In Thirty Days – By Princess Alexandria

Day 21

Trini was lying on a lawn chair in the castle courtyard. The sun was warm, even though it was only ten in the morning. It was Fox's idea of physical therapy for gargoyles. Trini had to admit to herself that she felt pretty good, physically. Her heart still ached. Elisa had tried to call her earlier, but she wasn't ready to talk with her. She made Owen tell her she was in the shower. Trini felt like a coward, but she just didn't want to hear that it was over. She still loved Elisa, if there was anyway that Elisa loved her back... God, she just wanted Elisa to love her back. She had come to New York desperate to find Gargoyles, but now... she still needed to talk with them, still needed to find out more about what was happening to her, but... she wished that they wouldn't come back. As long as they were gone, Elisa was hers. That is if Elisa doesn't hate her after she hears about Fox.

God, her love life was a mess. She was in a relationship with a woman that cared about her, but probably didn't love her. She had another woman that she knew did love her, but she was married to someone else. She had also come incredible close to cheating on Elisa, if she hadn't actually cheated on her, several times in the few days that they had been together. Were all of her relationships doomed to be brief and end painfully? She brushed the tears out of her eyes and tried to force her mind to think of other things. She was tired of crying.

Trini was wearing some light weight creme colored pants in the style she always wore and a light weight short sleeve brown shirt. Both newly bought just for her, and from the feel of the fabric, quite expensive. When she had tried the shirt on, she could see the black line of flesh on her back through it, so Fox had gotten her a black t-shirt to wear underneath it. Owen had also bought her some shorts and a sleeveless top, but she just didn't feel comfortable enough to wear that outside. Her tail would stick out. All the clothes looked really good, somehow it didn't surprise Trini that Owen would have an eye for fashion. Off course she had to ruin the overall effect by wearing her black baseball cap.

"Oh, excuse me, I didn't know that anyone else was out here." A woman's voice startled Trini. She quickly reached up to make sure her hat was on. The woman was older, and had red hair. She gave Trini an odd look, "Sun tanning in all your clothes? Probably won't work too well."

Trini gave the woman a polite smile. "I know."

"I'm sorry, I forgot my manners, I'm Anastasia Renard." The woman, who was dressed in a smart business suit walked towards Trini.

"I'm Trinity Stephens. Nice to meet you." Falling into her receptionist persona she continued, "How can I help you?"

"I thought Fox might be out here, do you know where she is?" Anastasia was still standing, so Trini had to stand as well. Her feet took it well.

"Well, she had a few business calls to make this morning. She shouldn't be too long, but if you can't wait I'm sure that Owen can make an appointment for you on another day." She didn't even know if Owen did that sort of thing, but she wanted to pawn this woman off on him so that she could continue to enjoy the sun.

Anastasia smiled, "I don't have anything too pressing planned for this morning. I can wait." Damn.

"Well, would you like something to drink while you wait?" Trini was getting thirsty, so she might as well ask.

Trini found her way to the kitchen without any trouble and poured two glasses of water. She set them down and walked over to the wall, using her finger to trace the grooves in the stone wall. She had done that. She remembered the intense need to mate with Fox that overcame her that day. Why was it so violent with Fox and so tender with Elisa? She never assaulted Elisa like that. Why couldn't she control herself around the red head?

When she came back out into the courtyard, the woman was sitting on another chair. She quietly handed the woman her drink and sat back down. "So, do you spend all your breaks out here?" Anastasia was trying to make conversation. Great. Trini hated making small talk with strangers.

"Oh, I don't work here." She smiled at the woman's mistake. She was no corporate level executive assistant. That took training, and frankly more smarts and attention to detail than she had. "I'm a friend of Fox's." Friend, that term seemed woefully inadequate to explain their relationship.

Anastasia seemed to beam at Trini, "How did you two meet?" Okay, that seemed odd. Trini studied the red headed woman... red headed...

"Are you Fox's mom?" Trini asked while carefully studying the woman's face. It could be.

"Yes. I'm sorry, you didn't know? It must have seemed pretty odd my coming out here, and on a Sunday." Anastasia gave her an amused smirk that really reminded Trini of Fox. She should have seen it earlier.

"Yeah, just a little odd." She smiled genuinely at the woman. She couldn't stop herself from studying the woman. She seemed so normal. Her ears looked normal. She wasn't super uptight like Owen, or plain insane like Puck.

"What is it? Do I have something in my hair?" Anastasia started to run her fingers through her hair looking for what she thought Trini was staring at.

"Oh... Oh no, nothing. Sorry." Trini blushed at being caught staring. Anastasia gave her an odd look but then let it go.

"So how did you meet Fox?" She asked again.

Trini had to smile when she remembered, "I plowed into Alexander at the library. Almost knocked him down." With a little puzzlement she remembered how Fox had acted when Alexander had thought she was a fairy princess. She was afraid. Why hadn't she remembered that before? She was going to have to ask her about that.

"Well, that's an interesting way to make friends." Anastasia grinned. Trini's eyes traveled back to Anastasia's ears without her noticing that she had done it again. "What is it?"

Trini's eyes snapped back to Anastasia's curious eyes. "Huh?"

"You're staring again. What is it?" Anastasia didn't sound angry, just really puzzled.

"Why don't you just ask mother what you want to ask her Trini?" Fox came out into the courtyard. Trini hadn't even noticed her eavesdropping.

Anastasia glanced at Fox and then back at Trini, "You want to ask me something?"

"Uh... " Trini felt like a dear in headlights. She didn't want to offend the Fey, that might be dangerous.

Anastasia eyes softened, "It's okay. Just ask me."

Quietly Trini asked, "How are you able to look so human?" Anastasia looked shocked as she rocked back in her seat. She gave Fox a stern look then turned her gaze back to Trini, who was by now a little frightened. She upset the Fey. A full-blooded Fey... with all sorts of magic. Fox moved closer and placed a comforting hand on her shoulder.

"I see... you know Fox a lot better than I thought you did." Anastasia spoke to Trini while staring into her daughter's face.

Fox leaned down to whisper into Trini's ear. "Can I show her?" she fingered Trini's hat. Trini tensed up. If Fox thought she should... maybe Anastasia could show her how to hide it.

"Okay." She whispered, but looked down at the stones in the floor. Fox kissed her cheek. Kissed her right in front of her mother. Trini looked up into Anastasia's eyes in panic, waiting to see the anger... the disgust. She just saw puzzlement. When Fox removed her hat she was looking right at Anastasia. She saw the woman's eyes widen, then she reached out to grab Trini's hand. She felt a brief magical touch that quickly receded.

"You're Fey." She sounded astonished as she sat back into her seat. "I didn't think that there were any other Fey outside of Avalon." Fox wrapped an arm around Trini protectively at the mention of Avalon. She also leaned down to kiss the tip of Trini's ear. It felt more like it was a warning to Anastasia to keep away. Trini's eyebrows drew together in confusion. Fox wanted her to trust her mother, but then acted like she was protecting her from the woman at the same time.

"I love your ears Trini, I wish you wouldn't obsess like this." Fox leaned in and started to nibble on Trini's ear. Trini's back started to arch, she wanted to scream, but Fox's mother was right there... she was right there.

Fox stopped her nibbling when her mother spoke, "So, she's your lover?" She sounded serious.

"What do you think?" Fox sounded rebellious, and Trini felt a warning in her voice. Don't contradict her. She was in some sort of danger.

Anastasia turned to Trini, "Are you lovers?"

Trini didn't know what to do. This was Fox's mother. Her body started to shake in fear. Fox wrapped both her arms around Trini from behind her. "Well?" Anastasia asked again, still in that detached regal voice.

"I love her." Trini admitted shakily and then flinched away from Anastasia, expecting to be hit. When she opened her eyes she noticed Anastasia was studying her thoughtfully.

"Why do you think I'll hurt you?" She sounded gentle, like she was talking with a frightened child, and that's what Trini felt like. She was disgusted with herself for cowing away from Fox's mom. She wasn't like her own. She took a few deep breaths and forced herself to relax.

"I'm sorry." She apologized without explaining herself. She got up from the chair, aware that she was carefully skirting around the Fey, but she couldn't stop herself. "I need more water... yes, more water." She grabbed her cup and darted into the castle. She was an embarrassment; she was a weak, pathetic embarrassment.

The water was running. She was leaning on the counter, waiting for the water to run cold. She took her glass and held it under the water shakily.

"Your mother used to hit you, didn't she?" Trini dropped her glass and it clanked loudly as it fell into the sink. Fox was smart... she was so damned smart. She didn't want to turn around and see disgust in Fox's eyes. She couldn't bear it. She was pathetic. "Oh, God..." Fox sounded shocked, "She did, didn't she?" Trini's throat felt tight, she couldn't talk to answer, but she didn't think she could say it out loud anyhow. When she felt Fox's arms circling her she turned and burrowed into her, seeking comfort for old wounds. She felt Fox's tears falling onto her cheek as the redhead held her close and gently rocked her.

Anastasia's voice came into the room, she spoke quietly as if not wanting to startle Trini, "Fox, I'll see what I can do to protect you both."

Fox leaned down to kiss Trini's forehead. "Thank you mother."

“Maybe you and Trinity would like to go out to Sunday brunch?” Anastasia added hopefully. Trini was trying to pull herself together. This was embarrassing to fall apart in front of strangers. She was amazed that Fox’s mother was taking all of this so well. She actually wanted to spend time with her, wanted to include her, and after Fox led her to believe that she was Fox’s lover. Why had Fox done that?

Fox leaned down and whispered in Trini’s ear, “Would you like that?” Trini just nodded.

The three of them walked into the busy restaurant around eleven. Fox said something to the waiter seating them, and they got a booth away from the crowd. Anastasia was going through great pains to be kind, and Trini could tell. She was asking all sorts of polite, non-intrusive questions, like where did Trini work, how was the search for a publisher going, and so on. Nothing very personal, which Trini really appreciated.

By the time the food was almost gone Fox and Anastasia’s expressions became more serious. “How long have you known?” Anastasia asked Trini. Trini was trying to figure out what she was asking. “That you were Fey.”

“Oh…” Trini looked over at Fox for verification, “about three days.” Fox nodded, that was right.

Anastasia looked a little deflated. “It’s too much to hope that you can do magic then, isn’t it?”

Fox looked over at Trini with a small smile, “Actually, mother… Trini has done some magic.” Trini started to blush as Fox started to brag about her. Anastasia’s eyes sparkled as she leaned forward to hear more. “Trini’s done a Fey locator spell and I think it was her that did the force field.” What force field? Trini didn’t remember ever seeing a force field.

“Force field?” Trini couldn’t stop herself from asking. “I don’t remember a force field.”

Fox turned to her, “David and Owen both saw it. It was when we were in the kitchen a couple of days ago.” Oh… it was when she attacked Fox. Trini turned her head away and blushed. She didn’t notice Anastasia studying her.

“Trini, do you remember doing any magic that day? Trying to do anything on purpose?” Anastasia asked. Something was definitely off about the question.

“No.” Trini answered quietly.

“Well, I didn’t do it, and Owen couldn’t have.” Fox added a little heatedly.

Anastasia paused, obviously thinking hard about something. “What were you two doing at the time?” Trini immediately started to blush again. She stared down at the tablecloth. “I see…” Anastasia didn’t really need an answer after Trini’s embarrassed response. “And it was your first time?”

When Fox started to speak, Trini was incredibly grateful. “I don’t see what that has to do with anything!”

Anastasia sounded a little weary. Trini was beginning to think that those two argued often. “Look, Fox… I’m not asking these questions just to intrude. It is important.”

“Yes, it was our first time.” Fox answered for Trini. She also reached a hand under the table and took Trini’s hand. Trini’s eyes scanned the restaurant to make sure that no one was listening in on the conversation. No one seemed to notice the three women. Fox considered what they did sex. She had cheated on Elisa.

Trini started to get really uncomfortable with Anastasia’s stare. “You used magic in some way didn't you Fox?"

"Mother, where is this going? Are these details really necessary?" Fox sounded impatient and irritated. When Anastasia didn't answer, Fox answered the question, "Yes, just a mixing magic spell... so she could see and feel magic."

"Trini." Anastasia directed her gaze at her, making Trini wish she were invisible. These were private moments they were talking about, private moments that should be just between Fox and her. "When Fox did this spell, what did you feel?" Trini gave Anastasia a horrified look. She was not going to talk about that with Fox's mother! When it became obvious that Trini wasn't going to answer, Anastasia turned her question to Fox. "Did it work normally?"

"No... no it didn't. I know I did the spell right, its a simple spell, but we... it was intensely sexual." Fox explained this all in a matter of fact way, like it was normal to have these conversations with her mother. "Mother, you know something don't you? What is it?"

"Fox... Fey, full-blooded Fey sometimes have strong connections with another Fey's magic. It is extremely rare, and seems to be different for any pair or group that experiences it. The Weird Sisters are an example of this, they amplify each others powers. There have been a small handful of other examples like this, always with full-blooded Fey. I think that you and Trini might have this connection, and if you do Oberon isn't going to want to separate you. You two would be much stronger together. It would take some research, but if this is true... Then we found your loophole to keep Trini out of Avalon." Anastasia smiled at her daughter. What was Avalon, and why did Fox not want Trini to go there? Trini decided that she would ask that later, it seems that whatever Anastasia said, it was a good thing. Too bad she didn't understand it.

It was about two when Anastasia finally left. Trini was glad, because she had so many questions for Fox she didn't know where to start. She also knew that she didn't have a lot of time to talk, because she had arranged to meet Elisa at her apartment at three. Well, actually she hadn't arranged it... Elisa had left the message with Owen after having tried for the fourth time to get in touch with Trini and failing. Trini was grateful when Owen had offered to drive her there. She was beginning to like him; he was nice in his own understated way.

"Fox? Why did we tell your mother we're lovers?" The question that had been bothering her the entire time was the one that she wanted answered before she went to see Elisa. The others could wait.

Fox sat down on the bed. They were in Fox's bedroom. "I'm sorry that I had to do that. I didn't expect mother to be with you when I went out to get you. I wasn’t expecting her to bring Alexander back until tomorrow." Fox bit her own lip. "Oberon, the king of the Fey, has a rule that all Fey need to live on Avalon. I knew that mother would have figured out you were Fey, and when she did, she might have just taken you. You would be trapped there." Fox blushed a little, "I was hoping that if she knew... I mean if she thought we were together, she might help me keep you." Trini caught the slip, part of Fox did consider them lovers. This was all so confusing.

"And that loophole she was talking about?"

"If that works, then Oberon won't try to take you. I've already been given an out for living on Avalon. They don't consider me Fey, not really. Since that ruling was made, he won't take it back, so if you belong with me, then you don't belong on Avalon."

"God... being Fey is really complicated." Trini moved to sit beside Fox. Her feet were getting a little sore with the standing.

"Trini?" Fox's turned to sit cross legged facing her. "I didn't want to ask with mother here, but..." Trini could tell by just the look in Fox's eyes that she wanted to know about her own mother, about what she used to do.

Her voice cracked as she interrupted Fox, "Fox, I... I'm just not ready. Please, don't ask."

Fox reached out to hold Trini's hand, "Have you ever talked with anyone about this?"

