After checking with the GPS installed in her car, Elisa drives a little less than a mile to Gwen's apartment building, handing over the bag of calcium tablets and telling Gwen of Goliath's decision as they go. It's not the nicest neighborhood in the city, but Elisa's seen worse. At this time of night, there's no parking, so she simply double parks in front of the apartment building and then gets out too help the other two.
No sooner does her foot hit the pavement than Goliath and Lex land in the middle of the narrow street. After getting doctor and patient out of the car, they get their first look at the rather shabby building in front of them. Gwen ignores them as she stumbles over to the front door and starts rooting through her satchel for her keys as she leans against the door jam.
"This is where you live?" Lex asks, now taking a good look at the rest of the buildings that don't seem to be in much better shape.
"It's not much, but it's home," Gwen shrugs as she finally finds her keys.
"Listen, guys, I'm going to head home," Elisa tells the gargoyles as Gwen continues hunting for the right key on the ring. "I'll catch you guys later."
Elisa gives Goliath a quick kiss before getting back in her car and driving away. After fumbling around a bit, Gwen finally gets the key in the door and gets it unlocked. She staggers into the foyer and heads for the stairs. The others silently follow her in with Goliath supporting Brooklyn who's still a little wobbly. Just as they start up the stairs, the only door that leads onto the foyer opens up with a bit more force than necessary.
"KNIGHT!" a woman who's probably in her fifties but looks to be about a hundred in a ratty pink bathrobe with slippers to match, her hair up in curlers and a cigarette dangling out of her mouth yells. "I should have known it was you. Coming in at all hours, partying all night. I run a respectable building here!"
"Good morning, Mrs. Welker," Gwen quietly replies without even bothering to turn around. "Good night, Mrs. Welker."
"No pets!" Welker shouts, eyeing the gargoyles and instantly gets growled at.
"They're not pets, they're guests," Gwen calmly explains as she continues her trek up the stairs.
"YOUR RENT'S DUE!" the landlady shrieks up the stairwell at the doctor's retreating back.
"Not for another three days," Gwen states as she reaches the landing.
Gwen turns and walks down a hall lined with four doors, heading for the next set of stairs and the gargoyles slowly trailing behind. Just before she gets to the steps, the last door opens to reveal a handsome young man that misses the six foot mark by a few inches with a well toned body and wearing nothing but tight leather pants. He opens his arms and Gwen gladly walks into them.
"Gwen, honey, you just love tormenting that woman don't you?" he asks in a slightly effeminate tone just before he kisses her cheek.
"It's what I live for," she chuckles as she steps out of the embrace.
"Let me guess, paperwork again," he guesses as he pulls at her satchel strap.
"Not this time," she replies as she points behind her and the man's eyes get very wide.
"G-g-gargoyles?" he finally manages to stutter out.
"Yup," she smirks as she makes her way to the steps.
"Well, aren't you going to introduce me?" he yells at her retreating back after staring at the large moving mountains of muscle for several seconds.
"Maybe tomorrow night," she shouts back over her shoulder.
"You better, sugar, or I'll never cook for you again," he threatens.
"Ok, ok, bring dinner tomorrow night and you can meet them," she chuckles.
"Blackmailer!" he shouts and she laughs.
The gargoyles slowly troop by and the man stays there, watching them. Half way up the next set of steps Lex turns around and sees the man fanning himself with his hand as he goes back into his apartment. Lex quickly catches up with the others, very confused by the man's behavior.
One more flight of stairs and Gwen is finally opening the door to her apartment. They step in behind her into an apartment that's quite possibly smaller than the smallest room in the castle. There's a tiny little kitchen right next to the living area which only has a bookcase, a rather beaten up stuffed chair, a small TV on an overturned plastic milk crate and a small dining table with a couple chairs shoved against the wall. There's a short hallway with two doors leading off of it and despite its Spartan decor, it's neat and clean. However, the apartment is so small that with three extra bodies, especially one that stands around seven feet, it's down right claustrophobic.
"This is where you live?" Goliath asks in surprise.
