Special thanks to the chatters, jritph, mjhi592, Qlht, and The Teej2 for their help thinking up all the jobs mentioned in this story.
Disclaimer: I don't own the universe I'm playing in or Jim, Blair and Cascade. I just own my story.
The Application
By Jan Monroe
Blair hated this kind of paperwork. The forms were long, laborious and usually meaningless but he hated to complete them.
The Feds were very selective about who had access to some of their databases and Cascade was selective about who got into their police Academy. So Blair keep writing, hoping on one would actually read his list of previous employment.
He smiled. It was done. He didn't think he would ever get this stuff done but it was. He had turned it in. The official job application . . . all twenty-one pages of it!
Blair smiled as he left the medical office. The academy wanted to know exactly what that little drug overdose was about.
He knew that he was going thru more hoops than any other cadet in CPD history. Medical had all the records of when the PD had paid for treatment. Three years of riding with Ellison had produced a two-inch thick medical file. He cringed when he looked at it. He knew that Jim's file was even thicker. He viewed some of those injuries as his failure as a Jim's partner. He had thought over the term "Guide" for his position but didn't feel totally comfortable with it. That implied that he knows what he was doing and how the sensory stuff should be done. He didn't. He was qualified to be a guide.
Blair stopped his self recriminating mussing when he arrived at the human resources office. He had no idea why he had been called to this office. He had been investigated when he had signed on as Jim's ride along. There wasn't anything spectacular or even interesting in his application.
The fifteen minute wait did not make him feel better.
The two folders he saw on the desk with his name on the made him nervous.
"Sandburg, has a set. I have some questions about your applications," the gray-haired bureaucrat stated.
"I listed everything just liked the instructions said. What's the problem?" He tried to be positive. He had passed this step before.
"You listed 20 jobs for the last 15 years. I would call this application a work of fiction but I am obligated to investigate all of your past employment. I have a few questions about some of the short term jobs. It would appear you have problems keeping a job," the gleeful Captain stated.
"Ask away," Blair was starting to worry now.
"I'm going to go thru the list and you are going to tell me why you left that job," the Captain started.
Blair smiled
"McDonald 1985?"
"I talked too much and told the costumers how bad the food was for them. My first job and I keep it for two weeks. I spent most of it mopping the floor. Say what you want about the nutritional value, those places are clean!" Blair smiled at the memory.
"Pizza Maker, '85?"
"Same story, I talked too much, worked too slow." Blair didn't laugh at that memory.
"Day Care Worker, '86?"
"They wanted me to change diapers. I was hired to teach older children about native American culture not change diapers. I refused, they fired me."
The captain made some notes and continued, "Grounds Worker, '86?"
"I cleaned up after the Jags games that year. I stuck it out the whole season on that one." Blair stated.
The captain frowned and made notes, "Garbage man, '86?"
"It conflicted with school, besides I spent too much time analyzing the trash. I was making the other guys sick." Blair knew his priorities, school first.
"Nursery worker, '87?"
"I was allergic to the pesticide that they used. I quit that job as son as I got out of the hospital." He couldn't imagine how anyone could blame him for that one.
"Toll booth worker, '87?"
"I filled in during vacations." Blair wouldn't admit it but it was his job from hell. All day in a little box with no one to talk to.
"Road crew flagger, '87?"
"Wet and cold is my life. I quit before I turned into an ice statue."
"Farm worker, 87?"
"I was studding migrant labors and the boss told me I had to work in the fields or I had to leave. I signed on for two weeks," Blair's professor warned him against the dangers of going native after that project but it didn't seem to make a difference.
"Housekeeper, '87?"
"Great hotel. I flirted with the owners daughter and three days later I was fired," it wasn't Blair's best memory.
"Bellhop, '87?"
"Conflicted with school." That was true but the job had left him with back aches, soar feet and older women making passes at him. He still wasn't sure which of the three made him the most uncomfortable.
"By my count that was six jobs in '87. What happened in '88?" The captain asked.
"I learned to weld and I spent '88 and '89 working construction during the summers. I made enough money at it that I didn't have to take part time jobs during the school year."
"Substitute teacher, 90?"
"They sunk me. Those eight year olds had no mercy. They are nothing like college students. I worked one day." Blair admitted
"Don't you think that this list of jobs suggests that you can't keep a job for long?"
Blair took a deep breath, trying to calm himself. He had known that something like this was coming but not when or how. "I worked at Rainier for more than 10 years in one capacity or another. I worked, for free, as a member of major crimes for three years. I will not quit just to make your job easier. I've been in a closed society that is even more restrictive than the Police department. You can't force me out."
"Young man, do you know what it's like to have people shot at you?" The captain suddenly tried to play the father figure.
"While riding with Jim, I've been shot at, shot in the leg, kidnaped, held hostage, had a criminal try to drown me, been overdosed with Golden and held my bleeding partner. Considering the statistics for law enforcement, I've been thru more as a part-time volunteer than most cops see in an entire career." Blair knew that the academy would be hard but he could do it.
"True." He thought for a moment and abruptly said, "Dismissed."
Blair left with no idea if this person was going to have a say in his entering the academy. All in all, Blair decided that this was not a good day.
The end