Title: Alpha Sentinel

Author: Kateri

Email: bmke2001@yahoo.com

Series: the Sentinel

Pairing: Jim/Blair

Rating: PG but will progress into NC-17

Warnings: AU, child abuse of screen, horny spirit guides

Summary: In a world of where Sentinels and Guides have been known for 100 years, the most rare of the Sentinels seeks a Guide

Alpha Sentinel
by Kateri

Detective Jim Ellison walked into the Major Crimes bullpen like he did most mornings. angry. Various detectives and other police personal quickly got out of his way. Nobody in their right mind messed with Ellison,especially after a visit to the NorthWest Guide and Sentinel Institute in Tacoma. For a man who claimed he didn't want to bond to a Guide he was always in a barely controlled rage after yet another visit that resulted in no suitable Guide being found for him.

"Ellison, my office" Barked Captain Simon Banks, who then turned and entered his office without waiting to see if his best, yet most troublesome detective obeyed.

Growling slightly Ellison grabbed a folder off his desk and headed into his Captain's office.

"Yes sir, what was it that you needed," he asked standing stiffly at parade rest in front of Banks' desk.

Sighing Banks pored himself a cup of coffee. "Sit down Jim and talk to me. The Institute called and said that nothing had changed."

Ellison snorted "Of course nothing has changed, it's like they are hoping one day I will show up for my quarterly and suddenly turn into a Beta. That or flip out like they have been expecting for ten years and get myself killed, hopefully without taking out too many other people."

"I take it that they still have not managed to locate a Beta Guide then," asked Banks pulling out a cigar and chopping down on the end.

"No, not even a hint of one. Not that it is a big surprise. Beta Guides are even more rare than Alpha Sentinels are. And on top of that they are even less likely than Alpha Sentinels to live past early adulthood as mostly sane and able to be a functioning member of society."

"Did you at least manage to get me that case information so I have some idea what I am dealing with Jim?" asked Simon expecting yet another no, the Institutes were not known for sharing their files.

"Here you go sir," said Ellison tossing a folder on Banks desk " a short who's who of the 163 Alpha Sentinels discovered in the past 100 years since the Institutes first formed, as well as the 68 Alpha Guides identified in the same time period. Now if that is all I have cases that need my attention."

Banks waived his hand toward the door already reading the file. Ellison hesitated when his hand touched the doorknob. "Simon, it's not going to happen you know. I could go fully online at almost any moment and the last time there was even a hint of a Beta Guide was almost 20 years ago. And even if they found him and he WAS a Beta I've been told that after what he went through he would probably not be able to bond. Heck he most likely would not even be able to exist in modern society."

"Don't give up Jim, you have survived this long without a Guide to hold your hand, there is no reason to believe that you won't continue to well into old age no matter what those kooks at the Institute say," said Banks with a confident air.

"That may be sir, but will I want to?" asked Jim sounding defeated as he left the office.

Banks sat stunned at what his detective had said. Deciding that he really need to know about what those other Alpha Sentinels had gone through and what had happened to them he began to read the first of many sad tales.

*

That night Ellison let himself into his loft feeling more tired than he could remember feeling in a long time. The conversation with his Captain kept replaying itself in his head, especially his words at the end. He didn't now why he had said them, he was perfectly happy the way his was.

Heading toward his kitchen he continued talking to himself.

He didn't need a Guide and he didn't want one no matter what anybody said. James Joseph Ellison didn't need anybody, not even his family. Sighing Jim wondered if he was just lying to himself.

He was very good at that, along with hiding his feelings and emotions so well he didn't even always know what they were.

He had to admit to being a bit jealous of the Sentinel/Guide pairs he knew. They all seemed so happy together, and never lonely. Ellison pondered this a moment, to never be lonely again, to have someone to come home to, to brighten up the loft, to talk to, to love. Shaking his head he angrily slammed the door of his fridge shut. Nothing was worth submitting to one of those smug know-it-all Guides that the Institutes turned out by the dozens. Not even the chance to not be lonely.

