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Discussions - Chapter 11
By Kudara
Disclaimer:
All the characters appearing in Gargoyles are copyright Buena
Vista Television/The Walt Disney Company. No infringement of
these copyrights is intended as this is a not for profit fan
fiction work. All original characters are the property of the
author.
Warning: none
Notes: Events mentioned in the story are from the third season
episode, “…For It May Come True.” The wheelchairs mentioned in
this section actually exist. I thought they looked so much
better than the regular everyday one’s we see that I decided
Robert just had to have one, www.colourswheelchair.com.
Dominique
Destine’s home,
and the character’s
Candice and Gregory are from ‘The Gargoyles Saga’ world and
adapted for use in this story.
Rating: Teen
Feedback: Always welcome, feedback is what encourages me to keep
writing. Please let me know what you like and what you dislike
about the story.
Revision History: 07/15/08
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Wednesday, December 17th 1997
Early Morning - Nightstone Unlimited HQ, Lower East Side
Manhattan
Her mug of coffee in her hands, Dominique idly swung her chair
around and looked out the glass that made up one wall of her
office. It was a clear winter morning and the sun was shining
brightly off the sides of the buildings as it rose.
Last night had gone rather well, as soon as he had arrived,
Wayne informed her that he had removed the enchantment on Robyn
Canmore the day before. From there, their discussion had moved
onto Thailog. Dominique still wasn’t certain if the Wolf’s
chosen knew anything about the true nature of her relationship
with the cloned male or not, Wayne’s questions had been limited
to what she knew of Thailog’s properties and business interests
and hadn’t strayed to anything personal at all.
After he finished asking all the questions he needed answered
about Thailog, Wayne had inquired if he could investigate her
history as Dominique to see if any the documentation proving her
identity would raise any flags in an official investigation into
her past. She had been surprised by the request until he
pointed out that all the immortal chosen would eventually have
to pretend to die and then arrange for new identities to hide
the fact that they were immortal. Their old method of evading
detection by moving to new locations where no one knew them
would not work anymore, not with the way governments were
keeping track of everyone these days. Her identity as a human
was to be their trial run so to speak, if they could make sure
the identity she had created for Dominique Destine would stand
up to any scrutiny, then they could use what they learned to
make identities for other chosen.
Dominique wasn’t certain who the ‘they’ Wayne had referred to
were; probably the other Wolf’s chosen she guessed. She
certainly didn’t mind them looking into the documentation she
had created to see if it would stand up under scrutiny and
taking care of what didn’t. After all, in sixty or eighty years
she would need their help to arrange for new identities for
Kendra and herself.
The intercom line on her phone rang, she swung her chair back
around to face her desk and answered it, “Yes, Candice?”
“Ms. Destine, Ms. Jackson is here to see you,” her secretary
responded.
Dominique was surprised, Margaret had said yesterday that it
wouldn’t take her very long to come up with a few suggestions,
but she hadn’t expected her to have anything so soon. “Send her
in please.”
She stood up and went around to the other side of her desk as
the door opened and Margaret entered, today she was dressed in a
plum colored skirt suit and was wearing three-inch heels. The
redhead raised one eyebrow as she stared down at the shoes for a
moment and then back up into the tall woman’s face. Margaret
had a broad grin on her face, and her hazel eyes were dancing
with laughter as she watched the redhead. “Not tall enough?”
Dominique asked dryly.
“A woman can never be tall enough,” Margaret responded
cheerfully, “there’s nothing quite like standing next to a six
foot tall man when he realizes he has to look up at you.”
The answer startled a laugh out of Dominique, she could easily
imagine the scene Margaret was describing.
The tall woman chuckled with her then held up what the redhead
assumed was the folder she had given her the day before. “I’ve
looked through these and I have some recommendations I need to
discuss with your Administrative Division manager.”
“That would be Mrs. Merrill,” Dominique responded, “I’ll have
Candice arrange for you to meet with her.”
Margaret nodded, “I suspected that might be who I needed to see,
but I thought I’d stop by and let you know that I see no reason
why Nightstone can’t eventually implement all of these
benefits. It will take a few months since there are quite a few
legal documents you’ll need to file with both the local and
federal governments and some administrative changes that need to
be made, but you can definitely do this at a minimal cost to
your company.”
Dominique stared at her surprised, “All of them?” she had hoped,
but certainly hadn’t expected a favorable answer this quickly.
The tall woman smiled, “All of them,” she confirmed.
