By JudyL

December 21, 2003

Just a bit of something that popped into my head. No action, not a lot of the guys.

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The phone on Jim Ellison's desk rang as Joel Taggert walked by. He knew Jim and Blair were questioning witnesses for one of their cases so he picked it up.

"Major Crimes, Joel Taggert speaking," he answered.

"Is Blair Sandburg available?" a woman's voice asked.

"No, Ma'am. He's not in right now, may I take a message," Joel responded.

"Well, my name is Pat Stone, I'm with KCDE TV and I'm just following up on Mr. Sandburg's press conference. So it's true that he's still working with Major Crimes?"

Joel straightened to his full height and practically glared into the phone. "Ms. Stone, is it? There is no story here. Blair Sandburg is a fine, young man, and doesn't deserve to be hounded by the press. Good day!" He barely restrained himself, but managed to place the phone back into the receiver without slamming it down. "Damn reporters," he grumbled as he continued to his own desk.

Out in the hall, an attractive brunette wearing a conservative pants suit hung up her cell phone. Interesting. Pamela Stiner headed for her next interview. Sgt. Riley normally took lunch in the cafeteria about now.

Sure enough, Pat Riley had just sat down with a soup and salad when Pamela walked in. She walked over to his table and casually sat across from him. "Sgt. Riley?" she asked.

Riley looked up at the good-looking young woman. "Yes. May I help you?"

She smiled disarmingly. "I'm Pamela Stiner, IA. We're conducting a little informal investigation and I need to ask you a few questions."

Pat's eyes narrowed. Figures she'd be with Infernal Affairs. It's always the pretty ones. "What can I help you with?" he asked cautiously.

"We're looking into the Sandburg affair." She watched as Riley's expression became more closed off and even antagonistic. "I understand you know Blair Sandburg fairly well."

"Look, lady," Pat said his voice soft but menacing. "Sandburg is one of the best people I know. I don’t care what anyone says and I don’t know why he held that press conference. All I know is that Blair helped me when I really needed it and I've seen him help lots of others here too. He comes here on his own time and contributes more than most paid employees of the CPD. So if you've come looking to get some dirt on him from me, you've come to the wrong place." Riley picked up his meal and left the room.

Pam sat back in her chair chewing thoughtfully on her lower lip. She'd only been in Cascade for a couple of days. The Cascade PD had borrowed her from Seattle for this very case. Sure, she'd heard about the press conference and the whole Sentinel thing, but because she was from out of town, IA felt she'd have a better chance at getting to the truth of the matter.

Evidently, Captain Banks had really pushed the commissioner to get Sandburg into the police academy and then into Major Crimes as a detective. With all the negative publicity Sandburg's press conference had stirred up, the commissioner wanted to be sure he'd made the right decision.

Everyone in Major Crimes believed in Blair Sandburg, but that didn't mean anything unless others on the force did as well. So far Pam had found very few officers who actually believed Sandburg was a fraud. What that meant for Ellison she didn’t really know. That wasn't her business anyway. The commissioner only wanted to know if there would be major dissension in the ranks if Sandburg was allowed to officially join Major Crimes.

"Excuse me," Pam's thought were interrupted. She looked up to see Joel Taggert standing by the table. "Mind if I take a seat?" he asked as he sat in the chair Riley had just vacated.

Stiner smiled. "Not at all, Captain."

Joel returned her smile. "I understand you're investigating Blair." Pam nodded. "Good. I expect you to report everything to the commissioner. I'm confident you'll find very little to complain about. But when you do find someone who speaks ill of Sandburg, I want you to dig a little deeper. Check their record. In most cases, I think you'll find that person is not a model officer. In fact, Blair probably did their job for them, making them look bad and that's why they are bad talking him."

Pam raised her eyebrows at this statement. "Come on, Captain Taggert. No one is that clean."

