6401/Catching up over coffee

Catching up over coffee
Date of Scene:	01 June 2021
Location:	The Coffee Bean
Synopsis:	Thanks for matchmaking turns into a serious talk. Sara and Dick turn out to be Witchblade and Nightwing. An investigation is planned.
Cast of Characters:	Dick Grayson, Sara Pezzini

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Dick Grayson has posed:
Dick gave Sara a call and set up a meeting in her city. Easier for him to travel rather than making her come to Gotham, considering he wants to thank her. Their both being cops makes a coffee shop the obvious place to meet up. Dick arrives first and grabs a table, keeping an eye on the door for Sara's arrival.

Upon spotting the woman, he waves and calls her over, greeting her with a hug. "Hey Sara, how have you been? I just wanted to catch up a little, and thank you. But first grab a seat and order yourself something."

Sara Pezzini has posed:
Sara Pezzini gave Dick a time in which she wouldn't be doing about 800 other things... lunch. Coffee and bagels were perfect lunch time refreshments, so off she went to meet him.

Entering the coffee shop she offers him a wave, presently wearing her work suit, though it looks a little nicer than past suits may have... she's moved up a little apparently, at least fashion wise.

"Dick, long time no see!" She offers cheerfully, moving to sit at the table. If the waitress didn't already know her order by now, she's been living under a rock. "Oh, you know... work, work, work." She won't mention a mountain of ice on her head, that would take some serious explaining.

Dick Grayson has posed:
Dick Grayson grins, "Yeah, I hear that. Same thing in Gotham, criminals never seem to take vacations." He's already got a large cup of coffee and a bagel in front of him, apparently they have similar views on lunch. "That or they get people to cover their shifts while they're out of town."

He sips his coffee, continuing, "Really though, I wanted to thank you for what you did. It's not every woman who would send the guy she's dating off after a different woman. And Steph and I are just ridiculously happy, so we both owe you a lot. Seriously, that was an amazing thing you did."

Sara Pezzini has posed:
Accepting her cup of coffee from the waitress, Sara adds sugar and cream before stirring.

"That's because most woman are insane," she states plainly. "When you're dating someone and you see they are into you, but not... you start looking for why. Most woman self abuse, it's all my looks or this or that," she mocks a face and gagging over that level of girliness. "I'm a detective, so I started looking at all the angles and honestly, Steph was screaming in numerous ways what was on her mind. And you, christ Dick, I still think you deserve a smack upside the head for those blinders.'

She takes a drink of her coffee now with a chuckle, obviously not really wanting to strike him. "I'm glad you two are happy, cause it was obvious to me you would be."

Dick Grayson has posed:
Dick Grayson shrugs, "The blinders were built of logic. My brain going, "I like her, but she's too young for me. She wouldn't want to date a guy that much older than her." He looks over at her, "I mean, it's a pretty big gap, but we seem to be dealing with it. Apparently love really does conquer all, cause it hasn't seemed to matter in the least. I think the fact that she wants to get into forensics helps, she's a little more serious than most girls her age. I mean, she can still be silly, but that's part of what I love about her, she helps keep me for getting too dark."

Sara Pezzini has posed:
Sara Pezzini offers a thanks now as her bagel with cream cheese is delivered. "Age is a matter of perspective." Yeah, she learned that one herself... Angelo, phew, talk about ages difference. "She could be eighteen with the mind of a forty year old, the personality of a twenty year old, and the spunk of a sixteen year old. Perspective. What matters is what you two think, and how you two are together... and apparently, you're making it work. /That/ makes me happy."

Dick Grayson has posed:
Dick Grayson nods, "Yeah, we are. I think this could go the whole way, honestly. I've never felt this way about anyone before, and I've dated a lot of women." He smiles happily, then comes back to the here and now, taking another sip of his coffee before adding a little more cream, "But what about you? I know you say work has you busy, have you had the chance to go on any dates since our relationship came to it's rather sudden end?"

Sara Pezzini has posed:
A smirk, just a little one, then Sara kicks him under the table. "There, now we can get passed my being 'one of the lots' and talk about other things." Once she says this she laughs, clearly it was all for fun, playing with him like any friend might. There are no hurt feelings here, at least she hopes he is getting that impression, because she wasn't hurt, at all.

"Um... well..." she rubs the back of her neck a little. "I may have to make a small confession here, if you think you're ready for a slight mental smack... cause it was one for me, a really big mental smack upside the head."