Dominique smiled back at her, “Good,” she said softly, “and
thank you.”
Margaret chuckled, “Tell me that again after your Administrative
Division finishes complaining about the changes I want them to
make.”
The redhead smirked, “I doubt they will, I’ll make sure Mrs.
Merrill understands that I expect her Division to cooperate
fully with whatever changes you feel are necessary.” The
Bison’s chosen gave her a concerned look and Dominique chuckled,
“Don’t worry, I doubt I’ll have to even raise my voice, I’ll
just let them know that no benefits will be implemented until
I’m certain that all of them can be,” her voice was light but
her eyes were unyielding. She had suspected they might have
given up on finding a way to afford the domestic partner
benefits too easily, and the fact that Margaret had found a way
so quickly just strengthened her suspicions.
Late Morning - Nightstone Unlimited HQ, Lower East Side
Manhattan
A tentative knock on her door caused Dominique to look up from
the market research she was doing, “Come in,” she called out in
a raised voice, knowing from experience that she needed to be
quite loud to be heard. The office wasn’t quite soundproof, but
it was close.
The door opened and Candice came in, “Sorry to bother you Ms.
Destine, but you said last week you wanted me to arrange a
Christmas Party. I’ve come up with two options for you,” she
handed the folder she was holding to the redheaded woman.
Dominique accepted it, placing it on her desk and flipping it
open, the first sheet had a picture of a well-lit ship floating
upon moonlit water stapled to it. The vessel looked familiar
and she lifted the picture to look at the sheet underneath, it
was a cost analysis for four-hundred person dinner cruise on the
Hudson River. She raised her eyebrow and looked up at the
mocha-skinned woman standing on the other side of her desk, “Not
all of the dinner cruises are booked?” she was surprised, this
close to the holiday she had thought all the usual corporate
venues would be.
“No Ms. Destine, that one’s available for the night of the
twenty-second,” Candice responded promptly.
The redhead nodded, she set the paper with the ship attached to
the side and read the second sheet, it was for a catered party
at Nightstone. Surprisingly the costs for the two events were
about the same, Nightstone would pay the entire cost of the
catered party, while the cruise cost would only be partially
subsidized by the company. The actual cost of the cruise would
depend on how many of the seats were sold. Dominique tapped the
employee cost for the dinner cruise with her fingernail, “Would
the other employees be willing to pay this to go on a dinner
cruise?”
Candice nodded confidently, “Oh yes, this cruise line is known
for having really good dinners, and that’s just under half the
price it would be if you bought tickets to one of their regular
dinner cruises.”
Dominique leaned back in her chair, “I guess since the dinner
cruise is on top that’s the choice you would prefer?”
Her secretary’s dark eyes searched her face nervously for a
moment before what she saw there apparently reassured her, “I
worked with Mrs. Merrill as you suggested, and we asked Mr.
Burns and Ms. Wright for their opinion, the dinner cruise was
what they preferred as well. It’s more…” Candice’s voice
trailed off, Dominique just stared at her, waiting for her to
finish, the redhead was curious as to why the dinner cruise
would be preferable to having a social gathering at Nightstone.
“Well, it’s more fun to get dressed up and go out on a cruise
for dinner and dancing than to get dressed up and come back to
work,” her secretary finally admitted.
The redhead nodded thoughtfully, put that way it did make sense,
“Very well, make the arrangements and let everyone know the date
and time. Hopefully enough people will be interested that I
won’t end up paying the maximum amount,” she added dryly.
“Oh, I’m sure that won’t be a problem,” Candice assured her.
Dominique stared at her for a moment, the woman seemed very
confident about that, which seemed odd considering the event
hadn’t even been announced yet. Candice started shifting
uneasily under her stare and not quite meeting her eyes, which
made the redhead suspicious, but she couldn’t fathom what her
secretary would be hiding about a dinner cruise of all things.
“Is that all you needed Ms. Destine?” the woman finally asked.
The redhead stared at the woman for a moment longer, watching
her secretary become ever more nervous before finally
responding, “Yes, that’s all I needed.” Her green eyes narrowed
as she watched the woman leave and could have swore she heard a
relieved sigh just before her office door closed. Clearly,
there was something going on, she looked down at the picture of
the ship on the river bemused, and it had something to do with
this cruise. She shrugged as she returned to her work; whatever
it was Candice was hiding about why she was so sure the dinner
cruise would be well received couldn’t be that important.
