Title: Discovered

Author: Brynn

Author's Notes: This is another story in my Sentinel AU (the "Lost and Found" Universe). Reading those first would help. They can be found here: Lost and Found.

This chapter is part of a two part story. The other part is mostly written and will hopefully be posted shortly. In the meantime, this part stands alone as a complete story, by itself. I just tend to link several distinct stories together into bigger works. You could very easily read this and enjoy it without reading any further into the series.

Thanks to: PunkyRabbit and Cassandra30 for the beta work.

Disclaimer: I, obviously, don't own anything even mildly connected with Sentinel. I guess technically, the originally characters are mine, but certainly nothing else is.

Discovered

By Brynn

It had been eight weeks since the fire and the big day had finally come; Jimmy's cast came off that day. Anna had suggested that we make somewhat of a celebration of it…eat at a small "mom and pop" restaurant that was one of Jimmy's favorites, maybe invite "Fireman Mike" and his wife. Jimmy and Mike had become best buds in the weeks since the fireman was released from the hospital. We visited Jimmy's new friend about a week or so after I officially adopted the boy to deliver Jimmy's second-ever self-portrait. The first, he had given to me and was now framed and hanging in the living room section of my apartment.

After that first meeting, we made sure we went back on most of my days off. Mike and Jimmy had spent several hours drawing various things that first visit and since then, Mike had started to teach Jimmy to paint. Jimmy loved it. He had usually restricted himself to pencils, pastels or crayons before, though he had attempted a few watercolors in the past. Mike introduced him to the wonderful world of oil paints, and even bought him a starter set of his very own paints.

Unfortunately, oil paints are really hard to paint over when applied to walls of a residential facility. We entirely repainted one wall in the living room section of the hall one day, only to notice the next day that the back of Jimmy's bedroom door was adorned with a beautiful forest scene done in various hews of blue. Before we could repaint that as well, Sara saw it and gave Jimmy permission to keep it, but asked him to please secure permission before painting any more Center-owned surfaces. To soften the blow, she bought him a dozen canvases and a top of the line easel to practice on instead.

By the time Jimmy's cast was ready to come off, most of the walls on the hall were decorated with canvasses that Jimmy had painted portraying various scenes. Several staff members, 3-B staff and others, had brought in canvases and asked for specific pictures…portraits of Jimmy, copies of photos of loved ones, specific scenes, etc. Jimmy loved all the attention and was only too happy to paint anything asked of him. Dottie had asked him to paint a portrait of all the kids on 3-B, and had bought an extra large canvas. On the morning of Jimmy's doctor's appointment, the portrait was finally finished and Dottie and Jimmy proudly hung it outside the door of Hall 3-B so that everyone getting off the elevator would see it. By the time we left for the appointment, enough people had already commented on what a great idea that was, that I was sure Jimmy had in his future several commissions of group pictures from other halls. That should keep him busy for a while, anyway. I'm sure Mike had no idea when he taught Jimmy to paint, just what flood gates he was opening. Jimmy was happy, though and that made all the rest of us happy; especially since the boy was a little less than happy about the upcoming doctor's appointment, even though he was past ready to get the cast off.

He had gotten quite good at getting around on crutches, though. He was just about as fast on them as most of the kids were without them. Fortunately, he could bear weight on the cast, so he didn't need the crutches when he was painting. He also had found quite a few other uses for the crutches… the most destructive of which was sword fighting. Jimmy had taught Ryan how to battle with the crutches and it had become their new favorite game. So far, I owed the Center for two windows and a television set. Actually, thank goodness, Sara had told me not to worry about it; the Center had a maintenance fund for such events and Jimmy certainly wasn't the only resident that had those kinds of accidents. Still, the cast couldn't come off soon enough for me, and I was seriously considering a bon-fire bon-voyage for the crutches.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

As it turned out, Mike had gotten the wires removed from his jaw just the day before and said he would love to go out to eat a solid lunch with us. He said he was quite sick of soup and liquid food of any variety, and while he wasn't sure he was quite up to a hamburger just yet, anything that could be eaten without a straw would be a welcomed change. So, we all planned to meet at the little restaurant at the edge of Dottie's neighborhood. It was in a small section with a few businesse right around the corner from the residential section and was within walking distance of Dottie's so we often went there when I had Jimmy with me. He liked to walk there before the crutches, but we had taken the car recently. He said he might like going there even more since the fire, though, even though he couldn't walk there, because he got a bigger portion of ice-cream for dessert now that he was on crutches. Never let it be said that Jimmy didn't know how to work a crowd. As with all the staff at the Center, all the waitresses at Cal's Diner had pretty much adopted Jimmy as their little darling. What I wouldn't give for that kid's way with the ladies.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0

I was anxious to see how Jimmy would handle the noise of the saw used to remove the cast. He had been working hard on controlling his reactions to sensory spikes in the weeks since the fire. He had gotten to the point where he could immediately control spikes up to about 8 blocks without any help from me and without actually having to physically manipulate the blocks. Spikes of nine or ten took more concentration, but, with minimal verbal direction from me, or with a small touch, he could handle them as well. He'd react with some kind of startle response, but could then get them under control pretty quickly for every sense except touch. In that area he still needed a good bit of talking down...not nearly as much as he used to, though.

