lit_gal | Dr. Sandburg Finds a Sentinel

Dr. Sandburg Finds a Sentinel
Gen/Pre-slash

Dr. Sandburg has a good life working on alien contact at Stargate Command; however, now he has news that his holy grail might just be out there in the strangest place possible--earth. Even worse, James Ellison has become the center of a vicious race that has pit Blair and the Stargate command against a rogue CIA operative, the NID, and the Chinese government. And Blair is not sure how to convince Ellison that he's with the good guys.

( Dr. Sandburg of SG-16 gets some news... )

( Dr. Sandburg gets his first look at his Sentinel, but Jim Ellison is not going down that easily )

( When O'Neill doesn't move fast enough, the spirit world gets involved )

( Jim has himself a hostage )

( It's time to do a little evading of the enemy )

( Sometimes a little serious conversation is required )

( It's time to head back to more familiar territory )

( Jack Kelso has a few words of wisdom )

Two hours later, Jim silently headed out Kelso's door, catching Blair's arm as he passed.

"Man, it's not like I'm going to run now." Blair sounded pretty amused, though, so Jim didn't take his hand off. He just shifted so that he had his arm over Blair's shoulders. Maybe he was offering some comfort to a kid who really seemed in over his head, and maybe he was taking some comfort because god knows what he was walking into. It took until the elevator until Blair started leaning into him, his warm weight pressed against Jim's side.

The clouds were starting to build outside, which was a blessing. Sometimes Jim's vision was so sensitive that he thought the sun was going to cut through him. Not in the last day or two, but the memory of that pain wasn't going to fade any time soon.

"When do you think they'll get here?" Blair asked.

"Are your sentinels supposed to be fortune tellers?" Jim kept his tone deadpan, but Blair heard the sarcasm anyway and put an elbow in Jim's stomach. While Jim didn't have a lot of experience with hostage taking, he was fairly sure the hostage wasn't supposed to feel free physically attacking the captor. Then again, Blair was not one for following rules.

"A lot of backup is here already," Jim commented as he took a seat on a half wall. The campus had people scattered throughout. A couple was standing by the trunk of a car chatting about... Jim focused his hearing... what classes they were going to take next semester. A guy with a laptop was clicking away, stomach down in the grass of the lawn. Three young women were discussing the physical attributes of various movie stars. They were professionals, Jim gave them that. However, they all angled their bodies so they could watch out of their peripheral vision without looking at him and Blair. And the breeze that drifted toward Jim smelled of gun oil and military soap.

"Really?" Blair looked around curiously, and Jim just sighed as Blair clearly signaled to everyone watching that they were aware of their surveillance.

"Chief, if I didn't know better, I'd say that you'd be the last person to take on a covert mission."

He got an eyeroll as an answer. "Man, sometimes, you military guys come in all closed up and uncommunicative and it just sets everyone on edge."

"And you put them at ease?" Jim stopped. Actually, the kid had put him at ease. The kid had been so good at putting him at ease that Jim was essentially willing to listen to the one answer to his problem that he had never wanted to consider: surrender.

"Yep," Blair answered without guile. He leaned against the half-wall right next to Jim.

"So, your Colonel O'Neill... is he just starting to turn gray with a straight nose, sitting in a car with two younger people, one a man, one a woman, both blond?"

"You see them?" Blair just about leaped up, and Jim caught himself right before pulling Blair back down. At this point, Jim didn't have a whole lot of illusions about being in control, and he didn't want O'Neill to think he was going to use Blair as a hostage in negotiations.

"Either them or some NID who look just like them." Jim pointed to the far side of the parking lot where three people sat in a car. The second he pointed, the older man, O'Neill got out of the car. The man strolled casually through the parking lot, but his eyes scanned the area, probably checking the position of his backup. He probably didn't know them, and Jim understood how uncomfortable it was to go into action with untested backup.

Jim crossed his arms and leaned back, waiting for O'Neill to make his approach. He expected Blair to go bounding off, but instead he just waved and smiled and the leaned back into the wall. Jim could only look at Blair and wonder how he thought that was the logical move. He should be moving to get behind O'Neill.

Looking over, Jim could see the frustration written all over O'Neill's face. He was obviously thinking the same thing.

"Subtle, Sandburg," O'Neill commented when he got within hearing range. Blair just smiled wider.

"Colonel O'Neill, this is Jim Ellison."

"Colonel," Jim offered.

"So, how have you two been doing?" O'Neill asked the question with just enough of an edge to make it clear he was looking for more than a casual answer. He stopped just far enough away that neither one of them was close enough for an unexpected assault. Jim wasn't sure if O'Neill was trying to give him space or just not sure Jim was truly ready to come in. Jim suspected that Blair was too valuable an asset to risk putting him in a hostage situation. "Oh, I called and people are already working on this mess with Captain Banks."

