A Time To Live

by Stormwolf Dawn

Rating PG

Summary: After having been missing for several years Jim comes home with a few surprises in tow

A Time To Live

by Stormwolf Dawn

Jim knelt down behind the metal table, trying to ignore the smoke that irritated his sinuses. Clutching him tightly, the five year old girl with blonde hair cried softly into his chest. Jim looked over at the tall blonde woman who crouched beside him. In her hand was a thirty-eight special.

"Alex, we have to get out of here. The smoke is getting to too thick." Jim said to Alex Barnes.

"Take her out of here. I'll hold them off. Please, Jim.' Alex pleaded as she ducked from a bullet that hit the desk. Their heightened senses told them that the guards were getting closer.

"Alex..." Jim began.

"Please, Jim. She's important. get her out of here. I can take care of myself."

The girl was already beginning to cough from the smoke.

"Alright, " JIm nodded.

Alex leaned over and kissed the little girl's head, then kissed Jim's lips, "Go." she whispered sentinel soft.

Jim took a blanket and wrapped it around the little girl who was wearing "Lion King" pajamas. Standing up on bare feet, Jim raced toward a window while Alex covered him firing the gun at their assailants. With her senses she saw them clearly enough that she killed with each shot.

Jim ducked down and leaped through the window shattering the glass. Ignoring the pain of sharp glass cutting his bare feet by "dialing" down the pain, Jim ran toward the fence that surrounded the hidden compound. His senses told him that the guards and scientists were too busy either dealing with the massive fires in several of the buildings or Alex to notice his escape. throwing the blanket over the razor wire, Jim turned his attention to the little girl.

"Angie, honey, I need you to get on my back.' Jim said. The little girl looked at him with light blue eyes, nodded, and clambered around until she was on his back, little arms clasped around his neck. Jim quickly climbed up the fence and managed to only receive a few cuts from the razor wire thanks to the heavy blanket. Climbing down on the other side, Jim dropped the rest of the way to the ground, and opened his senses searching for enemies. Satisfied that no one was close, Jim brought the girls back to his chest, and ran into the forest on wounded feet.

Jim ran until exhaustion and pain brought him to his knees. He knew that he had run at least five miles. Jim sat down and leaned back against a tree. His senses told him that no one was tracking him. During the five mile run he had heard three explosions. He wondered if Alex was still alive. Angie, the little girl, was asleep in his arms. He had brought the blanket, so she was wrapped up in it. Jim wore only black silk pajamas. The only thing he had worn for the past six years, while he had been held prisoner in the secret compound where scientists had tested his abilities in sometimes painful and torturous ways. Jim laid Angie on the ground beside him. Using his sentinel sight, Jim managed to remove all the little pieces of glass from his bleeding feet, then tearing off a sleeve from his pajama top, he used the silk to wrap his feet to stop the bleeding. Once that was done, Jim relaxed closing his eyes, but keeping a sensory net out in a two mile radius.

He awoke a few hours later when angie sat up. Opening his eyes, Jim looked down at her smiling. Angie rubbed her eyes sleepily, and smiled back.

"Good morning, sweetheart." Jim said.

"Morning, Daddy." Angie answered back happily.

"I know your probably hungry, but we have to keep moving." Jim continued.

"So the bad men can't find us?"

"Yes, sweetie. Are you ready?"

Angie nodded and held out her arms. Jim stood up on sore feet and picked up his daughter. Dialing the pain down, Jim broke into a grounding eating pace that he could keep up for hours.

(AUTHOR'S NOTE: I don't know anything about Denver or the surrounding area, though I have been to Colorado. So don't get pissed if I get it wrong.)

About midday Jim made it to a highway. Staying hidden among the trees, Jim followed the highway moving north. the first sign he saw said that Denver was twenty-five miles. Jim breathed in a sigh of relief.

He reached the outskirts of the city when the sun was beginning to set. The lack of light did not hinder the two sentinels, and Jim found a pay phone inside a covered bus stop. Sitting Angie on the bench, Jim then picked up the reciever. Dialing collect Jim called Simon Banks' house, hoping Simon was still living there.

