Chapter 24: The Morning After

Sara awoke the next morning to find Van playing with her hair. She gently shifted in his arms, indicating that she was finally up, and he stopped, gazing into her deep emerald green eyes with so much love, she thought she was staring back at Ian Nottingham for a second. The feelings that ran through her that moment were not as frightening as she thought they would be. In all actuality, Sara couldn’t help but think that she too was probably falling in love.

“Morning,” Van whispered, his hands softly caressing her bare back as she lay on top of him.

“Morning,” Sara replied, rubbing her eyes with the back of her hands. She smiled as she added, “Last night was so perfect.”

“It was,” he said. “I think it reaffirmed everything that I felt from the first time I saw you.”

“Which was what?” she asked, curious.

“I love you, Sara Pezzini,” Van whispered, afraid that if he said it too loudly, it wouldn’t have the impact he was going for.

Sara was dumbstruck as she sat up and looked into his clear blue eyes. If she had any doubts about what she was feeling that second, Sara threw them out as she replied, “I love you too.” Everyone and everything that had been holding her back from saying those words had finally been released, from Daniel’s death to her father’s murder. Everything had just fallen into place like the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle.

Van smiled at her widely as he pulled her in for a deep, passionate kiss. As their lips parted, he said, “For a second there I thought I scared you off.”

“You could never scare me off,” Sara replied as she raked her fingers through his chestnut hair and smiled.

“Really, not even like this?” Van asked as he cleared his throat. “I know what you want and I know what you need, but I’m gonna screw it up, yeah, ‘cause I’m an idiot and I’m your boyfriend yeah…” he started to sing in the worst voice she had ever heard. “I’m gonna take you out, leave my wallet home, and then I’ll use your cell phone baby, long distance, and I’m your boyfriend... Baby, I know I’m a man who’s made mistakes. I still got some learnin’ to do. I made out with your best friend the other day, and now we’re best friends too, yeah...”

Sara was laughing hysterically now, tears streaming down her face as she grabbed one of the pillows beside her and promptly hit him over the head with it to make him stop. “You are an idiot boyfriend,” she giggled, watching Van reel from the impact.

“Oh, you’re not getting away with that!” he hollered back, also grabbing a pillow and tried slapping her across the face with it. Sara dodged it, making Van swing at air and flop down to the floor as she laughed at him, her sides beginning to hurt.

Van gave up and threw the pillow aside, figuring that a direct assault would probably be more effective. He lunged at Sara, prying the pillow out of her hands, and began to tickle her. “VAN! Stop!” she was begging as she continued to laugh, her sides ready to burst.

“Say it!” he jokingly ordered. 

“No!” Sara protested, but knew she wouldn’t be able to hold out any longer.

“Say it!” Van sang as he continued tickling her.

“Alright! Uncle!” Sara cried. He pulled away, panting, his hair a mess, falling all over his face as was hers. Sara panted her relief as she fell back on the floor, dazed and elated. She stole a glance at her watch and realized that it was nearly nine in the morning. She groaned loudly, mumbling, “We have to get ready for work before Deaq starts making assumptions.”

Van fell back on the floor beside her, his arms wrapping around as he also groaned. “I don’t wanna go to work,” he whined. “I wanna stay here with you and do what we did last night all over again.”

“I know, me too,” she said, “but we gotta save our energy for tonight.”

“I can wait until tonight,” Van eagerly replied as she wiggled out of his grasp and found her dress on the floor a few feet away. She put it on quickly and made her way to the door, grabbing her stuff.

“I’ll see you soon,” Sara said as she looked back at him, the smile permanently etched on her face.

*~*~*

Ian didn’t need the constant images from the Witchblade flowing into his head to know what had happened between Sara and Van that night. He could tell by the way Sara smiled as she walked back upstairs to her apartment, her eyes shining and her face almost as bright as the sun. She took the stairs two at a time, and opened the door in an almost happy trance.

It was an hour before Sara emerged again, now wearing a black tiered crocheted top with a black tank beneath, a pair of white belted bootleg pants, and white strappy sandals. This was probably the most scandalous outfit Sara had ever worn, but oh God did it look good on her. She could pull anything off in that body, either it being a tee shirt and jeans, or this beautiful little ensemble.

Ian turned away, unable to look at her any longer. Sara was not his for the taking. She belonged to Van now, and all he could do was respect her decision until she changed her mind about him. But there was something deep within Ian that nagged at him. Something told him he and Van had met somewhere before. Something told him that in this lifetime, he might never get his chance to be with Sara. Ian didn’t want to think about it, but it would continue to plague his mind.

He turned on his car and headed for the estate. It was the only place Ian could wallow in his sorrow and pray that his dreams of Sara and Van breaking up in some sort of horrible misunderstanding would come true. Hopefully it would happen before anyone found out where Van fit into the web of the Witchblade.

*~*~*

Sara appeared at Van’s door almost an hour after she had last left him. When she knocked, he opened almost instantly, as if he had been waiting at the door for her to arrive.

