New
Arrivals
Author-Sorcha
Titles
Never Sleep Three in a Bed
by Sorcha
Many thanks to Danae for beta reading and to Eagle Eye and Suzie for introducing me to IRC. ~grin~ Feedback is much appreciated! This one is for Kira. :-)
Disclaimer: Jim, Blair, and Simon don't belong to me, no matter how much I wish they did. I just borrowed them for a little while and returned them completely intact. And I didn't get any money for it either. Just fun. <g> No infringement intended. I took the title from that of a novel by Canadian author Max Braithwaite. No infringement intended there either.
Blair Sandburg lifted his eyes from the books and papers scattered before him on the kitchen table. He looked over at the couch where his roommate was sitting and reading the newspaper. Blair took off his glasses and placed them on the table before moving over to stand beside the couch. For the past fifteen minutes, he had been trying to come up with the best way to approach a certain subject with Jim Ellison. Getting nowhere, Blair finally decided just to go for it. "Jim?" he ventured, rocking slightly on the balls of his feet.
"Mmm?" Ellison's eyes didn't stray from the paper.
"Well, I was wondering. . .You see, I've got this friend at the university. You've probably heard me mention his name before -- Chris Alexander?" Not waiting for acknowledgement from Jim, Blair rushed on. "Well, his wife, Cheryl, is out of town until the day after next and something urgent just came up today that's gonna take Chris out of town tomorrow afternoon for three days."
Jim raised his eyes from the newspaper, looking at Blair suspiciously. "And?" he prodded, knowing he probably wouldn't like what he was about to hear.
"And they have a five year old daughter but no babysitter that's available all tomorrow night," Blair finished and looked expectantly at Jim.
The detective let these words sink in, then dropped the newspaper into his lap. "Sandburg, you didn't."
"Um, yes I did, Jim."
Ellison rolled his eyes to the ceiling. "Chief, the last thing I want is some five year old kid running around and wreaking havoc in my home."
"Oh, come on, Jim." Blair waved him off. "You're overreacting. You like kids. What about your niece? Marina's a good kid, and besides, I already told Chris it would be fine." Sandburg sat down at the kitchen table and turned back to his work triumphantly. Jim opened his mouth to speak, but then closed it again. He knew that he'd lost this argument. So he let out and exasperated sigh and turned back to reading the news. If he could put up with Blair seven days a week, he could probably put up with a five year old for one night. Couldn't he? Jim sure hoped so.
* * *
It had been a long day at work. A really long day. As he rode the elevator up to the loft, Jim rubbed his forehead in a vain attempt to ease his raging headache. Even with his hearing reigned in, strains of Australian Aboriginal music reached the sentinel's ears before he opened the loft door. He could also hear a young child chattering away to Sandburg. <Oh, hell.> Jim remembered about the babysitting. It was the last thing he needed on a night like this. Three aspirin had done nothing to help his headache and all Ellison wanted was some peace and quiet and his bed. He pushed opened the door and stepped inside. Hanging up his jacket, he barely even cast a glance at the two people who were busy with Play-Dough at the kitchen table. The sentinel had only one mission -- to get to his bed.
Blair looked up when the detective came in. "Hey, Jim," Sandburg greeted cheerfully. When his friend only raised a hand in response, a hand that then moved up to rub his head, Blair became worried. "Hey, man, what's wrong?"
"Headache." Jim continued across the room toward the stairs.
Sandburg stood up. "Can I get you anything?"
Jim just waved him off silently without looking back.
Blair watched Jim walk slowly up the stairs and disappear from view. Then Sandburg turned to see that Marina was also staring after the detective.
"Is he your friend that you told me about, Blair? The policeman?" she asked.
"Yeah, that's him. He's not feeling well so we need to be quiet so he can rest, okay? Maybe we should put the Play-Dough away now."
"Why?"
"Because it's your bedtime."
"Aw," the young girl started in, but then her eyes brightened. "You're gonna tell me a story, right?"
"I'll tell you what." Blair bent over with his hand on his knees so he was on eye-level with Marina. "You go get your pj's on and brush your teeth and then I'll tell you a story."
"Okay!" She bounded off to Sandburg's bedroom where her overnight bag was.
Blair looked up at Jim's darkened room with concern. He hoped that his sentinel wasn't suffering even more from having Marina around. Maybe if Blair could quiet her down with a story and get her to bed, it would be better.
Three stories later, Blair lifted Marina out of his lap and stood up from where he'd been sitting on the edge of his bed. "Okay, now it's *really* your bedtime."
She climbed off the bed and looked up at Blair. "I have to say good night to Jim first."
Sandburg hesitated. "I don't think that's a good idea. Jim's resting. He's not feeling well, remember?"
