Pandora's Box
A long time ago, I wrote Ad Libitum. ONE, TWO, THREE, FOUR, FIVE, SIX, SEVEN
This is the sequel
Pandora's Box.
Jim/Blair, Alex/Naomi
Prompt: Butterfly
Fandom: Sentinel
Rated: ADULT (f/f and m/m)
( Chapters 1-3 ) ( Chapter four ) ( Chapter Five ) ( Chapter 6 ) ( Chapter 7 ) ( Chapter 8 ) ( Chapter 9 ) ( Chapter 10 ) ( Chapter 11 ) ( Chapter 12 )
Once again, I wonder where the short-story muse went... or even the medium sized story muse. I wanted to finish this one quickly. Not many people are even following it... yet my muse wants to linger and watch Jim and Blair twist as they try to take on an entire government and win. Someone's been doping my epic muse with steroids again, haven't they. *glares at flist*
~13~
Blair fidgeted as they sat in the back of the cab. Reaching over, Jim rested his hand on Blair’s knee. “You want to go find a hotel first?” Jim asked. He gave Blair a bit of an eyebrow wiggle.
“Are you propositioning me?” The cab driver’s gaze flicked toward the rearview mirror.
“Yep,” Jim agreed cheerfully. Blair had no idea how the man could feel cheerful when they had an appointment with Doctor Colonel Jamison at Bethesda Naval Hospital.
“Man, I just want to get this over. No way can I think of anything else until we know whether….” Blair blew out a big breath and Jim tightened his fingers around Blair’s hand. No way did Blair want to give voice to all his fears. No fucking way. He might not be superstitious, but using the devil’s name just might tempt the devil to show up.
“No problem, Chief. I’ll try to not take that as you turning me down.” A heartbeat’s worth of time passed. “I scheduled an interview with the New York Times, one of the reporters in Mexico recommended a colleague, so we have a 3 o’clock with him. We can save any ravaging for after that.”
Blair gave Jim a sharp look. Sure, he’d picked Bethesda for their next destination, but Jim was definitely still not sharing well. “You called a reporter?” Blair demanded incredulously.
“Yes, I called a reporter.”
“You? I mean, you’ve gone out fourth story windows to avoid reporters in Cascade.”
“Once. I did that once,” Jim said in his best cranky voice.
“Fourth story. Fourth. I mean, that is-” Blair whistled to express just how crazy that had been. Jim’s jaw was starting to twitch a little and his eyes were narrowed, but the expression wasn’t truly angry… that was more Jim’s mock-angry face. That was the face he used when he was enjoying being annoyed. “Man, I so wished I could have seen you shimmy down that pipe.”
“It was a tree.”
“Classic. Totally classic.” Blair nodded with enthusiasm. Jim’s eyes narrowed more. Right when Blair opened his mouth to make another smart-ass remark, he realized something. “Oh shit. Simon.”
“What about him?” Now Jim looked honestly concerned.
“The stories. Oh shit. The stories are going to come out and people in the CPD will see them. The commissioner…” Blair’s heart nearly skipped a beat. Jim’s bosses were going to give birth to kittens… radioactive, technicolored kittens.
“Breathe, Sandburg. They already know.”
That was enough to make Blair stop breathing for a time. “They… what?”
Jim shrugged. “When you had to tell the FBI about Sentinels and Alex and all her skills, Simon and I decided that it was a good time to come out to the brass.”
“You… you told them, and you didn’t tell me?” Okay, now Blair was hurt.
With a sigh, Jim draped his arm over Blair’s shoulders. Blair pushed it away, but Jim just put it right back, and the taxi was too small for Blair to really get away. “Chief, you are a passionate advocate for any cause you believe in, and you have always believed in me. It’s one of the reasons I love you.”
“Do not butter me up.” Blair put an elbow in Jim’s side.
“I’m explaining why I didn’t tell you,” Jim defended himself. At least, Blair thought he was trying to defend himself. He wasn’t making all that much sense. “I didn’t talk to them at all. I sent them a memo saying I had the same Sentinel skills Alex had. I wasn’t even sure they read the damn thing until they sent a lawyer down to review case files with me a month later. If I had told you, you would have been in my corner fighting, and I didn’t want a fight at all.” Jim tightened his arm around Blair.
