The Bonds of Friendship
by Laura Picken
Summary: Blair gets taken hostage in a failed robbery attempt, which leads to Jim crossing paths with an old friend. Crossover with Walker, Texas Ranger.
This, friends, is what you get when you tell somebody you'll write them a fanfic for their birthday. So, Kristine, happy birthday! Hope you like your present-sorry it's so late!
Disclaimer: Y'all know the drill. Jim, Blair and The Sentinel crew belong to Pet Fly and Paramount. Walker and company belong to Chuck Norris, Top Kick Productions and CBS. No copyright infringement is intended. We're just doing this for fun, after all.
Blair Sandburg couldn't believe it. All he had done was go to the convenience store a couple of blocks away from the loft to pick up a particular brand of coffee that he knew his partner, Jim Ellison, liked. With the man's hyperactive sense of taste, Jim was particularly sensitive to bad coffee. The brand that Blair had discovered, that he had gone out that night to buy, a small generic brand that only this store carried, seemed to be less bitter than other brands (that is, according to Jim - frankly, Blair couldn't tell the difference). So, naturally, it was now the only kind of coffee that Jim would allow in the house, and they had just run out.
Of course, that was when the bad guys decided it would be a good day to hold up said convenience store.
What, thought Blair, do I give off some sort of scent or something that attracts the bad guys so that they come after me from miles around?!
The clerk behind the counter triggered some sort of silent alarm, and even Blair could faintly hear the sirens of the police cars that were headed their way. The robbers heard those sirens, too, and panicked. From his position near the back of the store he heard more than saw the apparent leader of the group yell, "lock the doors!" When his partner-in-crime started to mumble an objection the leader yelled even louder, "do it!" and fired a shot in the air to punctuate his point.
The other man locked the door.
Blair sighed. He just hoped Jim would get there soon.
Jim Ellison was standing at the balcony to his loft, enjoying the sunset even while feeling the cold air that signaled that rain was coming.
It was then that he heard the sirens. At first he ignored them, out of habit, but then he heard the blast of the sawed-off shotgun. That sounds like it's only a couple of blocks from here... He scanned the area until he found where the sound was coming from. As he ran to get his jacket he sighed, thinking, oh, that's just great. Sandburg! One of these days, we've got to find a way to somehow get that invisible 'kick me' sign removed from your back...]
Simon rubbed his exhausted eyes and took another sip of his cold and bitter coffee. As with all hostage situations, Major Crimes had been, by order of the mayor himself, placed in charge of the crime scene. Which was the only reason why, after thirty-six non-stop hours of work trying to bring down a druglord who had the nerve to try and set up shop in -his- town, Simon was standing around in the freezing drizzle outside a convenience store. Seeing about forty of his officers around him suffering though the same fate, though, did a lot to reassure his mood.
Until the -one- officer he didn't want to see at this particular crime scene was headed straight for him. I thought I sent those two home to get some sleep. This could only mean one thing... As soon as Jim was in earshot (for a normal human being, anyway) Simon confronted Jim, "Sandburg's in there, isn't he?"
Jim looked at his captain in shock. "How did you-?"
Simon interrupted, "experience is a -very- good teacher, Jim. You've just come off the same thirty-six hour nightmare that I have. So the only possible thing that could keep you away from your pillow right now..."
Jim brought his hands up in defeat. "I get the picture, sir. So what's the situation?"
"Well, aside from what you just told me, we know very little. We got a report of shots fired about ten minutes ago, and when the officer came by to investigate, this place had been locked down and our man was shot at again when he tried to get any closer than twenty feet from the building. Two armed thugs and at least three hostages, including Sandburg and the store clerk. We're trying to set up a secured phone line inside right now."
"Any other ways inside the building?"
"There's an entrance around back that leads into a small storage room."
Before Simon could get a chance to say anything else, Jim declared, "I'm on it, sir," and disappeared into the crowd.
The captain cursed his luck, both good and bad, that he was the only other person in the world to know about the Sentinel and his trouble-magnet guide. He should have realized that the minute he informed Jim about what was going on and -didn't- order the detective to just sit tight until they got Blair out of there that he would no longer have control over the situation. He prayed under his breath, "Lord, whatever that Neanderthal is planning to do to get the kid out of there, just make sure nobody gets hurt..."
In the darkened alley behind the convenience store, Jim easily found the store's back entrance. Trying the door, however, he found it to be heavily padlocked. Prepared for such a challenge, he took a hairpin out of his sock, and, using the pin and his hyperactive sense of touch, he worked quickly and silently, easily opening the three padlocks that secured the door. Silently turning the knob and opening the door, he made his way through the pitch-black darkness of the storeroom. Since Simon hadn't apparently known that Blair was in the store until Jim showed up, there had to be a way to get into the room without being seen.
