Had Elisa known that the first night after she'd revealed her condition to Matt and Travis would have been a preview into her life as a pregnant woman, she may have gone a little crazy.
Here it was, ten weeks later, and her life had drastically changed.
At home, if Skyler wasn't hounding her to eat healthy things and pushing her freshly squeezed juices in her hands, then her parents were at her condo "helping" with housework… and pushing healthy food and drinks into her hands.
At night? It was the clan, and they were all treating her like she was made of glass. If she was at the station, someone from the clan was there "just hanging out" between calls. They didn't exclusively sit with her, but they were watching her closely. If she was on patrol, so were they, and one of them was always conveniently in the area. At home or at the castle, if Goliath wasn't around, she felt like she wasn't able to turn around without bumping into one of the other clan members.
At work? Well, once the news had gotten out that she was being pulled from the heavy cases, people started speculating why. After that, when her waist began to thicken and she had barely begun to show, the news had gotten out pretty quickly. It was a complete toss up there: The other officers were either over-protective or they began "forgetting" she was there and being left out of active calls. It was almost like she didn't exist some nights, and it was irritating her.
She had fought too hard to let the pregnancy wipe all of that away.
So, while she was basically relegated to paperwork and being a desk jockey, she was going to prove that she was still useful.
She followed paper trails, she tracked down leads, and when possible, she did the interviews herself.
They were getting closer, she knew, and she'd give almost anything to be there when they were finally able to take these guys down.
She found a few other cases to work on, anything that the Captain, Matt and Travis wouldn't see as being too "taxing on her".
Elisa was pretty sure she was going to go insane, and she was only half through her second trimester now.
She had begun to feel the baby kicking, and Elisa was pretty sure that he or she was using her bladder as a trampoline. She had to use the restroom so often that it was almost impossible to go out on a patrol and get anything done.
And here she was, once again decked out in the spiffy cotton patient gown, in the newly dubbed "maternity suite" in the clinic. The room, complete with a top of the line dual-screened ultrasound machine that was so new, it was still shiny, was in the rear of the clinic and separated from the majority of the other examination rooms by a length of hallway.
And, was it her imagination, or was this room getting more and more equipment in it?
Everything had been textbook so far, according to Doctor James and Margaret, so they were going to do another ultrasound tonight now that the baby was more fully developed.
Goliath had joined her as soon as the sun set, and they were currently awaiting the good doctor, himself.
While the rest of the clan had been tip-toeing around her, Elisa had finally convinced Goliath that she was in need of normalcy from someone. When they were together, even though he slipped up from time to time, for the most part things were the same between them. They would still cuddle on the couch and watch movies, they would play with Liam, and they would sit and talk in the library of the castle for hours.
And, yes, they did talk about the baby. How could they not? Goliath had been to every appointment after Doctor James had read her the riot act a few weeks ago. After that, all of her appointments had been made for night time hours to accommodate the father's special sleeping hours.
They would speculate on if the baby would be a boy or a girl. If he or she would have more gargoyle features, or if it would look more like Elisa.
And names. Dear God, the names. Everyone kept asking about names, and the name suggestions were coming from all directions, from humans and Gargoyles alike.
Elisa had a few that she'd been thinking of, but the sheer amount of names that were tossed their direction was giving her indigestion… or maybe that was because the baby seemed to be taking up all of the available room in her midsection.
Margaret practically skipped into the room, making Elisa feel envious. She felt huge, she had to pee all the time and she felt like she was never going to have energy again. It was getting increasingly difficult for her to get comfortable at night to sleep, so Elisa felt tired all the damn time. She'd even nodded off at her desk… in a room full of noise and chaos… twice.
Ok, so it was twice this week. She'd actually lost count of how many times she'd jolted awake at her desk. But that was supposed to pass, right?
The morning sickness had finally gone away, when would the energy come back?
She'd made the mistake of asking one of the officers who was a parent. They had laughed at her and told her that she might get it back when the kid was out of the house and in college.
Yeah. She was surrounded by comedians.
Margaret joined the couple, and since this would be Goliath's first time at an ultrasound appointment, she ran him through what was going to happen.
Doctor James came in during the explanation, and began preparing the equipment.
"Alright," He said, seeming to be finally satisfied that everything was ready to go. He turned to the couple with a grin. "Are you ready?"
Elisa nodded and took Goliath's large hand in hers.
The doctor spread the eternally cold gel over her abdomen, and began making sweeps with the wand. He hit a button and the sound of the heartbeat, so strong and fast, filled the room. Elisa looked up and met Goliath's suddenly watery gaze.
"Hear that, Big Guy?" Elisa asked.
Goliath nodded, not seeming to trust his voice.
"And here," Doctor James said, rotating the second screen to face them, "Is the star of the show."
