She's barely aware of anything going on around her. All she knows is that her arm feels like it's on fire, her tongue seems to have swollen to twice its size and now it's getting harder for her to breathe. She can feel her heart pounding in her chest and sweat is trickling down her back.
She's concentrating on breathing so much that she's only barely aware of Goliath landing or being laid down on a bed a few minutes later. She can hear voices, but can only distantly place them as people she knows. It's like she's in another world and only connected to this one by a tenuous thread.
She can feel someone removing her jacket, clean her arm and then remove her shoes. She's aware of these things happening to her, but she can't seem to do anything to prevent them. Even when she senses someone cutting her pant leg, she can do nothing.
She can hear voices arguing, but she can't stop them. She can't even let them know that she can hear them even if she can barely understand what they're saying. A moment later that seems more like a life time, the voices stop and she can feel her leg exposed to the air. A second later something sharp stabs her in the leg and she can't even object to the pain.
Soon, someone is handling her arm again and she wants to whimper in pain, to tell them to stop because it hurts, but she's unable to make a sound. Fortunately, a short time later it becomes a little easier to breath, but she's still not with it enough to answer people when they start calling her name.
Now there are voices of people she doesn't recognize talking to her and to the other people she does know. She feels herself being transferred to another bed, but this one is moved a moment after she's strapped down to it. She knows that they're trying to be careful, but the swaying motion isn't doing much for her stomach.
An eternity later, she can feel them drop down the wheels to the stretcher and she's rolled out into the cool night air. By this time she's finally able to open her eyes a little, but not much and her breathing is a little easier than it was before. She turns towards a voice when it calls her name and she's looking into the face of an EMT. She tries to answer the woman's questions, but her tongue still feels like it's too big for her mouth.
She lies there as they move her into the ambulance and watches passively as the EMT sticks an IV into her arm. Her head slowly begins to clear and breathing becomes easier. She hadn't realized it until now that she wasn't swallowing and gladly does so as her throat no longer feels like she's being strangled.
A short time later, the back doors are closed and one of the EMTs gets in the front and starts driving. The EMT that stays in the back with her starts asking her questions, but all she can do is nod or shake her head as she can't seem to talk with her tongue still too swollen. The EMT smiles at her, telling her that she'll be fine as they make their way through the city.
What seems to be hours later, the ambulance stops and goes into a reverse as they back up to the emergency room doors. Within moments of them stopping, the back doors swing open and Elisa is rolled out of the back of the vehicle and into the hospital. There's a flurry of lights and sounds as she's quickly moved into a room followed by more people talking to her and poking at her arm. She's finally able to make a sound of displeasure as someone jabs at one of the holes in her arm.
A moment later, someone is stabbing her in the arm with a needle. She looks over as he pulls out the needle and reinserts it in a different spot, injecting some more of whatever's in the syringe into her arm. This process is repeated several more times before her arm is released.
She sighs with relief when the person is done using her as a pin cushion and what's even better is that the pain in her arm is quickly fading. When someone comes to ask her questions, she can only grunt in response since her tongue still doesn't want to work properly. They just nod understandingly and tell her what the doctor is about to do to her.
She nods that she understands and watches passively as he begins to dig around in the four puncture wounds that Demona left on her arm. She looks on in fascination as he carefully extracts little bits and pieces of something from a couple of the holes and puts them in a little dish. Once he's done, he cleans her arm again and bandages it. He then gives her an injection of medicine through the IV, telling her that he'll check in on her in a while just before he leaves.
Slowly, her body begins to come back to normal. Breathing no longer has to be concentrated on, swallowing is no longer difficult, she can open her eyes all the way and she can finally move her tongue around. With another sigh, she relaxes and starts to ponder on how the others are doing. Just as she begins to get antsy and wonders how long she's going to have to be in this little room, Matt sticks his head in the door.
"Hey, partner, how's it going?" he asks, with a smile on his face.
"Hi," she croaks and quickly swallows, trying to moisten her throat. "What happened?"
"You went into anaphylactic shock," he answers as he comes all the way into the room. "You had a really bad reaction to something when Demona bit you. Good thing Goliath brought you to Gwen because she knew just what to do. The doctor says that she may have even saved your life with that EpiPen."
"To bad she couldn't save my pants," she jokes, still sounding like a frog as she fingers the cut edges of her pant leg.
"She told me it was either cut the pant leg or pull your pants off," he tells her as he sits next to her bed. "And with Goliath hovering over her, she figured her chances of survival were better if she just ruined your pants."
"Yeah, probably," she replies hoarsely. "Goliath still doesn't fully trust her yet."
"Her bedside manner could use some work, but she does know what she's doing," he chuckles as he stands back up. "Listen, I'm going to go call them and let them know how your doing. I'll be back in a bit. Is there anything you need?"
"Something to drink would be great," she answers. "I feel like I've swallowed a pound of cotton or something."
"Ok, a drink it is," he nods as he heads for the door. "I'll be back in a bit."
He leaves the room and a minute later a nurse comes in with a paper cup.
"Your friend said you were thirsty, so I brought you some water," she says as she hands Elisa the cup.
"Thanks," Elisa croaks.
The nurse smiles and then exits as well. There's not a lot to do after she's finished her water, so she closes her eyes to relax a bit. The next time she opens her eyes Matt is back sitting in the chair near her bed and reading a magazine.
