Blair stomped down the path, his hair bouncing and hands flying, the dust of crumpled leaves floating in his wake. Jim followed sedately, kind of listening to Blair ramble angrily about the Dean and her asinine policies, mostly just imagining the emotions rushing through his body and over his expressive face. Now his eyes will be scrunched up, he thought, imagining the looks on Blair's face with ease. Now his mouth is pursed, and now he's cracking his knuckles like that's intimidating.

Blair kicked at leaves, muttering, then spun around to face Jim, walking backwards. "Do you think I'm being a moron about this, Jim?" he asked, but that look was in his eyes like it didn't matter what Jim said, of course he wasn't being a moron.

So Jim said, "Of course you're not being a moron, Chief," hoping that was all Blair'd require of him and now that it was said, they could go out for dinner and forget about the Dean. The sky was hard and incredibly blue, the way it only gets in autumn, and it hadn't rained in a week. Major Crimes had been quiet and Simon had been in an expansively good mood--in fact, all of Cascade seemed to have settled into the wait for winter with remarkable good cheer.

All but Blair and the Dean, anyway.

Blair threw his hands up and nodded emphatically. "You're right. I'm not being a moron. I am totally--argh." He shook his head, sending his hair in a million different directions, obviously frustrated. "I'm acting like a three year old."

Jim figured he knew what the response to that statement was supposed to be. "No, you're not," he said. "You're acting like a man who bumped up against the brick wall of politics."

"And then threw a hissy-fit when it didn't crumble for him." Blair rolled his eyes. "Admit it, Jim. I need to just let this go, right?"

Jim nodded, but before he could say anything, Blair stumbled. His eyes widened and Jim reached out but it was too late--an exposed root had caught his heel and he was going down. Fortunately, there was enough leaf cover on the ground beside the path to break his fall with a gentle whoomph.

For a second, Jim just stood there and Blair kind of flopped around in the pile of leaves. Then, cautiously, he opened one eye. "I'm ok," he said, but it was kind of a question. Jim nodded, but he wasn't so certain.

"Hurt anywhere?" he asked, not wanting to pull Blair out of the leaves until he was sure that the kid was all right.

"Absolutely nowhere." Blair patted the leaves and grinned. His blue eyes were gleaming now, not with anger but with amusement. Jim, accepting that he was all right, reached down to pull h