Title: JUST BEYOND THE CROSSROADS 
Author/pseudonym: Candy Apple 
Rating: MAO
Pairings: J/B

Status: NEW, complete
Date: 2-26-99
Series/Sequel: NOPE.


Disclaimers: Pet Fly owns the guys and The Sentinel.  No money being
made.  Just for fun.

Notes: I watched "Crossroads" again the other night, and this story just
leapt into my mind. ;-) I'm taking the creative liberty of pretending that
"Crossroads" is the last piece of canon, for the purposes of this story.

Summary: Jim finds what he was truly looking for when he set out on
his trip.

Warnings: M/M


JUST BEYOND THE CROSSROADS

by

Candy Apple


     Jim headed back to the lodge where he'd left his things that
morning, which now seemed a lifetime ago.  In that time, they'd foiled
a multi-million dollar heist.  And for a few brief, horrendous hours,
he'd thought Blair was in danger of dying.  Of course, there never really
was much likelihood of that happening, since the intent wasn't to kill
the townspeople, and Blair was as healthy a specimen as any of them--so 
his chances of buying the farm were pretty slim.

     In his conversations with a few of the locals, he'd found out that
one of the families there had an old cabin they were more than happy
to make a few bucks from renting out, so his lodging problems were
solved.  Now he just needed to get his things and go start his vacation
for real.

     When he opened the door to the lodge, he was surprised to see
Blair still there, sitting on one of the couches.

     "I thought you and Simon were heading back for the city."

     "Yeah, we are.  Simon's picking up a couple things at the store
for the drive back.  I wasn't feeling so hot so I stayed here."

     "What's wrong?"  Jim frowned with concern, having thought
Blair was well on his way to being 100%.  Now, giving him a closer
look, he could see the white pallor of his skin and the faint sheen of
perspiration on his face.

     "My head's still kind of foggy, and I feel a little nauseous. 
Nothing serious.  I'm sure I'll be okay in a few more hours."

     "You feel warm," Jim opined, laying a hand on Blair's forehead.

     "I'll be all right, Jim.  Don't worry about it.  As soon as Simon
gets back, I'll be out of your hair."

     "Look, are you still mad about my coming up here without you
two?"

     "No, I'm not mad.  I never was *mad*."  Blair leaned back in
the cushions of the couch and rubbed a hand over his face.

     "But you weren't happy about it, obviously.  You joined Simon
on his little seek and destroy mission."

     "He was going to come up here anyway, with or without me.  I
could see that.  And he seemed convinced you were just trying to get
the drop on us for some great fishing hole.  It was stupid of me to go
along with it.  I should have known better, but I guess...I guess I wanted
to think it was about fishing, you know?"

     "I just needed some time away, to clear my head."

     "You could have told me that, Jim."

     "I did tell you that."

     "I meant before you showed up in Simon's office asking for a
week off.  God, I thought somebody had died or something.  Why didn't
you just say so?"

     "Would you have accepted that?"  Jim sat on the edge of a
nearby chair, resting his elbows on his knees.

     "Of course.  Sometimes people need some time away.  That's
why I meditate sometimes--just to get away from everything and
everybody and look inside myself and get things...balanced."

     "That's all I was trying to do with this trip."

     "Look, Jim, I wasn't pulling a Felix Unger or whatever before
when I said I'd move out.  I know you never really invited me to stay at
your place, and I've kind of been like the houseguest from hell that
never went home.  I thought it was working out okay for both of us, but
I can see that it's really getting on your nerves.  Or I am, anyway.  I
meant it when I said I'd move.  No hard feelings or anything."  Blair
closed his eyes then, and Jim tried to dig back in his memory to a time
when he'd seen Blair look so tired, pale, and...defeated.

     "I don't want you to move out."

     "You don't have to be polite about it.  This morning, you said
what you meant--that was your visceral reaction, not your rehearsed
reaction.  I got the message."

     "No, you didn't.  Or...maybe *I* didn't."  Jim moved over to sit
on the couch next to Blair.  "You don't look like you're up to a long
road trip, pal."

     "Yeah, well, the lodging around here isn't too bountiful, and
Simon wants to get back home."

     "I'm renting a cabin from a local family.  It's out in the woods."

     "Sounds nice."  Blair actually smiled faintly, then opened his
eyes to look at Jim.  "Near the lake?"

     "Yeah, right on it."

     "At least you'll get some decent fishing in."

     "How about you staying on with me for a few days, huh?"

