IV: Hope
by Zzilly14
I woke up and the sun was shining on my face. I felt someone holding my hand. I blinked a few times and saw John – as a human.
"John? How can it be?" I asked, full of happiness. "You're... we can still have children!" I realized.
He stroked my cheek gently, then stood up. "Not as long as I'm a gargoyle." He suddenly morphed into a stone gargoyle.
...
Then I really woke up. My head was pounding. I looked outside and it was cloudy day. "Beautiful day," I muttered sarcastically.
It was a few days after the attack, and I was almost ready to leave the hospital. John hadn't come by since he left that first night, and ever since my outburst towards Brooklyn, I figured he warned the other gargoyles to leave me alone.
I heard a knock on the door, and then the doctor came in. "Hello, Mrs. Ford. How are you feeling today?"
"Lousy," I said. "I feel like the world is trying to ruin my life. And so far it's working."
"I'm... sorry," he said awkwardly. "I meant the injuries, how are they faring?"
"They're doing better."
"That's good to hear. Mrs. Ford... I want to tell you that we're all sorry for your loss," he said sympathetically.
"Thanks," I muttered.
"There's a visitor for you, by the way. A young woman."
"I'll see her. Let her in."
I looked out the window as I heard her walk in. "It's so hard, Elisa," I said, beginning to cry. "Have you ever been so sad?"
I turned and was surprised to see Demona in human form.
"Demona? What are you doing here?"
"Well..."
"Came to finish me off for the last time? I'm still kind of weak so it shouldn't be too difficult for you."
"No, Mia... I... I came here to apologize."
"Apologize?" I said in shock. "You attack me and kill my baby, and you came to say you're sorry?"
"Look, this is hard for me to do. I don't usually apologize for my actions. But when I realized that you were with child, I felt guilty. If I had known, I wouldn't have attacked you."
"You would've attacked John instead, right? Nothing you say will justify your actions. Now, John won't talk to me, our child is dead, and we're both unhappy. You ruined our lives, just what you wanted to do. Pat yourself on the back, and don't let the door hit you on the way out." I stared at the window angrily.
"Losing something you love is hard – now you know what it's like."
"It doesn't mean I'm going to turn evil like you!"
"But it means we have something in common," she said sadly. "I lost a child too."
I softened up and looked back at Demona. "You had a child once?"
"Yes... she's not dead, but she might as well be, to me anyway. We don't talk anymore... and I don't blame her. I was the one who pushed her away." I noticed that a single tear was falling down her cheek.
"Angela..." I realized.
"Yes, Angela. You're pretty intelligent – for a human."
"Why did you attack us?" I asked, changing subjects. "I don't understand..."
"You were right, with what you said. I can't stand seeing anyone else happy. When I performed that spell on John, I was trying to make his life miserable, since he betrayed me. And he turned out to be happier than ever! I was so angry that my plan had failed, that I wanted to kill him. When I realized he was protecting you, I couldn't resist... hurting someone he loved would make him stop being happy."
"Well... it worked,' I said.
"But I don't feel any better," she said. "In fact, I feel worse. I actually feel regret and sympathy... feelings I've kept hidden from myself for a long time."
We sat in silence for a few minutes. I absorbed everything that had happened to me, and wished I could change the past.
"Demona..." I finally said, "I accept your apology."
"You... you do?" she said with surprise.
"I can't hold grudges... revenge is a terrible thing that I don't want any part of. I just want life to be normal again. But unfortunately, that's never going to happen. John's going to be a gargoyle... forever. And we're never going to have children. Life will never be the same. And although you are the cause of most of this... everything happens for a reason. It was just meant to be."
Demona looked at me, tears filling her eyes. "I should leave," she said, starting to head towards the door.
"Please don't go... I don't want to be alone."
She made a little laugh. "You don't want to be alone with me."
"But I need someone to talk to, and unless you can get Macbeth or Elisa here..."
"I'd help you out with that, but they kind of hate me."
Suddenly there was a knock on the door. The door opened to reveal Elisa.
"Speaking of one of the devils," Demona said.
"Step away from her," Elisa spat. "or else I'll kill you myself!"
"Elisa," I said, "it's okay."
She was confused. "But she killed your child! She stabbed you!"
"Yes... but I want to give her a chance to redeem herself. Now I'm going to ask that you two please get along, or else you're both out of here."
They both glared at each other before looking at me and nodding.
"Good. Elisa, you mentioned something about Goliath becoming a human? It involved Demona as well as someone else..."
"Puck. He's a Child of Oberon, he can do spells."
I looked at Demona. "Is he the one that made you human?"
