Title: Ethics

Author: Athena

Rating: R

Pairings: J/B

Status: Complete

Date: 01/24/03

Category: Episode Related, Plot What Plot, Series

Ethics
by Athena

Naomi came to Blair's office. When he told her he had a class in a few minutes, she insisted in auditing his afternoon class.

"Only if you're as quiet as a mouse. It's a course on police ethics. No pig comments," said Blair.

"Scouts' honor," Naomi said.

"You were never a girl scout and you hated the political stance of boys scouts."

"You understood that they were a Judea-Christian organization and didn't look kindly at people that practiced other beliefs."

"Teaching from my own book feels a bit self-righteous. Quiet as a mouse."

Naomi took the book out of his hands. "You wrote that."

"Mom, you can stop gushing. Sit in the back of the class." Blair walked to the podium and placed his notes on it and the book inside it. "I'm going to begin by telling an anecdote from the text. We'll discuss the moral implications afterwards on Chapter 5." Blair waited a moment until the students that brought their textbooks opened to Chapter 5. He retold the tale of David Lash tying him to a dentist chair in third person using sexually ambiguous pseudonym. Blair was sobbing lightly before finishing the story. He wiped his tears telling the class that the police officer put five bullets into the serial killer saving his significant other.

A young woman asked, "Dr. Sandburg, were you the police officer that fired those five bullets?"

"No," Blair said. "Do you think the police officer was acting differently because it was his significant other versus someone else's? Do you think he would be as fast on the trigger if someone else's life was on the line?"

"Those are loaded questions," an older student said.

"It's a class on ethics; the questions aren't going to be easy." Blair looked around no hands were raised. "Do you think that the police officer was acting irrationally when he fired five bullets? One would have been sufficient to subdue him enough to be handcuffed."

A young man raised his hand, "If he could have subdue him in another way, he should have."

Another hand went up. "What if that was your girlfriend tied to that chair?"

The young man said, "That shouldn't make a difference."

Naomi spoke. "We have emotions; we can turn them off."

"Wouldn't he have been just as emotional if someone else's significant other was sitting in that chair?" asked Blair.

"That man killed at least four times before," another student said. "Is his life more valuable than the victims?"

"Who gives us the right to be judge, jury and executioners?" someone else said.

"According to the perpetrator's MO, the victim wasn't under immediate threat; he had drown all his previous victims," Blair said.

"He could have shot the police officer," a student said.

"Five bullets," said another student.

"We can't turn our emotions off like a switch," a student still in his police uniform said. "If I saw my wife in that situation, I would have fired first asked questions later."

"Did the woman live?" a student asked.

"That doesn't pertain to the case," Blair said. "The police office could be any of you in the future and couldn't have known how badly the victim was poisoned. He fired those shots, not knowing if she would survive."

"Did you know the victim?" asked a woman in the first row.

"Yes, but please keep the situations in this book hypothetical. Not everyone is taught by the writer of the textbook. As I mentioned before the first lecture, I had spent three years in the police force as an unpaid observer and two more as a detective."

A minute before the bell rang, Blair introduced his mother as Ms. Sandburg to the class. A student walked over to Naomi. "Mrs. Sandburg, your son's lectures are very entertaining and I would love to take another course given by him in the future."

"Entertaining," said Naomi. "You're supposed to be getting an education."

"Mom, you learn more when the lecture is engaging," Blair said.

A young lady in the first row went over to Blair. "Dr. Sandburg, you have told more gruesome stories than that and I never saw you shed a tear."

"When I saw that woman's dead body in the bathtub, that look on her face, I still have nightmares," Blair said as the last student walked out of the classroom.

"Did the officer need to speak to Internal Affairs?" the woman asked.

"Anytime a gun is fired you have to see Internal Affairs," Blair said. "The officer explained that he was afraid that the killer was going to kill both him and the victim. Five bullets was overkill, but one bullet would have made him just as dead."

"Are these stories true?"

"Some are cases that I was on, some are based on other persons' accounts, and several hypothetical cases meant for discussion. The hypothetical ones are marked as such. You'll notice a few famous urban legends," Blair explained. "Miss Dougherty, I would love to talk, but I need to take my mother to lunch. Office hours are posted."

"Sure thing," the student said.

Naomi looked at Blair as he put his book and notes into his bookbag. "Still flirting with the students."

"I don't flirt with students. I can't help it if they flirt with me." Blair tossed the bag over his shoulder. "Mom, there is a great vegetarian restaurant not far from here."

"Several," Naomi said as they walked back to the office. "You could have told the class that you were tied to that chair and poisoned."

"And have them lose their respect for me."

"They would only respect you more. You used Lash's words against him. You brought yourself valuable minutes."

"I was still the victim. Jim realized how much he loved me after that. I called him my Blessed Protector. It's better to keep these tales anonymous and as hypothetical as possible. When real names are added to stories, people form opinions or look up the actual cases."

"I could see how that would distract from the class."

"As soon as I give the police officer a name, it's no longer hypothetical and the class only would talk about that case." Blair picked up his pace.

"Why did you tell the girl about the dead body in the bathtub?"

"That way they would know why I cried. I need to be able to tell the story without tears," Blair said.

"How often is the class taught?"

"They just started offering this course. We have criminal justice and ethics courses. This is a multidisciplinary course." Blair put his books in his office and picked up the suitcase his mother had dropped off earlier.

"Son, did you cry when it happened?"

