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Title:
A New Purpose Thanks for beta-reading and cheerleading from Wormie. She makes my work better, and I thank her greatly for it. nks Come here directly without going to my main Witchblade fanfic page?
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Sara kicked shut the door to the office and turned to face her two partners. Danny and Jake both took a step back. "If I hear one more word about Valentine’s Day from either one of you, there’s going to be some serious ass-kicking going on, OK?" She put her hands on her hips. "No, I don’t have a date; both of you do. Now that that is established, can we get some actual work done, please?" Both of her partners nodded and took up residence behind the desk they stood behind. Normally, there would have been a race for one of them to get the other desk, but neither of them seemed willing to get too close to her at the moment. Sure, maybe threatening to kick their asses had been a bit much – and in Danny’s case, unlikely to succeed – but she was tired of listening to then compare notes on what they were planning for the night. Danny and Lee, even though they already had another baby on the way, were shipping the kids off to grandma’s for an evening in. When Jake had asked "A quiet evening?" Danny had laughed and said, "Not if I’m doing it right." Jake was taking out the department psychiatrist on their fourth date. Despite Sara’s contention that dating the office shrink wasn’t such a great idea, Jake was taking her to some trendy restaurant in SoHo. Then, he’d said with a grin, maybe they’d head back to his place for some … dessert. Sara was, frankly, disgusted. Both of these men, who, on a general basis, she liked and respected, were using what was supposed to be a romantic day just to get a little. The flowers, the dinners, the sappy cards weren’t an end in themselves, they were just a means to an end. "Men," Sara muttered, and stalked over to the empty desk chair and sat down. There was a snicker from the other desk and Sara snapped her head up. Jake and Danny schooled their features into masks of perfect innocence. "What?" Sara demanded. "Nothing," Danny said, his lips twitching in a smile. "Just wondering if you’re thinking of batting for the other team." Sara rolled her eyes. "Women are just as screwed up as men – I know what I’m talking about. It wouldn’t be any different. Now just get back to work." She pointedly looked down at the stack of crime scene photos in front of her and started to match then up with her notes, a fairly mindless task. She was too annoyed to really concentrate, so it was the perfect job for the moment. OK, she would be the first to admit that part of the reason she was so wound up about her partners being pigs was that she didn’t have anyone special in her life right now – man or woman. She tried to pretend that didn’t bother her, but, jeez, she had even asked Gabe – a sweet kid, but so not her type – why he hadn’t asked her out. How pathetic was that? Maybe there was a hint of something from that weirdo Ian Nottingham, but that situation was just was to freaky. Besides, every time she talked to him, it was like she was talking to a different person. And he had put a hit out on her, and that just wasn’t the healthiest start to a relationship. There was a knock at the door and Sara threw her pen down on the desk and leaned back in her chair. "What?" she snapped. "Come in." The door opened, and a rookie uniform stood there, a big bouquet of roses held in front of her like a shield. "Uh, these came for you, Pezzini." She quickly set the vase on the corner of the desk and fled, slamming the door behind her. She guessed that meant her little diatribe had been heard. She shrugged. They already thought she was a scary bitch, what was more fuel on the fire? She purposely didn’t look at Danny and Jake as she reached for the card tucked in amongst the flowers, but she could feel their eyes on her. She would bet they were smiling, too. She pulled out the little white envelope and opened it. Pulling out the card, she looked at it, then flipped it over to check the back. "Did you two do this?" she demanded of her smirking partners and tossed the card over to them. "’Fess up." They bent over the card from where it had landed, their smirks turning into smiles as they read the message: "Noon." No name, no explanation, nothing. They looked at each other, then at her. "Sara’s got a secret admirer!" Jake sing-songed and Danny burst out laughing. Sara scowled at them, but they only laughed more. Great. Even if they hadn’t set it up, she was going to have to wait ‘til noon to find out more. These two clowns certainly