SquidgeWorld Archive

Naomi's Comeuppance
by Kel/Rae Sandburg aka Kelex

Jim knew as soon as he and Blair walked into the loft, that they weren't alone. Only one person they knew had a key and would let themselves in with no warning. "Naomi?" Jim called out.

"Mom?" Blair questioned, looking into his old room. Sure enough, Naomi came sweeping out in a pair of silk pajamas and an emerald green kimono with an embroidered dragon. "Mom, what are you doing here?"

Naomi smiled. "Well, I did leave and I went to San Jose for a few weeks, but then I decided to come back and see how my baby was doing."

Jim rolled his eyes as he took off his jacket and Blair hugged his mother. "Nice to see you again, Naomi." He kissed her on the cheek with a grin. In so many ways she reminded him of the son she'd brought into the world. "Dinner?"

"No, no, don't worry, I already ate," she said, her hand on Jim's arm. "But I'll cook if you guys need a break."

"We already had dinner, Ma, that's Jim's way of asking if you had," Blair grinned, sitting down on the couch with his mom. "So what brought you back here?" Jim reached into the fridge and pulled out two beers, and the bottle of white wine. He poured a glass for Naomi, and carried the beer into Blair, and sat in the chair across from them. "Thanks, man."

"Yes, thank you Jim," Naomi said, sipping the wine. "Blair, I actually came back to talk to you."

"Here we go," Jim said under his breath as he sipped his beer.

"Ma, you could have called for that!" Blair had a sinking feeling in his stomach; if Naomi had come to talk to him in person, then it definitely couldn't be a good thing.

"Not about this, sweetie," she said, stroking his hair. "Blair, I think it's really great you're able to help Jim with this Sentinel thing and I admire you for choosing your friend over everything else," she said, framing the word friend with special significance. "But sweetie, are you sure you're ready to give up everything academic that you've worked for to be a policeman?"

Jim growled and got up out of the chair, and Blair looked fretfully between mother and lover, and finally chose to stay seated beside his mother and giving him a beseeching glance. "Yes, Naomi, I'm sure!"

"But Blair--"

"Ma, we've already had this discussion once, and it ended up in you walking out of Simon's office! I haven't changed my mind about it, in fact it's what I want because thanks to your interference, I can't be anything else!" He regretted the accusation as soon as it was out of his mouth.

"But sweetie, I was only trying to do what I thought was best for you!" Naomi protested. "I didn't know it was going to go that far!"

"Ma, I told you not to do it! I told you not to read it and to leave it alone, and you couldn't even do that for me! Well, thanks to you, Ma, being a cop is the only thing I have left and you know what? I want to do it! I want to keep working with my friends in Major Crimes, I want to keep working with Jim, I want to keep helping!"

Jim was prowling around the living room, growling under his breath as he listened to Blair and Naomi. He liked Naomi Sandburg but sometimes the woman just got under his skin. He could tell his pacing was making Blair jumpy because he could smell it, and he could see the hairs on his young lover's arms rising. His hackles were going up, for want of a better expression.

"But, Blair, sweetie, I still don't think you're cut out for it! I mean, look at how many times you've gotten hurt, and I've gotten the phone call saying that you're in the hospital!"

"Naomi, that comes with the territory!" Blair was about to explode; Jim was driving him up a wall with his pacing and his mom was driving him up a wall being Mom. "Jim, will you please sit your ass down and stop stalking!"

Jim and Naomi both blinked; neither was used to hearing Blair raise his voice quite that loudly. Sure, Blair shouted a time or two when he was lecturing Jim, but this was a command not to be disobeyed, and Jim sat. Quickly.

"Blair, you're not built for police work!" Naomi exclaimed, changing tactics. "You're so fragile, so delicate, so--"

"So much bullshit!" Jim exploded. "Naomi, you don't know what you're talking about here! Blair is very capable of handling himself in any situation, which I think he's proven MULTIPLE times over the course of our partnership! He tested OUT of every course in the academy except physical training and firearms, both of which he is currently at the top of his class in! I don't know why you're trying to tear him down, Naomi, but I love your son, and I'm not going to let you do it to him again! Blair wants to be a cop, and I support him in it, why can't you?" Jim was furious with Naomi, and if he wasn't careful, he was going to say something he would regret later.

