Back Up

By Lyn

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A/N: A little silliness, a little seriousness. I love to watch this show (guess I really do miss my old profession). My husband hates it and tells me, I'm 'sick'. <g>

Set just after The Debt.

*~*~*

Jim pulled a face as he walked into the lounge, holding a bowl heaped high with icecream. "Chief, do you mind? The game's on in ten minutes."

"Huh?" Blair looked up at his partner. He was already settled on the couch, making inroads into his own bowl of Rocky Road. "Oh, yeah. This is almost over." His gaze traveled back to the screen.

Jim sighed and sat beside Blair, trying to keep his eyes off the action on the television. "What's with this, Sandburg? You haven't missed an episode of this show since it started three week's ago."

Blair shrugged, leaning forward, his eyes widening as something on the television obviously captured his attention. "Oh, man. That is gross!"

"Exactly," Jim said feelingly. He set his bowl of melting icecream on the coffee table and nudged Blair's shoulder, waiting until he had the other man's attention. "Listen, you go green coming out to a murder scene with me. I've lost count of the number of times you've tossed your cookies, just looking at a body…"

Blair blushed and Jim regretted bringing the subject up, but still… A woman screamed in pain and it set Jim's teeth on edge. "Come on, Chief. What's going on?"

Blair sighed and picked up the remote, muting the sound slightly. " It was after Kincaid took over the PD, when Joel was shot. I guess I hadn't realized just how dangerous riding with you could get, and I felt really bad that I couldn't help Joel, that I had to let Rhonda do that, and try to look after Daryl as well. See, if I ever got shot…" He raised his eyebrows and rapped the coffee table firmly. "You'd be able to take care of me. You were a medic. You know what to do. I've just never thought about what I'd do if… if you got hurt and I was the only one around. Your back up."

"You do just fine as my back up," Jim said sincerely. "You're teaching me how to control my senses. You said yourself I've improved in leaps and bounds over the past month. I don't know what would have happened if you hadn't told me *how* to search for that bomb on the Switchman case."

Blair waved his words away as though they were unimportant. "It's not the same," he replied stubbornly. "What if that bomb had gone off? What if there had been injured people there?"

"If that bomb had gone off, there wouldn't have been much left of anybody," Jim said quietly.

"Still… If there had been. If you get hurt…"

Jim sighed. "Fine. Watch your show, Chief."

Blair picked up the remote and turned the volume back up as the station announcer's voice came on, "And now, back to real life drama in Trauma, Life in the ER."

"This part's really interesting," Blair said, scooting forward, his icecream forgotten.

Jim wrenched down his hearing as the high-pitched sound of a drill powering up assaulted his ears. "I doubt you're ever going to have to evacuate a blood clot from my brain on the job, Sandburg."

"You never know, man."

Jim gritted his teeth and gave up. He stood, picked up his liquid icecream and headed back into the kitchen to search for the extra crunchy potato chips he knew Sandburg had stashed somewhere… a sickening crunch came from the TV… or something that couldn't be associated with body parts. "Couldn't you just take a first aid course, Chief, like normal people?"

END

3.16.04

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