Disclaimer: I don't own the guys, all I own is the little figures that popped out of my imagination. I'm not making any money with this story: it's all for the sake of having fun. (You know? Fun? You don't? Hmm… get a life!)
Don't sue me, or I'll be forced to let my 3-month-old Golden Retriever puppy loose on you. I swear, the little critter is totally crazy, and did I mention that she has really sharp teeth?

Born to be Wild
Laura Hannivoort

Major Crimes Unit, Cascade, WA
Friday, 24th May, 4.17 p.m.

Tired but with a smile on his face, Detective Jim Ellison entered the bullpen of the Major Crimes Unit. He walked right through to Captain Simon Banks' office, knowing he'd want to know how the trial had gone. His partner, Blair Sandburg, an anthropologist and police observer, but also Jim's best friend and Guide to his Sentinel abilities, followed close behind.

"Jim, come in, how did it go?" Banks asked, already knowing how it went by just looking at his best detective's and friend's face.

"Couldn't ask for more. Baker received life sentence and won't be out on the streets for quite a while." Jim answered with a tired grin.

Baker had killed 5 young women in the last 3 weeks. Ellison had worked day and night to catch this serial killer, who first viciously mutilated his victims, before leaving them out in an alley or in a park, letting them die a slow, lonely death. Ellison finally caught him, while he was working on his 6th victim, who screamed out loud enough for Ellison's enhanced hearing to pick up. When he arrived to the scene, he saw Baker bending over a young lady, hitting her in the face, terrifying her. He had a knife in his hands and meant to use it when Jim pulled up, with his gun pointed at the killer, yelling at Baker to stop. Baker dropped the knife and ran off. Jim checked out the girl, making sure she wasn't badly wounded and assuring her that back-up was right behind, then he ran after the killer. After a 10-minute chase, he finally caught up with Baker. They struggled for a bit, but soon Ellison got the better of Baker, and arrested him.

The trial had been long, but Ellison wanted to see this one through until the end. Now that it was finally over, he felt like doing nothing else but going to bed and sleep for a week.

It seemed to Blair that Jim was about to fall asleep in this very office, and realized it must have been a long time since Jim had a decent night's sleep. He caught Simon's attention and pointed to Jim, who was indeed going through a lot of trouble trying to keep his eyes open.

Seeing what Sandburg meant, Simon said, "Go home, Jim, take next week off. God knows how much sleep you had in the last couple of weeks, but it couldn't have been much. Get some sleep, rest up, and I don't want to see you in this building until Monday next week, got it?"

"Yes, sir", Jim answered, while getting up from his chair. As he walked out the door, he handed his car keys to Blair, and together they walked towards the elevators.

He must really be out of it, to let Blair drive his truck, Simon thought with a smile. At the same time the phone started ringing. "Banks" he said. After 2 seconds, his smile faded, and his voice started to waver a bit. "Yes, I'm his father."

As they waited for the elevator to reach the Mayor Crimes floor, Jim heard Simon's phone ringing. He'd better not give the case to me; I'm off for the week. He dialed up his hearing, and listened to the phone call, curious about what the new case is.

"Banks"

"Is this Simon Banks, Daryl's father?"

"Yes, I'm his father"

"I'm Tony, a friend of Daryl's, I went with him on that trip to Africa. I'm afraid Daryl's missing. We wanted to move early today, at 6. Daryl hadn't shown up yet at 5:30, when we were gonna get breakfast. We went to check his tent, but it was empty. It looked like he hadn't been there all night."

"What the... How could he be gone all night?"

"He was gonna walk around a bit last night. Check out the surroundings, you know?"

"All alone? At night? How could you let him wander around in Africa all alone? He might be eaten by a lion by now, for all we know!" By know, Jim could see that Simon was getting anxious. Grabbing Sandburg by the shoulder just as the elevator arrived, and pulling him along, he went back to Banks' office.

"He wasn't alone! One of our guides, Mr. Masemi was with him. He didn't come back either. Our other guide, Mr. Halika went to look for them, but he just came back and couldn't find a trace. We're doing all we can to find him. Local villagers are looking everywhere. We'll find them, sir, I promise. I just thought I had to let you know."

"I know, thank you. But tell me where exactly you are. I'll be there as soon as I can."

"Sir, you don't have to come here. By the time..."

"Don't you dare argue with me!" Banks was raging by now. "My son is lost in the African jungle, and I'm gonna go find him. No one is gonna stop me. So where are you?"

"We're now at Lake Manyara Hotel, Tanzania. We set up a sort of base of operations there, because our campsite was nearby."

"Okay, I'll be there as soon as I can, but it'll take a while to get there. Let me know if you find anything, okay?"

"Right sir, we'll be waiting."

Simon let out a sigh when he put the phone down. "You heard it all?" he asked Jim.

"Yes, sir, I did." Jim answered with a nod. Blair, having heard enough to understand the problem, nodded too.

"Alright, Jim, let Joel know he's in charge for a couple of days. I'm going to the airport and catch the first plane to Tanzania."

"Excuse me sir, but there are two things. One, you can't go to Africa without preparing yourself, with medication, proper clothing, arranging some kind of transportation, and two, you're not going to Africa alone. I'm going with you."

When Simon tried to say something about there being no reason for more people to go there, Blair interrupted. "Sir, I think Jim's right. You can't just fly off to Africa alone. The more people there are to help search, the better the chances are of finding your son. Especially if you have Jim to help in the search. And of course I'm coming along too, to help Jim with his senses. Besides, you just gave us the whole next week off, so there isn't anything we'll be missing except for a couple of Jags games."

Knowing it was useless to further discuss this with two determined men, Simon threw up his hands in submission. "Alright, but I'm not paying for your tickets!" As he looked at his friends, he said, "Thanks guys, I really appreciate it."

TO BE CONTINUED…