I just want to say thank you to everyone reading and especially those who are reviewing. Thanks so much! You guys are great!

Warning**This chapter contains heavy spoilers for the 2nd season episode Smart Alec. The dialogue in italics is taken straight from the episode. (Sorry, I forgot to say that about the dialogue from Blind Man's Bluff)

Jim idly flipped the page of the Time magazine he was pretending to read. Blair had been back there for a very long time, and he was beginning to regret his decision to stay in the waiting room. He knew how nervous the younger man had been about today's appointment and found himself starting to think the way Blair had earlier this morning.

What if they can't help him? What if they need to do a lot more tests? If this is a wild goose chase, Blair will be so discouraged. He flipped another page. It was taking a lot of energy to keep from using his sense of hearing to find out what was going on back there, but he knew Blair would kill him if he zoned in the waiting room, and he had no idea how far back in the bowels of the cardiology office Blair had gone. He might have to really stretch his hearing to find him. Besides, this was a big place, and there were a lot of people back behind those double doors; it would be hard to filter through them all to find his partner. He briefly considered trying anyway, but finally decided against it. Frustrated, he sighed and flipped another page.

*****

Blair sat frozen in his chair, staring blankly at the two booklets Doctor Simmons had left him. He felt kind of shell shocked, to be truthful. He had wanted to get this stupid heart condition resolved, but now that it might be happening, he wasn't quite sure what to think. Everything was happening too fast. He wanted some time to think about things, to mull over what he should do. Apparently, he was going to be given as long as it took for the doctor to check the calendar. He'd have to think fast. But really, what choice did he actually have?

If he decided against the procedure, he would spend the rest of his life on medication. This was definitely not an acceptable solution. He could wait and get a second opinion, but he'd been waiting for 18 months for someone to have any opinion about what was wrong with him. It could take years to find someone else. And also, both Doctor Knight and Doctor Aaron believed in this guy, or they wouldn't have recommended that he come to see him.

He wished fleetingly that he had let Jim come back with him so he could discuss it with his partner, but again, what choice did he have? There was only one decision he could really make, and Doctor Simmons knew it. No wonder he had gone to check the calendar. Blair sighed in nervous frustration. This visit was not turning out at all how he had planned it.

Having admitted to himself that he was going to have to have the ablation procedure, Blair turned his attention to doing what he did best- learning. He scooped up the two pamphlets and settled back to carefully read them. He was halfway through the second brochure, reading the step-by-step description of what he could expect, when the door opened and Doctor Simmons returned.

The young doctor studied Blair's face for a moment, then smiled. "You've decided to go ahead with it?"

Blair nodded. "I really don't see that I have much of a choice, unless I want to take medication for the rest of my life. And I so don't want that!"

Simmons nodded. "Well then, I have some good news for you. We have an opening in the EP lab on March 18th.

Blair looked up at him sharply. "March 18th? You mean in less than two weeks? I thought it would take a couple of months to get in . . . like it did to see you."

The doctor smiled knowingly. "Don't you mean you were hoping it would take a couple of months? I understand that you're nervous, Blair, but the sooner you get it over with, the better for your health. It takes a couple of months to get in to see me, but I usually try to keep at least one day a week available for the electrophysiology lab. That way once someone does get in to see me, they are not waiting forever for treatment that usually is needed quickly."

Blair nodded morosely. The doctor had him pegged; he really had been hoping that he would have a couple of months to get used to the idea. But now that he was going to have the procedure in less than two weeks' time, he was more nervous. "March 18th it is then."

Simmons reclaimed his stool and sat down in front of Blair. "Okay, now those brochures I gave you cover just about everything that you can expect the day of the procedure, but these sheets list what you need to do to get ready. The main thing is that three days before the ablation, I need you to stop your heart medication."

"Completely?" Now that was something to be nervous about.

Simmons nodded. "I know it will probably be very uncomfortable for you, but it's imperative that we get a true reading on the day of your procedure. If you still have medication floating around in your blood stream, it will make it much harder to pinpoint the problem and eliminate it. It will probably mean that you have to take it easy for a few days, but it's important."

Blair nodded unhappily. "I understand, it's just that I have a hard time when I don't take the pills."