&&&&&&&&&&&

The Panther was running through the jungle, heading toward what he did not know. All he knew was that he was being pulled along, directed to some destination. Finally he emerged from the trees into a clearing in front of an immense temple guarded on both sides of the doors by stone Jaguars.

So engrossed was he by his study of the temple that the Panther almost missed the sound of another animal entering the clearing. Spinning around he was confronted by a smallish gray wolf slowly walking toward him.

The Panther began to growl but the Wolf kept his slow walk across the clearing toward the Panther. Angered by this the Panther let out a loud cry and crouched as if to jump.

Startled, the Wolf stopped momentarily and gave a few yips while jumping to the side. Seeing no reaction from the Panther, the Wolf started to move forward when the Panther growled again. This caused the Wolf to stop and begin to jitter around in place and give off the occasional yip.

The Panther continued to growl quietly while glaring at the Wolf. He would not let the Wolf near him. They were all the same, Pack Leaders expecting him to be submissive to them, even the bitches. Did they not know that a Panther was submissive to no one? Well he would show this Wolf like he had showed all the others that had dared entered his jungle.

Meanwhile the Wolf had stretched his front legs out and was slowly inching his way toward the Panther again.

Seeing this the Panther leaped at the Wolf fangs bared.

At this the Wolf tried to leap back but was too slow, the Panther caught him and they both rolled on the ground for a moment before coming to a rest. The Wolf found himself on his back with the Panther atop him growling threateningly. The Panther found himself gloating. This Wolf was even easier that the others, he leaned his head down to take a sniff when he realized that the whines coming from the Wolf did not sound like sounds of distress, in fact they sounded. happy? The Panther raised his head and cocked it to look at the Wolf. He was trapped beneath the bulk of the Panther and was wiggling slightly, almost trying to rub himself against the Panther, while his tail wagged almost crazily. He had his head thrown back and his neck bared and was making happy, almost needy little whines.

Leaning forward the Panther sniffed at the neck before him. At his actions the Wolf tried to bare even more of his neck and his needy whining became louder. The Panther raised his head and shook it. The Wolf was acknowledging that the Panther was Dominant, and that he, the Wolf was Submissive. The Panther growled happily, this Wolf would belong to him, he would be his Mate, and any Pack Leader that tried to take him would be killed. The Panther carefully rested his body on that of his Mate and began to lick him in preparation to Marking him as his.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Blair Sandburg awoke with a start covered in sweat and more aroused than he had ever been in his life.

Sandburg carefully got out of bed to check the rattraps in his warehouse living space for the tripped trap that most likely had awoken him from the erotic dream that was fading quickly from his memory. Even now all he could remember was weight holding him down, possessing him, owning him. Disposing of the dead rat Sandburg headed back to his bed already frozen despite his layers of clothing. Crawling under his moth-eaten and stained blankets he wondered if he would ever find someone who make him feel as loved and protected as the dream had.

Part 2

In 1921 in response to the number of individuals with heightened senses being discovered in the United States the Government opened the Burton Sentinel Institute. The Institutes purpose was two fold. One, to help those persons afflicted with out of control senses and Two, to study them to find the ins and outs of heightened senses. Six years later in June of 1927 the first Guide was identified and the relationship between Guides and Sentinels was brought to light. A year later in fear that the Government would try and control Sentinels and Guides the Institute was turned over to private state funded control. The Institute was moved to upstate Maine and renamed the Northeast Sentinel-Guide Institute. Six Months later a second Institute, names the Southeast Institute was opened near Pensacola in the state of Florida. After World War II, in which Sentinels and Guides played a major part, a third Institute was built in Southern California. It was named the Southwest Institute. The Northwest Institute was then built ten years later. It was during the Vietnam War that all four of the Institutes were united under a single leadership base, the Texas Sentinel-Guide College located outside of Houston.
-Taken from Dr. Swinnter's History of the Sentinel-Guide Institutes of the United States

"Come one, start," Sandburg begged his beat up Corvair as the engine refused to turn over yet again. "Damn it!" he yelled loudly and hit the steering wheel. Cursing as he left his car and headed toward the bus stop Sandburg wondered if his day could get any worse than it already was.

