SenAngst Dues: for April 6th 2010

Category: Gen, Angst, h/c

Episode: 2.12 Blind Man's Bluff.

Rating: PG Content warnings: none.

Word count: ~2,300

Summary: Blind man's bluff with extra Jim and Blair angst. What if? Blair fired several wild shots from that gun in the garage….

A/N: unbeta'd and terribly, horrendously late as usual. Once again no muse and computer problems.

Dialogue from www dot kelesa dot net/transcripts/trans-22dot htm

Disclaimer:The Sentinel and the characters are owned by Pet Fly Productions and Paramount. This story is for entertainment purposes only and no money exchanged hands. No copyright infringement is intended. The original characters, situations, and story are the property of the author. This story may not be posted elsewhere without the consent of the author.

Calling the bluff.

-0o0-

Simon helped guide Jim down the stairs to the lower parking garage. To their horror Blair stood on the hood of a police cruiser holding a gun with both hands just like Jim had taught him on the practice range. He was waving the gun around and yelling about fire people. Jim knew that he would be the only one to get through to his younger friend. He knew that if it was the other way round Sandburg would try.

Suddenly Blair loosened off a shot. All the police tucked behind cars and pillars, ducked and tensed, twitchy fingers on their own guns despite Simon and Jim's warnings.

Jim had to make his move and try and talk him out of it. It was getting dangerous, what with a gas pump line leaking from the last wild shot. Who knew what he might do next?

He slowly walked towards Sandburg's blurry golden hazy image and clapped his hands. He blinked hard and cleared his throat.

"Blair? It's Jim. What's going on, buddy?"

"There's no need for applause, man. I got it all covered."

Jim stifled a grin "What's going on?"

"You don't see them? They're coming through, through the walls and the floor, man."

"Who are?" soothed Jim quietly.

"The Golden fire people. You don't see them, man?" Sandburg's usually confident voice cracked a bit, Jim could hear that plainly even if he couldn't see detail. Before Jim could say anything Sandburg continued "They're made out of fire and they're burnt. You think they're ashes, but they're alive, man. And we gotta send them back!"

Sandburg's hands wavered and shook and then swung loopily and as he did so he squeezed another shot from the gun. The shot twanged and pinged off a pillar and people ducked. Jim hunched his shoulders down a little in reflex. All this staring and straining was getting to his neck and shoulder muscles- he could feel the burn now.

"Blair! Easy, buddy! Whoa! Blair, listen to me!" Jim took another step closer trying to get Sandburg to focus on him rather than what was in his mind. He thought furiously, what to do? What to say to make him give up his gun? Sandburg never gave up on him did he? No, he helped him work round his current blindness problem…bats….

"Your gun isn't gonna work with the fire people." Jim said confidently but Sandburg shook his head in disagreement.

Jim tried again.

"They're not gonna be afraid of your fire. It's only gonna make them stronger."

Blair shook his head once more and swallowed hard, Jim worried that Blair was going to use the gun again.

"You've gotta use the bat echo trick."

Sandburg stopped for a second, wavering, head cocked to one side "What trick? "

"You know -the one you taught me. Uh, you close your eyes, and you clap your hands." Jim clapped his hands again, willing Blair to focus on him.

"No, man, that is not gonna work here!" Sandburg sounded lost and confused.

"Blair, come on. Try it. Trust me. You can save the world here. Come on."

"I don't think that's gonna work here, Jim." Blair's hands trembled as he held the gun out towards Jim, slightly lowered.

"Come on, give me the gun. Blair," he urged and through the gold haze Jim slowly reached out for the gun. The air was thick with tension. There was only the sound of Sandburg's harsh breathing, the hiss and drip of the leaking gas line and the faint squeak of Blair's shoes on the hood of the car.

"I just don't think that's gonna work here." Sandburg repeated and suddenly cocked the gun.

