InsaneJournal

o-O-o

Blair struggled to keep up with Kincaid as the man hustled up the stairs to the roof. “Why am I getting singled out?” he demanded.

Kincaid chuckled. “Don't worry about it, Professor. You're one of the lucky ones. You're coming with me.”

“Yeah, and why does that statement *not* instill warmth in my heart, man?” Blair groused as they reached the helicopter pad on the roof, a chopper already spinning its blades and ready to take flight. “No! You don't understand.”

“Shut up, kid.” Kincaid growled at him as he opened the door. Bair struggled again, fear evident in every line of his face.

“Look, I can’t go up in this thing!” yelled Blair. “I’m terrified of heights!”

Kincaid laughed. “Guess you’re going to have to get over that right quick!”

The chopper doors slide shut and the chopper lifted off the pad. From below, Blair couldn’t see but instinct told him that his rescue was close at hand. He was about to ask where they were going when he felt the entire chopper shudder as if a great weight had landed on it.

“What was that, Walters?” snapped Kincaid. Walters struggled with the controls for a moment before replying.

“Down draft!”

Blair would have been inclined to agree with him, were it not for the twin calls of the cat and wolf. That was no mere turbulence. He looked out his window, trying to see with his eyes what his mind knew had to be. Kincaid glanced out the other window, then took a better look down and spotted the disturbance below.

“Looks like we got ourselves a stowaway, boys. How many lives does that guy have anyway? Lose him, Walters.”

‘Jim!’ thought Blair. ‘It has to be Jim!’

Walters tightened his hand on the control stick. “Hang on!”

With a twist of the wrist, Walters attempted to shake off his troubles. But the weight was still there, dragging them down. He tried once more, getting no better response. Kincaid continued to watch out the window. “Well, I guess he just doesn't want to let go.”

He opened the door to the chopper and pulled a gun, pointing it at Jim, who was on the skid, struggling to hold on. The cop reached for Kincaid’s hand and the gun, but failed to dislodge it. Blair took that moment to shove Kincaid out the door towards Jim, who grabbed the man. Kincaid dropped the weapon and clutched onto Jim’s leg.

Blair glanced out, noticed Jim’s hand cuffed to the strut and felt a little better knowing that his Sentinel couldn’t be dislodged so easily. The same could not be said for Kincaid, who held on to his enemy for dear life. Jim yelled to the Walters.

“Take us back!”

Kincaid was quick to belie that order, “No! You have to kill me first!”

Jim's eyes met Blair's as he said “Have it your way!” And he promptly began to shake his leg to dislodge his unwanted passenger. Again Blair was nudged with a kind of echoing sensation as memories from his dream rose up. He knew what he had to do - just what he had to say. Shuffling his feet, he found the box of flares on the floor.

Kincaid's tune changed in a hurry, "Walters, get this thing back now!"

“He's nuts if he thinks I'm flying into this dragnet.” Walters said as he carried on.

Blair pulled the flare gun from the box and, without loading it, reached forward and pointed the gun at the pilot. “Set it down now!”

Walters glanced at him, at the gun, and snarled. “Yeah, kill me and we all go down, buddy.”

 Blair smiled gleefully, his eyes twinkling with just enough hysteria to look insane as he continued to point the gun at Walters. “I don't think so Pal! I'm the bastard genius son of a woman who believed highly in trying experimental therapies to cure my obsessive fear of heights. There isn't an aircraft made I don't know how to fly!"

Walters gave the young anthropologist a frightened look and made a calculated decision, he turned the chopper around. Blair watched him until they were hovering over the ‘copter pad, where Kincaid released Jim and fell to the ground. Jim unlocked the cuff from the strut and landed next to him, shoving him over so that the chopper could land properly.

Officers standing on the roof were waiting for Kincaid and took custody of him from Jim as he worked on unlocking the second cuff from his arm. More officers began taking men out of the chopper, including Blair who meekly handed over the empty flare gun to one of the men before allowing them to help him to the roof.

Kincaid snarled at Simon as he was hauled away. “This isn't over, Captain! Not by a long shot.”

Simon smirked. “It is for you! Get him out of here!” He walked over to Jim. “Hairy ride?” 

Jim smiled as he finally managed to remove the cuff from his arm. “You don't know the half of it. It wasn't really that bad until Riggs over there got into it - that's when it really got hairy!”

Simon looked in the direction that Jim nodded and saw Blair being removed from the chopper, his hands still taped together. He shrugged, not understanding, but moving to intercept the officers taking Blair off the pad.

Blair was protesting he wasn't with Kincaid - he was with them - at the top of his lungs in frustration. The Swat guys are ignoring him and Jim grabbed him as they are passing. “Don't worry about it guys, he really is with us."

With skeptical glances, the men turned to Simon, the voice of authority, for confirmation. Simon shrugged and replied, "Yeah, hard to believe but it's true."

