See part 1 for disclaimer and warning
Part 2
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Reality 1

Simon sat beside Blair's bed in the hospital and wondered how all this had happened. Before leaving the loft to follow the ambulance, Simon had asked for a rush on the fingerprints that were found on the knife. Two hours later, he had more questions than answers. The only fingerprints on the knife were Blair's.

The young man in question was now handcuffed to the bed railing and still unconscious. The doctors didn't know why, they just gave him some flimsy excuse of shock that they couldn't awaken him from. Now, as dawn peeked out, Simon was left with the sorrow of two friends lost, because he knew that given the chance, Blair would kill himself when he realized what he had
done. Just to be accused of a murder would hurt him, but for it to be Jim's murder that he was accused of committing, now that would be 10 times worse.

Jim's body was currently lying down in the morgue. Stephen had been by earlier to see for himself that it really was Jim. He told Banks that he hoped `Blair rots in hell for what he's done and that the state hangs him for it first.' Then he stormed out. All Simon could do was shake his head and return to his vigil. There was nothing he could do to lessen the pain for Stephen. He and Jim had finally worked out all the problems of their past and were becoming exceptionally close again. Now Jim was dead and Stephen was left to bear the grief of not only his death, but of the time lost to both of them.

Simon hadn't moved from his spot since Joel and Megan had been by earlier to give him a break. They didn't want to leave Sandburg alone in case he woke up. Banks didn't even want to consider the possibility of someone getting in here to handing out their own form of justice. At this point, Simon felt that he owed Blair to be here when the younger man awakened. A part of him
couldn't grasp that Blair had killed Jim, and it was the part that made him stay.

`God, Jim, I don't care how you do it, but I need you back. The DA will go for the death penalty for Blair. I can't imagine him in jail, much less on death row awaiting his execution.' Simon wasn't sure if he was hoping for some revelation or for Jim to answer him, but he was disappointed in the silence. Taking a breath, he looked back down at Blair and froze. Awake and staring back at him was Blair.

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Somewhere between

Blair swam up the murky darkness of his own consciousness only to be sorely dissatisfied when he opened his eyes. Once again it was two pictures over-lapping. Jim and Simon sat in almost the exact same position at his bedside. As a Shaman and an Anthropologist, it was absolutely fascinating, but as Blair, it was one of the most frightening experiences ever. Somehow, he was caught between two realities, and he wasn't sure which was his or how to get back.

Jim was the first to notice he was awake. He stood and said something, but Blair couldn't understand it. Everything Jim said was badly jumbled. He watched Jim look at him expectantly, then a look of fear crossed the Sentinel's face. He reached over and hit the call button on Blair's bed. One minute it was just the three of them and the next the room was filled with doctors. They seemed to be talking to him, but, like with Jim, everything they said was distorted.

Soon, he lost interest in the doctors and looked over to Simon. The Captain looked to be deep in thought until he looked over at Blair. Unlike Jim, who had hit the call button, Simon just yelled something at the door. Seconds later, he was leaning over Blair, talking to him. Like Jim and the doctors, every word that left Simon's mouth was distorted beyond comprehension.

Now, even more doctors flooded the room to the point that, no matter where Blair looked, there were doctors. Many of them were over-lapping making it hard to make out faces. All of them seemed to be talking to him. It was total chaos to Sandburg and he was getting tired of it. "Jim. Simon, could you please get everyone to shut up!" Blair yelled. All activity in the room stopped and everyone was quiet. Blair let out a sigh of relief and began to wonder if anyone could understand him. But, for the most part, Blair didn't
really care because he got what he wanted. Silence.

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Reality 1

Everyone was quiet as the badly slurred and jumbled words came from Blair. Simon wanted to ask the doctors what was going on, but before he could, they escorted him out of the room. All the Captain could do was wait. He decided to call into the station to see if Joel had anything new. At the same time, he could have the cigar he had been craving ever since he broke into the loft. He informed the nurse at the nurse's station that he would be outside and then walked away.

As he cleared the doors of the hospital, Simon reached into his pocket for his cigars and lit one. After a few satisfying puffs from it, he pulled out his cell-phone and dialed the number to reach Taggert. The phone only rang once before being picked up.

