Family Life Parts 31-40

Family Life Part 31
Sacrifices
By Patt

Word Count: 3,851

Jim and Blair were going to see a lawyer and it was on the sly. They left Naomi home with the boys to see a movie or a museum of choice while they got some errands taken care of. No one knew what they were up to. Jim and Blair didn’t want the boys to get excited about anything ahead of time. This way, if there was nothing they could do, nothing would be lost. They boys wouldn’t even know that Jim and Blair were trying to get legal custody.

The lawyer’s name was Thomas Bateman, or as Jim’s dad called him, ‘good old Tom’. They filled out all of the paperwork and then gave the secretary a check for the meeting that day. They sat down and waited in the waiting room for about fifteen minutes and then a tall, good looking man opened up his office door and said, “Jim and Blair, would you like to come in now?”

Jim and Blair walked into the office and shook hands with him after they introduced themselves to Tom. He said he wanted to be called Tom. So Tom it would be. Jim and Blair liked him at once. He was very open minded and seemed to know a lot about family law.

Jim told Tom, “Barb Chase told us to get a lawyer if we wanted to look into adopting the foster children that we have. Both of their parents are in prison and will be for quite some time. Their father won’t be out for at least 15 years and he signed away his rights already. But their mother will be out in four years and that would make Drew 17, and she still might want to be in his life. We were wondering what you thought our chances would be of winning this thing.”

Tom looked at Jim and Blair and said, “Okay, his mother is not an upstanding citizen, so I think we could talk her into signing the papers for a monetary amount. Maybe she would like a monthly check to go to the prison to make her life a little easier. She might go for an account that would be waiting for her to get out again. You just never know what will provoke them to sign or not to sign. But I think you should meet with her and talk with her. You should bring a photo album that she can keep and you have to be open with her. Tell her about you and Blair from the start.”

Jim said, “She already knows about us. She met us at the case workers office. She was supposed to start up weekend visits but instead got caught dealing and doing drugs, so she had to go back to prison. But yeah, she already knows about us being gay. It didn’t seem to bother her in the least.”

“In that case, I’m going to say, we don’t have you deal with her at all. It’ll be me. I’ll take her the photo album and draw up papers for either of the two ways she can be paid. Is that all right with you two?” Tom asked.

“Does it seem wrong that we’re offering her money for the boys?” Blair asked.

“No more wrong then what she has done to them. This might be what she needs to get her on her feet. I see here she still has eight years in prison. I thought you said, four,” Tom pointed out.

“I thought it was four,” Jim said sounding happier.

“That means, you would have to pay something monthly to a person you don’t even like for eight long years. I think you should think about that. Why don’t you just stick with being the foster parents? I see here that the father has already signed away his rights, so we’re clear on that part. But I think she might give you a run for your money. Do you have a set amount you can offer her? Either in monthly or one lump sum for her to get when she gets out,” Tom asked.

Jim said, “Would ten thousand be too little?”

“Jim, I think ten thousand is a very nice amount. I’ll break it down for her to let her know how much she would get monthly or how much she’ll get when she gets out. Do you want to do this?”

Blair and Jim both answered, “Yes.”

“Okay, let me point out the problems I see that you’re going to have to face. First of all, if she agrees to it, no judge in his right mind is going to want to change the boys’ last name, this late in life. How do you feel about that?” Tom asked.

“Well, it would be something of a problem anyway, because Jim and I would both want them to have our names and do we really want to strap Sandburg-Ellison on two teens?” Blair pointed out.

“So you would be fine, keeping their names, Miller. But if the boys wanted to change their names, they could ask the judge and he might see clear to letting them do it. It’s totally up to you both. What do you think?”

“I think it would be nice to have two Sandburg-Ellison’s running around town, don’t you, Chief?” Jim inquired.

“If they felt good about it, I would consider it. I’m open to how they feel. Besides we’re getting ahead of ourselves, aren’t we?” Blair asked.

Tom smiled at the men and said, “Blair is right. I have a lot of work ahead of me. I need that photo album as soon as possible. I’ll draw up the paperwork for both sets of money, and let her make a choice if that’s the way she wants to go.”

“What do you think our chances are?” Blair asked outright.

“I think you have a decent chance. She’s going to be in there for some time. The boys will be grown by the time she get’s out, so she might not care as much. That sounds bad, but it’s the truth,” Tom assured them both.

Jim said, “Is there anything else we could do to help?”

“No, just the photo album and the check for the savings account. It would all come out of our account, under your name, so we have proper records,” Tom said.

“We’ll get that together as soon as we can,” Blair replied.

Tom stood up and shook hands with both men and said, “I wish us all a lot of luck. We’re going to need it. We’ll just hope that she’s not too selfish to consider it.”

“Thank you for all of your time and trouble, Tom. My dad was right, you are quite easy to talk to,” Jim remarked.

“I was glad to do it. And before I forget, I have a question to ask. Have you considered taking in one more child by any chance?” Tom asked.

“Why do you ask, Tom?” Blair wondered aloud.

“Well, I’m trying to get a five year old girl into a healthy home. She is completely without any family. The foster homes have been dreadful and I just wondered if there was room in your home or your heart for a five year old. She’s very sweet. I would recommend you to the judge for adoption. No one wants a five year old. They want babies or teens. Never a five year old,” Tom advised them.

“We would have to think about that one. We only have our office and I don’t know how any of us feel about taking in another child at this point in our life,” Jim said quickly.

Blair said, “Do you have a picture of her?”

“I sure do, here she is. She’s a cutie, that’s for sure,” Tom admitted easily.

[[[sam.jpg]]]

Jim and Blair looked at the picture and smiled. She was a cutie pie.

Jim was the first one to speak. “Tom, I don’t know how I feel about a younger child because she won’t understand the whole gay thing. A teen does and they would choose us. Do you understand what I’m saying?”

Blair on the other hand fell in love at first sight. “Man, we could so make the office into a killer little girl’s room and I think the boys would love the chance to be older brothers. We could at least talk to them, right?”

“We’ll talk to them when we get home today,” Jim said in a agreement.

“Thank you for considering her, Jim and Blair. Rarely do I come into something like this that would be so perfect for you. Let me know within a couple of days because she’s miserable where she is.” Tom said.

“We’ll see you in the next few days and we’ll let you know about the little girl. What is her name, anyway?” Blair asked.

“Samantha Rose is her name and she just turned five,” Tom filled them in.

“Samantha is a nice name,” Jim said smiling.

“Everyone calls her Sam,” Tom said.

“That would be a cute name along with Drew and Max. I can’t wait to talk to the boys about her,” Blair said happily.

“Don’t get ahead of yourself, Chief,” Jim reminded him.

“I know, I’ll try and be good,” Blair said.

They left Tom’s office with a new spring in their step. One reason was Tom made them feel like they had a chance with the boys and the other was Sam. She was so darn cute. She would fit into their family perfectly.

!!!!!!!!!!

When Jim and Blair arrived home, Naomi was meditating and Max and Drew came down and Max said, “We thought you left town or something.”

Jim said, “We need to discuss something with you. Sit down at the table so we can tell you about it.”

Both boys went right to the table and sat down. Naomi walked into the room and said, “Do I get to sit down too?”

Blair said, “Sure, Naomi, sit.”

“Pop and me went to see a lawyer today about legally adopting you boys. Are you sure you still want to go that route?” Jim asked.

“Oh man, that’s great. Yes, we want to go that route,” Max answered.

“I think it would be terrific,” Drew said happily.

“Well, that’s going to take some time to find out the results, but while we were there today, our lawyer asked us to think about something that would affect your lives, big time. Now before you say anything, I want you to think about how much your life would change. You need to think about all of the pros and cons before you make up your mind,” Jim advised.

“Geeze, it sounds horrible, doesn’t it, Naomi?” Drew asked.

“Well, they have my attention, that’s for sure,” Naomi answered.

Blair pulled the picture of Sam out and said, “This is Sam. She just turned five years old and she’s in a foster home that is horrible right now. She has no family and our lawyer wanted us to think about giving her a home. So that’s what we’re here to discuss.”

Max and Drew both looked at the picture and then passed it on to Naomi. “Oh my gosh, she is darling, isn’t she boys?”

“Yes, she is cute,” Max said.

Jim noticed them stalling and said, “There is no pressure whatsoever. If you don’t want a little sister, that’s fine by us too. We’re a happy family, and we don’t need another child to complete us. She would change our way of life. We wouldn’t be able to do all of the things we do now, because having a five year old changes things. She would probably pester you until you wanted to hang her upside down or something. It would be like starting our family all over again and that’s something to think about. So you boys think and we’ll leave you alone with your thoughts.”

Blair wasn’t happy with the way that Jim left it so he added, “Don’t forget that she’s in a horrible foster home right now. She has no one. No brother’s to look out for her, no one. She’s just going to be starting school, so think all we could teach her. I think that you boys have so much love inside of you that you would make excellent brothers.”

Jim said, “Here is the photo. Look at it a couple of times and then think about it. Come down and talk to us when you’re ready. They want to know as soon as possible. So go think.”

The two boys got up and walked upstairs. Blair frowned and said, “I think they’re going to say no. They’re used to having us to themselves and they might not want to share.”

“I think they’ll come around. You guys pointed out some good things to think about, so give them a little while and see what they say. If you asked me, I would tell you to go get her today. She’s darling and I would love to have her as a grandchild. But it’s not up to me. Let the boys think all they need to today,” Naomi said very thoughtfully for a change.

Jim smiled and hugged Naomi. “Blair really wants her. He fell in love as soon as he saw her picture.”

“So if you did get her, I would lose my room, right?” Naomi asked.

“Yes, that was another drawback. There would no longer be an office,” Blair said.

“But hotels are cheap enough around here. I wouldn’t mind giving up my room for a grand-daughter.”

Blair said, “I don’t think the boys are ready for that yet.”

“Don’t give up already, Blair. We have time to think about it. They might have more questions too,” Jim reminded Blair.

!!!!!!!!!!

So what do you think about sharing the house with a five year old? I mean, would we have to babysit all the time?” Max asked Drew.

“I don’t know, let’s write it down to ask them,” Drew said as he took notes on a tablet.

“What would happen if she didn’t like us?” Max asked.

“I have no idea, Max. I just know how we felt in a horrible foster home and we had nowhere to go. We lucked out with Jim and Blair. Maybe this is a sign that we should think about it,” Drew said thoughtfully.

“She is cute. And Mike and Mark have a little sister and she’s cute too. She doesn’t seem to bother them that much,” Max pointed out.

“I like the idea of being a big brother to someone. With you, I would never have that, since I’m the youngest. I think maybe we should give Sam a try,” Drew said smiling.

“Okay, let’s go down and put them out of their misery,” Max joked.

They walked down the stairs smiling and Blair and Jim both lit up like rockets on the fourth of July. They knew the answer already.

“We thought it over and decided that Sam needed some help like we did. We should help her,” Max said sounding all grown up.

“Are you absolutely sure? This is a major step in our lives. None of us are used to having a five year old around us, so maybe you should think a little while longer,” Jim said giving them an out.

Drew snickered and said, “Nah, we decided that if Mark and Mike could do it, so could we.”

“They have a little sister?” Blair asked.

“Yes and she’s cute too. She’s five also. So Sam would have a built in playmate,” Max said.

Naomi walked around and hugged the boys and said, “Congratulations, you’re big brothers.”

“Woo Hoo,” Max hollered.

“I second that,” Drew agreed.

Blair looked so happy that he might cry and Jim knew that would embarrass him, so he said, “Chief, why don’t you call Tom and tell him the news.”

“Okay, I’ll go in the office. Oh my god, we’ll have to do up the little girl room in the next few days. Can we do it that fast?” Blair asked no one in particular.

“The computer and desk will fit in our room upstairs, and that’ll be nice. The boys already have one in their room. We’ll get one for Sam once she starts working on a computer like other kids. We’ll move the Murphy bed into the basement and sell it. Or we’ll see if Daryl would like to have it,” Jim said planning in his head.

“But what about the room itself? Can we get it done in time?” Blair asked.

Naomi laughed and said, “I’m going shopping for her bedroom furniture now. You just need to paint. I’ll do the rest.”

Blair went in and called Tom and told him the news. Tom was thrilled of course and said, “You’ll have your daughter within three days.”

“We’ll be ready,” Blair answered and got off the phone. Blair knew they were going to be super busy getting this ready. He also knew that they would be sending someone out to inspect the room and see the house before she could be placed. Blair felt confident on the house part, but her room might not be done.

!!!!!!!!!!

The next morning when Blair left for teaching his class at the academy, Jim left early for work and Max and Drew woke Naomi up and asked her if she would take them to the prison to see their mom.

Naomi and the boys took a cab to the car rental place and got a car for the day. It took about an hour to get to the prison, but they got right in. They filled out all of the forms and had their ids with them, so they were set.

The man in charge told Naomi and the boys to wait and their names would be called as soon as she was brought into the room.

Naomi looked at the boys and saw how nervous they were and felt bad for them. She wished she could take care of it herself. But alas, she knew the boys would probably have more luck.

They called their names and they walked into a room and found Martha sitting there at the table. She had no idea who the boys were. That’s how long it had been since she had seen them.

“Mom, we came to ask you a favor,” Max began.

“Oh my God, it’s Max and Drew? It’s so good to see you. Are you going to start coming to see me every week?” Martha asked.

“No, mom, we came to ask a favor. We have a great home right now and they want to adopt us and you have to sign papers for it. We were hoping that you could do that for us. Do you think you could?” Max inquired.

“Did you know that those good people offered me money to sell my children to them?” Martha said hatefully.

“It’s because they love us, mom and they want us to be happy. You never cared. Please do this for us,” Max begged.

“They’re really nice, mom. You would like them both,” Drew said kindly.

“I’m sure I would, but they offered me money to sell my children. That’s not right,” Martha said, sticking to her guns.

“When are you supposed to get out, mom?” Max asked.

“If everything goes well, maybe in six years,” she answered.

Drew said, “In six years, I’ll be 19. I won’t have a thing to do with you when you get out. I never want to see you again. I thought you might love us enough to do what’s best for us, but I can see we were wrong. Don’t expect to ever see me again.”

Max hugged his little brother, because he knew he was upset. “Why not take the money? You’re not going to ever see us again, anyhow. So you’d be getting something out of it too.”

“Max, you just don’t understand. There is still a chance when I get out to make things right,” Martha said stupidly.

Max glared at her and said, “I’m with Drew on this. I’m never seeing you again. Don’t look us up or we’ll make trouble for you. We never want to see you again.”

They both stood up and left the room. Naomi was standing there and she said, “I’m the gramma. These are wonderful boys. You had to have done something right to have them come out so great. You’ll never see them again, but if you did the right thing, they would always remember your sacrifice and would love you for it. Think on that for awhile.” Naomi left the room too and took the boys and led them out to the car.

As soon as they left, Martha called Tom Bateman and said, “I’ll take the deal. Bring the papers and I’ll sign the boys over to Jim Ellison and Blair Sandburg. I want the ten thousand in a savings account for when I get out.”

“I’ll bring the papers in about an hour,” Tom said before he hung up.

Jim and Blair were going to be shocked. To find out you’re going to adopt one child is something but to adopt three is something else. It couldn’t have happened to a better family.

!!!!!!!!!!

When Jim and Blair got home that night, they moved everything out of the office and put things in storage until they sold it or gave it to Daryl.

Two days later, Jim and Blair found out that they were going to be signing papers on the boys and Samantha. They couldn’t wait for Monday to get there. And Naomi was in Sam’s room non-stop and wouldn’t let anyone in except for Max and Drew. She wanted the room to be a surprise for Jim and Blair.

Naomi walked out and said, “We had all of the furniture delivered today and we have all of the bedding washed, dried and put on the bed and the window seat. So do you guys want to see the room or what?”

[[[samsbedroom.jpg]]]

Jim and Blair walked in and were shocked. The room was absolutely gorgeous. Naomi had done a splendid job picking everything out to match. It was beautiful. Jim hugged her really hard and didn’t let go for awhile. Then Blair had his turn to hug her. Jim in turn went and hugged Max and Drew both and told all three of them, “Thank you.”

Blair was in shock. He couldn’t have imagined a room this darling. Sam was going to love it, that was for sure,

Everyone seemed to be making sacrifices, and they were all working out in the end. Everyone was going to be happy. Blair couldn’t wait to have his family complete and then he would be content.

Jim just smiled at him and knew exactly what he was thinking. Jim couldn’t have agreed more.

The end.

Family Life Part 32
Birthday Wishes
By Patt

Word Count: 3,071

The following Monday morning, Jim, Blair, Naomi, Drew and Max all went to the lawyer’s office. Tom laughed when he saw the entire family there.

“Come on in, everyone,” Tom said sounding every bit as happy as he was.

“The judge is going to see us at ten o’clock, so the state is bringing Samantha over to my office first and we can take her to the courthouse. I thought that would give you a little while to talk to her before the judge does. But the judge is also going to sign off on the papers for Max and Drew. Now, boys, are you sure you’re okay with the name Sandburg-Ellison for your last name?” Tom asked.

Max was the first to reply. “Oh yeah, I love having their names on mine. Now we feel like we’re really a family. This is going to be perfect.”

“I couldn’t agree more,” Drew said happily. “Now we just need to meet our little sister.”

The judge will probably ask you all questions about the newest addition. You’ve been a family as you were for the last ten months, so he might wonder why you’re opting to change everything.” Tom said casually.

Jim looked at him oddly and said, “Do you think he’ll see it as a problem?”

“Well, he has asked me why the change? Then again, he might see the five of you and decide that everything will be just ducky,” Tom joked.

Jim smiled and said, “Is that fancy lawyer talk, Tom?”

“You betcha. Sit down everyone and we’ll wait for Samantha to arrive. She’s very outgoing I’m told. I sure hope you guys will like her. I mean, what if you didn’t?” Tom asked.

Everyone sat down on a sofa or a chair and looked to Tom to talk again.

“Well, I have some complaints from the last home she was in. She has an attention span disorder, she’s very loud and interrupts all the time. They didn’t like her at all, so I’m just warning you,” Tom explained.

Max said, “Sounds like little Mary, Mark and Mike’s sister. She does that same stuff and it’s not the end of the world.”

“That’s right, it isn’t. And maybe these people just don’t really like kids that much,” Blair suggested.

“Tom, the boys are going to be ours from this day on, right? But Samantha will be on a six month trial adoption, am I correct?” Jim asked.

“Yes, you’ve had the boys long enough to get them today but Samantha might be a different story, so they plan accordingly. Then in six months if you still want her, you have to sign the final papers,” Tom answered.

There was a knock on the door and in walked a grouchy looking woman pulling a five year old behind her. She looked scared to death. The woman handed Tom the papers and said to Samantha, “You stay with them now.” And like that she walked out the door.

Blair walked up to her and said, “Samantha, my name is Blair Sandburg and if you’d like to, you’re welcome at our house. This is my spouse, Jim Ellison and our sons, Max and Drew. Don’t be scared, no one here is going to hurt you.”

“Are you the family that said I might be able to stay with if I behave?” Samantha asked.

