Title: A Ready-Made Family
Author: Debbie
Rating: K
Summary: Blair is feeling homesick, remembering a cherished
possession.
Warnings: Smarm basically, a little angst
Author's Notes: I do not own The Sentinel or any of the characters.
This was written for 15 min fic, word prompt bank. Not beta'd, just
spell-checked and all mistakes are mine.

A Ready-Made Family

Blair sat on the edge of his bed, moving the bank from hand to hand.
He was lost in thought, remembering when he bought the bank when he
was just seven years old. It was the first thing he bought with the
money he earned from his delivery job for Gino at the delicatessen.
Gino had him deliver to the homes within a four-block area of the
deli on the weekends. Blair was quick and accurate and that assured
him of receiving additional money in tips as a result. Gino let him
keep the extra money.

Blair had longed for the baseball-shaped bank ever since he saw it in
the window of the sports merchandise shop. He passed the shop every
day on his way to school.

It took Blair almost a month to raise the money he needed to buy the
bank. He walked into the sports merchandise store and told the man
there he wanted to buy the baseball bank. He proudly carried his
acquisition home afterwards. It became one of the few possessions
Blair held onto through all of the years, through all of his travels,
and all of his life.

Jim stood in the doorway of the bedroom, watching as Blair moved the
object back and forth between his hands. He couldn't determine what
exactly it was. He knew Blair had been homesick lately, especially
since Jim was spending more time with his family, his father and his
brother. Jim knew Blair was trying to get his mother to come for a
visit.

"You okay, Chief?"

Blair didn't look up. "Yeah, I'm fine, Jim. I just got a call from
Naomi. She can't come."

Jim heard the sadness in Blair's voice. There was a pause and Jim
wasn't sure what to say.

"I'm sorry, Chief."

"It's okay, Jim. I should have known – "

"If you want, you can come with Stephen and me to the cabin?"

"I'm not sure, Jim. I don't think I'd be very good company…"

"Come with us. We'll be your family."

Blair looked up at Jim. "Thank you."

"It's no problem. What do you have there?"

"Tell you what. I'll let you and Stephen find out the whole story
when we go to the cabin. In fact, there are a lot of things I want
to tell you."