InsaneJournal

“This is ridiculous, Jim. It’s a waste of time.”

“Humor me, Sandburg.” Jim growled as he pushed Blair before him into the stall, the paper target clipped to the rack before him. Blair rolled his eyes as Jim continued. “You’ve been kidnapped twice since I met you, and if you’d had proper training, that might not have happened. Now come on, get in there and I’ll show you what’s what.”

Blair sighed. He didn’t want to be here, he was supposed to be taking Jim to the station. The truck was having its annual tune-up, and wouldn’t be ready until the next day. After that spill with Brackett, Jim’s mutterings about carrying a weapon became full blown lectures. And now here they were at Jim’s regular practice range.

Nunie whined as Bagheera yawned from behind Jim’s leg. Both of them knew this was a waste of time, just as much as Blair did. But if it would get the man off his back for a while, he would have to just bite the bullet, so to speak. Jim sent the target out to a respectable 250 feet and gestured for Blair to put on his equipment. Once they were properly prepared, Blair stepped up to the bench.

Butting Jim out of the way, he hefted the weapon, checked the clip, pulled the slide and chambered a round, flicked off the safety, checked his aim and stance automatically and fired off eight rounds. The first four were twin double taps and the final four were taken about a second apart. Rapid and smooth, he was over and done in seconds, flicked the safety back in place, ejected the clip and slid the extra round out of the chamber before placing the weapon back on the bench.                

Stepping away from the stall, he held a hand up to Jim as the other man was about to say something. He left the range, returning his ear and eye protection on his way out the door, and went straight to his car. Climbing in behind the wheel, he took several deep breaths to find his center once again.

*’Damn that sucked!’* he thought as he waited for Jim to come out of the range. If there was one thing he didn’t want to be reminded of… “Man, that so SUCKED!”

Inside the range, the panther and the wolf watched as the Sentinel punched the button to retrieve the target, using the time he waited to retrieve his weapon as well, reloading it with quiet efficiency. With the weapon stowed the human watched the paper target make its final approach to the front. The eight neat little holes in the target attested to the Shaman’s proficiency with the weapon he had used. Head and heart would have been hit twice; each arm and each leg was also struck.                                                                          

The Sentinel let out a low whistle as he viewed the results. Bagheera yawned as he watched the human fold the target and stick it in a pocket. Nunie snorted once. Perhaps now the Sentinel would listen to his Shaman when he spoke.

o-O-o

“Seriously man, I have three words for the city planners, ‘Night Work Only’!” Blair eased off on the brake just enough for the Corvair to inch its way up to a street light that was only five yards or so in front of them. On both sides, the construction crews ignored the honking of the vehicles that crawled by with a snail’s pace.

“So, what about lunch when we get past this, partner?” asked Jim as he watched the little old lady in the Chevrolet parked at the cross street to be sure she didn’t head out before her time. Blair shrugged.

“Chinese?” he asked half watching the direction he was going, half watching the traffic around him. He slammed on the brakes just as the little old lady pulled out of the cross street and pulled in front of him. “Damn it!”

Jim sat up for a better look at the woman’s license plate. Handicapped, figured. “Let it go Chief,” he muttered. Blair nodded dejectedly as he waited for the traffic to move again. “So, what are you thinking, that Mandarin place on third?”    

Blair shrugged, “Or we could just go out for pizza, I guess.”

He really wasn’t paying attention. The stunt with the shooting range, and then this traffic, had his mind in a jumble. Add to that the snips and snarls from the spirit animals sitting in the back of the car, and Blair was just not really all there. He was feeling antsy for some reason he couldn’t pin down. The hair was rising on the back of his neck, sweat was prickling his upper lip and his hands were beginning to shake. He had all the signs of an adrenaline shock but he couldn’t understand the need for such a thing. Deep down inside, he felt as if he was about to find himself in the middle of more trouble.

