End of the Line

By CherylR

June 2010

 

Blair gasped for air.  His face was lined with pain and smeared with dirt.  His lips were slightly blue.  He opened the eyes he hadn’t realized he’d closed at the touch of a familiar hand on his arm.  “Jim,” he gasped.

 

Jim restrained Blair as he attempted to sit up until Blair complained about how hard it was for him to breathe lying flat on his back.  Jim helped Blair sit up and became a willing backstop to lean against.  He was as dirty as Blair.

 

Jim looked blindly around as he tried to calm his racing pulse and slow down his breathing rate.  How many more knocks can anyone take and still keep going?  “Would you do it again?” Jim blurted out and then looked as surprised as Blair at the question.

 

Jim had a brief flashback of the past several years… the good and the bad merged together and overlapped only to jerk to a stop when Blair answered his question.

 

“What? No!” Blair exclaimed.

 

Simon pulled off his hat and mask.  “Sandburg, you okay?” he asked Blair, but he looked at Jim for the answer.

 

When Jim went pale, Simon turned and yelled, “Rafe, what is the status on that ambulance?”

 

“I’m fine, Simon.  I don’t need an ambulance, Rafe,” Blair wheezed at bit.  “Nothing is broken.”

 

“Ellison?” Simon turned to the still pale man for verification.

 

“He didn’t break anything.  Just having some trouble catching his breath,”  Jim said without emotion.

 

“Jim?” Simon looked quizzically between the two men.

 

“Let me,” Blair interrupted.  “Jim,” Blair turned his partner’s face until they looked into each other’s eyes.  “I’m so not a masochist.  Next time I would throw a curve ball instead of a fast ball… but, all the rest…” Blair threw out his megawatt smile, “of course I’d do it over again, you big lug, otherwise I’d miss all the good stuff.”

 

“Sandburg,” Simon bellowed as he helped first one man then the other up off the dirt.  He turned, pulled his umpire mask back on, and headed back toward home plate.  “Play ball.”

 

The end.

 

~~~~

 

A/N:  I was probably just as surprised as you as to how this turned out.  Jim and Blair were totally in an abandoned building/mine shaft/somewhere where they were trapped and couldn’t get out and running out of air.  That kinda thing.  Imagine my surprise when Simon showed up in umpire gear.  Not at all what I was expecting.  But if you don’t do what the muse says… (shudder)  Let’s not go there.  BTW the title became a play on words, a line drive is typically the type of ball that would come back at a pitcher.  It was originally meant as a death/near-death type title.

 

Feedback is always appreciated. CherylR

 

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