"Taggert," was the response.

"It's Simon, any news?" The Captain continued to walk away from the entrance to the hospital.

"I just got the autopsy report back."

"And," Simon said, when Joel didn't go on. He had the feeling he wasn't going to like what was said, but he needed to know.

"Jim definitely died of blood loss from the wounds inflicted. One stab wound nicked an artery. The first stab wound was to his back Simon, that one did nerve damage. The ME figures that Jim couldn't feel anything below his waist after this one. He was helpless at that point." Joel forced himself to loosen his grip on the phone before he broke it.

Joel had already heard some of the stuff going around the station about this. Cops were already lining up to take a shot at the kid and there was a bet as to how long it would take before someone took Blair out. The newest detective to Major Crimes, John Camble, was at the front of the line. It would seem that these cops had already forgotten the little line of `innocent until proven guilty.' Not that they were the only ones. The media was jumping all over this story. The station and hospital were already swamped with reporters. Taggert wondered how Simon snuck out without them knowing.

"How much of this points to Blair doing it, other than the knife?" Simon asked.

"We have the finger prints on the knife, which you know. There's no sign of forced entry, except from when you guys came in. There are bloody footprints all over the loft. They are both Jim's and Blair's. There's also blood all over Blair's bed. It looks like he stabbed Jim and then went back to bed. Then, for some reason, he got back up. The only fingerprints that we were able to lift from the loft have been accounted for. The knife used to stab Jim was from their kitchen. Simon, there's nothing that points to Blair NOT
having committed this murder. I'm just having a hard time believing he's is capable of something like this."

"You and me both Joel. Look, the kid's awake."

"Shit, this isn't good. The DA wants Blair transferred to the local jail until arraignment. You know she's going to go for the death penalty." Joel had already had his run in with the DA that morning. She had wanted every case that Sandburg had worked on and then wanted to interview everyone who had worked with him.

"I'm not worried about that. The doctors aren't going to let him out at the moment."

"Why?" Joel didn't think he could get any more worried then he already was, but something in Simon's tone told him things were worst then they seemed.

"Blair didn't make any sense when he woke up. His words were so badly slurred that we couldn't understand them. I think they're going to run some more tests. I heard something about a drug test being ordered and a psychologist was supposed to come up."

"You think there might be a logical answer for Blair doing what he did?"

"Joel, there's no logical answer. Either way, this is going to kill Blair when he realizes what he's done, if he hasn't already. See what else you can dig up. I want you to look to see if this could be payback for something, especially if Blair's drug test comes back positive. We both know how he feels about drugs."

"You got it, Simon. Keep us posted, will you? I know that most people in the station would like to see Blair dead, but me, Rafe, Brown, and Megan are really worried."

"I'll call when I know something. Bye." Simon hung up his cell-phone. He was sitting on a bench in the park not far away from the hospital. He wasn't sure how he got there, but it was better than meeting up with any reporters. He figured he'd better get back. He wanted Blair to know that some people were still standing behind him.

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Reality 2

Jim was concentrating on his hands when he heard Sandburg's heart-rate pick up. He looked over at Blair to find him awake. Jim let himself smile as relief washed over him. The young Anthropologist had been out several hours after arriving at the hospital. The doctors had run all sorts of tests and were optimistic. There was some minor swelling, but nothing that would require any sort of action. They had also told Jim that there didn't look to be any brain damage, but they would have to wait until Sandburg woke 
up. Now he had and Jim was certain that everything was going to be fine now.

"Hey Chief. You had me really worried there for a bit." Jim waited for a response but didn't get one. Blair just lay there and continued to stare at Jim. "You alright buddy?" Again there was no response. An unexpected feeling of fear washed over Jim. He had been expecting Blair to wake up and everything would be fine. Instead, he was faced with the possibility that the doctors were wrong and there was some brain damage. Without wasting another moment, Jim reached over and pressed the call button.

A nurse was quick to respond. When she heard what was going on, she left to go find a doctor. A few minutes later, several doctors walked into the room. The only one that Jim recognized was Dr. Walker. She had been the one to inform Jim of what was going on with Blair.