Noon - Nightstone Unlimited HQ, Lower East Side Manhattan
Dominique smiled, uncertain as to what exactly was so amusing,
but Kendra’s unrestrained laughter was infectious. “What is
it?” she asked, “Candice was acting rather oddly about this
dinner cruise.”
The black haired woman snorted, “I bet, this was the unofficial
Nightstone Christmas Party,” she said, “before you decided to
have an official one. That sent everyone into a real tizzy
trying to figure out what to do since the Division managers had
already put down a payment on the cruise. I guess they decided
to cross their fingers and hope you chose it over the banquet.”
The redhead stared at her, no wonder Candice had looked so odd
when she first brought up the idea. She frowned starting to
feel rather irritated that this unofficial party had been
arranged behind her back and then they had tried to deceive her
by presenting it as something they had just arranged. Then
there was the fact that Kendra had not mentioned it to her
either, that hurt.
“Dominique,” Kendra said softly, the redhead glanced up at her,
“before you get angry about this, ask yourself if it’s really
worth getting angry over.” She reached over and tapped the
picture of the ship, “This says that your employees thought
enough of being part of this company that they wanted to get
together to celebrate the holiday season like all the other
companies were doing even if you didn’t officially sanction
it.” The redhead frowned down at the picture but before she
could respond, Kendra continued, “What would you have done if
you were one of your managers and you went through the trouble
of arranging this for the people under you and then suddenly
your boss, who you never thought even acknowledged the holiday
existed except to annoy her by making her give everyone yet
another paid day off, suddenly decided at the last minute that
she wanted a corporate Christmas party?”
Dominique scowled at her; Kendra took another bite of her
sandwich and stared back, one eyebrow raised. Finally, the
redhead blew out an irritated breath, “Probably the same thing
they did,” she admitted reluctantly. “That doesn’t mean that
I’m pleased they tried to slip this past me though,” she said
with a scowl.
Kendra nodded, she finished her bite of food, “Understandable,
personally though I’m planning on enjoying the cruise since I
happen to know that it was too late for them to arrange
something like that when you first mentioned it. Have you
thought about getting tickets for Rachael, Margaret and Sharon
yet?”
The redhead stared at her, “No though I guess I should,
shouldn’t I?” Now that it had been brought up that actually
sounded like a good idea, they would probably enjoy cruising
down the river and seeing the city by night. She frowned at
Kendra, “Why didn’t you tell me about this?” she finally asked,
her voice betraying her emotions.
Kendra’s eyes sharpened on her and then softened, “I hear bits
and pieces of a lot of conversations with my hearing, it was
only this morning that I heard enough bits and pieces to put
everything together,” she said softly. “Do you really want me
tattling on your employees to you for every little thing?
They’ll eventually realize it could only be me telling you and
then I’m not likely to be too popular after that,” the black
haired woman paused letting that sink in. “I didn’t think that
this was important enough for me to rush in here to tell you
about it an hour or so ago, should I have?”
“Yes,” Dominique snapped, the black haired woman’s brow rose,
but before she could say anything the redhead growled out
grouchily, “No.” Dominique did want to hear about everything,
but she knew that what Kendra was saying was correct. Kendra
continued to stare at her with a concerned look on her face, and
finally the redhead admitted what was really bothering her. “I
used to be feared by all of my employees, before this last month
I doubt they would have dared to even try this,” she observed,
annoyed and slightly worried that she was losing an essential
element of her control over her employees. She didn’t want them
to be terrified of her anymore, but they should respect her and
fear her wrath if they did something wrong.
“Ah,” Kendra responded, relaxing immediately. Dominique
frowned; she was quite serious about this. “Don’t worry,” the
black haired woman assured her blithely, looking down at her
lunch, “I’m certain that they’ll royally mess something up and
give you a really good reason to rip their heads off and hand
them back to them sooner or later.”
Dominique stared at her, shocked, then Kendra glanced back up at
her and she saw the devilish amusement in her sapphire blue
eyes.
At her desk Candice glanced up startled by the sound of laughter
coming from Ms. Destine’s office, she smiled uncertainly
wondering what was so amusing that it would get Ms. Destine to
laugh like that.
Afternoon - Nightstone Unlimited HQ, Lower East Side Manhattan
Dominique smiled satisfied as she read the email from her R&D
Division manager, Mr. Pierre, their application for a patent on
the battery technology had been accepted by the patent office.
