa smiled weakly. "I know it'll wear off eventually." She was surprised how much that apparently was bothering her.
Demona looked awkward and fidgeted for a moment. "Well, I'm sure if the clan could visit other times that they would."
"No, they visit far too much as is." Elisa sighed and continued into the kitchen. "I can't… I'm so tired of the visits. I haven't had one night alone with my daughter since she was born." Demona motioned for Elisa to sit at the kitchen island so she did. She watched as the gargoyle in human form reached up into her cabinets to get some wine glasses, and noticed how the shirt rode up to reveal some pale flesh of Demona's lower back. Elisa sighed and looked into Demona's green eyes when she turned around. "I want to tell them I'm limiting the visits, but I don't want to hurt their feelings either."
"This is the first hatchling that they've seen, but it's also the first one that has a definite parent in charge." Demona set the glasses down. "It may seem odd for them, but they will adjust. They need to learn their place soon. We are Delilah's parents, and if you let this go too long the old rookery ideas may start to come out. I know neither of us wants to be raising Delilah by committee. I deal with enough committees at work. I will not have people voting on how we raise Delilah." Demona's voice got a little pained. "Or have Goliath cast the leaders vote that dictates in spite of what the rest of the clan wants… like he used to. He used that leaders vote far too often with the hatchlings."
Elisa could clearly see that Demona was thinking of something painful from her past. Elisa's voice got softer. "What did he do?" She'd known that Demona had blamed him for the fall of the castle, and that the clan blamed Demona for it, but this was something new. An old pain that still haunted Demona.
Demona went quiet as she poured the wine and set it aside. Elisa felt the urge to reach out and touch Demona's hand when she noticed the heavy sigh she took before talking. "With Angela's rookery, some of the females had decided that they liked the way humans knew who their children were. A few of my sisters had taken to marking their eggs with chalk, just small marks so that no one would notice. They wanted to know which one was theirs." Demona stared down at her drink and Elisa didn't like where this story was going. "I marked Angela's egg. I wanted to know too. I know it was a human custom, but I wanted to know." Demona's fist clenched as her voice got harsher with anger. "When some of the males heard what we'd done a meeting was called. We argued that it wouldn't hurt to change just this one custom. We voted as a clan, and over two thirds of the rookery parents agreed that knowing who our hatchlings were was what we wanted." Elisa watched Demona's clenched fist shake before the redhead rested her hand on the counter and took a deep breath. Demona looked right into Elisa's horrified eyes and said what Elisa knew the rest of the story was already. She knew how Goliath would have responded to that vote. Demona's pain told her how he responded to that vote. "He cast the leader's vote. The entire clan could vote yes on something, but if he cast a leader's vote rather than a rookery parent vote, he could overrule them all. He gave a long winded speech about the old ways, and how he didn't want the clan parents protecting just their own hatchlings. He claimed that the old ways ensured that the entire clan worked together for the best interest of all the hatchlings. He claimed that he would feel proud of them all and he didn't need to know which had come from his mate. He completely ignored what I wanted, what all the females wanted, and since I was the second… he forced me to be the first to erase my mark in public as a show of support."
Elisa's hand didn't hesitate this time as she reached out to grasp Demona's. She couldn't imagine how much that had to hurt. When she noticed the tears in Demona's eyes she didn't even think twice of getting up and moving around the island to pull the redhead into a hug. Demona's tear-filled whisper made Elisa pull Demona tighter. "I don't want him taking this daughter away from me too. I know he's trying to. Please… Don't."
"I won't." Elisa swore to Demona, and she fully meant it. She'd ask Goliath about that story, but she was pretty sure it was the truth, and it made her sick. She didn't care if Demona was only revealing this pain to sway her, because the pain was real enough.
Demona pulled herself back together and left Elisa in the kitchen alone while she cleaned up. Elisa could tell Demona was embarrassed by the display, so she didn't act like anything unusual had happened. As she stared after Demona when she left she started to wonder about all the stories that the clan had told her of the past. How much had they just left out?
"Getting her here today was easier than I thought it would be." Elisa took a sip of the juice. She wasn't going to have more than the one glass of wine, even though Demona was working on her second. "The car seat wasn't too hard to figure out."
"Well Good." Demona smiled one of the soft genuine smiles that Elisa hadn't seen from the gargoyle before she had told Demona she was going to be a parent, but saw often afterwards. "So I assume you skipped driving down the stairs in Central Park?"
