Shadows and Siege 6
Mar. 22nd, 2008 04:41 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lit_galShadows and Siege Part 6
Sequel to Shadows of the Past
Fandoms: Primary: Sentinel. Secondary: La Femme Nikita, Stargate SG-1
Slash
Rated: ADULT
Shadows and Siege part one
Shadows and Siege part two
Shadows and Siege part three
Shadows and Siege part four
Sequel to Shadows of the Past
Fandoms: Primary: Sentinel. Secondary: La Femme Nikita, Stargate SG-1
Slash
Rated: ADULT
Shadows and Siege part one
Shadows and Siege part two
Shadows and Siege part three
Shadows and Siege part four
Blair tapped the little communicator built into his watch with weird memories of old spy shows running through his head, although right now he was feeling much more Max Smart than James Bond. Of all the gin joints, in all of Eastern Europe, why did Jack O'Neill have to drop in on this one? Oh shit. There was probably a goa'uld in here somewhere.
"Blair, are you okay?" Daniel asked, his hand resting on Blair's arm. Blair's brain spluttered for a fraction of a second before the lies started flowing again.
"Fine. Absolutely fine. Well, not really fine, more like I’m feeling a little sick. Ethnic chicken liver dish. My partner warned me to not try it." Blair slipped his recorder in his pocket and got up. A few seconds and Jim would come through that door… and now that Blair had already sent the signal… NOW it occurred to him that Jim was going to come in here and there was probably a goa'uld in here, and Jim's senses were being wonky. Oh yeah, this was a recipe for disaster. "I just need to use—" Blair gestured vaguely toward the doors as he slid past Daniel. Just be cool. Just stay cool and pretend to not see the special ops colonel watching. Just stay cool and don't search the room for the alien snake burrowed in someone's brain. Shit.
"You're really pale. Maybe I should—" Daniel started to get up.
"Hey, no. No. Take some notes for me, okay?" Blair pushed Daniel back down with a hand on the other man's shoulder and then turned and practically dashed for the back doors to the conference room. The doors hadn't even drifted shut before Jim was there, his hands on Blair's shoulder.
"Blair?"
"Hey, are you sure you're okay?" Daniel's voice came through the doors a half second before Daniel himself appeared. He stopped when he saw Jim, his one hand rubbing his opposite arm nervously. "Blair?"
"Daniel. Yeah, I'm fine. This is my partner… my work partner, Jim. Jim, Daniel's an archeologist studying Egypt," Blair provided quick introductions even as he backed toward the bathroom. "I just need to, you know, go." Blair gave Jim a desperate look before he turned and dashed for the bathroom. Okay, just get everyone away from the conference room with the colonel and the alien. That was goal one. Goal two was to get the hell out of here and tell Jim that they had bigger problems than the NID. They could shoot NID people… Blair wouldn't be happy and he was definitely voting for shooting them in the leg, but he could understand the necessity to do it if they had to. But if O'Neill was around, that meant that they had another competing interest for the goa'uld, and this time, they couldn't shoot him. No way. No, there would be no shooting of people who had saved the planet.
"Chief?" Jim called and fast footsteps followed as Blair threw himself into a stall and locked the flimsy little latch.
"He said it was something he ate." Daniel's voice echoed off the tile as he followed too.
"Oh man, are we women flocking to the bathroom like this? Where's the privacy?" Blair complained Sentinel-soft. "Jack O'Neill is in the conference room watching the crowd, so I'm thinking alien," he whispered as he braced his hands on either side of the stall and stared at the slightly bluish water in the white tank.
"He really got pale in there. Maybe we should call someone," Daniel continued since he couldn't hear Blair.
"He's fine," Jim was saying, "he just has a weak stomach. I told him to avoid the chicken and stick with American food."
Blair faked a few vomiting sounds for effect.
"Danny?" a new voice asked.
"In here," Daniel answered, and Blair made a couple more vomiting sounds as someone turned on the water. Blair was guessing Jim since he was the one who had an interest in hiding the fact that Blair wasn't actually vomiting.
"For cryin' out loud, Daniel. You nag me about how you have to come to this and then you hide in the bathroom?"
"I'm doing it just to annoy you," Daniel said in a sarcastic tone, and then he sighed. "Jack, this is Jim. His partner got sick while we were sitting next to each other."
