randomplaces | Other Gargoyles-verse: Hospital: Checking Up

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Other Gargoyles-verse: Hospital: Checking Up

The ability to travel freely and unmolested in the modern world was a new enough concept to be novel to Goliath. For Elisa, it was nearly heartbreaking. She'd lost this world. She held no reservations about the fact that she'd become a Gargoyle. Though she had lost much, her relationship with Goliath, the Clan, and the lives she'd help save more than made up for it.

All the same, being able to simply walk through a human hospital and get only the occasional odd glance (some of which was no doubt due to their resemblance to the very human Goliath and Elisa Maza of this world), was a miracle indeed.

"Hope ah, Lex is okay..." Elisa said.

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"EEEEEEEEEE, no!" A little girl fleeing her mother ducked around behind Elisa and clung to her leg. "No nono! Can't make me go!"

Well, this is a new experience... Elisa thought, momentarily startled. She gave Goliath a look which said 'Don't you dare laugh,' though considering he was already fighting the urge to chuckle, this was obviously an ineffective effort.

She smiled gently for the child. "Hey there, kiddo. It can't be that bad, can it?"

"She wants me to leave Papa!" The child, who couldn't be more than four, reported tearfully as her pregnant mother toiled up looking very weary.

"We can come back tomorrow," she said patiently, brushing black hair out of her face. "Alas, I explained. Papa needs to sleep."

Elisa continued to smile and stroked the girl's hair softly. "You heard your mom. Everybody needs sleep. Your papa, your mom, me. Even you."

"I don't wanna leave Papa." She clung harder, sounding tearful. "I don't wanna.... He smiles when I'm here."

"He knows you need to sleep, (baby). And so does baby brother." Her mother rubbed her belly and tried to stifle a sigh, then she blinked and did a double take as she looked at Goliath. "Oh... what happened?"

Goliath was rather flustered by this, but quickly demonstrated an ability to think on his feet. "Nothing has happened, ma'am. I assure you, the resemblance is entirely coincidental."

Elisa's attention remained focused on the girl. "Shhhh... It's gonna be okay, kiddo. Gotta do this one for your mom, okay?"

"Oh." Alas's mother blinked and flushed. "Sorry."

The child was sobbing quietly, obviously trying hard not to. "Please?"

Technically an untruth, of course, but far less complicated than explaining the idea of alternate realities. "Do not worry about it," Goliath replied. "It happens all the time."

Elisa gave the kid a hug. "I know you wanna stay, sweetie... But it's not up to me. You have to listen to your mom."

The mom in question nodded to Goliath, then tried her hardest to crouch down at her daughter's level, only to wind up nearly falling over backward.

"Och!" Hudson was suddenly there, scooping her up. "Easy, Maria, I've got ye."

"Is she hurt?" asked Franklin worriedly.

"N... no." She blinked and looked around, trying to get reoriented.

And Alas gaped with horror at what had happened, her little face showing total shock.

For the briefest moment, Elisa tensed at the sight of Franklin, images of Thailog and all the pain he had caused them rushing through her mind. But then memory of where she was settled in and banished those thoughts.

She placed a reassuring hand on the girl's shoulder. "Sssh. She's okay."

The big white-haired gargoyle didn't even really look like Thailog anymore. Especially not with that dorky Hawaiian shirt. But it was his gentle concern for Maria as Hudson set her on her feet that really showed the difference.

"I'm okay," she said, her accent showing a little more in her stress. "Really, baby and I are okay."

"I'll go home," said Alas, pulling away from Elisa and going to her. "I'm sorry."

Well, that would have been one of the big indicators.

"You sure you're all right?"

"Yes. Thank you." Maria put a hand down to hug her daughter as the little one glomped onto her leg.

"Here, let me take ye down and see t' it ye get a taxi," said Hudson gently. "Franklin, will ye take yer uncle 'n aunt t' see Lex?"

"Huh? Oh." Franklin got his focus shifted with difficulty and offered Elisa and Goliath a shy grin. "He's awake now. He's not talking to anybody yet, not even his girlfriend...." His shoulders drooped a bit. "He won't even yell at me for calling her that."

Elisa almost chuckled, before remembering the overall seriousness of the situation. "Better than nothing, I suppose."

"You must hold out hope, Franklin," Goliath added.

"Yeah, that's what Father keeps saying, and Hudson." He tried to smile, then offered a hand. "I'll take you to him. He's in a different room now... oh, you know that, because you're on this floor."

His expression showed frustration with himself and the suspicion that he was sounding pretty dumb.

"The people downstairs were nice enough to explain," Elisa says, trying to sound reassuring. "But you'll still have to show us the way. I don't really know my way around."

"Okay. Um, it's this way." He lifted his hand, then let it fall and turned to lead them along the hall and into a room not too far down it.

The bed was propped up at the head, with the table over it and a small pile of designer toy boxes sitting on it, but Lex's face was turned toward the darkened window. His face was thin and pale, and it was very clear at just a glance that he wasn't fully out of danger yet.

Goliath had already seen Lex before, of course, but this was Elisa's first time.

"Oh, Lex..." she whispered, while Goliath placed a reassuring hand on her shoulder.

The young man turned his head at her voice, then went wide-eyed with shock. "What... what happened?"

His voice was barely more than a whisper, and a little slurred. Franklin nearly fell over at the sound of it.

"You're awake...!" Elisa mouthed. "I... I'm not the one you know, Lex. I'm from a difference universe."

Goliath, meanwhile, though surprised by Lex's awakening, reached out to steady Franklin.

His brows drew together as he tried to understand what she was saying. It was getting easier as the days passed... except he wasn't sure about the 'different universe' part.

"I told you he was," said Franklin, lowering himself into a crouch and wiping his eyes. "You talked!"

Lex looked at him, then back to the gargoyle versions of his foster parents.

Both Elisa and Goliath smiled. "It doesn't matter," she said. "Your being awake is the important thing."

Lex's answering smile was a little lopsided, and his dark eyes were quizzical and confused, but they brightened slightly as Hudson came in behind the visitors and walked over to see him.

"Ye've guests, lad, will ye no' greet them?"

Lex looked at him and frowned.

Hudson sighed. "Family from elsewhere."

A deeper frown.

Hudson jerked a glance at Franklin, hoping that Lex would understand.

And incredibly, he did. Some little bit of nerdish knowledge seeped back into his injured brain and he understood the 'I'm not the one you know'.

"Oh," he whispered.

Hudson started and stared at him, then laughed out loud with delight.

"See," Elisa said. "This is why he's the smart one."

"Aye," said Hudson gruffly as Lex looked at her again.

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Other Gargoyles-verse: Hospital: Checking Up

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