“Oh, why do you tempt me?” Van cried when he saw her.

She gave him a sly grin and replied, “Because I can.” Sara gave him a quick scan to see he was dressed plainly enough in a pair of khaki cargo pants and a forest green tee shirt with a gray beanie covering his messy chestnut hair and a pair of worn out old tennis shoes. “You’re doing a real good job tempting me,” she sarcastically added.

“If you want tempting, I can go ahead and change into something a little more fitting to your taste,” Van offered as she grabbed his arm.

“I was just kidding,” Sara retorted. “Jeez, you and Nottingham try too hard. Relax hot stuff. You’re tempting enough as it is. Now come on, we’ve already spent too much time getting ready. Deaq is gonna hound us when we get in.”

“Me, maybe, but you, definitely,” Van answered as he took one more good look at her. ‘Damn! She’s fine!’ he thought, unconsciously licking his lower lip.

“God, Van,” Sara grumbled when she noticed. She rolled her eyes and dragged him out of the apartment to his car.

After arriving at the Candy Store a few minutes later, Sara realized that Van’s prediction about Deaq was correct.

“Whoa! Who are you and where’s Sara?” he asked the moment she set foot inside the warehouse.

Sara blushed, knowing that it had to be a compliment. “It’s me,” she said dryly. “I just wanted to try something new today.”

“Try something new? Damn, girl, you look absolutely scandalicious,” Deaq replied as he took her hand and slowly had her turn around in front of him to admire her many beautiful views.

“Scandalicious?” Sara questioned, looking a bit confused.

“Scandalous and delicious all at the same time, a very dangerous combination, especially around someone like Van who, might I add, would probably jump your bones in a second if he saw you in that outfit,” he said, a very wide smirk on his face.

‘Too late,’ Sara thought as a grin crept on her face. Just behind her, the door slammed shut and Van walked in, coming up behind her and wrapping his arms around her waist then placing a soft kiss on her bare shoulder since her shirt sleeve sagged down almost to her elbow.

“Mmmmm…” he purred. “French vanilla. I wonder if you taste as good as you smell.” She leaned into him, laughing softly.

“Maybe I’ll let you find out tonight,” Sara teased as she pulled out of his grasp and let him watch her as she walked into the office.

“If I didn’t know any better, I would have to say you two had sex last night,” Deaq said once she was out of earshot. Van merely grinned as he started to walk off in her direction, but Deaq pulled him back. “Well, did you?”

“Maybe, maybe not,” Van cryptically answered. 

“Van,” Deaq began to scold, “Billie’s gonna kill you when she comes back. You know that, right?”

“Yeah, and for once, I don’t care,” Van replied. “Billie can bitch and moan as much as she wants, but she’ll never pull us apart.”

“And how can you be so sure?” Deaq asked, suspicious of Van since he now had a look he had never seen before in his eyes.

“Because…” Van began to say before clamping his mouth shut, realizing that if anybody knew he loved Sara, it would be the end of his career.

“Because what?” Deaq was relentless with his questioning. He stood in front of Van until he got an answer. “Come on, Van. I’m your partner. You can trust me. Because what?”

Van continued to contemplate where telling Deaq the truth would be a smart move to make, especially since he didn’t know Sara’s view on the subject. It was something they should have discussed that morning before heading off to work. Van raised his hand to scratch the back of his neck as he finally replied in a low voice, “Because I really like Sara, and when I say really like, I mean really like.”

Deaq’s eyes widened. Now he knew what the look was… Love. Van had fallen head over feet for Sara!

“Please don’t say anything about this to anyone,” Van quietly pleaded. “I don’t know what Sara wants to do. She’ll probably kill me if she found out I told you.”

“Wait, wait, wait,” Deaq said, holding his hands up in front of him. “You mean to tell me she feels the same way?” Van nodded. “And this is only after less than a week?”

“Yeah, I know, it’s crazy, but there’s just something about her, the way she moves, the way she talks, the way she walks, it just gives me this deep feeling like we’ve met somewhere before, like in a past life or something,” Van tried to explain as he gazed at the beautiful woman sitting in the office in front of him.

“When the hell did you start believing in reincarnation?” Deaq puzzled as he looked at his partner in disbelief.

“Never mind,” Van replied as he began to walk away.

“Fine, explain it to me later!” Deaq hollered even though his partner wasn’t listening.

Van walked into the office, sliding right behind Sara’s chair as he place his hands to either side of her on the desk. “Busy?” he asked as he lowered his lips close to her ear.

“Just a tad,” Sara replied, allowing him to nibble on her earlobe as she continued to type up her version of the Gallo bust. She had the MP3 player on, the sound barely audible, to keep her on track, but Van was proving to be quite the distraction. It was hard to focus when his lips were brushing up against every single exposed area of flesh on her body. “Mmmmm… Baby, could you give me a few more minutes? I have to finish this report before another case lands in our laps.”

