Kenneth Irons looked at his pocket watch and then laid it out on the desk before him. He steepled his fingers in front of him and studied the image on his computer screen. Patience was a virtue.

Sara pulled up in front of the house and shut the bike off and parked it quickly, then hurried inside. Ian was bundled up on the couch with Helmut. The television was still playing but Ian was sound asleep. Helmut looked up as she entered, but seeing it was her and not a threat, put his muzzle back down in Ian's lap.

Sara walked over and felt Ian's forehead. He wasn't running a fever. His eyes opened as she withdrew her hand.

"Hey baby, you feeling any better?"

Ian answered with a hoarse voice, "No, actually I am feeling worse if anything."

"Want me to get you some hot tea? Some soup?"

He shook his head. "Tea would be nice." He managed a weak smile.

Sara headed for the kitchen but not before saying, "You know normally I'd fuss at you for having the dog on the couch, but I'll let it slide this time."

She returned a few moments later with a tray laden with cup of piping hot green tea, a squeeze jar of honey, and some freshly sliced lemon. "Here you go." She put the tray down on the coffee table. "So what's wrong?"

"I ache all over."

Sara frowned. She couldn't think of a time in the past when Ian had ever complained. He had sat through getting a tattoo without as much as wincing. She, on the other hand, had cursed quite a few times during the process. "Have you ever felt like this before?"

"No, never. I've never even had a cold that I can remember."

"I'm going to get you something for muscle aches." Sara disappeared into the bathroom, returning a moment later with a bottle of naproxin sodium in her hand. She fussed with the child-proof cap a few minutes and then finally shook out two of the tablets into Ian's outstretched hand.

He swallowed them down, chasing them with a sip of tea. Putting down the cup, he lifted the corner of the blanket in invitation to Sara.

Sara snuggled in beside him, sandwiching him between herself and the dog. "If you aren't any better by tomorrow you're going to have to go to the doctor."

"No," Ian said emphatically. "No doctors."

"What do you suggest then?"

"I will just wait it out. I have seen enough doctors to last me a lifetime already." His face was sombre as he spoke.

Sara knew she had hit a nerve. The training he had gone through while under Kenneth Irons' controlling hand included being part of a Special Forces unit known as the Black Dragons. The members of that unit had been subject to testing of psychotropic drugs and who knows what else.

They sat in silence for the better part of the evening watching television. Sara massaged Ian's shoulders for a while once Helmut had enough snuggling and jumped down off the couch. She loved the feel of his muscular shoulders beneath her hands. She kneaded at the muscles of his neck as he leaned his head forward, a groan of pleasure coming from his throat. Finally Sara asked, "Ready to go to bed?"

Ian nodded his assent and Sara climbed out from under the blanket. Ian stood to follow Sara into the bedroom and promptly fell to the floor as Sara watched.

Sara knelt beside Ian, "What happened?"

"I can't feel my left leg."

Sara helped Ian get back up on the couch. "What do you mean you can't feel your left leg? Did it fall asleep?" Sara gave Ian a confused look.

Ian shook his head and began pulling off his boot and sock. "No I just can't feel it, but it isn't cold to the touch so it is not from lack of circulation. I was not sitting in a position that would cut off circulation either." He frowned. Nothing like this had ever happened before and he wasn't sure what to think.

Sara looked at the bracelet on her wrist. She knelt down and held it against Ian's leg. "Anything?"

Ian shook his head.

"I'm calling Vicki." Sara stood and picked up the cordless phone and began dialing before Ian could complain.

Finally the ringing was replaced by a friendly voice, "Coroner's Office, Vicki Po."

"Vic, hey, it's Sara."

"Hey Pez. What's up?"

"Listen Vic, I've got a slight problem here at the house . . . think you could swing by on your way home?"

"Sure Pez. Do I want to ask what this is about?"

"It's Ian. Something's wrong, but I don't know what."

"I usually work on people with a lot less life in 'em, Pez. Why not just take him to the ER?"

"He won't go."

"Well, that's a helluva reason." Vicki laughed. "Yeah, I was just finishing up here anyway. I had planned on leaving a lot earlier, but you got lucky. I stayed late to work on a gunshot victim. 12 gauge. Several shots, close range. It's like working with hamburger."

"Too much info, Vic."

Vicki laughed. "Ok, give me directions to your place again?"

Sara gave the requested directions before ending the call. "Vicki will be here in a bit."

"You realize you are going to have to explain a lot to her."

Sara nodded. "I can trust her."

Vicki sat in her car a moment before getting out. She looked at Sara's house and wondered just what it was that made Sara think of calling her. She had gone through med school just like practicing MD's, but none of her patients were among the living. There must be a reason Sara's husband didn't want to go to a hospital. Vicki thought of the typical reasons first. She doubted he was wanted. Sara would have turned him in if that were the case surely. Vicki sighed. Only one way to find out. She got out of the car and headed for the door.

Sara heard the knock at the door and jumped up to answer it. Peering through the peephole she saw it was Vicki and disarmed the alarm system and opened the door.

"Hey Vic. Man, am I glad to see you."

"Ok, so now are you going to tell me why a forensics specialist is here to look at a live body?" Vicki quirked an eyebrow up.

Sara shut the door behind Vicki and rearmed the alarm system. "It's a long story. Parts of it I'm not even sure you are going to believe."

