OverKill by Roo
----Blair----
I shouldn't have been surprised at how quickly a normal day could descend into such chaos. But then nothing had ever been the same for me since I'd met detective Jim Ellison in Cascade Hospital and pretended to be Dr McKay. While Jim was used to the roller coaster ride that was Major Crimes, I was still hanging on for dear life (sometimes literally) each time we hit a tight curve.
When women were factored into the equation things were always going to get complicated. Jim might think my love life was complicated but it wasn't really, a lot of them stayed friends that helped me out. (Okay, so yeah, maybe there were a few ladies I'd cross states to avoid.) With Jim and the fairer sex it always seemed to hit extra hard. He wasn't immune to falling for the wrong woman either. It seemed to be all or nothing.
The day started out like many before, working with Jim at the Major Crimes. I helped with paperwork and some research while Jim had a meeting with Simon about a case. We went out to Chinatown for lunch. On the way back to the office Jim bumped into an auburn haired woman wearing a blue coat and black knee boots. He called her Lila, but she said he was mistaken as she quickly hailed a taxi and sped off. He stared after her. Unsurprisingly Jim was a bit distant after that. The lady had made an impact in more ways than one it seemed. That's when everything began to go screwy.
We followed the sound of police sirens and found ourselves at a murder scene. A dead Buddhist monk in a car. And two more monks apparently fleeing the scene. Weird even for Cascade.
I believed Jim, if he said he knew her, he did. He was good with faces. But why would she lie? Unless she was an ex who really didn't want to bump into Jim again…
Jim traced her taxi and her hotel. She must really have had a hold on Jim for him to want to look her up again. Finally he told me they knew each other from seven years ago after he got out of the army. They hooked up in Bali for a week. Sounded nice. He looked at me with a sour face. Not really he said, she just upped and left without a word. Like I said he doesn't cope with rejection very well. Jim rushed off to meet her, maybe she'd have some answers for him but I doubted it.
When I next saw Jim back at HQ he looked unhappy. Oh dear, maybe she'd given him the brush off. But no, he actually admitted to me he'd had some painful sensory spikes and he'd had to rush off and leave her. He felt like a fool. I was worried about the spike. That didn't happen often. Jim could give me no clues. It could have been anything in the restaurant, her perfume, light shining off cutlery….the list was endless. He must be serious about her because he arranged for some flowers to be delivered to her hotel.
Simon came out of his office to tell us about reported sightings of the missing monks- our potential witnesses, and we were out patrolling the streets again in Jim's blue and white truck.
Following the trail of the fleeing monks, we came across another one in the park. Jim's sharp eyes spotted him from the truck. We hurriedly got out to investigate. As we approached the park bench, he didn't move. Jeez, he must be dead. Jim put on a glove and checked him out.
Okay, make that very dead. Just like the other monk in the car- same triangular wound. But the monk was holding a key. Perhaps this would lead us to what was going on. Jim put on the other glove and bent down and picked up something I noticed on the ground. It was a sandalwood bead necklace. Jim noticed something odd about one of the beads. He rubbed it with his gloved fingers and smelt the residue. I waited for him to process, and was ready to offer suggestions if Jim needed them.
I was totally unprepared for what happened next.
"What is this?" Jim asked half to himself and to me. "Chief, you know what this is?"
"Jim, are you all right?" I was worried; he had started to sway alarmingly on his feet.
"Yeah, that's, um..." Jim replied, slightly slurred and distant and before I could reach him, he slumped to the ground unconscious.
"Jim... oh, my god. Jim...Jim! Geez. Oh, my god." I fumbled for my phone.
"Hello? I need an ambulance at Chiang Kai-shek Park, please. Yes. Ah, god!" I called into it desperately.
"Jim can you hear me?" He didn't stir
I checked his airway. Okay. Breathing- a little fast
Heartbeat- yes.
I checked his head; nope he hadn't hit anything on the way down thank god.
I heard sirens coming our way. I put on gloves and put the necklace into a baggie. Whatever was on it had caused this. The gloves should have protected his hands …unless there was a tear or hole in them. But he'd sniffed whatever was on the beads. I just hoped we found out in time what it was.
The paramedics arrived. I explained the situation. All I could offer them was the necklace.
I called base and tell them to send a crime scene unit to the dead monk too.
The paramedics whisked Jim off to Cascade Hospital.
They poked prodded scanned and tested. Jim slept through it all. I hated to see him so unresponsive.
I managed to get him into a room on his own, with the shades down and monitors with the beeps turned off. These were all good precautions for when he woke up with his dials on the fritz. I had to believe he would wake up.