The bathroom was silent for a second, and Blair made another retching noise.
"Uh huh," the stranger commented. "Jack O'Neill," he introduced himself. Blair didn't have to fake the noise that came out of him that time. Oh fuck. Jim was going to kill him. He had an entire conference full of nice boring academics, and he'd sat next to someone who knew Jack O'Neill. Blair gave a pained groan when he realized what was even worse. He'd sat down next to someone who O'Neill cared enough about to follow into the bathroom. Shit.
"Jim Ellison," his partner offered without even the slightest trace of horror, which was more than Blair could have done right now. Blair could feel his heart thump heavily. "Chief, are you alright? You need anything?" Jim called through the door.
"A new stomach." Blair hesitated. "A time machine so I could go back to this morning and do this whole fucking day over." He didn't even have to pretend to sound sick.
Jack O'Neill laughed at that. "Had those days myself. Come on, Danny, let's leave him to turn his guts inside out in some privacy."
"Nice… uh, meeting you," Daniel offered through the stall door.
"Same here," Blair offered back as he waited for the echoes of their footsteps to disappear before he opened the stall door and peeked out. "Jim, I swear—"
"Shhh." Jim held up his hand, his head cocked to the side, and Blair hurried to Jim's side, resting a hand on his arm as Jim listened.
"O'Neill recognized me. He's calling Major Carter, having her check to see which agency I'm working with."
"Oh fuck." Blair's already queasy stomach did another twist and he glanced over at the toilet wondering if he was going to have to use it after all.
"He's guessing NID. Okay, Chief, we're going to have to move quick. I think he's staying far enough back to make tailing us difficult."
"Tailing us? He wants to tail us?" Blair took several deep breaths and tried to keep his mind from spinning out of control as Jim just about pushed him out of the bathroom with a hand on Blair's back. Okay, he could do this. Blair had been on plenty of undercover assignments with Jim, and this was just one more, that's what he told himself.
Jim chuckled. As they were walking out into the sunlight, he actually chuckled as he hurried Blair down the stairs of the university building. Blair looked up in confusion.
"He's giving Dr. Jackson a hard time for sitting down next to the only NID agent in the room."
"Technically, I sat down next to him," Blair pointed out as they walked quickly through the square and toward a street they hadn't been down before. Pedestrians chatted and shoppers sat on benches with bags gathered at their feet, but Blair didn't see any sign of Daniel or Colonel O'Neill or aliens with ray guns. His life had officially taken a turn for the strange when he had a reasonable fear of aliens with ray guns.
"Why am I not surprised you'd sit next to him?" Jim asked with a resigned voice.
"It's not like I knew him."
"I know, Chief. I had the files on SG-1, but they weren't supposed to be here and you had your hands full with the Sentinel files, so I didn't add them to your pile. This is my fault as much as anyone's."
"Are they following?" Blair whispered as they hurried past a building with old fashioned gargoyles peering down at them.
"Yeah. Hard to miss them with their fighting," Jim confided. His voice got distant, and it took Blair a second to realize Jim was repeating someone else's words. "'Yes, Jack, I intentionally found the only NID agent and sat next to him just to give you a reason to bitch.' Dr. Jackson sounds cranky," Jim finished as he guided them around a corner and broke into a trot. "Knudsen, keep your distance," Jim muttered into the lapel of his jacket.
They turned another corner, and Jim yanked Blair through an arch and down a half dozen steps into a sunken entryway shaded by a cascade of leaves from an overgrown flowering vine that had buried the iron fence that shaded the secluded spot. Blair almost stopped breathing as Jim pushed him against the cold brick, pressing his own body to Blair's and trapping him there. Jim's hands rested against the wall on either side of Blair's head, and he tipped his head to one side. For a moment, Blair stood awkwardly, not sure what to do with his own hands. Finally he settled them on Jim's hips, giving his Sentinel the contact he needed to use his senses.
