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2020-11-04
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Plague 2: Pestilence

Summary:

While in the Army, James Ellison discovered special enhanced senses. He can hear, see, smell, touch, and taste better than anyone. He is The Sentinel.
NOTE: Sentinel and related characters are tm and © Pet Fly Productions. No infringement of copyright is intended.
classification : pre-slash
Rating: FRT-13 ˜ Fan Rated Suitable For Older Teenagers
Notes: This is the sequel to "Plague." It takes place about three episodes after "The Sentinel By Blair Sandburg." Yes, I know that was the last episode; I chose the time with a purpose. THIS IS MEGAN FREE FIC! Well, there is a reference to her funeral, but in no way does she show up in this story since she is already dead.

Work Text:

Plague 2: Pestilence
by Broken Promise Productions

The funeral for Megan Connor was nice; a good funeral befitting what many thought of as a good police officer. As Jim and Blair were driving home, they started to talk about her short life in Cascade.

"Jim, did you ever think it would end like this?"

"No. I always thought she would be shot in the line of duty, not die because of some disease."

"What if it was me in that tomb instead of her?"

"Chief, I told you. I don't want to talk about any more people dying for any reason, okay?"

"Why are you avoiding this?"

"Why am I avoiding this, Chief? Well, let me think about this. If it wasn't for you, I would be in some insane asylum right now."

"Jim, you can't be serious."

"I'm very serious. You were the only person who let me know I wasn't crazy. I was just some kind of Sentinel. It hurt me at first because I was thinking of myself as a freak, but now I feel good about all of this."

"Yeah, we have been through a lot together."

"And a couple of days ago, I saw you on your deathbed and some miracle happened. You don't know how much I'm thankful you're alive."

"What about Megan?"

"Connor wasn't my ideal buddy. We both knew that. Still, I couldn't see her dying like that. Like I said, she should've died in the--" Jim froze. All he could do was stare as people were fainting again. The Plague, as many people in Cascade called it, had returned.

"Jim, is that what I think it is?"

"I hope not. We need to tell Simon." Jim grabbed his trusty cell phone and called Simon.

"Yeah, Banks," Simon said.

"Simon, it's Jim. We have some fainters at Third and Oak Streets."

"Oh, dear God, no." Simon's words could not have conveyed shock and fear any better.

"Jim," Blair interrupted, "we need to get out of here. Last time I checked, I was almost dead from this."

Ellison got out of the car. "Chief, I want you to drive back to the loft. Lock yourself in and shoot to kill if anyone tries to get in. Got that?"

"What about you, Jim?"

"I have an immunity to this. I'm going to give emergency aid until the EMT's come."

"I don't think this is a good idea. I mean, if I get this at home, I'm all-alone, Jim. Please don't do this to me, man."

Jim looked at his Guide and in the heat of the moment. He gave Blair one of those "everything's OK" looks. Blair still looked scared, which was logical considering he had the disease once before. Jim tried his best to alleviate Sandburg's fears but it was all for naught. He took his Guide and kissed him; it wasn't a kiss filled with passion. It was a kiss goodbye.

"Now I promise I'll see you alive. I have to explain that kiss to you sometime, okay?"

Blair simply nodded his head in response; he was taken by the kiss moment as much as Jim was. Clearly, this was turning into something more than friendship and neither of the two men were completely prepared to handle such an event thrust upon them in the middle of The Plague's return. Jim shut his door and aided the victims while Blair got into the drivers seat of the Sweet Sixty-Nine and drove home hurriedly. The only thing Blair could do was run from The Plague, but we all know about the saying; you can run, but you can't hide.

Blair entered the infamous room at 852 Prospect Street with nothing but worry. He could have the disease again. He watched the news, hoping that this was some kind of isolated incident.

"Over three hundred people have been admitted with The Plague. Doctors have tried to administer the IV drip that was proven effective the last time, but it has failed. This time, there is no cure."

As the news report was coming in, Blair felt the cold hand of The Plague swipe its hand down his back. It scared him and this time it was the scariest moment he had ever had in his life. He turned off the television and laid down on the couch, confident that his Great Protector would come through and save him again. He fell asleep.

Hours later, Jim came in and was aghast at the site he laid his eyes on. His Guide, his Wolf, his quasi-semi-kinda boyfriend like thing was lying on the couch passed out. He rushed to his aid, shaking him to try and wake him up.

"CHIEF! Don't do this again. Don't die on me. SANDBURG, GET UP!"

