Well, finally after almost a year of working on this story I wrote those wonderful two words on the bottom of the last page - “The End”. Why it took me so long to finish it? I have no idea, but I tend to blame “the writers block”. Yeah, I know, it’s all my fault. But hey, I’m not complaining; After all, I had Blair and Jim rehearsing scenes in my head all that time ;)

comments are more than welcomed (good and bad) – [email protected]

IN THE PUMA'S PATH

by Osnat

He was running through the trees of the jungle; running from something, but not sure from what. He could feel that something was wrong, that something bad was about to happen.

The branches got in his way, and he pushed them aside, ignoring the pain that he felt with every branch that hit his face. Hearing voices of animals ahead of him, voices of a fight, he knew that he had to reach the animals as soon as possible; running even faster he fought for breath, pain slicing his left side. The voices were getting closer, louder, and he could see a clearing of the jungle trees ahead of him. When he finally got to it, almost out of breath, the sight that was revealed to him made him stop in his place. In front of him was the clearing and in the middle of it a black jaguar and a puma fighting, the jaguar loosing the battle. He wanted to do something to make them stop the fight but he didn’t know what to do; so he just stood there and watched.

The fight was at its end and as he watched in terror, the puma jumped on the black jaguar and stuck its teeth in its neck. A howl of pain escaped the black jaguar as he fall to the ground and lay there, not moving.

“No!” he cried, running to the jaguar.

The puma stood there and watched him as he knelt by the jaguar and put a hand on his body, feeling the jaguar’s chest rising with every breath that the creature took; breaths that were getting weaker and slower. Blair looked at the jaguar, feeling helpless for he couldn’t help the creature that was dying in front of his eyes. He petted the creature’s head, tears filling his own eyes. "Please hold on.”

The jaguar licked his hand, their eyes meeting for a brief moment before the creature closed its and took one last breath.

“No, don’t you die on me!” he cried. “No!”

“No!”

Blair woke up, screaming. He sat in his bed and wiped the tears that ran down his face. Confused at first and fighting to slow down his fast breathing, it took Blair a few seconds to realize that he was safe in his room at the loft and that it was the middle of the night. He heard footsteps from the stairs leading to Jim’s room, and a second later Jim appeared in the entrance of the small room.

“You okay, Chief?” Jim asked, concern in his voice

Blair managed to control his breathing and wiped the last traces of tears from his eyes. “I’m okay. Sorry I woke you up.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Jim reassured him. Still standing in the entrance, he asked, “Do you remember what you dreamt about? You were crying to someone, telling him not to die.”

Following the traces of the dream in his memory, Blair tried to recall the reason for his cry. He had recollection of only few fragments from the dream, but it was enough to remind him of its end. “It was you,” he told Jim, his eyes widening with terror when the images reappeared in his memory. “I was crying to you. You died in my hands and I couldn’t do anything to help you.”

“It was just a dream, Blair, you don’t have to worry about it.” Jim tried to calm his friend. “I used to have dreams like that during my first years at the army.”

“No, you don’t understand.” Blair looked at him, worry replacing the terror in his eyes. “It wasn’t you in the dream. I mean it was you, but not “you” you.”

“Chief, you’re not making any sense.” Jim entered the room and sat beside Blair on the bed. “Calm down, your heart’s racing too fast. Just take a deep breath and tell me what you dreamed about. What do you mean that it was me, but not “me”?”

Blair lowered his head, taking a few deep breaths in attempt to calm himself. He knew that he had to find a way to explain the dream to Jim; explain what he saw and more important than that, explain what he felt. When the thoughts finally made sense in his head and he found the right words, he raised his head and looked into Jim’s eyes, making sure that Jim understands the importance of what he had to tell him. “I was in a jungle and saw a black jaguar fighting a puma. The puma won the fight and wounded the jaguar so severely that I couldn’t do anything to help him and he died in my hands. I have a bad feeling about all of this, Jim. I had it during the dream and I can still feel it in my bones. Something’s about to happen, something bad.”

“And you think that the jaguar represents me?” Jim asked.

“I have no doubt about it,” Blair answered, confident. “It’s just like the dream you had before Alex killed me. You told me that you saw the wolf, my spirit guide, die in that dream. And well, the dream kind of came true. Jim, the black jaguar is your spirit guide, and it died in my dream.”

“It doesn’t have to mean the same thing, Chief,” Jim said, rubbing his forehead. Sights from that fatal vision resurfaced in his memory and he tried to ignore them. “Besides, my dream was different; the wolf turned into you after it died. You didn’t say that the jaguar turned into me.”

Blair shook his head. “No, it didn’t turn into you. But it doesn’t mean a thing,” he insisted. “There’s still so much that we don’t know about the mystical side of you being a sentinel and me being your guide and shaman. We can’t ignore this dream.”

“You’re absolutely right, Chief; and we won’t ignore it. But it doesn’t mean that we have to figure it out in three in the morning, does it?”

Blair looked at the watch that’s by his bed, seeing the early hour for the first time. “Sorry, Jim,” he apologized. “I didn’t realize it was so early. You’re right, we can talk about it tomorrow.”

“Good,” Jim said, getting up. He was about to exit the room when he heard Blair quietly say, “thanks, Jim.” Turning back he saw his friend looking at him with a pair of very tired eyes. “No problem. Now go back to sleep.” And with that he exited the room and went to the stairs that led to his own.

Too afraid to fall asleep again, to dream again, Blair lay in his bed, thinking about the dream, trying to understand what it meant. He knew that Jim was right when he said that their dreams were not the same, but it didn’t make him feel any better. The troubling feeling that something was wrong still filled him. He tried to tell himself that they would talk about it in the morning, just like Jim promised; that they will understand what the dream was, and won’t make the same mistake that Jim did when he had the vision about the wolf. However, he still couldn’t fall asleep, couldn’t convince his mind that everything will be okay, and that there is no danger. The thing that most intrigued him, and bothered him at the same time, was the puma. Was she just a sign for the trouble or is she an individual, a person in the real world? They knew that Jim was a black jaguar, Alex was a spotted one and he himself, a wolf. They never ran into a puma before.

Blair had no distinction of how much time he laid there awake, nor did he notice when he finally fell asleep.

The smell of fresh coffee welcomed Blair when he entered the kitchen. “Hey, Jim,” he said, yawning.

Jim, who was sitting at the table, drinking his coffee and reading the morning newspaper, raised his head and greeted Blair. “Hey yourself. Feeling any better?”

“Yeah, a little,” Blair said, pouring himself a cup of coffee. “But I have a terrible headache. I think I need some more hours to catch up on my sleep.”

Jim looked at him, a teasing smile on his face. “What, no algae shake this morning?”

Blair gave him a tired smile. “My body is rebelling against me this morning. I think that this cup of coffee may be the only thing that will make me go through the day. Coffee and those more hours of sleep of course.” Taking the full cup, Blair came and sat in front of Jim. “We need to talk about what happened.”

“Okay, let’s talk about it.” Jim put down his cup and looked at Blair. “You had a dream where you saw a black jaguar die, and you think that that jaguar is me.”

“Well, that’s the short version of the dream,” Blair said, a bit annoyed from the lightness in Jim’s approach to the subject. “The long version is that the jaguar was fighting a puma in the middle of a jungle, a fight that he lost. The puma killed it.”

