Fic: Womb For Rent

By Kerensa

Rating: FRM

Pairing: Jim/Blair

Warnings: Mpreg, talk of child abuse and rape; it mentions a lot of the episodes

Disclaimer: I don’t own these characters and am not making any money from this.

A/N: Thanks to Joanne for her buying my story during the Moonridge Auction, and for having so much patience for me to finish it.

A/N2: Thanks to my mom for suggesting the song quote.

A/N3: Thanks to Hawk for all her help. She shared some of her pregnancy stories with me. Anything with a * at the end of it came from Hawk. Anything with a ^ at the end of it can be attributed to my mom. If there is an = that means the help or idea came from my daughter, Caitlin.

A/N4: The phone number I list for the loft is the one they use on the show. I zoomed in with my DVD player to make sure.

Trailer for sale or rent

Rooms to let...fifty cents

King of the Road

By Roger Miller

Chapter 1

Jim ran his questing hand up Blair’s thigh. The cool, silky material of the younger man’s pants slid enticingly under his hand. Blair appreciatively moaned into his mouth, both over the touch of his lover’s hand and the sensuous feel of the slick material next to his skin.

“Chief,” Jim moaned.

Blair gave a little snort and Jim broke away from the kiss to see what was so amusing. Normally, laughter would not be a good thing while making love, but with Blair there was always a good explanation. The younger man looked up from where he lay on the couch, where his chest, not to mention the rest of his body, was flush against Jim’s chest, and shook his head ruefully.

“Man, you can’t even say my name when we’re making out.”

Ellison rolled his eyes at his lover and propped himself up on one elbow. He gazed down at his beloved and was entranced by what he saw. Blair’s lips were kiss swollen and reddened from the passion of their lovemaking. The anthropologist’s curly brown hair was spread, in a wild disarray, on the arm of the couch, messed up from Jim running his fingers through it, over and over again. The detective winced, realizing that Blair was going to have a devil of a time combing through it later.

‘I’ll be forced to help him,’ Ellison thought with an internal grin. On the outside though, Jim managed to keep his smile soft and loving.

“So, I don’t say your name enough, hmmmm.” Jim ran one finger down the center of Blair’s chest, just over the line where one side of the shirt was buttoned to the other. Blair closed his eyes for a moment at the sensation. Sentinel senses weren’t the only ones to appreciate the black silk pajamas that Jim had given Blair for his birthday the previous week.

“Nope,” Blair said as he wriggled his butt into a more comfortable position on the couch. Jim’s breath caught in his throat and he let his hips twitch against Blair’s in response. Blair’s gasp indicated that the silk felt even better against his erection.

Jim shifted over a little so that his whole body weight wasn’t directly on Blair. He was a great deal bigger than the younger man and didn’t want to crush him. Ellison reached one hand between their bodies and gave the swollen flesh between Blair’s legs a good squeeze. Blair groaned and his chest arched up against Jim. To be fair, that was the only part of his trapped body that could move at the moment.

Light from the ceiling fixture glinted off of the shiny buttons on Blair’s shirt and Jim’s attention was captured by them. They were so round and black and the light swirled around them in a…

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Blair was squirming happily under Jim, appreciating the heavier body blanketing him, and the hand on his groin even more, when he realized that his lover wasn’t moving any more. He opened his eyes and saw that Jim was staring blankly at something on Blair’s chest.

‘Damn, he’s zoned out,’ Blair thought. He quickly wormed his hand out from under his hip. Jim was kinky. Who would have ever guessed that? Certainly not Blair all those years ago, but it was true. The Sentinel liked to be in complete control sometimes—not really a big surprise—and had Blair tuck his hands underneath him. Sandburg figured that light bondage might be next.

“Jim. Jim, come on back to me. Hey, Big Guy, I know you’re in there.” Blair ran his slightly numb fingers over the other man’s face as he talked, hoping that the physical as well as verbal stimulation would bring Ellison back without too much trouble. “Come on, Big Guy.”

The Sentinel gave a slight shudder and blinked his way back to reality. One look at Blair’s concerned face and he realized what had happened. The Sentinel gave Blair a rueful glance.

“I’m not the only one who doesn’t use somebody’s name,” he said, trying to divert his lover’s attention.

Blair relaxed now that Jim was back and arched a dark eyebrow at the bigger man. “What?” Now his hand was all pins and needles. Blair began to shake the sleepy appendage. Jim took the solid appendage into his even stronger one and began to massage it. Blair wanted to purr at the attention.

“You call me Big Guy all the time,” Ellison explained, arching his considerably tamer, and more patrician looking eyebrow, at his folliclly endowed mate.

“Yes, but I call you Jim most of the time. You only call me Blair when one of us is about to die.” Blair smiled in appreciation as Jim released his other arm, the one wedged against the back of the couch, and began to massage it too. “That makes a big difference, you know.”

“Hmmm,” Jim hummed as he worked.

“What did you zone on, man?” Blair watched in fascinated amazement as his big bad, ex-military, I can kill you with a toothpick, lover actually blushed and ducked his head. “Come on…fess up.”

“Fess?” Jim laughed.

Blair smacked his lover on the arm. “Yes, fess. I told you that I lived in Texas with my cousins for a while. Fess is a perfectly good southern word.” He drawled out the word southern in his best Texas drawl and saw Jim’s eyes dilate slightly. Blair wrapped one leg over Jim’s hip and squeezed slightly, earning an appreciative growl.

“So, darlin’,” Blair continued in his honey sweet accent, “don’t change the subject.”

Ellison tucked his head into the crook of Blair’s neck and muttered something indistinguishable. Blair shuddered at the sensation. “Wh-what was that?” The teasing accent disappeared with his renewed arousal.

Jim raised his head and sighed, giving in to the inevitable curiosity. “The buttons on your shirt.”

Blair blinked in surprise and glanced down at said fasteners. “Oh, I never thought about that.”

“Yeah.” Jim frowned in exasperation; he so hated to show any sign of weakness and the ex-Ranger perceived these zone outs as a definite weakness. “The light shone off of them and that was that.”

To cheer his lover up, and not lose the wonderful foreplay they had going, Blair leaned up and licked Ellison’s bottom lip. Seeing how that caught his lover’s attention, Blair licked a line all the way around the other man’s mouth and then sealed the line with his own lips. Jim quickly forgot his chagrin and leaned lower, making it easier for Blair to reach him. They kissed passionately for several minutes.

“I know how to eliminate that problem,” Blair said as he licked his lips. Jim watched Blair’s tongue as it circled his own mouth and grinned.

“And how’s that?”

The observer reached up and began to slowly unbutton his shirt. He slid the button through its small opening and bared a little bit of his chest when he was through. Jim was fascinated by what Blair was doing. The anthropologist knew he didn’t need to seduce his lover, evidence of both their interest were pressing against one another, but a little fun never hurt anybody.

