Everyone
Needs a Break Now & Then
by Freya-Kendra
Rating: G
Summary: Everyone, even Blair, needs to shut down the brain now and then
Disclaimer: I lay no claims to the characters described here, but have merely
borrowed them for the sake of personal entertainment. There is no financial
gain coming from this endeavor.
Blair felt like a zombie, a completely brain-dead, empty shell that was functioning
on instinct alone. He couldn't even remember driving back to campus. It was as
though the car had taken him there on auto-pilot.
Shifting into park and shutting down
the engine, he laid his head back and closed his eyes. It was a stall tactic more
than anything else. He wasn't really tired. He just couldn't think. Back at the
station, he'd barely made it through the paperwork Jim had left for him. The
pages had started to lose all meaning, devolving into a senseless jumble of
letters and numbers. Somehow his brain seemed to have gone numb.
What brain?
He wondered. He wasn't even sure he had one anymore.
When the image of a scarecrow
started to dance across his thoughts to a tune from the Wizard of Oz, he knew
he was in trouble. There were a million things that demanded his attention,
some of which were already overdue. But how could he do anything about any of
them when he didn't have any attention left to give?
It was no use. Sighing in
resignation, he turned the ignition and backed out of the parking space. The
essays sitting on his desk were going to have to sit there a little longer.
What good would it do his students to have a brainless scarecrow grade their
papers?
* * *
Jim turned his truck onto Marine
Drive, his thoughts focused on the hoagie that was calling to him from Cappy Joe's, a waterfront deli he hadn't visited in way too
long. Cappy Joe's had the best sandwiches this side
of New York. At least, that's what the sign said. Actually, not being a New
Yorker, Jim couldn't help but think Cappy Joe's had
the best sandwiches anywhere. Period.
He could already smell the hot
peppers when he pulled into the parking lot at the end of the boardwalk. But
just as his stomach started rumbling in anticipation, a familiar Volvo caught
his eye.
What's Sandburg doing here? His partner had turned him down when he'd invited Blair to
lunch. Though Jim had even offered to let Sandburg choose the restaurant, the
kid had insisted he had to head back to Rainier. Why would he lie?
Curious, concerned and even a little
angry, Jim parked the truck and set out to find Blair Sandburg. Cappy Joe's hoagies no longer mattered.
* * *
Blair sat on a bench at the far end
of the boardwalk, staring out across the water. There was something soothing to
the rhythmic sound of the waves as they crashed against the surrounding pylons.
The high-pitched wail of seagulls added a natural, tuneless song to the mix
until he found himself transfixed.
He was finally letting go. All of
those tasks he'd shunned, all of those things he was supposed to do ... he felt
it all drifting out to sea. Nothing mattered but this. This
moment. This place.
"Sandburg?"
The sound of his name came from
everywhere and nowhere, mingled with the pounding waves, muted by the wailing
seagulls.
"Sandburg?"
And suddenly there was someone
beside him.
Blair felt his muscles twitch, as
though he'd fallen from a great height to land gently back on the bench. A new
image took form in front of him obscuring his view of the water, and he found
himself meeting Jim Ellison's inquisitive gaze.
With a quick shake of his head to
stave off the daze he'd succumbed to, Blair cleared
his throat. "Jim? Hey. Sorry, man. I was just...." He had no word to
describe it.
"Thinking?"
Blair laughed tiredly. "Not by
a long shot. More like spacing out."
"What's wrong, Sandburg? You
said you had a lot of work to do back at Rainier."
He sighed. "Nothing's wrong.
Not really. I just ... couldn't."
"Couldn't? Couldn't what?"
"I couldn't do it, Jim. None of it. It was like.... I don't know. Information
overload or something. I just couldn't think anymore."
"Information overload? You?" Though
he didn't actually smile, Jim's eyes sparkled with a familiar, warm mischief.
Rolling his own eyes, Blair chuckled
at the irony. "Yeah. Can you believe it?"
"Stop the presses." Then
Jim really did smile. "Better not tell Simon. I don't know if he could
take the shock."
"Funny, Jim. Very
funny."
"Listen, Einstein...."
"More like Scarecrow
today."
"Scarecrow?" Jim said it in a matter-of-fact sort of way, but Blair saw
more than a little confusion in the man's eyes.
"You know. If I only had a brain."
Confusion turned to skepticism.
"Okay. Scarecrow," Jim offered in appeasement. "How `bout you and I go grab a couple of
hoagies and head up to the campgrounds. We'd be there in plenty of time to get
in a good evening of fishing."
"Uh,
Jim? Don't you have a job to do?"
"You do too, right?"
*Touche.* "But doesn't Simon
expect you back at the station this afternoon?"
Jim shrugged. "It's been a
quiet day. And if we invite Simon along, he'll have nothing to complain
about."
"You're serious? You want to
just pack it in and ... and play hookie?"
"Why
not? You did. Heck, we all need a break
now and then."
Blair's smile widened. "Yeah. Yeah, we do."
"It's settled then." Jim
stood up and turned his attention toward Cappy Joe's.
"Now let's get those hoagies."
A moment later, Blair was walking
beside his friend toward a dingy little greasy spoon that did nothing to boost
his appetite, but everything to boost his spirits. "Hey,
Jim?" He said after a while.
"Yeah?"
"Thanks"
Jim just patted his shoulder as he
began to whistle a familiar tune from the Wizard of Oz.
* end *