SG 1 Sentinels and Guides Uh Oh

A/N: Disclaimer's in the first chapter. Sentinel fans will notice that Jim is not reacting negatively to Jon. The Sentinel Jim encountered in canon was insane and a thief. Normal Sentinels can and do coexist quite peacefully.

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June 21, Colorado Springs

Jon, completely mortified, had made fast work of getting dressed, and warily walked out into his small living room. He instantly identified the larger of the two adults in the room as a fellow soldier ... the stance and look was unmistakable. The shorter guy made him snort in amusement, because he reminded Jon of Daniel, just with longer, curlier hair.

Eyeballing the two men, he wandered over towards Xander, not quite realizing he was instinctively putting himself between Xander and potential danger. Whether that was the soldier in him talking or the Sentinel was anyone's guess. Jim snorted in amusement as he watched Jon maneuver, but also felt bad for the kid. He looked like shit, pale, with heavy bags under his eyes, and he was looking a bit on the thin side. And that was ignoring the rash that Jim could see bits of.

"Relax, kid. We're not here to hurt you. We're here to help. My name's Jim Ellison, and this is Blair Sandburg. I know you've got a lot of questions."

"Hell yes. Let's start with how the hell you found me." Jon said, trying hard not to be antagonistic and not quite managing it.

Jim grimaced. "That's gonna take some explaining." That the kid probably wouldn't believe. "Short version is, we got led here. Long version's part of the explanation about why your senses have suddenly gone completely nuts."

"Yeah, and you know that how?" Jon demanded.

"Part of the long explanation." Xander said. "I know it sounds a bit crazy, and it looks very ... worrying ... but we're really not here to hurt you, I promise."

Something made Jon want to believe that, but his soldier's brain had kicked into high gear now that he could actually think at all. And despite the fact he liked to pretend he had an IQ of about eighty, Jon ... errr, Jack ... hadn't gotten as far as he had rank-wise on the strength of his good looks. He hadn't survived ... how many System Lords had it been? ... and any number of unpleasant circumstances offworld by luck alone either.

Blair started talking, beginning to explain Sentinels and Guides. Unfortunately, he didn't get a chance to get very far before Jim stiffened beside him.

It was Teal'c that gave SG-1 away. Jim was so used to picking up on and ignoring passing motorists that their arrival would have gone unremarked if it had been four humans. Unfortunately, while Jaffa look human on the surface, their internal structure (thanks to the pouches) was very different, and Jim picked up on that the moment Jack's truck stopped out front. SG-1 was just lucky Teal'c no longer had Junior. Jim probably would have picked up on that when they were still two or three miles away.

"We've got company, chief." Jim warned. A couple of sniffs, and he frowned. "They're armed. And one of them ... " He shook his head. "Not sure what the deal is, but it doesn't sound right."

Jon had a suspicion he knew who it was. "How many are there?"

"Four." Jim answered immediately.

Jon grimaced, having won the bet with himself. Jim had moved around so that he was between everyone else and the door, his hand going to the gun he always carried as he eyed the front door warily. "Better get ... " He started to warn.

At which point the door slammed open. Jon flinched back like he'd been shot, hands flying up to his ears. Xander and Blair, after one glance at the people in the door, instantly got between Jon and the intruders. Xander half-instinctively put a hand on Jon's arm, muttering quietly about dials while giving Jack and Teal'c positively lethal glares. Fortunately, Jon wasn't completely incapacitated by the sudden racket, just in pain from it, and after a minute or two managed to wrestle things back under control.

"Put the guns down." Jim snarled, his own gun pointing steadily at Teal'c chest, finger kissing the trigger. Fully three-quarters of his attention was on Teal'c, the rest split between Jack, Sam, and Daniel. Jim had no idea what the deal was with Teal'c, and until he did (and maybe even after that) he was considering the big black man the primary threat of the group. "Right now."

Well shit, Jack thought. He instantly recognized Jim as a fellow soldier, which had his alarms going. Trust? NID? "Who the hell are you? What are you doing here?" Jack demanded, his own gun trained on Jim.

Jim was having none of that. "Gun. Down. And you'll be the ones answering questions, seeing as you came in here waving guns around." He snapped. "Starting with what the fuck he is." There was no mistaking who Jim meant, since his attention hadn't wavered from Teal'c the entire time.

