Author's note:Thanks to everyone who read and reviewed!I didn't thow there were this many of us Witchblade fans out there! I'm aware that the email link no longer works; give me a bit of time and I'll find out what's going on with that. Yes, there are going to be more chapters. This is going to be a long one. Hang onto your hats, people! Here we go!
Chapter 2
Sara didn't take her usual route home; instead, she rounded the corner on her bike and stopped in the parking lot of the doughnut shop. Through the tinted lens of her bike helmet, she could see a small shape huddled against the wall of the doughnut shop, apparently trying to keep warm. As she got off her bike and took her helmet off, the sound of raspy coughing filled the air. Sara winced at the sound, and frowned as a large, fat drop of rain splattered on the pavement in front of her. Then another. And another. By the time she got across the lot it was raining hard and steadily, drenching everything in a cold, damp deluge. And the Witchblade had gone from a nagging tingle at the back of her mind to a full-blown tantrum she was only too happy to accede to…for once.
Jade was huddled up on the ground against the wall, curled up in a tiny miserable ball, shivering and coughing. Sara bit her lip at the sound, and gently touched the girl's shoulder. "Jade…hey. Thought I told you to go home?"
The little girl turned to look up at Sara wearily, and Sara sucked in a sharp breath. Her skin was paler than she had been just an hour earlier; and now there was a slight sheen of sweat on the freckled nose and cheeks, despite the shivering. And the cough, that dry, terrible cough, sounded worse than ever. "Jade, you're sick. You're really sick. Come on, let me take you home." She took the heavy backpack lying on the ground under Jade's head and took the girl's arm, helping her stand upright. The change in position triggered another coughing fit, and Sara waited while the fit passed. When the girl could talk again, she said firmly, "I'm going to take you to a hospital. You're really sick."
"No!" Jade's voice hardly sounded normal now. "No, I can't go…can't pay…haven't got money…" She started pulling away from Sara, who, alarmed at the prospect of the girl going back to that filthy, rainy alley, took a firmer grip on the small hand.
"All right, all right. No hospital. Got that." Sara tried to sound soothing, but she was really worried. "At least let me take you home, then." Jade looked like she was going to protest, but Sara started walking to her bike, and the girl trailed reluctantly behind her. Sara shouldered the backpack, surprised at how heavy it actually was on her shoulders, and wondered how Jade could carry this weight around all the time. "Get on the back of the bike, and wrap your arms around my waist. And hang on!" Jade did so, laying her head against her backpack on Sara's shoulders. Sara took off.
With the streets emptying quickly due to the rain, it didn't take long for Sara to make her way through the maze of city streets, taking alley shortcuts when she could to get them to the apartment building quickly. Jade tried to take her backpack from Sara when they got there, but Sara refused to relinquish it, and then was glad she did so later whenshe found the elevator was broken and they had to take the stars. Sara, fit and active, took the stairs easily, but Jade seemed to be having problems, getting short of breath and stopping to rest frequently as they took the eight flights up. Under the harsh fluorescent lights of the stairwell, Sara could see that Jade was worse than she'd originally looked. Either that cold she'd had earlier had worsened suddenly, or Sara hadn't been paying much attention and the light hadn't been too good the first time around. The coughing seemed to get worse as they went on, and Sara's anger grew toward the careless mother who would ignore her child when the child was as sick as Jade. She was quite furious as she marched down the narrow, graffiti-covered hall to the door of Jade's apartment.
Jade paused in front of the door, and tried the knob. It wasn't locked. She turned to Sara, face flushed and panting but smiling a little. "Mom's home," she said. "I'll be okay. Can I have my backpack now please?"
"I want to talk to your mother," Sara said, and knocked loudly on the door. There was no answer. She knocked again, and then finally she heard a faint rustle. "Coming, coming," said a male voice, and Jade's eyes suddenly widened. She shrank back, away from the door, and looked terrified as the door opened.
Sara blinked once in surprise. In the doorway stood a mountainous black man, well over six feet tall. He looked at her up and down, contemptuously, then his face split in a lacivious leer. "Wal, ain't you the sight for sore eyes," he drawled, leaning against the doorframe. "Lookin' for a job, sweetie? I can make you very rich…and happy."