Jim looked shocked and said, “We’re the family you might be able to stay with no matter what. We’re willing to give it a good try, Samantha.”

Max and Drew walked up to her and each gave her a hug and Max said, “Welcome to the family. These two guys have prepared a room for you like you wouldn’t believe. You’ll have your own room. Have you ever had your own room before?”

She looked happily at Max and said, “I slept on the sofa in the living room. I guess that was my own room.”

“We heard you just had a birthday,” Blair said changing the subject.

“Did I?” Samantha asked.

Jim said, “Well you’re going to have a birthday party at our house when you get home.”

“With presents and everything? They had one for one of the kids at the foster home, but I didn’t get to go to it. But I heard it was fun,” Samantha said.

Jim and Blair were beginning to hate this foster home more by the moment.

“Yes, with presents and cake and ice cream. This will be your Gramma, Naomi. She likes to be called Naomi,” Blair said introducing Naomi.

“Hi Naomi, my name is Samantha. But people call me Sam,” the little girl said happily.

“Do you like being called Sam?” Naomi asked next.

“Yes, I like the name Sam. It’s nice,” Sam answered quickly.

“Then we’ll all call you Sam. It’s a lovely name for a lovely little girl,” Naomi said.

Sam snickered and said, “You’re really nice, Naomi.”

Tom stood up and said, “It’s time to go over to the court house. Jim and Blair, why don’t you just follow me? I’ll take Max and Drew with me so you have enough room in your car.”

“I have plenty of room. It seats eight people easily. So we’ll all go together. I have Sam’s booster seat already in the car. Are you ready to go sign some papers, Sam?” Jim asked.

“I don’t know what kind of papers that I have to sign,” she answered so sweetly that they all just melted.

Blair said, “Its papers we have to sign to get permission to take you to your new home. Would you mind going with us, Sam?”

“Mrs. Farrell said that I don’t have any where else to go, so I better go with you or I’ll end up at one of those terrible homes that they told me about,” she said sadly.

Jim picked her up and hugged her and said, “Believe me, you’re going to a good home. You’ll have your own cool room and everything. You’ll have two big brothers to watch out for you every day, so no one is ever mean to you. Could you live in a place like that?”

“Oh yes,” Sam said cheerfully and hugged Jim back.

Tom said, “Let’s go get those papers signed before the judge gets mad at us.”

They went in their separate cars and got to the court house in plenty of time. So they didn’t have to rush.

Max said, “Would you like a horsey back ride up to the court room, Sam?”

Sam smiled and said, “Oh yes, I would like that.”

Max lifted her up and switched her to his back with ease and said to Jim and Blair, “We need to feed her something. She’s too small.”

Blair laughed and said, “She looks like a normal sized five year old to me. You’re just used to lugging your brother around and there is a big difference.”

They all laughed all the way up to the court room.

“Jim, I liked your car,” Sam said.

“Blair has one almost like it too. We like to have plenty of room for kids,” Jim answered.

“I liked my new booster seat with the lights on the side. That was cool. Max showed me how I can read in the car when it’s dark. But I can’t read yet,” Sam admitted.

Blair said, “We’ll have you reading in no time, Sam. Don’t you worry about it.”

They all followed Tom into the court room and the judge was already there. He was surprised to see the happy family in front of him. He thought he might see a crying five year old and two distressed teens. Instead, he saw a teen carrying a little five year old on his shoulders and laughing while the younger teen laughed following them in. Judge Harrison began to feel better about this case already. The door opened again and William Ellison walked in and hugged Naomi, Jim, Blair, Max and Drew. Then he introduced himself to Sam. Sam hugged her new grampa like they had known each other for ages.

“Is everyone here, Mr. Bateman?” Judge Harrison asked.

“Yes, sir, they are.”

“Then I would like to talk to Max and Drew Miller alone in my chambers, if everyone would be so kind as to sit down while we’re doing that, it would make things go easier for all,” Harrison said.

Jim took Sam off of Max’s back and Sam started to cry. “He’s taking them away from us?” She cried out.

Judge Harrison said, “No, young lady, I’m just going to talk to them. Then we’re coming back in and I get to talk to you for a little while. Will that be all right with you?”

“I guess,” Sam supposed.

Jim almost laughed, but didn’t. Blair wanted to laugh, but didn’t catch himself in time and did snicker a little bit. Naomi jabbed him in the side and said, “Stop it.”

Judge Harrison felt like he had lost control already. “Max and Drew if you’ll follow me, we’ll talk.”

The two boys followed the judge into his chambers and Jim and Blair looked nervously at each other.

Tom saw them getting nervous and said, “The judge just has to make sure that the boys are making a good sound decision. Especially about changing their names. That’s a big step, don’t you know?”

“I want to change my name. Could I be Jim, too?” Sam asked grampa.

They all started to laugh and said, “Sam, what is your last name?”

“My name is Sam Jones,” Sam replied.

“Well Sam Jones, the boys are named Max and Drew Miller. They want to change the Miller part to our names. They want to have mine and Blair’s name at the end of their names. So they want to be Max Sandburg-Ellison and Drew Sandburg-Ellison. Do you understand?” Jim inquired.

“Wow, that’s a big name. So I can change my name today too? We could all have the same name?” Sam asked hopefully.

“I think we have to wait for six months for your name change, honey. So you just have to be patient, okay?” Blair asked.

“I’ll try. People are always telling me that,” Sam said as she frowned and stomped her foot a little bit.

William started to laugh, he couldn’t help it. “Jim, you used to do the very same thing. This is ‘like’ so weird.”

“Blair did too. Maybe they all do, and we just didn’t notice anyone else’s kids,” Naomi decided.

The door opened from the judge’s chamber and out came a smiling Max and Drew. They both walked up to Jim and Blair and hugged them. Then Max picked up Sam and held her until the judge needed to talk to her.

Judge Harrison sat down at his bench and said, “I see no reason to question a five year old when she seems so happy. These boys are the most well adapted children I have ever come across. They told me that you have them volunteer at a homeless shelter once a month and at an old age home once a month. Do you know how rare it is, to have parents that want you to have values? I’m very impressed with both of them and I think they’re making the right decision about their name change. They want to be totally yours and they shall be. As for Samantha Jones, I need six months probation. You’ll have someone drop by at least once during this time, if not twice and check and see how she is doing in the home life. Other then that, we’re ready to sign papers. Jim Ellison and Blair Sandburg are you ready to become legal parents of Max and Drew Miller?”

Jim was the first to answer, “Yes, sir. We’ve been ready forever it seems.”

“Good, now come up here and sign where I tell you to. We’ll get the boys out of the way first and then concentrate on signing everything for Samantha,” Judge Harrison stated.

Jim and Blair did everything the judge told them to and signed when he said sign. Jim felt overwhelmed a couple of times and almost had to blow his nose, but he looked at Blair and Blair kept him strong. Once they were done, they hugged the boys and Blair said, “Welcome to the family again, sons.”

They then signed all of the paperwork needed for Samantha to be legal for them to take home and before long they were all done.

The judge wished them all well and shook hands with everyone, including Sam. She was very pleased with herself about that.

Max said, “You know what time it is, Sam?”

“No, I don’t know how to tell time yet,” Sam answered truthfully, cracking Max and Drew up.

“It’s time to go home for your birthday party,” Drew said.

“With presents and everything?” Sam asked her little eyes open as far as they could be.

“Yes, there are a lot of presents. You have all new clothes, new shoes and jackets and toys. So let’s get home and get this party started,” Max said happily. He was as excited as Sam was.

The boys each grabbed a hand of Sam’s and Max said, “Come on little sister, let’s get into the SUV and go home.”

“Could we run?” Sam asked sweetly.

“Hey dad and pop, she wants to run. Come on,” Drew yelled as they started to run towards the SUV.

“You call Jim and Blair, dad and pop?” Sam asked.

“Yes, we call Blair pop and Jim, dad. You can to if you want to,” Max said.

“I think I will. I don’t remember having a dad or a pop. So this will be fun, right?” Sam asked a little bit nervous.

“It’s going to be great fun. You just wait and see,” Drew assured her.

They all climbed into the SUV, William went to his car and Tom left for his office. The drive home was filled with chatter from Sam. She was quite the chatterbox. When they arrived at the loft, Max said, “Come on, Sam, let’s go see your new room.”

“Can we hold hands again?” Sam asked.

Max and Drew thought she was the cutest thing in the world.

They all walked upstairs with the boys holding Sam’s hands.

When they walked into the loft, Sam said, “Wow, this is a nice house. Who lives here?”

“You do, silly girl,” Drew said laughing.

“This is our house?” Sam asked again.

Max said, “Come see your room really fast and then we’ll come out and have your birthday party.”

While the boys took her into her room, Naomi, Jim and Blair got the cake out, the presents out and the big balloon out and tied it to a chair for Samantha.

Then Blair and Jim decided they wanted to see how their daughter liked her bedroom.

“Isn’t this a cool room?” Max asked.

“I’ve never had a room. This is the coolest room, ever,” Sam admitted.

“Do you like your bed and your window seat?” Drew asked.

“Is it called a window seat because you can sit there and look out the window?” Sam wondered.

“Exactly why,” Drew said.

She crawled up on her bed and said, “I have to sleep all alone though, right?”

“Who else would sleep with you?” Max asked.

“At the last house, I had two other kids that came down during the night and made me get into things in the kitchen for them. I never got to sleep all night. Ever.” Sam said quite dramatically.

“Well, no one is going to wake you up here. Dad and pop sleep right upstairs over your room. They could hear if anyone came near your room. So you’ll always be safe,” Max reassured Sam.

Jim said, “Who is ready for their birthday party?”

Sam raised her hand and said, “Me. Pick me.”

Drew smiled and whispered to Max, “She sounds a lot like pop doesn’t she?”

They both laughed and so did Jim when he heard them.

They walked out and the gramma and grampa moved away from the table and she saw her cake and her presents and her balloon. She was all smiles.

[[[sam1.jpg]]]

They ate the cake and ice cream first, then they let her open her presents, she had tons of them and then they took tons of pictures for the photo albums for the grandparents.

All in all, it was a grand day. All of her clothes fit beautifully, her shoes fit, her jackets fit and gramma was taking her the next day to have her hair trimmed. She couldn’t believe how lucky she was.

She hugged Blair’s leg and said, “I’m glad you picked me, pop.” Blair lit up with joy when he heard it come out of her little mouth.

Then she hugged Jim’s leg and said, “Dad, I think I want to go to bed pretty soon. I’m tired.”

All of them went in her bedroom, picked out her pajama’s, kissed her goodnight and left the room. Jim was the only one left. “Sam, let’s get ready for bed and I’ll read you some of these books on your shelf.”

“I love books, daddy. Could poppy come in too?” Blair stuck his head in and said, “I’m right here. We’re always going to be close by, Sam.”

“Thank you for picking me,” Sam said as she crawled into her new bed. Jim read one book and Blair read the other and she was fast asleep when they left the room at 8:00 that night.

“She’s so cute, Blair,” Naomi said hugging her son.

“No cuter then those big brothers she has. They were wonderful today. Thank you, Drew and Max.” Blair was thrilled with everyone.

William helped Jim clean up the kitchen while Blair and Naomi cleaned up the dining room. Before long, the house looked like it usually did and William took his leave. He offered to drive Naomi to the hotel, but she said she wanted to sleep on the sofa in case Sam needed her during the night.

When Jim and Blair got upstairs that night, it was ten. Jim felt like it was ten the next morning. This had been a long, long day.

But it was worth it.

The end.

Family Life Part 33
Happiness Is…
By Patt

Word Count: 2,389

I wanted to thank all of the people who have been writing to me about the series. I’m so glad that you’re all still reading it. So hopefully I’ll come up with some story ideas soon. You know, anyone can send me story ideas. Hint, hint, hint.

“Life with a Kindergartner?” Jim said as he read the title of the book Blair was reading.

“I got it at the book store yesterday, because I want her first year in school to be as pain free as it can be. If we’re all ready, it can be,” Blair said defensively.

“This says it’s for home schooling,” Jim pointed out.

“But it had many ideas for both. I figured it wouldn’t hurt for us to be prepared,” Blair confessed.

“Blair, she seems quite bright, I don’t think we have to worry about her,” Jim assured him.

“You never know what problems could arise, Jim. I want to be ready,” Blair said stubbornly.

“Okay, I’ll let you handle the reading the book part, leave me with handling the school bullies,” Jim teased.

“Jim we have to take this seriously,” Blair snapped.

“I am serious. I think you’re too serious,” Jim said as he got up to leave the living room.

Blair followed him and said, “Did you know that she was tested and she is a Visual-Spatial Learner?”

“Blair, I don’t even know what that is. Tell me about it. You have my attention now,” Jim said sounding a lot more focused on Blair, making Blair happy about it.

Blair smiled and said, “They are visual, not auditory. They remember what they see and forget what they hear. Making them appear to not be listening when it isn’t that they’re not listening, they don’t hear it. They see it. It’s going to take us awhile to get used to her and her actions. We have to remember that scolding her for not doing something isn’t going to help her in the long run. Do you get it, Jim? They tend to focus on ideas, not the format, so her work isn’t going to look as nice as say, Drew’s or Max’s. They focus on ideas. She can only focus on one. They seek out patterns, they love patterns in things, clothing, toys, bedspread anything as long as it’s got a pattern, it makes them very happy. They are sensitive and very intense, so we always have to keep that in mind too. They have wild and crazy imaginations, they can visualize in all senses and make a movie while reading. Their radar is always on, scanning, scanning, scanning. They are original, natural thinking out of the box. Intensely emotional, their feelings and thinking are intertwined. So as long as we’re all aware of this, I think we can handle it. No one told us this, I read it in her file.”

“Blair, I think it’s horrible that they didn’t tell us something is wrong with her,” Jim said.

Blair jumped up and said, “There is nothing wrong with her that understanding won’t help. She’s different, she’s not broken, she’s just a little different.”

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to make her sound broken. I just don’t understand it yet. Should we get some books on it?” Jim wondered.

“I picked some up at the book store. I think we’re going to have our hands full at school. A lot of teachers don’t want to take the time out to reach these children. So we’re going to have to work with her a lot and the boys too. Everyone can make learning fun for her and she’ll be able to get through her first year,” Blair said.

“She seems so normal,” Jim said.

“Jim, she is normal. Wait until you read all of the books, then you’ll get the just of it. It’s going to be fine. Don’t worry so much.”

“So do we tell the boys about her?” Jim asked.

“Jim, it’s not a secret. We can talk about it with her in the room. First of all, she doesn’t pay attention too much to what we say. But she watches us like hawks. It all makes sense now. But it’s good for her to understand that we understand her problems. Yes, they are problems, but only until we learn to deal with them,” Blair assured Jim.

“Blair, this might be a little harder then what we signed on for,” Jim admitted.

“So you want to toss her back to foster homes, where she got no help whatsoever?” Blair asked.

“No, I just wonder if we know what we’re getting in to,” Jim said again.

“Jim, are you happy right now?” Blair asked.

“What do you mean am I happy right now?”

“Are you happy with the five year old laying on her bed in her room, putting puzzles together? Does she make you happy to watch her? Does it make you feel good to know she has a home and a family to live with? Do you like her?” Blair inquired.

“Yes, I adore her. She’s so damn cute. I’ll get used to this in time. You’re going to have to help me through it. The boys, will need help too. Speaking of the boys, where are they?” Jim asked.

“Oh Sentinel man, why don’t you listen and see,” Blair teased.

“I see. They’re in doing puzzles with Sam. They seem to like her a lot. They don’t seem to be upset about us having taken in another child. They’re good guys,” Jim said happily.

Sam came walking out and said, “Poppy and daddy can you come and see the puzzle I just made?”

Jim and Blair followed her into her room which was quite the mess. You put this big puzzle together?” Blair asked.

“Yes, Drew and Max helped me though. It was hard, but I liked it. I had a lot of fun,” Sam admitted.

“Sam, your room is quite messy, why don’t you pick it up before we start something else?” Blair asked.

Sam looked at Max and Drew and said, “Do we have any more puzzles?”

Blair decided to tell Max and Drew about Sam with Sam still in the room. She didn’t seem worried about it one bit. She actually didn’t seem to be listening at all. Instead she was building another puzzle.

Max said, “Sam, let’s have a game shall we? The one that picks up the most toys is the winner. You not only have to pick them up, but put them in the right place again. Ready, set, go…”

Sam was right with them, picking things up and putting them where they belonged. Jim was amazed at how quickly she was adapting to what Max had suggested. Jim thought this might just work. Oh hell, he would have been lost without her if it didn’t work, so he was going to be sure it worked.

!!!!!!!!!!

Every day got a little easier for Sam and everyone else in the house. Sometimes things were a challenge, but other times they were simple and easy. They all just took them in stride.

!!!!!!!!!!

“Poppy, can Mary come over and play today?”

“Are Mike and Mark coming over?” Blair asked.

“Yes and their mom said Mary can come if it’s okay with you and daddy,” Sam said.

“Sure, as long as you know that you’re going to help clean up the mess when you’re done,” Blair answered.

When the three of them got there, Blair served drinks and snacks at the table. Blair noticed that Sam was a little on the bossy side, but the kids didn’t seem to mind. Blair did. He didn’t want her bossing people around. He would have to talk to her about that too. Once they were done with their snacks, they all went in separate directions and began to do their own things.

Jim got home from court and said, “God, that was a long day. Please tell me you had a good one.”

“I did and I am. Mark and Mike are here with their little sister Mary. Will you listen and tell me what the girls are doing right now?” Blair asked.

Jim cocked his head and listened in and said, “She’s telling her what to say and what to do. When Mary says something else, Sam corrects her and tells her what to do and say again. That won’t do, Blair.”

“No, it won’t. This is all going to take work, Jim. I told you it was going to be work. She’s come a long way already, but we’ll need to stay on top of things to keep her doing well,” Blair reminded Jim.

“Jim, are you happy?” Blair asked quietly.

Jim kissed Blair quickly and said, “Yes, I’m happy. I’m really pooped from the stupid hearing at the court house and have to go back tomorrow. But other then that, I’m doing well. Why?”

“I want you to be happy. I don’t want you to go along with things because you think you have to,” Blair replied.

“I’ve never been happier. I love the kids, Blair. Even with problems now and then with Sam, I still adore her. The boys like her too. I know you do, so happiness is…our family.”

Blair went into Jim’s arms and kissed him hard. “I’m so glad to hear you say that. I love you so much, big guy. I’ll show you later.”

“Now that would be pure happiness,” Jim teased as he went to get a beer.

Sam came running out of the room and said, “Can we have another snack?”

“If you come in here and eat it,” Blair said.

“But I have a table and chairs in my room. We could eat everything in there. Okay?” Sam asked.

“No, there is a rule about food in the bedrooms. No food in the bedrooms. It’s as simple as that,” Blair said not backing down one bit.

“Forget it then,” Sam shouted and rushed into her room.

Jim looked at Blair to see how he was taking it and Blair said, “She’ll be out in a little while for snacks. You wait and see.”

Sure enough about ten minutes later, Sam walked out with Mary and said, “Poppy can we have some of the fruit salad for our snack?”

