Author’s Note: Not much plot - just some nice h/c. No copyright infringement intended on characters owned by PetFly. Comments always welcome.
Jim Ellison was a happy man. He had the house to himself, a six pack in the fridge, and a steaming box of pizza loaded with fat and cholesterol on the coffee table in front of him. Clicking on the tv, he stretched out on the sofa with a beer in one hand and a greasy slice of the pie in the other, all set to enjoy his night of peace and quiet and culinary indulgence as he hopefully cheered the Jags to another victory.
With his plans for the evening in place, the sentinel was understandably annoyed when the phone began to ring, shrilly interrupting his game, his meal, and his peace and quiet. Jim glared at the offending machine on the first ring, tempted to ignore it and continue on with his feast. On the second ring, he began to feel slightly guilty, wondering if it could be some sort of work emergency or a call from his father or his brother. But on the third ring, a feeling of unease began to settle over the detective as he thought of his absent roommate. Sandburg was gone, off hiking in the mountains for the weekend with the current object of his affections. Blair, trouble magnet du jour, off in the wilderness for two days. It was a veritable recipe for disaster, and the sentinel’s protective instinct kicked into overdrive as he somehow just knew his guide was in trouble. He dove for the phone, snatching it up in the middle of the fourth ring and barking his last name into the receiver as a greeting.
“Detective Ellison? I’m calling from Cascade General on behalf of Blair Sandburg...”
“What happened?” Jim demanded impatiently. “Is he all right?”
“Mr. Sandburg is fine, detective,” the calm voice assured him. “He just needs a ride home.”
“I don’t understand,” the sentinel said, relaxing marginally. “Why is he at the hospital?”
“There was an accident and his friend was injured. Mr. Sandburg accompanied her here, but he’s unhurt. Are you able to come and pick him up or should I call someone...”
“No,” Jim interrupted her, “I’ll be right there.” He hung up the phone unceremoniously, and then grabbed the remote to turn off the tv. The game no longer of interest and his feast forgotten, the detective grabbed his jacket and the keys to his truck and left the loft. There had been no urgency, no indication to hurry, but he did so anyway. Blair may have been unhurt, but the sentinel still couldn’t shake the feeling that something was wrong with his guide.
In about twenty minutes he arrived at the complex maze that made up Cascade General. Knowing the route all too well, Ellison navigated his way to the ER and parked the truck as closely as he could to the automatic doors. Striding purposefully into the crowded waiting room, he picked out his guide immediately. Blair was crouched in one of the hard plastic chairs, his legs folded underneath him and his arms wrapped tightly around his chest. His head was down, his sodden curls obscuring his face.
“Sandburg, are you all right?” Jim asked as he slid into the chair beside him. But he got no response from the younger man, no acknowledgment that he was even there. Reaching out, the sentinel put a hand on his guide’s shoulder, giving it a little squeeze through his wet coat and growing slightly alarmed as he felt the chill of his skin. “Chief, what’s wrong? Are you with me?”
Blair looked up then, blinking slowly. It seemed to take him a moment, but he soon recognized the figure beside him.
“Oh, Jim. Hey. What are you doing here?”
“I came to take you home,” Ellison explained, surprised when Sandburg shook his head with a degree of vehemence.
“I can’t leave yet, man. Not until I find out if Claudia is ok.”
“Detective Ellison?”
Jim looked up to see a nurse approaching. She was upper middle age with short gray hair and kind eyes, and her voice held just the barest hint of an accent, which let him know that she was the one whom he’d spoken with on the phone.
“I’m Noelle,” she introduced herself. “Could I have a word with you, please?”
The sentinel hesitated, then gave his guide’s shoulder another squeeze.
“I’ll be right back, Chief.” Blair gave no indication that he heard, and Jim sighed as he followed the nurse to the admitting desk. “What’s going on here?” he asked her. “You said on the phone that he was fine but he’s not acting right. I want to get him in and have a doctor look at him.”