Dick Grayson has posed:
Dick Grayson laughs at the kick and teasing, then raises an eyebrow at her demeanor when bringing up the mental smack, "What's up Sara? You just went a little weird, what's going on? Sounds like you've got something a little serious going on/"

Sara Pezzini has posed:
Taking moment to sip her coffee and gather all the thoughts into a coherent wording, Sara nods.

"Sorry, I don't mean to be weird. See, not long before you and I started dating and I added myself to the little black book that you will likely pass on to a little brother of safe women to date who hate you now..." she had to get that in there, and she is smiling. "... I had, an accident. I lost my memory. Not all of it mind you, just the really important shit. I had been working on regaining those memories when I met you, but I had also reached that point where I had to decide to move on because it didn't look like they were coming back."

Dick Grayson has posed:
He nods, "I remember you mentioning something about that, yes, but you hadn't wanted to go into it, it was just kind of in passing." A bite of the bagel is chewed and swallowed before he asks, "So I take it you remembered something? Cause otherwise this is a kind of strange detour in the story."

Sara Pezzini has posed:
Sara snerks a laugh, "Nope, just a detour, nice seeing you." She moves like she's going to stand and leave but keeps laughing and remains. "There're still /huge/ holes, but the thing I'm headed for is this. Even while I was dating you, it felt... off. Like I was cheating on someone, but I didn't remember being with anyone and Angelo, the moron, didn't think he should mention it for my benefit. Apparently... we were an item before the accident."

Dick Grayson has posed:
Dick Grayson blinks, "Oh, well, that's not good. So we were kinda cheating when we.. anyway. Well, not something I'd normally do, I'm not really into the whole steal other people's girlfriends thing, but if he didn't tell you, I guess he really has nobody but himself to blame for it." He shakes his head, "Don't know what he was thinking, if Steph had an accident like that I'd be at her side right away to help her and explain things to her."

Sara Pezzini has posed:
Sara Pezzini waggles her hand a little, "Eh... I see his side, and yours. Yes, I cheated on him in the big picture, but this big picture was broken into puzzle pieces at the time. He explained it as caring so much, and my being so confused and lost that he didn't want to add pressure to the already frazzled woman... so I get it. I think he should have told me once I started to settle a little, but he also isn't the type to get mad. He wanted me to be happy, the thick skulled pain in my butt, even if that wasn't with him."

Taking a bite of her bagel, she enjoys the flavor for a moment, before washing it down with a drink of coffee. "As for being by my side, he was. He was the one who found me in the hospital, the Jane Doe that I was at the time, and he never left me after that."

Dick Grayson has posed:
Dick Grayson nods, "So, he wanted you to be happy no matter what.. kind of like what you did for Steph and I." He chuckles, "Sounds like a pretty good match there, if you ask me. Two people who know what it is to care enough that you just want someone else to be happy, even if it isn't with you. It sounds like you should do pretty well together, actually."

Sara Pezzini has posed:
Sara Pezzini smiles, "We do well enough. I still don't remember the relationship we had, I just remember that he's the one I'm supposed to be with. It's messed up, I mean on a level you would not believe messed up. What I do remember, what I don't remember, the pieces that are sort of there... it's like trying to put a square peg in a round hole, and it almost working."

Dick Grayson has posed:
Dick Grayson nods, "That sort of thing can be hard to deal with, I've seen various forms of amnesia in my career. It's got to be a bitch to draw a blank on things and people you should know. Look, if there are treatments or anything that could help that your insurance won't cover, I'd be happy to help out. Might as well do something actually useful with some of the money, after all, and you're a friend, so let me know if you ever need anything."

Sara Pezzini has posed:
Without actually consciously thinking, Sara starts turning the bracelet she wears around on her wrist, over and over again. "No, there's no treatments for this," she comments, then notes what she is doing and puts both hand on her coffee cup instead. "I think Angelo made the bill disappear because I've not been contacted." Sometimes, no, every time... it sucked when you couldn't give all the details. "This is something that'll either work itself out, or it won't. So far I've managed to stay sane with the knowledge that there is a week of my life I don't remember at all, and several months of time that are broken up into puzzle pieces."

Dick Grayson has posed:
Dick reaches over and pats her hand, "Well, I think you'll be ok. You strike me as a pretty well centered person, and having someone watching out for you like this Angelo is helps too. But if you ever need to talk, you know my number, I'm always available."

