by Tegan Ridgway betaed It had been a very busy month for both Sentinel and Guide. After returning with Jim's truck, Blair cleaned out his office at Rainier, then, that weekend, the Governor flew them back to Jamie's for her graduation, and party that followed.   Once back home, Blair began working as Jim's official paid partner, and they finally decided to let their co-workers in on Jim's secret. So, that evening, they invited Henry Brown, Brian Rafe, Joel Taggert, Megan Connor, Serena, and Simon Banks over for dinner.   After dinner they all wound up in the living room with coffee.   Jim and Blair were standing where they could face everyone in the room. "OK, you're probably wondering why we asked you here tonight," Blair began.   "Beyond the great company," Jim added with a smile.   "Does this have to do with what happened at the fountain?" Brian asked   Blair paled slightly before answering, "Yeah, why?"   Brian looked at his partner, then at Megan and Joel before returning his attention to Blair as he pulled a manilla envelope out of the canvas bag he had sitting next to the sofa he shared with Simon and Henry. Does it by some chance have something to do with this?" he said as he removed the neatly bound papers from the envelope and handed it to Jim.   Jim took the bound book and read the title as Blair was looking over his shoulder, them proceeded to step back and slide down the wall as all of the color drained from his face. Jim was right behind him.   Looking up, Jim simply said, "You knew?"   Blair looked up, wanting the answer himself.   Simon, seeing the reaction from his best team got up and walked over to them, "You two all right?"   "Yeah Simon," Blair said then looked at him and asked the question that was mirrored in Jim's eyes, "Did you know about this?"   "No he didn't," Henry answered from the sofa, "Once you guys got back we all have been so busy that there was just no time. When you invited us over tonight, we decided that we were going to just come out and ask, and from your reaction, I'd have to say that we hit the nail on the head. But don't worry, your secret is safe with us. We won't tell  anybody else"   "When did you figure it out?" Blair asked as some of the color was coming back into his face.   Smiling, Megan said, "It was a bit of a giveaway at the fountain when Simon asked if Jim could hear Blair's heartbeat." Seeing the look on Blair's face, she added, "Don't worry Sandy, as Henry said, we won't tell anyone. Everything stays here in this room."   Jim was looking at everyone shaking their heads in the affirmative when she said that and said, "Thank you"   Blair just nodded.   "Excuse me, but I'm a little lost here, could someone rewind and tell me what you are talking about?" Serena asked from the love seat she had been sharing with Joel and Megan.   "I'm sorry Serena," Jim said as he rose from his place on the floor, walked over and handed her the copy of Blair's Masters Thesis. Everyone watched as she took the book, and after turning several pages came to the page that explained what exactly Sentinels and Guides were. After reading the paragraph, they could see realization dawn on what they were talking about. Looking into Jim's face she said, "So this is how you make my job so much easier?"   Jim smiled as he was nodding his head in the affirmative. Then she looked over to Simon and Blair and asked, "Is it possible to teach others to do what Jim does?"   "Unfortunately…no" Blair answered her. then added silently //Not exactly anyway//   "How about cloning?" she added   Henry spoke first, "I'm sorry guys, but even after Sandburg thawed him out, I don't think that we could handle another Jim Ellison."   Everyone screamed with laughter.   After they kinda had control, Jim looked at Henry and said with Blair's puppy dog eyes, "Oh, but you wound me Henry, was I really that bad?"   Everyone said YES!!! and started to laugh all over again, including Jim and Blair.   Ten minutes later, they had all finally calmed down enough to continue their discussion, and Jim was the first to speak. "You know, now that I think of it Chief, this last month whenever we were doing our Sentinel thing, everyone gave us lots of space. Never saying a word, never interrupting," Jim said as he was refilling his coffee. Then as Blair began speaking, he brought the pot in to fill all of the other's cups.   "Yeah, you're right. I noticed it the day at the drug bust when you were checking to make sure that there wasn't anyone else hiding in the warehouse. I saw Henry and Rafe standing off to the side waiting until you were done to give you their update."   Looking down at his partner and Guide, Jim asked, "And you never mentioned this?"   "Well, all hell did break lose a moment later if you recall," Blair chastised but with a smile on his face. "Point taken," Jim returned.   "OK, now that we know, that you know, that we know about your gifts, that you are not psychic, how do you want to handle this?" Megan asked.   Blair started to say something about the psychic part, but then Jim stopped him cold in his tracks. //"Don't even go there Chief"//   //"Go where Jim?"// Blair asked innocently.   //"You know full well what I mean,"// Jim returned.   //"OK, but they do need to know about our being able to shapeshift, otherwise if we are in the middle of something, one of them might just accidentally shoot us, and I definitely do not want that."//   //"Yeah, you're right there. Simon, what do you think?"//   Simon jumped slightly when they started to talk mentally; he still got the willies whenever they used that method of communication, but composed himself quickly. //"Blair's right, they do need to know."//   Turning to face their guests, Jim said, "There is one other thing that you need to know about us, that you don't already know."   "Something that we could possibly miss? What's that?"   At the same moment when Henry finished his sentence, Simon morphed into his bear form. Henry's eyes got bigger than Blair's ever could and then he was over the back of the couch, gun drawn before anyone could blink.   Rafe, seeing what happened reached over and said, "Henry, gimme the gun, he's not gonna hurt you." As he reached over to take the gun away from Henry and try to calm down his partner.   Megan was in shock and could not move, she had heard of the aborigines being able to do this, but never a laymen, and definitely not her captain.   Joel was shocked slightly, but in his line of work, very few things really shocked him. Plus, being a Christian, he was surprised, but he was not going to jump to the wrong conclusions. The bible said that such things were of the devil, but these were his friends, and colleagues. He knew that there had to be some logical explanation, so he sat there and waited.   Serena's mother practiced voudou, and this was really nothing new, so she just sat there calmly and waited for them to continue.   After Rafe finally got Henry to calm down and sit back down on the couch, Henry looked at Rafe and asked," This doesn't bother you?"   Rafe looked back at Henry and said "Hell no, why should it. My sister is a practitioner of Shamanism and does this all the time. Why do you think that she has a twelve year old car that looks like it is off the showroom floor and only has ten thousand miles on it?"   Henry was slowly composing himself when he said, "OK, I can kinda understand Jim and Blair, what with everything that Jim does anyway, but Simon?"   "You ain't seen nothin' yet," Jim said, and when he had Henry's full attention, Jim morphed into his Panther form.   Henry was back over the couch again, but this time he didn't have his gun. His eyes were still as big as saucers when Blair spoke up.   "You better stay there Henry," Blair said just before turning int his wolf form.   Henry did just that. Frozen to that spot unable to get his body to move, he said, "What else could they possibly have up their sleeve?" At that point, all three morphed into their eagle form. And then several moments later, they turned into squirrels.   After that Simon and Jim returned to their human form, while Blair took the opportunity to scurry over to the couch. Climbing up on the back of the couch, he stood there watching the unmoving Henry staring at him. Finally giving up, he went back down to the floor and returned to his human form.   Walking around to stand in front of Henry he reached out to touch his arm, and when he did, Henry jumped, and backed into the corner.

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