He'd read the Section reports. He knew that pheromones affected Jim's ability to use his senses. He just really wished that Jim didn't know that, because now, as Jim leaned in with his lips so close to Blair's neck that his curls fluttered with every breath Jim took, Blair couldn't quiet the little part of his brain that whispered that Jim just wanted him for his hormones. The thought made him want to laugh, and for a second, Blair toyed with the idea of pushing Jim off, of telling him that this imitation of intimacy was worse than Jim's weird refusal to be intimate at all. He even raised his hands to Jim's shoulders so he could push him away. Instead, his hand found Jim's neck and rested there, the warmth of Jim's skin under his palm infinitely more sensual than any foreplay he'd ever engaged in. He groaned as his body reacted.
Jim's head tilted and he got that same detached tone to his voice as he whispered into the microphone in his lapel, repeating what only he could hear.
"Maybe he's just here with Dr. Sandburg."
"Yeah, sure, you betcha. It's just coincidence that a covert ops soldier shows up in Maribor at the same time as the goa'uld."
"It could be—"
"Maribor."
"Jack—"
"Maribor, Danny. Maribor. We aren't in the middle of New York here. People don't just randomly come to Maribor."
Jim had been whispering Daniel and Jack's words, every syllable brushing warm air over Blair's neck, but now he could hear the two men on the street for himself as they reached the sidewalk right next to the secluded spot where Jim and Blair waited.
"You'd think I'd learn to spot them after a while," Daniel was saying, and Blair recognized that self-deprecating tone even when it was whispered so softly that he could barely hear it.
"Not your job, Danny. I'm supposed—" O'Neill's voice faded. They were speaking so softly, that even holding his breath and standing inches away, Blair could only catch those few words. Now he let his breath out loudly.
Jim glanced down at him. "Give them a second, and we'll head back to the hotel."
"But what about the mission? How can we—" Jim held up his hand and let a finger rest on Blair's lips. Blair opened his mouth to protest and Jim leaned in so close that for a second he thought Jim would kiss him. This was so similar to his dreams that Blair's brain fogged for a second until he processed the soft words Jim was breathing even quieter than a whisper.
"They're coming back. Let them pass, and we can head back to the hotel to get further instruction from Section."
Not exactly sweet talk. Blair nodded and tried to think the unsexiest thoughts he could to try and regain some control over his brain, which had started to leak fantasies. Chancellor Edwards. Chancellor Edwards in a bathing suit. That hooker with the big open sores on her lips they had questioned during the McGraw case. Lash and his dentist chair. Okay, that last one did it for him. Blair could feel the rising lust evaporate as his balls actually drew up in disgust. Jim frowned and glanced down at him, but Blair kept his eyes firmly on the blue door behind Jim.
Eventually Jim nodded. "Okay, it's safe." Taking Blair by the elbow, Jim hurried him up the stairs and down the street away from the hotel.
"Um, Jim?"
"We'll double back," Jim said shortly.
"Oh man, why did you give him your real name?" Blair asked in despair as he considered just how complicated this mission had just become.
Jim frowned, and the muscle in his jaw bulged a little before he took a deep breath. "O'Neill recognized me the minute he walked into the bathroom. I thought giving him a fake name would probably make him even more suspicious," Jim pointed out as they turned a corner and Blair caught the dark blue of the Drava river as they headed back east toward the hotel.
"But… how?"
Jim casually flung an arm over Blair's shoulder and leaned in as if they were lovers exchanging private words as they strolled down the street. Blair wasn't fooled because he could see the tightness in Jim's face that suggested the Sentinel was heavily relying on his senses. "If that had been a sociological conference on crime, how many of the people would you have known?" Jim asked.
Blair shrugged his shoulders. "Probably several."
"How many would you have recognized from journals articles or the backs of their books?"
Blair frowned for a second before answering. Sadly, he was way more familiar with the people studying criminology than tribal anthropology right now. "Probably quite a few."
"Exactly, Chief. Covert ops is the same. It's a small community, and he's been a colonel a long time. Chances are that my file has gone across his desk several times. Even if I never made the cut for one of his teams, I'm not surprised he recognized me."
Blair nodded. "And then you were on the cover of News, not to mention that anyone who has been through Cascade would have seen you on the news."
"I'm not exactly low-profile," Jim agreed wryly.
"Which is why people other than Section haven't picked you up," Blair guessed. Jim's arm tightened around him and he glanced down at Blair without breaking his stride.
"Probably part of it," he admitted. "If I'm around other players, someone is going to know me. News wouldn't have gotten clearance to put that picture of me on the magazine if I hadn't already resigned my commission."