He reached for the next button and Jim’s hand stopped him. “I have an even better idea,” the detective said huskily. “Let’s take this upstairs.”

Blair grinned, his eyes sparkling. The couch was great for making out, but not so easy on the back when it came to the actual lovemaking process, as Blair knew to his vexation. There were many times he had hobbled around like an old man after they had had sex on the couch; and hadn’t the teasing from that been fun when he’d gone back to the station the next day.

By the time they landed on the upstairs bed, both men were out of breath from laughing. Blair had been walking ahead of Jim when the Sentinel had stopped him, mid-way on the stairs, and bit him on the butt. Blair was certain that his squeal of surprise had startled the neighbors. Ellison had just laughed at his mate’s astonished squawk and chased Blair the rest of the way, threatening to bite the other cheek as they ran.

“I can’t believe you bit me, actually bit me.” Blair shook his head.

Ellison grinned unrepentantly. “What can I say? It was right there—so soft and round—just tempting me, so I grabbed hold.”

Blair laughed and Jim rubbed the abused cheek. Again, the Guide was lying on his back underneath Ellison. It wasn’t that Jim was making Blair the wife in the relationship; it was the need for the Sentinel to sometimes be in complete control. Blair understood that, most of the time. Other times, it was the Guide who took control, letting Jim relax after a really tough case.

“Now, where were we?”

Blair reached up and began to slide another shiny button through the silk shirt. Jim watched in fascination. The Guide, being a very intelligent man who learns from previous error, wrapped his leg around his lover’s hips and rubbed his foot against Jim to keep him grounded.

The maneuver worked and Jim was still with him when Blair finished unbuttoning his shirt. The older man slowly pulled apart the silk to bare the silk of Blair’s chest hair. With a moan, Jim took hold of Blair’s chest, one hand on either side of his ribs, and leaned over, capturing one tempting nipple in his mouth.

Blair gasped and tried to arch up as Jim began to suck relentlessly on the small nub. However, Jim’s hands kept his torso steady and the Sentinel’s body, lying draped across his, effectively trapped his legs. He could move his arms now though and Blair clutched at the back of Ellison’s head with both hands.

Jim could sense when the hard nipple was being stimulated a little too much and let go of it with a final lick. He kissed his way across Blair’s chest and latched on to the matching nub on the other side. Hearing Blair cry out like that made Jim even more desperate to lay claim to the rest of his mate’s body…and so he did.

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Later, after they were lying in bed, sated from their love making, was the first time the subject came up.

“Does it bother you that we won’t be able to have children?”

Blair, who had been almost asleep, opened his eyes and blinked at Jim in astonishment. They were lying in bed, facing each other, and he could barely see the older man in the pale moonlight coming through the skylight.

“I’m…not sure.” Blair shifted closer and winced at the achy feeling in his butt. Jim had been particularly aggressive tonight when they’d made love; Blair guessed the extra seduction had done the trick. “What about you?”

Jim rubbed a hand on Blair’s chest soothingly. Blair knew that his heart rate must have shot up with his answer.

“Yeah, sometimes.”

Blair knew his worried frown could be seen by the super-sighted Sentinel. He therefore wasn’t surprised when his mate rubbed a finger over his brow, erasing the frown living there.

“But having you is worth anything we might have missed.” Jim kissed him on the temple, sorry that he’d brought the upsetting subject up now.

“Yeah…but still.”

“Yes…still.”

“We could always adopt kids,” Blair suggested. “Same sex marriages are legal now, so it would be harder for the adoption agencies to discriminate against us.”

Yes, eight months and one week ago exactly, it became legal all over the United States for couples of the same sex to get married. They joined Canada and a few other forward thinking countries around the world. Mexico and the United Kingdom followed suit shortly afterwards.

One week after the new law went into effect, Blair and Jim had gotten married, in a lovely outdoor ceremony in the park. The law had been new enough that the media had tried to make it into a circus, but their friends in the police department had managed to keep the wolves away.

Jim’s dad had conveniently been out of town that week and therefore unable to make the wedding of his eldest son and his gay lover. Steven, Jim’s younger brother, had been there with subdued congratulations. Naomi had been unreachable at a retreat that she sometimes went to.

Naomi hadn’t reacted well to Blair being with Jim at all, so the younger man hadn’t really been surprised. It wasn’t that they were gay that Naomi was upset about, it was that Jim was a cop.

Their friends at Major Crimes had taken their coming out of the closet in stride and their marriage was celebrated without any qualms. The absence of William and Naomi had been painful, but not that bad as the two parents had never really been a part of Jim and Blair’s life anyway.

“Or there’s always surrogacy.” Blair came up another solution, like a priest making an offering.

“Hmmm, that’s true.” Jim didn’t sound very sanguineous about that idea, so Blair let it drop. “We’ll see,” Jim said drowsily. “Besides, I like it just being the two of us right now.”

Blair closed his eyes and laid his head back down, on Jim’s chest this time. Sleep took a little while longer to achieve as little boys and girls, with varying shades of blue eyes, danced past his drowsy mind.

Chapter 2

Blair took his glasses off and rubbed his tired eyes wearily. His head still ached fiercely from the concussion he’d received from being beaten up by Maya Carasco’s father’s goon. Working semi-undercover for Jim hadn’t been as interesting as they made it out on TV, especially when the young woman started putting the moves on him.

The anthropologist had tried explaining to Maya, patiently and at length, that he was married…to a man, but the young Chilean woman was determined for Blair to be her first. As flattering as that sounded, Blair wouldn’t have taken her virginity under false pretenses, even if he hadn’t been happily married.

Then, to top it all off, that FBI agent, Agent Drennan, had made a play for Jim. Although, to her credit, she did back off when Jim informed her that he and Blair were married.

Maya’s little scene in the spare bedroom hadn’t helped matters any. Blair had been resting there instead of upstairs, so that Jim could watch over him. It was either that or stay in the hospital overnight and Blair hadn’t wanted to do that.

Jim had been very put out when Maya blamed Blair for her father’s arrest, pointing out to the upset observer that he hadn’t made the man a criminal. After Blair had calmed down, and wasn’t so out of it with a head injury, he had agreed.

Blair was debating on whether or not to blow off the rest of his office hours in favor of going home and lying down, when there was a soft knock at his office door. Inwardly, he groaned, but on the outside, he pasted on a smile.

“Come in.” The greeting came out as more of a weak croak and Blair was surprised when he was actually heard.

“Blair?” Melissa Grayson, another grad student and friend of Blair's stuck her head in the room. She frowned at Blair’s appearance. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, Melissa.” Blair gave her a tired smile and waved her in. “Just a headache,” he admitted.

“You should go home,” was the fellow anthropologist’s advice. The young woman stepped into Blair's office, a sheaf of papers in one hand and a cup of coffee in the other. Blair's stomach rolled as the smell of her drink wafted over him.

