Title: Circumstances

Author: Angelee

Fandom: The Sentinel

Pairing: Blair/Jim

Rating: Adult

Summary: Sometimes circumstances in our lives demand we do things we don’t necessarily want to.

Beta: By Bobbie. All remaining errors are my own. With apologies.

Circumstances

Jim looked over at the curly headed man and shook his head. “Damn, he has got to be the worst hooker I’ve ever seen,” he said, laughing softly.

Jim had been called to stake-out a warehouse on the bad side of town. Most times stake-outs were mind-numbing boring. Not this time, though.

About two hours into Jim’s shift, a man had appeared, laying claim to a bench near the corner of the warehouse he was watching. Every time the headlights signaled a prospective client, the curly-headed man would pop up off the bench, trying his damndest to get attention of the sordid kind. The rest of the time he seemed to be reading and writing into some sort of tablet, using the meager light from the lamppost to see by.

For a hooker, he seemed way too interested in his books than in clients.

Once Jim had even seen him lift up the leg of his jeans, showing a shapely, if rather hairy, leg in an attempt for attention. Jim had laughed for ten minutes with that one. Another time he’d tossed his curly head coyly as a car whizzed by. Jim had rolled his eyes.

He was one bad hooker, but rather entertaining. It kept one Major Crimes detective from committing suicide from boredom.

Jim watching the curly haired man open his flannel shirt and flash a car zipping by, thinking ‘Damn, that’s one hairy little monkey.’ Suddenly his car radio went off, scaring him out of ten years of life.

“Jim.”

He picked up the mike. “Yeah, Simon.”

“Call it a night. We picked up Beckett at the airport. He’s safely in custody.”

“Told you he wasn’t coming to the docks.”

He heard a heavy sigh. “Yeah, I know, but we had to cover all the bases, just in case. Hope you weren’t too bored.”

Jim eyed the curly headed man now sitting back on the bench, once again reading. “No, not really.”

“Good. Take tomorrow off. See you on Thursday.”

“Right. Bye, Simon.”

Instead of leaving, which was what he should have done, Jim stared at the lonely figure on the bench as he nibbled worriedly on his lower lip. Before he could change his mind, he opened the car door.

He reached him just as he flashed another car with his bare chest, once again to no avail.

“Damn, I must be as ugly as sin.”

“I wouldn’t exactly say that,” Jim whispered softly.

The curly headed man turned so fast he almost fell off the curb. “Wow!”

Jim caught him before he could land in the street. “Easy there, Chief.”

Beautiful blue eyes looked at him from lashes so dark they didn’t look real. “Hello, my name is Blair.”

Jim looked at him, enchanted. “Hello, Blair.”

“Are you interested in me?” Blair asked hopefully.

“In what way?” Jim questioned, staring at the very hairy chest inches away. He watched as Blair blushed.

“Hmm, for, you know.”

Jim smiled. “Nope. I haven’t a clue.”

Blair lowered his head. “Damn. I’m going to have to sleep in my car forever.”

A finger under his chin lifted his face back up. “What was that, Chief?”

“You don’t want to hear my problems,” Blair replied sadly.

“I might. Especially since you clearly don’t belong out here.”

“I know. I’m an awful hooker. No one’s even paying attention to me.”

“That’s because you’re on the wrong street, Junior. The street you’re looking for is three blocks that way,” Jim said, pointing with his free hand toward the south.

“Truly?”

Jim nodded softly. “Yeah.”

“Shit. I can’t even get that right. Fuck, fuck, fuck.”

Jim, responding to the sadness and the tears filling the blue eyes, pulled Blair into his arms. “Why are you out here?”

Blair sniffed somewhere around his shoulder. “My apartment blew up two weeks ago. All I’ve got to my name is what I have in my car. I’ve got no place to sleep. Well, that’s not exactly true. There’s my car. I don’t have money for gas or for food. Nothing.”

The sniffs turned to full-fledged crying. Jim’s own eyes filled with tears as Blair poured out all his heartbreak and misery. Tears quickly soaked his shirt to the point he could feel their warmth against his skin.

He wrapped his arms around the smaller man and pulled him closer. “I was wondering why you were out here. You don’t fit.”

Blair looked up, meeting Jim’s eyes, his own red-rimmed and swollen. “I had to do something. I was getting desperate.”

“No one to go to for help, or ask for a loan?”

“No one. I don’t know where my mom is. I have no one. It’s getting to the point where I’m going to have to dig through trash dumpsters for food,” Blair told him, his voice hitching with his misery.

“It’s not going to come to that, Chief.”

“How do you know that? Are you going to buy me?” Blair asked hopefully. “I won’t charge that much. Just enough to get something to eat, and maybe some gas.”

“And then what? Come back out here and try and sell yourself again?” Jim asked, tugging on a soft curl. “You weren’t doing so good there, were you, chief?”

Blair stared up at him shyly. “I know, but you’re interested in me, aren’t you?”

Jim tugged on the curly lock again. “Maybe.”

Blair gave him a brilliant smile. “Then I’m not the total loser I thought I was.”

“You’re not a loser, Chief. Dumb maybe, desperate for sure, but not a loser.”

Just then Blair’s tummy growled so loudly and violently that Jim felt it as well as heard it. Blair looked up at his ruefully. “Sorry.”

“When did you last eat?”

“Does a jelly bean two days ago count?”

Jim sighed softly. “No, sweetheart. In no way does that count as a meal. Come on,” he told him, reaching down to button up the shirt that was still wide open.

Blair watched him button the shirt. “Where are we going?”

“I’m taking you to eat at Wonder Burger, and then we’re going to talk about some stupid choices that you’ve made.”

Blair sighed softly when Jim buttoned up his jacket as well. Not too loud, though. It felt good to have someone caring about him. “Are you going to have sex with me?” He asked instead.

Jim turned back from leading Blair to his car. “No, Chief. Cops having sex with hookers is very heavily frowned on.”

Blair stopped dead in his track. “Oh, shit. Am I in trouble?”

“No, sweetheart. This is just between you and me. My name, by the way, is Jim Ellison. Come on, you don’t have anything to be afraid of.”

Blair reached back for his backpack. “Okay. Jim?” He called as he bounced after him.

Jim raised a curious eyebrow. “What?”

“Do police officers have sex with down on their luck college students?”

Jim chuckled softly. “Maybe. Once they have a very heavy talk with their prospective partners on a variety of subjects. Starting with being out so late, being too trusting, not to mention the biggie of them all, trying to become a hooker. Which is a mighty big no-no.”

“I wasn’t very good at it.”

Jim unlocked the car on the passenger side, ushering Blair in. “No excuse.”

Blair remained silent while Jim moved around the front of the car and got in. “Hmm, Jim?”

Jim turned to look at him as he started the car. “Yeah?”

“Thank you.”

Jim didn’t need to ask why. He knew. Just as he knew that the curly headed man sitting across from him was about to become the most important person in his life. He reached over and cupped the side of Blair’s face, running his thumb gently over a high cheekbone.

“It’s not a problem, Chief. Not a problem at all.”