Disclaimer: I own no rights to any of the Sentinel characters. Believe me, if I did that show would've turned out a lot different! LOL! The camp and original characters are all me, though.

Chapter One

Jimmy Ellison sat up in a tree, lounging on a particularly large, knobby oak branch, and watched the other campers arrive. He'd had the misfortune of being there two days before everyone else, because that worked best with his father's business trip plans. The camp idea hadn't been his or his father's, though…it had been Bud's, the Ellison's neighbor and the person Jimmy wished was really his dad. Bud thought he needed to do something more than laze around all summer and had found Camp In-Ca-Cha. The Adirondacks in New York were light years away from Cascade, in Washington State; it didn't smell the same here.

Most of the other campers seemed happy enough, laughing and talking and already starting to make new friends or reconnect with old ones. Well, Jimmy wasn't looking for any friends. Especially not genius kids. He didn't know what Bud was thinking, choosing a camp for gifted kids. It's not like he was brilliant or something. Bud said he had "gifts" but his dad called them "curses." He himself was often divided on the issue. One thing they were for sure was secret.

He was far enough away from the cabins that the other kids should have been random blobs of color scurrying around, and to anyone else they would be. But he could see them as clearly as if they were standing right in front of him. He kept an eye out for any pretty girls; anything to make four weeks of exile go faster. He cocked his head, letting their voices come.

"Oh my gosh, I totally love your new hair cut!"

"Can you believe I forgot my bug spray?"

"I hear the math instructor is a total hottie!"

"Did you see Susie Miller? She finally got some tits."

"This sucks."

That last one sounded just as disgruntled as Jimmy felt, and he tried to find the face that went along with the words. Oh, just some little kid. He looked happy enough, smiling at everyone, but he sure didn't sound happy. The kid didn't look much older than his brother Steven, who was eleven, but four years age difference was a big gap, especially when you were a teenager.

With a sigh, Jimmy shimmied back down out of the tree and headed to his cabin. He'd already staked out his bed and wanted to make sure his new roommates wouldn't try and steal it from him. Twenty eight more days. He'd liked it better being here alone with the counselors, who mostly left him to his own devices. Tonight they'd probably make him go to the big First Night bonfire. Classes started tomorrow, after a big welcome celebration. It was like summer school, only with canoes.

The cabin wasn't very big. Three bunkbeds, plus a small room in the back where the counselor slept. Jimmy's cabin was number 5, lakeside, and his counselor was Rich Berger; the other counselors called him Hamburger. He was in college, studying to be a gym teacher or something. At the moment he was greeting the other boys assigned to the cabin, all smiles. There were only four of them, which left an empty bed. After one look at Jimmy's frowning face, the empty bed was the top bunk of the one he'd chosen, which suited him just fine.

"Why don't you introduce yourself?" Hamburger suggested.

Jimmy shoved his hands in the pockets of his camp shorts; everyone in his age group had white polo shirts and blue shorts. "Jimmy Ellison. Washington State." He lay down on his bed and threw an arm over his eyes, listening as the other boys introduced themselves.

Kyle, from New York. Adam from Pennsylvania. Gary from Gary, Indiana, har har har. Ben from Vermont. They talked amongst themselves about the courses they were taking, and what their core subjects were, and where they wanted to go to college. Jimmy tuned them out. They were clearly happy to be here, happy to be taking classes in the middle of the summer and wearing goofy camp uniforms; his itched something awful and he had to wear his own t-shirts underneath as a kind of buffer. He wished he was back home, playing pick-up baseball and watching old Jags games that he'd taped off TV.

His sensitive hearing picked up more people heading toward the cabin; two, by the sounds of it. The faint smell of gardenias floating in on the breeze made his lips twitch in a half smile; it was Miss Miles, who was nominally in charge of the camp. She was pretty, blonde and leggy, and wore a whistle on a lanyard that fell right between her breasts. Jimmy was a big fan of Miss Miles.

"Rich? Someone messed up with the applications. We're all full over in Falcon and this young man needs a cabin. You have an extra bed, right?"

Falcon? That was the stupid name for the kids who were ten to twelve years old. Jimmy's group was called Jaguar, for thirteen to sixteen. Were they really going to stick a little kid in his cabin? He moved his arm, and saw the kid he'd noticed earlier standing hesitantly to the side, Miss Miles' hand on his shoulder. He was short and slight, with a mass of curly brown hair. Jimmy could see he was clearly embarrassed, maybe even a little angry, but his big blue eyes never stopped moving, taking everything in.

"He looks young," Hamburger said doubtfully. The kid's face flushed.

"He's ten. But really smart, right buddy?" Miss Miles smiled down at him. "He's taking a mix of intermediate and advanced courses."

