Disclaimers: Don't own the standard dress characters (wouldn't mind though). I also am making no money from this, but it's a hell of a lot of fun though.
Tremendous thanks goes out to my superior beta, Zoe, without whose skill and incredible talent for all things grammar, y'all would be trying to wade through my ramblings.
Thank you to wolfpup for the warm and cozy home for my now eloquent ramblings.
Warnings: Blair owies. Smarm. Maybe a little AU. Angst.
Spoilers: None
THE GLIMPSE
Sam Mallory
Blair opened his eyes slowly trying once again to ascertain where exactly he was. Well for once I'm not waking up in a strange place, bound and gagged. That has to be a good thing, right? he mumbled to himself dazedly.
Taking in his surroundings, Blair realized that he was lying in a very large, comfortable bed with lots of warm blankets and fluffed up pillows. At first he thought maybe he'd had a nightmare and ended up in Jim's room, but this wasn't even the loft.
Blair moaned as the vestiges of sleep escaped while he stretched in the extremely comfortable bed. He jumped when a sweet voice broke into his quiet contemplation.
"Are you going to hide in there all day, Blair?" she cooed playfully. "You've got to get moving. Jamie and LeAnna are waiting downstairs to take you in this morning. You're going to make them late!"
Blair gazed blankly at the woman in front of him. She was beautiful. Her blue eyes glanced into his and he observed as she brushed out her blond wavy hair. He watched her in rapt silence as she moved fluidly through the room. "What is it, honey?" she asked softly, becoming concerned. "Blair?" she tried again.
Blair's confusion was taking its toll as his eyes rolled back in his head. "Oh my God," the woman cried out. "Jamie, make the call and get up here to help me!"
She heard footsteps race up the stairs as LeAnna started to mumble unintelligibly in the background. LeAnna must be making the call, she thought to herself as she gently caressed Blair's face brushing stray curls from his forehead.
Jamie rushed into the room. "Lea's making the call, mom. He's going to be alright," she reassured firmly.
Fifteen minutes later, the door crashed open downstairs and an older man, around sixty, barreled into the room anxiously. "How long's he been out?" he barked.
"Around fifteen minutes. Why does this keep happening?" the woman demanded.
The man shrugged sadly, "I don't know, Kelly, but we'll figure it out. I promise."
Turning his attention to Blair, he sat down gingerly on the bed and placed his hand gently on the side of Blair's face. "Wake up, Chief. Come on back to me," he begged softly.
"He didn't even seem to recognize me this time," Kelly cried softly.
Jim's jaw worked tightly as warm blue eyes opened before him. "Take it easy, Chief."
"Jim?" Blair questioned.
"Yeah, it's me," he replied, his voice gruff with emotion.
"You know, we'll have to replace all those teeth if you don't stop grinding them," Blair teased gently. Blair opened his eyes and gasped at what he saw. "Jim? What happened, man? You're like old."
"Thanks, Junior. I love you, too. Now stop scaring the hell out of your wife and get your ass out of this bed," he ordered. "Come on, you're gonna be late for class, Professor Sandburg."
"I'm glad you're okay, Dad, but Mom isn't the only one who's worried," Jamie said grinding her teeth.
"Jamie, stop that! We didn't spend $4000 on braces so that you could grind all your teeth down to nothing," Kelly scolded.
"Uncle Jim does it," Jamie defended, using the classic Sandburg puppy dog eyes.
Jim flinched as he tried to escape quietly from the room.
"You're not going anywhere, either. You're here so you can have breakfast with us!"
"Look, Kel," he started, having adopted Blair's nickname for her many years ago. "I've gotta get back to the station. The Chief's breathing down my neck on this case," Jim supplied. Then he turned, wiggling an accusing finger at Jamie and her partner, "You're both late!"
Jim laughed at their shocked expressions, then let them off the hook. "But I guess since you're buying the captain breakfast this morning, I'll let it go," he finished with an evil grin.
"You're incorrigible, Uncle Jim. Hey how's Jacob doing with the Sentinel training?"
Jim shrugged. "Not near as well as LeAnna Blair here," he said with a smile, pulling her into a big hug.
"Dad, st-op. You're crushing me," she managed though her face was smashed up against him. "You know Jacob's trying to make you happy. He just doesn't feel comfortable with it, and he's fighting his new Guide," Lea finished brightly, pausing at the pained expression on Kelly's face. "Sorry Aunt Kel, I wasn't thinking."
Kelly nodded as she left the room, tears streaming down her face.
Missing the exchange, Blair muttered, "Sounds like somebody else I know," knowing full well that the Sentinels in the room heard it.
Jim attempted to look offended but managed to look worried instead. "Lea, why don't you and Jamie go downstairs and help with breakfast," he suggested. Turning to Blair, he said, "You know that she didn't mean anything by it. She just wasn't thinking. Why don't you go after Kelly."
Blair hated to admit it, but he was confused. "Jim, man, I don't know what's going on here. I feel completely out of place."
Jim fell into Blessed Protector mode in less than a second. "What do you mean?" he said crossing back over to settle on the bed.
Blair hesitated momentarily before beginning, "I know you are Jim, but you're about 20 years older than I remember and I didn't know anyone else in the room."
Jim gaped at him. "You don't remember you wife and your daughter?" At Blair's negative nod, he continued, "What about Joseph?" Blair shook his head yet again.
