Disclaimer: This work is not meant to challenge ownership of the characters and places used in the story. Cascade, Simon Banks, Jim Ellison, Blair Sandburg et al belong to Pet Fly (among others) It is meant to honor a show that ended long before it needed to.
Prolog
December 8th 1999 23:17
Captain Simon Banks of the Cascade PD looked at the clock and then back at the man sitting next to him in the passenger seat of his sedan. To him it seemed unreal, but the presence and condition of the man sitting next to him made it all too real.
Where had things gone wrong?
Just an hour ago he and his unit had been planning a graduation party for Officer Blair Sandburg, a man who'd become a part of his team long before he set foot in the Academy. Lists had been made and decorations were being hung. It was a party before the party.
He remembered how a silence had fallen over the loft as the game they'd been listening too was interrupted for a breaking news story.
They all knew how sketchy initial reports on a 'situation' could be. Experience had taught them all how wrong first impressions could be, but there was no way a shooting at the Academy could be considered anything less than devastating.
This could not be happening.
He and Jim had headed out immediately. They knew it would take them at least an hour to get there, even running code. Odds were that whatever was happening would be over by the time they got there, but they knew they would be needed.
Under the best of cases, Sandburg would appreciate a familiar face… under the worst; he didn't want to think about it.
He started to say something then stopped. Now was not the time. He wished there was something he could do for Sandburg, or for his roommate but until they knew something thoughts of the worst would haunt them both.
"He's supposed to be taking his practical tomorrow…"
Jim Ellison's tone was soft, but Simon could hear the worry beneath it.
A slight smile came to Simon's face as he thought about the day he'd met Blair Sandburg. Untrained, the man had taken out two of Kinkaid's militia men. He hated to think what Blair could do with training.
He turned when he realized Jim was staring at him. "I was just thinking about Blair's first day in Major Crimes. The man does have a way of getting into trouble… and a way of getting out."
That thought carried them through to Burien Washington.