story written for 'Give and Take'
Thought of posting it here at last :-)
Title: SHIPMENT
My prompt: Blair finds a baby, and he has to take care of it. Anyone at Major Crimes who has experience w/ kids is out of town. Prefer Jim/Blair relationship, but not necessary.
Beta: janedavitt (thank you again!)
Warnings: none, established couple, PG
02:09
Something thwacked on the floor heavily. Jim flinched in his sleep and then sat up in bed in a flash, without opening his eyes. He cautiously spread his hearing wider - there wasn’t anybody in the loft, but some strange sound still bothered him. He realized it was his cell phone, left on the coffee table on 'vibrate'.
Reluctantly, he got out of bed. And, still naked, trotted downstairs. The cell shuddered unstoppably; Jim sighed and answered. “Ellison.”
“Oh, man, it’s a baby!”
“Sandburg?” Jim was taken slightly aback by the surge of emotions he felt and sat down heavily on the couch. He hadn't expected to hear from Blair, who’d been at a conference in Seattle for the past week, until tomorrow. They'd caught up briefly the afternoon before. “Where are you? It’s what - two in the morning; where did you find a baby or… you meant babe?” He felt a sudden jealousy rush through him.
“No, no, Jim, I mean - it’s a baby here, can you imagine?” Blair sounded half-worried and half-amused.
“A baby? Please, could you start from the beginning? Where are you, and…?” Jim didn’t have a chance to finish his questions.
“You know, I thought I’ll hit the road in the evening after rush hours to be home at midnight and I stopped to say ‘hi’ to Naomi -" Blair’s voice faltered for a second, like he'd lost contact with his cell. “He’s sleeping.” There was touch of wonder in his voice. “Anyway, so I went to see Naomi at her friend’s house and there was a party - you know, about fifty people, most of them from her early days as a flower child, oh, man, you just should’ve seen all that bust.
"I’d just said “hi” to mom, and told her I was going back home, and then there was this guy in my face, all hair and chains and unbleached linen garments. He said, “Th’nks, man, Bib’ll c’ll you on M’nday and take ’im.” And then he gave me the bags and was out of there quicker than light speed. Naomi just said she’d told somebody I lived in Cascade and they’d asked me to deliver some luggage for them.”
Jim thought nervously of some illegal stuff that might be in Naomi’s friend’s luggage, and kidnapping, and… but there was no way any criminal would let Sandburg use his phone. “Stop, stop! Do you really have a child with you?” Jim almost missed Blair’s words.
“I’m telling you, man, I put the stuff in the rear seat and found out it included a baby halfway to Cascade on a pit stop, when he began to cry.” Sandburg’s voice drifted again and Jim spread his hearing a bit more. There was the sound of wind, and a lot of trees under that wind, and a distant sleepy voice.
“Blair? Where are you? Don’t tell me…”
“I thought of going back then and I tried to call Naomi, but there was nobody there.” His Guide’s voice came through all that noise and then was cut off by some strange clicks. Before Jim could identify the new noise, there was only silence.
02:30
Jim spent several minutes trying to reach Blair through his cell phone. He even went through emergency papers and tried to figure out Naomi’s phone number at her friends. He was caught up by mixed emotions - annoyance at Blair for yet one more troubling situation; a sick feeling that this might be something more serious than mild annoyance; and above that all, a strange relief at hearing his lover’s voice, at knowing that he was the first one Blair had phoned to share the wonder of a sleeping baby…
Baby! What about the baby? Jim reached for his cell, but his home phone woke up to life at that moment.
“Blair? Where are you, Chief, dammit! And what the fuck's with your…”
“Oh man, sorry, Jim.” Blair coughed and shifted the phone so that Jim couldn’t hear him for a few seconds.
“Chief? Chief!”
“Yeah, yeah, I’m here. Sorry for that, man, did I wake you up?”
“No, Blair, please! Where are you and what the hell…” Jim thought he’d explode if Blair didn't get to the point right that minute.
“Sorry. Yeah. So, he was crying and I tried to calm him, then I thought he’s hungry and I had to go through the entire luggage to find this fu… this bottle, and then he began to belch and I … I just didn’t know what to do. So I tried to call somebody up, you know… to be on the safe side. I mean - I know others have done it, you know…” Blair sounded shy for no visible reason and Jim had to hold back a weary sigh.
“Okay, Sandburg, get to the point.”
“I’m coming, I’m almost there.” Blair suppressed a strange groan. “I… uhm, I forget to charge my phone. That’s it. And I tried to find a pay phone, and the first service station was off the highway and now I’m here with the baby, a handful of quarters and no one to call - I mean except you, man.” Jim waited for the other shoe to drop.
