Many thanks to Cee for the edits and suggestions.
Special thanks to Rhyo for her contribution to this chapter
Please read the Summary Page for details of warnings, notes and summary of story.
Jim turned his head away from the door and looked down at the top of Blair's head. The normally curly hair was now flat and lanky, full of the sweat and dirt that had built up over the last forty-eight hours. Feeling the tremors building up in Blair's body again, Jim wrapped his arms tightly around his friend. He whispered, "Hold tight, Chief, hold tight. We'll be through this soon."
Blair grasped onto Jim's shirt and moaned as the tremors shook his body. "It hurts so much, Jim, it hurts."
"The doctor will be here soon," soothed Jim. "He'll tell us how long it…" Jim trailed off as he sensed someone at the door. Keeping a tight hold of his guide, Jim turned to face the intruder. He breathed, "Hunter, what are you doing here?" Jim waved his right hand to indicate to his brother to stay where he was, and then turned his attention back to Blair. "C'mon, Buddy, keep breathing, keep breathing."
"It’s Hunter isn’t it?" gasped Blair in between the tremors that wracked his body. "The Shield has come; I knew he would. 'He's' been calling for him, I can feel that. "
Jim pushed down the waves of jealousy that sprung up in his mind, the last thing that Blair's barriers needed was a battering of less than positive emotions. Instead, he asked, "Why?"
Blair didn’t answer for a moment. When the answer came, his voice was sibilant. "Some of the others know. 'He' needs to protect." Blair broke off and then lifted his head to meet Jim's concerned gaze. "I'm sorry, Jim, I…I …have no idea what 'he's' talking about. 'He's' …it’s … my head. " Blair pushed away from Jim. Hugging his arms around himself, he asked plaintively, "Can’t we leave here, go anywhere but here? It hurts so much, Jim."
Jim moved to put his arm back around Blair, but the younger man shrugged the attempted embrace off and moved back towards the bed. Jim let his arms hang loosely by his side for a moment as he contemplated the closed stance of his guide. Ever aware of the presence of Hunter, Jim decided to deal with that problem first. "I'll be just outside the door, Chief."
Blair turned towards him, and after a glance at Hunter, nodded and went back to rubbing his arms.
Jim took the nod as permission to go. He moved swiftly to the doorway and pushed Hunter before him into the corridor and firmly closed the door behind him. Once in the corridor, Jim began to pace up and down in front of the door. "You know what the doctor suggested? That it would be kinder to put him in restraints for his own good. Can you believe that shit?" Jim glared in the direction of the Nursing Station then resumed his pacing. "They actually had the gall to admit that this was an officially sanctioned drug. That it's used to promote..."
Hunter moved to lean against the opposite wall to the door; his glances flickered between the closed door and the pacing figure of his half brother. He interrupted the rant with a question, "So how did the kidnappers get hold of it?"
Jim stopped in his tracks and looked at Hunter for a few moments. "It must have been in the truck that got hijacked. That's how Mancini must have gotten hold of it. Damn! Slater should have told us!"
Hunter moved towards Jim and grabbed his arm. "You mean you knew about Mancini before this happened?"
Jim shrugged off the arm and took a step backwards to open up his personal space again. "It wasn't Clan business." After a glance at Hunter's blank expression, Jim added, "Or Internal Affairs."
"It’s both now," corrected Hunter. "Tell me everything." Jim shook his head and took a step back towards the room. Hunter caught his arm and thrust Jim against the wall. Jim pushed back, but Hunter pressed harder and Jim was forced back against the wall. "I am the Shield. It is my responsibility to decide what is and isn't my business," declared Hunter loudly. Hearing movement off to his rear, Hunter turned around and saw a nurse and an orderly hovering some feet away from him. He said to them, "Everything's under control. Nothing to see; move along."
Hunter waited until the pair backed away and returned to the Nurse's Station before continuing the conversation with Jim. Speaking sentinel soft, Hunter said, "Give me the short version. I'm tired, I haven't bonded for several hours, and your guide in there has been pulling me inside out."
Jim shook his head, "It can wait until the morning. Everyone's out now, Simon's got the rest of Major Crimes ...."