     "You don't have to do that, Jim."  Blair straightened up then,
sighing.  "I'm not angry or anything.  You need your space."

     "I'd...like for you to stay, Chief."  Jim waited until Blair turned
and had eye contact with him.  "I've been thinking about a week by
myself in a cabin in the middle of nowhere, and it's sounding a little
bleak."

     "Really?"  Blair's resolve seemed to be weakening, and Jim
moved in for the kill.

     "Really.  I mean, when I catch the big one, who's gonna take the
picture?"  He smiled, and Blair chuckled a little at that.

     "You really want me to stay with you?"

     "Yes, Blair, I really want you to stay with me," Jim said
seriously, looking deep into Blair's eyes, putting a great deal more
significance into the statement than just reaffirming his invitation for
fishing together.

     "Okay," Blair responded, grinning now, and looking
considerably perkier than he had when Jim had shown up.  

********

     Blair slept most of the short drive to the cabin, his system still
drained from the aftereffects of the drug.  He seemed to be caught in
that delicious lethargic sleep that often follows a grueling illness,
oblivious to the bumps and potholes in the back roads they followed.  

     Upon their arrival at the cabin, Jim unloaded the truck without
disturbing his sleeping partner.   He wondered as he stacked their
supplies and sparse amount of luggage in the living room of the rustic
little cabin how Simon really took it that Blair was invited to stay, and
he wasn't.  Well, Jim had been a tad more diplomatic than that, and
maybe Simon was just wise enough to read between the lines. 
Truthfully, he *had* wanted some complete solitude for a few days,
but seeing the hurt it was causing Blair made a few days of aloneness
seem less important.

     Returning to the truck, he opened the passenger door and
unfastened Blair's seatbelt, thinking the movement might wake him. 
No such luck.  Jim took a hold of the sleeping man's chin and turned
his face toward him, but all it showed was the peaceful repose of a very
deep sleep. 

     He went back inside the cabin, took the drop cloth off the
double bed that was in the lone bedroom, and found some fresh sheets
in a drawer of the dresser, where the owners had said they would be. 
Hastily making up the bed, he hurried back out to the truck to find
Blair exactly where he left him, still snoring softly.

     "You're really wiped, aren't you, Chief?"  he asked quietly, a
definite trace of affection his in voice.  Without further hesitation, he
gathered the sleeping man in his arms and hoisted him out of the truck,
kicking the door shut with his foot.  Blair stirred and mumbled a little
then, but didn't wake.

     Happy the cabin wasn't too far away, Jim made his laborious
trek inside with Blair.  He deposited his burden on the turned back bed,
only to have him roll on his side and curl up in a ball, completely
defying any effort Jim might have put forth to undress him and tuck
him in.  

     "Okay, partner, I guess you need sleep worse than you need to
be comfortable."  He carefully pulled Blair's shoes off and drew the
covers up over the fully dressed, oblivious man.  He carefully laid a
hand on Blair's forehead, and found that it was no warmer than it was
before.  If anything, it felt a bit cooler, and judging by Blair's sluggish
state, he was just sleeping off the wear and tear of the drug on his body.

********

     Jim spent most of the day reading quietly in the main room of
the cabin, happy to relax and be away from telephones and deadlines. 
And still happier to be able to tune in to Blair's sleeping heartbeat,
knowing his partner was nearby.  How he could have envisioned
dumping Blair for a week as something desirable, he wasn't sure.

     //No, you're sure.  You know what you were doing, Ellison. 
You were running away from him.  Trying to prove to yourself that you
can still be without him.  And that you aren't in love with him, because
Jim Ellison doesn't fall in love with another man.  Isn't that right?//

     Jim swallowed the inclination to answer the voice in his head
out loud.  It had a quality somewhere between his father and a drill
sergeant and a well-meaning therapist.  There was a tone of accusation
and ridicule, and yet another element of prodding him to face his
feelings.  Being in love with Blair hadn't been a problem so far.  Well,
it had been a problem of sorts, but their lives were such that they were
together most of the time.  Blair wasn't in any hurry to get married and
move to Borneo and live in a tent.

     //No, he already passed up Borneo for you, Ace.  Remember?//

     "Yeah, well, he passed up Borneo of his own free will.  Nobody
was chaining his ass to the loft."  His voice was only audible to sentinel
ears.

     //Ah, but the strings of the heart bind tighter than any human
restraints.//

     "Oh, great.  Bad enough I have voices in my head like a
goddamned psychopath, but now I have to listen to bad poetry."

     //He stayed because he loved you.//

     "He said it was about friendship.  We're friends."