And hasn’t that just been the way ever since he had met Jim? Always in trouble of some sort or another. Always seeing danger in the most mundane of times. Take for example, the guy over there by the work truck. He seemed like a nice enough fellow, with his hard hat and his vest and his big gun…

“Ah, Jim?” Blair glanced back over Jim’s shoulder and saw the armored truck across the street. At the same time Jim was gazing over Blair’s shoulder and coming to the conclusion that Blair had hoped *he* was imagining. Obviously he hadn’t been, because before he could form any more words Jim was shoving him down and they were both diving for cover. He heard a yell of ‘Oh Shoot!’ from Jim before hearing the scream of a missile fly overhead. 

Jim covered Blair’s head as they heard the explosion that Blair could only surmise was the armored truck. Reacting as the good companion he was, Blair’s hand began a rhythmic squeezing of the arm in his grip, giving Jim an anchor to use his abilities with relative safety. It must have worked as Jim poked his head up cautiously and got a quick look around without losing his head. Then the big cop slid out of his side of the Corvair, dragging Blair with him.

They ran for cover behind another car, Jim keeping Blair in front of him the entire way. Once they were safe away from the action again, Blair caught Jim’s eyes and was pleased to find clarity in the ice blue depths.  Jim smiled as he quickly assured him, “I’m ok, Sandburg. Take the cell phone, get help and get out of here.”

Blair nodded, already hitting the speed dial for Simon and the cavalry as he searched for more cover further from the action. Jim left, in search of bad guys no doubt. At one point he heard the man as he called out the voice of authority. “Police! Drop your weapon!”

The hail of gunfire that followed told Blair just what these thugs thought of Jim’s authority. He glanced around the edge of the vehicle he was crouched behind to see his car and a number of others, bullet ridden. “Damn it!”

More gunfire from another direction told Blair that his friend was cut off and would need more backup than the promised troops from Simon. Those were only just now coming up through the traffic as fast as they could get around the human and vehicular obstacles. A snort from his left brought Blair’s attention to Bagheera sitting next to him. “Why aren’t you with Jim?” he hissed at the animal. For an answer, Bagheera looked meaningfully over his shoulder at the Sentinel. Blair followed his gaze and barely noticed the hazy form of Nunie leaning against Jim, his shoulder brushing the man’s hip. “Well, ok then, what’s next?”

Blair flicked his gaze in several directions until he saw Bagheera vanish next to him and re-appear next to a building with a box on the side that held a fire hose. Blair’s eyes lit up. He remembered this! Leaping to his feet, he raced across the street, around and behind the men shooting at the cops and Jim, and mashed his covered elbow into the glass. Pulling the hose out, he quickly turned it on and set the harsh jet of water slamming into his opponents. Blair cackled with glee as the thugs went tumbling into the street and directly against the door of a parked cruiser.

Across the way, Jim was rounding up another man, stopping him cold with a fist to the face. Nunie vanished as soon as it appeared that the crisis was over. Blair knew that Bagheera was also gone. Blair sighed as he went to get a look at the damage to his baby. It wasn't pretty. He started to count the holes in his fender, but then gave up and wandered over to stand at Jim's side disconsolately.

“Nice hose job,” Jim commented. Blair rolled his eyes at his friend.

 “Yeah, well it was really no big deal. The hose was there, I got the idea and away I went.” Blair glanced over his shoulder at his car. How was he going to pay for the repair job on this? He sighed as Jim grasped his shoulder gently. It looked like they were both out of transportation for the day now.

Simon walked over and dragged Jim away to explain the situation and Blair walked back to his car, climbed on a nearby trunk and stared at it in disbelief. Where was he going to take the Corvair for repairs of this caliber? Nunie snorted briefly, Blair ignored him. Jim came back soon after, and leaned over to grasp Blair’s shoulder again.  

“Feeling a little queasy, Chief? That can happen after something as stressful as this.” Jim was trying to be soothing and understanding. Blair sighed.

“Not feeling queasy, Jim. This isn’t my first time through a gun fight, remember Beverly?” Blair prodded. Jim nodded, no doubt remembering that pell-mell flight up the stairs to stop one of the Juno brothers from taking the head off of the DA. “No, I was more worried about that.”

