I was bored one day, and asked for prompts to write fic. This is for julia_here, who asked for "a view into Jim, Blair, a car of the usual Blair sort, and December 23, 2008, in Cascade, or at any point on I-5 between, say, Bellingham and Portland."

Snow Crazy

by Raine Wynd

"This is ridiculous," Blair muttered as he tried yet again to budge his old Volvo from where it had frozen in its tracks in the parking lot across the street from the loft. "I just drove this yesterday."

"And it froze again overnight," Jim reminded him. "Come on, Chief. It's not going anywhere today."

Blair sighed resignedly and shut off his car. He was going stir-crazy from being limited in how far he could go. Thanks to the unexpected, record-setting snowstorm over the weekend, most of Cascade was shut down. City officials had repeatedly urged those who didn't need to go anywhere to stay put inside. All Blair wanted to do was get some groceries to replenish their supplies, and the corner market was already sold out of the basics.

"Who'd have thought you'd need a snow shovel and some rock salt in a city like this?" Blair complained as he locked his vehicle. "We never get snow and ice like this."

Having heard variations on this for the past three days, Jim just shook his head. "Come on, Chief," he repeated. "Into the truck."

Blair sighed again, but did as he was told. "You just got off work," he pointed out needlessly after Jim got into the driver's seat.

"Yeah, and my truck's not stuck yet. We going to get groceries or are you going to whine?"

Blair winced at Jim's impatient tone. "Sorry, Jim. Just -- frustrated I can't go anywhere without my car breaking down or getting stuck, and it's even more frustrating that it happened right here."

Jim shrugged off the apology as he maneuvered the truck back out into the street. "It'll freeze again tonight, and I think it's going to snow again. If it does, we may not be able to get down this hill tomorrow, so we'd best make the most of this trip," he warned.

"Will you go into work if that happens?"

"Depends. Simon's supposed to call. There's talk of just implementing the holiday shift rotation a little earlier, which would put me off the hook until later in the week. You took the week off, right?"

"I never thought I'd be mandated into a vacation," Blair said, shaking his head. "Never saw that fine print when I negotiated to be a paid police consultant."

"Yeah, well," Jim reminded him, "you usually do a better job of keeping track of not only your vacation time but mine too. This year's been pretty crazy. It's not surprising you found yourself with a full week of time to spare."

"How'd you wind up not having as much?" Blair wondered.

"Took a couple of days when you were sick with strep, remember? And then a few more after that firebomber case."

"Oh yeah." Blair winced. "Remind me not to say 'oh, it's been a quiet year in Cascade' again. This felt like that second year I lived with you, all over again, except this time I knew better what to expect. Let me tell you, it sucked."

"Don't remind me," Jim growled as he carefully negotiated the roadway. "Did you want to put up a tree again?"

"I thought you said it was a waste of time."

Jim glanced over at Blair. "Glare's pretty intense," he said by way of explanation, "and unless you know where a spare pair of sunglasses are...?"

Blair's eyes widened as he realized Jim was trying to compensate for the way the sun was hitting the snow-and-ice-covered pavement. "Hang on," he told the Sentinel as he dug into the side pocket of the passenger side door. "Ha!" he cried as his fingers found a pair of sunglasses.

Handing them over, Blair picked up the conversational thread, aware that the contents of the conversation weren't nearly as critical as his tone of voice. Something of his internal frustration at feeling trapped by circumstance loosened as he guided Jim. With a sudden burst of understanding, Blair realized he'd been feeling unneeded -- Jim, for the most part, had control over his senses, and in his current position at the PD, didn't need Blair as his Guide as often as he once had. No real surprise there, given that it had been a decade since they'd first met, and they'd worked on fine-tuning Jim's controls. Reassured that Blair had enough to occupy him on his vacation, and with the weather-related crisis at hand, Jim had volunteered for an extended shift.

Several blocks had passed by before Jim pulled into the parking lot of the nearest big grocery store. "Feel better?" he asked Blair.

"How'd you..." Blair sputtered as Jim got out of the truck. Hastily, Blair exited the vehicle.

Meeting Blair on his side of the truck, Jim grinned. "You Guide. Me Sentinel. Ugh." He deliberately hammed up the caveman routine as Blair laughed.

"Right, like that's everything." Blair rolled his eyes, not buying it entirely.

"Guide need Sentinel to Guide. Even if Sentinel has learned how to live without needing Guide twenty-four-seven." More seriously, Jim added, "Sentinel never going to stop wanting Guide to Guide Sentinel."

Blair laughed, feeling suddenly that everything was going to be all right. "Right. How soon I forget." For the moment, the weather didn't matter. All that mattered was knowing he had the best kind of friendship a man could have.

Finis, 3/25/09

Home | About Raine | Contact

This is a fan site, and all work here is produced without the intention of profit; all characters not my own are the copyright of their respective holders.