crowswork
"Geeze Sam!" Lily Ellison glared at her best friend before she tossed him her books.
The tall young man pretended to stagger under the weight of the heavy college texts. "Sorry, Lil. It's just that I can't help you tonight. I have a date."
"So what if I fail. I guess I could go back to modeling." It was an old joke. The beautiful young woman had made a tidy sum as a teen model before her father and uncle Blair guided her into full time classes at Rainier. "Who cares if Cascade loses a Sentinel."
"Guess that means I'll have to find myself a new Sentinel to lead around and keep out of trouble." Simon James Banks, son of Simon and Caroline Banks shook his head and looked down at Lily. He was one of the few people who could do that as Lily had stopped growing at a little over six feet. "Besides, calculus is easy."
"Easy for you!" Lily pouted. "So go." She had long, black wavy hair and a figure that stopped traffic. She also had her fathers features and pale blue eyes -- not to mention a feminine version of his stubborn jaw. Simon James, or Sam as only Lily called him, was annoyingly immune to her many attractions. "Far be it from me to interfere with your busy social life."
"I'll come back early." Sam grinned and stacked her text books on the sideboard. "See ya."
Sam left her alone. Lily looked around the old fashioned dining room of her father's rambling Victorian house. Her dad was in Washington DC with her uncle Blair and uncle Simon. Police Commisioner Banks, Chief of Detectives Ellison and Professor Blair Sandburg were all speaking at a conference on Individuals with Exceptional Abilities and thier value to Law Enforcement.
Sentinels
Uncle Blair frowned on public use of the S-word for some reason.
Lily looked up at the painting over the sideboard. Her mother had painted it while she was pregnant. This one was of her dad and Blair sitting on a picnic table with her late mother -- also named Lily.
She studied the delicate beauty who had her arms around the men on either side of her. She looked so young and happy. "Dad really loved you." Lily sighed and thought of the other paintings. The one in Blair's apartment upstairs was of him and Megan at the same picnic. She had never known her mother but Megan Sandburg had been a mother to her before she was killed in a shootout when Lily was ten. Jim Ellison had lost his leg in the same incident and it had taken a terrible toll on both men.
Jim and Blair remained single. Women pursued them but they never let it get very far.
"Wonder what it would be like to love someone like that?" Lily asked the woman in the painting. "To know they were 'the one' you were meant to be with."
She jumped when her earing-phone chimed. She had the volume turned down as far as it could go and it was still too loud. "Hello."
"Lily Belle."
"Uncle Blair." She grinned as his deep voice soothed her senses. "How's DC?"
"Rainy." Blair paused then added. "We went to the Smithsonian and the were given a tour of some of the artifact rooms that I..."
"Give me that." Her father's voice grumbled as he took the phone. "Lily, I need you to send me my notes on the Grunwald case. There were some similar murders in Las Vegas and I want to compare notes with the chief detective from there."
"Where are they?"
"In my room." Jim waited as she climbed the stairs. "On the desk, in the rack of memory disks. It should be third or fourth, behind the Super Bowl and the Bramley kidnaping."
"It's not here."
"Look again."
"Looking." Lily rifled through the one inch disks again. "Still not here."
"Tell her to look in your coat pockets." It was Blair's voice.
"Look in my blue jacket. It's hanging in my closet... in the back."
Lily walked into the dark, Spartanly neat closet. She spied a navy pea-coat and a light blue windbreaker. The windbreaker slipped of the hanger as she found the disk. "Found it."
She bent to pick up the jacket and she saw it. The corner of a painting. She recognized her mother's work instantly. "Dad. Why did you hide this painting in your..."
"Put it back!"
"Holy cow!" Lily's jaw dropped as she got a good look at it.
"It's private."
"When did you ride a motorcycle?" The man in the painting was leaning on a Harley. He was dressed in tight, black leather pants and an open vest.
"Put it back, please."
"Okay." Lily smiled at the embarrassed tone. She couldn't blame him, really. It wouldn't do for the staid, conservative Chief to be seen as an earing wearing, leather garbed biker stud. "I'll send you the notes on a flash line. You'll have them in a few seconds."
"Forget you saw that painting."
"Forgotten." Lily supressed a giggle. "Goodbye, Dad."
After she hung up, Lily put the painting back where she found it. It was more than a portrait. It was an artistic expression of passion and it was sad that it was hidden away. Still, she understood why he kept it private. It was like a love letter on canvas.
Someday, long in the future, people, especially women, would look at that particular Lily Ellison painting and wonder about the magnificent man and the woman who captured him. She smiled at the notion.
