SquidgeWorld Archive

Stuck

By Chopecdar

(Dar Hutson Scally)

Late afternoon had crept up on him and he realized he had missed lunch and was getting hungry. Maybe a diet soda would hold him until dinner. He had lost so much weight over the past year, he didn't want to succumb to the urge to hit the snack machine. He knew how quickly the pounds could creep back on if he wasn't careful.

As he walked to the break room, Joel decided he would allow himself half a bag of pretzels and a diet soda. That should calm the hungries and allow him to wait long enough to get a nutritious low fat dinner. Stepping into the break room, he was surprised to see Blair Sandburg kneeling on the floor in front of the drink machine. He looked guiltily up at him as he walked in.

It took only a moment for Joel to realize that Blair was in a very compromising position here. His arm was obviously stuck inside the drink machine. He choked back a laugh and tried to paste a sympathetic look on his face.

"Thirsty, Sandburg?" Joel said. "You know, I would have given you the change to get a drink. You only had to ask."

"I had the money!" Blair said, a tinge of anger coming through in his voice. "I fed the money to this hungry drink machine and it failed to give me the mango juice that I paid for. So, I reached up to try to jiggle it loose and now this stupid machine wants to eat my arm too."

"I'm sorry, Blair. Can't you pull your arm back out?" Joel asked.

Blair looked at him. "If I could pull my arm out do you think I'd still be here?" Blair asked.

"Do you want me to call somebody?" Joel asked.

A shocked look came over Blair's face. "NO!" He said. "I'd rather have you guard the door while I keep trying to get loose.

Don't let anybody else in."

"I can do that. But how are you going to get loose?" Joel asked, as he walked over and leaned against the door.

"I don't know. Maybe if I just keep trying, I'll just get loose." Blair said, moving his arm carefully. He grimaced and turned his face away from Joel as he felt the glass cut into his wrist again. The mango juice bottle had apparently broken as it dropped and somehow when he had put his hand up to reach for it, a big jagged piece of the glass had slipped down under his hand, so now every time he tried to slide his arm down to get it out, the glass was cutting into his wrist or hand.

Jim Ellison looked up from his desk, wondering what was taking his partner so long. He had gone to get himself a drink from the break room 35 minutes ago. What could be taking so long? He looked back down at his half finished report. He was tired. It was getting late and he was ready to go home and get some dinner.

He looked back up toward the door. No sign of Blair. He closed his eyes and concentrated on his hearing, listening intently for any sound coming from the direction of the break room. Filtering out the hum of the snack machines, he tuned into two heartbeats and breathing. One of those heartbeats he could have picked out of a crowd. But there was something a little off.

What was it? He focused on the breathing. It was a little quicker than normal and had a strained sound to it. The sound of someone who was upset or scared.

The thought had barely entered his brain before he was on his feet and headed toward the break room. Someone was in there with him. Jim pulled his gun out and had it ready as he approached. The door was shut and he could sense someone leaning up against it. He gently turned the knob and threw his weight against the door, hoping to surprise whoever was trying to keep it shut. The door swung open and he watched as Joel Taggert fell back against the table and slid to the floor.

"Oh, God, I'm sorry Joel. Are you all right?" Jim asked helping Joel to his feet.

"It's okay, Jim. I'm fine." Joel said, glancing over toward Blair.

Jim followed his eyes and saw Blair. At first glance it looked like a giant beast had swallowed his arm up to the elbow.

It would have been quite a hilarious sight, if it wasn't for the look on Blair's face. As much as he was trying to stay calm and ignore it, Jim could tell that his guide was in pain. He could almost feel his protector instincts come over him, like a blanket covering him.

Blair took another calming breath, trying to relax. He knew part of his problem was that he had tensed up as soon as he had realized he was in trouble. This was embarrassing.

Jim heard the elevator door slide open as he walked into the break room. He looked down at his partner, huddled awkwardly in front of the juice machine.

"Chief, are you all right?" Jim kneeled next to him, taking a closer look at the situation.