“Sure, sit down and I’ll get it for you,” Blair answered.

Jim said, “Hello Sam, did you notice I was home.”

“I have a friend here, daddy,” Sam answered as if that explained it all.

“Hello Mary, it’s good to see you again,” Jim said nicely.

“Hello, Jim. I’m having fun with Sam. We’re playing bank teller. She’s the bank teller and I’m the customer. So I get to keep giving her money over and over again.”

Jim smiled and said, “Sam, couldn’t Mary be the bank teller once or twice?”

“But daddy, I’m the bank teller. She can be another customer if she wants,” Sam said.

Jim looked over at Blair and Blair just shrugged his shoulders.

“Sam, she’s not going to want to come and play anymore if you don’t let her be a bank teller,” Jim explained.

“Mary, do you want to be the bank teller?” Sam asked.

“That might be fun,” Mary answered.

“Okay, maybe next week you can, okay?” Sam asked and Jim just shook his head.

They ate their snack and giggled and talked during that time and everything seemed to be all right again.

The girls went back into the bedroom to play and about an hour later, Sam was crying. Max and Drew came running down the stairs and said, “What’s wrong?”

Jim walked into the bedroom and Sam was lying on the bed crying. She wouldn’t look at Jim at all. Jim said, “Mary, what happened?”

“She pushed me, so I pushed her back,” Mary replied.

Max sat on the bed and said, “You have to play nice with Mary or she won’t want to come again.”

“I’m sorry, Mary,” Sam cried.

“It’s all right, Sam. Let’s go back to playing again,” Mary said and Sam wiped her nose on a kleenex and it was like nothing happened.

Max and Drew walked out of her room and Max said, “We call her the little bipolar child. One minute she’s up and the next minute she’s down and crying like a baby. She does this almost every day. Do you think anyone could be bipolar if they are a child?”

Blair answered, “Yes, it’s on my list of things to ask the doctor when we go for her check up the next time. I think she might be. The mood swings are actually quite bad and she might need to be medicated.”

Jim’s jaw just dropped. “You’re saying medicated?”

“I did some checking and there are no healthy alternatives for it, so we might have to wait until she’s older to try something from a health food store. In the mean time, all of you note when she does something. We need to tell the doctor how often and what she does,” Blair said.

“For being such a little thing, she sure has a lot of problems,” Drew teased.

Blair walked into the kitchen and didn’t reply. Jim followed him in and said, “What’s wrong?”

“I was hoping that it was just me. I really didn’t want her to be bipolar. That’s such a huge thing for a child to be labeled with. But I think I was right all along. I thought she was from week one on. Jim, will it make you less happy?” Blair asked.

“Blair, I wouldn’t be happy if she is, but I wouldn’t be happy if Max or Drew were either. That doesn’t mean I wouldn’t understand it. Life goes on, buddy. So don’t let it get you down,” Jim said.

“I wanted things to be perfect,” Blair explained.

“Things are perfect. We have a lovely family and I’m surely not complaining. Stop worrying about us. Concentrate on Sam. She needs the most help right now,” Jim said hugging Blair to his body.

Blair smiled as he was being held and realized that things weren’t always happy, but that didn’t mean they still couldn’t have happiness in their lives.

After all, happiness is…a family.

The end

Family Life Part 34
Red, Hot and Blue
By Patt

Word Count: 3,493

!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks to Helena for the wonderful story idea. She thought the boys celebrating the Fourth of July with the kids for the first time, would be a nice thing to do. So do I. So here we go.

!!!!!!!!!!

“Jim, did you hear that they’re going to be doing the fireworks show, right across the road from our balcony? We don’t have to be down there where the noise will kill your ears. We just have to watch from the balcony. The kids will have such fun. We could have a barbecue with hot dogs and hamburgers and work our way into the fireworks show. How does that sound to you?” Blair asked without taking a breath.

“It sounds great. We could invite Denise, Sam and Seth Barrow’s too. That would be fun for all of them. They live down low enough that they won’t be able to see the fireworks from across the road. So up here would be much better. Do you mind having them over too?” Jim inquired.

“Babe, I think that’s a wonderful idea. We could invite Simon and Daryl too, if you wanted to and make it super, duper nice for the kids,” Blair suggested.

“You know how Drew loves to make things on his art program, why don’t we have him make the invitations up and we can hand them out to our friends that we want to invite,” Jim said.

“Good thinking. Let’s ask him now. He’s in the kitchen,” Blair said as he headed into the kitchen.

“Hi pop, what are you up to?” Drew asked when he saw Blair enter the kitchen. Then he saw Jim walk in and said, “On man, what did I do?”

“You didn’t do anything, Drew. Stop worrying. We’d like you to make a Fourth of July invitation for some of our friends in the building and maybe from our work. We wondered if you would mind making them,” Blair asked.

“Oh cool, I would love to do a Fourth of July Invite. Just let me know what you want on it and I’ll have it done and printed up by tonight. Thanks for asking me.”

“Thanks for agreeing to do it for us on such short notice. It’s the Fourth in five days, doesn’t really give you too much time to work with does it?” Jim asked.

“Dad, really it’s plenty of time. Let me get busy making the invites and we’ll hand them out tonight or tomorrow. I’m going to start now. Write down what you want, pop and I’ll do it word for word,” Drew said happily.

Blair wrote down what he wanted on it and Drew went off like a cannon. He was up the stairs telling Max about it first thing.

“I hope that Max doesn’t feel left out because we asked Drew,” Jim said.

Blair thought about it for a second and said, “Max doesn’t know how to do the program, you know he always asked Drew to do his for him. So I don’t think you’re hurting his feelings. Besides we didn’t ask Sam either.”

“That’s true. We need to find something she can do. How about she picks out the dessert for the party? And Max can pick out all of the chips and dips. That way they’ll both feel useful and we won’t have to do everything,” Jim suggested.

“See if we can lean her towards vanilla ice cream cups and syrup to put over the top with lots of sprinkles like the fireworks. Do you suppose she has seen fireworks yet?” Blair asked.

Sam walked into the kitchen at that moment and said, “What are fireworks?”

“Well, that answers our question doesn’t it?” Jim asked.

“What are fireworks, poppy?” she asked sweetly.

Blair went on to explain what fireworks were and he showed her pictures on the internet so she could see what they looked like.

“I get to see something this pretty today?” Sam asked.

“No, Sam, in five days. So let’s circle the calendar and you can see each day that we X out when it’s passed. Then you’ll be able to see how long before the party,” Jim said.

“We’re having a party? I love parties. Well, I think I do. I loved my birthday party a lot. Is it like that?” Sam asked sounding so precious.

“It’s a lot like a birthday party, except there are no presents for anyone. Everyone will just come and eat and then we’ll stand out on the balcony and watch the fireworks show when it’s dark,” Blair explained.

“This sounds like fun. I can’t wait. What can I do to help?” Sam asked first thing.

“You get to help daddy pick out the dessert for the party. We might have a lot of people coming, so we need to shop soon,” Blair said.

“Daddy, we could do it now. We’re not doing anything, are we?” Sam suggested.

Jim laughed and said, “I guess we could. Poppy, how many people should we plan on feeding dessert to?”

“Shop for around 30 just in case and we’ll have plenty of room in our big freezer, so if there is too much, it’ll keep. Remember what I said, Jim,” Blair pointed out.

“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” Jim teased as he got his shoes on to leave for the store. Sam ran in and got hers on and said, “Can the boys come too?”

“Drew is busy right now, but Max could go too. Let me go ask him if he’d like to go with you two,” Blair said as he walked up the stairs to the boys’ room.

Max opened the door and said, “It’s a secret, you can’t see the invites yet. What did you need, pop?”

“Dad and Sam are going to the store and wanted to know if you’d like to shop with them. Sam is picking out dessert. You’re going to be picking out chips and dips. Do you feel like going right now?” Blair wondered.

Max grabbed his shoes and said, “I’m so out of here, Drew. You finish your art piece and stop bugging me about it.” Max put his shoes on as he sat on the top of the staircase.

Blair walked down smiling and said, “Max is going to pick out the chips and dips. So help him in any way you can.”

“You two ready to go?” Jim asked as he opened the front door.

“We’re ready,” Sam shouted and about killed Jim’s hearing. She was very loud and they had to really work on that, but Jim didn’t want to upset her right now. She was excited about the party. Jim would let this one slide.

!!!!!!!!!!

When they got to the store, Max said, “I’m going to pick out the chips and dips, while you guys go to the dessert aisle. I’ll meet you in desserts.”

“Okay, try and shop for about 30 people, pop said. I think there won’t be that many, but we may as well be prepared,” Jim said.

Jim picked Sam up and sat her in the front of the cart closest to where he pushed and said, “Okay, this is what I was thinking, Sam. Everyone loves little cups of ice cream and then you buy the chocolate, strawberry, caramel and butterscotch topping for all of them. What do you think of that idea? And then of course you have to remember the sprinkles we would put on each of them to make everyone think about the fireworks.”

“That sounds good, daddy. I like vanilla ice cream the most. Do you?”

“I do, it’s my favorite too,” Jim answered.

They went down the aisle for desserts and picked out the cups of vanilla ice cream and got the toppings and the sprinkles and beat Max. They were over in the chips staring at him looking at all of the chips in the aisle.

“Need help, Max?” Jim asked almost laughing.

“I never knew there were so many types of chips. Pop always buys the stuff for us, so I don’t go shopping,” Max said.

“Get four bags of Fritos and four big cans of bean dip to go with it. Get six types of chips and we’ll go over to the dairy section and get the dips picked out,” Jim suggested.

Max finished and said, “Okay, dip and then we’re done, right?”

“With this much, yes. Thank you both for helping us. This is going to be our first party with you kids. This will be our first Fourth of July too.” Jim stated.

“What is Fourth of July?” Sam asked.

Max told her all about what Fourth of July was while they walked over to the dairy section where they would find the dips. Jim and Max picked out six kinds of dips and put them in his cart.

They all walked up to the front to pay and before long were on the road to get home with ice cream. Jim tried not to speed, but kept thinking about all of that ice cream in the back.

!!!!!!!!!!

Blair worked on a guest list while they were gone. Drew came down smiling and said, “Where is dad?”

“He’ll be back in a moment. Why?” Blair questioned.

“We have a finished product and I can’t wait to show it to the two of you. I think it turned out really nice. But if you hate it, I want you to tell me that you hate it,” Drew pleaded.

“Drew we could never hate anything you do for us. We love you, so therefore, chances are we’re going to love the invite too,” Blair remarked.

“I sure hope so. I not only made it for you guys, but for Sam too. This will be her first Fourth of July with us. Heck it’s going to be our first Fourth of July with you guys. I’m very excited about everything,” Drew rambled on.

Jim, Max and Sam came walking through the front door carrying green bags and bags and bags of groceries. Blair smiled and said, “I’m so proud of you. You used the bags I bought for groceries. Thank you, Jim.”

“Don’t thank me, Max ran out to the SUV and got them while I was paying. He told the sacker he would be bringing in the good bags.” Jim smiled at Blair.

“Thank you, Max. That was really nice of you to remember them. Dad doesn’t for anything,” Blair complained.

“But he paid for everything without complaining about how expensive it was. And it was, too,” Max said.

Jim put all of the ice cream in the big freezer and got all of the dips in the regular fridge. “Max, these bean dips don’t have to be put in the fridge, you just keep them in the pantry until we need them.”

Max put them away in the pantry and before long everything was off the counters.

Blair said, “Guess what Drew has done?”

“Gee, maybe the invitations?” Jim teased.

“Let me run up and get them. I printed up 30 of them, just in case you needed that many,” Drew said as he took off for his room.

Blair turned to everyone and said, “We’ll all going to love these. He said he made them special for Sam. I don’t know what that means, but at any rate, we’re all going to love them.”

“Gotcha, pop,” Max replied.

“I gotcha too,” Jim said.

Sam was looking in the pantry and not even paying attention to what Blair had said. She was so taken with the sprinkles for the ice cream that she wanted to try them out then.

Drew walked down with the invites and handed one to each of them and Sam said, “Oh pretty. I love this. What does it say?”

[[[invite.jpg]]]

Drew read it to her quickly and said, “So dad and pop, what do you think?”

“I think it’s perfect, son. You did a wonderful job,” Jim said seriously.

“I couldn’t agree with dad more. I knew I asked the right person. You put a lot of thought into it. Thank you, Drew,” Blair said.

“Drew, they’re awesome. Everyone is going to love them,” Max stated.

Drew was bouncing just like Blair did when he was excited and that cracked Jim and Max up.

“Can we invite Mark and Mike over that night? And maybe they could spend the night?” Drew asked.

“That’s a good idea. That way they can spend time with you guys and with Seth and Sam,” Blair said.

“With me?” Sam asked.

“No, honey, the other Sam downstairs,” Blair said.

“Oh that one. He’s cute,” Sam said walking into her room.

!!!!!!!!!!

That night in bed, Jim whispered, “Pink? Did they have to be pink? We are never going to live this one down, babe.”

“Oh shut up and go to sleep,” Blair said snickering. He loved the pink for Sam and thought it was just so thoughtful of Drew to do that. He was the kindest and most gentle person Blair had ever met in his life.

Before long, Jim and Blair had no more thoughts and were sound asleep.

!!!!!!!!!!

For the next four days, they did nothing but shop, plan and clean the house. They had ended up inviting a lot more people then that had planned, so it was going to be a tight fit on the balcony to watch the fireworks. But Jim and Blair also had the window in their bedroom that faced the street too and the older kids could watch from up there if they wanted to.

Simon and Daryl were coming, which pleased Max and Drew to no end. Daryl was such a good kid, he always hung out with the younger kids and never complained about it. Megan Conner was coming with Joel Taggart, Henri Brown and his wife, Sarah were coming, Mike and Mark were coming and so were Denise and the twins. So it was going to be a full house, which was fine by all.

!!!!!!!!!!

Jim started the two grills on the balcony at 5:00, so that he could start dinner by 5:30. Simon came early so he could help Jim cook the meat and visit with him on the balcony. Blair was glad of that, because he was busy in the house getting things ready and set up. They had moved all of the furniture in the living room to one side and put up portable tables and chairs where the furniture used to be. Everyone was going to have a place to sit down.

Blair got the potato salad out and started putting it in serving bowls. Max and Drew were helping. Sam was helping a little bit, but she was more interested in Sponge Bob. Blair finally told her she could watch Sponge Bob until the company started arriving. Then she had to pay attention to the people at the party. She happily went into the living room and turned on the tv.

At 5:30 everyone started arriving and Jim was glad because he was almost done cooking the meat. He put it all on platters and took it into the house for everyone to pick from.

Jim and Simon said hello to everyone that had come in while they were outside and they began to fix their own plates.

Blair said, “Jim could you do one for Sam, please?”

Sam from down stairs said, “I can do my own, Jim, thanks anyway.” Then every one laughed but little Sam. She didn’t get the humor yet.

Before long everyone was sitting at the portable tables and chairs and they were eating happily when Samantha said, “Is it just about time for dessert?”

“It’s always time for dessert, Samantha,” Simon said picking her up and tickling her. She giggled and said, “Uncle Simon do you want to help me put the sparkles on the ice cream?”

“I would love to be your helper. But I think we should wash up first,” Simon said helpfully.

Jim got the ice creams out and took the little lids off of each of them and said, “I need to know what people want on their ice cream. Here is what we have.” He pointed out all of the different syrups and nuts and sparkles to put on it.

Denise said, “I think it’s a given that all of us will be having sparkles on our ice cream.”

Blair laughed and said, “Thank you all for understanding five year olds.”

Conner helped Blair and Jim in the kitchen doing the ice cream for everyone and Simon and Sam did all of the sparkles. She was having the best of times.

Before long, everyone was done with dessert and Jim took folding chairs up to their bedroom and said, “Max, you and all of your friends can watch from up there if you’d like to. It would be quieter and more private. Samantha is going to be jumping around like mad. I thought you might like it better.”

“Max hugged his dad and said, “Thanks, dad. We’ll sit up there, but if Sam needs to join us, then that’s okay too.”

“No, Max, it isn’t okay. You don’t have to give up your life in order to please Samantha. So don’t worry about her. I’m going to be holding her while she watches the light show. She’s going to be in heaven. Pop is going to take a video of it and get her facial expressions because this is her first one.”

“Thanks again, dad.” Max went to find the guys so he could tell them they were going upstairs to watch the show. Before long they headed up to Jim and Blair’s room. Sam saw them and started after them, but Jim caught her just in time.

“Come on, Sam, the show starts in ten minutes. We need to get out here in case it starts early,” Jim said carrying her out onto the balcony.

Everyone watched from there for the balcony doorway and before long the show started. Blair did as promised, he took a video of Samantha seeing her first Fourth of July Show and she was in total awe. Blair whispered, “Jim, do you have your senses down?”

He smiled at Blair and shook his head yes. Jim was no fool, he knew this was going to get louder as the night went on.

Jim could hear the older kids upstairs, including Daryl saying how awesome the show was. Jim was never so happy in his life. This was a perfect day. It was a perfect night. They had wonderful friends and a fantastic family. Jim couldn’t be more pleased or proud.

Before long, Sam was falling asleep on his shoulder and his shoulder was going to sleep. He snuck into Sam’s bedroom and put her in bed and tucked her in for the night. Then he walked out and watched the rest of the show with his friends.

Simon, Conner and Joel stayed long into the night and helped Jim and Blair clean up the place. Jim went upstairs once to see how the boys were doing and found them all asleep on their bed. All seven of them were sound asleep. He walked downstairs and said, “We’re going to be sleeping in Max and Drew’s room tonight. We have seven young men sleeping in our bed.”

Blair burst out laughing and said, “I think the party was a success. We were so hoping that it would go over well. I think it did.”

Simon said, “I’ll wake Daryl up and we’ll go downstairs.”

“Don’t be silly. They’re sleeping. I’m going to throw blankets over them in a minute and we’ll sleep in the other bedroom. Not to worry, Simon. Why don’t you sleep over at Daryl’s tonight?” Jim asked.

“I planned on it. This has been a great night, Jim and Blair. Thank you for inviting us and showing us how fun the Fourth of July is,” Simon stated.

Once they got everyone on their way, they locked up the house, went upstairs and put blankets on all of the boys and left a night light on and then went down and got ready for bed. Jim was exhausted and he knew that Blair had worked hard too. So it was all right that they were in separate beds. There would be no fireworks for them tonight.

Jim got upstairs and Blair climbed into the bed with him and said, “We’re both fitting on this bed, damn it.”

“Okay,” Jim answered and cuddled with his man.

Yes, this had been one red, hot and blue holiday. Jim was happy he had a family to enjoy it with. He knew Blair would have agreed if he wasn’t already asleep. So much for the hot part.

The end.

Family Life Part 35
Not So Rough
By Patt

Word Count: 4,264

This was named by Lisa, Duncan’s Twin and it the story idea was given to me by Helena. She’s so good about giving me ideas. Blame her from now on. 🙂

Simon called Jim into his office, “Ellison.”

Jim walked in and stood in front of Simon’s desk like he’d done something wrong.

