And my sincerest thanks to my Puff and the divine Ms. M for beta-ing this puppy, and for riding my butt to finish it. I couldn't wish for a better team to back me.
To the Professor for his immeasurable help on the prison camp scene. And his subtle hints (well, no one else might notice, but. . .and, I'd give you a solid 'B' on this. . . and, I like your changes, maybe, an A-), you are a hard taskmaster. Thank you.
And, to my nest of hatchlings, who's constant chirping drove me crazy until I finished this, I can't imagine my life without you.
And Death Shall Have-
July 18, 2000
Justin turned over, stretched and purred. "Paddy? I just had the wildest dream. More like a nightmare, actually. I dreamed. . .no, never mind. I'll tell you later. Right now, I just want to. . ." Greedy fingers slid across the sheet to grasp -- nothing. . .
Then, he opened his eyes to reality----
And the world came crashing down on him.
"It wasn't a dream. Oh, Paddy. Noooooo. . ." he sobbed, as he buried his face in the pillow.
24 hours ago -
The partner in question had just finished what turned out to be a jaw
cracking, eye-tearing yawn. "I sleep," she said, her sentence ending in yet another yawn.
The younger of the two women carried a full tray of patient medication. "On the job doesn't count." It was bad enough to work the midnight shift, but waking patients to give them pills made the job even less pleasant.
"Give me a break, Carrie. I'm pulling another double tonight," Norma told her partner as they stopped off at the front desk.
Carrie shook her head as she set the tray atop the counter. "You're gonna keel over if you don't slow down."
Norma wiped tears of fatigue from her eyes. "Just until I pay off my credit cards."
"You won't last that long at this rate."
Norma yawned again. "I just need a couple more months."
Carrie shook her head. "How about I go get you a cup of coffee?" she offered.
Norma smiled gratefully. "Yes. Please. That would help immensely." She watched as her partner disappeared into the lounge. Maybe if she splashed some cold water on her face she would wake up faster.
Setting the tray down onto the admission's desk behind the counter, Norma headed to the bathroom.
Young Evers had been standing just around the corner of the corridor, listening.
After slipping from the hospital room, he had raided the locker room for something to help him get out of the hospital, luckily finding a few of them unlocked. He'd rummaged through each one, desperately trying to find something that fit. Finally, Justin managed to piece together a fairly convincing outfit. Convincing enough, at least, to get him out of the hospital. Unluckily for him, the clothing belonged to a she. Well, it wouldn't be the first time he'd used the ploy. . .it had worked for him before.
Sighing in resolution, Justin had taken the duffel bag, uniform and shoes he'd found there. Twisting his braid into a tight bun, he had changed quickly into his disguise. Stuffing his clothes into the bag, he then slipped into the corridor.
As soon as 'Norma' had walked away, Justin started down the hall, stopping a moment at the front desk.
After a few seconds of indecision, Justin reached over the counter and swept the pills into the duffel bag before continuing down the hall at a fast walk. Carefully making his way to the elevators at the end of the hall.
~~~~~~
The powerfully-build man sat behind the beautifully designed wooden desk and eyed the two agents' images, each projected in the air before him, with a look of menacing calm.
Hoss had been assigned to watch young Evers a few days more. Stealth and Clutch had flown to the Estate's offices in Baja to catch a ride on the sub whose mission was to search the Pacific for wreckage of the scow Viper had disappeared from.
"You've got two seconds to explain," the angry department head said, "before I hunt you down and shoot you myself."
Stealth managed to answer first. "Jaguar took him to the hospital."
The look intensified. "I was talking to Hoss."
"He had collapsed," Hoss told Brown hesitantly.
"I thought Jaguar had the brat under control. You were supposed to watch him. Why is this so hard for all of you? There isn't enough of him to cause all this trouble."
"I think Jaguar's doing the best he can, Prime," Clutch said sadly. "He can't make CD want to live."
The scowl on Brown's face could cut glass. "This has gotten way out of hand," he growled. "I knew we should've brought him here when Viper first went missing." The Prime pinned the mountain of a man with a glare. "How did you lose him from the hospital?"
"I was watching for a man," Hoss confessed reluctantly.
Prime waited, impatience showing clearly in his expression.
Hoss continued, "Near as I can figure, he slipped out dressed as a woman."
Winn shook his head. Only Viper's brat could've pulled off something like this. "Where would he go?"
"I don't know, Prime, but the hospital was in a frenzy. Seems he also nabbed a bunch of pills on his way out."
"What kind of pills?" Clutch asked, a chill of fear racing down his spine.
"A shitload of bad ones," Hoss said unhappily.
The smooth features of the older man's face creased with a frown. "They're sure it was him?" Brown asked with dread.
Hoss told him with a helpless sigh, "Positive. Two nurses said the pills disappeared the same time CD did."
The Prime said something vicious. "We don't have time for this."
Just then the outer door burst open and an extremely excited Jon flew into the room. "PB!" he said breathlessly. "I was checking out this anomaly and. . ."
Four sets of eyes turned and the young man skidded to a halt, his face turning scarlet.
