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The stench filled the room. If he wanted to, he could probably separate out each individual smell, from urine, vomit, sweat, feces, alcohol, to plain old dirt. Not that he wanted to. He was trying his best to dial it all down and breathe through his mouth, but all that did was to kick up his taste buds and suddenly it was too much.
He barely made it out of the interview room before he was dry heaving.
“Jim? You okay, there?”
The hand on his shoulder belonged to follow detective Snow.
“Yeah,” Jim managed to say. “Just got to me in there.”
“Yeah. Bit much isn’t it. We could lock him up for assault on our senses, but then we’d have to clean out the cell too!” Snow looked back at the closed door. “I’ve interviewed some fragrant vagrants before, but this one takes the cake. He seems to wear that… odor with pride.”
Jim straightened up and Snow’s hand dropped away. He lifted a small jar from his pant pocket. “Here, put some of this under your nose,” he said, offering the jar to Jim.
“What is it?”
Jim took the jar.
“Eucalyptus gel. It works for me at times like this, you know, around dead bodies too?”
Jim nodded and cautiously opened the jar. He dabbed some of the jelly under his nostrils.
His olfactory system seemed to sit up and beg at the clean smell and he took a deep breath... which immediately caused his senses to spiral out of control. His legs buckled.
He slid to the floor in a massive zone out.
***
Blair was sitting at Jim’s desk trying to go through some paperwork. It was a struggle sometimes to come up with reasons why Jim noticed the things he did, without mentioning Jim’s special sensory abilities. He was chewing the end of a pen when he became aware of a disturbance outside the Major Crime Department. Blair was already up and heading for the doors when Henri put his head around the door.
“Hey, Hairboy. Better come quick. Jim’s out cold.”
Jim had been placed in the recovery position on the floor as Blair skidded to a halt beside him.
“We’ve called for an ambulance, Blair,” said Snow.
Blair was on his knees, checking for blood or injuries.
“What happened?”
“We had this tramp in, and he stinks, so I gave Jim some eucalyptus to put under his nose. Then he just… keeled over.”
“Ah. Right,” said Blair, hoping it was ‘right’. “No need for an ambulance. Jim has a range of allergies. I guess this is something that just caught him unawares. Is Captain Banks around? I just need to get Jim off the floor and to some fresh air.” Blair leaned in a little. “Come on, Jim,” he whispered. “Come on back. Don’t make a liar of me.” Blair swallowed down his panic. He looked around. “Simon?”
Their large friend pushed through the small crowd.
“Sandburg? What’s going on here?” He turned around to the on-lookers. “Haven’t you all got work to do, people?”
“Ellison just collapsed, Sir.”
“He just needs some fresh air, Captain,” Blair interjected quickly, pleading with his eyes. Luckily at that moment, Jim groaned.
“Okay, ladies and gentlemen. Show’s over.” He bent down. “Let’s get the man some air.”
People moved aside as Simon helped Blair to lift Jim to his feet.
“What’s going on, Sandburg?” Simon whispered. “What happened?”
“I think he overloaded his sense of smell. I need to get him somewhere quiet.”
“Okay.” Simon looked around. “Erm, in here, the ventilation system is better.”
They ushered Jim into an empty break room with an open top window, and carefully lowered him onto a chair.
Blair got a paper towel and wiped the residual gel from Jim’s nose. Then he knelt in front of his friend and rubbed Jim’s arms. “Come on, Jim. Wakey, wakey.”
Jim slowly opened his eyes, and at once started coughing.
Simon grabbed a glass and filled it from a tap, offering it to Blair, who held it towards Jim.
Jim took a large gulp and coughed more.
“Hey, not so fast!” Blair put the glass on the table.
“What the hell happened?” Jim asked, croakily. “I remember the smell, then the eucalyptus and then…” He looked to Blair asking for help.
“You zoned out. I’m guessing the combination of smells got too much for you.”
“Great! Another thing against these damn senses!”
“Another thing we need to make a note of,” Blair corrected.
“I guess they came and got you, yes?”