She returned to the dining room and her homework. Less than an hour later, Sam showed up with the latest action videos and a pizza. While he tried to decipher her calculus paper she studied him. "Have you ever been in love, Sam?"
"Dozens of times."
"I mean like your mom and dad -- in love." Lily tried to mike herself clear. "Like forever. Knowing that the this person is 'the one'."
"Nah." Sam peered at her paper. "You have the smallest handwriting I've ever seen. Why can't you use a computer like everyone else?"
"I like how writing feels. How the pencil skips over the little bumps on the paper."
"Beside -- how can I fall in love. I'm your guide. It would take a pretty understanding woman to put up with our relationship for long."
Lily vaulted over the back of the sofa and into his lap. She grabbed his ears and kissed him hard on the lips. She did it again then leaned back and studied his face. "Anything?"
Sam sighed. "Nah." It wasn't the first time. Ever since they'd realized their 'special connection' they'd tried to fall in love. Really tried. Uncle Blair theorized that the Sentinel bond was more fraternal. Sam agreed and said it was like kissing his sister -- if he had a sister.
"Me neither." Lily slid to the other side of the sofa. "Damn, but it would be so convenient."
"Yeah." Sam returned his attention to the paper. "Don't think love's supposed to be convenient or in our case possible."
"Look at my mother and father. She accepted and loved Blair as a part of their family. Aunt Megan 'shared' Uncle Blair with his Sentinel. It can happen."
Sam just looked at her then went back to his studies. He didn't need to speak.
"Okay, So they didn't exactly have happy endings all around. No one gets a guarantee in this life."
"We have each other. Your dad and uncle seem pretty content."
"You're right." Lily dumped the tiny vid-discs into her palm. "What movies did you get?"
"Homework first."
"You got the new Harrison Ford, Humphrey Bogart buddy film."
"Thanks to CGI." Sam scanned the smudged papers into his laptop and handed her a storage card. "Your term paper, neatly typed and corrected."
"Dakota Fanning plays Ford's love interest in this?" Lily frowned. "Of course he's barely thirty here so I guess it's not weird."
"I got the new re-edit of Star Wars, too." Sam grabbed on of the discs. "This time Lucas fixed the princess's hair-do and..."
"Lets just watch it."
"Oh God." Jim Ellison groaned as he sat on the hotel bed.
"What." Blair Sandburg brushed a swath of curly sliver hair out of his eyes.
"She found that painting."
"So I heard." Blair grinned. "She's a big girl. I doubt it traumatized her."
"You saw it." Jim turned away to hide a blush. "Lily painted me like I was... was..."
"Megan called it 'sex on a stick."
"You showed it to Megan?"
"She stumbled on it before you came up with that fool-proof hiding place in your closet."
"I'm going to bed." Jim grumped. "We're out of here tomorrow and I'll be glad to get home."
"Cascade will still be there." Blair walked through the connecting door and closed it. "I'm going to read for a while."
Jim walked to the bathroom and turned on the shower. He stripped down to his shorts and studied his reflection in the full-length mirror. His hairline had receded a bit more and was graying. His beard was down-right snowy. The artificial leg was realistic but it had kept him from working out as much. Donuts had added a few pounds to his middle but he wasn't falling apart, yet,
"You're getting old Ellison." Jim smiled as the mirror steamed over.
Lily and Sam had fallen asleep on the sofa. They had somehow ended up in each other's arms on the too small couch. The door bell woke them and the untangled themselves from each other.
"Cripes. It's after ten." Sam yawned.
"Who can it be?" Lily was already at the door. She opened it as Sam hurried to stand behind her. "Hello."
A slender Asian man stood on the porch on the other side of the screen door. "Hello. Are you Lily Ellison?"
"Yes."
"Come with me, please." The man raised his hand.
"What?" Sam snapped as he started to close the heavy oak door.
There was a crash and a shattering of glass behind them. Lily whirled and saw black clad figures crash through the side windows. The men raised heavy pistols and pointed them at the young couple.
"Only use the tranqs if they fight." The man on the porch ordered the others. "Children, please. You won't be harmed if you come along willingly."
Sam looked around frantically and grabbed a brass lamp. He rushed at the men and one fired, the weapon making a nasty snicking sound. Sam fell after a few steps.
"Sam!"
"Don't make us shoot you, too." The man spoke calmly. "The Sentinel is sometimes sensitive to such things."
"What do you want with me?" Lily backed away until she hit the wall. She scanned Sam and was relieved that he was simply sleeping. "If you want a Sentinel you can leave him be. He's just a friend... a student who was helping me study."
"I think young Mister Banks is more than that. Now turn around and let that man tie your hands."
"Go to hell."