Sara Pezzini has posed:
Once again Sara starts flipping the bracelet around her wrist, over and over again, almost like a nervous habit and then he lays his hand on hers. "This is a..." oh gods, was she actually considering it? "... talk in private situation." Yes, she's considering it. The answers were out there, she knew they were, but she couldn't touch them. Angelo has found a few leads, and found that so far no one was following those leads which was really best for her in the long run, but she needed to know what happened and that meant trusting someone outside of the 'in the know', someone who could get access... a cop. "Think we could arrange that?"

Dick Grayson has posed:
Dick Grayson looks at her directly, then nods, "That is not even a little problem. I kept my place in Bludhaven, there's the Manor, or for that matter we can walk out the door and go rent a hotel room to talk in. Private is easy to do. You tell me where and when you want to talk, be it now or some time in the future."

Sara Pezzini has posed:
Sara Pezzini sits back in the chair, studying Dick for a moment. She knew him well enough, she trusted him, and that little flip off the balcony played through her mind for some odd reason. "Let's do it now before I change my mind and run screaming into the night. I trust you," she says that for reasons he can't likely fathom. "And I need help I think you can offer, if you're willing, once you have the whole story."

Sara Pezzini has posed:
With the agreement to meet someplace private, Sara suggested her house. Well really it was Angelo's house, she just lived there with him so she laid claim to it. Dick already had the address, so she finished her coffee and bagel, told him she would meet him there, and headed out.

At the brownstone, she pulls her bike up onto the sidewalk and out of the way, leaving a space for Dick to park whatever way too expensive vehicle he has presently, then heads up to unlock the door and wait. Once he's there, she will show him inside, shut the door and lock it. Nope, nothing going on here, just nerves and the need for privacy.

Dick Grayson has posed:
Dick Grayson actually shows up in a taxi, he took the hyperloop to get from Gotham to NY fast, so doesn't have his car with him. He heads in and sits wherever Sara guides him to. "Ok, I'd say this is fairly private. So I'm all ears, what's on your mind?"

Sara Pezzini has posed:
Routine is maintained. Sara enters the house, checks the room with her eyes as she indicates the couch and chairs to Dick. Next she heads to the small kitchen to get coffee brewing because her caffeine stream needs more. And finally back to the living room, but she doesn't sit down. "Okay, I'm about to go into some pretty secret shit here," she states first, not at all starting out easy... just throw the man in the deep end and pray. "I have a secret identity."

Dick Grayson has posed:
Dick Grayson raises an eyebrow, "Ok, you mean like 'At the Seven Veils they call me Tawney', or 'Hi, I'm Supergirl?' Cause I'm ok with either one, it's just a fairly important distinction." He's got a slight smile, but he's not mocking her, she can tell it's an honest question.

Sara Pezzini has posed:
She was trying to be serious here but she snerks a laugh and rolls her eyes, "You make this really difficult to be serious about, you know that? And how did you know I'm Tawney? Who talked?" She grins at him but continues right along. "This falls into the I'm Supergirl category, only not her. I'm known as Witchblade."

Dick Grayson has posed:
Dick Grayson hmms, looking at her with an appraising gaze, "I've heard the name before. Not a ton, but it's been in the papers." He considers for a moment, then goes on, "Ok, this is tough.. I mean, we dated, I think I got to know you at least fairly well, but at the same time, announcing you're a superhero is, well.. " He seems at a little loss for words, not sure how to say what he's trying to say. "I guess my point is, ok, you say you're Witchblade after needing to talk to me privately. Where are we going with this?"

Sara Pezzini has posed:
Yep, she knew it was headed there and was prepared for it.

"I had to start there, because you needed to know that part to understand this next part." She takes a quick breath, chewing at her bottom lip. "See, I was investing the disappearance of some children when the accident occurred. Detective work, not Witchblade work.... but something happened. That's the part that is missing, I'm not sure /what/ happened... but I do know that Witchblade is what took my memories."

She starts to pace now, clearly ramping up and talking faster as she goes. "Angelo found some clues that led he and I back to the place where it happened, but we didn't know what it was until we follows the leads from there to a warehouse. It was Kenneth Irons," she spits that name out like it tastes bad. "And a magical ritual of some sort. He had set a second trap on the warehouse roof that Witchblade senses and wouldn't let me spring. That's when the toady Ian shows up, in a bastardized version of Witchblade."

Dick Grayson has posed:
Dick Grayson nods, "Ok, you're talking about Witchblade like it's a separate person, I thought you were Witchblade? You might need to give me some of the basics before you start into the actual problem. What exactly are we talking about here?"

Sara Pezzini has posed:
A small curse in Italian, "Right, duh."

