Title: Darkest Hour
Author: Jmas
Email: jmtm1@eastky.net
Date: July 10, 2000
Rating: PG
Category: angst, H/C
Disclaimer: Not mine <sigh>they belong to PetFly Productions, etc.
Summary: Cliches are cliches...but often true...

Author's note: Thanks to Jane, Sealie and Brenda for help, encouragement and eagle eyes...and that little thing about the hands(g)....

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~`

Darkest Hour
by Jmas

The night was growing colder. Desperately, Blair huddled deeper into his light jacket, hoping...expecting...to be found soon.

'Jim will find me, he has to...Five hours overdue, he's bound to be getting a little worried by now...'

"Hear me, Jim?" Blair shouted hoarsely into the night. "Get worried."

As a rush of nausea pulsed through him, Blair held tightly to his throbbing leg...tightening the tourniquet as much to provide a diversion from the pain of seeping blood as a means of stopping the flow.

"Please get worried..."

....................

Jim was getting a little concerned. He knew his young partner would laugh, but Jim was firmly convinced of Blair's sense of responsibility when it came to not worrying his Sentinel. They'd made plans for the evening to celebrate Blair's successful and rather prestigious lecture in Seattle. Blair had called before leaving the city and was now...six hours...overdue.

A glance at the clock put the time at 2:15 a.m. Late...too, too late...

"Where the hell are you?" Jim asked the door, as if somehow it might suddenly open and eject the object of his deepening concern.

Jim hit the wall suddenly, making a decision; he'd had enough of waiting. Scribbling a quick note just in case Blair showed up, Jim grabbed his keys and headed out of the stubbornly silent door.

.................

It was all too quiet...

It seemed to Blair there should be more noise. There had been plenty of noise earlier: the screech of tires, the 'whump' of blinding pain, the almost musical patter of glass as his body hit the windshield and bounced away...rolling with a whisper-soft 'shush' as he fell through the long grass, the squeal of brakes as the car that hit him roared off into the night...running away from the damage it had drunkenly caused. There was no doubt in Blair's mind the driver of the car was drunk...or high on something.

Blair had walked nearly two miles from where he'd left the Volvo after it had sputtered and quietly died...cursing the car gods, his out-of-range cell phone, and himself for not springing for a bus ticket. He'd seen the weaving headlights a moment too late. The road butted an embankment and even as he made the potentially suicidal decision to jump and pray...he was hit...

Sighing as deeply as he dared, Blair studied the mist rising from the small creek nearby. The trickle-glub of water had been a soothing focus against the pain for a while, but now was a taunting reminder of overwhelming thirst.

Shivering again, Blair realized thirst was the least of his worries...he couldn't move. The fall had brought him up against a fallen tree. His bleeding leg and the all too familiar tightness in his chest kept him from even attempting to reach the water. At least he'd managed to ease off his belt to use as a tourniquet, hoping his memory of time on-time off was accurate.

Blair could hear the swoosh of cars passing by on the road above...realizing there was no hope of anyone seeing him from up there.

His only hope was Jim.

'Nearly seven hours now. Jim is out looking. He *has* to be.' And if Blair knew his Sentinel, half the Cascade PD was looking, too. They would find the Volvo...Blair had no doubt of that, but unless someone noticed the tire marks...

'There have to be tire marks, right?'

Blair started tapping the branch he'd found against the tree trunk...trying to keep up a rhythm not found in nature...something to attract the attention of ears that would hopefully be alert to anything out of the ordinary. Blair smiled to himself as he tapped a quick staccato...surely Jim would recognize Yanamamo headhunters weren't indigenous to the forests of Washington....

.............................

Jim was surprised and grateful to see the amount of support Simon had mustered out in the pre-dawn hours to help search for Blair. It warmed him considerably to know so many of the men and women currently milling around the abandoned Volvo were here because they genuinely cared about the young observer. He hoped Blair would get the opportunity to know it as well...

Walking along the roadway, Jim extended his hearing and vision to scan for any subtle sign of the observer. The nearest town was back in the direction Blair had been coming from, but Jim was certain the anthropologist would have instinctively headed toward home, toward the known. For all his unorthodox notions, Blair tended toward a definite affinity for home and hearth...something Jim suspected the younger man had rarely known growing up.

Simon trailed a few feet behind...far enough not to interfere with Jim's sensory search, but near enough to help with any problems...or to offer support should...please God no...the worst have happened.

'Not possible...not going to go there...you hear me, Sandburg? I will find you...alive. Just hang on...'

....................

Blair's eyes snapped open, the tingling needles in his legs reminding him it was well past time to loosen the tourniquet.

'Can't believe I fell asleep. Okay, passed out...nose-dived...faded to black...'

Blair giggled a little hysterically at the tangent his thoughts had taken then sobered quickly as his leg throbbed at the return of blood flow...

"Stupid, stupid, stupid..." Blair berated himself, trying to breathe through the pain before giving up and screaming into the darkness. The echo of his own voice reverberating around him was his only answer and Blair felt the first pangs of despair, the leading edge of doubt that Jim would make it in time...

"Stop it...just stop it...Jim's going to make it. He'll find me. Just have to keep believing that. Jim won't let me down..."

................

"It's nearly dawn, Jim." Simon's voice was quiet, but urgent....barely penetrating Jim's tight focus.

"Good observation..." Jim retorted distractedly. "No wonder they pay you the big bucks..."

"Cute, Ellison...Sandburg's influence no doubt..."

Jim's steps faltered slightly at the name, but he kept walking. "No doubt..."

"The other teams haven't found a trace of him..." Simon offered hesitantly.

Jim tightened his lips, but gave no other outward reaction. "Your point being?"

Simon shrugged. "Just wondering how far you intend to walk...?"

