Chapter Five- Goliath and Brooklyn
"Brooklyn was not back when we awoke. I hope he's all right."
"I'm sure he is. Maybe he told Amy the truth and proved it to her."
Goliath sighed. "Maybe he has." He knew Brooklyn could take care of himself, but he could not help worrying about the welfare of his clan members.
Elisa gazed at the sky from where she and Goliath stood, which was outside her apartment's skylight window. It seemed to her that Goliath's been acting differently toward Brooklyn ever since the second-in-command became human. He spoke formally to him and seemed to worry incessantly about him. He seems to treat Brooklyn like a child, but he's not a child. He usually come back before sunset so this one time would be a reason to worry. However, Brooklyn can take care of himself.
"Elisa," Goliath spoke up. "Do I treat Brooklyn differently? I mean, recently?"
"It seems that way," she answered slowly. "At least to me."
"He told me as much weeks ago, but I find it hard to act the way I used to."
"Any ideas why?"
"He seems different to me in a way I do not fully understand."
"Would his being human be the reason?"
Goliath didn't answer right away. "Yes," he said at last. "I believe you're right."
"I agree that he seems different, but I think it's because he's happy and he's found someone who loves him. He's probably felt lonely for some time which is probably why he took the chance to change that."
Elisa's words gave him something to think about. Brooklyn, lonely? Hmm…I have Elisa, Broadway has Angela, Lexington has his computer and Alex, and Hudson and Bronx have the TV and each other's company. Yes, he was lonely even with his duties as second-in-command and the company of the clan.
"Yes, he was lonely. I will make more of an effort to make sure Brooklyn doesn't feel I am being distant with him."
"Great." Elisa smiled.
Goliath glided home later, his thoughts still on Brooklyn. His relationship with him started to change when Brooklyn accepted Puck's gift. If I were in his place, I would have accepted it as well, despite my feelings about the fay. It would be nice to be human for at least one day.
He landed on his tower and descended the stairs to meet Angela at the bottom. "Where's Brooklyn?"
"I think he's in his room."
He nodded as he headed down the corridor. He was safe; his worries were groundless. He knocked on the closed door. "Come in," came Brooklyn's voice. He opened the door to find him reading at his desk.
"Oh, hi." Brooklyn closed the book and turned to look at him.
"I was concerned when we awoke and you weren't here." He kept his tone light and casual.
"I was with Amy. She wanted to have dinner this night and I said I couldn't. She had asked why and I posed my question."
Goliath held up a hand. "She doesn't mind you're a gargoyle. You changed in front of her, correct?" His tone was still light.
"That's right. She even told me that she had the feeling that I was special somehow."
"She was correct and she is special too."
"She certainly is." Brooklyn paused. "Goliath, are you all right?"
"What do you mean?"
"You seem…I don't know. Tentative, maybe?"
"I realized that I was still being distant with you and I'm making an effort not to be so."
"I see."
"I appear to be the only one still adjusting to you being human in daylight. I am not disappointed that you accepted this gift. I would accept it too if I were in your place."
"I think anyone would."
"I can see how being human would be preferable to sleeping in stone, but I could be biased about that," Amy said the next day.
"I think every gargoyle dreams of seeing the sun at least once."
"Most humans dream of flying and I don't mean with a vehicle."
"Yeah, there's been some days where I want night to come so that I can have my wings again."
"That sounds cool." Amy's voice had a wistful sound to it and that gave Brooklyn an idea.
"Would you like to ride with me tonight?"
Amy's face lit up. "Really? Oh, Brooklyn, yes, I'd love that!"
After another painful change, Brooklyn was soon gliding over the city with Amy in his arms. Her soft gasps as she looked below was a stark contrast to the time he glided with Dave and Bobby, two kids he had befriended who had run away from home. "The city looks so pretty from up here," Amy commented.
"It does. I've seen this scene so much, I hardly notice it anymore.
"Uh-oh. Cluttered airways," Brooklyn said with mock seriousness, nodding his head at the two shapes coming toward them. Brooklyn braked in mid-air and so did the other two."
