Author's Notes: My apologies for another long wait. I swear I have to beat these updates out of my muse. At any rate, please enjoy.
"Goliath," Lex softly calls out as his clan leader raises his hand to pound on Gwen's apartment door again. "Maybe Gwen is down at Lars apartment."
"Perhaps," Goliath grumbles, his fist still raised, ready to pound on that hapless piece of wood once more.
"Why don't we go check?" Brooklyn suggests. "Even if she's not there, maybe he can let us into her apartment to wait for her. I know he has a spare key."
"Very well," Goliath grudgingly agrees as he lowers his arm and the two younger gargoyles quickly head down the stairs.
By the time Goliath reaches Lars' door, the man is already opening the portal to the other two. After a brief greeting, Lars ushers them in where they find Gwen sitting on the couch with her foot propped up on a pillow on the coffee table. Beside her is a man with his arm in a sling that Goliath doesn't recognize and he stops to stare suspiciously at the man only to have his gaze returned measure for measure.
"Goliath, John, John, Goliath," Gwen states as a way of introductions. "Now either you two stop glowering at each other or so help me I'll get a tranquilizer gun and dart somebody."
The gargoyles stare at the small woman in surprise with their mouths hanging open.
"She's just a tad cranky because her foot hurts," Lars explains in a stage whisper.
"Well, if someone hadn't stolen my pain meds, then I might not be so cranky," she snaps, glaring at her friend.
"Gwen, you need to eat something first," John gently reminds her and she lets out a huff before crossing her arms over her chest and sulking.
"Doctor's make the worst patients," Lars tells the gargoyles while he heads for the kitchen.
"Slice your foot open and then let's see how happy-go-lucky you are," she yells at his retreating back.
"See?" Lars self righteously states as he disappears into the kitchen.
"Are you going to be alright?" Lex quietly asks as he carefully moves closer to Gwen.
"Yeah, I'll be ok," she assures her small friend in a slightly shaky voice. "It just hurts a lot. Wish I had your guys' ability to heal so quickly."
"I'm sorry you got hurt," Brooklyn adds, coming behind the couch to stand near her.
"It wasn't your fault," she replies as she looks over at him. "I was the one who was foolish enough to go running around Central Park without any shoes on."
"Why did you throw your shoe at Demona?" Lex questions as he climbs up onto the couch next to her.
"She was hurting you and I couldn't find a rock," she answers. "So I threw what I had on hand, or foot as the case may be."
"Where'd you learn to tackle like that?" Brooklyn inquires as he leans against the back of the couch.
"You don't grow up with three older and much bigger brothers who enjoy tormenting their little sister and not learn a few moves to defend yourself," she replies, managing a small smile through the pain.
"What were you yelling at Demona?" Lex asks, settling himself down on the couch cushion.
"Nothing I'd repeat in front my mother," she responds with a little chuckle and the two young gargoyles snicker along with her.
Goliath watches on in silence, but it's not his clan mates or even Gwen he's keeping an eye on. He keeps his gaze on the man sitting silently next to the doctor, never saying a word but nervously eyeing Brooklyn and Lex, shifting ever so slightly to be ready to move at a moments notice. Goliath recognizes John for what he is, a male wanting to protect his mate, but not wanting to upset her. Begrudgingly, Goliath must admit to himself if no one else, he knows exactly how the man feels.
"So, where'd you learn to fight like that?" Brooklyn asks John and the man stares back at the gargoyle for a couple of seconds before answering.
"I'm a black belt in tae kwon do," John replies quickly.
"How do you know Demona?" Goliath asks out of the blue.
"Before last night, I'd never seen her before in my life," she answers, turning her attention to the large gargoyle.
"Then why did you attack her?" Goliath demands and he can see John shifting around in his seat again.
"She was hurting a friend of mine," she replies, resting a hand on Lex's shoulder. "Do I need a better reason than that?"
"No," Goliath grudgingly admits. "But next time, leave our enemies to us."
"Not a problem," she readily agrees.
"Are you guys staying for dinner?" Lars asks as he comes sashaying out with a couple plates of food in his hand.
"No, thank you," Goliath answers as he turns towards the door. "Come, you two. We have work to do."
Without another word, Goliath turns and walks out the door of the apartment, never even looking back. Brooklyn and Lex quickly say their goodbyes to Gwen and Lars and then hurriedly follow their leader, quietly shutting the door behind them. As soon as the door clicks shut, John lets out a breath that he didn't even realize he had been holding and he can feel the tension leaving his shoulders.
"Are you alright?" she asks as she accepts a plate from Lars.
"Yeah, I'm fine," John answers a bit tersely, taking his own plate in his good hand.
"I think I've known you long enough to know when something is upsetting you," she points out as she lays her plate on her lap. "So what's wrong?"
