Disclaimer: The Sentinel is a Pet Fly Production and all related characters and situations belong to those who hold legal copyright. No money is being made and no infringement is intended.Spoilers: Rogue and Sentinel, Too
Rating: PG-13 (for language and implied violence)
Author's Notes: I let Jim get away with murder in this one.
Law of the Jungle
#1 in The Sparrowhawk Sandburg Series
by
Besterette
Besterette@aol.com
The wolf ran, limping, in a futile attempt to outrace his pursuer. Cornered, he finally turned to fight. The eyes were dull and glazed with pain, and the coarse grey fur was matted, crusted with drying blood where the broken shaft of the arrow was embedded in his hip...James Ellison woke, slowly becoming aware of his surroundings. The smaller, sturdy body nestled close. He cracked his eyes open to identify the mop of chestnut hair tickling his nose, breathing in the faint scent of mint shampoo. Memory returned, leaving him feeling cold and sick. He rolled over and sat up. Not again.
"Jim?" Beau Sandburg stirred sleepily. "What time is it?"
He glanced at the nightstand clock. "Two."
"Oh, man. I conked out on you, huh? Sorry."
"It's okay. You needed the sleep." With his skin crawling, the unexpected touch of her fingertips sweeping down his bare back made him flinch.
The sparrowhawk screamed and fell from the sky, tumbling, an arrow piercing the pinion of one wing..."I'm awake now," she offered.
"I'm a little tired myself. Not really in the mood."
"Mn. Come cuddle," she added teasingly, "I know how much you like to cuddle."
That was true. He suspected it was a sentinel thing, there was just something comforting about the loved one held close, scent, heartbeat, the warmth of the body made tangible. He stared at the far wall as he got to his feet, fumbled into his clothing.
"Not tonight. I shouldn't have stayed over. I'm going back to the loft." Not looking at her. Hating himself, but not wanting to see the look on her face. The puzzled disappointment in her eyes.
"Jim?" He heard the creak of bedsprings and her footsteps behind him as she followed him into the hall. "Jim, what's wrong?"
He looked in through the open door of the nursery, easily seeing the small form stir in the crib. "Nothing." Loved, cared for, the small black jaguar cub didn't recognize the approaching threat... Everything. "Jake's up, about time for his feeding. I'll see you later."
He walked out of the apartment without looking back, rang for the elevator, and almost turned around and went back when he heard her whisper, thick with anguished grief.
"Absence makes the heart grow fonder, and familiarity breeds contempt. That it, Jim? The dirty weekends and lunch hour nooky was a bit of excitement, fun... but now I'm just the ol' ball and chain? Don't do this to me, Jim. You want out, just say the word."
Not looking at her hadn't helped a bit. His imagination provided the confusion and hurt betrayal in her eyes, the fear that this was the beginning of the big goodbye. Part of him wanted to go back. This was wrong. He wanted to take her in his arms, tell her how much he loved her, show her how much he loved her. The elevator came and he got in.
He knew what he had to do. It wasn't going to be like the last time. He wouldn't let it be like the last time.
It was a shabby little no-tell motel on the outskirts of Cascade. Not her style, but it suited her purposes at present. Alex Barnes smiled cruelly as she walked past the office, with the 'V' in Vacancy flashing on and off. The oily little man at the desk, how he'd leered at her. It amused her to know she'd be starring in the X-rated fantasies of the pathetic loser, probably for the rest of his life. So she let him live.
Besides, she couldn't afford to let anything interfere with her plans. She was in town for revenge and to tie up loose ends. Something her late, unlamented partner had taught her. Too well.
She let herself into her room, putting on one of the dim lights, not bothering to adjust her eyesight. The inexperienced sentinel didn't notice the low hum of the white noise generator, or know what it was.
She hadn't decided what form her vengeance should take. Putting Sandburg back in the fountain held a certain amount of irony. She turned another light on, over the cheap bureau, and opened the folder of surveillance photos she'd taken, intent on her purpose, not noticing the man sitting in the moth-eaten chair in the shadowy corner of the room.
Sandburg. She liked the new haircut. Sandburg outside the station. Sandburg with Connor. Sandburg and Ellison. Sandburg, Ellison, and the little mother. Her lip curled as she burned with new rage. She'd thought that he was the one, they were one, the same kind. Someone who understood.
And then he betrayed her, like all the others, left her, left her to take up with this little brunette bimbo, apparently. Doesn't he know that blondes are more fun?
Before she could react to the sudden presence of someone behind her, her arms were wrenched backward, wrists cuffed together, and she met Ellison's cold gaze in the mirror over the bureau. He reached around her to touch a photo; he was getting into the truck, leaning to kiss the short brunette holding the baby.
"Nice work, Alex. The artist's eye. Don't suppose I could get this in wallet size?"
"Jim. You caught me. This time." She sneered at him bitterly. "You know what I am, what we are, and you know no prison can hold me. I'll be back, and I'll finish what I started with Blair. Or I'll go after your new girlfriend and the brat, or that Aussie bitch that got in the way last time. You can't protect all of them, Jim, not every minute of every day, and I'll be back." It wasn't her revenge, not yet, but there was a lesser pleasure in watching his expression change as the bitter words cut into him. "There's nothing you can do to stop me." A threat and a promise.
His eyes met hers in the mirror. And then his hand clamped over her mouth. His voice was soft and sad, deceptively gentle. "You're wrong. Shouldn't have come back, Alex. You could have had the rest of the world. This city is mine."
