Title: Forty Years of Fear-Based Responses
Author: Laurie
Type: Slash
Warnings: None
Rating Pg-13
This story, due to time constraints, is unbeta’ed. So if you see mistakes, please let me know. All kinds of mistakes – typos, verb tenses, spelling, etc.
Credit the creation of this ficlet to
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif?v=92.1){kind=small}
bumpkin_is, earth2skye, and t_verano as they commented on this post.
Forty Years of Fear-Based Responses
Beautiful day, turning into a gorgeous night, all sharp and edged with cold, moonlight visible through the window … warm room, fire blazing, snacks on the coffee table, the game on the huge screen, good friend – old friend – to watch this time-honored ritual with him, sharing groans back and forth concerning missed passes…
So why was he feeling this sense of foreboding? Why this sense that trouble was coming, that disaster was around the corner?
Sandburg.
Looking at the clock, counting the minutes since his lover -- his husband of so many years -- had walked out the back door, calling for Simon’s dog to accompany him as he went out for some fresh air, some exercise -- I won’t be long, Jim, I’ll just walk down to the end of the gravel road – because football isn’t Blair’s game as much as basketball is, and his attention span hasn’t increased over the last thirty-five and some years.
Restless wanderer-Blair, starting to roam through Simon’s country home, poking at books on the shelf, clattering through cupboards looking for non-existent healthy treats, making up nachos for Simon and Jim instead, lecturing about the cholesterol in sour cream and cheese, rolling his eyes when he’s ignored by the two men intent on male-bonding. Jim had grunted in acknowledgement when Blair had called out good-bye.
Come on, Jim tells himself as he wanders over to the living room window and peers out of it. You’re being paranoid here. Blair’s a grown man – he’s been saying this for almost forty years now – he can take care of himself.
And out of the corners of his memories come remembrances – Blair forced into Kincaid’s helicopter, Lash’s dentist chair with a defiant, drugged kid struggling in it, thugs paid to beat Blair, his partner floating in the fountain, frantic CPR that gives way to Jim thrusting into the spirit plane and hauling Sandburg back from the dead, Blair shot, and Blair in ICU unable to breathe on his own after imitating Snow White and eating a poisoned pizza. Bullets, fists, ropes, knives, drugs…
The dog wiggles through the doggie door and comes to Simon, whining and laying his head in Simon’s lap. ‘Timmy’s fallen down the well,’ Jim thinks crazily; he listens for his tardy lover, but he can’t find him. Jim doesn’t extend his senses much these days unless Blair is touching him, Jim’s hands running through the still thick mop of silvery-grey curls with streaks of pure white. Blair’s still a babe… and a babe magnet, but Jim staked his claim long ago and Blair only has eyes for him.
Simon levers himself up from his recliner, his cane ready to keep his legs steady. “The kid could be in trouble,” he says, and directs Jim to where he keeps his flashlights and the first aid kit. Did Blair bring a flashlight out with him in the bitter cold? Has he fallen, broken a hip, or twisted an ankle? Did he decide to cross the creek on the log bridge and maybe slipped, ending up lying in the freezing water becoming hypothermic? Jim refuses to think about the possibility of a heart attack.
He puts on his coat, Simon flipping on the outside lights; he’ll drive down the isolated gravel road, when he finds Blair he can lift him into the truck and take him to the hospital if he’s badly hurt. Jim hurries out to his classic 2008 Ford, and stops as he catches sight of his husband walking down the driveway away from the house, apparently quite healthy and injury-free.
Jim follows him -- Blair having no idea of the concern and consternation he’s caused – and catches up to him as Blair reaches the end of the driveway and turns to walk back to the house.
Blair almost bumps into him, and gives a little yelp of surprise. Jim reaches under Blair’s hat and pulls the old-style headphones off of Blair’s head and listens to the sound of Latin music blaring. Blair is looking at him, his blue eyes looking confused and innocent. And the kid’s okay; he’s really okay. Blair starts to say something about how he wanted to finish listening to the songs before he came in, and is everything all right, Jim?
And Jim splays both of his hands on Blair, feeling the cold, red cheeks and tilts Blair’s face, his lover’s curls escaping that ridiculous vintage Fargo hat, and kisses him. He feels Blair’s mouth warm and open up under his and he feels safe now, kissing his Blair, his all-in-one-piece Blair. Tenderly, he keeps kissing this man he loves more than anything, while Simon flips the porch light off and on a few times, in the time honored tradition of parents warning young lovers to stop making out and come in the house.
And Jim laughs and hugs Blair to him, and they walk up to Simon’s house, a Brazilian love song warbling from the headphones dangling from Blair’s neck.
Page Summary
- earth2skye : (no subject) [+1]
- sallymn : (no subject) [+1]
- ponders_life : (no subject) [+1]
- redgirl72928 : Awwww... [+1]
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Comments
Thank you for sharing!
planting the idea in my brainsuggesting a TS story based on my loco vida.I'm glad you liked it.
Thanks for reading and commenting,
Laurie
I'm glad you think so.
Thanks for reading and commenting,
Laurie
Glad you enjoyed the story.
Thanks for reading and commenting,
Laurie
Thanks for reading and commenting,
Laurie
Absolutely lovely to see your little adventure made into a little ficlet like this - it works. :D Thanks for saying I should get some credit too, it can't hurt to have my name attached to something as sweet as this.
keep penning,
Marns
~pN
I'm glad it worked for you.
Thanks for reading and commenting,
Laurie
Thanks for reading and commenting,
Laurie
Thanks for reading and commenting,
Laurie
I'm glad you liked the story, and I enjoyed reading your feedback.
Thanks for reading and commenting,
Laurie
I'm just so amazed how well you were able to turn that incident into this marvelously touching story. I wouldn't have wished those moments of terror on your husband (or Jim!) for anything, but you've made something so beautiful out of it.
Love the description of Blair's hair, silver grey and streaked with white, but still all the girls are attracted to him. And still calling him "kid"! I always see Jim calling him that, for despite the years that turn, his enthusiasm has not dimmed.
And nachos instead of lasagna? Boys, you don't know what you missed!
Love this, Laurie!!
myBlair's nacho's are pretty tasty, too, all heaped up with chili beans and salsa and black olives. Simon didn't have the ingredients for lasagna, I was thinking, when I wrote this.Thanks for your very eloguent feedback and I'm happy you liked the title. I was blank about it until it was time to post the story last night and then it came to me. And I do think that Blair will always be attractive to other people,his sweetness just shines out of him. I don't think that quality will change.
Thanks for reading and commenting,
And it's freezing here tonight. Brrr. I wasn't even tempted to go out for a walk. Of course, I didn't get home till nine o'clock, so that had something to do with it also.
Laurie
Grinning happily,
Jaye
Thanks for reading and commenting,
Laurie
I bet Jim has no hair at all now.
(As you can see, I am working my way through your stories)
I'm glad you enjoyed the story.
Thanks for reading and commenting,
Laurie