“So you just lied to me?” Blair demanded. Shit.
“I didn’t mention it because it didn’t affect our lives. If it was an issue, I would have told you. I told you the second you asked. I was not lying.”
Blair twisted out of Jim’s one-armed embrace and faced off against him, at least as much as the taxi allowed. “Bullshit!” Blair punched Jim in the stomach just hard enough for him to feel it. Jim caught Blair’s wrist, and Blair didn’t even try and escape. He did, however, keep right on calling a spade a spade. “No fucking way are you going to pull that patronizing shit on my James Ellison. If you want to play things quiet, fine. I can do fucking quiet. I think I’ve proved that since most of the fucking station still thinks I’m chasing skirts. But you do not hide something this fucking big and tell me it’s for my own good. You are not a fucking government, and you do not get to decide what information is on a fucking ‘need to know’ basis. You got that Ellison?”
Jim’s eyes were large, and he still held Blair’s wrist in a firm grip, but he wasn’t coming up with any words.
“Mom tried pulling that shit. ‘Oh, honey, it’s for your own good. Alex and I can take care of this,’” Blair mimicked. “I did not take it from my mother, and I’m not taking it from you, Ellison. Just because I love the hell out of you does not mean you get to manipulate me. Got it?”
“Oh, Chief. I never meant for….” Jim stopped. “I’m sorry. I didn’t even think about how it would look to you. I honestly thought it wouldn’t matter, and that you’d be more comfortable at those damn stupid black-tie things we get dragged to if you didn’t know.” Jim slowly released Blair’s wrist, but from the tense set of his shoulders, he was ready for another attack.
Blair huffed and threw himself back onto the seat. “I would be more comfortable not knowing. That is no reason to not tell me. Either we’re in this together or I’m going to have to figure out a way to kick your scary Army-Ranger ass.” Blair gave Jim a shit look to make the point that he wasn’t kidding. He half-expected Jim to laugh at the thought of Blair trying.
Instead, Jim nodded. “Fair enough.”
Blair watched the trees on the side of the highway. A flock of butterflies turned one small grove of trees into a riot of orange and red. It was hard to remember they were near Washington DC and all the congestion of the city, but they were definitely going to be close enough for Bethesda to summon any help the colonel might need if he decided to take Blair and Jim into custody. “Wait. The reporter. You want someone looking for us if we, you know.” Blair glanced at the back of the taxi-driver’s head. This was not really a conversation he wanted in front of a stranger.
“I thought that was better than pulling Simon into this mess,” Jim agreed. “I know I should have told you, but we were moving fast.”
“I get that,” Blair said nodding. “It wasn’t like we’ve had tons of time here, and you have the background to make these plans. I don’t.” Blair cringed. “I don’t even want to. If I understood these people, I’d feel like I had to give my soul a hot shower. So when it comes to dealing with these sorts, just tell me where to stand, and I’m good,” Blair said. “I was just pissed about you hiding something from our lives. This…” Blair waved out the window where the taxi was just pulling off the Beltway. “This is not our lives.” Blair glanced over, and Jim still looked a little tense. “Oh man, I totally took out all my frustration about my mother on you, didn’t I?”
Jim pursed his lips. “A little.”
“Next time you want to vent about Alex, remind me that my karma needs a little balancing,” Blair said sadly. For someone who claimed to pursue enlightenment, Blair was painfully aware of how short he fell.
“Blair.” Jim stopped. Normally, Blair would push, but this was not the time for pushing. He’d done enough of that. Maybe having the guide voice, having that ability to pull out a silky tone that derailed Jim’s ability to argue, had given him an unhealthy taste of power. Jim sighed and gave Blair a frustrated look. Considering that Blair was trying hard to be not pushy, he had no idea what Jim was frustrated about now. Jim leaned in so that his forehead rested against Blair’s head. “They need to see me as the threat, Chief. They understand me. They think they know how far I can be pushed and how well I can keep a secret. These people… they don’t react well to unknowns, they’re scared of the unknown, and for them, you are one giant unknown.”