Hunter let go of Jim's shoulders and stepped back. He smile was feral "Sorry, no. As head of Internal Affairs and chief investigating officer, now I can take an informal statement here or haul you down to the station and get you to make a formal statement down there. You know how long that can take."
Jim creased his eyebrows together in puzzlement. "What the hell?" His voice rose again. "You wouldn't do that! You can't! Blair ... Anyway, it’s a Major Crimes case not IA."
Hunter raised his eyebrows and glanced at the door. "But you said yourself, Blair can't bond, not for a while. I'm sure the efficient and caring staff here will take care of him for you while you're away. We can always send you back under escort should he show signs of bonding."
"It's not an IA case."
Hunter glanced at his watch. "Yes, it is, as of two hours ago. You see that's when I ran into three police officers using what appeared to be excessive force on a prisoner. At the moment it appears unclear on whose authority the police officers in question were acting: their own, Edwards or yours." Jim's expression darkened. Hunter put a hand on Jim's chest to stop Jim interrupting. "So I need to know everything from the beginning."
Jim's right hand balled up into a fist and he raised it as though he was about to take a swing at Hunter. Hunter didn’t back off and after a moment or two, Jim let his arm drop back by his side, his hand reflexively curling and uncurling. Jim shook his head and let out a deep breath. "Short summary, that's all you're going to get." He rubbed the back of his head before starting. "About two weeks ago, Vice came into the possession of a bottle of dampeners. Said bottle had the fingerprints of one Gerry Mancini. The feds weren't particularly interested so we ran with it. Turns out after a conversation with Dan Slater, that one of the GDP shipment runs was hijacked the night before the dampeners came into our possession. The driver and guard were killed. Mancini quickly turned up back home in Chicago with a cast iron alibi. I dug around, but no one had any information and the only witnesses were dead, and Mancini seemed to be keeping a low profile in Chicago, so..."
Hunter frowned and finished Jim's sentence for him, "So you thought that it was safe for Sandburg to run with this half assed seminar idea instead?" Jim bit back his instant reply and settled for nodding instead. Hunter put his finger up to his lips and tapped it against them for a few moments. "So then Mancini kidnaps the guides. You go in and rescue them right?"
Jim shook his head. "It was all a set up. I guess that Mancini made a deal with what he thought was a guide trader. Only that guide trader was Roger Courcy." Jim paused to see if Hunter wanted to ask any questions, but all he got in reply was an impatient gesture to carry on. "We think that Roger bribed at least one person in the GDP to leak details of the seminar security."
"You don’t say," Hunter dryly remarked.
Ignoring the interruption, Jim carried on, "I knew something was wrong, but I didn't know what until just before we headed out. Anyway, Roger wanted certain things to happen. That's why the guide was killed; Courcy had a score to settle with him and his sentinel."
"Was that the sentinel that Pais killed?"
Jim arched his eyebrows in surprise. "I didn’t know she'd ..." Jim shook his head to refocus himself on his story, "when we got there, Blair had gotten the hostages out of their cell and was about to head up from the basement."
"Anyone told him he's not a cop?" Hunter muttered.
Jim managed a brief smile at the outraged tones in Hunter's voice. "You can if you like!" Sobering, he continued, "One of the gang had the drop on him. I shot the guy. Blair had Mancini's sentinel with them. She was already banged up " Jim paused and ran though what he remembered of that short period of time. "I questioned her as to the placement of explosives and what they'd used to prime them, she gave me the answers and then ..." Jim paused again. "I was busy for a few minutes and then when I next saw her, she was on the floor, zoned I think." Jim drew himself up tall. "We then went hunting for Courcy. That's when he told me that the whole thing was his idea." Jim's voice took on a darker tone, "I was ready to take him in, but 'they' had other ideas. How is he? Dying I hope."
Hunter shrugged. "I don’t know. I've been busy with my prisoner, the sentinel. I was halfway to the scene when I came across three SWAT officers using her for baton practice."
Jim's face darkened. "I told you to wait at the Police Department to handle her interrogation!"