     //How many times have you passed up a major career
opportunity for your friends?//

     "Never had many good ones, so I wouldn't know."

     //Would it be so bad to go in there and undress him and make
love to him?//

     "Yeah, because he'd kill me and I already put the little bastard
on my life insurance.  So he'd kill me *and* get paid for it."

     //What are you more afraid of?  Him rejecting you or him
responding to you?//

     "Both."  Jim sighed and tossed the book aside, rubbing both
hands over his face.  

     "Jim?"  There was a little note of anxiety in Blair's voice.  That
wasn't too surprising since he'd dozed off in the truck and was coming
to in the shadows of dusk in a strange bed in a strange house.

     "Right here, Chief," Jim called back, making his way to the
doorway of the bedroom.

     "Oh, man.  How long was I out?"  Blair asked, sitting up and
pushing a few stray strands of hair back.  Jim looked at his watch.

     "About five hours.  How do you feel?"

     "My head still feels like a blob of shit.  Doesn't exactly hurt, but
isn't working to well either, if you know what I mean.  I need the john. 
Oh, man."

     "What?"

     "You're not going to tell me it's forty yards behind the house or
something?"

     "No.  It's inside.  Right around the corner here."  Jim moved out
of the doorway and pointed to his right.  Blair got out of bed and shed
his jacket, then shuffled into the bathroom.  Over the running water of
Blair washing his hands, Jim called, "You hungry?"

     "Starving.  Man, when the nausea goes, it really goes.  I could
eat a horse."

     "I'll go throw a couple on the grill," Jim responded with a smile
in his voice.

     The two men ate their meal of grilled steaks and potatoes at the
small table for two situated between the kitchen area and the living
area of the main room.  
     
     "This is a pretty decent place.  I was expecting something...
really rustic."

     "Well, I wanted to get away from it all.  Not necessarily to have
to walk five miles to take a leak."

     "Hey, thanks for hauling my dead butt in here.  I didn't mean to
die on you like that."

     "No problem.  But if you're going to keep pulling your Camille
routine, I'm putting you on a diet."

     "Not until I've had my fill.  I am *so* starved."  Blair procured
another of the four baked potatoes they had between them, and started
gorging on it hungrily.

     "So, think you'll be up to a little fishing in the morning?"

     "Yeah, that sounds great.  Unless you'd rather go on your own.  I
mean, I could just read or take a nature walk or something else."

     "Blair, I wouldn't have asked you to come with me if I wanted
to avoid you."

     "Good.  Fishing sounds great.  I won't even gripe at you about
getting up.  It's not like I won't have had major sleep today."

     "I'll remind you of that at four."

     "Hey, I'm good to go, man."

********

     With dinner cleared away and dishes washed, Jim built a fire in
the living room.  The warm glow cast enough light to make lamps
unnecessary unless one wanted to read, and Jim had had his fill of that. 
Blair, as he came into the living room with their coffee and a couple of
jumbo-sized chocolate chunk cookies he'd bought prior to their
misadventures, didn't look inclined to do anything but sit by the fire
with Jim and talk.

     "You're probably gonna have to dunk these.  They were fresh
two days ago, but they aren't looking too great now," Blair explained as
he joined Jim, sitting cross-legged on the thick rug by the fire.

     "They smell good," Jim opined, picking one up off the plate and
taking a bite.  Looking at Blair in the firelight, his hair down now, the
blue in his eyes drawn out by the blue in the plaid flannel shirt he wore,
and realizing there was nowhere on earth he'd rather be than with this
one person, Jim reached a decision.  "We have to talk, Chief."

     "About...?"  Blair looked up, visibly worried.

     "About us."

     "Oh."  Blair set his cookie back down and took a sip of his
coffee.  "Considering how stifled you've felt, you probably want to
make some changes.  Look, I promise not to keep pushing tests on you. 
We've got a lot of data, and I can probably do what I need to do without
making you feel like a lab rat anymore."

     "That's nice to hear, Chief, but that's not what I'm talking
about."

     "Then what?"

     "I'm talking about the real reason that I wanted to take a trip
without you."

     "Oh."  Again, Blair seemed at a loss for a more profound
comeback.  Instead, he watched Jim intently. 

     "I was running away from myself as much as I was from you."

     "How?"  Blair frowned, and Jim looked away, staring into the
fire.  There was no way he could look Blair in the eyes when he said it.

     "Because of the way I feel about you.  It's not leading anywhere
good."

     "I don't understand.  I thought you said you wanted me to stay. 
Are you saying you changed your mind?"

