Jaded Jim 5
Live Fool
Ramblin Rose
Blair decided that like the movie Dead Pool, he wanted to start up a little
bet going at the station, except this one would be called the Live Fool.
They could all bet on how long it would take for Jim to make fool out of
himself for one reason or another. Rafe, Brown, Simon, Conner and Joel
all loved the idea. They figured that one of them had to have an easy
bet one of the days. Jim was always making a fool out of himself.
Little did Blair know that Jim was doing the same thing in the bullpen with
him. Jim figured he wasn’t going to go down without a fight. Jim had
heard about the other bets and knew he had to get Blair one way or another.
Who was the bigger fool? Hard to say, thought Jim.
Chances are it’s me. I’m such a sucker for that man.
So every single morning everyone put money in the pool for the bet.
It was building up big time. One of them had to give way one of these
days.
Simon called Jim into his office. “Jim, what's Sandburg supposed to
be doing to make this pool attainable?”
“Well, he’s got to do something that would embarrass himself, any of you,
or especially me.”
“But Jim, what kind of things. We’ve had this bet going for two weeks
now and nothing's happening. I have to tell you, everyone's getting
bored with putting money into it.”
“Just hang in there, Simon. He’ll blow it soon. I can feel it.”
“I hope you’re right.” Simon said laughing.
“Talk to you later, Simon.” Jim said as he walked out of the office.
When Jim walked out to the bullpen, he went over to Blair and asked, “Want
to go and have lunch today?”
“No thanks, man. I’ve got a date.” Blair said, smiling up at Jim.
Jim’s face fell and said, “What do you mean a date?”
Blair beamed and said, “Conner asked me out. I told her yeah.”
“Sandburg, what the fuck are you talking about?” Jim asked and then realized
that Blair was just trying to get him to say or do something stupid in the
bullpen. “Fine, chief, I hope you have fun.” Jim said as he walked
over to his desk and sat down.
Shit! That didn’t work out the way I planned it. Fuck…
At noon, Conner and Blair went to lunch and everyone watched Jim for some
type of reaction but they got none. Jim was pissed and nothing more.
He couldn’t believe that Blair would stoop this low. Simon walked up
to Jim’s desk and said, “Jim, you wanna come and have some lunch with me?”
“Sure, Simon.” Jim said as he got up and grabbed his jacket on the way out.
Once they got to the restaurant Simon said, “Okay, Jim. Tell me what’s
up.”
“Nothing's up, Simon. Everything's fine. Just dandy.” Jim said
sarcastically.
“Well, what was up with Sandburg having lunch with Conner? Is he trying to
make you jealous?”
“I imagine so but it just pissed me off.”
“Well, don’t get mad, get even.” Simon said, smiling.
“What're you talking about?”
“Well, you know there are a couple of guys that would love to have you ask
them out in traffic. I’ve overhead them many times saying they’d love
to be with you. Why not ask one of them out?”
“Simon, what the hell's wrong with everyone? First of all, I'd never
use someone like that. That would hurt them.”
“Yeah, Jim, you’re right. I’m sorry for even mentioning it.”
“It really hurts, Simon. He’s using Conner. Probably talked to
her and they planned on splitting the money from the pool.”
Simon’s face fell and he said, “How long have you known?”
“Since the first day. I’m not deaf if you remember.”
“What're you going to do now, Jim?”
“I don’t know, Simon. Could I take off? I need to think.”
“Yeah, go take the day. Everything will work out; I just know it. See
you later, Ellison.”
“Thanks, Simon. I’ll be back at my desk in the morning.”
As Jim drove around he found himself getting sadder and sadder. He
realized that both men wanted things to work out their own way. So,
one was going to have to give in. Now Jim just had to think about how
much he loved Blair and see if it was worth embarrassing himself in the bullpen.
Who the fuck are you kidding, Ellison? You’d do anything for him.
You adore the man. You’re crazy about him and you’ll do this if you
know what’s good for you. Why don’t I feel happier about it, then?
As Jim drove the rest of the way home, he smiled as he thought about what
he might do. He could make a fool out of himself and then Blair would
drop the whole thing and they’d be back to the way it used to be. Jim
needed Blair like he needed to breathe, so he had to figure something out.
That was for sure.
Once he got to the loft, he went upstairs and climbed into his bed.
What're you doing, Ellison? You’re calling it your bed now, instead
of ours?
Jim fell into a troubled sleep. Much needed, but still troubled.
When Blair got back from lunch he told Conner, “How much do you wanna bet
that today's your lucky day, Conner?”
They both looked around and she said, “Well, it’s not going to be if he’s
not here to make a fool out of himself.”
Blair walked up to Simon’s office and knocked on the door and opened it and
said, “Sir, where's Jim?”
