ENGLISH 404, DARYL BANKS

by Dreamweaver

***** 

A tall, slender young man sat down at his desk, switched on the computer monitor and began typing quickly on the keyboard, his fingers moving with practiced speed.  Occasionally, he stopped and marked something in a different color; evidently making notes even as he created.  Sometimes he paused for thought, frowning deeply before he resumed the rapid-fire keystrokes.  Once or twice he muttered quietly to himself, or sighed.  

Rough draft, final paper  

Note:  Obviously, Ms. Hoffmeister’s  taking the easy way out for this last assignment!  I mean – it’s three weeks till graduation, and all of a sudden, she decides she wants Honors English to write a paper on ‘someone you admire?’  Wait a minute, Ms. Hoffmeister, didn’t we have that assignment at the beginning of the year?  Oh yeah…she says she ‘wants to know if we learned anything over the past nine months.’  I MEAN!    Okay, okay…I can do it.  Not gonna spoil my “A” in there, after all!  Now…where to start?  Are people going to wonder why I didn’t write about Dad?  Yeah, probably….  

Well, first of all.  Intent:  [Note to self:  Go by the book, Banks; put in all the right stuff!]  I am going to write about two men who work for my father.  Actually, they work for the Cascade Police Department, but their boss is my father, as he’s the Captain of the Major Crimes Division.  Their names are James Ellison, and Blair Sandburg.  They’re partners – detectives.   

Background:  

I can hardly remember when I didn’t know Jim Ellison – or at least, had heard of him.  I must have been pretty young…maybe ten.  He’d been in the newspapers and magazines and on television, because he was a military hero who everybody thought was dead, only it turned out he wasn’t.  He came back to Cascade after he left the Army, because this is where he grew up.  When I was ten, I didn’t read the newspapers much, naturally, but I did watch TV – and later on, I looked up the back issues of the magazines.  

Anyway, he became a police officer – and eventually, he transferred into my Dad’s department.  He’d been in Vice before that, and I remember Dad coming home one night and saying that he wasn’t sure whether Ellison was gonna make the department better or whether he’d split it into little pieces.  Dad was pretty new as division head then, and naturally, he wanted to make good.  And evidently this Ellison guy was what Dad termed a ‘loose cannon.’  Whatever that meant.  

Note:  You’re spending too much time on irrelevant details, Banks!  Get to the gist of the story!  Ms. Hoffmeister will take off points, you know!  

I saw – well, sort of met – Detective Ellison a few weeks later, when Mom and I came by the precinct for some reason or other.  My first thought was how VERY cool this dude was!  Moustache, earring – but wow, he wasn’t exactly…approachable, ya know?  [Note:  take out colloquialism on edit]  He was perfectly polite to my mom, and all that – and he actually winked at me, and grinned a little bit.  But still, he didn’t exactly exude warm fuzzies!  Still, I was impressed.  And Dad said he was a really good detective.  Just not very…friendly.  

The next time I heard about Ellison was when his partner, Jack Pendergrast, disappeared.  Dad doesn’t talk about his work much at home – he says he wants to get away from it, not drag it home with him – but he did mention that.  Probably because now he had a loner detective to try and assign to someone else.  And Ellison didn’t assign very well.  He would rather work alone than have a partner anyway, Dad said.  But that wasn’t really very safe.  No backup.  

Occasionally, there’d be social stuff that the department had, and I’d see Jim at a function or so.  For awhile, he had a Mrs. Ellison with him, although I think she kept her own name; she wasn’t Mrs. Anybody – the Chief of Forensics at the P.D.  Carolyn Plummer, her name was.  She was really pretty…but I guess things didn’t work out for them, any more than it worked out for Jim with work partners, because after a couple of years, they got a divorce.  And Jim was alone again, and I mean really alone!  He didn’t have the cool moustache or the earring any more, but still, I liked him.  So I was sorry.  Of course, I didn’t say anything to him about it…you just didn’t say things like that to Jim Ellison.  Not then.  Even though he was always nice to me, in an offhand kind of way.   

Along about then, my dad and my mom decided it was easier to not be married than it was to be married…and they split up, too.   For awhile, it sort of felt like the whole world was in a fever to get divorced.  I was a real little shit about it – I can see that now.  [Note:  find euphemism, although again, Ms. Hoffmeister, it’s the best description I can find!]  I resented Dad, and I resented Mom, and I hated it when they fought, and I hated it when they said things about the other one…well, Dad really tried never to do that about Mom.  I’ll grant him that.  

