A Bridge to Sight and Sound by Sammi M.Jim arrived back at the checkout station out of breath and a little irked. He had *just* barely beat the hospital security guy to the truck, but as he drove past him with his smug look, he recognized the man. Ellison's smugness dropped and was picked up by the off-duty police officer when they both realized who the other was. Jim knew, in that instant, - whether he got the ticket or not Simon was going to hear about it. *Talk about a wasted endeavor.* He quickly glanced around the area and even walked to a waiting room a little further down the hall. *I thought they said they were going to wait here.* Almost as soon as he uttered the words his senses gave him a little kick and he knew something wasn't right. He noticed one of the nurses from the floor Schuy had been on coming down the hall with Blair and he moved quickly to them. "Where's Schuy and Telly?"
The observer looked around and shrugged hiding the package behind his back. "They were supposed to be here waiting."
"What happened to you? I thought you were supposed to stay with Schuy?"
"I had to take care of something. What's with the interrogation, Jim? So they're not here it's not like the world is going to end or anything."
Under his breath, "It just might." He turned to the nurse, "Did you by any chance see where Miss Sandburg and a petite, red-haired woman went?"
The nurse gave him an apologetic smile and shook her head, "I'm sorry, Detective Ellison. I came up earlier to give Schuyler her take-home medicines, but I didn't see her. So, I went back to the floor thinking she might have gone in search of them there and that's when I ran into Blair."
The younger man had been watching his friend as the woman talked and he noticed his growing agitation. Pulling him aside, he asked, "What's wrong, Jim?"
"I don't know." He paused to gather his thoughts. "Something's bothering me about this and I don't know why. How did Telly seem when you talked to her?"
"She seemed a little out of it, but I chalked it up to her having been sick. Why?"
"When I was going out to the truck, I mentioned something about catching her later and I heard her say, ' I'm sure you will catch me, Detective, but by then it'll be too late.' My senses went wild, but when I turned back to look, she was smiling and waving. I took it as some off the cuff innuendo, but now I've got a really bad feeling about this."
Blair brought his hands up forgetting about the gift he was trying to hide as it dropped to the floor and started gesturing with them. "So, you don't think this is a case of going to the ladies' room?" Seeing his Sentinel's eyes. "Oh, man! We did *not* need this!" He took several deep breaths to regain control and then focused on his friend. "Since this is a big hospital, there's no telling where she took Schuy. So that means you're gonna have to find her."
Jim shook his head, "I don't think I can, Chief. There are so many different sounds and smells and I'm just not sure if I could even a "
"You can do this, man. You and Schuy have grown close. You may not realize it, but your brain has catalogued her scent and probably her heartbeat and voice as a friend and filed them for easy reference. All you have to do is access them." The anthropologist's eyes begged the detective to trust him. "Jim, if you believe what your senses are trying to tell you, we may not have the time to try anything else. Please, for Schuyler's sake."
The Sentinel nodded and took a deep, steadying breath. As he took another and started extending his senses, he could feel his Guide's small fingers wrapping around his arm keeping him anchored. He pushed them out further until he hit on something familiar welcomed. "I found her. Her heartbeat was slow, but it just picked back up and her breathing's through the roof. She's down there." He pointed to the corridor the two had gone down earlier and then turned back to the nurse who was patiently, but curiously, watching them. "Where does that hallway go?"
"Oh, I don't think they would have gone down there. It's nothing but a bunch of maintenance rooms; most of the heavy equipment is located in that area. I really don't think "
Her words were cut off as Sentinel and Guide started running down the hallway. Seeing their faces and knowing the line of work they were in, she decided to contact security and hoped that everything would be fine.
As Jim and Blair turned a corner, the older man stopped suddenly so that his partner almost ran into him. Before the Guide could ask what was wrong, he noticed the classic signs of zone-out. "Oh, Jim, not now." He positioned himself in front of the oblivious man and started coaxing him back with his most soothing tone. "Focus on my voice, Big Guy. Just concentrate on me. Listen to my voice and let it bring you back. That's it. Come on back." Blair almost fell when Jim suddenly charged ahead and picked up something from the floor. "Whoa! What are you doing?"
Holding up a ring, Ellison asked, "Isn't this Schuy's? I think I remember her wearing it a couple of times but not lately."
