Jackpot
 

Blair turned the piece of paper over in his hand and read it again.

The words still hadn't changed.

He folded the letter carefully into thirds, then put a fist to his forehead, closing his eyes. Unbelievable. Unfuckingbelievable. He couldn't believe it had happened. Not to him. Not now.

"Chief?" Jim was looking at him in concern. Blair shook his head, eyes still closed. He held the letter out, hearing the crackle of paper as his partner unfolded it and started reading.

"Mr. Sandburg, this letter is to inform you...." he mumbled through the rest of the paragraph, until he reached the end. "EIGHT HUNDRED THOUSAND!"

Blair looked up, a grin breaking over his face. "I won the jackpot, Jim."

"I mean, I only ever bought the ticket on an impulse. I was out getting some more pull-ups and I thought 'Hey, I had luck on that racetrack last year, why not, it's only a coupla bucks' I didn't even see the draw, I was too busy. I just grabbed the mail this morning, and I found this letter." Blair was bouncing up and down on the couch in excitement. "This is so great, I mean, I can finally get those gate barriers for all the doors, you know how Dayna's like now - we gotta keep her out of places."

"Great, Chief," observed Jim. "What are you gonna do with the other seven hundred and ninety-nine thousand odd dollars?"

Blair's jaw dropped open. "Uhhh......I don't know." He got up off the couch a little unsteadily. "Wow. This is big. Nearly a mi-....wow." he wandered off to his room. "I gotta process this Jim. Wow."

Entering his room, Blair closed the door behind him. He wanted to.....hell, he didn't know what he wanted to do. He wanted to yell, he wanted to scream around his bedroom like a hairy monkey...but he didn't think Jim would appreciate it.

So he threw himself backwards on his bed with a sigh.

He was rich.

"Rich," he tried out the word to see how it fit. It sounded...weird.

A soft rustling turned his head to the side. Dayna was standing up in her cot, tiny hands wrapped around the bars as bright green eyes peeked over at him.

Blair rolled over and propped his head up in his hand. "Hey, when did you wake up?" Dayna stretched out her hands and Blair obediently picked her up. Settling himself cross-legged on his bed, the anthropologist sat his daughter in front of him. "Dad just got a lot of money," he whispered conspiratorially. "And he doesn't have the faintest idea what to do with it. So, sparky, what do you want most in the whole world?" he looked around at the baby goods dotted in between anthropological artefacts. "Apart from your own room?"

Dayna sat there for a moment, appearing to seriously consider the question. Then she reached up and tugged at his shirt. "Ji?"

Blair grinned and swept her into a hug. "Yeah, me too," he held her out at arms length and wrinkled his nose. "But I think I'd better check that nappy first."

Jim carefully refolded the letter and placed it on the table by the door, tucking it a little under the basket so that it wouldn't be lost. His mind was whirling. He was glad for his friend -with ongoing Uni fees, a dumpy car and a daughter to raise, God knew he could do with the money - but underneath that was an uneasy current of fear. What would Blair do? Money meant freedom, the kind of freedom his partner had had before he was saddled with the responsibility of being a Guide. The freedom to do what he wanted, go anywhere, take Dayna to all those places and tribes he told her of in stories as she went to sleep...

He shook his head. Melodrama. Pointless and useless. Whatever Sandburg decided, it was *his* life. His stomach growled at him and he chuckled. It was his turn to cook, and if he didn't start soon he would lose his Guide - to the nearest restaurant.

"Dinners just about done!" Jim called out, pulling plates from the cupboards.

"Hang on a sec!" Blair exited his room with an armful of books.

Jim stopped in the middle of serving dinner and gave him a strange look. "Chief?"

"Just moving some stuff outta my room." Blair knelt and started stowing the books on the shelves. "It's kinda getting crowded with all Dayna's stuff in there as well as mine. And it's gonna get worse. So I'm going for the pre-emptive strike. " He wedged the final, massive tome between two smaller books and stood, brushing his knees off.

There was a rolling noise, then Dayna tottered out after him, pushing her block trolley in front of her. Stopping by the bookcase, she gripped her way along the lower shelves and began studiously taking her picture books out of the trolley and stacking them on the floor. Blair chuckled and moved some of his books up a shelf, stacking them on their sides and two deep so that the lower shelf was left free. Dayna giggled and moved her books into the proffered space, stacking them upside down and wrong way round.

Jim grinned and leaned over the counter. "Looks like it's time you got her a little broom, Chief. Could cut down on the housecleaning."

Blair snorted. "Yeah, right. Like you'd trust anyone else to excavate the various dust puffles only Sentinels are meant to see." Sitting Dayna in the bed of the now-empty trolley, he positioned himself behind the bar. "Ready for the Indy 500?" he asked, rocking the trolley back and forth while making revving noises. Dayna squealed in delight and gripped the edges of the trolley in her hands as he whisked her back into their room.