It was a fact that Jim had been counting on for the past few minutes.
Finally reaching the door that led to the main area of the store, he stopped and listened intently, trying to determine the locations of the people on the other side. He found five heartbeats easily, scattered around the room in positions that were a safe distance away from the door. But then he heard a sixth heartbeat, faint and slow...he began to wonder if someone had been hurt, if Blair had been hurt, when he realized that the smell of blood was not there. That could only mean...oh great, thought the Sentinel. One of the hostages must be a pregnant woman. -She's- not going to be easy to sneak out of here. That meant switching to Plan B: overpowering the two thugs who started this whole mess in the first place.
Noticing the small crack of light escaping from the bottom of the door, he wondered if he could use it to determine exactly who was where. He knew Blair was closest to the door, and the pregnant woman was in a far corner of the store to his left, but determining the identities of the other three was proving difficult. As he crouched down, he took a deep breath, and listened, piggybacking his sight onto his hearing. He found a 'security' mirror which helped him immensely. Sure enough, the robbers and the store clerk were clustered at the other end of the store, closest to the door. The pregnant woman was in the far left corner, crouched down so the robbers couldn't see her, and Blair was a few feet away from him, hidden behind the coffee cans. Good move, chief, thought Jim, they may only think they have one hostage. Now how do we get the other woman not to panic...
The problem was solved for him as Blair motioned for her to come closer to his spot, and she crawled in his direction. Jim smiled. It was like the younger man was reading his mind. That leaves the clerk up to me. I can't expect him to do -everything-, after all. He waited until the two thugs had their backs turned to his door and slipped through, immediately crouching behind the nearest row of shelves. Keeping a constant eye on the mirror and his position in relation to it, he made his way over to Blair's location, whispering to the younger man, "how's it going, chief?"
To Jim's surprise, Blair didn't even flinch. "Took you long enough, Ellison."
"Sorry. Had a few padlocks to deal with."
Padlocks? He never told me he could open those. I'll have to drag it out of him later... "So what happens next?"
"I have to take down those two without them or anybody else getting hurt."
"Simon's expecting miracles, huh?" Jim nodded.
Blair continued, "okay, I'll provide a distraction for the one guy while you go after the second." Before Jim could protest, Blair spat out, "unless you have any better ideas."
Jim thought for a second, then hung his head slightly in resignation. Against his better judgment, Blair was right. He knew Blair could handle himself, especially when dealing with talking down psychos, and there was no way he could do this on his own without at least putting the life of the store clerk in danger. He moved around to get closer to the clerk and the thug behind the clerk, then took a deep breath and waited for the Blair Sandburg Show to begin.
Blair glanced over to his partner, and saw that he was in position. Okay, he's ready, thought Blair, now comes the hard part: distracting the other guy without him shooting me. The younger man then noticed the carefully stacked display of beer bottles a few feet from the gunman. On second thought, maybe it won't be so difficult after all... Squeezing the shoulder of his fellow hostage to reassure her that he would be all right, he crawled down the short aisle of shelves to the beer bottle display. Jim, I hope you're ready for this... He pulled an eight-pack from the bottom level, and crawled quickly out of the way as the entire eight-level display came crashing down.
Jim winced as he heard the first bottle break, but quickly recovered and knocked the thug closest to him unconscious with a quick blow to the back of the head. As the second thug spun around to see his partner fall to the floor, Jim drew his gun, yelling, "freeze! Cascade PD!" The thug started to pull the trigger of his gun, though, so Jim fired, knocking the gun out of his hands.
Shaking the shocked hand in dismay, the thug hesitated long enough for Jim to throw Blair his pair of handcuffs. As Blair pulled the thug's hands behind him, Jim complimented his partner, "nice work, Blair."
Blair simply shrugged, commenting, "yeah, I just wish I didn't get so much practice."
Laughing, Jim added, "me too, chief. Me too."
The next afternoon, Jim knocked on the doorframe to Simon's office, glad that their long night had finally ended with about twelve hours of sleep. Simon had let them go back home after the two thugs were taken downtown, saying that they could come to the station to fill out their reports after they had gotten a chance to rest.
However, before, Jim had even had a chance to hand Simon the reports, he ordered the two men, "come in and close the door behind you."
As Jim and Blair walked in the office and sat down, confused, Jim asked, "what's going on, sir?"
Simon looked up from the reports on the druglord case he had been working on. I know they're not going to like this... "Turns out we got more from that little hostage situation than we bargained for. The guys downstairs ran our two thug's pictures against the VICAP computer and we found out that our two nervous amateurs are actually wanted for a string of about twenty robberies down in Texas."