Blair shrugged. “We’re a team, everyone knows that. If something happens to me, they get you, and if something happens to you…”
“They run and get you.”
“You going to be all right, Jim?” Simon asked.
“Yeah, yeah. Sorry Simon,” Jim said, trying to stand up. Blair grabbed the chair before it fell over.
“Simon,” Blair said as he righted the chair, “is it all right if we take off for an early lunch? Clear Jim’s head?”
“Not sure I feel like eating anything, right now,” Jim grumbled.
“Nevertheless, it may help.”
Simon didn’t look happy, but nodded. “Yeah, okay. Just remember to come back again. You are still working on that case!”
“Of course! Thirty minutes, tops, Simon,” said Blair.
He turned to Jim. “I’ll just grab our coats and my backpack and meet you at the elevator.”
Once the elevator doors closed, Blair couldn’t help but take a good look at his partner. Jim still looked washed out, but his color was returning.
Jim was staring at the doors. “I’m fine, Nurse,” he said.
“Pardon me for caring.”
“I didn’t mean it like that.”
“I know, I just worry.”
“Yeah,” Jim sighed. “I understand that. I feel so useless when things like this happen.”
“You are not useless. It could happen to anyone.”
Jim glared at him.
“Okay,” Blair conceded. “Not ‘anyone’.”
The doors opened before either of them could continue the conversation.
“Are we taking the truck?” Jim asked.
“No, we’re only going across the road.”
They dodged the traffic and entered a coffee shop.
“You okay with me ordering?” Blair asked.
“Go ahead. You’ve taken charge this far.”
Blair sighed and pulled Jim gently to the counter. “Two hot apple strudels and two hot chocolates, please, no marshmallows.”
“Coming up!”
Jim raised his eyebrows. “Pastries and chocolate, Chief?”
The two men took seats at a table near the door.
“The apple to clear your palate. The rest…. just because.”
Jim chuckled and smiled at the waitress who brought their order.
“Careful, Hun, the filling is hot,” she said as she left them.
Jim took a deep breath of the pasty. “Hmmm, this is good.”
“Careful, don’t over stretch that nose of yours again,” Blair warned Jim.
For a moment or two both of them just enjoyed their refreshments.
Jim sat back with a satisfied sigh, and wiped his mouth. “You can prescribe this anytime, Nurse.”
Blair laughed. “I thought you would appreciate it.” He drank the last drop of chocolate. “Do you think that witness had anything useful to add?”
“The one that started my zone? To be honest, no. He thought he heard bits and pieces but nothing for certain. I’d give him the price of a meal and thank him for his help, if it was my investigation, but it’s up to Snow. He’s the lead on this.”
“So what’s next?”
“Trolling through statements to see if anything’s been missed. More interviewing, I guess.”
Blair sighed. “More leg work.”
Jim nodded.
Blair took a good look at Jim again. The color was returning to his friend’s face, but there were still new lines of strain there.
Blair had an idea. “Come on, we’re going to play some hoops.”
“What? Now? Where? Why?”
“Where? The basket court down by the church. The local rector runs a club. He’ll let us borrow a ball for ten minutes.”
“Okay. Why?”
“Because it’ll be fun. Remember fun?”
Jim rolled his eyes. “Next question, how do you know about the rector?”
“I don’t know, maybe I just pay attention to what’s going on around me.”
***
Jim looked around the court for somewhere to hang his coat and scarf, or a bench to lay them on, but there was nothing available so, with a shrug, he laid them on the floor near the net.
“Okay, Junior,” Jim said, rubbing his hands together. “Let’s see what you’ve got.” He stood, his legs wide, his arms reaching out to block Blair.
“Oh I know all your moves, Jim. You can’t stop me.”
“Less talk, more action, Short Stuff.”
“Really? Height jokes? Oh you are so for it, old man!”
Jim chuckled. “I’ll show you old!”
He grabbed the ball and threw a long shot over Blair right into the net, and then did a victory lap around the court.
Blair shook his head, but smiled. He bounced the ball a few times, then he shot forward, circling around Jim and skidding along on his knees under Jim’s reaching arms. He jumped up and put the ball safely into the net before jumping down again.
