See part 1 for disclaimer and warning.
Part 4
===============

Reality 1

Simon pulled up to his house and turned off his car, but he made no move to get out. The doctors had sent him home, saying that he wouldn't be able to see Blair until the next morning. As far as Simon could tell, they had no idea what had caused Blair to go into convulsions, not that they were saying much of anything. They just kept saying that they needed to wait for the test results to come in. Those wouldn't be back until morning. To make matters worse, Joel had called from the station as he was leaving the hospital. Another child was dead. Now Simon was forced to wait. Major Crimes had been taken off the case, until the investigation over 
Jim's death was finished. He still didn't know why they had been taken off the case, but the order had come from the Chief of Police, so there was nothing he could do.

**God what a mess.** Simon rubbed his hands over his face and wondered if this was nothing but a bad dream and that he would wake up at any time. **I have the feeling I'm not that lucky. I still need to find Naomi, but I have no idea where to look for her. I remember Blair saying something about a retreat in some village, but I can't remember where. Then again, that was three months ago. Knowing Naomi, she's already moved on. I wonder if Blair even has the slightest idea where she is. Probably not.**

"Dad?"

Simon jumped at the question and turned to see his son standing by the car, looking in. He had forgotten, in all the chaos, that Daryl was staying with him this week. He had been on his way home to spend some time with his son, when the call came in. Now he had to decide how he was going to explain this to Daryl. The boy looked up to Blair and respected him. They had become close friends since they meet.

"Go inside son. I'll be there in a minute." Simon watched his son walk back inside the house before even getting out of the car. Even then he didn't move to go inside the house. The brisk night air was more to his liking right now. He couldn't get the image of Jim's corpse and Blair strapped down to the hospital bed, out of his mind.

Then there was the case they had been working on. The eighth child had been found dead. This one had been a four-year-old girl who no one had reported missing until about an hour before she was found. To make matters worse, she had been found by her older brother. Like the others, she was found on a school playground, but she hadn't been killed there. There were no witnesses, no leads, and no evidence. The Captain knew that Jim and Blair had been getting somewhere with the case. They had a few leads that 
they need to check, but Simon didn't know what they were. Now all their work was lost with them and it was an unacceptable set back.

Simon walked slowly towards the house as he considered everything that had happened that day. He found his son sitting in the front room watching the news. They were re-broadcasting the news about Jim and Blair. Luckily, they had kept both names out of the news, but Simon knew it was just a matter of time.

"Dad, do you think Blair really did it?" Daryl's voice wavered a bit as he spoke.

"I'm just not sure, but if he did, there had to be a reason. Blair and Jim were each other's family. Neither one of them would hurt the other on purpose." Simon could see the doubt in his son's eyes, no matter how little it was. There was still a bit of doubt.

"But everything points to Blair. Right?"

"Even if it does, that doesn't mean that Blair's is responsible. There are a lot of people out there that would like to hurt Blair and Jim and this is just one of the ways they might do it. Right now, all we can do is wait and see."

"I want to go see Blair tomorrow." Daryl looked at his father and challenged him to say no to his request.

"Let me talk to the doctors first and see how Blair is doing." Simon walked into the kitchen and grabbed a beer for the refrigerator. He could feel his son's eyes bore into his back.

"Did something happen to Blair?"

"Nothing you need to worry about, but we're waiting for some more tests to come in. You also need to understand that Blair will not responded to you. And even if he does speak, you won't be able to understand him. What he has said, has been nothing more then gibberish."

Daryl contemplated what his father had said. He knew, from talking to Joel, that things were bad, but he couldn't imagine that they were this awful. He knew that Blair had been unresponsive when he arrived at the hospital, but according to Joel, had had woken up and was alert. Then again, the Bomb Squad Captain didn't say anything about him responding to anyone.

"Go to bed, son." Simon could see the wheels turning in his son's head as he tried to work out everything, but Simon knew that he wouldn't be able to, because he hadn't been able to do it himself. The only thing that might help, at this point, was some sleep. He hoped that by morning, everything would be clearer.

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

Reality 2

Jim sat by Blair's bed, holding on to his hand. The doctors had tried to get him to leave, but Jim refused. He wanted to be here if Blair came to, even if that meant spending another night in the chair of death. At least it felt like the chair of death. Dr. Walker had stopped by saying she was going to see how the tests were coming. Someone must have called her in after Blair went into convulsions. So far, no one could explain what had caused it, not that they could explain much of anything at the moment. Nothing was making any sense.