Elisa smirked. "You heard about that one?"
Demona chuckled. "Oh, I usually made sure to keep and ear out for what you were doing." When Demona got up to get something non-alcoholic for her own glass Elisa looked around the kitchen and her eyes fell on the flower display on the dining room table. It looked a lot like the one that she'd gotten anonymously after her father died. She looked between Demona and the flowers for a moment and she was surprised where her thoughts were going. How much did Demona keep tabs on what was happening in Elisa's life? How long had she been doing that?
When Demona went upstairs for a brief phone call Elisa got up and went to the flower arrangement and quickly hunted for some clue as to where it came from. If she was right things with Demona were even more complicated than she thought. She found the name of a familiar florist. The owner was always so friendly with her because she and the clan had saved his store from some thugs a few years ago. She called him up and he was just getting ready to close shop.
"I need you to check on something for me would you?" Elisa spoke calmly, but her heart was beating a little more quickly. "Can you check and see what purchases a customer made as far back as a little over a year ago?" She smiled to hear that he had that information. "Last February did Dominique Destine order flowers and have them delivered to an apartment? Would have been the end of the month." When Elisa got the flowers she'd assumed they came from an old friend of her father's, but she'd never seen an arrangement like that anywhere, even Richard's Florist didn't have them in stock, it was specially made.
"Yes. It looks like she did." Richard sounded a little puzzled.
Elisa thanked him automatically and put her phone away. Demona had sent her flowers before the cave. Elisa felt a little stunned.
"We have a little longer before sunset." Demona's voice startled Elisa and she turned away from the flowers and went back into the kitchen. Demona raised an eyebrow at Elisa's going to smell the flowers. Elisa just smiled and pushed her thoughts away. She'd think about it later. "So I wanted to talk to you more about teaching Delilah magic." Demona sat down at the kitchen island and Elisa moved to her own seat again. "I was thinking that if we both spoke Latin as well as English around her while she's learning to talk it would be easier for her to pick up."
"That would make sense if I actually knew Latin."
Demona's grin was a bit predatory and made Elisa a little nervous. "I'm going to teach you. You'll study at home and we will start working together weekly until you can speak it if not fluently, at least passably."
Elisa blinked for a moment at the thought of becoming Demona's student. "Latin?"
"Well, aside from making it easier for Delilah to learn if she hears both of her mommies speaking it, when she is learning you might want to understand what she's saying."
Well, it couldn't hurt to learn a new language, even if almost no one spoke it anymore. "Sure. We can do that."
Demona got up and stepped right outside the room to pick up a stack of books and tapes. "I knew you'd agree." Demona smiled as she set the books down and Elisa started to feel like she was in college again when she looked at the shear volume of homework Demona was giving her. "I promise not to zap you with magic bolts if you have trouble learning." Elisa looked up from the stack thinking that Demona was teasing her, but the expression on Demona's face was serious.
"Is that how you learned? Your teacher hurt you if you didn't pick it up fast enough?"
Demona grimaced. "He was the only magic user around. No one took gargoyle apprentices back then and he constantly reminded me that I was so lucky he stooped to teaching a beast how to read. I was the first gargoyle in the clan to learn." Elisa sighed. The more she learned about that castle and the humans that lived there the more she regretted that any of her friends grew up there.
She looked into Demona's face as the gargoyle looked at the spines of the piled books. "Well, you really have your work cut out for you if you think I can learn a language." Elisa picked up the first book. "I'll do my best." She wasn't really surprised that Demona would have been the first to learn to read. Demona was very intelligent. It's just a shame she had such a crappy teacher. If she'd had just one human that treated her like a person back then, could that whole Viking mess have been avoided? The thought of raising their Delilah in a castle like that made Elisa sick. She could never hear someone call her daughter a beast and not do something about it. Maybe just one decent human wouldn't have been enough.
"I'm going to go change before sunset. It really isn't comfortable to do that while wearing pants."
Elisa looked up. "Is that why you wear dress suits?" At Demona's grin Elisa knew she'd figured out that mystery. Demona didn't seem like the type of woman in human form that would wear skirts so much. It would be harder to kick someone in the ass.
Elisa followed Demona up the stairs, but she went to the nursery rather than the bedroom. A few minutes later Demona came in dressed for the night to find Elisa caressing Delilah's brow ridge. Elisa spoke quietly. "Is this what your brow ridge looks like?"