[Note:  too many extraneous details again, Banks!  EDIT, EDIT, EDIT!  This is about people you admire, not what a little brat you were!]  

Dad came home a couple of times looking really worried, and said it was because of Detective Ellison.  Apparently he was sick, or something – Dad said something about him being in the hospital for tests.  That worried me.  I didn’t want something happening to him.  [Note:  too many ‘somethings’ here.  Find another word!]  

And then there came the day that I was supposed to leave for a fishing trip with Dad.  I was busy being antagonistic – as usual, I admit it! – and was a real brat when I found out that I was going to have to spend some time in Major Crimes waiting for Dad to finish up some work.  I was pleased to see Detective Ellison there, though.  He didn’t look sick!  Maybe he was getting better from whatever it was that he’d had?  

Anyway – that day.  Dad had gone to a meeting.  Ellison left for lunch.  And that’s when Garrett Kincaid and his Sunrise Patriots decided to take over the whole Cascade Police Department building, and focused on Major Crimes in particular!  First thing they did, practically, was shoot Captain Taggart when he gave them some backtalk.  Man, I was scared shitless!  [Note:  Edit, for Ms. Hoffmeister’s tender sensibilities – but I was!]  Especially after they hung me out the window, man!  I was sure I was gonna die…and I screamed my head off, I’m not ashamed to admit.  My dad and Jim and Carolyn – yeah, his ex-wife! – were down there in the street, watching – and they had to tell Kincaid they’d do what he wanted!  I was so mad, then – I was so mad because Dad didn’t do anything to save me.  But Captain Taggart told me not to sell him short.  We were tied up with duct tape, even Taggart – but Rhonda, Dad’s secretary, did manage to talk Kincaid into letting her put a sort of bandage on his leg.  

[Note:  Yes, Ms. Hoffmeister, I AM getting to the main points of the story.  Keep your shirt on!  Note:  edit, edit, edit!]  

Kincaid kept getting reports of someone running loose in the building, and boy was he ever mad!  Somebody had squished one of his guys by knocking over a vending machine on him – and knocked out another one by hitting him with a swinging bathroom door!  Man, even though I was scared, I was impressed!  I figured it was somebody from a SWAT team that didn’t get rounded up, you know?  

When the guy was finally captured and brought to Kincaid…well, he was sort of a surprise!  This short guy – well, taller than me, but not by much – with long hair and scruffy clothes, and earrings.  He told Kincaid he was Lt. Sandburg, from Narcotics, and that he was partnered with Ellison.  Captain Taggart backed him up.  I wasn’t sure what to think, then.  For all I knew, he was from Narcotics or Vice!  Kincaid was impressed with him because of what he’d done, and decided to take him along with him when the Sunrise Patriots left.  He didn’t look all that happy about that – Sandburg didn’t – but it was better than what Kincaid intended for us!   

That was my first introduction to Blair Sandburg – who, as it turned out, really was partnered with Jim Ellison, for some very strange reasons.  [Note:  edit this, careful here.  Ms. Hoffmeister doesn’t need to know anything extra about Jim!]  He wasn’t a cop, he was a grad student in anthropology, but the way he stood up to Kincaid, he might as well have been one.  It was one of the bravest things I’d ever seen – and remember, my dad’s a cop, and I’ve been around ‘em for all my life.  Just not in these kinds of situations, usually.  

Kincaid and most of his people left, taking Blair with him – except the executioners.  They told us to line up facing the windows, only we hadn’t, just yet – and then all of a sudden, Detective Ellison and my dad burst through the door!  Captain Taggart made a move, despite his bullet wound – we’d been working on getting the duct tape off, all this time – and knocked one of the Patriots out, and I jumped on the other one.  I wasn’t all that big back then, though, and I didn’t accomplish too much.  But it gave Jim and Dad some time and a distraction.  It didn’t take them long to secure Major Crimes, and I’ll tell you, I was awfully glad to let Dad hug me to pieces right then!  

As soon as Jim heard that Kincaid had taken Blair with him, he was outta that room like a blue streak!  Of course, he might just have been anxious to capture Kincaid.  That’s what I figured then, anyway.  Now I know better.   