She swallowed the lump in her throat before she tried to answer Fox, "No. I couldn't." she took a deep breath, "I'll tell you, but just not now. I have to get ready to see Elisa. Oh God... I don't want to do this." Fox reached out to pull Trini into a hug. "I love her. I love her Fox, and I need to see if she loves me."

"I can't see how she wouldn't Trini. You're very loveable." Fox quietly comforted her.

"Is she going to love me when she finds out about us?" Trini asked herself, more than Fox, but Fox could hear her.

"You're planning on telling her about us?" Fox sounded very surprised. "What are you planning on telling her?"

Trini slumped down, "I don't know Fox... I just don't know." She looked into Fox's eyes, "We... it's just so confusing with us Fox. The only thing that I know about us for sure is that I love you." Her voice became little more than a whisper, "Have I cheated on her? Fox, we've done things... but I still don't know... everything is so strange... have we had sex?"

"Oh, Trini." Fox pulled out of the hug so that she could look at Trini, "Trini, I don't know what to tell you. It's up to you to decide if you want to tell Elisa that we were together or not. I can tell you that she won't want to hear the details, so you need to decide what you want to call it before you get there."

"Ms. Stephens, we need to get going if you are going to be in time for your meeting." Owen stood in the bedroom doorway. Trini got up slowly and walked past Owen. He closed the door behind them, and Trini's sensitive ears could hear Fox starting to cry.

"I think I found my magical powers." She said flatly

"Oh really, what would they be." Owen asked absently while walking to the elevators

"Everything I touch turns to pain." She looked out the window as they waited for the elevator doors to open. She wanted to cry, but wasn't letting herself.

Owen reached out and put a hand on Trini's shoulder. "I find it highly unlikely that pain is your magic." He then guided her into the elevator.

The limo driver stopped in front of Elisa's apartment just a few minutes before three. Trini just stared out the window and took a deep breath. "Ms. Stephens?" Owen brought her out of her inactivity.

"Thanks for the ride Owen." Trini stepped out of the opened limo door and approached the building. She felt her stomach clench as she tried to prepare herself for the upcoming conversation. She had no idea how she was going to start this.

She stood staring at Elisa's door for a few seconds before she reached up to knock. She could hear Elisa coming to the door and fought the urge to run, she needed to face this. She tried to make sure that she didn't look like it was obvious that something was wrong, she wanted to lead up to this talk.

The door opened and Elisa smiled affectionately, "Well, come on in." Trini gave a weak smile back, it was the best she could do under the circumstances, and entered the apartment. As soon as the door closed Elisa wrapped her arms around Trini's neck and leaned in and to give her a long tender kiss. Trini wrapped her arms around Elisa's waist and held her close, she felt so good in Trini's arms, she never wanted to let go. She reluctantly released her as Elisa stepped back "How are you feeling?"

Shitty, guilty, like a complete jerk, Trini thought to herself, but what she said was something else entirely. "Well, I'm a lot stronger, but... my feet get sore if I'm on them too long."

Elisa grabbed Trini's hand and led her to the couch. "Sit down. Let me get these shoes off of you, injuries like that should get air." Elisa gently pushed Trini to sit. "You didn't walk here, did you? I could have come to get you." She scolded gently.

"No, Owen dropped me off." Trini watched Elisa's back as the woman walked into the kitchen. She came back out with a couple of glasses of juice and handed one to Trini.

"Well, good. He should know that you can't just be walking around." Elisa nodded in her approval of Owen's assistance. "Iron... I never thought to tell you about iron." She sat limply on the couch next to Trini.

Gently Trini spoke, "No one did, no one thought that it would affect me. It's okay." She put her drink down on the coffee table and pulled Elisa into a hug, "I'll be completely healed soon."

Elisa snuggled into her embrace, "When I left you last night Fox found me before I left the building. She started yelling about how I almost got you killed. That the iron would have killed you." Elisa looked up at Trini with a pained expression, "I never would have taken you on that mission if I thought you'd get hurt. I didn't even check on you until the next morning."

Trini was a little stunned that Fox had blamed Elisa like that. It wasn't her fault. "Elisa... you don't believe that do you? It's not your fault. I wanted to be on that mission, I wanted to be there to protect you." She traced the place on Elisa's chest where she knew a bullet scar was through the shirt with her index finger. She had no idea how it got there, but it was a reminder to her that Elisa wasn't immortal. "You could have been hurt, and you don't heal like I do."

"It was police business. I didn't have the right to put you or any of the others at risk like that." Elisa sat back and studied Trini with sad, guilty eyes.

She thought for a second, "If this bullet that did this to you..." she reached out and traced the scar again, "had hit me, I would be up and about the next day. You know that. You've seen that. How long were you in the hospital? How close did you come to dying?" she wasn't looking for an answer, she was trying to make Elisa think about it. "You are telling me that I should let you take these bullets, when taking them myself costs me so little? I can't do that. I'm sorry, but I just can't. What are the chances that someone will figure out that iron is what hurts me? Next to none, and you know that. It was just a damned fluke that I ran into that this time. Don't shut me out, I need to be able to protect you when you need me to." Trini's voice had taken on a pleading quality at the end. If Elisa wouldn't tell her when she knew that she was going to be in danger, she would be worried all the time.

"Oh, Trini. I accepted the danger when I chose to become a cop. It's part of my job, not part of yours. You're a writer." Elisa sounded weary.

"Well, I don't accept it! Humans are so fragile, so very fragile. Let me help you. I can learn to be a better warrior, I can learn!" Trini took a deep breath, "I need to protect... I need to protect you." She muttered. Elisa heard that and her eyes softened.

"Oh... my gargoyle." She said this like it suddenly dawned on her what Trini was. She reached out and brushed Trini's hair out of her eyes, "I'm sorry. Of course you need to protect, but you don't need to protect me."

Trini became a little angry with Elisa. She was so blind. She reached out and ripped open Elisa's blouse, sending buttons flying, and touched the scar that she saw with her finger. "Yes... I do!"

Elisa didn't make any move to close her shirt as she used her calming voice, "That wasn't from work. It was an accident." Trini hadn't expected that. If a cop had a bullet wound, it would just make sense that it was from work. "A friend of mine... he was playing with my gun. It went off."

Trini pulled Elisa into her lap and held her quietly. After a minute of this she tried to speak more calmly. "Elisa, I know that people try to hurt you. That people shoot at you. I know that I can't be with you all the time to protect you from that. All I'm asking is that you let me know if you need me, if I can help to keep you safe. Just be willing to ask me. Please, that's all I'm asking."

"I can do that." Elisa finally caved. Trini felt that she had won a small victory.

Elisa was getting them a refill on the juice and called out from the kitchen. "Where were you today? I tried to get a hold of you all morning."

Trini knew that Elisa had called, but she had been avoiding her. Just like she was avoiding the subject of Goliath and Fox all together right now, or at least up until now. "I went out to eat with Fox and her mother."

"Her mother?" Elisa sounded very tense, she came out of the kitchen without the drinks. "You met her mother? Does she know?"

"That I'm part Fey? Yes." Seeing the panic in Elisa's eyes Trini continued, "but she's working on a way to let me stay here. She thinks she has some promising arguments."

"Why is she doing that?" Elisa sounded a little skeptical.

"Fox asked her to." Trini didn't add that Anastasia now thought that she and Fox were together. That wasn't the way she wanted to start that discussion.

"And Titania is just going to stand up to Oberon because Fox asked her too?! She's never done that before... I don't trust this." Elisa looked a little rigid as she stood in the kitchen doorway.

"Titania? She said she was Anastasia." Why would she lie about her name. Titania... that sounded familiar. Where did she hear that before?

"Anastasia is her human name. The one she used while raising Fox. Her real name is Titania." Elisa explained absently, "but why would she try to keep you out of Avalon, she was willing to kidnap her own grandson... but not you?"

Trini sat up straight with concern in her eyes, "She tried to take Alexander?" She tried to calm herself. Alexander was still there, so it didn't work... but still. No wonder Fox was so tense.

"Yes, so why didn't she try to take you?" Elisa moved to sit on the chair facing Trini.

Trini took a deep breath. "Well, Fox and I..." She had been getting ready to tell Elisa that Anastasia thought she was Fox's lover. She really had, but she chickened out. "Fox and I seem to have some sort of magical connection. She doesn't think that Oberon will try to separate us. We appear to be some sort of magical team or something. I'm not really sure how that works."

Elisa looked a little stunned, and Trini noticed suspicious. "Well... that's good, I guess." Trini went to use her feet to push herself back up on the couch, and she must have pushed just wrong, because it hurt. Not a lot, but enough for her to make a face, which Elisa noticed. "Your feet?"

"Yeah. Not one hundred percent yet." Trini said absently as she managed to scoot back on the couch.

"Oh." Elisa moved off of the chair and kneeled down by Trini's feet. "You need to get these shoes off. Injuries like that need some air." She then started to unlace Trini's new hiking boots.

"You don't have to do this, I can take care of that myself." Trini was extremely uncomfortable with the way Elisa was acting. She was being too helpful, too loving, it made her feel more guilty.

"I want to help you. I also want to see the damage, I didn't look last night." Elisa looked down at the boots she was unlacing. "New shoes?"

"Yeah, new shoes... I left mine on the roof of one of the buildings." She gave a small self-depreciating grin.

"Not cheap." Elisa glanced up at Trini's clothes for the first time, "Fox bought you clothes?" The question was delivered to sound casual, but it hit far too close to home. Owen had picked the clothes out, but Trini was pretty sure whose idea it had been. She could deny it, but she was here to come clean. Starting out lying wouldn't be a good way to do that. She felt her face become a little paler as she realized that it was time. She looked up into Elisa's face.

"Elisa." Trini's voice cracked, so she forced herself to stop and take a deep breath. "I love you." She wanted to make sure that Elisa heard that, knew that.

"I love you too." Elisa said it softly. The breath caught in Trini's throat. She said it. Part of Trini had been convinced that Elisa didn't feel that strongly about her.

Tears started to come to Trini's eyes as she realized that even more was at stake than she realized. If Elisa already loved her, she had so much more to lose. "Oh, God... Elisa."

"Trini?" Elisa moved to sit beside her. Trini took a few deep breaths and forced the tears away. Elisa brushed the hair out of Trini's eyes and studied her face, "What's wrong?"

Since Trini couldn't seem to look Elisa in the face, she started down at her socks. She whispered so quietly that Elisa must have had to strain to hear her, "I've cheated on you."

She felt Elisa's body become stiff, "What?"

This time Trini forced herself to look up into her lover's face, and with a shaky voice she repeated herself, "I've cheated on you." She was able to see Elisa closing off from her as she also moved a little further away on the sofa.

Elisa stared at Trini with hard eyes, "It was Fox, wasn't it?" Trini looked down a little, giving Elisa all the confirmation she needed. "You fucked Fox." Elisa voice was cold and accusing. "When? When did you fuck her?!" She was starting to get louder with her anger.

"I... I... " Trini didn't know how to answer that.

"God Dammit, Trini!" Elisa jumped up from the couch and started to pace angrily in front of it. Trini stayed seated, saying nothing and watching Elisa pace. When Elisa stopped pacing and turned to face Trini, her eyes were bright with unshed tears. Her voice was pained, "When? When did this happen?"

This was going to hurt her even more, but Trini couldn't lie to Elisa. She loved her so much. "Twice..." Trini turned away from the pain she saw in Elisa's face, "It happened twice." She could feel Elisa's eyes on her. "I... after you left on Wednesday... and yesterday."

"Oh God..." Elisa sounded weak, defeated. Trini looked up into Elisa's face, to find that she was staring at the floor. "Wednesday? After I left you alone with her? Right after we'd been together?" When Elisa looked up, Trini could see the tears falling down her face. She wanted to rush to her and hold her, wanted to tell her how much she loved her, how sorry she was, but she didn't think that Elisa would want Trini to touch her. She just nodded at the question. "God Dammit Trini." Elisa pushed her fist into her forehead as her voice started to crack. Her eyes were squeezed tightly shut, and her skin was becoming red as she tried to hold in the sobs. Trini stared helplessly as Elisa struggled to not cry. When it looked like Elisa was losing that battle, and her body started to shake Trini leapt off of the couch and went to her. She moved to take Elisa into a hug, but Elisa stiffened up and opened her eyes to glare at Trini, "Don't touch me!" Trini stepped back, feeling like Elisa had carved a piece out of her heart. She deserved that and she knew it. Elisa's eyes hardened, "How could you?! You fucking slut!" Trini took a few steps back, reeling from the pain of Elisa's words. Elisa took a few deep breaths and said flatly, "I can't look at you right now. Just get out." Trini opened her mouth to apologize, to beg, but Elisa cut her off, "Just get out." Trini grabbed her shoes off of the floor and left, carrying them. As soon as she shut the front door she could hear Elisa start to sob. It sounded like she had ripped Elisa's heart out.

Trini had numbly walked three blocks before she noticed that she was still carrying the shoes. She sat down on a bench and pulled them on, but left them unlaced. When she got up to walk she hardly looked around her, and she stared at the sidewalk as she moved slowly for several more blocks. The numbness was a blessing, she was hoping that she could at least make it back to the apartment. She forced herself to not think, to just move.

She heard a familiar voice behind her, "Domi? Was that Trini?" Andrea, who was going to look at Trini with sympathy in her eyes. Sympathy was something that Trini didn't deserve, and that would only make her cry. Trini kept walking and pretended she never heard the artist. "Trini?!" She could hear Andrea jogging to catch up with her. She decided to try not looking up, if she didn't see a friend, maybe she could hold herself together. She didn't want to cry here, not here. She stopped walking and wrapped her arms around herself, while staring at the sidewalk intently. Andrea slowed and then stood beside her, "Trini?" her voice was tentative.

Trini swallowed and took a deep breath, "Hey Andrea." She was upset to hear the barely contained tears in her voice. Andrea would have heard that. She saw an expensive pair of shoes enter her line of site, "Hey Dominique."

She could feel both women's eyes on her, but she wasn't going to look up. "Hello Trini." Dominique finally spoke. Trini was surprised that it was Dominique's cool voice that made her start to tear up. She tried to take a few deep breaths but they were shaky.

In a quiet voice she told her friends, "I need to go home."

She felt Andrea put her hand on her shoulder, "I'm sure we can take you. Couldn't we Domi?"

"Sure, we can do that." Trini could tell that Dominique was feeling put out.

"No, no... I can make it." Trini's feet throbbed in pain. She didn't really want to be alone, but if she went to Fox now Elisa might never forgive her. She didn't really have any other daytime friends, just Andrea and maybe Dominique, or at least she had thought so, until the woman seemed cold to her when she needed her.

"Don't be ridiculous." Dominique pulled out her cell phone, "Gregory, we will be going now. Bring around the car."

Andrea and Dominique had brought Trini to Andrea's studio, instead of home to her own place, or rather... the place she was staying at. They were keeping Trini's mind off of her current problems as best they could. Trini was grateful that Andrea didn't try to pry, she had started to but caught on quickly to the fact that Trini didn't want to talk about it. Trini figured that Dominique probably didn't really care, so she wasn't asking questions either.