Her eyes narrowed in thought, now they just had to develop a
cheaper way of manufacturing them. She smiled crookedly, if it
weren’t for the fact that she would have to explain how she did
it, she was fairly certain that after a few tries she could
figure out how to guide the carbon nanotubes to form in a
straight line within the cellulose matrix. She suspected it
wouldn’t be that different from some of the things the Irish Elk
had her doing already.
Night – Destine Manor, Forest Hills Gardens, Long Island
Demona sat down at the bench where she usually metal crafted, in
front of her, on a sheet of fire safe ceramic, laid a bar of
gold. She altered her vision so that she could see nature magic
and examined it, looking at the rigid structure of the gold
molecules that formed the bar as the Ancient One had taught her
last night. He had also taught her how to do what she was about
to attempt now for the first time in the living realm.
She summoned the free nature magic in the area to her and then
carefully directed it into the gold bar. As the energy levels
rose inside the bar she could see that it’s rigid matrix like
structure was beginning to weaken. She slowed the energy
transfer to a trickle; the spirit had warned her it was possible
if she wasn’t careful at this point that the structure could
break apart all at once, resulting in the metal exploding into
molten droplets. That would be rather painful and was
definitely something she didn’t want to experience.
A little more, a little more, she thought to herself, watching
the bonds between the molecules, the bar deformed and then a
second later melted entirely into a hot puddle of liquid metal.
She smiled, pleased with her accomplishment. Of course, this
was the easy, if dangerous, part; the next thing she needed to
do would be much harder and would require her full
concentration.
She closed her eyes and painstakingly formed in her mind the
image of the miniature dragon she wanted to make, the faceted
eyes, the tiny scales covering its skin, the wings folded and
resting against its back, and the talons on its clawed feet.
Opening her eyes she cupped her hands above the molten metal
feeling the heat radiating off it, and called more nature magic
to her. She then willed the magic into the shape of the image
she held in her mind. This step was what the spirit had her
practicing for almost a full hour the night before, forming a
detailed image in her mind and then willing the nature energy to
take that shape.
Now for the final step, she summoned the cooling, but still
liquid metal up into the mold formed by the nature energy she
had shaped. Holding the metal in the magical mold, she began
drawing energy from the molten liquid, re-solidifying it.
Pulling her hands apart, she stared down at the tiny gold dragon
complete with a loop on its back for her to thread a fine chain
through. It was complete, but there was one more thing she
wanted to do to it, gold was soft, the dragon charm would be too
easily damaged the way it was right now. Once again she
examined the bonds between the gold molecules, this time when
she summoned nature energy she overlaid it on top of those
bonds, altering the nature of them slightly and in the process
hardening the gold so that it was less easily damaged.
She picked up the charm, placed it on her palm and took a moment
to examine it, from its uplifted front paw to its curled tail it
looked just as she had imagined it. She had done it, and on her
first try. She smiled broadly, feeling proud of herself until
she remembered for whom she had made this as a gift. The smile
on her lips faded, she sighed, rose, and left her workroom.
Kendra was sitting on the couch in the living room listening to
music and reading a book.
The black haired woman looked up, “You’re done? How did it go?”
she asked eagerly laying the book face down on the coffee table
and standing up.
Demona’s mood lightened at seeing her lover’s reaction, the
smile returned to her face and she held out the tiny gold dragon
for Kendra to examine.
The black haired woman accepted it carefully, turning it around
and around as she examined it from every angle. “Oh Demona this
is exquisite,” Kendra said in a soft, awed voice, “the little
tongue in his mouth, the scales, the wings.” She shook her
head, “If Angela doesn’t love it she’s nuts.” She held it back
out to
Demona.
The flame haired gargoyle accepted it, a melancholy expression
on her face, “Do you think it is too soon? Will she even open
it or read my letter?”
“I don’t know,” Kendra responded gently, “but do you lose
anything by taking the chance?”
Demona stared at her, “No, if she doesn’t accept it then I’ll
know she’s still angry with me,” she finally responded. “If she
does, then she’ll know I’m thinking about her, even though I
told her to stay away.”
“Come here,” Kendra opened her arms, and Demona stepped into
them, feeling them wrap firmly around her. She buried her face
in her lover’s black hair, breathing in the scent of it as she
wrapped her arms around Kendra in return. “I love you,” Kendra
whispered, stressing each word individually.
Demona’s arms tightened, “I love you too,” she took in a shaky
breath, “Sometimes I don’t know what I would do if I didn’t have
you and the Ancient One,” she admitted.