"Nothing, don't worry about it," he replies, still a bit testy while he puts his dinner on his lap and starts eating. "Eat your dinner."
"It's the gargoyles, isn't it?" she asks, her food nearly forgotten. "You don't like them."
"Gwen, it's not…," he starts but stops when he sees her staring rather intently at him. "Yeah, I'm having a problem accepting that you're friends with creatures that have hurt you and I can't say I'm really happy with you picking a fight with one who's obviously psychotic."
"Ok, you've got me on the psychotic one," she grudgingly admits. "Not one of my brighter moments."
"No, it wasn't," he agrees whole heartedly.
"Thanks a lot," she huffs, going back to sulking as she pushes the food on her plate around with her fork.
"Gwen…," he starts and she shifts slightly away from him as best she can.
"Ok, kids, eat up," Lars happily orders as he returns from the kitchen with his own plate of food. "After that, then you two can talk about gargoyles."
Gwen gives a Lars a good hard glare but he just ignores her as he plants his buns on the side opposite of her from John on the couch.
"Eat up, little missy, or so help me I'll repaint your apartment at three in the morning," Lars cheerfully warns her.
With a huff and a pout, she starts to eat her dinner, completely ignoring the men on either side of her.
A couple of hours later, a well fed and medicated Gwen is returned to her apartment in the arms of her best friend, with John following behind. Lars carefully sets her down on her good foot near the bathroom door and she immediately leans against the wall for support. She's already half asleep, the codeine starting to take an effect and she rests her head against the wall as she closes her eyes.
"Do you need anything else, sugar?" Lars asks.
"No, I just want to sleep," she mumbles a few seconds later when his words finally penetrate her brain. "Not sure how I'm going to survive work tomorrow."
"WHAT!?" John and Lars yell in unison, startling her enough to make her open her eyes and look at them.
"You are not going to work tomorrow," John tells her forcefully.
"Excuse me?" she demands, shaking off some of the drug that's clouding her brain. "Who died and made you the boss? If memory serves me correctly, I'm your superior. After all, I'm the one who went and got the medical degree, not you."
"Hold it right there, the two of you," Lars interrupts, stepping between them. "You're both tired and cranky so you better stop now before either one of you says something that you will regret in the morning. John, why don't you come back tomorrow morning and see how she's doing? If she still insists on going to work, you can at least drive her so she doesn't have to go the whole way on crutches. Gwen, honey, it's time for bed and I want you to seriously think about taking tomorrow off."
"If I take tomorrow off, the only vet there will be Lily, Tony has tomorrow off," Gwen says, sagging against the wall again."
"The reason we normally have two vets on at a time is in case one of them can't make it in," John tells her. "If there's an emergency, she'll call Tony."
"But I should be there," she weakly argues, the drugs taking a hold of her again.
"You should get some rest and let your foot heal," John gently tells her as he squeezes past Lars.
"But…," she tries to say only to be stopped by his finger on her lips.
"The zoo and the animals will all be there when you get back," he quietly assures her, barely noticing Lars slipping out the front door.
"What if they find that they don't need me?" she softly suggests after pulling his hand away.
"Of course they need you," he replies with a smile as strokes her cheek with the back of his fingers. "That's why they hired you in the first place."
"You're going to kiss me now, aren't you?" she whispers, not even realizing that she's staring at his lips.
"No, I'm not going to kiss you," he answers and she's not sure if she's relieved or disappointed.
"Oh," she says in a small voice, sounding a bit more disappointed than she means to.
"Want to know why?" he whispers in her ear and she can feel goose bumps forming all over her body.
"Why?" she nearly squeaks.
"I refuse to kiss you when your brain is fogged up by drugs," he tells her as he smiles to himself. "Because when I do kiss you, I want you to be able to remember every second of it."
"Oh," she squeaks and she's pretty sure her goose bumps have goose bumps now.
"Why don't you get ready for bed and I'll help you into your bedroom," he suggests as he steps away from her.
She doesn't trust herself to speak, so she simply nods and then hobbles into the bathroom. A few minutes later she emerges and finds him waiting patiently for her return. He steps up to her, places one of her arms across his shoulders, wraps his uninjured arm around her waist and then lifts her up.
She gives a small squeak of surprise as her feet leave the floor and he tries not to wince when she instinctually grabs the shoulder right above his stitches. He carefully maneuvers the two of them down the narrow hallway into her small bedroom. He gently sets her back down on her feet next to the small bed and she gratefully sinks down onto the mattress.
"Thank you, John," she says as she crawls back under the covers.
"You're welcome," he replies as he tucks her in. "Do you need anything?"
"No, I'm good," she responds with a yawn.
"Ok, then I'll see you in the morning," he tells her as he goes to turn off the light.
Her only response is a mumbled 'goodnight' as the room goes dark and he smiles again. He quietly turns off the lights in the apartment before letting himself out, locking the door behind him as best as he can. He turns around and is nearly startled out of his wits by Lars standing there with a smile on his lips.