"Because I'm his mother, that's why!" Naomi said, as if that solved the whole problem.

"Oh, so NOW you're his mother, when it suits you to be?" demanded Jim, throwing down his empty beer bottle on the counter as he got up and started stalking around the room again.

"And just what is that supposed to mean?"

"Jim! Mom! Stop it, right now, okay?" Blair could see the situation spiraling out of control right in front of his eyes. He could also see that neither of them were going to listen.

"No, Blair, it's okay, I want to know exactly what Jim means by that!" Naomi said. "Well, Jim?"

"What I mean is, I have heard from Blair these sugar coated stories of what great experiences he had at other people's houses while you were off doing whatever it was you were doing and quite frankly, I think it's a little late in life to be trying to raise a man who raised himself and did a better damn job of it than I think you ever could! I don't think you know the meaning of stable, Naomi! I was a product of a single parent household too, let me point out, with a father who didn't give a rat's ass if his sons lived or died as long as they were good enough--which we never were! My dad dumped Stephen and me on the housekeeper whenever he could and at least he's got the decency not to show up on my doorstep every three months like a whirlwind blowing in and out of my life! I'd deck the son of a bitch if he did that and I rank you right up there with him, Naomi! I like you and I respect you, but I think you did Blair a hell of a disservice dumping him off at everyone else's house while you jaunted off to do whatever the hell you did instead of raising your son! I still live with those scars, Naomi! Every time I hear Blair putting himself down, Naomi, that's your doing! Every time I hear Blair confess that he's worried he can't hold us together, that's your doing! That's you dragging him from place to place, breaking up every relationship and every friendship that he ever had a chance to form! Do you know how hard it's been for him? No, you don't, because you're never around!" Naomi's usually expressive face showed nothing but shock and surprise, and Blair was curled up on the other end of the sofa. There was a silence as Jim paused to catch his breath, and his ears caught the sound of Blair crying. Ignoring Naomi for the moment, he dropped to crouch beside his lover. "Blair?"

"Jim, man, how can you rip at my mom like that! You know that's just how she is! You can't say that stuff to her, man!" Blair got up and tried to push Jim away but ended up leaning against him. Naomi put her hands on Blair's shoulders, but he twitched away. "That is so not fair, Jim!"

"Does it make it any less true?" Jim asked softly while staring daggers at Naomi. She was sitting quietly on her end of the couch, unusually quiet as she twisted her hands in her lap and looked at Jim and Blair.

"Man, Jim, you can't ask me to answer that!"

"Why not, Blair? Because you don't want to admit it to Naomi or to yourself?"

Finally, at length, Naomi spoke to Blair. "Sweetie, I am just trying to protect you! I told you when I came to visit one time before this would turn out with you parading around in a uniform and jackboots, and now they've finally sucked you in to giving up all you've ever worked for to get that uniform!"

That did it for Blair; she wasn't even listening to him. He leaned back against Jim, glaring at Naomi. "You just couldn't let it drop, could you? We had this really cool place, Naomi, where you didn't ask and I didn't tell and it was good! Well guess what, Ma, now I'm telling! First of all, Jim's not just my friend, he's my lover! We have been ever since I drowned!" he shouted at her, barely hesitating over the words. "Second, Jim's abilities ARE real, and that's what I was studying while I was working with him! Yeah I've been scared before but I LIKE doing it, Naomi! I like working with Jim, I like being on the right side and putting the bad guys away and helping the good guys win! But even over and above all that, I would have been happy sitting there in my little office, writing my little papers while riding along with Jim, but I don't have that option anymore, thanks to you! But you know what? All that doesn't really matter because I want to be with Jim! And if Jim's a cop, then I want to be a cop too, instead of going back to the academic community that thinks I'm a fraud!"

Naomi was shocked, though her face didn't show it. "Blair. I had no idea you felt this way."