What happened after that, I just heard about, I didn’t actually see it.  Blair told me – a lot later.  Seems that although he started telling Kincaid he wasn’t really a cop, the guy didn’t believe him.  He dragged him into the helicopter they had on the roof, and took off – and here’s the incredible part:  DETECTIVE ELLISON GRABBED THE LANDING SKID as the chopper lifted, and hung on!  He handcuffed himself to the skid!  [Note:  Ms. Hoffmeister, I hope you don’t object to all the capital letters and the exclamation points – this deserves them!]  They flew out over the Sound, with Jim hanging on underneath!   

Kincaid tried to shoot him, but Blair pushed him out the open door, and he fell – but he managed to grab Detective Ellison’s legs and hang on.  So there they were, and the pilot refused to fly back to the PD roof and be captured, even though Kincaid was yelling at him to.  Then Blair found a box of flare guns, jumped on the pilot, and told him to take them down, or he’d kill him.  [Question:  can you kill someone with a flare gun?  I’m not sure.  I don’t think Blair knew, either].  The pilot said if he was shot, they’d all die – and Sandburg told him he’d flown Apaches in Desert Storm, so he didn’t care if he did shoot him!  Can that guy bullshit, or what?  [Note:  sorry, Ms. Hoffmeister, but that is the only word that fits!]  But the pilot believed him, and set the chopper down.  Blair told me later he about had a heart attack, he was so scared – but you’d never have known it, I guess.   

So, that was the first time I’d seen Jim Ellison and Blair Sandburg in action.  Not together, not then.  This was just the beginning, after all.  

I saw them together occasionally at the precinct, after that.  Dad said that Blair had gotten permission to be a ride-along with Detective Ellison, and that he was writing a doctoral dissertation on closed societies [like the police department!].  I liked Blair; he was extremely cool, and fun to talk to, and just incredibly smart!  And for some reason or other, having Blair as a partner seemed to make Jim Ellison a whole lot more…approachable!  He even invited Blair to share his apartment, after Blair’s place got blown up because it was next door to a meth lab. [Note:  look up correct spelling of entire word]  So they were roommates, as well as police partners and, as unlikely as it seemed, close friends.  They started doing things like going on fishing trips with Dad, and sometimes they took me along, too.  Blair did weird things like wanting to fish with a spear instead of a rod and reel – but he was always lots of fun.  

The next time I saw them in action, it was even scarier.  I’d gone with my dad to a conference in Peru , and when we chartered a helicopter for a fishing trip after the conference, it broke down and we had to land in the jungle!   But what was worse, it got blown up and the pilot was killed [not with us on board, thank God!].  But we were captured by this guy who was running a cocaine operation.   

Although we didn’t know it, Jim Ellison and Blair Sandburg were on their way to find us.  Once they heard our helicopter was missing, they’d started for Peru right away.  

When I think about it now, I realize it must have been awful for Jim to come back to Peru .  That was where his whole unit was killed, after all, and where he was stranded alone for 18 months.  Well, alone aside from the Chopec Indians, I mean.  Coming back there – especially by air – well, it must have been really bad.  [Note:  too many ‘wells’ in a row.  Change one!] But he did it anyway, without hesitation, to try and save Dad and me.  And you wonder why I admire the man so much?  

Blair, too.  He parachuted out of an airplane to follow Jim down, you know?  He told Jim he knew what he was doing, but he didn’t, really.  He just knew he had to stay with him, to help him any way he could.  Now that’s bravery, man!  

Dad and I tried to escape – but he got hurt, during.  He made me leave him.  I’ve never been so scared, even when Kincaid’s goons held me out of the window, man!  I was sure I’d left my dad to die, there, when I escaped.  

Anyway, I ran through the jungle.  I had no idea where I was going, I just knew I had to get away from the encampment where my father was a prisoner.  And somehow – I’ll never know how – the next thing I knew, I’d run almost smack into Jim Ellison!  I was never so glad to see anyone in my life!   

He and Blair took me back to a village where all the grownups had been taken away by the drug lab goons.  Nothing there but some woman from UCLA and a bunch of little kids, crying for their parents.  I knew exactly how they felt!  [Note:  get on with Jim and Blair, Banks, this is turning into a travelogue!  Yes, Ms. Hoffmeister, I know I’m drifting off topic – but it all takes a lot of explaining!]  

