Chapter Six - Finding the Real World

Returning to the Real World is never easy, in fact is often down right impossible. But for those who make it, it will be hard to regain an easy balance. The Dream World does not like to give up its victims.

~*~*~*~

It had been a hard fight but he had finally managed to convince the doctors that it was in Blair’s best interest to be transferred to Cascade General where he could get the best help and be surrounded by familiar faces. The shrink in Baltimore had thought that it might be best for Blair to recover with the people who knew and loved him. She felt confident that with enough care and attention, Blair may be able to recover enough to become a functional member of society though she didn’t hold out much hope for his complete recovery.

Simon was sure he knew better. He’d seen the pair do remarkable things together. That was the key “together”. Jim was himself being kept in the ICU ward at Cascade General and Brown had done some fancy footwork to arrange for Blair to be put in the same room. All of Major Crimes was now backing Simon’s bid to get the two men together in hopes that they might regain their former bond and closeness. Their comrades in Major Crime had seen the remarkable things that the two had been able to accomplish and all wanted to see them back where they belonged, by each others side as a team in Major Crimes.

Only Brown had been granted the privilege of knowing their secret and only because Megan had been forced to say something when she and Henri had found Jim in his zoned condition. The others were concenred but no one had question the reasons for it. They felt it was more to do with Blair’s absence and thought no more on the reasons, they merely clung to the hope that with Blair’s return they might have a chance to heal.

Now all of Major Crimes waited at the office for news from the hospital. Joel Taggart and Naomi Sandburg waited in Simon’s office while the others waited at their desks. Only Rafe was absent as he recuperated from surgury to remove the bullet from his back. An operation which had only been performed the days before when the doctor’s confirmed that the swelling had gone down sufficiently to attempt it. Doctor’s had given him a glowing prognosis that the bullet had been successfully removed and that the damage was not directly to the spine but the surrounding tissue. With much therapy he would eventually recover fully. For that one piece of news the entire department had received a shot of serious hope.

Now they just needed to hear good news about Jim and Blair from Simon and then they could all relax. They hoped anyway.

~*~*~*~

Jim felt the warmth of whiteness suffusing his soul. The unthinking plainness of where he floated soothed the ache that had once rested deep inside his entire body but now he felt nothing. There was no anger, no hatred, no pain and no guilt here. But on the down side there was also no happiness, no joy, no love, no nothing and most importantly no Guide.

No Guide.

Without conscious thought he allowed the emptiness of his mind to take him again and he tumbled back into the darkness where once more there was nothing.

~*~*~*~

“God damn it, Ventriss, what are you trying to do, get me caught?” Graf hissed into the receiver. He was at his desk when the phone rang. He cast a glare in the direction of his partner as he signaled him closer. The two men listened as Ventriss demanded to know where Ellison was.

“At County. Banks is taking that hippie faggot there right now. They arrived from Baltimore about an hour ago.” Graf told the man on the other line. He was furious that the snivelling rich boy was calling him at work where anyone might over hear the conversation and he would get fired if not worse, arrested for the attempted murder of Rafe and Megan. And he told Graf that. “Get off the phone and stop calling me at work. You’re going to get us both caught and that just doesn’t fit into my plans right now. The whole reason I agreed to your stupid plans was to get into Major Crimes. Getting arrested would completely defeat that purpose.”

“Relax, Graf. No one will find out if you just keep your cool. God, you’re a police officer, you should be used to the stress, man. Now, just relax and everything you want, you’ll get. What room are they in?”

“How the hell should I know? Banks hasn’t called yet. I will let you know what I hear when he calls. Now stop calling me here.” Graf slammed the phone down. For a moment he puffed out his breath as he tried to regain his cool. He couldn’t afford to lose it this far into the game. There was too much at stake. Unfortunately Ventriss didn’t seem to realize that this wasn’t a game. He was dealing with people’s lives and instead of taking it seriously he was playing like he was beyond the law. “Fool!”

“That him?” Asked Parker.