"Banks!"

The familiar computer operator's voice began its recorded sentence. The charges were accepted.

"Who the hell are you?" Banks exploded.

Wincing, Jim answered, "Simon, its me, Jim."

"Jim? It can't be! Jim Ellison is dead!"

"Simon is the 'neo-hippy flower child with time on his hands now that the Dead have broken up', still around?"

"My god! Jim! Where the hell are you?"

"Denver, Coorado. Simon can you call the Denver PD and have them pick me up. I'm at..." Jim read the streets signs.

"Hell, yes, I can. I'll be on a plane as soon as I can. I'll bring sandburg if I have to drag him by his ear."

"He's alright?" Jim asked.

"He held together. Stay where you are." Simon ordered.

"Like I got a choice." They hung up and Jim sat down beside Angie, who looked up at him.

"I'm hungry, Daddy." She said with no hint of a whine in her voice.

"I know, honey. So am I, but we have to wait for the police car."

"Alright."

About half an hour later a patrol car stopped at the bus stop and two uniformed officers stepped out. Using his senses, Jim listened to their breathing and heart rate. There was no hint of apprehension, nervousness or fear coming from the officers. Jim picked up Angie and walked out of the covered bus stop and over to the officers.

"Detective Ellison?" One of the officers said.

"Yes," Jim answered.

"We were sent to take you to the station, but perhaps a hospital would be a better idea." One of the officer's said looking at Jim's hastily bandaged feet and general appearance.

"No need, officer Banning, " Jim read the name tag without thinking. It was too dark to read anything. "the station is just fine." The officer looked at each other, but they had their orders. they nodded and Banning opened the back door. Jim climbed in with Angie in his arms. The officer shut the door then joined his partner in front. *************

At the station Jim and Angie were settled in the Captain's office. They had been given a chance to shower. Jim was now dressed in Denver PD sweats, and Angie was wearing a Denver PD sweatshirt, and some child sweat pants that a female officer had brought her. Jim had used the first aid kit the captain had brought him and doctored the cuts on his feet. Now they were seated on the leather couch in the office eating donuts that were brought to them. While Jim drank coffee with his donuts, Angie had chocolate milk that the female officer, Lang, brought.

Angie tried her first donut, a chocolate glazed donut, and found that she loved donuts, or so she happily told her father. Jim smiled at her and ended up letting her eat three donuts. He himself ate three as well, and drank coffee for the first time in six years. The captain came in and handed Jim three hundred dollars.

"This was wired to you from a Blair Sandburg. I can have an officer take you to buy some clothes, if you want. Your captain will be here in a few hours. I'm having an officer pick him up."

"Sounds good. Thanks for all your help."

"Its nothing. Just helping out a fellow officer in need." The captain waved it off.

Though the attendant looked at him funny, Jim bought some silk boxers, jeans, T-shirt, socks and sneakers for himself. Angie picked out her own clothes with the help of Officer Lang. Jim was not at all surprised to see that Angie had picked out a shirt and pants suit with Simba all over them. The scientists had not let them watch any TV, but they had allowed some movie privileges All of them had been cartoons, for Angie's sake, and "Lion King" had been her absolute favorite. He found Angie petting a stuffed Simba. Though she never asked for it, mostly because she had been taught all her life by those damn scientists never to ask for anything, Jim bought the stuffed lion and Angie hugged it happily.

"Thank you, Daddy." She said as she attempted to squeeze the stuffing out of Simba.

"Your welcome, sweetheart."

On the way to the station, they stopped for Chinese takeout. At the compound, they had only been fed nutritionally balanced food, and Jim was looking forward to a little grease in his diet.

The friend rice tasted like ambrosia to the greased starved sentinel, and Angie was having fun with the fortune cookies.

Suddenly Jim lifted his head as a familiar sound reached his ears. Walking into the room, Blair Sandburg and Simon Banks stared in shock at the resurrected detective.

Jim stood up, and Blair lost control as he flung himself at his sentinel, hugging Jim tightly tears filling his eyes. Simon came over and grasped Jim's shoulder as the sentinel hugged Blair to him.