"This is a real pistol." The man walked in after his minion opened the door. "Mister Banks doesn't need both knees to guide you." He lowered the gun and pointed at Sam's leg.
"Okay." Lily turned and let them tie her hands with nylon bands.
"You see." The man holstered the pistol. "Co-operation is rewarded."
Blair sat up in bed with a gasp. "Jim?"
James Ellison was already awake. He was getting dressed as Blair came into his room. "We have to get home -- now."
They called Simon and the three of them headed to the airport.
By the time they arrived at the airport, they knew that the house had been broken into and the kids were gone. Simon was on the phone with Caroline and they were both trying to hold it together. Most of the Cascade PD was already on the case. Jim had just about decided to drive home when a pair of seats opened up on a flight to Seattle.
"It'll be all right, Jim." Blair repeated softly, as much for himself as for his friends. "We'll find them."
Jim looked at his guide in the harsh light of the airport. Blair looked old. When had the years taken their toll? He hadn't noticed it before. He'd always looked younger than his age -- but not now. He'd lost too much. They both had. They'd survived the loss of their beloved wives by focusing on each other and their mutual love for Lily. They were both almost as devoted to Simon James as well. But Lily -- well -- she was the center of their lives.
He remembered Blair -- half dead in the hospital after Alex shot him -- singing to new-born Lily. Naming her -- caring for her -- after her mother died and while Jim lay in a deep zone. Lily Belle he'd called her. Jim had made it Lily Blair on the birth certificate.
Da do run run run... da do run run.
That's what he'd been singing in a barely audible voice when Jim awoke.
He was as much a parent to her as Jim was. It had been tbat way since before Blair and his bride Megan moved in and helped raise the precocious child sentinel.
"It'll be all right, Chief." Jim patted his arm. "We'll get them back and we'll make whoever took them, very, very sorry."
"You are not prisoners here."
"So I can call my Dad to come get us?" Lily glared at the Asian man, Mr. Chung.
"I'm afraid not." He smiled at her. "You and Mr. Banks may leave after we are satisfied with your tests."
"Tests?" Sam stood behind Lily with his hand on her shoulder. "You drugged me. You dragged us onto an airplane and took us god knows where and..."
"Please, Mr. Banks." Chung held up his hand. "You'll be home before you know it."
"What do you want?"
"Sentinels and Guides."
"It doesn't work like that." Sam said. "Sentinels can't be recruited or coerced -- they are tied to their tribe -- their people. Blair says it's almost symbiotic."
"I have read Dr. Sandburg's many books and papers." Chung nodded. "In my country we haven't found a true sentinel. Several have come close... three or four of the senses... "
"Then you are keeping us?" Lily stepped forward.
"Only for a while." Chung smiled. "Only for a while."
"Do you know how many laws we're breaking?" Simon Banks lay back on the black sand of the bluff where Jim and Blair were watching the remote building. In the month since their two children had vanished, they had worked on nothing else. Simon and Jim had investigated every computer site, every enemy file, every slave trader, every weird sex dealer, governmental black ops group... everywhere.
It was Blair who found them -- at a remote facility outside of Hong Kong. At least Simon hoped he had found them. Blair had damn near killed himself. He'd used some powerful drug that the Chopec had grudgingly given him. It was a last ditch effort and it worked.
"She showed me this place in my vision. The Snow Leopard guided me." Blair still seemed pale and thin. He'd been in a coma for almost a week. Still he'd insisted on coming along and had kept up with Jim and Simon. "It was Lily." He was talking about Jim's late wife, not his daughter.
"Lily worked for these people when she was... Lila. How they found out about us I don't know." Jim shook his head and stared at the blank concrete walls. "Help me, Chief."
"Listen Jim. Filter out all the other sounds and listen for Lily and Simon James." Blair touched Jim's back. "Locate the people in the building and dial them out until you find the kids."
"I hear Simon James. He's angry." Jim's jaw clenched so tightly that Simon winced at the sight. "Lily's sick. She's unconsious."
"Damn." Blair had to grab Jim's arm to keep him from rushing down the steep hill. "Call the others Simon."
Simon radioed the others. Rafe and Henri had insisted on coming along with two other detectives. Young Jerry Anders and Clark Gray, both former Navy Seals, idolized Jim Ellison and would have happily followed him through the gates of hell.
Simon looked at the group as they prepared to rush the compound. "We have to get in and get out fast. These are criminals but this is a foreign country and we can't get caught here."
"Everyone know the plan?" Jim pointed at the building. "There are two guards inside the main entrance. Two more people in the right corner office. The kids are in a large room in the back. There's someone with them... a doctor I think."
"Let's go." Blair seemed frantic.