“I was just thinking the same thing.” Blair leaned his head against his open palm and sighed.

She gave him a long look. “I’ll come back on Monday,” she stated and started to turn around to leave.

“No, that’s okay.” At Blair’s insistence, she came back over and sat down. Amazingly there was an available chair, not something that happened on a regular basis in the overly crowded office. “What’s up?”

Melissa was still contemplating Blair’s pale face. She shook her head and smiled. Long, slender braids, ones that reached well past her slim shoulders, swished at the movement. The small gold beads on the tips of each braid clinked together faintly.

“I wanted to bring you your teaching schedule for this summer.” The young woman smiled and handed over the papers.

“Thanks,” Blair said as he took the thin sheaf of paperwork. “This saves me a trip down to the main office.”

“No problem,” she waved a delicate brown hand negligently. “I was in the secretary’s office anyway and grabbed yours when I was getting mine.”

Blair gave the paper a quick going over; his head wouldn’t let him do much more right at the moment. He groaned at what he saw.

“What is it?” The other grad student asked.

“I’ve got three Antro 101 courses.”

“Sheesh,” Melissa empathized.

The introductory courses were usually filled with Freshman. Those young and largely undisciplined students were generally wildly out of control. The kids were especially wild during the summer semester when they’d rather be at the pool. Or the classes were filled with people expecting to make an easy A from the intro class, and quite often got mad when they didn’t.

“I don’t envy you.”

“Thanks.” Seeing the work schedule he was going to have for the next several months hadn’t helped his headache on bit. “What did you get?”

“I lucked out,” she admitted. “I’ve been assigned one mid-level class and a very advanced class.”

Melissa was smiling at the prospect and Blair couldn’t blame her. The advanced classes were extremely limited in class size—she probably wouldn’t have more than 10 students, if that many, to contend with. The mid-level class would be filled with students more students, but they would be eager to learn and interested in the subject matter. Whereas, he would have 40-50 per class, and few, if any, of the students would actually care about anthropology.

“Cool.” Blair tried not to be envious at her good luck.

“Thanks.” She stood up once again. “I better get going and you should go home.” Her steps faltered and Melissa looked back at Blair, who was getting paler by the moment. “Do you have a ride home? I really don’t think you should be driving.”

“Uh, no, I don’t,” Blair admitted. “I drove in today.”

“Hmmm, well you certainly don’t need to be behind the wheel this afternoon. How about if I give you a ride home,” the young woman offered.

Blair started to object and then decided the hell with it when a pain, like a spike being stabbed into his head, almost made him cry out. He needed to get home, to his bed and his medicine, before it got any worse. Besides which, Melissa only lived a few blocks away from the loft, so it wouldn’t be that far out of her way.

“Thanks, I think I’ll take you up on that.”

The anthropologist gathered up his backpack and a few papers he might need and followed his friend outside. By the time he got to the front of Hargrove Hall, Melissa had driven her car around. Blair was grateful, because the bright sunlight was making his head throb.

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Keeping his eyes closed helped a little. Blair hoped Melissa wasn’t offended by the lack of conversation, but it wasn’t easy being witty when your brain was trying to pound its way out of your ears.

“Did you catch the news story?”

Her soft voice didn’t hurt too badly. “What story?” Blair asked quietly.

“About men having babies.”

He slit one eye open and looked over at her to see what the joke was. The young woman was busy watching the road, but she seemed serious enough.

“Say again,” he said with a high degree of astonishment…and who could blame him.

“Yes, it’s true.” She nodded her head. “I saw a whole story about it.”

Blair closed his eyes and swallowed hard when his stomach gave a suspicious quiver. “I’ve seen that page on the net, it was all a hoax.”

“Oh no,” Melissa disagreed. “I saw that one too. This came out over the AP wire service.”

That recaptured Blair’s attention. If it was from a legitimate news source…

“Apparently there is a research facility in Canada that has come up with a way for men to conceive and carry a baby. It’s far enough along that they are having the first trial right now.”

“Uhm…oh.” Blair didn’t know what to say…or think…or feel. The conversation he and Jim had had several months ago still rattled around in his brain sometimes. He was almost haunted by their specter children.

“Here we are.”

“What?” Blair’s mind was under a lot of strain at the moment and he wasn’t thinking as clearly as he normally would be.

“We’re at your place.” Melissa smiled and nodded at Blair’s side of the car.

The grad student carefully turned his head and realized that while he’d been preoccupied with the astonishing news, they’d gotten back to the loft. “Oh!” He gave an embarrassed laugh. “We’re home.”

Opening the car door, Blair unpacked himself from the very small compact and gave a brief prayer of thanks that he wasn’t as tall as Jim or, heaven forbid, Simon, otherwise, he never could have extracted himself. At least, not and lived to tell the tale. Jim would have been stuck and poor Simon would have needed a can opener to even get his tall frame into the car in the first place.

‘Or a shoehorn,’ he thought with an internal giggle.

“Thanks for the ride, ‘Lis.”

She gave a dismissive flap of her hand. “No prob. If you need a ride back on Monday, just give me a ring.”

“I may do that.” Blair started to shut the door and hesitated. Before he could change his mind, Blair glanced back. “Hey, do you happen to have a website address for that story you saw?”

“Sure do,” she said with a cheery smile. “I’ll e-mail it to you.”

“Thanks.” Blair’s smile wasn’t quite as blinding, but he tried.

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Jim heard a moan when he slammed the front door. The Sentinel hadn’t intended to make so much noise, but the door had slipped out of his hand. The hinges hadn’t been the same since Lash had trashed the door. As an aside he decided to get some new hinges this weekend and fix the door properly.

Ellison stood still for a moment and tracked the soft, rustling sounds upstairs to his and Blair’s bedroom. Moving quietly, which was exceptionally silent—not surprising, considering his natural disposition—Jim hurried up the loft stairs.

Blair was lying on their bed, curled up on his side, with Jim’s sleeping mask over his eyes. Jim slowly lowered himself onto the side of the bed and reached over to brush the hair off Blair’s forehead.

“Migraine?” he queried quietly.

“Yeah,” Blair answered just as quietly.

“Have you taken your meds?” Blair had a prescription for the migraines he was sometimes plagued with.

Blair nodded and then whimpered as the movement made his headache spike. Jim winced in sympathy and began to give his husband a neck rub. That, along with the medicine, seemed to help, and it wasn’t long before Jim could tell that Blair had fallen asleep. The Sentinel waited for a few minutes, still massaging the younger man’s neck, and listening to the even breathing that showed Blair wasn’t in any distress.

Downstairs, Ellison finally looked around and realized that the loft was completely dark, except for a few rays of fading sunlight that seeped in around the shades. He had been so worried about his lover that Jim had automatically dialed up his sense of sight to compensate without even thinking about it.