Vicki looked at Ian sitting on the couch looking downright miserable. "Hey Ian. Sara beat you up or something?" she asked with a slight grin.

Ian smiled in return. "No, that I could handle." His face sobered, " I woke up today aching all over. A little while ago, I went to stand up and fell because I have no feeling in my left leg."

The doctor within Vicki was interested. Her mind began to churn out possibilities. "So why not go to the ER and get checked out?"

Vicki watched as Sara and Ian exchanged glances. Sara finally spoke up, "Let me get us something to drink and then I'll do my best to explain."

"Coffee, cream and sugar." Vicki nodded as she took a seat.

Sara returned with three mugs of coffee. She seated herself on the couch beside Ian and began her tale, telling Vicki of the Witchblade and how it had bonded with herself and Ian on a molecular level. As she spoke, the Witchblade hummed softly, bringing back a conversation she had with Vicki in another lifetime, one that happened but didn't. Sara took a deep breath and then she told Vicki of Ian's involvement with the Black Dragons and the psychotropic drugs that had been forced on him. She quoted part of the things Vicki had told her in that other life back to Vicki. The R-brain, rewinding and fast-forwarding evolution, turbo-charged, certain frequencies and strobing lights.

Vicki sat and listened quietly as Sara spoke. Occasionally she would raise an eyebrow, but she didn't speak until Sara was done. Finally she couldn't remain quiet anymore, "It changed your molecular biology?" She shook her head. "Pez, I have trouble buying that. I'm a scientist, not an occultist."

Sara willed the Witchblade into its gauntlet form.

"Oh my God." Vicki just stared for a long time, then, "You're going to let me take blood samples, right?"

Sara and Ian looked at each other and then Sara shrugged. "As long as no one else sees them, I don't see why not." The gauntlet shifted back to bracelet form.

Vicki smiled. This was just the sort of thing she loved. A good medical mystery. "The first thing that comes to mind is some type of chemical poisoning." She looked at Ian, "Have you been messing with any chemicals? Refinishing anything? Painting? Yard work?"

Ian thought for a moment, "Not recently. I did some painting when we first moved in, but I was careful to make sure windows were open for ventilation."

"Have you been out anywhere and been drinking? It's possible someone could have slipped something in your drink."

Ian shook his head, "No, not that I can recall. We had dinner with the Siris." He shrugged, "I don't drink alcohol."

Vicki looked perplexed. "This started this morning with aching? Any headache? Any insect or any other type of bites?"

"This morning, yes. Slight headache." Ian paused, "Mosquito bite, but that is all."

Vicki didn't like where this was heading. If it wasn't chemically induced and wasn't transmitted by a bite, there were very few options left.

"Any vigorous exercise yesterday?"

"A short swim." Ian reddened a bit thinking about the bedroom.

"More vigorous than that," Vicki chuckled, knowing what the blushing meant.

Sara nearly choked on her coffee and reddened as well.

"Any carbohydrate rich meals within the past 24 hours?"

"Nothing more than normal."

"There's only one thing that comes to mind if chemical influence is ruled out and given the rest of your answers. And I can't say it's a pretty option." Vicki frowned. "I would have to do some testing to confirm or deny anything of course. . .."

"Just tell us, Vic."

"MS. Multiple sclerosis."

Sara's hand flew to her mouth and tears welled in her eyes. Ian said nothing, just looked at Vicki as though he had misheard.

Vicki sighed. "Nothing is for certain. Don't panic. I'll need to get some blood samples and I'd like to do a DNA test too. Sara, I'd like to get samples from you too. If that thing has changed you both as you suggest, I'll need a control sample."

Sara nodded, 'Yeah, sure. Of course."

Vicki pushed her glasses back up on her nose. "Ian, do you mind if I do a quick examination?"

"Not at all. What would you like me to do?"

"Just take off your shirt and shoes and lie down there. I'll try not to hurt you. I've not had any complaints from my other patients." Vicki remained straight-faced, but there was a twinkle in her eye.

Ian started removing his shirt and his remaining boot and sock. What Vicki had said hit him at last and he laughed. He laid down on the couch, still smiling.

"You're such a good friend to do this, Vic." Sara smiled.

"Medical oddities are always fascinating, Pez. I always knew you were an oddball," she winked.

Vicki began her exam of Ian by checking his pupils with a penlight. "I'm sorry I don't have a sphygmomanometer with me, but most of my patients don't have bp's." She continued with a quick check of his pulse and then a palpation of his abdomen. No pain there. She pulled a small pinwheel from her bag and ran it across the bottom of each of his feet. He recoiled slightly when it ran across the right one, but not the left. "Any numbness or tingling in either of your hands?"

Ian shook his head, "No, not that I've noticed."

"Ok, just lie still. I'm going to draw a little blood." Vicki took out a syringe and a strip of thin latex. She wrapped the latex just below Ian's bicep. With practiced ease she inserted the needle and drew back on the plunger filling the syringe with his blood. She capped the syringe and took a fine-tipped marker and wrote on it. Putting it aside she withdrew a over-large cotton bud from her supplies and instructed Ian to open his mouth. She swabbed the inside of his cheek and then put the cotton bud into a plastic vial. "Ok, you can sit up now." Once Ian had done so she said, "Sara, your turn."