~~~~~~
Arden felt as if his heart had seized. Everything was moving much too slowly for him. He couldn't just stand there. He had to do something! Looking down at his scribbled notes he frantically searched for something to help him. Suddenly, the words, 'Police' and 'Jim' jumped out at him. CD had said something earlier, then stopped as if he'd given something away.
Waving frantically at Shirley to get her attention, he wrote, "ASK CASCADE PD IF THEY HAVE A 'JIM' WORKING THERE THAT KNOWS SOMEONE NAMED 'CHINA DOLL'. HURRY!" on a piece of paper in giant letters, shoved it at her, and prayed for a miracle.
~~~
"It wasn't your fault, lover," Blair said softly as they walked up the front steps of the building. "You and I both thought he was down for the night."
"I should've stayed!" Jim snarled in angry frustration.
His Guide tried to sooth him with reason. "You had something else to do."
Both men entered the precinct together and stepped into the middle of chaos.
Noise defined the first floor of CPD. Noise and chaos. Noise, chaos, and pandemonium. This scene was something different.
Jim and Blair stood and watched, feeling the tension in the air.
"What's going on?" Blair asked his partner. "Another siege?"
Ellison held up his hand for quiet, and listened to the watch commander talking to someone from dispatch.
"Give me a break, Sarge. This has to be a prank."
Unseen by the Sentinel, the watch commander shook his head. "It came from Crisis LifeLine. It's legitimate."
"Do you know how many 'Jim's' are on just this shift's duty roster alone?"
"Just use that 'China Doll' thing as a qualifier."
"Then you'd better get started, huh? It sounds urgent."
Blair looked up in surprise. "What?"
Jim strode purposefully to the front desk just as the dispatcher stormed away. The watch commander looked down at him.
"Something I can do for you, Detective?"
~~~~~~~~
Winn picked up the papers. He shuffled through them, pausing a moment to scan each piece. "Finally! Hoss. Cascade PD. Find Jaguar. Unless I miss my guess, he's on his way to look for Viper's brat. Keep in mind what'll happen when Viper gets back and something happened to him."
Hoss shuddered at the thought. "I'll get on it."
"Stealth, change of plans. Aces and I will pick you up at the airfield."
As soon as he severed the video uplink, Winn crooked his finger at his young lover.
Jon swallowed hard but immediately came forward to stand by the desk.
Winn rose to his feet, towering over the apprehensive young man. "What did I tell you about the 'cute' names?"
"They didn't notice, Prime. . ." Jon stopped as he received 'The Look'. "I'm sorry, Winn. I got excited, and. . .forgot."
Winn ignored the ineffective excuse. "You know what happens to inattentive, disobedient brats?"
Jon frowned. "Yessir."
"What?"
"Winn, I--"
"Answer," he interrupted calmly.
Jon hesitated for a heartbeat, his face tinting pink. "They get spanked."
Winn hooked an arm behind his lover's back and lifted him up hard against his chest. "Think you can keep that in mind the next time you rush into my office with one of your cutesy name on your lips?"
"Yessir," Jon said with a slight frown.
"Good," Winn told him, then pulled him up closer and went on to kiss every coherent thought from the young man's mind.
Releasing him, he looked down into slightly dazed eyes. "You did good work, little boy," he said, and turned the smaller man towards the door, sending him on his way with a stinging swat to his bottom.
Jon jumped. "OWW," he cried, both hands immediately coming up to shield the wounded area, looking back at his lover from over his shoulder.
"That was for the cute name. Now, let's get moving."
######
Bleary-eyed, Cook tried to focus on his computer screen. In front of the young agent a wall-sized screen displayed a broadcast on CNN concerning the present environmental summit meeting in the Nation's Capitol. Rumor had it, the closed door session had something to do with a chemical company and a wildlife preserve somewhere on the perimeter of the rain forest in Cascade, Washington. The commentator also informed the viewing audience that there had been rumors of a botched Marine commando's recon team in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.
Since government authorities refused to release any press regarding it, the media had fallen back on its original story, adding the occasional accentuation of having various government officials asked if the 'alleged' capture of the special-ops team had something to do with the 'alleged' summit meeting.
Hissing in frustration, the young agent muted the sound, making a mental note to follow up intel on a commando mission taking place the same time as one from the Estate. Things like that weren't supposed to happen without his knowing about it. Somebody's ass was going to get chewed off, and he didn't want it to be his.
Impatient for faster results, Cook desperately divided his attentions between dual computer screens, each running a different set of programs - one concentrating on tracing a phone call, the other one chasing a phantom. Both were long shots, 1000-to-1 odds, but the young comm was determined both succeed.
"Report," he barked into the conn.
"ETA in 2," Aces' voice came back. "CD?"
"Still on it. Got it down to a 35 mile radius."
Winn's voice came over his link. "Work your magic, little boy."
An unseen, loving smile ghosted his lips. "I'll do my best, Prime."
"Contact you again when we land."
About to pull out his hair in frustration, Arden jumped a foot when the door to the center burst open and two men stormed in.
The larger of the two immediately stalked up to him, flashed his I.D. and took the phone from the volunteer's hand.