“Mr. Sandburg refused a formal medical examination,” the nurse explained patiently. “But one of our interns looked him over and couldn’t find anything wrong with him.”
“Something’s wrong with him,” Jim insisted, not inclined to trust the opinion of an intern.
“We think he’s just suffering from emotional shock,” Noelle told him. “He’s had quite an ordeal.”
“What the hell happened out there?”
“I don’t have all the details, but the girl he came in with was suffering from a concussion and a compound fracture of her right tibia. Apparently there was some sort of accident, and Mr. Sandburg had to carry her several miles to find help.”
“Is she all right?” the sentinel asked.
“It was a bad break and she’s in surgery to reset the bones,” Noelle replied. “I’m afraid I can’t tell you any more than that. Mr. Sandburg said you were his roommate and he gave us your number to call, but he’s been refusing to leave. He said he wants to wait until he’s sure his friend is all right. I was hoping you could convince him to go home. I think he’ll be fine, but he needs to warm up and eat something and get some rest before he collapses.”
“Ok,” Jim said, running a hand over his short hair. “I’ll take care of him. And thanks for calling. I appreciate it.”
“You’re welcome. And if he can be reached at your number, I can call when Miss Parker is out of surgery,” Noelle offered.
“Please,” Ellison told her. “I know I’ll never get him to leave otherwise.”
“Consider it done,” she promised. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I have patients to attend to.”
Jim thanked her again, and as she bustled off he returned to his flagging partner.
“Come on, Chief,” he ordered in his best no-nonsense tone. “We’re going home.”
“No,” Blair protested wearily. “I can’t leave yet. You go, Jim. I’ll catch a cab later.”
Ellison glared down at him, but Sandburg just gazed up at him, his hollow blue eyes mustering up a hint of defiance. The sentinel sighed again and changed tactics, realizing he should have known the strong arm approach was going to work about as well as it ever did.
“I know you’re worried about Claudia, Chief,” he tried again, gentling his tone. “But you can’t do anything for her now. You got her here, she’s in the best of hands, and you know she’d want you to take care of yourself now. Come on home with me, ok? You need to get some dry clothes and get a little sleep. They’re going to call the minute Claudia’s out of surgery, and you can come back first thing in the morning when you can see her. All right? Come on, buddy, let’s get you home.”
Blair looked like he wanted to resist, but Jim suspected he simply lacked the energy. It was a simple thing to help him up and lead him out of the hospital, an arm looped securely around his shoulders. The sentinel was concerned about the way his normally effervescent guide was just a shell of himself, but he rationalized that Sandburg had probably been running on adrenalin for several hours and now that it was wearing off he was left cold and wet and utterly spent. Nothing a hot shower and a good night’s sleep couldn’t cure.
The anthropologist was silent during the ride home, his expression slightly dazed as if he didn’t quite know where he was. But when Ellison parked in the lot on Prospect, Sandburg climbed slowly out of the truck and headed toward their building. He seemed steady enough in the elevator, but when they entered the loft he just stood inside the doorway, fumbling helplessly with the zipper on his coat.
“You ok?”
“My fingers don’t want to work,” Sandburg mumbled in frustration.
“I’m not surprised.” Jim took one of his friend’s hands between his own and rubbed it gently. “They’re cold as ice.”
“Just get this off me,” Blair pleaded, tugging on the front of his coat with his free hand.
Ellison obligingly undid the zipper and slid the jacket off his shoulders. Once he was free, Sandburg headed straight for the bathroom. Jim followed him, his suspicions confirmed when he entered to find his friend having the same trouble with the buttons on his shirt.
“Here, let me.” The sentinel easily opened up his guide’s shirt and then knelt down on the floor at his feet. Blair glanced down at him, his eyes widening as he observed Ellison unlacing his muddy shoes, realizing he had committed a major cardinal sin by not taking them off at the door.
