Chapter 2

January 14th 2015, Hell's Kitchen (NYC), USA – Earth-199999

Santino left as soon as they had reached the roof, and only Sage and M remained with the still unconscious man. The wound on his head was still bleeding and Sage tried to suppress her instincts to tend to it. The doctor in her felt conflicted but the human in her knew that there was a child's life on the line so she did nothing while M tied the man to the water tank's ladder.

"You find anything?" M asked her, referring to the phone they had found in the man's pocket.

"No. You smashed the hell out of it with that extinguisher. I think it's dead." Then, unable to suppress her thoughts any longer, she said, "he had a badge. What if you're wrong?" She didn't really think he was but she still had doubts about the whole situation.

"I'm not." M answered, absolute certainty in his voice.

"This is way past what I signed up for." She crossed her arms in front of her chest, a way to ward off her confused emotions.

"What exactly do you think that was?" M said and the almost flippant dismissal in his voice infuriated her.

"I found a man who needed help so I helped him." She said, reaching him in quick strides, vibrating with sudden fury. She didn't even know why she was angry.

"Oh yeah? That simple?" He was testing her, she knew. That made her even more angry.

She took a deep breath and looked at the tied-up man still appearing unconscious. She lowered her voice and said to M, "Do you really want to get into this in front of him?"

"He's out."

"Maybe he's faking."

M tilted his head, like he was listening to something, then said, the same certainty in his tone as before, "he's not."

And that was enough to cause the dam to burst. "Okay, that right there, that's what I'm talking about. I find a guy in a dumpster who turns out to be some kind of blind vigilante who can do all of this really weird stuff like smell cologne through walls and sense whether someone's unconscious or faking it. And trust me, it's not even that I'm not used to crazy shit because I am. On top of that, he can take an unbelievable amount of punishment without one damn complaint."

M turned a lopsided smile in her direction, a little self-deprecatingly. "The last part's the Catholicism."

"So, what? I'm supposed to take it on faith that I'm on the right side of this? I'm a doctor. I made an oath to do no harm. I'm supposed to help people, not help torturing them."

M sighed and came closer to her. "You don't carry a masked man bleeding to death into your apartment on faith. You knew which side you were on the moment you found me."

Sage couldn't deny that. She still felt conflicted though. M came closer still, probably sensing her mood. "I get it though." He said. "You don't have to be here for this."

Sage didn't move. She wanted to leave but she also wanted to stay. A few moments passed in silence.

"Why'd you help me, Sage?"

Sage bit her lip, figuring there was no harm in telling him. "I work at the ER, at Metro-General. I'm doing my fellowship as a trauma surgeon. A few weeks ago, the cops brought in three men. Said they were robbing tourists, beating them up pretty bad. Apparently, a man in a black mask took issue with their activities and decided to step in. I counted nine broken bones between them. A few days after that, EMTs bring in a 19-year-old waitress, said some guy she knew waited for her after work in the parking lot, attacked her...tried to drag her in the alley. She said she screamed and screamed, and a man in a black mask heard her..." At the end of the tale she was almost smiling, "and he saved her life." She couldn't completely hide the awe in her voice. "So, yeah, word's getting around. And I want to believe in what you're doing. I really do. But this?" She pointed to the tied-up man.

"I know you're afraid." M came closer still, voice suddenly gentle. "But you can't give in to the fear. If you do...men like this win."

Sage laughed but it was a bitter laugh. M looked taken aback. "You think this is what it is about, that I'm afraid? Trust me, that's not it. I just want to know, I need to know, that this is the right decision." She took another step forward until she was standing in front of him. She took his face in her hands and lifted his mask so that she could see his eyes. M looked surprised at her gesture but he didn't stop her. He couldn't look straight into her eyes but she could look into his. She cupped his face in her hands, his slight stubble prickling her palms, and begged him, "I need you to promise me that you will save that child and that you will bring him home to his father. Please, I need you to."

M placed his own hands, warm and calloused, over hers, squeezing them in his, and, in a solemn voice, he said, "I promise you."

Sage nodded and let him go. "Alright, then. I think it's time we wake him up." Her voice filled with sudden determination, her decision made.

M nodded as well, putting his mask back into place.

The man returned to consciousness slowly, his heart's rhythm changing from a slow and steady beat to a pounding staccato. His breath accelerated in his chest when he realized he was tied up. His head was still bleeding but it had slowed down.

