Disclaimer: not mine
The Little Boy and the Detective
The little boy sat on a bench at a bus station clutching a worn leather backpack to his chest. He wore worn blue jeans and a faded blue t-shirt. Pinned to the front of his shirt was a tag that read:
My name is Blair.
I am 4 years old.
Please take good care of me.
He was trying desperately to blink back tears as he watched people hurry past him on their way to or from the busses. He was trying to be brave, but he was scared and he was alone and he didn't know where he was. He rubbed at his eyes as he wondered if anybody even noticed that he was there. After a while, he sighed and began to swing his legs back and forth. He was beginning to feel very much like Paddington Bear with the note pinned to shirt. With a giggle he wondered what would happen if he asked someone for some orange marmalade. He was starting to get bored so he tried to remember all the Paddington stories he knew. Then he tried to remember all the other stories he knew. With a yawn, he soon fell asleep. He didn't even notice that it had gotten dark or that less and less people were walking around. Nor did he notice when a night watchman found him on the bench and scooped him up. He was quite surprised when he woke up to find himself inside a police station...
It had been another busy day at Major Crimes, and the detectives were just finishing up their paperwork when a man walked in the door carrying a small child. The man explained that he had found the boy sleeping on a bus bench and showed them the note pinned to the boy's shirt.
A search was immediately begun for any missing person's reports or other information on the child and Social Services was called. As this was going on, the boy opened his eyes and yawned. No one had noticed that he had awakened yet, so he glanced around the room curiously. His gaze landed on a detective with short brown hair and blue eyes that was working at a desk by himself. Blair walked over to the desk and looked up at the man curiously.
Feeling someone watching him, Jim Ellison glanced up from his paperwork to glare at whoever was bothering him and was surprised to find a small boy looking up at him. He was even more surprised when the kid giggled. He had given him the full-out Ellison glare that usually sent people scattering to the corners and the kid had actually giggled. And not only had he giggled, he held out his arms to be picked up. Jim just looked at the kid in stunned silence. Apparently tired of holding up his arms, Blair took matters into his own hands and climbed up into Jim's lap.
And that was how the social worker found them when she walked in a few minutes later. They had found absolutely no information on young Blair, so she was going to take him to a group home until they found him a placement. However, Blair had grown quite attached to Jim and clung to him as she tried to take him away and he looked up at Jim with pleading eyes.
Much to his surprise, Jim found that he too was getting quite attached and was feeling oddly protective of the child in his arms. And so he informed an utterly stunned room that Blair was going to stay with him. And that was how little Blair found himself in the care of one Jim Ellison.