True Friends
June 7, 2004
Okay Judy, please stop feeding my muse now. I’m still working on those other stories, I promise. This is for CarolROI’s June themefic on the SA list which required the following:
Write a themefic that begins or ends with this line:
"I've done it. I've blown it again. I've gone and lost my one true friend."
Or for people who need a little more to go on, how about this snippet to generate ideas:
*Head hung low, he/she shuffled into the Major Crime bullpen sandwiched between two uniformed officers. A murmur spread through the room, growing in volume as Simon Banks appeared from his office.
"What's going on here? Why is a member of my team in handcuffs?"
The prisoner looked up, a wan smile gracing his/her grey, tired face.
"It's all right, Simon. I did it. I'm guilty."*
Bonus points for the people who can use both in the same fic.
***
I get bonus points ‘cause I used both parts…though probably not as she intended. I also used Jamie Ritchey's story line about the Tupperware party from her story "Plastic." Thanks for the inspiration Jamie, I loved it a bunch. J
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"I've done it. I've blown it again. I've gone and lost my one true friend." The little boy sobbed as he walked down the steps to the basement.
Blair looked up from loading the last of the whites into the washer and said, "Hey Cody, what’s wrong."
"I can’t find Ralph, Mr. Blair," Cody said still sobbing. "I forgot to make sure the door was locked and he got out. I’ve looked everywhere I can think of but I can’t find him."
"Okay, Cody… first thing you need to do is calm down. When was the last time you saw Ralph?" Blair said with a quick look at his watch wondering if Jim was home yet.
"Th...this morning. We ate breakfast together and then played for a while before I had to leave for school."
"Cody," Blair asked sternly, "Does your Mommy know that you’re out looking for Ralph? Did you tell her that you left the apartment?"
"Umm, no," Cody said in a quiet voice. "She got really mad at me the last time and said that I wasn’t being respons…" the little boy bit his lip and tried again, "Resbons…"
"Responsible," Blair suggested gently.
"Yup, that’s the word. I don’t want her to get mad again."
Blair held out his hand toward Cody, "She’ll get even madder if she finds you missing. Let’s tell her where you are and then I’ll help you look for Ralph. We can even see if Mr. Jim is home. He’s really good at finding things."
Cody was happy. Mr. Blair and Mr. Jim would help him find Ralph and then Mommy wouldn’t be mad at him any more.
Sandburg knocked on the door to apartment 207 and smiled at Sara Jenkins, "Missing someone," he said with a twinkle in his eye.
"Cody," Sara gasped. "Oh, I was so worried. Thank you Blair," she said as she gave him a relieved hug. "Cody, why did you leave? You know that you’re not supposed to go outside by yourself."
Cody nervously toed the carpet and said in a rush before his courage gave out, "Ralph’s missing I forgot to close the door so I went looking for him so that I could get him back before you noticed that he was missing and got mad at me I’m sorry please don’t hate me." The little boy looked up into his Mommy’s eyes and sighed.
"Honey, I’m not mad at you," Sara said as she scooped her son up into her arms for a big hug. "I’ll always love you. I am upset with you leaving the apartment without my permission. You know better than that. We’ll see if we can find Ralph. Did you look in his cage to see if he was hiding in there?"
The little boy scrunched up his face in deep thought. "Nope, don’t think I tried there."
Blair tried to disguise a laugh with a cough as Sara said, "Why don’t you check your room, honey."
The little boy scampered off to check for his friend as Sara invited Blair into the apartment. "Blair thanks for bringing Cody back for me. Sometimes I think that boy is going to be responsible for all my grey hair."
Sandburg just laughed and gallantly said, "I don’t think you’ll have to worry about grey hair for a long time. Look Sara, I’m just doing some laundry. I have time to help Cody hunt down his little friend."
"Thanks Blair that would be a big help. I know that Cody loves him, but Ralph really gives me the willies. Sometime I wish that he had never talked me into getting that mouse." Sara sighed again. "Oh well, what we do for our kids."
Blair just laughed and patted her on the back. "It could be worse" he paused dramatically, "Cody could have wanted a snake."
"Oh you," Sara said as she slapped him playfully on the arm then glared. "If he suddenly starts wanting a snake, I know who’s going to be keeping it."
"Do you really think that Jim would allow a snake in the loft?" Blair quizzed with a raised eyebrow.
"Nope, so you better behave."
Cody ran back out of his room and grabbed a hold of his Mommy’s arm. "He’s not there. Where can he be?"
"No worries mate," Blair teased. "The great hunters will search high and low and find that little mouse if it’s the last thing we do."
"Thirty minutes Cody. And then you come home no matter what. Understand me little man?" Sara said as she chucked her son under his chin.
"Okay Mommy," Cody said with a bounce.