Sara had to clench her fist to keep the Witchblade from lashing out, attuned to her temper. "No, thanks. I'm fine with the one I have. I need to talk to Jade's mother." She fished out and flashed her badge; she might be off duty, but sometimes the badge was the only way to get across to some of these people that she meant business.
His face lost that suggestive leer. "Ah, so the brat comes back." He grabbed Jade's arm, shaking her back and forth roughly. "Didn't we tell ya ta stay away till we were done?" Jade stared up at him, wide-eyed, obviously afraid, tears filling her big green eyes. "Why the hell she went an' had a brat like you is beyond me. You're useless. Get outta here!" he shoved her backwards as he let go of her arm, and Jade collided with the opposite wall of the hallway, triggering another violent coughing fit. The big man stepped out into the hall, advancing on the tiny girl, and Sara had it. She drew her gun, stepping between Jade and the behemoth.
"Step into the apartment!" The man eyed the gun warily, then stepped back after a few tense moments and backed into the apartment, still eyeing Sara warily. "Now. I want to talk to Jade's mother."
"Hey, Sal! Your brat's back and she just brought some meddling cop woman with her!" The man yelled. "Get your lazy fat ass out here!"
Sara holstered her gun and went to Jade, picking the child up and laying a soothing hand on her shoulder as the girl stepped into the apartment. It was a truly awful place. The carpet was tattered and torn, dirty and scorched where cigarettes or joints had fallen onto it. The air was thick with cigarette smoke, and Sara shuddered when she saw a movement back along the far wall behind the worn, shabby couch. A mouse or rat, most likely. It looked like someone had made an effort to clean and straighten up, and a few small misshapen clay lumps sat on tattered white paper squares in an effort to look homey. Probably school projects of Jade's that she brought home to try and make the place look better, Sara surmised, watching the girl go automatically to one of those clay lumps and pick it up, setting it upright carefully. There were a few crayon drawings done right on the wall itself, lending a bit of color to an otherwise grimy, filthy, bleak room.
Then a door across the room opened, and Sara started coughing herself as a palpable stench of smoke from numerous unnamed substances came out of that room. Jade started coughing too, and Sara holstered her gun, dropped the backpack, and held Jade, whispering soothing nonsensical syllables as the girl's body desperately tried to clear her lungs of the fetid odors. She was interrupted by a drawled, laconic, "Well? What's the brat done now?"
Sara stared at the woman in disbelief. This was Jade's mother? Hair dyed a platinum blonde with faded red roots, face garishly made up with cheap cosmetics that made her look years older, and so stoned and drunk she could barely stand upright…Sara tried to get control of her anger, because the Witchblade was picking up on it and chattering angrily in her mind, urging her to paint the walls with the blood of these two horrible creatures. "She hasn't done anything, ma'am. I found her on the street halfway across town coughing her lungs out next to a doughnut shop. Your daughter's terribly sick. She needs to see a doctor."
"I know that." the woman looked Sara over, then dismissed her casually and walked over to Jade. "Did you get any money? Bring me any doughnuts?"
Jade shook her head. "No one gave me any," she said quietly. "Please…I'll be real quiet, you won't even know I'm here. I promise…" Sara decided not to mention the five she'd given Jade. The girl had probably spent it on something to eat.
"Brat. Think I want you here while Hakeem and I are doing business?' the woman looked at the big black man with an expression of such simpering adoration that Sara wanted to be sick. Or peel her face off. Something like that. The Witchblade was almost roaring in her mind now, and it was getting harder and harder to block it out.
"Ma'am, maybe you didn't hear me. She needs somewhere warm to sleep, medicine, and warm food. She shouldn't be out on the street when she's this sick."
"Look here, bitch," the woman said, giving Sara her full attention, "Brat's been sick for a while. Gonna be sick till she dies. I can't afford the medicines and all those expensive treatments the doctor at the clinic said she needs. I can't even afford to feed her. If she wants to eat she has to earn her own money to eat. She knows that. Stop stickin' your nose in where it don't belong." She turned to Jade, staring at the shivering, sweating girl, then said, "Aw, hell. I got company comin', you can't sleep on the couch like you usually do. Get in the tub and close the curtain, and ain't nobody gonna know you're there." Jade nodded simply and grabbed her backpack, coughing as she dragged it in the direction of the grimy bathroom Sara could see through a broken door at the left of the kitchen.