"Don't tempt Fate Sandburg, Dr Warner could decide to dismiss you diss proposal out of hand."

Sighing he continued to trudge through the perpetual Cascade drizzle and mentally go over his proposal in his head yet again. After getting his Masters in Anthropology Sandburg had applied for the doctoral program, but had then spent the next four years on various expeditions.

Having finally returned to Rainer the year before Sandburg was surprised at how hard it was to find a dissertation subject. In fact one of his few strokes of luck had been his Teaching Fellowship which had kept him off the streets. Every time he turned in a proposal to his adviser it was shot down just because it was Sentinel related. If you wish to study Sentinels transfer to an Institute they had told him numerous times.

The only reason that he not been shot down this time was probably because his adviser was to shocked. Alpha Sentinels, not much was known about them by the general public, in fact most did not even know they existed. Dr. Warner had told him to put together an outline to submit to his committee for review but had warned him that it was not a very sensible subject since the American Institutes were very picky about letting people read their research, and the few Institutes that existed in other countries allied with the united States did not tend to have as much understanding as their American counterparts.

The one that came the closets was Australia, and theirs was run in part by the aboriginal natives. It was for the benefit
of teaching Sentinels and Guides not to educate so called normal people about them.

Shaking his head to clear it of such thoughts Blair boarded the bus. He would get the information he needed even if he
had to hunt down an Alpha Sentinel himself, after all there had to be one somewhere. Sandburg was unsure why the thought that there might not be any Alphas caused his chest to contract painfully and chose to ignore it in favor of taking a short nap before they reached his stop. After all it was a four-mile walk to his warehouse from the closest bus stop.

Part 3

It was an exhausted Blair Sandburg that arrived at his warehouse apartment shortly before midnight.

"Well Blair my boy home sweet home, better go and check the traps for more unwanted roommates."

Checking for traffic Sandburg went to cross the road. He was only halfway across the road when the warehouse
exploded and the force of the blast threw him into a neighboring warehouse.


Earlier that evening

Ellison glared at his computer in the nearly empty bullpen looking as if he wished he could beat the information he needed out of it.

"Hey Ellison got those files you wanted," called Detective Brian Rafe as he walked in, files in hand.

"Any luck pinning down the pattern yet?" Rafe asked taking his life into his hands and perching on the edge of Ellison's desk. Choosing to ignore the Detective for the moment Ellison took the offered files and began flipping through them. After a few moments Ellison realized that Rafe wouldn't leave until he got an answer. Sighing in frustration at his lack of progress Ellison set the file down and swiveled in his chair to face Rafe.

"Still nothing, we don't have a clue as to where they are now. Much less where they will move to this time," Ellison ran a hand over his hair in frustration "every time we think we're getting near these guys they pack up and move. They wait a few days and then open up shop to start making more of that crap."

That crap was Golddust, the northwest's newest designer drug. It was a particularly nasty little thing but not nearly as nasty as the people making it. It had made its first appearance in Southern California and had slowly been working its way up the coast. In the 4 months since it had shown up in Cascade there had been six related deaths to it. One of the problems with shutting down the pipeline was there didn't seem to be much of one. Once the sellers had moved into a new city and created a demand a moving lab was set up. So far the DEA had only been able to actual raid one lab, and that had resulted in several deaths after the lab had exploded several ten minutes after they had stormed it.

"And I still don't have a clue as to how they know we are coming," Ellison continued "every time we think we have something they clear out hours ahead of us and always so clean that we can't get anything." Both cops were silent
for a few moments.

Looking around to make sure they were alone Rafe leaned over slightly a whispered. "Well, however they are doing it somebody needs to find out. Rumor has it being a dirty cop and word is that IA is taking it seriously."

"I know," Ellison said rolling his chair back a bit "When I was at the Institute yesterday I overheard something." At this
he pulled on his ear to convey that his enhanced hearing had kicked in while there and that he should not know this tid bit.

"Well, what did you hear man?" Rafe asked

"That the DEA agent in charge and several commissioners are asking the Institutes for Sentinels and Guides to help with the investigations in all the cities." Ellison leaned back in his chair and let the younger detective digest this news before dropping the real bomb.