Jim followed where Blair waved and a pained look flashed across his face. He pulled his cell phone out of Blair’s pocket, where he had put it after having called for backup, and dialed a local number. After a moment, the phone was answered and Jim grinned. “Manny, buddy. Remember my pal, Sandburg? Yeah, the one with all the hair… yeah the classic you were drooling over… no, he’s not looking to sell, that I know of, sorry.”  

Blair smiled weakly. He knew there were other people who believed, like he, that the ’66 series 2 Corvair was one of the sleekest, slickest vehicles still on the road, but this wasn't the best time to be reminded of that fact. He made an effort to shake off his gloomy mood as he listened to Jim’s side of the conversation. “So, Manny. There’s been a slight problem… yeah I know, I’m unlucky with cars… Hey that was not my fault! Ok, yeah… thanks, we’ll be there soon.”

Jim shut the phone and held out a hand to Blair who took it as he slipped off the car he had been using as a seat. “Manny says to bring Babe in and he’ll see what he can do.”

Blair nodded. “Thanks Jim. I appreciate it.”

“Yeah, well,” Jim started off for the car at a steady clip with Blair right behind him, “Some things can't be helped. Come on, let’s go get her into the shop, then we can still look for lunch. Maybe the deli around the corner?”

Blair smiled. “Yeah, I like the way you think, Ellison.”

o-O-o

Blair thanked the mechanic once again and stepped out the front door of the office. Christine was there to give him a ride to the university, glad to do it, grateful that Blair had called her in the capacity of a friend in need. Blair shook his head at himself. To think that he and Christine were so close, yet still miles apart in the relationship game.

The Corvair could take at least a week to fix. Thankfully none of the slugs had hit the engine and it was mainly body work. Jim had insisted that the price of the repairs was to be tacked on to his bill, but Blair argued that down to half. It would have to wait until his next stipend check, and Manny was quite the forgiving man, telling Blair not to hurry on his account. He knew Jim, therefore by association, he felt he could trust the grad student on this bill.                                

It wasn’t very far to the university, but Blair had things he needed to get to. So after a quick peck on Christine’s cheek and a hurried ‘See ya’, he headed off for Hargrove Hall to drop off his stuff before his meeting with the Dissertation committee. It had been a week since he had called his main chair to warn the man that he was changing his dissertation.

Sydney was less than pleased, but he was quick to jump in with Blair when he saw the amount of prep-work that he had gotten done. Enough to set a date for a conference with the committee to explain his position and set up a plan of action. And actually the topic for the dissertation hadn’t changed any, just the manner in which it was portrayed. Modern day Sentinels, the Law Enforcement Officers from every spectrum and every division. It might take more time than his original concept. He had some of the elements and he would have to draw a line somewhere. If they would listen to him and agree to his switch, he could have the first couple of chapters to his committee board within weeks.

It would be enough.

It wasn’t what he had planned, but since when had he planned anything? Not since Naomi settled in Vermont long enough for Blair to go back to school. He was… what… 12? He’d been jumping grades back and forth depending on the school district, the state, and the tests. This time he tested into college courses, which had stunned everyone including Naomi.

So it came as no surprise when she started searching out a boarding school for Blair that would take him in based on his tests. Suddenly it appeared as if Naomi Sandburg was becoming Mama Sandburg. He knew she had always wanted him to succeed in whatever he set his eye to. So her baby boy wanted to be a teacher, study anthropology so he could watch the people go by. So she would make sure that happened.

There had been only one little problem.

*”Extra-curricular activities. Really Ms Sandburg, that is the only thing holding your son back in his credits. But I’m sure we can find something here that would be to his liking.”* That’s what the Dean of Lake Champlain Academy of Burlington, Vermont explained to Naomi during the interview. Blair remembered he had to wear a suit at the time, it had been damn uncomfortable.

But Naomi had not been deterred by this little set back. *”And what would you suggest, Mr. Sampson. My son is a very smart, very bright boy. Give him a task and he will do his best to accomplish it.”*

So Doctor Sampson had taken Blair in and shown him around. Naomi elected to remain in the office to let Blair make his own decision. The rifle range had caught his attention, as well as the boxing and basketball teams. In no time he had his plan set. The final hitch, he would have to be pushed back to Junior classes, so as to have a chance to round out his education a bit more.