Hunter's fragile hold on his temper broke. He stepped closer to Jim and whispered into his face. "I first heard of this mess over twenty-four hours ago. I couldn’t do anything about it then. I come back to find that you'd finally done something, but all the reports from the scene were basically of complete chaos. Edwards tells 'me', I have to be the one that stays back kicking his heels at the police department. I'm the Shield; I should have been up there with you! I then come across three police officers who seem to think it's perfectly okay to beat up a restrained witness because, well, the Clan will cover anything up and anyway the Primes handed her over already beat up. " Hunter stepped away from Jim and said, "I have to warn you, Jim, that I'll probably have to turn this whole thing over to someone from Seattle or even a Fed. "
Jim swallowed. "I understand, but Hunter I..."
There was a cough and the sound of a throat being cleared. Both sentinels swung round ready to face the threat that had come up on them unawares. Dr. Wyatt stood several feet away. "Prime, the nurse said you wanted me to check on your guide." Jim nodded grimly and moved towards the door. Wyatt, taking the movement as assent for him to follow, stepped towards the door. As he passed Hunter, Wyatt stopped and said, "Your prisoner. She's stabilising. Goodchild will complete his workup and then he'll set her arm while she's under. I'd recommend that she's admitted for observation and further assessment."
"I'll arrange for a guard for her room. No one, apart from medical staff or with my specific permission, is to be allowed to see her; understand?"
Wyatt nodded and then turned his attention to Jim who was glaring at him from the doorway to the room. "Senior Prime. Now, the nurse said that you'd told her that the Guide Prime was becoming distressed. I think that could be a good sign; that the bonding point may be near. It’s a little earlier than we anticipated but that's all to the good. You must be .…" Wyatt noticed the increasing severity of Jim's glare and shut up.
Before he re-entered Blair's room, Jim said to Hunter, "Liaise with Captain Banks about your investigation; Edwards deputises in my absence." Jim ushered Wyatt into the room and then shut the door firmly in Hunter's face.
@@@@
Even as Jim was closing the door in his half brother's face, Jim could feel something was different in the room. He swung around to focus on his guide and ran into a solid wall, a wall that cut him off from his guide. Jim blinked and looked around him. 'His' side of the perceived wall was completely sharp and in focus, perhaps even more so that usual; he could see everything down to the infinitesimally fine layer of dust that lay like a veil over the surface of the door.
Suddenly, Wyatt spoke to him. Jim didn’t register what Wyatt said as the volume of the voice drove Jim almost to his knees. Jim put a warning hand out to the doctor, and when the doctor became silent, Jim scanned the room. Wyatt was standing to the left of the doorway and Jim was fascinated to see that the wall went right through the doctor's body. The portion of Wyatt that was on Jim's side was clear and sharp just like every other object. The portion that was on Blair's side was indistinct and seemed to flow away into infinity. Jim fought the urge to focus on the most distant edge of this flow and moved his gaze away. All the inanimate objects in that area of the room were the same; all blurring away into infinity.
Jim finally took the courage to look at the one thing he'd been avoiding, dreading, looking at: Blair. He allowed himself to breathe when he saw that his guide was as sharp and discrete as anything this side of the barrier. Jim whispered, "Blair?"
Blair cringed and wrapped his arms around himself. After a few moments, which seemed to Jim to last forever, Blair began to unwrap his arms from around his body; finally, shakily he held up his left arm and turned his palm to face Jim. Jim put his right hand out and found that the wall remained between them; a cold, artificial barrier between sentinel and guide.
An enraged growl from the panther filled the room and Jim felt the barrier tremble momentarily as the weight of the panther hit it. He closed his eyes to search for any signs of his guide within the link but found only cold, dead space. He leant his head back and cried, "NOOO!" The barrier trembled again and the growl of the panther matched his cry.
Jim opened his eyes to find his guide's blue eyes watching him. Again he felt a tremble in the barrier and looked down to his feet. The panther was starring at the other side. The wolf was standing opposite the panther, growling and whimpering as he dug with his paws at the base of the barrier. Jim frowned as he looked at the wolf; the creature's head had a ragged wound in it, and it was obviously at the end of its stamina.
Jim beat at the barrier with all his strength. The panther joined in too, pounding against the barrier with its shoulder. Jim could see the wolf retreat from the barrier, moving to lie down around Blair's feet. Jim shouted, "Hold on! Hold on, Blair!"