He marked a ‘1’ in the air. “One each, Jim.”
Jim’s eyes narrowed and the game was truly on.
The next fifteen minutes, they played one on one on the court, each man trying to outdo the other, till Blair glanced at his watch and called for an end to the game. Grabbing their coats, they returned the ball and high tailed it back to the station.
***
Simon returned from his meeting with the police commissioner. The man was an ass, but he was Simon’s boss and short of shooting the man, Simon had to listen to his lecture on gay rights.
It seemed that the commissioner’s wife’s brother had just ‘come out’ and ‘Mrs. Commissioner’ wanted Simon to take an active role in making sure his officers knew that ‘these people’, as the commissioner put it, had rights in society.
Simon tried to tell the commissioner that his people were well aware of everyone’s rights, but the man kept droning on.
“You can always tell, can’t you, Banks. There’s something about some people, something… different. Well I always knew there was something about my wife’s brother. He never liked sport, always more fragile, if you get my meaning.”
Simon’s poker face must have slipped because the commissioner added, “Not that there’s anything wrong with that. Nothing wrong at all.” He paused. “I’m sure you and your people treat everyone with fairness and tolerance, Banks, but it’s always good to remind people that some folk are different.”
He cleared his throat and Simon almost felt sorry for the man. The commissioner clearly had no idea of real life, let alone the diverse nature of the people Simon and his officers encountered during their duties.
“I will make sure my people are aware of the rights of minorities, sir.”
“Good. Right. That will be all. Thank you for coming, Captain.”
Simon was glad to escape from that office and return to his own. He noticed, in passing that his best team weren’t back. Blair was pushing it for them to make it back in ‘half an hour, tops.’
Simon closed his office door and sat at his desk. He wasn’t sure what the commissioner had in mind about making Simon’s people more aware of gay rights. No doubt in a day or two a memo would be sent out from above.
The level of noise picked up outside in the department and Simon wandered over to his window, moving a slate of his blinds.
Jim and Blair had returned, looking red-faced and flustered, and joking around as they passed other people’s decks on their way to their own.
Simon noticed that the knees of Blair’s jeans were a dirty white as though he’d been kneeling on the ground, and both men’s coats were rumpled and marked with the same white scruff marks. They both looked relaxed and totally different from when they left.
Blair knelt down to retie a shoelace and Jim ruffled Blair’s hair, getting his hand slapped away.
Whatever Blair had done with Jim seemed to have worked. They were grinning and laughing. Simon felt envious. As their captain, he rarely let his guard down with his men and women. But as he watched, he wondered just what his best team had been up to? What had Blair done that had so drastically changed Jim in the half an hour they’d been out?
Simon closed the blind and returned to his desk.
“You can always tell…” The commissioner’s words echoed in Simon’s head.
Tell what? That Jim and Blair were very close. That Simon had never seen a more unlikely duo who worked so well together. A duo that never seemed anything other than completely straight…
He laughed at his own folly.
As if his friends would be… he would know if they were… He’d seen Jim fall in love with women, usually tall, red haired, fully packed, and totally bad women, but female all the same. Blair had the same poor taste in women. Simon would swear both were straight, but now that he thought about it, they were so at ease around one another, so… intimate with one another, as if they were lovers… No, not possible!
He tried to shut the idea away and return to his work… only to throw down his pen and go to the door. If Blair just told him they were meditating, he’d go for it, but he needed an answer, as long as it was one he could deal with.
Simon paused with his hand on the door. It wasn’t really his business what they got up to. If they were lovers and he was told, officially he would have to separate them, and neither man would go for that. But if Blair told him unofficially, at least then he would understand more about what went on….
With that excuse, he opened the door and called out, “Sandburg!”
“Yes, Captain?” Blair came in looking puzzled, but also worried. It wasn’t often Simon called him into the office on his own.
Simon sat back at his desk and cleared his throat. “The commissioner’s brother-in-law has come out of the closet. The commissioner wants all the departments to have more, erm, awareness of gay rights.”