“Look, Chief. I know that you hate it when I say those kind of things, but you might consider the possibility that this was just a bad dream.”

“No, it wasn’t just a bad dream. Jim, I saw your animal spirit die,” Blair said, frustrated. “Don’t dismiss it like that, damn it. We have to talk about it.” Blair sank back in his chair. “Maybe you already forgotten what happened the last time we ignored a vision like that.”

“I haven’t forgotten, Blair,” Jim defended himself. “I will never forget.” He sighed. “Okay let’s talk about it. What do you think the dream means?”

“Well, since we don’t have a lot of experience with these kind of things, we can only compare it to the one time that we did have something like that - the vision that you had before Alex killed me.” He thought about it a lot when he lay at bed, unable to fall asleep; and no matter how much he thought about it, trying to find another interpretation, there was only one conclusion in the end. “I think that something is about to happen to you; something bad, Jim. Possibly life threatening.”

“Okay,” Jim said. “Let’s do it your way and compare it to the vision that I had. I already told you last night that in my vision I saw the wolf turn into you, and you said that the jaguar didn’t turn into me. Don’t you think that it might be significant that it didn’t happen that way? Maybe it means that this jaguar isn’t me.”

“I don't know what to tell you,” Blair answered frankly. “Maybe it is just like you said, that the jaguar didn't turn into you because it’s not you. On the other hand, maybe the wolf turn into me because we didn't know back then that the wolf is my spiritual guide; maybe that was the way to tell you that it’s me in the vision. Working by this assumption we can say that since I know that the jaguar is your animal spirit, I didn't need that transition. Or maybe I just woke up before it turned into you.” Blair said frustrated. He got up and started passing. “We don’t have a manual book here, Jim. We have to work with what we know and take everything seriously. We can’t play with those things. We don’t know enough about it to take it lightly.”

“Let's say that you’re right,” Jim said. “Let’s say that your dream is a warning. What do you want me to do about it? I can't lock myself in the loft in case something will happen.”

“I’m not saying that you should do that,” Blair insistent. “All I’m saying is that we should be more careful.”

“Okay, I will, I promise. Now can we please drop the subject?” Jim asked, tiredness in his voice.

“Actually,” Blair said, sitting down again. “I still have one thing that’s bugging me about this.”

“Of course you have.”

“I don’t understand the roll of the puma in all of this,” Blair said. “It was fighting with the jaguar, but we don’t know anything about any puma. Do we?” he asked, staring at Jim.

“Hey, don’t look at me, Chief. You’re the expert here, and you’re the one with the dream.”

“You’re not helping, Jim.” Blair complained.

“Sandburg…” The ringing of the phone stopped what ever Jim was about to say. He got up, sending Blair a stare that said ‘we haven’t finished’, and answered the phone.

Blair sat back in the chair and stared at his coffee. He wasn’t happy with the way Jim treated the dream. Instead of listening to what Blair had to say, and trying to understand it with him, Jim just tried to make it go away, to convince Blair that it wasn’t as serious as he made it to be. But it was. Somehow Blair knew that it was serious and that they shouldn’t ignore it. The feeling that he had in the dream still hunted him, making him feel uncomfortable.

“Okay, sir. We’ll be there as soon as possible. Yes sir, we'll be careful.”

Jim’s words caught Blair's attention, and he looked at his partner just in time to see him hanging up the phone. “Sorry, Chief,” Jim told him. “It looks like you won't get to finish those hours of sleep. Simon wants us in the office, ASAP.”

“What’s going on?” Blair asked, already on the way to his room to change his cloths.

“There's a serial bomber in town, and his main target is cops,” Jim answered him, going up the stairs to his room to change. “It looks like you got the danger you were so afraid of.”

“What?”

“He already killed nine cops at three different cities, and it appears that the cops and detectives of cascade pd are his next target,” Simon told the troubling news to Jim and Blair who were sitting across from their captain's table, serious expressions on their faces. He rolled the cigar that he held in his hands and sighed, realizing that there is no easy way to say what he had to tell them. “We lost Michael last night.”

The shock that he saw on their faces was familiar to him. That was exactly how he felt when he got the call last night; when the officer at the other side of the line apologized for calling him so late, and told him that one of his best detectives was killed when his car exploded.

“Are we sure that it’s the same serial bomber that’s responsible for the other killings?” Jim asked. As always, not revealing his emotions, the only indication for what went trough the detective’s mind was his clenching jaw.

“Forensics came back with the results two hours ago; there's no doubt that it's the same guy. It was the same explosive that was used in all the other explosions,” Simon answered. “I wish I had a different answer for you, but I don't. The profile of this guy is that he chooses police officers as his victims. Except for that, the victims are randomly; they can be street cops and detectives, men and women alike. That makes all of us potential targets.” Simon looked at the two detectives. “I want the two of you to be the primary on this.” He picked a file from his desk and gave it to Jim.

Jim opened the file, looking at it closely, and Simon turned his attention to Blair who hadn’t made a sound since Simon told them the news. He just sat in the chair and stared down at his hands. “Are you okay, Sandburg?”

When Blair didn’t answer him, he asked again, louder this time. “Sandburg, you’re with us?”

Blair’s head snapped up, obviously just realizing that someone was talking to him. He looked at Simon. “Did you say something, sir?”

“Is everything okay? You look like you’re on a different planet.”

“I’m okay,” Blair replied not very convincingly. “It’s just that I talked to Michael yesterday. He asked for my advice on what to buy his wife for their anniversary.” Blair lowered his head again, looking at his hands.

“I know that it's hard, Blair, but you have to put all of your energy at finding this guy. We have to catch him before he has the chance to hurt more people,” Simon said, sympathy in his voice.

“Are we sure that he’s going to kill here again?” Blair asked, taking Simon's advice.

“He killed three cops in every city before continuing to the next,” Jim answered him, reading from the file. “ No suspects yet, only the guy’s profile. He’s been very careful not to leave any prints; all that’s been found so far is a partial finger print that doesn’t match in the computers of the three cities that he hit.”

“It’s four cities now. We also didn’t get a match; we checked it as soon as we understood who we’re dealing with,” Simon updated them. “It’s your case now, but you have detectives from four cities to back you up. There isn’t one police officer that doesn’t want to catch this guy.”

“Don’t worry, Simon, we’ll catch him,” Jim said, closing the file. “Come on Sandburg, we have work to do.”

Simon watched as his two detectives got up and went out the door, closing it behind them. He still had some doubts about Blair being able to deal with all of this, but he couldn’t do anything about it. It took them a lot of efforts, and all of the favours that people owed him and Jim, to make sure that Blair's time at the police academy will be as short as possible. There were a lot of people who raised their eyebrows about that, not knowing that Blair earned all of it with hard work over the three years of working with Jim. Simon couldn’t do anything to jeopardize Blair's place at the cascade pd; and calling into questioning his ability to deal with this case was doing just that.

“Be careful,” he whispered after them.

Blair sat on his bed, reading the file that Simon gave them that morning. Jim was out on a date, and he had the loft all to himself. Six months ago that meant grading exams or preparing lessons; but now that he was no longer in Rainier, those quite evenings all along at the loft were spent in front of the TV or doing a little sentinel research. The subject still fascinated him and he still needed new information in order to help Jim, thesis or no thesis. But on that evening Blair had something else on his mind. He was reading the serial bomber's file for the fourth time and just like the previous three, he closed the file frustrated. For some reason he was sure that if he’ll read the file again he will find something that they all missed; something that would lead them to the man who was killing police officers; the man who killed Michael. But he couldn’t find anything. He was about to open the file again when he heard the knock on the door.