"Mostly." Demona looked a little surprised by the question. Elisa was surprised she'd asked it. She had been wondering; since that was actually the only part of Demona's body she hadn't seen. Elisa didn't notice her eyes getting hooded as she stared at the redheaded female. She remembered that night, touching her, making her scream with pleasure. When Elisa turned to stare back down at the result of that night she didn't noticed Demona tilting her head to the side and staring at her.
"You'll need to get a vacuum for up here. I usually vacuum her stone skin up after she wakes up."
"Already have that taken care of." Demona smiled. "We used to have several brooms in the rookery to take care of that." Demona's voice got a little more serious. "Are you healing okay?"
Elisa's eyebrow rose at the obvious concern for the detective's well being. "I'm doing fine."
"Well, good." Demona moved to the dresser and started to move the stuffed animals around as if arranging them perfectly.
Elisa glanced out the window and figured they still had a few minutes before sunset. "Demona, I was thinking that once a week isn't really enough time." Demona stopped playing with the toys and turned to look at Elisa with a surprised expression on her face. "At least twice would be better. Do you have enough time for that?" After spending so much time with Demona, she realized that her offer of one night a week seemed far too small. She couldn't imagine only seeing Delilah once a week, and Demona deserved more than that.
"I can make as much time as you think you can give me." Demona's smile grew. The smile started to fade and Elisa didn't understand it until Demona spoke. "Of course you will have a hard time selling that to Goliath."
"He doesn't make my decisions." Elisa's voice held a note of anger. "I don't care how much he yells and pleads, this is OUR daughter, and I'm not giving up control for anyone."
"I know what you tried to do for me." Demona stared into Elisa's eyes. "I heard you in Paris. I never did thank you for that either." Demona smirked. "I was too busy trying to rob MacBeth blind." Elisa tried to think about what she did in Paris. She'd shot Demona, but even though that saved the gargoyle's life, she didn't think she'd be getting thanks for that. Demona moved forward and rested her hand on the hand Elisa had gently holding the bars of the crib. "With Angela. I heard you telling him that she should meet me. Before we even… You tried to give me back my daughter." Demona looked into the crib. "And now you've given me a daughter."
Elisa was trying to think of how to reply to that. It was more gentle gratitude than she'd ever heard from Demona, and almost expected the gargoyle to do something to mess it up. Instead Demona stepped away quickly and gritted her teeth as sunset hit.
Later that night Elisa leaned against the doorway and just watched for several minutes. Demona acted like she was completely oblivious to the audience as she laid on the floor next to the blankets that held their daughter. Demona's head rested on her hand as she laid on her side and caresses Delilah's legs with the back of a talon.
"She looks like a full gargoyle, just with a bellybutton." Demona spoke quietly to her.
"I know. I don't see that she inherited much from me."
"No, I see it." Demona smiled down at the hatchling. "She has your eyes. Your nose. Your skin tone. She'll probably be just as stubborn as you are too."
Elisa grinned and crossed her arms. "Look whose talking. Anyone would be lucky to get her to do anything they ask. With both of us… she'll be hard to control."
"Yeah, she'll be a fighter alright." Demona tickled Delilah's stomach. "And she'll be very smart. My side of the family of course." Demona grinned up at Elisa and Elisa couldn't help but chuckle at that friendly jab. Elisa moved off the wall and moved to sit beside the two females on the floor.
"Yeah. You are pretty smart." Elisa smiled at Demona, noticing the surprise on the gargoyle's face. Elisa then turned her attention mostly to Delilah and looked at Demona out of the corner of her eye to see the gargoyle was still staring at her.
"You aren't too bad either." Demona finally responded quietly.
"For a human?" Elisa glanced up with a playful teasing expression on her face.
"For anyone." Demona answered seriously.
Elisa felt a little uncomfortable with the way Demona was looking at her. "Thank you." Elisa replied quietly. She didn't know how to read the expression on Demona's face, so she turned her attention back down to Delilah. "The white hair was a surprise."
"It might be Puck's one influence." Demona reached out to caress the hair in question. It was still very short, but it was so white that it stood out dramatically from Delilah's skin. It seemed to go well with her white wings, which really reminded Elisa of an angel. "Or a side effect of the magic. Either way I like it."