"That isn't all, is it?" Rafe asked

Ellison smile his first real smile in days "I knew there was a reason you were a detective Rafe,"

"Yeah, cut the crap Ellison and spill. What else are they asking of everybody's favorite secret organizations?" Rafe snapped afraid he already knew the answer.

"They also want them to help hunt down any dirty cops, and I'm sure you can guess how."

"SHIT!" Rafe exclaimed despite himself.

"My thoughts exactly."

++++++++


11:30 p.m.

"Ellison, what are you still doing here?" At the question Ellison's head snapped up to see his Captain, Simon Banks,
walk into the bullpen.

"I could ask you the same thing sir," Ellison said with a small smile "I thought you went home hours ago."

Banks snorted and chomped on his cigar. "I did, but I forgot some papers I need to go over for my meeting with the
Commissioner and the DEA tomorrow, what's your excuse?"

Ellison just shook his head "trying to strike gold sir."

Just then two of the night shift detectives walked in talking loudly.

Banks jerked his head toward his office and Ellison followed him in.

"Jim," Banks started sounding concerned "I've been reading over those files that you brought me and."

"Simon," Ellison said cutting Banks off "this has nothing to do with any of that. This has to do with a bunch of slime peddling poison to kids. I'm not just going to sit around waiting for the DEA to find something. Quite frankly sir I don't think they could find their own ass with a map and a compass."

"GPS not compass Ellison." Banks said to his detective that had stood up and began pacing. At Banks comment
Ellison stopped and stared at him.

"Excuse me Simon?" Ellison asked

"GPS Jim, nobody uses compasses anymore." Banks leaned back and congratulated himself when he saw the smile
on Ellison's face.

Before Elision could respond Detective Roberts through open the office door.

"Captain, Detective Ellison, there's been an explosion down near the docks in the warehouse district."

Both men were immediately in motion headed toward the door.

Waiting for the elevator Banks turned to Roberts and asked what he knew.

"Not much I'm afraid sir, a few units and the fire department have responded and are on the scene. Bomb squad is sending someone just in case and forensics is putting together a team as we speak." Nodding Banks reached into his pocket to locate his cell phone. Dialing he motioned for silence and waited for the phone to be picked up. "Plummer, its Banks, yes uh-huh, good, Ellison and I are heading out now. I'll see you there."

Hanging up Banks turned to look at his stone-faced detective. "Later Detective, lets go." Banks quickly entered the elevator hoping that Ellison's hearing had kicked in and he wouldn't have to discuss the man's ex-wife with the Sentinel.
Ellison gave a jerky nod and got on and was quiet the whole way down to the garage. Once there he immediately headed to his truck and got in, all without saying a word. Less than a minute later he was speeding out of the garage. A few minutes later Banks followed at a more sedate speed.

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

Ellison pulled up as close to the warehouse that was still burning slightly and immediately headed toward the uniformed officer he say standing nearby. Walking over he became aware of a thump-thump noise that he couldn't identify.

Shaking his head Ellison quickened his pace and willed his hearing to return to normal. The sound lessened somewhat but did not go away altogether.

"Jenson," Ellison called recognizing the officer.

"What have we got?"

"Hey Detective, I'll tell you what we got, one big honking mess that's what we got." Shaking his head Jenson started
walking motioning Ellison to follow him. "The warehouse was supposedly empty, the man that owns it is in the middle
of bankruptcy proceedings. Right now there is a lot of guesswork but we do know a few things. One it appears that
it was a drug lab. Several items were blown clear during the explosion. The other thing. Well, you'll have to see it yourself."

Jenson had reached an ambulance and motioned to Ellison to step around to the end, which was open. Just as he cleared
the doors he became aware of the thump-thump getting louder and under that Jenson saying something about a witness.
None of this penetrated Ellison's mind as he stared into the bluest eyes he had ever seen. Just before he fell into the zone-out he could have sworn he had heard the howls of a wolf and jaguar mingled together, then he knew nothing.


END PART 3