"Hello Jim. I heard that Blair was awake, but not responding to you?" Dr. Walker made no attempt to introduce the other doctors, much to Jim's relief.

"He just looked at me like he didn't hear me. I though you said there was no brain damage." Jim was frustrated and angry over what was happening, and it was starting to show.

"Jim getting all worked up isn't going to help," Dr. Walker said. She didn't want Jim to get upset, because that could affect Blair. She wanted her patient to remain calm and relaxed. "The brain is a complicated matter. There are a lot of things we don't know about it. The exact effects of a severe blow to the head is only one of them. The scans didn't show are damage. The swelling might cause this and it might disappear when that goes down. If not, then we might have to start worrying, but not until that time."

When Dr. Walker was sure that Jim wasn't going to interfere, she turned her attention to Blair. She had been forewarned about Jim and his protectiveness for Blair. Like Jim before her, she tried to talk to Sandburg first. Also, like Jim, she didn't receive any response other than Blair focusing on her. `At least I know he can hear, so that's not a problem,' she thought to herself.

"Well, Jim, he's responding, just not talking. He looked at me when I talked to him," she assured Jim. The detective still didn't seem to like that. "Blair, I need you to say something to me if you can." This time Blair didn't even look at her. His eyes seemed to focus on something that she couldn't see. The other doctors were moving around the bed and tried to get Blair's attention. Each was trying to get Sandburg to talk or give any sort of verbal response.

To Jim, however, it looked like Blair was becoming extremely frustrated. He was about to say something when Blair spoke. That is if you could call it speaking. The words were so badly garbled that not even Jim's Sentinel abilities could help him decipher it. Blair relaxed and smiled though. Whatever he wanted, it would seem that he got it. The doctors, on the other hand, just asked Jim to leave the room so they could examine Blair. This was one time that Jim didn't say anything. What had just happened had frightened
him more than anything. He wasn't sure what he would do if Blair was like this permanently.

"Jim, what happened?" "Is he awake?" "Jim, is Sandy all right?" Jim was bombarded with questions from the Major Crimes Unit, all that he wasn't sure he could answer. Simon seemed to realize this before anyone and moved Jim over to the waiting room to get him to sit down.

"What happened, Jim?" The Captain asked once again. He wasn't sure he wanted to know, however. 

"He's awake." Jim didn't look up to see their reaction because he knew that the next part of the news would be bad.

"What else, Jim?" This time it was Joel that asked, realizing that there was more.

"He's sort of responding to us. I mean, he would look at us when we talked to him. At least, he would at first. Now it would seem that we can't hold his attention. He keeps staring off as if he's watching something that isn't there. He wouldn't talk at first, but when he finally did talk, we couldn't understand him. The words were too slurred and jumbled to make any sense."

"Poor Sandy. This isn't permanent is it?" The Australian inspector had grown quite fond of Sandburg.

"I don't think that they even know. Dr. Walker said that it might have to do with the swelling in his head, but I don't think she's even sure. I have a feeling that she just said that to make me feel better. They asked me to leave while they examine him. Do we know what happened yet?" Jim finally looked up at Simon when he asked that.

"Well, yes we do, but I'm not sure you want to hear it right now." Simon knew that Jim would blame himself for what happened, but it had been nothing more then some stupid accident.

"What happened Simon?" Jim growled at his Captain and stood up.

"Now, Jim, sit down. You know the shelves in Blair's room?"

"God, no. I was supposed to fix it last weekend." Jim got up and started pacing. The only thought going through his head was how all this had been his fault. Blair had told him that one of the shelves was loose and had asked if Jim would fix it for him. Jim had promised to do it that weekend, but instead he had gone to a Jag's game with Simon and now his Guide was lying in the hospital because of something so stupid.

"This wasn't your fault, Jim," Joel said. "It was just one of those things that happens."

"One of those things?!" Jim yelled. "If I had fixed it like I said I would, none of this would've happened." Jim stopped pacing and turned to look at his Guide's door, but he was too worked-up to listen in on what was going on inside.

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