Blair remained painfully silent, leaving Jim to pick up the conversational gauntlet. "Of course you didn't know," Jim finally said. "You rarely visit, and then when you do, Blair's so glad to see you that he's got ten other things he'd rather share with you than bring you down with negative vibes or whatever! No matter how miserable NOT telling you makes him! You're the one who taught him detach with love and to not deal with negative thoughts, but no matter how much sage you burn over this, it's not going away!" He opened his arms a little wider as he felt Blair nestle closer against him. "You were there, Naomi. You were there when Simon gave Blair that shield. You saw how happy he was--I have never seen his face light up like that! I only wish I could make him light up like that, but I can't! It's like he finally got a second chance to do something where he can make a difference, and I won't let you take that away from him!"

"I don't want to take anything away from Blair!" Naomi protested. "I just don't think he's suited to this!"

"Naomi, how do you know? You didn't raise Blair, he basically raised himself! You're never around, you've never shown an interest in what Blair was doing, only dropped in and out of his life as you flit around the world! Now if that's the way you want to live your life that's fine but you're not going to swoop in, change Blair's life around to what YOU think it would be and then swoop out again for God knows how long! Not gonna happen, Naomi. Not gonna happen."

"Jim. where is this coming from? I can't believe you're saying these things! And Blair, I can't believe you're letting him talk to me like this! I'm your mother, sweetie, but I thought we were friends too!"

Blair sat back up against Jim, rubbing his eyes with the hem of his shirt. "We are friends, Ma, and I think that's what Jim's saying. You can't be my friend all the time and then suddenly come in and start trying to mother me and dictate to me all the time before you leave again! You taught me how to choose for myself, and this is the life that I choose! I choose Jim and the badge and the department!" He sighed. "I thought we'd been through this before."

"Blair, that was before! Before I knew you were going to throw away your dissertation and everything else to go out and join the establishment!" She tried to hug him but he kept flinching away against Jim, and finally the Sentinel growled and Naomi backed off. "Look, I don't have a problem with you and Jim, I think it's great you're open enough to swing that way, but I don't agree with you being a full time cop!"

Blair shook his head, and Jim took the cue. "It's not like he had much of a choice there, Naomi," Jim said scathingly. "Thanks to someone's interference, he was given the choice of wrecking our life together and reaping the rewards or renouncing it to save our life together and is it really such a surprise to you that he chose NOT to wreck our lives for material stuff? If it is, then you really don't know your son. That's not Blair. That's not who he is or what he does. He does NOT reap the benefits of destroying someone else's life, and certainly NOT his own." Blair had not moved, and Jim's hand was moving soothingly up and down his back as he talked. "Blair is the most gentle, most loving, most caring person I know, and that's why he told you not to mess with his dissertation. He knew what the cost would be if it got out before he was finished. And what you did with his dissertation was the most cruel, most heartless, and most disrespectful thing that has ever occurred. It wasn't his choice, Naomi. You made that choice for Blair when you sent that file to your friend. You might as well have thrown his dissertation onto the nearest garbage truck."

At that, Blair looked up at Jim. "Man, she didn't know what she was doing, she was trying to help."

"Yeah, just like she was trying to help when she came in and rearranged the furniture in the living room after we BOTH asked her not to, just like she was trying to help clear out the evil spirits or whatever by burning the sage you told her I was allergic to, trying to help when she followed us on the Petri sting, trying to help when God help us she got Charlie Sprang involved in that kidnapping case!" Jim sighed. "Wherever your mother tries to help, it turns into a time bomb!"

"But, Jim! It all turned out right in the end! You caught the car thieves, I aired out the loft and Blair helped me move the furniture back! Charlie helped you find the little girl after all, and Blair, you got television exposure for your work!"

Blair laughed bitterly as he shushed Jim. "Television exposure, Ma? Yeah, now the whole world thinks I'm a liar, a cheat, and a fraud. Great exposure, Ma, thanks. That'll win me lots of popularity contests."

Jim couldn't believe what Naomi had just said. "Are you really that blind, Naomi? I can get over Charlie and the sage and the Petri thing but what I cannot get over is the dissertation! The ends do NOT justify the means, especially when you're wrecking Blair's life with your means!" Jim's hands were itching on the arm of the couch. He was nearly vibrating with frustration, but couldn't move Blair. He needed the Guide's touch to keep him from snapping and he knew his lover needed the support, both physically and emotionally.

