It started out as a perfectly normal day for Ian Nottingham. Upon waking, he went down to the mansion's gym and did a vigorous workout, pushing his body to it's limits until his tank top was soaked with sweat and his skin gleamed with moisture. A quick hot shower, breakfast, and he was out the door and on the way to his usual post watching over Sara Pezzini. It was a task he didn't mind so much anymore, since the death of Tommy Gallo. After that little incident Sara had started to tolerate his presence, even seemed to look for it from time to time. He suspected she knew he was there even when he remained hidden. Perhaps the Witchblade allowed her to feel his presence the same way he could always sense hers.
She hadn't had possession of the Witchblade for very long, or was it more accurate to say it had possession of her? But she showed remarkable stubbornness where it was concerned, and he was impressed and intrigued with her control, especially when she had managed to hold back the Blade-induced bloodlust when the Witchblade urged her to skewer Gallo in the subway tunnel. She would be a remarkable example of the Bloodline, he was sure. It was his job, his destiny, to make sure she survived long enough to learn how to wield the Witchblade. He had been training for this task all his life, it was all his purpose, all his reason for being. He felt honored to have been paired with such a powerful Wielder, and pleased that Sara exceeded all his expectations.
He settled on her fire escape, hidden in the early morning shadows, and watched her pour her second cup of coffee of the day. She sipped at the scalding black liquid absently while scanning through a folder. Ian assumed it was information on a current case. He ducked back out of sight with a slight smile when she glanced towards her fire escape. By the time he dared look again she was stuffing the file folder inside her jacket and grabbing her helmet. He turned and descended the rickety iron ladder to the ground, knowing she was heading for her bike and another hair-raising race to the office. He would follow more sedately, and safely, in his car.
Taking up his post outside the precinct, he caught a glimpse of Sara as she passed in front of the window to get more coffee. He grinned. That woman consumed amazing amounts of the bitter liquid every day. He wondered that she could shoot straight, for that much caffeine should surely make her hands shake. Knowing she wasn't in the middle of anything pressing, he decided to call her, as he had every morning since Gallo's death. It had become something of a ritual.
"Homicide, Pezzini," she answered her phone.
"Hey Sara," Ian said.
"Hey Nottingham," she replied, a smile tugging at her lips.
"Had any dreams lately?" Ian grinned as he said it, and he heard Sara chuckle before she hung up on him. He didn't mind that she hung up on him every day, it was part of the pattern set that first morning. He didn't call to chat with her anyway, it was just his way of letting her know he was there watching over her. Sometimes he wondered what she would think if he didn't call one day.
Ian had a boring morning watching Sara and her new partner, Jake McCarty, doing paperwork. Even in a city like New York detectives always had time to do paperwork. Though Ian knew that the Witchblade would start pulling Sara into cases it felt needed her attention and she would soon be very busy, he was glad she was having a respite, some time to let all that had happened to her sink in so she could cope with the upcoming changes in her life. Things would likely get very strange for the young Detective before too long as the forces arrayed against her and the Witchblade began seeking her out.
Sara and Jake took a break for lunch and went out to one of the many cafes in the area. Ian followed at a discreet distance, unseen by either detective even though he was close enough to hear them speaking. As usual Jake was trying to get Sara to go out with him, and Sara told him yet again she wouldn't date her partner. It would make things too complicated. Ian silently agreed with Sara, hoping she would stick to her decision not to date the blond for more than one reason. The more Ian watched Sara the more he was drawn to her, and the more he watched Sara with Jake the more he wished the blond Detective would fall off a cliff. Ian had never been jealous over a woman before, and he wondered if that was what he was feeling. His sheltered upbringing made him into the perfect assassin and bodyguard for his employer, Kenneth Irons, and the ultimate protector of the Wielder, but there were some areas of his education he felt had been left out. Interpersonal relationships and social customs were two of them.
After the partners had eaten and returned to the precinct to continue trying to put a dent in the ever-present mound of paperwork, Captain Siri called Sara into his office. Ian watched Sara enter the Captain's office, wishing he were close enough to hear what they were discussing, but contented himself with the somewhat better view he now had of Sara, watching the emotions playing across her face as she listened to Joe. From what Ian saw, this was going to be an unpleasant conversation for Sara, and he wistfully wished he could rescue her from it.
Sara walked into Joe's office and closed the door behind her at her Captain's gesture. Leaning up against the door jam, ankles and arms crossed, she waited to find out what Joe wanted, though she had a suspicion. She had hoped Joe would hold off a little while before asking her to keep her promise to explain from a few weeks ago.
"Sara, you need to tell me what has been going on," Joe stated bluntly. "Internal Affairs wants some answers. If I don't have something to tell them they'll investigate you, and you know how unpleasant they can be."
