InsaneJournal

Blair glanced up at the sound of the wolf’s yip, the signal that Jim was on his way up in the elevator.  It had become a new thing now with both animals to split up between himself and Jim, keeping an eye on both partners and warning Blair of trouble when needed. On the Nightmare train ride, it had been the panther who encouraged Blair not to give up, knowing that Jim had not only survived being thrown out a window from a moving train, but that he was still on the train and working towards busting the bad guys.

 

“Thanks Nunie, I’m almost finished here,” muttered Blair as he scanned what he had written in his journal so far. *So far, since having Jim run through a full physical, we have had to readjust the results to a number of my original tests. The distance on hearing is much greater than I had earlier surmised, as evidenced by the trouble we had with Jim’s sleeping habits. Ear Wax… I gotta remember to have his ears checked at least once a year during his physical. And since Jim couldn’t control his hearing until all the solution had dried in his ear canal, we got to work with White Noise generators. Now Jim has greater range , AND he can filter out white noise. One never knows what one would need to be better than. Surveillance will be much more interesting.*

 

Placing his bookmark between the pages, Blair left the journal under his mattress and turned out the light. By the time he had reached the kitchen and stirred the pot of stew he had simmering on the stove, he heard the jingle of keys. He smiled as his friend walked through the door, stopped for a moment and sniffed with an appreciative air.

 

“Smells good, Chief.” Jim smiled as he hung up his coat. Blair smiled with him and pointed towards the bathroom.

 

“You got time for a shower man. Release the tension.” It wasn’t exactly an order, but Jim was agreeable so there was no need to explain. Blair chuckled over the fact that Jim didn’t take any clothing in with him. It was something they had discussed once upon a time. Jim was not homophobic, he was actually bisexual and he was not modest. Time with the Rangers and Covert Ops had disabused him of such notions. It was meant as a warning, one never knew when Jim was going to come out of the bathroom clad only in a token bath sheet.

 

Such as now. When Blair next noticed his friend it was to watch the broad back and shoulders, still glistening with water droplets, float past with the man on his way to his bedroom. Blair cleared his throat. “Erm… Jim? How’s your sense of touch?”

 

The big man slowed down and glanced over his shoulder, his muscled bunching as he flexed. He looked as if he was about to blow Blair off, but something in his face must have showed his concern, because the Sentinel turned back and walked over, gently laying a hand on the table to steady himself. He took a deep breath, letting it out slowly before answering, “I think I shoved it off. I’ve been having some trouble…”

 

Blair turned off the stew and wiped his hands on the towel over his shoulder before setting it on the counter. Stepping over to Jim, he took the extra towel out of the man’s hand and moved around to the back side to wipe away the droplets. “You left your back wet, and it wasn’t making you itch like it normally does. Figured you couldn’t feel anything. Sit down for a second, I want to talk.”

 

Jim nodded and took a seat at the table. Blair took a seat next to him, facing the man and laying a hand on his shoulder. “Okay, now let’s see if we can do some guided visualizations. Ready? Let’s start with your breathing.”

 

Jim sighed once before starting up his controlled breathing, taking a breath in through the nose, holding for two seconds and then slowly pushing the breath out through the mouth until he was as empty as he could get. Blair breathed with him and counted it off in his head. After about five minutes of this, he laid his other hand on Jim’s nearest knee, completing the circuit between them.

 

“Let your mind fall blank, think of nothing but a blank slate. We begin at the beginning… Imagine a sound board, starting out with five knobs. Each knob is marked with a sense… Hearing, touch, taste, smell, sight… close your eyes and imagine the board, Jim…” With each breath Blair added a new command. When he felt sure that Jim was imagining what he wanted, he added a new marking. “Now mark around the knob and number the marks one being lowest and nine being highest. When you have that, let your senses go and tell me on that scale where they are.”