Getting up from his bed and walking to the door, Blair tossed the file on the kitchen table. When he reached the door, he opened it and looked at the young woman who stood in front of him. She looked at her early twenties, brown hair at the length of her shoulders and glasses. “Can I help you?” Blair asked.

The young woman smiled at him. “I’m looking for Mr. Blair Sandburg. I was told I could find him here.”

Blair smiled back. “I don't know about the Mr., but I’m Blair Sandburg. How can I help you?”

“Hey,” the young woman said and shook the hand that Blair offered. “You don’t know me; well I guess you already figured that out,” she smiled shyly, looking a bit lost. “I’m sorry to barge on you in a late hour like this, but I was in the office until now. I’m Rebecca Anderson, the new doctoral candidate in the Anthropology Department at Rainier. I guess you can say that I'm your replacement.”

Blair drew his hand, taking a step back.

“I’m sorry,” Rebecca said, genuine regret in her eyes. “I didn’t mean for it to sound like that. I didn’t come here to throw it in your face or anything like that. It’s just that I found some things in the office that I thought you’d like to keep for yourself. I brought them with me; I hope you don’t mind. I was also hoping that we could talk a bit about the classes, you probably know those kids so much better than me.”

Noticing for the first time the box behind her, Blair apologized, “I’m sorry, it's not fair of me to take it out on you, it’s not your fault. Please, come in,” he offered and went to take the box. Realizing that it was too heavy to carry, he pushed it into the loft. “How did you brought it all the way here?” he asked, closing the door behind him.

“One of the students helped me carry it to my car, and I pushed it all the way to the elevator.”

Blair pushed the box into the living room until he reached the couch and sat down, opening it. “What did you put in it that’s so heavy?”

Rebecca moved closer to the couch. “Just some books, papers and art work that I found in the office and thought might belong to you. Most of the things are about sentinels.” She paused for a minute and then said, worry in her voice, “I hope you don’t mind that I went over your stuff. I just tried to organize the office, to find room for all of my things. There was another guy before me that they brought to teach the classes and you won't believe the mess that he made in that small room. Any way, I read the things that I went over, trying to decide what to do with them. When I realized that a lot of them belong to your filed of research, I decided to bring them to you.”

Blair looked at her, standing with her backpack on one shoulder, wearing old jeans and a shirt with Indian symbols on it. She reminded him of himself three years before, when he first met Jim. He changed so much since then. Finally realizing that she was still standing, he gestured at the couch beside her, “Please, sit down, Rebecca. You’re probably tired after sorting the office all day. I remember when I had to organize it, I thought I was going to lose my mind. But at least I had someone to help me; one of the students who was assigned to me.” He paused, lost for a brief moment in his own memories.

Rebecca sat on the couch, putting the backpack on the floor beside her. “You can call me Becky,” she said, smiling shyly again.

“Okay, Becky,” Blair said, smiling back. “And you can call me Blair. So, where did you get my address from?”

“One of the students had it. He said you gave it to him last year when he needed some help with a paper. I tried to get it from the University secretaries first, but they said that they got an order not to deal with you again.”

Blair stopped his search trough the box, and stared at the painting that he held in his hands. He didn’t know about that policy, and in some way it felt as if he was kicked in the gut.

“I’m sorry,” Becky said, “I shouldn’t have said that. I think I’ll go now.” She got up, taking her backpack from the floor and was about to go to the door when Blair stopped her.

“No, it’s okay. You don’t have to go.” She sat back and Blair continued, staring at the painting in his hands, avoiding her eyes. “You probably heard the all story by now, so you know that it’s my fault I was kicked out of Rainier. You have nothing to feel uncomfortable about; I brought all of that on myself.”

“Did you really lie?”

Blair looked at her. “What do you mean?”

“Well, I’ve read some of your work, and browsed through those books that I found in the office,” she said. “I have to say that your work on the sentinels is quite impressive. I couldn’t find anything on it that wasn’t based on genuine information.”

“I never said that my work wasn’t based on genuine research.” Blair said, avoiding Becky’s eyes again. “The only lie in my work was the fact of Detective Ellison being a sentinel.”

“Was it really a lie?”

Hearing that comment, Blair raised his head and looked at Becky. She saw something in his eyes, something that she could only describe as fear. “Why do you ask that? I admitted the lie.”

“I know, I remember seeing the press conference,” Becky said. “But I still can’t understand something; why did you became Ellison’s partner to begin with, if he isn’t a sentinel. Why risk your life at police work, and lose precious research time, if you can’t get anything from it for your thesis?”

Blair looked at her for a few seconds, not saying a word. Then he got up and walked to the kitchen. “I can’t believe that I’ve been so rude to you, not offering you something to eat or drink. You want a beer?”

“A beer would be great.”

Blair took two beers out of the fridge and went back to the living room. He gave one to Becky and sat back on the couch. “So,” he said, “you want to know why I joined Jim as his partner. Well, it’s a simple answer - for the thrill of it.”

“The thrill of it,” she said, a doubtful look on her face.

“Well, yeah,” Blair said, taking a sip from the beer before continuing. “I was tired of the academic life and decided to add some thrill to them. I applied for an observer position at the cascade pd, and since Jim didn’t have a partner at that time, they partnered us together.”

“And when did you decide to make him the subject of your thesis?” Becky asked him, obviously still not buying it.

“Actually, it was a few months before I submitted it. I saw that I had to finish it, but I couldn’t find anyone who was really a sentinel. So, I thought about it and decided to write about Jim as a sentinel. It wasn’t hard, all I had to do was take all of the things that I’ve learned from the books and patch them on the police work that we did together.” Blair took a long sip from the beer and looked at it. “It wasn’t that hard.”

“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have made you talk about it,” Becky apologized.

Blair laughed. “Did someone ever tell you that you apologize too much?”

Also laughing, Becky turned a bit red. “Actually yeah, more than once. But I’m only doing it when I’m nervous.”

“And you’re nervous now? Why?” Blair asked, curious.

“To tell you the truth, it’s because of you.” Becky replied honestly. “All I heard from the students, when I asked about you, is how wonderful you are; a wonderful teacher as well as a wonderful person. Non of them believes that you lied on your thesis; they all have their own conspiracy theories about it. I guess that I’m nervous because I’m afraid that I won’t be as good for them as you were.”

“You don’t have to feel that way,” Blair said. “Every person is an individual, no one can be the same as someone else. I’m sure that you’ll do a great job, and that in a few months no one will even remember me.”

Becky smiled again. “Thank you, it’s a nice thing to say.”

“What can I say,” Blair said, a wide smile on his face. “People do claim I'm a nice person.”

