~oOo~

Uncertain as to the extent of damage to Lucas's ribcage, Jim didn't want to chance lifting the kid in a fireman's carry and was now struggling with the full weight of Lucas cradled in his arms.

"A little bit of help, here," he bit out, in Incacha's direction.

The Indian did not look up from his place by the fire, but had no hesitation in giving direction. "Lower him to the mat by the hearth," he ordered.

While the bedroom would have been Ellison's first choice, the smell of sweat, whiskey and sex wafting from the room negated the idea immediately. He lowered Lucas carefully, taking extra care with the boy's upper body.

"Is Lucas going to be okay, Daddy?" Blair asked.

"He'll be fine, sweetheart," Jim answered, already running his hands over Lucas's body.

"Why is he sleeping?"

That, thought Jim, was the one hundred and one dollar question. Probing Lucas's facial bones, he could feel a lot of swelling and bruising but, thankfully, no sign of fractures or breaks. He thumbed the boy's lax eyelids, finding his pupils still slightly dilated. This, combined with Lucas's earlier confusion, left no room for doubt that the kid did have a concussion.

Continuing down, he probed Lucas's chest gently with the pads of his fingers. He couldn't feel any obvious breaks or misalignment of bone, but there was a distinct rattle in the breathing pattern that could be not only heard, but felt in the vibrations against his hand when he laid his palm flat.

"Here."

Before Jim could protest, Incacha slipped something under Lucas's tongue.

Jim pushed the warrior's hand away. "What'd you just give him?"

"It will help with what he has already been given."

"Jesus Christ!" Ellison barked. "Can't you ever just answer a question straight up?"

Incacha picked up Lucas's arm and turned it over, exposing his forearm, but not uttering a word.

There was an inkling of a memory tugging at Blair. He couldn't remember it in much detail and wasn't even sure if was part of a dream, but there was something there, and it involved the man and him putting something in Lucas's arm.

"I think he gived him a needle." Blair shifted closer and rubbed his hand up Lucas's arm. "I think the man put it in his arm."

Jim moved Blair's hand away, replacing it with his own. His fingers felt it and his eyes confirmed it. It was small, but there was a definite track mark on Lucas's vein. "Chief, do you know how much the man gave him?" Jim examined Lucas arm for more evidence. "Do you know how many times?"

"No," Blair answered with a look of worry on his face. He wanted to be of more help, but he honestly didn't remember. "I not know, but I think the otheh man made Lucas take some otheh stuff, too."

Incacha tossed Jim a bottle of Quaaludes. "Your answer, straight up," he replied.

Ellison ran his hand roughly through his hair. No wonder the kid's heartbeat was sluggish and his breathing so erratic. The heroin coursing through his veins was dangerous enough, but mixing the drug with sleeping pills took the severity of Lucas's condition to a whole new level.

Needing to know just how much Lucas had been injected with – and what he was looking at in terms of immediate effects and possible withdrawal symptoms from just the heroin alone – Jim ran his hands and eyes over the entire length of Lucas's arms. Without hesitation, he moved down and snapped open the buttons on the boy's wet jeans, pulling them off as quickly as he could. Repeating the careful check along the full length of Lucas's legs and inner thighs, he gave a slight sigh of relief when he found nothing. He flicked the blanket off the sofa. "We have to get him to the hospital."

This time, Incacha's voice was gentle. "Enqueri, he is still in danger."

"Don't you think I know that?" With the combination of drugs in Lucas's system, plus the head injury, the teenager was in serious jeopardy. Gently nudging Blair away from Lucas's side, Jim readied himself to lift Lucas back up into his arms. "Do I take the truck or do you have some kind of magic carpet in that mystical bag of tricks of yours that will get us there faster?"

Incacha placed a firm hand on Jim's shoulder. "Sentinel, the guardian has held his own and will continue to do so against the poison that runs through his veins, but he does not have the strength to fight any longer against those who wish to see him dead."

"Daddy." Blair's voice quavered, his eyes darting from Incacha to his father as he resumed his position by his brother's side. "Why is Lucas going to be dead?"

Jim reached out and pulled Blair into a tight hug in an attempt to shield him from any more horror. "He's not going to be dead, Chief." He turned cold eyes on Incacha. "If it's the last thing I promise, I promise you that."

Incacha laid a gentle hand on the back of Blair's head, his own cold eyes matching the sentinel's stare. "Sleep, little one."

Blair's eyelids, suddenly impossibly heavy, drifted shut and his head dropped forward with a small thud onto Jim's shoulder.

Jim jiggled his son, "Blair?" He jostled him harder, a sense of urgency creeping over him when there was no response.

"He is only asleep, Enqueri, and in no danger."

"Just exactly what are you playing at, Incacha?" Ellison snapped. With one arm still cradling Lucas, he attempted to do the same with Blair.

"You made a promise to the child to keep his brother safe, Enqueri, and I am here to see that you keep that promise."

Reaching under the blanket, Incacha removed Lucas's arm and once again exposed his forearm. He traced his finger over a mark that only he could see forming on the teenager's wrist. "The Guide, the Guardian, the Sentinel. Three points of a triangle – three points that hold the triangle together." Incacha continued to trace. "A triangle, however, will only stay strong if the points that hold it together are equally strong. The Guide at the top, the Guardian to the left, and the Sentinel to the right must find their balance in order for the triangle to be sustained." He stopped tracing, pressing his fingers into Lucas's skin, concealing the points on the left and right side. "The triangle has already been weakened, and if Guardian fails to support the load then the Guide at the top will fall." He placed the palm of his hand completely over Lucas's wrist. "And the hands into which he will fall will be not be the hands of gentle men, Enqueri."