Joel shrugged. "Look at it this way. Before he even got his observer's pass, Blair helped put away the Switchman and Garrett Kincaid. During the next three months he helped us apprehend a hired killer, a bad cop and a serial killer. That would have been enough to scare most people away. After all he was shot at, his apartment was blown up and he was kidnapped and almost murdered. But not Blair. He stayed. And over the last three years, he has contributed to a great many cases free of charge. You can't buy that kind of loyalty, but you can keep it with just a little support."

Stiner nodded. "I will keep that in mind, Captain. Thank you."

Taggert nodded and stood to leave. He turned back to the IA officer. "This city needs men like Blair Sandburg. It would be a damn shame if we let him get away because of a little bad press." Joel held Pam's gaze for a long second and then walked away.

How can you argue with that? Pam huffed. So where do I look for these negative reports? Uniforms? The detectives, for the most part, love him. Major Crimes can't live without him. The support staff thinks he walks on water 'cause he makes their jobs so easy. Guess it's time to get down and dirty.

*****

Pam Stiner sat in an interrogation room waiting for her listening device to pick up a conversation. She'd placed a petition on the staff bulletin board downstairs in the locker room. Yeah, it was dirty pool, but she mainly wanted to see what sort of responses it would get.

"Hey, get a load of this," a voice echoed through the speaker. "Somebody's trying to keep Sandburg out of the academy."

"No shit! Really?" exclaimed a second voice.

"Yeah, see this petition. Sign here if you disagree with the commissioner's decision to allow Blair Sandburg to enter the Cascade Police Academy." Voice 1

"Better not let Ellison see that or head's will roll." Voice 2

"You think anyone will sign it?" Voice 3

"Are you nuts? Even if I wanted to I wouldn't be that stupid. And have all of Major Crimes on my butt? I don't think so." Voice 2

"'Sides, what's the big deal? If the kid can cut it at the Academy, I say let him. I've never seen him do anything but try to help at a crime scene." Voice 1

"But what about that press conference?" Voice 4

"You ain't been around long enough to know the kid or see Ellison. If Sandburg wrote it, it's probably true. Ellison's not your normal cop." Voice 2

"What, you really think he can do all that stuff they said? Seeing better, hearing?" Voice 4

"Like I said, you ain't been here long. Watch him, watch them at a crime scene. There's more than normal investigating going on there." Voice 2

"Yeah, but you'd better keep your mouth shut about it. The guys up in Major Crimes'll be all over you if you even whisper about it." Voice 1

"Yeah, I heard what happened to Pierson and Fergull last week." Voice 3

"Plus, it's to our benefit having Ellison on our team. Makes our work that much easier." Voice 2

Pam turned down the sound on the receiver and made a few notes. Pierson and Fergull, hm? Need to check these two out. Otherwise it sounds like no one is too concerned about Sandburg joining the force.

~~~~~~~~~~

Talking to Officer Fergull in person turned out to be impossible unless Stiner wanted to fly to New York City. Seems the officer had had an insatiable urge to relocate to the other side of the continent.

Scott Pierson was working the late, late shift so she set her alarm for 3am and met him as he was coming off work the next morning.

"Officer Pierson?" Pamela asked flipping her badge wallet open to show her ID as she approached.

"Ah, shit," Pierson mumbled ducking his head as he shook it resignedly. "Look, I already told the Chief, nothin' happened." He looked up at Stiner. "I requested the transfer for… personal reasons," Scott finished lamely.

"I see," Pamela said, "but that's not what I wanted to talk to you about." She watched him intently noting the faded bruise on his left cheek.

He frowned. "Oh. Well, then, what do you want?"

"There have been a few questions regarding Blair Sandburg's conduct in an ongoing investigation…"

"Sandburg!" Pierson shouted then looked around uneasily. He finally met Stiner's eyes again. "Look, I don't know what you want from me, but I don't have anything to say about Sandburg, you hear me? Just leave me alone." And with that he strode off toward his car.

Pamela watched him drive off like the hounds of hell were on his tail. It was interesting that he had also asked for a transfer. Wonder if Fergull has a matching bruise?