The doctor smiled. "Just think of it as a few days of discomfort in exchange for a cure for the problem."

"Yeah, sure, Doc. " Blair glanced down at the pamphlets again. "Is there anything else I need to know about this?"

"Anything you need to know is spelled out in those brochures. If you have any questions that come up, feel free to give me a call, but otherwise, stop your medication three days in advance, no food or liquid of any kind after midnight on the 17th, and we'll see you at Cascade General on the 18th. You'll get a call a few days ahead to tell you what time to report, and you'll also get another set of instructions in the mail within the next few days. Mostly it's just the same information in the pamphlet, but there are a few things you'll need to do to get ready – blood work and a chest x-ray; things like that."

Simmons rose to his feet, and Blair stood also. It appeared his appointment was over. "Thank you very much." He wasn't sure yet how thankful he was, but he would know for sure within a couple of weeks.

His doctor grinned and held out his hand, which Blair shook before picking up his backpack. "It was nice to meet you, Blair. Do you need help getting back out to the front?"

Blair grinned back sheepishly. "Probably. We kind of went on Safari on the way back here. I never realized how big this place actually is!"

Simmons laughed, leading the way back out to the doors to the waiting room. "There you go. Take it easy, and we'll see you on the 18th!"

Blair nodded, pushing through the door into the waiting room. Jim was still sitting in his chair, looking completely engrossed in something he was studying in the Highlights for Kids magazine he was holding, but he looked up sharply as Blair headed in his direction. He dropped the magazine, blushing, and immediately stood up.

Blair grinned. "Highlights, Jim? Were you learning life lessons from Goofus and Gallant?"

Ellison blushed again. "Well I had already read everything else. Anyway, I almost found all the hidden objects in the Hidden Picture section. I only had two more to find." He returned Blair's smile. "But enough about me. How did it go? What did the doctor say? Can he help you?"

The questions were fired at Blair so quickly that the younger man didn't have a chance to answer any of them. He held up a hand to stop Jim's rapid speech. "Let me check out, and I'll tell you everything. It might take a while."

Jim followed Blair back to the middle of the waiting room, where he headed for the window marked Check-out. Fortunately, there was no one else in line, so Blair was able to go straight up to the window. He handed his license to the elderly woman behind the desk, waiting silently while she punched his information into her computer.

"Okay, Mr. Sandburg. You're all set. My instructions say you'll be getting some additional information in the mail within the next few days. Good luck!"

Blair smiled wryly. "Thanks." Reclaiming his license, he led the way back to the entrance to the building. He looked at his partner over his shoulder. "Where'd you end up parking, Jim?" Ellison was studying Blair closely and didn't seem to hear the question. Blair rolled his eyes. "Jim! I promise to tell you everything. Let's just get to the truck, alright, man? I have a lot to tell you."

The detective snapped back to attention, looking slightly guilty. "Uh, yeah, sure, Chief. It's over here." He led the way to his truck, waiting until they were both inside before turning back to Blair. "Okay, we're in the truck. Now what did the doctor say?"

Blair shook his head distractedly. "Man, I don't even know where to start. This whole day has been unbelievable. Wait, I do know where to start. Doctor Simmons never even examined me!"

"What?" Jim looked at him sharply. "Why not? Wasn't that the whole point of coming today? So what did happen?"

Blair laughed at the expression on his partner's face. "He told me he didn't need to examine me. He got all the information he needed from the test results in my file. I'm actually kind of surprised you didn't listen in. I wondered if you would."

Jim looked a little embarrassed. "Well, I was going to, but I was afraid that I'd zone, and I didn't think that a doctor's waiting room was a great place for that to happen, at least not if we want to keep this whole Sentinel thing under wraps."

"Good call!" Blair snorted inelegantly. "Wouldn't Simon be happy if that happened! I can just see his face now when they call him to tell him that his best detective is catatonic in the psych ward."

Jim chuckled. "Well, only if they carted me off before you got out here to bring me out of it. But anyway, we're getting off track here. What happened?"