Tests came back. Finally.
Opium poisoning, but of course the docs, even the ones getting used to Jim were confused by the overdose effect it had had on him.
I kept Simon posted. I sat and waited. I tried to meditate, tried to relax. I tried to think happy thoughts. I flipped through a magazine but I don't remember a word of it.
Jim's eyes fluttered open.
----Jim----
I had absolutely no idea where I was. My head pulsed with pain. I didn't want to open my eyes – it was going to hurt too much. I lay…how did I know I was lying on something? I could feel sheets below and around me, a pillow behind my aching head. An antiseptic smell invaded my nostrils. A hospital? How did I end up here? If only I could summon up the energy to open my eyes and ask, perhaps I'd find that out. If I was here, then where was…? Blair! Was he okay?
I struggled to open my eyes, groaning as I did so. "Oh, man..."
"Hey...welcome back to the land of living." Sandburg said, putting down something he'd been reading. How could I have ever doubted him? I needed answers, and he could provide them.
"What the hell happened to me?" I asked tiredly as he came to stand next to the bed.
"Well, you collapsed from opium poisoning. That stuff we found in the prayer beads turned out to be raw opium paste." explained Sandburg.
Well that explained why my head felt like it had been used for a football.
"My guess is that the sensory spikes you've been having put your senses into a heightened state, so sniffing that stuff was like mainlining."
Wow, extra kicks like that I don't need. This would be a real doozy of a chapter in his dissertation. "Narcotics and the modern Sentinel…".Blair didn't seem concerned about other after-effects, so I guessed I would be okay.
Simon came in and we tried to work out why the monk would have opium paste. It turned out that it was tied to an Asian drug cartel, specifically the Shang Syndicate. The syndicate was using monks as a cover to smuggle them in, maybe they were looking for a distributor in the city.
There was still a lot of work to do; I hated the idea of more drugs getting into the city. I knew this from my time in Narcotics and Vice.
"We've got to find that other monk. Where are my clothes?" I asked urgently as I started to get out of bed. My head felt like it was going to explode messily everywhere. I fell back onto the pillow. Nope, not going anywhere just yet. Damn.
"The doctor wants you off your feet for 24 hours. I'm ordering you to go home. Rafe and Brown are checking out that key. They find anything; we'll give you a call." Simon issued me with an order.
Like a good solider I obeyed until Simon left the room, and after the doctor came in and checked me out. Then I tried again.
"Hey, what do you think you're doing?" said Sandburg surprised. "Didn't you just hear Simon and the doctor?"
"Nuts to that, Chief!"
"Just stay put for a little longer Jim. You scared the crap out of me in the park!"
"Sorry, I didn't realise."
"Don't say sorry. You weren't to know what would happen. Neither of us expected this At least you were wearing gloves. You went from vertical to horizontal in seconds, man."
"Thank God you were with me." I meant it.
"Yeah."
I yawned and found myself drifting off to sleep. "Sa'burg?"
"Right here Jim. You rest for another hour or so till those IV's are through, like the doctor suggested and then we can go home."
"'Kay."
And that's what happened. I'd had an interesting day and still felt whacked out by the time we made it up to our apartment. The flowers I'd sent to Lila's hotel had been returned. Great. A perfect end to a perfect day. I just wanted to crawl into bed and die. Sandburg burbled on about his date- no problem; he could have the flowers with my blessing.
I tried not to think about Lila as I stretched out in my cool bed some moments later. I needed a clear head so I could get some rest. I really thought we'd had something in Bali. She was a strong character, no nonsense and secretive, that kind of made me curious to see where things would lead. But then she disappeared on me and I never got the chance to find out.
I woke to the sound of someone knocking on the door, irritated; I went down to see if I could get rid of them quickly.
It was Lila. What the heck was she doing here after returning the flowers? Hadn't she already implied she didn't want any more to do with me? Suddenly seeing her again up close brought all my feelings for her to a head. Okay so we didn't know each other very well and I might not like the truth. But for now I'd take what I could get. She tried to explain her life on the streets. Suddenly I had another spike, my head flared and I felt dizzy, my heart pounded. Lila was there, guiding me to the sofa, her hand on my cheek. I liked that. A lot. Engaged or not she wasn't exactly an unwilling participant in what followed after we kissed. It was almost like being in Bali again. The feel of her bare skin on mine, the touch of her hands and the beat of her heart against my chest were all that I could wish for. This time I didn't know if I had a week or a day with her.