Jim nodded. He'd have to trust O'Neill on that one, but if someone had captured Jim, there wasn't much use in trying to blackmail him by threatening Simon. "Thank you."

"You betcha. The bonus is that we found an NID agent in the FBI, and that man's identity has been mysteriously leaked to the FBI director. Imagine that." O'Neill smiled.

"Spies spying on spies." That was the part of covert work that had never appealed to Jim. He'd had one mission where he'd been tasked with tracking someone who might have been a double agent, and watching the man take his clothes to the dry cleaners was not only the most boring but also the most distasteful work Jim had done all the way up until he had been forced to bury his entire unit in a Peruvian jungle.

"You can stop looking at me like I'm a serial rapist," Colonel O'Neill said dryly.

"Man, you help upend his life, and you're complaining about how he looks at you," Blair jumped in there, shocking Jim into silence by defending him before Jim could say anything. "Considering that rape is a crime in which one person tries to systematically deny another all power...."

"Do not go there, Chief," Jim warned him.

Blair's mouth came open.

"No."

Blair glared, but he closed it again.

"Neat trick," O'Neill said with a genuine smile. "I've been working for a year to train him to do that. You have any tips on housebreaking a Sandburg?"

Blair flipped O'Neill off, but even more interestingly, he totally ignored the small handsignal O'Neill flashed him, ordering him to retreat out of the area. Instead he scooted closer to Jim, which meant he pretty much plastered himself to Jim's side. Even though the whole situation was completely fucked up, Jim could feel a smile tugging at the edges of his mouth. O'Neill, though, looked caught between furious and just plain tired. Clearly he was pretty used to getting ignored. Most of Jim's commanding officers would have blown a gasket by now.

"So..." O'Neill let the word trail off, gesturing for Jim to take the lead in the conversation.

"I don't suppose you'd consider packing your bags and getting out of town, taking the NID and Brackett with you?" Jim asked. He might as well put it out there that he was cooperating only under duress.

"Brackett? Sure, you betcha. You find him, and I'll put the cuffs on him. Unfortunately, it looks like he took himself out of the race when the Chinese showed up, but one of the Chinese operatives with boots on the ground is already sitting in a brig. We managed to do that for you."

"But you can't help with the NID."

"Not until they do something illegal." O'Neill frowned. "Not until I catch them doing something illegal."

"As opposed to your group who follows every law to the letter?"

O'Neill shrugged. "You do what you have to do. Save the world here, break a few speeding laws there."

Jim had told himself that he wasn't going to get friendly with these people. Oh, they were probably the best of the groups chasing him, but he had reminded himself that this was a capture situation. However, the longer O'Neill talked, the more Jim was having trouble not liking the man. He was sarcastic with just a touch of bitterness in there. From what Jim had seen, covert work did turn good men a little bitter—men like Brackett loved the fucking intrigue and backstabbing, but men like O'Neill... they did what they had to do. They didn't like it. Jim glanced over at Blair. Would he be bitter in ten or twenty years? Jim couldn't imagine any other future for him, that's for sure.

"So, you mind giving me back my geek?"

Blair snorted.

"I'm not holding him," Jim pointed out.

"Are you two done talking about me like I'm not here?" Blair crossed his arms and glared at both of them.

"Probably not," Jim answered.

If Blair kept glaring this much, he was going to get eyestrain. "You two seriously need to be checked for testosterone poisoning."

"We're men, Sandburg. Men, by definition, have testosterone poisoning," O'Neill pointed out. "However, you need to head back to the car. Danny wants to check and make sure I didn't bite your head off."

Blair pressed his lips together, and Jim was pretty sure the guy was about to start arguing. "Go on, Chief. Your friend has to be worried about you considering that you've been kidnapped."

"Okay, for the record? I walked into Jim's camp. He did not come out and drag me away by my hair. So whether or not this was kidnapping is not all that clear-cut."

Jim just looked at the kid.

"It's not. Do not go using words like kidnapping." Blair poked Jim in the chest.

"No using words like kidnapping, got it," Jim agreed. "Go tell your friend that you're fine."

Blair glanced over, obviously conflicted. "Oh, and Chief?" Jim held up one hand in a surrender motion toward O'Neill to signal his intent before he slowly reached for the Sig Sauer he'd confiscated. Moving slowly, he handed it back to Blair. "Try to not lose it again," he suggested.

"For at least a week," O'Neill added. "Small steps, one week without being taken hostage or losing your guns, and when you grow up, we can try for two weeks." Blair took the weapon and tucked it back in under his coat.

