Part 10

Buck and JD looked at each other in confusion for a moment, not sure what to do. Ezranok had no such uncertainties; he simply helped Blair down from his chair and the two started for the door.

"Hey!" Buck called as he looked back and saw them leaving the room.

Ezranok looked back over his shoulder, but didn't stop. "Blair must return to Sick Bay," he informed them logically, unsure what their problem was.

"But…"JD started to protest as he followed them, but they never slowed, let alone stopped. Seeing that they weren't going to stop, he and Buck just walked along with them.

Since the boys were walking quickly, it didn't take very long for them to arrive back at Sick Bay. Blair and Ezranok increased their speed when they were within a few hundred feet of their destination, even entering at a run. Blair headed straight for the treatment area, where they could hear voices.

Entering the room they found Nathan, Chris, and Vin kneeling on the floor around a man that was curled up in a fetal position whimpering in pain.

"Leave him 'lone!" Blair demanded as he rushed over, pushing at Nathan.

"What…?" Nathan exclaimed as he instinctively jerked backward, giving Blair an opportunity to dart in between them.

Immediately his demeanor changed to be very soothing and gentle. "Isth all right, I'sth help you.…" Blair murmured, his voice dropping so low that they could barely understand him, as he started to caress the man's hair and face.

Nathan was about to object, but his attention was caught when Ellison slowly lowered his hands, even though he still kept his eyes closed and his legs pulled up to his chest.

Ezranok stood close by watching everything that was happening with keen interest. Taking note of the man's apparent sensitivity to light, he started trying to find a way to dim the lights. Coming up empty, he decided to ask Vin, who was still kneeling beside the group on the floor. "Mr. Tanner, is there some way to turn down the lights?" Ezra asked through their link.

Vin looked over at him in bewilderment, for a moment. "Why?" he returned silently.

Ezranok drew Vin's attention to the fact Ellison was keeping his eyes tightly shut. "The light is hurting his eyes."

Glancing back at the distressed man, Vin wondered why they hadn't figured that out before. Rising he caught Chris and Nathan's attention and pointed to the lights, then he quickly slipped into Nathan's office and dimmed the lights to twenty percent.

In the treatment area, all of the adults were trying to figure out what Blair was doing. Ezranok was standing guard behind him to make sure nothing happened to disturb him. He needn't have bothered, since Nathan and the rest were too relieved that it was working to even think about stopping him. At this point Buck and JD decided that they were wasting space and turned to leave. Buck caught Chris's eye; pointing to himself and JD, he waved toward the door, signaling that they were going to leave. Chris nodded his understanding and went back to watching the little boy work his magic.

As the light dimmed, Jim, still floundering in the maelstrom of input, risked opening his eyes just a sliver. To his eternal surprise, he found himself looking up into the bluest eyes he had ever seen, but the face was youthful in the extreme. The boy that was talking to him in that so very soothing voice was little more than a toddler.

While his skin still hurt and the smell of this place was making him nauseated, Jim had enough control to whisper, "Who are you?"

The smile that came to that adorable face was captivating, and Jim unconsciously smiled back.

"I's Blairw," the boy whispered back. "Everything too much, yes?" Blair waited for Jim to nod slightly, before thinking hard. Remembering the monitors that Nathan had used on he and Ezranok earlier, he said, "See five bars for what you feel. When they are tall, you see too much, hear too much. Pull them down and you will see less, feel less, yes?" Blair tried to explain.

Jim looked at the boy like had lost his mind for a moment, when another boy about eleven knelt beside the first. In a voice that, while not as soothing as the first boy's, at least didn't great on his ears, he whispered, "Please try, Blair just wants to help you."

Jim looked from one boy to the other for a moment, before deciding he had nothing to lose. Closing his eyes again, he thought of five sensor monitors as one would find on a bridge monitoring board. With a newfound determination he consciously made the numbers reduce, and found to his awe, that it was working. The astringent smell of the Sick Bay receded to be replaced with a pleasant woodsy smell, the calliope of mechanical and electronic sounds was over ridden by a muffed, rhythmic thumping. The painful harshness of the uniform, faded back to the normal stiffness of new cloth. Very carefully Jim opened his eyes. Finding the lighting low and gentle, he opened them wider to take a better look at his little rescuer.

"Thank you, Blair. You can call me Jim, if you want," he said, reaching out with one hand to stroke the youngster's face.

"No thank, have to help," Blair told him. "You hurwting, not like when you hurwting. Wolf and Black Kitty not happy when you hurwting."

Ezranok started back to stare at Blair with wide eyes when Blair mentioned the animals.

"Commander, do you think you can stand?" Nathan asked very quietly when everyone was silent for a couple of minutes.

Jim tore his gaze away from Blair and realized he was the center of attention for three officers and the two boys. His face flamed bright red with embarrassment as he nodded and started to push himself up. As soon as the uniform started rub, however, he started losing control of his sense of touch again.

Blair, feeling his discomfort rising again, touched his hand and whispered, "Pull the barw down."

Jim closed his eyes momentarily and pulled up the image he had created before. Sure enough the one he had labeled touch had started rising. Taking a firm grip on it, he brought it back down to where it was comfortable.

"Thank you again, Blair," Jim said as he continued to push himself to his feet. Once he was there he addressed them all, "My apologies, Captain. I don't know what happened, but I'm better now. Doctor Jackson can continue his examination now."

Nathan was about to step forward to just that, very worried about the episode that had just transpired, when a small voice piped up indignantly.

"No," Blair stated firmly, "Histh clothes bad, Smells herwe arwe bad. Fix first, then Doctorw Nathan." Blair crossed his arms over his thin chest and stamped his foot for good measure.

Nathan was in a quandary. He was glad Blair had been able to help the man, but he didn't know how, nor was he sure if the child was right about what Ellison needed first. Taking a chance he asked, still keeping his voice low, "How do we fix it, Blair? What do should we do?"

"Jim need sthoft clothesth," Blair said as he pulled on Jim's hand, leading him out of the treatment bay and into Nathan's office and over to a chair. "Thesthe too stiff. Sthmellsth bad in therwe, betterw in herwe."

"Okay," Nathan agreed. He knew that new uniforms were notorious for their roughness and his patients frequently complained about the smells in the treatment bay. Moving to a cabinet off to one side he pulled out an infirmary jumpsuit. They were much softer that a standard uniform and it was the only thing he could think of quickly. "How about this, Blair?"

Blair wouldn't let Jim pick up the clothing until he had rubbed it between his fingers and deemed it satisfactory. He then preceded him into the side room where he went to change his clothes to make sure nothing dangerous was hidden in the room, before coming back out to wait for him.

While Ellison was changing, Chris squatted down beside the chair he had claimed and asked, "Blair? How did you know how to help?"

Blair looked blankly at him for a moment before shrugging. He didn't know why he knew, he just did. Ezranok walked up on the other side of him, and said, "He is Blair's Serintelyas."

Chris's eyes widened in shock. Locking eyes with Vin, he saw confirmation of his thoughts in Vin's stunned expression. Glancing at Nathan, he found a matching astonishment there.

According to Ezranok, Ellison was a Sentinel, and not only that he was Blair's Sentinel!