"My god, you're alive. You're alive!" Blair whispered as he attempted to squeeze his sentinel flat.

When they pulled back what seemed an eternity later, they all sat down. Angie crawled into her father's lap.

"Daddy, are you crying?" Angie asked.

Simon's and Blair's eyes widened, mouths dropping in shock.

"Yes, sweetheart." Jim answered his daughter.

"Are you sad?"

"No, honey. In fact I am very happy."

"That's good." She said satisfied. She turned shyly in her father's lap, Simba hugged to her chest, and looked at the new visitors. She could hear their hearts pounding fast, and smell Simon's cigars. Simon and Blair looked at each other, then looked at Jim.

"Jim, what happened. Where have you been?" Simon asked.

"At a facility about forty miles from Denver. No point in going out there now. the fire destroyed most of it. The survivors probably cleared out, so there will be no one to arrest."

"And her?" Blair nodded in Angie's direction. Jim looked at his daughter.

"Angie, my friends and I are going to talk outside. I want you to stay here." Jim said.

Angie climbed out of her father's lap, "Okay, daddy."

They stood up and walked into an interrogation room after Jim asked Officer Lang to watch angie.

"She's not your daughter, right? I mean she just calls you daddy, right?" Blair figured.

"No. She is my daughter. They wanted a sentinel to raise and train to be the perfect assassin."

"My God!" Simon exclaimed.

"They let her spend time with me, let her know that I was her father, so that I could help her with her senses."

"So she's a full sentinel?" Blair asked.

"Yeah, all five senses." Jim said then hesitated before saying, "Just like her parents."

"Parents? You did say parents, didn't you Jim?" Blair asked

"Who is her mother?" Simon asked.

Jim looked at Blair, then lowered his head saying, "Alex Barnes."

Blair thought that he was going to be sick. "That bitch! She had you taken so..."

Jim interrupted, "No! Chief, she was a prisoner too. Worse, they were the ones that manipulated her. they used drugs on her to try and control her. The drugs interacted badly and drove her insane. She escaped from them, but turned into a criminal. whatever stuff she took at the temple restarted her somehow. It took awhile to kick in right. After she came out of the catatonic state she was in. By then they had already taken her from the psych facility."

"They used both of you. what did they do, artificial insemination, in vitro? god! How many women did they impregnate." Blair gasped at the implications.

Jim lowered his head again. "They didn't use artificial means, Chief." Jim said quietly.

Shocked silence filled the room.

"What..." Blair began, but couldn't ask.

"That weird attraction we had was still there" He licked his lips hesitating, "They couldn't drug me, because I had to be able to....perform. So they tied me to a table, then drugged Alex. the drugs took away what little control she had over the mating instincts and...well you can guess the rest. They did this several times until alex became pregnant. They stopped experimenting on her when she became pregnant." Blair reached out and placed a comforting hand on his sentinel's shoulder. "After she got pregnant, they kept us in the same room. When she got morning sickness, I helped her. took care of her and the baby. Whenever they would bring me back from a ...session...then alex would take care of me. I helped her learn to control her senses like you had taught me, Chief."

"Did you fall in love?" Blair asked.

"I'm sorry, Blair. No, I don't know, Chief. After Angie was born, we would hold each other, kiss. We even made love a few times. She never got pregnant again though. they didn't want her to so they put her on birth control shots. Together we taught Angie how to control her senses."

"Angie?"

"Angela Grace Ellison." Jim answered.

"Where is Alex." Simon asked.

"We started some fires after we managed to escape from our cell. I didn't know they were keeping napalm at the place. The fires spread pretty fast. We were pinned down. Alex had a gun. She told me to get angie out of there. She held them off with the gun, while I got angie away from there. I heard some explosions after we got out. I don't know if she is still alive."