"I don't think so." Jack snapped. "I want to know why Jon's door was busted in, and who the hell you are, and ... "

"Jack, shut the hell up and put the damn gun down." Jon snapped, having finally gotten the pain from the slammed door under control again. "They're not threatening me." It was just as well he'd recovered somewhat, as otherwise, the standoff might have continued indefinitely, as neither Jack nor Jim was in any way inclined to back down.

Jack gave his clone a death-glare, but considering it was his clone, decided to trust Jon's judgment and slowly lowered his gun. Unfortunately for him, Jim was not overly inclined to reciprocate, not with Teal'c in the room.

"Jim, he's not a danger." Jon said, having a damn good idea of why Jim was so fixated on Teal'c.

"You know them?" Jim asked.

"Yeah, they're all friends of mine." Jon confirmed.

Jim gave Teal'c one last death-glare before reluctantly taking his finger off the trigger and dropping his arm. "Fine. Who the hell are they?"

Once the guns went down, Blair stepped up so that he was just behind and to Jim's right, his arm brushing Jim's lightly, hoping having him so close would help defuse Jim's ire. "Easy, big guy." He murmured, at a level only Jim and Jon would be able to hear. "Just take it easy."

"Hey, we're right here." Jack groused. "Try asking us."

Jim just gave him a dirty look, while, from his protected spot behind Jim, Blair and Xander, Jon rolled his eyes.

"Ignore Jack." Daniel said, sliding towards the front of the group now that the guns had all been put away, assuming his usual role of 'first contact with the natives' almost without even thinking about it. "He's Jack O'Neill, this is Samantha Carter, and this is Murray." Daniel indicated each person in turn. "And my name's Daniel Jackson." He offered his hand to shake, despite a noise of protest from Jack.

Jim eyed the four of them, catching the lie as to Teal'c's name, but after a few moments shook Daniel's hand.

Blair, in the meantime, gave Daniel a commiserating grin, as Daniel was clearly used to Jack being cranky and making things difficult, just as he was used to Jim doing much the same. "This is Jim, That's Xander, and I'm Blair." He indicated who was who.

Jim was being very stubborn. He wasn't letting any of SG-1 approach the three men behind him, and spared a moment of thanks that Blair hadn't given last names in his introduction. "So ... what the hell is he?" He jerked his head towards Teal'c.

"And what are you doing here?" Jack demanded in return, having absolutely no intention of answering Jim's question, though he dearly wanted to know how Jim seemed to know Teal'c wasn't human.

And they were back to a standoff, with neither side willing to give the information the other side was asking for, giving each other distrustful looks. Jon was rolling his eyes in exasperated amusement, but he wasn't sure what to do to break the stalemate. Jack was not going to start blabbing about the SGC, or explaining the truth of who and what Jon was, or Teal'c, not in a million years. And Jim didn't look like he was going to say word one about anything until he found out what he wanted to know about SG-1. Yeesh.

At that point, Daniel seemed to get a good look at Jon, and realized that Jon looked like crap. His eyebrows headed for his hairline as his expression became concerned. "Jon? What happened?" He wanted to know.

"Hell if I know. My senses started going all over the place. This lot seemed to know what was going on, but you busted in before they could say much of anything." Jon groused.

Jack eyed Jim, Xander, and Blair. "So ... explain." He demanded.

Which just made Jim give him a dirty look. "It's nothing you need to hear, since it has nothing to do with you." Like hell Jim was going to tell anyone in the military about Sentinels in general, nevermind reveal that he was one!

Blair rolled his eyes. "Jim, chill." He said, a bit louder this time.

"Look, either someone starts talking, or I start making with the arrests." Jack snapped.

"Try it and find out what happens." Jim snarled in return, bracing himself.

"Oh for the love of little baby monkeys, will you two stow the testosterone please?" Xander huffed, shaking his head. Daniel and Blair both snickered at the looks on Jim and Jack's faces. "Jon needed help, and we came to give it to him, all right? Do the hows and whys really matter, or were you wanting him to end up dead?"

"Whoah, whoah, dead?" Jack sputtered.

"Yeah, dead. As in not alive anymore." Xander repeated.

That had Jack eyeing Jon, wondering if the clones' admittedly screwed up DNA and body had gone on the blink a second time. There was no telling what Loki had done to mini-me after all. "What the hell happened?" He wanted to know.

Before Jim could start with the 'I'll tell you if you tell me what I want to know' thing again, Blair started going into a modified version of his Sentinel spiel. "Long story short, back when humans were still running around in tribes, there were people born who had all five senses really enhanced, who eventually became known as Sentinels. They were their tribes' watchmen, an early warning system against dangerous weather and beasties. When we started 'modernizing', they started dying out because they weren't really needed anymore, but they still exist, and crop up now and again. Jon's one of them."