"Yes, it was his fault."
"Where is he now?" I asked, looking between the two women. "I'd like to have a chat with him."
...
"So, you're the infamous Puck?" I asked.
It was the next night. I was checked out of the hospital, and Demona had taken me to Xanatos Enterprises.
"Actually, no." Then Xanatos laughed. "What do you need with Puck anyway?"
"Business," I gritted through my teeth.
Xanatos then walked to me and put a hand on my shoulder. "I heard about your child. I'm sorry."
"If you were so sorry about it, you'd do this one favor for me."
He stared at me for a few moments, and finally sighed. "Fine, fine, I'll help you out." He spoke into an intercom. "Owen? Can you please get down here. Bring Alex with you."
A few minutes later he entered the room, looking as smug as the first time I met him. Holding his left hand was a little four-year-old boy.
"What's going on, Mr. Xanatos?" he asked in a suspicious voice.
"Hi Daddy!" grinned the little boy as he let go of Owen and ran into his father's arms.
"You're married AND have a child? You are full of surprises, Mr. Xanatos."
Xanatos lifted his son and held him delicately. "I've got plenty more," he replied with a grin.
"Could I speak with Mr. Burnett alone, please?"
Demona walked out first, but not before glaring at Owen. Xanatos gave Alex back to Owen and left the room, closing the doors.
"I'd like to speak to Puck," I stated bluntly.
"Puck isn't around at the-"
I would have grabbed Owen by the collar if it wasn't for the cute little boy he was holding. "Well, could you please make him show up."
"I wanna see Puck!" exclaimed Alex.
Suddenly Owen spun around and around, throwing me backwards. And then he was floating, had longer hair, pointy ears, and an annoying voice. He still had Alex, although now the boy was laughing hysterically.
"That was fun! Let's do it again!"
"Soon enough, my boy... you rang?" Puck asked me.
"Owen is Puck? Puck is Owen?" I said with confusion.
"What is it you want?" he asked annoyingly. "I haven't got all day."
"I have a favor to ask you, Puck. I've gained and lost so much recently... and I want to be happy again. I want to have a decent life."
"If you want a perfect life, child, I can't give you that."
I sighed heavily. "But I want my husband. I want him to be human again. I know it's a huge thing to ask, but I want to have a family one day."
"You're right, that is a big request. What will you give me in return?"
"I have to give you something?"
Puck chuckled. "If you thought this would be done out of the goodness of my heart... you apparently don't know much about me."
I thought for a moment. "If you do to John what you did to Demona – the whole human-by-day, gargoyle-by-night thing... could that be considered a fair price?"
"I suppose that works," he said. He then looked to the boy. "Watch and learn, Alex."
His eyes suddenly turned white as he transported all three of us above a crying gargoyle.
"John..." I whispered.
Puck began to recite the spell:
"Fearsome creature who would stay
Unchanged by the light of day
Remain thou thus throughout the night
And be thou flesh by dawn's fair light."
Then as quickly as we arrived, we were back in Xanatos' office.
"Is that it?" I asked. "You did it?"
"Yes and yes," he replied. "Now can I go? I've got other things to attend to."
I nodded. "But I'm warning you, if something isn't right..."
"Don't worry, I've been a good boy!"
He spun around again, and was back to being simple Owen. Alex giggled some more as I opened the door and let the others come back in.
"So, you got business taken care of?" asked Xanatos.
"Yes," I replied. "We'll be leaving now. Thank you."
Demona took me back to the clocktower. On the way, she was curious about my wish.
"What did you request?" she asked.
"If it works, I'll let you know. I don't want to get hopes up."
We landed to only find Elisa, Hudson, and Bronx at the tower.
"What are you doing here, Demona?" Hudson asked, drawing his sword. "You should know better than to come here after what you did to Mia and John!"
I ran to Hudson. "Hey, listen, it's all okay now. I think she's trying to get on the road to redemption here, okay? Just give her a chance."
He looked sadly into my eyes. "But after what happened... your child..."
"I know," I said quietly. "But whether I act hateful or kind to Demona, won't change the fact my child is gone. I say, it's better to show kindness than to be bitter."
"You're a smart lass," he smiled, putting his sword back. "Want to watch some TV with me and Bronx?"
"That's alright..." I replied. "I was wondering, when will John be back?"
"I'm not sure. He's been keeping to himself a lot, ever since that night. We don't talk to him, and he doesn't talk to us."
"I wonder where he is," I thought aloud.
"Mia," Demona said, "I'm going to head out. I don't feel very welcome here, and if anyone else comes back... they'll probably attack first, ask questions later."
