Disclaimer:
They don't belong to me sadly! They never do! This started life as
something a little fun for the June Missing scene themefics on a fic
list and is essentially missing scenes and a differing perspective on
the episode Dead Drop. Sadly, only beta-ed by myself hence any
mistakes my own. Scene's take place in the elevator only and are
principally around what is seen in the episode but there is some over
lap! Hope you enjoy it:-)
Movie Laws
By Peregrine
Post
First Drop
Blair
had seen movies, far too many of them truth be told, and he knew the
way things should go and this wasn't the way things were meant to
happen. Picture the scene - dramatic situation, (thrilling music in
the background a must) some sort of disaster brewing and a group of
assorted people thrown together into the fell clutch of
circumstance.
There
was one 'Movie Law' that was absolute and that was that in no action
epic he had watched had the geeky looking student guy ended up as the
hero. It was practically an unwritten rule - geeky guys (even the
good looking ones) saved the day by advising the hero-leaders to go
and do something appropriately heroic while they...
Usually
got wiped out by the big nasty just before the end of the film.
Hmm. Time for a rethink.
Maybe he wasn't suited for the Geek Advisor role after all.Perhaps he shouldn't be complaining that in an elevator full of panicking
people he had somehow become the de facto 'leader', even if it meant there was some unspoken pressure on him to be working on those particular hero-like things to do.
Not, he had to admit, there was much chance of him getting the girl here. The
choices were limited and most definitely unreceptive.
He blamed his elevation to leadership the fact he had a cell phone on him
courtesy of Jim after one too many disappearing acts. There was probably a paper in that somewhere. The impact of an individual's ability to initiate
communications on their status in societal structures.
Yeah. Would have made a good chapter in his 'thin blue line' doctoral
dissertation if it existed - but nothing much at all in the 'Care and
maintenance of the modern day Sentinel " epic. He really needed a better title
than that.
Anyway, having a cell phone meant he had a link to the outside, and that meant he was the spokesperson instead of...
Aspiring model-to-be Caitlin (The portfolio pictures were pretty good in his
opinion, though she needed to lose the heavy make up in some. Her natural look
was much better, but she didn't seem too approachable)
Mrs Irene Coughlin, PA ("Not a secretary, an executive Personal Assistant. I
really should have passed these figures on by now, they were having an important finance meeting and he said to get them there before lunch and... " And so on and so on. The weight of responsibility and concern had vanished when Blair had pointed out that if they were in a hostage situation then the police would have evacuated the building so no Finance meeting to miss. It left him wondering about some people's priorities)
Joe King, father of four, buildings and maintenance. ("My name? Just Joe King.
Yeah, yeah I know, but I have to do it once don't I? Call me Joe. All I was on
my way to do was fit some panels on the roof and man, look at this!")
He'd had to resist the urge to apologise profusely to all of them. He was
tempted to introduce himself as 'Jonah' as he was beginning to wonder if fate
had a bit of an unpleasant sense of humour by tossing him into these wild
situations.
They probably wouldn't get the joke.
Besides, even before the first drop he had managed to blurt out his name and
what he did even if they had probably forgotten it during the chaos that had
come with that first terrifying plummet.
He smiled nervously at them all even as he adjusted the package with the good luck charm in it. Third Century B.C. He toyed with the fact that by 'Movie Law' at some point there should be some sort of ironic saving of their lives through the object but right now he would settle for a plain old boring rescue.
Any time now Jim. Really.
The brief phone call he'd had with him had not been that reassuring. Blair
decided that his room mate wasn't going to win any prizes for defusing a tense situation. But that didn't seem to be Jim's style. Action, on the other hand, was, so he just had to trust Jim when he said he was going to be right there. Even if he had been left dangling looking for a little more solid conformation
that every thing was under control.That also left him in the unenviable position of telling the others that this
wasn't a mechanical fault after all.
Something he wanted to put off as long as possible.
"Won't be long now," he said again smiling at them all, trying to stop the
tension building so high that there would be an inevitable crash. "Got some ...
uh, contacts telling me that they're working on it. Be out of here in no time."
"Before anything happens again?" Irene looked directly at him seeking
reassurance. It was rather odd. She looked to be the incredibly capable type.
Like Rhonda. He always though Rhonda would be a handy person to have with him in a crisis. He couldn't see her being ruffled by anything. She was an
administrator after all and knew the sacred mysteries of paperwork and how to get expenses through after the deadline. Administrator's and secretaries were the magic-workers of the bureaucratic world, he had decided.
"Well I'm sure they are trying to," Blair replied reassuringly, though he felt
exceptionally nervous himself even as his thoughts roamed frantically.Jim you better be working on this and fast, because you know the heights
thing? I didn't think it used to count with elevators, but now I'm really
thinking about it dropping, heights and drops are like, one and the same thing
man But not even Sentinel's could hear thoughts. Though, hey, what a cool idea!
Perhaps there was such a thing as a Sentinel Shaman somewhere that could, whose extraordinary perceptions reached out into the unknown and...
Why was Caitlin looking around so nervously all the time?