 

“Sight is five… hearing is the same… smell is at four… taste is two and touch…” Jim trailed off. Blair waited patiently until Jim answered him. “Touch is not on the scale… like it’s turned off.”

 

“So find the power button for that sense and turn it back on, man.” Blair chided good naturedly. Jim ducked his head with his eyes still closed, pink spreading across his cheeks.

 

“Yeah, sorry Chief… hang on.” Silence. Then Jim sucked in a deep breath and groaned. “Ok, that’s not good… the needle is buried in the red.”

 

Blair nodded and began to breathe again, controlled and timed. In moments Jim was breathing in tandem with him and Blair felt he could continue his instruction. “Right, so touch is way off scale, and you over compensated. Take it down notch by notch until the scale is more manageable… take it to a three.”

 

Jim nodded, but from his grimace Blair knew that it was worse than an out of control sense. Gently extracting himself from his Sentinel, he ran for the bathroom, plucking the jar of tiger balm from the shelf in the medicine cabinet and returning to Jim’s side in record time. “Jim, remember the biofeedback lessons I gave you last week. Now I want you to slowly take yourself apart, piece by piece, and see if you can isolate the pain.”

 

It was another five or six minutes before Jim grunted once and reached for his right hip. Blair reached out, stilling the hand and kneeling next to the chair, untucking and shifting the towel around Jim’s waist to reveal a slight discoloration that, even now was beginning to grow and darken. “Bruised your hip somewhere,” murmured the shaman. The Sentinel merely grunted agreement. With a tiny dab of the balm in the palm of his hand, Blair began to work heat into Jim’s hip, massaging the tension and relieving the pain a bit more. Once that was done, Jim pulled the towel back to cover the bruise while Blair went to wash his hands.

 

“Jim, go back to your breathing, I want you to add another knob.” Blair stirred the stew once while he waited for Jim to get to the image point again. Jim’s upraised eyebrow was his signal and he came to sit in the chair next to him, reestablishing his link with his hands. “This knob is labeled pain, same hash marks as before, same numbering. When you have it marked and labeled, set the dial to two.”

 

It was a bit longer to get Jim to this point, but as Blair watched the tension lines in the Sentinel’s face eventually smoothed out and his breathing became much less laborious. A quick squeeze to Blair’s hand as it rested on Jim’s knee told him that Jim was in place as instructed. “Good, man you are doing marvelous. Now, I want you to imagine taking the section where the pain is, and tying it solely to that knob. Once you have it, you can relax all your dials and start working on bringing them to a number that marks as normal.”

 

Blair left his friend to deal with that last instruction as he dished up their dinner. It was another three minutes before Jim moved, trotting up the stairs to his bedroom and pulling on a pair of well warm sweat pants, along with a comfortable t-shirt. By the time Blair served dinner, Jim was there to eat it, looking remarkably better. Eating their dinner in comfortable companionship, Jim initiated conversation hesitantly. “That’s what you were doing after that incident on the train, when you nearly dislocated your shoulder trying to get your bag.”

 

“Yeah. It’s all about being aware of your body and it’s signals. That’s why all the tests to your senses to gauge the level and range against normal humans. If you know what you are capable of, it’s easier to make your senses do what you want them to, rather than letting them control you.” Blair took a bite of his stew, ignoring the thoughtful look on Jim’s face. Let Jim come to his conclusions in his own time and he usually understood faster.

 

“So the dials thing?” asked the Sentinel before he shoved another spoonful of stew in his mouth. Blair swallowed his own mouthful and began to explain.

 

“An idea I had about the Companions for the Sentinels, they would need some early warning signal that the Sentinel was having trouble detecting normal.” He came to a halt when Jim’s head snapped up suddenly.

 

“Incacha… he used to have me imagine the flames of a fire. But he didn’t separate the senses.” Jim blinked when he realized what he had said. Blair blinked as well, spoon halfway to his mouth. His eyes widened as he set his spoon down.

