Sage heasitated for a moment before nodding with a sigh. "Right," he muttered to himself, shaking his head slightly to attempt to get himself ready for the long day ahead of him. At her comment about the thank you fucking he chuckled and nodded, giving the girl a sort of grin. "deal," he noted.

He waited while she thought, making sure Liz was settled in before the girl suggested dropping her off at the daycare while she went where she needed to go. He nodded and gave her the address of the place, as well as the info she'd need, before pecking the baby goodbye and slipping out the door. He made it to the kitchen just before the tavern owner, who swept through the place like some kind of tornado or something. He avoided the man's swinging fists for the most part, as he'd slid to take an order out to the kitchen, but he had a feeling it would be a long day...theab was in a terrible mood. Well...more terrible than usual.

Sage had scurried out of the kitchen quickly, avoiding the tavern owner at all coats. Apparently, he couldn't avoid him well enough though, because about halfway through the day, the man grabbed him as he passed, yanking him around and immediately shaking him, yelling something about..... Something. He wasn't even sure what. His mind was a blur by then, and by the time the man released him, he just stood there numbly, mind whirling. That wasn't what the guy wanted him to do apparently, because the guy grabbed the broom from the closet next to them, slamming it into his ribs with enough force to send him staggering into the counter with a gasp. The guy advanced on him, but a woman slid in, whispered something to the man, and then grabbed him dragging him into the closet.

He protested, of course, but his mind was slow and he hurt like hell....and her grip was strong as steel. He knew what she was doing when he felt her hands slide under his shirt, and move down his body. When she kicked his legs out from under him, he knocked his head against the wall, and he was only conscious for a few more minutes before eventually passing out.

He wasn't sure how long he'd been there when he woke, but he could feel plenty of bruises having formed, and when he touched a hand to his pounding head, it was wet with blood. He cursed silently, and moved to gather his clothes from the closet floor and peek out heasitantly. It was night....the tavern had been closed, and the tavern owner would have left by then, so he crawled out before limping over to the bathroom and cleaning the blood off of him as best he could. There wasn't much he could do about the rest of it...and he just wanted to get back to Liz and sleep for a very long time. If he could. It was late...Celeste might be worried...but he didn't want to face her. It was pretty obvious as to what had happened, and while he'd fixed himself up as best he could....he doubted he could hide this from her. So, after a few minutes sighed and moved to slide into their room slowly and quietly, so as not to wake Liz, or the vampire if she was asleep. He wasn't sure if he wanted her to be or not.

Sage had thought the girl was asleep at first, since he didn't see her up, but jumped slightly when he heard her voice. "Working," he grumbled, though did his best to sound normal. But he was exhausted, and his head was pounding, and no matter how often this sort of thing happened, it never really got any easier. In fact, it all just seemed to pile up worse and worse as time went on. But he wasn't able to leave. At least...not until now. Celeste, for whatever reason, was helping them out.

He was caught a bit off guard when she grabbed him, but he'd known she would have figured out he was hurt. He noted her eyes change color, but he also recalled her saying that black meant she was protective, or something along those lines. It didn't make much sense as to why she'd be protective of him...but he'd take what he could get, he supposed. "nothing out of the normal realm of my job," he sighed, really just wanting to pass out for a good long while by then. He slid down onto the floor as he watched her wet the washcloth down and such. Really, his mind was still whirling and he wasn't sure why she wanted to help out, but he wasn't going to refuse her. So, he stayed still as she came back towards him, but avoided making eye contact. She could probably figure out well enough what had happened, especially if she insisted on helping him out completely....but still, it wasn't easy to talk about. Even if he did know she cared a little bit.

Sage winced slightly when the girl started to clean him up, but whatever she was doing did help a little bit. And it was rather nice to know she cared. So, he just sat there and let her do as she pleased, more than willing to accept the help at the moment. He grunted in agreement when she asked if this was normal...he certainly wished it wasn't, but between working and the tavern owners temper, it was more normal then coming off a shift unscathed.

At her next comment, his face twisted slightly and heated up, a flush appearing on his cheeks, but he slowly nodded in response to her comment. "I - yeah," he admitted quietly. "That was part of it." It wasn't an abnormal thing to happen ...but that didn't mean he'd ever get used to it. "I'm...not sure what else happened...she knocked me out. Woke up on a closet," he noted bitterly with a shake of his head.

When she said they were leaving the next morning, he couldn't help but look up at her hopefully. "Where are we going," he asked quietly. He hadn't been too dazed about the whole assassin thing ...but it was in all honesty, terrifying to just follow the girl out and away from the few things he had under his control. It was hard having to just ...trust someone, after never being able to do so before. He sighed when she asked what he wanted and shook his head slightly, running his hands over his face with a sigh and pushing his hair that has been torn out of the bun out of his face. "sleep," he noted after a moment, letting the girl help him up and over to the bed, where a glance at Liz told him she was alright. Once he'd flopped onto the bed, he'd passed out pretty much right away, which was quite nice.

Sage nodded slowly up at the girl in response to her comment, eyes searching her face. It seemed like she cared....she obviously cared somewhat, and it wasn't for his body or blood or anything, she'd made that pretty clear. It was just...hard to trust someone. He'd had to do the exact opposite his whole life. But he needed help. Needed someone. He knew that ....and he figured she knew it too. She was doing the best she could.

His mind was shutting down though, so he nodded numbly when she suggested going to bed, and let her tug him over to it. He'd mumbled some sort of thanks to her before passing out, though he wasn't sure if she'd heard it or not.

She was sitting in bed when he woke up, reading again, and he shifted to where he could see her with a slight groan. He was sore....no doubt from being beaten on in multiple fashions...but if he was going to talk to her he should look at her. Besides, moving a bit was good for him anyway, even if it hurt like hell. "whatcha reading," he asked,voice still heavy with sleep. He settled down again once he'd rolled over, still tired and rather overwhelmed with it all as his mind caught up to him.