Title: Spiders!

Series: Blind Man's Bluff

Author: Athena

Fandom: The Sentinel

Pairing: Jim/Blair

Rating: PG

Warnings: m/m, permanent disability

Notes: I like to thank Becky for her transcripts.

Summary: Blair has to deal with campus politics, a bratty fourteen year old and spiders.

Feedback: yes.

Archive :yes

Jim arrived home to the smell of food cooking, put his cane near the door and dropped his keys in the basket. He walked over to the kitchen and inhaled the smell of stir-fried tofu and vegetables. "Honey, you didn't have to cook."

"I don't mind." Blair kissed Jim's cheek. "Dinner is almost done. How did your talk with Steve go?"

"Not good. I told him how I saw the world and he took it as a personal insult. Then, I told him that he was out of shape. We ended acting like two children. How do your talk go?"

"He didn't believe we had anything in common. He just wanted to know that I wasn't taking advantage of you. It's hard for him to accept you back in his life." Blair drained the noodles and plated them. He put the tofu and vegetables on top.

"He's upset that his straight 'A' student brother is working as a janitor." Jim was a trainer. Steve had just happened to arrive while Jim was cleaning the locker rooms. Jim put the plates on the table and got the chopsticks. He felt the table to place Blair's chopsticks beside his plate. Jim poured himself a cup of tea and sat down to eat.

"You could study for your L-SATs and become a lawyer," suggested Blair.

"I hate ties," said Jim.

"It was only a suggestion." Blair got a beer and joined him at the table. The only drinks that went with Chinese food were beer, tea or water. Blair was amazed how well Jim ate with chopsticks. He supposed that Jim could feel the pressure his chopsticks were applying to the food. Jim never screamed in frustration when something that used to come easy to him now took work. Then again, many years ago, when his men were killed, he trained the Chopec Indians to patrol the pass. James Ellison was the expert of making lemonade out of lemons. "I'm thinking of applying at Toronto."

"I hear Toronto has the best anthropology department in the world."

"How would you feel about living in Canada?"

"National Medicine, good mass transit system, plenty of night life," Jim listed.

"Then you won't mind leaving Cascade?"

Jim finished his tea and got up to get a beer. "I traveled the world with the army."

---

All Blair could talk about the next couple weeks was the urn that was arriving from Mexico. "Look at her shapes; look at her curves. She's beautiful. She's perfect," Blair said,looking at a picture of an urn although he knew Jim couldn't see pictures or words on papers. Since Jim's whole lot of nothing was large objects in circled by a golden haze, Blair was basically talking to hear himself speak.

Jim put a hand on Blair's shoulder, "You see, that's where we differ, Chief. Those are adjectives that I had reserved for something more human."

"Jim, we're talking a 12th century Mayan urn from the city of Chichen Itza." Blair put the picture in his backpack.

"You once told me that the Mayans broke all their pottery every seven years. It must be a fake."

"This is a very significant piece." Blair explained, "See, the Mayan people were the first people of the new world to keep written historical records. This was made for a member of the royal retinue, otherwise known as the 'the king's watcher.'"

"The king's bodyguard."

"It could be. Or it could be an ancient Mayan sentinel. I'm going to try to pull clues off the urn itself. The Yucatan Institute has been nice enough to lend it to me, for six weeks, and it's supposed to arrive today."

Jim patted Blair's back. "I'm sure you two will be very happy together." Jim had to leave the loft at 5:30 to gym at 6 o'clock.

"Yeah." Blair worked on this dissertation until the crows woke then checked his office for his package. When it didn't arrive he called central shipping and was told it was misrouted.

The delivery boy on the other end of the phone said, "I'm very sorry. I can have it delivered to you by four o'clock."

Blair needed this piece. If the markings had any validity, it could change the context of his whole dissertation. "I'll get it myself."

"Man, mistakes happen."

"I can handle it. Thanks." Blair hung the phone, not wanting to blame the messenger. Hal Buckner would be working at the campus museum. Blair walked across the university campus to Museum of Anthropology and headed toward an older man. "Professor Buckner."

"Oh, Blair. Just a minute." Buckner was talking to a man about one of the exhibits. "Yeah."

"I'm sorry to bother you. I know that you're busy, but central shipping said that they sent you my crate from the Yucatan by mistake."

"Um." Buckner sent the other man on his way.

Blair was getting impatient. His whole diss was on hold for this artifact. "It contained a Mayan urn, 12th century, Chichen Itza?"