Jim's heart rate sped up, but he remained outwardly calm and inched closer, this time touched Blair's gun filled hands gently. "Trust me. That's right." With his left hand he pulled the gun out of Blair's unresisting grasp and tucked it in the back of his pants "You gotta clap your hands."

Blair slowly clapped his hands, doing it but not really knowing why. Simon broke cover from the stairwell and joined Jim by the car.

"You did it! You did it! ".

At Jim's urging, hands stretched out to help they tugged Blair off the car. And it was as if all the strings had been cut, Blair leaned heavily into Jim's arms as they both guided him to the ground. "I'm sorry." he mumbled so soft only Jim could hear. What else could he say but "It's okay." Suddenly Blair went limp as he passed out finally and Jim tightened his hold, racked with worry about drug overdose and complications.

Simon yelled for a medic.

Jim leaned back against the car and cradled Blair against him, resting his cheek on Blair's head. "Hang in there. It's all right."

After a moment he shifted slightly so he could ease Blair's heavy head up a bit, his shoulder was aching.

"Is that blood?" Simon queried, pointing at Blair's cheek.

"I can't see it Simon, everything's still gold and fuzzy. But I can feel something here."

"Jim, I think it's you!"

"What?! I don't feel…just my shoulder aches a bit. I think I would know if I'd been hit!"

"Let me have a look."

"No! I'm alright. I'm not leaving Blair now. Look, here come the paramedics."

Simon sighed, but gave way as the men appeared with their equipment asking questions and attaching monitors and oxygen masks on Blair. Jim finally let go of Blair physically when they had to transfer him to the gurney and followed as they wheeled him quickly to the back of the ambulance at the entrance to the garage. Simon let him go, now that he could see Jim's back, there was a tear and a blood stain.

-0o0-

Jim sat in a plastic chair next to Blair's bed. The kid was hooked up to a breathing tube and unconscious, his face was turned away from him. Jim had picked up a magazine out of habit but his vision was still wonky and he'd given up on it for the moment. He leaned back, his shoulder twingeing and throbbing at the movement. That last wild shot of Blair's had resulted in a ricochet off a pillar that had hit the top of his shoulder blade. The momentum had slowed down enough to slide the bullet against the blade bone under the skin and lodge there but not penetrate fully. The doctor had given him some local and tweaked the bullet out, easy as pie. A stitch, some antibiotics and a gauze dressing and he was fine.

He knew Blair couldn't help what he'd done. He was glad the other shots hadn't resulted in a gas explosion or hurt somebody worse. If Jim didn't tell him he'd been hurt Blair would accuse him of lying. And if he did tell him, he'd blame himself not the drugs and the people who'd laced the deadly pizza in the first place. Just then Simon came by and stopped his thoughts from spiralling into chaos.

"Jim? How's he doing?"

"He's fading in and out, sir. Doctor says it's gonna take some time for the drug to work its way through his system."

"It's a bad business alright. The sheer nerve of it. How you doing? You don't look so good."

"Oh, I'm fine. I was hoping maybe he'd come to, you know? This Golden…it's insidious stuff. I mean, there must have been ten to twenty times the amount that would kill a person on that pizza." Jim's voice rose with anger. He looked over at the bed, but there was no response.

"They were sending a message: Don't screw with us or we'll hit you right where it hurts." Simon said.

"Well they certainly did that. They must have good contacts to know about us. They must work with a huge amount of controlled materials. There's got to be a way of tracking that Simon."

Simon could see that Jim was torn between wanting to stay by Blair's side until he woke up and capturing the men who'd done this to their friend and led to the death of Lisa Hughes.

"I'll get some other detectives to plug some data in and see what we can find. You get some rest Jim, so you can follow up the results in the morning. Either go home for a change of scene or ask then to bring in a cot here."

"Alright." Jim agreed reluctantly.

He stayed in the hospital near Blair. The nursing staff came in at regular intervals. Jim talked softly to Blair when they were alone, urging the younger man to fight through the drugs in his system and wake up. Jim managed to get some sleep on a bed nearby.