"Kids," Jim chuckled as they disappeared. There was a simulated squealing of tyres and a crashing noise, then Dayna shouted in delight.

Blair reappeared a few seconds later, bouncing the toddler on his hip. Plunking her in her high chair, he started pulling cutlery and glasses out of the cupboards and draws.

"So, Creosote," Jim started, serving up the mashed potatoes. "Decided what to do with your ill-gotten gains yet?"

Blair shrugged, chopping some steak into fine, baby-sized portions. "No idea man. I mean, there's some stuff I can get Dayna, and put I can put some towards her college or whatever she wants when she's older. Maybe get some new tyres for the Volvo - or get the engine fixed *properly.*" He grabbed a melon out of the fridge, and started adding some soft pieces to the plastic plate. "Apart from that, I pretty much got what I need." Filling a two handed cup with apple juice, he bore the plate to where Dayna was eagerly drumming her heels on the high chair.

Jim shook his head in disbelief. "That's *it?*" he asked, following with the other two plates.

"Well, yeah." Blair tied a bib around Dayna's neck and handed her a plastic fork. "Jim, man, I don't need all that money. I mean, we're pretty happy here, right? No big must-be-paid-or-we'll-break-your-kneecaps type bills sneaking up around the corner?" Blue eyes studied the Sentinel piercingly and Jim shook his head.

"Then it's settled. I'll just sort what we need and give the rest to charity or something." Blair scooped up a forkful of peas and flipped them into his mouth.

Jim toyed with his glass for a moment. "Sandburg, what if something else comes up? Something that you can't see?"

Blair shrugged. "We'll manage." He chuckled at the other man's dubious look. "Jim, man, you don't live ten years as a student without knowing how to flip some financial tricks. I can handle it if anything comes up."

"But what about now?" Jim pressed. "Come on, kid. You said yourself it's getting crowded with both yours and Dayna's stuff in the one room," he leaned over and absently wiped a smear of potato off the said baby's face. "Why don't you think of getting some more space?"

Blair put his fork down. "You mean, find another place? Move out?"

"No! No," Jim hastened to reassure the younger man, mentally kicking himself "All I'm saying is, look at the loft. There's heaps of room, maybe we could renovate or something."

"Put an extra room in?" Blair looked around the lounge. "I guess, but wouldn't it make it kinda cramped?"

Jim followed his gaze. "I don't know. Maybe if we put it alongside yours? Knock that wall out and move the windows over a bit? You know, add some space, then split it?"

Blair pursed his lips. "Maybe. If we move those stairs..."

Jim leaned back and congratulated himself. Another disaster averted. But he couldn't shake off the faint feeling of unease that rose a little higher in his heart.

Jim hesitated in the door to the Loft. "Sure you're not coming, Chief?" he asked, feeling somehow odd for asking.

Blair looked up from his breakfast paper and lapful of baby. "Yeah, I got the day off and I intend to enjoy it, spend some time with Dayna." He stretched luxuriously. "I mean, you're gonna be ok? You said last night that you're just doing paperwork until infernal affairs clears you on that shooting, right?"

"Yeah," Jim answered absently, the uneasy feeling from before rising up again.

"Keeewl." Blair spread his paper out on the table and picked Dayna up. Carrying her over to the front door, he presented her for inspection. "Say 'bye to Jim," he prompted.

Two chubby hands grabbed the Sentinel's collar and hauled him in for a wet kiss. And another. And another, leaving sloppy trails all over his cheeks.

"Easy Dayna!" Blair pulled her away while Jim blotted his face with his sleeve. "Sorry man. Hang on, you got a little..." he pulled out a baby wipe, brushing a place Jim had missed. The movement brought the baby in his arms closer to his partner, and she reached out again.

Jim quickly slipped back around the doorframe and out of the reach of the two grasping hands. "See you later kids..." his voice floated back teasingly from the stairwell.

"Yeah, later Jim!" Blair laughed. Closing the door, he let Dayna down and picked up his paper again, sitting crosslegged on the space before the couch and spreading it out on the coffee table as Dayna clambered happily to her toy blocks.

Almost despite himself he found the pages turning to the real estate classifieds, picture after picture of places to rent floating past his face. Jim was right with what he said the night before, it *was* getting too crowded. Blair thumped the heel of his hand into his forehead as he realised the significance of Jim's words. God knew the Big Guy was intensely private. Blair had been living with him for nearly two years before he found out his partner had a brother - and even *that* was by accident! How would he feel about a mad anthropologist and his adopted daughter tromping through the sanctity of his private home? Pissed off, eventually. It was time to make a little break, just a little one, while he had the money and before it was too late.