"You can't be serious," exclaimed Blair, "-those- two? They'd acted like they'd never done this before in their lives."
"Actually, the hostage thing -was- new for them," said Simon. "Usually, they were in and out of a store within five minutes. Even the Texas Rangers couldn't get their hands on them."
"Texas Rangers?" asked Blair. "You mean the baseball team?"
Jim rolled his eyes at the statement, then explained, "the Texas Rangers are the Texas equivalent of Major Crimes, but on a statewide scale. Their men are some of the best in the South."
Simon smiled, surprisingly, at the statement. "Glad you feel that way, Jim, because a couple of Rangers flew in this morning to collect our two friends and bring them back down to Texas, and they want you two to come with them."
"Us?" questioned Jim. "Why?"
"Apparently they consider these men a flight risk." As Simon handed Jim a picture of the guy Jim had knocked out he explained, "they believe this man, Julio Rodriguez, is part of a gang responsible for the Texas robberies, and most of the gang is still at large. We don't know if his men are up here or still back down in Texas."
Blair asked, "what about the other guy?"
"Enrique?" replied Simon, "he's not talking, but from his rap sheet we have reason to believe he's another member of the gang. If they can get these two back to Texas, though, the Rangers think they'll help bring down the rest of them."
"If we can get them back," repeated Jim. "So where are our travel companions anyway?"
Wincing at the sarcastic tone in Jim's voice, Simon motioned to his door, diverting their attention to the two men coming into the office. "Here they come now."
Jim's eyes widened in surprise as he recognized one of the men coming into the office. Simon, not noticing Jim's reaction, began the introductions. "James Ellison, Blair Sandburg, these are Rangers..."
Jim completed the sentence. "Walker. It's been a long time."
Ranger Cordell Walker smiled as he recognized his old friend. "Good to see you again, Ellison."
Jim smiled. "Good to see you too. I'd heard you'd gotten out of Special Forces, but I didn't know you had become a Ranger."
Walker commented, "you're looking pretty good yourself." Like something's different about you...
Jim turned to introduce his partner. "Walker, this is my partner, Blair Sandburg. Blair, Ranger Walker here was the commander of my first Special Forces unit."
-This- is Jim's -partner-? It wasn't like him to even -want- a partner before... "Nice to meet you, detective Sandburg. This is my partner, James Trivette."
-Detective-?! Blair had to stifle a laugh, something Walker found it hard not to take notice of.
For the first time in this little get-together, Trivette got a chance to speak. "Nice to meet you, gentlemen."
Simon interrupted, "forgive me for intruding, but perhaps you two old Army buddies would like to take this little show -on-the-road-."
Jim, naturally, got the hint immediately. "Gotcha. See ya 'round Simon."
As Simon watched the four men leave, the last thing he heard Walker say was "I heard about Peru..."
Simon laughed. Looks like Blair won't be the one telling the stories on -this- trip...
The four men decided it would be best to let their prisoners spend the night in jail and start out in the morning. In the meantime, Jim invited the two men over to the loft for dinner.
As Walker entered the apartment, it became clear to him that Jim did -not- decorate the apartment. Or if he had, the man was decidedly different from the man he remembered from his days in the service. The collection of objects he noticed surrounding him looked like it came from a variety of cultures all over the world, and the Ranger whistled, impressed at the diversity of things around him. He complimented Blair, "nice place. Did you do the decorating?"
Sentinel and Guide stole a glance at each other before Blair replied, "actually, yeah, I did. How'd you guess?"
"This stuff just isn't Ellison's style, from what I remember." As he picked up a wooden statue of a West African warrior he commented, "actually, there aren't many detectives I know of with this kind of taste."
I guess I -should- tell them... thought Blair. Out loud he told Walker, "actually, I'm not really a cop. I'm an anthropologist.
Well, that explains the collection, thought Walker, but what that -doesn't- explain is... "so how'd you end up as Ellison's partner?"
"Now, that's actually a very interesting story, Ranger Walker..." Blair was off and running on one of his legendary obfuscations, and Jim had to work very hard to suppress the growing smile. When Blair got started, the results were often quite enjoyable to watch.
Walker, for his part, was listening intently to Blair's story, and not believing a word of it. The kid was a good storyteller, that was for sure, but the young anthropologist was -definitely- spinning a tall tale, of that much Walker was certain. But he couldn't tell yet what the real story was.
How did a cop as talented and obviously well-respected cop like Jim Ellison end up with an anthropologist for a partner, particularly when the man was almost legendary in his desire to work -alone-?
He was determined to find out.