"Jesus Christ, Lars, you just about gave me a heart attack," John nearly snaps.
"Sorry," Lars replies, not really sounding it though as he goes to lock up her apartment the rest of the way. "She all tucked in?"
"Yeah, she's probably asleep by now," John tells him.
"That's good," Lars says as he turns back around. "I've got room at my place if you want to crash there."
"No, that's ok," John replies while they start to make their way down the stairs. "I'll just come back in the morning."
"She normally leaves around nine, just so you know," Lars warns him.
"Don't worry, I plan on being here bright and early in case she tries to sneak off to work," John assures him.
"Good plan," Lars agrees with a nod as they reach his door. "I'll probably see you tomorrow then."
"Probably," John responds while he heads for the next set of steps. "Goodnight, Lars."
"Goodnight, John," Lars says just before closing his door.
A minute later, John steps out into the cool night air with thoughts of a certain stubborn doctor on his mind.
It's been only hours, but it seems more like days since she's left her apartment and she happily, if wearily shrugs out of her new jacket. There's only been a few times that her patrol has seemed to take forever like it did tonight. The first night she patrolled with her new partner, the night of Coldstone's awakening and the day that Matt confronted her about the gargoyles.
With a sigh, she strips off her holster and hangs it up on the coat rack next to her jacket before reaching down and petting Cagney. After giving the cat some much needed love, she pulls her gun out of its holder and heads for the kitchen where she safely stores it away. Once that's taken care of, she gets out the cat food that Cagney is demanding, the feline sure his mistress won't remember unless he constantly rubs against her legs.
As she places the food bowl on the floor, she hears a quiet 'thump' out on her balcony and a smile plays across her lips. She feels even more of the tension leaving her shoulders as she heads for the sliding glass door. A familiar shadow appears against the closed curtain and the last of the stress just seems to slip away.
"Good evening, Elisa," Goliath greets as he steps into her apartment.
"Hey, Big Guy," she responds. "How'd patrol go?"
"Fairly uneventful," he answers while he shuts the door behind him. "Stopped a few muggers, a hold up and some gang members from starting a brawl."
"I'd hate to hear what an 'eventful' patrol would be like for you," she chuckles as she crosses the living room.
"How was your evening?" he asks.
"Stressful," she replies with a lopsided smile as she collapses onto the couch. "Matt spent most of the night trying to convince me that we needed to check out Gwen's neighborhood to make sure everything was ok. And when a call came in about some monsters being spotted in her apartment building, I was afraid that he was going to sit in my lap and take over driving. I tell ya, the guy is a bit obsessive over this lady and in the process he's driving me crazy."
"Then it would not help to know that I met the other man she went out with," he says as he takes a seat near her.
"What's he like?" she asks.
"He wishes to protect her, but he does not wish to anger her," he answers thoughtfully. "I believe he has already chosen her to be his mate."
"And she's ok with this?" she questions.
"I don't believe that she's aware of his feelings for her, at least not yet," he replies. "Though, she did seem to be a bit distracted by the pain in her foot. He wasn't happy about Lexington or Brooklyn getting close to her, but he didn't say anything or try to stop them. I don't think he likes us."
"Well, like I've said before, you guys do take a bit of getting used to," she points out. "Give him time. If she's as thrilled about knowing you guys as she seems, then he's either going to have to accept you or move on."
"I imagine Matt would be quite happy if this man moved on," he says.
"I doubt it," she replies. "Matt's like a kid with a shiny, new toy. Eventually he'll get bored with it and move on."
"You don't believe Matt's feelings for her are genuine?" he inquires.
"I think Matt sees her as a bit of a puzzle," she answers. "Once he's figured her out, he'll either be intrigued or he'll lose interest. My money is on the later. That's provided she doesn't finally convince him she's not interested."
"You don't think she's interested in him?" he questions.
"I've seen her around him and around other men and Matt just seems to make her jumpy," she tells him. "It could be that he came onto her so strong at the start that she's turned off and has no intention of letting it go any farther. She wouldn't give Matt a kiss at the end of their date, but Lex, Brooklyn, Broadway and Angela all confirm that she was going to let John kiss her last night. The way I see it, she's more comfortable with John and Matt just doesn't stand a chance. Of course, if what Matt says about her eventually returning to Switzerland is true then he never had a chance to begin with. It's probably for the best any ways."
"How so?" he asks.
"There's something about her that doesn't quite sit right with me," she tries to explain. "I did a background check and she is from Switzerland and she did live in Boston with a family member and she did put herself through school and she is still paying off her student loans, but there's something else. Something that I'm sure she's not telling us. I have no hard evidence, it's just a gut feeling, but I believe there's more to Gwen Knight than meets the eye."