~~~~~~~~

Stiner spent the next few days nosing around and asking questions of various officers and support staff. Most of them knew Sandburg, at least by name, but many of them clammed up when she asked about him. And the hostility was aimed at her not at Sandburg.

One of the cafeteria workers snorted as yet another officer walked away from Stiner's questioning. Pam turned toward the man with her eyebrows raised. "Something you need to tell me?" she asked.

Percy Brett chuckled. "How long have you been checkin' on Sandburg now? A week?"

She nodded.

"And how many people have told you he's a liar and a fraud who doesn't deserve the badge?"

"None," Pam said slowly.

Percy cocked his head. "How long have you been in IA?"

"About five years."

He nodded. "Long enough to know that if a department really wants someone out, they'll serve all the dirt to you on a silver platter, right?"

Stiner nodded.

"Right," Percy confirmed. "Sandburg's clean. He's a good kid and will make one hell of a cop. You tell the Commissioner that Brett said so."

Pam's eyes narrowed. "Brett?"

Percy nodded with a knowing grin. "Percy Brett. Now get along Officer Stiner. You have more important things to do than to pick on our poor little observer." With that, Brett turned and limped back into the kitchen.

Pamela watched him go. Brett? Why does that name sound so familiar?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Officer Stiner stood at attention in front of the Commissioner of the Cascade Police Department. He was reading her report on Blair Sandburg. Pam let her attention wander around the office, taking in the fact that the Commissioner must love to fish. Has enough fishing paraphernalia in here to take out a lake full of fish.

The commissioner's grunt got Stiner's attention. He raised his head and grinned at her. "Brett, huh?"

"Yes sir," she replied grinning back at him. Pam had done a little extra research and found out who Percy Brett was and why his opinion would matter to the commissioner.

Brett had once been the best detective in the Major Crime department and the Commissioner's partner. This was years before Banks became captain. Few of the current officers realized that their favorite cafeteria worker had been a cop.

Four years shy of early retirement Brett had been shot by a perp and left for dead. He hadn't died, obviously, but was left with partial paralysis in his right leg. Offered the chance to retire or sit a desk, Brett had retired only to return to work in the cafeteria, a position of his choice, where he could interact on a personal level with his fellow officers and offer advice or solace when needed.

Blair had unknowingly made himself a huge ally in Brett during Kincaide's attempt at taking over the station. It had been a much younger Kincaide who shot Brett and ended his career. Over the years, Percy had watched Sandburg and Ellison and felt the obligation to protect the unique partnership.

The Commissioner closed the report and looked at Stiner. "Anything you want to add, on or off the record?"

Pam nodded. "Someone told me it would be a shame if we let a little bad press keep Sandburg off our team. I have to agree with that sentiment."

The Commissioner stood and came around the desk to lead Stiner toward the door. "I'll share a little secret with you Officer Stiner. I agree with you one hundred percent. This little report of yours is just to satisfy my boss who doesn't know how much Sandburg has done for our department. Thank you for your assistance, Officer. If you ever need a reference, just give me a call."

"Thank you, sir," she replied shaking his hand. Stiner moved through the door and heard it close behind her. She glanced at her watch. Still have plenty of time before my flight home. Think I'll take a peek down at Major Crimes one last time.

Pam stood in the hall watching through the window into the bullpen. Although she couldn't hear what was being said, the friendship between all the detectives working in Major Crimes was obvious.

Detective Brown said something to his partner Rafe that made the others laugh. Sandburg responded and earned an affectionate tap to the back of his head from Ellison. Captain Banks came out of his office and the little party broke up, but not before a satisfied grin was seen gracing Banks' lips.

Stiner sighed and smiled. All was well here. Thank goodness for happy endings, she thought, unknowingly echoing Simon's sentiments precisely.

The end.

Please let me know what you think. Judy

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