"How's he doing, Jim?" Simon stood in the doorway to Blair's hospital room with two cups of coffee in his hands.

Jim accepted the cup from Simon and took a sip of the burning hot liquid. "Have you been home at all, sir?" Jim asked, ignoring the question.

"Yes. I stopped by to see Daryl and caught a few hours of sleep this afternoon, which is more than I can say for you. Now, how's he doing?"

Jim looked from Simon to Blair before answering. "We're still waiting on the tests. Dr. Walker came by here earlier and said she was going to put a rush on them. They also drew some blood to run a tox screen."

"They don't think that Blair's taking any drugs, do they?" Simon could still remember the Golden incident and the thought that this could be some type of repeat was horrifying.

"No one's sure of anything at this moment. They just want to test everything to make sure they don't miss anything. They're puzzled, Simon. Nothing's making any sense. All they do know is that the seizure wasn't caused by the blow to the head." Jim set the cup of coffee down as he stood up and walked to the window. Dawn was just beginning to show, but the new day  brought only more questions.

"Jim." Simon didn't want to tell Jim the news, but he needed to. So he waited until the Sentinel had turned to face him, before continuing. "There was another murder last night." 

Jim's face paled even more at the news. This was number eight and the detective knew that the number was going to continue to climb if something wasn't done. He could still remember the sight of Cassia Davis hanging from the swings...

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

<<Flashback>>

Jim walked towards the playground with Blair, wishing that he had been able to convince his young Guide to stay behind. Blair had refused, stating that he belonged at Jim's side. Ellison had known that the scene was going to be bad, but he hadn't expected this. When the call had come in, the only information Jim had received was that they had another dead child. Now that Jim was here, though, he saw the body of a little girl hanging from the top of the swings.

"Sandburg, I want you to stay here." Ellison's tone left no room for argument from Blair as he walked away.

There was actually little blood at the crime scene, which was surprising considering the wounds on the body. She was hanging from the swing by three hooks. The first hook was protruding through her neck and the other two were through her shoulders. There was numerous, visible stab wounds all over her body. The worse wounds were the fact that her hands had been cut off and her eyes were missing. The killer had probably taking those for trophies because Jim couldn't see them anywhere. 

"Hello Jim," Dan Wolfe greeted the detective. "What a sight, isn't it? Got to wonder what this world is coming to when you see something like this. Anyway she's been dead about an hour."

"She wasn't killed here was she?"

"Nope. There is no blood here, except for a few drops, and that doesn't account for all the wounds. There are also no signs of a struggle. As you can tell, the eyes and hands are missing. I've got people looking everywhere just is case the killer didn't take them, but I doubt they'll be found. Also, her tongue was cut out. The interesting thing is... come here and see this." Wolfe led Jim over to the body and proceeded to open the girl's mouth. "The wound was cauterized as it was made."

"So you thinking she was alive when this was done?"

"The tongue, yes, but I'm not sure about the hands or eyes. Neither were cauterized as they were made. I'll know more later, but I have the feeling that they were done before she died. Other then that and the stab wounds, there are no other injuries that I can see. Again I'll know more after I get her to the morgue."

Jim listened to Wolfe's report and wanted nothing more than to find the SOB that had done this and tear him to shreds. "Was there a note?"

"Just like the last one." Wolfe picked up the evidence bag that contained the note and handed it over. "If you're done, we're taking her down."

"Yeah, get her down before the press gets any pictures. The last thing we need is this all over the news." Jim took a quick sweep with his senses before the body was moved. He found nothing that didn't belong at a crime scene and everything that didn't belong at a playground. Who would kill a child and then leave them to be found by other children? He turned away from the crime scene and looked at the note. It read: `Here's another one. A brat no less. Dead to the world. I pray there will be no more, but I don't 
think I can stop myself. Not that I want to.' It was exactly the same as the first note except the first two lines. It chilled Jim to the  bone. There were going to be more bodies unless they could catch this person soon.

<<End of Flashback>>

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

"Jim, I know you and Blair were onto something before Seattle called." Simon had taken Jim's place at Blair's bedside.

"We had done a check on all the families to see if there were any similarities; we found none. Blair did some checking around  though. Simon you're not going to like this." Jim turned away from the window to look at Banks.

"It can't get any worse Jim, so spill it."

"It's a cop, Simon."

[Next Part]