weren’t going to be any help. God, she hated this day. ***** Noon found Sara pacing the office. She’d kicked the guys out, tired of their ribbing and not wanting them to be there for whatever revelation was going to occur. She half-suspected Nottingham had set this all up – it seemed his style, or one of his styles, at least. If he was in one of his basketball playing, hip-hip moods, she wouldn’t be surprised if a rapper was going to show up for a personal noontime concert. Of course, if that happened, she’d probably hunt Nottingham down and kill him, but that was getting a little ahead of herself. At a few minutes past noon, there was a hesitant knock on the office door. After a moment of indecision, Sara yanked it open. A teenager held a big paper bag out toward her. "Your order." Sara automatically took the bag, then shook her head and held it back out. "I didn’t place an order." The kid shrugged. "I was told to deliver it here at noon. It’s already paid for, so you may as well enjoy it." He turned and sprinted out of the building before she could ask any questions, like who had ordered it and where from. Sara sighed. She was hungry. Sara closed the door and put the bag down on the desk. She opened it and one of her questions was immediately answered. Whoever-it-was had had the food delivered from Lucky Phoenix Chinese, a tiny little restaurant by her place – she would recognize the smell of their egg-drop soup anywhere. Sara decided to ignore the source and just do what the delivery boy had suggested: enjoy. She was just finishing off a little plum cake when Danny and Jake came back. They looked around the room, obviously disappointed. "Where’s the mystery man?" Jake asked. "Or woman," Danny added with a grin. "I don’t know, but I’m feeling a little more kindly disposed at the moment. Those were all my favorite dishes." She reached for the little white box that had held the plum cake and glanced in the bottom. "Tonight," she read aloud. Sara tried to frown, but found a little smile on her lips instead. Tonight. Well, why the hell not? She had to admit, the list of people who might know not only what her favorite restaurant was, but which were her favorites was pretty short. In fact, there was only one name on it: Nottingham. Her smile got a little wider. As strange as he was, he was pretty easy on the eyes. There could be worse people to have as a not-so-secret admirer. "Hey," a voice said and Sara looked up to see Tommy Burgess, one of the other detectives, standing in the doorway. "You guys are up." He looked down at a paper in his hand. "Over at 11th and Cherry." He looked back up, his eyes focusing on the desk, littered with a dozen little white and red cartons. "Man, Pez, you ate all that?" Sara glared at him. "Bite me, Burgess." She stood up and grabbed her jacket. "Come on, loverboys. We’ve got work to do." ***** Sara laid down on the bench, shifting her shoulders until she was in just the right spot. Grabbing the bar above her, she lifted the weights off the rack and down toward her chest. The call-out had been a simple one. The cops first on the scene had found the wife standing over the body of her husband, a revolver still in her hand, muttering over and over, "He shouldn’t have said that about my Johnny. He shouldn’t have said that about my Johnny." No matter what the television network shows liked to think, that kind of case was the bread and butter of most homicide departments, and not a little of why she was a little sour on romance. At one time, that couple had probably been happy. The pictures on their walls had shown smiling wedding pictures, a baby’s cake-smeared birthday, proud parents on graduation day - all the happy scenes of a happy family. Would they have been so happy if they known then that it would end like that, a single gunshot wound to the chest, bleeding out on the kitchen floor, all because of what was probably a stupid argument over a careless phrase? Yeah, that sounded like fun. Why go through all the trouble if that was how it was going to end? So she had fled here to the gym, sending Jake and Danny off to their respective rendezvous while she tried to hide out from her admirer. She figured that getting good and sweaty and disgusting was bound to make her unattractive, even to the most wacked-out Nottingham. A half-hour on the heavy bag had made a good start, but she still was thinking too much. She pressed the weights up and down, trying to clear her mind of everything from today. Her arms started to shake too quickly, though, and it became a struggle to get the bar back up to the rack. As she tried one more time, a pair of hands grabbed the bar and pulled it up, easily putting it back where