Blair's Memory Comes To Haunt
Part II
Disclaimer: Blair Sandburg, Jim Ellison, Simon Banks and all other characters from The Sentinel belong to Pet Fly Productions and Paramount. All other characters belong to me. My characters may be used by permission.
Hope you enjoy part II and please send all comments, good, bad or constructive to: drifter@mcleodusa.net
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Cascade General Hospital
8:15 PM
3rd Floor Nurses Station
The blond, young nurse looked up as the elevator bell sounded. She quietly watched the two tall gentlemen exit the booth and walk towards her desk. She smiled up at both men and asked, "May I help you gentlemen?"
"Yes, Miss you can," said the rather tall white man. "We're looking for Blair Sandburg's room. Dr. Jamieson said he would be moved up from the ER."
"Oh yes, our newest acquisition to the floor. You'll find Mr. Sandburg in room 309. Third room on the left," she said smiling at the two gentlemen.
Jim and Simon both thanked the nurse and followed her directions down to Blair's room. Jim stood outside Blair's room and focused his Sentinel hearing inside. He heard his roommate's steady heartbeat and light rhythmic breathing. Jim turned to Simon and said, "He's asleep or at least lightly dozing."
"Well, I guess the pain killers are working then?" Simon asked tentatively.
"Yeah, they're working for now and I hope that they let him get some rest but I still want to know what happened."
"So do I. Why don't you go on in and I'll give the guys down at the precinct a call and tell them Sandburg will be alright."
"Yes Sir and Simon, thanks for the help with Blair," Jim said.
"No problem Jim." Simon then left Jim standing at Blair's door.
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Detective Jim Ellison took a couple of deep breaths to calm his ragged nerves. The whole time Blair Sandburg had been in the ER, Jim had heard Blair calling for him to make the pain stop. It had torn at Jim's heart. If it wasn't for Simon Banks, his captain and friend, Jim would've stormed out of the ER waiting room and into Blair's exam cubicle. Now Blair was ensconced in a hospital room for the night. Jim knew that Blair needed him to be calm so that Blair would remain calm throughout the long night ahead. Ellison finally took a final calming breath, pushed the door open and stepped into Blair's room.
Blair Sandburg, Anthropology grad student, teaching fellow, police observer/consultant, Guide and Shaman to the Great City and Jim Ellison's partner/roommate/best friend, lay quietly in his hospital bed. A nurse was straightening the bedclothes and making sure that Blair's IV line wasn't kinked or tangled up. She looked up at Jim as he walked in and smiled at him.
"He's sleeping right now but has been awake off and on. When he wakes up again, buzz me and I'll bring him some dinner. He really should try to eat something."
"I'm not really hunger," came from the bed.
The nurse and Jim both looked surprised when the voice came from the supposedly sleeping anthropologist. The nurse smiled down at her patient and said, "Well, when you do get hungry, have your friend here buzz me. In the meantime, get some rest. I'll check on you again later." With the last statement, the nurse turned towards the door and left the two friends alone.
Jim watched his partner the whole time the nurse was talking. Blair didn't open his eyes but Jim could tell that Sandburg wasn't as upset as he'd been in the ER. Ellison moved the chair nearest him over to the side of Blair's bed and sat down. He rested his hand on Blair's arm and said, "How are you feeling? Any more pain?"
"Not as much as when I got here but I still have a hell of a headache. You're sure a garbage truck didn't hit me?" he half-smiled at Jim.
"Positive. You feel up to telling me who this guy was that worked you over. You mentioned something about him being from your past."
"Do I have a choice? No, wait, don't answer that question. This may take a bit and I've got to do it my own way. Just give me a minute." Blair took some shallow breaths to try to calm his nerves. He'd wanted to take a few deep breaths but his injured ribs wouldn't allow it. After a few minutes of attempted relaxing, Blair finally started talking.
"I don't know where to begin Jim."
"Why not at the beginning, Chief."