After their discussion, the department gave them a ride to a hotel. They rented a couple of rooms for the night. Jim had introduced Angie to Simon and Blair and the girl had lost all shyness with them. She seemed especially drawn to Blair, and discussed with him in length on her favorite subject, "The Lion King". Luckily Blair had seen the movie, a girlfriend of his, an artist, had enjoyed Disney movies, and had dragged Blair to see it. When Blair just happened to mention that a sequel was out, the girl's eyes widened in shock. Yet, Angie didn't ask or plead or beg to see it. Instead Jim sat down on the bed next to her and picked her up into his lap. "We'll buy it when we get home, alright Angie." Jim said as he hugged his daughter. She hugged him back. "Alright, Daddy." Blair was still getting over the shock that the sweet little girl in Jim's lap was Jim's and Alex's daughter. *Its not like he had a choice* Blair thought angrily at himself. His sentinel had been through hell and come out again, and all Blair could think about was the irrational feeling of betrayal in his stomach. Even if Jim had fallen in love with Alex Barnes. Blair felt as if he was going to be sick. Jim convinced Angie to take a bath, and change into her pajamas. Angie didn't even protest. She placed Simba on the bed, and took her pajamas into the bathroom.

"Jim, what is is wrong with Angie?" Simon asked.

"What do you mean, Simon?"

"What I mean is, where's the whining, the protests, the begging, or Daddy I want this, Daddy I want that. Its just eerie."

"At the facility, if Angie ever asked for anything, she didn't get it. What's more she was 'punished' by not being allowed to see Alex or me. She learned a long time ago from those bastards not to want for anything. It will take awhile for her to adjust."

"Damn bastards. I hope they rot in hell." Simon said.

"Amen, Simon." Blair answered.

Once showers were done, Simon went into the other room to his bed. Blair took one of the doubles in Jim's room, while Jim and Angie slept on the other double bed.

Two hours after falling asleep, Jim and Angie suddenly woke up. Jim reached for the non existant gun under his pillow, and cursed inwardly. Jim heard the noise of footsteps on the fire escape outside their window. He saw the shadowy movements of someone outside coming though the glass windows. Wishing he had a gun, Jim braced himself to attack. The window opened and the figure dressed all in black came inside...

Jim leaped and pulled the dark clothed figure toward the ground, but at the last second, the sentinel was flipped over the intruder's shoulder and landed on the carpeted floor on his back with a grunt of pain.

The dark clothed figure straddled his waist, knees on both sides of his lower torso. Jim looked up at the hooded face, and saw the blue eyes filled with tears.

"Alex." He whispered.

Alex Barnes pulled off the black ski mask, her once long blonde hair cut short around her face, her eyes shining. She leaned forward and touched her lips to Jim's lips. Jim felt her tongue against his lips asking, begging for entrance, and Jim opened his mouth welcoming his mate's tongue inside, her exquisite taste filling his mouth. Then Alex removed her tongue and sat up, still straddling Jim.

"Jim. I am so glad your safe." She said as she moved her sensitive hands over his body checking for any new wounds, as he did the same to her.

"Mommy!" the cry came from the bed were Jim had slept, and little Angie leaped from beneath the covers and threw her arms around her mother. The shout had awakened Sandburg, who was sitting up in the other bed, eyes wide in fear or shock at seeing his "killer".

Alex welcomed her daughter in her arms, and held her in a tight comforting embrace. Angie hugged her mother as tigh as her little arms could, crying softly into her mother's breast. Jim's hands came up to run his fingers through his daughter's hair, and up to his mate's neck and hair.

It was then that the rapid heartbeat filled the sentinel's ears, and he turned to look at his guide.

"Chief." Jim whispered. Blair's eyes went to Jim's face at the sound. "Its alright. She won't hurt you."

Alex looked curiously at the long haired man who as her senses told her "belonged" to her mate.

"Who is he?" Alex asked.

Blair gasped in shock. *She doesn't remember me, * he thought.

"He is my guide. Alex, let me up." Jim said.

Alex looked at her mate, then stood up, Angie in her arms.

When he was released, Jim stood up and walked carefully over to his guide.

"She doesn't remember, Jim." Blair whispered to his sentinel forgetting that Alex could hear him.