Blair began to stir. "Jim," he said groggily, "I must have fallen asleep. I'm not dead yet."

Jim was very thankful that his Guide wasn't sick again. He took his protectorate into his arms and began to kiss him, starting at the base of his neck and moving up slowly. Blair thought about what was happening here and quite frankly, it felt very good. He started to kiss Jim back. About twenty kisses later, they met at the lips and began a passionate flurry of lip-locking. Man mouth met man mouth and tongue wrestled tongue for control of the kissing situation.

Blair immediately stopped and looked at Jim after a while. "Jim, this is more than what friends do" he said but after each word he was trying to catch his breath.

"You're right, Chief, I'm sorry."

"Jim, why did we just do that without a care in the world? Like I said, friends don't kiss."

"Maybe we're more than friends? Megan's last words were about us. She said that it doesn't take a Sentinel to figure out what's going on with us."

"We've never dated though, Jim. There was nothing here until today."

"How can we be so sure of that?"

"What do you mean?"

"Sandburg, we live together. We've seen each other half naked. We've seen each other fully naked in the shower of all places. We go to places together. We spend quality time together. We dress up and go to dinner together. We go to work together. We work together, and we're partners on the force. Now you're trying to tell me there's nothing wrong with this picture?"

"And the one thing we haven't done is boff like bunnies," Blair quickly added. Both of them were starting to get the picture that something more than friendship was going on here.

"I'm just saying there's more to this than meets the eye. For all intents and purposes we were dating! It's no wonder you couldn't find a steady girlfriend."

"Jim, that has nothing to do with us. I never even knew you felt that way."

"Well, I didn't either until Connor brought it up. It all makes sense, Sandburg."

"All right, but let's start a little slower, okay? You know, if we're going to date, you can start calling me Blair."

Jim chuckled at that remark. "All, right, Blair. Our first date will have to be at the police station. This Plague smells way too horrible to be a natural occurrence."

"Is this a Sentinel smell thing or a detective smell thing?"

"Let's go, Chief."

When they arrived at the police station, it was almost completely empty. The hallways were barren; the only people in there were the dispatchers. Simon was getting ready to leave the building as Jim and Blair went in.

"Sandburg, Ellison, do your damn job," Simon barked. Clearly, Simon was not in the mood for idle chit chat.

"Simon," Blair said, trying to stay calm in the face of the Plague revival, "What's goin' on?"

"Let me tell it to you this way, Sandburg. I have every officer here either on the streets or in the hospital. I just got word from the doctors that there is no cure! The only thing we can do is keep the peace and die when The Plague calls us and you're wondering what's going on?!"

"Why does this seem like it's more than it seems," Jim asked.

"What do you mean, Jim?"

"It's like this. We just got over a plague and it comes back stronger than ever within one week? This smells like bioengineering."

"You've been reading my biology books," Blair said, trying to add some comedy relief to the tense situation.

"Simon, if we find the source, we'll have the cure."

"Do whatever you can. I didn't hear a thing from you," Simon said. Everyone in Cascade wanted this plague over with once and for all, Simon included.

"Let's look things up, Stud."

"Right behind you, Jim."

As Simon was heading out to "keep the peace" he started to wonder about Jim and Blair. Stud? Ellison never used that pet name before. He shook it off as some sort of private joke and went to patrolling.

As Jim and Blair went further into the station, Blair had to speak up. "Jim? What is this deal with calling me stud now? I thought we decided to go slow."

"Sandburg, how many names do I have for you?"

"There's Chief, Babe, your little guppy, your partner, your associate, and now Stud."

"I thought there was more."

"Jim, it's not like I keep a journal of everything you say."

Ellison hit the elevator call button. "Never mind. Let's start thinking. Who would use germ warfare?"

"What about terrorist groups. This seems like something they would do."

"But someone might be trying to frame one of those groups."

"Is it ever simple with you?"

"Never. I'll have to pull in some favors to get information. I need you to get some information about this disease. Anything will help right now."

The elevator car finally hit the ground floor and opened. Jim and Blair went into the elevator and hit the button for the major crimes floor. It seemed like any other elevator ride for the two of them until suddenly, Blair hit the stop button.

"Jim," the Guide began, "are you sure we're doing the right thing?"

"Yeah, we're going to find the cure for this thing."

"No, I mean about us. We didn't exactly start things off right."

"Sandburg, just because I didn't follow the LuLu tribe's proper mating ritual doesn't mean everything's null and void."