 

“Jim? Do you remember something?” he asked. Jim shook his head and frowned.

 

“Just a name and a vague recollection of the jungle…” Blair nodded as Jim resumed eating his food.

 

“Yeah, okay I get that. Remember I thought this was all connected to your time in Peru?” Blair paused as Jim nodded. “Well, this guy Incacha could have been your companion in the jungle. Maybe your abilities came up sooner rather than later. They’ve just been lying dormant all this time.”

 

“You thought that isolation might have been the trigger this time,” reminded Jim as he broke a piece of bread in half. “You think Peru was the same? I was alone for a while before the Chopec found me.”

 

“Sounds plausible to me, Jim,” agreed Blair as he finished his food. Jim took his bowl and went to clean the kitchen while Blair finished his thoughts. “So, I figured that not only can we control how your senses behaved, we could also control them in your work. Imagine being able to find a bleach blonde hair that the forensic guys miss, simply by smelling the chemical, localizing the smell in the room, and zooming in on it with your sight?”

 

“Sweeping over a crime scene would take on a whole other dimension,” mused Jim as he put away the left over stew. “And it would help me dig up suspects that much faster. Then I could just have my ‘hunches’ confirmed and catch my bad guys quicker. I see what you mean by human crime lab, Chief.”

 

Blair grinned and said teasingly, "It's good to know you are finally catching on to my brilliance Ellison, took you long enough. Sheesh."

 

He barely avoided the head swipe that he knew was coming and Jim’s light-hearted chuckle told him that his friend was feeling better. This companion thing was not so hard when you have the trust of your Sentinel.

 

o-O-o

 

The next morning found Jim at the kitchen island with a blindfold wrapped around his eyes and his hands firmly placed on the island to stabilize himself. Blair babbled on about taste tests and adjusting his notes while, from the corner, Nunie and Bagheera looked on with half lidded eyes. This was going to be a fun day. It was already starting off wrong when Blair got the call on his cell phone. Nunie growled distinctly as Blair picked it up.

 

“Hang on Jim, do not… do NOT, move anything until I get back.” Jim nodded as Blair turned his back to take the call. After a couple of “Yeah”, “Uh huh…” and “Well, I’m not sure…” answers from Blair’s side, he finally sighed and hung up the phone. “Great, just great.”

 

Jim tilted his head to the side. “Problem, Chief?”

 

Blair glanced back at Jim and sighed. “Nothing I can’t handle. Let’s get this done so you can get back to work.” He led Jim through the test, having him sip from each of the three cups and identifying the small amount of unusual substance in each, then whipped off the blindfold and emptying the cups. He also reached over and picked up the cup of spoiled milk he had poured that morning, dumping it and carrying on with the business of getting ready to leave for the day.

 

During all this, Jim finished his own preparations for heading out, but stopped before actually leaving. “So who was on the phone?”

 

Blair picked up his phone and checked the charge on it before slipping it into the pocket of his jacket… Jim’s jacket… gods, he needed a new jacket, it seemed. “That was just my department chair on the phone.”

 

Jim picked up his and Blair’s keys and handed Blair his set. “Sounded like something was going wrong today.”

 

Blair sighed. “They need a sub for today's lecture.” He picked up his pack and headed out the door in front of Jim. “Are you busy this afternoon?”

 

“Need someone to talk about police procedure or something?” Jim joked as they walked down the stairs to the lobby.

 

“Need someone to talk about getting caught up in field work versus actually spending time with the indigenous peoples.” Blair answered. “I was thinking about your time with the Chopec. You spent 18 months there, you have some insight into what it takes to gain their trust and get comfortable there with the Indians.”

 

Jim said nothing for a time, finally answering as he and Blair reached their cars. “Yeah, let me call on a couple witnesses and let Simon know I’m going to be busy for a few hours. When do you need me?”

 

Blair smiled and they set a time. As they split up for their respective jobs, Blair failed to notice Bagheera as he jumped into Jim’s Ford while Nunie stayed in the Corvair with Blair.