Looking around for a moment as if she is trying to spot something, when in fact she is just thinking, she steps over to the coffee table. Pulling off her jacket and then her holster, she lays both on the table. Rolling up the sleeve of her right arm she holds her wrist up, "This is Witchblade."

Yep, bracelet... not very impressive.

"I am the wielder of Witchblade, and when activated, which sometimes it does entirely on it's own, I become Witchblade." As she spoke, tendrils of metal form out of the bracelet and wrap themselves around her hand and lower arm to form a gauntlet. "It becomes the armor that's been pictured in the paper, but that ruins clothing so I'd rather not show you unless I get naked."

Dick Grayson has posed:
Dick Grayson watches the bracelet form into an armored gauntlet and nods, "No need to ruin your clothes, what you already did shows me there's something to the whole thing. Ok, so the Witchblade is like an artifact of some kind, and from what you've said, it has it's own awareness, yes? Since you said it wouldn't let you spring a trap, and that it sometimes activates on it's own. So you think the artifact took your memory away for some reason." He's in detective mode now, summing up info and moving to the heart of the matter.

Sara Pezzini has posed:
Sara Pezzini nods, "I know it did. That much I figured out. What I can't figure out is why."

The pacing starts again, "Witchblade is a very, very old artifact that chooses the user, sometimes that user doesn't get a choice, aka, me. It saved my life, but it also did so by basically saying, 'Hey Sara, you're mine now'. It protects me, with the armor and the weapons, there's a lot more to it but sum up, it protects me. So I can only assume that this memory thing was to protect me from something, which may or may not be intentional, it's not like I hold conversations, it's more a 'feeling'."

Somewhere in the kitchen the coffee announces its ready, but she just pauses and looks that way for the time being. "Irons did something to me and whatever it was, he got a piece of Witchblade and... that's all the further I've managed to get. Unless you count Ian being the douchebag in the bastardized version, but I think we took care of that."

Dick Grayson has posed:
Dick hmms, "Ok, so if Angelo had to follow clues to there, then apparently it removed memories to even before the incident that caused the problem. What is the last thing you actually remember, what was the last thing going on before it all blanks out?"

Sara Pezzini has posed:
Sara Pezzini closes her eyes a moment, the gauntlet slowly unwrapping itself and becoming a bracelet again as she does. "I being assigned the job at the police station, talking to the captain about it. I... sort of remember doing to the apartment they went missing from, but my bike wasn't found anywhere near that place, it was found in Hell's Kitchen, near a run down, nearly condemned apartment building. I have no idea how it got there, anything from that point on... gone. So that's where Angelo and I looked first, and the traces of the magical ritual being used were found."

Dick Grayson has posed:
Dick Grayson nods, "Ok. So you were assigned to find these kidnapped kids, then your memory is gone and Angelo and you tracked things to a warehouse where a magical ritual took place, but you've got really nothing past that, that sum it up about right? Where does this Kenneth Irons person fit into the whole thing?"

Sara Pezzini has posed:
Sara Pezzini has now taken to muttering in Italian under her breath, as if she's talking to herself or just muttering. "The apartment building was point of original of the first ritual that is clearly the cause of my memory being lost. Angelo used connects with uh..." she clears her throat. "... connects and found the building was owned by Irons, through one of his many shell companies. That is the only connection we have, that same shell company owned the warehouse that we went to next, and that is where the second attempt at the ritual was, on the roof, that Witchblade would most definitely not allow me to fall into, and where Ian appeared with bastardized."

Dick Grayson has posed:
Dick Grayson nods, "Ok, well... you actually made a good choice here. Because I think probably one of the most important things is to find out what the ritual was about, and I actually know a couple different sorcerers. So give me the addresses, I'll make a couple calls and see if I can get someone to come out and do the whole magic thing around these sites and see if they can tell what the rituals were designed to do."

Sara Pezzini has posed:
Sara Pezzini stops dead in her tracks and looks at him, "What will you say? How will you explain it? Who are they? Are you intending to tell them who I am?" Yep, he may have just hit a small nerve.

Dick Grayson has posed:
Dick Grayson shakes his head, "Most importantly, no, I don't intend to tell them about you. Your secret is yours to tell, not mine. I'll just tell them there was a magical ritual I'm investigating and I need to know as much about it as they can tell me. It's not an unusual sort of thing for me to be doing, I deal with this kind of thing quite a bit." He looks at her, then shrugs, "Oh, what the hell, you trusted me." He reaches into a pocket and pulls up an object that he tosses to her. It's, well, very recognizable. There's toys, action figures that come with them, that sort of thing. This one, however, is made of a very solid metal and looks both very professional and very dangerous, despite what it's called. It's a Wingding.