"Jim--"

"We have work to do."

Jim made the elevator return on its proper course for Major Crimes. When they arrived at Major Crimes, they were surprised to find nobody in there. Simon was right about the building being empty. Jim immediately went to his desk to call people while Blair hit the computer files trying to find some information on the plague. After about an hour they got together to review what they had found.

"All right, Chief. You start."

"Well, I had to go into the hospital records before I got a good hit. This thing is completely man-made. Nobody in the medical profession has seen anything like it before. The medical records said this new virus becomes fatal in about one hour. That's a lot of reproduction. Match anything you found?"

"I had to call in every favor just to get a list of groups who could disperse a biotoxin in Cascade. There are hundreds of them on this list. We'll have to review them until we find some kind of match for this...thing."

Onward they went, searching for some kind of hint about this virus. Many foreign powers were in there as were some private organizations. Out of all the groups listed, only one was a solid enough match.

"Hey Jim, look at this. It says here the Militron Group specializes in this kind of thing."

"The what group?"

"The Militron Group. They work with man made diseases to quote 'eradicate the vermin of humanity.'"

"I don't exactly see myself as something that goes squeak, Chief. Let me call this one in and see what I can learn."

The both of them went to the phone, Blair trying to overhear the conversation and Jim actually making the call. It pays to have good connections. Ellison hurriedly dialed the number for his "connection." After a while Jim started to talk.

"Hey it's Ellison again. We found a match on that list. It's something called the Militron Group. Yeah, they seem to be busy here too. Some kind of biotoxin is in Cascade."

After the other end talked for a little while, Jim's eyes started to grow. "Yeah, the thing here is just like that. How did you know?"

The person gave him a little explanation and after that apparently was hanging up because Jim said "bye."

"Jim, what's going on?"

"It looks like this group has been busy. Three plagues in three months. My friend told me they have to be somewhere in Cascade to make it."

"Whoa, the whole city is quarantined. They're still here. They have to be."

"Let's think then. If we were viruses, where could we be made?"

"At the hospital, at the university, Cascade Bio, there's tons of choices."

"What about one that can allow for a test to be done that went horribly wrong? Maybe that was what happened with the first disease. The test got out of control and infected the city before it had a chance to be perfected."

"Cascade Bio is the only group here that uses human subjects, but they're all cadavers."

"It's still our best lead. Let's go."

With that, they got into the Ford and went to Cascade Bio. When they arrived, there seemed to be nobody there. They got out of the truck and began to look around.

"Jim, this looks like a dead end."

"Sandburg, I don't think so. I can hear someone in that building."

Both of them inched ever so cautiously toward the building. When they finally got to the front door, Jim tried to open it. He was greeted instantly by an electric shock so powerful it knocked him out. Blair went to see if his Sentinel was fine, but he was met by a hit to the back of his head. Cascade's hope has fallen.

When they woke up, they were in this weird room, weird for the lack of a better term. There were torches and some kind of throne upon which someone was sitting. Who was sitting there, they did not know. Jim tried to look but was quickly smacked by a guard for trying to gaze at their leader.

"I thought the Intelligence Agency would try to stop me. You must be new agents." It was clearly a man's voice but it was so garbled, like something had taken its toll on him.

"I don't know what you're talking about," Jim began. "We're with the Cascade PD."

"Wonderful," the man continued, "I never would have guessed the police here would figure me out. We have been working for over one thousand years trying to rid this planet of your scum. Our prior methods were through war, but now we have moved into disease creation. We are going to destroy the human race quickly and effectively with no environmental strain."

"Who are you," Blair asked. Curiosity had obviously gotten the better of him.

"You may call me the Militron. I head this group and I have since Richard Nixon was the president here. It seems we have found two new test subjects. Take them to the lab."

They struggled and strained but their harnesses would not give way as they were dragged into the laboratory. Many people were at work, undoubtedly making new and deadlier viruses. They were tied up to a couple of poles and prepared for injection.

"We have two new biotoxins to test out. Good thing we have two subjects. Would hate to waste them both on just one," the scientist said with a cruel grin shining across his wicked intentions. He filled up the syringe and injected Jim first; he howled is pain and continued to strain after it was injected. Blair was next; his syringe was from a different bottle. This one didn't seem to hurt at all but the effects would come later.

"Let them go after ten minutes, but don't let them leave. The Militron would not be pleased if they did." It must be another fast acting toxin.