By morning even Jim was aware that there was a difference in the breathing patterns and the readings on the machines. Blair was coming back slowly, but he was making progress. Blair's doctor confirmed that after his morning rounds and Jim felt that was good news enough to go back to the Precinct and get on with work. Blair would want him out there arresting the people responsible rather than sit there for a few more hours while the drugs finally left his system.

Jim's eyesight still wasn't right but that too was improving. Once at the precinct Simon and Jim chased up the paper trails until they had a lead on a company logo and some names. Within a few hours they had a target and a SWAT team ready to go. Once at the target site things were already moving. They had come just in time. One man in a van tried to escape as the squad cars arrived but it tilted over dangerously and then crashed. The other two men- Jacobs and Kaminski ran away from the police cars. Jacobs made it to the building and locked himself inside forcing the biochemist Kaminski to give himself up.

Whilst Simon led the assault on the building, Jim was forced to stay in the car, seething at his eyesight still being wonky. He was listening and heard a car from inside the building. As Simon's team, blew the entrance the car tore out of the side of the building. Cursing Jim slid into the driver's seat of Simon's car and gave chase. His vision wavering and pulsing with a golden glow, Jim raced after Kaminski.

The crash was inevitable but Jim didn't have time to register the impact on his body as he flung himself out of the car. He ran after Jacobs, a gun in his hand following him into a building. Using his senses he focused on listening for heartbeat and movement and when Jacobs moved one way, he went the other. He felt a keen sense of satisfaction as he dug his gun into Jacobs's neck, surprising him from behind.

As soon as he could pass things onto the uniforms and gave a brief statement to Simon he headed back to the hospital. The nurse at the station gave him a wary look as he headed for Blair's room. He was pleased to see that Blair was much more alert and all the machinery had gone.

"Hey, Chief. We got them!"

"Jim? Zat you?" Blair opened sleepy eyes and lifted his head up to see better. He squinted at him trying to work out what was different until Jim passed him his glasses.

"How are you feeling?" Jim asked as he reached for the glass of water for him.

"Tired, feel a bit off." He yawned. "Sorry."

Jim laughed "Don't worry about it."

Just then Blair's doctor came in

"I'm glad you're here. Just wanted to reassure you that Mr Sandburg is doing very well and we can release him either later today or first thing tomorrow. Take it easy for a day or two and eat well and drink lots of fluids."

"That's great news. Thanks for everything."

"Detective, is that blood on your shirt? Will you let me look please?" the doctor pointed at the chair next to Blair's bed.

Jim obeyed, unbuttoning his shirt and pulling it off his left shoulder with a slight hiss as it pulled at the torn stitch and dried blood. The doctor peered at it.

"I'll just get a suture kit and a nurse to sew this back up again. Twice in 24 hours is a bit much detective."

Jim winced, not from the sewing he would undergo, but from the way Blair was staring open mouthed at him. He knew what was coming next.

"Jim, you're hurt! How? When…? Oh, no- not in the garage!"

"Calm down. It's from a ricochet, barely any force behind it. And it wasn't you firing the gun, okay? So don't go there!"

"But…it was me. I took your gun! I could have killed someone or blown the garage up!"

"Did you lace the pizza with hallucinogenic drugs?"

"No.." Blair said, drawing the word out.

"Right. Then you don't get to obsess about what *could* have happened because neither of those things did. It wasn't a nice thing to happen to you and I wish it never had with all my heart. But it did. Fortunately you're going to be okay and that's that."

Jim felt a little bad for laying it on thick with Blair but he had to get through to him that once he was out of the hospital, barring a sudden dislike of pizza for a while, hopefully he could put this painful episode behind him and move on.

"I'm too tired to argue about it right now. Just don't order pizza for tea for a while okay? Oh....food… that reminds me- are you still going to meet up with Margaret? Jim?"

END