Blair watched a moment wondering if he had imagined it. Joe and Irene were
looking constantly at the doors, the floor and the ceiling. Caitlin it seemed
was sneaking furtive glances at all of them.
Nah, he must have imagined it.
"So, Blair right?" Joe settled back easily enough against the wall of the
elevator. "You're the research student with contacts right? So who exactly is
working on it?"
Ah, the patented Sandburgian quick gloss hadn't quite worked on the maintenance guy. He looked the type not to skip details, which was probably a good thing in a construction worker or fixing things.
"Some friends at Cascade PD," he admitted watching how their attitude towards him changed slightly. Interesting, but uncomfortable for the one being regarded differently. "I've been doing a thesis connected with them, you know, doing some observing, research that sort of thing."
Joe leaned back against the other wall of the elevator and looked at him. "And
if this were an elevator fault Blair, I'm thinking they wouldn't be calling in
the Cascade PD. Am I right? I'm a maintenance guy, and I've seen some weird things in my time, but I've never heard of the police coming in to fix a
malfunctioning elevator."
Blair felt suddenly quite cornered. "Uh..."
"That's true, isn't it?" Mrs Coughlin asked looking at him carefully. "They'd
call security or if it got really bad, maybe the fire department, not the
police."
Caitlin just looked at them all with a withdrawn expression, and Blair wondered suddenly if she might be someone with a problem with enclosed spaces. She certainly looked uncomfortable being in there with them.
"Uh, look..." Blair hesitated.
Was there even a good way to tell anyone that they were a hostage trapped in a small metal can suspended over a very high drop?
That wasn't the sort of thing that he'd ever heard even the Major Crimes poker
night wild stories discuss. Maybe he could make it sound as simple as Jim had on the phone. Terrorist nut, threats, ransom, all in a days work, no big deal.Calm, easy, annoyance rather than big deal. Yeah, he could do that.
"Okay, look. Here it is. It's not a fault - it's deliberate. We are being held
hostage by some schmuck who is threatening to drop this elevator if he doesn't get what he wants, okay?"
The frozen expressions on his companion's faces told him that there really
wasn't a good way to break that sort of news. Either that or his impressions of
Jim were lacking in that essential Ellison charm.
"The Cascade PD is on it okay? Major Crimes best team. It's going to be fine, "Blair added hurriedly. "Seriously. "
Otherwise he was declaring this third century BC artefact a damn fake with or
without reaching the assessors.
The silence was very unnerving and he felt his usual compulsion to apologise just to fill the gap. "Look, I'm sorry. There was no easy way to tell you all that. You okay? Joe? Caitlin? Mrs Coughlin... uh, sorry, Irene?"
Joe stirred slowly. "Man, when you tell the truth, it's a real humdinger isn't
it?"
"You don't seriously believe him do you?" Irene was desperate not to believe
anything that might mean rescue was more than minutes away.
"I do." It was nearly the first time Caitlin had spoken and she looked up at
Blair meeting his eyes for a brief moment.
He felt himself frowning a moment, even as Joe sighed. "Look, lady, it makes
sense. I know the drill, security should have been buzzing us by now, doing the equivalent of the 'keep calm and don't sue us speech.' Hell... uh, heck, I've
even given that speech a few times myself. So what's the ransom asked?"
"Five million," Blair said apologetically.
"A million for each person on the elevator," Caitlin said aloud, staring through
all of them.
"Dear, I hate to be pedantic, but there are only four of us," Mrs Coughlin
pointed out, that small slip allowing her not to go completely into shock as she
felt the need to correct her the younger woman.
"Oh, oh yes, sorry." Caitlin blinked and looked at them. "Four of us, right."
Blair exchanged a worried look with Joe and said, "But it's going to be okay you know? The Cascade PD are really good at dealing with this sort of things, I've seen them in action."
"So you are used to these situations?" Irene asked hopefully. "You know what to do?"
"Whoa, whoa..." Blair laughed a little spreading his hands to hold off on any
more conclusions. "I've a little bit of experience in observing. That doesn't
make me the same as a cop or anything. I'm pretty sure that the cop I'm
shadowing would just say..."
Stay in the truck Blair!
No, No that wouldn't work, most likely he'd say, 'How the hell did you manage to be in the wrong place at the wrong time again Sandburg? Do you take seminars on it at Rainer or something?'
"... would just say to hang tight and leave it to the experts."
"Yes but are the experts actually doing anything?" Irene pointed out. "Aside
from your phone call there, there doesn't seem to be anything happening?"
There was a certain tone in her voice that seemed to make it Blair's
responsibility.
"Mrs Coughlin, I'm sure they are doing their best. There's lots of things going
on behind the scenes I am sure," Blair replied urgently and then looked up as a sound crackled from speakers above him.
"Caitlin? This is Tom Watson.."
There was a pause as the other three passengers in the elevator looked at the young woman, curious at the interruption.
"Yeah?"
"Are you okay in there?"
"Yeah, yeah I'm all right," she replied even as the pieces started to add up in
Blair's head.