Blair took the ring and examined it. "Yeah, it's hers, but, funny thing. It's been missing since Harriston broke in and trashed the place. Since nothing else was stolen, Schuy just thought it was lost in the clean-up." Worried. "Jim, I am *really* not liking how this is starting to feel."
"You and me both, buddy." He nodded and they continued their journey until they reached the doorway beneath an 'Authorized Personnel Only' sign. Jim allowed his gaze to wander until he caught sight of something. Before he could zone, he again felt the comforting presence of his Guide and crouched down beside what he found. As his hand touched the substance, an electric chill shot down his spine.
His observer noticed the motion and started to rub the older man's tense shoulders. "What is it this time?"
"Blood."
&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&As Telly paced, a groggy Schuyler returned to awareness in the wheelchair. Not remembering her new injury, she tried to explore the room and turned her head. The soft moan of pain apprised her captor of her awakened state.
"It's about time. I didn't hit you that hard."
In those few seconds, it all came back to the girl. "Hitting someone on the head while she's recovering from being shot tends to hinder the ability to just 'bounce back.'"
Telly backhanded her, "I have always hated your sense of humour. You used it to make everyone around you feel inferior."
Schuyler shakily wiped at her bleeding mouth and glared at the woman who stood over her. "I have never treated anyone as inferior especially not you. No, *you* I treated like a close friend. I gave you scholarships and helped you through medical school and then hired you." She rolled her eyes. "Silly me."
"I was your charity case your good deed for the decade. Helping me made you look good and you played it for all it was worth. Once I came back from school, you *graciously and benevolently* allowed me to work for you and every so often you'd drop your crumbs and leftovers for me to pick up."
"How could you see things like that? Everything and anything I did was because you were my friend not some charity case."
Ignoring her as if she hadn't spoken, "I let you think I was eating it up like a starving puppy, but I had plans for you. Luckily, I found someone to help me and to guide me and slowly but surely, things started working out the way I wanted. Since you *trusted* me, I could come and go as I pleased and I did. I took your discarded plans and used them to get me into as many places as I wanted and I took whatever I could find." Tapping the girl's head. "I do have to give you credit; you do have an excellent mind. You had every little thing so completely mapped out, I barely had to lift a finger to do anything. It was almost like having a secret password and I took advantage of all of it. You made me a very wealthy woman, but, unlike you, I was willing to share mine for real love rather than for how it would benefit me." She glared at Schuy. "I wanted to give him everything I had, but all he wanted was you and you killed him."
"What? I don't understand; I haven't killed anyone."
Telly jerked her head back by the hair and smiled at the moan it caused. "You killed him. You may not have pulled the trigger, but you killed him. Carl loved you and you acted like you were afraid of him and that hurt him so much. He would tell me how he just wanted to protect you and keep you safe from the monsters, but you wouldn't let him. I'd listen to you when you'd talk about him and I couldn't understand why you didn't see how much love he was offering."
Terror and horror warred inside of Schuyler as she realized exactly what the other woman was talking about. "Yo-you you knew H-Harriston?"
She smiled. "Intimately. He helped me with my plans and I helped him get closer to you." She laughed. "Everyone was so quick to blame the good Detective Ellison for giving out your security codes, but I had given them to Carl a couple of nights before. I also helped him get into your place in San Francisco."
"Oh, God. Hannah."
"You thought he made a mistake when he found her. *He* didn't realize at first it wasn't you, but I knew when I sent him there. I wanted him to take her out so you would have no one else to turn to but me. That way, my plans would be extra special, but you had to come back to Cascade." Another jerk. "You had to run to brother dearest and his cop friend and you started piecing things together. If that idiot detective hadn't let you see the reports on the burglaries, you wouldn't have had a clue about your part in all of that until I set you up for the big fall. I was going to take away your business and leave you with nothing." Taking a deep breath. "Unfortunately, Carl got a little ahead of my plans and went after you alone and got himself killed. I suddenly found myself without the one thing I wanted, so everything changed."
"How did things change?" Jim asked as he eased himself, with gun drawn, into the room. Blair followed close behind him and gasped as he saw the situation. "What changed, Telly?"
Her smile grew. "Welcome to the party, Detective. I told you it would be too late." Winking at the smaller man. "Hi, Blair. Nice to see you could join us."