"Sorry. No, I haven't seen it."

"This is crazy. They were pretty certain." Blair folded his arms cross his chest. They got the address wrong once, why not twice? Then again, Buckner may have not checked his office for packages.

"Well, I'll keep an eye out."

"Thanks." Blair started walking back to his office. He had more research to do on Mayan glyphs.

Buckner walked over to him and placed an arm on shoulder. "Blair?"

"Yeah." Blair really needed to get the research done.

"While you're here, I want to ask you a-." Buckner made eye contact with Blair. "You know who Alec Summers is?"

Blair pushed Professor Buckner's arm away, knowing Buckner wanted some favor, possibly, misdirected his package to get this favor. "Uh, he's that kid genius from Canada. Came here on a big scholarship. Physics major, right?"

"And architecture and neuro-linguistics and anthropology."

"Come on," No one had that many majors. "This kid must love to study."

"No, he hates to study. Nothing holds his interest. He misses classes. He doesn't turn in assignments. He's in danger of flunking out."

"Are you kidding me? With his IQ?" Yes, Blair heard about the kid.

"Well, he needs a faculty advisor."

"I'd say." Blair now knew what the favor was. How dare Buckner stick a fourteen-year-old brat on him when he was this close to completing his dissertation. "No, not me, Hal. Come on. No, don't do this to me."

"Just meet with him."

"I'm sure he's a nice kid." Sure, if he were a nice kid, Hal Buckner wouldn't want me babysitting him.

"He's a brat. He's headstrong, stubborn, utterly convinced he is the only soul on earth who has a clue. In short exactly like, uh-."

Blair sighed. "Like me when I first got here? So, I guess what goes around comes around, huh?"

"Oh, I'd prefer to think of it as repaying a debt."

"Can't I just default on a loan or something?" Blair shrugged his shoulders. "All right. I'll talk to him, Hal."

---

Blair returned to his office. He had opened several books on Mayan artwork and glyphs and was entering the information into the computer. Alec came in on his inline skates and broke inches from the door.

Blair looked up from his computer. "Uh, yes, I am. Hi. You must be Alec Summers. Thanks for stopping by."

"Right, whatever," Alec gave this totally disinterested look teenager were famous for.

Jim came in without knocking. "Hi, folks," Jim said to the no one in particular and went over to get himself a cup of coffee from the coffeemaker.

"This is Alec Summers," said Blair. "Alec, this is Jim Ellison."

The boy looked at the middle-aged man in a sweater and jeans. "I guess you heard the keystone campus cops needed the big boys to help with that stiff they found in the quad."

"What do you know about that?" Jim asked, getting his coffee then sitting down.

Alec said, in semi-hushed tones one reserved for gossip. "Rumor around campus is killer bees got him."

"Well, that's an interesting hypothesis," Jim said.

Alec bragged, "Yeah, if I had the brains of most of these schmoes, I might buy it. Killer bees are a media myth but poisonous spiders aren't. You know, I studied arachnids on a research grant when I was 12. I could solve this case."

Jim laughed. "Maybe another time, kid."

"I'm not a kid, dog breath," Alec skated toward the office chairs. "I bet my IQ's bigger than yours and his put together."

"No doubt." Jim took his coffee. "I'll leave you two to discuss whatever you were discussing. I'll meet you at the student union."

"Sure, Jim." Blair heard the click of Jim's cane as he walked down the campus halls.

"He's going to get it next," Alec said. "The last custodian could see the spiders coming."

"I'll have you know Jim isn't a custodian. He works as an athletic trainer."

Alec turned on his skates to leave.

"Hey, wait a minute, what about our meeting?"

"The meeting's adjourned." Alec skated out of the office and down the hall.

Blair finished the paragraph he was working on and saved his work on the computer. It was now lunchtime and he still hadn't located that urn. After a nice relaxing lunch, Blair decided to try again with Alec. Then he could, at least, tell Hal Buckner that he gave it his best shot. Blair arranged to meet Alec the following day. What I do in the name of academia.

---

After serving spaghetti with his homemade meat sauce, Jim asked, "What was going on with that kid?"

"He thought you were the replacement janitor," Blair explained. "He was trying to frighten you." Blair had to find somewhere to reach that boy. If he could only find something the boy was interested in other than inline skating. Blair had never inline skated in his life and falling on his face would not endear that kid to him.

"Nice kid." Jim was more his normal self now that he was working full-time. "I'm doing personal training for a growing list of members. Patti is no star athlete, but she is picking up weights without injuring her own legs."