Matt took two steps closer to him. Sage remained behind, standing immobile and silent, face and body now completely covered in black, almost like him – more as a way to intimidate the fake cop than to prevent him from recognizing her; he would figure out she was helping him sooner or later.

Her heart returned to the tranquil rhythm he had gotten used to during the night. Whatever doubts she had seemed to harbour before, she was steadfast in her determination now. Matt admired her bravery.

"Here's how this is gonna work," he said to the Russian man, "I'm gonna ask you some questions. You're gonna answer them. If you're lying to me...trust that I will know...and I will be unhappy." The man kept silent, and Matt couldn't detect any particular fear in him, not yet at least. "Where's the boy?"

"He's dead." The man said, with an arrogant smile.

Matt heard his heart skipping a beat, then accelerating. He was lying, luckily. Matt punched him in the face, holding back on most of his strength. "This is what unhappy looks like." He told him, voice taking on a colder edge that belied his fury. Sage, behind her, didn't flinch. "Where's the boy?" He asked again.

"What do you care? If he's not dead yet, he will be." The man replied, maintaining his air of arrogance.

"Why did you take him?"

"Figured you'd come running."

"And after I was dead?"

Matt felt like the man would have shrugged if he hadn't been tied up, he was so nonchalant in his reply, like it didn't matter to him one bit. And it didn't. He didn't care at all. "Sell the kid, like all the others."

Matt punched him again, this time stronger. He would have broken his jaw but he still needed him to speak. Sage's heartbeat quickened, her breath deepened, like she was finding it difficult to control. Matt had mistaken it for fear before, now he knew it for what it was. Anger. She was furious.

"I was telling the truth on that one." The Russian said.

Matt's jaw tightened in response. "I know."

"We got you good, didn't we?" He sounded amused, like it was all a big game to him.

"Who do you sell the children to?" Matt asked him.

"I don't know. Whoever has the money." Matt felt his fury rising and he could feel Sage's wasn't abating either. Their breaths synchronized in their effort to control their emotions.

"Where's the boy?" Matt asked for a third time.

"So you find him. So, what? We'll take another. Kill me, somebody takes my place. Long as people are buying, we'll be selling. Nothing you do tonight will change that. But go ahead. Keep hitting me. Let's see who drops first."

Matt was about to do just that when he felt Sage's hand on his arm, stopping his movements. For a moment he thought she was trying to stop him for hurting the man further. In fact, it was the opposite.

"Try stabbing him in his trigeminal nerve." Sage told him, her voice as cold as the Arctic Ocean.

"Where is it?"

"Go in through here," Sage said, touching his forehead over the mask to show him, "right above the eye. That's the supraorbital foramen. You want to go in right under there."

Matt nodded and turned back towards the Russian, a knife in his hand. He pointed to the place just below the man's left eyebrow. The man was finally showing nervousness, fear even. "Hold still. I might do some serious damage if you squirm." He tilted his head back in Sage's direction. "How will I know when I find it?"

"He'll tell you." Her voice was eerily calm, but her heart was thumping against her ribcage. Not in fear or apprehension. In anticipation, excitement even.

Matt pushed the tip of the blade a few centimeters in, but for the scream of pain the man let out he could have as well have been stubbed in the guts with a sword. Matt covered his mouth to muffle the sound, worried someone could hear him and come investigate.

"You're right...what you said before." Matt said when the man had stopped screaming and Matt had taken off the knife from inside his cranium. "I kill you, somebody takes your place, but they'll end up back here just like you, and sooner or later, one of you is gonna tell me what I need to know."

He didn't give the Russian time to answer. He released him from the rope that tied him to the ladder and lift his body until he was hanging over the parapet. Sage followed him, but didn't intervene. He picked the man back up so that he could be turned in his direction. "This is important. Shh!" He put a finger over his mouth in a shushing gesture when the man let out a whimper of fear. "Listen, I need you to know why I'm hurting you. It's not just the boy. I'm doing this 'cause I enjoy it."

Once again, the upper part of the man's body was hanging over the parapet. "No, no, no! No, no, no!" He loosened his grip a little and the man fidgeted and wriggled, trying to free himself. "Where is he?" The man still didn't answer. "Where is he?" He raised his voice and loosened his grip even more.

