Chapter 3: Early Morning Meetings

Chapter 3: Early Morning Meetings

It was three in the morning and Sara still could not get back to sleep after the dream she had just had. She decided that a long brisk walk was in order, something to give her time to think about what she had seen, and think about what she was feeling. She grabbed her jacket and gloves, it was going to be a cold morning; she could feel it. The Witchblade tightened on her wrist warming her right arm. Sara could since that this was not going to be a normal walk the minute she stepped out of her apartment complex and onto the sidewalk. The wind had a distinct chill in it, like something was coming. As she began to walk down the sidewalk toward her favorite bakery, she turned the opposite direction and started walking in the direction of Irons' home. The Witchblade breathed heavily on her arm. It had made her change directions, for what reason she did not yet know, but it only made noises like the heavy breathing when a certain person was around, Ian Nottingham.

Earlier that night: Ian was sitting on his couch, his face in his hands. The pain is his back had become almost unbearable. The last time Irons beat him like that was ten years ago. It had been for the same purpose, Constance. Ian had tried everything to erase her memory from his mind. He thought that he had forgotten her until yesterday, when he found a picture of her in Irons' top desk drawer. Had Irons really loved her? Ian doubted it; she had been a prized possession, nothing more. Constance had loved Irons that much was true. Ian could still remember the day she left a broken woman. Irons had stripped her of everything: her dignity, her pride, her love, and the Witchblade. Ian still did not know how Irons obtained the Witchblade from her, but he did know that it disappeared along with Constance shortly after she had left. Irons had been furious that day, throwing things around the room and at Ian. He could not believe that the Witchblade had willingly left him. She was his and his alone as everything Irons owned or thought that he owned. Ian's back spasmed in pain, shocking him back to the reality that he was one of Irons' possessions. He needed to get out, out of his apartment and out of his programmed life for at least an hour or two. He needed to be normal; not an enigmatic assassin, or Irons' bodyguard or even a guardian of the Witchblade; just a normal person, even if it would be just an hour. Ian redressed his wounded back and put on a pair of jeans and an old camo-green T-shirt. He was going to take a walk as a normal adult, and he wanted to look the part. He couldn't help but feel slightly afraid when he was out of his normal black assassin attire; his uniform was comforting and familiar. Anything and everything new that came into his life that was outside his "normal" routine was frightening. Just another thing that haunted him that he could thank Irons for. He walked over to his apartment door and out into the cold night.

Sara felt a strange presence drawing closer to her as she neared the city's park. A strange mist had risen all around her in a matter of seconds as she turned the corner to face the now gloomy looking park. Out of the mist rose strange noises, what sounded like child's laughter and a young woman's voice. It was haunting; Sara wanted to leave, to go back to her warm apartment and her strange dreams. She was just about to turn and walk away when the voices became clear, "Ian!" Sara stopped dead in her tracks, was this another vision? "Ian, get over here my little man." The woman's voice was gentle and filled with laughter. Sara could hear the laughter of a child. "Got you!" Sara jumped, the child laughed again with pure joy. "Ian, we need to go home."..."Do we have to?" The little boy's voice sounded very young...."Yes, we have to." The little boy called Ian, groaned. Sara focused her eyes, she could swear that she could see a woman and child's silhouette through the mist. The little boy was standing, straight and tall looking at the woman who was bending down to be at his height. The little boy dropped his head. "Ian, look at me." The little boy raised his head slowly, "Don't you ever think that just because HE tells you not to look him in the eye, means you can't look at me." The little boy reached out and hugged her neck. The woman stroked his curly hair. The Sara heard the little boy say something that made her eyes tear up, "May I call you mother?" The woman pulled the boy gently back to look at his face, her hand still stroking his hair. "Yes, I would be honored if you would call me your mother." The little boy grasped her tightly as she picked him up, "Just not around Ken, okay?"..."Okay." The woman and child started walking toward Sara out of the mist.

Sara panicked, she turned to run, feeling like an eavesdropper and saw a person right in front of her. "Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!" She screamed falling backwards onto the hard concrete.

Danny was standing above her with a small smile on his face. "Things aren't always what they seem, are they?" She looked around and the mist was gone, along with the woman and child. "Um...I would help you up, but I don't have any matter." He smirked.

