The screams started around 2:05 in the afternoon. Jim didn’t blame the victims at all. It was more than they could take. He sat back watching the commotion. ‘Damn, who knew Blair was so… talented.’

*******************
Four months earlier…

Blair was up to something. Jim wasn’t sure what and Blair wasn’t talking. For the last four months he had been disappearing at least once a week and sometimes more than that.  At first Jim thought he was seeing a new girl, but Blair wasn’t showing any symptoms of being 'In Love'.  Finally Jim couldn’t stand it anymore, so he followed his roommate.

Blair drove to an older part of town and parked in front of a rundown warehouse. He climbed out of his battered old car, glanced at his watch, and hurried inside the building.

Jim stopped a couple of blocks away and watched Blair disappear into the building. Curious, he extended his hearing. Wild strange music, a hypnotic rhythm, women’s voices, the squeal of an old air condition unit. Jim waited a minute then heard the voices greeting someone. “Meesha! Hey, glad you’re here. Can you give me a Baladi?”
“Yeah. Just let me put this down and get set up,” Jim heard Blair reply.
Jim lifted an eyebrow. ‘Meesha? What is going on here? And what the heck is a Baladi?’

The music abruptly stopped to be replaced with a hollow thumping in some strange - to Jim’s ears- rhythm.  Dum Dum, tek ka tek, Dum tek ka tek, tek ka. Dum Dum, tek ka tek, Dum tek ka tek.

Jim climbed out of the truck and moved closer to the warehouse.  Cautiously he slipped inside the building, keeping to the shadows. At the far end, under a set of bright lights, was a makeshift stage.  Several women milled around the floor watching the two individuals on the stage.  A petite woman  twirled in a dizzying circle, her long red hair forming a shimmering curtain around her. A strange sweet ringing accompanied the rhythm of the drum.
With a sudden resounding thump, both rhythm and woman stopped, her arms raised in a graceful pose. Jim could just make out what looked like tiny cymbals attached to her fingers. ‘Must be what was ringing.’ Then his attention was drawn to the drummer.

Detective Blair Sandburg sat cross-legged on the stage, an odd looking ceramic drum cradled in his lap and a radiant smile gracing his face. “That was great, Kylia. Wanna do it again?” he teased.

Kylia tossed him a playful glare, panting for breath. “Sadist.”

Blair just grinned. His fingers twitched. Dom ka, Dom ka, Dom ka, Dom ka, Dom ka tek ka, Dom ka tek ka, Dom ka tek ka, Dom.

Several of the women jumped up and hurried onto the stage. “No fair seducing the dancers, Meesha!”  one of them called.

Blair laughed. “But, Teksha, that’s half the fun of drumming for you.”  He jumped to his feet and joined them, dancing and drumming simultaneously.

Jim smiled as his partner played with the dancers, shifting from a faster rhythm to a slower one and back again.

Jim watched for several minutes before one by one the women stopped, panting for breath.

Kylia finally clapped her hands getting everyone’s attention. “Ok guys,  enough playing. Time to work. Brila, I want you to go over your routine again. You’re still having a bit of a timing problem on the switch from the Iuoob to the Masmoudi.”

“Oh! Who are you?”

Jim jumped. He had been so busy watching the stage that he hadn’t heard the young woman who had slipped in the door behind him until she spoke.

“Hey, Kylia! We got a visitor back here!” she yelled.
The crowd around the stage turned and looked toward the door.

Blair shook his head in exasperation and climbed off the stage to join Kylia.

The small troupe leader made her way to the door and looked up at the tall man. “And you would be? This is a private rehearsal, sir.” Her tone indicated that he had better have a good reason for being there.

Blair spoke up. “It’s ok, Kylia. This is my roommate, Jim.” He stood in front of his partner, arms crossed. “I wondered how long it would be before you showed up.”

 He didn’t sound angry, but Jim kept silent, waiting until he could gauge his friend’s mood before saying anything.

“You know what they say about cats and curiosity, right?” Blair arched an eyebrow.