“Come on in, Sandburg. I need to talk to you.”
Blair walked in and got worried and upset and asked, “Simon, did something
happen to Jim?”
“No, nothing happened. But guess who knows about the bet?”
“Oh shit! I should've known it would backfire on me. Fuck…”
“He asked if he could have the day off to go home. I gave it to him.
He looked pretty sad, Sandburg.”
“I’ll fix things, Simon. I promise.” Blair said as he went to his desk
and dialed the loft. As the answering machine picked up Blair said,
“Jim, pick up please. Please, listen to me. I have to talk to
you. It’s important.” Then the machine stopped recording. Blair
hit redial and waiting for the answering machine to come back on. By
this time everyone in the bullpen was watching him but he didn’t care.
“Jim, listen to me. I’m sorry. It was stupid and immature to
have a bet going. I’m so sorry. I’m going to make it up to you,
tough guy. Okay?” The machine stopped recording again.
He hit redial once again and waited for the machine to pick up. “Jim,
please pick up, please?”
“Chief, I’m here. What’s wrong?”
“Jim, I’m on my way home and I’ll make it up to you. I promise. I love
you.”
“Chief, you’re in the bullpen, aren’t you? Why did you just say that?”
“Shit.” Blair had forgotten where he was and now everyone was looking at
him and they were high fiving each other at the major win. “Well, Jim.
The bet's over now.”
“Chief, you weren’t the only one. So, don’t worry about it, okay?”
Jim said, but there was a note of sadness in his voice that Blair had never
heard before. For this, Blair was even more upset at himself.
“Jim, I’m coming home now. All right?”
“Sure, Chief. You know you can come home anytime you want.”
“I’m on my way.” Blair told Simon that he’d be back in the morning and Simon
told him to straighten things out or not bother coming back, making Blair
smile all the way to the elevator.
Conner said, “Damn you, Sandburg, you told me that Ellison would fold today.”
“Well, I never should have been making bets on a man that I’m in love with.
That was childish of me. Not to mention thoughtless.”
“Sandburg, you owe me for lunch today.”
As the elevator door was shutting, Blair said, “Hey, you said it was on you.”
Then as the door shut, he could still hear Conner saying, “Well, shit.”
When he got to the loft he hurried to the elevator. While he was in
there he started talking to Jim. “Jim, I’m really sorry for everything
I’ve done in the last two weeks. I hope that you’ll be able to forgive
me. I hope that you won’t want to end things because I’m an idiot.”
As the elevator doors opened, Jim was standing there and pulled Blair into
his arms and practically carried him into the loft.
“So I take it this means you’re not kicking me out, right?”
“Chief, I love you so much. You weren’t the only one that fucked up
here. I fucked up, too. I had a pool going on the side, too.”
“Really? So you’re not that mad at me, right?”
“Oh, don’t get me wrong, I’m super pissed off about you going to lunch with
Conner and calling it a date. If you’d just said you were going to
lunch with a friend it wouldn’t have been so bad but that broke my heart,
Chief.”
“I’m sorry, baby, I really am. Please tell me that you can forgive
me.”
“Let’s go upstairs and talk about it, in fact, let's go and talk about the
first things that pop up.”
“Jim, you’re such a shit.” Blair said, smiling and following him up the stairs.
“First things first, Chief.” Jim said as they were getting undressed.
“I’m listening, Jim.” Blair said as he was watching Jim disrobe and getting
hard just looking at his body.
“No more using each other to get what we want. If we want something,
we talk to each other and ask for it. If I want you, I ask and you
do the same. Understood?”
“Understood. I love you, Jim.”
“Yeah, I know. We just got a little carried away with this whole Jaded
Jim thing. That’s not going to happen again, is it?”
“Nope, tough guy, we’re done being Jaded Jim and his sidekick.”
“I never called you a fucking sidekick. You’re more than that.” Jim
said, smiling and pulling Blair into his arms.
Blair went willingly and then they just held each other for the longest time.
Jim finally broke into the quiet when he said, “Blair, I felt like I was
losing you today and I don’t like the feeling at all.”
“You’re never going to lose me, Jim. I promise. Besides, we now know
who the live fool is. I lost the bet.”
“Chief, it doesn’t matter who won the bet. It doesn’t matter at all.
I would have been lost without you.”
“Well, we’ve got the rest of the afternoon and all night to show each other
the live part.” Blair said, kissing Jim again.
“Yeah, that sounds good to me.” Jim said kissing him back.
They were both live fools. But they were live fools in love.
Can’t beat that.
The end.
Part
One
: Mr. Cynical
Part
Two
: Sentinel Force
Part
Three
: Sandburg's Impact
Part
Four
: The Sentinel Enforces
Return to
Patt's Series
Return to
Patt's Stuff