     "No, not at all.  I...I'm saying that I want you around...too
much."

     "I thought you said I was always in your face."
     
     "You are.  The problem is, I want you there."

     "That means a lot to me, Jim," Blair responded, smiling.  Jim
just knew he was smiling, and he had to look.  Blair smiling in the
firelight was not something Jim was about to deny himself seeing.  He
couldn't help but smile back.

     "I love you, Blair."  He said it softly, more with a breath than
his voice, and for a brief moment, thought it had only been audible to
him.  But then he saw Blair's reaction.  The first glint of a tear in one
eye, the bob of the adam's apple, and then Blair's response.

     "I love you too.  I...have for a long time."

     "Well, yeah, but I'm not talking about friendship."  Jim
watched, his breathing suspended, as those words registered with Blair. 
It crossed his mind that Blair deserved something better than this, some
romantic declaration in some exquisite, memorable setting.  Instead, he
was professing his love over coffee and stale cookies in front of the
fireplace of a borrowed cabin in the middle of nowhere.  "Uh...look,
Chief, I didn't mean to dump this on you.  I--"

     "*Dump* it on me?  You say the words that I've been waiting to
hear for three years and you call that *dumping* on me?"  Blair smiled
and shook his head.  "Back when I had the chance to go with Stoddard
on his expedition, I gave up on going because of you.  And I told you it
was about friendship.  And that was true...to a degree.  You'll always be
my best friend.  What I really wanted to tell you was that...that I stayed
because I loved you."  Blair chuckled a little.  "But I kind of like my
features arranged the way they are now, and I didn't figure that'd last
too long if I started batting my eyelashes at you and professing my
devotion."

     "Well, you're right."  Jim smiled at Blair's stunned expression,
then added, "You ever bat your eyelashes at me, and you're a dead
man."  The two men shared a brief laugh then, both grabbing onto the
little stress reliever.  "Are you telling me that we're on the same
wavelength here?"

     "I hope so," Blair responded sincerely.  "What I feel for you...it's
...*larger* than love.  The hard part is, I can't handle experimenting,
and that's a lot of why I never said anything to you--at least not in so
many words."

     "Experimenting?"

     "I've never done it with a man.  I know how it's done, don't get
me wrong.  All my life, when I realized there was something I didn't
know about or understand that I had a reason to wonder about--I looked
it up.  In a library, a newspaper, a dirty magazine, then the Internet--whatever. 
 I wondered what the big lure was between two men, so I
read about it."

     "What'd you think?"  Jim asked, taking a drink of his coffee.

     "I didn't get why having something up your ass was a good
thing."  Blair's blunt statement made Jim sputter a bit through his
coffee.

     "Feel free to come right out and say it, Chief," Jim retorted,
laughing a bit and wiping the dribbled coffee off his chin.

     "Well, have *you* done it before?"

     "No."

     "Read about it?"

     "I've watched it, but not in a setting I'd want to replicate."
     
     "Vice?"

     "Yeah, on one case, I was undercover as a bartender in this
leather club.  Now that was a weird assignment."

     "Weirder than most?"

     "Good point.  In Vice, it was a matter of degrees of weirdness. 
But this place really catered to the kinky trade, so let's just say that the
background I have on it isn't all that pleasant."

     "But you want to have that with me."

     "No.  I want to love you.  There's a big difference."

     "I feel the same way."

     "And neither one of us is going to stick anything anywhere the
other one doesn't want it, right?"

     "Of course not," Blair agreed.

     "So what part of the physical thing do we have to worry about?"

     "That you won't like it."

     "How about you?  You're the one who didn't like the male sex
information you picked up."

     "Every time..."  Blair paused, then took a drink of his coffee
again.  "Every time you touch me, it shoots me right in the heart.  I
never felt like that about anybody."  Blair looked up to meet Jim's eyes. 
"I just...I just can't imagine what it would feel like to make love with
you...how...magical it would be," Blair said softly, looking away again.

     "You don't think it would be magical for me?"

     "I'm not exactly your usual type, Jim."

     "Yeah, well, my usual type hasn't exactly proven to be a good
choice in the past."  Jim stared into the fire.  "I'm not gay, Chief.  I don't
have all the answers.  I just know I love you."

     "I love you too.  But if we made love, and you didn't like
it...didn't like *me* that way...I could never look at you again."  Blair
stood up and wandered away from the fire.  "That's a hell of a lot of
pressure on you, I know that, and that's why I didn't say it right up front. 
But if we make love, it's all or nothing.  Either we make a clean break
and I drag what's left of me out of your life completely, or you're mine
forever."