Blair leaned into Jim for a second, watching the waters of the Drava through a break in the houses. "And now that we're out in the field and they know you?" he asked. He had no idea how this would change the mission. Maybe Section would just want the aliens shot and them out of here. At least at this point Blair was fairly sure that the aliens weren't the equivalent of Ira and Edna Wiezman from Hoboken. The careful way they had maintained status with each other made Blair uneasy deep in his soul, and Jim's reaction confirmed it. As far as Blair was concerned, Sentinel instincts existed to protect the tribe, so if these things set off Jim's alarms, it's because they were a danger to the tribe in some way.
"We'll talk about it back at the hotel." Jim sounded distracted, and the tightness in his face became a tightness in his whole body as he just stopped and stood still in the middle of the sidewalk.
"Jim?"
The head tilted a little, but then Jim seemed to lose his balance, slowly swaying back until Blair grabbed him by his jacket and yanked him forward. "Jim, man, not now. Follow my voice back. Come on, don't do this in public, you'll hate yourself when you wake up."
Blair now had to practically catch Jim as he overbalanced and started falling forward. "Jim. Follow my voice. You have to turn hearing down," Blair said, guessing at the sense that Jim had taken too far. He put his palm against Jim's cheek and let his thumb rest against Jim's lower lip hoping that smell and touch would help balance the out of control hearing. "Don't do this, man. Not now. Not here." Blair was starting to feel a little desperate and then Jim blinked and shook his head as he brought his hand up to rest it on Blair's shoulder.
"What was it?" Blair asked. "Goa'uld?" He whispered the word, but Jim only shook his head.
Jim's hand tightened on Blair's shoulder for a second, and Jim looked like he might say something, but then he shook his head again and started down the street, his arm once more over Blair's shoulder.
"Beautiful afternoon," he commented casually. "We'll have to stop and get something bland for your stomach. No more trying out exotic foods for you, my little guppy. I did not fly half way around the world to watch you heave your guts out in a toilet. You can do that at home."
"Not really how I planned to spend the day," Blair answered as he slipped an arm around Jim's waist and tried to look casually sick.
"Feel better now?"
"I don't feel worse," he shrugged, but he wasn't telling the truth. Jim's sudden act was making cold run up his spine. "Actually, now that I emptied my stomach, I am feeling better, but maybe we can stop somewhere and pick up some 7-up or something," Blair suggested. His guts really were starting to ache from all the tension. Part of him wanted to start searching the area for whatever danger had put Jim on high alert, but for all he knew, Jim was hearing someone a mile away and just being overly careful. And with goa'uld in the area, who knew how accurate his senses even were. The aliens obviously affected Sentinels because the report from the one sent to observe Seth showed a total lack of control and physiological symptoms of shock and stress. Even Jim was crankier than usual just being on the same street with the two aliens.
Just to distract himself from the possibility that armed aliens were right behind them, Blair started creating a mental list of reasons why Sentinels would react to the aliens. He had a list full of everything from genetic Sentinel memory to alien body chemistry by the time they reached the hotel. He couldn't test a single theory, but he sure had theories.
"Blair, are you okay?" Daniel asked, his hand resting on Blair's arm. Blair's brain spluttered for a fraction of a second before the lies started flowing again.
"Fine. Absolutely fine. Well, not really fine, more like I’m feeling a little sick. Ethnic chicken liver dish. My partner warned me to not try it." Blair slipped his recorder in his pocket and got up. A few seconds and Jim would come through that door… and now that Blair had already sent the signal… NOW it occurred to him that Jim was going to come in here and there was probably a goa'uld in here, and Jim's senses were being wonky. Oh yeah, this was a recipe for disaster. "I just need to use—" Blair gestured vaguely toward the doors as he slid past Daniel. Just be cool. Just stay cool and pretend to not see the special ops colonel watching. Just stay cool and don't search the room for the alien snake burrowed in someone's brain. Shit.
"You're really pale. Maybe I should—" Daniel started to get up.
"Hey, no. No. Take some notes for me, okay?" Blair pushed Daniel back down with a hand on the other man's shoulder and then turned and practically dashed for the back doors to the conference room. The doors hadn't even drifted shut before Jim was there, his hands on Blair's shoulder.