 

o-O-o

 

Jim and Bagheera left the truck parked in the lot as they strolled up to Hargrove Hall. Off to the left, the cat caught sight of a bicycle messenger headed across the quad for the science labs. He growled softly. That would be trouble coming. The cat watched his human as he continued talking to Simon on the phone.

 

“Yes, sir, I'm well aware of that. I'll get on that as soon as I'm done here.” He paused as Simon asked something across the line. “Well, Sandburg's asked me to help out for a project at the University.” Another pause and Bagheera could see they were almost to the door of the building. His human was about to miss a big clue. “Yes, sir. Okay. Thanks, Simon. Talk to you in a bit.”

 

Jim hung up the phone and reached for the door. Bagheera put his entire being into one loud roar. The human stumbled a bit and came to a complete halt, one hand on the door handle, the other still holding the phone. He glanced around, overlooking the cat and gazing at the bushes against the building. Bagheera sat on his hunches and waited. He knew what would be heard if the human would simply stop and listen.

 

“What the hell…?” muttered Jim as he turned away from the door and began to make his way around the side of the building. Stopping every so often, he cast out his senses and came up with the feeling of missing something. As he ventured closer to the windows that would have filtered light into the lecture hall, he felt a popping in his ears. He stopped dead in his tracks. Bagheera walked around him and stood under the windows. He snarled to get the human’s attention.

 

Jim looked around, and then looked up. Whatever he saw there he was quickly moving back around to the doors of the hall, his phone out of his pocket and dialing automatically. Bagheera ran with him, slipping in through the door and racing to the lecture hall. Jim wasted no time on knocking, he simply opened the door just as Blair was speaking.

 

o-O-o

 

“Regardless of how much field work you do, very few of us have the opportunity to actually visit the objects of our research, let alone live among the indigenous people for any length of time.” Blair glanced over as he noticed Jim and made as if to wave him over. But Jim’s look of concern must have translated well because the young man was off the stage in only a few steps and had reached Jim’s side instantly. “What’s going on man?”

 

“How fast can you get these kids out of here, Chief?” asked Jim as he listened on his phone. Blair didn’t ask questions. He turned and whirled his finger round once.

 

“Right, grab your stuff; we have an emergency, get out to the parking lot on the B side of the quad. This is not a drill!” Blair held the doors open as the young people began to file out quickly, heading straight for the southern exit, away from the lecture hall. Jim turned away as he spoke urgently into the phone.

 

“Yeah Joel, I’m pretty sure it’s mostly harmless. It’s pretty high up in the window.” Blair glanced up at Jim’s words, scanned the windows and found he odd contraption that had captures Jim’s attention. He looked around and snagged the nearest guard.

 

“Get a security lock down on this place. There’s a terrorist threat to the school,” he ordered. The guard nodded once and shuffled off to set a lock down in motion. No one could get in or out of the high security buildings without authorization. Blair left things up to the guard as he turned back to Jim, who was just hanging up his phone.

 

“Joel’s bringing in a team,” said the Sentinel to his companion.

 

“Good… that’s good Jim.” Blair laid a hand on Jim’s arm, holding it carefully as he glanced around the halls, “What tipped you off?”

 

Jim scrunched up his face in thought. “The noise.”

 

Blair canted his head and gave Jim a puzzled look so the big man explained, “No birds, just a dull buzzing.”

 

“White noise generator!” Blair burst out, fairly bouncing with glee. “Why would a terrorist feel the need to disguise a bomb’s noise when it’s that high up?”

 

Jim would have speculated but Blair was already moving for the nearest exit. He stood in the open area and scanned the buildings surrounding them. Nunie growled off to his left and he snapped his gaze onto the Science labs in that direction. “It’s a ruse, man. Misdirection and illusion. How does a magician get away with his tricks?”

