Can a man become the Sentinel he was meant to be after deliberately breaking his Guide's Heart?

Ellison tamped down his sense of smell and decided against a cup of the break room coffee.  He really didn't need the caffeine that much.  He took his empty mug back to his desk.

"Ellison!"  Simon bellowed.   "My office!"

Jim winced.  What now?  He took the mug.  Maybe Simon had some drinkable coffee.

"Yes, sir?"   He noted the presence of another person in Simon's office.

"I'd like you to meet your new partner, Detective Blair Sandburg."

The newcomer rose from the chair in front of Simon's desk and Jim's world spun out of control.  This could not be happening.

"Jim?"

"Detective Sandburg and I are acquainted."

"Oh?"

"Detective Ellison and I met at Rainier University three years ago."

"Is there anything I should be concerned about?"

"Nothing at all," Jim assured Simon.

"No, sir," Blair echoed.

"Keep it that way.  Jim, show Sandburg a desk.  And bring him up to speed on your case files.  Now get out of my office."

Jim took his still empty mug and left with Blair trailing.

"That desk is empty.  Fill out the appropriate forms for Rhonda and she'll see that you get anything you need."  Jim picked up the case files on his desk.  "Lets go into the conference room to discuss this.

Blair followed Jim into the conference room after grabbing a notepad and pen.

"So, how are the senses?"

"The techniques you taught me work very well, thank you.  When did you become a cop?"

"I went to the Academy three months after we met."

"So that's where you disappeared to.  What about the doctorate you were working on?"

"Didn't know anyone was looking for me.  I didn't exactly disappear.  I went to the Academy in Seattle and joined the Department there.   I finished the doctorate.  Sheepskin's on the wall of my apartment."

"Seattle?  You were in fucking Seattle all this time and you never let me know?"

"Jim," Blair closed his eyes for a moment.  "You made it clear that all you wanted from me was enough information to handle your senses.  You weren't interested in helping me with my research.  You took out Veronica Sarris making sure that no one knew that I was involved.  Then you took three weeks leave to work with me.  When your leave was up, you said goodbye.  I thought that was the end of it."

"Despite what happened."

"I thought you said nothing happened."

"I made love to you."

"You *fucked* me."

Jim winced.

"I call 'em like I see 'em"

"I deserve that."

"Yes."

"That doesn't explain why you are a cop."

"No it doesn't.  But all you need to know is that I'm good.  Moved from patrol to Vice and then to Narcotics.  I work very well with my partners and undercover work is my forte."

"What brought you back to Cascade?"

"Simon Banks.   He made me an offer after the Golden Task Force."

"Can we work together?"

"I don't see why not.  It's not like we're going to be living together."

For the next two hours Jim was impressed by the Blair's thoughtful insights.  In each case he had answers that Jim had never considered.

"How about lunch, Chief?"  Jim asked when he noticed the time.

Blair flinched at the nickname.

"Sorry, I have plans for lunch."  Blair gathered his notes and part of the case files and left the conference room.  He stopped by his desk briefly to drop things off.

Jim watched the man leave knowing that he had three years of damage to repair and no guarantee that he would ever be able to reclaim what he had lost.

Control was an illusion.

The loft was a barren place that Jim came to sleep and occasionally eat.  It was furnished sparingly and kept scrupulously clean.  Jim stood on the balcony stared out on the city.  He  wasn’t fighting the need to reach out with his senses and find Blair Sandburg.  He knew he was risking a zone, but he didn’t care.

Three years ago Jim had taken what he had needed to survive from Sandburg.  When Jim had pushed Sandburg against the wall of his office, Jim had known that he would have to have this man.  He had resisted the impulse to turn Sandburg over on that cluttered desk and fuck him right there and then.  After all, he had a case to solve.  He had priorities.

He’d dragged Sandburg out of the office and forced him to help him with the Switchman case when Sandburg had explained his senses.   With Sarris caught, he’d told Simon Banks that he was taking some of the leave he had on the books.  Simon had been shocked at the naked aggression in his detective.  Jim had spent the next three weeks in the lab or wherever Sandburg thought necessary to hone his senses.

On the last day of his leave Jim decided to reward himself.  He had seduced Sandburg with the charm he would have normally reserved for a leggy redhead with big breasts.  He’d given himself a sensual feast.

Jim had taken Sandburg to bed and enjoyed every nuance of the young man’s body.  He’d tasted him.  Smelled his subtle, natural musk scent. Listened to his gasps of pleasure.  Watched his body’s responses to Jim’s deliberate caresses.  Felt the silken tightness of the body beneath him.

