Ch. 2 -Different
"So, Pez, how as last night?" This was probably the tenth time Danny had asked her about her early day off yesterday. Normally, Sara would have told him to go dig his grave, but not today, it was…different. True, they had gone at it on the hard floor, but sometime during the night Ian had moved her to the bed. Whoa, when did I start thinking of psycho-Galahad Nottingham as Ian, Sara thought with a jolt. She could feel a smile tugging at her lips, Irons' henchman sure knew how to make a woman happy.
Sara was so involved in the play by play of last night that she didn't notice Danny. "Pez, hello? Anyone in there? Somehow I don't think that it's the food that you're remembering from last night."
Pezinni let the smile grow. "No, you're right."
"Ah, the 'I just got laid and it was good' smirk. Come on Sara, who was it? If it were someone in the precinct, then I woulda heard, so it's someone else…" Sara let him do his mental detective work in his head without interruption. "Is it the Irons dude? He's been calling an awful lot lately." Danny looked at her expectantly.
"What? You have known me for how many years and you still think I'll be the one to kiss and tell? You gotta be kiddin'!" Sara laughed at him. "You're as bad as Vicki."
"I am not as bad as Vicki! First of all, I'm a man, and second of all, she'd want to know with whom, where, when, how many times and what positions. She lives through others like a bad romance novel. I only want to know with whom." Danny wrinkled his face, "Ugh, bad mental image about Irons. On second thought, don't tell me about it at all. I'll leave that up to Vicki." Sara laughed along with her Asian partner, soon both had tears in their eyes.
Eventually Danny calmed and looked at the green-eyed woman, a strange set to his face. "Last night must have really been a good one, you're different."
Sara cocked her head to the side inquisitively, "Different?"
"Yeah, you're kinda…I don't know-different. It's almost like you have switched bodies with someone, or, ah… You were really spaced out yesterday, today you're buzzing. And it ain't from caffeine. It was kind of like you were the living dead," Danny didn't even realize he was he was treading on ice until Sara gave him a cold glare across the desks.
The waves of anger that Sara directed towards her companion set her emerald eyes alight. It seemed like Sara was using up all his air for him. Danny couldn't breather for the pressure on his lungs. "I, uh," Danny coughed, "I should go."
Sara crossed her arms over her chest and scowled, "Yeah, you should."
Danny jumped out of his chair and grabbed for his coat. Never turning his back, the man edged out of the office slowly and warily, as if he were about to be attacked. Perhaps he was. Only when he had left did Sara uncross her arms, but she dtill scowled, "Different…" The word slipped out and she felt very, very, very dirty from it. She couldn't help but feel the slime of the word cover her: it made her skin itch. The Witchblade didn't wish to help either. The bracelet on her wrist provided her brain with plenty of graphic images, most including blood, worms, and mud, not to mention a flying view of Sodom and Gomorra.
Sara had to take several deep breaths to quell her rampant mind and racing hear. She was going nuts. The brunette laughed softly. The very idea of insanity was hilarious, Wielders didn't go crazy, it would never happen. The only thing was that Sara had already put a mental block up about her assisted suicide attempt only hours before.
Several hours later, Sara still laughed quietly, but it was more of a chuckle now instead of her previous consuming one. The day had been boring but bearable after Danny had left, and the graphic reports hadn't bothered her one jot the whole time. The Witchblade had gone quiescent and wasn't offering up any insights to anything, but, oddly enough, Sara was quite content to observe the carnage from a purely human perspective. She was almost…happy. As preposterous as it was.
Or, at least, she had been happy, but Bruno Dante didn't like his most hated inferiors to be happy. It had seemed he was still upset about his nose when he arrived with a sneer on his face and more paperwork. Sara wished that he were one of her homicide cases. The Witchblade certainly twitched at that. While it would have been all too much fun to let the Witchblade have its way, she just ignored the purposely butchered use of her surname and took the stack of papers given to her. The wan was such a prick, but she didn't need to let him know it.
It had only been a few minutes before the man Sara hated to call Captain came back to her office. "Pezinni, I forgot to tell you, I want those filed by tonight, you have already put off half of your work. The government actually pays people like you, so sad as you are. Get your ass on it." Dante paused for a moment to look around. "Where's your partner?"
Sara didn't even pretend to be scared by the man glaring down at her, "I don't know where Danny is, maybe you should piss off and go look for him youself." She smiled and Dante's jaw dropped.
"I'm going to kick you outta the Force so hard that you'll bust your ass when you hit the ground."
Sara leaned languidly against her desk. "What are you going to do? I know you have nothing one me, so no bad cop to your 'good' cop. I've got far more dirt on you than you'll ever get on me and you know it."
