Shaman School Chapter 1b

After turning off his radio and phone, Jim returned his attention to the road. The stop sign that was in front of him when he pulled over to listen to Henry and Rafe, was no longer there. Instead, there was a sign that said `Welcome to Cascade, Colorado. Population 3,402', and the black panther, his animal spirit was lying at it´s base staring at him. Blinking, the sign and his panther was gone was gone and the stop sign had returned.

*Well, that's a start" Jim said to himself as he headed to a gas station for fuel and a map of the Northwest.

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Dan Wolf, the head coroner for the City of Cascade, Washington, sat at his desk. He had just received the call several minutes before that Blair Sandburg had been found dead. Drowned in the fountain outside of his office at the university. All resuscitation attempts had failed. Captain Banks had called in personally to make this a top priority.

This was the part of the job that he hated the most. Working on people that he knew personally. And he especially hated to work on people like Sandburg or Ellison. They were dedicated to their jobs, and probably the best team in the state, if not the whole country. And now, one half of this great team was dead, and God only knew what will happen to the other half.

At that moment, the doors to the lab opened to admit two paramedics and the stretcher that carried the body bag that held one half of that wonderful team. And right now, Dan wished he could be anywhere else but here. He rose from the desk and met the paramedics at the wall of drawers where they kept the corpses waiting to be autopsied. "Here, let me give you a hand with that" Dan said as he reached over with shaking hands to unzip the body bag that held one of the nicest people that he had ever met. *Blair was so animated and full of life. And now this.* He folded the flap down as he unzipped it, but instead of seeing the cold dead and lifeless body of Jim Ellison's partner, he found himself staring into two very blue, very frightened and very much alive eyes of one very much alive Blair Sandburg.

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Blair found himself floating in a black void. He had no idea as to where he was or what was happening to him.

*Maybe*, Blair thought to himself, *Incacha decided
that he wasn't good enough for Jim after all. Or maybe, Incacha had spoken to Jim, and Jim wanted nothing more to do with him. He could understand that. He had screwed up big time. And if the latter was the case, then this must be his own personal hell. Alone and drifting, just like he had always been. That is, until he had met one Detective James Ellison. That meeting had changed his life completely. But now, even that was over, as Jim had thrown him out of the loft and his life.*

Suddenly he realized he was hearing things. As they got louder, he thought that it sounded like a hospital. But when he opened his eyes, everything was still black. He was becoming frightened as he couldn't move. All he could do was listen to what was going on around him. Then the thought struck him, Was it something to do with the curare, or had Alex done something else to him after they dropped him into the fountain?

The next sound that he heard sounded like a stretcher going through a set of doors. He'd been on enough of them since meeting Jim, so he definitely knew that sound. Then he heard a voice that sounded rather familiar, and it was saying "Here, let me help you with that" He could feel his eyes blinking in the darkness, but he still couldn't see anything. And why couldn't he move. He was becoming frightened that if he were blind or if he were somehow disabled and needed care, how was he supposed to guide his Sentinel? Jim sure as hell didn't need to be taking care of an invalid. Some cripple who couldn't take care of himself.

It was then that he noticed the smell. That smell that came only with the dead. At that moment, he heard what sounded like a zipper above his head. As the zipper moved over and down his right side, he realized that he was in a body bag. That explained not being able to see, but he still couldn't move. As the zipper made it's way down his side, the flap was folded down *and light was coming in Thank God*, and he found himself staring into the face of Dan Wolf, Cascade's head coroner.

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Dan just stood there for a moment, not quite sure what to do. He had heard of bodies being brought to the morgue before, only to be sent straight up to the ER because they had somehow come back to life, but it had never happened to him. That is until now, that is.

"Jim", Blair manage to choke out before a coughing fit took hold of him.

Dan, over his shock now, reached over to turn Blair to the side, so if he coughed up any water, it wouldn't be aspirated back into the lungs. While at the same time, and with help from one of the paramedics, they maneuvered him out of the body bag. Being mindful of any injuries that he may have sustained before or after the drowning. Looking up at the other paramedic, who was still standing there in shock, Dan said "Call the ER, tell them that we got a live one. Then call Captain Banks and Det. Ellison and tell them to get down here right <^now^>!

After Blair's coughing fit subsided, and he was able to catch his breath, Dan lowered him back down to the stretcher and they headed for the ER.
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While enroute to the ER, Blair's mind went back to what had happened roughly an hour ago. Alex had shown up at his office that morning with a gun, and was going to kill him. He just closed his eyes and waited for the end, because there would be no Jim to come to his rescue this time. And after what had gone down between them this past week, he didn't care.

"What are you doing?" He heard a someone else say. Opening his eyes, he saw a man standing next to Alex telling her that if she fired that thing in here, that it would bring any and all within ear shot
"Well, what do you suggest we do, Carl", Alex said, "just leave a witness?"

"There as to be another way." Carl said as he began to look around Blair's office. His eyes stopped on a shelf containing a set of four darts. Each one was in a plastic sleeve with a label that read ^ DO NOT TOUCH 'Tipped with curare'^. "Now this is what we need", Carl said walking over to the shelf.

"Hey man, those can kill you if you even handle them wrong" Blair said, following the man's thoughts.

"That's what I'm counting on", Carl said, as he picked up one of the darts.

Blair's mind was racing. When he and Jim had returned from Peru, they had brough back a set of four darts given to them by the tribesmen for his office. And even though they had very little curare on them, they still had to be labelled as dangerous. Now, if Carl believed them to be that dangerous, maybe he would use that instead of the gun. Thinking that once they left and he came to, he could call Simon, and let him know what was going on. But instead of hitting him with the dart, as he'd hoped. Carl walked over to his desk, and ordered Blair to get up. He did as he was told, and was pushed out the door.

Alex still had the gun trained on him as he was escorted out to the fountain in front of the building. Realizing

what they were going to do, he tried to stall. The hope being that someone would come to his rescue. Both Alex and Carl were looking around to see of there were going to be any witnesses to the murder that was about to take place. Blair, hoping to stall, was just opening his mouth to ask where they were going to take the nerve gas, when Carl turned around to Blair, pulled down the front of Blair's shirt, and stabbed him four times with the dart. Blair had involuntarily held his breath when Carl struck, and therefore, had both lungs full of air as the curare froze them in place almost instantly. Because he was hit four times with the dart, there was now enough curare in his system to stop his heart as well as his lungs. As his knees gave way, Carl grabbed hold of him and lowered him face first into the fountain. *It's funny,* Blair thought,* his whole body was numb. And he was peaceful. Maybe it was something to do with the curare*, he thought as everything went black.

Turning a corner, they came into the ER.

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As the nurses worked to get his wet clothes off of him, he was beginning to feel and move again. *Apparently the curare wears off as fast as it takes effect,* he thought to himself.

By the time the nurses finished, he was shivering. He was so cold, his teeth were chattering. They piled him up with three blankets that must have just come from the drier. Snuggling under them, he closed his eyes to wait for the doctor. *God, I'm so tired,* was the last thing he remembered before drifting off to a slowly warming up sleep.

A short while later, he was awakened by a pretty young nurse who said that the doctor needed to look him over.

"Where is Jim?" Blair asked her

"We've called Captain Banks, and he should be here shortly" the nurse answered him, Then added "Just try to relax, ok?"

The doctor breezed in, listened to his lungs, ordered some blood tests, then left. He drifted off again as the nurse was preparing to take blood.

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