Maybe the stopping of the elevator hadn't been so random after all. Someone who knew the building system calling her by name. Sounded odd to him. Coincidence, yeah right. Anywhere outside of the Sandburg Zone maybe.
"Good." And with that the sound clicked off.
Irene looked at her with a tight, taut expression. "How the hell does he know
you?" she asked turning on her with an intense demand.
"My father owns this building." Caitlin looked uncomfortable even as she
admitted that fact.
Joe was surprised and it showed in his tone, "What? Wilkenson? We contract out to do all of his repairs. Guy controls half of downtown. He's your dad?"
They were all reaching the same conclusion. They were the proverbial innocent by-standers caught in the cross-fire. They hadn't been the real targets at all, it had been Caitlin. Daughter of a multi-millionaire and the cause of their current predicament.
Blair didn't like the way the mood was turning and he struggled to put a
positive slant on this information.
"But this is a good thing. If your father owns the note on this building, he'll
have us out of here in no time, right? " He suggested hopefully.
The look he received from her dashed that hope immediately.
"Don't count on it. "
Blair leaned back against the side of the elevator, trying to think of ways to
open up the discussion. The fact that he was not talking to someone with a
perfect parent-child relationship was obvious. Hey, he could relate. Maybe he
could chip away at that angle, see what lay underneath. Something was definitely wrong and if the only constructive thing he could do in this situation was talk
it out. Otherwise Caitlin may start to understand how he felt with that
seemingly permanent 'trouble magnet 'beacon following him around all the time.
After the Second drop
Revelations, Blair had decided, responded to the same 'Movie Laws' that infected this whole situation with a sense of surrealism. Mainly, they seemed to be deciding that exactly what this experience needed was more twists and turns that a Minoan era labyrinth. First there was finding out that Caitlin was the daughter of Wilkinson, then that she was disowned, married, the guy been fired and now of all things that she was pregnant and broke.
He had his own potted soap opera playing out here in microcosm. Any moment now, he was half expecting Irene to pitch in with something like she was secretly Caitlin's birth mother, and Joe to announce he liked to be called Theresa at weekends.
He also resolved never, ever, EVER to pick up any form of containers or cans and shake them to see what was inside. Bad move. Very bad move. He had empathy for the nuts in any tin now which was probably a bad thing to admit. Jim would have a field day with that comment.
Joe seemed to think Irene had a broken ankle and all of them had been bounced around on that last drop . Bruises - man, he was going to be covered tomorrow - assuming he actually got to see tomorrow. Right now he was ignoring all the aches and pains as compared to their situation they were mere distractions.
It wasn't something that he was letting the other's see but he was aware that
the longer this went on, the less likely it was that they would get out alive.
Police statistics, pure and simple. Jim would tell him that sort of thing,
usually over dinner with Joel, Simon, Rafe and Henri chipping in their own real
life stories to back it up. That the good guys didn't always win was the rather
serious message that came across and he just had a strange feeling about this and the fact he couldn't sit back and hope it worked out on its own.
All he could do was pretend like everything was under control and fine, and
maybe try and untangle this mess that was going on all around him.
"It's my Evie's birthday tomorrow," Joe suddenly announced as he leaned back
against the wall like they all were. "She's going to be four. Starting school
soon, even though it feels like she's too young. I hope..."
Blair cleared his throat. They all knew what that unspoken hope was.
"Every daughter needs her Dad there to help blow out the candles on the cake right? Don't worry man. Least you can be the biggest present she gets this year."
Joe gave a slight smile. "Yeah. The twins are going to be beside themselves.
James and Julian. They might actually stop calling each other names long enough to give me a hug."
"Twins can be pretty competitive I guess?"
"Oh, with my two? That's an understatement. James drives his brother wild by
calling him Julie... and Julian..." He snorted to himself, "He always calls
James, Jimmy-jams."
Blair cracked a genuine smile at that. He was imagining calling his short
tempered stressed out Sentinel 'Jimmy-jam's'. Actually, he was imagining setting up someone else to call him that and watching the resulting explosion from a safe distance. Joel was mentally nominated as a good volunteer for that as their bomb squad expert and being used to dealing with highly volatile situations.
"I bet that goes down well," he replied, glancing over at Irene. "How about your daughter Irene? I bet she'll be glad to see you."
"Melissa? I'm half hoping that she won't find out. I don't want to scare her,"
Irene said turning to look at him shaken out of the contemplation of her ankle.
"My husband, Harry, he's enough of a worrier for all of us. I wouldn't be at all
surprised if he isn't there waiting when this is all over. I... I really hope he
is."
"Yeah, first people I'd want to see coming out of this is my family," Joe
agreed. " Lynn, my wife will probably leave the baby with her sister and be
there with the other kids as well. I swear I won't complain about them bothering me ever again. It's just not worth it. Stuff like this puts a different light on things."
Caitlin shifted uncomfortably as the workman turned and looked at her. "Least
you'll have some family waiting there for you," she said eventually.
"Well ,you'll have some too right?" Blair pointed out resolutely reinforcing the
fact that they were going to get out of this fine and everything was going to be
okay. "I mean, no matter what your father is going to be pleased that you get
through this okay."