Blair ducked his head to make sure the cab driver couldn’t see anything. “They’d be scared of me?” Blair whispered, his voice barely audible to his own ears. “They’d be scared of ME?” Jim nodded.
“Terrified. They don’t know how to control you. And if they had any idea that you had a guide voice….” Jim stopped. For a second, he just rested, his body head leeching into Blair. “They’d misunderstand it, Blair. They’d jump to some dangerous conclusions.”
After taking a deep breath and thinking about that for a second, Blair nodded. He could understand that from an anthropological standpoint, at least. Naomi had raised him to chase after the unknown, but that kind of xenophilia was pretty damn rare in most cultures. Hell, he knew entire countries that endured terrible dictators because the known was always preferable to the unknown, and the government knew Jim-at least they thought they knew Jim. They understood his background as a soldier and respected his ability to keep information confidential. Jim was right. He needed to be the one to take the lead.
“Deal,” Blair said, understanding that he was promising to not advocate for Jim or use the guide voice. Jim pulled back so he could look in Blair’s face. “Honest,” Blair added, holding up three fingers in a Scout’s honor salute. “You can run the war just as long as we run the homefront together.”
Reaching up, Jim caught Blair’s hand and pulled it close enough to kiss the three fingers. “Always,” he promised.
Blair nodded again as the taxi pulled into the visitor’s lot of Bethesda. Unless Blair missed his guess, this guy was going to be happy to get rid of them. “Let’s go storm the castle,” Blair suggested with an uneasy grin.
For a second, Jim just sat in the cab. Then, after a quick stroke of his fingers down Blair’s cheek, he turned and got out, already digging in his pocket for his wallet. Blair got out on his side, his hair stuck to the back of his neck, but Blair didn’t know if it was the muggy heat or fear that made him sweat. Bethesda was huge-an entire complex of building. For a second, he felt like the huge white buildings were about to fall on them, swallow them whole and leave nothing behind.
“Let’s go, Chief,” Jim said, his best poker face in place as he gestured toward the entrance.
“Into the valley of death rode the six hundred,” Blair muttered, but he stiffened his backbone and followed Jim. If Jim said he could win this war, Blair would put his faith in Jim.
This is the sequel
Pandora's Box.
Jim/Blair, Alex/Naomi
Prompt: Butterfly
Fandom: Sentinel
Rated: ADULT (f/f and m/m)
( Chapters 1-3 ) ( Chapter four ) ( Chapter Five ) ( Chapter 6 ) ( Chapter 7 ) ( Chapter 8 ) ( Chapter 9 ) ( Chapter 10 ) ( Chapter 11 ) ( Chapter 12 )
Once again, I wonder where the short-story muse went... or even the medium sized story muse. I wanted to finish this one quickly. Not many people are even following it... yet my muse wants to linger and watch Jim and Blair twist as they try to take on an entire government and win. Someone's been doping my epic muse with steroids again, haven't they. *glares at flist*
~13~
Blair fidgeted as they sat in the back of the cab. Reaching over, Jim rested his hand on Blair’s knee. “You want to go find a hotel first?” Jim asked. He gave Blair a bit of an eyebrow wiggle.
“Are you propositioning me?” The cab driver’s gaze flicked toward the rearview mirror.
“Yep,” Jim agreed cheerfully. Blair had no idea how the man could feel cheerful when they had an appointment with Doctor Colonel Jamison at Bethesda Naval Hospital.
“Man, I just want to get this over. No way can I think of anything else until we know whether….” Blair blew out a big breath and Jim tightened his fingers around Blair’s hand. No way did Blair want to give voice to all his fears. No fucking way. He might not be superstitious, but using the devil’s name just might tempt the devil to show up.
“No problem, Chief. I’ll try to not take that as you turning me down.” A heartbeat’s worth of time passed. “I scheduled an interview with the New York Times, one of the reporters in Mexico recommended a colleague, so we have a 3 o’clock with him. We can save any ravaging for after that.”
Blair gave Jim a sharp look. Sure, he’d picked Bethesda for their next destination, but Jim was definitely still not sharing well. “You called a reporter?” Blair demanded incredulously.
“Yes, I called a reporter.”