"Stay behind me, Chief." Jim started down the hill, picking his way through the rocks carefully. The younger men hurried forward to take the lead. Anders and Gray in particular, stayed close to the Sentinel and Guide. Everyone was armed and wearing body armor. Even Blair was carrying Megan's old pistol.
The fight was short and violent. The guards had machine pistols and it took Rafe and the younger officers several minutes to take them out.
Jim, Blair and Simon circled the building. There was a van idling outside double doors. The doors burst open and Simon James was shoved outside. His hands were cuffed behind him and a muscular guard was pushing him along. A rolling ambulance stretcher followed, pushed by an Asian man in a long white coat.
Simon stepped forward and slammed the man behind his son with the butt of his rifle. Simon James spun around and gaped at his father. "Daddy?"
The man pushing the stretcher backed away as Jim advanced on him. Blair knelt and checked the unconscious girl. "Lily? Lily Belle?"
"I did not hurt her." The man backed away until he hit the wall. "She had a reaction to some drugs. It was unexpected."
"What drugs?" Jim's fists were clenched at his sides.
"Uhhh... nothing bad... fertility drugs." The man evidently saw his death in Jim's eyes because he began to babble. "We wanted eggs. That's all. We were going to let them go after we got..."
"Dad... Jim..." Simon James joined Jim in staring at the man. "He took my... well you know and Lily's eggs. They were going to breed sentinels and guides. We have to stop them."
"Where?" Jim lifted the man off his feet.
"In the van." The man gasped as he tore at Jim's hands around his neck "We were getting ready leave."
Simon opened the back doors and stared. Inside was an small, elaborate freezer, filled with tiny tubes. "Damn!"
"Now what do we do?" Blair looked up at his friends.
"Burn it!" Simon James snarled.
"What if Lily's reproductive system is damaged?" Blair stood up. "Who knows what this did to her? What if this is her only chance?"
"We take the truck." Simon cut the nylon ties holding his son's hands. "And we sort it out later."
"Jim." Blair walked over to his friend. "Let him go."
Jim dropped the now lifeless body and turned without a glance.
Simon radioed the others and they piled into the van. Simon James lifted Lily onto his lap and Jim checked her vital signs.
Blair stroked her hair, speaking softly to father and daughter. "Calm down now. You're safe."
The plane ride home was tense. Jim paced the aisle of the private jet then watched as Blair talked endlessly to his sleeping daughter. Simon swept his son into a bear hug every few minutes, then tried to comfort his friends.
Once they got to Cascade General, Lily was rushed into Intensive Care. Doctor Cameron, who had, over the years become something of a Sentinel specialist, took over. The others were ushered to a waiting room.
A week later:
The doctors could find nothing physically wrong with Lily. The drugs were flushed out of her system and she was undamaged by them. And yet she refused to wake up. Blair and Simon James took turns sitting with her. Jim and the others came and went but the two guides refused to leave. Blair, still recovering from his vision quest, was on the verge of collapse.
Jim passed Simon as he left the hospital room. "He still in there?"
Simon glanced back at the room. "Ready to drop, too. Get him to go home and make him get some sleep. Caroline will sit with her and Simon James will wake up if anything happens."
"I'll try." Jim shrugged and approached the door. He could hear his guide whispering.
"Met her on a Monday and my heart stood still. Somebody told me that her name was Lil..."
Jim opened the door taking in the sight of Blair slumped in a chair at Lily's bedside. Simon James' lanky form was sprawled on the next bed. Jim sighed. "You call that singing?"
Blair smiled sadly. It was an old joke that dated back to Lily's birth.
"...'spretty...."
"Lily!" Jim raced to her beside. "You awake?"
"Pretty singing."
"See." Blair looked up with tears in his eyes. "Your kid knows..."
"Baby." Jim wiped his eyes as lifted her hand to his lips. "Welcome back."
"Daddy." Lily started and tried to sit up. She fell back weakly. "They took... I heard them... they took our... my babies."
"No they didn't." Jim held her shoulders. The eggs they took are safe. No one can ever use them without your permission."
Simon James stopped snoring. Jim saw him smile and realized that he was awake, too.
"That's good." Lily sank back on her pillow. "No babies for now."
"I'm glad to hear that." Jim smiled, sharing a glance with Blair. "I'm not up to being a cranky old grampa yet."
"I'll show them that painting." Lily smiled as she drifted off to sleep. "Show them grampa was a hottie."
There was a snort form the next bed but the young man still pretended to sleep.
"Hottie?" Blair covered his smile with a yawn.
"Go get some sleep, Chief." Jim smiled at his daughter. "Our girl's back, now."
"Wake me in a week or so." Blair headed for the door, pausing to add. "Hottie."
The End