She stands alone in the parking lot feeling a bit foolish and a lot nervous. Her stomach feels like she's swallowed a couple dozen butterflies and she tries not to think about what she's agreed to do. She nervously glances at her watch again as the sound of a helicopter reaches her ears.
She ignores it as she switches her black bag from one hand to another, hitches her satchel a little higher on her shoulder and looks over at the gate again. He said to that he'd meet her in the parking lot, not at the gate so here she stands feeling like a complete idiot. She glances at the setting sun and wonders what he's thinking. How in the world is he going to get her from the Bronx all the way to Manhattan before the sun sets? Who knows, maybe he's rich and powerful enough to get a police escort, but even then she doubts they'll get there in time.
The sound of the helicopter gets much louder and the wind picks up until it makes enough force to whip her ponytail around her face and causing the ends of her hair to sting her cheeks. She looks up and sees a bright red helicopter slowly descending into the parking lot. At first she's so stunned at the thought of a helicopter landing in the parking lot that she doesn't notice the name 'XANATOS' painted in large letters on the tail.
As the chopper gets closer, she has to shield her face with her arm to protect it from the flying debris. Several minutes later, the sound of the helicopter's engine starts to die down and the force of the wind kicked up by the blades lessens. It's when she lowers her arm that she sees who the owner of the chopper is, but it's not Xanatos himself that's sitting in the machine. A beautiful red haired woman with a strange tattoo around her right eye sits in the pilot's seat and Gwen can only watch in surprise as the woman leans over and opens the passenger door.
"Dr. Knight?" the woman calls.
"Yes?" Gwen yells back.
"I'm Fox Xanatos," Fox states loudly. "David couldn't make it, so he sent me to come and pick you up. Please get in."
Gwen hesitates at first, but then remembers the woman as the one with Xanatos that she had seen earlier. She swallows down the butterflies that seem to be swiftly multiplying in her stomach and crosses the tarmac. She quickly climbs into a machine that by all rights shouldn't be able to get off of the ground as far as she's concerned, sits down in the seat and closes the door behind her.
"Here, put this on," Fox instructs as she hands a set of headphones with a microphone attached to it to the doctor. "Once I fire up the engines it'll make talking a lot easier."
Gwen does as she's told, seatbelts herself in and then takes a death grip on her black bag and satchel. Fox sees this out of the corner of her eye, but says nothing about it as she starts the engines up. Once the blades are up to speed, she checks for clearance above her and then slowly starts to lift off. Gwen can feel the craft shift as they start to leave the ground and she concentrates on keeping the butterflies in her stomach now.
"I take it you don't like flying," Fox casually mentions as they start to fly over the tops of apartment buildings.
"I don't mind flying as long as it has wings," Gwen replies in a rather strained voice.
"Just for fair warning, this may be the way you're getting home," Fox tells her.
"I'd rather fly with a gargoyle," Gwen replies with all her heart.
Fox laughs, but offers no further conversation for which Gwen is very thankful. Fox brings the helicopter to land on top of the castle after what seems like a life time later. The instant Fox tells her it's safe to get out; Gwen is out and staring at a tall blond man with a very stoic expression on his face that she had seen with the Xanatos family earlier in the day. She's not sure which is stranger about the man, the fact that his left hand seems to be made out of stone from about mid forearm down or the fact that being near him makes the hairs on the back of her neck stand up.
"Dr. Knight, I'm Owen Burnett, Mr. Xanatos's assistant," the man says with barely any emotion at all in his voice. "Please follow me. I'll take you to your patient."
Gwen just nods as she takes a quick glance at the setting sun. Owen turns and swiftly leaves, making Gwen nearly run to keep up. By the time they get to gargoyles, she's a bit out of breath and she can feel the back of her shirt sticking to her back. Without a word Owen simply turns and heads back down the stairs.
But she doesn't even notice that as she takes in the scene before her. It's more than obvious which one of the gargoyles was injured since he's the only one not standing. She's a bit confused why there are ropes tied around him, but she figures that it was used to stabilize the wing a bit. She quickly searches through her satchel as she carefully walks around the standing gargoyles and steps up to the one prone on the ground.