“We have a big problem and we need to take care of it soon,” Simon stated.

“What? What’s wrong?” Jim inquired.

“Someone in this room has way too much sick time and vacation time, so he is going to be forced to take a vacation whether he wants to or not. Guess who that someone is?” Simon snickered as he spoke.

“But I would have to take it without Blair. What fun is vacation without your spouse?” Jim asked.

“Well, it just so happens that Sandburg has enough sick time to be sick for a week while you’re on vacation. No one will be the wiser,” Simon pointed out.

“That would be great, Simon. We talked about taking the kids on a camping trip and this would be a perfect time for it. They all just got out of school. I can start making plans right away, couldn’t I?” Jim questioned.

“Go, make plans. You’re off as of Friday,” Simon barked and then shoved Jim out of his office and sat back down at his desk, chewing on his unlit cigar.

Jim was thrilled. Blair was in court all day long, so he could start making plans for a camping trip. He could plan it all and surprise Blair. He knew that Blair would love it, because camping was one of his favorite things.

Jim finished his paperwork he had to get done and then started calling around for cabin’s. Normally they would just stay in a tent with the boys, but with Sam, he didn’t really want to explain to a five year old about peeing in the woods and using a leaf to wipe with. Jim smiled at the thought of it. There were disadvantages to having younger kids that was for sure. At least with the boys, they understood all about camping. Oh well, this was going to be fun no matter what. He found a great cabin that had three bedrooms that slept six people, great kitchen, three bathrooms and a hot tub on the back porch. It also came with a motor boat, Jet Ski’s and life vests. So Jim figured this was the place. He asked how much for a week, the guy told him and he almost fell out of his chair, but then remembered that this was important. They would all remember this week for the rest of their lives. He hoped, anyway. Jim read him off his charge card and got it all taken care of. Jim looked before he called to be sure that Blair had no court dates on the days they were going to be gone. Jim didn’t either. It was turning out well, and Jim wondered what was going to happen to ruin it. Bob, the man who was renting out the cabin to them told him he would have to forfeit half of the amount if cancelled. Jim knew that wasn’t going to happen, so it was no big deal to him.

Blair came walking into the bullpen very grumpy at 4:00 and Jim thought he would wait to tell him about their vacation. He didn’t look in the right frame of mind that was for sure.

Blair sat down at his desk and started flinging things around and said, “I need a fucking vacation.”

Jim figured there was no time like the present. “Well, today is your lucky day then. Guess who is on vacation for a week as of Friday?”

“That’s so mean to tease the person who doesn’t have enough vacation time built up. You’re a cruel, cruel, man,” Blair said snickering.

“No, I’m serious. You’re going to be sick all next week, because you have too much sick time built up and I have too much vacation time built up. We’re leaving Friday morning for a week at a cabin,” Jim explained.

“We don’t need a cabin, Jim. We’ll take tents and rough it,” Blair said smiling.

“We can still rough it in the cabin. I don’t want our daughter to have to pee in the woods,” Jim stated.

“Oh man, I didn’t even think about that. Okay, so we’ll just sleep in sleeping bags on the floor of a little cabin and it’ll be great. I take it that it does have a bathroom,” Blair asked.

“Yeah, it’s got a bathroom. I have the directions to the place and I think we’re all going to love it. There is a gorgeous lake on the property, fishing, camping, boating and swimming. Does this sound like a fun vacation or what?” Jim asked.

“I’m excited. The boys will be thrilled and Samantha will be happy that we’re going anywhere other then to day care. She gets a little tired of that, I think,” Blair said.

“I thought maybe you’d be angry that I made all of the plans,” Jim said.

“No, quite the opposite. I think you’re great for doing it. It shows you care about all of us,” Blair said as he leaned in to Jim and whispered, “You might get lucky later, big guy.”

“Good, if you’re happy, then I’m happy. Only two days to get ready for the trip. So we’ll start shopping tonight for food and paper items. Things like that. It has furniture, silverware, dishes, cups, glasses and a coffee pot, so we don’t have to worry about any of that.”

Blair looked at Jim, for a moment and thought something was out of whack. “Jim, just how rough is this cabin?”

“Okay, it’s not rough. It’s not so rough at all. I’m sorry. I fell in love with the place when I was looking for it and I just jumped at it,” Jim explained.

“Is it too late to get your money back?” Blair asked.

“Why would we get our money back? It’s a great place to go. It’s only two hours from our house and has room for all of us. It’s a super nice place,” Jim exclaimed.

“Wait a minute. Now it’s a super nice place. How much did this cost, Jim?” Blair asked quietly.

“It cost a lot, okay? But I think it’s going to be worth it. I’ll tell you all about it later,” Jim said pretending he was doing paperwork.

“You’ll tell me now,” Blair ordered.

Jim knew that something would go wrong. He already knew that Blair wouldn’t like the place that he chose. He knew it. He was going to lose his fucking money on the cabin and that’s all there was to it. “It’s got three bedrooms, three baths, a full kitchen, a living room with a fireplace, a hot tub on the back porch, swings on the front porch, a power boat, Jet Ski’s and life vests. Do you want to know anything else?”

“Jesus, Jim. This won’t be camping it’ll just be vacationing at a nice condo. The kids won’t have fun at all,” Blair said.

Jim looked heartbroken and said, “If I cancel, I lose half of what I paid for the place. I don’t even want to tell you how much it was.”

“We don’t have to give it up, but it won’t be camping. It just won’t be the same. I know you tried Jim, but I wanted to rough it,” Blair explained.

“You want to take a five year old girl, with all of us guys on a rough it, tough it camping trip? I don’t think so, Blair. Think, man.” Jim almost shouted.

Blair could tell Jim was angry and he didn’t mean to make him angry, he just didn’t like his idea of a vacation. “Whatever, Jim.” Blair pulled out his work and started typing.

“You know what Blair? You make the plans, I’ll cancel these. You handle it, since you know what you want. Go for it,” Jim said and stormed out of the bullpen and into the break room.

Jim got himself a cup of coffee and sat down at the table blowing off a little steam. And not off of the coffee.

Blair walked in and sat across from him and said, “Jim, I don’t want to fight. The kids get upset and it’s not good for any of us. So whatever you decide on, is fine by me.”

“Blair, just make the plans. I’m going to cancel the ones I made and don’t worry about it,” Jim stood up and started to leave.

Blair grabbed his hand and held on tight. “Please don’t be pissed off at me.”

“Blair, just change the plans, okay? We’ve only got two days to plan it, so start now,” Jim pulled his hand away and walked out of the break room. Blair knew he had hurt Jim’s feelings and he was going to have to make up for that later. But for now, he had to decide what to do about the plans. His feelings were a little hurt too and Jim didn’t seem to mind that.

Conner walked in and said, “Trouble in paradise?”

“Conner, you’re a girl, would you go camping with all guys, roughing it when you were five years old?” Blair asked.

“I used to go camping when I was three, I heard. But there is one difference, I grew up around it. Samantha hasn’t grown up around any type of camping. I think I would start out with a cabin with a bathroom first,” Megan suggested.

“That’s what Jim thought too, and I thought he wasn’t giving Sam enough credit. Maybe it’s me that’s wrong,” Blair wondered.

“Is Jim happy with the plans he made?” Conner asked.

“Yes, but he’s mad at me now and told me to make my own plans and he would cancel his,” Blair explained.

“Get out there before he cancels. I think you should go with Jim’s idea this time. Listen to Jim for a change. It will make him happy, Sandy,” Conner shoved him out of the door of the break room.

“Pushy damn broad.” Blair smiled all the way into the bullpen. Jim was on the phone and didn’t look happy at all. Blair got closer and heard him telling the man that something came up and he had to cancel.

Blair sat down and whispered, “I was wrong. You’re right. Let’s go there. It’ll be fun.”

Jim said, “Just a minute, Bob, my partner just informed me that the something that came up is no longer a problem. Could we still have the place as planned?”

Bob answered, “Sure, I’ll drop the key off to you tonight as planned. See you then, Jim.”

Jim hung up the phone and said, “Are you serious about this?”

“I’m as serious as a heart attack. I want us to be a family and have fun. We can still cook outside, we can still go fishing and clean the fish, and it’ll be great. And the nice bedrooms will probably be a god-send at the end of a long day,” Blair said.

“Want to see the kitchen?” Jim asked hopefully.

“I would love to see the kitchen. Bring it up so I can see it,” Blair said moving closer to Jim’s computer.

Jim pulled up the page on the screen and Blair just sat there with his mouth agape. “That’s the kitchen? Holy shit, Jim, that’s nicer then ours at home. And we have a nice kitchen.”

[[[kitchen.jpg]]]

“Isn’t it nice? I figured we can do a lot of cooking in that nice kitchen, but we can grill outdoors too and cook on a homemade fire, too. We can do all of them. This is going to work, babe. You wait and see.” Jim got up and went to tell Simon that they were leaving.

Blair looked at the kitchen again and thought, maybe it wouldn’t be so bad.

Jim came over and closed down his computer. “I told Simon we were leaving for the night and he said to take the next two days off for packing and shopping. He knew we would have to do both. Come on, Chief, let’s get out of here.”

Jim was so happy and looked thrilled to be alive. Blair was glad that he went along with Jim, because Jim really was trying hard to make it a perfect vacation. Too bad, Blair hadn’t had the chance first. He truly believed that they could have had more fun in tents, but now it was too late.

On the drive home, Jim noticed that Blair wasn’t as happy as he was. “Oh for crying out loud, you really don’t want to go there do you?”

“I’ll get used to it as time goes on. Stop worrying,” Blair assured him.

“You can’t fool a Sentinel. I know you’re lying. I know you wanted to take tents, but I disagree. When she’s older, yes, but not now. I had to make a judgment call and I think I made the right one.”

“Jim, you made the plans, so stop worrying about them. The kids will probably think they’re cool plans. Wait and see what they say,” Blair said coldly.

Jim knew right then he wasn’t getting any sex that night. That was too bad too because Jim was horny. God damn my stupid ideas.

They stopped by the day care and Blair walked in and got Samantha. She was very happy to see her poppy and daddy.

The drive home was really quiet.

They parked in the parking lot at the loft and Blair jumped out, grabbed Samantha and started walking away from Jim before Jim even got out of the truck. Oh yeah, Blair was pissed off all right.

Jim got into the loft and Drew said, “What happened? Pop looked upset when he came through. He said he was fine, but he didn’t look fine. And Samantha looked upset.”

“Get Max and your sister and we’ll have a talk,” Jim said seriously.

Drew was upset right away. He rushed upstairs and got Max and told him to hurry down. They he went into Sam’s room and got her for the talk.

They all sat at the table and Jim called Blair down from the loft bedroom. “Chief, we’re going to have a family discussion; it would be nice if the entire family was here for it.”

Blair walked down and sat down at the table and said, “So tell them.”

“Kids, I did something really stupid today, I made plans for a vacation without asking anyone else what they would like to do. I got us a cabin for a camping trip and pop wanted to go with tents and no bathrooms. He wanted to rough it and I thought because of Sam, we should have a bathroom, at least. But I should have asked Sam and you boys. I’m sorry, that I didn’t think of anyone else before I paid for the week.” Jim said sadly.

“Where are we going? What’s wrong with a cabin, pop?” Drew asked.

“I wanted us to rough it, cook, eat, sleep and live out of tents. I just thought it would be more fun that way,” Blair said simply.

“Okay, if you’re asking my opinion, I would vote for the cabin. I like having a bathroom. I’m not big on roughing it at all. So I’m with dad on this,” Drew said.

Max said, “See, it doesn’t’ matter to me. As long as we all go and have fun, that’s what’s most important. I think a cabin sounds great, pop. Maybe dad did an okay job.”

Samantha said, “I have to pee outside?” She looked horrified.

Blair said, “Okay, I now see why dad made this call. Okay, we’re going to a cabin, Sam. So there are bathrooms. There are three of them to be exact. Each of us will have our own rooms and it’s got a great kitchen. Makes ours seem like nothing. Your dad did a good job choosing it.”

Jim looked over at Blair and said, “It’s not too late for a change, Blair.”

“It would be for Samantha. She would be traumatized. We don’t want to do that to her do we? You made the right call. Now who wants to help me with dinner?” Blair asked.

Drew said, “I’ll help, but I still want to hear about the trip. Like when are we going and where and stuff like that.”

Blair pulled him into the kitchen and said, “I’ll tell you all about it while we cook.”

Max said, “Are you going to tell us about it?”

“I sure am,” Jim said. He proceeded to tell Max and Sam all about the boat, the Jet Ski’s, the cabin, the kitchen, the lake, the hot tub and how much fun it was going to be.

Max hugged Jim’s shoulders while he was still sitting down and said, “Sounds great to me, dad.” Max walked into the kitchen and said, “Did pop tell you about the Jet Ski’s and the hot tub?”

The boys started talking like crazy in the kitchen and Sam looked at Jim and said, “Maybe he needs a kiss.”

“Who?” Jim asked.

“Poppy, who else?” Sam asked.

“Did he look like he needed a kiss to you, Sam?”

“You looked like you needed to kiss him,” Sam answered and walked back into her room.

Jim shook his head and wondered about her sometimes. She seemed so wise most of the time.

Jim walked into the kitchen and said, “I need a kiss.”

Blair smiled at him and leaned into Jim for a much needed kiss. But Jim could tell the passion wasn’t there. He wasn’t forgiven yet. It might take some time.

!!!!!!!!!!

That night, Blair didn’t talk to Jim at all and Jim let him think about it. Jim didn’t want to push Blair into loving him during these times and he sure didn’t want to make him pretend he was happy when he wasn’t.

!!!!!!!!!!

For the next two days, Jim, Blair and the kids did all of the grocery shopping and for anything else they would need for camping. While they were at the camping store, Jim asked Samantha if she knew how to swim.

“Nope, I never learned to swim,” she answered.

Jim picked up a special vest for swimming and put it in the cart. Blair said, “I can teach her while we’re there. “

“So we don’t need this at all?” Jim asked.

“No, I can teach her how to swim. We won’t leave her alone near the edge until she’s good at it. It might take the entire week,” Blair explained.

Jim put the vest back and smiled at Blair. Okay, you’re the boss of teaching her to swim, because I sure don’t know where to start.”

!!!!!!!!!!

That night, Blair at least slept in Jim’s sleeping area. So Jim felt like he was getting somewhere. But he still didn’t push Blair at all. Jim was horny and lonely, but knew that Blair had to come first.

!!!!!!!!!!

On Friday morning, they all got ready to go and loaded up the SUV and were out of the loft by 7:30 in the morning. Blair had made a quick breakfast for everyone and they even got it all cleaned up before they left.

The drive to the cabin was only going to take two hours, so Jim hoped Blair would talk to him on the way. He wasn’t that lucky. Blair just looked out the window and seemed lost in thought.

“Have I mentioned lately, how much I love all of you?” Jim asked.

Blair turned his head and smiled at Jim. It wasn’t a perfect smile, but it was the beginning of one.

“You tell us all the time,” Max answered.

“Good, I’m glad because I do love all of you,” Jim said again.

“Daddy are we there yet?” Sam asked and they all burst out laughing. Even Blair.

“What’s so funny?” Sam asked turned to each of her brothers for an answer.

“You’re funny, cutie pie,” Max said happily.

“Did you hear that, poppy? I’m funny and Max’s cutie pie,” Sam said cheerfully.

“Yes, I did hear it. You’re going to have such fun with the boys. You just wait and see,” Blair said as he continued to look out the window.

Jim grabbed Blair’s hand and held it tightly in his hand. He wanted Blair to know how much he meant to him without saying a word. Max saw Jim grab Blair’s hand and jabbed Drew on the side and said, “He’s trying to make up with pop.”

Jim glanced around at the boys and said, “Did you forget you were in a SUV with someone that can hear really well?”

The boys laughed and so did Blair. He didn’t pull his hand away from Jim which was a good sign, Jim guessed.

As they drove into the driveway of the cabin, they all stared in awe at how beautiful it was. Not the cabin, but the woods and the lake. It was just gorgeous.

Now they just had to unpack everything. That was always the hard part.

!!!!!!!!!!

Sam asked Blair, “Could we go swimming now?”

“I guess we could. Come on, we’ll head on down there and they guys can meet us there when they’re done putting everything away,” Blair said.

Blair got his swim trunks on and they walked out of the cabin and down to the lake. The edge of the lake was very shallow, so that would make it nice for swimming lessons. Blair started teaching her right away. She was a very quick learner. Before long she was floating and this was the first two hours of swimming. Blair had a feeling that she had learned to swim somewhere, and she just didn’t remember.

Jim, Max and Drew walked down and saw her floating and as soon as she stood up they all clapped. She loved the attention. “Poppy taught me this right now.”

“You are really good, poppy,” Jim said.

“I think she might have had lessons at some time in her life and doesn’t’ remember. She’s catching on really quickly. She’s already swimming a breast stroke.” Blair was proud of her.

They all went swimming and Jim and Blair stayed with Sam so that she was safe.

At about noon, Max said, “Could we get out and get something to eat?”

“Good idea, Max,” Blair said as he grabbed the towels for he and Samantha to dry off with.

Jim missed Blair. He still was avoiding his eyes and Jim just missed him. He leaned into Blair and said, “I miss you.”

Blair didn’t answer and walked with Sam back up to the cabin. Drew said, “He’ll forgive you, dad. He always does.”

“Is he mad at me a lot?” Jim asked.

“I wouldn’t say a lot, but you guys do need to stop arguing about everything. You each are set in your ways and don’t want to give in. Someone has to give in,” Max explained.

“I’ll give in today. I promise,” Jim said sadly. He never wanted their lives to be filled with strife.

“Dad, we’re fine. Stop worrying about us. We know you two will work things out and everything will be fine. You love each other, that’s what counts,” Drew said sounding much older then he was.

“Thank you, boys for pointing out my problems. I’m going to take care of it today. I don’t even know why I’m apologizing, but someone has to.”

Max and Drew started walking back to the house with a big smile on their faces.

!!!!!!!!!!

Sam needed a nap, so she lay down for about an hour. Max and Drew went into the hot tub and lounged there. Jim knew this was his moment.

“Blair, are you going to forgive me?”

“What are you asking to be forgiven for?” Blair asked.

“For being an ass. I should have talked to you first. We might have still come here after talking to the kids, but I didn’t give you a chance to have a say in it. I’m sorry,” Jim said sadly.

“Thank you for admitting you might be wrong. I was just hurt. I get my feelings hurt just like anyone else, Jim. Sometimes you act like I’m some super person or something. I’m not. I forgive you, if you can forgive me for being so moody.”

“I love you, Chief.”

“I love you, back,” Jim replied and then they were making out on the sofa.

Jim pulled away and said, “Later, gator. The boys are on the way back in.”

“Gator? God, you’ve been spending way too much time with Sam, that’s for certain,” Blair said happily.

“Why don’t the two of you go out to the hot tub while Sam is sleeping and we’ll watch out for her? Have some time alone,” Max suggested.

“Thank you, Max, I believe we will take you up on that,” Blair said and walked out the back door. Jim followed. They both still had their trunks on, so they were all ready to get in.

“They’re making up,” Max said to Drew.

