Blair feels consciousness return in the discomfort of sheets tucked too tight and the cloying scent of hospital grade antiseptic.
Jim helps him sit up before he even realises he's there and Blair's grateful for the help his head doesn't ache precisely, but Blair doesn't want to jostle it around either.
"What happened?" Blair asks.
Jim eases back into his chair, he looks tired. "You collapsed; you've been out for 40 minutes. The doctors have taken blood,"
Jim gestures to the cannula taped to Blair's arm and Blair belatedly feels the ache and wishes he hadn't noticed.
"They're waiting on the test results." Jim finishes.
40 minutes. Christ.
"I feel fine," Blair ventures, which isn't completely a lie.
Blair remembers his dream. The strange urgency of it.
"I had a weird dream." Blair tells Jim trying to remember the details.
Jim looks at him sharply and sits forward in the ugly bucket posing itself as a chair. "Was it a blue jungle?"
"Oh come on man. Visions are your thing." Blair returns irritated.
"It was just a dream. Soldiers and temples and some prisoner with a gold tattoo on his head telling me to contact some General from Texas. Does Texas even have Generals? I mean come on." Blair blew out his breath and kicked at the blanket loosening it slightly. He hated hospitals.
"America has Generals." Jim said rolling his eyes at Blair's theatrics.
"Well General Hammond of Texas can join the Colonel of Kentucky for all I care. When are they letting me out?" Blair asked.
"When the test results come back" Jim replied before looking at his watch.
"I've got to head into the Station. If they release you early catch a taxi home, otherwise I'll pick you up. Don't hassle the nurses." Jim said and stood up from the butt ugly orange bucket chair he'd been sitting on.
Blair rolled his eyes and said "Yes, Mom" and Jim obnoxiously rubbed his head and walked out the door while Blair was still trying to get it out of his eyes.
Blair huffed a breath once he was alone. He hated hospitals.
The bus dropped him off two blocks from home and Blair didn't rush the walk. The weather was clear and still just a little bit chilly. Four hours at the hospital and they couldn't tell him anything he didn't already know. It was a lot of fuss for nothing. It's not like Jim wouldn't know if anything was seriously wrong with him. Blair entered the apartment building and took the stairs without even having to look at the out-of-order sign on the elevator.
The stairs jutted upwards a flickering light causing the black shadows to dance oddly on the white walls. Blair made it to the second floor platform before he even realised he was falling.
The chained dark skinned men and woman of the jungle were kneeling in ragged lines in front of the temple. The entrance way had been swept clear, its worn majesty now a past tense, gaudy red curtains now obscured the entrance and a platform had been erected at the top of the stairs and draped in gold cloth.
The woman from the pools lay naked upon the platform and four young men kneeled at her side their eyes glazed and staring sightlessly out into the crowd. Their dark skin shone in the bright sunlight and tattoo's marred their foreheads. The metallic half human half dog soldiers stood armed behind the platform and in a semi circle behind the crowd.
One by one the men entered her and made their devotion, but it was only skin deep their eyes stayed just as listless while pleasing her as they had waiting. Blair looked out into the crowd and saw silent tears even as they were forced to cheer.
Blair opened his eyes and shut them instantly against the bright flickering light right above his head and the curious eyes of two on-lookers. His whole body was complaining, but his right knee must have taken the brunt of the fall.
"Help me up would you?" Blair asked stretching out his hand blindly. Strong hands grabbed it and pulled.
Blair made it to his feet, but putting pressure on his right foot hurt like a son of a bitch. Blair lent against the wall and pretended it wasn't helping him keep upright and looked at his rescuers. They were wearing identical black suits and shined shoes. The only things missing were the Men in Black sunglasses. Fuck.
"Blair Sandburg, we have a job offer for you"
Blair tried his most disarming smile, "I hate to commute, the early mornings, the late evenings. You know how it is."
"We're not offering you a choice."
Blair had an idea it would be like that.
The men grabbed hold of him on either side and gave Blair the choice of assisted walking or being carried. Blair hobbled.
"You know I'm really not in any condition to be working right now. I've got a medical certificate in my right pocket it you want to check. I've been at the hospital all day. They think it might be catching." The men didn't even grunt.
"Well no, but me collapsing. Third time today. Doctor's think it might be epilepsy the flickering light. I have a prescription upstairs. You really should let me grab it. You have drug stores in Nevada don't you? There are shops, cinemas, places to eat? What's it like there? I'm digressing. You can tell me when I'm rambling. Is that your car?"
A third man identically dressed exited the car Blair had pointed to with his head and opened the back door. The two men shoved him in headfirst. Blair kicked out and only managed to slam the closing door, which hurt like hell.
The windows were blacked out and there was a solid partition between the front and the back. Blair sheltered his knee in the cup of his hands and rocked.