“Yeah. The fool wanted to know where Ellison was. I think he wants to take him out. I mean the man is seriously whacked. Not like Ellison is a threat now, is he? Guess that leaves an opening in Major Crimes, two if they fill that hippie bastard’s place with a real cop.” Graf and Parker laughed, neither man noticing that they were being watched very closely by Acting Captain Joel Taggart.

~*~*~*~

It was sheer luck that Joel happened past as Graf answered the phone. He and his partner were so engrossed with the conversation they hadn’t seen him listening in. He was glad that he’d heard what he had. First thing he was going to do was check the phone logs. Almost eight months ago, Major Crimes had implemented a mandatory phone taps on all employees phones. There had been a rash of threats made so the higher ups decided that due to the natures of the cases handled by Major Crimes, it was prudent for then to record all incoming and outgoing calls for evidentiary purposes.

This was the first time that Joel was glad they had done it. He made his way to the records room where the tape machines and backlogs were kept.

“Hey Jolly, how’s it going?” He asked the sargent in charge.

“Hey Captain. Not to bad. Whaddya need?”

“You got these things going 24/7 right?”

“Yup, all tapes are logged, dated and time stamped. Latest in wire-tapping technology. Need to find something?”

“Yeah. A call came in on just a few minutes ago. I need to hear it again. It may be relevant to a case we’re working.”

“This got anything to do with Ellison. I heard that Banks was bringing Sandburg back to Cascade. I hope they are alright.”

“Yeah, me too. And yes, the call may have been the perp. Can you bring it up without disrupting the taping.

“Sure. Let me do a quick tape change and then we can give it a listen.”

“Thanks, Jolly. I really appreciate this.”

“Anything I can do to help.” Joel watched Jolly change the tape with practiced ease. Within moments he had the tape cued to the exact point when the call had come in. Both men listened in growing horror as they realized that Walter Graf and Eric Parker were deeply involved in the attacks on Major Crimes.

“Jolly do you think you can find all calls that came in or went out from that phone. I want to know if there is any more evidence against those two.

~*~*~*~

Simon smiled through the window of the ICU room where he watched doctors checking Blair over. He was pleased with himself that he’d managed to make it here in good time and without all the hassles he’d figured to be getting. Henri really had done his job on this.

He made a mental note to recommend commendations for the Major Crimes group. They really had gone above board on everything.

While they were getting Blair settled, Simon had taken a few minutes to check on Rafe. The young detective was recovering well since his surgury. He was sitting up slightly in bed and the feeling had begun to return to his legs. Painful sensation but he wasn’t complaining because at least he could feel something.

Simon had spent a pleasant few minutes with Rafe until the pain med had kicked in and sent him back into the realms of sleep. The detective had been glad to hear that Jim and Blair were finally together and he’d offered his own prayers that they might finally be able to recover.

Now Simon was on his way back to see if there was any change in the condition of his one-time best team.

~*~*~*~

Blair groaned as awareness returned. At least it was more awareness than he’d known in a long time. His eye flickered and opened slightly before the sudden shock of the bright lights forced them shut and he groaned again, this time in pain.

He turned his head to the side as a cough struggled to break through. He lungs hurt, his whole body ached with a pain so intense it threatened to send him back into the blackness he’d just risen from. But the most intense hurt came from deeper. It was such that he wanted to escape it. He didn’t remember why the hurt was there only that it existed and it consumed his world.

He wanted the oblivion that he’d been in. he didn’t want to remember pain or to feel the hurt. He opened his eyes again. The light not wuite so bright from this angle.

It took a moment for his vision to clear. When it did he was still confused. He had no idea where he was or how he’d come to be there. For that matter, he didn’t know who he was. As his eyes cleared he saw the figure of a man lying in the bed across the room from him.

The man’s features were somewhat familiar but he couldn’t place them. He didn’t recognize the man but something deep inside did and it brought the pain back. A tiny memory formed, a touch of remembrance of this man. He’d caused the pain. The hurts that were worse than physical. The deep one, the one that no amount of medicines would heal. His vision began to blur, the tears falling as fast as they formed. His breath hitched in his throat and great heaving sobs took control.

He couldn’t stop. He did understand what was happening and that brought the fear back.