"I'm amazed how quickly our lives returned to what passes for normal around here."

"I miss being a cop, but I'm still helping people. Steve's heart rate is a lot of higher than yours or mine. All his money and businesses mean nothing if he has a heart attack or stroke."

"I agree; that's why I worry about what you eat."

"You're the one who puts hydrogenated oil on bread and thinks it's healthy if you add a few spouts." Jim twirled more spaghetti on his fork.

"We could all do better." Blair knew that hydrogenated oils in commercial peanut butter and margarine were worse than butter according to the latest research. However, peanut butter had Calories and protein and Blair needed both. He would remember to get the peanut butter without hydrogenated oil when they ran out, but the natural peanut butters needed stirring. "Ground meat isn't exactly low fat."

"Turkey," said Jim. "I'm sorry, but the supermarket doesn't sell ostrich."

---

Outside of university, Blair and Alec walked down street toward Blair's car, the Corvair. "Look, the only reason I agreed to see you because you said you'd give me a driving lesson," Alec said.

"The only reason I agreed to give you a driving lesson because Professor Buckner really wants this to work." They arrived at Blair's car; the top was down.

"Now get in."

"Huh, this is it?"

"Just get in."

Alec jumped over the door and into the driver's seat while Blair went around the other side to get in normally. "Hey, hey, hey. Be careful. It's a classic. You have to be gentle," Blair said, remembering what he was like when he started at the university. He was younger than the other students, but he didn't think he knew everything, more than other people, but not everything.

"How 'bout the key?"

"First, a few fundamentals."

Alec whined, "Hey, save your breath. I wrote a computer driving simulation when I was ten."

Blair pulled a magnetic key holder from beneath the dash, opened it, and dumped the key into Alec's hand. "This is no simulator, my friend. You crash this thing, you do not get to press reset."

Alec starts the car.

"Okay." Blair took a deep cleansing breath. "All right. Good. Be gentle, put it in first, put the clutch in. Let her out, slow."

Alec takes off, squealing the tires as he pulls out, then proceeds to jerk down the road.

"Take it easy, take it easy. Hey, man, what are you doing?" Blair tried to keep his voice calm, strangling the kid when he was driving his car would kill them both. They swerved around on the road, barely missing people who ran out of the way.

"I'm driving," Alec said.

Blair screamed, "Get out. Look out! Look out!" as they went over curbs and sidewalks as Alec skidded the car around corners.

Alec said, "Sorry."

"Pull over right now." Blair told himself that he wasn't going to lose his temper.

"Hold on. I'll pull it around."

"Pull it over now!" Blair grabbed the wheel, forcing them over.

"Hold on, hold on," Alec yelled back. They stopped at the side of the road, one wheel on the sidewalk. "Now, see what you made me do?"

Blair screamed, "Get out!"

"Your shocks are a little mushy."

"Alec, get out of my car, now. Now!"

"All right, fine." Alec got out of the car. "Whatever." Alec left.

Blair shrugged his shoulder before getting the car off the curb, feeling like he would never be able to reach out to that boy.

---

Blair paced in front of the desk in Buckner's office. "Hal, this is not going to work. I mean, this kid; he's like fingernails on a chalkboard. He goes out of his way to make people mad. He thought my roommate was the new janitor and told him about the previous janitor dying from bites from poisonous spiders."

"Well, he's in a tough spot, Blair. Intellectually, he is light years ahead of 99% of his college peers and emotionally, he's still in the ninth grade," Buckner agreed.

Blair nodded. "Why stick him with me?"

"Because you were taking college courses when you were 16. If you think back to what it was like, I am sure you can relate."

"Yeah, but this kid, Hal; he's a social menace."

"Try meeting him on his own terms. Maybe he doesn't need a mentor. Maybe he just needs a friend," Buckner suggested. After the phone rang, Buckner answered it. "Buckner. Uh. Just a minute."

Blair paced in front of the desk. "Uh. Right. Sorry. His own terms. Thanks, Hal." Blair left the office, but listened a moment outside the door to see if Buckner knew what happened to the package.

"It's about time you called. That shipment has been here for days. Well, you are not the only one who has to be careful. I want it out of here. Look, this is the last time. After tonight, I want you to leave me the hell alone." When Buckner hung up the phone, Blair walked down the hall trying to look as nonchalant as possible.

---

Alec was typing on Blair's computer when Blair came into his office in Hargrove Hall.