"No! No!" Another moment of silence and then, finally, "underneath Troika restaurant. Eleventh and 44th." He heard Sage sighed in relief. Matt nodded, relieved himself. He was telling the truth.

Matt let him go, back on his feet, safe on the rooftop. As soon as he was sure he wasn't going to be thrown off a roof the man resumed his arrogant manner. He laughed mockingly at Matt.

"They'll be waiting for you. If you're lucky, they'll kill you before they start in on the boy." Matt smiled to cover his rage. "It would be a shame for you to have to watch what they do to him... Oh!" Matt didn't let him finish. He simply grabbed the man's shirt with one hand and threw him off the roof.

Sage screamed, an instinctive response. She ran to see where the man had landed, taking off her mask.

"It's all right. He landed in the dumpster you pulled me out of."

"Is he dead?" She asked him. Matt checked but he already knew he wouldn't be. He had no intention of killing him, or anyone, as tempting as it was sometimes. "He'll live."

Sage nodded, sighing in relief. He heard her approaching him, steps light and sure, her alluring scent filling his nostrils. It was a pleasant distraction from the pain racking his body. Now that the adrenaline was wearing off, he was starting to feel it in full force.

"You need to get your things and leave. Don't tell anyone where you're going." He told her, ordered her to, really.

"What?" Sage's voice rose in indignation.

"He wakes up, he'll be back...and he won't be alone next time."

"But he didn't see my face."

"That was just for effect, to scare him." He explained. "He might have bought your act before but he heard your voice, saw you standing next to me and even if you were covered from head to toe, there's no hiding the distinctive color of your eyes. He's not that dumb, he can put some things together."

"How do you…? I thought you couldn't see."

"I can't. But I heard him mutter something about it. Sea green, right?" He wished he could see them, could see her face. All he could do was imagine some approximate version of her with the information he had, with the senses he had, but it would never be the same thing.

"Yeah." Sage answered. She sounded sad. "I have my mother's eyes."

Matt nodded. "Do you have somewhere you can go?" He asked her, then groaned when a stab of pain hit him. He stumbled a little and felt her warm hands on his hips, holding his weight.

"Hey, are you okay?" She asked him, sounding worried.

"Yeah. I'm fine. So, do you have somewhere to stay?"

"I can't just leave. What about my job?"

"Can't you take a few sick days? Just as long as I know they're not looking for you."

"I'm doing my fellowship and I work at the ER. I don't get days off, not unless I have a very valid reason for it, something I can actually explain. And I can't exactly say to my boss, 'hey, so, I need a few days because the Russian mob might be after me.' It wouldn't work."

"Okay." Matt said, understanding the situation. "But can you at least go stay somewhere else for a few days?"

"Yeah, I guess. There's always my sister but I don't want to involve her into all of this. She has enough problems to deal with already. I guess I could go stay at my colleague's. I cat-sit for her sometimes and she's in Oklahoma now, visiting her brother who's sick."

"What's the address?"

"Why?" Sage asked him, between suspicious and confused.

Matt grinned at her, a little sheepishly. "I'm thinking if I make it through the night, I may need some help getting patched up."

Sage frowned. Matt could almost sense her worry. "You will make it through the night. You made me a promise, remember?" She asked in a tone so serious, she almost sounded harsh.

Matt simply nodded, touched that she was worried for him even if she didn't really know him and after the mess he caused in her life.

"Tenth and 54th." She said then. "Apartment 412, um, in the building above the liquor store."

Matt nodded again, taking a few steps until he was standing next to her. "Hey," he told her, a hand on her shoulder. "Thank you, Sage," the sincere gratitude plain in his voice.

He walked past her but stopped when she called out to him. "What you said, about enjoying it? Was it true, even just a little?" There was no judgement in her tone, only compassion. "Because if it were, I would get it, you know? I wished I didn't but…I would. And I hope you won't judge me for it."

Matt hesitated, but then figured she had revealed so much to him already and she knew so little about him that he could tell her that, at least. "It is…true. Just a little. So, I would be a hypocrite to judge you."

Sage nodded in understanding. "Just…be careful. And come back, alright? This city needs you."

Matt smiled, feeling affection filling his chest towards this woman he had just met, this woman who had saved his life and helped him without ulterior motives, simply because she was a good person. People like her reminded him why he did what he did, risking his life night after night.

He didn't know how to express what her concern meant to him so he simply said, "I guess you'll see me later then."

Sage grinned back. "It's a date."