Sudden, terrible knowledge, and she fought his greater strength, struggling uselessly to break his hold on her.
"You've forgotten the law of the jungle, threatening my mate and my child. And you didn't really think I'd let you get anywhere near Sandburg, ever again, did you?"
The last thing Alex Barnes heard was the soft chuff of the silencer of her own gun.
Jim looked into her eyes reflected into the mirror and knew that she meant every word. He was going to send her back to prison. She had killed Sandburg, but by some miracle Jim had gotten him back, and prison was punishment enough. But he looked into her eyes and listened as she threatened to come back and kill everyone he held dear, and he knew it was no empty promise. She would. If she could.
It was something he thought he'd left behind in the army. That moment on the edge. When it wasn't about right and wrong anymore, or even choosing the lesser of two evils. When it was time to make the selfish choice between what you could live with and what would destroy you. A man had to know where to draw the line. And which lines he was willing to cross.
The gun he'd found in the nightstand was in his pocket. He made it fast and clean.
Released from the restraints of civilian, law-abiding cop, good friend, son, brother, lover, sentinel, the covert-ops trained Ranger swept the room for evidence quickly and efficiently.
He smiled wryly, thinking of Lee Brackett, surprised that it hadn't occurred to the rogue CIA agent that the combination of his senses and his training made the sentinel/guide team more valuable than the plane they were trying to steal. He wondered how many others were out there, in service to or enslaved by their governments. He glanced down at the cooling corpse at his feet. One less, and good riddance. The threat to his family had been neutralized. He went out to the truck for a tarp.
Nobody noticed the old blue and white pickup truck as it pulled out of the motel parking lot and headed away from the city, up into the mountains and down an old logging road.
"Sandburg! Ellison!"
Blair flinched, sloshing coffee out of his cup, grabbing for tissues to blot the spreading spill up before it hit his notes.
Jim gave him a half-smile, getting to his feet. "Maybe you should switch to decaf there, Chief."
Blair glanced at him and snorted. "You'd think I'd be used to it by now. Let's see... I fixed that, apologized... nah, he can't know about that yet. What'd you do?"
"You don't want to know, junior," Jim cheerfully told him the truth.
Simon offered them coffee, let them get seated, and then came out with it. "Don't know how to say this so I'm just saying it. Alex Barnes escaped from federal prison two weeks ago."
Jim frowned as Blair's heart began to hammer in his chest. Too fast, but Jim thought about the fountain and how good it was to hear Blair's beating heart.
"Headed this way?" Blair asked.
Captain Banks shook his head. "No sightings of her. The three other cons who broke out with her have already been recaptured."
Jim's dark and dry sense of humor made him say, "She's probably gone underground."
Blair was shaking his head nervously. "So, uh, given our luck, and Cascade's ordinary everyday tendency to attract homicidal loons, what are the odds that she's coming back and she's pissed at us?"
Simon was concerned, and Blair was afraid. Jim wished he could reassure them. Simon took a cigar from the humidor on his desk, and tapped one end of it lightly with a forefinger. "Blair... if you want to go into protection until she's recaptured..."
He took a breath, squaring his shoulders. "No. Thank you sir. I'm not a civilian, I can take care of myself. And she probably won't be dumb enough to come back."
Jim and Simon's eyes met. Simon was still worried, but proud of the kid. "All right gentlemen, get back to work."
As they left the office, Blair looked up at Jim uncertainly. "So, Jim, should I just get a T-shirt with a target printed on it or what?"
Jim threw an arm around his shoulders. "I have a feeling Alex Barnes won't be making any more trouble for us."
The motel manager shrugged as he looked around the empty room. The hot blonde had skipped out on the rent. Shame, but he didn't really expect a class act like that to set up shop in a dump like this. Trucker-trash, but not her. She did a nice job of cleaning up after herself, though. He considered the maid-service as trade for the rent. Not the kind of 'trade' he'd have asked for...
Beau whistled to herself as she scooped the scrambled eggs out onto two plates and threw a couple of steaks in the pan. In the back of her mind, she could hear Blair's lecture on cholesterol and red meat, that fruit and grains were better for breakfast. She grinned wolfishly. After last night, Jim needed the protein.
She had been a little worried, Jim suddenly cold and distant. She'd thought it was the bloom fading from the rose. And then last night... he'd read to Jake, and then proved himself as ardent and affectionate as ever. No weirder than the rest of their relationship, and hey, she was a modern gal, men were entitled to have mood swings too. A twinge of midlife crisis as he realized how settled he was with a child to support, some subliminal sentinel irritation he hadn't even been aware of making him edgy. Whatever.
She grinned again, hearing him come down the hall. "Now how am I supposed to do breakfast in bed if you won't stay put?" She'd had to bribe him out of the kitchen with kisses the first time he'd announced he was getting lonely and wanted to help.
He came into the kitchen and came up behind her, nuzzling the nape of her neck. "Smells good."
"Breakfast is almost ready." She looked up into twinkling blue eyes.
"Oh yeah. Breakfast smells good, too." He smiled at her.
"Jiiiiimm..."
"Jake needs to be changed. I'll take care of it." He explained why he was up again.
"Remember to dial down Smell, and the wipe, lotion, and powder."
He glanced back over his shoulder with a funny, almost melancholy grin. "I remember. I've learned to learn from my mistakes."
~ End ~
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Page last updated 8/15/03.