She had been right, I had needed to relax a little. In fact we were so relaxed we overslept the next day. Lila shot out of bed and I followed hopping around downstairs trying to get my pants on, when Blair arrived with impeccable timing. I could not fail to miss the smirk that crossed his face as I introduced them. Lila rushed off and Sandburg had the nerve to ask about what things had been like with Lila….Even for him, this was pushing it a bit. How did he get the idea that I had photos? I dared not think if he documented his own love life with diary entries, photos and diagrams….
Back at Simon's office late that morning we went through the suitcases from the hotel room that matched the key in the dead monk's hand. That led us to a CD and a man called Boz Tate. We brought him in for questioning. He seemed scared, not only was his heart going a mile a minute but I could also smell chemicals used in processing opium on his clothes. We were going to keep an eye on Mr Tate.
The first chance I got I headed back to the Summit Hotel. I spotted Lila, but she didn't look very pleased to see me at all. She told me to go away. What had I done wrong now? Things had been great last night. Exasperated I followed her up the next flight of stairs. Damn, another sensory spike. I was getting sick of these. Lila seemed concerned and took a step towards me, when suddenly I was hit from behind. My senses reeling, I tried to fight back managing to push him away. But I was fading and took a hit to the face. Semi conscious, I heard Lila and the man speaking angrily in Chinese. The attack stopped and I was left alone on the stairs.
After several minutes I was able to get up and find a men's room and clean up a little before heading back to the station. What was Lila really up to, and who was the man?
----Blair----
I wasn't kidding when I told Jim that there was something moving in these ratty clothes. I wondered just how long we'd have to wait in this alley all dressed up as bums. The third monk had turned himself in to the police and identified Boz Tate as their new distributor in Cascade. The department raided Tate's offices and now Tate was trying to skip out of town, but he had to pick up a fake ID and passport first. Hopefully we could catch him collecting them and wrap this whole thing up.
I was concerned. Jim was having too many problems with his senses lately and then there was the thing with Lila. Jim did not go into details about how he'd got this bruise on his face. I had to assume it was linked to rushing his leather coat over to forensics for fingerprints. Simon wasn't happy about it all either. All I could do was be here and hope I could help him out. I had no clue what was going on with him and Lila.
Things got worse. Tate got his ID from his forger, but someone got to Tate before Jim did. Jim looked like he was having trouble again. He could hardly see, staggering down the alley way. We lost the suspect. And now Tate was dead with a triangular wound in his neck just like the others.
Jim was mightily pissed off, Tate was dead and he'd missed the assassin. While Jim waited for his next round of aspirin to take hold, Brown came up to us smiling. Good news at last. The fingerprints on Jim's jacket belonged to Lo Minh and he had associations with the Shang syndicate.
More bad news for Jim. Not only had Lila checked out of the hotel without saying goodbye, but Lo Minh had been staying at the same hotel and they'd been seen together. I could feel that this was not going to end well. Jim looked like it didn't matter to him but the big guy must be hurting.
We had a pawn in hand though. We still had the monk and maybe we could force the bad guy's hand into coming out into the open. The plan sort of worked even though the monk panicked and got out of the car. Jim chased him down the street, and from what he told us later, the assassin on a motorcycle nearly reached the monk and could have killed Jim but didn't. Jim managed to get to the monk at the last moment and swing him round to avoid the blade.
Back at the Loft Jim couldn't understand why the assassin hadn't killed him, even though Jim had had another sensory spike and almost lost his grip on the monk.
Meanwhile I had been doing some investigating on my own. Sometimes it's not what you know, but who you know. Universities are interesting places, a fount of all sorts of knowledge if you know where to look. There was always someone who knew something about everything. And one of my friends knew about daggers.
Simon and I were surprised to see Jim flinch when I showed them the picture she'd faxed over. This was weird. I flashed the picture again. Same reaction from Jim. A pained expression and an immediate headache. Interesting.
With some gentle prodding from me I got Jim to relax and think about the dagger and other feelings around it. Surprise, surprise Lila turned up again. He'd seen a dagger like this in her purse when he'd first met her in Bali all those years ago. Oh, Lord. That meant that she was the assassin.
The phone rang. It was Lila. She wanted out and was going to turn herself in. But only to Jim. He was to meet her alone at the McNeil Athletic Field at 3pm. Of course we weren't going to let him near her without back up. I hoped that it would turn out for the best, for Jim's sake.
----Jim----
My heart tore as I crouched over Lila's bloody body, my forehead pressed to hers as if willing my life force into hers. I wasn't going to give her up easily. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Sandburg motion the others away, to give me a minute or so before the tech guys arrived and the coroner's wagon.