"Hi, Lex," Amy said, recognizing one of them right away.
"Hi, Amy. This is Broadway." He pointed at his rookery brother.
"I thought you looked familiar. I saw you on Shauna."
Broadway rubbed the back of his neck in a kind of embarrassed way. "You saw that, huh? You liked it, right?"
"Of course. It inspired me to join P.I.T. when it first formed, though I missed the first meeting."
Amy and Brooklyn spent a few hours gliding. He wasn't concerned about the time; no doubt Broadway and Lexington would tell Goliath where he was. Amy soon pointed at an apartment building. "That's where I live. Let's land."
They did so and Brooklyn said, "Which apartment is yours? Maybe I can pick you up there or visit."
"It's 54C on the fifth floor. I don't know if you want to come by. My father is not only anti-gargoyle, he acts weird around my friends so I don't have them over. He doesn't even know I have a boyfriend."
"I see."
"I do have a window in my room so you can visit at night."
"I like the sound of that."
"Great. Well, good night, Brooklyn." Amy placed a kiss on the side of his beak before opening the rooftop door and going through it.
Brooklyn back flipped off the building and started toward the castle. She called me her boyfriend! he thought doing a loop-de-loop. It makes sense since I called her my girlfriend yesterday. He landed on the castle, headed for his room, and was asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow.
A stabbing in his stomach woke Brooklyn from his sleep. He pulled his legs up to his stomach and bent his head moaning slightly. He had never fallen asleep at night so he wasn't sure if the change would wake him or not. Clearly, it does, he thought as the pain faded.
He sat up, stretched, and started getting dressed. He and Amy agreed to spend the day apart and he decided that he would just wander around and explore the city some more. Surely, there were places he hadn't seen yet. As he opened the door, he saw Elisa walk by with a tall dark-skinned man following her. He gaped after the man. "Goliath?" he called in astonishment.
Elisa and the man both turned around and Brooklyn saw that it was the clan leader, exactly the way he looked last time he was human. Goliath was also looking at him with surprise which made sense since he never saw Brooklyn's human form. "How did this happen?" Brooklyn asked.
"Puck," Goliath answered. "He taught Alex a new spell. It gives me one day as a human."
"And it so happens to be my day off," Elisa added. "So once Goliath's dressed, we'll drive around the city."
Brooklyn nodded. "Great. Have fun," he said as the couple left.
Brooklyn headed down to the dining hall to see Fox alone with Alex in his high chair. She smiled at him. "Good morning. David's finding clothes for Goliath. He'll be here shortly."
He sat down, his eyes on Alex. It was hard to believe that this baby could cast spells that was granting his clan's desire to see the sun by making them human, or more precisely, him and Goliath. He wasn't complaining: If Alex hadn't learned the spell to make him human, he wouldn't have met Amy and fallen in love. Yes, he owed Puck and Alex for his happiness.
Brooklyn found the pleasure of the bus and rode it to the library where he used to spend his nights reading once the place had closed for the night. Of course, he couldn't take the book from the library since he didn't have a library card and didn't want one nor could he mark his place in those books. After browsing the shelves, he looked over the newspapers starting with the article ab out the clocktower blowing up and all the way up to the present- technically he was searching for pro-gargoyle articles. Needless to say there were very few- exactly two.
When he finished with the library, he walked through the area before sitting at a table of an outdoor café, sipping a soda and listening to the other customers; most of the conversations were boring, but there were a few gargoyle debates. A high number of them were anti-gargoyle and that depressed him. He wondered what it would take for the city to accept them.
"Brooke!"
The brunette looked up to see Mary and Dave approach him. "Oh, hi Mary. Hi, Dave."
"Where's Amy?" Dave asked, grinning. "I mean, the two of you seemed inseparable."
"We thought we'd spend the day apart. I mean, she had things to do and I had things to do," Brooklyn answered. But I intend to see her tonight, he thought to himself.