I told Jim all about the camp and the drug lab and what had happened to Dad.  He listened really carefully, and then went out to scout around – armed with a CROSSBOW, man, and curare-tipped darts, and dressed in a sort of camouflage, with his face painted!  It was like once he hit Peru , he kind of reverted to what he’d been like when he lived with the Chopec!  But while he was gone, Reischer and his men came to the village and captured us.  There we were again, back at the camp and under guard.  I’d gone from scared to hopeful to scared to hopeful to scared so many times, I was getting a little numb!  

Reischer had Blair and me in a tent, under guard…and he’d slapped Blair around some, and threatened to hurt me, but so far he hadn’t done anything yet.  He left – to let us think about it, he said.  And while he was gone, Jim Ellison appeared, took out the guard with one of those poisoned darts, and got us loose!  He was just incredible – reminded me of one of those G.I. Joe dolls I had when I was little, you know?  [Note:  Ms. Hoffmeister does NOT want to know about your G.I. Joe dolls, Banks!  Edit!]  He was really mad when he saw how Blair had been knocked around, but Blair convinced him he was okay.  Blair can talk Jim into almost anything, I think.  Actually, he can talk almost anyone into almost anything!  I’ve seen Jim or my dad turn down a request from him maybe once or twice…guess Blair wasn’t trying hard enough, those times.  

So then Blair and I went off to try and steal a truck, per Jim’s orders – [Note: this sounds so unbelievable when I write it down!  Ms. Hoffmeister will think I’m making it up!  But it really did happen just like that!] and Jim went to try and rescue all the villagers and my Dad.  Somehow – it involved grenades and bazookas and explosives and Reischer ended up blowing himself up – he did it, Jim did, and we scrammed outta there like bats out of hell!  [Note:  revise this…but jeez, it’s EXACTLY what it was like!]  

Time went on, and Blair kept riding with Jim.  But they didn’t always get along, and somehow, things kind of went from bad to worse for awhile.  They still solved a lot of cases, but everything was kind of strained between them.  [Note:  find another phrase; repeated ‘kind of’ twice in a row!]  A really nasty woman nearly killed Blair by drowning him in the fountain at Rainier University , and understandably he was upset by that little occurrence.  But he didn’t leave.  Another example of bravery, and a reason to admire Blair Sandburg.  

And then Garrett Kincaid escaped from a prison work detail and came back to Cascade.  

We – well, the Major Crimes Division; I was just there along for the ride – were involved in a PD-versus-Jags basketball game for charity, and Kincaid and his Sunrise Patriots took control of the whole Cascade Sports Arena, and held the NBA players hostage!  Blair and I managed to hide for awhile, but eventually Kincaid’s men found us…so there we were again, almost like it had been three years before.  But I was three years older now – and so was Blair.  And he’d been partnered with Jim all that time.  He was tougher now.  Between being convincing and being tough, he protected me, and actually talked Kincaid into allowing paramedics in to take care of a reporter who was shot by one of the Patriots.  Blair thinks fast on his feet!  I didn’t know it then – and I’m sure Blair didn’t either –  but that allowed Jim Ellison to get into the building at the same time.  Even when they don’t know they’re doing it, those two manage to work together.  

I won’t go into the whole story, but both Sandburg and Ellison were incredibly resourceful and I can honestly say that if it wasn’t for them, a whole lot of people would have ended up dead…myself and my father among them.  There were a lot of other brave acts that day, but those two men stand out, head and shoulders above the rest, to me.  

*****

Daryl Banks leaned back and re-read the last few paragraphs on his computer screen thoughtfully.  There was a lot more he could say – wanted to say.  More evidence of the bravery exhibited by both Blair Sandburg and Jim Ellison.  But how to phrase it – or even mention it – without giving away things which must not be revealed?   Finally he put his hands on the keys once more and began to type, more deliberately.  