"Blair?"
"Hey, are you sure you're okay?" Daniel's voice came through the doors a half second before Daniel himself appeared. He stopped when he saw Jim, his one hand rubbing his opposite arm nervously. "Blair?"
"Daniel. Yeah, I'm fine. This is my partner… my work partner, Jim. Jim, Daniel's an archeologist studying Egypt," Blair provided quick introductions even as he backed toward the bathroom. "I just need to, you know, go." Blair gave Jim a desperate look before he turned and dashed for the bathroom. Okay, just get everyone away from the conference room with the colonel and the alien. That was goal one. Goal two was to get the hell out of here and tell Jim that they had bigger problems than the NID. They could shoot NID people… Blair wouldn't be happy and he was definitely voting for shooting them in the leg, but he could understand the necessity to do it if they had to. But if O'Neill was around, that meant that they had another competing interest for the goa'uld, and this time, they couldn't shoot him. No way. No, there would be no shooting of people who had saved the planet.
"Chief?" Jim called and fast footsteps followed as Blair threw himself into a stall and locked the flimsy little latch.
"He said it was something he ate." Daniel's voice echoed off the tile as he followed too.
"Oh man, are we women flocking to the bathroom like this? Where's the privacy?" Blair complained Sentinel-soft. "Jack O'Neill is in the conference room watching the crowd, so I'm thinking alien," he whispered as he braced his hands on either side of the stall and stared at the slightly bluish water in the white tank.
"He really got pale in there. Maybe we should call someone," Daniel continued since he couldn't hear Blair.
"He's fine," Jim was saying, "he just has a weak stomach. I told him to avoid the chicken and stick with American food."
Blair faked a few vomiting sounds for effect.
"Danny?" a new voice asked.
"In here," Daniel answered, and Blair made a couple more vomiting sounds as someone turned on the water. Blair was guessing Jim since he was the one who had an interest in hiding the fact that Blair wasn't actually vomiting.
"For cryin' out loud, Daniel. You nag me about how you have to come to this and then you hide in the bathroom?"
"I'm doing it just to annoy you," Daniel said in a sarcastic tone, and then he sighed. "Jack, this is Jim. His partner got sick while we were sitting next to each other."
The bathroom was silent for a second, and Blair made another retching noise.
"Uh huh," the stranger commented. "Jack O'Neill," he introduced himself. Blair didn't have to fake the noise that came out of him that time. Oh fuck. Jim was going to kill him. He had an entire conference full of nice boring academics, and he'd sat next to someone who knew Jack O'Neill. Blair gave a pained groan when he realized what was even worse. He'd sat down next to someone who O'Neill cared enough about to follow into the bathroom. Shit.
"Jim Ellison," his partner offered without even the slightest trace of horror, which was more than Blair could have done right now. Blair could feel his heart thump heavily. "Chief, are you alright? You need anything?" Jim called through the door.
"A new stomach." Blair hesitated. "A time machine so I could go back to this morning and do this whole fucking day over." He didn't even have to pretend to sound sick.
Jack O'Neill laughed at that. "Had those days myself. Come on, Danny, let's leave him to turn his guts inside out in some privacy."
"Nice… uh, meeting you," Daniel offered through the stall door.
"Same here," Blair offered back as he waited for the echoes of their footsteps to disappear before he opened the stall door and peeked out. "Jim, I swear—"
"Shhh." Jim held up his hand, his head cocked to the side, and Blair hurried to Jim's side, resting a hand on his arm as Jim listened.
"O'Neill recognized me. He's calling Major Carter, having her check to see which agency I'm working with."
"Oh fuck." Blair's already queasy stomach did another twist and he glanced over at the toilet wondering if he was going to have to use it after all.
"He's guessing NID. Okay, Chief, we're going to have to move quick. I think he's staying far enough back to make tailing us difficult."
"Tailing us? He wants to tail us?" Blair took several deep breaths and tried to keep his mind from spinning out of control as Jim just about pushed him out of the bathroom with a hand on Blair's back. Okay, he could do this. Blair had been on plenty of undercover assignments with Jim, and this was just one more, that's what he told himself.
Jim chuckled. As they were walking out into the sunlight, he actually chuckled as he hurried Blair down the stairs of the university building. Blair looked up in confusion.