Blair nodded. "I'm just stuck. I know it's stupid, but my mango juice didn't come down and I didn't have any more change and I was pissed. I guess I'm tired. But I stuck my hand up there trying to reach it, cause I just knew it was stuck part way down and if I could just reach up and jiggle it, I figured it would come loose."

Jim looked at the narrow space where Blair's arm disappeared at the elbow. He didn't know how he had managed to get his arm in that little space in the first place.

"How are you stuck in there? I mean what's holding you?" He asked, thinking that if he could put his arm in there, he should be able to pull it back out the same way.

Blair fidgeted nervously and Jim realized he was looking kind of pale. Gradually, he opened all of his senses and was hit suddenly with the overwhelming smell of blood. He could feel the adrenalin stirring through his body, pushing him to DO SOMETHING NOW. His guide was in danger. His guide was bleeding. He swallowed and forced himself to calm down.

This was not a situation where excess adrenalin was going to be of any help. There were no bad guys here to deal with.

How do you fight against a machine?

His rational city detective brain took over and he bounded over to the phone on the other side of the room.

"What are you doing?" Blair demanded in a fearful voice.

"I'm calling 911." Jim answered.

"But Jiiiim. If you call them, everybody's going to hear about this."

"And bleeding to death would be preferable?" Jim asked.

"I'm not bleeding to death. It's just a scratch. The juice bottle broke." Blair said.

Jim was just hanging up after requesting help from 911. He could imagine the call going out. It would go out as a rescue.

They'd probably say something like 'Man trapped in a soda machine'. It would have been comical. He'd be having a good laugh over it himself, if it weren't for the blood.

The break room door opened and Henry Brown walked in, stopping abruptly when he saw what was going on. His first instinct was to laugh, but then he saw the pale hurt look on Blair's face and it struck him that this was not funny.

"Hey, you okay Hairboy?"

Blair smiled, relieved that the expected teasing didn't appear to be coming. "Yeah, I'm fine. It's okay. You can laugh if you need to. I mean I know this is pretty funny looking."

Henry smiled but didn't laugh. He looked to Jim. "Can't you get him out?"

"I called 911. Maybe you could make sure they find us okay?" Jim said.

"Sure, no problem. I'll go down and wait for them." Henry said, walking out.

"Man, this is sooo stupid." Blair groaned. "I've done some stupid things in my life, but man this really tops it all. You would think I'd know better than to try to beat a machine." He turned, trying to find a comfortable position, and hissed in pain again.

Glass was digging into his wrist whenever he moved the wrong way.

An arm on his shoulder drew his attention. Jim looked at his face. He tried to mask the pain, but his Sentinel could see right through him.

"Try to stay still." Jim said. "We can't see what's happening in there."

He got up close to the opening and tried to stretch his vision but the angle was wrong and there was just no way he could see up to where Blair's hand was caught.

"Jim, man, I don't know how they're going to get me out of this. I'm really stuck." Blair said. He could feel the blood dripping down his hand. "There are pieces of that glass bottle wedged in there. Whenever I try to move I get cut."

Jim eyed the drink machine. "We'll take it apart if we have to. Just try to stay still, okay?"

Blair nodded.

"Anything I can do, Jim?" Joel asked.

Jim nodded. "Maybe you could go tell Simon what's going on. See if he can contact the vending company to have someone come out here with the key to this machine. Then come back and guard the door until the rescue squad gets here?"

"Sure, no problem." Joel walked out, closing the door gently behind him.

Jim turned back to his guide, who was trying to lean back against the drink machine while still kneeling and not twisting his arm at the same time.

"How're you doing there, Chief?" Jim asked, looking around the room.

"I'd be better if I could sit without cutting my arm off." Blair answered.

Jim looked around the room, spotting an unopened box of papertowels on the floor by the counter. It looked to be just about the right height. He went over and picked it up, setting it on the floor next to his guide.

"Let's try having you sit on this. See if it's the right height." Jim said.

Blair moved as Jim scooted the box up against the machine. Blair carefully sat down on it, leaning his side against the machine. This was a bit more comfortable. His knees had not been too happy with kneeling on the floor for so long. He looked up at the clock. It had been almost an hour now that he had been stuck here.