Jim stepped out of the elevator and approached the door of the loft, taking the keys out of his pocket. He was about to open the door when he realized that something wasn’t the same. Opening his hyper hearing, he heard two heartbeats. ‘That’s strange. Blair told me that he’s going to spend the evening alone.’ Normally this would cause Jim’s protection to jump to the roof, but this time was different; the two heartbeats were slow and so were the breathings of the two people. Realizing that the people inside were asleep, Jim shook his head and turned the key in the keyhole. He opened the door and entered the loft, closing the door behind him as quietly as he could. It took him only a few seconds to adjust his sight to the little amount of light that was in the loft; it was darker then the lighted corridor that he entered from, the fire in the fireplace the only source of light in the loft. Jim traced the two heartbeats to the couch and approached it, a smile appearing on his face when he reached it. Blair was sleeping in a sitting position on the couch, a young woman lying beside him, her head on his chest, also asleep.

‘And here I was feeling sorry for the kid for spending the evening all alone in the loft.’ He shook his head and made his way to the stairs of his room, doing his best to be quite.

“So, when did your girlfriend leave?”

Blair looked at Jim, a smile on his face. “She’s not my girlfriend, Jim. I only met her yesterday.”

“That never stopped you before.”

“Really funny, Jim.” Crossing the road and entering the station, Blair looked at Jim, suddenly realizing something. “You’re telling me you didn’t hear us in the morning? Are you having troubles with your hearing?”

“No, I’m not having troubles with my hearing.” Jim dismissed the possibility. “I woke up but went back to sleep without looking at the watch. I came back late last night, so I wanted to sleep as much as I could. Is that okay with you?” They stepped into the elevator and Jim looked at Blair, waiting for an answer. When he saw that he’s not going to get it, he asked again, “so, when did you say you two woke up?”

“Well, we woke up at 6:00 am, and she practically ran out of the loft,” Blair answered, emphasizing the running part with his hands.

“Regrets about last night?” Jim asked, rising an eyebrow.

The elevator reached their floor, and they made their way to the Bull Pen of Major Crime. “No, she had to be in Rainier at 7:00, and she had to stop by her home first.” Blair answered Jim’s remark. “And for your information, nothing happened last night.”

“Right, I just happened to come home and find her sleeping in your lap, Chief.” Jim sat down by his desk, and opened his computer, waiting for Blair’s reaction; he loved teasing the younger man.

“We fall asleep, Jim,” Blair said, sitting on the desk. “She’s the new Anthropology Ph.D. candidate at Rainier. We talked about places that we visited during our work. It was great; we just lost track of time.” Blair sighed. “Until last night, I haven’t realized how much I missed talking about those things,” he said, sadness in his voice.

Blair’s last remark triggered guilt in Jim’s heart that he thought he already got rid of. He felt responsible for Blair’s leave of his academic life, the only life that he knew and loved for so many years. But Jim also knew that in the end it was Blair’s decision and that he couldn’t have stopped him even if he wanted to. But that was just the problem – he didn’t want to stop him. It was easy for him to just let Blair make all the big moves; the move into the loft, the joining of the police as his partner…the refute of his thesis. And what did he ever do for Blair except drag him around, risking his life and accusing him of betrayal. He tried to clear the thought from his mind.

“Jim, come on, don’t zone on me.”

Realizing that Blair was talking to him, Jim shook his head and looked at his friend. “I’m okay; just a bit lost in my own thoughts,” he reassured him. “So, what’s her name?”

“Becky.”

“And you’re sure that she’s not some kind of a psycho?” Jim asked, only half teasing him.

“You’re really enjoying this, aren’t you?”

“You know your own history, Chief. It’s best to be careful. I can run a check on her if you’ll give me her full name.”

Blair was about to answer Jim’s remark, reminding him of his own history with the female gender, but the look that he saw on his friend's face stopped him and lit a warning sign in his head. “What’s wrong?”

Jim got up and looked around the Bull Pen as if looking for something. “I smell something; some kind of an explosive material. It's somewhere in the room,” Jim told him, nervous, still looking around. “But it’s not just the explosive, there’s something else; something familiar. I just can’t put my finger on it.” He started walking in the direction of Rafe’s desk where Rafe was going through his mail. Holding a big package in his hands, Rafe looked at it from all directions and finally went to open it.

“Don’t open it,” Jim shouted while running to the desk. He grabbed the package out of Rafe’s hands, and threw it to a corner of the office that was empty of people at that moment. “Get down!”

An explosion shuddered the Bull Pen as the envelope exploded, sending parts of plaster and papers on people’s heads. After the smoke cleared Jim got up and looked around. “Everyone okay?” he asked, looking around to see if somebody needed help. He spotted Blair near his desk, holding his head, blood on the side of it, and ran to him. “Are you okay, Chief?” he asked, worry in his voice.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” Blair answered, wincing when Jim touched the wound on his forehead. “It’s fine Jim, it’s just a little scratch. What about you? Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I dialed down my hearing before the explosion,” Jim said, looking at the room to see if someone else needed help. Everyone looked all right, just a few scratches here and there. Most of them were just shaken.

“I don’t think Simon would like the new decoration of the room,” Blair said, staring at the destroyed corner of the room. “And I’m not sure that Paul would thank you for destroying his desk.”

Jim ran a hand through his short hair, looking at the destruction. “Well, Simon did say that the room needed some improvement. I guess now we’ll finally get the finance for it.” While they were standing there, Rafe approached them and put his hand on Jim’s shoulder. “Thanks man. You saved my life.”

“My pleasure,” Jim answered him, returning the gesture by putting his own hand on Rafe’s shoulder. “Our bomber just made his second strike,” he told Blair and Rafe. “Let’s hope he won’t have another chance to try before we catch him.”

Becky opened the door of her office and entered the small room; closing the door behind her she turned toward her desk, and froze at her place, startled. A second later she closed her eyes and held a hand on her chest, taking a deep breath in a try to calm her racing heart. “Jeez Dad, you’re trying to scare me to death?”

“I’m surprised you didn’t hear me,” the man said from his place behind her desk. “You’re getting sloppy.”

Dropping her backpack on the floor, Becky sat on one of the chairs opposite the desk. “You have nothing to worry about, I’m not getting sloppy. I’m just tired, that’s all.”

“Did you meet with him?” the man asked, playing with the letter opener.

“Yes, I did,” Becky answered. “And you’ll be happy to hear that he’s a very nice person.”

“I don’t care if he’s nice or not. The only thing that matters here is that he’ll provide us with what we need of him,” the man said. He leaned forward and grabbed Becky’s arm. “Don’t forget the reason that you’re doing this, kiddo; you’re not here to try and catch a guy. Don’t let his pretty eyes distract you from the real purpose.”

“You’re hurting me,” Becky cried. She tried to pull her arm, but the man's grip tightened.

“Do I have to worry about this?” he asked, his eyes narrowing, a threatening gaze in them.

Becky turned her own gaze away from the man’s eyes; she hated the look that she saw there. “You don’t have to worry about this father; I remember the reason that I’m here.”

“Good,” the man said, releasing her arm before leaning back in the chair, an evil smile on his face. “Very good.”

“Didn’t you find anything in the residues that we can use?” Simon asked Jim who was sitting in his office together with Blair. It has been three days since the bomb exploded in Major Crimes and they still had nothing to help them in finding the bomber. Time was running out on them; they all knew that the bomber wouldn’t wait long before trying again.

“Nothing Sir,” Jim answered. “I recognized something in the smell of the bomb before it went off, but I just can’t put my finger on it. I have no idea what that smell could be.”

Simon turned his look at Blair. “And where are you in all of this? You’re supposed to be his Guide. Guide him!”