He seemed to be waiting for a response so Jim nodded cautiously.

“Good,” Blair declared. “So. Now you know what I’ve been doing. Go home.” He waved his hands in Jim’s direction, a faint smile on his face. “Shoo. Scat. I’ve got work to do.” With a genuine grin, Blair turned away and headed back to the stage. “I’ll see you when I get home.” He called over his shoulder as he climbed back up on the stage and picked up his drum.

****************
 Three and a half months later…

Blair bounced into the bullpen, waving a handful of tickets. “Ok, listen up! I need everybody to line up right here.”

“What’s up, Hairboy?” Detective Henri Brown asked.

Blair grinned cheekily. “Ahh, Detective Brown, right on time. That will be five dollars please.” He handed Henri a ticket.

Henri stared at it in confusion. “What’s this?”

“It’s a ticket,” Blair stated calmly. “For the Make a Wish Foundation charity show next week. You’re buying one.”

“What…?” Henri trailed off as Blair turned the puppy dog eyes on full force.

“The Make A Wish Foundation charity show. You know, they fulfill the wishes of terminally ill children. Henri, you wouldn’t turn your back on poor sick little kids would you?” Blair blinked, his deep blue eyes filled with a tangible trust.

Henri sighed as he reached for his wallet. Nobody could resist Blair’s patented guilt trip.
By the end of the day three quarters of the Cascade Police Department had bought a ticket and Blair had plans to hit up the rest of them the following day.

***********
Present day….

Detective Tony Baker, the newest member of the Major Crimes Division, shifted uneasily in his seat. He had gone along with the rest of the department when Blair started selling tickets to this show but he still wasn’t sure why everyone had included him in their plans to sit together. It was nice but totally unexpected. Tony remembered hearing about how tight knit this bunch was and he just didn’t expect to fit in. Inspector Megan Connors, however, had obviously had different plans because she had gone out of her way to include him. He shifted again, looking around. The one face he had expected to see was curiously absent. Jim Ellison sat beside the Captain but his partner was nowhere to be found. “Inspector Connor? Where’s Detective Sandburg? I thought he would be here since he was the one who was selling the tickets.”

Megan smiled. “Oh, I’m sure he’s around here somewhere. Sandy wouldn’t miss this...”
A sudden surge of music interrupted her.  Her eyes widened as a troop of twelve colorfully clad ladies and three men ran out on the stage. The men made their way over to the edge of the stage and sat down on some cushions. They pulled three strange mushroom shaped ceramic drums out and cradled them sideways in their laps.

“Ladies and Gentlemen. Welcome to the Make A Wish Foundation charity show, featuring the Tribe Zareefat Belly Dance Troupe.”

Megan jumped as the dancers covered their mouths with their hands and gave a shrill cry. “ULAULAULAULAULA, ULAULAULAULAULA!”

She leaned over to Tony. “Sounds like Xena,” she grinned.

Tony nodded. “Yeah it does. It called an ululation or a zaghareet.” He smiled exuberantly.

“You know about this stuff?”

“Yeah, I’m a drummer. I’ll tell ya about it later,” he promised.

Megan bounced in time to the earthy rhythm. This kind of music reminded her of home. Blair would probably say that it had the same connection to the land that all tribal music has. Her attention wandered from the dancers to the drummers. “Sandy?” Megan blinked but the scene before her stayed the same. Blair sat on the center cushion, eyes shut and a brilliant smile on his face, drumming his heart out. He was dressed in a pair of deep sapphire blue harem pants and a matching vest, covered in emerald green embroidery. His mahogany hair hung loose, occasionally shifting to allow a quick glimpse of his sliver hoop earrings. A henna tattoo ringed his upper arm and he had some sort of black marks on his forehead and left cheek. ‘In short, he’s gorgeous,’ Megan thought. She quickly alerted the rest of the group to Blair’s presence. “Look guys, it’s Sandy.”

“Hey! I didn’t know Hairboy was a drummer.”

“Damn, he’s good!”