“Thank goodness for that,” Drew answered.

“This is going to be the best vacation ever,” Max exclaimed.

And it was.

The end

Family Life Part 36
For Better or For Worse
By Patt

Word Count: 4.653

Here is another story idea from Helena. I thought this one might be fun. We’ll see if the boys can get along long enough to do this. I always have to throw angst in these darn things. 🙂

The camping trip turned out to be a big success story and both Jim and Blair were pleased about that, because it had started out rather badly. The kids were tan and happy once they arrived home and the guys couldn’t have been more thrilled about any of it.

Blair decided to go to the grocery store with Samantha. While they were gone, Jim was upstairs putting away some of the wash they had done when Max and Drew walked up the stairs. They seldom came upstairs, so Jim listened to see if they were upset about something, but their heart rates were normal. They weren’t upset, thankfully so.

“Is it okay if we come up?” Max called out.

“Come on up, you two. You know you’re always welcome up here,” Jim said.

“We have a good idea and thought you might want to do it. Do you want to hear our idea?” Drew asked.

“Sure, what’s your idea?” Jim asked.

“Sit down first,” Max advised.

Jim wasn’t sure this sounded like a good idea any more. He sat on the bed and said, “Hit me with your best shot.”

“You really love pop, right?” Drew asked.

Jim tried to figure out where this was going. “Of course I really love pop. Now what’s up?”

“We think you should take him out for dinner tonight and ask him to marry you. We could have the wedding here at the house. Drew and I would make the wedding cake since we’ve been practicing making and decorating cakes. We’re getting good at it. We sell them at school. Its part of the class we’re taking. We could order some food from a company and all that leaves is flowers and the rings. What do you think of the idea?” Max asked.

“What brought this on, boys?” Jim asked.

“We think pop would love it and we both know you like to make pop happy. So what do you think?” Drew answered.

“I think it’s a great idea. I’ll do it. Will you watch Sam tonight while I take pop to dinner?” Jim inquired.

“We would love to. We can start making plans while you’re gone. You just have a good time and ask him to marry you,” Max bossed.

“Come here you two,” Jim said opening his arms wide. Both boys walked into his big arms and let Jim hug on them for awhile. Then they all walked downstairs to wait for Blair and Sam to get home.

Max said, “We already have the cake idea for the reception. We can’t wait to do this.”

“I can’t believe you’re willing to do all of this. It’s so nice of both of you to care. Thank you. Pop is home, so let’s go down and help with groceries.” Jim suggested.

They all walked down and Blair said, “Gee, fancy meeting you all down here.”

Sam’s face lit up when she saw her brothers and said, “Hi Max, hi Drew. I got to pick us out some special ice cream at the store. Poppy let me.”

“I’m sure it’s good ice cream, Sam. I can’t wait to taste it,” Drew said as he grabbed two bags and walked up the stairs.

Max grabbed two bags and turned and walked away. Sam carried one and Jim and Blair carried two each. Blair loved having Jim hearing him when he drove up so he didn’t have to make extra trips down to the car for groceries.

Once they got upstairs, they unloaded all of the bags, everyone helped. Max put the special ice cream away in the freezer so it wouldn’t melt.

“Blair, I asked the boys if they would watch Sam tonight so I could take you out for dinner. I have some things to discuss with you,” Jim said.

“Sure, that would be nice, Jim. Thank you for asking,” Blair stretched up and kissed Jim on his lips.

“They’re always kissing,” Sam said giggling her little girl giggles.

“That means they’re happy, Sam, so it’s good when they kiss,” Max explained to Sam.

Jim and Blair got ready to go and Blair said, “Are you sure you don’t want to come along?”

Max and Drew looked horrified. Max answered, “No, we’re going to watch The Tooth Fairy with Sam tonight. So you guys have fun and take your time.”

Blair hugged all three of the kids before he walked out the door. Jim did the same and made sure and reminded them to lock up after they left. Jim was paranoid all of the time.

!!!!!!!!!!

They got into the SUV and Blair said, “So who’s idea was this?”

“You think I can’t ask you out to dinner on my own?” Jim asked, he sighed when he knew Blair could tell and said, “It was Drew and Max’s idea, but I really liked the idea, does that count?”

Blair laughed and said, “So where are we going?”

“Claim Jumper and tonight is really, really special,” Jim replied.

“All right, what’s going on?” Blair asked, not being able to wait for the explanation.

“Just wait until we’re at dinner, its super special,” Jim answered.

Blair looked over at Jim and sighed. He hated surprises. He couldn’t stand the suspense, but if it was this important to Jim, then so be it.

They talked about getting back to work the next day and got to the restaurant in record time. Jim gave his name when they walked in and were seated right away. Jim was glad of that. He found himself getting a little nervous. The idea of being married again scared him a little bit. After all, he didn’t do marriage the first time that well.

They ordered their drinks and Blair waited hopefully and still Jim didn’t say anything special. Then they ordered the meal and it came to the table and they were eating and Blair couldn’t take it any longer.

“Oh for God’s sake, ask me already,” Blair whispered.

“You already know what I’m going to ask, don’t you?” Jim inquired.

“Ask me,” Blair ordered sweetly.

“Blair, I love you more then anything in the world, would you do me the honor of marrying me and making me a very happy man?” Jim spat it out as quickly as he could and was getting nauseated as he asked. He was sure his face was turning green, he felt so sick.

“You know Jim you could have asked me a little bit differently. You don’t act like you really mean it. What’s up, man?” Blair wondered.

“I’m nervous, all right? Geeze, you’re going to pick on me about the way I ask?” Jim replied.

“Okay, okay. I get that you’re nervous, so I’ll answer quickly. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. Does that answer your question?” Blair said happily. He leaned across the table and kissed Jim right there in the middle of Claim Jumper.

Jim kissed him back with as much passion as a person could have trying not to throw up. “Thank you, Chief. You made it actually quite easy to ask. I’m just paranoid, you know me.”

“I do know you, are you worried about a failed marriage?” Blair asked.

“Right again. If I couldn’t make her happy, what makes me think I can make you happy?” Jim looked totally disgusted with himself.

Blair almost laughed as he answered, “First of all, we’ve been together for five years and I’m happy as can be. Sure we argue, but that’s good for a relationship. How long were you with Carolyn?”

“Two years, total,” Jim replied.

“See, we’re way ahead of the game already. So try not to worry so much. I think it’s so great that the boys wanted us to get married. How cute is that, Jim?”

“I know, we couldn’t have asked for better kids. Drew and Max are doing the wedding cake. They said they’ve been learning to decorate and things like that at school. So they’re in charge of our cake. Drew said he already has it designed. Max is going to help him and then he’s going to help me get a caterer for the wedding and anything else that comes up. Now who are we going to get to perform the ceremony?”

“I say we ask Brother Jeremy and Brother Marcus to come and witness it. It’s not like its legal or anything so why couldn’t they be the ones that pronounce us husband and husband?” Blair asked.

“I never thought of asking them that would be wonderful. We haven’t seen them in such a long while. You’ll call them tomorrow?” Jim questioned.

“First of all, when is our big day going to happen?” Blair remarked.

“I would guess in two or three weeks? Drew is going to make up the invitations and I think we can get it all done in three weeks,” Jim guessed.

“Jim, I mean, what is going to be our date of our anniversary from here on in?”

“Oh, I see what you mean. Well, why don’t we go for July 25th? That’s a Sunday and Sunday is a good day for a wedding, I think. Don’t you?” Jim asked.

“July 25th sounds fantastic, lover. Thank you for asking me. Are we going to ask Conner to stay with the kids while we go to a hotel for our honeymoon?” Blair teased.

“You know, that’s not a bad idea. I bet she’d love to stay. We’ll put fresh sheets on the bed and she can stay in our room and we wouldn’t have to worry about anything with her in the house. Good thinking, Chief.”

“I was kidding, but if you like the idea, we need to put in for that following day off with Simon,” Blair reminded him.

Jim took out a notebook from his jacket and Blair started to laugh. “Jim, we have plenty of time for notes.”

“I want to write it down, while it’s still fresh in my mind. As old as I’m getting, it doesn’t stay fresh long,” Jim joked.

Blair leaned across the table and kissed Jim again. Blair never did that in public places, so Jim knew Blair was totally happy. Jim was glad he could make Blair that content. Maybe things would be fine. God, I hope so.

When they were all done with dinner, they left the restaurant acting like two guys that had just fallen in love, instead of being two old timers.

!!!!!!!!!!

“What do you think of this design for the invitations?” Drew asked Max and Sam.

Sam said, “Oh I like this, it’s very pretty, but it could be more colorful.”

Drew sighed and started looking for a better background. Max patted him on the back and said, “Why don’t you show that to dad and pop when they come home?”

“I want it to be perfect for what we need. This one has room at the top for Jim and Blair and at the bottom for mine and your cell phone numbers. It’s perfect for that, but I’m not sure they’ll like the colors,” Drew fussed.

Max looked at the printed up piece one again and said, “I love it. I think they should use this date and everything. It looks perfect the way it is.”

[[[weddinginvite.jpg]]]

“You’re way too easy on me, Max. You have to help me make it perfect.”

“But, Drew, I think it’s perfect now. It’s going to have green in it and so is the cake. It’s going to match. We’ll do the paper goods in a light green or a bright green if that’s all right with you,” Max suggested.

“Oh I never thought of just changing the colors for the party itself. That’s perfect. Now we need to go to Party City online and figure out how many things we need. Or do we want them printed with Jim and Blair on them?” Drew asked.

“I think that’s for a huge fancy wedding, Drew. For this small one at the house, I think just napkins, plates, bowls, silverware and cups for punch will be fine. We can get dad’s credit card number and get everything ordered this week. That way that will all be done. It’ll take a little bit of work to get all of the things we need for the cake, but it’s going to be worth it when they see it. I think we should ask Daryl if we can make it at his house, so dad and pop won’t see it ahead of time,” Max commented.

“Oh good thinking. We’ll talk to Daryl tomorrow. This isn’t going to be too hard, I don’t think. How many people are we going to invite anyhow?” Drew asked.

“We’re going to have to ask dad and pop about that. I have no idea. Grampa might want to invite some people and same with Naomi. So we’d better get a hold of them too,” Max said.

“I’m writing all of this down so we won’t forget anything. We’ll get it all taken care of so the only thing dad will have to do is pick up some flowers for the house if he wants to. Max, do we need to wear tuxes or can we just wear our new suits?”

“Our suits are fine. It’s not a fancy wedding, so this is cool,” Max answered.

“I’m getting excited, are you?” Drew asked.

“Yeah, I’m anxious to hear how it went at dinner,” Max said as he looked at the picture that Sam was drawing for the wedding. “Nice picture, Sam. That’s great.”

“Thank you Max,” Sam replied and smiled.

Jim and Blair walked into the loft and Jim said, “We’re home.”

All three of the kids came running down from the bedroom at the same time. It cracked Blair up. He knew they all knew about it before he did.

“I said yes,” Blair shouted out.

Drew, Max and Sam all hugged him and said, “Congratulations you two.”

Max said, “Drew has some invitations he finished tonight and he’s having a nervous breakdown about them, so he wanted to show you and see if you hated them or not.”

“Max, I can show them tomorrow,” Drew whined.

“Drew you’ll never go to sleep tonight. Just run up and get it and bring it down so they can see it.”

Jim said, “Run and get it and we’ll have a look see. Then we’ll tell you when the big day is.”

Drew flew like the wind up the stairs and back again and showed them the printed version on card stock paper. It looked very nice. Max didn’t know why Drew was so nervous about it.

“Oh Drew, I love this. I love the green color, green is one of my favorites and guess what? You chose the same day on your pretend invitation as what is really going to be our date. We’re going to get married on the 25th. You even put the correct times that we wanted to put on there. So you did a good job, Drew. Thank you very much. How many do we need, Jim?”

“We don’t want to invite too many people, because we’re having it here. So let’s keep it small. Maybe ten people from work any friends the kids want to have and the grandparents of course. So maybe 30 in all? Jim answered.

“I’ll do 40 up, just in case,” Drew countered.

“Dad, could we have a credit card for all of the paper goods? We’re ordering from Party City. Nothing fancy, just plain light green or bright green plates and accessories. We would never use it for anything else,” Max said.

“Sure, here’s my visa card. Just give it to me tomorrow. And be sure and print out a receipt so I know how much we’re spending all month. Thank you so much boys for doing all of this work,” Jim said.

“Well we can’t do the caterer, because we don’t know how to do that. But we are doing the cake and we’ll get the ice cream. This is going to be a blast. I thought some oldies music would be good for the CD player,” Max suggested.

“I’ll take care of the caterer, pop will take care of the minister for the ceremony and all that leaves is the cake. I don’t think we need a ton of flowers, do you, Blair?” Jim asked.

“No, I don’t want any flowers, it would be too someone else, not us. So I think we’re just about done,” Blair said happily.

“Tomorrow is our day off and we’re going to look at rings, so don’t make any plans, okay?” Jim said.

“Oh like I would do something else instead of getting rings. You nut. Sounds good to me,” Blair admitted and went into the kitchen for a bottle of water and grabbed one for Jim while he was there.

He came back out, handed the water to Jim and Jim smiled brightly. “Is there anything, anyone else can think of?” Jim said.

“We need to make some of that wonderful sherbet punch, do you know the one I’m talking about?” Max asked.

“No, what are you talking about?” Jim replied.

Max smiled and said, “It’s so good. You take two half-gallon cartons of strawberry sherbet, or whatever kind of sherbet you want to use and throw it in a punch bowl and add two bottles of Sprite or Seven-up and it’s done. It makes the best punch you’ve ever tasted. I’ll swear to it.”

Drew said, “It is good. The best I’ve ever had too.”

Blair said, “Then we’ll get plenty of sherbet and Sprite and you two can be in charge of the punch bowls. See if they have them at Party City and buy at least two, if not three.”

“Oh I bet they do have them, pop. We’ll see to it that it’s all taken care of,” Drew said happily.

“You boys are certainly taking this whole wedding thing well, “Jim said.

“We love the idea of you guys being together forever. To us, that means a marriage, so things are going to be great, you wait and see. Not everyone stays together, but we can tell you two will. Now we’re going to go upstairs and order some items from Party City. We’ll see you all in the morning,” Max said.

Jim hugged both of them goodnight and so did Sam. Then Blair followed suit. Jim and Blair got Sam all ready for bed and read her a book. She was out like a light within minutes. Jim was glad because he wanted to cuddle with Blair.

!!!!!!!!!!

Jim came upstairs after getting ready for bed and locking everything up downstairs and found a naked Blair waiting in bed for him.

“Oh my, something looks like it needs some attention,” Jim said as he went between Blair’s legs and started sucking his Guide’s cock.

Blair lay back and let Jim do his duty and he did it well. It wasn’t long and Blair was moaning into his pillow. They tried not to be too loud in their lovemaking, because they didn’t want to upset the kiddo’s.

Jim jumped up from the bed, stripped his clothes off and stood beside the bed standing proudly, waiting for Blair to come and do his thing.

“Fuck me, Jim.”

“Oh the things you make me do,” Jim whined with a smile on his face and he did just that.

!!!!!!!!!!

Upstairs on the other side of the loft, Max and Drew had ordered plenty of paper plates, cups, silverware, napkins and table covers. Then they found exactly what they were looking for in a punch bowl and ordered three of them. When they finished picking everything out, they paid for it and hit send. They felt good about helping with the planning of the wedding.

Drew then printed up all of the invitations; they folded them in half and put them in the large envelopes. They stacked all of them up nicely to give to Jim and Blair the next day.

“Who are we going to invite?” Max asked.

“Mark and Mike, Seth, Sam and Denise, Daryl and I think that’s about it for us. What do you think?” Drew asked.

“I was thinking maybe we should invite our old case worker. She would like to see how happy we all are,” Max supposed.

“No, remember dad said let’s keep it small. Just friends and family for us and that will be enough,” Drew said.

“We won’t start the cake until the day before, because we want it to be fresh, right?” Max asked.

“Oh yeah, I wasn’t even thinking. It’s not like Daryl has enough room for the cake once it’s put together. It’s going to be so nice. Are you excited about making it?” Drew wondered.

“Heck yes. I think it’s going to be one of the nicest cakes ever made. It’ll mean a lot to them anyway because we did it. They’re funny about home made things,” Max assured him.

“I forgot to ask, Max, are you going to invite Misty to the wedding?”

“Yup, I planned on it. You don’t think they’ll mind do you?” Max wondered.

“No, they like Misty a lot. So they’ll be glad to see her with you. I wish I had a girlfriend,” Drew said wistfully.

“I didn’t get one until this year, Drew. It takes time. Give yourself a break,” Max teased.

“I don’t know about you, but I’m tired,” Drew said as he stretched and yawned.

Max smiled at his little brother and said, “You go ahead first and I’ll go last to the bathroom.”

Before long everyone in the house was asleep and Jim listened a few times to noises he thought he heard, but it was just all of the different heart beats he had in his home. They lulled him back to sleep in no time.

!!!!!!!!!!

Blair had called Brother Jeremy and Marcus and they both said they would come. Brother Jeremy said he would preside over the service for them since it wasn’t legal, it didn’t really matter. This made Blair a little sad from time to time, but he realized that some day in the future they might be able to do it for real.

Things were going along smoothly. Blair noticed that Party City delivered four big boxes to Drew and Max. He hoped they didn’t over order. He hated wasting paper.

Jim had called a caterer and had set that up, so it wasn’t too expensive since it was a small affair. Jim chose finger food instead of a meal and hoped he chose right. Blair seemed to agree with him and things were getting right down to the wire.

!!!!!!!!!!

The day of the wedding, Jim and Blair had seen Drew and Max for only about ten minutes. They were putting the finishing touches on the cake and didn’t want to screw anything up. Jim and Blair had their suits on for the wedding and they got Samantha dressed in a darling dress. Since it was an all male wedding, the Bridesmaid and Maid of Honor were both going to be males. The two best men were Drew and Max. Jim and Blair had decided that they would let Sam be the ring bearer. She was going to be in charge of carrying the pillow with the matching rings on it. Simon was the Maid of Honor which made everyone laugh, but Simon was proud to do it. Joel was the Bridesmaid and that rounded out about everyone. Henri Brown was going to play keyboard music and sing after the service. Everything was going to be perfect.

Jim turned to Blair and said, “I hope the cake is turning out all right.”

“Jim, it doesn’t matter about the cake. It’s the fact that the boys made it for us that counts. So don’t be surprised if it’s not what we’re expecting. We’ll still love it.”

At that moment, Drew opened the door and in walked Daryl and Max carrying the cake. Each layer was bigger then the one above it. There were six layers and they were done in Gay Pride colors. On each layer it said, “Jim and Blair forever.” It was beautiful. On top, there were two male figures standing looking happy. Jim and Blair were stunned.

[[[weddingcake.jpg]]]

“You don’t like it?” Drew asked, scared to death.

“Oh God, we love it. It’s beautiful. We weren’t expecting anything this nice. What kind of cake is it?” Blair asked as he hugged each of the boys.

