Knots

Okay folks, you know the drill, I don't own anything except my words. The characters and the concept came from someone else's mind. I just get to take it off the shelf, give it a good dusting, and play with it once in a while.

Oh, and feedback is still appreciated. You like it? Think it sucks? Then why aren't you saying so?!?

Chapter 3: Possession

Gabriel's mouth opened but no sound would come out. The sentence hung unfinished in the air between them. What the hell was the witchblade doing?

He looked away. //SHE NEEDS YOU// Gabriel's head snapped up and his eyes flew to the witchblade on her wrist, then up to Sara’s face. She heard it too.

Shit.

Though dazed and muddled, Sara's expression told him she had heard the blade loud and clear. She was still naked and dripping from the shower. Gabriel's posture stiffened, his body pulling away from her as he shifted his hips uncomfortably. Sara’s arms snaked around him to close the distance he had created. Her head tucked into the spot under his chin. Stunned for a moment, he tried to interpret the change in body language. He tightened his arms and felt fierce joy as she pulled closer. Sara naked in his arms. After a few moments, he lifted his chin from the top of her head.

"Is this what you want, or is it the blade's choice?" he asked, slowly.

"You 'member that day in th' park?"

Gabriel settled for the safe response. "I remember,"

"Wanted to curl up like this."

"Why didn't you?"

"Thought you wouldn't want me."

He shook his head. "Wouldn't want you, Sara? What wouldn't I want? You're intelligent, independent, and stunningly beautiful. What man wouldn't want all of that?"

Her words slurred a bit. "Case you missed it, 'm life in't 'actly normal, 'Riel. There's lots men don't want female cop lover. Somethin' 'bout danger of losing. Or maybe its ego. And 'm not exactly your age." There, she's said it.

His hand drifted down her back tracing some delicate fretwork pattern that only he could see.

"Yes," he acknowledged, "you're older than me. I don't know what that means yet about our relative life experiences. That psychobabble about strong partners and ego-blows? I've got zero issues. Each of us has our strengths. Mine's not physical. That's fine with me." His hand stilled for a moment." Look, everyone loses someone. I don't know whether intentionally being placed in harms way makes the knowledge that I could lose you better or worse. I haven’t been given the chance to find out yet. It's your head game if you want to see yourself as the stereotype of a butch female cop. Me, I see something in you that's truly amazing. You defy stereotypes and it's an incredibly powerful turn on for me. That vision of me in the shower? Who do you think I was fantasizing about? That little leather outfit today almost reduced me to something primal."

His grip around her damp body loosened as his hips shifted tightly. He turned her to meet his gaze. There was something vulnerable and liquid in her eyes. He brushed his lips across her forehead then hesitantly across her lips. The liquid clinging to her lashes finally spilled over and trickled down her cheek. Gabriel's expression slowly closed in on itself. Wrong choice.

Uncertain, terrified, Sara waited for the blade to take the decision from her hands. Gabriel began to turn away. He doesn't understand, she panicked. Sara scrambled to unsteady legs, clutching his shoulders tightly.

"Don't go, 'Riel. 'm not playing. Jus' don' know what 'blade thinks. 'm 'fraid."

Gabriel wasn't given a chance to respond. With a fluid motion, the witchblade flowed down Sara's wrist and wrapped itself around his bicep. The stone glowed brilliantly and Gabriel's heart trip hammered for a moment as a different pulse took over his body. Gabriel was blinking spots out of his eyes when Sara's breath hissed an exclamation. He glanced at her face and his eyes followed hers as they traveled down his shoulder to his upper arm where a thin line of silver and small orange-red oval of stone curled around his bicep. Sara's fingers reached instinctively for her own wrist. The witchblade looked no different than she remembered. Fascinated, she traced the line of silver around Gabriel's arm.

"How do I get this thing off of me?" he seethed through clenched teeth.

" S'it hurting you," Urgency made Sara's voice higher.