God, the fear.

He remembered the fear. The aloneness. The desperate emptiness that had once been his soul. He remembered that so clearly. He remembered the horrible terror that had been his world for as long as he could remember. He didn’t want to be alone any more. He didn’t want to die but he couldn’t live alone any more.

He didn’t feel the blackness creeping over him. He didn’t recognize the oblivion he’d craved earlier as it came back upon him, stealing his awareness again, sinking him back into the far reaches of his own mind, lost once more in the very depths of his own subconscious.

~*~*~*~

Sound.

Noise. No, more soothing that mere noise.

Something could be heard. It was very faint but still noticeable. He heard it vibrate not just in his ears but deep down to his very core. It was a precious sound. One he knew as well as his own voice.

He felt his head turn to the sound but realized it wasn’t coming from outside. It was coming from all around him, inside and out. He couldn’t find it.

The attempts to locate the sound was beginning to cause his head to ache. He groaned as a sharp pain stabbed through his brain.

“Easy, Jim.” A voice, soft, broke through his battered mind and for a brief moment, the pain stopped. Then something touch him and the pain flared into an intense agony that ripped through his entire body. A scream broke through his irritated throat. The sound of his own cry hurt his ears and he whimpered. He tried to pull himself together, tried to regain some control over his own body but it wouldn’t come. Control was so far beyond his reach, he despaired ever getting it back.

Blessedly, the sounds faded, the pain of the touch was gone and with it came the simple emptiness of unconsciousness.

~*~*~*~

“Damn, I though we had him.” Simon muttered to himself as the man in the bed before him relaxed back into sleep.

Simon had been sitting here, between his two men for several hours now. Blair had not woken yet, at least not while he’d been there. Jim almost woke but Simon realized that he’d made a mistake when he’d touched Jim. Obviously the man hadn’t returned enough to regain control of his senses.

In the twelve hours since Blair had been brought into the room with Jim, the Sentinel had slowly begun to regain some semblence of congizance. He hadn’t fully woken but there were indications that he was responding to outside stimuli. His pupils reacted to the light shined into them, his skin twitched to touch. His nose wrinkled at the harsh smell of smelling salts or ammonium carbonate as the doctors preferred to call it.

The doctors called them involuntary responses, the responses one’s body makes without choice. The other responses they were waiting for were some sign that Jim was hearing the voices calling to him, the requests for him to wake but every time he came close or seemed to be awakening, the pain would hit and he would return to the blackness of his own unconscious. The doctors informed Simon that he was not getting worse but they couldn’t explain why he wasn’t getting better.

Blair was healing physically, Simon was pleased to note. His lungs were slowly responding to the antibiotics the doctors were administering in aggressive doses. His broken bones which had started knitting back in Baltimore were coming along and Simon could swear that just the closeness between the two men was singularly responsible for both men’s improvements.

A knock on the door brought Simon’s attentions out of his reminisences. A nurse poked her head inside.

“Captain Banks, there is a phone call for you.”

“Thank you, Emily.” Simon smiled to himself. He’d been here often enough that he knew the nurses by their first names. Of course Emily was the head nurse of this unit so she was around a lot.

With one last glance at the two resting men, Simon followed Emily back to the nurses station where the curtesy phone waited.

“Line two, Captain Banks.”

“Do you think you could call me Simon, Emily. It is much less formal.” He gave her a big grin as he picked up the phone and pushed the button for the second line.

“Banks.” He barked. “What? What the hell is going on there in my absence? Joel, tell me again, what happened?”

<<Simon, we arrested Graf and Parker for interfernce with a police investigation and attempted murder on Megan and Rafe. H is taking their confessions right now. They implicated Brad Ventriss in the attacks against Jim and Blair. They don’t know what he did only that he did something.

“Also the report is in on that tape we found in Jim’s room at the loft.”

“What did they find?” Simon demanded to know.

“It means I think you need to come back here. I have two men on the way to guard the room. We need you back here to go over all this stuff that we’ve found. We also need your okay on the arrest. They are after all officers even if they are dirty.”

“Okay, listen. I will be there as soon as the guards arrive. Who did you send?”