“Well, we know you like yellow, so we made every other yellow and the opposite is chocolate. The frosting is all whipped cream, so we have to keep it cool or it’ll be ruined,” Max said happily.

Naomi and William walked in the front door and Naomi said, “Where did you get the cake made, its perfect?”

“It’s hand made by Drew and Max, with help from Daryl. Isn’t it incredible?” Jim asked.

William hugged both of the boys and said, “You did your fathers proud.”

Blair said, “Well, everyone should be here in a moment. I just want to take this free time to tell you all how much you mean to us. Without you, we never would have had this day.”

Jim said, “I couldn’t agree with Blair more. It’s been an honor working with our children and friends getting everything ready.

The doorbell sounded and people began to come in and everyone loved the cake. Blair took video of it and pictures, because he wanted to be able to remember it all when they looked back years from now.

William took over the video camera and Naomi took over the digital camera so the boys could get ready for the ceremony.

Brother Jeremy and Marcus stood on the balcony and held a paper with words that Jim and Blair had written for them to say.

Jim and Blair stood before them with Samantha in between holding the pillow with rings like her life depended on it. On one side of them they were flanked by Joel and Simon and the other side Drew and Max. Conner took over the picture taking because Naomi was overwrought and Henri was playing a pretty love theme song softly in the background.

All in all, the wedding was wonderful. Everything went as planned. The food was delectable, the punch was the best Jim and Blair had ever tasted and the cake was delicious also. There had been no wine or champagne in the ceremony because Jim and Blair didn’t really drink it and felt it was a silly tradition when you don’t like the stuff.

Conner was going to stay all night with the kids, so Jim and Blair already had a bag packed and put in the SUV waiting for them downstairs. They were spending the night alone. They could be as loud as they wanted to be if they felt like it. Jim definitely felt like it. So did Blair.

Jim and Blair took turns dancing with Samantha and finally Simon took over for her dancing partner. Simon said, “You guys need to leave.”

Jim and Blair said their goodbyes to everyone and walked out the door. They practically rushed down the stairs to get to the SUV so they could start their honeymoon.

Everything had turned out beautifully and they couldn’t have been happier. Jim realized that he was happy. Blair was happy. This was a good thing.

And it was.

The end.

Family Life Part 37
Forgiveness
By Patt

Word Count: 3,263

Helena wanted Simon and Rafe to get together in the end, so this is my take on how it might have happened.

About two months after the wedding, Jim and Blair were getting ready for the poker game when there was a knock on the door. It was way too soon for anyone to be showing up for poker, so Blair wondered who it was. Jim sniffed the air and said, “It’s Simon.”

Blair went and answered the door and said, “Hey Simon, how’s it going?”

“Everything is fine. I was wondering if I could talk to Jim alone for a little while,” Simon asked.

“Is everything all right with Daryl?” Blair asked worriedly.

“Calm down, Blair, everyone is fine. This is personal between me and Jim.”

“Relax,” Blair said smiling, “sit down on the sofa and I’ll have him grab you a beer.”

“Thanks,” Simon went and sat down on the sofa but looked anything but relaxed.

Jim came walking out of the kitchen with two beers and smiled at Blair. “This shouldn’t take too long, Chief and then I’ll finish helping you get everything ready for poker.”

Jim walked in and said, “Hi Simon, here is a beer.”

Simon took the beer gratefully and said, “I don’t know that I should open it yet. I don’t know that you’ll want to have anything to do with me anymore when you find out who I’m seeing.”

Jim tensed up, because he couldn’t figure out who Simon would be seeing that would upset him at all. In fact, he couldn’t think of one person that would upset him. Even if it were Carolyn, he would wish them luck and hope he had better luck then Jim had.

“Open your beer and relax,” Jim said, “just tell me what’s going on.”

“I’ve been seeing someone for three weeks now and I know you won’t approve, so I wanted to tell you before you found out from someone else. It wasn’t like it was planned,” Simon stated.

Jim took a long drink from his beer and said, “Carolyn?”

“Oh Jim, I would never date your ex-wife. You thought I meant Carolyn?” Simon inquired.

“Well in that case, I guess it doesn’t matter to me. No one else would bother me that I know of. Just talk to me, Simon.”

“I’ve been seeing a man for about three weeks and I really wanted to tell you about it,” Simon started.

“Geeze Simon, I think you know we would understand the whole gay thing, although, I’m somewhat surprised. I didn’t know you swung that way,” Jim confessed.

“I did in college and a few times after the divorce from Joan, but mostly I tried to stay away from everyone that involved emotions. But now I find myself in love and don’t know what to do with it,” Simon explained.

“Why are you worried, we’ll be thrilled for you,” Jim said honestly.

“You might not be too thrilled when you find out with who,” Simon admitted and hoped Jim would guess without him having to say another word.

“Simon, you should be able to be in love with whoever you want to be in love with. Why should it matter about what I think? Unless you’re dating someone I used to date before Blair, I don’t see a problem,” Jim remarked.

“I really thought you would figure out who it was before now,” Simon commented.

“For crying out loud, Simon, just tell me who it is and we’ll move on with the evening,” Jim said sounding less happy about it suddenly.

Simon got up and began to pace the living room and said, “I didn’t mean for it to happen. We met, had dinner and things just went from there. And before we knew what was really happening we were in love.”

Jim went over and sniffed Simon and stood back abruptly. He now knew who it was. Simon was right, it didn’t make Jim happy. He could smell Brian Rafe all over Simon’s clothes.

“You’re right, I’m not happy, but I don’t have to be. I’m not dating him, you are,” Jim replied.

Simon felt the need to justify his decision and said, “Jim, it started with dinner. He told me a few things about how he felt about you and Blair and we talked all night long. We had dinner again after that and I knew that we were both attracted to each other. We couldn’t help it. I was hoping you would understand.”

Now Jim stood up and got into Simon’s space and said, “Why does it matter what I think? I don’t want to know about you and Rafe. Now you’ve told me, so you don’t have to worry about me finding out from anyone else. My opinion doesn’t count anyway. When it comes to Rafe, I have none.”

“Jim, I’m with him now. He moved into my house and we’re trying this whole living together thing. It looks like I won’t be coming to poker night anymore because I can’t come over here and leave him home alone. That would just be shitty. Do you understand what I mean?” Simon was pleading for some type of forgiveness, but Jim wasn’t buying into it at all.

“So because you have bad judgment, you’re never coming to our house again? What? Is he down in your car now waiting? I don’t fucking believe you just want me to forget about what he did to me. I’m not going to. You do what you want. Leave me out of it,” Jim said and left the room and walked upstairs.

Blair came walking out of the kitchen and saw Simon standing there alone and said, “Where is Jim?”

“He’s angry with me right now and is upstairs. I better leave,” Simon said as he started for the door.

“Wait a moment, what is going on?” Blair asked.

“I’ll cut to the chase. I’ve been seeing Rafe for the last three weeks and he moved into my house this last weekend. I didn’t want Jim to find out from someone else. So I felt the need to tell him.”

“This made him go upstairs? We don’t care who you date, that’s not our business,” Blair replied.

“Well Jim cared and he wasn’t happy when I told him I couldn’t come to poker night anymore,” Simon explained.

“You’re never coming to poker night again?” Blair asked shocked to his very core.

“Sandburg, it’s not like I can just leave him at home while I come and have a good time without him,” Simon exclaimed.

“Yeah, you’re right, but it probably hurt Jim’s feelings. It’s going to take him a while to get over this. That much I can promise you,” Blair confessed.

Simon handed his beer to Blair and said, “I need to get downstairs. Rafe is waiting in the car for me.”

Blair took the beer and stood there looking shocked and somewhat pissed. He followed Simon to the front door and then closed and locked it after Simon left.

Blair dumped the beer down the sink and looked upstairs to see if he could see Jim milling around or anything, but he saw nothing. Blair didn’t even know what to say to Jim. How do you forgive your boss for falling in love? I mean it wasn’t like he went looking for it. It just happened. Surely Jim understood that part, right?

Jim came walking down the stairs and said, “I’ll help you get things ready if anyone is still coming.”

“Why wouldn’t everyone be coming, except for Simon?” Blair asked.

“Blair, it’s going to make problems. I don’t think this will work,” Jim said sadly as he filled the vegetable tray and put it on the bar.

“Jim, he can’t help who he fell in love with. It’s not like he did it to hurt you,” Blair said.

“I know that, don’t you think I know that? I’m not ready to accept Rafe into my life again. I don’t have a place for him there. Maybe someday, but not right now,” Jim declared.

“Then by all means, don’t worry about it. Let’s have fun with Megan, Joel and Henri tonight. They all said they were coming. No one has called and cancelled, so I think we’ve got them all coming,” Blair promised.

Jim leaned down and kissed Blair quickly and went back to helping him get things ready.

“Jim, things will work out well, you just wait and see,” Blair reassured his lover.

“I hope you’re right,” Jim answered and finished up getting things set up.

Before long it was time for everyone to get there and Jim said, “Simon is downstairs telling everyone about he and Rafe. He didn’t want any secrets anymore and decided to tell them all. He also wanted to explain why he wouldn’t be coming any longer to poker.”

“One less thing we’ll have to tell them. It’s okay with me. Say it’s all right with you, Jim?”

“It’s all right with me. You’re right, you can’t help who you fall in love with, can you?” Jim asked again waiting for everyone to get upstairs.

The doorbell rang and Jim opened it to Conner who was one pissed off Aussie. She wasn’t a happy camper at all. “Do you believe this shit? He acts like we’re all going to just forgive and forget Rafe for what he did. He had the nerve to ask me what my problem was before I left them standing there. Wanker.”

“We don’t want everyone pissed off at Simon,” Jim said calmly.

“Too late,” Conner said as she took off her jacket and hung it in the closet.

The doorbell rang again and Megan opened it to Henri and Joel. “Wow, what a shock, huh?” Joel asked.

“Man, you could have knocked me over with a feather when I heard the news. I never knew that Simon swung that way. I knew that Rafe did, but not Simon,” Henri stated.

Joel came in and hugged both Jim and Blair and said, “This must be a shock to both of you. How are you handling it?”

“Jim is upset, which is understandable. But he’s taking it in stride. Jim’s a tough cookie,” Blair teased.

Jim said, “You all know where the beer and soda is, so help yourself. All of the food is out on the bar. Then we can start playing some cards. I’m feeling lucky tonight.” Jim smiled, but it didn’t actually reach his eyes. And everyone could see that.

They all sat down with food and drink at the table and started dealing the cards. “Where are the kids?”

“They’re all up in Max and Drew’s room playing Wii. They said they wanted to keep Samantha out of our hair. They’ll bring her down when she is sleeping,” Blair said.

“Everyone ready to lose all their money to me?” Jim asked hopefully, but knowing he was dreaming.

They all laughed and the game started. No one talked about Simon missing the game or his involvement with Rafe. Jim was glad of that. He didn’t want to think about it any more that night.

The night went by very quickly. Everyone stopped long enough to talk to Max and Drew when they brought down a sleeping Samantha. Jim and Blair tucked her in bed while the boys entertained their friends. When they came out, Max and Drew both went back upstairs to kick each other’s butts on the game they were playing.

Max called from the top of the stairs, “Hey dad, could you come here for a moment?”

Jim walked up the stairs and walked into their bedroom and said, “What do you need, Max?”

“Where is Uncle Simon? The game just isn’t the same without his complaining and stuff like that. Is everything all right with him?” Max asked nicely.

“We had a disagreement earlier and he said that he can’t make the poker games any longer. He’s with someone I don’t approve of, so it’s not like I could invite him too.”

Drew said, “That’s too bad. He was your best man at your wedding. Couldn’t you forgive him for whatever he did? Daryl will be really upset. He loves that you’re all friends.”

“Daryl will still be your friend, so don’t you worry about it,” Jim said as he turned to leave.

“Dad, did Simon do something so horrible that you could never forgive him?” Max asked.

“No, he didn’t. I just don’t like the person he’s with,” Jim tried to explain.

Drew looked sadly on and said, “I think you could forgive the person he’s with. Think about it, dad. Sam will be lost without her visits from Uncle Simon.”

“I know. I’ll think about it tonight. Now you boys just relax and have a good time,” Jim said before he left their room.

When Jim got back to the table Conner looked at him and said, “Oh, no you don’t. You’re not forgiving Rafe that easily.”

“But in the long run, I could forgive him? Jim asked.

Joel said, “Jim, I think it might be time to move on, but only if you want to. We’ll continue to come here for cards every other weekend, but it’s not going to be the same without Simon.”

“Tell me about it,” Jim answered.

“Jim, if you wanted to forgive Rafe that’s your business,” Blair remarked.

Jim looked over at Blair and said, “I think it’s time. He was always a good friend, I think he lost his way when the rumors started. When he came and talked to me about the references I knew he needed friends as badly as anyone else and he had none. He lost a lot in this too. He lost his job, his pension and his self respect.”

Conner said, “He lost them for a reason, Jim. Now you need to think on this long and hard. Did the boys say something upstairs to you?”

“Conner, I need to think about it. If I invited Simon and Rafe would you all learn to accept him once again?” Jim asked.

“I think I could after some time passed,” Blair replied.

“I could, just because I hated how it all went down and everyone had to take sides. It made me uncomfortable,” Henri answered.

Joel said, “Jim, I would go along with anything you said and so would Conner. She’s just mad at Rafe. We all are. Even you. But thinking about forgiveness is a good thing.”

“Okay, if you decide to go that way, I’ll stand beside you, but know that I’m behind you if you don’t too,” Conner stated.

They played cards all night long and at 3:00 in the morning, everyone left. Conner was that weeks designated driver. Jim was exhausted. His nerves were on edge, making him more tired then he cared to be.

Jim helped Blair clean up the loft and got everything put away. Jim turned to Blair and said, “Do you think I’m a wuss for forgiving him?”

“No, quite the opposite. It takes a strong man to understand people and their weaknesses. You’re doing that and accepting him at the same time. I’m proud of you, Jim.”

“So do we invite them over and talk to them or what?” Jim asked.

“I think we should meet somewhere. For breakfast, that would be good,” Blair suggested.

“Then that’s what we’ll do,” Jim admitted.

“Call him and invite them to IHOP for breakfast tomorrow,” Blair bossed.

“Chief, it’s three in the morning. I’m not calling and waking him up,” Jim said stubbornly.

“They’re probably up anyway, call,” Blair said handing Jim the phone. Blair wasn’t sure about this entire thing, but he felt like it was something Jim felt strongly about and he needed to take care of it.

Jim dialed the number and heard Simon say, “Hello.” He sounded wide awake.

“I take it I didn’t wake you up,” Jim asked.

“No, we couldn’t sleep. We had a lot on our minds,” Simon explained.

“I wanted to know if you two want to meet us for breakfast at IHOP this morning at 10:00. I’d like to talk to you both,” Jim stated.

“We’ll see you at 10:00, Jim. Thank you for giving it some thought.”

“Goodnight, Simon,” Jim said softly before he hung up the phone.

Jim and Blair got ready for bed and went to sleep immediately. Both of them knew they had a big day ahead of them.

!!!!!!!!!!

Simon and Rafe sat in IHOP at almost ten and Rafe finally said “I hope they didn’t have second thoughts.”

“No, if they said they’re coming, they’re coming,” Simon assured him.

Jim and Blair drove up that moment and got out of the SUV. Simon turned to Rafe and said, “I told you so.”

“I hope he’s not going to kick my ass,” Rafe confessed.

“No one is going to kick anyone’s ass, now calm down,” Simon ordered.

Jim and Blair walked in and slid in the booth opposite Simon and Rafe.

“Good morning,” Rafe said first.

“Good morning, Rafe,” Blair said rather coldly and Rafe knew that this wasn’t as good as he had thought it would be.

“If you guys don’t want to forgive me, then why are you here?” Rafe asked.

Blair said, “You fucked his life up and it’s going to take some time to get over that. Don’t act like you don’t have some of this coming.”

Jim said, “It’s going to take a while, Rafe, but I do want to forgive you. I’m tired of carrying around all of that resentment and sometimes even hate. It was hurting my heart and my soul. Is there anything you wanted to say?”

Rafe sat there quietly for a few minutes and finally said, “I can’t take back what I did, but I can promise you that I would be a good friend from here on in. I know what it’s like to lose everyone now and I don’t want to do that again. I’m truly sorry and I hope you can find it in your heart to forgive me. Even if Sandburg never will.”

“I am going to forgive you, Rafe because I believe we all deserve a second chance. But if you ever fuck with me or Sandburg again, it will be the last time I let you into our life. The next poker game is in two weeks and the two of you are invited. But let me warn you that Blair isn’t the only one that thinks I might be letting you off easy. Conner is a pit bull when it comes to all of this. She doesn’t want to let go of it. You’re going to have to win her over. You’ll have your work cut out for you,” Jim explained.

“Thank you, Jim. I promise I won’t fuck up again. We’ll be at the poker game in two weeks and I’ll win both Sandburg and Conner over, I swear,” Rafe exclaimed.

“I hope you know how lucky you are. He’s a good man and let you off really easy,” Blair confessed.

“I know he is and I’ll make sure that for the rest of our lives, he won’t be sorry,” Rafe said.

“What do you think about ordering breakfast?” Jim asked stomach growling loudly.

Everyone smiled and they did just that.

Things would work out or not. Time would tell. But at least Jim’s heart was less heavy now.

The end.

Family Life Part 38
Making up is Hard to Do
By Patt

Word Count: 2,811

It was Jim and Blair’s day off and Blair had taken the three kids to the library. Jim however was stuck at home putting new brake pads on his SUV. It wasn’t as simple as his old pick up used to be. These were a pain in the ass.

Jim was underneath the SUV, lying on cardboard, when he heard a car drive up next to him and shut the engine off. Jim figured it was someone that lived there and really paid them no mind. He was concentrating on getting the old brake pad out, so he could put the new one in. It shouldn’t have been this difficult. He then jammed his thumb up between two pieces of pipe underneath the SUV. He hoped there was no one around, especially kids. “Fucker. God-dammit. Son-of-a-bitch.”

He looked over and saw Rafe looking under the SUV. “What are you doing here, Rafe?”

“Simon called me this morning and said you were replacing the same pads that I replaced a month ago, so he figured I could come over and help you out. They’re a bitch to get in. But there is a way to do it a little bit simpler if you’d let me help you,” Rafe said helpfully.

“Does Simon think we’re going to be the best of friends if you help me do this?” Jim asked sarcastically.

“No, he just thought since I had cussed and complained about it, I might be able to guide you through some of the rough spots. Just let me get under there and help you. You’ll see how much easier it is,” Rafe explained.

“Fine, help me. I could use all of the help I could get. I can’t get the damn thing out, to replace it with the new one. It was never this hard in the old truck. Why do they have to make new vehicles so difficult to work on?” Jim wondered aloud.

“Jim, if they made them easy, no one would bring them into the shops like they do now. Rafe took his shirt off and put a piece of cardboard down and slid under the SUV. He showed Jim how to get the old pads out with ease and then they worked on putting the new ones in and then helped him check the fluid in the master cylinder. Before long the two of them were completely done and Rafe said jokingly, “Do I get a beer?”