“Right, Sandburg, so tell me where you are and I’ll come for you. You’ll owe me big time, that’s for sure.” Jim headed upstairs.
“Uhm, Jim… you know… I don’t know,” Sandburg began hesitantly, finishing with a barely heard whisper.
“What do you mean?”
“I, uhm, I turned right, I remember it, but I, uhm, didn’t pay attention to the road sign.” He stopped, then sighed and finished. “It’s very small station and there's nobody inside, so I had to wait.”
Jim stood for a moment in utter shock then sat on the stair. “I’ve heard somebody.”
“I… oh no, it was radio.” Blair was silent for some time. “Could you call Megan, she has younger siblings; she has to know how to deal with it properly.”
“Sorry, Chief, she went L.A. tonight to testify on the Lanner case.” Jim shrugged and gave it some serious thought. “Rhonda is somewhere at her grandmother’s house in Arizona, and Joel and his wife went down to San Diego, so…” He stopped and smiled abruptly. “I’ll call Sally. She knows how to deal with boys, I know first hand. Could you… never mind, just call me back in a few.”
03:03
“Hey, Chief, where have you been?” Jim was a bit annoyed - Sally was at her sister in San Francisco and he'd had an unpleasant talk with his father, who hadn't appreciated being woken up.
“I…” Jim heard a big yawn, “caught a few zz’s. So?”
“Nah, no luck - Sally’s out of town. Why didn’t you call one of your friends from Rainier?”
There was a startled silence and Jim inwardly cursed himself for mentioning it.
“You know, man, it’s not like I have a lot of friends there now, and none of them have children, so…” Blair’s voice trailed off.
“Uhm, forget it, Chief. We just need a plan.”
“What plan, Jim? I’m stuck here till morning. You go to sleep and I’ll just wait.”
“I hear you. You should keep you both warm, you know? Do you have your sleeping bag with you?” Jim tried to push his still sleepy brain through a survival routine. “Do you have enough milk?”
“It’s okay, man. I figured it out myself. We're sleeping on the rear seat with the sleeping bag. And yes, I have a bottle of formula and a bottle of water, hope it’ll be enough.”
They fell into a companionable silence. Jim listened to Blair’s even breath and the faint sound of a baby snuffling in his sleep. The image of his lover with a baby in his hands somewhat disturbed him. Jim shuddered and broke the pause. “Call me if something is up. Right?”
“Night, Jim.” Blair’s voice had a trace of amusement in it, as if he'd heard Jim’s thoughts.
Not that he hasn’t been able to get it, Jim thought sleepily, tucking his quilt around him.
08:09
Something thwacked on the floor heavily. Jim flinched in his sleep and then sat up in bed in a flash without opening his eyes. He cautiously spread his hearing wider - there wasn’t anybody in the loft, but some strange sound was still bothering him. He realized that it was his cordless phone, set on vibrate, and abandoned this time on the stairs.
“Ellison.”
“S…sorry, may I speak to Blair Sandburg?” The female voice was young and irresolute.
“He’s on his way from Seattle." Jim yawned into the receiver.
“He's supposed to bring some bags with him?” The girl began to speak with more confidence.
“Oh!” Jim was glad to find out somebody to pass Blair’s strange shipment on to. “Then it’s your baby, right?”
“Baby?” A startled silence quickly became uncomfortable. “What baby? What baby?”
“Don’t know, ma’am,” Jim winced at the hysterical note in the female voice. “It was in the bag.” That remark didn’t improve the situation at all.
“Oh, no. Oh, no. He couldn’t send the baby with just anybody! No way! Where are you?”
“Sorry, ma’am. Mr. Sandburg is still on his way…” Jim was so absorbed in the conversation that he hadn’t a chance to hear Blair come in. Suddenly, the phone was taken gently from his hands and replaced by a softly snoring bundle.
“Yes, ma'am, without doubt… don’t worry… in twenty minutes… Jim! Jim, man!” He snapped his head up and stared into Blair's blue eyes. “You have five minutes.”
21:19
Blair licked his spoon and critically eyed the third carton of chestnut ice cream. “I think I’ll leave it for the next disastrous trip.”
“Huh, with our luck it could easily be the next one,” Jim drily observed, flicking through the channels. Blair smiled, sighed contentedly, and tucked his head under Jim’s chin.
Jim smiled down at him. There were, and would always be, strange situations in their life, but together they were easily bearable and sometimes even funny. He watched Blair unwittingly slip into a peaceful sleep, smiled at him again and threw the rug over them. Blair would wake by the end of the game and they’d still have a couple of hours for themselves.
Jim sighed contentedly himself, and then reached for their phones and put them on the floor, just to be on the safe side.