     "What if you don't like it and I'm the one getting the 'Dear Jim'
letter at the end?  Then what?  You think I can just pick up and go on
like nothing happened?"

     "I'm scared," Blair admitted quietly, his back to Jim as he stood
in the shadows.

     "So am I."  Jim sighed.  "But I am every time you meet some
sexy new lady and take up with her, and I sit there wondering if this is
going to be the one."

     "The one?"

     "The one that destroys my whole fucking life.  I can't live like
that a hell of a lot longer either."

     "How do you think I felt when you renewed your old flame with
Lila?"  Blair turned to face Jim, and sentinel sight could pick up the
pain in those eyes even in the darkness outside the glow of the fire. 
"Right up there in the bed *I* wanted to be in!"

     "You were out shakin' the sheets with Sam.  What, I'm supposed
to feel *guilty* about Lila now?  Like I was cheating on you or
something?"

     "No.  I was way out of line with that remark."  Blair took a
deep, shaky breath.  "Man, that sounded really catty, didn't it?  I didn't
mean to.  And I didn't sleep with Sam that night."

     "You said--"

     "So I played the old game of nudge-wink.  I wanted to know
what happened with you and Lila, what it meant to you--"

     "Whether or not my heightened senses kicked into high gear
when I had sex."

     "Yeah, I wanted to know, because I felt, right then, like I sure as
hell was never going to find out first-hand."

     "You wanted that answer for your research?!"  Jim demanded,
anger flaring now.

     "No!  I wanted it for me!"  Blair shouted back, pointing at his
chest with both hands.  "I wanted to live it.  I wanted to touch you and
make you crazy and I wanted to have to pull you back from zoning out
on touching me and I had all these fantasies about all the things we
could explore and discover together.  I wanted you to...*just once*... 
turn those magnificent senses on *me*.  Because if you had, you'd have
known that I was so far gone on you that it was killing me."  Blair
returned to the spot by the fire, and sat back down across from Jim.  "I
want you.  The physical part...I want to do it.  I just never did it before,
and I'm a little rusty at this whole virgin thing."

     "It's been a few years for me too, Chief," Jim responded,
reaching over tentatively, then gently taking Blair's hand in his.  "Hey,
all this fear from the guy who jumped out of an airplane over the jungle
to follow me?"  Jim smiled softly, but Blair didn't meet his eyes and
didn't smile.  He held onto Jim's hand tightly.

     "That was easy, man.  Worst thing that could happen was that
my chute would malfunction and I'd end up lizard food.  But if this
chute malfunctions...I couldn't handle that, man."

     "What would you say to just putting all this shit aside and
jumping tandem?"  Jim asked, waiting with a little smile until Blair
met his eyes, and matched the smile.  

     "Geronimo," Blair said quietly, moving forward just as Jim
mirrored the gesture.  In a moment, their lips met, awkwardly and
hesitantly at first, until Blair flicked his tongue out against Jim's mouth.
In a movement that would have made a jaguar appear sluggish, Jim
pulled his partner into his arms and deepened the kiss, opening his
mouth to Blair, delving in as Blair did the same.  It wasn't until there
was a danger of passing out from oxygen deprivation that Jim finally
pulled back.

     "The first time isn't going to be on the floor, baby," Jim
whispered against Blair's ear.  "Let me take you to bed."

     "As long as we're together, take me anywhere you want me,"
Blair responded sincerely, moving to kiss Jim again, more tenderly this
time.  

     "Come on."  Jim stood up and held out his hand, pulling Blair to
his feet and then tugging him close so he could flop his arm over Blair's
shoulders.  

     As soon as they were in the bedroom, they paused at the foot of
the double bed, looking at each other with a little bit of uncertainty. 
Blair was the first to reach out, unbuttoning Jim's shirt slowly, only to
find the first of two t-shirts.

     "Oh, great.  Layers."  Blair's honest comment made Jim laugh,
and he didn't resist the urge to grab his new lover around the waist and
throw them both on the bed.  

     They kissed and wrestled playfully on the bed, awkwardly
shedding the multiple layers of clothing until the bedroom was a
panorama of rumpled fabric and they lay naked together, reveling in
their first moments of skin-to-skin contact.  

     "Let's get under the covers, huh?  It's a little chilly in here."  Jim
kissed the end of Blair's nose, and they moved long enough to actually
get into the bed, coming together under the covers.  

     "I don't have anything."