Kendra pulled back far enough to stare into the gargoyle’s eyes,
“You are stronger than you think,” she stated firmly. “I watch
how hard you’re working at Nightstone, the new benefits for your
employees, the fact that you halted Nightstone’s weapons
development research because you’re keeping not only just the
word, but the spirit of your promises to the Ancient One. Every
day I’m amazed and impressed at how strong and smart you are, I
know learning about what the Weird Sisters did to you and
Macbeth was hard, and I know that something’s been really
bothering you this week and I suspect that it has to do with
Thailog and how he treated you.” The gargoyle stiffened in her
arms, but Kendra continued before Demona could respond, “but
you’re not letting any of it stop you from doing what you need
to do to take your life back and live it. You’re not letting
them stop you from smiling and laughing, from loving or from
hoping.”
“Kendra,” Demona broke off and just stared into her lover’s blue
eyes for a moment, she swallowed over the huge lump in her
throat, closed her eyes for a moment and thanked whatever was
out there that had brought them together. Two single tears
slipped out as she opened them again, “You are the source of so
much of that strength, whenever I falter I think of you, how you
treat me, how you love me, and how much I love you, and then I
know that my life is and can be better than it has been in the
past.”
Thursday, December 18th 1997
Morning - Nightstone Unlimited HQ, Lower East Side Manhattan
Dominique’s gaze shifted from the newspaper that she had been
reading to the corner of her desk where the small box that held
the gold dragon charm still rested, she would send it soon she
decided, but not today. She glanced once again at the newspaper
in her hand; it was a local paper, one of the ones offered for
free at the metro stops. In it was an article and advertisement
from the People for Interspecies Tolerance denouncing the
activities and lies of the Quarrymen group.
She couldn’t be near her daughter right now, but she could do
something, even if she wasn’t certain it would be that useful,
to protect her and the rest of the clan. Funding PIT in their
efforts to persuade their fellow humans that gargoyles weren’t
the monsters that the Quarrymen claimed they were, seemed like a
rather weak effort, but one never knew, and the group had been
surprisingly effective with the small amount of funds they
currently had available to them. It was something she had been
putting off for too long anyway, she decided. The redhead
picked up the phone and dialed the number of the law office that
handled her personal legal business. Fifteen minutes later, she
placed the phone back in its receiver; her lawyer would be
sending papers for her to sign later today. Now she would see
how the group did when they had the money to advertise in
something besides the local city papers.
Very Late Night - Wyvern Castle atop the Eyrie Building, Upper
Manhattan
Elisa waited impatiently for the elevator to reach its
destination; she had to know how Goliath was, if he had been
injured. Some of the shells from the anti-aircraft guns the
Quarrymen had obtained had come so terrifyingly close to him.
There had been several times that her eyes had searched the dark
clouds from the explosions frantically, almost certain that she
would see his body falling from them. After the weapons had
been destroyed by the falling tower, and Castaway and the
Quarrymen with him arrested, there had been the paperwork she
had to fill out, all the while pretending that her thoughts
weren’t with Goliath and the clan wondering if any of them had
been hurt.
Finally the doors opened, revealing the hanging tapestries of
the main gathering room of the castle and the sound of familiar
voices. She stepped out quickly, and followed the sound of the
conversation into the dining hall. The clan was gathered around
one of the tables whose wooden surface was almost completely
covered with platters of food. She breathed out a sigh of
relief; Goliath was there, a heaped plate of food in his hand.
Her eyes swept over him, he seemed to be uninjured.
He turned his head, looking toward her; his dark eyes met hers,
and warmed in welcome. “Elisa,” he rumbled a greeting.
“Hey big guy,” she responded, she smiled at the rest of the clan
as she approached but her eyes kept coming back to the lavender
male that led the clan. “Are you alright?” she asked as she
drew nearer, “some of those shells…” her voice trailed off, her
tense face telling its own tale of her fears.
“I am uninjured,” he responded, his deep voice soft.
She stopped a few feet in front of him, gave him a crooked
smile, “Good.”
“Hey Elisa, did you want something to eat?” Broadway’s hopeful
voice broke the silence between them.
For a moment longer she looked into the lavender male’s dark
eyes before turning and smiling warmly at Broadway, “Sure,” she
responded and was not surprised when a heaping plate of food was
pressed into her hands. She looked around the room, and
frowned, “Is Lexington alright? I thought I saw you and
Brooklyn carrying him at some point?”
“Yea,” Broadway answered, “I think he went to get some more coke
to drink. He got knocked around a bit, but he’s better
already.”
