By JudyL

November 2, 2003

Okay, this happened after midnight, so I don't think it's really my fault. Another piece from the characters POV, sort of. Warning, it's weird. (For those of you who read Carole's "Attack of the Earworms" - I wrote this before I read her story, honest.

Disclaimers: Probably.

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"Sandburg, what are you doing?"

"Hang on a second Jim. I'm trying to decide the best way to play this. What do you think? It's the typical hostage situation. I'm tied up. Not gagged this time. The psycho is taunting me. So I have several choices. 1) Wait, defiantly quiet until you show up to rescue me, taking any and all abuse silently. 2) Try to talk the guy down. Or 3) Scream bloody murder until he gets sick of me and knocks me out."

Ellison stares at his partner in disbelief.

Blair sees the look and nods knowingly. "Yeah, I know the choices are pretty lame, but I'm tied up with no way to get free. My only weapon is my voice. What else am I supposed to do?"

Jim continues to stare for a moment then starts to snicker. He places his arm across Blair's shoulders. "Here's my suggestion, Chief."

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

"I'm warning you," Sandburg tells the psycho kidnapper. "Come any closer and you'll regret it."

"Ha ha ha. What are you going to do, little man? You're all tied up with no where to go." The psycho rubs his hands together gleefully as he continues to approach his victim.

"I'll sing," Blair threatens.

"Sing? You've got to be kidding." The psycho comes closer.

Blair starts to sing.

The psycho stops eyes widening. "NO! Not that, anything but that!" He turns and runs out the door hands covering his ears as he shouts, "Stop! Don't listen. Nononononono!"

Blair stops singing and listens as the psycho's footsteps get softer and softer then disappear. "Hhmm. Whadda ya know? It worked. Okay, Jim. You can come find me now." He looks around the room and moves his arms to see if he can loosen the ropes.

Blair starts humming under his breath, realizes what he's doing and stops.

~~~~

A short time later, Ellison enters the building. He extends his hearing and sighs with relief when he hears his Guide's voice. He follows the sound to the room where Blair is waiting somewhat impatiently.

"Jim! What took you so long, man? You know, your idea worked," he continued to ramble as Jim untied the ropes. "I started singing and the psycho took off for the hills. Course that means he's still out there somewhere," Blair rubbed his wrists once the ropes were off. "I couldn't believe it was that easy, man. That had to be one of the craziest ideas I've ever heard, but…"

"Chief, it's over now. Stop rambling," Jim said putting one hand over Blair's mouth to get his attention.

"Oh, no, man. I can't stop talking. You really do not want me to do that…"

"Yes, Chief. I do. Shut up and let's get out of here." Jim headed out the door.

Blair followed mumbling under his breath. "You really don't want me to stop talking, Jim. This is all your fault in the first place, man. I can't believe it worked, but really, maybe it would have been better to just get beaten up again, I mean…"

"Sandburg! Quiet." They reached the truck and got in.

Blair pressed his lips together, but quickly found his foot tapping out the tempo of the song. Jim looked at him with a quick frown then returned his attention to driving.

Fragments of the song started to come to life hummed through tightly closed lips earning the Guide bemused glares from the Sentinel. Blair managed to stop humming briefly then lost control again.

Jim turned on the radio. "Maybe this will help, Chief."

Blair sighed. "Thanks, Jim."

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

They boarded the elevator and the song took over again. Several officers exited the car a floor early casting incredulous glances at the police observer. At this point, Blair had no control and hummed the tune in completion.

Jim regarded his young friend with some small amount of pity as they exited the elevator. He grabbed Sandburg's arm before they entered the bullpen. "That's enough, Blair. Not in here. Okay?"

"I'm sorry, Jim. You know how insidious that song is. It was your idea after all. And it worked, but what am I supposed to do now?" he asked ending on a querulous note.

"I don't know, Chief. Think of something, do multiplication in your head, anything, just don't keep humming that song." He shook his head and went into the bullpen.

Blair took a deep breath and started to recite Burton's monograph in his head. He went to Jim's desk and grabbed a stack of files.

"Hey, Hairboy," H called as he came up to Blair. "I thought you got kidnapped again. That had to be the fastest rescue on record."

"Hey, H. Yeah, well, Jim had a great plan to confuse the psycho. It worked really well and he found me in record time. Not even a bruise."

"Good. Well, I'd better get back to work. Take it easy, Blair." Henri returned to his desk and Blair started on the files again.

Some time later he started humming. Jim was working beside him and without realizing it started to hum along.

Simon came out of his office about fifteen minutes later. His jaw dropped and his unlit cigar hit the floor as he realized what he was hearing.

Everyone in the bullpen was working at their desks. Periodically someone would look up and around the room, then shrug and go back to work. The strange thing was that everyone was singing or humming. It wasn't loud, just a normal office buzz level.

Simon saw officers in the hall walking by Major Crime do a double take. He himself was too stunned to do more than listen and shake his head. He turned and went back into his office closing the door behind him.

He had several other reports to work on, so he pulled the next folder off the stack and opened it. He started to read and without realizing it started to hum. Softly sung words followed shortly.

"It's a small world after all, it's a small world after all…."

The end? Hm hm hmhm hm hmhmm…..

Ever have a song stuck in your head? At our office we joke that no matter what the song is we can always get them stuck on something else if they really want us to. Yes, you guessed it. "It's a small world." I believe it is the most insidious song in existence. Come on, admit it. You're already fighting the urge. It's a small world after all, it's a small world after all, it's a small world after all, it's a small, small world. <EG>

Comments are always welcome, please let me know what you think. Judy

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