Suddenly, Jim began to feel the barrier shift beneath his hands, another joint pounding and the barrier practically wobbled. Jim locked gazes with his guide anchoring them both as he sought the path that would lead him to a bonding. All of a sudden Jim pitched forward as the barrier gave way beneath his hands; he put out his arms to take the weight of his fall and found them grabbed. His downward momentum stopped, Jim looked upwards into the face of his guide, Blair. Jim closed his eyes and breathed in deeply, his nose and lungs drank in the linkage scent; it was so thick in the air that he could taste it. He reached for his guide. "My Guide."
Blair moved back towards the bed. Jim growled under his breath and moved forwards. He saw Blair glance sideways but ignored it, only glancing that way when he heard the snap of the wolf's jaws. The wolf had cornered Wyatt. Jim frowned and then ordered, "Let him go, Chief." Immediately the wolf backed away and Wyatt quickly moved to the door and slipped out of the room.
As soon as Jim had given the order to the wolf, the pair had forgotten about the doctor. Jim moved closer to his guide, his senses wide open.
For every step Jim took, Blair backed off until he was stopped by the bed frame.
Jim stopped when they were just one pace apart from each other. With one hand he reached up to Blair's head. He ran the hand over his hair several times, each time just gently scooting over the top of Blair's wound. Then Jim cupped his hand around Blair's neck, and with the other hand, slid it around Blair's back. Jim gently pulled his friend, brother, guide, equal into his body and intoned, "Claimed and marked, Guide."
Blair's head dipped onto Jim's chest and he whispered, "Marked and claimed, Sentinel."
Jim dipped his head so that his temple was just touching Blair's shoulder. The 'hospital' smell exuding from the scrub top Blair was wearing completely overrode the scent of his guide. With a growl, Jim tore at the top, discarding the ragged remains on the floor. Suddenly, Jim felt hands grabbing at his T-shirt; instinctively he knew that this was his guide wanting to reconnect to him. Jim let his tee be pulled up over his head; suddenly gentle hands were touching his bare chest. He shuddered as he felt the power of the link, of their pairing, blossom once more inside him. He hadn’t realised that he'd been so empty these past few days. He breathed, "Blair..."
There was no verbal answer, just movement of gentle hands on his skin. In his mind's eye, Jim began to see the link opening and the panther with the wolf racing for the opening and suddenly he was falling, from somewhere he sensed the words, "Sssh, I've got you. I'm safe, back where I belong, with you, my sentinel."
Jim reached out and answered, "My guide."
@@@@
Hunter's tense shoulders sagged in relief as he felt the echoes of the bond begin to course down their common link. He closed his eyes and concentrated as he sought to give the pair the privacy they needed as they bonded. His hearing alerted him to the fact that there were two sets of footsteps approaching. Instinctively the Shield took over. Opening his eyes, he moved in front of the door to Jim and Blair's room. Secure in the knowledge that the pair would have to go through him to disturb Jim and Blair, Hunter waited silently for Simon and the stranger that accompanied him to come to him.
"Have they...?" asked Simon as soon as he arrived in front of Hunter. Hunter just flicked his gaze suspiciously to the stranger that had stopped behind Simon. Simon followed the gaze and answered the unspoken question. "GDP Commander Bryant."
Hunter regarded the commander in silence and then returned his attention to Simon. "I thought this was purely a Cascade PD operation."
Simon opened his mouth to speak, but Bryant pushed past him. "Sentinel Hunter." The commander held his hand out to Hunter who looked at it with disdain. The commander let the hand fall back to his side. He stated firmly, "I've come here with two hats on, personal and professional."
Hunter's eyebrows went up in mild surprise. "Oh?" He waited for the GDP Commander to explain.
There was a small pause and then Bryant ducked his head for a moment. He looked up at Hunter and said, "One of the unbonded guides is my foster son."
Hunter glanced at Simon who nodded back at him. Hunter commented dryly, "So that's the personal bit. What's the professional hat?"
"Claydove has injured his back in an accident in Nepal. Apparently the medical advice is that he can't be moved for at least a week."
"So you've been deputized to sort out the mess?" interrupted Hunter.