Jim's eyes scanned the long stretch of highway before them, just showing gray-black in the predawn light.

"Cascade..."

...................

Blair felt the chilling dew like a living thing...permeating beneath his clothes and deep into his pores...blood...bones...

"Cold and wet...my favorite states of being...not."

The lame joke fell flat even to his own ears. A numbness had been creeping over him for the past hour or so...and even with his brain clicking over on half-speed, Blair realized he was in very real trouble. Blood had pooled under his leg creating a sizeable puddle the growing light revealed with sinking clarity.

"Too much blood, Jim...Can't keep this up much longer..."

Blair swallowed hard against the realization. He could die out here...alone...was dying...alone...

"Don't want to go out this way, Jim ..."

Blair laughed bitterly at the thought. A few years ago things like dying wouldn't have occurred to him...much less dying alone. Being alone was an accepted and natural part of his life then. It was simply his karma to maintain the lifestyle he'd learned from an early age; self-sufficiency had become the norm. Anything else was a cop out...a weakness that would only serve to make him dependent on others and make it harder on everyone...especially him... when the time came to move on.

"But I do depend on you, Jim...don't remember when it started...but it happened." Blair laughed again ruefully. "Hope you don't mind..."

Picking up his stick once again, Blair renewed his tapping. "Not giving up yet, Jim...We're not nearly done with this Sentinel thing. A long way to go...tests and more tests...need more tests...more data if we're ever going to get a handle on it all..."

Breathing deeply to still his nerves, Blair was suddenly caught by a deep, wracking cough. "Jesus...." Rough edges of bone scraped audibly in his chest and he hugged himself hard against the dual pain. As the coughing subsided, Blair felt renewed warmth pulsing down his leg...he'd let go of the tourniquet. Scrambling to retrieve the ends of the belt, Blair sobbed quietly...

"Hurry, Jim...God, please hurry...."

..........................

Simon was growing impatient.

"Jim, come on...We don't even know he was walking...much less walking this way. We have the APB out, the choppers are in the air and the search dogs are on their way. We should head back..."

Jim kept walking. "Go ahead..."

"Jim. Come on!"

Jim rounded on his superior, anger flaring hotly. "Come on what, Simon? Give up? Leave him out here to die alone?"

Simon's eyes softened at the words. "What makes you so sure, Jim? Why here?"

Jim shook his head, using both hands to scrub the exhaustion from his face. "I don't know, Simon...it's just a...feeling..."

Simon stared into Jim's eyes for a very long moment...

"Okay...we keep going...."

Jim wasn't about to mention that he'd never had any intention of doing otherwise, so he just nodded and returned to his walking...trying to quell the increasing sense of urgency building within him. Wherever Blair was...his time was running out...

As Jim stepped forward again, a noise tickled the edge of his hearing...soft, low...up ahead...

Jim ran forward a few steps, saw the fresh skid marks shining in the first rays of sunlight...a black rubber beacon pointing the way...

Over the mountain...

Remembering Blair's long ago lessons, Jim strained his ears...intending to piggyback his sight on his hearing if that low sound would only come again...

A raspy sound...a cough....

"Jesus..." More coughing, a sob of pain...."Hurry, Jim. God, please hurry..."

Jim focused his eyes downward following the sound....

A stream trickled through the small clearing at the bottom, the sun barely beginning to light the darkness down below....

A slight movement caught his eye...nearly lost among the deeper shadows against a large fallen tree...

A hand...

...............

Blair felt the numbness creeping up from his limbs...settling into his gut with a finality that was hard to argue against...

It was too late.

Jim wasn't going to make it...

The sun was breaking over the treetops; it was probably the most beautiful thing Blair had ever seen. The golden glow lit the upper reaches of the pines with a crown of glory, the wispy rising mist made it all seem ethereal, dream-like...

It was a comforting sight, Blair decided...fitting it would be the last thing he saw on Earth...

Blair closed his eyes, feeling the numbness seeping further, moving into his chest...draining his strength like a gentle hand...closing in...pulling him away...

"Sandburg!"

Blair could hear snapping, the scuttling of rocks....

Something touched him...shook him...

"Blair?"

Blair opened his eyes slowly...the voice...it was Jim...

................

Jim stared in shock at the sight of Blair lying in a puddle...a damn big puddle...of his own blood, one hand weakly wrapped around a makeshift tourniquet, the other wrapped around his chest...his face so pale it nearly glowed in the shadow of the tree he was nearly hidden under...

Jim telegraphed the seriousness of the situation to Simon with a glance, pulling off his own heavy coat to lay it across the frail-looking form of his friend. Behind him, Jim could hear Simon shouting into his cell phone...directing the emergency vehicles to their location.

It had been too close...

Gently rubbing warmth into the clammy cheeks and hands, Jim nearly jumping back as Blair opened his eyes. The clear blue roamed around a moment, finally settling to meet Jim's gaze with a small smile...

"Hey, there..." Jim whispered, aware of the fragility of the moment...remembering the pleading voice urging him to hurry even as it was preparing to let go...

Blair nodded, still just staring up at Jim with that same small smile.

Jim grinned back. "What?"

Blair tightened his hand around Jim's. "Knew it..."

The sirens blared on the road above them, brakes squealing an announcement of their presence.

"Hang on, help's here...Knew what?"

The smile faded a bit as Blair's eyes closed. "Knew you'd come..."

The paramedics came to a sliding stop beside Jim, setting to work on the injured man with speed and efficiency. Jim moved back out of the way, keeping his hold on the cold hand clinging to his with surprising firmness. As the medics prepared to shift Blair onto the stretcher, Jim leaned down to the younger man's ear.

"Always, Chief...always..."

*fin*