"You don't know him," Caitlin said miserably, avoiding his eyes. "He doesn't
forgive. Or forget."
Blair shrugged. "Hey, family is family right? Strongest social ties around. Even
if he doesn't approve of whom you married that doesn't mean he doesn't love you right? And your husband will surely be there. That's family too. Family's a lot of different things but pretty much it's about caring right?"
Caitlin looked unconvinced. "Maybe."
"What about you Blair?" Joe stepped in to the uncomfortable silence as they
waited. "Got anyone out there queuing up to meet you?"
"Nah, I'm single, man. Young, free and all that," Blair replied easily.
"No brothers or sisters, or other family out there?" Joe pressed.
Blair smiled back, feeling a pang of something strange at that realisation that
struck him. "No. No, I never knew my father and I haven't really seen my mother more than a couple of times a year since I was... uh, around sixteen I guess. She travels a lot," he explained hastily and then felt he had to add, "We get on pretty well when she's around, but I guess, no I don't have anyone out there waiting."
It was a bit of a shock to realise he was more estranged from family contact
that Caitlin herself, and he could tell the others were a little taken aback. He
congratulated himself on being able to contribute to the ever evolving
soap-opera of the trapped elevator car.
"Not even a special someone?" Irene asked. "I find that hard to believe Blair."
He forced a laugh. "Well, yeah I know. It would've been the ideal time to have a special someone you know? But my luck's not good with the ladies. Sad to say but it's just me and the third century BC good luck charm." He patted the bag beside him.
"What a shame," Irene said looking at him ."I think you would make a great
father."
"Yeah, I can see you being as full of energy as kids are," Joe said smiling,
looking thoughtfully at Blair.
"Well, thanks man, but... not likely to happen." Blair looked over at Caitlin
and spoke seriously for a moment. "If you've got a choice about having a family I'd take it. I wish I'd known who my grandparents were. Hell, I wish I'd known who my dad was. It hasn't ruined my life, but yeah... I sometimes feel like there's something missing. Even if it was just the choice to know who they
were. "
"You don't know what it is like to deal with him! " Caitlin retorted, the stress
evident in her voice. "You don't know what it is like to deal with someone who
tries to control everything you do and call it... protection, who doesn't
listen, who doesn't respect what I want to do for myself. Who doesn't seem to
recognise what I can do and that I have my own independence. Have you ever dealt with someone so obsessed with being strong and in control and what other people might think that he won't trust that sometimes other people might know better about how to live their lives?"
Blair sat there, trying to formulate an answer.
Yes He wanted to say, Yes I've dealt with that person. I do know what it's
like to live with someone like that. To work with someone like that all the
time. You've just described Jim down to his eponymous white socks. And Simon, and most of Major Crimes. And damn me for not realising the reason I put up with it, and not just put up with it but thrive on it. And here's me saying I have no family.
The silence became uncomfortable as he seemed lost in thought with Joe and Irene
exchanging glances over Caitlin's head. It was worrying to see the young man
subside into himself like that withdrawing the energy that seemed to keep them all buoyed up during the experience.
Joe cleared his throat and was just about to speak as Blair looked up again and spoke.
"I do know what you are talking about Caitlin and I will just tell you one
thing. Having someone who care's enough to shout, to try and protect you, to
take an interest in your life so they are bothered by the decisions you make and want to be involved and have an impact on what you do is far better than the alternative. Trust me on that." He held her gaze for a moment even as the phone rang again and he fumbled for his cell.
"Yeah?" he answered still looking at Caitlin, a little distracted.
"How you holding up? " Jim's voice had never been more welcome than it was then.
Well, aside from with Lash. And during the Sunrise Patriot s incident and...
well a whole load of times but it was still pretty welcome none the less.
He knew Jim would hear the lie in a simple, 'Fine', or a flippant remark so he
settled for a semblance of the truth. "I've been better. I think we've all been
better."
But then Jim must know that. He'd be watching and listening somewhere, he was sure of that. He wondered what the call was really about.
"We're going to try and weld the brakes. This guy's blind except for the camera in your car -- stay alert. " Jim's voice had that clipped urgent quality he had when under stress. Not that there was much he could do but it was nice to know Jim was keeping him informed.
"Gotcha. " Blair said, nodding unconsciously and hung up.
Joe was studying him as if trying to read the other half of the conversation in
his face. " So, man, what? " he asked eventually, even as there was a slight
scraping creak above them.
Don't notice, don't notice, just, uh, rats or...something. Nobody say
anything.
Irene looked up sounding alarmed. "What was that? " she asked.
Blair groaned mentally. He should have known Irene, the stickler for detail would not miss a thing. Still, he could try a bluff.
"I didn't hear anything," he replied quizzically tilting his head as if he was
trying to work out if there had been anything at all.
And then cursed mentally as there was a metal scraping noise that he would have to feign permanent hearing loss to convincingly pretend he had not heard. Joe was the one that stood up that time looking up.
"Wait a minute. I'm serious. Somebody's outside," the workman said frowning.