"Bite me," he told O'Neill. He looked from one of them to the other, and Jim could almost feel Blair's need for some sort of reassurance. However, O'Neill wasn't offering any, and Jim didn't have any reassurance to offer. "Play nice." Blair issued his final order and then started trotting toward the distant car. The man had gotten out of the passenger side—Danny.

"So, did you kidnap him?" O'Neill asked mildly.

"Yep," Jim agreed. He'd been a cop, so he couldn't exactly claim ignorance on the point. "He was oddly agreeable about it, though."

O'Neill shrugged and moved closer. He leaned against the half wall a couple of feet south of Jim and watched Blair and Daniel greet each other with hugs. "Geeks are agreeable about some strange stuff. And then you move one little rock and they start having fits about context and research and blah blah blah."

"Personal experience?" Jim guessed.

"It's the joy of riding herd on a geek."

Jim nodded. He'd never had to work with civilians in the field, but after holding Blair hostage for two days, he was starting to feel a little sympathy. "So, what now?"

"I guess that depends. Are you interested in hearing a job offer?" O'Neill sounded serious, and his heart pounded out a steady rhythm. Either he was telling the truth or he had training in suppressing the physical symptoms of lying. Both were possible.

"I can't see you having much use for someone who told the army to fuck off."

O'Neill laughed. "Ellison, as often as I've told the brass to fuck off, that is not exactly a deterrent. Hell, you'll fit right in."

"Babysitting a geek of my own?" Jim asked. "I thought you wanted me for my senses."

"The senses are just a skill-set, Ellison, no different from your ability to outrun three different intelligence agencies all at the same time. I don't care if you used your senses or ESP or a Ouija board, good work is good work however you do it. My unit is always looking for soldiers smart enough to think their way out of a difficult situation."

"And if I say no?"

"I wouldn't recommend it." O'Neill's voice wasn't threatening, but he was definitely serious.

"And why is that?"

"Because then I have orders to leave, and there are too many sharks in the water. Actually, I think I would probably just ignore orders and arrest you. Unlike the NID, I actually do have grounds for an arrest."

"Kidnapping," Jim said flatly.

"It's a hell of a lot better than ending up in NID hands. Those people have morals that make... nevermind." O'Neill shook his head. "Let's just say I don't want a good man to end up in their hands."

"And you're assuming I'm a good man?" Jim asked curiously.

O'Neill shrugged. "Your file suggests you were a royal pain in the ass with a habit of telling officers a little too much truth. You gotta respect that. Besides, Blair likes you. Now, it's true that Blair and Danny have the interpersonal skills of a praying mantis."

Jim frowned in confusion.

"They tend to go running after people who plan to use them and then eat their heads. They both have a real talent at it. However, you had a chance to show your true colors, and it looks like you took pretty good care of Blair. I'm glad for that because Reynolds would not like it if I let his geek get folded, spindled or mutilated."

"Eric Reynolds?" Jim asked, even though he already knew the answer.

"You know him?"

"Stationed with him in Texas for a while. He was one of the better officers."

O'Neill reached slowly into his jacket, and Jim watched. If O'Neill was pulling out a weapon, there wasn't much he could do at this point, but instead, he took out a cell phone. "Maybe talking to someone familiar will convince you to trust us. Because honestly, if I have to arrest you for kidnapping, I'm going to have to do all this paperwork and listen to the general's speech on not stirring up the NID, and I'm too old for this shit. I retired, you know. I got out of the game, and here I am, right back in it. So, I understand that you feel like you finally got free of the tar pits, but we're different Ellison. I can promise you this, you'll be doing work you believe in."

Jim glanced over to where Blair was standing by O'Neill's car. Danny was standing beside him with hair just long enough to hang in his eyes. Of course, that was nothing compared to Blair and the poodle he kept on his head. Blair seemed to think the same thing—that Jim would want to be involved.

O'Neill talked to someone, asking for Colonel Reynolds and then waiting as someone tracked him down. Finally he greeted the colonel, calling him Eric. "So, I have an old friend of yours who needs a little reassurance that we aren't the NID. Here's a blast from your past." O'Neill handed the phone over.

Jim took it, not sure exactly what this was supposed to prove. "Colonel Reynolds?" Jim asked. "This is Captain Ellison, Jim, we were stationed in Texas before I got assigned to the South American arena."

"Captain Ellison? Captain James Joseph Ellison? Oh my god. I heard about your crash in Peru, and that was good work finishing the mission down there. Are you thinking of coming over to the command?" Reynolds sounded interested, maybe even encouraging. "Or are you Major Ellison now?"

"That's still in negotiation," Jim said, not clarifying whether he meant the promotion or his willingness to join whatever covert op Reynolds had joined. "Colonel O'Neill just suggested that you might be able to give me a clearer view of something."