It was best for everyone.

So why did he feel like something was chewing dully on his insides?

Jim shuffled the paperwork on his desk, accidentally knocking over the photo haunting the corner near his monitor. Picking it up, he studied the image. A photo Naomi had taken on her last visit, one of many featuring her new granddaughter. They had turned out so well she had sent copies back to Cascade when they were developed.

Jim and Blair. Both on the couch in the loft, Dayna grinning delightedly between them, a chubby hand resting on each man's thigh.

He ran his fingers over the glass surface for a moment. They looked so damned domestic. A little family. He snorted suddenly at the image. Hell Sandburg was the one always going on about social structures, wasn't he? Mr and Mrs and baby makes three. Except there was no Mrs, apart from the occasional dates the two men brought home.

Jim felt an undefineable sadness tug at his heart. He wasn't under any illusions. With one failed marriage under his belt, and a secret as big as Superman's, he wasn't exactly in the market for another wedding. And face it - who really wanted a balding cop hitting forty? The two Sandburgs were probably the closest thing to a nuclear family he was ever going to get.

And he had the horrible feeling it was going to slip away from him.

Jim carefully set the photo frame back down on his desk and shuffled more paperwork. But his heart wasn't really in it.

Blair absently opened the door, engrossed in his paper.

"Bang." A voice said. "I'm a revenge-bound psycho and I just blew your head off."

"Hi Corrine," he wandered back to the couch, not looking up from the classifieds.

"Great welcome," she shut the door behind her and picked Dayna up with a smile as the toddler tugged on her skirt. "Heya D. How's it hanging?" She settled the toddler on her hip and mock-glared at the anthropologist. "Hello?" she said plaintively. "Part-time student in need of caffeine?"

"You know where the pot is," Blair turned another page, scouring for places. He had three on his 'possible' list so far, but they didn't fit into his 'perfect' criteria. Personally, he didn't give a shit where he lived. But Dayna deserved somewhere nice.

"Mutter mutter grumble grumble." Corrine groused good naturedly as she pulled a cup down from the cupboard. Walking back into the lounge, she let Dayna down and snagged Blair's cup, waving it under his nose. "Will sir be having some more?" she inquired in her best waiter's voice.

Blair finally looked up, grinning. "Yeah, that'd be great, thanks." He reached the end of the classifieds and took his glasses off, tossing them onto the coffee table in disgust, then hurriedly snatching them back up out of the reach of eager fingers.

"Whatcha looking at?" Corrine came back in with two steaming cups.

"Places to live." Blair rubbed the bridge of his nose. No matter what glasses he got, they always seemed to pinch there. "I was thinking that now I have all this money, I could either strip naked and roll in it, or rent a place." He took the proffered cup. "Thanks."

"Jim know?"

"Not yet," the Grad student confessed.

"He'll go apeshit." Corrine warned.

"But there's no space here," Blair's protests sounded feeble, even to himself. But what other choice was there? "And I mean look at it. You know what Jim's like. House rules. Messy anthropologist and toddler daughter. Not a good mix. I'm lucky he hasn't tossed us out before now."

Corrine considered his little speech, then settled back on the couch, sipping from her cup. "He's still gonna go apeshit."

"Yeah, well, apeshit he may be, but he'll go even more apeshit a year down the track when we really start bursting the house at the seams."

Dayna looked up at them and giggled. "Apeshi'"

"Dayna!" Blair slapped a hand to his mouth. He tended to forget what a parrot she was at times. "Look at that Corrine," he complained loudly. "How am I gonna get a good place when my daughter shows a shocking lack of moral values??"

"Valoooo"

"That's right Dayna, you learn that word." Blair leafed back through the paper. Time to lower his moral standards slightly - until something better came along.

"Student digs?!" Corrinne pulled the paper out of his hands and tossed it across the room.

"Hey!" Blair protested as the pages drifted over the floor. "Don't leave that there, Jim'll have a cow. Anyway, I haven't finished looking," he continued excitedly. "There was a really nice place nearby I was considering. Two rooms, medium rent... I mean, the guys got fifteen cats, but that's ok, he's cool about Dayna and it's not like either of us is allergic or anything - "

"Nononononono. I don't think so." Corrinne tugged another paper from underneath the seat and spread it out. "Think BIG. Think HOUSE." She tapped a glossy photo. "Think 'Real Estate.'"

Blair shook his head, wincing at the price tags. "I can't afford -" he cut himself off and looked up sheepishly as Corrine raised an eyebrow at him. "Oh yeah, right."