“That’s good,” she responded, “I wasn’t expecting the buy to be
military anti-aircraft guns.” Her gaze went to the lavender
female standing off by herself looking out one of the windows.
“What’s wrong with Angela?” she asked him, concerned.
Broadway followed her gaze looking unhappy, “Demona told her to
stay away because she’s expecting the Weird Sisters to attack
her and she doesn’t want her to get hurt by them. Well she said
the clan, but we all suspect she really meant just Angela.”
Elisa stared at him, “What?” she said somewhat loudly.
“Oh…,” he uttered, his eyes glancing over toward his clan
leader, “that’s one of the things that’s happened while you’ve
been undercover. Maybe you ought to ask Goliath,” he finished.
Her dark eyes narrowed, “I think I will,” she agreed. What in
the world had the clan been up to while she was gone, she
wondered to herself.
Elisa stared at Goliath, trying to order her thoughts and fit in
everything she had just learned into what she thought she knew
about Demona and Macbeth. There were spirits out there that
didn’t particularly like the Fey, and had acted to protect
mortals from them in the past. And while she couldn’t agree
with the lethality of their methods, she found herself thankful
that something out there was keeping an eye on what the Fey were
doing and preventing their worst excesses. That had been one of
her problems with believing Macbeth’s tale, believing that such
spirits actually existed, but it seemed as if they did, and it
was very likely that one of them had chosen to intervene in
Macbeths and Demona’s lives just as the immortal king had
claimed.
As for what Xanatos and Owen had learned when they visited
Nightstone, the detective didn’t know quite what to think of the
fact that both Demona and Kendra Canmore were immune to being
enchanted by the Fey and that all of the fey enchantments on
Demona had been removed. Both facts were however, pieces of
evidence pointing toward the fact that the spirit that Demona
and Macbeth had met was one of the same types of spirits that
Owen had described. She wasn’t certain that she believed that
the gargoyle had actually given up her obsessive hatred of
humanity. That she was currently focused on the Weird Sisters,
yes, she could believe that, but Demona had hated humans for
centuries. Even if the ancient gargoyle had decided to give up
her vengeance against humans, how long would it take for the
Quarrymen or another gargoyle hating group to persuade her to
change her mind once again and decide that she had been right
all along and humanity was a threat to her race’s continuing
existence?
Then there was the last thing Goliath had told her, she took in
the big male’s drooping wings his troubled expression. She
reached out and touched his arm, “That’s only Puck’s theory
about what happened; we don’t know that he’s right.”
He looked down at her, and she was surprised to see shame in his
eyes, “For a moment I thought about remaining silent,” he
admitted, “and letting Macbeth end both their lives, end the
threat she was to the clan.”
The detective sucked in a surprised breath, “But you didn’t,”
she pointed out in the next moment.
“I did not,” he grimly agreed, “but Puck was correct, after
seeing what Demona had done, I did want them to take her away
and I did not care what they did with her. If that was indeed
their intent, then they succeeded, and upon Avalon they
succeeded again when I agreed that they should erase Demona and
Macbeth’s memories of the events there.”
Elisa rubbed her forehead; she was getting a raging headache
from trying to think about all of this. The idea that that
entire night, all the people that had died either smashed by
Demona or shattered when their cars wrecked or they became stone
as they were walking up stairs or on an escalator, had been
planned by the Weird Sisters solely so they had a reason they
could present to Lord Oberon for why they had enthralled the two
immortals was almost unbelievable. And yet Puck had implied
that if it was true, it was not the first time they had done
something like that. The sheer callousness of it horrified her.
If it were all true, Demona and Macbeth had spent almost a
thousand years under their control at the behest of a vengeful
Archmage. Elisa almost wished that she was still convinced this
was all a plot by Demona, that was much easier to think about
than to consider what life must have been like for the
gargoyle. What was it Goliath had said Macbeth told him? That
the Archmage had ordered the Weird Sisters to make sure they
stayed alone, bitter and angry? Demona had even stayed that way
after her plans to release the clan had succeeded, the first
thing she did was to betray and attack them, and she hadn’t
stopped with just that. Elisa’s eyes widened…surely not, her
headache redoubled as she considered whether all those wild,
angry attacks had somehow been the Weird Sisters doing.
The detective rubbed her forehead, she still wasn’t certain that
this wasn’t somehow Demona’s most elaborate and successful
scheme yet. The evidence was starting to weigh overwhelming in
the favor of it not being one of Demona’s schemes, that Macbeth
had told them the truth, and, as odd as it seemed, that Demona
for once was actually telling the truth. The last was almost
too much to believe and one of the reasons for her persistent
feeling that this spirit story just couldn’t be true.