They were sitting in the living room drinking wine and talking about Andrea's next paying job. During a lull in the conversation Dominique got up and went to pour herself another glass of wine. Trini nursed her wine and stared at Dominique. Her hair was down and had that wild wind-blown look that looked so good on the red head. "I like your hair better down Dominique." As soon as she said it she realized it was stupid. Like Dominique cared what she thought looked better.

"Oh, really. Why?" Dominique turned to face her and raised her eyebrow at Trini.

"Um... it makes you look sexier." Dammit, what was she doing? She didn't mean that in a pick up sort of way, but Dominique might not know that.

"Trini's right Domi, your hair looks better down." Andrea saved Trini from further embarrassment.

"Anything else you two want to tell me about my appearance?" Dominique sounded a little irritated, but Trini could see her fighting to keep a smile off of her face. That and the alcohol in her system gave Trini the courage to tease the woman.

"Well... Actually..." Trini gave the artist a wicked smile then turned back to Dominique, "You might want to look into pant suits for work. It would show off your ass, which is obviously very fine." Trini leaned back on the couch and made a show of checking out Dominique's butt. She could hear Andrea chuckling.

Andrea joined Trini in checking Dominique out, "Yes... why didn't I ever notice your ass Domi?" Andrea started to giggle, and Dominique gave them a rare laugh.

"You two are unbelievable. No more drinks for either of you."

Dominique hadn't enforced her no more drinks comment, and Trini had abused her drinking privileges more than she had in years. She was a little bit too drunk to walk very well, so when Dominique offered to help her to her apartment she was grateful. They left a concerned looking Gregory in the limo and headed into the building. Dominique was having no trouble walking at all. She hadn't had much to drink herself.

When they got into the elevator, of course Margot was there. Trini rolled her eyes at Dominique to let her know that this woman was a bit of a bitch. Margo said with a bit of a snide attitude, "You've been missing so long we were beginning to think that one of those beasts snatched you out of the park."

That was it. Trini wasn't going to listen to this crap anymore! "Listen you xenophobic ass, I will not listen to anymore of your shit. They aren't beasts and I am sick and tired of hearing that. For your information the one that snatched me from the park was a fucking goddess and a hell of a lot more intelligent than you!" Margot stared at Trini slack jawed for a second, then turned and stared holes into the elevator door waiting to leave, with her whole body tense. Trini didn't notice Dominique staring at her after her outburst.

Once the doors opened Margot couldn't seem to stop herself from putting in one more jab, "It's a little early to be so damn drunk Trini, boyfriend troubles? Dating a married man getting to be too much for you?" Trini's growl bordered on inhuman, making Margot rush into her apartment. When Trini went to get out of the elevator, she stumbled a little bit. She was surprised when Dominique helped steady her.

"Was she right?" Dominique asked, while still managing to sound like she didn't really care all that much about the answer.

"No, she's full of shit. I'm not dating David, it was just a joke." Trini's problem was far more complicated than that.

"Xanatos?" Dominique sounded surprised. "She thinks you're dating Xanatos?"

Trini gave her a small smile, "I did it to mess with her head. She irritates me." When they got closer to the apartment door, Trini noticed the woman sitting on the floor in front of it... Fox. She looked like she had been sitting there a long time. Trini suddenly remembered that she wasn't supposed to talk with Dominique, that both Fox and Elisa thought she was dangerous. "Shit." She whispered as Fox looked down the hall and saw Trini and Dominique. Her eyes narrowed at the red head by Trini's side. She didn't notice Dominique's smirk as she noticed Fox, or the taunting expression that crossed her face.

"Trini!" Fox got up quickly and moved towards them, eyeing Dominique warily. Dominique took a step away from Trini, letting go of her arm. Trini swayed a little. "Dominique..." Fox hissed out, "what are you doing here?"

This time Trini did catch the smug look on Dominique's face, "Trini had a little too much to drink. I was just making sure she got home." She turned to Trini, "Well, I'm sure Fox can take it from here. It's nice to know where you are, I might drop by to visit some night." Trini didn't notice the immediate alarm on Fox's face.

"Sure, but call first, I might have other people over." She didn't want Dominique visiting when Delilah was there.

Fox took a hold of Trini's arms gently, "I don't think that would be a good idea." She was glaring at Dominique. Dominique just stood there sneering at Fox. Trini could tell that there was a lot more to this conversation than she was getting. Fox then waited while Trini unlocked her door and went in. "I'll be just a minute." She closed the door behind Trini, staying out in the hall with Dominique. Then she started talking quietly with Dominique. If it weren't for Trini's super hearing she wouldn't have been able to hear them.

"If anything happens to her, I don't care what I have to do... I will ruin you!" the violence in Fox's voice shocked Trini. "Your secret be damned, I will take you down! Do you understand me?!"

"You really can't control who she sees, or else she wouldn't have spent the afternoon with me, now would she?" Dominique's mocking tone wasn't very pleasant. Trini strained to hear the rest of the conversation, "Don't threaten me... you won't like the consequences." They were getting further away. It sounded like Fox was following Dominique to the elevator. Trini couldn't hear them anymore. She went into the bathroom to find some aspirin, in hopes that it would help keep her from a hangover tomorrow. Dominique didn't seem to get along with anybody.

She was washing down the pills when the front door opened, and then closed with a little bit too much force. "Trini!" Fox's angry voice filled the apartment. Shit... what now?

Trini stepped out of the bathroom and leaned on the doorway. "What?" She had no idea why Fox would be so angry.

"I can't believe that you invited her here! What were you thinking?!" Fox's arms crossed in front of her as she glared at Trini.

"I was thinking I was too damned drunk to make it up the front steps... that's what I was thinking! I ran into her on the way home. We went to Andrea's." Trini glared a little bit, "I don't see what the big deal is."

"She's dangerous, and now she knows where you live!" Fox looked around the apartment.

"Fox, you're over-reacting. Dominique isn't going to hurt me, she's my friend." Trini just didn't understand all the panic that Dominique seemed to cause in Fox, Elisa, and David.

Fox stopped talking and stared at Trini in shock for a second, "She isn't your friend, she has no friends, just people that she uses." Fox paused, obviously struggling with a decision. "There are some things I think you need to know about her." Fox indicated that Trini should sit down.

"Do you want something to drink?" Trini spitefully ignored her and moved to get something to drink for herself from the kitchen, she resisted the urge to grab the wine cooler and came away with a water. She was embarrassed when she ran into the edge of the counter because her balance was so bad. Fox's expression showed how irritated she was with Trini being that drunk.

"No." Fox waited less than patiently for Trini to return to the living room. "Trini... there are only a small handful of people who know this. I'm not supposed to tell anyone that the clan hasn't decided should know, but you need to know this. We can't wait for them to return." Fox sat down beside Trini and turned to face her on the couch. "Demona... had a run in with the Weird Sisters about a thousand years ago. They made it so that she was practically immortal. That's why she didn't die when you saw her get shot." A thousand years, Trini just couldn't even begin to comprehend that amount of time. Living that long... would be a nightmare. Anyone that she ever cared about had to have died on her. No wonder Demona was so angry, but what did this have to do with Dominique? "In all that time, her one goal has been to kill off humanity. In her attempt to do that she found a way to imprison Puck and he was forced to grant her wishes. The last one he granted made it so that she doesn't turn to stone during the day anymore..." Trini stared out the window behind Fox. She was startled to see three birds, parrots, fluttering outside right outside the window. They were the oddest-looking birds she had ever seen. Their coloring was wrong. One was pitch black, one pure white, and one canary yellow. She nodded every once in a while to whatever Fox was saying, but she wasn't really paying attention. The birds’ aerial dance was mesmerizing. They finally landed on the patio table and they were all facing Trini, with the yellow bird in the middle standing closer. It was like they were staring back at her. "Trini, so you understand why you can't see Demona anymore... Don't you?" Trini looked into Fox's concerned eyes. "I don't want anything to happen to you." Shit... she hadn't heard a thing Fox had been saying for a while. She had completely zoned out. Fox's cell phone rang, saving Trini from commenting at that time. It was embarrassing that she was apparently too drunk to even have a basic conversation. Fox looked irritated at the interruption but answered the phone anyway. "Hello?" Trini looked out the window, and the weird birds were gone.

Trini could hear the other side of the conversation easily. "The Detective was here looking for Trini again."

"I found her." Fox glanced at Trini and then stood to move into the bedroom with the phone. She covered the mouthpiece, "Trini, I'll be just a second." She then shut the bedroom door. Trini just stared after her. Elisa was looking for her?

Trini was listening as hard as she could, she could only make out Fox's side of the conversation occasionally. Just the louder more emotional parts carried through the door. "She said what?! No... no we didn't... I don't know why Trini would say that. Shit, David when did Elisa leave? I need to talk with Trini."

Trini sat back on the couch and tried to look like she hadn't been trying to eavesdrop while she waited for Fox to come back out of the room. It didn't take long, Fox marched into the living room with a purpose. "Why did you tell Elisa we'd had sex?!" Trini just stared at Fox dumbly, why would she ask such a question? Fox's eyes widened a little as she moved to sit beside Trini on the couch again. Her voice was softer as she spoke again, "Oh... Trini... you think we had sex, don't you?" Trini stared down at the floor blushing. She felt Fox gently guide her eyes up by placing her hand under Trini's chin. She was forced to stare into Fox's beautiful blue eyes. "Trini... what we did, it wasn't sex." Trini felt sick, Fox was denying what they had done. "No, Trini... what we did was beautiful." Fox gave Trini a shy smile, "It was magical, but it wasn't sex."

"Fox, I..." Trini didn't know how to say what she wanted to. "It was sex. I came Fox." Trini's breathing was becoming a little erratic, "I came so hard. I've never... I've never felt like that before." Trini's voice was getting strained, "It was so intense."

Fox sighed as she looked at Trini, "Trini... that was magic. It wasn't sex. Even what happened... afterwards... wasn't sex." Afterwards, when she had ripped Fox's top, when she had... Trini didn't notice that her vision was tinted with red as she licked her lips. Fox looked a little startled, but continued more softly, "I won't deny it felt really good." She reached out and tucked some of Trini's hair behind her ear. Trini stared at Fox's lips as she licked her own.

"You told your mother we were lovers." Trini forced herself to sit back. She had been leaning towards Fox.

Fox leaned back too. "I... was desperate. I didn't want her to try and take you, I wouldn't be able to stop her." Fox stared at her own hands, which were clasped together in her lap. "After I found out I was Fey, mother told me that I might want to look for a Fey lover. She always hated David, never wanted me to marry him. We'd argued, and it was never talked about again. I was hoping that if she thought you were my lover..."

Trini was shocked. "You thought she'd like me better than David? But... but, he's a man!"

Fox looked up at Trini, "She never thought he was much of a man." Fox hesitated, "Trini, I've been with women before, mother knows that. She's never had any problem with it. I used to think that was unusual for her to just accept it, but the Fey don't really judge... not like humans do." The way that Fox said that sounded like someone had judged her, and it made Trini angry that anyone had hurt her like that.

The next thought cooled Trini's anger, "What about the massage?"

"You thought that was sex too? How?" Fox was puzzled, and Trini was starting to feel pretty stupid.

"I... with the tail, and the rubbing." She stammered out.

"It was an innocent mistake." Fox gently tried to dismiss the incident. They both had to know it wasn't entirely innocent, but Trini took the out that Fox was offering her. It wouldn't count.

"So, I broke her heart, and it wasn't sex? I made her cry Fox." Trini took a deep breath, "She finally told me she loved me and I made her cry."

Fox sounded hollow, "She told you?" Trini realized that she had been insensitive. Fox was really the last person she should talk to about Elisa, because regardless of all the reasons that they couldn't be together, Fox did love her too, even if she had never said it to her. Trini had no idea what she would do if Fox ever told her.

"Yeah." Trini tried to casually study Fox's face. She couldn't really tell what the woman was feeling.

"I told you she wouldn't be with you if she didn't." Fox sounded like she was trying to be supportive and upbeat. She wasn't really pulling it off. "So you straightened out the whole Goliath thing?"

Trini looked away a bit guiltily, "I... I didn't have the nerve to bring it up."

"Oh, Trini. You two need to talk about that." Fox's eyes were filled with sympathy. "The clan is due back this Wednesday, you need to figure out where you stand. She needs to make a choice." Make a choice, like Trini did? Trini was having a hard time hearing this. If Elisa needed to make a choice, why would she choose Trini. Trini had hurt her with her own difficulty in making a choice. She just couldn't stop wanting Fox, it wasn't like a switch she could turn off.

"I need to get out of here, Elisa is on her way over. You two need to talk." Fox stared into Trini's eyes, "You know where to find me if you need me." The look in Fox's eyes held so much concern and love.

"Fox..." Trini had no idea what to say.

"I need to get going." Fox stood up, "I'm going to do something about making this apartment safer for you. I would prefer that you just moved into the Eyrie, but under the circumstances..." Trini nodded weakly, she was pretty sure that Elisa wouldn't go for that, and that was placing too much temptation on Trini. That was just out, there was no way she could live with Fox.

Fox walked toward the front door and opened it. She turned to look back at Trini and quietly spoke, "Good luck." Before closing the door behind her softly. Trini gave the door a sad smile. Fox was helping her to do the one thing that would ensure that Fox never had her, in spite of how she felt. It made Trini love her even more.

Trini started to prepare for Elisa's upcoming visit. The first thing she did was change out of the clothes that Fox bought her. She didn't want them starting a fresh argument. She had even changed her socks, because they were bloody. She hadn't noticed the pain in her feet after she'd started drinking, but it looked like they were going to hurt once she sobered up.

When the hard knock on the front door finally came it startled Trini. Her heart began to beat faster as she walked to open it. Elisa was here, and she angrily glared at Trini, "Where the hell have you been?! I've been looking for you for almost five hours." She marched into the room, and Trini closed the door again.

She sighed as she answered the question, knowing that this would be yet another argument. "I ran into Andrea on the way home. She took me to her place for drinks. Lots of drinks." She didn't need to bring up the whole Dominique thing now. They had more important things to talk about, and she already got that lecture from Fox. When she saw Elisa's eyes narrow in suspicion she became a little angry herself. "No... I am not sleeping with Andrea, so don't even ask."

"That sounds like someone's guilty conscience talking." Elisa crossed her arms and glared at Trini.

"Of course it is! I hurt you... I hurt Fox... I should feel guilty!" Trini was almost yelling, but she was angry with herself, not Elisa. This mess was all her fault. Trini weakly sat down on the couch. It was time for more painful honesty. "I talked to Fox. She didn't think what happened was sex."

"What?! You expect me to believe that you don't know what sex is?" Elisa glared down at her, "I'm pretty sure that you do." She crossed her arms.

"Elisa..." Trini stared up into Elisa's cold eyes, "I'm so sorry I hurt you. I love you, I really do."

"Oh, yeah. Sleeping with Fox really shows me how much you care." The coldness in Elisa's voice was hard to take. Trini took a few deep breaths while she tried to think of what she could possibly say.

"You were there when Fox had to stop my magic. You saw what that was like." Trini hung her head, "Her magic feels like sex. It feels like sex."

"What are you trying to tell me?" Some of the coldness had left Elisa's voice.

"On Wednesday I... I asked Fox what magic felt like. I had no idea... no idea that it would feel like that." Trini was ashamed of the way her body was responding to just talking about the magic. She clamped down on those feelings and pushed on, "I... I lost control and attacked her."

