Fraternal Discovery

By: magicks

Summary: um, if I told you it would spoil the story

Disclaimer: No, I don't own Witchblade. Yes, it is owned by TNT and TopCow. Yes, I do have a top secret plan for overtaking both companies in order to control the WB universe and have Gabriel for myself. No, we did not have this conversation.

Feedback: need you even ask?

A/N: To any/all Unusual Alliance fans reading this, I am working on the next chapter. It's just coming *very* slowly.

"Heads up," Jake called, poking his head through the doorway into Sara and Danny's office. "We got a case."

"Wrong, rookie, we got a case," Sara corrected, grabbing her jacket and tossing Danny his coat. "You're just coming along for the ride."

Danny just shrugged when Jake looked at him perplexedly and mouthed 'What did I do?'. "She's been like this all morning."

"I've been like what all morning?" Sara snarled.

"Cheerful, as always, Pez," Danny replied with little to no enthusiasm.

Sara eyed them both suspiciously, but left the room with nothing more than "Come on."

*****************************

The ride down was uneventful to say the least. Jake tried to make small talk, but trailed off after receiving short, terse replies from Danny and being completely ignored by Sara. Sara was glad for the silence when it came, because it gave her room to think. She felt bad about being rude to Jake (ok, maybe she didn't feel *that* bad), but she was running on very little sleep, and he had a natural ability to rub her the wrong way. Letting her thoughts drift, Sara found herself contemplating the nightmare that had been haunting her dreams for the past few nights.

She was walking down a long hallway, with doors on either side. From the first door she could hear babies crying, and the murmured sounds of adults talking. From the second, the unmistakable laughter of children. A third door stood on the right, and she could clearly hear loud crashes and yelling, followed by a soft wailing. She continued to the door at the end of the hall, which was open a crack, letting a sliver of light shine out. She pushed it open and walked through the doorway into a dingy alley between two brick buildings. At the dead end of the alley a young man lay on his stomach, blood pooling around his head and shoulders. He looked eerily familiar. A gust of wind blew against her back, and she could faintly hear someone whisper with a sardonic chuckle, "One down, two to go, sister Sara." She walked closer to the man and crouched down, reaching for his shoulder to turn him over. A feeling of dread grew in her gut as the body slowly shifted and turned. She was just about to see his face....

"Sara!"

"What?!" Sara snapped. This always happened. Every time she tried to remember the last part of the dream, something (or *someone*) broke her concentration, and the image was lost. She looked up irritably to see Danny's exasperated face.

"We're here, Pez."

"Oh." Sara stepped out of the car and felt an ice-cold chill run down her back when she saw her surroundings. This was the alley from her dream. And at the end she could see the young man, laying on his stomach, the pool of blood starting to congeal.

Danny snapped on a pair of rubber gloves and handed another pair to Sara. "Here. Put these on."

She took them, grimacing at his words. "Thanks, Danny, I really wouldn't have thought to do that," she cracked sarcastically. "I've only been working homicide for how many years?"

"Yeah, yeah," he replied tiredly. "Just do it."

She slid the gloves on and approached the prone figure ahead of her two partners. Deja-vu swept over her in waves, but the Witchblade was oddly silent. The familiar dread grew when she crouched next to him, but at the same time a curiosity overcame her. Who was this man who had been haunting her dreams, and why did the Witchblade show her everything but his face? Pushing away all thoughts and emotions, she flipped him over.

Staring back at her with lifeless eyes, his throat slit open and lips slightly parted, was Gabriel Bowman.

Sara turned her head and was promptly sick all over the pavement.

A/N 2: *gasp* Did I just kill Gabriel? *wails* Nnnnnoooooooooo!!!!!!!