"Wait," Jim began, "why did this disease hit Cascade twice?"

"Cascade's first encounter was entirely by accident. One of our subjects escaped and you received a sneak preview."

"What did you inject us with?"

"You'll see when it hits you."

Minutes passed and they seemed like hours. Blair couldn't help but think what they injected him with. After the eternity of time passed, he began to feel a little woozy. Maybe it was the hallmark of this group's diseases. Hairy Blairy tried to struggle but all it got him was bloody wrists. He looked a little closer and then found out he wasn't bleeding, at least not from the outside. This bleeding was internal.

Jim was finally able to wiggle his hands out of their bindings and this caught the attention of the guards. The Shining Knight of Cascade swung his arms wildly and found their target with one of the guards. He tripped into the other guard and they fell onto a table full of beakers. Not knowing what they fell onto, they rushed to get the technicians in the small hope that there is a cure. Jim finished releasing himself and then got to Blair. He began to untie him but not without touching Blair; this in turn caused more "red spots" of internal bleeding to show up.

"Jim, if you touch me I bleed. Be careful."

"This is no time for jokes, Sandburg."

"Jim, I'm serious! Whatever this thing is makes me bleed every time I touch something. I'm already bleeding at the hands and waist! Wait--Jim, what's on your neck?"

Ellison checked to see what was wrong. There was some kind of growth there and it scared him. He wasn't immune to this disease, but he had to free his partner before they could get to safety. After freeing Blair, he called Simon; it was a good thing nobody checked for a phone.

"Banks."

"It's Jim. Get everyone you can to Cascade Bio. We've found the plague makers."

"Jim, we only have sixteen people left on the force! Everyone else is either in the hospital, on the streets suffering, or dead! What the hell kind of force can patrol and go there?!"

"If you don't come, everyone in Cascade will die."

"Jim, I'll see what I can do."

Ellison hung up and handed the phone to Blair. By this time the growth had spread to cover about half of his face. The phone handoff made Blair bleed some more. They began to make their way out of the building. Along the way, Blair managed to hit a tripping spot, causing him to fall face first onto the floor. The shattering blow caused him to cry in pain.

"Chief, get up. We have to get out of here."

"Jim, I can't go. It hurts, man. It hurts to move."

"I'll carry you then."

"No! That'll only make me bleed more. Just go. I'll be all right."

Jim couldn't leave his Guide alone to face these...these monsters! He silently stayed by his Guide's side, fending off anyone who came close to them while the growth took over his left arm in addition to his face. He could barely see, his sense of smell was inhibited, his hearing was almost shot, but he stayed to protect Blair. During this time, the Militron approached them.

"I see my new toxins are very effective. However, I must take my leave. We overheard your little conversation to Simon Banks. The cures to the diseases are in the building. In the meantime, here are your cures. The one I am giving you now is yours." He handed Jim a syringe with a blue gel in it.

"This is for the other," The Militron said, giving Jim an orange vial. "We will exterminate you, but slowly and surely. Your fast extinction would be too much stress for the environment."

"Glad to see you care," Jim replied.

"I don't. At least, not for you. We shall meet again." The Militron left with as much grandeur as his initial meeting with them.

Jim started to get light headed. The swelling has begun to hit his throat, thus cutting off his breathing. Before he could get the needle in him, his throat completely swelled up. Without a supply of air, he still managed to inject himself and Blair before passing out.

Detective James Ellison woke up in a haze, unsure of whether or not this has all taken place. He was definitely in a hospital bed and Blair was definitely in the other one. Captain Banks walked in to see how the both of them were doing.

"Simon," Jim said, "how many survived?"

"Seventeen thousand out of over four million. The force is down to nine, counting you and me. We have counties, staties, and even the feds in here to help us out."

"When can I report back for duty?"

"Jim, you and Blair have the month off. You need to recover."

"Simon, there's only nine of us."

"And you're not allowed out of this hospital for a month. They want to examine you and Sandburg. Now lay down, shut up, and enjoy the nurses before you give me a heart attack!"

As Simon left, Jim knew he wouldn't be enjoying the nurses unless they looked exactly like Blair. He knew from the moment he stood guard over him for the second time there was something special here and he was going to enjoy every minute of his Guide/Wolf/quasi-semi-kinda boyfriend like thing from now on.

As Blair started to awaken he looked around and saw Ellison in the next bed. He immediately asked him, "Jim, was this a dream?"

"I wish it was, Babe. I wish it was."

end