it belonged. "You shouldn’t do that without a spotter," Burgess said, looking down at her, then shook his head and walked away. "I had it," she called after him. He didn’t answer, just went over to the big rack of weights in the corner and picked up some dumbells off the floor. Sara frowned. She hadn’t even noticed he was in the gym. If she had, she might have turned around and walked back out. The whole reason she’d come to the gym was that it was always pretty much deserted at this time of the day, and with it being Valentine’s Day, even the few regulars weren’t here. She’d wanted the place to herself. She sat up and shrugged. As long as he didn’t bother her again, no big deal. She could happily and easily put him out of her mind. She worked out for another hour or so, going back to the heavy bag when no other workout was able to clear her mind. Burgess had come over once, looking like he was going to ask if she wanted him to hold the bag, but she scowled at him, and he backed off. He must have finally gotten it through his thick skull that she wanted to be - she spotted him leaving a few minutes later. Not long after that, she left herself. Nottingham hadn’t shown and if she was lucky, he wouldn’t be lurking around her apartment either. Maybe she would make it through the few hours left in this stupid holiday without any more appearances from the Valentine’s Day Fairy. ***** Sara was on her third cup of coffee when Danny and Jake finally made into the office. Both of them were yawning and trying to hide their grins. Sara just shook her head at them. She’d crashed as soon as she’d gotten home – to a Nottingham-free place – and hadn’t found any mysterious gifts or anything when she’d woken up this morning. Nottingham must have gotten bored with the whole game and gone to bother someone else. Jake and Danny sprawled in their chairs and Sara held up a hand to forestall any questions. "I don’t know who it was. I don’t care who it was. Valentine’s Day is over and done with, and I’m glad." Jake shrugged, and Danny did the same, then they both bent over the piles of paperwork that had accumulated overnight. A little while later, the desk sergeant poked his head in the door. "Hey, did you hear?" "Hear what?" Jake asked. "Burgess just turned in his badge. The captain’s reaming him a new one." He glanced over his shoulder, then back at them. "I can’t believe you didn’t hear the yelling." Sara stood up and looked through the window. Through the blinds in Captain Dante’s office, she could see Burgess with his head down and Dante pacing back and forth, his hands wildly gesticulating. Now that she was paying attention, she could hear Dante’s voice, but couldn’t tell what he was saying. She sure as hell wouldn’t want to be in Burgess’ shoes, though. The desk sergeant winked at them and went back to his post, his job of spreading departmental gossip completed. "Huh," Danny said, moving to stand beside her. "I thought he was one of the captain’s special boys." "Yeah," Jake said. "Something big must have happened for him to want to quit." "Who cares?" Sara said and sat back down. "It’s just Burgess. I’ll be happy when he’s gone." After a while, the furor died down, but only after the captain sent Burgess home with an exhortation to "think it over" that the whole office heard. Sara shook her head. She knew that the captain had a few favorites, but if the guy wanted to quit, Dante should just let him. It was only a job. ***** Sara came into a suspiciously quiet precinct the next morning. The air was tense, but no one seemed to know what was going on. The captain’s blinds were shut, and all she was able to get out of today’s desk sergeant was that a homicide detective from a different precinct was in there with him. So the guy was already looking for Burgess’ replacement. What was the big deal? An hour later, the captain finally came out of his office, trailed by Orlinsky – not a homicide detective, but in Special Investigations over at the 92nd. The captain called everyone together, his face grim. "I’ve got some bad news. Tommy Burgess was found dead this morning in his home. It was apparently a suicide. He was a good detective, and I’m sorry to have to be the one to deliver the news." There were shocked gasps and a few of the secretaries started to cry – Burgess had always been inexplicably popular with the old biddies. Even Sara had to admit that she was a little surprised. While she hadn’t known the guy all that well, Burgess just hadn’t struck her as the type to kill himself. But, well, she hadn’t known him all that well. Maybe there was something she didn’t know about him. After the secretaries had been comforted and all the questions had