"Hey, what are you doing?" Blair asked.

"Um, I just came to hang out."

"No, what are you doing to my computer?"

"Just making some corrections to your notes on the semantic value of the Mayan emblem glyphs."

"I'm sorry. You're doing what?"

Alec looked at the urn picture. "Oh, um, by the way this Mayan urn is fake. I'd say Mexican counterfeiters from the 1930s."

"Look, Alec, why don't you take some of your smart-ass energy and apply it to what you came to college to do?"

"Uh, I forgot, I'm supposed to be a good little boy and do all my assignments, collect my little degrees, when the fact is I already know more than you could learn in three lifetimes."

"Academically, probably yes. But listen, man, you have got a lot to learn about life."

"I don't need this crap. I'm going to tell Buckner I want a different advisor."

"That's great. Saves me a phone call. Good-bye." Blair sat down at his desk.

Alec went out the door, pausing a moment.

Blair looked at Alec in the doorway. "Good-bye."

Alec closed the door.

Blair picked up the picture and looked at his computer screen. "How did I miss that?" he said to himself as he looked at the corrections Alec did. The boy was right; it was a fake. Blair had hoped that it was a copy of an authentic piece. Then, again, since the piece was fake it didn't counter any of his previous research and he could hand it the dissertation as it was written and make an appointment to defend it. Blair looked at the two hundred plus pages on his computer, nervous about pushing the print button and handing his lifework in to be criticized and judged.

---

Jim and Blair arrived at the accident. Alec was standing next to the wrecked Corvair, wrapped in a blanket. Couple police vehicle were there. Blair jumped out of the Expedition and headed toward Alec. Jim followed him. "All right, Chief, take it easy now. Come on. Settle down."

"What did you do to my car?" Blair asked.

"Why don't you go after that maniac?" Alec asked still shaking.

"What maniac?" Jim asked.

"The guy who was chasing me," Alec explained.

"What guy?" The police officer said as he approached the scene.

Blair paced a bit.

"He was, I swear. I was in Buckner's office. I found your phony Mayan urn. There was this cylinder in it. Here." Alec searched his clothes for cylinder and couldn't find it. "Well, I had, I swear. It must have fallen out in the chase."

Blair nodded. "Yeah, right."

Alec continued, "The urn was there. Ask Buckner."

"Oh, I'm gonna ask Buckner. You can count on that, but until then." Blair walked away from his wrecked car.

"Settle down, okay?" Jim put his arm on Blair's shoulder.

Blair walked over to the cop. "Put him under arrest for auto theft."

"He claims there was a second vehicle," the police officer said. "We'll check it out. The kid can keep."

---

Next day. Jim and Blair walking down hallway toward Buckner's office. "Oh, now, come on, come on, look, Chief. You are ignoring the facts. A witness reports seeing a second car," Jim said.

"Jim, witnesses get things wrong," Blair said.

"Why are you letting this kid get under your skin like this?"

"Because he stole my car and no one will arrest him," Blair moaned.

"Baby, that's not what this is about," Jim said.

"Jim, that's exactly what this is about." They arrived at Buckner's office and the door was open. Blair tapped Jim's shoulder.

"What?"

After they went inside the office. Blair shouted, "Professor Buckner? Professor Buckner? Hello?"

"Does he usually leave his door wide open?" Jim asked.

"No. No, he doesn't. That's weird. See, look, there's no urn, no nothing. I told you Alec made the whole thing up." Blair then found a shard of urn on the floor. "It's a piece of my Mayan urn. How'd it get broken?"

"So the kid was telling the truth," Jim said.

"But I just asked Buckner about this yesterday. Why would he lie to me?"

---

Blair saw a large man that worked around the university and the other man carrying Alec towards their car. The two men put Alec into the Jeep Cherokee as Blair ran up to them. The larger man said to bystanders, "He's all right. Right here in the car. He'll be okay."

Blair asked, "Whoa! What's the matter?"

The man that carried Alec said, "He passed out in front of the student union. We're taking him to the clinic."

Alec said weakly, "Sandburg, help me."

"Are you okay?" Blair asked.

The large man pulled a gun and stuck it in Blair's side and said, "Why don't you come with us?"

---

Alec, in stocking feet, and Blair were tied up in chairs in the research farm a short distance from the campus. The two men that pulled them into the Cherokee stand in front of them to question them. The large man asked, "Where's the cylinder?"

"Like I'm going to tell you," Alec said.