Elisa sat down heavily on the chair opposite Trini, "Attacked her? What happened?"

Trini didn't understand how Elisa could stand to hear details. "I tried to take her."

"You tried? Why didn't you?" Trini didn't register that Elisa's voice had taken on its detective quality.

"David and Owen came in... and then I saw her, saw that I had hurt her. I ran." Trini whispered.

Elisa was quiet for a while, so Trini looked up. "How was she hurt?"

Trini swallowed and stared down at her hands, "I... my hands had changed. I cut up her wrists. I... was too rough. She had bruises, on her neck." She added more quietly, "She's lucky she only had bruises."

"Why?" Trini now realized that Elisa was using her detective persona to deal with having this conversation.

"I wanted to bite her. Really bite her." Trini looked away from Elisa, mortified about how animalistic she could be.

"Why did you want to bite her?" Elisa kept asking hard questions.

"I don't know." Trini turned to stare out at the night sky.

There was a moment of silence, Trini could see that Elisa was collecting her thoughts. She looked puzzled as she stared at Trini. "What happened last night?"

"I...She was giving me a massage. My back hurt. While she was at it I let her do my tail." Trini's voice had started out strong, but it was getting quieter, "I should have stopped her, but I wanted it so bad. She didn't know... she didn't know and I took advantage of that."

"What didn't she know?" Trini blushed in shame when Elisa asked that.

"I told her to avoid the base of my tail. I was supposed to tell her if she went to far, but when she did... I didn't tell her, I didn't stop her."

"Why did she need to avoid the base of your tail?" Elisa's confusion surprised Trini. The way Elisa had rubbed up against her tail during sex made her think that she knew.

"I thought you knew..." Trini's face got redder. "It's a serious erogenous zone, a really serious one." Elisa's eyes got wide.

"What happened?"

"When she found out, I begged her to not stop. I begged." Trini's face was hot with her blush.

Quietly Elisa asked, "What did she do?"

"She stopped. Then we heard that you were on the way up."

Elisa took a deep breath and got up from the chair. She sat back down beside Trini. "What are your feelings for Fox?" Shit... she had to ask that. Trini didn't want to lie, but... if she told Elisa that she loved Fox too, what would happen? Trini was betting it wouldn't be good.

Puck popped into the room, startling Trini and Elisa. "Sorry." He giggled. "Alexander, watch how I do this." Puck started to walk over to the corner of the room.

"What are you doing here?!" Trini glared at the white haired man. This was a private conversation; he had no right to just pop in.

"Well... Trini, let me tell you what you've won!" He gave a huge smile that made Trini really worry as he turned to address her. "You will be the proud owner of a specially placed protection spell made by yours truly." He bowed. "and my lovely assistant." Alexander waved at the women. "will explain exactly what this spell will do for you. Take it Alex."

Alexander stepped closer, "Well. Mommy said that Trini was in danger, that the bad gargoyle knew where she was, so we are going to do a spell that won't allow her in here."

"Demona?! How did that happen?" Elisa turned to Trini, who was completely baffled.

"I... I have no idea what she's talking about. I haven't seen Demona since that night." Trini watched Puck and Alex going over to the corner to start their spell. She really wanted to see it, to see someone use magic like that. From the look on Elisa's face, she knew that she wasn't going to get to. Elisa had questions, obviously questions that she didn't want to wait to ask.

"Why would Fox think that Demona knew where you lived?" Elisa stood with her hands on her hips.

"I have no idea." Trini was really puzzled. Fox wouldn't lie about something like this, and she was far too level headed to imagine it. She obviously really thought that Demona was a threat, a really serious threat, if she was resorting to using magic to protect the apartment. The look on Elisa's face told Trini that she wouldn't be surprised if Fox was having Puck place a spell that did something else, the distrust in her eyes as she stared at Puck said it all.

"Well, we are all done. She isn't getting in here in the next millennia." Puck bowed and right before he and Alexander disappeared added, "Oh, and Fox is assembling a few other things. She should bring it by in about an hour or two." Trini looked over at Elisa after Puck said that. Shit. She really didn't like the look in Elisa's eyes.

"Oh... Good. I have some questions for her." Elisa glared at the place that Puck had been standing.

"I... I don't know if that's such a great idea." Trini spoke before she could stop herself. Elisa's eyes narrowed at her. Shit.

"I'm staying."

An awkward fifteen later Elisa headed into the bathroom. They hadn't really spoken much since Puck left. It was driving Trini crazy, there was so much that needed to be said, but she was afraid to say it.

The phone rang. Trini stood up from where she had been sitting, her feet protesting the motion, and answered it. She expected it to be Fox and was going to warn her that an angry Detective was waiting for her. "Hello?"

"Trini, hi." Dominique's voice surprised her, "I hope you don't mind, I got your phone number from Andrea."

"Oh... no. I'm glad you called. I am so sorry about Fox." Trini was embarrassed at the rude way that Fox had acted. Talking with Dominique wasn't against the rules. Fox had only said to not see her... or was that Demona? That conversation was so fuzzy.

"It's okay. I'm surprised that she's so protective, but I can understand it." Trini walked towards the balcony to stare out at the night sky as she talked.

"I'm glad that someone understands, because I sure as hell don't. Why are they all so worried about me spending time with you?" Since Dominique obviously knew she wasn't trusted, she decided she could just ask.

"Why don't you step out onto the balcony, I want you to see something." Okay, so Dominique was avoiding the question. Couldn't hurt to humor her.

"What am I looking for?" Trini expected it to be something like the moon, or the stars. She hadn't expected Dominique to be into that sort of thing. She opened the balcony door and stepped out, still holding the cordless phone. She left the door opened behind her so that she could hear when Elisa came out of the bathroom and cut the call short. She stared up into the sky, waiting for Dominique's response. After it was silent for too long she spoke, "Dominique? I'm outside. What am I looking for?"

This time she heard her voice next to her on the balcony, "You just make it too easy Trini." Trini lowered the phone and spun to look into the darkened corner of the balcony. Red glowing eyes stared back at her. "Too easy." A black blur rushed at her and Trini stared down to find her hands in shackles.

"What?" She looked up into a blue familiar face. "Demona?!" she'd said that pretty loud, and she could hear Elisa throwing open the bathroom door.

Demona grinned evilly into the apartment. "Well, Detective... I didn't expect to find you here. I'm borrowing Trini." Trini tried to struggle, to make it into the apartment. Demona picked her up like she was a doll and leapt off of the balcony. Trini stared into Elisa's panicked face right before they began to fall. Oh God... she was falling again.

Demona's wings spread out, stopping the fall. Trini was breathing heavy in fear. She didn't want to fall again it hurt too much. "Oh, almost forgot..." Demona said casually, Trini felt a needle enter her neck, then nothing.

Day 22

Trini was thirsty. She opened her eyes slowly, still groggy from the drugs that Demona had given her. She saw blue and red, but no details for a few seconds as her eyes adjusted. Finally she was able to make out Demona staring down at her in curiosity, but once the gargoyle noticed that she was awake, her expression changed to one of superiority and malice. She went to sit up and found that her arms were chained down. She couldn't move her feet either. She was chained to some sort of platform. "Well, you woke up sooner than I thought you would, but then again it was human drugs I used on you." She leaned down towards Trini's ear, which Trini realized now was uncovered, "And you already told me that you aren't human." Demona whispered.

"Blue? Why did you take me?" Trini's head felt like it was spinning as she struggled to keep the drugs from rendering her unconscious again.

"Blue? My name is Demona." Demona didn't appear to like the nickname Trini had inadvertently spoken. "I took you because I have plans for you little Fey." Demona's talons traced along Trini's pointed ears, her curiosity entered her voice "I'm surprised that you don't even try to hide your Fey nature, and just walk around in your true form." Trini couldn't even begin to hide her confusion at that comment, her true form? Demona's eyes glared red for just a second, she spoke quickly and harshly "You don't know what I'm talking about do you?"

Trini blinked a few times to push back the drowsiness, "I... what do you mean true form? This is just me."

Demona gaped at her for a second, then she just stood up and moved out of Trini's line of sight, leaving the room. The room that Trini was being held in was sterile and hospital like. She appeared to be chained to an examination table. Trini started to hyperventilate, as her heart pounded in fear. A few loud crashes and swearing could be heard from the other room. When she noticed the doctor walk in another door and stand staring at her from the corner of the room she panicked. "BLUE!" she screamed out as she frantically pulled and tugged at her arms and legs, "BLUE! Help me, Help me Blue!"

Demona rushed into the room and Trini could see her eyes were wide as she stared at Trini. She looked purple through the red tint of Trini's vision. When the doctor started to walk towards the platform Trini started pleading. "Please... don't let them hurt me again... Please, Blue, Please." She pulled and tugged at her arms, tears of terror and frustration ran down her face. It became obvious to her that she wasn't going to be able to break free, "Blue... Help me!"

Demona turned to stare at the doctor, "Get out of here!" she growled at him.

"But we agreed that I would get to do a full examination." The doctor argued.

"Well, the arrangement has changed." Demona took a few steps in the doctor's direction, "Now, I want all the records that Xanatos has on her, all of them. I also want you to find any other medical records that you can on her. After that, I MIGHT let you, but not right now."

"I don't have the information I need to find those records. I don't even have her full name. It would be much simpler to have me examine her." The doctor's glance made Trini's breath become quick and short. He looked at her like she was a subject, an interesting puzzle, not like she was a person.

"Trinity Stephens from Seattle. Get to work and I might let you live, cross me and I'll let it slip to Xanatos that you don't know how to keep your mouth shut Doctor. I won't even have to dirty my hands with you, will I?" Demona's cold glare and words made the doctor go pale. He turned and rushed out of the room. She yelled after him, "If I don't have those records by tomorrow night, I'll come after you." They both listened to the swing of the doors after the doctor fled.

She wanted to thank Demona for making the doctor go away, but she knew that it was her fault that the doctor had been there to begin with. She'd only made him go away for now. He might come back. She wasn't so drugged to think that Demona would just let her go, that wasn't going to happen. Fox had been right. She had been so stupid and gullible and trusting. She was going to pay for that now. Trini felt her body shudder as she stared around the sterile room. She really hated hospitals. Quietly she spoke to the gargoyle that was staring at her with an unreadable expression, "I don't want to be here anymore." before her eyes rolled back into her head losing the battle with the drugs that she had been waging to stay conscious.

Someone was stroking Trini's hair. "Elisa?" she questioned groggily, forgetting where she was.

"No, not Elisa." a familiar voice spoke. Trini opened her eyes and stared up into Dominique's face. Dominique was sitting with Trini's head in her lap. "You're awake, good. I was getting worried."

"Dominique? What are you doing here?" Trini looked around the room. There were no windows and only one very strong looking door. The walls were bare, and looked like they were steel. There was a toilet in the corner, and a sink. Both clean, but completely exposed. The only furniture was the double bed that they were on. "She took you too?" Since she was inspecting the room, she missed the satisfied grin on Dominique's face.

"Yes, she did. She dragged you in here a little before dawn." Trini laid her head back down on Dominique's lap. She felt Dominique stiffen in surprise, before she covered it by continuing to caress Trini's hair. She had no idea how she was going to be able to protect her friend here.

"I'm sorry Domi. I'm sorry." Trini wrapped her arms around Dominique's leg in a hug. When she felt Dominique caress her ear she stiffened in shock. How the hell had she forgotten that?

"What are you Trini?" she asked calmly while tracing the ear with her fingertip. The light teasing touch had Trini arching her head into the caress, before she came to her senses and pulled back to sit opposite Dominique on the bed with a wide frightened look.

"I... I..." She stammered.

"It's okay." Dominique didn't look scared, or hateful. She just looked confused. "I'm not going to hurt you."

Trini stared at her for a moment before making her decision. "I'm part gargoyle." There was no need to go into the Fey part, she wouldn't know what that was. Everyone in Manhattan had heard about Gargoyles, but the Fey were still a mystery.

Dominique looked completely shocked. Her eyes narrowed and she looked a little frightening for a second. Trini began to doubt her decision to come clean. She should have thought of a lie. She moved back on the bed away from her cellmate. "Part Gargoyle?! How the hell did you become part Gargoyle?!" Dominique sounded outraged. Trini stared at her with a stricken look on her face. She noticed Dominique forcing herself to calm down. "I mean, who did that to you?" This time there appeared to be some concern in her voice.

"I'm thinking it was my dad, since mom was human." She'd already stuck her foot in it, might as well go the whole way.

"You mean you were hatched part Gargoyle?!" Dominique's eyes widened. Hatched? Who says hatched?

"I was born part gargoyle, but I didn't know what that was until I heard about the gargoyles in New York." She still remembered the shock she felt when she saw the newspaper article on them, with a picture of a male with wings that looked so much like hers had.

"But, humans and gargoyles can't breed! It's not natural!" Trini felt sick. She hated being called unnatural, a freak. She hadn't heard that since her mother died.

"Shut Up! You don't know what you're talking about! I have just as much right to exist as anyone else! You get to walk around all day, doing whatever you want. You don't have to live with the fear, you don't have to live with it!" Her face grew red as she yelled at Dominique, "You have no idea how cruel Humans can be... No idea!" Her hands were shaking as she fought the desire to punch the woman for calling her unnatural. She got up and moved to stand in the other corner of the room as far from Dominique as she could. She refused to look at her, but she could feel her staring at her back. After a few minutes of this she heard Dominique get up from the bed to approach her. She just turned further away and glared at the blank wall, still angry.

"I have some idea. I do." Dominique quietly spoke, almost to herself once she reached Trini's side. Trini understood that it was as close to an apology she was ever going to get from the proud woman. She took a deep breath and forced herself to let go of her anger. They needed to work together to get out of this mess.

"I'm sorry you got involved in this." She glanced over to Dominique.

"What do you mean?" The woman was studying her, it made Trini uncomfortable and self-conscious. She was studying the freak she just knew it.

"Demona... she grabbed you to get to me. She must have known that you're my friend." Somehow Dominique seemed just as surprised by that comment as the one about Trini being part gargoyle. Her eyes widened and she actually became a little paler. "Don't worry, I'll do my best to protect you." Trini felt bad for Dominique, she was no match for Demona, and she really couldn't protect her friend. She turned and pulled the pale woman into a hug. Dominique stiffened, but Trini didn't let her pull away. She whispered into her red hair, "I'll do my best."

When Trini released Dominique she could see her trying to rebuild her emotional barriers. Dominique wasn't comfortable with affection. Trini respected that and let her have her space.

The red head paced back and forth, and Trini just stared at the blank walls from her spot on the bed. She could feel that it was probably late morning. It was something that she had always been able to do, estimate the time of day by the sun, even if she couldn't see it. Now she realized that it was a gargoyle thing, her awareness of the sun. Thinking about gargoyles reminded her of Delilah. She probably knew that Trini was taken, because Elisa would have called her. Fox had been on her way over, so she would know too. She hoped that they were having some luck tracking her down, because she knew without a doubt that Delilah would have looked all night, and that Fox and Elisa were looking right now. Elisa may be pissed at her, and she had every right to be, but she wouldn't just leave her to Demona.

"What are you thinking about?" Dominique was staring at her again.

