Flight Homer

Author: Uris and Athena

uris@fateordestiny.com

Fandom: The Sentinel

Rating: PG (It was one of the first pieces I wrote)

Title: The Flight Home

Pairing: Jim/Blair

Warning: mushy stuff. It is first part of a series.

Summary: Jim feels close to Blair on the flight home from Sierre Verde

Archive: yes.

Feedback: yes


The Flight Home
by Uris and Athena

Jim couldn't get comfortable in the small coach seat on the plane on the trip back to Cascade. He was glad that there were only two seats on this side of the aisle so he wouldn't be pressed against a stranger for the long flight. It was bad enough that there wasn't enough room for his legs. Blair lifted the armrest between then sat as close to window as possible giving the bigger man a little more space. Jim's body filled the third of the seat that the smaller man afforded him. "Thanks, Chief.Airplanes make me uncomfortable."

"Everyone zones out on planes." Blair touched Jim's thigh momentarily. "How did you handle the flight down?"

"I focused on the music in my headphones. I felt claustrophobic sitting near a business traveler nearly as big as I. I could smell his body odor and felt his heartbeat."

"Do you like hearing my heartbeat and smelling my odor?" Blair touched Jim's hand.

"The sound of your snoring and the beating of your heart helps me sleep at night. It was so hard to sleep those nights you were in the hospital."

"I buy scent free soap and shampoo to be considerate of you. Dumb, my natural odors couldn't be washed away if I took ten showers a day. Human beings are naturally very smelly creatures."

"I like that you don't smell from deodorant or cologne. Many times, perfumes and cologne overwhelm me." Jim moved his legs trying to get a little more space as the flight attendant announced that the plane was starting down the runway for take off. Jim's leg pressed against Blair's leg. Jim put his hand on his own thigh pretending not to notice that he was enjoying being so close to Blair. His vision of the wolf following the panther made it seem so clear. Blair was all that he needed and all that he would ever need. How do you tell your best friend and roommate for the past three years that you love him? Blair wasn't a sentinel but he could probably feel Jim's body temperature raising and his pulse quickening. Jim felt his own pulse in his ears.

"Did you mean what you said at the temple?" Blair looked into Jim's blue eyes and put his hand on Jim's thigh. 'I realized I had it all laid out right in front of me -- All the answers to it all.' Jim had said at the temple.

"Yes." Jim could look into Blair's eyes forever. Jim focused on Blair's odors and the sounds of Blair's heart filtering out the other sounds and smells in plane.

Blair touched Jim's hand again and touched his chin with the other hand maintaining eye contact. "Do you love me?"

How could Blair be so bold? "What are you talking about, Willis?" Jim used television humor when he didn't want to talk about things. At least, it wasn't a line from Leave it to Beaver, a show that Blair probably had never seen in his life. Chances were that Blair had seen Different Strokes even if it was just channel flipping at a friend's house.

"You said that it was all laid out in front of you: all the answers. It wasn't the old temple that you were looking at. Jim, am I the answer to your questions?" Blair was laying it on the line now. He didn't want to lose his best friend by jumping to the wrong conclusion. It couldn't be wrong. Blair had never felt this close to anyone and Jim had made many comments to the fact that he had felt closer to Blair than he had felt toward anyone including his ex-wife. He had nothing to lose; why was it so hard to say I love you and I want to go to bed with you?

"I hated myself for having those feelings for Alex. I wanted to have those feelings for you."

"I blamed myself." Blair stroked Jim's cheek. "I went there to help her. I tried to teach her how to control her senses." Blair allowed his body to press against Jim.

Jim didn't want to babble but it was hard to explain what he felt when he kicked Blair out of the loft. He had put a gun to Blair because Blair had the audacity to enter the loft, which was his home too. He packed Blair's things to protect Blair from himself. Jim felt like a wild animal in a cage after Alex had entered Cascade. He hated his conflicting feelings for Alex. He wanted Alex with his body although his mind told his otherwise. He tried to tell Blair what he felt. After the vision of killing a wolf and it changing into Blair, he was angry with himself for his desire for Alex but felt powerless to change it. Why did his spirit and body want someone set on killing Blair a second time? Jim touched Blair's coarsely shaven chin with his thumb. "Chief, you died because of me. I couldn't protect you."

"I died because of Alex. You wanted to protect me."

"I turned my back on you. I packed your things and told you to leave. I threw you to her." Jim moved his hand to Blair's cheek making closer eye contact. Blair was so beautiful; Jim didn't deserve his love. Jim moved his hand over Blair coarsely shaven skin enjoying the texture on Blair's skin and the feeling of each hair and pore. He could study Blair's face for hours. Jim could zone out on Blair's smell or touch. He wanted to taste Blair so much. Jim picked up the bottle of water that Blair nearly finished drinking hoping to find a taste of Blair remaining on the bottle. Jim was so afraid if he touched Blair's lips with his own that he wouldn't be able to stop himself. He had never needed anyone the way he need Blair. Blair was Guide, roommate, friend and confidant.

"I wanted to talk to her. You must not blame yourself." Blair touched his lips to Jim's lips. Jim put his hand on his own lips and looked away from Blair as to dismiss the brief peck on the lips.

"Why did you do that?" Jim was afraid to give Blair more of himself. What would he have left?

"Because I love you, too." Blair pressed his head into Jim's shoulder. Jim rested his arm around Blair.

"Chief, what do you want me to say?"

"Nothing. This feels nice."

"I zoned out on the music on the flight down. The flight attendant needed to yell at me at the end of the flight."

"You aren't zoning now."