"What's your name, kid?" Hamburger asked, stooping down a bit.

"Blair Sandburg," was the murmured reply.

"Well, Blair, we have an empty bed right over there by the window. Are you okay with the top bunk?" Hamburger nodded at Miss Miles, who smiled at him gratefully before walking away.

"Top's fine," he said, so quietly that Jimmy wasn't sure anyone but he could hear.

"Your bunkmate there is Jimmy, he'll help you get squared away." Hamburger shot him a look and Jimmy sighed. He waited for Blair to be introduced around to the other guys, then pointed out where his footlocker was so he could put his over-stuffed knapsack in it.

"Thanks," Blair said softly.

"So where are you from, Blair?" Hamburger asked.

"Munchkin Land," Ben said under his breath. Jimmy narrowed his eyes; couldn't they see the poor kid was already feeling uncomfortable? No need to tease him.

"All over. My mom and I just came from Tibet."

"Tibet? What, were you hanging with the Dalai Lama?" Ben again, but the other boys laughed along with him. Blair flushed; the kid was sensitive.

"Actually, yeah. We were."

That just made the other guys laugh even more. Jimmy was already getting annoyed, and he felt bad for Blair. He wasn't sure who the Dalai Lama was, but figured it was some kind of other-country celebrity. Not that it mattered.

"You want me to show you around?" he asked the kid. "It's gonna be a little while before we need to be back."

"Sure," Blair said with a shrug. But Jimmy could read the signs of relief on his face. Shooting a glare at his cabin-mates, he ushered the younger boy out the door.

"Twenty minutes, Jimmy," Hamburger called after him. "We have icebreakers in Central."

Jimmy nodded, muttering under his breath what he thought about icebreakers.

"That's Falcon over there," he said to Blair, pointing. "Where you would've been."

"The blue shirts," Blair muttered.

"Yup. And Alpaca across the Green, for the really little kids. Yellow shirts." He indicated a triangular swath of green, dotted with Adirondack chairs and benches, that was bordered by all three groups of cabins. Jaguar had the only cabins right on the lake.

"You come here every year?"

"First time," Jimmy said. "Got here two days early, so I had time to look around."

Blair just nodded, trailing after Jimmy as he showed him the playing fields – for archery, football, volleyball, and basketball, Central Hall, the performance stage, the classroom buildings that fanned out from Central like the spokes in a wheel, and the docks where the canoes were stacked up.

"You swim?" Jimmy asked. He knew they offered lessons here, too. He himself wasn't sure about swimming in Lake Chopec; it was murky, for one thing, and he was sure there were snapping turtles in there. No way did he want anything to do with snapping turtles.

"Yeah. Naomi…I mean, my mom…she made sure I learned how after I fell into a canal in Venice. I was three," Blair added, almost apologetically.

Jimmy was suitably impressed. Unless the kid was a liar, and he wasn't getting that feel off of him at all, he really had been all over. What the heck was he doing at a summer camp in the Adirondacks?

"Oh, wow! Horses!" Blair ran ahead, excitement written large on his face. "Do we get to ride them? I've never ridden on a horse. Naomi's afraid of 'em."

The stable held ten horses, all of them beautiful animals. Jimmy had only ridden a handful of times, but his father had friends who raced horses and he had learned how to recognize and appreciate good horseflesh.

"Lessons and trail rides," he confirmed. "But you have to help muck out the stalls and everything."

"Are there indigenous people here?" Blair asked, his eyes bright. "I'd sure like to talk to some."

Jimmy just gave him a blank look, confused by the quick change of subject and also the unfamiliar word.

"You know. Native Americans? Up here, I think it's Iroquois. Man, they have some great stories, you know? We spent some time out West a couple years ago, at the Taos Reservation. Those people were so cool. I got to do a sweat lodge!"

Jimmy couldn't help but grin. When the kid was excited he bounced around and gestured with his hands. He wished he could tell him yes, but he hadn't noticed anyone here who even looked Native American.

"I haven't seen any," he said with an apologetic shrug. "You could ask Miss Miles."

"That's okay. You know, I was surprised they weren't having a course on Native American culture. I'd have taken that for sure. But there's an anthropology class I'm in that's going to be awesome!"

Jimmy thought maybe that was something like archaeology, but he didn't want to ask. So he just nodded, wondering again why Bud had chosen this camp. He knew he wasn't stupid, but he had the distinct feeling that this little twerp had an IQ that blew his out of the water. It was disconcerting.

"What courses are you in?" Blair asked, looking honestly interested. Jimmy shrugged again, wishing he could say he was doing something like advanced calculus.