Blair sighed and pulled out his now crumpled pamphlets. "Doctor Simmons said he can help me. He said I have something called Supraventricular Tachycardia." He was kind of proud of himself that he didn't stumble over the unfamiliar words. "Something called Atrial Flutter. He's gonna fix it."

"Hey, Chief!" Blair could hear the excitement in Jim's voice. "That's great! He can fix it. That's what we wanted to . . . Wait a minute. How can he fix it? Are we talking surgery here?" The excitement faded, replaced with concern.

Blair sighed again. "Not surgery, it's something called an ablation, which is supposed to be non-invasive, but it sure sounds invasive to me." He opened the pamphlets and explained them to his partner as well as he could.

When he was finished with his explanation, Jim was silent for a minute, mulling over the information he had just received, and then he spoke. "Wow. That's a lot of information to take in all at once. How're you handling it, Chief? I'm impressed that you made your decision so quickly."

"What decision?" Blair sighed. "I don't have a choice, unless I want to live on medication forever. And even then, I'd probably have to keep changing it like I do now. No thanks; not for me. But I have to admit, I'm a little nervous about it all."

"Completely understandable." Jim smiled impishly at his partner. "I know what will take your mind off of things. Why don't we go to Wonder Burger for lunch?"

Blair rolled his eyes. "Sure, why not? Then maybe I'll have a heart attack and won't need to worry about the ablation at all."

Ellison laughed out loud. "You're going to be fine, buddy. I'm sure of it."

*****

Jim could not believe Sandburg's luck. Less than a week until his 'non-invasive' procedure, and it was looking less likely that the younger man would live that long. Things had been going well for Blair, his medication controlling his worst symptoms, and he had not had to cut back on any of his work duties, either for the police or the university. Consequently, he had been assigned as advisor to a fourteen year old genius with an attitude, and he had also been helping Jim with a case on campus involving a dead maintenance man due to an inordinate amount of poisonous spider bites.

But then Blair's two assignments merged when his young charge, Alec Summers, got interested in Jim's case and got himself kidnapped by the murderer. Blair had tried to stop the kidnapping and now he was missing, too. Jim and the campus security chief, Suzanne Tamaki, had traced the vehicle used for the kidnapping to Bob Carlin, so now they were at the experimental farm Carlin ran looking for the two young victims.

Jim had sent Tamaki to scout the perimeter, and he stepped closer to the building, extending his hearing. His relief was palpable when he heard Blair's voice, although his partner sounded stressed. At least he was alive. But he had been concentrating so hard on Blair that he had let one of Carlin's thugs get the drop on him, and he would have been in real trouble if Suzanne had not rescued him. Unfortunately for the thug, Suzanne was a former cop and had excellent aim. This was one bad guy who would never bother anyone again.

Inside the building, it wasn't long until they ran into Bob Carlin himself, and Jim had left Suzanne covering him with her gun when he refused to tell them where the two missing men were. He wandered around the lab, keeping his hearing extended, and before long he was rewarded with Blair's voice again.

"They're not that close to your face. They're on your jacket, but just calm down."

Uh-oh. Jim moved toward the voice more quickly. That was the voice Blair used when he was terrified and trying not to let Jim know it.

"They're too close for comfort." That was Alec, and he wasn't even trying to act calm.

"Just calm down. They won't hurt you."

Jim wondered what it was that had the two younger men spooked, hoping it wasn't the spiders that had killed Turlock and started this whole investigation.

"Oh, my god. Oh, my god. Oh, my..." Jim's concern was growing. Alec sounded on the verge of losing it.

"Alec, just calm down. Stay perfectly still and they won't bite you." Now that voice Jim recognized. It was the calming tones Blair used to help keep him calm and relaxed while using his senses.

"Blair, I think I'm going to be sick."

"That wouldn't be good. Now I got an idea. All right? Now stay calm!"

Jim continued to try to pinpoint where the voices were coming from, and he finally found the entrance to the hidden lab. While easing himself through the opening and onto the ladder suspended below, he listened as Blair outlined his plan to wash something off them. Alec was resistant to the plan, but Blair was adamant, and the boy finally agreed.

"All right. Just straight back. Just like I told you."

Jim hoped Blair knew what he was doing, but his partner was incredibly resourceful, so he had to trust that he did. If he could get down there quicker, maybe they wouldn't need to execute this risky plan.