"He's giving Dr. Jackson a hard time for sitting down next to the only NID agent in the room."
"Technically, I sat down next to him," Blair pointed out as they walked quickly through the square and toward a street they hadn't been down before. Pedestrians chatted and shoppers sat on benches with bags gathered at their feet, but Blair didn't see any sign of Daniel or Colonel O'Neill or aliens with ray guns. His life had officially taken a turn for the strange when he had a reasonable fear of aliens with ray guns.
"Why am I not surprised you'd sit next to him?" Jim asked with a resigned voice.
"It's not like I knew him."
"I know, Chief. I had the files on SG-1, but they weren't supposed to be here and you had your hands full with the Sentinel files, so I didn't add them to your pile. This is my fault as much as anyone's."
"Are they following?" Blair whispered as they hurried past a building with old fashioned gargoyles peering down at them.
"Yeah. Hard to miss them with their fighting," Jim confided. His voice got distant, and it took Blair a second to realize Jim was repeating someone else's words. "'Yes, Jack, I intentionally found the only NID agent and sat next to him just to give you a reason to bitch.' Dr. Jackson sounds cranky," Jim finished as he guided them around a corner and broke into a trot. "Knudsen, keep your distance," Jim muttered into the lapel of his jacket.
They turned another corner, and Jim yanked Blair through an arch and down a half dozen steps into a sunken entryway shaded by a cascade of leaves from an overgrown flowering vine that had buried the iron fence that shaded the secluded spot. Blair almost stopped breathing as Jim pushed him against the cold brick, pressing his own body to Blair's and trapping him there. Jim's hands rested against the wall on either side of Blair's head, and he tipped his head to one side. For a moment, Blair stood awkwardly, not sure what to do with his own hands. Finally he settled them on Jim's hips, giving his Sentinel the contact he needed to use his senses.
He'd read the Section reports. He knew that pheromones affected Jim's ability to use his senses. He just really wished that Jim didn't know that, because now, as Jim leaned in with his lips so close to Blair's neck that his curls fluttered with every breath Jim took, Blair couldn't quiet the little part of his brain that whispered that Jim just wanted him for his hormones. The thought made him want to laugh, and for a second, Blair toyed with the idea of pushing Jim off, of telling him that this imitation of intimacy was worse than Jim's weird refusal to be intimate at all. He even raised his hands to Jim's shoulders so he could push him away. Instead, his hand found Jim's neck and rested there, the warmth of Jim's skin under his palm infinitely more sensual than any foreplay he'd ever engaged in. He groaned as his body reacted.
Jim's head tilted and he got that same detached tone to his voice as he whispered into the microphone in his lapel, repeating what only he could hear.
"Maybe he's just here with Dr. Sandburg."
"Yeah, sure, you betcha. It's just coincidence that a covert ops soldier shows up in Maribor at the same time as the goa'uld."
"It could be—"
"Maribor."
"Jack—"
"Maribor, Danny. Maribor. We aren't in the middle of New York here. People don't just randomly come to Maribor."
Jim had been whispering Daniel and Jack's words, every syllable brushing warm air over Blair's neck, but now he could hear the two men on the street for himself as they reached the sidewalk right next to the secluded spot where Jim and Blair waited.
"You'd think I'd learn to spot them after a while," Daniel was saying, and Blair recognized that self-deprecating tone even when it was whispered so softly that he could barely hear it.
"Not your job, Danny. I'm supposed—" O'Neill's voice faded. They were speaking so softly, that even holding his breath and standing inches away, Blair could only catch those few words. Now he let his breath out loudly.
Jim glanced down at him. "Give them a second, and we'll head back to the hotel."
"But what about the mission? How can we—" Jim held up his hand and let a finger rest on Blair's lips. Blair opened his mouth to protest and Jim leaned in so close that for a second he thought Jim would kiss him. This was so similar to his dreams that Blair's brain fogged for a second until he processed the soft words Jim was breathing even quieter than a whisper.
"They're coming back. Let them pass, and we can head back to the hotel to get further instruction from Section."