"Crime Scene Investigation, and Self Defense."

"That's cool. You thinking about being, like, a CSI guy or something?"

"Maybe." Which was a lie. Jimmy wanted to be a police officer, had wanted that for a really long time. But it was another secret he kept, because his father took a dim view of law enforcement. William Ellison was a business man, and he wanted his sons to be business men. It bored Jimmy to tears. He wanted to drive around in a cool car, like Nash Bridges or Starsky and Hutch, and catch criminals. He thought he'd be pretty good at it, too, because of his "gifts."

Jimmy wandered back up to the tree he'd been sitting in earlier, Blair tagging along behind. "There's a really good view of camp from up there," he said, pointing up. He wasn't the only one who thought so, either; someone had nailed several small, wooden footholds into the trunk for easier access to the lower branches.

"Uh, no thanks." Blair backed away. "I'm, uh, afraid of heights."

"Oh. Well, that's okay." Jimmy led him back towards the lake and sat on a little hill overlooking the water. Blair sat next to him, idly running his hand through the grass. Silence grew between them, but he didn't feel the need to fill it. He had to admit, it was kind of nice being out here in the mountains. He didn't have to monitor his senses so much here, away from the city. Although, compared to the Rockies the Adirondacks didn't seem much like mountains at all.

"So where do you live?" Jimmy asked after a while.

"We're always traveling," Blair replied.

"You mean you don't have a house or anything?" Jimmy had a hard time imagining that. His own home wasn't always the most comfortable or happy place to be, but it was still home. He had his own room, full of posters, sports trophies, and books.

"It's not so bad," the kid said, looking out over the lake. "I don't have to go to regular school, and I get to see the coolest stuff. Naomi and I climbed partway up Mount Everest with these Sherpas, and we stayed with farmers in China. Other cultures are really interesting, that's why I want to be an anthropologist."

"So, you'd…study people?"

Blair laughed. "Yeah, basically."

"What does your mom think about it?" Jimmy was honestly curious. The inner workings of other families always interested him, probably because his own was so messed up.

"She's all for it. Trying to talk me into going to college early and everything. I don't know, though." Blair ran a hand through his hair. "Seems like I'd be some kind of freak or something if I did that."

"Parents always think they know best," Jimmy said derisively. Blair looked over at him, thoughtful.

"Your folks give you trouble too?"

"My dad. He's a hardass."

"What about your mom?" Blair asked. Jimmy turned his head, looking away.

"She left, when I was little."

"Sorry."

Silence stretched between them again. Jimmy wondered how long it would take for his mother's absence to stop hurting him. He knew it was his fault she was gone, though his father had never come right out and said so. He'd been born normal, but when he was three his senses started going crazy. That time was hazy to him now, but he could still remember how it felt, remember how much trouble he caused until things had settled down and he'd gotten a handle on his so-called gift.

"I don't know who my dad is," Blair blurted out.

"What?"

The kid blushed. "Naomi…she says she doesn't either. But I think she just doesn't want me to know."

"That sucks."

"Yeah."

They grinned at each other then, feeling kinship in their similar single-parent circumstances. Jimmy ruffled the kid's hair.

"Come on, let's head back. Gonna be time for dinner soon. Hope you like burgers."

"I'm a vegetarian."

Jimmy rolled his eyes.

*o*o*o*

That night, as Jimmy lay in bed trying to fall asleep, he could hear Blair crying above him. The kid was doing his best to be quiet about it, but he could hear him just the same. He felt bad, but knew it would just embarrass both of them if he let Blair know he was awake and listening. After twenty minutes the crying stopped and Jimmy could hear that he'd fallen asleep.

He rolled over, willing himself to follow suit. But sleep was often elusive for him. The quiet was never quiet enough. He had a hard time modulating his hearing enough to block out the noises inside and outside of the cabin. At home he had one of those white noise machines next to his bed, which helped a lot; he hadn't wanted to bring it with him, for fear of being teased. Stupid mistake.

Jimmy cast his attention back to the top bunk, grinning when he could hear Blair's heartbeat. The regular thump-thump of it was very soothing. Without consciously deciding to set his focus there, he let that heartbeat block out everything else until he finally fell asleep.

AN: So there I was, taking a shower and minding my own business, when this plot bunny jumped right in and bit me on the leg. Rude! Still, it was too fun to ignore. Special thanks to my writing partner-in-crime, Smiles2Go, who came up with some good suggestions. You rock, girlfriend!

I took liberties with the age difference between Blair and Jim. I know there is more than five years there, so we'll chalk this up to artistic license. In fact, since this is an AU, we can probably put the just-cause-I-wanted-to tag on everything. ::grins::