"She doesn't have a bedroom? Or a bed?" Sara's heart had almost stopped, and now she was speaking through anger-clenched teeth.
"Couch's good enough for her. Now I'd like you to leave, or my customers won't come while they smell a cop in here." The woman turned and stumbled unsteadily back toward the bedroom, and, shocked at the sudden dismissal, Sara let herself be propelled out the door. It wasn't till she was in the hall, staring at a closed and locked door that she snapped back into awareness.
Still somewhat dazed, she went down the narrow stairs and back out to the parking lot, where fortunately her bike was still standing unmolested. She swung astride the bike and pulled her notebook out of her jacket pocket, jotting down the address. "Damnit, I didn't even get her last name," she suddenly realized. "Maybe I should…" but she didn't feel like taking those stairs back up. "And what did she mean that Jade was going to be sick until she dies?" That was bothering Sara. She sat there for a bit, wondering what he meant, and then got back off the bike and went into the building.
At the far end of the first-floor hallway was a door marked 'Rent office'. Sara went to the door, knocked on it, then opened it without further preamble. Inside was a grossly fat, balding black man, puffing on what looked like a joint, which he hid as soon as he saw her. "What can I do for you, Ma'am?" he said with a false show of politeness. His eyes were busy devouring her black t-shirt, jeans, and the black leather jacket she wore, all fitting and obviously not thrift-store purchases.
"I need information about a tenant you have living in 11G," Sara said, pulling her notebook out. "a woman named Sal, and a little girl, her daughter, named Jade? I don't know the last name."
"Oh, the Dorans. Yeah, Sal Doran's a good lay. I give her a discount on the rent 'cause she'll give me some whenever I want it." He didn't elaborate on the 'some', and Sara didn't really want to know. "Her pimp Keene's a good sort, makes sure his girls get a fair amount of business and makes sure they get their cut outta his friend Hakeem's drug business." Sara winced inwardly, but kept scribbling notes as she asked, "And the little girl? Jade?"
The man sniffed. "Oh, her. Little mite of a thing. If Sal weren't such a good lay I'd make them leave cause the brat's coughing disturbs everybody in the apartments around them. At least Sal keeps her out of the place most nights so the other residents can sleep."
Sara closed her notebook. "Sal. Keeps. Her. Out. Of. The. Apartment. Most Nights." She spaced each word out slowly, carefully, unable to believe what she'd just heard. The fat man nodded. "So where does she go?" The man shrugged, and Sara pocketed her notebook, leaning over the desk. "Am I to understand that she spends most of her nights roaming the streets? Around here? And you're okay with that? Doesn't it concern you? Aren't you worried at all about what could happen to a child out there? Are you completely stupid?" Her voice rose with each word until she was almost shouting.
The man at least had the grace to squirm. "Look, lady, I just take the rent and take care of repairs. Ain't my place to say what they can or can't do."
There were whole lot of things Sara wanted to say to him, about responsibility, human decency, and common compassion, but couldn't manage to say a thing. The Witchblade in her sleeve was responding to her anger and trying to morph into its gauntlet form; she was trying equally hard not to allow it to do so. And before she lost the battle with it and her own temper she had to get out of there. "Thank you. That's all I needed to know," she said crisply, and turned toward the door. Just before she reached it, she said, "Oh, and expect a visit from the housing authority in a few days." She closed the door behind her, grimly satisfied with the explosion of swearwords coming from behind the door.
She got outside and swung a leg over her bike. She was about to tuck her long brown hair into her helmet when she heard a harsh, dry cough. Her mouth fell open, and she lowered her helmet, in time to see a small figure trudging around the corner toward the highway. "Jade!"
The head turned toward her, and Sara kicked her bike into gear, stopping beside the little girl. "Jade…what happened?"
"My coughing disturbed Mom and Hakeem," the girl said, her voice sounding defeated and very small. "Mom told me to leave."
Sara closed her eyes and counted to ten twice, then counted backward before she opened her eyes again. "So where are you going to go? Do you have anywhere you can stay?"
"Maybe Bethany's House, but they're always so full of homeless people, and I think they're closed now," Jade shrugged simply. "At least I can ask the cook there for any leftovers. He'll give it to me when he has it and he knows I'm hungry."
