Jim was so preoccupied with his thoughts, he never heard a thing until a small body slammed into him, knocking them both to the pavement. Jim found himself lying on the ground, a young girl sprawled acrossed his chest. The girl turned bright red, and tried to apologize through her gasps for breath. She scrambled up off him, swaying slightly, then bending double as she tried to catch her breath. Jim almost didn't need to extend his hearing to hear the hammer of her heart. "Hey, it's ok, no harm done. I'm fine." He tried to reassure the girl, but she didn't seem to be paying any attention to him, and kept sneaking glances over her shoulder. He gently helped her to straighten back up, and mumbling another appolagy, she tried to move past him.
Her first step brought a gasp of pain and she crumpled toward the sidewalk. Jim caught her as she fell, the limp body sprawling against his chest. He carefully lowered her to the ground, and looked around. He didn't see anyone who she could belong to, and he certainly couldn't leave her here. Since he was almost home anyway, Jim decided to bring her to the loft and try to figure it out from there. Before attempting to move her, he gently checked for injuries, encountering numerous bruises that made his face tighten in anger. However, he didn't find any sign of internal injuries, and no broken bones, so he felt safe in moving her.
He mentally kicked himself for leaving his cell phone in the loft. He never left without his cell phone; that was something that Blair was always doing, not him. Abandoning his self-criticism, he gently scooped the girl into his arms and started for the loft.
The girl surprised him by leaning into his chest and giving a small sigh of relaxation. Jim quickly covered the remaining ground to the loft, and headed inside, thankful that the elevator was working at the moment. Exiting on the third floor, Jim headed for the room he shared with Sandburg, extending his hearing to hear his partner moving around the loft.
Not wanting to jostle the girl in a search for his keys, Jim instead tapped on the door with his foot, and was rewared with Blair opening the door a moment later. "Jim." Blair moved aside to let Jim enter. "What's up man? What happened?"
Jim replied to Blair's questions as he gently laid the girl on the couch. "She ran into me, then collapsed. She's covered in bruises, and seemed scared to death of something, and kept looking around behind her."