Author: Angela
Fandom: The Sentinel
Pairing: Jim/Blair
Rating: PG
Challenge: Peja’s Midnight Stalker challenge
Status: Complete
Archive: WWOMB
Feedback: Yes
Email Address: ladybug74873@hotmail.com
Series/Sequel: if you want any
Disclaimers: They aren’t mine. Petfly and UPN own them
Summary: Blair finds out Jim has been a midnight stalker and why.
Warnings: none that I know of
Notes: I for some reason can see Jim finding his mother like this and helping her and her new family.
Further Disclaimer: none
Midnight Stalker
by Angela
I always wondered how Jim became a midnight stalker. And let me tell you getting it out of him was like trying to pull teeth.
Ok so here I was sitting on the couch watching a little Survivor and the big guy comes in the door like a tornado and then leaves. There is not so much as a kiss on the beloved curly head. I look towards the door and because I know Jim will be listening I accuse my Sentinel of not wanting to be around me anymore. What I got was an angry Sentinel. He marched back into the loft and took me by my arms and literally shook me while yelling at me that I was wrong and he could think of no one else he wanted in his life. Then as abruptly as it happened Jim stopped and looked at me in astonishment. His eyes widen and then I get a face full of broad chest.
I was gently put down and then my lover knelt before me with a bowed head. I kissed that head and told him I should be the one to apologize not him. I do and he drags me to the couch. Of course me being me I ask Jim why he was always leaving the loft at odd hours and coming back after midnight. And of course Jim being Jim didn’t readily answer.
I looked at my Sentinel and waited him out. I knew it would take Jim awhile to tell me what was going on. Instead of telling me he ushered me upstairs and threw clothes at me telling me to get them on he wanted to show me something. I did what he said. We left the loft without so much as a word between the two of us.
I looked at Jim closely when we had gotten into the truck and left for destinations unknown. My Sentinel wasn’t saying a word. Nonetheless I started to speak several times and each time I received a glare from my beloved. So I didn’t say anything. We passed many beautiful homes and neighborhoods to end up in a part of town I never would have thought either Jim or I would come. I can’t describe what I saw. It wasn’t exactly poverty but it was a place where there was little. I stopped when Jim put a hand on my arm. I looked at him and he smiled and shook his head in a silent warning to me. I knew what he meant. He wanted me to be careful. He was the ever-vigilant Sentinel of the Great City.
I looked around as we walked towards a row of homes. Some of the homes were kept up but others were in states of disrepair. I grimaced as I heard each crunching footstep. I didn’t day anything knowing that Jim only wanted silence. I stepped over broken glass, cans, throwaway toys and other unidentifiable things while we making our way to a house that Jim was seeking out.
Finally, we had stopped at a house that looked much of the same. But there was something different about this one. I looked around at the area. It was kept up with the lawn having been recently mowed. There flowers in the beds next to the house. The house looked like it had a recent paint job. There were curtains fluttering in the night air. And what I noticed more was the way Jim was around this particular house. He seemed more in tune with this house. There was something else I couldn’t discern about it. Jim looked my way and gestured for me to come closer. As I got closer I saw more of the reason why Jim had become so much of a night stalker. It wasn’t like him to stalk anyone as the law states.
Looking into the window gave me whole new insights and reasons of why Jim Ellison was the man he was. I have never doubted that Jim wasn’t a good man. He is. And what I saw gave me even more pause to think. In that lighted living room was an older woman. She was in her sixties with gray hair and what to could be said where laugh lines around her eyes. I couldn’t see the color of her eyes. But when I looked up at Jim and saw his look I knew then that they were the same color as my favorite detective. She was lounging in a rocking chair with a small child on her lap. Apparently the child had a nightmare and she was comforting the toddler. The toddler looked amazingly like Jim. He had the same hair color and I am sure the same eye color. He had Jim’s face structure. When he got older he would probably have the Sentinel’s physical attributes too.
A young woman I would have guessed to be in her thirties if not late twenties came into the room. She had both Jim and Stephen’s coloring as well as some of their height. She smiled down at the older woman. The younger woman looked like her mother. Jim cocked his head to listen in on the conversation or so I had thought. He pulled me into a hiding place as a car pulled into the driveway. Two men got out. One of the men looked a little like Stephen but more like the older gentleman with him. Father and son I would have guessed. When they had moved into the house Jim stepped out of hiding with me following him.
We watched as both of the men kissed the women. I saw no other man to indicate that the young woman had a husband or boyfriend. I cocked an eyebrow at Jim in question. He shook his head and indicated later. We watched some more. We left the little tableau when Jim felt it safe. We didn’t immediately go home. Jim got into the back of the truck and handed me down some items that I had not realized that were there. We walked towards the house again caring the things that Jim had bought and put in the truck. At that moment I wondered how long Jim had been doing this. We left them on the porch to be found by the owners and then left to go back to our own home.
As we speed back to the loft in silence. I couldn’t break the spell. I didn’t want to. Jim would let me in on whatever was happening in his own time. By the time we got back to the loft I had guessed some of what was going on. Jim was taking care of a family. His family. He would have to explain what was going on. It was past one o’clock in the morning when we headed up to the loft.
Jim unlocked the door and let me precede him. I turned and went into the kitchen to make us some tea. Jim from time to time needed what a pot of tea could offer. I made us some that would relax both of us. As I made the tea Jim put away all of our stuff and settled on the couch to wait on me. As soon as I brought in the tea and sat down next to my beloved Sentinel, he curled me into his side where we stayed like that for several minutes. And then Jim started to pour his heart out. I couldn’t look at his face. I know he understood. It broke my heart to hear him.