The End
Title: SHIPMENT
My prompt: Blair finds a baby, and he has to take care of it. Anyone at Major Crimes who has experience w/ kids is out of town. Prefer Jim/Blair relationship, but not necessary.
Beta: janedavitt (thank you again!)
Warnings: none, established couple, PG
02:09
Something thwacked on the floor heavily. Jim flinched in his sleep and then sat up in bed in a flash, without opening his eyes. He cautiously spread his hearing wider - there wasn’t anybody in the loft, but some strange sound still bothered him. He realized it was his cell phone, left on the coffee table on 'vibrate'.
Reluctantly, he got out of bed. And, still naked, trotted downstairs. The cell shuddered unstoppably; Jim sighed and answered. “Ellison.”
“Oh, man, it’s a baby!”
“Sandburg?” Jim was taken slightly aback by the surge of emotions he felt and sat down heavily on the couch. He hadn't expected to hear from Blair, who’d been at a conference in Seattle for the past week, until tomorrow. They'd caught up briefly the afternoon before. “Where are you? It’s what - two in the morning; where did you find a baby or… you meant babe?” He felt a sudden jealousy rush through him.
“No, no, Jim, I mean - it’s a baby here, can you imagine?” Blair sounded half-worried and half-amused.
“A baby? Please, could you start from the beginning? Where are you, and…?” Jim didn’t have a chance to finish his questions.
“You know, I thought I’ll hit the road in the evening after rush hours to be home at midnight and I stopped to say ‘hi’ to Naomi -" Blair’s voice faltered for a second, like he'd lost contact with his cell. “He’s sleeping.” There was touch of wonder in his voice. “Anyway, so I went to see Naomi at her friend’s house and there was a party - you know, about fifty people, most of them from her early days as a flower child, oh, man, you just should’ve seen all that bust.
"I’d just said “hi” to mom, and told her I was going back home, and then there was this guy in my face, all hair and chains and unbleached linen garments. He said, “Th’nks, man, Bib’ll c’ll you on M’nday and take ’im.” And then he gave me the bags and was out of there quicker than light speed. Naomi just said she’d told somebody I lived in Cascade and they’d asked me to deliver some luggage for them.”
Jim thought nervously of some illegal stuff that might be in Naomi’s friend’s luggage, and kidnapping, and… but there was no way any criminal would let Sandburg use his phone. “Stop, stop! Do you really have a child with you?” Jim almost missed Blair’s words.
“I’m telling you, man, I put the stuff in the rear seat and found out it included a baby halfway to Cascade on a pit stop, when he began to cry.” Sandburg’s voice drifted again and Jim spread his hearing a bit more. There was the sound of wind, and a lot of trees under that wind, and a distant sleepy voice.
“Blair? Where are you? Don’t tell me…”
“I thought of going back then and I tried to call Naomi, but there was nobody there.” His Guide’s voice came through all that noise and then was cut off by some strange clicks. Before Jim could identify the new noise, there was only silence.
02:30
Jim spent several minutes trying to reach Blair through his cell phone. He even went through emergency papers and tried to figure out Naomi’s phone number at her friends. He was caught up by mixed emotions - annoyance at Blair for yet one more troubling situation; a sick feeling that this might be something more serious than mild annoyance; and above that all, a strange relief at hearing his lover’s voice, at knowing that he was the first one Blair had phoned to share the wonder of a sleeping baby…
Baby! What about the baby? Jim reached for his cell, but his home phone woke up to life at that moment.
“Blair? Where are you, Chief, dammit! And what the fuck's with your…”
“Oh man, sorry, Jim.” Blair coughed and shifted the phone so that Jim couldn’t hear him for a few seconds.
“Chief? Chief!”
“Yeah, yeah, I’m here. Sorry for that, man, did I wake you up?”
“No, Blair, please! Where are you and what the hell…” Jim thought he’d explode if Blair didn't get to the point right that minute.
“Sorry. Yeah. So, he was crying and I tried to calm him, then I thought he’s hungry and I had to go through the entire luggage to find this fu… this bottle, and then he began to belch and I … I just didn’t know what to do. So I tried to call somebody up, you know… to be on the safe side. I mean - I know others have done it, you know…” Blair sounded shy for no visible reason and Jim had to hold back a weary sigh.
“Okay, Sandburg, get to the point.”
“I’m coming, I’m almost there.” Blair suppressed a strange groan. “I… uhm, I forget to charge my phone. That’s it. And I tried to find a pay phone, and the first service station was off the highway and now I’m here with the baby, a handful of quarters and no one to call - I mean except you, man.” Jim waited for the other shoe to drop.
