Third story of the remix round
Title: Longing
Author: Patt
Email: PattRose1@aol.com
Category: Slash
Rating: PG
Notes: Thank you to Bluewolf for helping me out. Thanks again to Jen for doing this project.
Prompt by: Lyn
Prompt: A picture tells a thousand words
Jim and Blair had gone to a party the night before and Blair had had way too much to drink. Not that he didn’t have a good time, but he was feeling still feeling the buzz the next day.
Blair was sitting at his desk typing up one of the many forms he needed to get done and handed in to Simon when Connor walked up and said, “Can I talk to you for a moment, Sandy?”
“Sure, what’s up, Connor?”
“Not here, I need to talk to you in private.” Connor walked down the hallway towards the interrogation rooms and Blair blindly followed her. He wondered what was going on, but his headache pushed that to the back of his brain and he frowned with the pain.
He walked into the first room where Connor was standing and said, “All right, what is the big secret? Spill…”
Connor walked over and handed him a picture she had taken the night before. It showed Jim and Blair together, and Blair smiled at it. “Hey, this turned out really good. Can I have it?”
“Sandy, what do you see on your face?”
Blair looked at his face and smiled again as he answered, “Happiness and way too much to drink.”
“Now look at Jimbo’s face and tell me what you see on his?” Connor dared him to answer.
Blair looked at the picture again and said, “I don’t know. Was he irritated with me? He doesn’t exactly look happy, but he doesn’t look pissed off either. Were we posing for this picture?”
“You are so daft sometimes, Sandy. Of course you weren’t posing for this picture. You were yukking it up as usual and Jim was doing what Jim always seems to do these days. Tell me what you really see when you look at his face in that picture,” Connor said.
Blair looked once again at the picture and still didn’t have a clue. “Connor, you’re going to have to tell me, because I’m not seeing it.”
“Longing,” Connor answered very softly.
“For who?” Blair asked, somewhat shocked at this thought.
“Who do you think, Sandy? Every day he has this same look on his face when he watches you and yet he doesn’t say a word. You owe it to him to say something. Move out of the loft or something. The poor man is smitten with you and you’re just all happy with life and don’t even notice him. It’s just really sad for Jimbo. I took this picture last night so I could prove to you that it’s going on,” Connor remarked.
“So you think I should move out of the loft? The loft is my home. I don’t want to move,” Blair said sadly.
“Do you want Jim to have this look forever, Sandy?”
“No, it isn’t right. I had no idea he felt that way about me, Connor.”
“How do you feel about him?”
“He’s my best friend and he makes me smile all the time, but I don’t think I would start up a relationship with him just because of a picture. I don’t feel that way about him,” Blair commented truthfully, or as truthfully as he could.
Connor frowned and said, “Then what do you plan on doing about it?”
“I guess I’ll start looking for a place. It’s not like I have to rush and do it today, right?” Blair asked.
“You want him to suffer longer?” Connor inquired.
“I have to do it today?” Blair complained.
“It’s totally up to you, but I have a room in my apartment and could use a roommate if you want to share the place,” Connor suggested.
“Sure. What about this weekend?” Blair wondered aloud.
“I would think the sooner the better, would be the wise move,” Connor said.
Blair got sad just thinking about leaving his home. The loft was his home and he hated the thought of leaving it. “I think I should give him some warning.”
“You do whatever you think is best, Sandy. I know you’ll do the right thing when the time comes.”
She walked off and left Blair to his thoughts. They weren’t good thoughts. He didn’t want to move, but he also didn’t want to lead Jim on. Blair looked at the picture again and got sad this time. He was going to miss Jim like crazy. He wouldn’t be able to watch the games with him anymore. They wouldn’t be playing poker or 5000 Rummy together anymore. Things would change totally and he wouldn’t see Jim except at work. He would miss Jim like crazy. But would he do the right thing to help Jim out? Yes… Yes, he would.
Blair put the picture in his pocket and walked out of the interrogation room and sat down at his desk, opposite Jim. Jim looked up at him and smiled and said, “Hey Chief. You look like that headache is getting the better of you.”
Blair sighed. Leave it to Jim to be concerned about his headache and not about anything else. Blair knew he was going to have to do this.
“Guess what?” Blair said, trying to look happy about it.
“What?” Jim replied.
“Connor asked me if I wanted to share her new apartment with her and I told her I had stayed way over my week with you, so I’m going to move this weekend,” Blair blurted out as quickly as he could.
Jim’s face just fell. Gone was the smile, instead was a look of sadness and Blair hated doing that to him, but knew it was for Jim’s own good.
“I really don’t mind you staying longer then that week, Chief. You should know that by now, right?”