“You? I mean, you’ve gone out fourth story windows to avoid reporters in Cascade.”
“Once. I did that once,” Jim said in his best cranky voice.
“Fourth story. Fourth. I mean, that is-” Blair whistled to express just how crazy that had been. Jim’s jaw was starting to twitch a little and his eyes were narrowed, but the expression wasn’t truly angry… that was more Jim’s mock-angry face. That was the face he used when he was enjoying being annoyed. “Man, I so wished I could have seen you shimmy down that pipe.”
“It was a tree.”
“Classic. Totally classic.” Blair nodded with enthusiasm. Jim’s eyes narrowed more. Right when Blair opened his mouth to make another smart-ass remark, he realized something. “Oh shit. Simon.”
“What about him?” Now Jim looked honestly concerned.
“The stories. Oh shit. The stories are going to come out and people in the CPD will see them. The commissioner…” Blair’s heart nearly skipped a beat. Jim’s bosses were going to give birth to kittens… radioactive, technicolored kittens.
“Breathe, Sandburg. They already know.”
That was enough to make Blair stop breathing for a time. “They… what?”
Jim shrugged. “When you had to tell the FBI about Sentinels and Alex and all her skills, Simon and I decided that it was a good time to come out to the brass.”
“You… you told them, and you didn’t tell me?” Okay, now Blair was hurt.
With a sigh, Jim draped his arm over Blair’s shoulders. Blair pushed it away, but Jim just put it right back, and the taxi was too small for Blair to really get away. “Chief, you are a passionate advocate for any cause you believe in, and you have always believed in me. It’s one of the reasons I love you.”
“Do not butter me up.” Blair put an elbow in Jim’s side.
“I’m explaining why I didn’t tell you,” Jim defended himself. At least, Blair thought he was trying to defend himself. He wasn’t making all that much sense. “I didn’t talk to them at all. I sent them a memo saying I had the same Sentinel skills Alex had. I wasn’t even sure they read the damn thing until they sent a lawyer down to review case files with me a month later. If I had told you, you would have been in my corner fighting, and I didn’t want a fight at all.” Jim tightened his arm around Blair.
“So you just lied to me?” Blair demanded. Shit.
“I didn’t mention it because it didn’t affect our lives. If it was an issue, I would have told you. I told you the second you asked. I was not lying.”
Blair twisted out of Jim’s one-armed embrace and faced off against him, at least as much as the taxi allowed. “Bullshit!” Blair punched Jim in the stomach just hard enough for him to feel it. Jim caught Blair’s wrist, and Blair didn’t even try and escape. He did, however, keep right on calling a spade a spade. “No fucking way are you going to pull that patronizing shit on my James Ellison. If you want to play things quiet, fine. I can do fucking quiet. I think I’ve proved that since most of the fucking station still thinks I’m chasing skirts. But you do not hide something this fucking big and tell me it’s for my own good. You are not a fucking government, and you do not get to decide what information is on a fucking ‘need to know’ basis. You got that Ellison?”
Jim’s eyes were large, and he still held Blair’s wrist in a firm grip, but he wasn’t coming up with any words.
“Mom tried pulling that shit. ‘Oh, honey, it’s for your own good. Alex and I can take care of this,’” Blair mimicked. “I did not take it from my mother, and I’m not taking it from you, Ellison. Just because I love the hell out of you does not mean you get to manipulate me. Got it?”
“Oh, Chief. I never meant for….” Jim stopped. “I’m sorry. I didn’t even think about how it would look to you. I honestly thought it wouldn’t matter, and that you’d be more comfortable at those damn stupid black-tie things we get dragged to if you didn’t know.” Jim slowly released Blair’s wrist, but from the tense set of his shoulders, he was ready for another attack.
Blair huffed and threw himself back onto the seat. “I would be more comfortable not knowing. That is no reason to not tell me. Either we’re in this together or I’m going to have to figure out a way to kick your scary Army-Ranger ass.” Blair gave Jim a shit look to make the point that he wasn’t kidding. He half-expected Jim to laugh at the thought of Blair trying.
Instead, Jim nodded. “Fair enough.”