"God, Joe," she sighed, running her hand over her forehead and up into her hair in frustration. "I don't even know where to start. I know you're not going to believe half of it."
"Just tell me the truth," Joe said. "Start from the beginning."
"Promise me you'll hear me out," she insisted, unconsciously rubbing the bracelet on her wrist.. "I don't know if I can get through this if you keep interrupting me to tell me you don't believe me."
"If that's the only way you'll tell me, then okay," Joe agreed. Sara grabbed a chair and pulled it up close on the other side of Joe's desk, preparing to share confidences. She could feel the Witchblade urging her to keep its secret, but she fought it and won.
"It started that day at the museum," she began. "You know how everyone was wondering how I managed to come out of that explosion without so much as a singed hair. Well, this is why," she said, holding up her wrist and showing him the bracelet. He raised an eyebrow but held his peace, keeping his promise as she laid out the whole thing.
"And that's why I couldn't tell you what was going on before," Sara finished. "I didn't have enough control over the damn thing to make it let me."
"And you have that control now," he asked skeptically.
"Most of the time," she said. She glanced around, making sure the blinds in his office windows were closed so noone else in the precinct could see. Concentrating, she forced the Witchblade to morph into battle gauntlet form, extend the sword, then return to bracelet form. Joe nearly fell backward out of his seat, only being saved from a fall by having wall behind him. He was so startled he missed Sara's sharp glance at the Witchblade as it settled into a different bracelet form than before. The simple twisted silver wire was replaced with a much more ornate celtic design now.
"I…ah, this is going to take me some time to process," Joe said.
"You believe me," Sara asked. He nodded.
"I have to admit until I saw that thing change form I was doubting you. But there's no way you could have faked that in front of my eyes, and if that's real, well, I've never known you to lie to me before. And it sure does answer some questions. But I don't know what I'm gonna tell IA."
"Neither do I," she said. They sat in contemplative silence for several minutes.
"Does Jake know about this," Joe asked after a moment.
"I haven't told anyone but you," she said, shaking her head. "But you have no idea how good it was to be able to tell you the truth."
"I'm glad you still feel you can trust me with something like this," Joe said.
"Oh, Joe," Sara replied, tearing up a little. "After dad died you were the closest thing to a father I had. I'll always trust you." She leaned across his desk and gave him a quick hug.
"So," Joe said when she stood back up, a thought occurring to him. "What about this Nottingham character? He still stalking you?"
"More or less," she said. "He kinda watches my back. He doesn't interfere with my work, just makes sure I don't get in over my head with the, um, other stuff. And drops cryptic hints that pass for advice from time to time."
"Well, if he ever becomes a problem, you let me know," Joe said.
"Thanks, Joe," she said, smiling warmly at him, then opened the office door and let herself out. Before heading back to the pile of paperwork and her infatuated partner, Sara decided a trip to the ladies room was in order, mostly due to the amount of coffee she consumed every day, but also to take a few moments to compose herself. She felt a little shaky after her battle of wills with the Witchblade over telling Joe everything. The entire time it had tried to stop the words in her throat, and she had fought tooth and nail to get them out evenly. But it was such a relief to have been able to tell Joe everything, and knowing she could continue to tell him the truth in the future was a relief. Knowing there was someone she trusted whom she could confide in made her feel a lot better about things than she had in weeks.
As she pushed open the restroom door she stopped in her tracks, strangling a shriek. Danny was leaning casually against the wall near the paper towel dispenser. She shot him a venomous look out of habit, then grinned at him.
"Hey, Partner," she said as she headed into a stall and closed the door. "No peeking!"
"I wouldn't dream of it," he assured her, then changed the subject. "So, you told Siri."
"I didn't tell him you were haunting me," she replied. "I wasn't sure he would believe that. I'm still not sure I believe it."
"I'm impressed you could tell him anything at all," Danny said.
"It was really hard," she admitted. "But I wasn't going to lie to him, and he deserved an explanation."
"True. He's a good man. This is for the best in the long run," Danny said. "You need someone to talk to besides a rich megalomaniac, a psycho assassin, and a dead guy."
"It will be nice to have someone normal to talk to," she admitted as she washed her hands.
"When things get really weird it will be good to be able to explain to Siri what's really going on. Having the Captain know the real situation will help when you need to cover your ass."
"Like now with IA?"
"Internal Affairs could be a big problem," Danny said. "But Siri can hold them off for now."
The door opened and another woman walked in, causing Sara to glance over. When she looked back Danny was gone. She sighed and dried her hands. Probably for the best, she thought. She had stalled long enough getting back to her share of the paperwork.