"Yeah, it does look good." Elisa sighed as she found the experience of staring at their daughter together was more intense than it really should be. It wasn't like Delilah ever did anything really. A baby this young didn't move too much. All three of them sat in the charged sort of silence for a while. Elisa didn't want to break the comfortable spell.
"I bet the clan never thought we'd be able to spend an entire night together without someone ending up dead." Demona finally spoke.
"No, but then after I got pregnant they really should have taken the hint that it could be done." Elisa grinned teasingly and looked up in time to see that Demona actually blushed for a second. Hanging around Fox was definitely making Elisa a bit more out there with her comments. Elisa spoke gently. "This is nice. I'm glad I didn't take Goliath's offer."
"The one where they have armed guards around you and Delilah while I look at you through a telescope from the building across the way?"
Elisa chuckled. "Yeah, pretty much."
"He
always did go overboard."
"Elisa?" The familiar voice was unusually soft while saying her name. Elisa cracked open her eyes to see that she'd managed to fall asleep on the couch while Demona played with Delilah. "It's almost sunrise. I thought you might like to say goodnight to her."
"Thanks." Elisa said groggily while moving to sit up. "How long?"
"Just a half hour." Demona looked at her in concern. "You look exhausted."
Elisa stood up and took Delilah into her own arms to snuggle while she headed upstairs with Demona in tow to put Delilah in the car seat. "I'm still getting used to the new hours I have to keep. For a while there I wasn't on the night shift."
"Yes, you did used to sleep at least some at night." Demona agreed quietly and Elisa resisted the urge to stop walking and ask about how Demona knew that. It was far too close to dawn to not get Delilah put away safely.
After Delilah was stone and Demona was human Elisa started to pack up Delilah's diaper bag. When she yawned Demona seemed to study her. "You are too tired to drive. You might get into an accident." Elisa almost listed all the times she'd been more tired than this and did fine, but Demona's glance towards Delilah let her know that the gargoyle was worried about her daughter being in the car with an exhausted human at the wheel. "Take a nap here."
"You have a guest room?" Elisa hadn't seen one in her tour.
"No, but you could sleep in my bed." Demona grimaced a little at having said that. "I don't need as much sleep as a human. I'll be up for a few more hours."
Elisa really felt that she should head home, but she was tired. It wasn't responsible to drive like that. If she got in an accident with Delilah in the car she would never forgive herself. She looked into the determined expression on Demona's face and knew that she wouldn't get out of here without a fight if she disagreed. "Okay. Thanks."
Demona's bedroom was very tastefully decorated in earth tones. Elisa pulled her shoes off and crawled onto the strange bed. The cool sheets felt good on her face, and she could smell Demona's scent on the pillowcase. She had no idea if she'd be able to fall asleep in Demona's bed, but she'd make an effort.
"No, I didn't kill her!" Demona's angry words pulled Elisa from her sleep. The amount of daylight in the bedroom let her know she'd been out for a while. The clock beside the bed said ten am. She listened harder to the phone conversation happening in the office across the hall. She'd left the bedroom door open. She always did that. Delilah may not be the type of baby that cried while Elisa slept, but she liked to hear if anything went wrong in the house at all, anything that might affect her daughter. She'd also become a lighter sleeper since having Delilah and that was probably the only reason that she'd woken to the anger in Demona's voice. "She was exhausted. I couldn't have her driving my daughter around like that!" Elisa stretched on the bed. She could get up and get Demona out of the conversation. It had to be Fox that called. Instead she just cuddled the pillow to her face and listened for a moment. "I could wake her up to reassure you, but she wouldn't go back to sleep after that and you know it. Humans need more sleep than this." Elisa pushed the blanket off of her.
Demona looked tired and irritated while she listened to a redhead that was getting increasingly loud. Fox's voice was unmistakable. That woman really was a good friend, but this wasn't a kidnapping like Fox was yelling. "Here, gimme the phone." Elisa's voice was still filled with sleep. Demona seemed upset that Elisa was out of bed but she handed it over in time for Elisa to hear Fox angrily telling her that she'd send that steel clan over to rip her home apart if she didn't get Elisa on the phone right now. "Fox I'm fine. Just fell asleep." Elisa grinned a little. "So you don't need to threaten her with vandalism. That still is against the law you know."
"Elisa." Fox sounded so relieved. "You're okay then?"
"Yeah, I'm fine. Still dead tired but fine."