"Okay Mommy," Blair mimicked with a bounce of his own. "We’re going to see if mighty hunter Mr. Jim is home before we start our search. See you in half an hour."
A quick stop upstairs showed that Jim wasn’t home yet. Undaunted, the two mighty hunters set off in search of one Ralph the mouse. Twenty minutes later they found Ralph cowering in a corner of the stairwell on the second floor.
After dropping off Cody, Blair returned to the basement to finish up his laundry. "Argh," he yelled as he jumped back in alarmed surprise. What the hell is a snake doing in a basement in the middle of Cascade?
Blair got closer attempting to see what kind of snake it was. Does Washington have poisonous snakes? It’s not a rattler. "No one in the building keeps a pet snake," Sandburg muttered to himself. "Damn, if Ralph gets out again he’ll be a snake snack unless I get this guy out of here." He looked around the laundry room, "where’s a good snake stick when you need one. Ah ha, the next best thing… Tupperware."
A few tense minutes and several cuss words in a variety of languages later; the snake was contained in a clear container. Blair attempted to wipe off some of the dust clinging to his face and then shrugged in annoyance. Oh well, I needed a shower anyway. He looked at the snake again. That thing must be six feet long. Sure is skinny though. "Now, where to take you?" he asked the snake.
Blair looked at the container again. This is one of Jim’s Tupperware containers. Jim’s going to kill me. Naw, he’ll never know. I’ll take the snake to its new home and wash… make that sterilize the container and he’ll…what am I thinking. He slapped himself on the forehead. Of course he’ll know. He knows if an ant farts. I’m never going to be able to get rid the smell. Oh well, it’s almost time to host another Tupperware party anyway.
Now where is a nice safe place to drop off our snake friend? He thought for a moment and then smiled. "Got it," he said triumphantly. "I should even make it back home before Jim even knows I’m gone. Crocodile Dundee, you ain’t got nothing on me."
----
Head hung low, Sandburg shuffled into the Major Crime bullpen sandwiched between two uniformed officers. A murmur spread through the room, growing in volume as Simon Banks appeared from his office.
"What's going on here? Why is a member of my team in handcuffs?"
The prisoner looked up, a wan smile gracing his grey, tired face. "It's all right, Simon. I did it. I'm guilty."
"Sandburg get in here," Simon bellowed and pointed toward his office. "Explain to me exactly what you’re guilty of and where the hell is that partner of yours?"
"Jim’s probably home by now," Sandburg said with a shrug as he looked out into the bullpen. "I’m guilty of trespassing and um…" he shrugged tiredly, "releasing wildlife into a restricted zone… and sort of resisting arrest," he finished with a mumble.
"What?" Simon bellowed. "Start at the beginning."
"Well you see Simon, I was washing whites and I’ll have you know that I made sure there were only whites in that load. You should have seen the fuss that Jim made over a few pink socks and underwear. I mean really, real men wear pink. Anyway Cody, do you remember Cody? Sara Jenkins older boy. Anyway, Cody came downstairs looking for Ralph, who had been missing since breakfast. He’s a mouse. Ralph, not Cody and…"
"Stop," Banks growled as he held up both hands in front of Blair. "What was I thinking? I don’t want you to start at the beginning. Start shortly before the part where you get arrested."
"Umm, okay." Blair thought for a minute and started talking again. He was a bit distracted by the handcuffs but figured that he should still be able to get his point across. "So there I was with the snake in Jim’s Tupperware container." He paused for a moment and looked at the cops flanking him. "Hey guys, do you want to come to my Tupperware party?"
The two uniformed officers looked at each other. They looked at Captain Banks and shrugged, "Umm, sure."
"Sandburg," Banks bellowed.
"Sorry Simon, but you know darn good and well that I’m going to have to replace that container. Jim will never let it back into the loft."
"The arrest, Sandburg," Banks growled trying to get the story back on track. Tupperware party. Simon snorted. Wonder if I need anything?
"Right, right," Blair started up again. "So I thought. Where’s a good place to take a snake so that it has a good home? Then I thought the Botanical Gardens. Lots of plants means lots of hiding places for small animals and snake like small animals. VOILA! Problem solved. I was going to ask if it was okay, but they were closed for the day.
I decided that they probably already had snakes so they wouldn’t mind one more. I mean he wasn’t poisonous or anything, at least I don’t think he was… Anyway, I didn’t want to just dump him, or maybe it was a her. Hmm, I wonder how you tell?"
"Sandburg."
"Okay, okay, so anyway I didn’t want to just dump him or her in the bushes near the parking lot. I mean the snake might decide to wander into the parking lot and splat. Squashed city. So I went further in to increase the odds that the snake would head into the gardens instead of the parking lot. I mean why would anyone make a law to restrict wildlife in a Botanic Garden? It’s not like they have a fence up, okay well they did have a fence, but not one that would keep animals or snakes out."