"Listen, punk," the man said.

"Blow it out your ear, you steroid-induced mutant," Alec said.

"Hey, Alec. Let's not provoke these guys, all right," Blair said in a calming voice.

"Relax. They're not gonna hurt us. And if they do, they'll never see their precious cylinder," Alec said

The two men hauled Alec over to a glass case of spiders, pull off the lid, and forced Alec toward it. "Hey, what do you think you're?"

The larger man said, "Don't count on it."

Alec screamed, "Come on, man. This isn't funny. I've got a thing about spiders."

"You're arachnophobic?" Blair asked.

"Well," Alec said.

The large man forced Alec's head down on the counter top. "You know, I'm sure you're smart enough to know how deadly these guys are."

Other man got a spider out of the case and put it on the counter, letting it crawl toward Alec's face.

The large man said, "I'm going to start counting. I get to five and you're gonna find out that your fears are totally justified. One."

"Please," Alec begged sweat coming off his face.

"Come on, let him go," Blair begged.

"I'll deal with you later. Two," the large man said.

"Please," Alec whined.

The thug said, "Three. Four."

"All right, all right!" Alec screamed.

The large man hauled Alec upwards.

"I hid it in Blair's office. Hargrove Hall, 211. It's taped to the underside of his desk," Alec said.

The larger man said to the other man, "Go get it. You better be telling me the truth."

The man returned with the cylinder, gave it to the large man and said, "Right where he said it was."

The large man said, "Call Jaron and Kate. Tell them to go back to work. We got the breeders."

"I still don't get it. You got a lab full of insects here. Why smuggle more in? Unless," Alec paused. "All the insects here are sterile and the ones in the cylinder."

"Alec, why don't we just drop this, okay?" Blair hoped that Alec would stop talking. He didn't need to give the men another reason to kill them. Alec was too smart for his own good.

Unfortunately, Alec continued, "You're developing some kind of superbreed, aren't you? An insect that kills crops and that nobody can stop? What's the value?"

Blair was sweating; the boy didn't know when to shut up. "Alec!"

Alec thought a moment. "I've got it. You've also developed a virus to kill it. So you unleash the bug, then sell the virus. The farmers will have to pay whatever you want because you're the only ones with the solution."

"Smart kid," the large man said.

"I try," Alec said.

"Think about this, genius. If I had any doubts about killing you before, they're gone now," the large man said.

"You've already killed two people and the police are suspicious. If you kill us, you're finished," Blair said, trying to reason with the two men.

"Wrong. If I don't kill you, I'm finished. The way I see it, there's not a whole lot of difference between two murders and four," the man said.

Blair heard a gun shot outside; hopefully, the police had killed the man that helped this maniac tie them up. "That's got to be the police. The best thing that you can do right now is just put your gun down and give yourself up."

"The best thing I can do right now is get the hell out of here. Here. Keep an eye on my friends, will you?" The man opened the case of spiders and put it on the ground, then left.

As spiders started to crawl out of the case and creep toward Blair and Alec, Alec said, "You got to get me out of this."

"Ah, geez," Blair whispered as he pulled his feet off the floor.

Alec looked at his socking feet tied against the bottom of the chair and then at the approaching spiders. "Those are funnel web spiders. They're bad news."

"All right now, just calm down. You got to relax. Don't look at them. Just breathe, all right! You don't bother them and they won't bother us," Blair said, trying to reassure himself as much as he was trying to reassure the boy sitting next to him.

"Oh, yeah?" Alex said as a spider climb approached his foot.

One crept just in front of Alec's foot. "Blair," Alec whined.
.
"Oh, all right, just. Just don't freak out, man," Blair said, in his best calm, reassuring voice.

A spider crept across Alec's foot and started to climb. "Don't let him get me. Don't let him get me, no," Alec moaned.

"How the hell did you do that arachnid study with this phobia?" Blair asked.

Alec sighed, "My shrink said it would help, but it didn't."

"Right. Try not to move. Try not to move. Keep breathing. Don't look!" Blair and Alec heard police in the building. Blair heard what sounded like a man being tripped and cuffed above his head. All the police had to do now was find them. "They're not that close to your face. They're on your jacket, but just calm down. The police are in the building. We'll be rescued soon."

"They're too close for comfort," Alec whined.

"Just calm down. They won't hurt you."

A few minutes pass and spiders now crawling on Alec and Blair. Alec took a deep breath, trying to stay as still as possible. "Oh, my God. Oh, my God. Oh, my."