Worried that the television would bother Blair, and knowing that the smell of supper cooking certainly would, Jim booted up the computer and decided to check their e-mail for a while. They could worry about eating later on, after Blair woke up, and Jim determined how much Blair’s stomach could handle.

Boring, boring, boring.

Over 200 e-mails between them and most of them were junk. What was it that Blair called them? Oh yes, Spam. Although why junk e-mail was named after a faux meat product, Jim had no idea.

“What’s this?” Jim asked, keeping his voice to a murmur.

There was an e-mail from Blair’s friend, Melissa. The subject line read, Babies. Too intrigued to do otherwise, Jim looked, even though he knew it had been sent to his lover.

Blair,

Here’s that link for the mpreg site. Enjoy!

Btw, you left your backpack in my car. If you need it over the weekend just give me a call, otherwise I’ll give it to you on Monday.

Kisses,

Melissa

Well, that answered one question Ellison had. Namely, how Blair got home when he was so ill. Jim was thankful that the young woman had given him a ride and decided to send her a thank you card.

Now, what in the heck was mpreg?

Jim clicked on the link and got the surprise of his life.

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Blair lay on the bed and tried not to move. He didn’t even want to think about moving. If he budged then his head would fall off and roll down the stairs, like that scene from that old movie Hush, Hush, Sweet Charlotte.

But at least he was feeling better…

If he listened hard enough, Blair could hear Jim downstairs. The Sentinel was muttering under his breath, and every once in a while there was a faint click. Blair realized that Ellison was on the computer, but trying to be quiet so as not to disturb him.

He must have made an involuntary noise at some point, because a few moments later, Blair heard his husband’s step on the stairs. The bed dipped slightly when Jim sat down on the edge of it.

“Chief?” Ellison greeted him softly.

“Hey, Jim.”

Blair reached up to remove the sleep mask. His arms felt like they had lead weights attached to them.

“Let me do that for you.” Jim eased the elastic from around his head and despite how gentle the detective was, Blair winced in pain.

“How are you feeling?”

“Awful,” Blair confided. “Everything aches…even my hair hurts.”

Jim frowned and nodded his head. It was always the same after a migraine. For two or three days Blair would feel wrung out and sick. Jim had to oh so delicately pick out any tangles in his lovers long, curly hair, because brushing the locks was too painful for the young man.

“What about your stomach?” Jim queried. “Do you feel up to eating?” Jim picked up Blair’s hand and held it between his.

Blair thought about the question a moment. He closed his eyes and contemplated the way his gut was feeling. “I think I could eat a little something. Not much though,” he warned the other man.

“How about some soup?” Ellison rubbed a thumb across the back of the hand he was holding. Blair smiled at the offer of comfort. “Maybe a few crackers,” Jim said, trying to tempt him.

“Okay.” Blair gave in, knowing that he needed to eat something.

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Jim came back upstairs, carrying a tray with their light dinner on it. Standing beside the bed, the detective wondered if Blair had gone back to sleep; he was lying so still and quiet.

“Chief?” he whispered.

Blair opened his eyes immediately and smiled. Ellison was glad, he didn’t want to have disturbed the younger man if he’d been resting.

“I’m still awake.”

Blair pushed himself upright. The movement wasn’t as painful as it had been earlier in the day, but he was lightheaded and felt woozy now. Jim sat down on the rumpled bed beside Blair and the anthropologist leaned against his side gratefully, both for the emotional support, but the physical as well. With just a couple of support cables at the head of their bed, there wasn’t anything to lean back against, like a typical headboard.

“I checked the e-mail earlier,” Jim said as he ate the thick potato soup. It was some of Blair’s own homemade soup that had been frozen and just needed to be reheated in the microwave.

“Anything good online?” Blair ate at a considerably slower rate than his husband, but he was happy to realize that the food wasn’t upsetting his stomach.

“Well, now that you mention it…”

Blair glanced over in surprise. It wasn’t like Jim to be this hesitant. The Guide watched as a blush rose up from Jim’s neck and covered his whole face. Blair wondered what in the world could have embarrassed the Sentinel so.

“I read one of your personal e-mails,” Ellison admitted.

“That’s okay.” Blair leaned over and rubbed his head against Jim’s shoulder. “We don’t have any secrets from each other.” He shrugged. “Unless it’s Christmastime or birthday time, then…look out.”

Jim laughed and Blair watched as the blush faded away. “So, what did you read that has you self-conscious?”

“It was something that Melissa sent.” Jim hesitated.

Blair closed his eyes and frowned, trying to remember what they’d talked about on the way home from the university. The period of time from mid-morning on was a little hazy. He knew it was something important…oh yes!

“Oh, right. I remember now, it was the link about men having babies.” Blair gave Jim a searching look. “And?”

“And it seems real. The site quotes a couple of doctors that I’ve heard of before. According to the site, they have already impregnated the first group of 100 men. Apparently this test group will be followed by several more sets of 100 until they are sure there won’t be any problems and then, hopefully, it will be open to the general public.”

Blair was speechless. “You’re telling me that there are actually 100 men who are pregnant at this moment.”

“Yes.” Jim sat the tray with their empty soup bowls on the floor. He covered up Blair’s bowl with a napkin, because in reality it was only half empty.

The pair of them slid down in the bed. Jim reached over and turned the light off, plunging the room into late evening darkness. The only real light in the room, at least to a non-sentinel, was the weak starlight that shone through the skylight.

Blair snuggled into Jim’s side, his face in the crook of Jim’s neck. The anthropologist stared out into the room, seeing nothing. “We could have our own baby,” he breathed out softly.

“Yeah, maybe we could.”

The younger man could feel it when Jim smiled and he smiled back. A baby of their own. It was too wonderful to contemplate.

Chapter 3

The next year was a hectic one. Maya came back again and caused even more trouble, and this time she couldn’t blame it on her father. They had their run in with Lee Bracket, the rogue CIA operative. But in among all the chaos and the general mayhem that came with working at Major Crimes, the two men kept a close eye on the pregnancies that were happening in Canada.

Of the 100 original men who became pregnant, three of them had miscarriages, due to one thing or another. The other 97 men successfully delivered their children. The three unsuccessful parents were going to try again in the 2^nd set of trials that was supposed to start at the beginning of the next month…

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Jim shut the front door behind him and waited. He was a little surprised, and a whole lot disappointed, when his husband didn't greet him. It was a semi-ritual that the couple had; whoever got home first met the last one home and gave them a kiss, unless they were sick or hurt.

The Sentinel extended his sense of hearing and heard Blair's heartbeat, so he knew the younger man was home. Narrowing down the field, Ellison quickly decided that his husband was in his old bedroom. Jim reasoned that the anthropologist must be working on something. Since he and Blair became lovers, the small room downstairs had become a study/office. Blair's desk and Jim's desk were identical and sat, side by side, against the wall opposite the futon. The couple shared desks, just like they did down at the station. The futon wasn't used as a bed much any more. It was there just in case they had company, and was folded back up like a sofa.