“Well, I’ll be…”

“Hey, Jim. Did you know about this?”

“Cool, someone to drum with!”

Jim smiled at the comments. It amused him that after all these years Blair could still manage to surprise their friends and co-workers.

Megan leaned over to Tony. “Hey,” she whispered, “how come they look so different from the belly dancers you usually see?”

Tony grinned. “The dancers you usually think of when you hear about belly dancing are Cabaret dancers. These are tribal dancers. This is what belly dancing started out as. This style has been around for centuries but Cabaret has only been around since the 1920’s.”

Megan flashed him a smile of thanks and for the next two hours she and the crowd were treated to a spectacular show. She sat up straighter as the dancers lined up across the stage. One by one, alternating from one side of the line to the other, they stepped forward showcasing their specialties ending with the petite troupe leader, who Megan swore put the ‘Shh’ in shimmy. The music ended as the dancers peeled off to stand on opposite sides of the stage leaving a lone figure standing in the center.

Blair stood poised, balanced on the balls of his bare feet, a slight grin on his face, enjoying the looks of shock on his fellow officers faces. Even Jim hadn’t known that he was anything other than a drummer. Blair lifted his arms, the wooden zils fitting comfortably on his fingers. He waited to allow the tension to build and then began to play, dancing with just his hands.  Tek ka Dum!  Tek Ka Dum!  Tek ka Dum Dum tek!  Tek ka Dum! Tek ka Dum! Tek ka Dum Dum Tek!
As the drums joined him, his feet began moving to the ancient rhythm. Blair smiled as a proud grin crossed his Sentinel’s face. Blair had practiced months on this special warrior’s dance and even Kylia had been impressed at the dress rehearsal.  Slipping the zils off his fingers he continued dancing, his stance lower and lower to the ground. With a smooth transitional move he exchanged his zils for the sword laying at his feet. Blair flashed Jim a brilliant grin as the music sped up, drawing him into the heart of the dance. He spun and leapt, dueling with an invisible opponent, his sword a shimmering blur of steel. The drums ended abruptly as he dealt the killing blow.

The crowd was so silent that Jim could hear their heartbeats as Blair swung the sword to a guard position.

Blair held the pose until one of the dancers covered her mouth, beginning an ululation that was taken up by the rest of the troupe.  The drummers beat their drums in a syncopated rhythm that imitated applause. The audience didn’t need any more encouragement.

The entire troupe took their bows and exited the stage to a thundering standing ovation. Blair caught Jim’s eye and jerked his head backstage in invitation as he walked behind the curtain.

****************
Brila looked up at the tall detective, her lips curving in a vivacious smile. “…So Saundral used to bring him with her to lessons and he started drumming for us. Then one night we were just goofing around and he jumped up and started dancing with us, and, damn, the boy was good! So Kylia bullied him into joining the troupe. He doesn’t dance with us much anymore but Mikhail broke his ankle and Kylia was desperate so she called Meesha and asked him to come back for the show.”

Jim laughed. “That certainly sounds like Blair.” He glanced over to find Blair watching him from across the room. He smiled at his Guide and allowed all the pride he felt to shine in his eyes. “Yep, that’s my partner.”

Finis.

*****************************************************************************
All of the Dumbek rhythms in this story are real. So is Tribal dancing. As I said in the story it is very different from Cabaret style dancing which is what most people think of when they think about belly dancing.  Listed below are a few sites if you're interested in learning more.

A very special thank you to Hollie , my friend and technical adviser for this story.
And most especailly a very big thanks to my beta readers Norcumi, Chance, Serria, and Amber. Thank you ladies, I couldn't have done it without you.

To Jennifer who gave me the courage to write in the first place. I thank God for you everyday my friend.

And to Garret Maggert and Richard Burgi,whose portrayal of Jim Ellison and Blair Sandburg has warmed our hearts and sparked our imagination.  Thank
you and man, do I miss seeing you two in a new episode every week.

Aislinn Graves
May 17, 2000
story is copyright May 2000

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