"Tell me when to go." Alec sounded resigned now, and ready to do whatever was necessary.

"There's one on your foot. Don't move your feet yet. Get off his foot!" What? Was Blair actually talking to the bugs now? Jim moved quicker, almost down now. "Hi, hi." Yes, that definitely sounded like Blair was talking to something. He wondered again what it was.

"Now?"

"No. No. No, no, no!"

Blair sounded panicked now, and Jim felt only relief as he reached the bottom of the ladder and jumped down to the ground below. Turning around, he was momentarily frozen at the sight of the two captives tied to chairs and covered with poisonous spiders. Then he moved into action.

Grabbing a fire extinguisher from the wall, he smashed through the glass into the room at the same time as Alec tipped back to turn on the shower head. The water cascaded down on the two captives, washing the spiders off. Jim rushed into the room, heart beating frantically. That had been close. The two captives looked up at him soggily.

"I'm drowning here."

Alec's remark prompted Jim back to action, and he quickly turned off the water, scanning the younger men. "Anyone hurt down here?"

"No, we're all right. We're all right. We're okay."

Jim wasn't sure if Blair was trying to reassure Jim or himself as he repeated the phrases, but he decided to ignore it as he began to untie his partner. Once Blair was free, Jim turned to Alec and swiftly untied the young genius. He patted Blair on the back smugly. "It was a good game, boys. Why don't you hit the showers?"

"That's funny, Jim, real funny."

Jim wanted to say more, having just nearly lost his best friend and partner, but that wasn't the way their friendship worked. He knew that Blair knew how he felt; there was no need to actually say it. He left the two young men congratulating each other as he headed back to check on Suzanne and her prisoner.

*****

Blair scrunched into a ball on his futon, staring at the wall. It was the middle of the night, and he should have been sleeping, but every time he closed his eyes he could feel tiny legs crawling on him. He wasn't arachnophobic, at least he hadn't been before today, but that had been a close call. Having seen Turlock's body, he knew what could have happened if it hadn't been for the shower and for Jim finding them when he did.

He started, hearing a noise in the hall, but then relaxed when Jim called his name softly.

"Come on in, Jim. I'm awake." Ellison entered the room, looking uncomfortable, and sat on the edge of Blair's bed. Blair looked up at him curiously. "Well, I know why I'm awake, but why are you up? My heart's not pounding again, is it?"

Jim shook his head. "No, it's not. Your medicine is still working. I can't sleep because I keep thinking how close it was. When I got down there and saw you and Alec, and those spiders were actually walking on your chest, I nearly froze. That was really quick thinking, Chief. I don't think I could have gotten there in time to save you."

Blair laughed shortly. "Kind of makes all the worry about the ablation seem kind of silly, doesn't it? I almost didn't make it long enough to have the ablation."

"Well, not silly, but less significant than it was." Jim dropped a hand on Blair's shoulder briefly. "Chief, you did make it through this, and you are going to make it through the ablation. I'm kind of glad they got you in so quickly, because that gives you . . . us . . . less time to worry about it. Just think, next week at this time, you'll be recovering and it will all be over."

"Yeah, after today, I can't wait to get it over with. I'm just not looking forward to having to stop my medication for three days first. That's going to be the hardest part." Blair leaned back in his bed, suddenly relaxed and sleepy. "Thanks for coming down, Jim. I feel better now." He closed his eyes, letting his head snuggle more fully into his pillow. "You can go back to bed now."

Jim's hand rested against his hair for a split second, and he could hear the smile in his voice. "No, I think I'll just sit here for a few minutes. I didn't really come down here for you. You just go to sleep, Chief. I'll keep watch for a little while."

Blair's mind shut down, and his body did as it was told. Within seconds, he was sound asleep, no tiny phantom legs crawling on him, just a peaceful rest. Jim kept watch over him for several minutes before finally returning to his own room, satisfied that his guide was going to be fine.

Thanks again for sticking with me. This story was originally not supposed to be this long, but it keeps adding things on me when I'm not looking. I hope to have the next chapter up soon. As always, please review and let me know what you think!