She pulls out her Swiss Army knife, drops her bags on the ground near the wall and starts to cut through the ropes. It takes her several minutes, but she finishes cutting through the last rope just as the last ray of light disappears over the horizon. She quickly steps back as the stone skin begins to crack and break.
A feeling she hasn't felt in a long time runs down her spine and for a second she feels like she's returned home. The sensation is short lived as a second after the stone skins fall away she's roughly grabbed and then held over the side of the castle by one arm. She looks down briefly and sees that if she's lucky she'll only fall about twenty feet, but if she's unlucky, she'll plummet to her death on the street below.
Gwen lets out an ear piercing scream and immediately tries holding onto the hand that's holding onto her with her free hand, ignoring the fact that there are talons slowly digging into her wrist. A second later, big, strong arms wrap themselves around her waist and pull her back over the wall. Once she's on the correct side of the wall, she holds perfectly still as she concentrates on getting her heart out of her throat and her body under something that might be considered control.
She's barely aware of several voices yelling as the hand that has hold of her refuses to let go and is trying to pull her out her protector's arms. After some more yanking and yelling, her arm is released and the knife that she had been holding in that hand is pulled out of her nearly numb fingers. Wings that she hadn't been aware were shielding her, open up and reveal a rather strange scene before her.
An angry young female gargoyle with glowing red eyes is being held back by an old male and a portly young male. A much smaller yellow male with the flying membranes stretched between his arms and legs instead of proper wings has hold of her knife and is examining it with intense curiosity. A hound stands between her and another young red male who's sitting on the wall with one of his wings being held at a funny angle. She's set down on very shaky legs and she's finally able to look up at her savior and gets a kink in her neck as she has to crane her neck to look up into a face that's at least two feet above her.
"Hi," she squeaks as she tries to step away from the huge male next to her and nearly collapses as her legs now seem to be made of jelly.
Before she can hit the ground, the large male grabs a hold of her upper arm and steadies her. As she regains her balance, Xanatos comes charging up the stairs with Owen directly behind him. Xanatos takes in the scene and then frowns as he puts his hands on his hips.
"What happened?" Xanatos demands.
"I woke up and found this woman standing over Brooklyn with a knife in her hand," the female snarls, trying to lunge at the doctor and failing when the two males refuse to let go.
"You mean this knife?" the little gargoyle smirks as he holds up Gwen's Swiss Army knife.
"Yes, that knife," the female shrieks, fighting against her captors even harder. "She was going to stab Brooklyn with it."
"Lass, that's hardly a knife at all," the elder gargoyle chuckles with a bit of a Scottish accent. "If she wanted to hurt the lad she would have done it while we were sleeping, not wait until we woke up."
"What were you doing with the knife?" asks the big male whose voice is so deep that Gwen can feel it in her diaphragm.
"I was cutting the ropes off of him," Gwen explains, pointing at the red male and rather proud of the fact that her hand and her voice are only shaking a little. "I had just finished when the sun went down. Mr. Xanatos asked me to come up here. He said that one of you had been hurt last night and unless I'm greatly mistaken, he was right."
"I'll be fine," the red one grumbles as he tries to hide his wing.
"Ok, then I'm sure that you won't mind showing me," Gwen replies as she crosses her arms over her chest and glares at the male. "Please show me how well you can fly."
"Who are you?" the big male demands, crossing his own arms over his massive chest.
"My name is Gwen Knight," Gwen states as she turns to face the big male, letting her arms drop to her side. "I'm a DVM."
"DVM?" the portly gargoyle questions obviously confused. "Why does Brooklyn need someone that gives out driver's licenses? Is he going to learn to drive a car?"
"Not DMV, DVM: Doctor of Veterinary Medicine," the little gargoyle explains in an exasperated voice.
"Oh," the portly one replies, nodding his head before a frown creases his forehead. "Huh?"
"It means she's a vet," Brooklyn grumbles as he tries to get his wing to stay up on his shoulder. "Not even a real doctor."
