Bed side Manner

Author: Bluesky

Fandom: The Sentinel

Rating: PG

Pairing: Jim/Blair

Summary: Blair is injured.

Bed side Manner

By Bluesky

Jim sat by the bed, head bowed, his hand holding the cool, soft unresponsive hand of his partner.

It had been weeks. If he let himself think about it had been a Month. Blair was unchanged. His face was lax, thinner, his body well cared for. PT that Jim himself supervised was done on a daily basis, and supplemented when no one was watching by him self. The monitors were gone. The air tube. The IV's. Three times a day he was fed a baby food like soft diet down his feeding tube, and given water the same way. The vague sent of insure, baby power, (that the nurses insisted on using no matter how much Jim suggested that cornstarch is what Blair would have wanted), and back ground of care physicality was ever present. This was one of the better places, not a nursing home, but a rehabilitation place, the best that could be found.

It might not be enough.

Specialist came in and did there mojo, made comments that Jim could hear, but tried to disregard. Brain function, pain response,

Blair was not dead. There was damage. He was in a limbo, of not knowing what the extent of the damage was. So far he could breath on his own, and if you put an ice chip in his mouth, he would suck at it, a content look on his face.

But his eyes never opened. His head did not turn. Hand never squeezed when Jim talked to him. The only thing that let Jim know that Blair was alive was his heart and breathing. The urge to bring Blair home, and have him as long
as he could rose up in him. He so missed his partner in the now too silent loft. A heart beat would go a long way to help that.

Jim was drawn out of his funk t by the sound of the rolling stand that held the PB cuff and assorted things that the nurses needed to do there rounds. The door opened. A sent that he recognized, much changed and different, but
known wafted to him.

"Stacy?" Jim mouth opened in shock.

"Hello Jim." Stacy came into the room. For a moment she just stood there, smiling, a child once more that Jim remembered, trapped in a woman's body. She had woken from her long sleep. Perhaps Blair could.

"Stacy.. Oh.. it is so good to see you. What are you doing here?"

"I live here. Or I did. Now I sort of work here. See?" She did a slow turn, and Jim took in that the smock that she was wearing was that of a nurse. "I am going to school for nursing. They let me live in the dorms now, and I go
to school, and work here on the night shift., two days a week. I just changed to evening."

Jim was speechless. Stacy gave him a brief hug, that was clumsily returned.

"I have to get his Vitals." She slipped an electronic thermometer under his arm pit, and a cuff on Blair's arm. It self inflated, and after a minutes beeped with the results. She recorded them, then turned back to Jim.

"He has been here two days. I found out last night, and asked to work this floor. I remember how kind you and Blair were to me, when I was ... waking up."

Stacy irrigated the feeding tube, and started a new bag of soft food. Cleaning his mouth with a glycerin swab, checking his eyes, and turning him to his side.

You have to keep moving people when there asleep like this. So they do not get bed sores." She tucked a pillow behind Blair's back, and put one between his knees." How is that Blair? Better?" checking his feet, rubbing a bit of
lotion on his back and legs. "This helps with stimulation. If you want I can leave some of the lotion and you can do his outher side, in a half HR, or I can come back?"

"I would like it if you came back. Blair would like it if you came back."

"Ok Jim, I will come back. See you Blair. I'll be back soon." A last tuck of the blanket, a touch on his face to adjust the tube, and she left."

"Well Sanburg, Stacy is sure a suprise." You should wake up and tell her that your proud of her. It would mean a lot I am sure."

There was a long pause. Jim listened intently, hoping for some sound, some sign that He was heard.

Blair's heart was steady, strong, and the same.

PART 2

Jim hurried down the hall, He was late, and was cursing to himself Traffic had been bad, and he had been late leaving A zone. He shook his head impatient, even knowing that Blair would not be aware of his being there, he nursed a vane hope that somehow his presence made a difference.

A voice came from Blair's rook. Soft sweet, conversing, asking Blair a question. For a moment hope flared, despite the audio feedback of Blair still sleeping heart beat, that Blair would respond.

He near rushed into the room, Stacy was just finishing up a bed bath, drying the feet, rubbing them gently, flexing the foot for range of motion as she completed her task. "Hope your not ticklish. I used to giggle when the nursed washed my feed, some times. They would play this little piggy, with me. They were so nice to me. Even when I was sleeping, Used to tell me that I was there best patent. I hardly ever gave them problems. You know I would not mind if you gave me some problem's." She turned at the sound of the drapes being pulled back. Hi Jim! Blair, Jim's here to see you!"

Stacy tucked the sheep skin under Blair's feet, and pulled down the sheet, fluffing them up, making sure that the foot bord was not rubbing.

"How are you doing Jim? Blair has had a good day. I was telling him about what we did in class today. I hope I did not bore him."

"I am sure that he enjoyed it. The only thing that he loved more than school was .. " Jim stopped for a brief moment. The overwhelming knowledge that teaching and School were his first love, Next to research blindsiding him. He took a Deep Breath. "Riding with me."

"Blair is very special. I know that he wants to wake up and ride with you again. I have some ice-cream, for snacks. and I had pull the feeding tube, to change it. Want to see if he would like some ice-cream? He got me some ice-cream once, Chocolate, I know that he likes it."