Not that Blair could blame them for saying something. They probably thought it was the terrorist guy, not possible rescuers. He blessed the moment when the phone rang if only to distract them.
"Yeah?" he answered again aware of his fellow hostage's eyes and ears on him at all times.
"The guy's listening in, so make some noise. We just need a few minutes." Jim's voice said urgently and even as he was framing a reply, the connection went dead and he was left talking to a dead line.
" Well, like what? Jim? "
Well that sucked. What the hell was he meant to do? Come up with some
miraculous plan with two seconds notice?
Jim so owed him. At least owed him dinner or tickets to that Latin dance
festival he'd been trying to get him to go to. His arguments had ranged from
'fascinating cultural vibrancy' to 'Hot chicks Jim, c'mon on... dancing with hot
chicks! Like Santana music you know?'
Dancing, singing. Hmm.
"I think we're just getting a bit intense in here," Blair said clearing his
throat. "Need something to lighten up, y'know? Know any songs Joe?"
"Are you kidding? You don't want me starting to sing," Joe protested. "Anyway, what good would that do?"
"Oh...well, I was reading a report in Major Crimes the other day, " Blair
replied, letting the words just tumble from his mouth, his thoughts flashing
ahead of his speech. "And uh, well there were some statistics in there that
people in stressful situations that adopted coping strategies that made them do activities together and lightened things up tended to come out of their
experiences better.... like singing. "
Welcome to Obfuscation City, my friends, population one Blair Sandburg. Enjoy your stay...
"Well, why don't you sing?" Caitlin asked.
Blair laughed , "Hey man, I'm up for it, though I'm better at the dancing. Hey,
we could do both! Come on, all of you guys must know... uh... the Macarena
right? I mean... even if you hate it, you still know it."
Joe laughed. "You've got that right. Even Evie knows that one."
The strange noises were drowned out as Blair animatedly stood. "Well hey, let's see if that report knew what it was talking about. I'm all for proving it right
you know? Caitlin... that's it next to me and Irene, can you do this... well you
can sing. Hey! we can make up better lyrics as well... seeming as how we don't know the proper words anyway," he suggested, rocking up and down on his toes, reaching down to give Joe a lift up, and then Caitlin.
"Man, I can't believe I'm letting you talk me into this," Joe replied even as he
lined up.
"Wait until you hear my singing, then you really won't believe it," Blair
grinned as if they weren't dangling over certain death. "Let's get the tune
going huh? Not so bad if we are all making fools of ourselves! Here we go..."
If there was one thing that Blair was sure of was that no one, not even a
sentinel would hear anything around their rather strained and erratic rendition
of the Macarena in the middle of the elevator.
Welcome to the Sandburg Zone in Obfuscation City he said as he exaggerated his
ineptitude to make them laugh. We are so there, man. Who else can make people do the Macarena in a hostage situation? This has got to top Rafe's story with the dog and the umbrella in handcuffs. Jim, you seriously better be making the most of this. This won't last
Still, even a moment of laughter in the face of death was a triumph, especially
one that might buy their freedom. For that he could afford to lose his dignity
in front of strangers. It wasn't like he used it much anyway.Post third drop
Plummeting downwards, and being bounced around the inside of an elevator held an added dimension of terror when you were holding on to a bomb. When Jim's attempt to stop the drop had failed, Blair instinctively curled around the briefcase to stop it receiving the hard knocks or jolts that might set it off prematurely. It surprised him that he had listened to Joel and taken on board as much as he had. But one simple rule had stuck in there and it was a basic rule of thumb in Joel's specialty.
That practically any bomb could be triggered prematurely by a sharp knock.
And the way his head had thumped against the wall of the elevator - he could
see a dent in it for crying out loud - was definitely the sort of shock that a
briefcase full of C4 should never receive.
Thank God it had only been his head. It was getting used to mild trauma by now.
He should get like, loyalty coupons or something at the ER.
Unfortunately, Joel's call had been less than forthcoming on the eleventh hour
solution of defusing the bomb. Their situation seemed to get even worse by the moment and Blair started to actually think that if they didn't come up with an answer themselves they only had less than fifteen minutes to live.
What resources did they have? It was time to revert to the 'Movie Laws' state of mind and pull the impossible out of the hat. Re-write the damn script if
necessary. Hey, he'd even take a Disney ending right now as they had done the musical number complete with spontaneous dancing. They were coming up on another deadline and Jim was obviously working on something but realistically was he going to get there in time? No. So it was over to them. What resources did he have?
There was a click .
Ah. Darkness. That was something new.
Well... no light for a start. Great. Just when he thought it couldn't get
worse... unless that was their way of dealing with the problem. No power might mean no drop.
"What happened? " Caitlin asked, her voice trembling in the darkness.
"They must have cut the power. Hey, do you have a flashlight in your toolbox?" Blair asked Joe even as he glanced down at the ominous red LED display of the bomb timer. There was something hypnotic about the way it counted down their life expectancy.