Ellison cracked the French doors open and peeked around the corner. He didn't want to startle Blair if he happened to be sleeping. The teacher and grad student had been working hard the last couple of weeks to finish the semester and was worn out.

It was the futon that Blair was sitting on, surrounded by what appeared to be a thick packet of forms and letters. Jim thought to himself how sexy Blair looked with his glasses sliding down his button nose. Blair was chewing the corner of his bottom lip and Jim’s eyes were drawn to the sight.

“If you keep that up, we’ll never eat,” Jim said huskily. All the blood in his body had migrated downwards, making it hard to talk and even harder to think. That was nothing new when Jim was around the man he loved.

Blair looked up and blinked dazedly, like a sleepy owl caught unawares. “What?” he asked. The younger man’s face held a look of surprise before it cleared and he smiled.

“Hey, Jim.”

Blair stacked the papers neatly on the small side table and hurried over to the Sentinel. “When did you get here, man?”

Ellison quirked one eyebrow in feigned astonishment. “Huh. I like that. I come home and my husband doesn’t even notice,” he teased. “I am soooo memorable.” Jim tilted his head to one side and seemed to contemplate the fire escape. “Maybe I should just leave.” He sighed in mock sadness.

Blair wrapped his arms around his lover and snorted. He smacked Jim on the butt, making the detective jump. “As if.”

Jim enclosed his spouse in his arms and pulled him close, into a tight hug. Their lips met in a soft caress before his tongue slipped past the younger man’s full lips and began to reexplore the ridges on the roof of his mouth. Of their own volition, Jim’s hands slid down Blair’s body, stopping just at the under swelling of the anthropologist’s butt. He tugged up, pulling Blair up and into his own erection. Blair moaned his appreciation at the sensation and the hand that had swatted Jim tightened on his behind involuntarily.

With one last kiss, Jim let go of his double handful of Guide butt. Blair slid back down, to stand on his feet fully. Both men were panting and Jim had to smile at how flushed Blair looked.

“Wh-” Blair cleared his throat. “What is it that I’m supposed to quit doing?”

“Ah ha. You were paying attention…as you chewed on your lip,” Jim said with a smile.

Blair’s dark eyebrows shot up at that. “You mean like this?”

Ellison’s gaze slid down and was riveted to Blair’s mouth as he tugged first one side of his bottom lip and then the other side, into his mouth. There was just the slightest hint of white teeth…biting…

“Dinner can wait,” Jim declared as he walked Blair backwards toward the futon.

“Um huh,” Blair agreed.

Ellison released Blair long enough to yank the futon out of its sofa position and back into a bed. The frame bounced against his desk, knocking over a stack of papers, but for once the Sentinel didn’t care.

He caught Blair’s hand as the younger man was reaching up to remove his gold rimmed glasses. “Leave them on…please.”

Blair looked surprised at the request, but he didn’t take them off. Instead he sat down on the bed. “Anything you want.” The observer lay back on the bed and gazed up at his detective lover. Jim lay down on top of him and began to devour Blair’s mouth himself.

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Later that evening, Jim and Blair sat in the kitchen, eating reheated Chinese food and discussing their respective days. Blair laughed as Jim regaled him with a chase that Henri Brown and Brian Rafe had participated in.

“…and by the time it was all over with, both of them looked like they’d been tarred and feathered,” Ellison concluded with a grin.

Blair was laughing so hard that he was holding his protesting stomach. “Oh man, I’m sorry I missed that.”

Jim smiled. He loved to see Blair laugh. “I wish you’d been there. I’ve missed having you around lately.”

“Me too,” Blair admitted. “But, as of today, I am as free as the air.” Blair stuck his arms out to his sides like a bird in flight.

“Thank heavens,” Jim exclaimed.

This semester had been a rough one. At the end of the last school year, Blair had completed his dissertations, yes more than one, and was now officially Dr. Blair Sandburg-Ellison. However, instead of lightening his work load, that meant that Blair was teaching even more classes than before. To top it all off, the anthropologist was now an official, paid consultant to the Cascade PD, specifically the Major Crimes division, and worked there part time as well.

In other words, Blair had graduated from college, but was working harder than ever before. Jim kept a weather eye on his love, hoping to keep him from burning out, but it wasn’t easy. Neither had it been easy to keep Blair on at the station. Not because they didn’t want the new doctor, but because everybody wanted him now.

Blair had written and successfully defended an astonishing three dissertations. One was the expected Sentinel one. It hadn’t been easy, but Sandburg managed to keep that information available to the dissertation committee only. The second one had been on Closed Societies and Their Impact on the Work Environment. The third one had been a study of The Criminal Element and Their Detrimental Impact on Society at Large.

Ellison wasn’t ashamed to admit that reading the large and extremely complicated texts had made his head swim. It wasn’t that Jim was dumb, or anything remotely like that, but these papers had shown him just how far ahead intelligently that Blair was from the rest of them.

The anthropologist had been inundated with offers to teach, to go on expeditions all over the world, and so on. But he had decided to stay right here in Cascade, with Jim and their friends. Not that Ellison expected his husband to abandon him, but Blair had even turned down the Sentinel’s offer to accompany Blair anywhere he wanted to go. Jim was fully prepared to sit and watch Blair dig artifacts from the ground if that’s what Blair wanted to do.

Jim smiled proudly at his lover. Blair caught the smile and threw it back to him.

“So, what were you perusing?” Ellison asked with a grin. He loved to throw out the big words sometimes, just to prove that, even if he wasn’t the genius that Blair was, he wasn’t a moron either.

Blair gave a quick jerk of a smile, one that just barely twitched the corners of his full lips. One hand picked at the remains of their dinner nervously.

“Is something wrong?” the detective asked his husband. Jim reached out and took hold of Blair’s hand. He noticed that Blair’s palms were sweaty.

“I, uh…” Blair swallowed nervously, his Adam’s apple bobbing up and down quickly. He bent his head, giving the table an intense scrutinizing. “It’s paperwork about getting pregnant.”

Jim’s eyebrows shot up at that admission, surprised at the new information. “I didn’t know you’d sent off for it,” he said at last.

They’d discussed getting more information, but, as far as Jim knew, it hadn’t gone any farther. Apparently he was mistaken.

“Yeah…I just wanted to find out more about the process.” Blair flicked a look up at Jim through several strands of long hair that had slid down to cover his face. “Are you mad?” Blair asked quietly.

“Of course not, Chief.” Ellison tugged on Blair’s hand and pulled the other man to his side. He felt a flutter of hope beating in his chest. Maybe their dreams of a larger family weren’t so far fetched after all.

“That’s good.” Blair relaxed and took another bite of his strawberry cheesecake. Jim noticed that the hand holding the fork was trembling, just slightly.