He looked up at Blair who was still looking puzzled. “Yes, Simon?”
“I was, erm, wondering if you had any suggestions over this?”
“Not sure, Simon. I mean, yes, it’s a good idea, but wouldn’t it be better approaching someone who has had to fight for gay rights in the police force, someone like Officer Procter? She and her life partner have been out for a long time. They could make suggestions of what the real issues are and how to address them.”
“Procter. Yes, yes. Good idea.”
“Is that all, Simon?”
“Erm, no.” Simon took a deep breath. “How did you get Ellison back to normal?”
Blair blinked and then smiled. “Apple strudel and hot chocolate.” Then he frowned. “Why, Simon? Usually you don’t want to hear about ‘that Sentinel stuff’.” Blair waggled his fingers in the air. “You usually just tell me to fix it.”
Simon started to feel uncomfortable. “I was curious. You both seem so… relaxed and I saw the way Jim looked when you left the station, yet now look at him, laughing, joking. I wanted to know how you did it.”
“My magic touch,” Blair said, grinning as he leaned against the edge of the board table.
Simon groaned. That wasn’t what he wanted to hear.
Blair looked concerned. “Did I say something wrong? What’s the problem, Simon?”
Simon ran his hand over his face. The kid was bright, he would work it out. He started to count down, ten, nine, eight…
“You asked me about gay rights and then…. You don’t think… Jim and I…”
Only eight. Simon sighed. This was going all wrong.
“Simon, Jim is as straight as they come! You know that, you’ve seen him fall head over heels over some female! He was married, to a woman!”
“And you, son?” Simon asked in a small voice.
Blair’s face hardened. “That is none of your business, Captain.”
Simon looked down at his desk. “I apologize, Blair.”
“Well, for your information, and just between us, I have… dabbled, in the past, but women are curvier, softer. Harder work, but worth it, you know?”
Simon looked up and nodded, slowly. That was what he needed to hear. “I was just… I just wondered.”
“It was hot chocolate and apple strudel, and a short game of basketball. That was it, nothing else.”
“Right. Okay. Fine. I’m sure you know what you are doing with all this Sentinel business.” Simon began to shuffle papers on his desk.
“I sometimes have to just go with my gut, but yeah, I do, Simon. And after we have re-interviewed some of the witnesses, we’re going to go home and I will fuck Jim senseless!”
Simon’s head shot up.
“Got you!” Blair laughed.
Simon chuckled. “Okay, I get it. You two are more interested in women. Now go and do some work.”
“Yes, sir!”
“One thing, will Jim have been listening to our conversation?”
“Jim is a very moral individual, as you know. The only time he breaks the rules is if there’s a good reason for it.”
“So what will you tell him?”
“That you wanted to know where we were.”
“Nothing else?”
“About what, Simon? Was there anything else we discussed?” Blair’s face was carefully blank.
“No, no nothing. Thank you, Blair.”
Blair nodded and left.
Simon stepped up to the window blinds and peeped out.
Jim looked up from his monitor in concern. Blair smiled, said something to his partner. Then Jim picked up some files, and their coats, and the two men headed out with Jim pointing to something in the files.
Simon went back to his work. “And I thought that those two could be gay.” He shook his head.
***
Inside the elevator, Jim and Blair stood side by side facing the doors.
“That was close,” Jim said, quietly.
“Too close,” Blair answered.
“You lied to our boss.”
“I obfuscated as I thought he would want me to.”
“Not exactly. You told him I was straight.”
“I told him what he wanted to hear.” Blair turned to face his partner. “You want him to know what we get up to at home?”
“God, no! Not yet. One day, but not now. He might have to separate us if he knew.”
“Not going to happen.”
The elevator doors opened and the two men headed for Jim’s truck.
Once inside, Jim turned the key. “You really gonna fuck me senseless?” he asked as he checked the mirror.
“Oh yeah!”
“Good. I look forward to it,” Jim said, grinning, his hand straying to Blair’s knee.
“Me too, Jim. Me too.”