*****

Blair Sandburg eventually made a decision to officially join the Cascade Police Department [Note:  do not mention why he didn’t finish his PhD program, or that whole thing with Jim’s abilities!  Carefully here, Banks!], and become Jim Ellison’s permanent partner on the force.  To do that, after some of the things he’d been through as Ellison’s unofficial partner for nearly four years, took exceptional courage, because Blair went through things that most police officers never have to face.  But because he and Jim are friends, close friends, the best of friends, he chose to do this rather than continue his academic career.  [Note:  some day Blair will get that doctorate!  I just know he will!  Maybe a different thesis subject?]   

For this and reasons too numerous to mention here, I present Blair Sandburg, detective, Cascade PD, and his partner, Jim Ellison, detective, Cascade PD, as two of the people I admire most.  And it is partially because of these two men that I made the career choices I have, namely to attend college, majoring in criminal justice or a related field, and then join the police department.  Hopefully I will be able to work with these two exceptional men and others of their colleagues, and make my own contribution to the safety of the city of Cascade .  [Note:  is this TOO blatant and goody-two-shoes?  I want to sound good here, not sappy!  Read it over carefully, Banks!  Ms. Hoffmeister might think it was awfully…saccharine!]  

*****

Daryl stared at the screen and then began to type again, a small smile playing about his lips.  

[Note – for author’s eyes only:  Of course those ‘reasons too numerous to mention’ include the fact that Jim’s got heightened senses up the ying-yang, which everybody in Major Crimes – and probably some others, too – knows but never talks about openly.  And that Blair is Jim’s ‘Guide.’  [I’m not supposed to know that – but I do.  I wasn’t raised by a detective for nothin’, man!  And besides, Blair considers me a close friend – and doesn’t consider me stupid.]  Blair’s ESSENTIAL to Jim.   

Includes the fact that Jim Ellison insists he’d have been locked in a mental institution if it wasn’t for Blair’s intervention and dedication to helping him control his senses.  They include the fact that Blair’s outed dissertation was true in all respects,  and that he left the academic life because he was driven to it, not because it was his first choice. He gave up everything he’d worked for, for over ten years, to protect Jim Ellison.  

Which only makes him even more courageous, in my opinion, and more worthy of my admiration.   

And the fact that Jim let him do it tarnishes him just slightly in my eyes, I’ll admit – but I’ll only admit it here.  Never to Dad, never to Blair, never to Jim himself.  I still admire him like crazy; he’s a great guy, an amazing guy.  A real-life hero.  But he’s not perfect.  Nor is Sandburg.  No one is.  

And the really odd – but nice – thing is, now that it’s all over and done with, they’re closer than they ever were before.  I’m looking at them now with nearly-grownup eyes, and remembering what it was like, those four years when Blair was ‘just’ an observer.  [Yeah, right.]  Jim liked him, used his knowledge, depended on him, grew to love him like a brother or even more, and always trusted him with the ‘senses’ stuff.  But there was always that little tiny bit of ‘you’re not a cop, Sandburg.’  He trusted Blair, but not IMPLICITLY.  He felt responsible for Blair’s safety, and that sometimes made things tense.  

Now – now that Blair’s a detective himself, a cop too, Jim treats him a little differently.  The Blessed Protector thing is still there – Blair told me about it – but now it works both ways.  They’re each other’s Blessed Protectors.  Jim still would put his life on the line to help Blair, and Blair would do the same for Jim, and they are so interdependent on each other that it’s almost scary – but now, Jim’s relaxed around his partner.  As much as Jim ever relaxes, I mean.  He knows, without the slightest doubt, that he can trust Blair with his life – and soul – and heart and mind – and Blair knows the same about Jim.  They’re devoted to each other, and the worst thing for either of them is when something happens to the other.  Pray God that nothing really bad does – that they’re partnered until they decide to retire from the force.  They’ve been through enough already.  

And I’ll be honored to be part of the same police department Jim and Blair are.]  

Daryl glanced at the page count on the bottom of his screen and nodded in satisfaction.  Ms. Hoffmeister had indicated that she’d like their papers to be a minimum of five pages.  His was up to seven, although some of that would be excised; it was notes to himself.  Well, that ought to be sufficient.  And she’d be lenient with something like length, if it was close, and if she thought the paper was okay otherwise.  No sweat, man.   

He centered the cursor and typed two more words, smiling:   

The End 

Fini

Disclaimer:  The Sentinel is the property of Pet Fly Production and UPN.  We've only borrowed the characters for a few frolics in the sun.  
We promise to return them where we found them when we're done.