Trini sighed, "That Elisa and Fox are looking for me. They might get to us before nightfall." Might as well share the hope.

"Yes... those two seem very protective of you." Dominique's statement sounded like a bit of a question. She moved to sit on the bed facing Trini.

"Well, they are my friends." Trini wasn't going to go into more detail than that. When she saw Dominique's look that seemed to say that friendship wasn't reason enough she added, "You can't tell me that if Andrea went missing you wouldn't look for her."

Dominique looked startled and stared off into space. Something about what Trini said seemed to really bother her.

"So, gargoyle huh?" Dominique was changing the subject very obviously. "You don't look much like a gargoyle."

"I... " What the hell, she had nothing left to lose. Dominique already knew too much. "I look more and more like one every day. I'm changing."

"What do you mean?" Dominique was obviously looking for anything that looked like a gargoyle on Trini's body.

"My hair, I didn't dye it. My eyes used to be blue." She held up her hand, "My fingernails aren't painted." She concentrated for a second, changing her hand to a talon. Dominique's eyes widened, "I can cut through rock with these." She let the hand reform.

"Do that again." Dominique reached out to grab Trini's wrist. Trini grinned, Delilah had liked that trick too. She changed her hand again. Dominique reached out to touch it.

"Careful, human skin doesn't take that too well." Trini felt nervous as Dominique used her nail to run along the edge of her talon.

"Do you have anything else?" The open curiosity in Dominique's eyes held no disgust.

"Yeah, that's why I wear pants in the middle of summer." Trini couldn't help but blush at the intense way Dominique was studying her legs. She jumped a little when she reached over and felt Trini's tail through the pant leg. "Domi! Please." She moved out of reach.

"Sorry." The grin on Dominique's face showed that she was anything but that. She obviously knew that what she did was inappropriate.

"We should... come up with a plan." It was late afternoon. She was hungry, and could hear Dominique's stomach rumbling as well. "Did you see anything when she brought you in here?"

"No, I was blindfolded, you?" Dominique had been pacing and sat down on the bed again. Trini moved to sit beside her.

"Nope, unconscious, remember." Trini sighed.

"Can't you just fight her?" Dominique's question made Trini grimace.

"I'm no match for her Domi." She hated telling the woman that her only protector was too weak, but it was the truth. "Aside from the fact that I can survive a hell of a beating... I wouldn't be able to do any damage. I don't really want to either."

"Why? She kidnapped us and you don't want to hurt her? What the hell kind of reasoning is that!" Dominique sounded really irritated, and Trini could understand it. She really should want to hurt Demona, but she just couldn't.

"She's not... She's not really a bad person." Trini still remembered the gargoyle yelling at her for putting herself in the path of the shooters. She wasn't bad. "I don't know why she's gone so anti-human, but... look at the world. Can you really blame her?" Dominique stared at Trini quietly. Trini couldn't begin to guess at what she was thinking. "I don't mean you. There are lots of good humans, it's just... there are also a lot of really bad ones."

"Are you saying that... you condone what she does. People say she's a murderer." Trini was surprised to not hear any judgment in Dominique's voice. She just sounded curious.

"No, but there are some people..." Trini could see Kelly's beaten body in her mind, "some people that the law just doesn't punish enough. Some people that I've wanted to kill." A memory of a doctor she met when she was little also entered her mind, "Some people just don't deserve to live. They cause too much misery." The flat way she was able to say that scared her. That was not who she wanted to be. Being locked up wasn't doing much for her frame of mind. When she noticed Dominique's quietness she was afraid that she'd said too much. "I haven't you know. I haven't killed anyone."

"I just never would have thought you'd think like this Trini." Dominique's voice was quiet.

"It scares me too." Trini studied her socks quietly, worried that she'd made Dominique afraid of her.

Dominique must have looked at what Trini was staring at, "Trini, you're bleeding!"

"I know. I hurt myself the other day. Yesterdays walk really didn't help matters." Trini just stared at the small blood speckles on her socks. She really should have gone with a pair that weren't white.

"But you heal fast." Trini looked up, how could Dominique know that? "I mean... gargoyles heal fast, don't they?"

"Well, I don't know about that. I never asked. I usually heal pretty fast, but not this kind of injury. This one is going to take time." Trini just shrugged it off. It stung a bit, but there wasn't really anything that they could do about it here.

Dominique began to pull her t-shirt out of her pants. It exposed a truly firm stomach. Trini's eyes widened at the glimpse of hard muscle. She hadn't expected the business executive to look like that! "Wha... What are you doing?"

"I need a rag to clean up your feet." Dominique was using her hands to try and tear the material.

"You don't need to do that. I'm fine." Trini watched Dominique start to pull her shirt off once she realized she couldn't just tear off a chunk. "You really don't need to do this." Trini's voice sounded a little panicked. Dominique stopped pulling her shirt off and looked at Trini curiously.

"What's wrong?" Trini blushed at Dominique's question and tried to come up with an answer.

"I could get the tear started. You don't need to undress." She moved towards Dominique. "Where do you want a cut?" She waved a hand at the shirt, not wanting to actually touch it. Dominique pulled the t-shirt away from her body and indicated with her hand how high the cut should go. "Are you sure you want it that high?" Trini's voice was a little strangled. It would leave the woman barely covered.

"I want some material for bandages." Dominique's eyes studied Trini intently. It was making her uncomfortable. Carefully Trini reached her hand under the shirt, trying not to touch Dominique's skin. She needed to make the cut from inside out so that she didn't accidentally get Dominique. She was intently watching the shirt as she changed her hand to a talon and poked through the fabric. She sighed as she finished the cut and looked away to hide her blush, so she didn't notice the smirk that overcame Dominique's face.

Dominique finished ripping her own shirt and took a piece of it to the sink to wet it. Trini took her socks off and waited. She wasn't going to try to talk the woman out of this; it hadn't worked with anyone else.

"How did this happen?" Dominique sat down by Trini's feet.

"I ran barefoot into a bunch of metal shards." Trini told her as Dominique took one foot into her lap and used the rag to wipe off the little bit of blood that was there. Trini laid back on the bed, because her balance sitting up without that foot wasn't very good. Dominique's touch wasn't as tender as Fox had been. Trini kept in a hiss of pain when it felt like Dominique had scratched her wound with a nail.

"Okay, other foot." Dominique sat still and let Trini lift her leg up and around Dominique, making room for the other foot. It was a few painless minutes and the foot was done.

They sat in silence for a while, and Trini didn't even notice when she drifted to sleep. She was still unconscious when an inhuman scream echoed through the building as the sun went down.

Trini was startled out of sleep by the slamming of the door. She jumped out of bed before she was even fully aware of what was going on. She stared at the gargoyle that brought her here. Glancing around, she didn't see Dominique. "Where is she?"

Demona crossed her arms and looked smug, "She's fine. I just wanted to talk with you alone."

Trini glanced nervously around. “Why are you doing this to me?” Her eyes stared at Demona imploringly.

“I haven’t seen many people that can survive a fall like you did.” Demona walked in a semi circle around Trini, studying her. “I was thinking that I could use you, that you could do magic.” She walked right up to Trini and stared into her eyes, “But you can’t do magic, can you little Fey?”

Demona’s stare was unnerving, so Trini looked down. “I haven’t known I was part Fey for even a week yet.” She didn’t want to lie outright, but the magic she had done was so minor.

“That’s what I thought.” Demona sighed. “I was surprised to hear you are part gargoyle.” Oh, shit, she must have been spying on her and Domi. “I want to see this tail of yours.”

Trini stared at Demona with wide eyes, “Wha… What?” She couldn’t mean that, it had to be a mistake. “Why?”

Demona moved to lean against the wall. “The Doctor hasn’t been having a lot of luck with finding any records on you. If you don’t want him to do a medical exam, you need to listen to me. I can do the exam.” She shrugged, “But if you’d rather he…”

“No!” Trini choked out. She didn’t want that man anywhere near her. “Can’t you just let me go? Let me and Domi go.”

Demona got a thoughtful look on her face, “What if I told you that I would let you go, but I would keep Dominique? You could just walk away, free.”

Trini paled. “I can’t leave her like that.” She softly pleaded as she stood up to start unbuttoning her pants. Her hands were shaking. She didn’t look up at the gargoyle as she lowered her pants and uncoiled her tail. She kicked the pants away with her feet. She was red with shame as she looked up into Demona’s eyes. Trini’s tail hung almost to her ankles now. It was swishing about nervously. Her shirt hung down just below her underwear, thankfully. At least some of her modesty was protected.

Demona walked up behind Trini and Trini could feel her reach down and pick up her tail. “I just want to see if you have normal functioning. Try to curl it around my arm.” Trini started wrapping her tail around Demona’s arm quickly. “Not bad. Let me go.” The tail loosened and Demona pulled her arm out. She didn’t scratch Trini once. The heat of the blush on Trini’s face was just as embarrassing as the situation she had found herself in. “I need to also test your sensitivity.” Trini turned partly and gave Demona a questioning look. “If you are able to feel with it.”

With widening eyes, Trini quickly responded, “I can. We can skip that part.”

“No, I’m not going to hurt you. Just a … can you feel this… sort of test.” Demona gently ran the edge of her talon over the tip of Trini’s tail. “Just let me know when you feel this. You do feel this right?”

“Ye… Yes.” Damn it, she was causing the tingling! She felt another touch further up on the underside of her tail. “Now.” She kept her answers quick, so that she could stop the touches more quickly. It didn’t help. Demona moved on, waiting a little longer. She felt the touch on the topside of the tail; it was sharp, but not cutting her. “Be careful!” She didn’t want a cut on that!

Demona murmured clinically, “Very good. You can differentiate between types of touch. Just a couple more to go.” Good. This test was unnerving. Trini was glad that Demona didn’t seem interested in hurting her. The next touch was on the base of her tail, her knees buckled but she managed to straighten out before falling forward. “Okay, that reaction was a little too extreme.” Trini’s face was red with embarrassment, and she didn’t look at the gargoyle. That light touch had felt so good, too good. “What did that feel like?” Demona walked into Trini’s line of sight. “Did it hurt?”

“N… No.” Trini was upset by the stammered reply. Demona looked at her obviously trying to think.

“The Breeder’s moon isn’t for months.” She muttered to herself as she studied Trini.

“Breeder’s moon?” Trini focused in on a chance to get more information. It helped her to deal with the embarrassment.

“Gargoyles only breed every twenty years. This year has a Breeder’s moon, it will be a mating season.” Demona indicated that Trini should sit, so she did. Demona paced in front of her. “During the month of the Breeders moon, parts of the gargoyles body, like the base of the tail, become more sensitive to touch. Am I right in figuring that when I touched you, it felt good?” Demona stopped pacing and studied Trini with her head tilted.

Trini’s red blush and her staring down at her hands gave Demona the confirmation she wanted. Trini could hear her mutter under her breath, “It’s too early for this.” She blushed harder but didn’t acknowledge that she’d heard Demona’s self dialogue. When she spoke louder Trini looked up, “Trini, you knew it would feel like that. You’ve felt that before, haven’t you? That’s why you didn’t want to do the test, not because you thought I’d hurt you.”

Trini looked up into Demona’s face, “Yeah.”

“Who touched you? What happened?” Demona’s prying was too personal. Trini gave her a steely look that said that she wasn’t answering that question. Demona’s eyes glared red for a second. “Fine! I’m going to need to do a more thorough exam of your reproductive systems. I think they’re gargoyle, but you’re out of phase with the earth. Your breeding season isn’t quite right.”

Trini’s eyes widened in surprise and fear, “No! Don’t do that!” She started to back up on the bed, moving away from Demona.

“I’m not prepared to do that now. I need some things I didn’t bring with me.” She stared a little a Trini. “You need to know what’s going on with your body, especially with breeding season coming up.”

“I’m not… I’m not breeding.” Trini was surprised that Demona seemed to think that she was doing her a favor. She didn’t want any damned gynecological exam! It would be nice to know more about what she was, but she wasn’t going to do that!

Demona gave her a look that seemed to say that she didn’t believe her. That she was being naive. She didn’t say anything as she reached into a pouch on her belt and pulled out a needle. “First things first. I need a blood sample.” Demona sat down beside her and reached out for her arm. The blood drained from Trini’s face, she hated needles. There was actual concern in Demona’s voice now, “Trini?”

“I’m fine.” Trini strangled out. Demona quickly took the blood and placed the container in her pouch. She then let Trini put her pants back on.

"I have a few more things to do tonight." Trini's heart sank, that sounded like this was just the beginning. "Lie down on your stomach." Demona sounded tired. Trini glanced nervously then moved slowly to obey.

She felt Demona pick up her leg to inspect her foot. She took the bandage off gently. "I brought some better bandages and some medicine." Demona put her leg down and pulled some things out of a box that Trini hadn't even noticed she had brought in the room. She lifted the foot again, so that Trini's lower leg was sticking straight up from her knee. The gentle way that Demona used the knuckle of her talon to rub the creme into Trini's sole calmed Trini's nerves. "Why is this taking so long to heal?" She started to wrap Trini's foot in a clean bandage.

"It was iron. I need time and sun to heal. I haven't gotten any sun today." Trini moved her head so she could see Demona out of the corner of her eye.

"Sun?" She saw Demona looked up.

"It helps me heal. Apparently that's a gargoyle thing?" Trini tried to turn so she could see Demona.

"Don't move." Demona grabbed the other foot and began treating it. "Yes, that does sound like a gargoyle trait, although we usually do our healing in the stone sleep."

"God, I hope I don't end up doing that." The idea of turning to stone, of being that vulnerable, was horrifying. Trini felt odd talking to her capture in such a friendly way, but Demona was being nice, and Trini still felt like she wasn't really going to hurt her. She was taking care of her, after all.

"What makes you think you'd start stone sleeping?" Demona set the second foot back down and moved to squat beside the head of the bed so she could see Trini's face. Trini couldn't help but admire the beautiful blue skin she had. Delilah had been a more human color. She moved onto her side so that it was easier to see her.

After a deep breath Trini started to talk, this was a gargoyle, and she was here in New York to talk with one. Now she had a chance. "I... started to change a little over a year ago. I wasn't born with the tail." She flicked her tail to emphasis the point. "My ears, hands, almost everything was human. I came here to find gargoyles to help me. I'm changing, I don't know how much longer I will be able to walk around in the daylight, how much longer I will be able to pass as human."

Demona's eyes turned red, "You don't want to be gargoyle, is that it? You want someone to find a way to make you all human again?!" There was a bit of a growl to her words, and her contempt for humans was easy to hear.

"No... I never wanted to be human." Her voice was soft as she gazed off into space, "I don't want to be human now. But I don't want to give up everything... I want to be able to have my life, to be a writer, to go to the movies in the middle of the day." She focused in on Demona, "I don't want freaks like the Quarrymen trying to kill me and I don't want people capturing me and using me for experiments just because I'm not human." Demona seemed to bristle at that but Trini ignored it, "Blue, I've been used as a guinea pig before. I don't ever want to go through that again. Please, don't put me through that again."

Demona blinked a few times as she processed this bit of information. Trini reached out and lightly caressed Demona's wing. "Mine were black." Her voice was flat. The gargoyle recoiled in horror as she stared at Trini with wide eyes. Her wings fluttered nervously.