"Hey," she yawns as she stretches. "How long was I out?"
"A couple hours," he answers as he drops the magazine onto the table next to him. "It took me a while to get through, but I finally did reach them. Goliath says he may not see you tomorrow night. They're going to have to keep an eye out for Demona to make sure she doesn't interfere with Angela and Broadway. Hudson is watching out for them tonight, but Goliath doesn't think Demona will be a problem tonight since you used her for target practice and Goliath seems to be the one she wants. Gwen is hoping that Brooklyn will be able to go home tomorrow night as well. It all depends on whether or not his wing finishes healing by then. If it does, he has to go back to the vets to have the rig on his wing removed. I'm taking Gwen out Friday night. Lex is in a bit of a bad mood though I really couldn't get a calm answer out of anyone as to why. Something about the idiot landlady calling someone or the other."
"I think the drugs they've given me are affecting my hearing," she states.
"Why's that?" he asks, managing to keep a straight face.
"I could have sworn I heard you say that you're taking Gwen out on a date," she replies, her gaze boring into him.
"And what if I did?" he questions, a smile pulling at the corners of his mouth.
"You only just met her this morning!" she laughs, unable to help herself.
"So?" he snorts back. "Is there some statute of limitations that states how long I have to know a girl before I can ask her out? Because if there is, no one ever told me."
"No, but don't you think you should get to know her better before you ask her out?" she asks.
"Can you think of a better way to get to know her than taking her out to dinner?" he counter asks with a raised eyebrow.
"No," she grudgingly admits. "How much longer am I going to have to sit here?"
"Why don't I go find a nurse or somebody to find out, hm?" he suggest as he gets up.
"That'd be great, thanks, Matt," she sighs.
A while later, the nurse comes in and asks a bunch of questions noting the answers down on a file. After that, she exits the room and the doctor enters several minutes later carrying the same folder the nurse had. He briefly examines her arm and asks her a few more questions. When that's done, he hands her a prescription and instructions on how to care for her arm for the next couple days. Shortly after he leaves, the nurse comes in again and detaches Elisa from the monitors that she's attached to and slides the IV needle out of her arm.
Once all of the medical staff leaves, she sits up and swings her legs over the side of the bed. Matt hands her her shoes and she gladly puts them on. As soon as she's able, she's out of the door before anyone else can use her as a dart board. Matt follows her out into the hallway and then leads outside and then to his car. They drive through the night for some time as Elisa mulls things over in her mind.
"Penny for your thoughts?" Matt finally offers after several miles of silence.
"Why didn't he tell me?" she wonders aloud, hurt and anger evident in her voice. "Why didn't he warn me? He could have at least warned me not to come by tonight. What was he thinking, not warning me? Sometimes I seriously wonder if his head stays stone at night too. What was he thinking? I could have died! Do you realize that I could have died?"
"Ok, I think I want a refund," he states with a small chuckle, stopping her raging in its tracks. "Listen, I'm sure he didn't realize that Demona's bite would send you to the hospital and if he did, I'm sure he would have done something different. You should have seen the look in his eyes when Gwen opened her door. He was worried and we all but had to drag him out of Gwen's bedroom so she could take care of you. And you looked bad, partner. You looked really bad."
"How bad?" she asks with a hushed voice.
"Your face was red and so swollen that you couldn't open your eyes," he tells her but refusing to look at her. "I could hear you trying to breathe. Lars went about as white as a sheet when he saw you. Goliath looked like he was about to rip something apart. I saw him just before we left. He was sitting in Lars living room staring into space. If I didn't know any better, I could have sworn he had turned to stone."
"He still could have said something," she grumbles, slumping down in her seat.
"Elisa, he does care about you, but what was he supposed to say to you?" he asks. "Hi, honey, don't come over, Angela is more likely to want to kill you then look at you. Oh, and Demona wants me to have sex with her."
Despite her best effort, a little snort of laughter sneaks out and Matt just grins. They drive on in silence until Elisa finally notices where they're going.
"Hey, Matt?" she queries.
"Yeah?" he responds.
"My car is over by the castle," she tells him.
"And your apartment is this way," he replies. "You're wiped out, Elisa. If I let you drive home in your condition and something happens to you, what do you think Goliath is going to do to me?"
"Probably nothing permanent," she smirks tiredly.
"Thanks, that's a real comfort," he snorts. "We'll pick up your car tomorrow, ok?"
"Ok," she grudgingly agrees as she lets out a yawn. "But you better come and get me early. I don't like leaving it out over night on the street."
"If you give me the keys I'll ask Xanatos to put it in the garage," he offers.
"Yeah, I guess that'll work," she yawns again, dragging the keys out of her pocket and handing them over.
A short time later, he parks illegally in front of a fire hydrant and gets her up to apartment. He's back down in record time, but not fast enough since there's a blue and white double parked next to him when he comes out. After having to show his badge and ID, Matt manages to get out of a ticket, but he can hear the officer grumbling about high and mighty detectives. Matt chuckles to himself as he heads toward the castle and after dropping off the keys, heads for home and his own pillow.
Author's note: Sorry this has taken so long. I had a bit of writer's block, not to mention my muse has gone psycho. I love her dearly, but she's got me started on yet another story, so I am now currently working on four, count them four, different stories in three different universes. May the gods have mercy on me. As always, please review.