Corrine finished the last of her coffee and put the cup in the sink. "Blair, I gotta go. Can I have those exam notes you promised?"

"Oh yeah, yeah, yeah." Blair ferreted out the requested item. Slipping his glasses back on, coffee cup in hand to keep it safe, he went over a few points before handing it over.

"Thanks." Corrine slipped the rolled up pile of papers into her bag and bent down for a good-bye kiss from Dayna. "I'll see you later, ok? With or without the attached ape faeces."

"Yep, bye."

"Feecees."

"Dayna!"

Blair flicked through the paper again. Lots of good places, *well* within his new budget, but most of them were located uptown. There HAD to be somewhere closer.

His eye caught an entry, tucked into the middle of a column.

Prospect. Apartment 30 - He spat out his coffee and ran to the door. Swinging it open, he looked at the number down the hall. 306

Thirty seconds later he was on the phone.

Blair was bouncing excitedly when Jim got home. "Hey, Jim, I bought a house!"

Jim tossed his keys at the basket by the door. They overshot, skittering past the counter to land on the floor, but he didn't notice. "Really?" He felt suddenly cold, his world crashing around his feet.

Blair nodded excitedly, oblivious. "It's perfect, man, you won't believe it." He paused dramatically, then surged ahead. "It's the Loft across the hall!"

Jim swallowed against a suddenly dry throat. "That's great," he managed.

"Yeah, can you believe it? The people across only moved out last week. The manager already had an offer, but he tossed it out the window when he found out I was paying cash. I now own a house," he blinked and grinned. "Whoa, I feel so...materialistic! And you should see it, I mean, it's HUGE! It's like, half again the size of this place! *Two* lower bedrooms - BIG bedrooms - plus the upper one, big lounge, fireplace - the whole lot! The view from the balcony isn't as nice though, but we'll get used to it...."

Jim moved across the lounge on suddenly weak legs and sat on the couch. Get a grip, Ellison. It's only across the hall. He's only moving across the hall. He let his Guide's words wash unheedingly across him.

"...And I'll have a whole heap of room to put up all those artefacts I have packed away. 'Course I'll need to get a whole heap of stuff for Dayna's room, but it's not like the money's gonna be a problem. I'll still have tons to put away for when she wants to go to college..."

His first step out of my life. What next? With Sandburg having a place of his own, he and Jim would have less time together, grow apart. Blair would find the right woman, get married. Move away from Cascade. Dayna would grow up into a teenager, then a woman and he wouldn't see it.

"....Of course, it's gonna take ages to move all our stuff across, I mean, I haven't got much - well, I do, but most of the Anthro stuff's in boxes already - but your bed's like the biggest thing I've seen, I have NO idea how you got it up there in the first place, what, did you use a crane or something?"

Jim looked up suddenly. "My bed?" he asked confused, hope sparking.

"Yeah, I mean, I can't use the upper bedroom, I'll need to stay downstairs with Dayna and - Oh shit." Blair sat down next to him on the couch. "Stupid idiot," he muttered to himself, running a hand through his hair before turning to his partner.

"Jim, man, I'm sorry." Blair began softly. "I didn't mean to, I just kinda assumed you'd be moving too. I mean there's the room, and Dayna doesn't sleep too well unless we're both there, and I thought I need to keep an eye on you, you know, I keep having these nightmare visions of coming in and finding you zoned a week ago on your shaving cream or something and -" Blair forced himself to calm down. "Jim, man, I am so sorry. This is your home. I had no right. I was only ever supposed to stay a week, not move you around, tow a kid along with me, take over your life. But if you ever -"

Jim leaned over and pulled him into a hug. "Yes." He felt suddenly free as the weight fell away from his heart.

Blair paused for a moment, then returned the embrace. "Jim, man, that's - that's fantastic." He hugged his Sentinel tighter, letting tears of happiness fall on the other man's shirt.

Jim felt them, but didn't comment. "Does this mean I have to follow your house rules?" he teased softly, grinning like a maniac. He still had his family.

"House rules? " Blair pulled back, grinning happily, not bothering to wipe his eyes. "Come on man, did I ever tell you those things are fascicistic? Besides, what can I slam you with, huh?" He began ticking a mock list off on his fingers. "You MUST flush the toilet after 10 pm. You MUST leave all dishes in the sink for at least 48 hours..."

"Smartass." Jim cuffed him across the back of the head, then pulled him into another hug. "Come here."

"You MUST play jungle music too loud. You MUST leave weird food on the counter..."

"Sandburg"

"Just kidding, man." He closed his eyes for a brief moment. Glad we're still together.

Sentinel and Guide.

The way it should be.

All Content Copyright © 2001 Taleya Joinson
Last modified: November 12, 2010