“Martendale and Peterson.”

“Oh, wait. Okay their here now.” Simon told Joel as the two officers stepped off the elevator, noticed him and headed in his direction. I gotta go. I will be there in half an hour.” Simon hungup and turned to the two officers as they came up to him.

“Captain Banks.” Captain Taggart asked us to report to you for guard duty. Is this about Ellison and Sandburg, sir?”

“Yes. They’re in room 407. It is private and only the nurse and their doctor is permitted in the room. Taggart and I will be back as soon as we can, until then, only Dr.Samuels and his team. No one else, got it?”

“Yes, sir. Captain Banks, sir?”

“Martendale?”

“Are they going to be okay?” Ben Martendale asked, shuffling his feet slightly.

“I don’t know, Ben. I hope so. Just watch out for them, okay?”

“You got it, sir. I owe Sandburg big time. He helped Sally in her classes at school. He’s good people. Leave it to us.” Ben replied, his partner Marc Peterson nodded.

Simon felt safe enough leaving Jimand Blair to these men. He waited until they were position on either side of the door and then he took his leave.

~*~*~*~

Joel grinned as he stared into the interrogation room as Brown put Graf through his paces. Brown was confirming things from his statement.

Earlier when Joel had confronted and arrested Graf the man was arrogant and refused to talk. But Parker had cracked far too quickly. He had deprived Joel of the pleasure of tearing the confession out of him. However Graf had held out a little longer, at least until confronted with Parker’s confession. Then he couldn’t talk fast enough to implicate Ventriss. Neither man knew where to find the convicted murderer.

Joel had been almost gleeful with all the information that Ggraf was pouring out. The fact that he’d been instrumental in the seemingly unprovoked attacks against Major Crimes all to get a spot in the coveted department ate at Joel’s guts but now they had a chance to fix things. Make it right and hopefully give Jim and Blair back their lives. Especially when they recovered.

Not if. When.

Joel was certain that they would recover and that they would return to work. Major Crimes would be restored to its former glory. It was definitely starting to look up.

Joel glanced towards the door as it was pushed open.

“Hey, Joel. Anything new?”

“Nothing much yet. Graf has confirmed that he was the one who took the potshots at Megan and Rafe. He claims that he hadn’t intended to hurt Rafe that badly but Rafe had pushed Megan out of the way and moved into the path of the bullets himself.”

“You don’t buy it?”

“Nope. This guy is grasping. I checked his records and he was tops in his class for sharpshooting. He was well aware of his target and he hit what he aimed for. I also get the impression that he is a bigot. Several times he has stopped himself from making derogatory or racist comments. I have seen the looks he gives H when he’s not looking. He’s arrogant but stupid. He’s all but bragging at the same time as he is blaming Ventriss. He’s a real pice of work.”

Joel paused as Brown finally stood upright and headedout of the room.

“What do you want us to do with this one, Simon?”

“Let’s talk to Brown first. I want to know everything that went down here.”

~*~*~*~

“Damn.” The man cursed as he stared at the two cops outside the door of the room he wanted acces to. He had not expected guards. Unless his partners were already compromised.

Ventriss cursed once more before he turned and headed back to the waiting room. He was unaware of the depth of his arrogance in the gesture. He was without a doubt unaware of the stares cast his direction as he stormed off, cursing under his breath.

He collapsed into a seat in the corner where he was not immediately noticeable but where he could see things as they happened.

“First things first. Get rid of those bozos.” Ventriss leaned his head back as he thought. It didn’t take long before a grin passed over his features. It was not a pretty sight. A few minutes later he rose and made his way out to the payphone. A couple of calls later and he returned to the waiting room, this time to wait.

~*~*~*~

“Officer Martendale?” the nurse asked as she approached the room.

“Yes, I’m Martendale.”

“I just got a call from Captain Banks. He said that the perp was caught and the threat was gone. He asked you if you would meet him back at the precinct.” She told him, handing him the pink message slip.

“Thank you,” he replied. He glanced at Peterson and the two men nodded. Five minutes later they were gone and the corridor was empty.

Chapter 7

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