Snippet No. 5

Sandburg leaned back in his chair and stretched. He'd been sitting in the same position for over three hours straight now, working hard on putting his dissertation notes into some semblance of order.

The committee was being really cool about him changing the focus of his thesis; he'd been granted additional time to rework some angles of the police observation and the whole "closed society" theme he'd originally fed to Simon all those months--years, now--ago. Jim didn't know yet that he'd changed his subject thesis...and he wasn't planning on telling him, for a while.

The truth of the matter was, just as he'd told Jim a few weeks ago when all hell had broken loose in Cascade, he *did* enjoy riding with the man. He couldn't even imagine anymore going back to straight academia; the very thought was stultifying. Apparently, action and adventure were as addicting as cocaine was supposed to be. At the very least, the endorphin spike after each case was enough to turn him into an adrenaline junkie.

A soft cough behind him alerted him to Jim's waking up. He shifted in his seat and watched his partner. Jim had gotten the rotten end of the deal with the last case they'd worked. He'd slept with a witness which had him fucked royally, in Simon's opinion, and he'd wound up soaking wet and cold after taking a plunge into the swimming pool trying to quell the mobster's son, risen from the dead.

A head cold was the least of the potential repercussions from that; now, nearly a week later, Jim was finally starting to act and look like himself again. Blair shook his head fondly and turned back to his computer, his fingers already twitching to get some more work done.

No, he didn't want his Sentinel--his friend--to have his life fucked up by turning that life into a freak show. He wanted things to remain as they were: adrenaline junky aside, he liked the quiet and calm that life with Jim had afforded him. And maybe someday, there would be the opportunity to show Jim just how much he appreciated the stability and friendship that the bigger man offered.

His fingers paused over the keys. Maybe someday, too, he could show him how much more they could have together.

Maybe.