“It’s not my fault. I tried everything I could think of,” Blair defended himself.

“In the mean time, gentleman, our bomber is probably preparing for his next hit. Let’s not forget that he has two more cops on his target before moving on.” Simon lit the cigar that he held in his hand, but didn’t put it in his mouth. “He has never failed before so we don’t know how he might react to this time. Now, since he hasn’t done anything in the past three days, I think that it’s safe to say that he’s thinking more about his next move.” He looked at Blair and Jim, pointing the cigar at them as he spoke. “That could mean two things for us. Either it would give us more time to try and catch him before he tries again; or, and this is the bad option, people, he’ll be more careful the next time, and we might not be able to stop him.”

“I’m working on it, sir,” Jim reassured his captain. “I asked from the stations of the previous cities that the bomber hit to send me the residues that they have. I might be able to find something on it.”

“Good,” Simon said, putting the cigar in his mouth. “Now, go back to work.”

“Yes, sir,” Jim said and he and Blair exited Simon’s office, both of them taking a deep breath of relief once on the other side of the closed door. They went back to their desks and Jim sat in his chair, ready to go back to work on the case. However, when he looked at Blair who sat on the edge of his desk, a distant look on his face, Jim put down the papers that he held and asked, “what are you thinking about, Chief?”

Blair looked at him. “Well, I’m trying to think of a way to help you remember the source of the smell. There has to be a way to do that, I just haven’t found it, yet.” Jim shook his head and turned his attention back to the papers that he was reading. He was startled a few seconds later by Blair who jump off the table, announcing, “I found it.”

“And “it” would be?”

“We can put you under hypnosis. That just may be the trick,” Blair said all excited.

“The only one that you’re going to put under hypnosis, Chief, is yourself.” Jim answered him, not even raising his eyes from the paper that he was reading.

“Come on Jim,” Blair said. “It may be the only way. We’re losing time here. Besides,” he said, a smile appearing on his face, “we might find some other interesting stuff during the process.”

Jim raised his gaze and stared at Blair.

“It might be fun,” Blair tried again. “I did it once. Found out I was an Indian in a previous lifetime.”

Jim shook his head and went back to the papers.

“Okay,” Blair said, giving up. “I’ll think of another way. But believe me, you have no idea what you’re missing here.”

“We’ll think of a different way, “we” as in “together”.” Jim said. “We’ll do it over dinner; it’s my turn to cook today.”

“Can’t do that,” Blair said. “I have a date with Becky. We’re going to see a movie.”

Jim looked at Blair. “It looks like you two are getting along. When will I meet her?” he asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Don’t worry Jim,” Blair smiled. “You’ll have plenty of time to meet her; she’s not going anywhere. Besides, let me worry about my love life, you have to worry about recalling that smell.”

“Well, Chief,” Jim smiled back at him. “Last time I checked, that kind of things were listed under the word “Guide ”. And that is you, if my memory serves me right.”

“Fine, if that’s the way you’re going to play this,” Blair said, taking his coat. “Since our shift was officially over ten minutes ago, I’m going back to the loft to read some more. I’ll let you know in case I’ll find something that we can use.”

“You do that,” Jim called after him. He listened for a few seconds, hearing his guide mumble something about how he’s always the one that has to do all the research, and went back to reading the file, a smile on his face.

Blair parked his car in front of Becky’s house and turned to Becky who was sitting next to him in the car. “Here we are.”

Becky smiled. “Would you mind if we’ll sit outside and talk for a while? It’s still early.”

Blair looked at his watch. “Some people might say that 2 am is early. Other might say that it’s late.”

“And to which group do you belong, Mr. Sandburg?”

Blair didn’t answer her, instead, he got out from the car and came to Becky’s side. Opening the door, he offered her his hand. Becky took the offered hand and stepped out of the car, Blair closing the door after her. Still holding hands they walked up the stairs to the balcony and sat on the swing.

“So, tell me something exciting that happened to you during your work in the police,” Becky asked.

Blair thought for a few seconds, and then his eyes sparkled as the memory came back to him. “Well, there was that time when we investigated a murder at a site of an archeological dig here in cascade, where an old Masonic lodge used to be. In the end we found out that the “bad guys” were after some golden plate with a coded direction on it, a direction for a hidden storage of gold that was on the site that was uncovered. The directions were the only way to find it in the maze of the tunnels.” Blair’s hands flew freely in the air as he talked. “We had one part of the plate and they had the other one. And then one of them saw me with the plate and forced me to come with him, since I had a program in the computer that translated the code of the plate. They forced me to go down the tunnels with them.”

Blair stopped to take a deep breath, and Becky said, her eyes sparkling in the same way that Blair’s did, “Well, don’t keep me in suspense, tell me what happened.”

“Well, Jim found out that they kidnapped me, and he figured that they took me to the dig site, so he came after us. He came down the dig and just when he found us, the all thing began to fall apart. We were lucky that Jim managed to find the way out.”

“So, Jim saved your life.”

Blair looked at his hands. “Yeah, he did. Jim always saves my life; I guess I kinda got used to counting on him to do that whenever I’m in trouble. Something that happens too often if you ask me,” he added with a smile.

“It sounds like you’re really lucky to have Jim as your partner,” Becky said. “I heard that he saved your life at the Uni last year; something about you drowning in the fountain. I didn’t understand all the details though, like how you got into the fountain to begin with.”

A chill went through Blair’s body and he wrapped his arms around his chest. “Yeah, Jim saved my life that day.” He raised his gaze and looked into Becky’s eyes. “I don't like to talk about that day.”

Becky was shocked to see the pain and hurt that his eyes held. There was no reminder to the light that those same eyes held only a minute before. She put her hand on his shoulder and smiled at him. “You don’t have to talk about it. Besides, I bet you did your own share of saving Jim.”

Blair chuckled, some of the spark coming back to his eyes. “Well, I guess you can put it that way. Let’s just say that it works both ways.” He once again held Becky’s hand in his own. “So, why did you become an Anthropologist?” he asked.

“Well, I was always fascinated with other cultures, since I was a little kid,” Becky answered. “I guess it runs in my family’s blood; my uncle and my father are also Anthropologists.”

“And your Mom?”

“She died when I was very young, I don’t really remember her. But she worked at a museum of the native cultures. That’s how she met my Dad,” Becky said, a sad smile on her face. A yawn escaped her and she apologized, “I’m sorry.”

“Nothing to be sorry about, it is getting late,” Blair said, looking at his watch. “I should go home before Jim sends a search party after me. He can do that, you know.” They got up from the swing. “I had a wonderful time, I hope that we could do this again, soon.”

“Me too,” Becky said. “I’ll call you tomorrow, maybe we’ll have lunch together.”

“I'd like that,” Blair said and kissed her gently on the lips. He waited until she got inside her house and closed the door, before going back to his car and driving away.

David Anderson watched as Blair Sandburg got into his car and drove away from Becky’s house. Smiling to himself, he took his cell phone from the bag that lay on the ground beside him. He pushed the speed dial button, and waited, listening to the ringing tone.

“Blair?” Becky’s voice came from the other side of the line.

“No, just your old man, Kiddo,” David told his daughter. He looked at her living room window, seeing the shadow that she made on the closed curtain. “Kind of late for a school night, don’t you think? I thought I taught you better than that.”