“Jim, I’ve overstayed my welcome and I think this is the right thing to do. Gives me a little more room to work with my dates. You’ll have the place back to yourself in no time and you can live it up again,” Blair said cheerfully for Jim’s sake.
“Whatever you think is best,” Jim answered and went back to work on his files.
Blair sighed again and did the same thing with his files. Blair wasn’t happy. Jim wasn’t happy. Why was Connor the only one smiling in the bullpen? Blair hated her for a moment and then remembered he was going to be living with her soon, so he’d better not burn his bridges.
They worked side by side without saying another word to each other the rest of the morning. Jim asked, “Did you want to go have lunch with me?”
Blair answered, “I think I’m going to stay here and get some things done, Jim.”
Jim moved in closer to Blair and whispered, “Did I do something stupid last night?”
“No Jim, you didn’t do anything wrong. It’s just time for us to move on.”
Jim got up, grabbed his jacket and left the bullpen. Blair went and got a Twinkie and a soda from the machine. He figured, why watch what he ate, he didn’t want to live that long today anyway. You’re being a little over dramatic, Sandburg.
He sat down at his desk and Connor walked by on the way to Simon’s office and said, “Where’s Jimbo?”
“I told him I was moving in with you this weekend and he didn’t take it that well. Then asked me to lunch and he seemed really needy. I figured it was time to cut my losses,” Blair whispered. He certainly didn’t want anyone else in the bullpen to hear what he was saying.
Connor said, “I’ll be right back, then we need to talk.”
Blair watched her walk off to Simon’s office and wondered if he could survive another talk. The last one was killing him slowly. Drama queen.
!!!!!!!!!!
Connor stopped by his desk and ordered, “Follow me.”
Blair did something that he usually didn’t do. He just followed her blindly into the break room this time. She shut the door and said, “Sit down.”
Blair sat down and waited for her next statement.
Connor appeared to be thinking, so Blair just let her. He wasn’t sure he wanted to hear what she said anyway.
“Sandy, how are you feeling right now? I want the truth,” Connor ordered.
“I feel like shit and I feel like I’m leaving the one place that has ever made me happy in my life. I’m so pissed off at Jim for falling for me, I can’t even see straight.” Blair burst out laughing at the play on words and sounded somewhat hysterical.
“Sandy, how do you feel about Jim?”
“God, I’m going to miss arguing at the loft. I’m going to miss watching the Jags every week with him. I’m going to miss his cooking on his nights. I’m just going to fucking miss him,” Blair confessed.
“I didn’t ask you what you would miss. I asked you how you felt about Jim,” Connor pointed out.
“I adore the man. He puts up with all of my crap, and I do mean crap and still lets me stay there. I think he’s one of the finest human beings I’ve ever met. He’s my best friend and I’m going to miss him terribly. Are you happy now?” Blair responded.
“Sandy, he puts up with your crap because you put up with his. Yes, you’re best friends but it moved further on about six months ago, I would say. That you can’t see it is sad. I can’t believe you told Jimbo that you were actually moving instead of saying you only wanted to move one place and where would that be, Sandy?”
“His room?” Blair whispered the question and almost held his breath awaiting her answer.
“Now, you’re cooking. What are you going to do about this?” Connor asked.
“I haven’t figured it out yet. I’ll think on it and get back to you,” Blair said as he walked out of the break room leaving a smiling Connor in his dust.
About an hour later, Jim walked in and sat down at the desk and began to work.
“Are you just going to let me move out?” Blair whispered Sentinel soft.
Jim looked over at him with the first glimmer of hope he’d had all day. “No, I’m not.”
“There is only one place I’d like to move,” Blair admitted.
“I’ll help you move up there tonight. Why were you leaving, if you didn’t want to leave?” Jim asked.
“It all started with this picture,” Blair answered as he handed the picture to Jim.
“This picture made you want to move?” Jim inquired. “They say a picture tells a thousand words, Chief.”
“It did for a few minutes anyhow. Then I realized that I should have been staring at you the very same way. We’ll talk later and you’re right about a thousand words,” Blair said as he began to work again.
Jim took his cell phone out and called Blair’s line. Blair answered, “Sandburg.”
Jim whispered, “Exclusive, right?”
Blair hung up his phone and smiled at Jim. He moved closer to him and said, “I don’t want you looking at anyone else with longing, but me.”
“I haven’t,” Jim replied.
“Good, I’m glad to hear it. Now let’s get done so we can do some moving and talking tonight,” Blair said.
Jim smiled happily as he began to do his work.
Connor sat across the room at her desk and grinned wildly. It had worked. She couldn’t believe she got them together. She was good.
The end.
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