She'd lied to me and lied to me and now she was dead. She'd lied about who she was but not about her feelings for me she said. Dared I believe her? What was the point now? She was dead. And I didn't want her to be. I wanted it to be the other night again, just the two of us. Living for the moment, just for ourselves.
I couldn't believe how much this hurt. Why this? Why now? Why did she have to come back into my life after seven years, when I'd managed to consign her to a disused corner of my mind? What did I expect from a vacation fling anyway? But I had thought we had something, a spark. Something that could be more if we wanted.
Well, what did I know? Life's a bitch and then you die. My love lies bleeding….
Ahh quit being maudlin and sentimental Ellison. You're better than this ain't ya? Hoo Aah. Yes, sir. So I took a deep breath and let go, put her back on the ground. I didn't say anything to Sandburg or Simon yet. I went over to Lo's body, just to reassure myself you understand. Lila wouldn't kill me so he had shot her. Now he was dead too. Good. It wasn't until I reached out to touch Lo that I realised that I had blood on my hands. Lila's blood.
"Jim?" I shook my head at Sandburg. Not now Chief, please. I turned back. Simon was sending a team to the rooftop to retrieve Lo's weapon and shell casings. I walked over to him, Blair at my heels.
"Jim, I'm sorry it ended like this. You can turn in your report tomorrow, we'll sort this out." he said, concern in his voice and the way his eyes softened as they look at me.
"Thanks all the same, but I'd like to get it done today, sir."
"Why don't you do as Simon suggests Jim?" Sandburg piped up.
I stopped in my tracks and said angrily "Because I don't want to! Let me do this my way, okay?"
Blair put his hands up in a placating gesture and let me go to the truck. I passed Lila's dagger on the ground where she had thrown it. The only spike I got from it was the little jump in my chest. She was dead. I made it back to the station in one piece although I could not remember the route I took to get there. I did the paperwork, tuning out the voices of the other detectives in the room as I worked. Word had spread and I was being left alone. Good idea. Keep away from the hurting ex-Ranger Sentinel. You don't know what I might bite off and chew.
I needed to think about this. You could say that at times I was just like Lila. Killing under orders and woe betide you if you didn't follow orders. I too had been a killing machine if you chose to look at it that way. I had got out of my Uncle Sam Syndicate relatively unscathed. I think that even if we had managed to prevent Lo from killing her today, someone else would have been sent in the future. She would always have been looking over her shoulder. Sometimes I felt that way about the Army too. Some of them had been too interested in my experiences in Peru. Lila and me were lost causes then and perhaps only good for each other? That was silly. I was tired and upset.
Simon and Sandburg would be busy for a while yet. I don't want to go back to the loft just yet in case Sandburg had skipped out and was waiting for me. I finished up on the computer, printed the forms out and put them on Simon's desk. Several hours had passed. Before I could go home and face the Loft and my concerned Guide, a detour to the gym was essential.
When I did make it back to the Loft, Sandburg was there, and the Loft was filled with a pleasant dinner kind of smell. I was weary to the bone, physically and emotionally tired out from the events of the day and the pounding I had given the punch bag and the countless basket balls I had shot at the hoops.
"I'm okay," I said before he could get in there. A pre emptive strike.
"I got worried, you've been a long time," he replied fiddling with something in the kitchen.
"Yeah, well…." I muttered as I made my way to the bathroom for a shower.
"I'll put the garlic bread in then. It'll be twenty minutes or so, okay?"
"Whatever," I said. A shower, some food and then ….I didn't know and didn't want to think that far into the future just yet. I peeled my clothes off, turned the water on and got in.
Banging on the door and Sandburg yelling roused me from my thoughts.
"Jim? Jim!"
"What?" I yelled back, turning the water off and wrapping a towel round me. "What's the problem? I've just got in the shower Chief!"
"That was twenty minutes ago, man. The garlic bread's done. You didn't answer,"
"Oh. Okay," I said, but knew it wasn't, not if Sandburg had anything to do with it. I shut the door again and dried off properly. I looked at my hands, Sandburg was right. My fingers were beginning to wrinkle. At least the blood had washed off…
I tied my robe up and went upstairs for something comfortable to wear for the next couple of hours. The bed felt very enticing as I sat on it to put a clean pair of socks on. The hell with this, I thought as I lay back and remembered the last few days. The socks fell on the floor as sleep overtook me.
The Sentinel part of me was still on watch, registering the sound of Sandburg coming up the steps to check on me. He tugged the cover over me, and went back down stairs. I knew he would stay up and keep guard. The roles swapping for tonight at least. The Guide became the Blessed Protector and Watchman. And I wouldn't have it any other way.
End