"Thanks, Jim, and thanks for not laughing at me." Blair said as he leaning his head against the machine and tried to relax.

Jim looked at him. "This may not be the brightest thing you've ever done in your life, Chief, but you're hurt. How could I think that was something to laugh about?"

"I just feel so stupid." Blair said. "And I'm still thirsty."

"I can help you with that. " Jim said, getting a cup of water and bringing it over for him to sip. He took a couple of swallows, then gave it back, not wanting to fill his stomach up too much while he was upset. He knew from past experience that he was better off having a pretty much empty stomach when he got stressed, less in there to come back up when the nausea hit.

Thinking about it made him take a couple of deep breaths trying to ward it off. The last thing he needed to do now was throw up in front of a rescue team. With that thought, he realized he heard them coming.

John Tolliver and Randy Whendt got off the elevator and were greeted by a tall black man. "Hi, I'm Captain Simon Banks, right this way."

He led them to a break room at the end of the hall. They had talked on the way over, wondering how this person had gotten himself stuck in a drink machine. John had told him about a similar call he had responded to a few years ago at Rainier University, but that guy had been an intoxicated student. It had been in a frat house in the middle of a party and the kid hadn't turned out to really be stuck. He just couldn't seem to remember how to bend his arm to get it back out and the beer that he was guzzling with his other hand while he waited for help hadn't been much help.

This one had to be different. It was the middle of the day and inside a police building. They didn't exactly have drunks running around the police building.

John pushed the door open and held it for his partner. As they stepped in, they set their equipment down on the floor and went to assess the situation.

Jim glanced over to the doorway as Simon came in and got his first look at the problem.

Blair looked at the paramedics as they walked into the room. Then he turned his embarrassed expression away and stared down at the floor. One of those guys looked familiar and he didn't want to think about why.

"Hi, my name is Randy and this is my partner, John." The younger guy said, kneeling down next to Blair.

"Hi." Blair said quietly.

"Can you move your arm at all?" Randy asked.

"No, the glass bottle broke and there's a piece of it sitting in there. Every time I try to move I get cut."

Randy pulled a flashlight out of his box and a small square mirror from his pocket. Then he wedged the flashlight into the space next to Blair's arm and held the mirror next to it. This gave him a view of the inside of the machine. He could see how Blair's arm was stuck. There were two jagged glass shards caught in the machine mechanism. Blair's arm was between them.

He could see several gashes in his wrist and blood running from them. The sleeve of his flannel shirt was already soaked halfway down his arm.

"Okay." Randy said, pulling the mirror out and sliding it into his shirt pocket. "We need to get some vitals here. He's bleeding from several cuts."

John nodded, getting out his equipment. Moving over to get Blair's blood pressure, he glanced up at his patient, quickly turning his head away to suppress a smirk. He couldn't believe it.

"Sandburg, right?" John asked.

Blair nodded, smiling nervously.

"Don't worry. You'll be okay." John said, letting Blair know he wasn't going to say anything.

They checked blood pressure, pulse and respiration and Randy got on the line with Cascade General Emergency Center.

They would have a doctor on line as long as they were on the scene. The first thing the doctor authorized after hearing the vitals was having them set up an IV, which John did.

"Do you have any way to reach the vending company?" Randy asked, looking back at Simon and Jim.

"I called them. They're sending their man over with the key, but he's about an hour away." Simon said.

John looked up from where he had just hung the iv bag from a chair back which he had scooted over next to Blair. Randy caught his look and turned back to Jim and Simon.

"We're going to have to break into it." He said, pulling out his radio.

"My Captain is downstairs with the rest of the crew waiting to see if we need them. I'll just call down and let him know what we need." Randy explained.

As Randy requested tools and manpower over the radio, Jim crouched beside Blair, not liking the pale nervous look on his face.

"Doing okay, Chief?" He asked touching his guide's shoulder briefly.

Blair looked at Jim and smiled. "I'm okay. Don't worry."