"Not when it happened but that night. Jim put his arms around me and I told him that I was afraid for his career. He did fire unnecessary rounds." Blair put his backpack over his shoulder. "I had nightmares that night and many nights afterwards." Blair remembered his shock when Jim got in bed with him and put his arms around him but he was too upset by the nightmare to fuss. He didn't want to upset Jim so he didn't question about his behavior no matter how odd it seemed that he would get in another man's bed. All Jim asked was if he wanted him to stay or go back to his bed, Blair allowed him to stay.

"I have a meeting tonight. You should call before coming over."

"And ruin the surprise?"

"I have a meeting tonight and office hours from 2:30 to 5:00. You should call; that way we can schedule things."

They walked to a nearby salad and soup buffet. After Blair filled his plate, Naomi got herself some salad. "I'm glad to see you are teaching again," said Naomi.

"It's my calling. Jim knew that. Naomi, they have great vegan muffins here."

"Sid's publishing company settled with you."

"Part of the settlement was a gag order. I can't tell others that they submitted my work without my authorization. A statement like that on the Internet would put a publishing company out of business. As it was Sid was blacklisted. He won't be working in publishing for a long time."

"How much were you awarded?"

"Enough. I know Sid was your friend, but I told him not to publish it. I don't think you gave it to Sid with ill intent. You gave it to someone whose opinion you valued."

Naomi rested her fork on her salad. "When have I ever done anything to hurt you?"

"You fed my boyfriend tongue in bed." Blair ate one of the bran muffins.

"How was I supposed to know he was your boyfriend? You have your own room."

"That isn't the point. You tried to seduce my boyfriend. That is even low for you."

"You told me that he was just letting you stay in his loft until you finished your diss."

"You saw us holding hands. You knew."

"Honey, at sixteen, you were complaining that the girls in at college weren't interested in you. I saw you in class today. You smile at the female students."

"I smile at everyone. With my sexual orientation, smiling at the male students would probably lead to a black eye. Miss Dougherty will see pictures of Jim in my office if she visits. I'm not ashamed of my relationship with Jim. I have been with him six years and hope to be with him the rest of my life."

"I don't understand your relationship with him."

"Mom, I would never take you for a bigot."

"I just can't imagine what you and Jim have in common. I wouldn't be a Jewish mother if I didn't think you deserved better. He's a dumb cop."

"He's not dumb. He reads more scientific journals than I. He solved a seventeen-year-old murder case based on hair fibers and two fingerprints. He's a storehouse of useless trivial."

"He probably says the same about you."

"See we have that in common. Love doesn't make sense; it just is."

*Naomi, he's a big boy. He knows his heart, but a cop.* Blair kissed his mother's cheek.

"The editor of the textbook I'm revising called me a feminist, so you must have raised me right," said Blair. "I know she meant it as an insult, but I didn't take it as such."

"You're working on another textbook?" Naomi gushed some more.

"The writer just had a baby and knew me from the Internet. She practically begged me to help," he explained. "I'll take work anyway I can get it. I found myself playing catch up and trying to meet a ridiculous deadline, but it taught me a lot."

Naomi ate some more. "You sound busy."

Blair put down his fork. "I really wished you called. Tomorrow I may be able to spend more time with you. I have office hours. Take as long as you need."

Miss Dougherty was waiting for Blair when he returned from lunch. After he opened the door, she entered the office and looked at the pictures. "I won't mind being rescued by him."

Blair sat behind his desk. "He's mine."

Miss Dougherty was looking at a picture taken at the Cop of the Year awards; Detective Ellison had his arm around Blair Sandburg's shoulders.

"Jim told everyone there that I was his partner," said Blair. "He said it so matter-of-factly. A person from a gay awareness organization wanted to talk to Jim about being the first openly gay Cop of the Year in Cascade, but Jim told him that he wouldn't be having this conversation if I were a woman. The man said they were working on that. Jim told him to keep working."

"You were the one in the chair," said Miss Dougherty.

Blair looked at the photo. "The story has to stand on its own."

"You didn't cry when you talked about a man who had forty bullets put into him by the NYPD for the crime of being black," said the young woman. "This story was personal."

"Next year, I'm going to talk about when Danny Glover's daughter is kidnapped in Lethal Weapon," said Blair. "Then we can have a discussion about dealing with how do you react when your loved ones are in the line of fire. That gives me an excuse to play the movies. Jim is a big Mel Gibson fan."

"No, the class likes hearing about your experience in the Cascade PD," said Miss Dougherty. "From what you wrote in the textbook, you handled yourself well."

Blair laughed to keep from crying. "Talking to a serial killer about his childhood probably wasn't one of my better moves."

"You kept him talking."

"Until he had enough and decided to drug me a second time. He was still forcing his poison down my throat when Detective Ellison arrived."

"He did arrive." She looked at the photo of the detective smiling that winsome smile of his.

"If he didn't, we wouldn't be having this discussion. I would have gone for a swim in the duck pond. Miss Dougherty, do you want to talk ethics or my close call with death?"

"Ethics," said the woman. "How do you know you are doing the right thing?"

"You don't. You have to trust your gut."

"Sometimes your gut tells you to do the wrong thing."

"That's why schools have classes like mine, so we are argue the possibilities before you need to face them on the street. As I told the class, what would you do if it was your SO in that chair and does that make a difference? Shouldn't you react the same way if a stranger was in that chair? Those are the questions you need to answer."


### The End ###