"Alec, just calm down. Stay perfectly still and they won't bite you." Blair turned his head slightly and saw a showerhead.

"Blair, I think I'm going to be sick," Alec said.

"That wouldn't be good. Now I got an idea. All right? Now stay calm!" Blair looked at the spider on Alec's feet, wishing that it would leave so Alec could lean back and start the showers. Blair told Alec about the shower button behind him as the campus police and a detective arrived on the opposite side of the large room.

"All right. Just straight back. Just like I told you."

"Tell me when to go," Alec said.

"There's one on your foot. Don't move your feet yet. Get off his foot!" Blair looked at the spider on his chest. "Hi. Hi." He was starting to get arachnophobia himself.

"Now?" Alec begged.

"No. No. No, no, no!" Blair said, seeing the spider on Alec's stocking foot. The two officers were crossing the room.

The campus police officer stared at the spiders over Blair and Alec like she didn't know what to do to help the two young men. The other officer looked at her. "We can't shoot the spiders off them," he said.

"Go?" Alec asked.

"Uh, not quite. Almost. All right, now!" Blair shouted.

"I can't move," Alec whined.

"Go now, damn it!" Blair stated.

Alec leaned back and turned on the shower. The water started to wash off the spiders.

"There they go. It's working! It's working! You did it, man! Whew!" Blair exclaimed.

"I'm drowning here." Alec shook his wet hair.

The officer turned off the water. "Anyone hurt down here?"

"No, we're all right. We're all right. We're okay." Blair sighed in relief as the officer removed their binds.

"Yeah, just get me out of here, Officer," Alec said.

The campus security officer helped untie them.

---

Alec attempted to teach a rather wobbly Blair how to inline skate. "All right, just relax, man. Can't believe you've never done this before?"

"Call it a gap in my education," Blair said.

"You'll do fine. What's the worst that could happen?"

"I could break my neck. Something like that."

"Oh, by the way I didn't tell you, but, well, after this term, I'm going home."

"What are you doing that for?" Blair asked.

"Well, you know, I did the math and I figured you get to be a kid exactly once and you better not squander your shot. But I won't forget you, man. I mean, astoundingly enough, I...I learned a lot from you."

"You know, I think that was almost a compliment." Blair tried to high-five Alec and lost his balance. "Whoa!"

"Whatever, man."

"All right. All right. I got it. I got it. Okay, watch this. Here we go. Watch this." Blair turned, bending over with his hands touching the ground.

"Now the hands are not supposed to touch the ground."

---

Jim put dinner on the table when Blair came home. "I'm sorry that the urn turned out to be a fake."

"With Professor Buckley dead, I'm going to need to find a new advisor. However, the dissertation is printed and ready to go. It's a shame; he had only six months to retirement."

"The killers didn't care," Jim said.

"I can't believe they killed two men while trying to design a super bug. I hate that Alec lost his innocence. He really is a good kid."

"How's the pasta?" Jim asked.

"The sauce is a little thick," Blair teased. "Jim, what do you think about Santa Fe? They have a research center there and they need another anthropologist."

"I like Toronto better."

"I'm tired of the cold."

"Our apartment will have heat," Jim explained. "I can move anywhere; it's your choice."

"You don't have to go with me." Blair twisted a piece of fettuccini around his fork.

"I thought we agreed that we're staying together." Jim blew a kiss across the table.

"Darling, you shouldn't have to leave your home for me."

"You're my home; not this place." Jim walked over to Blair and muffled his hair.

"The university still needs to find me a new advisor. I worked with Hal Buckner on that dissertation for years and now I'm going to have to explain my research to someone else."

"You'll do fine." Jim kissed Blair's cheek.

"I spent half my life at Rainier and, in less than a year, I will be leaving it."

"Life is change," said Jim.

"Let's invite Steve over for dinner before we leave this soda-pop stand."

---

Alec arrived at Blair's office the following school day. "So who's the blind guy?"

"My roommate," Blair said. "Thanks for the help on the dissertation. Next time, ask before you help someone."

"You would have told me to fuck off," Alec said. "The part I read seemed interesting. Would you mind if I read the rest?"

"This word processing program has a revision setting. Use it and I approve the changes."

"Agreed," Alec said. "I wouldn't want someone going into my research and changing it. I miss Hal Buckner."

"I do, too. I'm orphaned."

"What does that mean?"

"I don't have an advisor. I can't turn my research in until the university assigns me someone else."

The End