By Jan Monroe

Jim was waiting.

He could hear the voice calling him. He tries to focus on it but something was wrong with the voice. It had a statically undertone.

He could understand some of what the voice was talking about. It was strange, it sounded like a lecture about nature versus nurture and how it was a false paradyne. Both mattered according to the voice. Other voices came but they talked over the voice.

He waited for the touch. The voice always came with a touch.

The voice stopped with a distinctive click.

Then the voice started again only talking about how outside forces could destroy a culture. It was very passionate but still wrong somehow. However it was still nice to listen to.

The nurses at the desk had watched his vital signs improve as the tapes played.

Blair has been throw out three days ago totally exhausted. Jim had shown signs of waking eight days ago and Blair had refused to leave his side. When Blair has practically fell at the Doctors feet with exhaustion, the Doctor had kicked Blair out of the hospital for five days.

Jim had been slowly coming out of his coma. He had been responding to Blair's voice. Less than 12 hours after Blair's exile, Jim seemed to be losing ground.

Rafe had suggested the tapes. He remembered Blair talking about being miked and recorded by Handicapped Student Services for a student with a hearing impairment. Every word that Blair said in class had been transcribed. Blair had complained about never realizing how often he used the phrase, "It sucks." He was holding his own with the tapes but he wasn't improving. Only the real Blair could cause improvement.

Jim didn't know all this. He knew that the voice was the same but different. He know that the touch that usually accompanied the voice was missing. The other sound that should have accompanied the voice was missing. It was a heavy drum like beat and it was gone. He knew some of what the voice was talking about. Blair had a habit or rehearsing his lectures while getting dressed in the morning.

He suddenly knew who the voice was...Guide, Roommate, Anthropologist, and incurable skirt chaser. The identifiers came easily.

He wanted to know where the real Blair was. Even in his current dreamlike state he knew that he had to protect the guide. He decided to investigate as soon as he woke from his nap.