Not exactly sweet talk. Blair nodded and tried to think the unsexiest thoughts he could to try and regain some control over his brain, which had started to leak fantasies. Chancellor Edwards. Chancellor Edwards in a bathing suit. That hooker with the big open sores on her lips they had questioned during the McGraw case. Lash and his dentist chair. Okay, that last one did it for him. Blair could feel the rising lust evaporate as his balls actually drew up in disgust. Jim frowned and glanced down at him, but Blair kept his eyes firmly on the blue door behind Jim.
Eventually Jim nodded. "Okay, it's safe." Taking Blair by the elbow, Jim hurried him up the stairs and down the street away from the hotel.
"Um, Jim?"
"We'll double back," Jim said shortly.
"Oh man, why did you give him your real name?" Blair asked in despair as he considered just how complicated this mission had just become.
Jim frowned, and the muscle in his jaw bulged a little before he took a deep breath. "O'Neill recognized me the minute he walked into the bathroom. I thought giving him a fake name would probably make him even more suspicious," Jim pointed out as they turned a corner and Blair caught the dark blue of the Drava river as they headed back east toward the hotel.
"But… how?"
Jim casually flung an arm over Blair's shoulder and leaned in as if they were lovers exchanging private words as they strolled down the street. Blair wasn't fooled because he could see the tightness in Jim's face that suggested the Sentinel was heavily relying on his senses. "If that had been a sociological conference on crime, how many of the people would you have known?" Jim asked.
Blair shrugged his shoulders. "Probably several."
"How many would you have recognized from journals articles or the backs of their books?"
Blair frowned for a second before answering. Sadly, he was way more familiar with the people studying criminology than tribal anthropology right now. "Probably quite a few."
"Exactly, Chief. Covert ops is the same. It's a small community, and he's been a colonel a long time. Chances are that my file has gone across his desk several times. Even if I never made the cut for one of his teams, I'm not surprised he recognized me."
Blair nodded. "And then you were on the cover of News, not to mention that anyone who has been through Cascade would have seen you on the news."
"I'm not exactly low-profile," Jim agreed wryly.
"Which is why people other than Section haven't picked you up," Blair guessed. Jim's arm tightened around him and he glanced down at Blair without breaking his stride.
"Probably part of it," he admitted. "If I'm around other players, someone is going to know me. News wouldn't have gotten clearance to put that picture of me on the magazine if I hadn't already resigned my commission."
Blair leaned into Jim for a second, watching the waters of the Drava through a break in the houses. "And now that we're out in the field and they know you?" he asked. He had no idea how this would change the mission. Maybe Section would just want the aliens shot and them out of here. At least at this point Blair was fairly sure that the aliens weren't the equivalent of Ira and Edna Wiezman from Hoboken. The careful way they had maintained status with each other made Blair uneasy deep in his soul, and Jim's reaction confirmed it. As far as Blair was concerned, Sentinel instincts existed to protect the tribe, so if these things set off Jim's alarms, it's because they were a danger to the tribe in some way.
"We'll talk about it back at the hotel." Jim sounded distracted, and the tightness in his face became a tightness in his whole body as he just stopped and stood still in the middle of the sidewalk.
"Jim?"
The head tilted a little, but then Jim seemed to lose his balance, slowly swaying back until Blair grabbed him by his jacket and yanked him forward. "Jim, man, not now. Follow my voice back. Come on, don't do this in public, you'll hate yourself when you wake up."
Blair now had to practically catch Jim as he overbalanced and started falling forward. "Jim. Follow my voice. You have to turn hearing down," Blair said, guessing at the sense that Jim had taken too far. He put his palm against Jim's cheek and let his thumb rest against Jim's lower lip hoping that smell and touch would help balance the out of control hearing. "Don't do this, man. Not now. Not here." Blair was starting to feel a little desperate and then Jim blinked and shook his head as he brought his hand up to rest it on Blair's shoulder.
"What was it?" Blair asked. "Goa'uld?" He whispered the word, but Jim only shook his head.
Jim's hand tightened on Blair's shoulder for a second, and Jim looked like he might say something, but then he shook his head again and started down the street, his arm once more over Blair's shoulder.
"Beautiful afternoon," he commented casually. "We'll have to stop and get something bland for your stomach. No more trying out exotic foods for you, my little guppy. I did not fly half way around the world to watch you heave your guts out in a toilet. You can do that at home."