"Yeah, yeah. " Joe fumbled for it, and Blair caught a brief flash of the
contents of the box even as it was switched on and passed over. He checked the time and then swore under his breath. Fall in darkness would be an added terror.
He hoped they really had turned off the power and frozen the elevator where it
was. Not that that solved the problem of the bomb but he would take his problems one at a time
"Okay, um... we're coming up on another deadline here, so, uh, let's get ready," he informed the others who were huddling miserably in the darkness.
"When is this going to stop?!" Irene asked of no one in particular. Even Joe
was starting to look show the strain.
"Hold on. Hold on. God... " The large workman exhorted himself as much as any of the others and they all gripped on to whatever they could find to weather the threatened drop.
Blair checked his watch again, clutching the bomb safely and did the count down.
"Okay. Three... Oh... hang on. Two... One. "
Stillness was a wonderful thing. Steady stillness.
Irene let out a held breath. "Nothing happened!"
Joe sounded exultant, the timbre of his voice resonant with hope."Then, they
must have stopped it. Whatever he did to the brakes must have got cut when they pulled the power. Yes. We're going to get out of here!"
"Oh, god." Irene whispered as devout a prayer as heard in any church though
Blair found that the next problem came and landed on him firmly once again.
'Movie Laws' again - Just when it should all be over, there will be one last
final lurch of the monster to drag the heroes back into darkness. In this case
the bomb sitting in his lap. Damn, but he hated it when Life imitated Art.
"Looks like you called it, man. " Joe said turning to see Blair's worried
expression." Come on, man. What's wrong? "
Blair looked at the all and turned the briefcase around so the death watch
counter could be seen by them all as it trickled their lives away to an
expectancy of a mere nine minutes.
"That's what's the matter," he said quietly.
"Jesus Christ!" Joe stared at the briefcase.
"This can't be happening, " Caitlin said sounding more scared than at any other time in their ordeal. "It can't be."
"Look, just... don't panic okay? I've got one of my friends out there who is an
expert on bombs. Defusing them that is," Blair said, fumbling for his cell.
"Give me a moment."
It was a measure of the bond that adversity had forged between them all that
they actually listened long enough for him to get hold of Joel and realise it
was a fruitless endeavour and then try and use the only information they had
about Caitlin's husband being the perpetrator of the crime. It seemed hard and
desperate and if Simon was wrong he was going to feel really guilty. But he had watched Jim enough times to know how to play something. He had the feeling Caitlin might not realise how close to death they were. Might think the bomb was fake, that there would be the last minute reprieve. Be gambling everything on love. And he knew that love was not always something you could rest all your hopes on.
"When's he going to let you off? He asked abruptly, targeting the young woman, much of his sympathy evaporating in those last moments.
"What?" Caitlin avoided looking at him in the eye confirming his instincts.
"Your husband," Blair said flatly, noting Joe frown and Irene stare at them both in the dim light.
"I don't know where you're going with this but my husband doesn't..." Caitlin
began an automatic defence and abruptly Blair felt he had no time for this. He
had to let Jim know where the guy was and Jim could take over being the hero, save the day and as a happy side effect they wouldn't be blown up in an
elevator. Who needed to be a hero anyway? He'd settle for being hero's friend, no hang on, they quite often got killed too - hero's sidekick. Yeah. They might get the shitty breaks but they usually got rescued at the end.
" Caitlin, think about it. He hasn't called here in over 20 minutes and we're
close to another splashdown. I don't know what you two got going on, but he is going to let you off, right?" He pushed again at her resolve sensing a shift in
resistance while Joe and Irene stared obviously thinking he had cracked up
somewhere alone the line.
Caitlin's response proved he hadn't, and that Simons information had been on the money.
"He's going to shut that thing off. He promised me. "
That was the beginning of the end. The sign that she was cracking and unsure. He knew then it was only a matter of time before she said where he was but...
But Blair was beginning to realise that there wasn't going to be time to stop
him.
The glowing red of the digital display broke their lives into pieces. He didn't
want Joe to die, not leaving behind his four kids and his wife Lynn. Or Irene,
indispensable Irene whose bosses would miss her and Harry and Melissa would be bereft without her efficient capability and presence in their life. And Caitlin, naive, desperate Caitlin doing this for the sake of her unborn child now having to face the fact that the husband she had obviously been willing to do this for had essentially plotted her murder.
None of them deserved to die. He was pretty sure that even with his lack of
family and significant others that there was still a space for a Sandburg in the
world, even if it was with a 'family' he had welded together out of an unlikely
situation and association with a certain irascible Sentinel and his 'tribe'. He
hoped.
She gave up Frank's location but hope and realism warred for a moment in Blair's mind and realism won. What were the odds of Jim finding and subduing and deactivating the detonators in less than four minutes? Very slight unless he was close to him in that moment.
He had to think. He had to think. Jim had his senses, his sentinel instincts and
he had...
A talent for being in the wrong place, good hair and a good set of brains.
And a third century BC Chinese good luck charm which he felt like throwing out of the bottom of the damn elevator for all the good it had been doing any of them...
Wait..
Waitwaitwait...