Dante fumed in front of her and she enjoyed it. True, Sara might have been playing with fire, but it was fun; who cared that she might be burned. There were lots of people who had grudges against cops, but there would be very few who could stand up to Kenneth Irons and his assassin toy, Ian Nottingham. Besides, even if she didn't have protection from high up the ass-kissing chain, she had the Witchblade, plus, she liked pissing people off. The woman had certainly succeeded by the look on her captain's face.
"Pezinni, you may be on the good side of some powerful people, but I am the law around her. You step on tow outta line and your guts are going to hand you. I don't care if I have to go outta my way to do, I'm going to make your life a living hell!" Sara couldn't believe it: Dante's face was turning red! Another go at it then.
"My life a living hell? You telling me I'm still alive? I'll be damned, I thought I was dead already and this was hell." She chuckled at her own words. Sara could wait until he stepped out of line until she played her last card.
"I can fix that for you. You're going down, Pezinni, and when you see a gun pointing at your head, it'll be me pulling the trigger." At this Dante looked extremely smug and Sara couldn't help bust his bubble before it got too big.
"And when the gavel hits at your internal affairs trial know that it was my evidence that got you convicted." Sara altered her voice to that of an annoying game show host, "Bruno Dante, you're on Convicted Camera!" Captain Dante glared at her in rage before he turned and stormed out. Sra burst out laughing as soon as he was out of her office.
During her maniacal tittering fit, Jake walked in and took a seat at Danny's desk. He arched and eyebrow inquisitively. "What was all that about?"
The bruneete forced herself to be calm and answered the rookie's question. After the explanation and the fact that she hadn't really caught him on tape, Jake too curst out laughing. Soon, both had tears streaming down their faces from the joy of putting down Dante. "Oh, God," Jake hic-coughed out from his laughter, "he looked like he had shit a brick! That is justice. I can't believe you sometimes."
Sara bouldn't believe herself either, this was the second time in as many days that she had told her boss off and she wasn't dead. She hadn't just towed the line, she'd danced a jig across it and then rubbed it out completely. It was amazing that Dante hadn't punched her back yesterday. Probably some relic of self-restraint that still held firm, he wouldn't want to be seen duking it out with a female detective. He would have been soiling himself. At that thought she quieted and tried to catch her breath.
"Pez, you're gonna get yourself in a lot of trouble!"
Sara smiled but failed to notice that Jake had forgot to breath. He had an almost school-boy crush on her for a long while, she just had something about her that he had fallen for. It was probably the fact that she was so independent, that and the total obliviousness Sara seemed to have when it regarded romantic notions from anyone around her. Well, it was time to bite the bullet so to speak. "Sara, would you like to go to dinner tonight?"
The woman in question did a major double take with a jerk of her head. In a quick few seconds her mouth turned a perfect 'O' of surprise before she let out a shaky breath. "Uh, Jake…"
"It's alright," He certainly wasn't going to make himself seem like a fool outta this, but it certainly did burn. "If you don't want to it's fine just know the offer is open."
Sara smiled somewhat nervously before answering. "It's not like…" She walked the verbal roads with extreme trepidation before committing to a single path. "Jake, I am attracted to you, but, I'm kinda involved with someone right now."
Jake's stomach flopped onto itself, she had said that she was attracted to him, that was good for starters, but then she had followed it up with the statement that she was with someone. He wasn't sure if it was an attempt to let him down easy, and the idea that she was involved made him boil inside. No, it wasn't like he owned her, but she had never really dated anyone that he knew of and he should have been able to date her… Instead of answering more possessive instincts, Jake forced out a smile. "Oh, good to hear, good luck with it then."
Sara noticed his strained voice and cast him a worrying glance, afraid for once that she had ruined a working relationship. Now that she really looked at Jake, she really was attracted to him. Dress him up a little better and cure him of his hatred of the cold and he would be a great guy. He did have a nice smile and when he worked out she was certainly one of the one's watching, but it was complicated. "Thanks, you're definitely better about it than Danny. But, I'm off the market at the current moment."
The silence that stretched over both of them couldn't even be construed as comfortable and Sara was extremely grateful when Jake shrugged and said that he would be in the gym. She was almost involved if you counted a rough tumble between her and Nottingham, he was always around in a stalker-ish sort of way. It really was time to talk to his boss about getting his watchdog off her back. Not that she would mind him there physically, just metaphorically.
With a resolution to take care of certain barriers that she had put between herself and the man who wished to be in the roll of her 'benefactor,' Sara picked up the phone and dialed. "Hey Nottingham," she said after his familiar answer of 'Hey Sara,' she swore he had telepathy. "About that dinner with Kenny-boy, what should I wear?"
Next, see what happens at 1111 Faust St.
I MUST MAKE THIS STATEMENT NOW:
This won't be regular updates, my computer is in the shop and I have to use the one at the library, so, needless to say, they don't like me there. I will try to get everything written though, it's just this: my summer's are always busy as hell.
Her Lover's Spy.