 

“He gets your attention focused on the other hand,” replied Jim as he dropped a hand on Blair’s shoulder. Blair could imagine the man using his sense of hearing to investigate the buildings for anything out of the ordinary. Just as the grad student was about to gain his attention, Jim took off at a dead run, aiming directly for the Medical Research Labs.

 

Bagheera raced ahead and Nunie kept pace with the Shaman as he rushed to stay with Jim and nearly stumbled over the prone body of the guard assigned to the building. Jim swept past, calling to Blair as he did, “Heart’s still beating, Chief. Come on, I hear someone else inside and she doesn’t sound happy.”

 

Blair grabbed his cell phone and dialed for backup as he stepped around the guard and followed Jim into one of the labs. Checking the door, he noted the warnings and hurried to catch up without touching anything. Jim stood before a large wall sized vault which was shut, but from the other side came the unmistakable sound of a woman yelling.

 

*”Help, is there anyone out there?”* came the muffled voice. Jim held a hand against the metal door to better feel the vibrations coming from within as he called back to the woman.

 

“This is Detective James Ellison, Cascade PD. How does this lock work?” Blair strained to hear the woman on the other side, his hand on Jim’s shoulder as the big man laid his ear against the door.

*”It needs a member of Campus Security to use the emergency code on the keypad right next to you.”* came the shaky reply. Blair moved away to call for security and was told that the Security Chief was on her way, to sit tight. He nodded to Jim who relayed this information to the woman.

 

“Just stay calm and relax.” Jim leaned back and glanced over to Blair. He shrugged his shoulders and continued to look around the lab. The wall vault was most definitely a refrigerator and from the notes on the counter Blair could tell that this was a biohazard testing facility. Whoever set up the diversion had been aiming to steal something out of this lab. From Jim’s attention to the room, Blair could only believe that the rest of the building was empty.

 

“Jim, whatever is in that vault, it must have been what our guy was after. A virus or biohazard or something.” Blair turned as Suzanne Tomaki came into the room. She smiled at Blair before turning to Jim.

 

“So, Jim, what have we got?” she asked. Blair raised a brow in their direction. Jim shrugged before filling the Asian Security Chief on the particulars. She nodded, stepped up and punched in a code on the number pad. The locks clicked and the door swung open to reveal a short blonde female in a white lab coat. “Dr. Price, you were very lucky.”

 

The doctor nodded as she stepped out of the refrigerator. “I know. Thank you Detective, if not for you, I don’t know when anyone would have found me.”

 

Jim smiled and nodded, But Blair only wanted to know how the woman got into the vault in the first place. He asked this very question and noticed the pretty blonde blush scarlet.

 

“I was checking the inventory when the security lockdown caught me by surprise and the vault automatically shut on me.” She said as she sat on a nearby stool.

 

“What, in your inventory, would anyone be interested in enough to set off a diversion in the lecture halls, and to knock out a security guard?” asked Jim. “Anything worth stealing?”

 

Dr. Price sighed as she pulled a clipboard off the counter beside her and handed to Jim her inventory list. “A canister of the Ebola virus was transported by ship from the Sudan. I came in this morning from our lab to take it back to Atlanta.”

 

Blair whistled low through his teeth, “Oh, man. The Ebola virus is bad news. It's like the black plague on steroids.”

 

Dr. Price nodded, “Exactly. And if had been released into the air, we would have been looking at a death toll in the thousands.”

 

Jim nodded once before handing the clipboard back to the Doctor. “In that case, I would suggest you have an escort with you when you take this back. I’ll call my Captain and have him loan you some protection until you have proper security.”

 

Dr. Price thanked him before locking the vault tightly and calling her lab in Atlanta. Jim ushered Blair out of the lab and towards the truck in the parking lot. They would have to report to Simon about all of this.

 

Neither of them noticed the sedan parked across the street, the lone driver watching the two of them with great interested as they climbed in the truck and drove away.