The anthropologist tried to get to the woman holding his sister, but Jim managed to hold him with his free hand. "What were you saying about things changing, Telly? I'd really like to know."
"It's Tellesha." Yanking Schuy's head again. "*She* called me Telly and I hated it almost as much as I hated her." The small woman showed amazing strength as she reached over and pulled the younger woman out of the chair and held her up with one arm. The other hand released her hair and reached into her pocket pulling out a syringe filled with a yellowish liquid. She thumbed off the cap and held it against Schuyler's exposed neck. "You want to know how things changed? When Carl died, I lost everything nothing mattered any more. Even though I knew he loved *her*, I was happy with what he gave me and I would have stayed with him forever. But, she took that away from me." Glaring at the barely conscious girl. "So, I decided rather than take something else *from* her, I was going to *give* her something back."
She held up the syringe. "You see this? This was weeks of work and experimentation. I had noticed Schuy's reactions to certain types of drugs. You know, Blair, like her sight and hearing going whacko. So, I told her I wanted to *prevent* that from happening ever again and she okayed me some lab time. I spent hours working on this, but I only got a chance to test it out on rats." Telly used the tip of the needle to scratch her captive and she watched as the men started boiling at the sight of blood. "I really don't know what this will do to her, but I'm pretty sure it'll bring back her senses."
Blair was confused, "But that's a good thing."
"Hmmm, I suppose it could be, but how good would it be if it caused them to come back in such a way that she'd how shall I say this ?" She shrugged. "I guess, went totally nutso from the pain. You better than anyone should know how sensitive oh, I did a pun these things can be. I mean, something as simple and innocent as allergy medicine has sent her practically off the rails. Imagine what something experimental could do."
Jim focused on the woman before him and prayed she'd drop her guard before she used the drug. "I don't think any of us want to find out, now do we? You don't have to do this. You can just drop the syringe and let her go and we'd get you out of here and get you some help."
"But, you see I don't want any help. I don't want to get out of here. This is my last stand, Detective. As I push the plunger, I *want* you to pull the trigger because then I'd be back with Carl." She pushed the needle into the girl's neck. "And, this time, there wouldn't be any perfect Schuyler Sandburg to get in my way."
The older man flinched when he saw the penetration and moved a step closer. "You yourself said you didn't know what it might do to her. What if it killed her?"
Telly rolled her eyes. "Well, with the way everyone else sees her, I'm sure she'd die the death of the righteous and go some place far from us. Karma thing, right Blair?"
Sandburg shook his head, "He's not worth it. That man made my sister's life a living hell. Do you honestly want to follow him into those depths?"
"Excuse my rephrasing, but, I'd rather serve as his queen in Hell than be without him and nothing in Heaven."
So focused was the little group on each other, none of them noticed the security guard sneaking in from an outside door. He took in the situation and had his gun aimed at the woman in a matter of seconds.
Telly looked down at her watch and sighed. "I'm tired, Detective. I think I'm ready to go home. If you don't mind, could you make it one shot? Multiple wounds are so messy." Her thumb pressed down.
Looking back, Officer Timothy Belfiglio would swear he fired before she injected the unconscious woman with the liquid. He would bet his badge and his pension on it because there was no other reason he would have shot an unarmed woman in the back unless it was to save an innocent's life.
But, Jim Ellison could refute the man's belief because with his enhanced sight he saw as every drop of the fluid entered his adopted sister's body mere seconds before the bullet caused Telly's hand to jerk and break the needle part of the syringe in Schuy's neck.
Both Jim and Blair jumped into action as the women collapsed Blair for help and Jim to see what he could do. It didn't take a doctor to know Telly Tellesha had gotten her wish, so he turned to the pale, unconscious girl and gathered her in his arms. As he rose, images of the time before flashed through his mind and he prayed like he hadn't prayed before. A bullet wound either could be treated or it couldn't; there were no two ways about it. But, senses gone wrong could trap you in a hell you could never escape except by maybe swallowing a gun. He knew better than anyone even Blair what out of control senses could do because he'd been close oh, so very close and he didn't want that to happen to his Schuyler.
So, he hurried down the corridor ignoring Officer Belfiglio's calls and hoping Blair would meet him halfway. They had to fix this in anyway they could. They had to.
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