It bothered Jim that his husband had been worried about Jim’s reaction. Understandable, but upsetting. Ellison knew that he had a problem with overreacting to any perceived threats, whether they were real or not.

“Now, we need to decide how interested we are.” Blair gave Jim a sideways look out of the corner of his eye. “There are a lot of forms to fill out.”

Jim snorted and Blair looked up questioningly. “Chief, I think we can safely say that we’re very interested.”

Blair chuckled. “Yeah, I guess so.”

The Sentinel sat for a moment and thought about what they were planning. He definitely wanted a baby of their own, but there was only one real problem…

“Chief, uh…”

Blair turned around from where he’d been placing leftovers in the refrigerator and waited patiently for Jim to say whatever was on his mind.

“Yeah?”

“I’m not sure if I could…” Ellison froze, trying to think how to express his misgivings. Finally, he mimed having a pregnant belly. Blair looked startled.

“Jim…” Now it was Blair’s turn to hesitate. “I figured, well, I was kind of hoping…” He sighed and shrugged. “I’d like to be the one to have the baby.”

Ellison smiled and held out his arms. Blair willingly, and very quickly, came over and slid onto his lap. The younger man sat down facing the Sentinel, with his legs wrapped around behind Jim’s chair and his arms around his lover’s neck. The detective wrapped his arms around Blair’s hips, just to keep him balanced, don’t you know.

“You pregnant.” Jim smiled and loosened his grip long enough to rub Blair’s tummy gently. “I’d like that.”

Blair grinned and placed one hand over Jim’s. “Let’s not get our hopes up too high, we might not even qualify.”

“Uh huh.” Jim didn’t deny that the odds were high against them being chosen, but he had a feeling that things were going to turn out fine.

Chapter 4

Blair sat in the doctor’s waiting room and glanced around nervously. It was no wonder that he felt out of place and more than a little self conscious, as he was the only man there. At least the only man who wasn’t attached to a pregnant woman.

He clutched the thick pile of documents to his chest and tried not to stare. It wasn’t easy though. What Blair wanted to do was to talk to these women and ask them questions and, if permissible, touch their pregnant tummies. But he couldn’t, otherwise they’d think he was some kind of pervert. All he could do, all he was allowed, was to surreptitiously watch the gestating women and hope like heck that that was him in a few months.

“Mr. Sandburg,” the nurse called his name. At the sound of a man being called back into the doctor’s office, several people looked up in surprise. The ongoing study coming out of Canada probably wasn’t that big of a deal to most people.

Blushingly, Blair got up to follow the woman back into the corridor. Behind him, the anthropologist heard a low buzz of chatter start up.

‘Better get used to that,’ Blair thought. ‘If you get pregnant there will be a lot more talk than that.’

“Right in here.” The nurse gestured for Blair to follow her.

Blair took a deep breath and followed her into the examination room, knowing his life was about to change.

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Thirty minutes later, Blair sat, now shivering and even more nervous than before, and waited for the doctor to arrive. His height, weight, pulse, temperature and blood pressure had all been taken by the nurse he’d first seen. A little clip had been placed on the end of his finger and Blair had discovered that his ox sat was 98%; he assumed that was a good thing.

Blair was trying to remain calm, but it wasn’t easy, what with his sitting in a skimpy paper gown. At least they’d let him keep his underwear on, although the odds on them staying weren’t very good.

He and Jim had lucked out, because one of the primary researchers from the male pregnancy study now lived in Cascade. Even though she had moved there a few months earlier, the doctor was still actively involved in the study going on in Canada. Of course, living as close to the Canadian border as Blair and Jim did, traveling to the main test site in Vancouver, British Columbia wouldn't have been that big a hardship...at least not at first. It was only about 120 miles away, but that was a long ways to go if someone was in labor.

This was actually Blair’s third time to a doctor to see if he qualified for the test group. The first two times had included Jim though and hadn’t been quite as intimidating. Also, this would be the first time that he saw the doctor who would oversee the pregnancy. The other times had been different doctors and nurse practitioners in her office.

The genetic testing that they had both gone through had turned out fine. Their combined genes weren’t likely to produce any rare genetic condition in a baby. Jim’s sperm count and mobility was tested and was great. The count was high and apparently Jim’s little soldiers, as the technician had called his sperm, were very active and healthy. That was one major hurdle.

Now, Blair had to be checked all over, from top to bottom. The doctor needed to determine if Blair was healthy enough to withstand the hormone regimen he would need to become pregnant and then the additional stresses and strains of pregnancy.

The odds of qualifying were so astronomically high that Jim and Blair hadn’t told anyone yet, not even Simon, just in case nothing came of it. They didn’t want to go through explaining the whole procedure if nothing was going to come of it.

Blair looked up as the door opened. In walked a woman in her mid-30’s. She was attractive enough, with black hair that was done up in a twist on top of her head, tanned skin and a kind smile.

“Hello, I’m Dr. Caroline McPhereson.” Blair shook her hand and as he looked into her warm brown eyes, he relaxed for the first time that day.

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When Blair came back after the testing, he was exhausted. Dr. McPhereson had been wonderful the first day. She’d been great on the second day of testing. But by today, the third day, she was beginning to lose her charm, at least as far as Blair was concerned.

“Chief?” Jim’s enquiring voice called out. Blair was so tired that he hadn’t even heard the front door open.

“Over here, Jim.” Blair’s voice was muffled by the couch cushion that his face was mashed into. The anthropologist raised his arm over the back of the couch and flapped his hand around in an attempt at a wave at his husband.

“Damn.”

Blair opened one eye and looked up to see a concerned looking Jim kneeling beside him. A grunt was his only reply.

“Are there any more tests?” Ellison asked. “Are there any more they could possibly do?”

“Oh man, don’t ask.” Blair reached a hand out, intending on covering Jim’s mouth, but the hand in question only made it half way before flopping down on the floor tiredly. “Don’t tease the fates like that.”

The first day was a very, very thorough physical. He was examined from head to toe, and Blair had been right, the boxers had been discarded early in the process. There hadn’t been a spot, outside, or as far as the doctor could reach, inside his body that wasn’t probed and/or mashed on.

He’d had his feet up in the stirrups, and wasn’t that a charming experience, for quite a while, as the doctor examined everything she possibly could. If Jim had been the one to have him in that position, Blair would have loved it, but with two women eyeing his ass…not so much. The young man had concentrated on the pattern on the nurse’s scrub uniform and tried not think about how exposed he was.

Blair had limped home that day and soaked in the tub for about two hours. The younger man had felt like he’d had surgery without the benefit of anesthesia.

The second day had been devoted to the vampires. The amount of blood taken out of his arm had actually made Blair a little dizzy. Then he’d had to pee in a cup, again an interesting experience. Blair wondered how a woman, who couldn’t hold on to their genitalia and aim, ever got anything in the tiny receptacle.

