Feebies and Phones

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Still seething, Sara pulled into the parking lot for her apartment building. She dropped the kickstand with more force than was strictly necessary and stripped off her helmet. Stowing it on the back of the bike, Sara pulled her he cell phone out. She dialled as she walked, heading for the entrance.

"Come on, come on," Sara muttered as she listened to the ring tones. She wanted to do this while she was still angry enough to. It was hard, harder than she'd thought it would be, to make the call. Even after everything Joe had done, it still felt like a betrayal on her part.

A bitter laugh escaped her lips. Who was the traitor here? But that was how it felt to give up her old captain and surrogate father to the Rat Squad. It was so final. Once she told Jake about Siri, it was all over. She couldn't take it back or change her mind.

"Hello," the voice that picked up the line wasn't Jake's. "Who is this?"

"Who the fuck are you?" Sara retorted and narrowed her eyes, wasting a glare on the door to her apartment building. She was nervous about making this call in the first place. The last thing she needed was for Jake to have lost his cell phone somewhere.

"Ah, you must be Detective Pezzini. I'm Agent Myers," The agent's voice was brisk, professional, but with friendly overtones.

Myers might sound perfectly amiable, but Pez wasn't going to believe him to be an agent on his say-so. "Yeah? Well, why don't you put my partner on the line, Agent Myers."

"He's unavailable at the moment. What can I do for you?" Myers was still calm, but the hint of warmth that had been in his voice was gone.

"You can put McCarty on the phone before I bust your ass." Alarm bells were going off. Why couldn't Jake come to the phone? Was he all right?

"McCarty said you were going to be difficult." Myers sounded vaguely amused by her threat.

"You have no idea how difficult I can be." The threat was fired off with flat, cold certainty. That little punk didn't know who he was fooling with. Sara would see how flippant he was once the Witchblade was dimpling his throat.

He must have believed her, because Agent Myers suddenly became more forthcoming. "Look, I can't put him on right now. Your partner was shot in the back less than an hour ago."

"What?" Her voice was high, filled with shock and disbelief.

"And he's being examined right now." Myers kept on talking like she hadn't interrupted.

"How's he doing?" Sara stopped, heart in her throat. Not again, she couldn't take it if she lost another partner. All the pain of losing Danny roared through her, almost bringing her to her knees.

"He was wearing his vest, but the shot was almost point blank. There's some concern about internal bleeding, especially since the impact was directly over his left kidney." Agent Myers gave her the bad news straight up.

"Which hospital are you at?" Sara turned back toward her motorcycle.

"St. Bart's,"

That wasn't too far, by New York standards. In fact, it was pretty much on her way back from Joe's, only further south. If she'd called sooner, she could have saved some driving time. "I can be there in about forty minutes."

"You don't have to come down here. If there's anything wrong, he's going immediately into surgery, and if there isn't, he'll be ready to leave by the time you could get here." Myers sounded surprised that she would bother.

"I don't care. He's my partner. I'll be down." Pezzini shot back, wondering just what Jake was telling everyone about her. Sure she could be an asshole, but did they really think she was that unfeeling?

"If they cut him loose before you get here, I will let him know you are coming."

"Good." Sara fumbled one-handed with the strap holding her helmet to the bike. She was about ready to leave, but she couldn't face the drive without knowing some facts. "How did it happen?"

"He didn't wait for back-up." There was a pause filled with unspoken profanity, "McCarty's lucky to be alive."

"Who shot him?" Pezzini growled.

"Don't worry about it, his assailant has been arrested." Myers clammed up again, giving her absolutely nothing.

"Fine, but who did it?" Sara pushed, feeling like a kid left out of the loop by the grown-ups.

"Look, this line may not be secure. If you're coming down here anyway, the details can wait until we're face to face."

Oh. Well, that makes sense. Pez paused for a moment, letting the implications of that statement sink in. This wasn't some random shooting or an 'officer tries to handle a nutball with a gun at the local convenience store' thing.

"You'd better tell me everything when I get there. I'm sick of stumbling around in the dark." Sara bit out. The house of cards had fallen down around her ears tonight, and she had no tolerance for secret-keeping conspiracy crap left.

"We aren't the only ones holding out Pezzini. You want the truth, you'd better be more forthcoming as well." Myers' voice was as clipped as her own.

"I don't know what you're talking about." Sara shot back.

"Don't you detective?" The irony was thick enough to cut.

Pezzini opened her mouth to reply, but found herself talking to the dial tone. She did know, but there was no way HE should. Hell, she'd just found out about most of it tonight. She jammed the phone in her pocket and strapped on the black helmet, her already bad mood taking a nosedive to worse.

"Sonofabitch," Sara complained as she fired up the Buell, "I hate Feebies."

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