"What... what are you talking about?" Demona looked a little pale, but that was hard to tell with the blue skin.

"My wings... they were black, like my tail." Trini needed Demona to understand what had happened to her. She just couldn't believe that the gargoyle could be as cruel as those doctors had been.

Demona stared at the back of her shirt, "Wings?"

"Doctors removed them when I was little. I couldn't stop them. I tried, but I couldn't stop them." Her voice cracked a little at the end, but she continued to stare at Demona's horrified reaction. It made her feel sick, the gargoyle probably thought she was defective, broken, disgusting. "I never learned to fly. I always wanted to, but I never got to fly." She was getting lost in her own memories and the words just fell from her mouth, "I used to watch the birds to try and figure out how it was supposed to be done. I would flap and flap, but I never got off the ground. But you don't flap do you? Delilah took me flying, and she didn't flap, she just sort of..." Trini couldn't find the word for it.

"Glides. We glide." Demona moved closer. She had moved back when Trini had told her. "How old were you?"

"Four." Trini took a few deep breaths to stop the tears, "They hurt me. They really hurt me. They did these tests. It felt like it lasted forever. I wanted to die." Trini's throat felt raw. She bitterly added, "When mama came to get me, she acted like it was nothing. Like it was nothing more that getting my tonsils out. She kept saying how I was human now, that I could be human now. I never wanted to be human." Trini was curling up into a fetal position, and when Demona sat on the bed next her and laid a talon comfortingly on her shoulder she started to cry, but she continued the story. The one she had never been able to tell anyone. "When she saw me watching the birds after that... she hit me, she yelled at me and hit me and told me I was a freak. She told me that people would have caged me, because I had been a beast, but I should be grateful, because I was human now. I could be normal and no one would ever have to know that I was just a beast." Strong arms picked her up and she was pulled into Demona's lap. She wrapped her arms around the gargoyles neck and cried into her shoulder. Demona rubbed gentle circles low on her back. She could hear her muttering and cursing humans in general, but she was keeping her voice down.

It took a long time for Trini to become cried out. The feel of the gargoyle holding her, comforting her, was something that she didn't want to give up. She clung to her even after all the tears were gone. She hadn't realized that her tail had wrapped itself around the gargoyle's waist, making it impossible for Demona to put her down.

"Trini, I can help you make those humans that did this to you pay. I can help you find them." Demona's anger at the abuse she suffered made Trini feel better.

"I just don't ever want to see any of them again. Never again." She felt uncomfortable with how tempting Demona's offer was.

"But their monsters! That they could do that to a child... " Demona was obviously getting ready to rant. Trini just didn't have the energy for it.

"Blue, please... " She said wearily, "I don't want anything to do with them."

Demona calmed down a little, "What about your mother? If you could call a woman like that a mother!" her voice was raising again. Trini really couldn't defend her mother, Demona was right. She had never really been a mother to her, never. Before Demona could start to suggest ways to kill the woman, Trini decided to speak.

"She's dead. She died in December." Her voice was flat and unemotional.

Her stomach's growling broke the silence. "Trini, I think we need to get you something to eat." Demona said gently as she tried to lower Trini to the bed. Trini felt the tug on her tail, and started to unwrap it from Demona.

"Thank you Blue." She felt the backside of Demona's talon under her chin, forcing her to look at the gargoyle.

"Why do you call me Blue?" The sincere curiosity made Trini answer honestly.

"You are far to beautiful to be a demon." She gave her a shy smile, "Blue is my favorite color, and you are such a pretty shade of it." She finally got her tail untangled and pulled away from Demona.

"Uh... thank you." It was obvious that the gargoyle wasn't used to compliments, and Trini thought that was just sad. She stood up and Demona did as well. When Demona walked to the door and just opened it, no unlocking or anything she grinned at Trini. Trini just gave a heavy sigh and shook her head. If she had tried, she could have escaped. She followed Demona hesitantly, unsure if that's what the gargoyle intended for her to do. She stopped at the doorway, waiting for permission. She couldn't outrun her, and she didn't want Demona angry with her. "Trini, come on... " That was enough encouragement, Trini hurried to catch up with the fast moving female. When she passed by an open door and saw the room that she had been in, the examination room, her heart started beating faster and her feet started moving slower. "Trini?" Demona turned and Trini could see her realizing what she was looking at. She walked back towards her. "Come on, I have some food upstairs." Demona led her into an elevator.

Trini stared at the plaque in the elevator. "NightStone? You'd think a gargoyle named this company." She turned to see a very flustered Demona. She realized then that she wasn't supposed to know where she was being held captive.

The elevator doors opened up into a small kitchen. Demona got out, so Trini followed her. She eyed the door out of the kitchen, wondering what was on the other side. “Don’t even try it.” Demona warned, eyeing her. Trini took a few steps away from the door and stared out the window. They were in a very high building. She didn’t recognize any of the other buildings that she saw. She could hear Demona taking things out of the fridge. “Do you find yourself more emotional lately?” The question startled Trini back into paying attention.

“What do you mean? Like PMS?” Trini started to think about it. She’d been crying more in this last month than she had in the past few years. “I cry a lot… too much. I didn’t used to do that.”

“Okay, that’s a start.” Demona just leaned up against the open fridge and looked at her, “Do you ever get really pissed off for no good reason, or hardly any reason?”

“No.” Trini was beginning to see where this was going. They were back to talking about her breeding cycle, or whatever they called it.

“I have some leftover Chinese food.” This had to be the oddest kidnapping in the world. Most of the time, it felt like Demona was a friend, like she knew her much better than she should. This was the murderer that Fox and Elisa were warning her about? The one that Delilah was so afraid she would be like? It just didn’t make any sense; it was like they weren’t all seeing the same person.

“Sounds good.” She watched the gargoyle shove a container into the microwave. The timer showed that it was just two minutes until midnight. She’d been missing for over a day. "Is Domi okay? Has she eaten?" Demona looked uncomfortable.

"Yes, she's fine. She ate a few hours ago." Something was odd about Demona’s voice.

“She is okay? You didn’t hurt her did you?” She pressed the point, becoming worried. Everyone seemed to think that Demona hated humans so much… maybe she’d hurt her. She opened her mouth to talk, to ask to see Domi, but a loud explosion drowned her out. The force of it threw open the door that she hadn’t been allowed to use and tossed both of them out the window as if they weighed nothing. Their bodies shattered the window. Wind whipped past her as she stared down. This was much further down than the last fall, much further. She didn't even notice the pieces of glass that had embedded themselves into her, or the burns the explosion had caused. How much pain and damage could she survive? The wind whipping past her made it hard to breath, even harder to scream, but she managed.

Day 23

Trini's body spun around, making it possible for her to see the gargoyle diving after her. Demona's eyes glared red, her wings were tight to her body as she came closer and closer to Trini. Her red hair blew wildly in the wind, and her face showed her intense concentration. She looked... magnificent, like a fierce guardian angel. When Demona finally caught up to Trini she grabbed her so that she supported her legs and back and started to spread out her wings. Trini wrapped her own arms around Demona's neck a little tightly. She had been and still was terrified. She buried her face into the gargoyle's shoulder, not wanting to see if the gargoyle wasn't able to pull them out of the fall. Her heart was pounding in her chest so hard she was sure that Demona could feel it.

She felt them level out, but she could tell that they were still moving incredibly fast. She peeked and saw that they were weaving around a building, barely missing it. She shut her eyes tightly, not wanting to see brick walls coming closer at high speeds. Since she kept her eyes shut, she didn't see that Demona was carefully trying to stay out of Delilah's sight. The white haired gargoyle was flying around the burning building frantically searching for any evidence of Trini.

When Trini felt them land several minutes later, she opened her eyes. "You could release your death grip on my neck now." Trini looked up into Demona's face, to see that she appeared amused. She grinned sheepishly at the gargoyle and loosened her grip.

"Sorry." She leaned closer and whispered quietly, "thank you... Thank you for not letting me fall." She felt Demona's entire body stiffen up when her lips contacted the female’s cheek. She was quickly placed on her own two feet, which were still a little weak from the ordeal. She glanced about the rooftop. She could see the smoke from NightStone in the distance. Her eyes widened in concern and she turned back to the gargoyle quickly, "Domi isn't?"

"No, she isn't in the building." Demona studied Trini and before Trini could ask her other question, "She's okay, really... she is. You however..." Trini watched as Demona reached out and used the knuckles of her talon to raise Trini's face. She was studying it carefully, "I'm seeing some burns and you have some cuts. Probably from the window." She also noticed that Demona had the same problem.

Trini reached out a hand to lightly touch a bruise under Demona’s eye. “I’ll be fine in a little while. What about you?” She held Demona’s face tenderly and brushed her thumb lightly over the bruise. “Do you heal fast like me?” She found that the gargoyles skin was soft, smooth.

The gargoyle pulled away from her caress and took a step back. It was obvious to Trini that Demona didn’t want to be touched. “I heal fast too.” Demona crossed her arms in front of her and caped her wings. Demona glared out towards the smoking building, her eyes burning red for a moment. “Bastards. I just had that office remodeled.” Huh? What was a gargoyle doing with an office? Demona glanced over at Trini, who couldn’t hide her puzzlement at that comment. “Nevermind.” She then studied Trini curiously. “Didn’t anyone tell you anything about me?”

“I was told to stay as far away from you as possible.” Trini couldn’t help but grin at that. It seemed so ridiculous to her now.

Demona gave her a fanged grin back, relaxing her stiff pose, “Let me guess, Maza?”

“And Fox.” Trini studied the female in front of her. Her voice became more serious. “They thought you’d try to kill me or something. I tried to tell them… but they wouldn’t listen.”

“Tell them what?” Demona was staring at her.

“That you wouldn’t do that to me. They didn’t believe me.” Trini moved to lean on the wall of the roof access door and crossed her arms.

Demona’s eyes widened. “Why don’t you think I’d kill you?”

With a little smirk Trini glanced at the gargoyle, “Because this is the third time you’ve tried to save my life. Even when you were threatening me on that rooftop, you protected me. You protected me twice.” Trini had to fight the urge to touch the gargoyle. She looked so shocked and a bit upset.

"You're more useful to me alive." Demona's eyes narrowed and her expression grew cold. Trini didn't understand, it was like Demona hated to think that she had protected anyone.

"Right, cause I'm so magically gifted. Get real. You saved me. That fall might have killed me, and you saved me." Trini's voice became a little angry in response to the attitude that Demona was projecting. When Demona's eyes glared red and she took a menacing step towards her, Trini backed up against the wall.

Both of them were so intent on each other that they didn't hear anything else. The net that suddenly encased them both startled them. Trini felt fear as she realized that they weren't alone. A group of quarrymen, wearing strange jet packs were floating above the rooftop surrounding them. Demona's growl was frightening as she began to rip into the netting. Trini tried to reach down and pull the net over her head. It was then that one of the quarrymen pushed a button on some remote, and pain engulfed her. Electricity coursed through her body, making her muscles contract and spasm. Making her feel like she was on fire. She screamed loudly before one of the quarrymen shot a dart into her neck and unconsciousness claimed her.

Uhh. It hurt, everything hurt. Trini winced as she shifted, her muscles all protesting the motion. Her heart began to beat frantically as she remembered what had happened. She could feel the cold hard ground underneath her. She was in an awkward position, the one that someone had dumped her in. When she heard voices, she remained still, not wanting to bring attention to the fact that she was conscious.

"Castaway is going to be pleased." Was that Mark? "We got the demon. That bitch is going to fry!" his laughter was cold and sadistic.

"What about the woman?" A younger more unsure male voice asked. The woman? That must be her.

"The demon was pretty desperate to save her after they fell out the window. She should come in handy." Mark, she knew it was Mark now, was planning to use her against Demona. She tried subtly to move, but found that her body was too weak, and she had little control of it. She wasn’t going to be fighting her way out of this mess anytime soon.

"But... but, she's human." The young man sounded shocked and sickened. Well, there is some good news, they obviously didn't get a good look at her.

Mark's voice was cold, "She's a traitor! She hangs around with that beast. She deserves what she's gonna get!" The silence after that was unnerving, "She is pretty, isn't she? I wonder how attached the demon is to her." Trini's heart stopped beating for a moment. He wanted to... oh hell no, that was not going to happen!

Another voice called into the room, or whatever they were in. The sound bouncing off the walls was strange, like they were in a hollow room. "We are ready to go." Trini could feel the men's gaze move off of her so she cracked open her eyes slowly. It took her a moment to take in the room. It was metal, with nothing inside but her and... oh God... Demona! Demona's body was tossed in the other corner of the place. Trini could make out a puddle of blood underneath her and her face was a mass of bruises.

Mark marched over to Demona's prone body menacingly and kicked her hard in the ribs. "Damned Beast!" Trini's eyes burned red as she heard the bones crack. Demona moaned in pain. She struggled to move, not caring if they saw she was awake. How could those monsters hurt her like that?! She wasn't even conscious!

"We... We better get going. The train is going to start to move." The nervous young man's words stopped Mark from kicking again. They both left, closing the door. Trini could hear them locking it from the outside.

It took Trini a while to gain enough control of her body to crawl to Demona. The grounds gentle rocking with the motion of the train made it a more difficult trip. She could recognize that she had been drugged yet again. She probably wasn't supposed to be conscious yet, but her healing powers were cleaning out the drugs faster. She knew that Demona had a similar healing power but she wasn't awake. It worried her.

When she got next to Demona she could see the gargoyle was a mass of bruises. "Oh Blue." Trini's voice cracked as she held in tears. The unconscious gargoyle was lying on her side curled up in pain. She had deep purple bruises on her face, her ribs where that bastard kicked her, and her arms. The puddle of blood had come from a cut on her lower arm that looked like it was healing. It had stopped bleeding, but it looked ragged and nasty. Trini whispered to the gargoyle, "Blue, please be okay." She then leaned down and kissed the gargoyle on the forehead, on a small patch of unbruised skin. "I'll do my best to protect you, I will, but... I need you to wake up. Please."

Trini sat so that she could see Demona and the door at the same time. She never took her eyes off of either of them. She had to leave Demona curled up, because she was afraid to move her. She knew the gargoyle had broken ribs, and didn't want to hurt her by moving her. She watched with some fascination as the angry bruises on Demona's face faded. The other bruises were fading as well. Since she was paying so much attention to the gargoyle she noticed the change in breathing as soon as it happened. "We're alone Blue. They left us locked in here." Demona opened her eyes and stared around the room intently. She hissed when she moved to sit up. "Be careful, they broke your ribs."

Demona studied Trini, obviously looking for any injuries on her. Her voice was raspy and suspicious, "How come you're just fine?"

Trini just looked at Demona in disbelief. She thought she'd betrayed her, or was trying to trick her? "I think they want you awake when they hurt me." Her anger was clear. She'd been frantic with worry, and watching over the female for over an hour and this is how she's treated?! She looked away from the gargoyle and stared at the door.

When she heard the hiss of pain she looked back. Demona was holding herself in a sitting position with her arms. "What do you mean?" She asked through gritted teeth.

With a voice full of concern Trini turned wide eyes to Demona, "Blue, your ribs! You need to be careful."

Demona turned red glowing eyes to her, looking dangerous in spite of the injury. "Answer the damned question!"