"Sandburg," Banks growled and rubbed at the headache brewing in his head. "Okay I now understand the trespassing and the releasing wildlife into a restricted zone. But why the hell did you resist arrest?" Simon thundered.
The two cops jumped and moved back a bit in their chairs. They were glad that they didn’t normally have to report to the rather large, rather loud captain.
"Sandburg," Ellison bellowed. "Chief are you okay?" Everyone jumped when the door slammed open and Hurricane Ellison stormed into the captain’s office.
The two officers slumped even further back into their chairs. "Oh hell," they muttered to each other. "He’s Ellison’s partner. We are so dead."
Blair jumped up and started to pat his Sentinel forgetting about the handcuffs again.
Jim saw the handcuffs on his partner’s wrists and went ballistic. "What the hell is going on here?" he thundered. "Sandburg, why are you in handcuffs?" He glared at the two cowering officers. "Get these off him. NOW!"
The lightening shooting out of Ellison’s eyes scared the arresting officers into doing the large detective’s bidding without thinking twice about it. The handcuffs were off Sandburg in a matter of seconds.
Ellison turned toward his partner checking for injuries and then growled. "What’s this about resisting arrest?"
"Well see Jim… it’s like this…" Blair began.
The angry Sentinel covered his Guide’s mouth before he could go any further. "I want the Reader’s Digest version starting with the resisting arrest. Understand?" Jim growled.
Sandburg nodded his head and rolled his eyes then pulled Jim’s hand away from his mouth. "You know, I really don’t talk that much. I mean really, a guy could get a complex hanging around you guys."
"Sandburg," Ellison growled again.
"Okay, okay, chill big guy," Blair said patting his partner on the arm. "Stop grinding your teeth before you end up with dentures. You see there I was washing the whites…"
"Sandburg," Ellison glared into his partner’s eyes. "Resisting arrest."
"Right, right. Okay… you see it was all a big misunderstanding. I didn’t know these guys were behind me and they yelled freeze the same time I opened the lid to let the snake out… I jumped. I mean really I didn’t expect anyone to be there and I have this snake and everything. Murf, mumble, mumble," Blair tried to continue talking around his partner’s large hand. The one that was currently covering Blair’s mouth again.
He pulled Jim’s hand away from his mouth and started again. "Okay, I get it. Geesh," he rolled his eyes again. "You say you want the story but then you don’t want to listen to it." He huffed and planted his hands on his hips. "Now where was I? Oh yeah, so I jumped and dropped the container that the snake was in. It got out and started slithering towards me. I’m sure that it wasn’t a poisonous snake but then I really don’t know a lot about snakes and any snake can bite and any bite could be bad so…
Blair smirked at Jim’s growl and continued. "So, the guys didn’t see the container or the snake and when I turned to run away from the snake they thought that I was trying to get away from them. By the time I could explain to them what happened, the snake was long gone. You know," he smiled as he turned toward the arresting officers. "Since you didn’t see the snake can you really say there was one?"
The two officers looked at Sandburg and the glaring Captain Banks and then looked at the storm clouds gathering over Detective Ellison. They gulped and said at the same time, "I think that this has been just a big misunderstanding. We’ll just get back to work now." They turned toward Sandburg with a wince, "We’re really very sorry for the inconvenience."
"No problems, guys," he said as he patted the officers on the back. "Like I said before it was just a big misunderstanding. I’m really sorry that you had to come all the way to central station, but thanks for the ride. I’ll let you know about the Tupperware party. Jim move out of the way and stop glaring." Blair said as he pulled his partner out of the way of the quickly departing officers.
He brushed his hands together, "Well that was fun. Hey Jim, can you give me a ride to my car? It’s still at the Botanic Gardens. I sure hope that snake likes it new home. So how do you tell if a snake is a boy or a girl?"
Blair moved over behind Simon’s desk and reached into the drawer to pull out the large bottle of pain medicine. He handed it to Simon and patted him on the back. "You really should drink more water and less coffee. I think that it would help with your headaches. See ya later Simon." Sandburg turned toward his partner and started shooing him out of Simon’s office. "Come on big guy… let’s give Simon some peace and quiet to help with his headache."
The two partners started walking toward the elevators and Simon heard Blair say before his voice faded away. "So Jim, does this mean that you’ll do the laundry from now on."
The end.
This has a teeny tiny element of RL in it. Earlier this week my daughter found a snake in our basement while my husband was out of town. The snake was about six feet long but not much bigger around than a quarter. I really did wish for a snake stick and ended up using an oval Tupperware container and lid to ‘convince’ the snake to relocate. I didn’t drive to the Botanical Gardens though; I just let him/her go in to the open space a few houses down.
Please let me know how you liked it. Cheryl.