Elisa and Goliath gasped in unison. The baby had been a mere speck before, the size of a jelly bean, the first time they had an ultrasound done. Now, the baby was quite a bit larger, and even on the black and white screen, some features were able to be seen.
"Would you like to know the sex of the baby?" He asked.
Elisa nodded. Goliath and she had already had this discussion the week before.
"Would you like me to see if we can…whoa," He said as something dark swept across the screen.
"What was that?" Elisa asked, frowning. She rubbed at her belly.
Doctor James saw her involuntary movement, and asked, "What did it feel like?"
"It felt like it moved, but… not a kick." Elisa admitted. It had felt almost as if the entire baby had rolled from one side to the other and back. Not a kick, but a definite side to side movement.
Goliath frowned down at her, concern etched on his features.
"Hold on," He said briskly, and brought forward a whole new machine. "This is a little something that Xanatos Enterprises was playing around with when Fox was pregnant. It's been improved on since then, but it is basically a souped up ultrasound machine." He began flipping switches and muttering under his breath about rich boys and their toys. "They call it a 3D ultrasound machine, and it really is amazing. They've been developing and fine tuning this technology since the 1980s for medical procedures, but they're starting to use it more frequently for really clear baby pictures."
Elisa laughed.
"Okay," the doctor finally announced with a huff. "I've finally gotten it ready. Let's take a look and see what we find."
Elisa gasped at the image that came up on the screen. It was big, bright and there, on the oversized screen, was their baby. The picture was so clear, even with the odd coloring of the screen, but there was their baby. The facial features were still a little indistinct, as most newborns were, but Elisa could see that the baby possibly had her nose from a side profile. Elisa felt the sensation almost before the screen caught the movement, but the baby gave a mighty stretch and almost looked as if it yawned. There was a kind of shadowing on the head, a darker shade of the various sepia tones of the display screen, that hinted that the baby was already sporting a good amount of hair.
There was a small jerk, and the shadow crossed the screen again.
"What is…?" Elisa trailed off, rubbing the side of her belly at the odd sensation of movement.
"Wings," Doctor James said with a smile. He looked at the screen, and rotated the wand to try to get a clear view of the baby's back. "There," he pointed to the screen where twin wings, almost as long as the baby, lay folded against its back. "You baby has wings and…and what looks like the beginnings of a tail," he said, pointing lower on the back.
Elisa gazed at the screen in wonder.
There were some small adjustments, more knob turning and button pushing, and then Doctor James gave them both a bright smile. "You have a beautiful baby girl here."
Elisa gasped, bringing one hand up to covered her mouth as she reached for Goliath with her free hand.
"A girl," Goliath breathed, gently touching the screen in wonder. He turned to Elisa, bending to gather her gently around her shoulders.
Elisa couldn't stop smiling. She did her best to return Goliath's embrace while keeping her lower half immobile, so as not to jostle the ultrasound.
Elisa felt another flutter, and the baby's wings moved again, temporarily obscuring the image. The wings returned to their position just as the baby turned, giving them her back.
"I think that's the best we're going to get for now," Doctor James said, turning off the machine. "I did manage to get a couple of pictures before she got shy on us, though." He reached down to the printer that was mounted to the ultrasound cart, and handed the couple printouts of the pictures that he had captured.
Elisa looked down at the printed image in wonder. To think, this was the baby that had been kicking her and giving her indigestion. With every appointment it had been getting more and more real to her, but the pictures helped to actually solidify it in her mind.
"Everything still looks good," Doctor James said. "You're a little past the halfway point. My main concern is the baby's growth."
"What's wrong?" Goliath asked, a small flare of fear in his eyes.
Elisa gripped his hand tighter. "What's going on with her growth?"
"Nothing to be alarmed about yet," Doctor James hurried to assure them. "I am just a little concerned because with the wings and tail, she's going to need a lot of room in there. Combined with the fact that she's a little larger than she should be at this stage… again," He said, holding his hands up to stop and protests, "Not anything to really worry about right now, but I promised to be honest with you every step of the way here. It's just one more thing that we're going to have to monitor closely, the closer you get to your due date."
Elisa nodded. She'd been doing a lot of research on her own, and knew that towards the end, the baby would be gaining weight and size fairly rapidly. She already felt huge, and people were already commenting on her 'baby belly', but she assumed that the belly was just because she was so slender to begin with.
"Otherwise, she's got a good, strong heartbeat and everything appears to be right where we need them to be." Doctor James continued, unaware of Elisa's thoughts.
"Thank you, doctor," Goliath said, his large frame visibly relaxing.
"Well, I'm done here," the doctor said with a smile. "I'll go ahead and leave so you can get dressed, Elisa. Just keep doing what you're doing, and let me know if you have any questions."
As soon as the door closed, Goliath had her scooped up in his arms, and held closely to his chest. "A girl," He breathed.
"With wings and a tail," Elisa laughed.
"A true combination of us both," He said softly.