To say Jack was skeptical was to understate the case, though it had nothing to do with not believing Sentinels existed, and more to do with the fact that Jon was, essentially, Jack, and, well ... if one was a Sentinel, why weren't both? Not that he was going to say anything about it. "Uh huh. And you know this how?"

"I've been studying the Sentinel phenomenon since I was a teenager." Blair said. "I managed to track down a lot of people with one or two senses enhanced ... you know, perfume sniffers and food tasters? People like that. Jon's got all five. And if you need any further proof ... " He waved a hand at Jon, indicating the sorry shape he was in. "You really don't need to look any further. Enhanced senses may come in handy for a lot of things, but they also have downsides, and bad reactions to things is one of them. Hence the rash. I'm guessing either the material in his clothes or what he uses to wash them caused that." Blair shot Jim a look, who shot Blair a look back. "He's also not the only Sentinel I've worked with, though the other one's an adult."

Jack, not being anywhere near as stupid as he liked to pretend he was, realized pretty fast that Jim was, apparently, the other Sentinel, but that Blair and Jim weren't willing to admit to it in front of SG-1. Given the circumstances, Jack didn't blame them a bit. "Fair enough." He still didn't believe Jon was a Sentinel, but he couldn't exactly tell them that without explaining why, which was a definite no-go.

"So, what the hell is he?" Jim wanted to know, still not willing to give up on that. He hadn't stopped eyeing Teal'c the entire time they'd been there.

"Classified." Jack snapped off. George was going to have kittens about this.

"Yeah, I had a feeling you were going to say that." Jim snarked, then sighed. "Look, Jon needs help, and we know what to do. You guys going to cause problems if we take him with us?"

Jack eyed Jim warily, wanting to say no. He shot a look at Jon, who gave a faint nod, trusting in the fact that they were essentially the same person for Jack to understand what the nod meant. Jack eyed Jim again, then gave another sigh. "He stays in contact." Jack demanded. "And you tell us where the hell you're going. He falls off the radar, and I come hunting. And believe me when I say you really, really, really don't want to piss me off. And you give us full names."

Jim snorted. "You'll find me under Captain James Ellison, Army Rangers." He rattled off his service number, knowing exactly what Jack planned to do with the full names. "Blair Sandburg, and Alexander Harris. We're heading for Cascade, Washington. I'm a cop there, Major Crimes unit, under Simon Banks." Translation, we have nothing to hide. Well, except for Jim being a Sentinel, but that wasn't going to be in any of the records.

Jack's eyebrows headed for his hairline when Jim gave his name and rank. "I've heard of you." He said. The whole Peru mess had pretty much been the talk of the military there for a while, given everything that had happened. Some part of Jack relaxed. If Jim lived up to even a tenth of the hype surrounding him, Jon was in good hands, regardless of the reason why his senses were going nuts. It also explained why Jim was being so antagonistic. After what Jim had lived through, Jack would have been more than a little leery of anyone military too. Having your entire team wiped out because your superior was on the take, then surviving a year and a half in the jungle before you got rescued would make anyone twitchy.

Jim made a disgusted face. "I'm sure you have." He practically growled.

There was several moments' awkward silence before Jack finally rolled his eyes and motioned the rest of SG-1 to leave. "Remember, he stays in contact."

"We know, we know." Jim snarked. Jack finally turned and left.

Once the door closed, Blair turned to Xander. "Well, that could have gone better ... but it also could have gone a lot worse."

"No kidding. I was half expecting Jack and Jim to just start kicking each others' asses." Xander said. "And what did you mean, by 'what is he'?"

"If 'Murray' is human, I'll eat my shorts." Jim said. "That's what I meant." He shot Jon a look.

Jon immediately shook his head. "Yeah I know them, yeah, I know what the deal is, and no, I can't tell you. It's very classified."

Jim grimaced in distaste, but didn't push it, knowing all too well that doing so was a very bad idea. People who blabbed classified material tended to end up severely regretting it, as did the people they blabbed to. "All right, I get it. Why don't you three start packing up?"

Xander nodded, and gently tugged Jon towards the bedroom again.

"Been meaning to ask, but what the hell happened to you?" Jon wanted to know, indicating Xander's splints.

"I got mugged." Xander lied, hoping Jon's senses were new and out of whack enough to keep him from realizing that he was lying, at least until they got to Cascade and could explain the whole demon thing.

"Ouch."