“What do you want, Dad?” Becky asked with a tense voice. “I’m tired, I want to go to bed.”

“I’m sure you do, Kiddo. After all, it’s tiring to sit on the porch and hold hands with your lover boy, isn’t it? Very tiring.”

The curtain on Becky’s window moved, and Becky’s face was revealed. She looked around, searching, and then her eyes met her father’s stare. Sighing, she closed the window, blocking her father’s view, and moved away from the window. “What do you want?”

“I’m just making sure you’re not letting your gourd down,” David said. He leaned against the tree that was beside him, his evil smile returning to his face. “You are keeping your gourd up, aren’t you dear?”

“We already talked about this, father. I told you that in order to pull Blair away from Jim Ellison, I will need to get his trust.” Becky sighed again. “I have to make him fall in love with me. That’s the only way.”

“That's all fine, as long as you don’t fall in love with him,” David said, his voice harsh, the smile no longer on his face.

Becky was silent for a few seconds, and then said, determination in her voice, “stop following me, Dad. I know what I’m doing, I’m a big girl now.” And with that, she hang up the phone.

David closed his cell phone, his eyes never leaving his daughter’s house. The lights inside the house went out one by one, leaving only the light on the porch to light the house in the dark night. David smiled to himself. “That’s my girl,” he said and went back to his car.

Branches hit his face as he ran through the jungle, but he ignored the pain, blocking his mind to it. What he couldn’t ignore was the feeling that his lungs were about to explode and the pain that sliced his body with every breath that he took. His body screamed at him to stop, just for a few minutes, but he knew that he couldn’t. He knew that he had to keep on running towards the noise that he heard, the noise of the fighting animals. He finally reached the clearing in the jungle, but it was too late; he arrived just in time to see the golden puma sticking its teeth into the black jaguar. A howl of pain escaped the jaguar as he collapsed, hitting the ground hard.

“No!” Blair yelled, standing there, looking at the jaguar and the puma. The puma turned its head and looked at Blair. For a brief moment, their eyes met and they stared at each other; and then the puma turned and slowly disappeared into the jungle.

Another howl of pain drew Blair’s attention back to the black jaguar. He ran to the creature and slide to the ground beside him, putting his hand on its head, tears in his eyes. “No,” he whispered to the jaguar. “I should have stopped it. It can’t be happening again. I should have stopped it.” The creature closed its eyes. “Please, no,” Blair whispered again and patted the creature’s head. Suddenly, he noticed a change happening in the jaguar and he pulled his hand back. As he looked with amazement and horror, the jaguar changed his form and became Jim.

“No!”

Blair sat in his bed, gasping for air. Confused for a few seconds, he wasn’t sure where he was; but when his eyes got used to the dark, he realized that he was in his room at the loft. He closed his eyes, taking deep breaths in an attempt to slow down his speeding heart. But when he closed them the vision of the jaguar turning into Jim reappeared in his mind and he opened his eyes and shook his head, trying to clear his mind from the sight.

“Blair?” Jim’s worried voice came from the stairs, and a second latter he was by Blair’s bed. “You okay?”

Blair raised his head and looked at Jim. “I’m not sure.”

“What happened?” Jim asked, a worried expression on his face. “Did you have another dream?”

“Yeah.” Blair ran a hand through his hair. Suddenly aware of the tears in his eyes, he wiped them away. “It was worse this time,” he told Jim, not looking at him.

“Worse how?”

The room was dark, only the weak light of the moon making it possible to see something; but when Blair looked up and his eyes met Jim’s, he was able to see the worry that his friend’s eyes held. “It was the same as last time, the puma fought the jaguar and killed it.” He took a deep breath before continuing. “But this time the jaguar turned into you. You died in my arms, Jim, and there was nothing I could do to save you.”

Jim stared at him, no emotional change visible on his face. He said nothing for a few seconds and a thought about a zone out made it’s way to Blair’s mind. But just when he was about to check it, Jim spoke, “and you’re sure that it was me?”

Blair stared at him, not believing what he heard. “Are you kidding me? Do you really think that I can make a mistake about something like that? I saw the jaguar turn into YOU.”

“I’m sorry, Chief. I shouldn’t have said that,” Jim apologized. “So, what do we do about this?”

“Well, it’s kind of clear what the dream means; it’s just like the dream that you had before Alex killed me.” Blair paused for a short moment, a chill running down his back. “Only in this vision, I saw you die after a fight with a golden puma, not a spotted jaguar.”

Jim looked confused. “I never had a vision about a puma.”

“I know,” Blair said. “That’s what I can’t understand in all of this. Who’s the puma? We know that you’re a jaguar, I’m a wolf and Alex is a spotted jaguar. We never ran into a puma before.” Blair looked at Jim. “Did we?”

“Don’t look at me like that, Chief.” Jim defended himself. “I’ve learned my lesson. I would have told you if I had another vision about an animal spirit.” They were both quiet for a minute, each lost in his thoughts, and then Jim spoke. “So, what do you think it all means? Is it possible that there’s another sentinel around?”

“I thought about that possibility,” Blair admitted. “I’m sure that there are more sentinels out there. The fact that we met Alex shows that as much as it’s hard to believe, it is possible that another sentinel will arrive to cascade, of all places in the world.”

“You really think that it’s possible that there’s another Sentinel in cascade?” Jim asked, tension in his voice.

“Well actually, I doubt it.”

Jim was surprised. “Why? You just said that it’s possible.”

“It’s possible, Jim, but I don’t think that it’s the case here.” Blair leaned back against the wall. “For one thing, it’s me that’s having the dreams, not you. And secondly,” Blair avoided Jim’s stare. “You don’t act like you did the last time that another sentinel was in town. You know, all protective, shutting everybody out.”

“I don’t feel different like I did when Alex was around,” Jim admitted. “Back then, I felt like everything was closing up on me; the people around me, even the walls; I felt as if I was suffocating. And there was that feeling that something wrong was about to happen. I didn’t know why I felt it, and nothing took that feeling away. But now, I feel normal; no bad feeling, no senses going crazy, nothing.”

“See what I mean?” Blair said. “That’s why I don’t think that there’s another Sentinel in cascade. But there is another possibility; it could be that the reason that I’m having the visions, and not you, is that it’s not another Sentinel, but another Guide; another Shaman.”

Jim thought about the idea for a few seconds. “Okay, let’s assume for a minute that you’re right, that there is another Shaman in cascade; does the vision mean that he’s going to try and kill me?”

“It has to be. Like the vision that you had,” Blair said.

Jim shook his head. “You said that in your vision the puma killed the jaguar.” He paused. “But in my vision, I didn’t see the spotted jaguar kill the wolf; I killed it.”

“Well, it might be because you had a chance to prevent it from happening, a chance to stop Alex, and you didn’t. Your mind might have translated it in the way that you killed me.” The minute that the words came out of his mouth, Blair knew that he had made a mistake. He looked at Jim, regret in his eyes. “I’m sorry, Jim. I didn’t mean it to sound like that. I’m...”

Jim raised his hand to stop Blair’s apology. “It’s okay, Chief. I know that you didn’t mean it. But you are right in some way; I did had a chance to stop Alex, and I didn’t. All I had to do was listen to what you had to say, or at least tell you about my vision; Maybe we could have understood it together, like we are doing now with your vision.” He sat down beside Blair. “So, what you’re saying is that you won’t have a chance to stop the person that the puma represents, and that he would kill me.”

