Cause for Concern

By DustyP

A Snippet from The Girl Next Door.

Jim stepped back from the smoking, fire-damaged bus, having seen the last of the children lifted from the overturned vehicle.   Biting his lip, he moved to where he could see the road more clearly and stared down it, his eyes searching for the speck of colour that would mark the location of Blair’s green Volvo.   Even stretching his vision as far as possible, he could not see anything except the slowly settling dust raised by the car that had passed a short time before.  He had been aware of the slowly moving vehicle, but had been concentrating on helping the traffic policeman and the driver in getting the children out of the wrecked school bus.

Despite wanting to continue his pursuit of the Volvo, he'd had no option but to stop, his immediate concern being the safety of the children, but now, with the Fire Department and paramedics attending to the rescued passengers, he couldn't help the pang of anxiety and guilt which sprang to his mind.  He felt somehow as though he'd betrayed his partner... that Blair needed him.

The prickle of unease at the back of his head felt like ghostly fingers, and made the short hairs on his neck stand on end.

Blair was in trouble.... and Jim was in no position to help him at this moment.

"What have you got yourself into this time, kid?" he murmured to himself.

He'd known instinctively that Iris was trouble, the moment he'd set eyes on her, even before he'd found her mug-shot on the computer and realised she was far from being the 'nice-girl-next-door', Sandburg evidently thought. 

Jim sighed, for someone who'd travelled the world and lived with many different types of people, Blair was very naive in regard to some of the women he met.  That naivety was at once one of the most endearing traits of Sandburg's personality, and also one of the most frustrating.

Sandburg was an adult, and made his own decisions, yet at times, Jim felt he was dealing with a teenager with no experience of the world and it's dangers.

Once he’d discovered Iris had a police record, Jim had tried to warn his friend, but now knew that Blair had never received his message.  He now regretted the time he'd spent on stakeout with Taggart, and his own words 'what could happen in one night?' Obviously plenty could – and had – gone very wrong.

Jim knew that Blair would not have been involved with drugs, but with no evidence to prove it, the situation was getting out of hand. 

Taking a deep breath, Jim tried to relax his tense muscles.

First things first: he had to find Blair and make sure he was safe.  Iris and her 'friend' were potentially very dangerous, and the longer Blair was missing, the greater Jim's fear for his safety.

Second: Jim was going to kill his room-mate for worrying the hell out of his Blessed Protector. He was then going to sit down and try and make Sandburg understand that not every damsel in distress was as innocent as she first appeared.

The first wasn't even an option, he would find Sandburg, and the rest would have to fall into the 'wait-and-see' category. 

Jim doubted whether he could change Blair's attitude to the fairer sex, and to be honest, he wouldn't want his partner to lose that open mindedness that made him such a good teacher and friend.

With a last, long, look down the road, Jim made for his truck.  Maybe Simon had turned up something that would help him find his missing partner.

Blair, sitting in the rear seat of his own car, could hardly believe what had happened.  The idiot driving his precious car had deliberately driven past a wrecked school bus, without even trying to help.

He stared at the back of Chance's head as the other man turned to share a smug grin with Iris.

Their laughter was cut short as the Volvo started to slow down, the engine back-firing loudly, sounding like gunfire.

Never had Blair been so pleased at hearing the sounds of trouble from his 'classic' car.   Now, maybe he’d be able to get them to give this up; if he could get them to return to Cascade, maybe Jim wouldn't kill him for getting involved with Iris in the first place.  He had no doubt that Jim would be searching for him when he realised he hadn't been home all night.  Only trouble was – his friend wouldn't know why he was missing.

The car slowed down with Iris anxiously asking Chance what was wrong.

"Look, its over.   Why don’t you just give yourselves up..." Blair said as reasonably as he could.

"That’s it," yelled Chance.  "Get out of the car..."

Iris got out and pulled back the front seat so Blair could get out.  He had just got one foot on the ground when he was seized by the back of the neck and hurled down into the grass of the roadside verge. 

Rolling over onto his back, he looked up to see Chance pointing the gun at him and yelling threats.

His heart pumping madly in fear, Blair put up his hands in self-defence, knowing he couldn’t stop the bullet that was heading his way.  He hated having guns pointed at him... and that seemed to be happening a lot recently.

He saw Iris put a restraining hand on her boyfriend's arm to calm him down.

"Hey come on... we’re in enough trouble.  We don't want to leave any dead bodies for the police to find."

Blair was in complete agreement with that sentiment. "Listen to her, man."

Suddenly Chance lifted his head.  "There’s a car coming..."

He and Iris ran back to the Volvo and climbed in.

Wouldn't you know it  thought Blair in disgust, the damn car started up again, and disappeared down the road.

He had just climbed to his feet, wincing at the graze on his elbow, and found that the oncoming car had stopped and a vaguely familiar face peered out at him. Worse, much worse was the gun – another damn gun - pointing in his direction.

"Where are they going?" demanded the man Blair had seen at the convenience store.

Blair raised his hands again.  "I don’t know," he said.

The hand with the gun motioned him forward. "Get in."

"What are you bothering with me for?  Why don't you go after them," cried Blair desperately.   He did not want to get in that car.

"You saw my face last night.  I don't get my stash back, you're dead.  Get in."

Blair hesitated, but he didn't really have an option. Moving slowly forward, he got into the car.

Things were going from bad to worse.

God, he hoped Jim was looking for him, but until then he had to keep himself alive.

Dusty P (c)

January 2005