“Hell, you can have a six pack for helping. God, I was ready to take it in and have it done, which would have pissed me off big time. Come on upstairs, you can get cleaned up and have a beer with me,” Jim declared.

“Thanks that would be nice,” Rafe said as he slid out and got his shirt and picked up the cardboard.

Jim pulled his cardboard out and said, “I guess we both learned from someone that used old moving boxes as working on car boxes.”

Rafe stuck his in the back of his SUV, that was exactly like Jim’s and Jim put his in the back of his SUV too. “You never know when you’ll need those darn things,” Rafe exclaimed.

Jim smiled and led the way upstairs. They each went into a bathroom and washed up and came out feeling much, much better. Jim said, “Sit down at the table and I’ll get you a beer. Would you like a sandwich to go with that?”

“Jim, it’s 9:30 in the morning,” Rafe answered smiling.

“Well, I’m hungry and I’m going to fix me one and thought maybe you might like one and I’m sure it’s 6:00 pm somewhere, so it’s late enough for a beer,” Jim said simply.

“In that case, yeah, whatever you have, I’ll take one,” Rafe replied.

Rafe sat at the bar and watched Jim making the sandwiches and decided he would start the ‘talk’. “Jim, I know what it took to let me back into your lives, so believe me when I say I won’t fuck it up a second time. I want everything to work out between us and I’d like to have Sandburg be able to look at me without hating me some day. So whatever it takes, I’m willing to do. Today was just an example. I can be a decent friend. One that all you’d have to do is call if you needed help. I hope that some day I’ll be that type of friend to you again,” Rafe remarked.

“Rafe, I think you’re doing a fine job of trying. It’s going to take a little while for Blair to totally forgive you. You fucked with his man and he’s not happy about it, but at the same time, he wants me to be able to move on. He’s big on forgiveness and moving on. Here’s your sandwich and your beer. Let’s sit at the table. Thank you so much for helping me put those brake shoes in. They would have gotten the best of me, let me tell ya,” Jim admitted.

“I was more then happy to help. Maybe next time, you could remember that we did a good job together and call for help. I’d like us to be able to do that again,” Rafe suggested.

“I don’t see why we can’t be friends, Rafe. I like you just fine. I didn’t appreciate what happened at the station, but I’m over that now. I know that you moved on too. How do you like your new job?” Jim asked.

“I love it, not as much as I loved being a cop, but with mistakes, come changes. My boss is really good to me and has put me in charge of a lot of property for security. It’s going well. Simon is really proud of what I’ve accomplished, but then again, he’s in love with me. He would say that if I worked at Taco Bell,” Rafe commented.

“So you moved in with Simon?” Jim asked.

“Yes, I thought it was too soon, but he said he was tired of being alone. Daryl approved, so he asked me. I thought we should take it slower and see what you thought of it, but Simon is strong willed and wanted to do things his own way and then ask your approval. I would have done it the other way around. I would have told you about us first and then asked if you minded. He really didn’t give you an out did he? It must have been hard for you to decide what to do. I know it was hard for me to let Simon come and talk with you,” Rafe exclaimed.

“Do you like living with Simon?” Jim inquired.

“Yes, I love living with Simon. I still get to hear about all of you guys on a daily basis and I’m falling more in love with him every day. He’s a good man, not that I have to tell you that. You already know that about him. I love Daryl, he’s such a good kid and someday I hope to be able to become closer to your children. I hear you adopted the boys. I was glad to hear that. They fit in well with you and Sandburg. I’m glad that you all found happiness. I’m also glad you got married. That must have meant the world to Sandburg. What about you? Did you mind getting married?” Rafe asked.

“I loved getting married. Blair is one of the best people I’ve ever met. He’s good for me and good at keeping me in place. So we belong together, whether it’s legal or not. It was the boys’ idea and we ran with it. They did much of the work. Would you like to see the pictures from the wedding?” Jim offered.

“I would love to see them. I heard you also got a little girl for your family and I would love to see her pictures from the wedding. Simon said she was precious with the rings for you and Sandburg,” Rafe stated.

“Why don’t you call him Blair? You call me Jim, but you don’t call him Blair. Why?” Jim wondered.

“I would have to see how he took to being around me first. When the time comes, then he can decide if I call him Sandburg or Blair. It’ll be his call.”

Jim got up and got the pictures from the wedding. He showed Rafe each picture and told him about each part of the ceremony. Jim found himself relaxing a bit and enjoying the company of Rafe instead of dreading it. Two weeks ago he couldn’t have done this, but now he was ready.

“She’s very cute. But I bet she’s going to be a handful,” Rafe said about Sam.

“She is a handful, but nothing we can’t handle. Do you like kids, Rafe?” Jim questioned.

Rafe smiled and said, “I adore kids. I have nieces and nephews, but they live in different states. I miss them terribly. So at least I have Daryl here and feel like I’m in a child’s life. Although, Daryl wouldn’t like being called a child.”

“Tell me about it. Drew and Max are going on 30 these days and they won’t hear of being their age,” Jim joked.

“The pictures of the cake are wonderful. Who made the cake?” Rafe asked.

“Max and Drew made the cake. It not only looked wonderful but tasted as good as it looked. They both love to cook and bake, so they get into helping with things all the time,” Jim said.

“You all looked so happy. I’m happy for you, Jim. Congratulations on getting Sandburg exactly where you wanted him,” Rafe teased.

They finished their sandwiches and drank their beer. Rafe said, “Well, I guess I should go for now.”

“Would you like to see the video in the recorder?” Jim asked.

“You have video of the wedding too? I would love to see that. Thanks for asking,” Rafe answered.

Jim brought out the wedding video and for the next 30 minutes, Rafe watched the entire thing. He had tears in his eyes when he was finished watching it. “These are the things I miss the most, Jim.”

“Are you and Simon coming to poker on Saturday night?” Jim asked.

“I would like to, but I don’t want to pressure anyone into liking me. Or allowing me into their lives when they don’t want me to be,” Rafe said.

“Don’t worry about anyone else. I’m the one you have to worry about and I think we’re doing all right. I thought making up would be really hard to do, but it turns out that when both of us are working on it, it’s not as hard as it seemed,” Jim summed it up.

“Jim, it’s been hard. So making up is hard to do. Why do I want to break into song?” Rafe joked.

Jim laughed along with him and said, “Say you’ll come on Saturday. The only one you have to worry about is Conner and I already told her that I forgave you. She knows she’s got to butt out now. It’s between me and you.”

“Okay, I’ll come with Simon on Saturday. I’ve really missed all of you. I hope it doesn’t ruin the night for Conner and Sandburg,” Rafe said.

“Conner has nothing to do with it. I’m going to tell her to shut her mouth and she’ll be good. She’s very protective of me and Blair. But I don’t need it right now. What I need are my friends back as my friends,” Jim assured Rafe.

“Thank you, Jim for forgiving me and for letting me into your life. It means the world to me. Maybe we could bring Daryl with us that night so that Max and Drew will see us as a family too.”

“Listen, Blair is going to be back soon, so let’s get you back in your SUV. I need to tell him about all of this myself and in private. He’ll be okay with everything, but I need to know that he is. We’ll see you on Saturday,” Jim said nicely.

“I can’t wait. Thanks again, Jim.”

“Thank you for keeping me from killing my SUV. We’ll see you on Saturday,” Jim said again.

Rafe walked out the door and into Blair. Blair said, “Rafe, what are you doing here?”

Jim could see that Blair was curious, but not angry. He was glad of that. Rafe said, “I helped Jim change the brake pads on the SUV. I did mine two weeks ago and Simon thought it would be good to help him. They were a bitch to get done.”

“That was nice of you. Do you want to stay for lunch?” Blair offered, very nicely.

“No, Jim wants to talk to you and then hopefully I’ll see you on Saturday. Bye guys.” Rafe walked down the stairs and said hello to the kids as they came up the stairs carrying their books.

Blair saw the wedding video sitting on the table and said, “You showed him our video?”’

“I showed him the wedding photo’s too. He’s in love with Sam, he thinks she’s one of the cutest little things around.”

“Jim, you look really happy,” Blair said.

“I am happy. It was almost like it used to be. I liked it. Is that all right with you?” Jim asked.

“It’s fine with me, I’m just glad to see you moving on,” Blair replied.

“Blair, would you think it was weird if I asked if Rafe could come back to the bullpen?” Jim asked softly.

The kids walked into the loft and started showing Jim the books they got. Jim was getting excited over all of their books. It was so great that they all loved to read. Well, the boys anyhow. Samantha was just learning. The kids all went to their rooms and Jim was left with Blair again.

“You think the city would let Rafe back on?” Blair asked.

“I think if I suggested it, they might think about it. I could talk to Simon about it, right?”

“Yes, you could call Simon and discuss it with him,” Blair answered.

“But how would you feel about having Rafe back in the bullpen. I want the truth.”

“Truthfully, I believe that we might all be able to have closure again. I was very angry for a long while, but I’ve seen you get over it and I know that I was holding you back a little. I don’t want to hold you back, ever,” Blair answered.

“I’m going to go upstairs and call Simon and ask him about how he feels about that and we’ll go from there. Are you sure you’re all right with it?” Jim asked once again.

“Jim, I adore you, but I want you to be happy and healthy more then anything in the world. This will make you happy and healthy. So go for it and Conner will have to calm her act down. She’s been way too protective of you for too long. She’s not your mom, she’s our friend. We need to tell her that too,” Blair stated.

Jim kissed Blair and grabbed his cell phone and walked up stairs to call Simon.

Blair smiled as he put away the wedding photos and the wedding video. He found it so great that Jim was showing it off.

!!!!!!!!!!

Jim found Blair in Sam’s room about an hour later reading to her and helping her learn some new words in the books.

“Okay, that’s all for now, Sam. I have to talk to daddy about some things. You can play in your room or you can watch television. You haven’t watched any television in two days, so I think you deserve some,” Blair said.

“Spongebob?” Sam asked happily.

Jim and Blair both cringed. They hated the show, but Sam loved it. As long as she didn’t want to watch it every day, they supposed it would be all right.

Blair got her set up in the living room with Spongebob and went and joined Jim in the kitchen.

“What did Simon think of your idea?”

“He thought it was a fantastic idea. He said that Rafe hasn’t been happy since he left and he’s going to run it by the big wigs this week. So he might have his old job back sooner then we think. I feel good about it, Chief.”

“Good, I’m glad to hear it. Now let’s start something for lunch and call the kids down to join us,” Blair suggested.

“Sounds like a plan, Stan,” Jim teased.

“Do not sing that song to me,” Blair kidded back.

Jim kissed him instead.

Life was good.

The end.

Family Life Part 39
Trying to Change
By Patt

Word Count: 3,100

Simon had said nothing more about Rafe coming back to the station or not. So Jim figured that it wasn’t a go. He had tried at least, and he knew he felt good about forgiving Rafe for everything he had done or not done.

He was busy doing paperwork when his line rang and he answered, “Ellison.”

“Detective Ellison, this is Matt Sawyer in IA, we need to see you right away. Could you please make it up here in the next ten minutes or so?”

“Yes, I’ll be there in ten minutes,” Jim answered before he hung up the phone.

“Where are you going in ten minutes?” Blair asked being nosey as usual.

“IA wants to see me, probably about Rafe. So I need to tell Simon that I’m going upstairs to see them. I’ll see you when I get back,” Jim explained.

“Good luck with it all, Jim. If you need any help with anything, you know my number,” Blair teased.

“Yeah, I have it in my speed dial too,” Jim said as he got up to go and tell Simon.

Jim told Simon where he was going and he went off to do his thing. Conner saw him get on the elevator and asked Blair, “Where is Jimbo going all by his lonesome?”

Blair laughed and said, “He does go places without me, Conner.”

“Yes, he does, but he went upstairs, there is only vice and IA, so I’m guessing IA. Is he sure about letting Rafe come back? He told me to stick my nose out of it and I’m trying, but I don’t want him to be hurt in any way,” Conner was rambling.

“Conner, calm down. Everything will be fine. The bullpen is going to be back to normal. Jim wants that more then anything. So you support his decisions no matter what. Okay?”

“Sandy, I’m not saying another word. Do you want to go to lunch with me?” Conner asked.

“I’d like to see if Jim comes down soon and go with him. He might need to talk. So tomorrow, maybe?” Blair asked nicely.

“Tomorrow it is,” Conner answered and walked back to her desk.

Brown walked up and said, “Did I hear you say that the bullpen might be getting back to the old bullpen?”

“Yes, Henri, Jim is up talking to IA right now. But I don’t know what they’re going to do,” Blair explained again.

“I wish him good luck and safe passage back down here,” Henri teased as he walked to his desk and sat down.

Blair laughed over the safe passage remark and then started working. He had to do something so he wouldn’t worry. He could see Simon in his office chewing on his cigar. That was so disgusting, but it meant that Simon was nervous.

!!!!!!!!!!

Jim arrived upstairs and asked to see Matt Sawyer. They directed him to Matt’s office and Jim knocked on the door and walked in when Sawyer said, “Come in.”

Matt stood up and shook hands with Jim. “It’s good to see you not holding grudges, Ellison. We were quite surprised with your desire to have the Major Crimes back to the way it used to be. In fact, we were more then surprised. You didn’t seem too upset when we fired Brian Rafe however many months ago. Why the change of heart?”

“I’ve seen him quite a few times and we’ve talked, we’ve discussed what happened, he’s apologized and I have forgiven him. I just want things to be like they used to be. I never thought he would be fired. I thought maybe a suspension would be in order, but not firing him. So I’m hoping that you’re going to see your way clear to letting him back on the force. What do you think about it?” Jim asked.

“Actually, we have talked, taking a vote and have decided that if you’re big enough to let him come back, then we should let him come back. He will start all over again with vacation time, sick leave and his pension will still be there from the firing. We couldn’t take his pension away, the lawyers wouldn’t let us,” Sawyer said.

“I was under the impression that you did take it away. I figured I would have to do a song and dance to try and get that back, but I guess I don’t, do I?” Jim wondered.

“No, you sure don’t. But he’s going to be on probation for six months. If you have any troubles at all, you bring them to us, not to Captain Banks,” Sawyer said.

“Why wouldn’t I report him to my superior?” Jim asked.

“That’s part of his probation. He has to show up to our office once a week and give us a report on how things are going. If they don’t match up with what you say, then he’ll be out,” Sawyer explained.

“So for the next six months, I have to come up here too?” Jim asked, sounding a little irritated.

“No, you’ll be sent a form to fill out once a week with comments about how you feel about his actions and anything else you need to report. You don’t have to come up here at all, unless something goes wrong. Then you have to file a report with us and we’ll take it from there,” Sawyer stated.

Jim stood up and said, “When does he get to come back?”

“We’re going to call him tonight and tell him what he had to do on probation and he can decide when he comes back. He’ll probably want to give notice to his other job, I’m sure. Ellison, we’re glad that you two worked things out without a lawsuit being used.”

“It was good meeting, you, I better get back to my job or I won’t have one too long,” Jim joked.

“Good luck with everything, Ellison. Oh shit, I almost forgot to have you sign the paper. Without the paper we can’t do anything,” Sawyer said laughing.

Jim looked over the paper and looked up at Sawyer in shock. “Barnes is coming back?”

“We can’t let one of them back on duty without the other one. It wouldn’t be right. He will get the same terms as Rafe. Is there a problem with that?”

“I didn’t forgive Barnes. I haven’t seen him, I haven’t talked to him and I shouldn’t have to see him or talk to him. I might have to think this over. In fact, I’m going to call my dad’s lawyer for this. I’ll just take this paper with me and I’ll get back to you tomorrow or the next day.” Jim grabbed the paper and started out the door.

“You can’t have just one, Ellison, you must have realized that,” Sawyer commented sounding quite angry.

“I’ll call you after I speak to the lawyer,” Jim said as he rushed out the door. He didn’t want to lose that paper for anything. He folded it quickly and put it in his pocket and went for the elevators. Jim saw three IA detectives coming towards him when the elevator opened. He got on it and pushed the button to shut the door quickly. He went right down to the parking lot and got into his vehicle.

He called Blair first,” Sandburg.”

“Blair, I have to take some papers to my dad’s attorney and IA is going to be looking for me. Don’t you tell them where the lawyer is,” Jim warned Blair.

“Is something wrong? What happened? Oh shit, here they come, gotta go,” Blair said before he put the phone down.

Matt Sawyer walked up to Blair and said, “Where is your partner? He left with our property and he can’t do that. So we need to find him right now.”

Blair actually scratched the top of his head and tried to appear surprised. “I have no idea where he is. I thought he went up to your office to see you? Wasn’t that just an hour ago or so?”

“Sandburg, no one thinks you’re funny. Where in the fuck did he go?” Sawyer shouted.

Simon walked out of his office and said, “What’s going on?”

“Ellison took IA property and fled the building,” Sawyer announced.

“What do you mean he took your property, what type of property? He doesn’t usually take people’s stuff,” Simon yelled back.

“He was supposed to sign some papers and he took them and said he was taking them to a lawyer instead of signing them,” Sawyer exclaimed.

“So maybe he needed a second opinion. If his name was on it, he’s legally allowed to show it to his lawyer. Get the fuck out of my bullpen and don’t harass my cops again,” Simon ordered.

Sawyer leaned into Simon and said, “We know about you and Rafe, so you might want to get Ellison back here as soon as you can, or your job will on the line.”

“Did everyone just hear him threaten me? I want you all to file a report and put it on my desk. I’m getting a lawyer,” Simon stated as he turned and walked away.

Sawyer looked at Sandburg once more and said, “This is your last chance to call him.”

“Call him what?” Blair asked. Brown and Conner burst out laughing, they couldn’t help it. Joel stood in the doorway of his office and smiled broadly at Blair’s retort.

“We’ll have him served with papers before you know it. You’re going to be sorry you messed with us, believe me,” Sawyer said.

“Are you still here? Didn’t Captain Banks order you out of the bullpen? I think so. Let me go and ask him,” Blair stood up to head into Simon’s office and Sawyer grabbed Blair’s arm and yanked it back behind his back and everyone heard the crack.

“You fucker, you just broke my arm,” Blair shouted.

Simon came out and said, “He broke your arm?” Simon shoved Sawyer away from Blair and Simon looked him over and said, “Yup, looks broke to me too. Someone cuff this son-of-a-bitch.”

Joel was the first one at Sawyers side. He put cuffs on him and read him his rights.

“Joel, I need you to take over for me and get the reports from everything having to deal with this. That includes, Sawyer and his unnamed partners that are standing over there. Get their names, Id’s and their reports files while I take Sandburg to the hospital. No one calls Jim about it. I’ll tell him later,” Simon ordered and led Blair to the elevator touching his shoulder very gently.

“Got it taken care of, Simon. Take care, Blair,” Joel called out softly. “Get your asses over here before I arrest all of you. Sawyer, you are under arrest and you aren’t going to get out of this easily.”

Simon could see that Joel had it all under control and focused on Blair.

!!!!!!!!!!

Jim got to his dad’s lawyer, Tom Bateman, who was always a lawyer for Jim and Blair and said, “I need you to look this over for me and tell me I don’t have to do this.”