Blair took in a shaky breath of air and began. "I guess this goes back to when Naomi and I moved in with this guy she was really hung-up on. I wasn't quite seven and was just changed from First to Second grade. Brett, that's his name, was nuts about my mom. He couldn't stand me but he and Naomi were inseparable." "After about eight months of living with Brett, Naomi went on one of her retreats. Since I was still in school, she left me with Brett. Brett promised her that he'd take real good care of me and Naomi believed he would." "Things went okay until that first weekend without Naomi. I was quiet, kept to my bedroom and even cleaned the house when he went out with a couple of his friends. He came back later that night drunk as anything. I was asleep and Brett came in, drug me out of bed and started hitting me. By the time he stopped, I'd realized he'd passed out in the middle of a swing at my head. I crawled out from under him and went back to my room." A slight shudder passed through Blair as he remembered what Brett had done to him so long ago. Jim gently laid his hand on Blair's arm and squeezed. This was Jim's way of letting his young friend know that he was not alone now. "I found out the next day that my right arm was broke in three places. Brett had sobered up and after he saw the way I looked, he took me to the Emergency Room, told them he was my ‘dad', used a different last name and had them treat me. I got to know that hospital quite well in the next year. Brett warned me that if I ever said a word to Naomi or anyone else, that he would tell Social Services that my mom was just abandoning me with friends for extended periods of time. He said that Social Services would take me away from Naomi and we would never see each other again."
"You didn't believe this Chief, did you?"
"I was only seven Jim. I may have been pushed up in school grades but for certain things, I still believed like any seven year-old did. Anyway, anytime Naomi would go on a retreat the ‘loving treatment' I received from Brett would continue. I spent about four months total in and out of the hospital. Naomi never knew the truth. The final straw for Naomi was the last time we saw Brett." Blair stopped to gather his thoughts again and to take a couple of cleansing breaths. He looked at Jim and continued with what he considered the worst part of his story. "Naomi was going to go on another retreat. Brett told her she couldn't go because he wanted to marry her and have her be the perfect domestic wife. Naomi told him that she liked him a great deal but didn't love him in any way. Brett got furious and grabbed Naomi by the arms, he was shaking her. Naomi told him to stop, that he was hurting her. I may have been scared of him but I wasn't going to let him hurt my mom. I ran up behind him and jumped on his back. He shook me off and threw me across the room. I hit the brick wall and fell on the end table. I was dazed but I saw Naomi start beating the hell out of Brett. I tell ya, Jim, I've never been so proud of my mom until that day. She finally knocked him out with a potted plant. She came over and got me up, got our clothes together and we left." Blair took a shuddering breath and finally concluded his tale. "We didn't stop until we were out of the state and then she took me to the hospital. I had a severe concussion, my arm was broken again. I needed ten stitches in my head to totally stop the bleeding. The doctor told Naomi that I was lucky that I hadn't cracked my skull when I hit the brick wall. I was kept overnight and when they released me, Naomi and I left for Europe. I never could tell her about everything Brett had done to me. I just never expected to see him in Cascade man."
"What does he want from you, Chief?"
"Brett wants Naomi. I guess he's either still in love with her or he wants to see her dead for leaving him the way she did. Either way, he's not getting her whereabouts from me. I won't let Brett hurt her and I'm afraid that he will if he finds her."
Jim watched as Blair took another shallow, shaky breath. He thought about everything that Blair had said and finally came to a decision. "Blair, I won't let this Brett character hurt you again and I definitely won't let him get near Naomi either. By the way, where is she right now?"
"The last letter I got from her said that she was in England trying to understand the power behind Stonehenge." "Man, my head aches. Do you think the nurses would let me have an icepack?"
"I don't see why not Chief. Let me go find you one, I'll be right back."
"OK Jim, I'm just gonna close my eye while your gone," Blair said softly as Jim started to stand.
Ellison watched as Blair closed his eye and lightly dozed. He quietly listened to his best-friend's slightly raspy breathing. Jim finally turned toward the door in search of a nurse. He had only walked about four steps out of Blair's room when he ran into Sandburg's floor nurse. Ellison stepped back so they wouldn't collide and smiled down at her. He quickly glanced at her name tag and asked, "Nurse Carlson, could I trouble you for a cold compress for my partner?"