"I beg your pardon?" Gwen nearly yells glaring at him, her fists firmly planted on her hips. "Not only did I go through two years of pre-med, but then I did four years of medical school, and to top it off I also spent three years doing an internship specializing in exotic animals. I have to know not only the anatomical makeup of every single animal under my care, from reptiles to mammals to birds, but I have to know what diseases they are susceptible to and how to treat them for it and I have to know what drugs will help or hurt them. Show me one human doctor that knows one thing about wings. Just one!"
"Sorry," Brooklyn mumbles as he shifts uncomfortably under Gwen's stare.
"Forgiven," Gwen replies, her tone and her face instantly softening. "Now, what's say we go inside so I can get a good look at that wing?"
"What are you going to do to him?" the female snarls, still struggling with the other two.
"I'm just going to examine him," Gwen assures her as she tries to step towards her bags and finds her way blocked by the gargoyle hound who gives a deep throated growl, his eyes glowing white. "Um, can I get to my bags please?"
"Here, I'll get them," the little guy offers as he goes over to the bags and brings them back to Gwen.
"Thank you," Gwen smiles as she takes the bags and then holds out her hand. "May I have my knife back please?"
This instantly brings more snarls and growls from the female as she attempts to get away again. Gwen instantly withdrawals her hand and then holds out the satchel.
"Or you could just put it my bag for me," Gwen quickly suggests.
The small gargoyle closes the knife and then slides it into the bag. While the female isn't struggling as hard as before, she's still glaring daggers at the woman. Gwen quickly retreats back towards the large male and Xanatos, barely noticing that Owen is gone again.
"Now, can we please take this inside?" Gwen requests once again as a breeze reminds her that she didn't bring her jacket to work this morning.
"What's wrong with out here?" the large male rumbles.
"Well, besides the fact that I'm freezing, the lighting isn't so great out here," Gwen points out.
He glares down at her for several seconds before turning to his clan.
"Brooklyn, go with Dr. Knight and let her examine you," he orders.
Brooklyn doesn't look happy with the order, but gets up and heads towards Gwen without a complaint. She frowns as he tries to hide his injury and just ends up dragging the wing on the ground. But instead of reprimanding for not taking better care of the appendage, she turns to Xanatos instead.
"Is there a room we could use for the examination?" she inquires.
"Of course," he replies with a smile. "I had Owen get one of the meeting rooms ready for you. You'll find him at the bottom of the stairs."
"Thank you," she responds and starts down the steps, only pausing long enough to make sure that Brooklyn is following her.
Dejectedly, Brooklyn follows the strange woman down the stairs and through the hallways of the castle. He doesn't keep track of where he's going, not that it really matters since he knows the place inside and out. He barely even notices when he walks past Owen and into the meeting room. Gwen is about to tell him what to do when she's brought up short by more bodies filing into the room.
"I only need to examine Brooklyn, the rest of you don't need to be here," she states, causing Brooklyn to turn around and see the rest of his clan following them in.
"He is our family," Goliath explains. "Where he goes, we go."
"You can stay on one condition," Gwen says.
"And that would be?" Goliath asks.
"You keep that one on a short leash," Gwen states, pointing at the female. "I've got one sore arm as it is. I don't want the rest of my body to match."
Brooklyn looks over at his clan mates and sees several offended looks, especially Angela's, but Gwen just turns her back on them. He watches her in surprise as she drops her satchel onto one of the boardroom chairs and puts her black bag on the table. He looks at her arms and he can see one of them is scratched up enough for some blood to have trickled down her arm, drying there and bruising can already be seen starting to form.
"Brooklyn, please have a seat at the head of the table and stretch your injured wing out on the table," she instructs as she opens her bag and pulls out a pair of examination gloves.
Brooklyn doesn't trust this woman, but Goliath said to let her examine the wing, so the red gargoyle takes a seat and tries to stretch his wing out over the cloth covered table. He feels like a young hatchling again, unable to control his wings and constantly tripping over them. After a brief struggle with the uncooperative appendage, he finally gets it on the table. Gwen steps up to the table near his injury and looks at him.
"May I touch you to examine your wing please?" she requests.
"Yeah, sure," he replies, shocked at the courtesy.