"Oh?" Reynolds was on edge now. He wouldn't reveal anything without authorization. If Jim asked about O'Neill or the program, Reynolds was going to start playing the game, fishing for information without giving anything back. Jim was just too damn tired to get into that.

"What can you tell me about Sandburg?" Jim suddenly asked. He had to ask something, and he wanted to know what these people thought of the kid.

"The doc?" Reynolds blew out a heavy breath. "So O'Neill finally found someone to..." he stopped.

"Take over the babysitting?" Ellison finished for him.

Reynolds laughed. "Captain, before you get fooled into thinking that little moppet is harmless, let me tell you, it is like trying to provide a protection detail for a flea. If you expect him to jump left, he'll jump right. If you tell him to move out at oh-nine-hundred, he'll go to bed at oh-eight-thirty. If you tell him to beware of the big man with the gun, he'll go wandering out and offer to shake hands."

Jim couldn't help it; he laughed. That really did describe the kid to a T. "I noticed that, sir."

"Well, shit." Reynolds chuckled, but it was a sound with both humor and frustration in it. "O'Neill let my geek get in trouble, didn't he? I'm telling you, you can't trust anyone with your geek."

"Especially when they have a bad habit of wandering up to the enemy and surrendering as the first step in the negotiation process," Jim said fondly. "And I hear it wasn't even his first time."

"Fuck. He tried that one again? I told him next time he did that I was going to tie him up and drag him home. I think I lost five years off the end of my life that day."

"Sir, if it makes you feel any better, I did tie him up and toss him in the car."

"Really? Ellison, you're my hero. Damn. I'm telling you, the kid is a menace. I don't understand it. He can figure out the trickiest problems and convince people to do things I never would have believed. I've watched him talk people into some pretty unlikely treaties and think they were getting the sweet end of the deal, and yet he has this huge blind-spot when it comes to himself. He never seems to notice whether someone is trying to get in his pants or drive a knife in his back. And even worse, if he does happen to notice that they're paying attention to him, he can't distinguish between those two goals."

"I've noticed some of that, too," Jim agreed. When he'd first seen Blair walking toward him, Jim had been so furious that he had been hard-pressed to not pull the trigger. His hearing had veered from hearing every bug footfall to absolute deafness, his head felt like it had a railroad spike in it, and here came one of the men who had driven him out of his life. Jim had never felt such hot hatred before, but Blair had stood under his hands and acted like he totally trusted Jim to do the right thing. Maybe that's why he hadn't killed him--he didn't want to ghost to come back with big, disappointed eyes.

"Captain, you know how long I've been in this business, and I'm telling you right now. Every gray hair I have came from that kid."

"Sounds like a handful. He must be good at his work to make him worth the trouble."

Colonel Reynolds gave a dark laugh. "That's the worst part, Ellison. He's so good that the whole time you know that if it comes down to you or him, you have to get him the hell out of there. The world can find another soldier; we're expendable. But there are only a handful of people who can do what Sandburg does. Colonel O'Neill babysits the granddaddy of the annoying geeks with Jackson, but Sandburg comes in a close second, and letting him get himself killed is just not an option. If he steps on a landmine, you have to be the one to throw your body over it, and even then, you'd better pray that your death buys him the ticket out. That's what's going to give you gray hair. So, I know it's tempting to think that a diplomatic assignment would be less stressful, but do not let that kid's baby face trap you into underestimating the trouble he can drag you into."

"Oh, I think I've seen enough to know that Sandburg has some quirks."

"Quirks? Captain, he is..." Colonel Reynolds just stopped. "There are days I daydream about being able to hogtie him and toss him over my shoulder. But he can't get his job done if I keep him totally out of harm's way. And letting him walk into the lions' den while keeping him safe from the lions is not an easy job, especially given his habit of calling 'here, kitty kitty kitty.' I have to say, I hope you take the position. You were always one of the best, Ellison. If I'm going to move onto the relative quiet of a full marine combat unit, it'd be nice to know I was leaving my geek with someone I trusted."

"Thank you, sir," Jim said quietly.

"No problem. I hope to see you soon, Captain."

That pretty much told him what he needed to know. Jim closed the phone and held it out for O'Neill.

"Are you interested in geek duty?" O'Neill asked.

Jim pursed his lips. "I don't know what you're offering yet. I don't even know if I'm going to be interested in this big mystery operation of yours.

"Oh, you'll be interested. We'll get you a debrief in Colorado, and you'll be signed up by the end of the day." O'Neill turned and started walking back to the car. He didn't take Jim's weapon or order him to follow, but the more Jim saw these people and their confidence that he would want to be involved, the more curious he was feeling. Decision made, he pushed himself off the wall and followed. Time to find out what O'Neill and Sandburg were up to when they weren't sentinel hunting.