Blair watched the trees on the side of the highway. A flock of butterflies turned one small grove of trees into a riot of orange and red. It was hard to remember they were near Washington DC and all the congestion of the city, but they were definitely going to be close enough for Bethesda to summon any help the colonel might need if he decided to take Blair and Jim into custody. “Wait. The reporter. You want someone looking for us if we, you know.” Blair glanced at the back of the taxi-driver’s head. This was not really a conversation he wanted in front of a stranger.
“I thought that was better than pulling Simon into this mess,” Jim agreed. “I know I should have told you, but we were moving fast.”
“I get that,” Blair said nodding. “It wasn’t like we’ve had tons of time here, and you have the background to make these plans. I don’t.” Blair cringed. “I don’t even want to. If I understood these people, I’d feel like I had to give my soul a hot shower. So when it comes to dealing with these sorts, just tell me where to stand, and I’m good,” Blair said. “I was just pissed about you hiding something from our lives. This…” Blair waved out the window where the taxi was just pulling off the Beltway. “This is not our lives.” Blair glanced over, and Jim still looked a little tense. “Oh man, I totally took out all my frustration about my mother on you, didn’t I?”
Jim pursed his lips. “A little.”
“Next time you want to vent about Alex, remind me that my karma needs a little balancing,” Blair said sadly. For someone who claimed to pursue enlightenment, Blair was painfully aware of how short he fell.
“Blair.” Jim stopped. Normally, Blair would push, but this was not the time for pushing. He’d done enough of that. Maybe having the guide voice, having that ability to pull out a silky tone that derailed Jim’s ability to argue, had given him an unhealthy taste of power. Jim sighed and gave Blair a frustrated look. Considering that Blair was trying hard to be not pushy, he had no idea what Jim was frustrated about now. Jim leaned in so that his forehead rested against Blair’s head. “They need to see me as the threat, Chief. They understand me. They think they know how far I can be pushed and how well I can keep a secret. These people… they don’t react well to unknowns, they’re scared of the unknown, and for them, you are one giant unknown.”
Blair ducked his head to make sure the cab driver couldn’t see anything. “They’d be scared of me?” Blair whispered, his voice barely audible to his own ears. “They’d be scared of ME?” Jim nodded.
“Terrified. They don’t know how to control you. And if they had any idea that you had a guide voice….” Jim stopped. For a second, he just rested, his body head leeching into Blair. “They’d misunderstand it, Blair. They’d jump to some dangerous conclusions.”
After taking a deep breath and thinking about that for a second, Blair nodded. He could understand that from an anthropological standpoint, at least. Naomi had raised him to chase after the unknown, but that kind of xenophilia was pretty damn rare in most cultures. Hell, he knew entire countries that endured terrible dictators because the known was always preferable to the unknown, and the government knew Jim-at least they thought they knew Jim. They understood his background as a soldier and respected his ability to keep information confidential. Jim was right. He needed to be the one to take the lead.
“Deal,” Blair said, understanding that he was promising to not advocate for Jim or use the guide voice. Jim pulled back so he could look in Blair’s face. “Honest,” Blair added, holding up three fingers in a Scout’s honor salute. “You can run the war just as long as we run the homefront together.”
Reaching up, Jim caught Blair’s hand and pulled it close enough to kiss the three fingers. “Always,” he promised.
Blair nodded again as the taxi pulled into the visitor’s lot of Bethesda. Unless Blair missed his guess, this guy was going to be happy to get rid of them. “Let’s go storm the castle,” Blair suggested with an uneasy grin.
For a second, Jim just sat in the cab. Then, after a quick stroke of his fingers down Blair’s cheek, he turned and got out, already digging in his pocket for his wallet. Blair got out on his side, his hair stuck to the back of his neck, but Blair didn’t know if it was the muggy heat or fear that made him sweat. Bethesda was huge-an entire complex of building. For a second, he felt like the huge white buildings were about to fall on them, swallow them whole and leave nothing behind.
“Let’s go, Chief,” Jim said, his best poker face in place as he gestured toward the entrance.
“Into the valley of death rode the six hundred,” Blair muttered, but he stiffened his backbone and followed Jim. If Jim said he could win this war, Blair would put his faith in Jim.