Even now Jim remembered every moment of that night.  He also remembered brushing off the evening as unimportant.  Sandburg had dressed and walked out.  Jim hadn’t been able to find him after that night.  He’d never been in his office nor at his apartment when Jim had stopped by.  He’d finally gotten a secretary at Rainier to admit that Sandburg had left the University.

What had happened to turn Sandburg into a cop?

Jim’s contacts in Seattle would only tell him that Sandburg was one of the best they’d ever seen.   Indeed, Seattle was pissed that Cascade had stolen The Professor from them.

The Professor.   He hadn’t used a nickname for his partner since Sandburg had flinched at Chief.  It was interesting that he accepted one from his colleagues in Seattle.

There it was -- a heartbeat he’d never forgotten.  It was time for the hunt to begin.

Blair rose from the circle of scented candles.  The Jaguar was hunting the Wolf.  He had known when he accepted Simon’s offer to join Major Crime, he would be putting himself back in Jim Ellison’s territory.  He didn’t doubt that Jim would be on his doorstep before the hour was up.

He was no longer the naive young man Jim had seduced three years ago.  He no longer believed in the myth of Sentinels as natural protectors.  Blair had been intrigued by police work, though.  When he’d walked out of Ellison’s loft three years ago, he’d headed for Seattle where he’d stayed with an old friend.

Then he’d picked himself up and started over.  He’d taken the information he’d learned from Ellison and his previous research and wrote his dissertation from his new perspective.  He’d only returned from Seattle for his defense.  He’d joined the Police Academy determined to be a better cop than Jim Ellison ever dreamed of being.

He had graduated first in his class.

Blair put out the candles.

Ellison wanted him again.

Let him try.

This Wolf bites.

Jim didn’t know what had driven to go to Sandburg’s apartment.  Why was he risking the fragile working relationship they had established?   He sat in his truck staring at the apartment building, swearing that he could hear the howling of a wolf and the answering growl of a jungle cat.  Was he going mad?

He got out of the truck and headed inside.  The security officer waved him on.

"Detective Sandburg is waiting for you.  Said to come on up."

Jim didn’t stop to question the fact that Sandburg knew he was on his way.   He just took the elevator Sandburg’s floor.  He didn’t even have to knock.  The door to the apartment opened when he stopped in front of it.

"Come in."  Blair’s voice’s was firm.

"Thank you."  Where was this submission coming from?

"Sit down before you fall down, Jim."

The differences in this apartment and the loft was staggering.  This apartment was warm and inviting.  The textures were soft to the touch.  The colors were vibrant and masculine.  The scents pleased the nose.  Sandburg had been burning vanilla candles, but before that he had cooked a meal redolent with spices that still lingered enticingly in the air.

"I’m not a Sentinel.  I never was.  I failed the first test."

Blair didn’t know what he was expecting but this wasn’t it.

"What first test?"

"Find and Protect the Guide.  That’s what you were supposed to be.  My Guide."

"What do you know about Guides?"  Blair laughed harshly.

"That I’m nothing without one."

"Then why haven’t you found someone to anchor your senses and share your life?"

"You know why."

"Because you were already mine.  You thought you could just take what you wanted that night didn’t you, Jim?  You didn’t realize that you had imprinted me on you very soul, did you?"

"No."

Blair moved into Jim’s personal space.  Jim’s senses were reeling.

"There hasn’t been anyone else since that night, has there?  No women?  No other men?"

"No."  Jim’s voice didn’t rise above a whisper.

"I will never roll over for you again, Ellison."

Jim swallowed nervously.

"I guess that’s it then."  Jim started to get up to leave.  He found himself backed against a wall.

"No."  Blair’s voice was implacable.  "We’re going to do this my way."

Blair brought Jim’s head down to his and claimed his mouth in a brief wet kiss.

The Jaguar acknowledged the Wolf as Alpha and bared his throat.

Simon was pleased with the reports on his new detective.  Sandburg was definitely an asset to Major Crime.   Not only was his solve rate nearly perfect, he’d brought about almost miraculous changes in Ellison.  The man was nearly human.  Perhaps a bit too protective of Sandburg at times, but nearly losing your partner to a psychotic madwoman claiming to be some sort of Sentinel can do that to a cop.

Simon watched the two of them and was struck as always by the closeness between the two.

In the bullpen, Jim finished up a report and signed it.

"That’s it for me, Sandburg.  I’m heading out.  See you tomorrow."

"Wait up a minute, Ellison.  I’ll walk out with you."

"Interested in getting some dinner?"

"I could eat."

"Wonderburger?"  Jim asked hopefully.

"Not in a million years, kitten."