"I... I woke up when they were still in here." Trini sighed. She didn't really want to think about this. "They seem to think that since you tried so hard to catch me... you care about me." She took a deep breath and continued more quietly while studying the wall. "I think they plan to..." tears started to fall down her face. She couldn't say it like that. Even more quietly she whispered, "They think I'm pretty." She put her hand over her mouth.

"Oh, Trini." Trini felt Demona's talon gently touching her arm. She looked up into concerned eyes. Demona winced in pain when using just the one arm to hold her up wasn't enough.

"Is there anything I can do for you?" Trini hated seeing her in pain. Focusing on Demona helped to take her mind off of... other things.

"I just need a little while longer to heal. The bones are knitting now, I can feel it." Demona moved to readjust how she sat. Trini moved closer and sat next to the gargoyle. They both leaned back against the wall of the train car. When Demona leaned on her, Trini felt her heart warm.

"You can feel your bones?" Trini asked trying to sound casual, but Demona's healing ability was... just amazing. She wanted to know more.

"Yes. Can't you?" Demona sounded curious.

"I don't know. I was unconscious after I fell off the building. I probably broke bones then. Did you see?" She turned to look at Demona. She had been there, after all.

"I... I assumed you died. I didn't go see." Demona actually sounded a little upset.

"Oh, well that was the only one that might have broken bones." Trini said that casually, not realizing what she was giving away until it was said.

"You've been hurt like that before?" Demona latched onto it seconds after Trini realized what she'd done.

Remembering a snippet of the conversation with Fox, Trini decided to talk. Demona was supposed to be immortal, if Fox was right. She hesitated, "I should have died several times by now. I just don't... die."

She could feel Demona tensing beside her, "What are you saying?"

She took a deep breath and continued. "I've survived things that would kill anyone. Things that I should never have survived." She looked down at her feet. "The iron was the only thing that seemed to do any lasting damage."

Demona's haunted voice asked softly, "So, you're immortal?"

Trini looked over at the gargoyle next to her, "I don't know. Maybe."

"What... kind of things have you survived?"

"Well, you know about the fall. I went out the next day. I was fine, so I went to a PIT meeting and promptly got myself shot."

"What?! You got shot? I didn't..." She obviously stopped herself from talking. "Where did you get shot?"

"The bullet was lodged in my lung. Fox says the doctor said it should have killed me."

"So Fox knows about you?" Demona didn't seem to like that fact, but she didn't really sound surprised.

"After I was shot, I had to tell her. I needed help. Elisa said she couldn't get the bullet out for me."

"Detective Maza too?!" Demona actually sounded angry.

"Yes." Trini eyed Demona warily. "She helped me after we took our dive off the building. I had to tell her so she wouldn't take me to a hospital."

"Oh God... Trini, you can't trust humans with this sort of information!" Demona sounded exasperated. "They'll betray you. They'll hurt you."

"They'll tie me to an exam table and let doctors cut me up?" Trini took a shuddering breath, "Been there, done that." That made Demona go quiet.

"I guess you have." She was much more subdued.

"I trust Fox and Elisa. They won't hurt me."

It was a few quiet moments before Demona spoke again. "Were there any other incidents that you can remember?"

"I was in the car crash that killed my mom." Trini said that flatly, mechanically. "It was really bad. That was the first time." This was followed by more silence.

"How much do you know about me?" Demona asked, and this time Trini knew what she was after.

"I heard that you're immortal, and kinda old." Yeah, like a thousand years was just kinda old.

Demona chuckled, "More than kinda old. Trini, you might be immortal too. We might want to look into that after we get out of here."

"No, the only way to disprove that is to die. I finally have a life worth living. I finally want to be alive. I don't want to lose that now." Trini explained this calmly.

"I wasn't thinking of anything as drastic as killing you. There might be other ways to look into it." Demona paused and Trini could feel herself being stared at. "Why is life worth living now?" Trini knew she meant as oppose to before.

"I'm not alone anymore." She turned to look at Demona. "I have people that care about me." Part of her realizing at that moment, from the look in Demona's eyes, that the gargoyle didn't think she had that. This ancient gargoyle thought she was alone. Trini added shyly, "Blue... I care about you. I was so worried when you didn't wake up." Demona's eyes darted to Trini's face quickly; the gargoyle was obviously shocked. Trini gave her a shy smile and looked away. She really meant it.

They sat in silence. Demona didn't seem to know how to respond to her. "Blue? You don't turn to stone do you?"

"Why?" Demona sounded puzzled about where that question came from.

"Because I don't want to be alone, and I feel the sun getting ready to come up."

Demona's eyes widened, as she seemed to be checking her own internal time sense. "Oh Shit!" She turned her body to face Trini, her voice became urgent, "Trini, there's something I need to tell you."

The urgency in Demona’s voice commanded all of Trini’s attention, she turned to face the gargoyle. “I don’t turn to stone anymore. I…” Demona glanced at the side of the train car as if she could see the sun preparing to rise. “A Fey did a spell on me. I become human during the day.” Trini’s eyes widened as she started to really study Demona’s face.

“Domi?” her voice was quiet. “You’re Domi?”

Demona’s wings fluttered nervously, “Yes.” Trini stared at her, dumbstruck. Her eyes began to burn red as her face hardened.

“You’ve been playing me. You’ve been playing me this whole time!” Her voice was rising. She felt so betrayed. She had liked them… or her. It was all a lie. She leapt to her feet and walked further away from the temptation to hit Demona. “I should have listened to Fox. I was so stupid to let…” Her voice cracked. She tilted her head and looked at the wall, trying to keep her tears in.

“Trini…” Demona was slowly rising to her feet. The pain in her ribs obviously still bothered her.

“Demona, just leave me alone.” Trini could hear the hurt in her own voice.

“So, I’m Demona now, not Blue?” Demona started to hesitantly approach Trini.

“I don’t know who the hell you are.” Trini felt like she had lost two friends. She wrapped her arms around herself. They… no, she… was just playing her, manipulating her, making her care. “Shit.” She whispered to herself.

“Trini, you have to know why I couldn’t tell you.” Trini turned to face Demona, ready to start yelling about betrayal, about trust. It was at that moment that the sun rose. Demona bent forward in what looked like incredible pain. Trini watched horrified as Demona went through what looked like the most painful thing anyone would ever experience. Her wings retreated into her back, along with her tail. Her skin became the pale tint of Dominique’s skin. She was screaming… screaming the entire time her body was distorting, twisting, changing. When Dominique fell to the floor, Trini was kneeling by her side in seconds.

“Oh God… Oh God, are you okay?” She frantically looked over Dominique, trying to see if there was anything that she could do to help. The bruise over her ribs had faded considerably. Dominique looked up at her. She looked wrong in Demona’s clothes. “Domi?”

“I’ll be fine. This was a little parting gift from Puck.” Domi growled out.

Puck did that to her? He seemed like a child, like a nuisance, but this was plain sadistic. “You’re ribs, how are they?” Trini’s voice was soft as she stopped herself from reaching out to touch the bruise.

“Fine” Domi was studying her with open curiosity. “You aren’t angry anymore?”

This made Trini pause. “No, I’m still pissed, but you’ve been kicked when you’re down enough today.” She just sighed and moved to sit beside Domi, sitting between the weakened woman and the door. “Do you still heal fast?”

Domi slowly sat up, being careful of her ribs. “Yes. My form doesn’t matter, that’s a separate spell.”

“Good.” Trini stared at the door. “Can you control that, maybe become gargoyle during the day?” She was hoping that they could escape, but they needed to be able to get away if they did that.

“No.” Domi looked over at her, “You’re starting to think about escaping, aren’t you?”

"Well, we need to do something." Trini was frustrated. She hadn't expected to become the strong one, the one that would need to fight, but Demona was human now. That made Trini the more dangerous one, a role she almost never took. One she wasn't very confident that she could pull off. She wished that she could believe that Fox and Elisa would find her, but after getting taken by the Quarrymen the trail was probably too cold. They'd need to be psychic. Trini blinked several times... psychic. That's like magic.

"What are you thinking?" Domi brought her attention back to the world. "It looked like you thought of something."

"I might have." Trini stared at Domi, she didn't know how to tell her about the locator spell. "Someone might be trying to use magic to find me. If I knew how to do magic, that's what I'd do."

Domi sat a little straighter. "You want to make yourself easier to find." She caught on very quickly.

"I tried a Fey locator spell once. It was a disaster, but they might be trying that to find me. I could become like a beacon or something." Trini turned hopeful eyes to Domi. "Do you think that might work?"

"We don't need their help. We can get out of this by ourselves." Domi looked a bit aggravated.

"How? You aren't in any shape to fight, and I don't really know how." Trini was beginning to think trying to reach Fox was the best solution.

"I'm healing, I'll be fine in a few more minutes." Domi grumbled.

"You'll still be human. I'm sorry, but you just don't look very tough to me." The force ten glare Domi sent her way made her want to reconsider that comment.

"I could still kick your ass!" Domi growled at her. Trini could tell that she was actually considering doing that, so she wisely chose to say nothing.

Trini was trying to figure out how to send a stronger signal, one that Fox could feel. There was the other problem. She was going to try to mix magics with Fox again, and that never failed to become sexual. There wasn't going to be any way to hide her response. She really envied Fox her ability to appear cool after that. She knew that the magic had to affect her the same way, but she managed to maintain her control. She felt her face become hot. "Domi?"

"What?!" Great, she was still pissed.

"I think that we could use help, but if I try this spell..." She was watching the wall behind Domi, too embarrassed to look her in the face. "there are side effects."

The curiosity entered Domi's voice, "What kind?"

Trini started looking around the train car nervously. Domi grabbed her chin a little roughly and forced her to look into her face. "What kind?" She said that slowly, like an insult.

"I..." Trini started to speak faster, trying to get this over with, "it's sexual. I'm not going to be too aware of anything going on around me." Trini became more embarrassed when she could tell that it intrigued Domi.

"Well, you should wait until I'm ready to take watch.” That was as close to an agreement about the spell Trini would get out of Domi. “I didn't know that using magic was sexual for the Fey." Domi's voice was quiet and introspective.

"I don't think it is, normally. I'm an aberration. What a shock, eh?" Trini felt like a freak. Domi released her firm hold on Trini's chin.

"We really need to figure out what's happening to you. The magic and the problem with your breeding cycle might be connected." That... actually made a bit of sense.

"I should try to do that spell. It will take them time to get to us even if they know where we are." Trini felt exposed, trying a spell like this in front of Domi.

"Okay. If you insist on trying that go ahead, but we will still end up having to take care of this ourselves." The look on Domi’s face gave Trini a very good idea of how she wanted to deal with this. She actually seemed to be looking forward to a fight.

She was lying on the ground, staring up at the ceiling. She tried to clear her mind but it was hard, when she could feel Domi staring at her. She focused on reaching out with her magic like she had done with Owen. She kept a mental image of Fox strong in her mind, assuming that it would help. She was amazed when she could feel her magic growing and stretching out. She kept her eyes closed and focused on Fox. That’s when she felt it, a gentle tug. It wasn’t Fox, but it felt familiar.

The magic wasn’t Owen either. She pushed a little harder, puzzled about what to do now. “What are you after child?” The strange internal voice startled Trini, almost making her lose contact.

“I… I need help.” Trini was speaking out loud in response. Domi looked at her sharply, but Trini didn’t notice.

“What does the Trinity child need?” a similar but different magical voice asked.

Trini was beginning to get a little scared. She couldn’t tell what these women were feeling, not like with Fox. They could be dangerous. She didn’t know anything about them, but they knew about her. They knew her name. Her fear entered her voice when she responded. “Who are you?! How do you know who I am?” Domi got up and moved to her side, concern on her face. She kneeled by Trini and stared down at her open magically green glowing eyes. Trini still didn’t see her.

Another voice, there were three of them, answered, “We are the Weird Sisters. We have known of you since before you were born.”

“Weird Sisters?” Trini’s puzzled response alarmed Domi. She reached out, grabbed Trini by the shoulders and started to shake her.

“Snap out of it Trini!” She yelled down at her. “You don’t want anything to do with them, snap out of it!” Trini didn’t feel any of that, wasn’t aware that Domi was shaking her violently in an attempt to wake her.

“What does the Trinity child want?” The trio of voices asked together.

“What I want?” Trini was puzzled. Domi dropped her and hit her hard in the face. That broke the connection, and Trini’s nose. “Shit!” Trini held her hand over her nose, “Why’d you do that?!”

“You don’t want to mess with them Trini.” Domi calmly told her and then leaned over her and waved Trini’s arms out of the way so she could look at her nose.

“So you hit me?!” Trini was pissed, her eyes started to glow red. “You didn’t have to hit me!” She was still sprawled on the ground.

Domi stared down into her red eyes. “I tried other ways first. You don’t want to make any deals with those three, it never turns out as advertised.”

When Domi reached down to touch Trini’s face, Trini pulled away nervously, “What are you doing?”

Domi rolled her eyes at her, “I need to set the bone so you can start healing. If you heal like I do, we need to do it fast or be willing to re-break it.” Trini let Domi do whatever she needed to do. Her body tensed in preparation for what she suspected would be painful.

The tears ran down the sides of her face. Resetting that bone had hurt! Domi looked down at her, “It had to be done.”

“If you hadn’t hit me it wouldn’t have.” Trini growled. She could feel the bones knitting and it was weird and gross. “Ugh… Damn, that feels…”

“I know.” Domi was all business. “It looks like we are on our own. We’ll need to fight our way out of this.”

“So, basically we’re screwed.” Trini sat up, feeling deflated.

“No. We can do this.” Domi studied Trini, who was busy gently touching her nose to gauge how healed it was. Still sore.

Trini sat in the corner using her talon to scratch at the wall. It wasn’t working very well. “It would have been asking to much to have them put us in a wooden train car or something.” She muttered to herself as she continued scratching.

“Would you stop that God Damn scratching! You aren’t going to be able to dig your way out.” Domi snapped at her.

“Oh, right… and your pacing is so productive?!” Trini snapped back.

“What is your problem?!” Domi yelled at her, “You haven’t done anything but dig at that wall for over an hour.”

“I don’t know how to fight! That’s why I hide in trees and throw rocks!” Trini stood up, glaring at Domi. “We need to slip out, hide. I know how to hide.”

“Dammit Trini, that is truly pathetic.” Domi sneered at her, and Trini saw red. She took a menacing step towards Domi before she stopped herself. Domi narrowed her eyes. “What, afraid I will be able to kick your ass?”

Trini forced herself to take a deep breath and tried to calm down. “Ripping each other apart isn’t going to help our situation.”

“Actually… it will.” Domi swung at Trini, and Trini had to lean back to avoid getting her nose broken again. “It'll teach you how to fight.”

Trini took a step back. "I can't hit you, I might hurt you." All her anger was gone once she was faced with the possibility of a fight. Domi glared at her.

"Well then, if you're going to make it so easy for me, I will hurt you." Domi kicked out, hitting Trini in the knee. Trini fell to the ground in pain when the knee gave out. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Domi pulling back to kick her again. She rolled out of the way and got back up on her feet, facing her in a crouch. "You need to fight me Trini, or I will just keep kicking your ass." Domi told her through gritted teeth.