"Get on the back of the bike," Sara said firmly, coming to a quick decision. "You're not wandering the streets and you're not staying in a homeless shelter. You can stay at my place tonight and I'll figure something out in the morning." The rain was still pelting down, and she was getting soaked. She could only imagine what this standing out in the cold rain was doing to Jade's cough.
"I'm not supposed to go with strangers," Jade said weakly.
"Jade, when the people who are supposed to take care of you don't, sometimes all you can do is trust a stranger," Sara said, taking the heavy backpack and shouldering it. "And I'm a cop. You can trust cops. Didn't they tell you that in school?"
"Yes, they did," Jade said, looking a little brighter. "My teacher says if you get in trouble always go to a cop. They aren't strangers, they're friends, even if I don't know them."
"Exactly," Sara said, relieved. "Now come on, get up in back." Jade climbed on the bike and wrapped her arms around Sara's waist, and Sara started off, driving slower than usual so she wouldn't unseat her passenger in back.
It was a long ride uptown to Sara's apartment, and Jade was almost asleep when they got there. Sara had to untanglethe child'sarms from aroundher own waist when they got there. "Come on, Jade. We're home." Sleepily the girl climbed off the back of the bike and stopped in front of the elevator beside Sara. Sara had parked in the underground garage, and although she usually took the stairs up to street level and then took the stairs up to her third-floor apartment for the exercise, this time she chose to use the elevator because she didn't think Jade was going to be able to do another set of stairs. The girl trudged wearily into the elevator, wide-eyed at the metal buttons, the mirror across the back of the elevator, and the carpeting on the floor. "Wow," she said, impressed. "You must be rich, they've got an elevator!"
Sara had to laugh at that. "No, I'm not rich. Every apartment building has to have an elevator, by law," she said. "It's for handicapped people so they can get up and down as well as other residents who don't want to take the stairs."
"I wish we had one," Jade said wistfully, staring at her reflection in the mirror.
"You do," Sara said, remembering a sign marked 'elevators' in Jade's apartment building. 'They don't work, I suppose. We'll get that fixed. I'm going to talk to the city housing authority tomorrow and have them investigate the man who owns the building."
"But…" Jade looked distressed. "Sara, if you do that they'll throw my mom out and we'll have to go live with Hakeem! I don't want to live with Hakeem! He's mean!"
"How is he mean? Does he hurt you?" Sara frowned at Jade. Jade looked up at her for a moment, then stared down at the carpet and played nervously with a stray thread on her jacket. "Jade? Does he hurt you?"
"N-n-no," Jade said at last, reluctantly, after a long pause. Sara frowned; that didn't sound true to her, but before she could pursue it any further the elevator door opened. She led the way down the hall and unlocked her door, while Jade lagged behind, exclaiming at the soft lighting, the tasteful carpet and clean white walls, so different from the narrow hall, graffiti-covered walls, and dim, almost nonexistent lighting of her own apartment building.
Sara breathed a sigh of relief as she stepped into her apartment. She loved her apartment; it was spacious and familiar and she liked it. She could have afforded something bigger in a more upscale place on her salary, but she liked it here and didn't want to move.
From Jade's delighted expression, she liked the place too. She walked around the spacious efficiency, taking in the double bed, Sara's weight bench, and the comfortable couch in front of the TV. "It's beautiful," she said finally. "You're so lucky to be able to live in a nice place like this."
"Yeah, I guess I am," Sara said quietly as she went to Jade and took the soaked baseball cap off her head. "Come on. Let's get you out of those wet things first, and into a warm shower. I have some shorts you can wear, and one of my t-shirts should fit you." She put the backpack down and propelled the girl into the bathroom gently. "Shampoo over there; soap there. Washcloths are in the cabinet there. Towels are on the towel rail." She closed the door firmly behind the girl, and a few moments later heard the water start running.
Sara went to her bedroom and took out a pair of the shorts she usually wore to go to the gym, one of her t-shirts, and a pair of socks. Then she went to her closet, dug out one of her thickest, warmest comforters, and left all of that on her couch as she went and adjusted her thermostat to a few degrees higher than she usually preferred it. Jade would appreciate the warmth. She hunted around in her cupboard for a can of chicken soup. She didn't like chicken soup; it reminded her too much of being sick. But it was good after you got sick, and Jade would probably welcome it. She dumped the contents of the can into a saucepan, added a little water to thin it out, and made a plate of sandwiches to go with it, putting them on the counter and dragging up an extra barstool. Usually she ate standing up, or on the coffee table while she watched TV; but with Jade here, she felt the need to be a little more formal.
