Back from the Falls
by Helen W.
Set after Crossroads
The drive to Clayton Falls had been, maybe, the most enjoyable three hours that Blair had ever spent with Simon Banks. Simon had grown up in rural Washington, and had lots of stories, which he'd told with his usual mixture of sardonic humor and keen insight into human boneheadedness.
What had especially made the trip fun, though, was the chase. The sense of being co-conspirators. The unspoken belief that they were doing something good for Jim, after such a lousy month. After losing Roy Williams, and the mess with Jim's dad, and Lila.
That nobody had taken a shot at them the whole trip to Clayton Falls had been an unexpected bonus.
Blair couldn't see how things would have worked out better for Jim if they hadn't tracked him down. There's no way Jim would have missed that something was going down, and if he'd been there alone, who knew what would have happened.
Because Blair'd been such a help, letting the bad guy distract him by putting him on a quest for a broken radio, then keeling over and ending up in that unfortunate mini lovechild of a field hospital and a circus tent.
Yeah.
"You're being awfully quiet, Sandburg," said Simon. "We've been on the road for, what, 10 minutes, and you haven't shared one factoid."
"More like 15 minutes," said Blair, trying to sound affronted, but probably failing. "And, I used them all up on the trip out."
Blair was tempted to let the conversation drop. But, given how unusual it was for Simon to say something this close to 'Let's talk about feelings'... "I've just been thinking," Blair said, "wondering why the hell we thought this was a good idea."
"I think it was the fish," said Simon.
"Yeah, right. Fish."
"You annoyed Jim's got himself a lady friend?"
"WHAT?" Blair paused. "Maybe Jim shouldn't go looking for something permanent, this close to Lila. But Linda's all right by me."
"Then what is it? Why are you sitting there moping."
"I'm not moping."
Okay, why was he sitting here moping?
"I guess I'm pissed we got this wrong. I thought Jim would be glad to see us. I thought he needed us."
"Do they have to go together?" Simon asked. "Because I'm thinking that they don't."
It was a comforting idea. They'd sensed, and responded to, a need in their friend. An acute need, now sated. That's just the kind of sensitive guys they were.
"No," said Blair, "I'm not buying it."
"Why not?" asked Simon. "I'm liking it more and more."
"Just... I think you've got the polarity wrong. I think I needed to make sure he was okay."
Simon nodded. "That's not so bad." After a moment, he continued, "Really, Blair, it's not. What direction would you rather be wrong in?"
"Yeah, okay." Blair felt himself starting to smile. "At least I wasn't the only one."
"Well," said Simon, "I really did want to go fishing, too."
Blair did a quick backward look - to make sure they hadn't left all their stuff in Clayton Falls, or something - then said, "Captain, last I checked, there was more than one lake in Washington."
Simon chuckled. "Yes, Sandburg, indeed you are right."
* * * THE END * * *
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