"No, Baby. Without you, I would be in a padded cell or had walked in front of a moving vehicle. You are my life." Jim said it. Blair meant everything to him. He could take this step and allow Blair further into his life. Blair deserved all his love; he had no right to hold it back a moment longer.

"I knew you needed me when you stepped in front of that garbage truck." Blair touched Jim's face and kissed him. "It was destiny, man, that we should meet. Why would a sentinel and a man studying them be in the same city otherwise? The fates planned for us to fall in love."

"I don't believe in such nonsense."

"I was there at the right time and the right place. Your wife couldn't reach you. I was a stranger and I could touch you in ways no one else could."

"Chief, I don't want to talk about mystic stuff."

"Man, we have to talk about it. Anyone should be able to guide you, but you only respond to my voice."

"I like the sound of your voice." Jim liked everything about Blair. He wanted to submerge himself in Blair's smell. Jim opened his mouth and kissed Blair deeper taking in all he could of Blair's smell and taste. He wanted to taste the chili pepper and onion that Blair had eaten and smell the musky odors that were Blair's alone. "You taste so good. I love the way smell. Your odor is comforting and familiar. It makes me feel at home." Jim wanted to taste every enzyme and hormone that made Blair unique. He wanted to turns his senses as high as possible and feel all Blair had to offer.

"When did you know that you loved me?"

"When I pushed you against the wall of your storage closet that you call an office." Jim pressed his nose into Blair's hair enjoying the smell of Blair's shampoo and conditioner.

"What are the men at the station going to think? I can't be falling in love with my male partner and roommate."

Jim could smell his arousal. "Simon has thought you were my boyfriend since I asked you to ride along with me. It is no secret how I felt about you." Jim had wanted him so long, but Blair had never seemed to want him until now. Jim had never caused Blair to be aroused before. Jim had sported wood for Blair many times but this was the first time the favor was returned. Jim knew that human beings were complex adaptive systems and sexual orientation didn't change at a drop of a hat. What caused a man that had no showed the least bit of interest in him to change? Jim was afraid when he remembered all the times that he imagined that he would touch Blair knowing that it could never be. Now, that it seemed to be in the near future, telling Blair that he had always loved him was too difficult. Jim didn't want to wake from this dream. Blair couldn't want him the way that he wanted Blair. Blair flirted with women and dated as many as he could. He had no interest in members of his own sex but Jim could see Blair's hard-on through his pants.

Blair blushed. "You ex-wife thinks that of me." If Simon thought that they were lovers than everyone else in Major Crimes thought the same. Blair had read enough about closed society to know gossip traveled fast. Blair remembered a few dirty looks from the men but he thought he because a college student and all college students used drugs. "Have they said anything?"

"A few call me a faggot when they think I can't hear them and make comments that I should pay more attention to my work than to my pretty boyfriend." Jim suspected that much of Cascade thought them to be a couple. Blair accompanied Jim to his annual physicals, not even his wife did that. The neighbors saw Blair come and go from the apartment and the older couple downstairs shared recipes with him. Every time that one of
them is injured the nurses at the hospital treated the other one like a significant other allowing him to stay in the room all hours. "Blair, everyone sees us as together." Jim put his hand on Blair's thigh. "Most approve. Conner thinks we make a very sweet couple. I just gave her our anniversary so she can throw us a party."

"Our anniversary?"

"The day you move in and my life changed forever. The loft went from being my house to being our home. I don't want you to leave ever."

"No wonder the women at the station won't go out with me. Jim, you should have told me." Sam went out with him a few times and even tried to set him on fire when he missed a date. Cassie and Blair flirted with the idea. However, Cassie came to believe that she was getting between Blair and his roommate and lost interest rather quickly.

"What is there to tell?"

"I'm floored. Man, those jokers have never given me more than dirty looks." Blair thought about the time that Henri and Rafe killed and buried his fake fur hat. The officers were constantly teasing each other. He remembered how they laughed the day that he spoke about his bar mitzvah since he wearing a cross the day before. The cross had no religion significant; it was only a piece of jewelry given to him by an old girlfriend. They had told queer jokes but they were never directed toward Blair and Jim, not that anyone would call a six-foot one ex-Army range queer to his face; however, Blair was a five-seven anthropologist. "I can't believe you let everyone in Major Crimes believes that we were having a relationship."

"Nothing I could have said would have changed their opinions. We act like a married couple in the bullpen. Simon and Megan are jealous that I
have someone to go home to every night. Conner teases many nights; 'Sandy is awfully cute.'"

This talk of their hypothetical relationship was getting too intense for Blair and he needed to pull back feeling like he would attack Jim right in his seat on the airplane and make the gossip true. Blair didn't want their first time to be in the airplane toilet. "Thank you for unpacking my things while I was in the hospital and restoring the loft."

"It was the least that I could do. When we get back, I'm going to ask Simon to give me a real vacation."

"I have classes to teach. I missed enough days as it is."

"After you finish your diss, we'll go somewhere for two weeks."

"I need to change the circumstances so no one can recognize you as the subject. I wrote it with both our names out of laziness. If anyone read
it, we would both be in deep shit."

"Maybe I can help you with hiding our identities. Otherwise, it is finished?" Blair nodded.

Jim pressed his face into Blair's soft hair, lifted Blair's hair and started to nibble on his ear. Jim didn't mind being on a plane as much as before because he could direct all his senses toward the beautiful man in his arms. "I'm lucky to have you."

"I'm the one lucky." Blair could feel the intensity grow as he tried to ignore his arousal. They had to talk when they arrived home, not necessarily talk.

"I won't abandon you."

END PART 1