Sara Pezzini has posed:
Even without expecting him to be throwing something, Sara catches it, a testament to her reflexes that clearly are more than human. Looking down at what she just caught both eyeballs are instantly the size of dinner plates, she shot right past saucers, "Holy shit!" She looks up at him, eyes still huge. "Mother fu..." okay, she manages to stop that this time cause HOLY MOTHER FRICKEN SON OF A... NIGHTWING?!

She stands there staring at him with those huge eyes until her brain can /finally/ wrap around and grab back onto reality. "Well that explains the flip," she states, not exactly the likely expected comment. "Well then... uh... nice to remeet you?"

Dick Grayson has posed:
Dick Grayson chuckles, "Well, that's about the reaction I would expect, I suppose. But that might explain why the whole Witchblade thing isn't freaking me out, and why I have sorcerers I can just call to look into things. And lets you know that I have just a tiny hint of how to keep a secret. So, let me contact some people, I'll see who's available to look into it, and we'll take it from there. Once we find out what the ritual was about, we can look into who was responsible and exactly what happened."

Sara Pezzini has posed:
Sara Pezzini nods a few times, getting a note pad from her jacket pocket to write down the address. The first is the apartment building, and which apartment the ritual was in. The next is the warehouse, and that the location of the ritual was literally right at the top of the fire escape, so be careful. "This," she holds up the Wingding. "Is mine now." She slides it into her back pocket.

Nightwing in in her house.., inner glee, inner fangirl, moment passed.

"Yes I do believe you can keep a secret," she offers him the piece of paper now. "Probably better than I can in fact, and I keep A LOT of secrets."

Dick Grayson has posed:
Dick Grayson chuckles as he takes the paper, "That's ok, I have lots. I can spare them now and then." He tucks the paper into the breast pocket of his shirt. "I think we probably all do when we start living more than one life, it's kind of a requirement of the job. You find out a lot of things that really need to be kept to yourself a lot of the time."

Sara Pezzini has posed:
At long last, Sara moves over to collect coffee for the both of them, as well as sugar and cream in case he wants them, and sits herself down on the couch. "There're so many things that you have to keep your mouth shut about, even if it would help for others to know." A little sugar and cream go into her coffee now.

"I can offer my own secrets, because they're my own, but the others... you know, hells you /know/. So you get it."

Dick Grayson has posed:
Dick Grayson nods, "Exactly. It's something that someone who doesn't share our kind of burden can't really understand. The things we keep secret could get people killed if they got out, which is why we keep our identities secret, nobody wants the kind of people we deal with going after their friends or relatives." He fixes up his cup of coffee with cream and sugar as well, then takes a sip. "So, now we know. Which can be handy, really. If you need a hand, now you have me to call, and I have you to call if I need some help. Never hurts to have another ally in our kind of fights."

Sara Pezzini has posed:
Sara Pezzini nods as she sips her coffee, "Nice to have some allies out there."

And then... it hits her.

She dated Nightwing. She went to parties with Nightwing. She spent the night with Nightwing. This makes her stare at him like a teenaged girl for just a moment, he can't miss it, but it doesn't last long.

"So um... I know what you can do, if you'd like to spar some time..." concentration is officially difficult for this moment, so another sip of coffee and dignity recovered. "... I'd be game. Non-lethal of course."

Dick Grayson has posed:
Dick Grayson spots the look and smiles, because he's seen it before on many young women who know nothing more of him than his poster on their wall. But he knows there's more to her than that, but allows her her little fangirl moment. Once it passes and she starts talking again, he sips his coffee and nods, "Sure, and yeah, always non-lethal. But you probably know that about me already, I imagine. I'd be interested to see what you can do sometime." He glances at his watch, "But for the moment, I need to run, got a few things I need to do."

Sara Pezzini has posed:
Sara Pezzini reaches to accept his cup and places hers and his on the coffee table before standing. Hostess always shows the guest out or her mother will appear out of no where and smack her.

"If you trust someone Dick," she adds now. "You can mention at least who it's for, the Witchblade part. I'm pretty sure the people you know are just like you in the long run, able to keep secrets. I trust you, that's the part that matters, so if you trust them and it will help, go a head."

She walks him over to the door, unlocking it and opening it for him. "Call me if you need something, or hear something. I'll make myself available."