"It was the drugs, Chief. I told you and Simon that. The drugs drove her insane. All the background information we got was a cover story. THEY created it. THEY wanted to know how a sentinel would react to another sentinel in his territory. THEY set everything up. Then THEY watched everything play out."

"When did she begin to..."

"Get better. They took her from the psychiatric hospital while she was still in the catatonic state. When she came out a few weeks later she was as she was before THEY messed with her. Her senses were still intact, and she had no memory of what happened while she had been under the influence of the drug THEY created. Then THEY decided they needed me to finish their experiments."

"So they faked the truck accident?"

"Yes. They stopped me on the highway. I thought it was a County Sheriff's deputy trying to tell me that the road was closed due to the blizzard. They tranqued me, and sent my truck over the cliff to make you think I was dead."

During this, Alex had walked over with Angie to the other bed and sat down. She listened as Jim told the long haired man the story he had told her a long time ago.

"I so sorry Jim. If I had listened to my instincts, I would have known you weren't dead. We could have found you."

"Hush, Chief. This is no time for regrets and 'what ifs'. I'm here now. My family is safe. You are safe. They won't come after us again."

"Jim." Alex said. Jim turned and looked at her.

"Cutter got away." She said, tears filling her eyes again.

"Shit." Jim hissed under his breath.

"Who is Cutter?" Blair asked.

Jim looked at Blair for a moment not saying anything, just staring at his guide's face, rememorising every line, dimple and curve.

"Cutter Matheson was...is...a mercenary. He worked for them. He was the one who captured me."

"What aren't you telling me?" Blair asked. The blank stare had left fear in his gut.

"The scientists were sadistic sons of..." He trailed off looking at Angie whom Alex still hugged to her. "But they only tortured for 'scientific' knowledge. Cutter...Cutter was in charge of mine and Alex's...punishments...whenever we got out of line. Cutter was crazy. Mean, and sadistic. He devised punishments that could have been used by the Spanish Inquisition. Fortunatly, they never let him near Angie. Thank god for small favors."

Blair shivered even though the room was at least 75 degrees.

Jim turned to Alex. "How did he escape?"

"Not easily, I can tell you that. He was one of my first targets. Managed to put a bullet in him, unfortunatly it was only his shoulder. I tracked him here, to Denver. I think he was looking for you."

"We still have a score to settle." Jim said. "And I for one plan to even that score."

"If Cutter is here in Denver...what are we going to do Jim?" Blair asked.

Jim made as if to answer, but Alex placed a hand over his mouth.

"Nothing, you'll do nothing. Take Angie back with you to Cascade. I"LL deal with Cutter. He will not bother you again." Alex promised.

"Alex..." Jim began after Alex removed her hand.

"NO! Angie must be kept safe. That is for you to do. I will keep us all safe by taking out Cutter."

To Blair's surprise, Jim nodded agreeing.

"What happens after?" Blair asked.

"I'm still a wanted fugitive even if I don't remember what it is I did. I doubt that will change." Alex said. "I'll send word somehow when Cutter is gone."

Jim nodded, "After, we'll figure out something, sweetheart. Angie needs her mother. And I need my mate." As he spoke he rubbed a finger gently over Alex's cheek. Alex shifted Angie to her hip, and leaned over. The two sentinels kissed. They parted and Jim leaned forward nuzzling Alex's neck, eyes closed, breathing in his mate's scent.

When they separated, they stood.

"Stay the night, Alex? We'll be leaving for Cascade in the morning." Jim asked.

"Alright." Alex set Angie back onto the bed. The little sentinel immediately laid down, hugging her Simba close to her. Alex leaned over and kissed her daughter's forehead.

"Goodnite, Mommy." Angie said.

"Goodnite, Angie." Alex returned.

"I'll sleep with Blair, you can sleep with Angie." Jim said.

Alex nodded, and then walked into the bathroom. Blair crawled back into his bed, and Jim layed down on the bed beside Blair. A few minutes later, Alex came back wearing the top to Jim's pajamas he had escaped in. It went past her thighs. She crawled into the other bed after turning out the small lamp between the beds.

Sleep came quickly

end