We had been talking all morning about what would happen at the doctor's appointment, so, when the noisy saw began he didn't even startle. He had been working extra hard on controlling his startles to sound, since that had been the final straw that caused him to bail off the ladder during the fire. He said he liked it when Mike called him his flying squirrel but he really didn't want to fly any more...at least not without a plane.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

After we finished at the doctor's office, we met Mike and Linda at Cal's. Jimmy took great delight in telling Mike every detail of the doctor's visit...every smell, every sound, even how the plaster dust tasted when he happened to open his mouth at the wrong time. I swear it took twice as long for him to tell about it as it did for the doctor to actually do it!

Finally, Jimmy ran out of things to talk about and busied himself with the ritual of eating French fries. He dipped each fry in his chocolate milkshake, then into the ketchup. He would then take just enough of a bite to get rid of the ketchup (because ketchup in his milkshake would just be "gross, Chief.") He would then start the whole thing over again. Each fry made about five trips to the milkshake and ketchup and Jimmy filled a portion of his plate with ketchup four times before he finished all the fries. I've learned to allow plenty of time for Jimmy to eat and to make sure there was always a full bottle of ketchup handy. I swear the boy used about a half a bottle for each meal.

Mike and Linda, Anna and I were talking about this and that when Jimmy suddenly jerked his head up from his meal and sniffed.

"Fire, Chief."

I couldn't smell anything, but I had long ago realized that that didn't mean Jimmy didn't. He had been particularly attentive to the smell of smoke since the fire. For the first several weeks he had all but panicked every time someone lit up a cigarette. He had gotten better at distinguishing non-dangerous smoke since then, but he still sometimes overreacted.

"Fire, Chief!" He was becoming quite anxious.

"Hey big guy, we'll find out where the smoke is coming from. I don't think it's dangerous, buddy, but you need to calm down a little while I find out, okay?"

Anna stayed with Jimmy and I went up to the counter to ask if there was any smoke in the kitchen at all. The owners and workers here were used to Jimmy by now, so they knew the drill. A drop of cheese on the grill, any food dropped on the burners, someone burning some food (which happened sometimes)…any of that would produce enough smoke for Jimmy to think "fire".

The matronly lady working the cash register returned and told me that she couldn't find anything at all that might produce smoke. I looked toward the table and Jimmy was still pretty close to freaking out.

I told him I'd be right back and went to look in the restroom for anyone smoking. It was a non-smoking restaurant, but occasionally there was a customer who thought that surely the rules didn't apply to them. As I entered the men's room I heard Mary, our waitress (one of Jimmy's favorites) announce that she would check the ladies' room. I was just about to exit after a thorough check when I heard Anna scream, "Blair!"

I learned later that Jimmy had continued to become increasingly agitated until he finally shot off the chair and toward the door. Mike had come closest to catching him, but Jimmy was closer to the door, fast, and determined. Mike, closely followed by Anna was out the door just moments later, hot on his heels, while Linda stayed and paid our bill, not realizing that the owner would have assumed that I'd be back to take care of it.

Jimmy ran down the street and turned the corner, Mike close on his heels. By the time I caught up to them, Mike had a squirming, nearly hysterical Jimmy in his strong arms and Anna was frantically trying to calm the boy down. Just as I started to join the effort, we three adults finally began to smell the smoke, too.

"Jimmy!" I took his face between my hands and tried to get him to look at me. "We smell it now, too, big guy. Calm down so we can let you go and we'll all go see what's going on, okay?"

While I talked to Jimmy and Mike still held him, Anna had followed the smell of smoke around another corner. By the time she ran back to us, she was breathless and wide-eyed. "Blair, there really is a fire. Looks like it's on the first floor of one of the houses over on Maple Street. There are quite a few people standing around and the fire department has already been called; should be here any time. As far as anyone knows, no one was home, so at least no one can get hurt."

As Anna was speaking, Jimmy calmed down significantly. His agitation had never been due to a sensory spike, but had been because he was frustrated that it was taking us too long to get to the fire, and was worried about the possibility of victims. Once he was calm enough for us to be sure he wasn't going to bolt again, Mike loosened his grip so that the restraining hold became a reassuring hug, then finally Mike released him altogether. Jimmy immediately grabbed my hand and started to run toward the fire.