“God, Jim, I’m sorry,” he blurted out, making a rapid transition from no emotion to near hysteria in the blink of an eye. “I forgot. I’m sorry!”
The sentinel was caught off guard, stunned and a little disturbed by the sudden panic, and he quickly got to his feet and grabbed his guide by the shoulders to center him.
“It’s all right,” he quickly reassured his stricken roommate. “It’s ok, Chief. Just settle down.”
Drawing in a deep, shuddering breath, Blair met his friend’s calm gaze and slowly relaxed.
“Sorry,” he muttered, running a hand through his tangled curls. “I don’t know what’s wrong with me.”
“You’re exhausted, for a start,” Jim told him sympathetically, running his hands comfortingly down his partner’s arms. “Come on. You’ll be ok once we get you warmed up and you get some rest.”
He started the shower running to let the water heat up, then the sentinel turned back to his friend and helped him strip out of his wet clothes. Blair stepped into the shower, but his strength gave out and he sank down to his knees on the floor of the tub. Jim left him there, sitting under the hot spray with his knees to his chest and his arms around his legs, but when he checked on him a few minutes later and there was no progress, the sentinel grew impatient. Sandburg didn’t even have the energy to protest as Ellison lowered the water pressure to a trickle and picked up the bottle of herbal shampoo, squeezing a dollop into his palm and going to work on the matted curls. Once he was rinsed and properly conditioned, the sentinel lathered up a washcloth and gently, scrubbed his friend’s back and shoulders.
“Can you finish up yourself?” Blair nodded slightly and held out his hand. Jim helped him up and gave him the washcloth. “The hot water will be out soon,” he warned as he pulled the shower curtain closed. “So don’t take too long.”
The sentinel went to the kitchen, watching the clock as he puttered. As the shower continued to run, long past the point where he thought the hot water heater would have given up, he debated going back in the bathroom to check on his guide. But then the shower stopped, and when Blair emerged from the steaming bathroom wrapped in towels, Jim met him at the door, pressing a mug of tea into his hand. Sandburg mumbled something that sounded like “thanks” and disappeared into his room. Ellison figured that was the last he’d see of his roommate, assuming the younger man would just fall into bed and pass out for the night. So he was surprised when Blair emerged a few minutes later, dressed in his warmest sweats and carrying the empty mug.
Jim took the cup from him and automatically refilled it as his friend slumped into one of the chairs at the kitchen table.
“You look a little better,” the sentinel ventured, sliding the mug in front of his guide.
“I think I’m starting to thaw,” Blair murmured, leaning an elbow on the edge of the table and propping his head up with his hand. “But other than that I feel like crap. Did the hospital call?”
“Not yet,” the detective replied, taking the chair opposite his friend. “What the hell happened up there, Sandburg?” Realizing his words had been delivered with somewhat of an interrogatory tone, he softened his voice and amended, “I mean, if you feel like talking about it.”
The anthropologist sighed, rubbing his free hand wearily over his face until Jim thought he was going to plead the fifth. But then the exhausted blue eyes met his.
“She fell,” Blair answered quietly. He picked up his mug and sipped at the hot contents as his friend waited patiently. Sandburg leaned back in his chair, arms wrapping around his chest and his eyes becoming distant as he continued, his voice thick with the trauma still so fresh in his mind. “We’d hiked pretty far up the mountain that morning. It had been beautiful weather, but it was starting to cloud up so we were about to head back when Claudia saw the eagle.”
“Eagle?”
“She’s an ornithology major,” Blair explained with a shrug.
“Ah.”
“She saw an eagle land in a nest on the cliff face opposite to us, and she wanted to see if it had any chicks. So climbed this old, dead tree to try and get better leverage. She asked me to come up with her, but you know me and heights...”
“Then what happened?”
