"You know, if you don't at least try Lars lasagna, he's going to be very upset," a quiet voice tells him. "And trust me; the last thing we want is Lars being upset."
It takes Goliath a few moments, but he finally looks over at the small woman sitting on the other end of the couch from him. She has a small smile on her lips but her eyes are sad as she gazes back at him. It strikes him how odd it is how someone so tiny could have such a big impact on his life in the past twenty-four hours.
"Why?" he finally asks, not exactly sure which 'why' he wants answered.
"Because, an upset Lars is a cleaning frenzy Lars," she softly chuckles. "I know two in the morning is no big deal for you guys, but for us diurnal types, it's a little upsetting to have your neighbor running the vacuum cleaner. Especially when he's running it in your apartment."
"Your rugs were filthy," Lars states huffily as he hands Gwen a plate of food. "And don't even get me started on your grout."
"See what I mean?" she laughs as Lars marches back into the kitchen. "For the sake of my sanity, please eat."
"How is she?" he finally asks, staring back at the plate of food.
"Well, she's on her way to the hospital," she tells him in a much more subdued tone. "Once she's there, the doctors will do everything they can for her. Since I'm not a human doctor, I don't want to say that everything's going to be peaches and cream, but anaphylactic shock is survivable if you get medical treatment on time. I can tell you I've never been so glad to have that EpiPen in my bag before."
"What is anaphylactic shock and what is an EpiPen?" he questions.
"Anaphylactic shock is when the body has a severe allergic reaction to something it comes in contact with," she explains. "Usually it's some type of food, but in this case it may be to the saliva of the gargoyle that bit her. As for the EpiPen, it's a device that injects medicine into a person who is going into anaphylactic shock."
"So why did you have one in your bag?" he inquires as he finally picks up his fork.
"I'm allergic to shellfish," she replies as she lifts her first bit of food to her mouth.
"How much did you use of it on Elisa?" he asks, finally getting some food onto his eating utensil.
"All of it," she answers after she swallows. "It's a single dose."
"Why did you have to cut her pants?" he questions, watching her out of the corner of his eye as takes a bite of food.
"It has to be administered into a major muscle group," she explains. "The thigh muscles are the biggest group in the human body, so that's what I went for."
They sit in silence as they both eat their dinners, one thought chasing after another in his head. When they're done eating, she takes their plates back into the kitchen and he finally takes a look around at his surroundings.
The main living room/dining room area is at least twice the size of Gwen's and it's decorated with very nice furniture. The kitchen's right off of the front door and on the other side of the room is another door that leads to what looks to be a hallway. Lex and Brooklyn are sitting on the floor in front of him playing some type of racing game on the flat screen TV and Gwen and Lars are in the kitchen quietly talking.
"Where's Matt?" Goliath asks as Gwen heads for the front door.
"He went to the hospital with Elisa," she answers with her hand on the door knob. "He'll call as soon as he knows something."
"Where are you going?" he interrogates further, his eyes narrowing.
"To go get the paper work that I didn't do this afternoon," she replies while opening the door. "I'll be back in a minute."
With that, she leaves and true to her word, she's back a few minutes later. The large gargoyle watches her as she settles at the table with her black satchel and pulls out a pile of papers. A couple small folded cards fall onto the floor, but she doesn't notice as she pulls out a pen from a side pocket. Lars picks up the cards and reads them, his eyes just about popping out of his head when he does.
"And when were you planning on telling me?" the man demands, putting his hands on his hips.
"When was I planning on telling you what?" she asks, not even looking up as she starts to write.
"That you had been invited to two of the fanciest restaurants in Manhattan," he replies, waving the cards he picked up off of the floor at her.
Goliath watches with mild amusement as all of the color drains from the nearly unflappable doctor's face, her eyes get to be as big as dinner plates and she makes a little squeaking noise. Without warning, she lunges at Lars, but he just gracefully dances out of her reach and she ends up tripping over her own feet.
"I thought not," he snorts as he marches towards the door. "I bet you don't have a thing to wear either."
"You stay out of my closet, mister," she warns as she gets to her feet.
But it's too late; Lars is long gone by the time she gets up off of the floor. With a groan, she goes back to her seat and plops back down. She drops her face into her hands and waits for the inevitable. Several minutes later, Lars stomps back into the apartment with a look of horror on his face.
"How could you…how can you…?" he sputters at first. "Have you taken a good look at what's in your closet?"