"When you hadn't returned before I woke up…"
Elisa interrupted, feeling bad for worrying Fox like that. "I only planned to nap an hour." She glanced at the female in the room that had to have turned off the alarm clock. "I guess I overslept." Demona didn't look at all guilty about tricking her like that. Elisa would have called Fox so that the woman didn't worry if she'd known she was going to spend most of the morning at Demona's.
After she'd convinced Fox she was fine Elisa hung up. "I'm going back to bed." Elisa spoke that one sentence and left with a smirk on her lips. She was tired and Demona obviously didn't think she'd do that. Elisa didn't want to be too predictable.
They had a late lunch and then Demona helped Elisa pack up her belongings and put them in the car. While Elisa made sure the car seat was secure Demona slipped into the mansion and came out with the pile of Latin books and a wicked grin. Elisa just sighed as Demona put them on the passenger seat. "When you come back Tuesday we can start work on this."
When Elisa got home she spent some time trying to fit the books in her bag so that she didn't need to take an extra trip for them. She'd have to start studying today if she didn't want to embarrass herself on Tuesday. When she thought about her lousy grades in French, she grimaced. She didn't pick up languages very well. Still she wasn't one to back down from a challenge, and she wasn't going to look stupid in front of Demona. She was going to speak it better than passably.
When the elevator opened up she started down the hall to her rooms. Fox sent Alexander ahead with Owen and moved to take the bag from Elisa's shoulder. "What is in this?" Fox did a few curls with the bag, proving that it was heavy.
"Homework." Elisa waited for Fox to open Elisa's door and went in with Delilah. "Demona wants to teach Delilah Latin and thinks I should learn it too."
"You're letting her give you homework?" Fox set the bag down and opened it up, pulling the heavy books and the tapes out for Elisa. "Lots of homework."
Elisa hadn't mentioned this yet. "Demona wants to offer to teach Delilah magic when she's older. Since that is all done in Latin she's going to teach her the language first, and when Delilah's old enough to decide…"
"You're going to let Demona teach your daughter magic?" Fox stared at Elisa as if she were trying to read her mind.
"We agreed it would only be if Delilah wanted it. She won't push it and I won't fight it."
"Well make sure she's definitely old enough." Fox sighed and put a book down. "Having a magically gifted child is tiring. I'd tell you not to join the club, but this type of magic is different."
Fox never argued with Elisa's decisions. She put her opinions out there, she never missed the opportunity to do that, but she didn't argue. "Thanks." Elisa smiled and pulled a surprised Fox into a hug. "Thanks for checking up on me too."
"Sure, no problem." Fox pulled back and smirked at Elisa. "You were just sleeping right? You won't be getting pregnant again so soon?"
"Yes I was just sleeping." Elisa rolled her eyes at yet more teasing. "And Owen said it was a one time spell. I have my baby. No more are going to be coming."
"What a shame. I wanted to see if I could get you to carry my next one for me." Fox gave her a flirtatious smile. When Fox glanced at the clock she sighed. "I need to get going. I'm taking Alexander to a movie. I swear Disney just puts cartoons out to torture parents with begging children."
"Okay, have fun." Elisa smiled at the redhead's dashing out the door.
She was breast feeding Delilah when the knock on the door came. Elisa sighed heavily and glanced at the clock. It had only been fifteen minutes since Delilah woke up. Goliath knew the rule. While she had been a bit self conscious doing this around Demona, she was absolutely not going to do this around him, even though she was able to cover herself up pretty well while doing it. She kept her voice calm and soothing, even though she wanted to snap at him. "We are a little busy. How about you send someone to watch over her in an hour and I'll meet you somewhere else."
"You left without talking to me." His voice held a bit of a growl.
Elisa grimace, but her voice didn't change as she held Delilah in her arms just inside the closed door. She talked loud enough for it to carry to his superior gargoyle hearing, and only that loud. "I'm feeding my daughter right now. This has to wait."
"But…"
"Goliath." Elisa's voice was more firm. "She needs to eat, and if your growling makes her cry it will take longer. Send me a babysitter in forty five minutes and we can talk."
"Alright." He sure didn't sound pleased. She didn't need all that time, but she had just gotten the clan used to the one hour rule and breaking it would open it up to questions. She was entitled to time with just her and Delilah, especially since she waits all day for her daughter to wake up.