“Well,” Blair hesitated. “Yes, that’s one explanation. Another one can be that our visions are different simply because it’s a different vision. I know that it’s not a very sophisticated explanation, but it is an explanation, one that I choose to believe as the right one. I won’t let any other sentinel or shaman hurt you,” Blair said just before a yawn escaped him.

“I know that you won’t, Chief.” Jim smiled. “You know what I think? I think that this would be a good time to go back to sleep. It’s three in the morning, and we have work tomorrow.”

“Okay,” Blair said and yawned again.

“Good night,” Jim said, getting up from Blair’s bed, heading for the doors.

“Good night,” Blair answered and laid back in his bed. He didn’t even hear when Jim went up the stairs to his room; he fell asleep a second after his head touched the pillow.

Jim threw the bag of evidence on his desk. “Nothing,” he told Blair who was sitting on the edge of the table. “No prints, no massages, nothing that can help us figure out who this guy is.”

Blair took the bag in his hands and looked at the residues that filled it. Residues of the bomb that almost killed Rafe, and who knows who else in the bullpen. “What about the smell that you mentioned? Do you still smell it?”

Jim sat in his chair and ran a hand over his tired face. “I smell it, but I still can’t put my finger on it.”

“You will,” Blair reassured him. “We just have to work on it. I thought about a few ways to help you remember. I’m still not 100% sure about them, but it’s a start.”

“I’m sure that I will regret it, but I see no other way.” Jim sighed. “Show me the way, Chief.”

“As much as I’m touched by your show of confidence in me,” Blair said with a smile. “I can’t right now.”

That caught Jim’s attention and he raised his head to look at Blair. “That’s a first. I can’t remember a time when you hadn’t jumped on an opportunity for testing my senses. So, who is she?”

“Do you really think that some girl is more important to me than helping you with your senses?” Blair asked, a very well played hurt expression on his face.

Jim stared at him.

“Okay, okay.” Blair smiled widely. “It’s Becky.”

“The girl that I found on the couch last week?” Jim tried to hide his smile. “You’re still with her?”

“Yeah man,” Blair said, a little hurt. “I’m still with her. She’s amazing, I never met anyone like her. It’s just... we start talking, and next thing I know, two hours have past.” Blair sighed, a dreaming smile on his face. “Every time I see her, it’s like everything else freezes. There’s only her.”

“Ho, you’ve got it bad, Chief.” Jim said. When he realized that Blair was staring at blank air, he gave him a light hit on his forehead. “Back to reality, lover boy.”

Blair shook his head. “Yeah, well any way, we’re going out for lunch and she’s supposed to come here to meet me.” He looked at Jim. “So please, don’t embarrass me.”

“Me? Embarrass you?” Jim asked, not believing what he heard. “When was the last time I embarrassed you?”

“Remember Lisa?”

Jim thought for a second and then smiled. “Well, Chief, it’s not my fault I dated her a year ago.”

“You know what that means, don’t you?” Blair asked, a teasing spark in his eyes. “It means that we have the same taste when it comes to women.”

“No way, Chief,” Jim shook his head. “I’m not into women who has a history with the law; and I’m not talking police officers here.”

“Come on, Jim. How many times has that happened to me?” Blair raised his hand and stopped Jim before he had a chance to answer. “Don’t answer that.”

“Am I interrupting something?”

Blair turned around and found Becky standing behind him. “Hey,” he said and gave her a light kiss. “You’re early.”

“I finished the papers earlier. I hope it’s okay I came now,” Becky said and looked at Jim, smiling. “I don’t believe I met you before, you’re Blair’s partner, right?”

Jim shook her offered hand. “Jim Ellison. And actually, we did kind of met before; I found the two of you asleep on my living room couch.”

Blair cleared the throat. “We should go, we don’t want to miss your launch break time.” He took his backpack and sent Jim a warning stare.

Jim shrugged, as if asking ‘what did I do?’ He smiled at Becky. “Nice meeting you again.”

“You too,” she said, smiling back. But instead of turning to go, like Blair did, she looked at the bag of evidence that still rested on the table. “What’s that?”

“Remains of a bomb,” Jim answered her question, the smile fading from his face when he looked at it.

Becky stared at it for a few seconds and Blair put his hand on her back in a supporting gesture. “Don’t worry about it, it’s nothing now. Shall we go? I thought of a great place we can eat at; you’ll love it.”

“You promise?” Becky asked, smiling again.

Blair put a hand over his heart. “Scout’s honor.”

“Have you even been on the scouts?” Becky asked.

“Well, no,” Blair admitted and they both chuckled before saying goodbye to Jim and heading for the elevator.

Jim smiled to himself when he watched the two going to the elevator, Blair’s hand around Becky’s waist. ‘Nice to see the kid in love again,’ he thought. And without even realizing what he was doing, he listened to their conversation with his hyper hearing.

“How was the swimming pool?” Becky asked Blair.

Blair looked at her, puzzled. “What do you mean? I didn’t go to the pool for over a month.”

Now it was Becky’s turn to look at him with puzzlement. “I thought I smelled chlorine from you. You know, like they put in the swimming pools. I guess I was wrong.” They entered the elevator and the doors closed behind them.

Jim sat in his chair, staring once again at the bag of evidence that lay on the desk. Something in Becky’s words caught his attention, and his mind was processing what his subconscious already knew. A minute later he slammed his hand on the desk. “That’s it.”

Simon, who was just about to enter his office, turned and looked at Jim, just like all the other people in the bullpen. An asking expression on his face, he approached Jim’s desk. “Is there a good reason that you’re destroying police property?”

“That’s it Simon; the smell that I couldn’t remember. It’s chlorine, the kind that’s put in swimming pools.”

“And you couldn’t remember it until now?” Simon asked. “Swimming pools chlorine?”

“Well, sir,” Jim whispered. “It has been a while since the last time I was in a swimming pool.” Avoiding Simon’s stare, he picked up the phone and dialed one. “Jack? It’s Ellison. Listen, has Blair already left the station? He has? No, that’s ok, thanks.” Jim hung up and dialed again, this time Blair’s cell phone number. The answering machine answered him on the other side of the line. “If you called this number, you’re probably looking for Blair. Well, you found me, but I can’t answer the phone right now. So leave a massage and I’ll call you back as soon as I can.”

“Blair, it’s Jim. I remember the origin of the smell; it’s chlorine. Get back to the station as soon as you can.”

Simon looked at Jim as he hang up the phone. “So, you want to wait for Sandburg before we begin working on this?”

Jim thought for a second and then shook his head. “We don’t have time to wait; we don’t know when the killer will hit again. We have to start working on this right away. Blair will catch up.” He sat back at his chair and looked at Simon. “The guy has to stay mobile; we know that he’s moving from one city to the other with no trouble. And we know that he has something to do with the kind of chlorine that’s put in swimming pools.”

“Maybe he’s just putting it in the bombs”, Simon suggested, sitting on the edge of Jim’s desk.

Jim shook his head. “If he wanted to use the chlorine for the explosion, he would have put a lot more of it in the bomb.And if that was the case, the lab should have found traces of that, and it didn't. No, the smell is too faint for that. It has to come from him, from the bomber. That’s why I’m the only one that can notice it.”