Nurse Anne Carlson had just walked out of room 311. She had been writing in the patient's chart what medication she had administered when she almost ran into someone. She caught her balance and looked up into the nicest blue eyes she had seen since her daughter had been born. Anne smiled at the gentleman, who she remembered had been in with the patient in 309. Before she could apologize for almost running him down, the man was asking for a cold compress for someone. She smiled again and asked, "For who?"
"I'm sorry, I should have told you that the young man in 309 is my partner. We work together for the Cascade P.D. He's a police observer and my partner. He's also into herbs and plants for remedies so he really doesn't like pain medication. He asked me to find him an icepack because his head is pounding. You wouldn't be able to get me one?"
"Sure officer, I can get you one. I know he won't like it but his physician has ordered a mild analgesic to help with the pain. It won't mask any symptoms but it will relieve some of his discomfort. Why don't you go on back to his room and I'll be right there."
"Thank you nurse. I'll see you in a few minutes," Jim thanked the nurse and turned back to Blair's room.
Anne Carlson watched as the tall officer walked back into room 309 and she sighed. She thought the man was very good looking. She turned back to the nurse's station desk, walked to the anteroom and opened the medium sized refrigerator that sat back there. She removed an cold compress and wrapped it in a towel. She then walked over to the drug cabinet, unlocked it and removed the vial that contained the mild analgesic that Dr. Jamieson had prescribed for his patient in room 309. Anne filled a syringe with ten cc's of the medication, capped the syringe and replaced the vial back in the cabinet and locked it again. She then noted in Blair's chart that she administered the analgesic and a cold compress. She also finished the notation in the chart for the patient in room 311, then she carried the compress and syringe into room 309.
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The door opening startled Blair. He slightly jumped and then gasped when his ribs protested the movement and the sudden intake of breath. Blair squeezed his one eye as tightly shut as he could and then cried out in pain as the pressure became to much. Ellison was at his side immediately and tried to calm him. Jim laid a hand on both sides of Blair's head and said gently, "Chief, try to relax. Take slow, shallow breaths. Come on Blair, you can do this. Nice shallow breaths."
Jim watched as Blair tried to follow what Jim's voice was saying. He watched Sandburg try to relax and not quite do it. Jim began speaking quietly again trying to get the young anthropologist to become calm once again. When two minutes had passed, Jim finally noticed that Blair was starting to breathe easier. After another minute, nurse Carlson walked in quietly with the compress and the analgesic.
Anne placed her tray on the table near Blair's bed and spoke softly to Blair. "Mr. Sandburg, let me lift your head so I can place the compress behind it."
Blair gasped and slightly nodded his head. With the head movement came more pain. Jim grasped Blair's hand more firmly and spoke to him again about breathing shallowly.
Anne gently lifted Blair's head and placed the compress on the pillow and then eased his head back down onto the compress and pillow. She then said, "Mr. Sandburg, I'm going to give you a mild painkiller. It should take affect within a couple of minutes. Just try to calm yourself and you'll be alright." While she was speaking to Blair, Anne administered the injection into the IV that had been established before he had been removed from the loft.
Within two minutes, Jim noticed that Blair's breathing was easier and the pain had decreased along with his heart rate. After another two minutes had passed, Blair was in an easy sleep. Jim Ellison kept his hand lightly on Blair's arm and looked at the nurse. He smiled gratefully and said, "Thank you. I was afraid Blair would have a seizure if he didn't relax soon. Thanks for being here for him."
"No problem. Partly it's my job and partly, I hate to see anyone in pain. He should sleep through the night but if he doesn't, just buzz for me and I'll give him another shot. When he needs another compress, just bring it out to the desk and I'll replace it. By the way, you can call me Anne." She then lightly brushed a few of Sandburg's stray locks from his face, tucked his covers in a little more tightly, picked up her tray and quietly left Sandburg's room.
Ellison smiled as she left and then glanced back over at his sleeping partner. He knew that the night ahead was going to be long, but he hoped that it would be a quiet night for his partner and himself.
Part III
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