"Like I said, it's not much, but it's home," she replies as she dumps her bags on the kitchen counter. "I'll go get some blankets for Brooklyn to lie on so he can be more comfortable."
With that she disappears through one of the doors and returns a minute later with her arms loaded with several blankets and a pillow. She drops them on the floor in front of the TV and steps back. Goliath and Lex step up and Goliath slowly lowers Brooklyn down as Lex starts to rearrange the blankets. After a couple minutes, Brooklyn is settled in on the floor and Lex climbs up onto the stuffed chair.
"How are you feeling?" she asks the red gargoyle.
"It hurts," he admits, trying to keep the pain out of his voice and not doing a very good job of it.
"I had a feeling it would," she smiles sadly at him as she opens her black bag and pulls out an already prepared syringe. "This will make the pain go away, but it'll leave you feeling a bit loopy."
"What is it?" Goliath asks sternly.
"Morphine," she replies as she pulls out a little white packet and heads for the prone gargoyle on the floor.
"I've heard of that stuff," Goliath rumbles, simply standing in her way to prevent her from getting to her patient, which, admittedly, isn't hard to do. "People get addicted to it."
"It can become addictive if taken long enough," she agrees as she opens the packet and takes out an alcohol wipe. "However, I don't think he's going to need it past tonight. If you guys heal as fast as people say you do, then most of what's causing him the pain will be gone come tomorrow night."
"Goliath, please," Brooklyn begs, looking up at his leader. "It really hurts."
Begrudgingly, Goliath moves to let Gwen by and she quickly goes to Brooklyn. She gives him the injection and then sits with him until the medicine takes effect. After a few minutes, he noticeably relaxes and he gets a slightly goofy look on his face.
"Feel better now?" she questions.
"Mm-hmm," he hums as he gets a silly smile on his face. "All better."
He gives a little giggle as he snuggles down into his nest of blankets. She slowly stands up, watching as the gargoyle happily hums to himself. She turns to go and finds her way blocked by Goliath again.
"Is he supposed to be acting like that?" Goliath demands.
"Yes, I told you he'd be acting a bit loopy," she answers. "Now, if you don't mind, I'd like to go take my shower."
"You're just going to leave him like that?" Goliath inquires; horrified by the way Brooklyn is acting.
"There's nothing more I can do," she tells him. "It's up to his body now. Now please, I'm dead tired and I want take my shower and then go to bed. I have to get up to go to work in the morning."
He glares at the small woman in front of him for several moments before relenting and moving out of her way. She squeezes past him, goes back into the kitchen, gets her black bag and heads for the bedroom. When she comes out a minute later, she's carrying some clothes in her hand and heads for the second door.
"I see you don't trust us," Goliath nearly growls.
"Huh? What are you talking about?" she asks, completely confused.
"Your bag, you hid it from us," he replies.
"I didn't hide it, I locked it up," she tells him rather testily. "In case you missed it, this isn't the nicest neighborhood in the city. I learned the hard way that junkies will do pretty much anything to get drugs and needles and stealing a doctor's bag is pretty easy target for them. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go take my shower."
With that she steps into the bathroom, slamming the door behind her.
"Whoa, loud," Brooklyn says just before collapsing in a fit of giggles.
"Maybe you should take it easy on her," Lex suggests from his perch on the chair, in his lap is a scrap book.
"What do you mean?" Goliath nearly snarls.
"Well, ever since we've been awake, she's been under attack," Lex points out. "First Angela tries to drop her off of the side of castle and then you've been verbally attacking her all night. And if you weren't doing that, you've been physically intimidating her. Come on, she fixed Brooklyn's wing and because of her he's going to fly again. Can't you cut her a break?"
"There's something not right about her," Goliath quietly states as he moves closer to Lex, which isn't very far. "It's like she knows us, knows our kind."
"That's because to a certain extent she does," Lex tells him, closing the book and holding it out to Goliath. "Take a look at this."
