James Ellison, Blair Sandburg, and Simon Banks are all the property of Pet Fly Productions and UPN Broadcasting Company. I am using them without permission, but I won't take long, and no one will be harmed because the challenge specifically states that we can't produce any owies.
P.B.
Blair Sandburg knew something wasn't right. The man was an anthropology grad student, after all. He'd studied enough cultural phenomena to know when people around him were acting out of character. He had caught several officers he knew surreptitiously staring at him today. Jim had been characteristically non-committal about their reactions, and he didn't dare mention it to Captain Banks. Blair was almost afraid he had done something awful, and they were all just waiting for the paperwork to come through telling him his credentials as an official police observer were terminated. Following that, his partner, Jim Ellison, would calmly kick him out of the loft they shared, and tell Blair he was no longer needed to help with Jim's sentinel abilities. Then his world would crumble around him in ruins. "Whoa, man! Obsess much?" he thought with a frown. "You're being worse than ridiculous, and you could win the blue-ribbon for over-reacting," he mused, finally grinning to himself. Besides, Jim knew today was his birthday. There had been a present waiting outside the door to Blair's bedroom this morning when he awoke.
He wasn't even aware that Jim knew it was his birthday until he saw the gift. Sandburg had almost wanted to leave it wrapped. The wrapping was a shiny silver foil with a matching bow. It was a beautiful package that had obviously been professionally wrapped. Blair just hated to tear into it, but curiosity won out, and he went at it like a child at Christmas. The young man had never really thought that much about the whole birthday issue, but getting that gift from Jim was kind of cool, he had to admit. It was a book he had been dying to get, but couldn't afford. It was a collector's edition anthropology text with some notes from Sir Richard Burton on his sentinel studies. Blair sometimes couldn't believe his good fortune at having found someone like Jim as a friend. He hoped he would always be able to live up to the awesome responsibilities that their friendship carried with it. He was still lost in thought when Jim clapped him on the shoulder and told him it was time to go eat.
They went to one of Blair's favorite restaurants--Jim's treat, as a birthday dinner. Blair had thanked him for the present that morning, but felt that it would be appropriate to tell the older man how he felt, again. "You really surprised me with that book this morning. Jim, I want you to know how much it means to me to have a friend like you--" he started, but was interrupted by his dinner companion.
"Hold it, Chief, no mush, okay?" Ellison chided, good-naturedly. "It's your birthday, and I got you a present-- that's all. Nothing earth-shattering there." Then Jim smiled, and added, cryptically, "But life is full of surprises." Blair looked at the sly grin gracing his partner's usually stoic countenance and wondered for the umpteenth time today what was up with everyone. He didn't know how soon he would find out.
Their dinner had proceeded, accompanied by amiable chatter, and now they were about to enter the loft they called home. Ellison slid the key into the lock and ushered his young partner through the door. Suddenly, all the lights flashed on, and a crowd of people Blair knew as his friends from the station yelled, "SURPRISE!" They began to sing "Happy Birthday" in unison as a shocked Blair looked at them as though they had just landed on a shuttle from Jupiter. Then Sandburg turned the surprise around by bolting out the door to the loft and down the stairs. The room stood in stunned silence for a moment after he left; no one seemed to know how to react. Then Ellison addressed the crowd. "Uh, people, I don't know what this is about, but give me a minute and I'll see if I can find out. In the meantime, make yourselves at home, and please eat something. If this party's going to be a bust, I don't want all this food going to waste." Then he strode out the door to look for his wayward friend.
The sentinel found his young guide pacing on the sidewalk outside the loft. Blair was visibly shaken, but didn't appear to be angry or upset--more like, confused. Ellison walked up and put a hand on the young man's shoulder to stop his perpetual motion. The kid looked up at him with unshed tears glittering in his impossibly blue eyes. "Jim, I'm sorry I ran like that, but, man," he paused and thought about how he would phrase the next part. "Naomi never really got into all that birthday stuff, you know. She'd get me a present or two, and I usually made her something on her birthday, but we never did that party thing, really." The young man paused again, letting his words find their mark.
"Are you saying you've never had a birthday party, Chief?" Jim asked incredulously.
"Exactly, and I just didn't know what to do. I felt so overwhelmed by the whole, you know, emotional impact of it and everything that I just ran out. Pretty stupid, huh?" Blair sighed.
"Don't worry," the big cop chuckled, "They'll all understand, but you need to come back up there so you can enjoy your party before all the chow is gone."
"Thanks, Jim," Blair said, quietly. Then he unexpectedly threw his arms around the detective and buried his head in the bigger man's chest. Jim smiled at the sweet gesture and returned the embrace without embarrassment or reproach. Blair said, with his head still against Jim's massive chest, "You know, I always wanted a big brother, and--"
Jim interrupted his young friend for the second time that evening to answer, "-- and now you have one. Happy Birthday, Chief."