Blair shot the big man a dirty look, and Jim one too for good measure. "Thanks a lot guys. Heaps."

They laughed at his disgruntled demeanor and started walking away. Blair scrambled to catch up. In the meantime, Carolyn, who had been searching for Jim, finally spotted him and made a beeline their direction. She swept in front of Jim and hugged him, and then stepped back scolding. "I thought I told you to be careful, you bum."

Jim put on what he thought was an innocent face and said, "What? I was careful. Wasn't I Simon? Tell her."

Simon rumbled solemnly, "Extremely careful." But the glint of amusement in his dark eyes told another story. Blair snickered behind Jim, not wanting to risk getting that death glare from her again.

Carolyn shook her head and walked away saying "Incorrigible, totally and utterly incorrigible." She had to get back to work though and couldn't stick around and harass them.

Simon looked around and seeing that the three of them are alone for the most part said, "So these senses, this is what we have to look forward to?"

Blair straightened up, "Wait a minute here; Jim had to use his senses? Oh what am I saying; of course he had to use his senses." Blair deep in thought absently bopped Jim in the chest with his still duct-taped wrists; Jim, catching the bound hands, began to pick at the tape automatically. Simon watched their antics with amusement clear on his face.

Blair looked at Simon with a grin, "So you got to see him in action today hunh? What did you think?"

Simon's voice clearly sounded with the amazement he had felt while watching as he answered, "It was awesome. I've never seen anything like it. He was hearing things I couldn't hear; smelling things I couldn't smell."

Blair bounced slightly as a huge grin washed across his face. “Yeah, but you gotta remember, too. With these great senses, he has a couple of dangers to watch out for. The Zone outs could leave him vulnerable to just about anyone sneaking up on him. And the spikes could wipe out his thoughts and make it hard to concentrate. That’s why he needs help.”

Simon nodded once. “That’s why he wants you to come along, eh?”

“Well, I do know about them and understand them.” Blair replied. Jim laid a proprietary hand on his shoulder that Blair noticed but made no comment on. Simon sighed.

“Fine, how about we let thing side down here a couple of days, and then we pick it all back up on Monday morning?” Both men nodded to the Captain and he began to turn away. Now if you will excuse me, gentleman, I’m going back downstairs to hug my son.”

Jim waved as Simon walked away, then looked down as Blair gazed up at him expectantly. Jim sighed, “This is where you ask me how I did with the senses, if I had any troubles, any spikes or zones, right?”

Blair snickered. “Am I that predictable after only a week? Jeez, I need to get some better material.”

Jim snorted. “Yeah, and in answer to your questions, the senses are fine, no major problems. I did what you told me to do before and it all worked out.”

Blair looked a weird combination of gratified and pained. Gratified because it seemed his advice and teaching had already helped Jim, but pained because, “Oh come on man, you have to give me more details than that.”

“Ok, well there was one moment in the sewers where I really could have used your help.” Jim admitted. “But then I remembered what you said about filtering out the known and finding the unknown, and I remembered your scent from before and it sort of… I dunno… masked all the other scents that were giving me trouble. Worked like a charm.”

Blair smiled in relief. “Good, I was a little worried about that. I mean, in between running around the halls, knocking over vending machines onto terrorists and pulling empty flare guns on unsuspecting chopper pilots.” Blair paused and then after a breath asked hesitantly, “This wasn’t a typical day for you, was it?”

Now it was Jim’s turn to look pained and grateful. Finally he shook his head and reached out to clasp Blair on the shoulder. Staring down at him, Jim appeared to space out for a moment and Blair could have sworn that he zoned, but Jim simply took the time, and really focused on his companion as the sun setting over the horizon flared and outlined Blair in a halo effect.

Effortlessly Jim's eyes focused past where anybody else's could go, the pupils widening to an extreme size. They took in every pore of the skin as it stretched over the distinctive bone structure. They registered every bristle of the heavy beard Blair attempted to keep clean shaven and how the muscles laid and shifted over the bones. The light that tripped through the soft curls drew his attention to the myriad colors streaking through them. Reds, browns, even some blonds all blended together clearly to Jim’s penetrating gaze. Something shifted and Jim seemed to come back to himself.

Finally, before Blair could start asking more questions, Jim smiled and said, “Chief, the way you handled everything today was just amazing… of course the one that impressed me the most was getting Vera to smile."

Blair rolls his eyes. "Jim, I am guessing you never spent a lot of time in the office while you were in school did you?" 

"No" 

"Nuff said."  

Jim laughed, and Blair grinned. It was a good day, they’d survived. Simon was in on the Sentinel secret and backing them up, now all that was left was finishing up the paperwork that had been abandoned in the confusion. Well that and clean up. Thankfully not their job. 

~Finis!~