Then, joy of joy, Blair had to bring home a container to, you guessed it, pee into. It was a 24-hour urine collection test to see how his kidneys were functioning.

A chest x-ray checked on his lungs. Then there was an ultrasound that checked all of his internal organs, making certain that they were working correctly and weren’t enlarged or unnaturally small.

“Juuuust right,” Blair muttered.

“Chief?” Jim was looking at his mate, as if he was wondering about Blair’s sanity.

“Nothing, Big Guy. Just blithering.”

“So…how did it go today?”

Blair rolled onto his back and groaned as the movement made his whole body cramp up. “Oh man, it was a killer. First was the tread mill, then they slapped a breathing mask on me and did a lung function test.” Blair closed his eyes and sighed tiredly. “Man, it’s hard work to huff and puff into that breathing machine.”

“Was that before or after the MRI?” Jim asked sympathetically.

“In between. I did the lung test, then the MRI, then walked about 20 miles on the tread mill…then they did a CAT scan.” Blair waggled his hand back and forth weakly. “A head to toe scan. I am soooo glad that the CAT scan machines are open nowadays. That doughnut shaped ring is a lot easier to handle than the white cube of death…”

Ellison patted his husband on the shoulder and shook his head sadly when he realized that the younger man had fallen asleep, in mid-rant. The Sentinel took the multicolored lap robe off the back of the couch and covered Blair with it.

“I think I’d better get used to this,” Jim remarked quietly, as he got up to start fixing dinner. “Because if Blair gets pregnant, things are bound to get a whole lot worse.”

Chapter 5

“Unh uh,” Blair said with an emphatic shake of his head.

Ellison rolled his eyes. “Oh come on, Sandburg.”

Blair reached out and smacked him on the arm…hard. “I’m your husband, not one of your Army buddies, call…me…by…my…name.” Each word of the later part of his statement was accompanied by a poke from Blair’s index finger.

Jim looked at the frown on Blair’s face and relented. “Okay…come on…Chief.”

“That’s better,” Blair said with a smile. “But I’m still not doing it.” The anthropologist sat down at his desk in the bullpen and crossed his arms and shook his head determinedly. “I’m the one,” he glanced around quickly and whispered, “you know. So, you get to tell Simon.”

The Sentinel relented and nodded reluctantly. Almost instantaneously, Blair’s whole demeanor changed, going from ticked off to bubbly happy, faster than the speed of light. In the last three months, Ellison had gotten a little more used to the abrupt mood changes…a little.

He and Blair had been approved for the study and Blair had begun a regimen of hormones that would mimic those of an ovulating female. At first it had only been a few pills a day, but now Blair had been pumped up to two shots, in addition to the fertility drugs, which had just been added this last week.

The lovely combination of drugs had Blair’s body hopping around like crazy. One minute he would be jittery and on edge, the next he was exhausted and emotional. Jim knew that they both had to ride out the rough times if they wanted a child.

"Well..." He eyed Simon Banks' closed office door, much the way Daniel probably looked at the lion's den. "I'm off."

"Good luck," Blair said with an unrepentant smile.

Jim knocked on Simon's door and heard the captain telling him to come in. Just as he opened the door, Jim heard Blair whistling behind him. He paused for a minute and turned to glare at his husband. Blair was innocently whistling the United States Air Force theme. 'Off we go, into the wild, blue yonder...' Jim's mind translated the whistling into the appropriate lyrics. Ellison thought about sticking his tongue out at the observer, but decided not to risk another mood swing.

"Are you coming in any time today?" Simon sounded peevish.

"Yes, sir. Just dealing with a little problem."

Blair had no compunction against sticking his tongue out in the middle of the bullpen. Ellison heard Joel Taggart snort at the childish display.

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The inside of Simon's mouth really wasn't that attractive to look at, Jim decided after a couple of minutes. He'd had that long to think about it, because when Ellison had told the captain the news, his mouth had fallen open in shock and hadn't closed yet.

‘In fact…’ Jim thought, as he peered down Simon’s throat some more, ‘I think Simon needs to get his tonsils looked at. They are a little irritated looking.’

"Y-you're what?!"

"We're going to have a baby." At his friend's confused look, Jim added, "Surely you've heard about what's been happening up in Canada."

"Of course I have; it's been all over the news for two years now." Simon gave the detective a searching look. "I just didn't know you were interested in having a kid."

Jim relaxed back in his chair and waved a hand. "It never came up. I mean, before now it didn't really matter, did it?" Ellison shrugged one shoulder and tried to look nonchalant. "I'm a gay man, so there wasn't ever going to be much opportunity."

Simon raised his eyebrows. "You were married."

"Yes, but Carolyn had no desire to have a baby. She, and I quote, wasn't going to mess up her body to give me a brat," Jim mimicked his ex-wife's eye roll and pursed lips.

"Damn, that's harsh," Simon stated.

"Yeah, just another thing we didn't talk about before we got married," Jim said with regret. That hasty marriage had ruined a fairly decent friendship, something he had thankfully avoided doing with Blair.

Jim saw the captain glance out the glass windows and knew he was looking at Blair. "So...who's going to..." Simon hesitated, flicking his gaze from Blair to Jim. For just a moment, the Sentinel wanted to laugh. It was obviously making the captain sweat, trying to figure out which of them was going to be pregnant. Then the detective's better nature rose up and he grinned.

"Blair's going to carry the baby. We've already qualified for the study and had all the testing we needed to."

Simon seemed to accept the news and angled his head to see Blair better. Jim looked too and saw that Blair had laid his head down on his desk and looked like he was asleep.

"So, now what?" Simon asked.

"For right now, nothing more. Blair is taking hormones and fertility drugs to get his body ready. In a few months, he'll have surgery where they'll implant an artificial womb. After that's healed up, the doctor will try artificial insemination."

The Captain's mouth was hanging open again. "Uh, okay."

He thought for a moment, worrying a paperclip between his fingers as he did. Banks was trying to cut back on his smoking and had taken to fidgeting with various objects to keep his hands busy.

"Fertility drugs? Be careful Jim, you might end up with four or five children at one whack," Banks warned.

Jim shook his head. "No, the drugs are just to combine with the hormones to get Blair's body in tune with the implantation. Since neither of us actually produces an egg, there won't be any chance of more than one child."

"Speaking of which..."

Ellison interrupted him. "The ovum will come from a donor. Through some process, that I didn't understand, they will be able to take her genetic material out of the egg and place Blair's and mine in."

"Well...good luck." Simon was overwhelmed by the information and so Jim ignored the less than enthusiastic best wishes.

"Thanks."

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Blair stuck out his finger and waited. The phlebotomist, which was just a fancy name for the person who drew his blood, used a lancet and poked his finger. The small amount of blood was placed in the machine and they both waited for the results. Every week, Blair had to come and get his ProTime level checked to make sure his blood wasn't getting too thick. Apparently some of the medicines that he was taking could cause that to happen and might cause a blood clot, if not caught in time.