"I am perfectly aware of what's in my closet," she grumbles as she picks up her pen. "It's all perfectly wearable."
"Not to the nicest places in Manhattan," he gasps. "You cannot possibly go dressed in anything you have in your closet."
"You suggesting that borrow something out of your closet?" she mutters as she sinks down in her chair and refuses to look at him.
"Don't be silly, we'll go shopping," he states as if it's the easiest thing in the world.
"No," she growls as she crams her papers back into her satchel.
"And why not?" he asks, sounding like his feelings have been hurt.
"Because I'm not going," she snaps as she stands up and storms out of the apartment.
"What was that all about?" Lex asks after several seconds of silence.
"That was her not so subtle way of telling me that her pocket book is on the thin side again," Lars sighs as he drops the cards onto the table.
"How can a doctor not have money?" Brooklyn asks, the game he and Lex were playing completely forgotten.
"That's not for me to discuss," Lars replies as he heads back to the kitchen.
The gargoyles look at each other for a few moments until Brooklyn shrugs and goes back to his game. Goliath turns and scowls at the closed door and Lex slinks over to the table. He picks up the cards and reads them, but they don't give him much other than who sent one of them.
"Matt sent one of these," Lex blurts out.
"How do you know?" Lars asks as he walks back into the living room carrying a couple plates with something chocolaty on it.
"I recognize his hand writing," the small gargoyle replies.
"Well, that does explain why she started blushing whenever he got to close to her," Lars snickers as he hands Goliath a plate.
"What is this?" Goliath asks as he sniffs it.
"It's my fabulous double chocolate cheese cake," Lars proudly replies as he hands another plate to Brooklyn. "Guaranteed to cure whatever ails you, emotionally at any rate."
"Hey, this is really good, thanks," Brooklyn states around a mouth full of food.
"You're very welcome," Lars happily responds and he nearly bounces back into the kitchen.
Goliath watches his second wolf down the dessert before restarting his game. The rig on Brooklyn's wing makes it hard for the gargoyle to fold his wing over his shoulder, so instead it's folded awkwardly behind the younger gargoyle.
"I don't suppose in all the excitement that she had a chance to look at your wing," Goliath grumbles.
"She did it while you were moping about Elisa going to the hospital," Brooklyn replies as he leans to the side trying to make his car go around a bend and ends up crashing anyways. "She said that there's still about a two inch gap between the bones but she thinks one more day and then she'll be able to take the rigging off. Until then I have to keep eating those stupid calcium tablets. They taste like flavored chalk."
"I wasn't moping," Goliath mutters defensively.
"Uh-huh, sure you weren't," Brooklyn snickers as he starts a new game. "That's why you were staring into space is if it was day for nearly twenty minutes."
Goliath scowls at his clan mate for a good minute before deciding to get up and stretch. He looks around and sees the only other body in the room is Lars who's working on his lap top at the table. He looks around the room again, but Lex is no where to be seen.
"Where's Lexington?" Goliath asks to no one and everyone.
"He went up to take a piece of cheesecake up to Gwen," Lars answers without looking up from his computer.
"Why did you send him?" Goliath demands stepping closer to the man. "Why not go yourself?"
"Lex offered to go," Lars replies, finally looking up from his work. "Besides, I have a feeling that if I went up there right now I'd not only get to wear the cheesecake but the door would be slammed in my face."
"So you let him go alone?" Goliath snarls, his wings partially unfurling to increase his size.
"Who's going to get him, Goliath?" Lars counter asks. "The boogie man?"
Lex quietly knocks on Gwen's apartment door and then sits in the hall intent on waiting until dawn if he has to.
"Who is it?" he hears a tired voice call through the door.
"Lex," he yells back and a moment later the door is opened by a nearly panicked Gwen.
"What's wrong?" she asks worriedly.
"I was going to ask you that," he replies as he hands her the plate of cheesecake. "Why don't you want to go out with Matt? Don't you like him?"
"I don't know," she answers sadly as she turns and heads back into the apartment. "I only met him this morning. I've only been around him about an hour or so, so that's hardly a basis to state whether or not I like him. How did you know that he asked me out?"
"I recognized his hand writing on one of the cards," Lex answers as he follows her in and closes the door behind him. "But why not go out with him? Then you could get to know him better."
"Besides the fact that, as Lars not so subtly pointed out, I have nothing to wear, I'm not interested in having a man in my life," she replies as she sits down at the small table and starts to eat her dessert. "Did Lars set you up to this? Because if he did, I'm going to tell you now I'm not happy."