Goliath carefully takes the offered item and opens it to the first page. On the very first page is an article about Xanatos moving a castle all the way from Scotland to New York, stone by stone and with the article is a picture of Goliath as a statue. The next clipping is a report of the first monster sighting, followed by at least a dozen more just like it, some including out of focus, grainy pictures. The outline of some of these photos is unmistakably Goliath. Towards the end are articles confirming that living gargoyles exist and are now protecting the city.
"It seems you're right," Goliath sighs as he closes the book and hands it back. "I do owe her an apology."
He turns towards the bathroom door and can still hear the shower going. Deciding that barging in on her wouldn't be the best idea, he takes a seat on the floor to wait for her. More than half an hour later, she finally emerges with her skin still pink from the hot water and wearing a long night shirt with her hair wrapped up in a towel.
She vanishes through the bedroom door a second later with her dirty clothes in hand. Moments later she's back out, getting ready to check on Brooklyn one last time only to be brought up short by Goliath sitting between her and the injured gargoyle. Goliath can see she took the bandage on her arm off and the bruising is very prominent, though it almost hides the angry red puncture wounds made by Angela's talons. He also notices that her eyes are red and puffy and it's obvious that condition wasn't caused by exhaustion or the shower.
"If you're planning on staying, could you please move away from the door?" she requests, trying to keep a civil tone. "I have to go to work in the morning and jumping out of a third story window wouldn't be conducive to my continuing good health."
"I won't be staying," Goliath tells her as he stands up. "I only wanted to thank you for taking care of Brooklyn and apologize for my behavior. I would also like to apologize for Angela's lack of good manners as well."
"You're welcome and apology accepted," she replies after she shakes herself out of her shock a few seconds later. "Thank you for keeping me warm earlier."
"You're welcome," he states as he reaches for the door knob. "I hope you don't mind if Elisa comes to check on them tomorrow."
"She needs to get here before nine, that's when I leave for work," she warns. "Unless she's hiding wings under that jacket of hers."
"I'll let her know," he smiles as he opens the door.
"If you continue going up the stairs to the top you'll come to a door that leads to the roof," she tells him. "It says it's alarmed, but it's never gone off in all the years I've lived here and people are always going up on the roof. It's not very high up, but you should be able to catch a good breeze."
"Thank you again, I would like to stop by tomorrow night, if you don't mind," he replies as stands half in and half out of the apartment.
"Of course," she assures him. "I would have been surprised if you weren't coming."
"Good," he nods as he steps out into the hallway. "Good night, Dr. Knight."
"Gwen, please call me Gwen," she urges.
"Good night, Gwen," he says as he starts to head for the stairs down the hall.
"Good night, Goliath," she responds as she shuts the door behind him.
"Glad to see you two are finally getting along," Lex says from where he's curled up on her chair like a big yellow cat.
"Me too," she replies.
"So, what now?" he asks.
"Well, in a minute I'm going to go to bed," she tells him as she checks on Brooklyn who's staring at a test pattern on the TV screen. "If he starts hurting again, come and wake me up. If you watch TV, please keep the sound down. The walls are nearly paper thin around here. I'm not sure if you're interested in reading medical texts, but there are a few library books in the book case if you want something to read. If you get hungry, you can help yourself to whatever you want in the kitchen though I haven't gone shopping this week so there isn't much."
"We were checking out the shows, but I think your cable's out," he states. "The clearest picture we could get is the test pattern."
"That's because I don't have cable," she tells him as she goes into the kitchen and opens her bag. "I'm afraid you'll just have to watch whatever the rabbit ears can pull in."
"How can you live without cable?" he asks.
"How did you live without electricity a thousand years ago?" she counter questions as she pulls a paper bag out of the satchel.
"We just did," he answers.
"Exactly," she replies as she hands the bag over to Lex. "Have him take one of these every half hour or so, please."
"Antacids?" he inquires after he pulls the bottle out.
"Calcium carbonate," she answers. "He's going to need a lot of calcium to replace the bone I had to remove."
"Oh," he responds as he opens the bottle.
As she goes back into the bathroom to comb out her hair and to put fresh bandages on her arm, she can hear Lex trying to convince Brooklyn to eat a Tums tablet. A short time later she's crawling into bed as Lex tries to figure out how he's going to survive a night without cable.