"This is stupid!" Trini backed up again when Domi moved closer. She shifted to the side to avoid a punch aimed at her head. She completely missed the punch aimed at her stomach. She doubled over in pain. "God Dammit! Stop it." She growled out, her vision had gone red.

"You need to make me Trini. Can you do that, or are you just good at taking beatings. With all the practice you had with mommy, you probably are good at that." Trini growled. That Bitch! This time when she saw the punch coming she blocked it with her forearm and punched back, hitting Domi in the stomach. She curled up in pain.

Trini's vision returned to normal as she stared wide-eyed at Domi's bent form. "Oh, God... I'm so sorry." She took a tentative step forward to see if she could help.

"No... it's what I wanted. I was trying to get you to fight." Domi wheezed out while holding her stomach. "You're stronger than a human. I didn't expect that." She straightened out painfully. "That could really work to our advantage. They aren't going to expect you to be dangerous, you just don't look the type."

Trini bent down and reached out slowly to touch the bruise on Domi's stomach. It was getting purple. She lightly caressed it. "I'm so sorry, I lost control." She whispered, it looked like she was addressing Domi's stomach.

"In a real fight, you need to hit like that. Hit with everything you have." Domi was standing with a little less pain.

"So now you're going to teach me to fight?" Trini glanced up into Domi's face, "That's... I'm not sure I can do that."

"I'll just give you some basics. Its all we have time for." Domi reached out and pulled Trini up to face her. "We need to fight, and we don't know how many of them there are. You need to be willing to hurt these humans, you can't let your squeamishness about that hinder you." Trini looked doubtful. "Trini, these bastards are planning to torture us. They deserve whatever they get." Domi growled that out, sounding very much like a gargoyle.

Sweat had been pouring down Trini's face, so she ripped a sleeve off her shirt and used it as a headband. Domi was worse than a drill sergeant, forcing her to do and redo moves constantly. Trini understood why she was doing it though, so she didn't complain. It made Trini realize that Domi was actually a very good warrior, she was probably learning from the best.

They covered kicks, and Trini found out why she hadn't been able to stop Demona with the kick she'd given her that one night on the rooftop. She didn't understand leverage. Her kicks hadn't held all her strength, now she was pretty lethal. Domi had her kick the walls a few times, she managed to dent it pretty good. Her feet were a little sore, but the open wounds had healed. She couldn't afford to baby them now, but shoes would have been nice. Domi also had her practice punches. She told her to imagine that she was trying to punch a hole right through her opponent. That was a sick image.

"Okay, talons out." Domi walked in a semi-circle around Trini. She gave her a puzzled look, but obeyed. "You need to know how to use those in a battle. It's not like using them to climb."

Trini's eyes widened, "But I could kill someone with these!" She held up the talons as evidence.

"That's the idea Trini." Domi looked irritated.

"No! I'm not doing this to kill. I just want us to escape. We can just knock them out and run." Trini straightened out of the attack pose that Domi had taught her and changed her talons back to hands.

Domi growled at her, "Dammit Trini... you need to be willing to do whatever it takes. Killing a few worthless humans is nothing. They deserve to die. They call us beasts, but they are the real animals."

"Tough words for a HUMAN to be saying, don't you think DOMINIQUE." Trini gritted her teeth as she goaded Domi. She didn't like the worthless human crack. She was part human, and people she cared about were human.

"I AM NOT A HUMAN!" Domi roared at her. Trini was surprised when Domi actually tried to punch her. She blocked automatically, since she had been practicing moves like that for a few hours. Domi kept coming, so Trini kept blocking. After one punch landed painfully, Trini started hitting back, mindful to not hit too hard. They were sparring, but it felt more like dancing. Domi moved so gracefully, she was so in control of her body, it was beautiful to watch. It made Trini feel clumsy, but she was keeping up with the woman.

Trini was distracted by a noise. This made it possible for Domi to land another punch. She grunted but put her hands out to signal a break as she tried harder to listen. That's when she identified the noise as a leak. She looked around the car and saw it. Someone was pumping gas in with them. Realizing that whoever was doing that might have a way to watch or listen in on them Trini whispered, "Shit... they're trying to gas us. This changes everything." She motioned for them to continue sparring, Domi gave her a strange look but then went with it. Trini listened harder, and could hear a man's voice.

"I think Mark was wrong about them. They're fighting. That woman isn't a traitor." It was the young man that had been with Mark when they were locked in there.

Since they were being watched Trini couldn't tell Domi what she was thinking. She knew that the woman wouldn't like it, but... they were being gassed. They weren't going to be able to fight their way out of the train car. She just hoped that she would understand. Trini reached back and punched Domi hard enough to knock her back into the wall. She then glared at her with as much hatred as she could fake. "Not so tough now... are you beastie?" she mocked her. The look on Domi's face at that almost made Trini step back, but she needed to press it. "You fucking bitch... I'll kill you." She sidestepped Domi's kick and lashed out, knocking the woman to the ground. The gas was getting strong. Domi staggered as she got to her feet again. Trini was also becoming less steady on her feet. Domi landed a punch to her stomach and she doubled over in real pain. Domi wasn't pulling her punches anymore. Trini was sure that the glare she was getting from her was real as well. She believed Trini was getting ready to betray her, Trini could see it in her eyes. She dodged another kick and watched as Domi fell slowly to the ground, overcome with the gas. Trini let herself fall backwards and laid still. The gas was making her drowsy, and very uncoordinated. She wouldn't be able to fight when they finally came in, and she knew that they were coming in soon.

Trini was conscious when she heard the door open. "She was trying to kill the demon?" She closed her eyes and listened.

"Definitely. I am positive that she isn't a traitor, she seemed to hate the demon." The young man that Trini knew had been watching them was doing his best to convince Mark. That's exactly what she'd wanted him to do.

She heard Mark move closer and kneel beside her. "Well, it looks like I might have misjudged you." He didn't actually sound happy about that. Trini knew he'd wanted to hurt her, and he would look bad in front of his men if he did now. He stood up quickly. "Grab her and the demon. We need to get to the house."

"But... she's innocent." The young man stammered.

"I know, but we can't just leave her here, can we?" Mark snapped back. "Besides, she might want to join in."

When they walked over to Domi, Trini tensed. If that asshole tried to kick her she'd... "Take care of getting them loaded in the van." The gas finally pulled Trini under.

Trini woke up with a start and frantically looked around. They'd put her in a bedroom, one with frilly pink things. It looked like a young girls room. She felt for her ears and was relieved that they were still covered by the headband. Listening intently for any clue about what was going on, she heard some people talking, but couldn't make out the words. She got out of the bed quietly and crept closer to the door to listen.

"The demon doesn't look too bad in the daylight. I say as long as the sun is shining, lets have some fun." Some gruff sounding man joked. It made Trini sick.

"I don't see why not." Mark's voice was further away. "We can kill her later tonight after Castaway gets here for the party." Shit, it was all but decided. They planned to rape Domi! Trini couldn't wait until it would seem normal for a human to wake up. She needed to get out there now!

She reached for the doorknob and was surprised when it opened. She reminded herself about her role and marched out into the room to see what she was up against.

She walked into the room full of men. There were seven. "Where the hell am I?" she addressed Mark, hoping, praying, that he didn't recognize her from the store or the park. She changed the way she talked to sound tougher.

Mark gave her his best smile, and Trini forced herself to look like it worked a little. She softened up. "Canada. My parents vacation home. I'm Mark."

He didn't recognize her. Hopefully her luck will hold up. "Marie" she gave him her middle name. "What am I doing here?"

Another guy, big burly type interrupted gruffly, "What were you doing with the demon?!"

"The bitch kidnapped me, right from my balcony." Trini filled the words with hate. "Where is it now anyhow, did you kill it?" She turned to look at Mark again, "Tell me you killed it."

Trini could see the gears in his mind working. "No, not yet. We plan to do it tonight, do you want to stay? We plan to make a party of it." He smiled at her and Trini knew. She forced her face to show nothing, but she knew he suspected something.

"Sure. Do you have any idea what that bitch was going to do to me?! I wouldn't miss this for the world." She gave him a malicious grin. "Hey do you have any food, I haven't eaten in days." She added absently.

"Sure, what would you like?" Mark stood up to play host.

"I... I really haven't eaten in days. Something light, maybe?" She let uncertainty enter her voice. She followed Mark into the kitchen. She would eat the food, but she needed to make sure it wasn't drugged first.

"I have some applesauce?" Mark called out from inside the refrigerator.

"Sounds good. I heard somewhere that you aren't supposed to eat heavy after having been starved." Trini watched Mark open the jar and pour out the sauce. She took the bowl and spoon from him and smiled. "Thanks."

"She was starving you? How long has it been?" Mark sounded concerned, but Trini didn't believe that for a minute.

"I ate Sunday brunch. What day is it now?" She ate a small spoonful of applesauce slowly.

"It's Tuesday." Mark and her walked back out to the living room with the other six men. Trini wanted to be out there so she could keep track of them all.

Trini was determined to not ask where Domi was, it might look suspicious, but every second that she didn't know was driving her crazy. She would be waking up soon, since Trini was up already. She finished the applesauce and set the bowl down.

"Do you want to see her?" Mark asked her while studying her expression suspiciously. Trini was very careful to not give anything away.

"Sure. Any chance you would let me have a few minutes alone with her?" She grinned evilly. "I still haven't paid her back nearly enough yet."

His smile gave her pause. She felt like she was walking into a trap. "Sure, no problem." He stood up and motioned for her to follow him. Trini tried to look like she wasn't desperate to see the gargoyle as she followed him out the front door. The other men stayed and watched TV. She didn't notice them change the channel as she stepped out. The TV showed the inside of a barn.

She looked around at all the trees. "We're in the country?" She noticed the dirt road that led to the house. This was either good or bad, she didn't know which. She noticed the van parked in front of the house.

"Yeah, that's why I thought it would be a good place for the party." He studied her intently. Probably waiting for her to slip up. He seemed to think this was some sort of game.

When he walked up to a barn, Trini became nervous. She hoped that Domi was okay. "You okay?" that bastard Mark asked her.

"I... yeah." She took a deep breath and waited for him to unlock the door.

He turned around and leaned on the door, studying her. "You know, I'm not falling for it. I just don't believe it." Trini's heart started to pound.

"What are you talking about?" She tried to keep her voice normal and irritated.

"Your story. The demon wouldn't try so hard to save some woman she kidnapped." He smiled at her, then looked over her shoulder. When Trini turned she saw one of the men from the house holding a shotgun on her. "I could be wrong, however. So I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt." His voice was pleasant, as he delivered his demands. "If you can go in there and show that bitch whose boss. I'll let you go."

Trini glanced at Mark and the man with the gun nervously, "What do you mean?" She was trying to decide if she could take them both when the other men came around the side of the barn. Two others held guns. She hadn't been fooling anyone.

"It should be easy. She's tied to the bed." Trini's eyes widened as she began to realize what he was talking about. "We plan to party with her for hours, but... ladies first." She took a step back in horror. "If you don't want your turn, no problem. We wouldn't mind getting started. We can turn it into a double party."

"No... No, I can play." Trini didn't want these bastards touching her or Domi. She needed to find a way to get them out of there. Mark grinned at her and finished unlocking the door.

She nervously stepped in, not sure about what she'd find. One of the armed men handed Mark his gun and he followed her into the barn. She could hear the door being locked behind them. He whispered to her, "I'm here to make sure you keep it real. The other guys are watching via camcorder and can be in here quickly if you try anything stupid." Shit! They were taping this.

Domi was chained to the bed with her arms and legs spread eagle. Trini felt her heart sink when she noticed how strong those chains looked. Domi slowly turned her head to look at Trini, so slowly that Trini realized she was drugged. Mark moved back into the shadows and used his gun to wave Trini closer to Domi. She wanted to rush to Domi, to check and see if she was okay, it took all her control to stop herself from doing that. She needed to play along long enough to get Domi unchained... just long enough to do that and they would run. If she had to carry Domi's unconscious body through a hundred miles of forest she would. She was getting her out of here!

Trini's mind was a jumbled mess. She couldn't think, wasn't really aware of her surroundings. She didn't feel the branches and thorns cutting into her skin. All she could do was run. She clutched the body to her chest with both arms as she ran as fast as she could away from... she didn't remember what she was running from. She just knew she had to run.

The body groaned, but Trini just held her more firmly as she ran. Must protect... must hide. "Trini? Trini stop, it's almost sunset." The waking woman in her arms called to her.

"No, must run... can't stop, must run." Trini's out of breath reply sounded mechanical. Domi stiffened in her arms.

"STOP!" She yelled out. Trini obeyed immediately and stood stiffly. Domi had to struggle out of her grasp, because Trini simply didn't think to let go of her. "Trini, what the hell is wrong with you?!" Domi stood up from where she'd fallen once she wiggled loose. Trini saw her eyes widen in horror as she looked at her. "Oh God." Domi turned to the side and dry heaved for a while, then she stood up stiffly, in pain. She didn't look Trini in the face as she spoke. "Oh, Shit Trini. If there was any doubt about your immortality, it's gone now."

The change overcame Domi and she screamed. Trini didn't notice the tears in her eyes as she stood stiffly waiting for the screaming to end. Demona slowly walked up to her. "I need to see if the bullet got out." She whispered soothingly as she studied Trini's head. The entrance wound was dime size in the middle of her forehead. Trini stood still, unnaturally still, and let Demona walk around her. She then stood in front of Trini and tilted Trini's head down to see the top of it. There was a hiss, "It's out alright. Oh, Trini." Her voice cracked. "How are you still conscious, I just don't get it."

"Must protect." Trini explained. Must run, must protect.

Demona was holding her hands in front of her mouth. She moved to sit tenderly on a rock. Trini could see that sitting hurt. She stayed standing, staring at Demona blankly. Demona stared out at the ocean. They were on a ridge. Trini had been running them along that ridge for a long time. It looked like Demona came to a decision and she stood up slowly.

Demona stood right next to Trini and spoke softly. "We're safe now." Trini collapsed into Demona's waiting arms. The gargoyle carefully picked Trini up and leapt off the ridge spreading her wings. "Oh Trini." She addressed the unconscious woman in her arms. "What am I going to do with you?"

"Trini? Trini? Wake up!" Demona sounded nervous. Trini opened her eyes and stared up into her blue face.

"Blue?" She sounded child like. It made Demona grimace.

"Yes, honey." The gargoyle started talking to Trini like she was a child. Trini didn't even notice it. "I need you to do something for me, okay."

"Okay." Trini stared up into the beautiful gargoyle's face, "You're pretty." She reached up her arm and touched Demona's ear. She didn't notice Demona flinch. "Pointy ears. Like me." Trini's face showed her concern when a tear fell from Demona's eye. "Oh..."

"Trini. I need you to go into the hotel and get your key, I called ahead, it's waiting for you. Then you need to go to the room and open the balcony door." Trini gave Demona a blank stare. What did the gargoyle want?

"You're pretty." Trini replied, her voice conveying her confusion.

Demona took a deep breath, her eyes flashing red in frustration. "Okay, we need to think of something else then." She muttered to herself.

"pretty wings." Trini offered another thought.

Demona caped her wings over her shoulders, "Thank you." She muttered while she concentrated.