He said, “Sit down and let me read it.”

He finished reading it and said, “I take it you want one of the people let off the hook, but not both?”

“That’s right and they said that I had to sign it or Rafe couldn’t come back at all,” Jim said nervously.

“Jim, I’m really glad you didn’t sign this because it says here that it was your fault and you would be put on suspension. We’re going to get papers in order right away. Why don’t you call Blair and tell him what’s going on so he won’t be worried, “Tom said.

Jim pulled his cell out and called Blair’s cell phone and Conner answered it. “Conner, where is Blair?” Jim was instantly nervous. Blair never left his phone sitting around.

“I’m not supposed to tell you, but Sawyer came down here and harassed Sandy and then he broke his arm,” Conner said.

“He broke Blair’s arm?” Jim shouted, making Tom jump.

“Simon took him to the hospital, but he said to let you focus on the paperwork first. All of the IA guys that came down to harass us are being arrested. Joel is in charge. It’s going well, so don’t worry about this end. Just worry about Sandy.”

“Thank you, Conner, I’ll tell my lawyer to draw up papers while I’m here,” Jim said and then turned to Tom and said, “That fucker broke Blair’s arm. Do you believe it?”

Jim didn’t even notice that he still had the cell phone open. Tom walked over and shut it and put it in Jim’s jacket pocket. “Go to the hospital and I’ll draw up all of the papers needed for this case. We’re going to sue their asses off.”

Jim hurried out of the office and drove to the hospital. He walked in and saw Simon sitting there and said, “Why aren’t you with him?”

“He didn’t want me there Jim. He’s just getting x-rays right now. He’ll need you when they set it,” Simon informed him.

“That lousy fuck. He tricked me into almost signing papers and they would have suspended me from duty. I took them to my lawyer and he’s drawing up papers for Rafe right now. He’s drawing up papers for anything and everyone in Major Crimes and last but not least, he’s suing their asses off over Blair’s broken arm. God, what is taking them so long?” Jim paced and fretted.

“Jim, you just got here ten minutes ago. Come here and sit down. Everything will be all right,” Simon suggested.

Jim sat down but didn’t like it one bit.

!!!!!!!!!!

Tom Bateman was fast if nothing else. He drew up papers for all of the members of Major Crime to sue for harassment. He drew up papers for Rafe and then drew them up for Jim and Blair separately. He left no stone unturned. He called Conner and got all of the names of the IA guys and added them to the papers. He especially wanted Sawyer’s full name, so now he was ready to rock and roll. He got his jacket on and went to his car. He was going to Blair and Jim since they couldn’t come to him. He would wait for them at the loft. Plus he had papers for Simon to sign too.

!!!!!!!!!!

The doctor came out and asked, “Is there a Jim Ellison here?”

Both Simon and Jim got up to go with the doctor. “I’m sorry, but only Jim Ellison can go.”

“This is a police matter, so I can go too. They’re pressing charges and are having the papers drawn up as we speak. Now let’s get back there and see how our patient is doing.

Jim walked into the room without being told where Blair was and hugged him close to his body, being super careful of the cast on Blair’s arm.

“God, I’m glad you’re here,” Blair whispered.

“I’m glad I’m here too. Babe, I’m so sorry about all of this,” Jim said sadly.

“I only have to keep the cast on for four weeks. So it’s not as bad as it could have been. I have to stay on desk duty for the entire four weeks, Simon.”

“Good, it’ll give us a change to get a little caught up with things around the bull pen. I don’t want you or Jim worrying about a damn thing,” Simon ordered.

“Yes, sir,” Blair teased and realized he felt really good. “Hey doc, did you give me something?”

“Yes, we gave you some Lortab’s and you’ll be feeling pretty good as long as you stay on them for the next three days,” Doctor Marshall said.

“I’ll see to it that he does,” Jim volunteered.

Blair said, “Man, I could use a big kiss. A big sloppy kiss.”

Jim went right over and kissed him, sloppy and all. Jim turned to the doctor and said, “So when can he go home?”

“He has to stay home for three days and then its desk duty for four weeks. He’s going to try and get out it, I want you all to understand how bad the break was. One more twist for that idiot and we would have had to place pins and a rod in his arm,” Dr. Marshall said. “We just need you to sign papers and you’re free to go, Blair.”

“Thanks, doc.”

!!!!!!!!!!

Jim got Blair settled in the SUV and they headed for home. He saw Tom waiting for him when they pulled up in the parking lot.

Jim helped Blair get out of the truck and Tom walked over to them. “I want pictures taken of the cast and everything. Any bruising anywhere?”

Blair had no shirt on, just Jim’s jacket and he lifted up the jacket and Jim saw the bruising on his upper arm. Jim wanted to kill that son-of-a-bitch.

“Take pictures of it all, Jim. It’s important. Here are your papers for everyone. Rafe’s are in this folder here. Tell him that I’ll file charges for him too if he’s willing,” Tom stated.

“I’ll call and tell him the news,” Jim said.

“Take your time with filling out the paperwork, there is no rush. I’ll talk to you in the next week. Take care, Blair,” Tom replied.

!!!!!!!!!!

Everyone filed their reports in the next week. Sawyer was charged with assault and was suspended for a year with no pay. He was also sued by everyone in Major Crimes.

The city was sued and they settled out of court, because they knew there was going to be problems and they would have to pay anyway. Rafe was getting his job back at the same pay as when they made him leave and everyone else got a small settlement for the stress they had to deal with.

Jim and Blair got a large sum paid to them, but Jim also stipulated that he wanted Sawyer fired from his job. The rest of the goons were going to be put on probation.

Jim just wanted to try and make a change, but it ended up hurting Blair. This is something Jim wasn’t gong to get over soon.

Rafe was going to be back in the bull pen in a week, so Jim felt like they had some honest to goodness closure.

The end.

Family Life Part 40
Changes
By Patt

Word Count: 2,766

Jim was helping Blair get ready for work five days after the episode with Sawyer in the bullpen. Blair was able to go to work, but he was chained to the desk. Blair hated it, but knew there was nothing he could do about it. Blair’s wardrobe was a riot. All of his shirts had the one sleeve torn off or cut off.

Today was the day that Rafe was going to be joining them in the bullpen again. Everyone was looking forward to getting back to normal once more especially after the whole mess with Sawyer.

“Jim, have you given any more thought as to what we’re going to do with our money?”

“Yeah, I mean, we’re going to add more to the kids’ college funds, they’re going to be set when they get to college. Then we could get a large screen tv for the boys for their room. That would be nice for them. Samantha is quite easy, if we got her a color book, she would be thrilled,” Jim said.

Blair laughed and answered, “I meant would you like to set up a trust fund for each of them. So that when they turn 24 they will get a certain amount of money?”

“That’s a good idea, Blair. I would do that. Should we make an appointment at the bank today?” Jim asked.

“Not today, today is going to be busy. We’re going to take Rafe out for lunch,” Blair said.

“Oh we are, are we?” Jim teased.

“Yeah, I thought we could take Henri and Rafe both. If Conner wants to go, she can too. Hell, I don’t care who goes, I just thought it would be nice to let him see we’re okay with him coming back.”

“Have you noticed how much Conner has come around about the entire Rafe situation?” Jim asked.

“Jim, it’s because you threatened her. She knows better then to say anything to him now. She’s getting the hang of following orders,” Blair joked.

“Good because she’s not my mom. She doesn’t need to follow me around and see if everyone is being nice to me,” Jim remarked.

“She saw herself as your protector, but she’s backing off and doing a good job of it. She volunteered to make the cake for the welcome back party. She’s going to do well, you wait and see,” Blair assured Jim.

“I hope so, because I don’t want to have to kick her ass,” Jim joked.

“I know,” Blair wasn’t joking.

!!!!!!!!!!

When they got to the bullpen, Conner grabbed both of them and said, “I need an opinion.”

Jim and Blair followed her into the break room and saw a chocolate cake sitting there that said, ‘Welcome Back, Rafe’ and it was sitting on a big cutting board that was covered with wrapping paper that was very colorful.

Jim said, “Nice cake, you made it?”

“Of course I made it. But is it drowned out by the paper color below it? It was the only thing I could find to put on the cutting board. It’s wrapping paper and it’s all I had. Do you think it’s horrible?” Conner asked nervously.

“Conner it looks wonderful. It blends with chocolate well. All of the colors will match, you wait and see. Did you get plates and all of that?” Blair asked.

“Yes, but they’re just white. I’m not very good at this. I should have asked Drew and Max to help me,” Conner replied still sounding like the wreck she was.

[[[welcomecake.jpg]]]

“Conner, calm down. It’s perfect. Rafe loves chocolate and this looks like its all chocolate, is it?” Jim asked.

“Yes, I remembered that he loves chocolate, so it’s a fudge cake. It’s got chocolate fudge in the middle of it,” Conner said.

“Fuck Rafe, let’s eat it now,” Jim teased.

Joel came to the doorway of the break room and said, “Rafe is on his way up. Great cake, Conner.”

“Thank you, Joel,” Conner said with a smile.

Joel walked away and Jim said, “How come you’re okay with his compliments?”

“Because everything he says to me seems to warm my form,” Conner said snickering.

“Oh my god, she’s got a thing for Joel. Does he know?” Blair asked.

“Well he will if you keep running your mouth. Let’s get out to the bullpen. Everyone will be waiting,” Conner bossed.

They walked a little behind Conner and Blair said, “I never would have guessed it.”

“I saw it about a month ago, but didn’t mention it because she didn’t. I hate to intrude on people’s thoughts or feelings,” Jim answered.

Conner turned around and said, “You could give him a little push, Jimbo. He’s not taking the hints well.”

Both Jim and Blair started laughing until they got to the bullpen. Then they got ready for the big moment.

The elevator door opened and Simon and Rafe walked off of it. Everyone yelled, “Welcome back, Rafe,” and threw confetti and blew horns until Jim could hardly stand the noise. He wanted to know whose idea that was. Probably Conner and Blair’s.

They all shook his hand, including Conner and then Jim and Blair shook his hand. Everything was going well. Conner said, “Rafe would you like a cup of coffee?”

Rafe looked at her oddly and said, “Sure that would be great.”

She turned to Blair and pointed to the break room and Blair got up to help her.

“We’re going to serve coffee and cake at 8:00 in the morning?” Blair wondered.

“Hey, when you make the cake, you can make the rules. That frosting isn’t going to last much longer. It’s made with fudge and whipped cream. We HAVE to eat it soon,” Conner kidded.

“Okay, I’m going to take a tray of coffee’s out and you bring the cake,” Blair suggested.

“Oh good thinking, Sandy. I’ll help you pour the coffees and we’ll get this ready in no time.”

Conner came marching out of the break room carrying the cake and Blair was carrying a tray with coffee cups filled with coffee. Rafe looked pleasantly surprised. Jim had gone in and gotten the plates and silverware so they wouldn’t have to eat it with their hands.

Conner said, “Welcome back, Rafe. I remembered that you loved chocolate cake, so this one is a chocolate fudge cake. Enjoy.”

“Thank you, Conner, that was really nice of you,” Rafe said as he took one of the plates and fork that Jim followed them in with. Jim could tell that Rafe was moved beyond words.

“Who is going to cut the cake?” Simon asked.

“Jim is,” Conner answered.

“Thanks, bunches,” Jim teased.

So Blair took a picture of Rafe holding the cake up and then Jim began to cut the cake. There were quite a few people in the bullpen, so he had to make the pieces very small. But he kept one big on with the rose on it for Rafe. He handed that one to Rafe and Rafe said, “Oh my god, it’s got gooey chocolate inside.”

Joel said, “Wait until you taste it. It’s one of the best cakes I’ve ever had.”

Rafe bit into it and moaned with happiness. “Conner, you outdid yourself. This is the best cake I have ever had.”

“Why thank you, Rafe. It’s an old family recipe,” Conner replied.

“So we can’t have it?” Blair asked.

“Nope, it was my grandmother’s recipe. You’ll just have to invite me over more and ask me to bring cake,” Conner teased.

They all ate the cake very happily and drank their coffee and then the phones started ringing reminding them that they were working. Henri got a call and he and Rafe had to leave right away.

Rafe stood up and said, “Thank you everyone from the bottom of my heart. I’ll never forget this day.”

He and Henri left and everyone else started to clean up the bullpen. It had been a nice little party. Jim was impressed with how much Conner was in control and didn’t say anything. Not to mention that delicious cake she brought. All in all, the morning had turned out quite well. Simon was lit up with happiness to have his bullpen back to normal and so was Jim.

!!!!!!!!!!

Blair was sitting in the bullpen all by himself when Rafe and Henri came walking in.

“Hey guys,” Blair called out.

“We got us a murderer, Sandburg,” Henri answered.

“Wow, that was fast,” Blair said.

“It sort of fell into our laps,” Rafe replied.

“Hey, Rafe don’t say that. Let them think we worked our asses off to get this guy,” Henri said laughing.

“We worked our asses off getting this guy, Sandburg,” Rafe joked.

“Sit down and tell me about it, I’m bored out of my mind,” Blair kidded back.

So the three men sat and talked for about an hour, until Simon came out and said, “Do you have the paperwork done on the arrest yet?”

“We were just getting to it, sir,” Rafe answered, which made Blair almost smile.

“Well, get to it now. I want it on my desk in the next half hour. Get busy. Sandburg, leave them alone,” Simon shouted.

“Sorry dude, duty calls,” Brown said as he went to his desk and started typing right away.

Rafe said, “It’s really weird calling him sir.”

“I bet, get busy, I don’t want to get yelled at again,” Blair bossed and Rafe laughed all the way to his desk. He and Brown were busy when Jim and Conner came in.

“Did I miss anything fun?” Blair asked Jim.

“If you call chasing a guy for two miles fun, then that’s what you missed. We got our guy, but my ass is dragging,” Jim said plopping down into the chair.

“Why didn’t you run for him, Conner?” Blair asked.

“Her ankle was bothering her,” Jim grumbled.

Blair burst out laughing and said, “Good one, Conner.”

Everyone in the bullpen that had heard laughed.

Jim liked hearing the laughter once again. Everyone was in place and it all seemed right. Now if he could just get Conner to leave him alone about Joel he’d have it made.

“Chief, I could use a cup of coffee,” Jim said sounding exhausted.

“So could I. Would you get me one while you’re up?” Blair replied.

Jim glared at him and then smiled. He grabbed Blair’s cup and went to get them both a cup of sludge.

While in the break room, Joel walked in and Jim said, “Conner wants you to ask her out.”

“You’re kidding. Don’t I seem a little old for her? Don’t I seem a little dark for her?” Joel joked.

“I’m not kidding, she’s driving me nuts. Ask her out for dinner. The worst thing that could happen is it’s a flop. The best thing would be you have a gorgeous woman that wants to sleep with you,” Jim explained.

“Oh my God, I’m so out of shape,” Joel growled.

“She doesn’t seem to mind, Joel. Ask her out so she’ll leave me alone, okay?” Jim asked.

“Okay Jim, I’ll ask her in a few minutes.”

They both walked out of the break room and Jim set Blair’s coffee in front of him. “So did anything exciting happen while we were gone?” Jim asked.

“As a matter of fact, it was so fucking boring and no calls were being made so I looked over and your phone moved over to my phone and they began to fuck like bunnies.” Blair joked and laughed.

Everyone in the room started laughing and Jim knew that this broken arm thing was driving him nuts. “Chief, what about you taking a few days off and hang out with the kids? They’re home from school and would love the company.”

“That joke about the phones wasn’t that bad. You’re going to throw me out of the bullpen?” Blair asked sadly.

“I just thought maybe you would rather be doing something else instead of watching fucking phones,” Jim said smiling.

“Did you know that they wanted to have a cigarette afterwards, but I sprayed them with the water bottle in my desk,” Blair teased.

Even Jim laughed at that one.

“I’m fine Jim. Bored, but fine. I like being at work. Besides I got to hear all about Brown and Rafe’s collar. Wow what a great bust,” Blair said sarcastically.

Jim rolled his eyes and knew it was probably something that fell into their laps. He wasn’t going to fall for it. He started typing out his report. Once he was done, he signed it and took it into Simon’s office and put it on his desk.

“Have your phones stopped messing around Jim?” Simon asked with a smile on his face.

“Yes, they are behaving nicely and hopefully we won’t have trouble with them again. Blair did mention something about they wanted to have a cigarette but he sprayed them with the water bottle he keeps in his drawer.”

Simon burst out laughing and said, “That poor man need that cast off and fast. He’s so bored. Earlier he asked if he could chew on one of my cigars.”

“There’s nothing we can do about it, he’s got to be off. Maybe we’ll get some good jokes out of it,” Jim guessed.

“That’s true. It’s been a good day so far. I’m happy that everything is running so smoothly. I spoke too soon. I just saw Conner flirting with Joel in the hallway. What the fuck is she doing?” Simon asked.

“She has a thing for him. It can’t be helped. You know how it is, Simon. If someone floats your boat, you haven’t got much choice in the matter,” Jim said cheerfully.

“I hope they keep it out of the bullpen.”

“I’m sure they will once he asks her out. He thinks he’s too out of shape and too old for her,” Jim said.

“Oh for crying out loud. Tell him to just ask her and get it over with,” Simon ordered.

“Yes sir,” Jim answered and walked out the door laughing.

He sat back at his desk and Blair sprayed him in the face with the water bottle. “Oops, I was aiming for your phone. He was getting frisky again.”

“Enough with the phones, Blair. I just want you to know, if you’re arm wasn’t broken, I would beat your ass.” Jim said sternly.

Blair laughed as he watched Jim wiping his face down with his Kleenex from his desk.

“Have you talked to Conner?” Jim asked.

“Yeah, Joel asked her out and they’re going out tonight. Isn’t that great news?” Blair inquired.

“Yes, maybe now we can rest without her intruding on us all the time,” Jim said as Conner walked over to his desk.

“Jimbo, can I talk to you for a second?”

Jim sighed and got up and headed into the break room. “What do you want, Conner?”

“Do you think it would be slutty of me to sleep with him on the first date?” Conner asked.

“I think you should fuck him in the car before you get to wherever you’re going. He’s going to be horny and you’re horny so why not do it in the car and take some of the pressure off? Then you can enjoy the rest of the night,” Jim asked.

“I knew you would have the answer for me. Thank you,” Conner said flying out of the room.

Jim had been joking. God help both of them. He shook his head to clear the cobwebs and walked back over to this desk.

“Were you helpful?” Blair asked.

“No, I was a joking idiot and she took me seriously,” Jim answered quietly.

“Oh man, tell me you didn’t tell her to like fuck him or something on the first date,” Blair wondered.

“This is our work place, let’s get back to work.”

Blair smiled at Jim because he knew then that Joel and Conner were going to be fucking on the first date. Jim was such a slut. But Blair was glad to have him as his slut.

At five o’clock every said goodbye to one another and headed down to the parking garage. It had been a wonderful day. Jim felt like they were definitely back to normal.

Jim was a happy camper and so was Rafe. That’s all that was important right then.

Well not everyone was a happy camper. Blair wanted that fucking cast off his arm. He wasn’t happy at all.

The end.