This is my scene for the "Why is Blair still living with Jim?" challenge.

Author Y. S. McCool, publication date 2-2-1997

DISCLAIMER: This characters do not belong to me and I make no claim to them. These characters belong to Pet Fly Productions, Paramount, and UPN.

Roommates PG

Jim had driven Blair to look at yet another apartment. He had been living with Jim for almost three months and he was determined to find his "own" place. Jim had too many rules, he could have anyone over, he couldn't make noise. Blair kept saying that he needed to get out.

Jim couldn't believe the state of the apartment. The plaster was cracked. The water from the faucet was brown. The door had seven locks and none of them worked. How could Blair hope to make a home here?

Jim looked for the graduate student. He found him in the bedroom. Blair was staring down at a dead body outline, it was headless. Blair looked up at Jim, white-faced. Jim guided him gently back to the truck, leaving the grinning manager standing in the parking lot. The worst feature of the apartment was that it was only twelve blocks from campus.

Blair never spoke on the trip back but Jim could feel the slight vibration through the seats every time Blair shook.

Blair renewed his efforts. He was determined to find a place to live. Determined to no longer be a burden to Jim. He crossed off the list of apartments that he could afford and then shifted to apartments he could afford to share with other students.

Luck was with him. He found a garage apartment at a house only five blocks from campus.

"Jim!" Blair called after he had let himself into the apartment. "Good news, I found a place. It's pretty close to campus and in a nice neighborhood." Blair knew that Jim would be relieved. No doubt he would be anxious to reclaim his spare room.

"How can you afford that?" Jim asked as he came down the stairs.

"It's a garage apartment. I found a notice on the student bulletin board." Blair walked into his room. "In two weeks I can move in. Isn't that great?"

"Yeah, great." Jim answered softly. He didn't know why but he didn't like this.

Simon was blocking the doorway to the rundown apartment. "No Jim, don't look." He said as he kept trying to block Jim from the door. Jim slipped by him and made his way past joking uniformed cops, forensics officers, and photographers. The flashing bulbs seemed to drain the color from the room. The voices slowed, then slurred. There was a body. They were about to lift it and place it in the black plastic body bag.

*Please don't make me look,* he thought. *I don't want to see it.* But he looked anyway. The body was a Caucasian male, approximately 25 years old. The body was nude, badly beaten, and his head was three feet away. Soft dark curls parted in the middle-- it was Blair.

Jim awoke screaming. His face, chest, and back were covered in sweat. He got out of bed and collapsed when his knees stubbornly refused to lock and support him. He could hear Blair coming up the stairs at a run.

"Jim!?!" Blair helped Jim into bed. Jim was shaking so hard Blair climbed into the bed with him. Blair wrapped the other man in his arms and rocked him until he seemed to calm down.

"Chief, you... you were dead."

"No I'm not, Jim."

"You were in that awful apartment."

"I'm not moving there. It's a house with two nice ladies."

"Didn't you ever see 'Arsenic and Old Lace'?"

"Yeah."

"Those were also two nice ladies."

"Jim, I can take care of myself. I'll be fine."

"Don't move out."

"What? Are you kidding?"

"No, I'm serious. Stay."

"Jim, I said a week. It's almost three months now. I've taken advantage of you long enough."

"I've gotten used to you."

"You want me out. This nightmare has just got you shaken."

"How much are you paying these nice ladies?"

"Six hundred." Jim was stunned that was nothing in the neighborhood Blair had said he was moving into.

"Two-fifty, stick to the rules, and you can stay here."

"I promised those ladies."

"For that price, they can rent to someone else in no time. Besides, you'll need the money to keep that car of yours going."

"There is that."

"Besides, haven't you been able to conduct more experiments while living with me? Doesn't living here give you more access to me, the subject of your doctoral thesis?" Jim wanted to be careful, he didn't want Blair to think his living here was the only way he could continue with his experiments. But he couldn't shake the feeling that Blair's moving out was a very bad thing. That somehow, if Blair left, he would never see him again.

"Well, yes it has."

"Then it's settled. Call those nice ladies tomorrow and tell them that you've changed your mind."

"Okay." Blair tucked Jim into bed and Jim didn't complain about the fuss.

The next morning, with Jim standing by, Blair called and told the Newsomes that he wasn't going to be moving in. "Needed at home," he had said.

Two weeks later Jim and Blair were driving through the neighborhood that Blair had almost moved into.

"That's the house. The garage apartment is around back." Blair pointed out the structure and Jim pulled into the driveway. The house was a two story red brick colonial with white shutters.

"Let's see if they rented it to someone else."

Blair got out of the truck before Jim could stop him. He had no particular wish to see the *nice* ladies who Blair had been about to move in with. He looked around. Nice flowerbeds and a high stone wall surrounding the property. It was a very nice place. He had started to chide himself for his earlier fears when he heard

Blair's yell.

"Jim!" It was a hideous shriek.

Jim ran around the house. Blair was pressed against the wall of the house. There were two women wearing heavy rain gear. They were dropping a human leg in a large chipper/shredder.

End