Being that it was a boarding school worked well for Blair as well as Naomi. Blair had a safe place to stay grounded for a while, and Naomi could continue to move in whatever pattern kept her feet light. She was sure to visit often; Blair hardly noticed she was gone. He was sticking to his plan.

The plan that, in the end, had ultimately failed.

Blair sighed as he walked quickly to his appointment. Sydney stood in the doorway, smiling as he saw his favorite student round the corner into the hallway.

“Good timing, Blair. We’re all here.” Sydney held out a hand, which Blair shook enthusiastically before slipping into the room. This was it, time to get a new plan back into action. And time to put aside memories of the past that would not stay silent.

o-O-o

The phone was ringing by the time he returned to his ‘office’ hours later.  After being practically raked over the coals by his committee, the distraction was most welcome and he quickly answered, “Blair Sandburg.”

*#”Hey Chief. You got a minute?”#* Trust Jim to call when he was up to his elbows in everything. Taking a deep breath, he glanced around to see what was the most important he needed to worry about next. Research group, great, he had only about… 20 minutes to get across the quad, around the fountain and into the library on the other side of High street. Gods.

“Yeah, but you’re going to have to meet me at the fountain and walk with me, I’m like… out of time.” Blair dropped his papers and picked up his book bag. He could hear Jim speaking to someone else away from the phone and figured correctly that the Detective was calling on his cell phone.

*#”Not a problem, Buddy. See you in five.”#* Blair barely heard the click as they hung up their phones simultaneously. Any other time he would have thought it funny, but today he was just too harried to care.

By the time he reached the fountain, Jim was already there with Simon, of all people. Blair figured this was Jim’s ride until the truck was finished later that day. Blair sniffed as he bustled on towards the library, waving his hand to invite the two other to walk with him.

“So, what’s up?” he asked in passing. Jim grabbed his bag off his shoulder so that he could move faster and not be as winded.

“We need your help on a case, Sandburg,” Jim began. With longer legs, it was easy for the two cops to not only keep up with him, but also keep a running conversation. Blair glanced at Simon, and then back to Jim.

“Go on?” he urged. Simon carried on the conversation.

“Does the name Hector Carasco mean anything to you, kid?” At Blair’s negative shake of the head, the big man continued. “He’s suspected of arms dealing. Jim here thinks that Carasco is responsible for the weapons used in the attempted heist earlier this morning.”

They were up to High St. now and Jim reached out an arm to hold Blair back before he blundered off into the busy street. Blair took the moment to turn to Simon. “What do you need me for?”

“Well, his daughter is a student here,” Simon replied hesitantly. Blair’s gaze narrowed.

“And?” he prodded with just a hint of irritation. Jim grabbed his arm again and they were walking across the street together. Once there, Jim took up the explanation.

“It’s like this, Sandburg. We need an in with Carasco. I figured since you both go to the same school, you might… I dunno… bump into her and use the old Sandburg charm to get closer to her family.” Jim nearly collided with Blair when he slammed on the brakes, as it were and turned to face him.

“Are you nuts? You want me to… what? Seduce a student? Get in close to her family, like that’s going to help!” He was trying hard to keep his voice down, but he didn’t think he was succeeding if Jim’s nervous scan of the area was any indication. “This Carasco guy, where’s he from?”

“Chile,” Simon answered. “He’s left his country for better clientele and made his home here on an estate outside of town.”

Blair snorted, “And you expect his daughter to know anything? Man, if anything she’s so far in the dark it’s not funny. What’s she doing here?”

Jim sighed, “Pre-law. Which is why I thought you might find something out from her. Why learn about the laws of a country if you don’t intend to break them?”

“Same reason you do, man. To bring justice to those without. But that’s neither here nor there. Fact is, she’s a student. Even if I wanted to, my principles would be compromised if I tried to be anything but a teacher around her.” Blair grabbed Simon’s wrist, noted the time and grimaced. “I’m late. Look, the best I can do is meet the girl, although as an anthropologist it’s not a sure bet that I’ll run into her. If I do, I can only keep it on a purely friendly basis, as with any other student.”