"No," he replied slowly.

She shook her head.

"Don' un'erstan' wha' 's doing ri' now," she replied, knees sagged as she slid back into his lap again.

Oh god, I've got to get her out of my lap. For the first time in the years they'd known each other all the cards were on the table and his body was beginning to respond to her closeness. Sara smiled up at him deliciously.

"Hmnn?" he queried wordlessly, too distracted to really think.

Sara's eyes drifted closed for a moment. Heat built low in Gabriel's stomach and his nipples tightened in a way that felt foreign to his body. A strange, pleasant warmth of fluid was building somewhere between his legs (her legs!). His eyes grew wide as he reached out one long-fingered hand to caress Sara's body in confirmation. The sensation created an odd but not unpleasant duality as he felt both of their skin responding to the caress. He drank the smile on Sara's face hungrily.

"Oh."

Well, if I had any doubt about how she felt, I suppose that answers it. Gabriel's dark lashes fluttered closed. He focused on sorting through the sensations that were not his own. Shivering chill. Aching head. //BLADE// he addressed it deliberately, //CAN I HEAL HER?// A pulling of energy gathered somewhere deep at the base of his spine was the only answer he received. Uncertain, he gave in to instinct, hands slipping into her hair as the energy jolted up his spine and crawled down his upper arms. If you had any idea how long I've wanted to be able to run my hands through your hair.

"What'r you doing?" her voice was still slightly slurred and rough.

"Shhh," he murmured, waiting. The place deep in his body felt somehow empty now. He combed lightly through her hair, searching out the bump and the bleeding wound on the back of her head. He smiled. After the fourth time he had still found nothing.

"Feel better?"

She nodded, eyes focusing clearly now.

"Perhaps this is part of what the blade meant when it said that I needed you." Sara said. Gabriel stifled a groan as her body fit more closely into his arms.

“I don’t get it, but right now, if it will let me keep you safe, I don’t care!"

Sara’s lips bowed into a generous smile, sensual, relaxed, happy. His body ached greedily. No, he guarded himself, you’ve seen her look like this before, remember? He still remembered watching her eyes light up for another man. He’d never been the subject of that sort of attention from anyone in his life. Usually Gabriel tried not to yearn for things that had to be given freely by other people. With Sara curled in his arms, he found himself overwhelmed again by all the things he’d never had in a partner. Please don't let me screw it up this time.

She doesn’t deserve to share your insecurities and uncertainties. He hastily let those thoughts slip below the surface again lest the witchblade decide to share that particular line of thinking. The blade made its opinion known in no uncertain terms. Leave the rest of it alone for now, you fool. Gabriel wrapped his arms more securely around Sara and shifted to his feet.

“Hey! What the hell do you think you’re doing?” she protested.

“You’re shivering, and while I'm certain you don't have a concussion any more, we don’t know when or where the blade's going to treat you to another case of vertigo. Considering there isn’t an inch of you that I haven’t seen at this point,” he smirked, “I’m taking you back to the shower to warm up and rinse the blood out of your hair.”

Sara's mouth snapped shut. He's right. You're shivering, your hair's full of drying blood. Arousal at the idea of Gabriel having seen every inch of her left her disinclined to argue.

"Does this mean you’re going to shower with me?" she asked slyly. "Your clothes are soaked. You must be freezing. And frankly, the intensity of what the Witchblade is doing right now scares me more than a little.”

Gabriel’s eyes narrowed as he looked down at her, “emotional appeal aside, I get the feeling I’m being played for a sucker.”

Oh what I wouldn’t give to let her- he cut the thought off abruptly before the blade could make a choice about whether or not to share that particularly juicy thought with Sara. His eyes settled on the thin silver band that still encircled his arm, do me a favor and give her a break for a few hours, okay? Pushing isn’t going to get you anywhere except maybe the bottom of the Hudson.

The band around Gabriel's arm kept its own council.The band around Gabriel's arm kept its own council.