"Ma, listen to yourself! You're saying that everything's okay because you were trying to help, and that's just not the case!" As Blair took the initiative to talk, Jim slipped off the couch and started pacing around the living room, his steps thundering in the loft. "It's not okay that you interfered in Jim's job, and it's definitely not okay that you interfered in mine! I mean. that dissertation was my life's work, and there goes twenty years of my life! The only thing that I was able to salvage out of that was my relationship with Jim and my position at the department!" As Jim prowled, he heard Blair's voice choking up, and he moved swiftly from the stairs back to the couch again, crouching beside Blair while he finished. "A position that I earned myself, Ma, without help from anybody!"

Naomi blinked as she watched Jim tend to Blair. The large man remained crouching beside her son, leaning his head against Blair's shoulder and kissing the palm of his hand. Jim's own arms were around Blair's shoulders, his mouth murmuring in Blair's ear. Blair nodded, and Jim stood up for a minute.

"Jim, Blair, I didn't realize how strongly you felt about this," she said, directing her comment towards Blair.

Jim growled deeply in his throat. "You keep going on in this direction, Naomi, and you're going to completely alienate your son." Privately Jim held the opinion that might not be a bad situation but he knew his lover felt otherwise. "I don't think either of you want that." Naomi got up to walk over to Blair, but Jim intercepted her with a hand on her arm. "I think it's time for you to go."

Naomi stared a minute at Jim, and realized it would not be wise to argue with the growling man that paced between her and her son. "I'm leaving tomorrow on a trip to Katmandu. I've got a lot of processing to do; I will get back in touch with Blair when I get back."

"I think that's for the best. Now, not to be rude, I have someone who needs me. You can show yourself out, I believe." It wasn't a question. Quietly Naomi gathered her things quickly and departed, locking the door behind her as she slipped out.

Jim turned his back and went to Blair, crouching beside him on the couch, and enfolding his Guide in his arms as Naomi left. When she was gone, Blair let himself shake and cry in Jim's embrace as he had not in front of his mother. "Sssh... come on, Blair, let me take you upstairs." He lifted his lover and helped him to his feet, and guided him up the stairs to their bedroom. In the far corner of the room was a large size rocking chair, perfect for Jim to sit in while Blair cuddled in his lap. He moved to the chair and had barely gotten settled in when Blair crawled into his body.

For a few minutes, Jim rocked wordlessly, rubbing Blair's shoulders and back with his warm hands, and then pressed his cheek to the top of Blair's springy curls. "Don't listen to her, Blair. She's. clueless about who you are and what you do. You're a special man, Blair. you're my Guide. You think just anyone could do that? You know things, say things, do things and know things that nobody else in the world does, and that makes you even more special. You're precious to me because I've never loved anyone as much as I love you, and sometimes I'm scared because it's so intense." He kissed Blair's cheek as it pressed to his chest. "I need you, Blair, you're my world now." He kept rocking as Blair curled closer to him. "I'm not going to let anyone--even your mom--hurt you. After all. I am your Blessed Protector, right? I'm not going to let you down."

Blair hiccuped against Jim's chest. "Man, Jim. you know just what to say, don't you?" He put his arms around his Sentinel's waist. "I couldn't believe the way you stood up to Naomi for me. Nobody's ever stood up for me before, I've always had to do it myself!" He stopped for a minute and just listened to Jim's heartbeat and the rumbles in his chest. "Now I got you to do it for me, and it's weird, you know? But I like it, kind of like a knight in shining armor." He sighed as Jim rumbled again. "It means a lot to me, Jim. just sort of amazes me how much you care about me, how much you love me. Never been loved like that before."

Jim raised his hand to rub his thumb across Blair's cheek. "Never had anyone I could love that way before," Jim answered softly. "I never met anyone who let me love them wholeheartedly, who needed all of me the way you do. I love you for all those things." Blair snuffled as Jim said that, and the Sentinel smiled softly as Blair relaxed against him. He kept rocking in the rocking chair, letting the soothing motion and the gentle throb of his heartbeat calm Blair as he kept smiling. When Blair was almost asleep, Jim carefully scooped him up and moved across the room to the bed, where he lay Blair down and then moved to lie next to him. "Don't worry, Blair," Jim said softly, pushing the hair out of Blair's face. "We got forever."

The End