Sara picked herself off the ground, still looking around. "Why do you always have to scare me?" She was visibly shaken.

"Sorry, Pez." He rolled his eyes. "Doesn't look like I was your first haunting tonight though."

Sara's eyes were worried, "She was walking right towards me. I felt like I was disturbing a sacred place."

"This place is sacred."

"What do you mean? It's the park, not some sort of Indian burial ground." Her sarcasm made Danny laugh.

"It may not be that, but it is sacred to some people. You know who I'm talking about."

"Sara?" Sara jumped and would have had "an accident" if she had drunk a lot of water that night.

She turned around to see Ian standing behind her with a freaked out expression on his face. His eyes were glassy, she could tell he was hurting from something. "Don't do that...ever...ever again!" Her voice was wavering.

"Sorry, were you talking to someone?" He raised his eyebrows at her. He looked different somehow tonight. He looked freer.

"Uh...no...I was talking to myself." Sara looked him over; he was wearing normal clothes! He was wearing a pair of old dark blue jeans and a ratty looking camo-green T-shirt. "What's up with the new look?" She smiled at him. He looked nice. He just looked at her blankly, and dropped his eye contact that he had held on her eyes. He hadn't realized how long he had been watching her face. "How long have you been behind me?" Sara asked sheepishly.

"Long enough to know that you weren't talking to yourself, Sara." He walked over to a park bench and sat down, keeping his back from touching it. Sara walked over and sat next to him. Her heart was racing and she knew that it was not from her recent scares. He was staring at a dark path that stretched out through the park. "So, why are you out tonight?" His voice sounded like a child's, "and why here?" He kept his eyes straightforward, staring into the night. Somehow he had known that he would meet her tonight, he also knew that she had shared the dream with him, she was bound to be curious about "her".

"I couldn't sleep." She paused noticing blood seeping through is shirt. "Uh, Ian?"

"What?"

"You back is bleeding..." She reached for his back and he stood up, moving away from her. "Let me look at it." She stood up and tried to reach for it again. He resisted and moved away. "You, idiot! You'll bleed to death, LET ME CHECK IT!!!"

He could tell that she was really upset and let her move toward him. She gently lifted the back of his shirt and was taken back by how many wounds were seeping through the gauze that he had applied. She tried to lift one of the gauze pads, "Enough." He said quietly pulling away. "I'm fine, leave it."

She felt his pain again, like in the dream. "You never told me why you came to the park tonight." She moved away from him to give him space, she could tell that he needed it.

"You know why, Sara." He turned to look at her.

She met his eyes with her own, "Is this place sacred to you?" She touched the bracelet on her wrist as it breathed heavily, "It's sacred, because...because of her, Constance." She watched his eyes fill with tears. "You came here with her a lot didn't you? When you were a boy?" Sara felt an urge to hold him.

He moved slowly over to a small patch of grass in the middle of the path. There was a small tree growing out of the middle of the patch. He touched its leaves and trunk with a gentleness that Sara had never seen. "We...planted this together. It was our secret. Something the Irons has never been able to kill." Bitterness was filling his voice and face.

He dropped to his knees at the bottom of the tree and started sobbing like a baby. Sara walked over and knelt beside him. She lifted his drooping head and stroked his hair away from his face. His face had become that of a child's, longing for a mother to comfort him. Sara stared into his eyes. His hand went up to her face and he slowly leaned towards her. Their lips parted as both of them exhaled, they could feel each other's heartbeats racing, blood pulsing through their veins, making their body temperatures rise. Sara could feel the warmth of his other hand stroking her neck softly; she could feel his breathing on her face. It's like everything had become slow motion, her body was screaming waiting for the moment that their lips would meet.

There was a loud *SNAP* and they both pulled away startled. Ian turned his eyes down the path, a woman stood there, hidden on the shadows. Ian sprang to his feet and the woman took off running. "Where are you going?" Sara yelled after him while starting to run herself.

Sara could barely keep up with him, but he could barely keep up with the woman. He yelled back at Sara, "It's her! It's Constance, my mother!!"

Sara watched as Ian's exhaustion mixed with his blood loss, he dropped to the ground, unconscious. As Sara feel at Ian's body, his breathing was shallow. Sara held him as the woman disappeared into the night.