"Sure.. That would be fine." For a moment Jim panicked. What if Blair choked, or worse did not respond to the taste, to feel, the sensation? so far Ice chips had been the only thing that he had tolerated.

"Good!" Stacy raised the head of the bed, and tucked a blue chuck under his chin. "I will be right back Blair. I have some chocolate tucked away just for you!"

Alone with Blair, for a moment. Jim pulled the chair over to the bed, and took Blair's hand. "Hey, buddy. how are you doing?" Jim waited a moment his senses dialed up as high as he dared, looking for any response. "Simon is having kittens at work, we have all they new rookies, people that should be starting off on the street, trying to fill the shoes of detectives. You know how he is. I am sure that he will have them wiped into shape soon, or begging for a transfer. He misses you, you know. He is going to come up and visit with Darrel this weekend. Darrel is coming home from college for his summer
break. Boys real excited about seeing you. Maybe you could wake up and say Hi to him?"

Jim choked back an emotion. Striving to keep the pain out of his voice, the need, it leaked out any way. "I am really wishing that you would wake up here. Lots of people miss you. I miss you."

The door opened. "Here is the ice-cream Jim. I brought enough for you and Blair. Want me to start him off so you can eat yours?"

Jim nodded unable to respond.

She popped the cardboard top off of the small tub of Ice-cream, and with a small plastic spoon, began to scrape the softer top part of confection in to the tip, with one hand, she stroked Blair's face, along the jaw, down to the lips, The mouth opened slightly. "This is a little bit of heaven, Blair. just enjoy it!"

For a moment he was unresponsive, Stacy stroked his Jaw, down his throat, and reflexively Blair swallowed, a stiff painful looking movement.

"I know, I know, Its hard. It will get better. You don't want to eat with a tube forever, right? Can't taste any thing that way. But with hospital food that can be a blessing." Five minutes saw two more bites. each one easier than the last.

She looked at Jim, "you want to take over? " Jim's ice-cream sat, melting, unattended, as he watched her feeding Blair. He had been told that this was too risky of a thing, that he might choke. He was tracking his partner, making sure that the food did not go down the wrong way.

"Ah sure. If you think that I can. If it is a good Idea."

"I am sure that Blair would enjoy you feeding him. I'll come back later, or ring if you need any thing."

"Sure. Thanks." He took the spoon, and copying the movement that Stacy had done, began to feed his partner. "Remember the Ice-cream place down the street?" Jim talked as he spooned the food into the now open mouth. Like a
baby bird, it opened and closed, the soft liquid sliding over the pink tongue, reflexively swallowed. "When you come home, I am going to buy you one of each flavor, how about that? "

Blair was eating, after a fashion. It was more than he could do yesterday. In the grand scale of things, it was not much, but you took what ever you could get.

PART 3

Simon looked up, his normally stoic face leeching frustration and sadness. "There is no word. The kidnapers that have Blair have vanished. We have not heard any demands, or word in over a day."

Jim paced. If he were a cat in a zoo, the same spaces over and over. "I have got to do Something!"

"I understand. But you have to be here. when the call comes in you have to be the one to deliver the ransom. "

"If it comes in. They should have contacted us by now!"

The phone rang. Simon Nodded at the third person in the room, and the trace was began. Simon picked up the phone on the 3 ring.

"Banks" He paused.

An electronic sounding voice, altered by some sort of device, gave this message. "You will find your package at 38009 Industrial park road, The old Cyclops warehouse on the 3 floor." It cut off with a click.

Wordlessly Jim looked at Simon. "Go." Was all that he said. It was too eerie that the demand for cash had not been made.

Jim was not the first person on the site. Dispatch had radioed ahead, and Jim was met by 3 squad cars, the bomb squad, and an ambulance.

The bottom floors were being searched for any traps. Jim disregard them all. He knew were he had to go. The third floor.

Blair was there, on a cot, He seemed at first glance unharmed. Asleep. But when Jim tried to rouse him, he was unresponsive. There was a smell of wrongness about him, bitter and burnt and .. wrong. He pushed back a sleeve.
An IV hook up was still in his arm,

Blair had been drugged, and for a rather extend time.

He was in a Coma, And it was Jim's fault. He had not been able to stop the people that had taken his guide. He had not been able to find them, and no one had any clue as to what had been happening to Blair for the two weeks that he had been held.

"Jim?" Stacys voice roused him from the zone/half sleep. Nightmare. He dropped Blair's hand, almost guilty. "Are you OK Jim?"

"Yea, Just nodded off. Jim stretched, his back and shoulders popping from sitting, sleeping in one place for so long.

"It's 11. Visiting HR have been over HR ago. You should go home, get some sleep."

"Your right. Night Buddy. I am leaving you in Stays lovely hands." Gently Jim scuffed the top of Blair head, yearning for any sense of reconnection, response. Jim Sighed.

"Night Stacy." Jim walked stiffly through the door. He failed to see the look of longing on Stacy's face, or the micro flutter of Blair's eye's.

END PART 3
TBC