“So, you think that he works with chlorine; and that without knowing it, he left traces of it on the bombs when he made them.”

“It’s got to be it, Sir.” Jim said. “Now, he has to have the ability to just move whenever he wants to; and he also works with chlorine in every city, because I smelled it from all the residues and they came from different cities.” They were both quite for a minute, each with his own thoughts, and then they looked at each other and said simultaneously, “a swimming pool cleaner.”

Half an hour later, Jim had in his hands a list of all the swimming pools in cascade; two public swimming pools, and 14 private ones. Jim looked at the list. “I’ll start with the public swimming pools,” he told Simon while taking his coat and heading for the doors.

“Wait,” Simon called after him. “There’s no way I’m going to let you go alone on this one.” He turned and looked at the bullpen, quickly finding the person that he was looking for. “Connor.”

Jim took two large steps that brought him next to his Captain. “Simon, I can do this alone,” he protested.

Simon looked at him. “What if your senses go wild on you? What will you do then without someone to help you?”

Jim’s face turned serious. “Sir, I can control my senses. I don’t need Sandburg, or anyone else for that matter, to babysit me. Just to remind you, I was doing fine on my own before I met Blair.”

“Yeah, but you didn’t have your Sentinel senses back then,” Simon answered him, raising his hand to stop Jim from answering him. “There’s a cop killer on the loose, and there is no way that I’m going to send you looking for him on your own. Sentinel senses, or no Sentinel senses.” He smiled at Megan who came and stood beside them.

“Yes, Sir?”

“You’re going with Jim, he’ll fill you in on the way.” And with that, he went back to his office, a winning grin on his face.

“So, where else have you been?” Becky asked Blair while they walked to his car, holding hands, after finishing their launch.

“Let’s see,” Blair said and thought for a minute. “I’ve been to Malaysia.”

Becky turned to him. “Really? I’ve been there too. My father and I went there for six months when I was twelve years old. He had some work to do there, and he didn’t want to just leave me somewhere, so he took me with him. I loved it, it’s such a beautiful country.”

“Yeah, it is. Maybe we’ll go there together one day.”

“Yeah, maybe.” Becky smiled. “Listen, I found some more of your stuff in the office. Finally got to those dark corners,” she told Blair. “Most of them about the paper that you worked on, about the sentinels. Do you want me to drop it at your place on my way back from Uni?”

“I can come now and put it in my car,” Blair suggested. “It would give me an excuse to be with you some more. I just have to let Jim know that I’m going to be late.” He took his cellphone out of his coat. “Shit, I can’t believe it.”

“What’s wrong?” Becky asked, worried.

“I forgot to open it.” He opened the phone and shook his head when the light that remarks a massage blinked. “I can’t believe I was so stupid.” After pressing the right keys of the phone he listened to Jim’s voice, telling him that he recognized the smell. When the massage ended he turned to Becky. “I’m sorry, but I have to go back to the station. Jim is going to kill me.”

Becky laughed. “I’m sure it’s not that bad.”

“You don’t know Jim,” Blair said. He approached the car and took his keys out from his pocket, ready to put them into the door and open it. Becky’s shout stopped him.

“Blair, don’t!”

He turned to her, puzzled. “Becky, what’s wrong?” he asked, the panic that he saw in her eyes frightening him.

Becky didn’t answer him; she stared at the car, as if something there caught her full attention.

“Becky?” Blair asked again, approaching her when he realized that she didn’t hear him. “Becky?” he asked again, touching her arm.

She kept on staring at the car.

Blair started to panic. “Becky, what’s wrong?” he raised his voice, shaking her gently.

Suddenly, she took a deep breath, as if she held it for a long time, and lost her balance. Blair caught her and helped her to straighten up. “You okay?” he asked, worried.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” Becky said, shaking her head. “I just had a zo…” she stopped before finishing the word. “I’m fine.”

“Are you sure?”

Becky smiled at Blair. “Yes, I’m sure.”

“Okay, so let’s get you back to your office. I have to get back to the station if I want to live long enough to meet you again,” Blair told her, and walked back to his car. He was once again ready to put the keys in the door, when Becky made him stop in his place.

“Don’t!”

Blair turned to her, startled. “What?”

Becky grabbed Blair’s hand and pulled him away from the car. “Don’t open the door,” she told him, a terrified look in her eyes.

“Why not? What’s wrong?”

Becky took a deep breath before saying, “it has a bomb in it.”

Blair looked puzzled for a minute, and then smiled. “Don’t worry about it, Becky. There’s no reason for this guy to choose to kill me out of all the cascade police force. There’s nothing to worry about.” He turned to walk back to the car, but Becky pulled his arm again.

“No!”

Blair turned around and looked at her. “Becky, there is no way that someone could have put a bomb in the car while we were eating; it’s day now, no one will be stupid enough to try that in the day light.” He held Becky’s hand and squeezed it warmly. “So, let’s just get back to the Uni okay?” He turned around, but this time Becky reached out and took the keys out of his hand.

Blair turned around and looked at her. “What are you doing?”

“I have no other way of stopping you,” Becky said. “I’m sorry, Blair, but you just don’t understand. You can’t open this car’s door. It might explode if you do.”

Blair stared at her, the look in his eyes changing from puzzlement to fear. He took two steps back. “How do you know that?”

“I just do. Please, leave it like that. Don’t ask me any more questions.”

“I asked you a question. How do you know that?” Blair asked again, his hands fisting by the side of his body.

“Blair, please,” Becky pleaded, tears appearing in her eyes. “Just move away from the car. Please!”

Blair shook his head. “ I’m not moving until you tell me how you know about the bomb,” Blair insisted. He was breathing faster, panic filling him. “Are you connected to all of this? Are you helping the bomber? Is that how you know about it?”

“No,” Becky seemed shocked from Blair’s question. “How can you think something like that about me?”

“Then what?” Blair said, taking a step closer to her. “If it’s not that, then how do you know about the bomb? And why can’t you tell me about it?”

“I just can’t!”

Blair shook his head. “Then give me back my car keys,” he told her, taking another step closer to her; but she took the same step backward. “Becky, this isn’t funny. Give me the keys.”

“I can’t!”

“Then tell me why! Tell me how you know that the bomb is in the car!” Blair raised his voice.

“I can smell it, okay?” Becky finally said, shaking. She took a deep breath, gaining control of her body before saying again, “I can smell the bomb.”

Blair shook his head. “You can’t. The only person that can do that is Jim. And that’s only because he’s a sen…” Recognition hit Blair and he stared at Becky. “That can’t be,” he said, shaking his head.

“I smelled the bomb in the bullpen,” Becky said, her voice shaking. “Remember I asked you if you were in a swimming pool? I smelled the chlorine. And then I heard the massage that Jim left you about the chlorine being in the bomb.” She looked straight into Blair's eyes. “I smell it from your car. It wasn’t there when we came here an hour ago. It has to be from a bomb.”

“You can’t be a sentinel,” Blair said quietly, shaking his head again. “You can’t be.”

“I am, Blair. I’m a sentinel,” Becky said. She took a step forward, reaching her hand to touch him.

“No!” Blair said firmly and held his hand up, signing her to stop. “Don’t come near me.” He stepped away from his car and took out his cellphone, dialing 911 with shaky hands.

part two ...