"Not really how I planned to spend the day," Blair answered as he slipped an arm around Jim's waist and tried to look casually sick.
"Feel better now?"
"I don't feel worse," he shrugged, but he wasn't telling the truth. Jim's sudden act was making cold run up his spine. "Actually, now that I emptied my stomach, I am feeling better, but maybe we can stop somewhere and pick up some 7-up or something," Blair suggested. His guts really were starting to ache from all the tension. Part of him wanted to start searching the area for whatever danger had put Jim on high alert, but for all he knew, Jim was hearing someone a mile away and just being overly careful. And with goa'uld in the area, who knew how accurate his senses even were. The aliens obviously affected Sentinels because the report from the one sent to observe Seth showed a total lack of control and physiological symptoms of shock and stress. Even Jim was crankier than usual just being on the same street with the two aliens.
Just to distract himself from the possibility that armed aliens were right behind them, Blair started creating a mental list of reasons why Sentinels would react to the aliens. He had a list full of everything from genetic Sentinel memory to alien body chemistry by the time they reached the hotel. He couldn't test a single theory, but he sure had theories.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
Shadows And Siege 6
Date: 2008-03-23 04:06 am (UTC)*is gleeful for Jack and Daniel snark*
I *love love love* the similarities in Blair/Daniel's reactions to sitting down next to each other.
Loved that Jim was repeating Jack and Daniel's conversation... did he do it inflections and all?
The UST between Jim and Blair is soooo strong and so painful. We can see Blair being all distracted by Jim, I'd love to see the other POV where it is Jim who is manfully trying to do his job instead of throwing Blair to the ground and having his oh-so-wonderfully-wicked way with him. Especially when he can practically *taste* the pheromones from Blair's arousal
I just wish that Jack/Daniel had stumbled upon Jim/Blair and Jim/Blair had to kiss and make out like crazy with Blair to give another reason for why Jim might be there with Blair! But that's a cliche for a different a story! :-)
Oh and mega brownie points for getting in a Get Smart reference in here. I looooved that show.
Wee fixes:
and Jim senses were being [Jim's]
locked the flimsy little latch [latch.]
Maybe we should call someone, [someone?]
which is more than Blair [which was]
into a sunken entry way [entryway]
The thought made him want to laugh, and for a second [laugh and, for a second]
I'm not surprised he recognizes me [recognized]
and Jim reaction confirmed it [Jim's]
Sentinel instinct existed [instincts]
had put Jim on high alert, but for all [alert but, for]
Re: Shadows And Siege 6
Date: 2008-03-23 04:23 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-03-23 10:08 am (UTC)This whole chapter is a lovely bit of scene setting. I love that Jack cares for Daniel so much. I love that Blair is such a great fast thinker. And I love that you are playing the UST card so well.
Question - At least at this point Blair was fairly sure that [the] aliens were the equivalent of Ira and Edna Wiezman from Hoboken.
Did you mean 'were' or should that be 'weren't'?
no subject
Date: 2008-03-23 04:24 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-03-23 10:13 am (UTC)The relationships are so convincing that if I ever see an episode I'll probably feel I've seen it before! and Jack and Daniel are right on!
Can't wait for the next chapter,
Lour
no subject
Date: 2008-03-23 04:28 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-03-24 03:40 pm (UTC)http://www.templeofthesentinels.com/episode_downloads.htm
no subject
Date: 2008-03-23 05:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-03-23 06:00 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-03-23 07:54 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-03-24 05:10 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-03-24 04:21 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-03-24 05:11 am (UTC)Oh My
Date: 2008-03-24 04:51 am (UTC)I'm still chuckling
Zaz
Re: Oh My
Date: 2008-03-24 05:10 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-03-29 10:29 pm (UTC)I also liked Jim's logic for why Jack would have recognised him. It makes complete sense.
Eek, I'm so glad I'm behind, 'cause it means I can get to the next chapter now and not have to wait for your evil genius mind to toy with us!
no subject
Date: 2008-05-05 03:18 am (UTC)And I can't believe we have THAT many American soldiers trained for covert work, so don't you think the high-level commanders would pretty much know them all?
no subject
Date: 2008-05-02 04:02 am (UTC)Laurie
no subject
Date: 2008-05-05 03:18 am (UTC)