He glanced at the timer again and it all slotted into place, wildly,
exhilaratingly, as one of those idea's that was crazy enough to work.
"3:53," he murmured aloud as his heart rate spiked up with the rush of adrenalin that swept through him. They might just do it. He could remember seeing cutting tools in the tool box in the glimpse of the flashlight. And he knew he could cut a full panel in 3.50 and they were usually larger than what he was thinking about doing. Wouldn't take as long. Might work. WOULD work.
"What the hell are we going to do?" Joe demanded helplessly. Blair couldn't
afford to stop and give reassurance this time. Time was a precious commodity and he turned and thrust the flashlight at Caitlin even as he got out his penknife and started hacking at the floor. Thank god it was cheap carpeting on the floor.
He wondered if Jim felt this clarity, this certainty all the time when he was
working. He was barely aware of what he said and did, only that he ordered them around, not pausing even as he multi-tasked in talking and doing. The sharpness of thought, the adrenalin heightened his own awareness and he catalogued the sensations around him, feeling everyone else seem to slow to a crawl next to his decisiveness. This was what it was like for Jim all the time when he was on alert. It was terrifying and yet addictive. Being so sure was like a rock to cling to when you were being swept away by a river. Everything just worked, it just happened as the force of his determination to get them all out alive dictated his actions.
God, he even took the cutting torch off of Joe. It was the man's job, his
livelihood and yet he was sure he was going to be quicker because once he had been really fast a long time ago. He didn't even know how fast Joe might be and didn't wait to find out.
Hot metal and the cut down glare of the torch through the glasses was all he
was aware of as he worked.
He remembered those summers at the sheet metal plant and how Gil, the crew boss had said every single shift, "Don't blame me if that damn hair of yours catches fire!" until all the crew would chorus it along with him. He remembered the bet between Gil and one of the other shift's crew boss that had lead to a competition between the best cutters on each shift. How surprised he had been to be their representative after the hard time Gil gave him. He remembered asking why him, even after he had won and it should have been evident.
"Because you know that sometimes moving slow is the quickest way to get what you want," he'd replied drinking the beer's the bet had paid for. "You cut smart Blair, and that's the way to win."
He had to cut smart, he had to resist the urge to try and hurry which would let
the metal cool before he actually cut through anything. Sparks flared and burned and he didn't even risk a glance at the counter. That might distract him. Eye on the goal, mind on the task. Yeah. Maybe Jim would do it, maybe not but he couldn't assume that Jim's role in life was going to be to protect his ass. Nice thought, but not likely.
Besides, Jim would kill him if he let these people die.
He wouldn't want to disappoint him or Simon, or any of his friends at Major
Crimes. He couldn't let them down because, like it or not he was part of them,
not just the observer he tried to make out.
The final glowing red hot line started to fade as the heat dissipated and Blair
turned off the torch and stood hastily.
"That should do it," he muttered a little breathlessly. It was going to be close. He lined up on the area and stamped down hard... and nearly disappeared down the shaft with it.
"Got you!" Joe grabbed him even as he was gulping for breath, adrenalin pumping at the near miss over the pit of darkness.
"Give me the case!" Blair reached out for it blindly and caught sight of the
counter at ten seconds as he hurled it down the shaft. "Get back, get as far
away as you can..."
Which wasn't far in an elevator. He'd barely managed to issue the warning before there was a deafening impact of sound and fire roared and clawed up through the hole like a demon trying to escape from hell.
For a moment as fire seemed to fill the elevator car, and as he could smell hair crisping and feel his skin tighten with heat he was afraid it had failed and he had wasted their last chance. But the blaze faded and with it the fear, dread and uncertainty leaving them stunned and reaching for new emotions to express their amazement.
"Sandburg you're a genius!" Joe exclaimed.
Irene sank back. "I love you," she said fervently. "That was incredible. Oh my
god, Blair."
Blair sat down suddenly, dizzy with relief. "All right. Oh God."
That was way too intense. Way too close for all of them. He wondered if Jim had heard the explosion. Of course he had. He'd probably think they were gone or something. Shit, he hoped he didn't zone, or do something stupid. Who was he kidding? This was Jim. One or the other was practically inevitable. Well, he wouldn't want to be in Frank Rachin's shoes right now if he knew his Sentinel. Best to keep talking so that he would realise nothing really bad had happen when he finally tried to tune in on them.
"We're, we're pretty safe now, I'm sure of it," he said, his voice shaking just
a little. He became aware of a low sound in the far corner, the sound of sobs
being suppressed. "Caitlin? You okay?"
"I'm... sorry, I'm so sorry... I didn't know..." Caitlin managed.
"Well you should be," Irene said a little sharply. "I can't believe you were in
on this. We could have been killed! You weren't just risking your life. You were
risking ours and you were risking your baby's!"
"I did this for my baby," Caitlin replied, wiping away her tears with the back
of her hand. "I did this for my baby because I don't have a job, no one would
even take me on knowing I'm pregnant, my husband hasn't worked in nearly a year and I've been trying so hard to make this work. Don't you understand, I tried? I tried to talk to my father but he just thought I was asking all the time for myself, for Frank because... because we were lazy or something. I've tried
everything I could and Frank couldn't get a job anywhere because my father
refused to give him a reference..."
