Disclaimer: I don't own them, you know I don't, so keep reading.
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After she had hung up on Jake, Sara thought about the conversation. Apparently someone named Conchobar had died and she was supposed to be sad. Conchobar...What a weird name! That couldn't have been his real name.
"Who was Conchobar?" Sara asked curiously.
"An old friend of yours. You hadn't seen him in a while, and he died in a car crash in Ireland last Friday," Ian lied. It's not like he enjoyed lying to her, but Sara would just be distracted from her purpose right now if she really knew she had lost the love of her life...one of them anyway. She would never guess it, but Ian's devotion to her was greater than even Irons could imagine. In past lives he had been hers and unlike Sara, he could remember vividly. In different countries and centuries they had been together. They belonged together. But then she wasn't quite ready to know that either.
Sara however, had no idea what was going on inside Ian's head, and in her own, she was trying to figure out how to feel about someone named Conchobar. She had no memory about him, but apparently he had been a friend. Despite the fact that she had no clue who he was or what specifically he had meant to her, Sara felt saddened by his death.
"The truth is rarely pure and never simple," said Sara to nobody in particular.
"What?" Asked Ian.
"It's a quote by Oscar Wilde...I think. It's true though."
Ian was silent.
"Think about it even in this situation. I don't appear to have any big bumps or bruises on my head, so it's unlikely this is caused from head trauma. Besides, if it was injury, I would have gone to a hospital. I wouldn't have just gone home for a good night's sleep. And if it wasn't an injury, there aren't a lot of other options. And most of the others aren't accidental, they're intentional."
Ian added, "The most obvious would be chemical poisoning."
Sara silently agreed. "So there has to be some sort of test to figure out what chemical specifically was used. That way maybe we can find an antidote."
"There is a way," Ian admitted. "But the only way I know of isn't feasible...or safe for you."
"Why not?"
"There is an extremely rich and powerful man who I work for named Irons. He had the resources to do a test and find an antidote." But silently Ian wasn't even sure there was an antidote. And besides, not that he would tell her yet, but Ian had good reasons to believe Irons was somehow responsible. Maybe he was working with Cortese... "But, he is not someone to be trusted. There is little chance he would help you, and if he knew of your vulnerability he might take advantage of it."
"How? Why?"
Sighing, and then smiling, Ian looked at her quizzically. "You ask far to many questions. You know that don't you?"
Sara looked back at with mock anger. "Really?"
"Yes. Sometimes you just need to trust me and trust that I would never let anything happen to you."
Suddenly both of them felt quite awkward. This long pause was interrupted by a knock on the door.
Ian, immediatly suspicious and paranoid took out his previously concealed gun.
Sara didn't mind the gun, but she wasn't as suspicious. Unlike Ian, she was held a curiousity about everything in her life. She didn't know anything about herself, and so far she knew very little about other people in her life. It was along this train of thought that Sara came to a startling conclusion. In all her questions, she had neglected a very important one that should have immediatly been directed at Ian Nottingham. "You are you to me?" she asked.
Ian gave her a look that clearly told her 'Not now!' but Sara still made a mental note to make it the first item of discusson when they could talk together again.
Each moved to the door and looked through the peephole, the only difference was that Ian did it with one hand on the trigger. Seeing through, he was relieved to see it was only Gabriel Bowman, the internet kid.
"Do we know him?" Sara asked unsurely.
Ian though hard about his answer. He had told that kid Gabriel not to talk to Sara about the Witchblade, but to Ian's shock, Bowman had anyway. That wasn't something that happened often. On the other hand, what did Ian really care if Bowman was telling Sara about the Blade. Ian had only interfered because Irons had ordered him to. Maybe someday something the kid said would help give Sara the upper hand over Irons. That would be worth it.
Also, even though he knew more than Sara right now, he didn't know how exactly she lost her memory. He knew that her last case was investigating a drug dealer named Cortese. Cortese had been dealing for more than 8 years, and was suspect in 4 murders, but without evidence there was nothing the NYPD could do about it. Sara knew this but was still sent to investigate the murder of his business associate, Evenmere, who had been stealing some of the money from Cortese. The investigation into his murder was proving useless, but then by accident Sara discovered that Cortese was not just a run-of-the-mill drug dealer. He was actually an international arms dealer who used drugs as a cover. But this discovery was recent, so recent that Sara hadn't even gotten the chance to tell Jake yet. That night she went out to one of the clubs where Cortese does business, and when she came home she went to sleep. The next morning...
"Ian!" Sara asked again, trying to keep her voice down.
"What?" he replied, yanked out of his thoughts.
"You didn't answer he when I asked if we know him."
"Yes, we do. He's a friend."
Seeming happy enough, Sara opened the door to see Gabriel Bowman, holding a plain folder.
"What took you so long to answer the door?" he asked, not noticing that Sara didn't seem quite herself. "I almost left to go look for you at the precinct, but when I called, Jake said that you still might be here. Something about missing your flight..." He let that sentence hang open, hoping Sara would complete it with an explanation, but he received none.
Then turning around for the first time, he saw Nottingham. Instinctively he took a step back in fear. When they had first met, Ian Nottingham had tried to bribe him not to talk about the Blade with Sara. When that didn't work, Ian had threatened him. But Bowman talked to Sara anyway. Since that one meeting, Gabriel had not seen or heard from Ian, figuring it was a good sign, and that Ian's threats were empty, that he was bluffing. Seeing him in Sara's apartment, gun in hand, only several feet away from him, the young kid wasn't so sure anymore.
"What are you doing here?" all three asked simultaneously, Sara and Ian to Gabriel, Gabriel to Ian.
Sara sighed, and then muttered under her breath, "This is going to be a long day."
TBC
