Chapter ten

Blair Sandburg thought that he had to be in hell. His head hurt, his gut hurt, even his fingernails hurt. The bed he was lying on dipped and a warm body pressed up against his back. Two arms came around his chest and he clutched onto them as if he was drowning.

A soft voice whispered into his ear. "How you doing, Chief?"

"I hurt."

"What's the worst? Your head?"

He nodded and gentle hands started rubbing his temples. A soft probe into his mind pushed him towards bonding, but he was too tired to respond. The probe became more insistent and without having to do anything the bond opened up like a flower and soothed his aches and pains. He sighed in pleasure and pushed himself further back into Jim's chest. Bonding was the only thing that was keeping them sane in this hospital of horrors.

Sometime later he rose up out of the bond to hear his sentinel whispering in his ear. "Wake up, Chief, but don't react. Keep your eyes closed. Can you hear me?"

Blair's reply was only loud enough for his sentinel to hear. "I'm awake."

"What did they do to you today?"

"See whether I could react to films of emotions, audio recordings and people imitating feeling angry or whatever." He snorted. "They have no idea. I think I got the headache from trying not to explode with disgust. Call themselves scientists? I'll tell them…"

"Shh, shh." Hands rubbed at his temples again. "Don't let them know how you really feel."

They both jumped as the outer door flew open. Jim instinctively covered Blair's body with his own. Three large orderlies came barrelling into their room and straight for the two on the bed. For a few minutes there was complete chaos as they tried to separate the sentinel and guide while the Pair did everything they could to prevent them. A Pair always acted more on instinct just after bonding.

"No, no! Leave him alone!" Blair's voice was almost a scream.

"Touch him and I'll kill you!" Jim's voice was almost a feral scream.

"If you don't calm down, I'll Taser him!" One of the orderlies' voices cut through the pandemonium like a hot knife through butter.

Ellison froze. He raised his eyes and saw Sandburg lying on the bed with an orderly holding a Taser on his chest. The two men fighting him took advantage of the calm and pulled his arms behind him slapping on padded restraints around his wrists. The sentinel, comprehending what was happening, started to struggle.

"Sentinel, I have your guide in my control," the orderly shouted again.

Right at that moment, Dr Solomen bustled in. "What the hell is going on?"

"We tried to separate them and they just went ape shit," the orderly panted out.

"Is that an official diagnosis?" the doctor snapped. He turned towards Ellison. "Calm down. Why kick off now? We've separated you before."

The sentinel was lying face down on the floor panting with his hands restrained behind his back and the two orderlies lying across him. He tried to heave himself up, but it was to no avail.

"My sentinel, calm down," the guide's voice was a mere whisper, "I'm unharmed and will remain so if you calm down." Jim blew out a shaky breath and let his body relax. The orderlies didn't move.

"God, d'you know nothing about bonded Pairs?" Blair asked Solomen. His voice was sarcastic despite the situation he found himself in. He was pleased to note that the orderly holding the Taser on him was panting and sporting a few scratches and bruises to his face. As the three men had burst into the room two had headed for Ellison while the remaining man had gone for the guide. They'd obviously thought that the sentinel was the person who was the real danger and hadn't taken into account how a guide would react when his sentinel was threatened. Even though he was weakened through the tests he'd been enduring over the last few days, Blair had put up a good fight.

Solomen whirled round. "What d'you mean?"

"We've just bonded; just undergone a process that exists to make us become closer by channelling our base instincts. And you get your goons to barge in and disrupt that closeness. Of course we're going to react. Sheesh, I thought you were a sentinel/guide doctor." He wasn't too sure that annoying the man was a good idea, but he needed to give Jim time to calm down before he got himself seriously hurt.

Solomen looked as if he was going to blow, but with visible effort, he got himself under control. "Any other information you'd like to share?" He stared coldly at the dishevelled grad student. "Huh, I didn't think so," he said sharply when Blair merely stared back at him no expression on his face. He turned to the orderlies holding Ellison on the floor. "Take him."

Jim was hauled up and started to struggle again. He stopped when he saw Blair on the bed a Taser on his chest.

"I'm okay," Sandburg whispered.

The detective allowed himself to be dragged out of the room. He twisted his head so he could see his friend and then he was out in the corridor. To his surprise, the two men took him to one of the rooms on the other side of the isolation area. His restraints were undone and he was thrust through the door. He found himself in the vestibule to a room that mirrored the one he and Sandburg had been in except instead of being green this one was painted yellow. A shove on his back urged him to open the second door and he walked in. The door was shut behind him and he heard the lock snick into place. He didn't move, but sent out his hearing to search for Blair's heartbeat – nothing. The white noise generators drowned out everything. He slid down the wall and rested his head on his bent knees.

Blair, meanwhile, had been released and was now sitting up against the wall. "Why are you doing this?"

Solomen looked at him. "Life would be so much easier if only you'd cooperate," he said ignoring the question.

"Another thing that proves you know nothing about sentinels and guides."

The doctor shook his head slowly and nodding at the third orderly turned away. The two men left the room. Blair curled onto his side letting the anguish he'd hidden from the doctor flow through his body. "Be strong, my sentinel," he murmured.

THTBTHTBTHTBTHTBTHTBTHTBTHTBTHTB

"Morning, everyone," Joel called out as he walked into the bullpen. Greetings in various degrees of alertness floated across the room. Reaching Banks' open door he knocked on the doorframe.

Simon was on the phone, but looking up he waved the former bomb captain in. "Okay, good luck in the test. Let me know how it went." He put the phone down and walked over to his coffee machine. "Coffee?"

"What is it today?" Taggart asked as he pulled the door shut.

"Plain old coffee."

"That does me good. Was that Daryl on the phone?" He took the mug handed to him.

"Oh, yeah." Simon eased himself back into his chair. "He wants to go to a party, but his mother's said no. I said I would talk to her and find out why. I did tell him that if I agreed with her I wouldn't give permission either."

"I take it he wasn't too happy with that?"

"He thinks that just because his mother and I are divorced he can play us off against each other."

"Huh, teenagers."

Both men shook their heads thinking of the escapades their respective children got up to.

"You here to talk about Ellison and Sandburg?" Banks asked after a few seconds of silence.

"Uh huh. I couldn't get hold of Dr Holland, but I did run into that nurse again." He took a sip of coffee. "She admitted that she wasn't an expert on this sort of infection, but also said it didn't sound right to her. She thought that we should be getting more information than we are. She's going to ask Dr Holland and will call me when she has news."

Simon sighed. "I suppose that's all we can do for the moment. Let's hope Solomen calls as well and we can get this cleared up."

"What's making you so jumpy about this?"

"I don't know, but something is."

A knock on the door made them look up.

"Come!" Banks barked out.

Edwards and David walked in.

"Captains Banks and Taggart. Good morning," said the sentinel echoed by a 'good morning' from David.

"Gentlemen, when did you get back?" Simon gestured to for them to sit down, but didn't offer them coffee.

"Last night."

"How was the conference?"

"Good. But before we get to that, have you been in contact with Ellison and do you have any news on Blair?" Neither sentinel nor guide missed the look that passed between the two captains. "What? What's going on?"

"When's the last time you spoke to him?" Joel asked.

"The morning he left for Colorado."

"That's five days. Damn," Banks cursed. "Okay, this is what we're thinking…"