Author's Notes: Another tale from a Series of stories about Sentinel
and Guide Pairs in a world that accepts them and (mostly) celebrates them.

Warnings: AU Shortbit. Multi-Xover. Minor Angst. Not too much Jim and Blair this installment. SIP (Series in Progress). Gen.
Previous Installments <http://brothersinarmsfiction.com/jayed/jayedtsgen.html> [Thanks, Lyn!]

Disclaimers: As before, not mine. Everybody is just borrowed.

Relatives Series Story Eight/Episode Ten:

A Host of Interactions

By Jayed

EMAIL: Jayed

       If there was any crime more foolish than attacking the child, a baby, in a Family of law enforcement personnel, that crime was attacking such a child while simultaneously threatening the life of Bonded Guide. Not only was there an absolute guarantee of resources from every law enforcement group in the immediate area and beyond, but the full involvement of the Sentinel-Guide Guild was also assured. There was no way for such a crime to go undiscovered, uncovered, unavenged.

       It took just a few hours for the criminals to be pinpointed. That was as long as it took Jim to look up from his Guide long enough to examine the trace evidence brought to him. His interpretation of the clues led to Rafe’s unhappy recognition of the cowardly handiwork of his childhood nemeses. With that information, ten hastily arriving Pairs, along with the various members of their respective Families, were on the Hunt. Jim wanted to join them, but he wanted to stay and protect his Guide and Family more. Each Pair took a moment to come and speak privately with Simon’s Family Pair before they set out, and each set of Family members received the grateful welcome of Simon, Joel, Elliot, and Olivia.

       The capture was anti-climatic after all the drama, of course, as such captures always were, and are. Each man, suddenly, amazingly, coming to a realization that their latest plan to go after their childhood victim had been one of the most stupid crimes in living memory, tried to put the complete blame on his companion. Even they couldn’t really remember why they thought drowning a baby was a good idea.  Their final lack of loyalty even to each other was, sadly, expected.

       At their trial, members of their Birth-Family came, as Family will, even for such undeserving members; their Head, Alec Summer, was particularly shamed. He knew that he had let the two young men grow up into the bullies they had become by not accepting the evidence of their misdeeds in their youth. He shouldn’t have excused their behavior as only “boys will be boys.” On his return to the Family, he stepped down as Head and turned the reins of the Family over to his Second, who had long ago tried to intervene and been taken to task for it.

       Although the outraged Sentinels, from Jim to the Hunter Pairs, would have liked to have seen the Death Penalty invoked, with the whole-hearted agreement of Elliot and Olivia, the parents of Sophia, the threatened infant, their crime was not actual murder, but only its attempt. So, the two were sentenced to ten years imprisonment, on each of the two counts, without hope of parole, and were further enjoined from ever becoming members of a Family, even such Families as occasionally formed in prison. Nor would they be allowed to Join back with one another, in prison or out.

       When the two men had been captured, two of visiting Pairs stayed on, to provide half an Honor Guard for the still ill Guide and his stressed Sentinel, and half an additional source of support for that distracted Sentinel. Simon and Joel recognized the over-protective stance for what it was, and did not, as some Heads had in the past, see it as an insult to their abilities to protect the Family. Knowing that they had a Pair in their midst, the two Leads had made quite a sincere effort to learn all they could about these special Family members.

       The first Pair, Don Flack and Danny Messer, Sentinel and Guide, respectively, were from York. They had come because Don had actually known Jim during their apprenticeships. Their Head had come with them, but returned after the trial. All three men knew it would be a comfort for Jim to have an known companion stay on for a bit, but Mac Taylor was also protective of his own people. After some serious conversations with Simon and Joel, and his own Second, Stella, it was decided that the Pair would stay on a while longer.

       The second Pair to stay were from a rare Missing Persons Specialty Family, also out of York, but working across many different areas of the greater country. The Sentinel was Danny Alvarez. His Guide was Martin Fitzgerald. They had been friends since their teenage years, having met before Danny knew he was a Sentinel and when Martin had been adjusting to the possibilities in his newly discovered Guide role.

       Because Martin was uncharacteristically shy for a Guide, it wasn’t until the excitement was really all over that anyone got a good look at him without the ubiquitous hat he wore covering his face. Although he was taller than his Sentinel, their dynamic was such that Danny was always able, and willing, to shield his Guide from too much attention when that attention got overwhelming. Thus, it wasn’t until the excitement of the capture a fading echo that members of Simon’s Family finally got their first good look at this Guide.

       Vin, summoned from a discussion with Chris and Buck about increasing some of the patrols, was at first confused and then astonished when he was called in to meet more closely with one of the York Guides. However, the moment that he and Martin saw each other, they knew that something extraordinary was happening. They looked exactly alike, except for the minor differences of dress and hair. They even seemed to be approximately the same weight.

       Martin’s Sentinel came to stand at his side, linking hands in a subtle show of support and claim. As if that was a sign, excited questions began to flow between the two identical men. It was impossible to believe that there was not some blood tie between them. Martin’s blood father had been the Head of his Birth-Family. He had been one of the rare individuals who thought less of Guides than Sentinels, and he hadn’t been happy when his son had turned out to be one. Martin had not been in contact with the man since he’d left his Birth-Family and gone to his first and only Family Fair, seeking and finding his friend, his Sentinel. Simon’s Family, gathering close in support of Vin, were outraged on Martin’s behalf. How had a man with that kind of prejudice been accepted as Head? How had he been allowed to act as a law enforcer?

       With his six brothers around him, Vin, like his lookalike loathe to be in the spotlight, took a deep breath and told his own story. He had recognized the one bit that Martin left out of his own tale. Martin hadn’t mentioned his blood-mother. So, that is where he started, with the story of his blood-mother, at least so far as he could remember her. She had died when he was quite small, and he’d been raised mostly by the small Family that was all that remained of her own Birth-Family. They had raised ponies, not horses, just ponies, for children and the occasional work for which the animals were suited.

       Somehow Rachel Tanner had known Victor Fitzgerald. Serena efficiently confirmed the relationship between the two men via a simple blood test. So, a story that had begun with the almost tragic loss of two Family members instead found the Family increasing with a new and happy blood-tie. Vin was thrilled to discover he had blood-Family and Martin to discover that he had blood-Family willing to accept and celebrate his status as a Guide. With permission from their Head, Jack Malone, Martin and Danny planned to stay on, trying to find out all they could about the Blood bond between Vin and Martin, and allowing the brothers to celebrate their meeting.