     "Huh?  Oh...  Well, I wasn't expecting to get lucky on this trip
either."  Jim held Blair's body close against him, running his hands up
and down the smooth skin of the other man's back.  "Lila was the last
person I was with, and I used protection with her.  My last test was
clear."

     "I've always played it safe, and I'm clean as of a month ago."

     "Then I'm okay with not using anything."

     "I'd like that.  It feels...it feels like..."

     "Total trust?"

     "Yeah, just like that."  Blair smiled and snuggled against Jim. 
"Like something pretty exclusive."

     Jim started trailing little kisses down the side of Blair's face,
moving down his throat until he reached the collarbone, pausing to lick
at the little hollows there.  Shifting until Blair was on his back, Jim
hovered over his lover, supporting his weight partially on his arms to
allow Blair some freedom of movement.  Blair, for his part, simply lay
there and soaked it up, his head thrown back on the pillow, hands
running up and down Jim's arms, finally stopping to hold on for dear
life when the other man found a nipple and sucked it into his mouth.

     Smiling at Blair's little moans of pleasure, Jim left the first
tormented nipple and licked his way to its mate, raising Blair off the
bed as his body arched into the sensation.  He was startled that one of
Blair's hands had slipped off his shoulder and nimble fingers were
tweaking and rolling Jim's own sensitive nipple until it was a hard little
peak before moving Jim up for another kiss.  Then Blair slid down a bit
and took his own turn at mapping Jim's chest with lips and tongue.  

     He spent long minutes on each nipple, varying the pressure
applied to each hypersensitive bud of flesh, teasing Jim with feather-light
flicks of his tongue to intense suckling, keeping him excited and a
little off guard with what sensation to expect next. //Could anyone but
him know exactly how to push every one of a sentinel's buttons in
bed?// Jim thought, losing himself in the delicious sensations but not
having time to zone out on any one of them.

     Feeling their arousals meeting and sliding against each other in
the sweat generated from their lovemaking, Jim pulled them close
together again, guiding them so he was on his back with Blair on top. 
Thrusting up against Blair, Jim smiled as his partner picked up the
rhythm and thrust back down against Jim.  Within moments, they were
writhing together in perfect rhythm, mouths locked together in frantic
kisses while they humped their way to their first shared climax.  Jim
came first, his shout and the hot wetness between them driving Blair
over the edge until he cried out Jim's name and mingled his seed with
his lover's.  

     With a sweaty, panting heap of spent flesh on top of him, Jim
grinned like an idiot, toying with the pile of curls resting on his
shoulder.  

     "Jim?"  Blair's voice was almost slurred, but not quite.

     "What, Chief?"

     "I liked it."

     "So did I."

     "So we're okay?"

     "Better than okay."  Jim kissed Blair's forehead, wrapping him
tightly in strong arms.  

     "You're almost as gorgeous outside as you are inside," Blair
said quietly, running his hand lightly over Jim's chest.  Jim didn't reply,
and Blair moved up a bit, so he could look down into Jim's eyes.  The
older man blinked a time or two to dispel the moisture he felt forming
there.  

     "That's a beautiful thing to say, sweetheart."

     "Sweetheart?  Is that what you're going to call me now?"

     "I'm sorry.  I didn't mean--" A hand clamped gently over Jim's
mouth.

     "Don't take it back.  I love it.  I've never been anybody's
sweetheart before."  Jim kissed the palm of the hand over his mouth
and moved it aside.

     "Oh, come on, Don Juan, you've had more than one 'sweetheart'
in your life."

     "No.  I've had relationships, and I've had a lot of...I don't
know...*encounters*?  But 'sweetheart'?  I think of all this old
fashioned hearts and flowers stuff when I hear that."

     "Which probably makes you gag, right?"

     "Generally, yeah, kind of.  Except with you,"  Blair admitted in
a hushed tone, then averted his eyes from Jim's.  "Nobody's ever given
me that.  Treated me like I was that special."  He looked back at Jim,
then leaned in for another kiss.  "I mean, sweethearts are the people I
think of who have been married to each other for like, 70 years and still
hold hands when they walk down the street."

     "If I can still *walk* down the street in 70 years, I'll still want to
hold your hand, Blair."

     "Sounds like a promise," Blair whispered, looking intently into
Jim's eyes.  "As long as I live, my hand will always be there," Blair said
solemnly, in reply to Jim's words.  Then he leaned down for another
kiss, and was enveloped in the welcoming arms that would hold him
the rest of his life.

**********

THE END :-)