Audrey Lynne
Blair Sandburg awoke with a small start, then sighed. It was too cold. He pulled his quilt tighter around his shoulders, then reached out to retrieve a second blanket that had fallen to the floor. He glanced to the clock. It was just past two in the morning. I'm going to get you for this, Ellison.
Earlier that night -- or the previous day, depending on how one thought of it -- Blair had made the mistake of complaining to Jim about some cramping he'd been fighting most of the day in a few muscles... probably the result of overuse that day and stress in general. It was coming up on finals week at Rainier, and he had the joy of both giving and taking the dreaded exams. Then grading the ones he'd given, and posting grades...
Jim had given Blair a Motrin tablet, told him not to complain about chemicals, and just take it if he was in pain. Blair had at first balked, knowing he could be a bit sensitive to drugs sometimes -- it was a 400mg tablet and he knew that anything more than 200 usually put him right to sleep. Given that it was only 9:00 p.m. at the time, Blair had been reluctant to take anything, knowing he'd wake up in the middle of the night, wired and ready to go... only to crash around 3 in the afternoon. Which was a problem when one was scheduled to be in class until 3:30.
Against his better judgment, Blair had taken the medication -- and now he was only finding his theory proven correct. He'd fallen asleep around 10:30, and now it was 2:23 in the morning and he was wide awake. True, HE had actually taken the drug; there had been no gun to his head. He was still going to blame Jim, though. It was more fun.
There was no way he was going to do more than lie in bed, snuggled under the covers (not that this was a bad idea); he'd never get back to sleep soon. At least he could lie in bed, snuggled under the covers... and do something productive. He had a paper due in his 1:00 Cultural Identities class that could stand a bit of last-minute revision. Blair had intended to do that in between classes; he had a 9:00-11:00 a.m. Introductory Anthropology I class to teach, then he was free until 1. But, heck, if he could do it now....
However, once Blair got situated again in bed with his laptop, he found it much more fun to play around with his research notes for the dissertation -- adding something here and deleting something there... revising, writing a few paragraphs on the current chapter. It was after 4 before he knew it... and he was seriously considering canceling the Intro class for the day. They didn't have much to cover, but he didn't want to risk it, knowing that Chancellor Edwards wasn't particularly fond of him in the first place. He wondered if the predicted snowfall -- and accompanying ice -- would actually happen and cancel class for him. Then he wouldn't even have to bother revising the Cultural Identities paper that afternoon.
It was predicted that Cascade would be hit with a snowstorm, with a lot of ice, and there had been speculation all through the previous day that schools would be closed, Rainier might close for the day, and government offices might even call it a day. However, unlike the locally operated offices and schools, the office that had the power to close Rainier University -- a privately funded public university -- was about an hour and a half to the south of Cascade -- where its owner lived. The weather there was not always similar to Cascade's, and often Rainier's admin would have to place a call down there at 7 a.m. to request permission to close. The results might not get out to the public until 8:30 or 9:00... by which time Blair had already left for the campus.
He glanced out the window, and it was actually snowing. So there was that at least.
Just before 5 a.m., Blair was actually ready to go back to sleep, but he grabbed his cell phone from the bedside table and dialed into the university's computer-automated telephone system. If there were any early word on Rainier's closing, the system would have it.
"Thank you for calling! You must have a touchtone telephone to use this system. For information on closures, please dial 1."
Blair hit the '1' key.
"Due to inclement weather, Rainier University will be closed on December 5. All day and evening classes, as well as activities, are cancelled. Contact the individual departments for rescheduling information."
"Yes!" Blair put the laptop aside, feeling much like a child who'd just been informed that he'd gotten a snow day... and, really, he had. He rolled over in bed, and pulled the blankets up over his shoulder, trying to pretend that Jim Ellison was not standing in the doorway to his bedroom.
"So you got the day off, huh?" Jim asked.
"Yes," Blair repeated, his tone different this time, "and I'm going BACK to sleep... no thanks to you and your 'just take the damn Motrin, Blair'."
Jim chuckled. "Bet there are a lot of thrilled students. Of course, they probably don't take into account that their professors are probably just as happy about it."
Blair turned his head enough to glare at the Sentinel. "Do you KNOW how easy it would be for me to zone you out on something?"
"Is that a threat, Chief?"
"It might be if you don't leave me alone so I can go back to sleep. Are the government offices closing, too?"
Jim nodded. "Yeah, I heard they are -- except for essential personnel. And, I have to go to work, because as a police officer... I count as essential personnel."
"Well, isn't that special?" Blair tossed his roommate a sickeningly sweet smile before turning over in bed again. "So go be essential. You don't need me for that."
Jim was obviously enjoying this, and he grinned widely. "But, Blair, we'll probably work much more effectively if you're there to act as our consultant on our cases."
Blair rolled his eyes, and worked his arm loose from the tangle of blankets. "Consult this." He held his hand up, extending one finger.
"Temper, temper." Jim seemed to sense (no pun intended) when he'd gone far enough, and took a couple of steps forward to ruffle Blair's curls -- which was about all of the anthropologist that was showing above the covers. "Okay, go back to sleep, Chief... enjoy your day off."
Blair smiled. "Thanks," he said, muttering it into his pillow. There were times, however, that the part of him that was the Sentinel's Guide refused to be ignored. "But be careful, okay? And if you need ANYTHING, call me."
"Sure." Patting Blair's shoulder affectionately, Jim turned to leave, but stopped. "You be careful, too -- watch out for the ice, and don't go out unless you have to."
"What, in this cold?"
"That's another thing." Jim flashed a grin. "This loft had better not be a sauna when I get home tonight!"
Blair smiled to himself. His life was SO odd... but, odder still... he wouldn't have traded it for the world.
The End
Note: Okay, okay... I try not to base my stories TOO much on RL circumstances, but this one just demanded to be written. Yes, I have a 'snow day' -- and though I only attend classes rather than teaching them, I'm taking full advantage! I also had the lovely experience of being knocked out by drugs and then waking up at ungodly hours of the morning and not being able to sleep again until more reasonable ones (grateful that they'd closed my college). Just as I was settling down to sleep, though, it wasn't Jim that was bugging me (THAT would not have been bugging!) but the muse.
-Audrey, 12/5/02
And, though I'd done this simply to amuse SA on that snowy morning, I'm offering it to the world at large in honor of the snowstorm that extended my vacation for two days. --A.L.W., 2/19/03