Jade came out of the bathroom wrapped in one of Sara's towels, and she grinned as she went to the couch. "Here. Put these on in there. The socks might be a little big but they'll keep your feet warm. Give me your old things when you get in the bathroom." The soup started to boil, and she went to turn the heat on the stove down. When she got back Jade's old clothes were sitting on the floor outside the bathroom door. Sara picked them up gingerly, wrinkling her nose a little; they were worn and dirty and yes, they did smell a little. She dropped them into her apartment-size washer along with a small load of her own clothes, then quickly changed her own clothes by the bed. She'd shower in the morning. Boxers, a tank top, then socks, and she padded back into the kitchen to take the soup off the burnerand divide it between the two bowls.
Jade's eyes lit up when she saw the soup and sandwiches, but she restrained herself and seated herself decorously. She took small bites, chewing and swallowing carefully, and Sara watched for a while. After the girl finished with the soup and sandwiches, she went hunting in her medicine cabinet for something to help with the cough. "Here," she said finally, checking the label of a dusty bottle. "Expiration date says it's still good, and if we halve the dose it should be okay for kids. It'll help with your cough." She poured a little of the medicine out in ha spoon, and Jade opened her mouth. "Uh…Jade?" Something didn't look quite right to Sara; she popped the spoon into the girl's mouth, watched as she swallowed, then pinpointed it. The girl was extremely pale and her lips were bluish, even in the heat of the room. "Jade, you're really sick. Do you know what's wrong with you?"
The girl shrugged. "The doctor at the welfare clinic I get my school shots at told Mom that I needed to go for tests to determine what it was, but we didn't have the money so I never went."
"Did he have any idea? How long ago was that?"
"He said it might be leukemia or tuberculosis. I think it's been, like, maybe seven or eight months ago, 'cause I went at the end of winter and it's fall now."
Sara went cold. The chattering voices in her mind, the voices of the Witchblade, went silent. Leukemia. Tuberculosis. "But…but…children die from that…" Sara finally managed, her voice a weak croak. "If you don't get treatment you die from that."
"I know. I did some reading in the library," Jade said matter-of-factly, propping her elbows on the counter and resting her chin on her folded hands. "It's all right. We don't have the money for the tests and treatments and stuff, so I just have to live with it. Mom says doctors don't always know everything and he was probably just trying to get more money from us. Hakeem says I'll go to heaven and be with the angels, and I think I'd like that 'cause heaven sounds like a better place than down here."
Sara couldn't speak. The Witchblade was silent. All she could do was stare at Jade, her eyes filling with tears. "No," she said finally, sick at heart. "No…it can't be…" Jade looked at her quizzically, opened her mouth to speak…and started coughing again. Sara snapped out of her shock and caught her as she fell off the stool with the force of her coughing.
She guided Jade across the floor to the couch, seating her and wrapping the thick comforter around her. Jade coughed for a long time, and Sara again felt tears welling up when she saw blood on the girl's lips after coughing. She handed the girl a tissue quickly, and took it when Jade finished coughing. "Why don't you lie down and get some sleep," she said gently as she got up. "I know you're tired. I want to make some phone calls and see if there's anything that can be done." Jade nodded, her eyelids already drooping, and Sara propped a pillow under her head and tucked the covers around her shoulders. She headed for the kitchen, emptying and washing the dishes, then took the phone into the bathroom. She got her address book out of her night table on the way; it was so rare that she called anyone that she didn't know any numbers by heart except work. Searching quickly, she found the number she wanted, dialed it quickly, and waited, heart pounding, for it to pick up.
"Hello?" came a drowsy male voice from the other end of the phone.
"Jake!" Sara sighed in relief. "Jake, look, I need your help."
"Pez, do you know what time it is?" Jake still sounded befuddled. Sara shot a quick glance at her bedside clock. It was 11:30 pm. "I know you have off tomorrow but some of us are still working and need to get some beauty sleep—"
"Oh, Jake, you're beautiful enough already. Listen, I have a problem maybe you can help me with."