"I understand, Demona. Be safe. And thanks for all your help. It means a lot to show you care."
She smiled before gliding away.
Elisa patted me on the back. "You are amazing. If I were in your shoes, I'd be trying to kill Demona."
"Good thing you're not in my shoes," I smiled. "For Demona's sake."
Goliath, Angela, and Broadway returned from their evening and were glad to see me back. Then they went inside to watch some TV.
Elisa and I joined the others to chat about ourselves, all of us learning more about each other, becoming a tighter family.
Finally, we heard the return of more gargoyles. It was Brooklyn and Lex.
"Hey, how you holding up?" they asked. "We were worried."
After a few minutes of chatting, I sighed. "Have you guys talked to John? Do you know where he is?"
They shook their heads, and I became distraught.
"I need to speak with him," I cried. "How can he avoid me at a time like this?"
"Because I don't want to believe it's true."
I looked up through my tears and saw John. I ran up to him and hugged him tight. I felt his own tears on my shoulder.
"I'm so glad you're here. I was afraid that you left me," I sobbed.
He wiped my tears away. "I could never, ever do that, Mia. I just needed some time by myself, to take a breather away from everything."
We both went outside to talk alone.
"John, this is a hard thing to deal with, and I was afraid I had to face it alone."
"Look, I'm here now. I'm sorry that I hurt you," he began to cry, "but I just didn't want to accept the fact that our child was gone..."
"But we have to accept it," I forced myself to say. "We have to move on and continue with our lives."
He roared. "I know that! But we can't forget what's happened!"
"John! No matter what I do, I'm not going to forget our first child. How could I? But the fact is, we have to live our lives. It's going to take time, but together," I said, taking his hands, "together we'll get through it."
"I don't know," he sighed, turning away from me. "I feel like my heart's been ripped out. How can it ever be pieced back together again?"
"That's something we'll both have to figure out."
"Not tonight," he said, looking at the sky. "The sun's almost up."
The other gargoyles came outside to get into their poses for the day. I sighed.
"I love you, John."
He looked back at me, speaking tenderly. "I love you too, but we'll have to talk about this tomorrow night, okay?"
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the sun beginning to rise. I pulled John towards me and kissed him passionately. At first he was startled, but got lost in the moment with me. We kept kissing until finally, John pushed me away.
"The sun's about to rise!" he exclaimed. "I'm going to be stone and-"
He realized that I was smiling with tears in eyes, so he looked to the east – the sun was already above the horizon. He looked at all the other gargoyles, who were now stone statues.
"Who are you talking to?" asked Elisa as she came outside. She then shrieked and dropped the coffee mug she was holding.
John looked back and forth between Elisa and I. "What's going on?"
"Look... look at your hands." I spoke softly.
He examined his hands with surprise.
"I'm... I'm human!" he said in shock. "How did this happen?"
I held his face in my hands. "I got Puck to do it. You told me you felt like you failed me... but I felt like I failed you, by not protecting our child, our last chance of having children..."
"It's not your fault," he pleaded.
"I realize that now... things happen for a reason. When you were kidnapped, it was the end of the world for me. But if it hadn't happened, I wouldn't have met the gargoyles... my new family. Anyway, while at the hospital, Demona and Elisa visited me."
"We definitely didn't come together," Elisa made sure to point out.
I laughed. "Anyway, I thought about it, and remembered that Elisa had mentioned Goliath and the rest of the clan became humans – thanks to Puck. And Demona's spell of becoming human during the day was because of Puck as well. So I found him, and asked him to make you human once more."
John kissed me on the forehead. "What's the catch?" he wondered. "There's got to be one for this kind of a spell."
"You remain a gargoyle after sunset. So you're still a creature of the night. But now, no more stone statue in the day. I don't have to spend my days alone anymore. And we can try to have a family again."
"This is... wow!" he laughed. He kissed me again. "You're so amazing, Mia. Where have you been all my life?" He hugged me tenderly.
"I'm glad to see you happy again."
He sighed deeply. "This is so surprising, I never expected I'd see daylight, ever again."
"I know," I said softly. "I know."
Elisa cleared her throat. "Hey, you guys want to grab some breakfast? I know this great place that has the best pancakes in the world."
John's eyes widened. "Is it that small restaurant with the Sphinx as a logo?"
"That's where we went on one of our dates before we got married!" I exclaimed. "I'm starving, let's go!"
Elisa started downstairs. John and I grinned at each other. We then both looked at our sleeping gargoyle friends, thinking of everything that had happened, before holding hands and leaving. Life wasn't going to be perfect, but it was going to be good.
THE END!