When Lex showed up right on time Elisa let him in and gave him last minute instructions. She was already mad at Goliath's attitude, and hearing what he'd done to Demona last night didn't make her feel any more agreeable tonight. She marched to where they were meeting with a dangerous look in her eyes. He was NOT going to dictate how she raised her daughter, and she was going to make that very clear if he didn't back down. Her feelings must have been pretty clear, because Broadway moved pretty quickly to get out of her way when she met him in the halls.
She lost some of her anger when she saw him. He looked like he'd spent most of last night worrying. Dammit, why couldn't he just accept that she was doing what she thought was right? Why couldn't he just accept that in this situation she was in charge?
"You could have been killed." He started with a lecturing tone and Elisa's jaw clenched as she crossed her arms in front of her. "We needed to talk about this."
"Goliath." Elisa's eyes burned into him. "We have talked about this to death! I have made my decision, and with MY daughter… there is no voting and there is no you dictating what you want." She was watching his face carefully when she said that and her trained detective eye caught the quick flash of guilt. She decided not to let that one go. "We had an interesting conversation last night. Demona told me something… I just have to know." His eyes widened just a fraction too much. "Did you actually force her and all the females of your clan to give up the chance to know who their own hatchlings were? Did you actually force her to remove the mark that would have let her know that Angela was her daughter off of her egg in front of the entire clan?"
"I had a good reason for doing that." His voice was firm, and Elisa wondered if he was trying to convince himself of it.
"All she wanted was to know her own child, and you denied her that long before the castle fell." Elisa's eyes were cold. "You won't be doing that here. You denied her one daughter, but this one is mine, and I don't go by your clan dictatorship."
"Father?" Angela's shock voice startled them and Elisa turned to see a stunned looking female staring at Goliath. They hadn't closed the door when they got into the office. "This is why mother told me to compare my egg to the others? This is why she told me to know which one was mine by sight alone? You did that to her?" Angela's eyes started to burn.
"Angela." Goliath's voice took on a pleading tone. "You have to understand. It was a very different world then. I couldn't afford to have the rookery parents worrying only about their own hatchlings."
"I know which egg is mine, but I would fight to protect Theresa's or Evelyn's just as fiercely." Angela growled. "You can't tell me that the gargoyles of your time had so little honor that they wouldn't have done that for their sisters and brothers."
"Angela, I was talking to Elisa. We can talk about this later."
"Yes, you were going to tell her once again that Mother is dangerous and shouldn't be around her or her hatchling." Angela's voice held scorn that sounded a lot like her mother. "Well, father you are wrong. I have seen Mother with Elisa, and I have seen Mother stay around to protect her at night. Mother would stay on the roof of Elisa's apartment and make sure she didn't get hurt. She did this almost EVERY night. I went to visit Elisa after hours, and I saw mother making sure that Elisa did what the doctor told her to so that she'd heal after Delilah was born. NO, father… You are wrong!" Elisa watched in some surprise as Angela told Goliath off and spun around to march out of the room.
Elisa stared at him until he turned away from watching Angela march away to look at Elisa. Angela had said it all, leaving little for Elisa to add. She hadn't realized that Demona had watched after her so much that even Angela had seen her every night. "Your little girl is hurting." She spoke softly. "Not a nice feeling is it? This is what I am trying to avoid for my baby. Angela hasn't had her mother and she's cried in my arms because of it. I tried to tell you. I tried, but you never listened." Elisa sighed, hating the lost look on his face. He really didn't know how to deal with this. "Well, I know which hatchling is mine, and now… now you get to see how that changes things. I'm in charge of my child. I make the decisions, and I've made mine. My little girl may end up disappointed with Demona if Demona doesn't change, but I'm not going to keep her away just to avoid a potential pain, because keeping her away WILL hurt her, like it hurt Angela." Elisa rested a hand on his arm. "I'm not going to change my mind on this, no matter what you say. Demona is a mother to my child and this is just between the two of us." Elisa looked out to see Angela hunched over standing on the castle wall. "Now, for my advice, which as always you were free to take or leave… Go to her now and explain what you did. And apologize, even if you still think it was right. Apologize because your decision hurt her."
"I don't agree with what you are doing." His voice didn't hold the command now.
"I know. Your complaint has been duly noted." Elisa sighed. "But I cast my Leader's Vote, and that is law." She watched him nod and move to follow his own daughter outside.