"I offered to come since Lars had a feeling you'd stuff the cheesecake somewhere and not your face," he states as he settles in the chair opposite from her. "Why don't you want a man in your life?"
"It's complicated," she mumbles around a mouth full of food.
"But I thought humans want to have a mate," he says in confusion.
"Those that have time for them do," she points out. "Like I said, it's complicated."
"What's so complicated about it?" he asks. "You're a woman, he's a man. What's so hard about that?"
"What's so hard about that is that anything that distracts me from my goal, takes me further from home," she states as she takes a rather large piece of cake and stuffs it into her mouth.
"So what's your goal?" he insists.
"To get home," she answers evasively after she finally swallows.
"But isn't this your home?" he questions.
"This is the place I live, not my home," she responds as she starts to scrape the last of the chocolate off of the plate.
"So, where's home?" he inquires.
"Switzerland," she replies reluctantly as she licks the last chocolate molecule off of her fork.
"Wow, you're a long way from home," he states in shock. "How'd you end up here?"
"That's a long story," she sighs while putting the fork down and pushing the plate away.
"I've got all night," he reminds her.
"I don't," she reminds him.
"Ok, so what do you need to get home?" he continues.
"Money mostly," she says with another sigh.
"Won't your fee pretty much cover that?" he asks.
"What fee?" she inquires, her brow furrowing.
"The one Xanatos is going to pay you for fixing Brooklyn's wing," he states.
"Xanatos isn't paying me anything," she tells him.
"You mean Xanatos talked you into doing this for nothing?" he asks in surprise. "He's getting off without paying anything?"
"I didn't say Xanatos isn't going to pay, I'm just not the one getting the money," she replies. "He's promised to donate enough money to the zoo to build a new exhibit for the bats."
"You're doing this for a bunch of bats?" he questions, shocked.
"So, what's wrong with that?" she shoots back defensively.
"It's just that most of the humans I've met would want something for themselves first and then do something for others," he replies.
"I'm not like most humans," she points out. "I was raised to think of others first, me second."
"But they're just bats," he states.
"And to some, you're just a monster," she reminds him, causing him to frown at her. "Don't think I got nothing out of this deal with Xanatos. I've always wanted to meet you guys and I finally got to."
"Bet you weren't expecting to nearly get killed, though, were you?" he inquires as he points to her still bandaged arm.
"No, I wasn't," she answers with a shrug. "But I don't blame Angela. She wakes up and there's a stranger standing over her clan mate and she's a bit hormonal right now. I can't say I was thrilled with her reaction, but I won't blame her."
"What's 'hormonal'?" he asks.
"Hormones are chemicals our bodies release and are usually associated with reproduction," she tells him, leaning onto the table. "So when someone's being 'hormonal' it usually means that they're 'in the mood for love,' so to speak."
"How did you know Angela was being hormonal?" he questions.
"I've worked around animals long enough to recognize a female going into her reproductive cycle," she responds with a smile. "And I've been having my own cycles long enough to know what it's like. Moody doesn't even begin to cover it sometimes. Besides, didn't Goliath mention something about her mating tonight?"
"Yeah, he did," he replies. "So why didn't you ask for money, especially since you need it?"
"I don't know," she muses as she leans her chin on her hand. "I guess it never crossed my mind. The thought of meeting you guys was enough for me."
"You're not like most humans I've met," he states.
"I certainly hope not," she quietly chuckles as she picks her satchel up off of the floor where she had dumped it. "I don't want to appear rude, Lexington, but I really need to get this paper work done. You're welcome to stay, but I do need a bit of quiet to work."
"I think I'll go wait downstairs if it's ok," he says as he slides out of his seat. "Lars is a bit different too."
"You don't know the half of it," she laughs. "I'm afraid I've been chewing poor Lars's ear off about you guys ever since I found out you were real. I guess he's kind of used to the idea of gargoyles being just as smart as humans, if not smarter."
"That's not exactly what I meant," he replies as he goes to the door. "He's just…different."
"Is that a bad thing?" she asks with a smile.
"No, I guess not," he answers with a smile in return.
He leaves the apartment as she pulls her paper work back out of her bag. With a sigh, she starts filling out the medical forms in front of her. Within moments she's completely concentrating on her work and is completely taken by surprised when all hell breaks loose seconds later.