“I wandered away a little bit, looking at the rocks. Then I hear this loud crack, and her scream, and when I turned around she was lying there, motionless, on the ground.” Blair paused, swallowing hard and wiping a hand over his mouth. “It was horrible, Jim. She was out cold and she had busted her leg so bad the bone had ripped right through her jeans. I didn’t know what in the hell to do, besides panic and run around in circles screaming.”
“But you didn’t do that,” Ellison concluded, knowing his partner well and his proven ability to stay cool in a crisis. “You kept your head.”
“More or less,” Sandburg sighed, draining most of his mug with one huge gulp. “I tried to stablize her leg the best I could, and fortunately she was out for most of that. But then when she came to, God, she was in so much pain and crying and she went hysterical when I told her I had to go get help. She had this death grip on my coat and she was begging me not to leave her.”
“So you carried her?”
“I didn’t know what to do, man,” Blair burst out, getting up from his chair and pacing around the table in agitation. Jim sat, watching him calmly, letting him get all the repressed panic out of his system. “I was scared to move her because I was afraid it would mess up her leg. But I didn’t want to leave her alone with a possible head injury, hysterical and vulnerable to whatever might come along. Time was wasting, a storm was coming, so I decided to just get her out of there.”
“How far did you have to go?”
“I don’t know.” Sandburg flagged, learning up against the island in the kitchen and sweeping a hand through his hair. “Two miles beyond the point where I thought I couldn’t possibly take another step. It rained so hard I couldn’t even see the trail anymore. I wasn’t sure if we were even going in the right direction, and the only way I even knew she was still alive was because she was shivering in my arms. I really wanted to stop, but she was counting on me, you know? Then just as I was about to finally give out, we made it to the ranger station. I was so numb at that point, don’t know if it was from the cold or the exertion, but I couldn’t even move. They had to physically prop me up in a chair while we waited for the transport to come. I don’t remember much after that, except for the ER doc telling me that she could lose her leg.”
“It’s not your fault, Chief.”
“I shouldn’t have moved her,” Blair whispered, hanging his head.
“You did what you had to do, and you got her help as quick as you could,” Jim reassured him. “For what it’s worth, I would have done the same thing.”
“Really?”
“Absolutely.” The sentinel rose from the table, meeting his guide’s stricken gaze. “That girl owes you her life, Chief. Although you may not want to point that out to her until she’s back on her feet again. And able to show you the proper appreciation.”
His words had the desired effect of wringing a wan smile out of his friend. But the detective did not return the grin, instead frowning slightly as he studied the younger man. Sandburg was literally trembling with fatigue, only keeping himself upright with a stubborn act of will.
“I know,” Blair said quickly, reading his roommate’s mind and holding up a hand to stop him as he opened his mouth. “I’m going, I’m going. But will you please wake me up if the hospital calls with any news on Claudia?”
“I promise,” Ellison vowed sincerely, fully realizing he wasn’t promising to wake the anthropologist at the exact moment the hospital called. The morning would be soon enough.
“All right. Night.”
But as he started to head for his room, Blair was caught off guard as Jim reached out and pulled him into a gentle hug.
“I’m sorry you had to go through that, Chief,” the sentinel whispered into his guide’s ear. “But I’m glad you’re ok.”
Sandburg’s surprise faded as he reached around to return the hug, feeling, as he always did, safe and protected in the vicinity of his sentinel. And realizing, not for the first time, how nice it was to have someone to look after him when he had absolutely nothing left with which to look after himself.
“Thanks, Jim,” he said simply, knowing his friend would take it as an all encompassing statement.
“Ok, go get some sleep,” Ellison commanded affectionately, setting him loose and giving him a slight shove in the direction of his room. “I’ll let you know later how you can show me the proper appreciation.”
Blair made sure he was within range of the safety of the locking French doors of his room before raising his right hand and visually flashing, what he considered to be, the proper appreciation.
Finis
Postscript: In case anyone was wondering, Claudia recovered fully from her injuries and did indeed show Blair the proper appreciation for his heroics.