We got to the scene about the same time as the fire truck. Sure enough, there were plenty of people standing around. When a fireman approached and asked if anyone was in there, several people replied that the family that lived there consisted of a single mother and two school-aged children. The mother worked during the day and the children should be in school.

The fire-fighters launched in with a valiant effort to save the house and,, while they were still on the look out for signs that anyone was in the building, they were fairly certain that there was no one home. By this time, Mike caught up to us, having been joined by his wife.

Jimmy stood, transfixed, watching the fire and the effort to put it out. I asked him if his sense of smell was okay, this close to the fire. He told me he had turned it off. Normally, I didn't like it when he turned any sense all the way to zero, but I could certainly understand in this case. In fact, I kind of wished I could have done the same. The smoke was becoming a smothering blanket and the smell was starting to be a little overwhelming.

Suddenly, Jimmy's head whipped up to the corner room of the second floor, even though there was no fire there whatsoever. "Chief! There's somebody there!"

"The neighbors said everyone was gone, buddy. You sure?"

"Neighbors were wrong Chief! There's someone there...crying!" He was becoming more and more agitated. "She's crying for her mommy, Chief! She's scared!" He broke away from me, heading for the house, but Mike easily scooped him up before he had gotten three steps. Jimmy was wiggling frantically again, and I realized I had to get him calmed, quickly.

"Jimmy!" I said firmly, hoping to get him back under control, "Settle down, Buddy! We'll take care of it, but you need to settle down, okay?"

Mike jumped in. "Hey, squirrel. I know these guys. I can get them to check for the little girl, but I can't leave until I know you're gonna stay with Blair." That worked! Jimmy immediately stopped wiggling. He was obviously still agitated but he wasn't going to run now. He was trying so hard to get himself under control so that Mike could go.

"Hurry, Mike," Jimmy pleaded, and the fireman rushed off.

How he convinced the other firemen that they should look in the upstairs corner bedroom for a little girl even though all the neighbors were saying that no one was home, I still don't really know, but he did, and moments later two men cautiously entered the building through the entrance farthest away from the fire. Mike stayed close to the remaining firemen, getting information as soon as they did.

I was paying more attention to Jimmy than to Mike so I missed it when the fireman gave us a thumbs-up sign, telling us that they had found the child. But, I didn't have to see it. I could tell just by looking at Jimmy's face. He had been watching the corner of the house intently, and suddenly his whole expression relaxed, and he even spared a small smile. "They got her, Chief."

Just then, there was a commotion at the edge of the crowd. A car had pulled up and an anxious woman ran up to the firemen.

"My daughter! My baby is in there!" The poor woman was nearly in tears. "She was home sick today so I stayed home from work. The drug store called to tell me her prescription was ready. I was only gone fifteen minutes!"

The firemen tried to calm her down and assure her that her daughter was safe, but she became increasingly hysterical until she actually saw her ten year old being carried by one of the firemen. The little girl was set on her feet near her sobbing mother, and the EMTs from the ambulance that routinely responded with the fire truck checked her over, giving her a little oxygen just in case. The mother decided to allow the ambulance to take the girl to the hospital, just to make sure she was fine, using the philosophy that "you can never be too careful with children."

We watched as the mother asked a neighbor to collect her younger son from the bus-stop and baby-sit him until the woman and girl could get home. The two females of the house were then bundled into the ambulance and whisked away. Jimmy insisted that we stay until the fire was completely out. Mike had asked his buddies what they thought may have started the fire. From just a preliminary glance, most thought it was probably due to a pan of soup left on the stove while the mother had gone to the drug store. I imagine the lady was probably pretty tired and emotionally drained to have made such a preventable mistake. No matter how careful people are, those kinds of accidents can always happen. I was just so very glad that no one had to pay too big a price for this mistake. The fire fighters had gotten the fire out fairly quickly. The damage was contained to the front section of the first floor, on the opposite side of the house from the little girl's room. There was smoke and water damage to much of the rest of the first floor, but nothing that couldn't be repaired. Plans were already being made to get someone in to examine the structural integrity and the neighbors were busy making plans for how to fix some of the damage themselves, with the woman's permission, in order to save her money. One thing I found that I absolutely loved about living in a small residential community was that people here tended to take care of their own.

I expected Jimmy to remain a little agitated for a while, but it seemed like once he was satisfied that the girl was safe and the fire was out, he was pretty much able to put the whole incident out of his mind. As the last of the equipment was being loaded onto the fire truck, Jimmy suddenly grabbed my hand and began pulling me back toward the restaurant.

"Hurry Chief! If we don't get back soon, Mary might throw away my chicken nuggets!"

TBC