Van sighed heavily as he said, “Alright,” then sat down beside her. His hands slipped over her shoulder and never left it until she finished typing. Sara looked over at him and smiled. “What? You said a few minutes. I thought I’d sit it out.”

“Okay,” she chuckled, pushing away from the desk and standing up. She turned up the speakers on the computer as Santana’s “Game of Love” began to play. “You can’t seem to keep your hands off me. Why don’t you come and dance with me so we can relieve some of that sexual tension between us?”

“I think that’s a great idea,” Van said as she grabbed his hand and pulled him into her.

Tell me just what you want me to be
One kiss and boom you're the only one for me
So please tell me why don't you come around no more
Cause right now I'm crying outside the door of your candy store

“We’ve gotta do this more often,” Sara giggled as Van held her tight.

“Yeah,” he replied, kissing her softly.

It just takes a little bit of this
A little bit of that
It started with a kiss
Now we're up to bat
A little bit of laughs
A little bit of pain
I'm telling you, my babe
It's all in the game of love

Sara let go, dancing by herself a few moments before he pulled her back into his body. They danced slowly, their bodies pressed up against one another. So lost in the music they were that Sara could barely hear her cell phone ring. When it finally got to be an annoying distraction, she pulled away from Van’s grasp, turned down the music, and looked at her caller ID.

“ Nottingham , what’s up?” Sara asked as Van came up behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist to cradle her as she talked.

“I called to tell you I’ll be leaving for New York ,” Ian replied, sensing that she wasn’t alone.

“Don’t do that!” Sara quickly protested. “You’ve gotta stay. You still need to meet Billie. I know she wants to meet you. She’ll probably warship the ground you walk on for helping us solve the Gallo case. Please stay.”

“As gracious as the offer is, I must decline,” he said. “I have business to attend to.”

“Bull shit!” she retorted. “Since when do you take care of business? Don’t you have someone who can do it for you? Come on, you gotta stay for a couple more days. Billie should be coming back some time near the end of this week. Please, Ian. We can hang out and get to know each other.”

Ian knew Sara was just going to keep it up until she got her way, so he gave up. “Alright, I’ll stay, but I’m holding you to your end of the bargain.”

“No problem. Why don’t you stop by today and we can all hang out? It’s not like we have anything to do. It’s a really slow day at the Candy Store.”

“I’ll be there in a little while. Goodbye, Sara,” Ian replied.

“Later, Ian,” Sara said as she hung up. She turned to Van and said, “Ian’s going to hang with us today. I wanted to teach him a few more social skills before letting him chase after Billie.”

“Please tell me you don’t mean the extra curricular kind,” Van groaned as he glared at her.

“Of course not!” Sara retorted, mocking disbelief. “I was talking about teaching him how to be himself in a group of people. He needs more interaction with others. And be nice! I don’t want him ripping your pretty little head off or something.”

“I though you said he wasn’t a violent person anymore.”

“Piss him off enough and he won’t hesitate to kung fu your ass.” Just before Sara could add to her retort, her cell phone rang again. “Pezzini, go,” she said, not looking at the caller ID.

“Sara! Thank God!” Danny said in a hurry. “Where the hell have you been? I’ve tried to get a hold of you several times during the last few days, but you weren’t picking up your phone.”

“Danny, calm down. I’m right here. What’s up? I got your message from Gabriel, I just haven’t had much time to call people lately,” Sara replied as she wiggled out of Van’s grasp so she could talk to her best friend privately.

“I wish you would have called earlier, but I know it’s too late now. He’s probably already in LA looking for you,” he rambled.

“Danny, who’s in LA looking for me?” Sara questioned, trying to stay calm even though she knew this had to be bad news he was about to give her.

“Jake!” he almost shouted back. “Dante told him after he got sick of me saying I didn’t know where you were. He stormed out of the precinct this morning and boarded the first flight out there. That was nearly five hours ago.”

Sara ran a shaky hand through her hair. “Did Dante tell him exactly where I was?” she asked on the verge of tears.

“Not only did he tell him, he gave Jake a map!” Danny exclaimed. “If you’re at the Candy Store right now, I strongly suggest you high tail it out of there before he finds you.”

Just as Sara was about to reply, she heard pounding at the back door. “Shit, Danny,” she nearly cried. “Too late. He’s here.”

“Jeez. I wish we could have talked earlier. All I can tell you now is stay strong and don’t say anything stupid. You’ll be fine, Sara. Good luck,” Danny told her.

Sara hung up without saying goodbye as her eyes moved to the door. She slowly made her way towards it, swallowing hard as she tried to hold back everything that she had been vainly trying to forget. From the corner of her eye, she could see Van reach into his back pocket and pull out his gun. Sara looked back at him and shook her head. He withdrew his weapon, but kept his hand on it just in case. She grabbed the handle and pulled the door open.

“Sara, no more running. We’re talking right now,” came Jake’s voice, loud and clear.

Chapter 25: Crash and Burn

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