"By Kelly's reaction, Joseph was my son, wasn't he?" Blair started as the pieces began to fall together. Jim nodded. "What's wrong with me? Why can't I remember anything?"
"I don't know, Chief, but I promise you that together we can figure it out," Jim assured the younger man as he placed his hand on Blair's arm. "Now if you don't get up and get going, you'll never get enough work done to make it into the station today. Don't forget, you were going to give us a hand with the serial murder case that Jamie and Lea have been working on," Jim reminded.
Blair's face broke out into a huge grin. "Our daughters are police officers?"
Jim smiled with pride. "They're one of the best teams ever."
"Joseph was Jacob's Guide, wasn't he?" Blair asked quietly.
Jim nodded. "They've been online for about five years, but it was long enough for their bond to be strong." Jim's face took on a far away look as he remembered, "When Joseph was killed, Jacob nearly died himself," Jim choked on the words. "The doctors were able to stabilize him and we took him home. He started back at Rainier this semester, thanks to you," Jim finished with a sad smile.
Blair wiped away the tears forming in his eyes. "I'm sorry, Jim. I didn't know," he said dejectedly.
Blair pulled himself out of bed and dressed quickly. He made his way down the stairs and found the table. Smiling up at Kelly, he kissed her on the cheek and headed toward the kitchen table to begin eating his breakfast.
His hands began to shake as he lifted the orange juice to his lips. After taking a sip, the glass crashed to the floor, orange juice spraying over everything. The noise brought everyone's attention to the glass, so no one noticed Blair's eyes roll back into his head as the convulsions began. His convulsions threw him violently from the chair and Jim dove forward to catch his head.
Kelly cried out as she raced to Blair's side.
"Call an ambulance, Lea!" Jim ordered as he tried to make Blair comfortable without interfering with his convulsions.
"Jesus, kid, it's okay," Jim's voice cut through the convulsions as Blair thrashed in the bathtub violently. Jim held him to keep him from hurting himself and cursed that he'd been unable to get an ambulance here because of the flooding and the citywide electrical power failure.
After a few minutes, the thrashing stopped and Blair settled back, mumbling.
"Blair, it's okay. That's it, buddy. Just calm down," Jim soothed quietly.
Using the candlelight's glow, Jim checked his partner over again. Blair's ashen complexion looked ghoulish in the warm glow of the candlelight. His eyes were sunken and the dark circles around them were shocking to say the least. Jim shook his head, reaching for the thermometer yet again. He took the kid's temperature every 15 minutes like clockwork.
He placed the thermometer gingerly in Blair's slack mouth and held his jaw shut as he waited for it to beep. His mind wandered back to how this all started.
Blair entered the loft looking about ready to drop. He barely touched his dinner, said he wasn't feeling well so he had decided to turn in early. About one in the morning, Jim awoke to hear Blair thrashing around in his bed, mumbling.
Jim's thoughts were interrupted by the beep of the thermometer. He removed it from Blair's mouth and checked the digital readout. "104.5 degrees. Well, partner, at least it's come down a couple of degrees. Jim nearly jumped out of his skin when Blair suddenly lurched up out of the tub.
"Whoa, Chief. It's okay. Just calm down," Jim soothed calmly.
"Wh...what h'ppned? Where's Kelly?" Blair asked confused. Looking around the bathroom, he stopped suddenly. "This is the loft, right?"
"Yeah, sorry, I called an ambulance when your fever spiked at 106.1, but they couldn't get through with all the flooding in the area and the blackout," Jim informed his weary partner.
"That's why we're in the dark? Come closer so I can see your face," Blair requested quietly.
Jim leaned forward into the warm glow of candlelight while eyeing his partner in a worried manner. "Is that better?" he asked.
"You're so young," Blair whispered.
Jim's face broke out into a huge smile. "Thanks, kid... I think," Jim replied, his face scrunched up in confusion.
"I'm cold," Blair complained.
"I know. Who's Kelly?"
"She's my wife," Blair answered matter-of-factly.
Jim choked as his eyes went wide. "Your what? Blair, you're not married. Maybe you're a little more delirious than I originally thought."
"I saw you and your daughter, Lea. She's a Sentinel, and so's your son, Jacob. My daughter Jamie was Lea's Guide and Jacob's Guide..." his voice faded as the tears began to roll down his face.
"Hey, Chief, it's okay. What's the matter?" Jim asked, really beginning to worry about his Guide and friend.
"Jacob's Guide was my son, Joseph. He was killed, Jim," Blair's voice broke as he began to sob.
"Blair, it was all a dream brought on by the fever. It's okay. You're not married and, as far as I know, don't have any kids. I know I don't have any," Jim comforted the younger man.
"I think it may be more than a dream, Jim. Maybe it was a glimpse," Blair insisted.
"A what?" Jim shook his head in disbelief.
"A glimpse. An aboriginal tribe I studied in Australia used to call fevered visions 'glimpses of the future to come'," Blair finished, fading fast.
"Okay, kid," Jim humored his sick friend. "Let's get you out of that tub and into a warm bed, where maybe you can catch the rest of your... uh... glimpse."
"'kay," Blair nodded in acquiescence as he allowed Jim to pull him from the tub and put him into his warm bed.
Blair sunk down into the covers and smiled as his eyes closed and he faded back to sleep.
The End