Elisa shook her head, she gave up on figuring this out for now,
“We still don’t know if she’s mad at us for what happened on
Avalon,” she pointed out wearily, “and I’ve got news to tell the
clan about Jon Canmore.”
Friday, December 19th 1997
10:45am – Destine Manor, Forest Hills Gardens, Long Island
Gregory pulled into the garage and parked the limousine. He
had barely gotten out of the driver’s seat before the passenger
doors opened and the women inside began getting out. He hurried
forward to assist, only to halt abruptly as Kendra Canmore got
out and turned around to help Ms. Destine. The two women’s eyes
met and he had the feeling at that moment that the rest of the
world didn’t exist for them as the redhead accepted the offered
hand and let the black haired woman assist her out of the
vehicle. Five minutes later with all the luggage of Ms.
Destine’s guests unloaded from the trunk and placed inside the
house he backed the limousine out of the drive way. He was due
back here in two hours, this time with the handicapped
accessible vehicle so they could pick up young Robert.
Standing in the kitchen, Dominique indicated the first door to
the left in the hallway, “Rachael that will be your bedroom and
Sharon yours is on the second floor above it, the easiest way
there from the kitchen is to use the stairs in the utility
room,” she indicated the doorway behind her.
“I’ll show Sharon her room,” Kendra offered, picking up one of
the suitcases the younger woman had brought with her.
“I can get them,” Sharon protested, snatching up her other bag
before the black haired woman could claim that one as well.
Kendra just chuckled at her as she opened the door to the
utility room, and Dominique watched as the two of them bounded
up the stairs to the second floor. “Well it looks like those
two are getting along,” Rachael observed from beside her.
Dominique detected a hint of dryness in her tone; she smirked
and shook her head. Even during the short time she had observed
the brunette, it was apparent that the Horse spirit’s chosen was
an independent young woman, and Kendra had immediately begun
doing things to tease her about that, such as what she had done
just then by picking up one of Sharon’s bags. At least the
brunette didn’t seem offended, and Kendra was making it fairly
obvious that she was teasing her.
Rachael picked up her garment bag, “I’ll gratefully accept help
with my bags,” she commented with a grin. The redhead raised an
eyebrow, the only bag left was a rather large suitcase,
thankfully it had rollers. “Oh Dominique, this is lovely,”
Rachael said as they walked into the large first floor bedroom.
She looked around at the dark wainscot and the cream-colored
fleur-de-lis patterned wallpaper above it, the dark red Persian
carpet on the floor, and the heavy looking dark red drapes tied
back from the windows. The only non-Victorian piece of
furniture in the room was the comfortable looking queen sized
bed. The room was spotless, the furniture and even the wood
panel wainscot gleamed from being freshly polished.
The redhead smiled, the cleaning company she used had descended
upon the house a few nights before with an entire cleaning crew
to prepare the guest bedrooms for use. She had never let so
many strangers into her home before, but she had gritted her
teeth and allowed it, she didn’t have the time or inclination to
do the necessary cleaning herself. She had even been so
impressed with how hard and efficiently the cleaning crew had
worked that she had given their manager a sizable tip to
distribute among them, earning herself a, “Have a Merry
Christmas, Ms. Destine,” from them as they left. She didn’t
even scowl at them for it since she was feeling entirely too
pleased at the thought of not spending this Solstice alone.
“This is your bathroom,” Dominique opened the door, glancing in
at the high backed soaking tub at the end and the old-fashioned
looking toilet with its elevated cistern and decorative copper
piping.
“My goodness I haven’t seen one of those in years,” Rachael
commented as she came up to stand beside her and stared at the
toilet.
The redhead smiled, “Don’t worry, it’s not that old, it just
looks like it is.” After helping Rachael hang up her the dress
and suit she had brought with her, Dominique showed the Cree
woman around the rest of her home.
Tasteful garlands of fresh greenery were hung along the banister
of the central staircase in the foyer; and seasonal centerpieces
now decorated the long dining table in the dining room, the
mantle above the fireplace in the living room, and the coffee
table in front of the couch. A six foot tall Fraser fir tree
graced the corner of the living room, it was potted, and the
decorator had warned her that it was not likely to survive to be
planted, but she had been firm about not wanting a cut tree.