"I know, but I just want to say good night. Please? Pretty please? I promise I'll go to bed right after."
Blair looked down into the pleading blue eyes and relented. "Okay, but we have to go up very quietly. And if he's sleeping, we're not going to disturb him." Sandburg knew that if Jim were sleeping, their arrival upstairs would put a quick end to that. However, Blair had a feeling that the sentinel was awake, and anyhow, Sandburg was glad to have an excuse to check on Jim.
Holding her hand, Blair led Marina up to Jim's bedside. As they came up beside his bed, Sandburg saw Ellison's head turn toward them. "Jim?" he said quietly, his tone slightly apologetic. "Marina wanted to say good night."
The girl stepped closer to Jim's bed and asked him, "Do you have a headache?"
The detective nodded in reply.
"Does it hurt real bad?"
"Yeah," Jim confirmed. "Real bad."
Before Blair could stop her, Marina clambered up onto the bed and over Jim to kneel beside him. "When I have a headache, this is what my mommy does for me," she explained as she started to gently massage Jim's temples.
Not expecting Jim to appreciate this intrusion upon his peace, Blair was about to remove Marina when he noticed a change in his friend. The sentinel had closed his eyes and was beginning to relax, some of the tension leaving his body. A bit surprised, Sandburg walked around to the other side of the bed, where he sat down to wait. It looked as if Jim might even be falling asleep.
Yawning, Blair realised how tired he was himself. He usually had lots of energy, but to be honest, he wasn't used to babysitting. Add to that a stressful morning at the university, and he was ready for some rest. Deciding that Marina had things under control for the moment, Blair let himself lay back. He would just close his eyes for a moment before taking the child back downstairs.
Ten minutes later, Marina stopped massaging Jim's head, confident that he was now sleeping. She turned to talk to Blair, but saw that he too had fallen asleep. Without another thought, she crawled under the blankets between the two of them, and snuggled down to go to sleep herself.
Jim came awake slowly. Something wasn't right. Icy fingers of cool morning air were running along his skin, giving him goosebumps. Without opening his eyes, the half-awake Sentinel reached out to pull up the covers but found that they weren't there. Puzzled, Jim forced himself further awake, turning down his temperature dial to compensate for the mysterious lack of blankets. As he became more conscious of his surroundings, the detective also realised that he was so close to the edge of the bed that he was about to fall off. <What the hell?> He sat up, and the sight before him brought back all the memories of the night before.
Taking up over half of Jim's bed were Blair and Marina, sound asleep and obviously the guilty parties in the case of the missing covers. Ellison stood up and stretched. As he did so, Marina immediately rolled over in her sleep, now taking up what little space had been left for Jim. The sentinel let out a sigh, figuring he wouldn't be getting any more sleep that morning now that his bed was completely taken over. He tried to feel annoyed but found the scene to be almost comical. A little kid and a big kid, lost in the innocence of sleep. <Innocence, my foot.> Jim decided that maybe that word wasn't quite fitting. <They probably had the whole take-over planned.> He found himself smiling, and shook his head. Leaving the others to continue sleeping, Jim headed downstairs to the kitchen.
It was only six am, and after he had showered and dressed, Jim picked up the phone. He was wide awake and felt like getting out for a while. The call was answered on the second ring. "Simon? It's Jim."
"Jim?" The captain's tone was slightly surprised, but then it quickly dropped to concerned. "What's wrong?"
Ellison smiled at the way Banks associated him with trouble. "Nothing's wrong," he assured Simon. "I was just wondering if you wanted to meet for breakfast."
"Oh." It took Simon a moment to digest the fact that his detective's early morning phone call was not related to an emergency. "That sounds great, Jim. You buying?"
"Sure."
"Even better. But, Jim, I would have thought you'd be sleeping in on your day off. What's wrong? Sandburg waking you up with some crazy, early-morning ritual?" Now the captain's voice was teasing.
"Hardly," Jim replied. "Take it from me, Simon, never sleep three in a bed."
"Um, Jim," Banks said slowly, taking it the wrong way. "I don't want to know."
"No, no. You see, it's Sandburg --"
Simon cut in. "Okay, if it involves Sandburg, I *really* don't want to know."
"It's not what you think, Captain."
"Glad to hear it."
"Blair volunteered us to be babysitters for a night."
"And you agreed?"
"Well, sort of."
"So, how bad was it?" Simon asked sympathetically.
Jim thought about how his headache was completely gone and how, even though he had awakened early, he felt well rested. "Actually, it wasn't that bad."
"Jim, don't tell me you're experiencing some paternal feelings here," Banks teased.
Ellison laughed and looked up to see Blair and Marina appear at the top of the stairs, hand-in-hand and still half asleep. He chuckled again. "Something like, Simon. Something like that."
The End