He fidgeted on the box he was sitting on. Suddenly, the box shifted and Blair slipped off, crying out as his arm shifted in the claws of the drink machine. Jim reached over to steady him, cradling his upper body. With a grunt, Blair passed out.

John moved into position to help support Blair, while Randy checked his pulse again.

Jim tensed as the smell of blood got stronger and he saw it soaking into the shoulder of Blair's shirt and starting to spread down his chest.

At that moment, several firefighters came in with tools. Jim, focused on his unconscious guide, was vaguely aware of them working on prying the machine open.

Simon and Joel huddled worriedly on the other side of the room, giving the rescue team room to work.

Within a few minutes, the machine door popped open. Randy grabbed it before it moved more than a few inches.

"Okay." Randy said. "You need to slowly move him as I open the door wider. Keep his position in relation to the door as even as possible until I can get behind it and move the glass away."

When he was finally released from the clutches of the vending machine, they stretched him out on the floor and peeled his shirt sleeve away to check the damage.

Jim kept a hand on Blair's shoulder, feeling the need for the connection, and cursed at the damage. Only Blair could manage to get hurt like this in the safety of the police building.

Numerous cuts lined his hand and arm, but the worst were several larger gashes in his wrist. It looked almost like some wild animal had attacked him.

The paramedics checked his vitals again and checked in with the hospital. Jim watched

Blair, monitoring his heartbeat and breathing. The paramedics had tightly wrapped the bleeding wrist and it seemed the blood flow had stopped or at least greatly slowed down.

Jim took a deep breath, finally feeling it was safe to relax. His guide was going to be okay. For a moment there, he hadn't been sure.

A hand stroking his forehead pulled him up from the depths and he forced his eyes open.

"It's okay, Chief, we're in an ambulance, on the way to the hospital. You're going to be all right." Jim's voice spoke soothingly.

Blair turned his head toward the voice, seeing his partner sitting by his side.

"Hey, Jim." He said, frowning. "I'm sorry."

"Sorry for what, Chief?" Jim asked.

"You know, for doing something so stupid." Blair said. "You're going to be hearing about this for weeks, you know. Poor Ellison, stuck with such a stupid partner. Isn't even safe to leave unattended in the police station."

Jim grimaced, realizing how insecure his friend and partner still was. He had been trying so hard to make sure Blair knew how important he was to him. He knew he had made mistakes in the past, mistakes that had cost his guide major assault to his self-esteem. But he had been trying to make up for it and had thought he had made major progress in the past six months since Blair had become his official partner. Now he knew he was going to have to work harder. Maybe it was just going to take more time, but he knew eventually, Blair would begin to feel better about himself and his place in Jim's life. For now, he would just have to keep providing reassurance.

"Chief." He began. "Blair, you are not stupid. This was an accident. It could have happened to anybody. You are my partner.

Don't you have any respect at all for my opinion?"

"Well, yeah, Jim, but."

"No buts. If I say you're the best partner I could dream of having, the best friend I could ever want, and the most intelligent person I have ever known, are you going to tell me I'm wrong?"

Blair stared into his sentinel's eyes and saw the firm belief in them. He did respect Jim's opinion. He knew his sentinel with his enhanced senses could be extremely perceptive when it came to assessing other people. Maybe he wasn't stupid. Even the most intelligent person was entitled to make a stupid mistake once in awhile weren't they?

He smiled suddenly, then started laughing, noticing that John was sitting beside Jim, trying not to look like he was paying any attention to the conversation.

"Thanks, Jim." Blair said. "I gotta tell you though, this isn't the first time I've had my arm stuck in a vending machine."

Blair laughed and looked at John, who was smiling up at him. Jim looked at John and then back at Blair again.

"Well, I guess you're going to have to tell me that story while we spend the evening in the emergency room." Jim said.

Blair frowned. "Aw, man. I hate hospitals."

Jim smiled and put his hand on Blair's shoulder, squeezing gently. "But they love you, Chief."

Blair rolled his eyes and sent up a little prayer that the emergency room wasn't too busy today and another one thanking God for sending him his own sentinel, protector, best friend, to stick by him and help him get through these little moments in his life.

The End