"Enough!" Ellison snapped. "Enough with the puzzles and enough with the bullshit. Exactly whose hands are we talking about?"

"The Council," Incacha stated. "A council whose membership has been tainted with dishonest souls."

"And this council, I'm assuming, is the same council that devised this test?"

Incacha nodded.

Jim instinctively pulled Blair closer to his chest, his detective's mind racing with not only questions, but with possible motives. "A test that you knew about and were involved in, even though you knew it was corrupt?"

"It is wise to keep your friends close, but even wiser to keep your enemies closer," Incacha replied. "My involvement was for the sake of these boys."

"That's a crock of shit," Jim spat. "You did nothing! You were there all along and you saw what was happening, but you did nothing to help. You stood by while Blair was subjected to a risk that I don't even want to think about and you did nothing while Lucas went through a living hell. How could you do that Incacha? How could you have stood by and let this happen without doing a goddamn thing?"

Incacha ran his thumb slowly over Lucas's wrist, his voice remaining calm and steady. "Because your world is not the only world in which I exist, Enqueri. I belong to a tribe. My tribe is made up of men, women and children who live and who breathe. I could have acted and taken the guardian and guide back to our village, but without the evidence I needed to show of the corruption that exists within the council, they would have used any means within their power to retrieve the guide and dispose of the guardian. It is your tribe as well, Sentinel. Those same men, women and children who live and who breathe, also bleed, and would have bled to protect these boys. I do not know about you, but I was not willing to have the death of so many rest upon my hands." Incacha's voice grew soft with regret. "This boy's test, as unjust as it was, needed to take place; I did what I did for the sake of our tribe. I could not interfere until he had been given the chance to prove his strength."

"And my test?" Jim asked, the look on his face portraying nothing but pure cynicism. "Was it devised by this council to be just as unfair?"

"Yours was never a test contrived by the council at all, Enqueri. The test you undertook was devised by me alone."

"So now it all fits into place. Lay down with the dogs and the spirit guide's ass gets bit by fleas."

Incacha's posture stiffened and his voice went cold. "I devised your test, Sentinel, so you would know what it felt like to be faced with the possibility of life without the ones you love. I devised your test so you would learn how to use these feelings to your advantage and channel them into learning how to control your senses. I devised this test so you would see that the guardian could no longer bear the load he has been carrying alone."

"The only load that Lucas has been carrying is the one placed on him by those bastards out there," Jim retaliated. "Don't you dare accuse me of not doing everything and giving everything I have to this kid."

"A triangle will only stay strong if the points that hold it together are equally strong," Incacha repeated. "You, Enqueri, were the weakest point in the triangle and this has been the load that this boy has had to bear."

"What?" Realisation was not far behind Ellison's question. The walls that surrounded his world collapsed without warning and there was nothing he could do to stop it. It was his fault.

All of it – Lucas's horror and Blair's nightmare – it was all his fault. He closed his eyes for the briefest of moments, trying in vain to make some sense of a senseless situation. "Then why?" he asked, still staggered. "Why didn't they just remove me? From the very start, if they wanted Blair, why didn't they just remove the weakest point? Why didn't they just remove me and leave Lucas alone?"

"Because you were no threat to their plans. You were a sentinel who for the most part mocked and ignored his senses. To the council, this made you no more than a man. The guardian, however, was developing, and his intuition growing faster and stronger than they had envisioned; those who were in possession of the same knowledge as I, knew it was time to act. The triangle was beginning to take shape and they needed to break it before it had a chance to become strong. But as you know from your world, Enqueri, conspiracy is a skilful game, and the boy could not be removed without reason. The test – and his failure to pass – would give them this reason."

"But what if he passed? He saved Blair's life; he must have passed."

"That depends from which eyes you chose to look. In the eyes of the council, no, the boy did not pass."

"So what happens now?"

"Now we turn to the eyes of the Elders."

"And if that fails?"

"Then, together, as a tribe we fight."

"But why now?" Jim asked. "Why now are you willing to sacrifice the lives of the tribe for the lives of my boys?"

Incacha laid Lucas's hand upon his lap and reached for the sentinel's hand. He turned it over, exposing Jim's forearm at the same time he removed his palm from the teenager's wrist. A triangle, bound together by a wolf at the top, a jaguar to the right and a cougar to the left, adorned both their wrists.

Incacha stretched the palm of his hand across Lucas's forehead, and repeated the same to Blair. "Because of this boy's undying sacrifice and because of this child's bravery. And," he said, shifting his hand from Blair to rest his hand upon Jim's shoulder, "because the power of the Sentinel has come full circle, the wheels of destiny can stay true to their course." He took hold of Blair's arm to reveal the exact same mark. "You exist together not just as a family, but as an unbreakable bond, and as long as you continue to embrace what you mean to each other, it is a bond that can never be broken."

Incacha picked up Lucas's lax hand, placed it within Jim's. "But we still need to move with caution and this boy needs a chance to heal and to regain his strength. Help me protect your son, Sentinel – help me to protect both your sons?"

Jim tightened his hold on the warm hand that lay within his own. "Tell me what I need to do?" he asked quietly.

Incacha nodded. "I will prepare the herbs."

~oOo~