been asked that no one could answer, the captain called Jake over. After a minute or two, Jake came back over, shaking his head. "Man, the captain wants me to clean out Burgess’ desk. I don’t know if I can do that." "I’ll help," Sara said. "I’m tired of paperwork. Besides, we’re going to have to take at least some of his cases. We might as well start getting familiar with them." When they went to office next to theirs, Jake hovered by the door, obviously creeped out by the whole situation. "Jake, you deal with death all the time," she said, pulling open Burgess’ top desk drawer. "There’s not even a body." "But I knew him. We had beers last week. We talked about stuff – surfing, college, women." Jake wrapped his arms around himself. "There was this woman he wanted to ask out. Now I’ll never know if he did." Sara didn’t know what to say. She’d dealt with death for a long time, starting with her dad’s when she was little. Maybe she’d gotten a little jaded about it all. She started to empty the drawer in front of her. Pens and pencils in one pile to go back to the supply cabinet, the same thing with the paperclips and rubber bands that seemed to multiply in the dark of any drawer. She pulled out a pile of papers and leafed through then, stopping when she got to a familiar sight. She separated it out and waved it at Jake. "Wonder if he lived near me," she said, looking at the menu in her hand. "This is my favorite Chinese place." She shrugged and tossed it in the trash can beside her. Burgess certainly wouldn’t be needing that now. She rifled through the rest of the papers, automatically pulling out a receipt to check for a credit card number that might need to be shredded. No number, so it went in the trash with the rest. As it fluttered into the can, she caught a glance of the store name and snagged it back out of the air. Digging in the pocket of her jeans, she pulled out the card for the flowers she’d gotten yesterday and flipped it over. "Downtown Florists" – the same as on the receipt. She tossed both pieces of paper in the trash. Coincidence. Suddenly, Sara felt dizzy and the edges of her vision became tinged with red, a sign of one of the Witchblade’s visions. She grabbed onto the arms of the chair as it came at her. Burgess surrounded by flowers, leaning over a counter with several ripped-up message cards on the counter in front of him. Him watching with satisfaction as she dug into the meal he’d spent days planning, trying to pick just one or two things, but ending up getting everything, more than she could ever possibly eat. Trying to help and getting nowhere, her dislike of him obvious as she punched the bag harder at his approach. Making the decision to get out, trying to convince Dante that he’d keep quiet, knowing he wouldn’t believe it, knowing what the only end could be. Sitting at home, waiting for the visit he was sure was coming, not being at all surprised when Orlinsky knocked on the door, even less surprised when Dante’s right hand man showed him the engraved bullet that was going to be the one that ended his life. Sara sucked in a ragged breath and Jake jumped. "What? What?" he demanded. Sara shook her head, trying to make Burgess’ final determined resignation disappear. "Nothing. Just a … splinter." She lifted her hands off the chair and shoved them between her knees, hoping Jake hadn’t seen them shaking. "Did Burgess say who is was he was going to ask out?" she asked, trying to make it sound casual. "You could always ask her if they went out." "He wouldn’t tell me. It was someone here at the precinct and he was afraid I’d spill the beans." A ghost of a smile flitted across his face. "I suppose I could just ask every woman who works here. Hey, was it you?" Sara stared at him blankly for a moment, not knowing how to answer. She ended up just shaking her head. No, Burgess had never asked, and she wouldn’t have gone out with him even if he had. She looked past Jake to the captain’s office, where Dante stood with Orlinsky, both of them with self-satisfied smiles on their faces. She closed her eyes, the bullet casing a perfect image in her mind: a black bull on gold. She couldn’t have given Burgess what he wanted when he was alive, but maybe she could find out now what it was he had been trying to escape. "Sara?" She opened her eyes to find Jake frowning at her. "You OK?" he asked. "I’m fine." She let her eyes go past him again. "As a matter of fact, I feel like I just got a new purpose in life." She summoned up a smile. "Come on and help me. I want to make sure we look at every piece of paper in this desk. You never know what little thing might be important." |
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