"It’s my mother, Grace. That’s her new family. She got married several years after she left. Those are her children and grandchild."
I finally had to look at Jim. I saw the look on his face. It was one of pain and heartache. My poor Jim. He couldn’t see his family in the kind of conditions that he had found them in.
"How, Jim, how did you know."
"The boy. He is one of the rookie cops."
The son. He looks like Stephen in certain ways. Jim had to have noticed that if he had seen the young man. I took Jim’s hand in mine and held tight. He needed me. I sat and listened to the rest of the story. I cried throughout the whole thing as well as Jim.
Apparently Grace Ellison had left the state of Washington and meet Brad Deveraux in some of her travels. Grace and Brad fell in love and married. Jim didn’t say what the elder Deveraux did and how he got to Cascade, Washington. That could easily be found out. The young man’s name was Sean. Jim had said that his Mom had always liked that name. The young woman’s name was Alexis. The toddler was Evan. Jim didn’t have a clue about the little boy’s father.
Jim wasn’t too sure if either his Dad or brother knew that Grace and her family were here. He couldn’t tell much more. He said that he had saw Sean in the police garage one day and thought that the young rookie looked a little like Stephen. He had introduced himself and they had struck up a conversation. Jim learned that the Deverauxs had just recently moved and hadn’t gotten established yet. The younger man’s father was out of work and the family had been living off of the rookie’s salary as well as his sister’s part time position. Jim said he didn’t mentioned what kind of work the father did. Jim didn’t think to ask.
Jim being Jim thought that it would be nice to keep an eye out for the small family. The young rookie had told the older cop some stories about the area they lived in. Jim didn’t like it. I learned that Jim had been discreetly looking for a home for them. When seeing how they lived Jim made sure that they had some food and clothing. He would leave at around midnight and not be back until two or three o’clock in the morning. I guess I had never noticed Jim leave our bed.
Jim told me that he had taken a special interest in the younger Deveraux. He talked to him on occasion trying to learn more about the family. Jim usually got very little. Then he looked at me. I knew what he was thinking. I shook my head with laughter in my eyes. He smiled. He would introduce me. And then I would do my thing.
He kissed me and suggested that we go up to bed. I take the suggestion and lead the way to our bedroom. As we get ready I ask him what now. Will he reveal himself to his mother and her new family? Jim didn’t know. He wanted to but didn’t in another sense. He would just keep doing what he was doing. He was seeing that they were taken care of.
I wake before my beloved and look over at him. I am more amazed at him. I saw a loving and unselfish man do something he was born to do. To help people when they need it. Jim’s heart is so full of love. It doesn’t take much for Jim to show you that he loves you with his heart.
I’ll help him. I mentally made a list while waiting for Jim to join me. I go to write it down when I feel his arms come around me. I smile up at him and he kisses me. We lose ourselves in that kiss for a while. When we come up for air Jim has a promise in his eyes. A promise for later. I watch him as he goes about cleaning the loft. He is happy. He is where he wants to be.
I know that I will by his side when he does go to his mother. But I know we have to first see about William and Stephen. Jim wouldn’t want them to be in the dark especially Stephen.
Later in the day Jim suggests we go shopping. We do and I understand even more why Jim is doing this. Apparently Jim learned that the little boy, his nephew, doesn’t have much in the way of toys and clothes. So we go shopping for clothes and things. We have to guess at sizes but the rest we just grab and go.
I told Jim I would go with him on his nightly patrol. He smiled and told me he would like that. I got to share even more in what Jim Ellison is and has become. I smile back and go about helping with getting the things ready to go to the Deveraux. And that’s when it happened. Something that would have scared the old Jim.
We had arrived on time at the little house and were getting things out of the truck when the front door opened. Jim’s head went up. He listened for danger and when there was none went back to getting everything together. When we headed back to the house neither one of us noticed that Grace had stayed on the small porch watching us. When we approached the house Grace greeted us. She especially had a ready smile and a loving embrace for her oldest son.
Jim was never so happy as that moment. I can’t describe what this meant to my Jim. He was home not that me and the loft weren’t. He had found his mother and she had welcomed him. To what seemed like Jim’s utter embarrassment the young rookie officer was home. Jim showed no signs of that emabarrasment. He shook the young man’s hand as he was introduced to the rest of the family. Grace cried the whole time. They were happy tears.
Somehow Grace knew that her oldest was helping her and her family out. It made me think that she was a Sentinel herself. It also made me wonder if the tableaus that Jim saw every time he went out were for his benefit.
We stuck around making sure everyone was fine and then left with promises of coming during the day and evening. Grace saw us out with a kiss and a hug for both of us. She looked at me and smiled.
"Thank you for making him happy. I think he has found his soul mate."
That brought tears to my eyes. She patted my cheek and whispered to her son. Jim I noticed had blushed.
I found out what she had said. Apparently she wanted him to take me home and just show me his love and devotion.
He did.
I look now at the man before me and see a person who is now happier with his life. He is more content. He has better relationships with his parents and brother. William said it was all because of me. William has made peace with Grace and enjoys her and her husband’s company. Jim found out that Brad Deveraux was a firefighter. HE helped with getting the older man a position
on the fire department.
And as for my Sentinel instead of being the Deverauxs Midnight Stalker he has become mine. Oh what joy? I have never had such sex like that until Jim lets out his inner panther.
And speaking of which here he comes. Me and my inner wolf are going to have a good time.
I smile at Jim and then I see the softened look. That’s when I know that Jim’s demons have lifted.
It’s wonderful to see him so happy.
The end.