Bryant nodded. "I went through the academy with Dan Slater, we're of equal rank. I'm no. 2 in the DC district. In fact, my aide told me to look you up; he was very impressed with the way that you handled the crisis at the conference. "
"Jim is the Senior Prime in Cascade and Edwards is the Deputy," Simon said.
Bryant shook his head. "The Senior Sentinel Prime will be out of action until the doctors have cleared the Senior Guide Prime back to duty. BTG is a powerful drug; the after effects can be quite debilitating on the guide."
"Well, you would know all about that," commented Hunter. "So what are you going to do about your son?"
Bryant's expression hardened and he said, "He's going to have to bond a little earlier than we'd thought, but otherwise he'll die."
Hunter smiled coldly. "Ah. The traditional choice for the guide: bond or die." Suddenly tired of his sport, longing for his own guide so that he could bond and ground himself, Hunter switched to business. "Professionally, what's our status?"
"Shouldn't we be waiting until Edwards can join us?" Simon broke in.
Hunter shook his head. "No. This is an Internal Affairs case now as well as Major Crimes."
"What?" bellowed Simon.
"On my way up the mountain, I found three SWAT officers using what appeared to me to be undue force on an already restrained suspect. They indicated to me that it was Edwards that had given the suspect over to them, already beaten so they believed she was fair game."
"You have a suspect; why wasn't I told Banks?" Bryant asked.
"Because you were here as next of kin, remember, or was that only a pretext?" Simon snapped. Bryant began to protest but Simon started to talk over him to Hunter. "Meggie Courcy?"
"Is that her name?" sniffed Hunter. "Is she by any chance related to Roger Courcy?"
"How do you know about him?"
"I got an informal statement from Detective Ellison before he started to bond. He said that Courcy had admitted that he'd masterminded the whole operation." Hunter glanced at Simon, "How is he?"
"Critical but the doctors say that he should survive., He's probably paralysed. He can still go to jail."
"Is Meggie Courcy here?" Bryant asked.
Hunter nodded. He paused, when he spoke he weighed his words carefully, "Apparently she needs to be admitted for observation. She seems rather unstable. Were there any other survivors?"
Simon nodded. "One. We found him restrained in a basement room. He's being brought down by road. Should be here soon. Mancini and one of the other gang members died after we got there. The rest were already dead."
Hunter stretched as he stated, "My investigative team will arrive shortly and will need to interview anyone who was at the scene or who had contact with Meggie Courcy. I'll handle her interrogation personally. Until then no one apart from essential medical staff should have contact with her." He looked at Bryant. "If her guide is dead then we'll need a temporary guide to deal with her senses."
"What about a Clan guide?" Simon suggested.
"You do want someone to prosecute don’t you?" Hunter commented patronisingly.
"There was a guide amongst the gang?" Bryant asked.
"Not amongst. Mancini was 'the' guide," Simon informed the two others.
Bryant said carefully, "I remember about the Courcy kidnapping. But Mancini a guide? Preposterous!"
"Almost as preposterous as a GDP commander having a guide as a foster son!" replied Simon evenly. "We received that piece of information from a highly regarded source, not the GDP." A muscle in Bryant's cheek twitched as he digested that information. Simon added, "We have a tape recording that indicates that GDP Officer Curtis provided material assistance to Courcy. The recording proves she was in contact with him during the investigation."
"Where is she?" Bryant's tone was terse.
Simon shook his head. His choice of words was deliberate. "She slipped the leash sometime earlier this afternoon." Simon smiled as he saw Bryant flinch.
"She won’t be the only one either," Hunter commented. Both of the other men looked at him. "Come on, you don’t think this whole thing was organised by Courcy, his staff and Curtis? Did Curtis have access to the security plans of the seminar? I wouldn’t have thought so unless the GDP is more badly organised than it’s proved to be so far."
Bryant swallowed and then licked his lips. "Are you saying what I think you're saying?"
Simon just looked on impassively.
Hunter nodded. "Someone encouraged this attack; someone who hoped it would damage both the GDP and the Clan in Cascade."
"Who?" asked Simon.
Hunter breathed in and out. When he replied his voice was deliberately low and soft, "I don’t know, but I won’t stop until I do."
The end for now.
Feedback / Howls of Anguish to Fingers