"Look, honey that's as maybe, but the fact remains that the three of us didn't
want to be involved in your life drama," Irene replied a little more
sympathetically.
"This is not the sort of thing you do, even in desperate measures," Joe agreed. "If not for Blair here, all of us wouldn't be able to have this conversation. "
"Look, just... just go easy on her okay?" Blair said as he calmed down. "She
feels responsible and she was in here... and she's just had to realise that the
husband she did all this for basically plotted her murder."
Joe hesitated. "That's a good point, I didn't think of that," he admitted.
"I'm sorry, I didn't consider that either," Irene admitted with a sigh. "I'm
just sort of shaky and my ankle is really hurting now. I'm sorry Caitlin."
"I'll probably go to jail won't I?" Caitlin whispered. "My baby will probably be
born in jail and they'll take him away. I did all this to stop me losing my baby
because I couldn't care for them and now it's even worse."
There was a long period of silence and Blair took a calming breath and forced
himself to optimism. "Hey, now. You've got your Dad on your side again haven't you? I mean, he was willing in the end to compromise to save you right? So, he'll get you a good lawyer and he'll stand by you and things will work out for the best."
She calmed a little at that. "You really think so?"
Blair nodded. "Yeah, yeah I do. Like I said having people who care about you is as good as it gets."
"He's right about that," Joe nodded.
"Your dad has proved that when it come's down to it, you are more important than his pride. That's a pretty big thing right?" Blair continued. "Don't sell
yourself short, he'll welcome you with open arms."
Caitlin took a deep breath. "Even after this?"
Blair shrugged. "Hey, I would. There's nothing that can't be forgiven if people
really care. And I'm sure he does. For all his hard-line stuff, he wired the
money in the end. Put family first."
"There's nothing any of my kids could do that would make me want to turn my back on them," Joe agreed. "I might be disappointed, or angry, but when it came to it, I'd be there."
"Same here," Irene agreed. "Blair has the right of it. Families argue and shout
sometimes but in a pinch they are always there."
Blair nodded, smiling. Yeah, he could say that about Jim, Simon and the others.
They might growl, shout, get irritated but it was usually for his safety and if
he thought about it, no one had really been that concerned over his safety to
even try before. Not since he had gone to Rainer and had essentially been on his
own. Strange how he'd never seen the parallel before but now it was inescapable.
He looked up at a sound above them all, on the roof as the lights flickered and
came back on.
"Looks like rescue is on the way guys," he said giving them a smile and wiping the sooty marks from his face.
Joe leaned back smiling. "You really are good at this you know that Sandburg?
Sure you are a student?"
"Doctoral student. I think Jim would choke on his next wonderburger if you
suggested I was good for anything else," Blair said depreciatingly.
"Like you said Blair, don't sell yourself short. I'm pretty sure the Cascade PD
knows a good thing when they've got one under their noses," Joe reached over and patted him on the shoulder. "Otherwise they're not very good detectives. Thanks man. "
Blair smiled, a little embarrassed. "I didn't do much."
Irene and Joe exchanged glances and started laughing.
"Sure you didn't honey," Irene said sounding amused. "Sure you didn't. Ow!"
The sudden shift of the elevator was enough to disrupt her careful positioning
of her ankle and the hatch open up in the ceiling.
"Any one in there want to get off at the next floor? " a cheery voice asked.
"Only, you'll have to come out through our... ah, executive door here."
"Are you kidding?" Joe called up as he stood. "We're queuing up, here."
"Only, uh... could you drop down a plank or something?" Blair called up. "Some joker went and cut a hole in the floor of this thing."
"That's pretty damn inconvenient. Guess it's just as well there's only the four
of you in there," the worker said and fed down the piece of board.
"Five," Blair said giving Caitlin a smile. "And we'll send those two up first."
"Gotcha," their rescuer replied and with the board in place it wasn't hard to
start their escape.
Blair wondered if his words of optimism would be borne out; for Caitlin's sake
he hoped so. He joked with Joe and Irene about their impending celebrity in the news even as Irene managed to scramble out, and then Joe. The tall maintenance man insisted on helping him up and out of the car and as he turned to make the final climb Blair found himself looking up into the smiling, half worried expression of Joel.
After all their talk in the elevator about who would have someone waiting for them, and the surface impression being he would have the least chance of someone worrying and here he was, being met on the very cusp of rescue. A classic embodiment of those 'Movie Law' principles - which he was now a firm supporter of in his survivor capacity, though he was swearing off there ever being a sequel. Onwards to the happy ever after - and if he played his cards right , to a Jim that was pleased enough to see him that he might spring for those tickets
after all, or maybe a night out with the guys who would probably heckle his
story telling and laugh at how he managed to get into such predicaments while telling him not to be such a wuss over a few bruises.
But they would be there and telling him, and that was the point.
He reached up and grasped the proffered hand that was going to pull him to
safety smiling up at Joel.
Yeah, family was where you found it.