Simon nodded and Jim smiled as he handed Blair’s bag back to him. “No problem Blair, anything you can do will be a help.” He turned Blair back around towards the library. “Get going, I’ll be by to pick you up around 5, unless you get another ride.”

Blair nodded as he headed up the steps. “Fine man, just remember, I’m cooking tonight and still have to stop by the store for a couple things.”

Jim waved as he and Simon left. Blair shouldered his pack and went inside. Hopefully his friends wouldn’t be too upset with him. This working two jobs was murder. He would have to think about next semester, whether or not he wanted to teach as many classes as this year, or if he wanted to cut back. With the new focus of the dissertation, he was fairly sure that something was going to have to change.

Or he was going to end up working himself to death!

o-O-o

Blair dropped his bag onto his seat, turned around and sighed as he took in the sight of a fresh stack of papers for him to go over later in the night. Another all night scan session for him. He was seriously going to have to shave off some of his workload.

Walking over to his coffee pot, he checked the filter basket, set up for half a pot and took the carafe out to fill it with water. It was a short walk down to the water fountain and a short walk back. He nearly dropped the carafe when he walked in to find a dark haired, bronze skinned goddess leaning over his desk and looking over the papers he had strewn across the blotter.

 “Um… hello?” he called out tentatively. The woman stood up abruptly, her hand flicking out and sending a pile of papers to the floor. Blair raced forward, setting the pot off to the side, and began to reclaim the papers. “Oh shit!”

The woman gasped, “Oh, I am so sorry!” She began to help with the clean up, her eyes flicking up every once in a while to catch his, both embarrassed beyond belief. Eventually they had the mess returned to the desk and the woman bent down to pick up the coffee carafe, handing it to Blair with a shy smile. Blair smiled back.

“No big deal, it happens.” Blair shrugged. The young woman cautiously held a hand out to him, her eyes conveying confusion.

“Hi. I'm Maya Carasco.” She announced. Blair stared at her, equally confused for a moment. Then the mid-noon conversation with Jim and Simon popped back into memory and he nodded once, taking her hand and shaking it enthusiastically.

“Um, yeah. Blair Sandburg. I’m one of the TA’s for Anthro 101.” Blair took the carafe and poured the water into the coffee machine before turning back to Maya. “So, is there something I can do for you?”

Maya kept hold of her confused expression and suddenly Blair knew that something was up. "I think that maybe it's more a case of what I can do for you. Since I guess I work for you now?"

Blair stopped in the middle of the room, his gaze narrowing. So that’s what they did to ensure that he would run into the girl. Damn it, just for that Jim could look forward to taste testing tonight after dinner.

Acting as normal as he could, he shrugged a shoulder and asked, “I'm sorry. Is there a problem?”

Maya sighed, “No, I'm just not used to being traded from one professor to another like a used car.”

Blair blinked, “Oh hey no, I know how that feels. I’m sorry, I thought they would have actually *asked* the assistant if he or she actually wanted to… you know… assist?”

Maya appeared to be thinking this over. Finally she nodded her head, obviously in agreement and then glanced around at the office. “This is indeed a mess, is it not?”

Blair followed her gaze and grimaced visibly. “Well, um… three classes a week to teach, two to take myself, plus my other job… yeah it gets a little hectic.” He reached over and grabbed a pile of papers threatening to slide off the couch. “And, of course, this was a storage closet at first… still is, technically.”

Maya laughed as she put her bag in the corner. Blair watched her a moment, wondering how this was going to work. When he turned to put the papers on a shelf, she reached out and took them back away. “You need help with the artifacts and the maps? Not research, of course. I am not in anthropology.”

Blair nodded. “Yeah, I just… I mean, I can handle research, but as you can see I'm kind of sloppy, and anything you can do to help me with these files would be great.” He gave her his best puppy-dog eyes, and held his breath.

It must have worked as she grinned brightly and shuffled the pile from her arms to against her hip and extended her hand once again. “All right, I will help.”