“Right, Sandburg, so tell me where you are and I’ll come for you. You’ll owe me big time, that’s for sure.” Jim headed upstairs.
“Uhm, Jim… you know… I don’t know,” Sandburg began hesitantly, finishing with a barely heard whisper.
“What do you mean?”
“I, uhm, I turned right, I remember it, but I, uhm, didn’t pay attention to the road sign.” He stopped, then sighed and finished. “It’s very small station and there's nobody inside, so I had to wait.”
Jim stood for a moment in utter shock then sat on the stair. “I’ve heard somebody.”
“I… oh no, it was radio.” Blair was silent for some time. “Could you call Megan, she has younger siblings; she has to know how to deal with it properly.”
“Sorry, Chief, she went L.A. tonight to testify on the Lanner case.” Jim shrugged and gave it some serious thought. “Rhonda is somewhere at her grandmother’s house in Arizona, and Joel and his wife went down to San Diego, so…” He stopped and smiled abruptly. “I’ll call Sally. She knows how to deal with boys, I know first hand. Could you… never mind, just call me back in a few.”
03:03
“Hey, Chief, where have you been?” Jim was a bit annoyed - Sally was at her sister in San Francisco and he'd had an unpleasant talk with his father, who hadn't appreciated being woken up.
“I…” Jim heard a big yawn, “caught a few zz’s. So?”
“Nah, no luck - Sally’s out of town. Why didn’t you call one of your friends from Rainier?”
There was a startled silence and Jim inwardly cursed himself for mentioning it.
“You know, man, it’s not like I have a lot of friends there now, and none of them have children, so…” Blair’s voice trailed off.
“Uhm, forget it, Chief. We just need a plan.”
“What plan, Jim? I’m stuck here till morning. You go to sleep and I’ll just wait.”
“I hear you. You should keep you both warm, you know? Do you have your sleeping bag with you?” Jim tried to push his still sleepy brain through a survival routine. “Do you have enough milk?”
“It’s okay, man. I figured it out myself. We're sleeping on the rear seat with the sleeping bag. And yes, I have a bottle of formula and a bottle of water, hope it’ll be enough.”
They fell into a companionable silence. Jim listened to Blair’s even breath and the faint sound of a baby snuffling in his sleep. The image of his lover with a baby in his hands somewhat disturbed him. Jim shuddered and broke the pause. “Call me if something is up. Right?”
“Night, Jim.” Blair’s voice had a trace of amusement in it, as if he'd heard Jim’s thoughts.
Not that he hasn’t been able to get it, Jim thought sleepily, tucking his quilt around him.
08:09
Something thwacked on the floor heavily. Jim flinched in his sleep and then sat up in bed in a flash without opening his eyes. He cautiously spread his hearing wider - there wasn’t anybody in the loft, but some strange sound was still bothering him. He realized that it was his cordless phone, set on vibrate, and abandoned this time on the stairs.
“Ellison.”
“S…sorry, may I speak to Blair Sandburg?” The female voice was young and irresolute.
“He’s on his way from Seattle." Jim yawned into the receiver.
“He's supposed to bring some bags with him?” The girl began to speak with more confidence.
“Oh!” Jim was glad to find out somebody to pass Blair’s strange shipment on to. “Then it’s your baby, right?”
“Baby?” A startled silence quickly became uncomfortable. “What baby? What baby?”
“Don’t know, ma’am,” Jim winced at the hysterical note in the female voice. “It was in the bag.” That remark didn’t improve the situation at all.
“Oh, no. Oh, no. He couldn’t send the baby with just anybody! No way! Where are you?”
“Sorry, ma’am. Mr. Sandburg is still on his way…” Jim was so absorbed in the conversation that he hadn’t a chance to hear Blair come in. Suddenly, the phone was taken gently from his hands and replaced by a softly snoring bundle.
“Yes, ma'am, without doubt… don’t worry… in twenty minutes… Jim! Jim, man!” He snapped his head up and stared into Blair's blue eyes. “You have five minutes.”
21:19
Blair licked his spoon and critically eyed the third carton of chestnut ice cream. “I think I’ll leave it for the next disastrous trip.”
“Huh, with our luck it could easily be the next one,” Jim drily observed, flicking through the channels. Blair smiled, sighed contentedly, and tucked his head under Jim’s chin.
Jim smiled down at him. There were, and would always be, strange situations in their life, but together they were easily bearable and sometimes even funny. He watched Blair unwittingly slip into a peaceful sleep, smiled at him again and threw the rug over them. Blair would wake by the end of the game and they’d still have a couple of hours for themselves.
Jim sighed contentedly himself, and then reached for their phones and put them on the floor, just to be on the safe side.
The End