"It still checks out fine," the older man said with a smile.

"That's good." Blair sighed in relief. He really didn't want to go back on the blood thinners. With as much running around as he did at the university and all the running after criminals he did with Jim, Blair was banged around a fair amount. As a result, he'd been covered in bruises the few times he'd needed to take the Coumadin.

"Where are you on the list?" Tom asked with genuine interest.

"I don't know." Blair threw away the cotton swab that had been pressed against his finger to stop the bleeding. "I haven't heard in a while. The last time I checked, I was..." He thought hard. "I was, like, 10th down, or something like that."

Tom pursed his lips and nodded knowingly. "That's not much longer then. I know they've implanted at least three people this week only."

"Really?" Blair clarified, perking up with interest. "Cool."

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"How's it going, Hairboy?" Henri Brown asked with one of his trademark grins.

"Pretty good, H. And you?"

Brown's smile faded a little. "So-so."

"What's up?" Blair leaned against the detective's desk, one hip perched on the corner edge.

"He and Mandy broke up," Brian Rafe answered from his adjoining desk.

"Oh man, that's too bad." Blair patted the detective on the back sympathetically. He knew all about being dumped. Before he and Jim had gotten together, Blair had dated more men and women than he cared to admit. Not because Blair was easy, but because most people either couldn't handle his enthusiastic personality, or because they were upset because he wasn't the easy lay most people made him out to be.

"Yeah," H agreed.

Blair eyed his friend for a minute, thinking. He'd have to see if the detective was interested in being set up in a few weeks time. That would give Brown time to get over the breakup with his girlfriend and Blair time to perk Melissa's interest in the detective.

"Come on, Chief."

"Where are we going?" Blair asked as he hurried after his lover. He waved over his shoulder to Rafe and H.

"I need to talk to Sneaks about the Manetti case," Jim informed him as he pushed the elevator button.

Blair automatically looked down at his footwear, when Jim mentioned the informant who so dearly loved to collect sneakers, hence his nickname. Blair decided that the shoes he had on could be sacrificed if it meant that they'd get some information about the drug dealing Antonio Manetti.

"Okay, man. But let it be on your head if my tootsies get frozen."

Jim grinned and gave Blair a quick peck on the lips as the elevator doors closed. "I think you'll survive, Chief. Besides which, we have some extra shoes in the truck."

"I like a man who thinks ahead," Blair said with a grin.

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Blair was still grinning that night as they were watching television. He hadn’t lost his shoes…but Jim had. The Sentinel had been ticked off at having to give up one of his good pairs of tennis shoes, but Sneaks had fallen in love with them.

“Stop snickering, Ch…Blair. It wasn’t that funny.”

“No, of course not, Jim.” Blair batted his eyes innocently.

Jim snorted. “Don’t give me that butterfly eyes look.”

Chapter 6

Jim was at the station doing paperwork. Sometimes the detective felt like that was all he did, that one day the stacks of paper were going to fall over and smother him to death.

The Sentinel snorted at that whimsical image. One of the uniformed officers was walking by at that moment and gave the detective a curious look. Jim gave the man in blue one of his looks. It was the one that Blair had dubbed the killer-diller look. It worked and the cop scurried off, with his proverbial tail between his legs.

‘Oh yeah. I’ve still got it,’ Ellison crowed to himself.

Brrrrng.

“Ellison,” Jim had the phone up and answered before it truly dawned on him that he’d heard it ring. The response was automatic anymore.

“Hey, Jim.”

The Sentinel frowned at how far away Blair’s voice sounded. “Chief?”

“…eah, it’s me.” Static cut across the line again, making Jim wince.

“Can you speak up? I can barely hear you.”

“Sorry, man,” Blair’s voice got marginally louder. “I’m using the payphone in the doctor’s office.

Jim frowned. “Is something wrong with your cell phone?” Ellison dialed up his hearing, just a tad, so he could hear his husband better, but hopefully wouldn’t be deafened if more static came through. “There better not be, considering what we pay a month for the damned things,” the detective groused.

Blair’s husky laughter made Jim smile. “Calm down, Tarzan,” the anthropologist told him. “The cell’s fine. I’m not supposed to use it in the office, because it messes with the electronic equipment.”

“That’s good.”

There was a pause on the other line and then Blair laughed again. “Soooo, do you want to know why I called?”

Jim smiled, it seemed like this was one of Blair’s happy days. “You bet, Chief.”

“My turn has come.” This time the excitement in Blair’s voice was unmistakable.

Jim gasped. “The implant?” he clarified. His heart began to pound in his chest when he realized that the day they’d been hoping for for so long was finally here.

“Yep,” Blair chirped. “Day after tomorrow, I get the womb implant.”

Ellison dialed up his hearing even further and really listened to his husband. Blair’s heartbeat was only slightly elevated, as it would be if he were excited. Not really pounding, as if he were scared or upset. Likewise, his breathing was a little faster, but nothing too noteworthy.

“That’s great, Chief,” Jim said, with a happy smile beaming from his face.

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Simon eyed the detective who was twitching in the chair on the other side of his desk. Yes, the stoic Sentinel was actually twitching. It was this same behavior that had caused Banks to call his detective into the office.

"What has you so happy?" Simon asked curiously. "You are grinning like a rooster in a hen house."

"Is that a bad thing?" Jim asked with a chuckle.

"In a way," Simon admitted with his own suspicious grin. "You're scaring everybody. We're not used to you smiling this much. Not from you anyway."

Ellison snorted, but then shrugged as he silently acknowledged the truth. BB, or Before Blair, James Joseph Ellison had been one grim SOB. Even Jim realized that, otherwise he wouldn't have ended up divorced and with precious few friends. Blair in his life had loosened him up and made life easier for everybody around him.

"Well, you all are just going to have to get used to it."

Banks narrowed his eyes and looked at his friend speculatively. "Why's that."

"Because Blair just called with the good news. This Tuesday is when he's going to get the womb implant." The information exploded out of Jim and it was obvious to Simon that he’d been dying for someone to share the news with.

"Uh, that's great."

Luckily for Banks, and all the people who would be around Jim for the rest of the day, the detective was too happy to notice that Simon's congratulations were more than a little on the subdued side. Actually, the Captain sounded downright morose.

He had been hoping and praying that they'd change their minds. It wasn't that the captain wasn't happy for his friends, but he was worried about them.

The whole thing was odd to Simon and not because he was prejudiced, although the thought of a man being pregnant was weird and more than a little frightening.  He vividly remembered the morning sickness and hot flashes that Joan went through.  The aches and pains, not to mention, the many hours of labor that she had suffered through. The captain knew that he would never have the nerve to deliberately put himself through all that.