Gwen turns back to the wing and gently lifts it off of the table a few inches. Very carefully she runs her hands over the damaged area. But despite her delicate touch, it still hurts and he hisses in pain. He can hear a brief scuffle and Angela's growl tells him that she's being held back again. Before he has a chance to wonder about her odd behavior, Gwen pokes at something causing him to automatically snarl in protest.
"Sorry," she says as she puts the wing back down on the table. "Would you please stretch your other wing out for me?"
He complies and watches her as she runs her hand along the bones of his good wing, carefully examining the membrane as she goes and checking the range of movement of the joints. After about a minute she steps away from the healthy wing and goes back to the injured one as he folds the other one onto his back. After a few more minutes of poking, prodding and trying to get the joints to bend properly, she sighs and steps away from the table.
Without a word, she goes over to the door, stripping off her gloves as she goes. She opens the door, sticks her head out, talks briefly with someone and then comes back in, shutting the door most of the way. She tosses the gloves into the waste basket as she picks up a phone on the other end of the table.
As she's dialing, the door opens and Elisa comes in. Goliath immediately goes to her, subtly putting himself between her and Angela.
"Hey, guys, what's up?" Elisa asks, confused by the scene before her.
"Brooklyn got hurt last night and Xanatos brought in a doctor to look at him," Goliath explains as he gently wraps a wing around her.
"I thought you guys healed while you slept," Elisa states completely perplexed now.
"Normally we do," Goliath replies. "But Brooklyn's wing didn't. I don't know why. We're waiting to see what the doctor has to say."
They turn to see that Gwen has just finished her phone call and is in the process of opening her black bag. A second later Owen comes in carrying a bag of ice wrapped in a towel and another piece of cloth that appears to be wet. He walks over to Gwen and hands the items over as she takes a seat at the table.
"Mr. Xanatos will be in shortly," Owen tells her. "Will there be anything else?"
"No, Owen, thank you," Gwen responds as she takes the wet cloth and starts wipe the dried blood off of her arm.
The others silently watch the assistant leave and then turn back to the woman sitting at the table. She ignores them as she diligently cleans all of the blood off of her arm. As soon as she's satisfied that the blood is taken care of, she starts to pull various items out of her black bag including disinfectant, a tube of ointment, gauze and medical tape.
"What are you going to do to him now?" Angela finally snarls.
"Right now nothing," Gwen replies as she opens the bottle of disinfectant.
"Then what's that stuff for?" Angela demands, pointing at the items on the table.
"They're for me," Gwen replies in a less than pleased tone.
Before any more questions can be asked, Gwen begins to dress her own wounds. She winces a few times, but makes no sound as she cleans up the puncture holes, slathers them in ointment and then wraps her arm in gauze. After replacing the items back in her bag, she puts the bag of ice on her dressed arm.
"What are you planning on doing now?" Goliath asks, tired of the silent treatment from the doctor.
"Well, as soon as Mr. Xanatos gets here, we're going to figure out the best way to get Brooklyn down to a veterinary hospital near the zoo," Gwen starts to explain as she shifts the bag of ice to a different spot on her arm. "When we get there, I'll have them take an x-ray and after that we'll just have to see."
"What's an x-ray?" Goliath inquires.
"It's a picture that shows your bones," Elisa chuckles.
"I've read about the camera they use," the little gargoyle says excitedly, nearly jumping up and down on the table. "It's really big and it's in special room with shielded walls. They lay you on a specially designed table and expose you to x-rays and there's this special film that gets exposed and then they develop it and then they put it up to light and you can see the bones of the person they took the picture of."
"Thank you, Mr. Science," Elisa chuckles.
"He's pretty much got it right though," Gwen points out. "Except we won't lay Brooklyn on the table, just his wing."
"Will it hurt?" Brooklyn asks, trying to keep the nervousness out of his voice.
"No," Gwen assures him with a smile. "Though the table's usually pretty cold."
"What happens after you take the x-ray?" Goliath questions.
"Then we see," Gwen answers, shifting her ice again.
"See what?" Goliath growls.
"Then we see if I can operate and repair the damage," Gwen answers staring the big gargoyle in the eye.
"And what happens if you can't repair the damage?" Goliath asks, fearing the answer.
"Then Brooklyn never flies again."