Blair blinked again, slowly taking her hand in his. “Yeah?” he asked uncertainly.

Again she smiled, “Yeah.”

Blair let loose with his full 500-megawatt grin. “Well all right then! Let me get you a cup of coffee and maybe we can figure out what to do with this mess, eh?”

Maya looked around a moment. “You ever considered filing cabinets?”

Blair stared at her with feigned surprise, “Filing cabinet? Whoa! All right, what a concept. Look at that -- you're already irreplaceable.”

His smile must have eased her thoughts and she soon was laughing with him as they made plans to organize the office. Blair was still going to get Jim for setting him up like this, but since he'd worked so hard to make it happen even after Blair had warned him about how little he would likely get in result for it… well, mentally Blair threw up his hands and went with it. For now, because Jim and Simon both at some point in time would just have to face that when it came to people, he knew what he was talking about!     

o-O-o

Blair jerked around with a start when the phone on his desk rang. He glanced apologetically towards Maya as he went to answer it. “Sandburg.” Oh great, now he was beginning to sound like Jim.

*”Hey Chief.”* and speak of the devil…

“Oh, hey Jim. What time is it?” Blair asked distractedly as he handed another file to Maya to go along with the others she had stacked. She smiled in thanks and moved the entire stack over to the cabinet. Jim’s voice in Blair’s ear reminded him he still had the phone there.

*”Late, Buddy. Look, I’m sorry but I got caught here at the station, working with the ATF on this case. It’s going to be at least another hour before I’m free. You still need a ride home?”* Jim sounded as distracted as Blair was.

“Nah, man. I’ll catch a ride. Worry about your stuff, I’ll find something to eat when I get home.” Blair smiled and rolled his eyes when Maya glanced his way. On the other end, someone called for Jim and he quickly made his apologies before hanging up. Blair dropped the handset back on the base and sighed as he pushed back a few locks of unruly curls.

“That was, your lover?” Maya asked hesitantly. Blair blinked at her in confusion, then laughed lightly as he put it together.

“Oh no, Jim’s my roommate… well more than that, he’s also helping me with my research.” He picked up the last of the papers on the desk and filed them away as Maya dusted off another pottery bowl and set it on the shelf beside her. Looking around he was amazed at the results. “Wow, the place is clean!”

Maya giggled. “Jim is a teacher like you?” she picked up her bag as she attempted to reconcile the one sided phone conversation.

Blair shook his head, “Jim is a detective with Major Crimes.” Nunie growled low and Blair suddenly realized how that might have sounded. Maya spun around, her face switching emotions from surprise to confusion, and finally to disbelief.

"And you fit in there?" she asked with amusement. Blair scrunched up his face in confusion until she turned in a slow twirl, her arms outstretched to remind him of the job they had just finished. “They do not mock or ostracize you?”

Blair chuckled as he finally caught on with what she was implying. He shrugged as he said, “"Nah, they're pretty cool for a bunch of jack booted thugs."

Maya blinked at this, "Jack booted whats?"

Blair laughed out loud at her confused expression, "It's what my mom calls cops, has ever since I was little. I think that is part of the reason that I chose the topic for my dissertation, to see if I could get past my own biases and stuff, y'know?"

She nodded slowly and Blair felt that the explanation would make more sense now, “I’m doing my dissertation on closed societies, with Law Enforcement as the base. Local Police, FBI, CIA, ATF… whatever I can get my hands on. Jim’s helping me with that.”

Maya cocked her head to the side, “And you live with this cop, the one you called Jim?”

Blair shrugged. “Remember the gang war going on about two months ago? The warehouse that went up in flames was my home. Jim had the room and invited me to hang with him. It just seemed easier for me to stay.”

Maya nodded as this made complete sense to her as well. Blair mentally breathed a heavy sigh. No lies, all truth. Grabbing a broom, he started to sweep the floor in the newly cleared office. A touch on his arm brought his attention back to Maya, who was holding up a set of keys. “Perhaps I could give you a ride home?”

Blair thought about it for all of a minute before putting the broom off to the side and snagging his pack and jacket. “You are a lifesaver.”

She smiled as they walked out of the office.