The woman had been right, the tree had already been in poor
health when it arrived, but she had spent time with it last
night healing what she could of its injuries and now it was in
good condition. The final piece of the holiday decorations she
had ordered rested in the living room fireplace, a Yule log.
The two women were headed back to the kitchen when the rapid
sound of footsteps down the main stairway heralded the arrival
of Kendra and Sharon. “Oh Rachael you’ve got to see Dominique’s
bathroom,” was the first thing Sharon said as she came up to
them, “it’s absolutely amazing.”
Dominique narrowed her eyes at Kendra in a glare, the slight
curve to her lips however showed that she wasn’t that
particularly annoyed. The black haired woman came up to
Dominique, a grin on her face as she pulled the green-eyed woman
into a hug and pressed her lips briefly against her forehead.
“You did say we wouldn’t be hogging it to ourselves,” she
reminded the redhead.
One eyebrow arched an elegant statement at her choice of words
as her hands came up to rest on Kendra’s arms. “Well no,” the
redhead agreed, “but did it have to be the first thing you
showed her?” she protested.
“It wasn’t, I showed her the workout room first,” Kendra said
mildly. Dominique stared up at her lover, of course, why hadn’t
she guessed that she thought; she finally relaxed into the
embrace and wrapped her arms around the black haired woman in
return.
“You are terrible,” the redhead whispered almost inaudibly.
A roguish grin and an amused soft chuckle were her response; she
glanced upward to see the mischievous glint in her lover’s
sapphire blue eyes. Kendra bent her head to whisper in her ear,
“I thought you liked that about me.”
Her lover’s husky voice and the breath of an exhale across the
shell of her ear sent aroused tingles racing throughout her
body, her breath caught and she lowered her eyes to hide her
reaction. She felt the muscles under her fingertips tense in
reaction as Kendra sensed her response. Dragon, she lowered her
head to stare at the strongly beating pulse in her lover’s neck,
that only made it worse, she thought as she felt her body
respond even more strongly.
“I think we’ll go get lunch ready,” Rachael said, after a
moment.
“Thank you,” Dominique responded quietly, barely glancing over
toward the Cree woman.
As the two women disappeared down the hallway toward the
kitchen, the redhead noticed Kendra smirking. “What?” she
inquired.
Kendra shook her head; she didn’t want to admit that she had
just heard Sharon whisper to Rachael. “No wonder they stuck us
on the other side of the house from them.”
“Sharon’s just proving that she’s smart,” the black haired woman
commented before she lowered her lips to the red ones of the
woman in her arms.
1:00pm – Lower Manhattan, New York City
“I hope everyone doesn’t mind an unscheduled stop,” Kendra
grinned, her eyes going to Robert, “Dominique found this rather
interesting place and we thought we’d stop by to see what they
had.”
Robert looked at the black haired woman puzzled, but she didn’t
say anything more, instead settling back into the seat cushions
looking smugly pleased. He turned his head to glance over at
Dominique, hoping that she would enlighten him. The limousine
was slowing, the redhead smiled at him and nodded toward the
window. He looked out; they were stopping in front of a medical
supply store. He frowned, confused as to why they would be
going here, he didn’t need anything.
“Ah, Ms. Destine,” a store manager hurried toward them, as they
entered the store, “as you requested we have a selection of
wheelchairs for the young gentleman to try today.”
Dominique nodded, “Thank you Mr. Peterson,” she acknowledged and
then inclined her head toward Robert. She was not the one the
human needed to be paying attention to right now.
The manager got the hint and turned towards the young man in the
wheelchair, “Mr. McKenzie if you will come this way please.”
Robert stared up at him startled at being addressed in such a
manner; tentatively he nodded his head and followed the man
toward the back of the store. His eyes widened as he followed
the manager around a corner and he saw the three wheelchairs
they were approaching. These wheelchairs were as different from
the one he was using as an inexpensive family sedan was from an
expensive European styled sedan.
The first was aggressively styled with three spoked black wheels
chrome tubing and a bright blue seat. The second was only
slightly less aggressively styled, it also had three spoked
black wheels with chrome tubing and its seat was black. The
last wheelchair was rather elegant looking considering that it
was a wheelchair. The main wheel had elegantly curved spokes
and its hand rim was polished black, the seat and backrest were
plush black cushions with black leather edges.
Dominique walked over to the elegant looking wheelchair and
looked it over with sharp eyes. She placed a hand on the
backrest and met Robert’s eyes, “If these are comfortable and
meet with your approval, | 
