SAR Witchblade Home: Fan Fiction Index

The One You Call

Author's Note: Spoiler Warning: Takes place after Ep. #6 - Maelstrom.
Rating: PG
Category: Jake/Sara

She had asked him again - why was he helping her.
He didn't have an answer.
He didn't understand.
He wasn't ready - yet.

He stayed long enough to know she cried herself to sleep.
He had knelt beside her bed and thought he felt someone beside him.
He couldn't help her.
He brushed a strand of damp hair from her face and left.

He wanted to be there to help put the pieces back together.
He needed to be there.
He didn't understand it. It was like a voice whispered to him, heard
only by some remote part of his heart and soul.

She was falling - crashing in a blaze of grief, fury and confusion.
He knew with a visceral certainty that she'd come through.
He could see her striding through the flames, strong and determined.

She would need someone.
He knew this as well.
Sara would need someone she could reach for - physically and emotionally -
when things got too dark.
She would need someone to be her touchstone, something real amongst the shadows.

He wanted to be one she'd call.
He wanted to be the one who was there to catch her -
whether she need catching or not.
He doesn't want her to feel alone.
He wanted no secrets. Not with Sara.

His heart knows it is right.
He never felt so certain of anything - ever.
Deep within his soul he hears her calling to him, feels her pull.
He's never felt this way before.

He's not falling in love with her.
He can't put a name to the emotion or describe its depth.
His feelings for her are the same now as they were when he first heard her name -
before he arrived, before he asked to be partnered with her.
He knew he was willing to disobey any order, break any law -man's or nature's -
to protect her - to help Sara.

He had sat across from her empty desk.
Playing the roll he had been sent to play.
He had wanted to tell her why he had really come to New York so many times.
But he never could - it was never right.

The job they had sent him to do - it was nearly complete now.
But he wasn't going to leave when it was over.
He'd find a way to make them understand.
Sara needed him.

He could feel the warning chill creep over him.
Instinct told him she was in trouble.
He didn't wonder how he knew.
He didn't question that he should know
It was the same gut instinct that had him heading toward the warehouse
before the snitch's call, before the gunshots were reported.
He'd never have beaten the beat-cops to the scene otherwise.

It was the same instinct - the same voice - that stayed his reaction now.
He couldn't help her. She had to face this on her own.
But he'd be there in the end.
He sat and waited.
He kept busy, kept up appearances.
He went home and prayed he'd be the one she'd call.

She'd come through this trial.
He would help her pick up the pieces.
She wouldn't ever be alone.
He'd help her mend her broken heart.

Maybe then she would tell him the answer to her own question
She would know why he was helping her.

He answered his cell before the first ring finished.
"Jake? "
He heard everything he needed to in the tone of her voice.
"I'm on my way, Sara."