"Justin," the big man barked into the receiver. "Answer me. Now!"
The smaller of the duo approached more slowly. "Cascade PD. I'm Blair Sandburg," he said with an apologetic smile, then, pointed to the man on the phone. "That's my partner, Detective Jim Ellison."
The Sentinel's forehead furrowed in frustration. "Justin, where are you?"
"That's the 'Jim' he mentioned?" Arden asked, his voice betraying a glimmer of hope. "You know CD?"
"Yeah," Blair answered as he watched the detective concentrate on listening.
Arden asked anxiously, "Did he answer?"
Jim held up his hand for silence.
The Guide lowered his voice to a whisper and drew Arden off to the side. "Have you been able to trace the call?"
The counselor shook his head. "The telephone company's newly installed computer tracer crashed midway through the search. They got just within the city limits."
"That is so lame! I thought they had state-of-the-art equipment."
"They do, but even state-of-the-art crashes. A mainframe transformer went down right in the middle of the trace and shut the entire grid down. They don't know how long before it's repaired."
"What about backup?"
"Just installed. In theory, it should've come online when the main blew."
"Somebody screwed up," Blair said in disgust.
Arden only nodded. "If somebody doesn't pull off a miracle soon--"
Both men looked up sharply as a curse drowned out the rest of his sentence.
"What's the matter?" Blair asked.
Jim looked at the phone in his hand in disbelief. "He hung up."
"What?!" Arden exploded. "What did you do? What did you say? I've had him on the line for hours and he didn't hang up on me! I thought you knew him."
Jim ignored the man and looked at Blair. "He said he'd just remembered how good my ears were. He didn't know if I could find him by listening, but he wasn't going to take the chance."
Just then, a third man erupted into the room, this one mammoth in size. "Did you find him?" Hoss asked breathlessly.
Blair shook his head. "He just hung up."
"Dammit!" Hoss growled as he flipped open his cell phone and dialled three numbers. "Cook. They lost him."
"I saw that. What happened?"
"He hung up. How are you doing?"
"I just got to about a 20 mile radius of the hospital before it vanished. Just a few seconds more and I'da had him!"
Arden looked at Hoss in confusion. "Who are you?"
Hoss smiled, a slight twisting of his lip at the corner. "The Lone Ranger." He jerked his head towards the door, his eyes on Ellison. "Come on, Tonto. We got work to do." And he walked away.
Jim gave the big man a disgusted look as he followed. "Can you believe this guy?" he told his partner.
"I know, man," Blair grumbled as they left an anstonished Arden to stare after them. "I'm Tonto."
~~~
After leaving the LifeLine offices, the three of them drove out to the last tracking station that had picked up Justin's trace. Blair and Hoss watched in helpless silence while Jim tried to accomplish the impossible. Stretching out his senses, the Sentinel strained not only to filter out the everyday noises of a bustling city, but to find in a cacophony the sound of that one faltering heartbeat. He barely knew it when it was healthy, let alone find it now. But find it he must. No question.
"Sonnyboy, where are you?" Jim growled desperately. . .and he extended his senses over their limit searching, shifting through sights, sounds. Thinking all the while how Justin must feel. How he would feel if it were Blair. If his Guide had gotten the message that his Sentinel wouldn't be coming home. That he would be alone. That he had just lost an important part of himself. And would never be whole again.
The Sentinel strained, until the very texture of the air soon blended together into a thickly-layered fog that pressed heavy around him. Time and reality lost all meaning.
Then, a bright pinpoint of light pierced through the darkness. "Jim? Jim, come back to me now, man."
The urgent quality of that much-loved voice did more to roust the Sentinel from his fugue than anything else could have.
He blinked, his eyes now clear and focused once again.
"What happened? Is he okay?" Hoss asked anxiously.
"Hey, babe," Blair said softly, his face alight with a bright smile. "Welcome back."
Jim leaned down for a quick kiss. "Was I gone long?"
"I got six new grey hairs."
Sharp blue eyes rapidly scanned the dark locks. "I don't see 'em, Chief."
Blair smiled saucily. "Who said they were on my head."
The Sentinel leaned close until their foreheads touched. "I'll just have to check you out more thoroughly when this is over, then," the Sentinel said in a husky voice as he kissed his lover.
######
End, part 1
****
~~~
"Come on, Norma!" the young nurse admonished her partner. "Don't you ever get a full night's sleep?"
"And what, little boy?" Brown asked him, his voice betraying his annoyance at Jon using a 'pet' name in public.
There was a sigh.
"Do you know how long a search like that's gonna take?" the dispatcher asked in a beleaguered voice.
"Shit!" Jim said softly.
Jon fidgeted under the intense glare of the Estate Prime's only for a moment before slapping the sheath of papers down on the desk in front of his lover. "The first hit came from monitoring police bands. I harvested this message." He pointed to the top page. "And. . ." he shifted through the stack, "I intercepted this transmission from a tag I put on low band frequencies within the perimeter of the explosion."
######
"Keep trying. That's more than we had before." He turned back to the three men. "Now what?" on to part 2. . .