Sentinel fic - Strawberry Fields Forever

[dimity_blue]

Dedicated to snailbones

Spoiler for the episode "Night Train".


Strawberry Fields Forever
by Arnie

Jim cursed to himself as he slammed the bottle back into place. Damned kid with his weird concoctions and herbal bath stuff. The bathroom looked like a health food shop. If the lock ever slipped and Sandburg was trapped in there one day, he could keep himself alive by eating his shampoo (apple and mango), conditioner (seaweed) or body wash (strawberry).

Fuming, Jim rinsed himself off thoroughly, making sure that the scent had faded enough to be barely noticeable to his sense of smell. Just wait until he got hold of the kid. This was why they had two shelves in the shower - one for Jim's plain, no-nonsense, non-fruit-scented stuff, and one for Sandburg's eclectic collection of body washes that sounded like they belonged on a menu.

He turned off the water with an irritated jerk of his wrist, then grabbed for his towel. If the kid could just learn to be organised - that was all Jim asked. House Rule # 57: Put things back where they belong. Had Sandburg done that? No. And Jim had paid the price.

He didn't even like the scent of strawberries that much!

The sound of a door slamming got his attention, and Jim took great delight in slamming the bathroom door behind him as he left the shower, towel wrapped firmly in place, and followed his roommate into the kitchen.

"Hey, Jim." From the way Sandburg was looking at him, Jim could tell he was wondering what was so urgent that Jim had left the bathroom half dried. "You're dripping on the floor."

Jim's ire rose at the reminder of that house rule. "Forget the floor!" he snapped.

"Okaaaay...."

He could almost hear the silent "that's not what you said when I dripped on the floor" but Sandburg obviously retained enough sense to not piss off a guy with a gun.

"Remember the shelves in the shower?" Jim demanded.

"Yeah?"

"Remember how long I spent putting them up?"

"Uh...yeah?" Blair obviously wasn't seeing where this was going - Jim would swear the kid had no conscience at times - but he was smart enough to follow Jim's train of thought.

"And remember how I said that your stuff went on your shelf, and my stuff went on my shelf?"

"Yeeaah?" The confused look was deepening, so Jim took pity on him and dragged Blair into the bathroom.

"So why did you leave your strawberry body wash on my shelf?"

"Strawberry body wash - I don't have any strawberry body wash!"

As Sandburg reached out and his hand closed around the bottle, Jim suddenly remembered what it actually was and why it was there.

"This is cough mixture." For a brief moment Sandburg's face was blank, then he swung around and glared at Jim. "I told you not to buy any cough mixtures! They're bad for you - just check out the additives on the back! You know what this stuff does to your senses - you fell off a train for God's sake! Jesus, Jim, I don't know why I bother!"

As Tornado Sandburg left the room, bottle in hand, Jim followed him. He remembered now. He'd bought the bottle of strawberry cough mixture way back when he had that cold and was supposed to be escorting Wilson to Cascade. Sandburg had found the bottle, flipped about the list of additives and Jim had finally hidden it from him in the bathroom. Of course, Jim had later found out the hard way why Sandburg was so against cough mixture, when he'd drunk the stuff on the train and his senses had gone nuts on him.

"I...bought that bottle months ago - I forgot it was there."

Rinsing the empty bottle out and putting it on one side, Sandburg turned off the faucet and turned. "And you thought it was body wash."

"Well, yeah - I figured it had to be yours because you -"

"You washed yourself with strawberry cough mixture?" Sandburg repeated it like he couldn't believe it, then held onto the counter top as he howled with laughter.

"Well, I -" Jim gave it up as Sandburg continued to laugh. Leaving his gleeful roommate behind, Jim returned to the bathroom and got dressed, taking his time until he heard Sandburg making dinner. It was too much to hope that the kid wouldn't refer back to it - and Jim knew that Simon would hear all about it the next time Blair saw him - but at least the laughter had stopped. For now.

"Hey, Jim!" There was a bang at the door then Sandburg popped his head in. "My optician's closes in ten minutes. Do you need me to make an appointment for you?" The head quickly disappeared as Jim threw a damp towel at him. "Only thinking of you, man!"

Ignoring him, Jim picked up the towel, put it into the hamper, then left the bathroom. He was not going to let Sandburg get to him.

"Awww, look on the bright side, man!"

Jim glared at the irritant but Sandburg was not deterred.

"It was better as a body wash than as a cough mixture - take my word on that."

As Sandburg grinned triumphantly at him, Jim returned to the bathroom and locked the door. Maybe he'd have dinner in the bathroom instead; apple and mango didn't sound that bad.

The End

Comments

[admiralandrea.livejournal.com]

:snicker, giggle, snort: That was brilliant! Nicely done *g*

[dimity-blue.livejournal.com]

Heh, thanks, Andi - I'm glad it worked for you. :oD

[laurie-ky.livejournal.com]

I loved it.
Jim is doomed. Blair will be bringing that up till the next century.
My thanks to you and your inspiration::looking at you, snailbones::
I can relate to Jim; I go into amnesia mode while I'm in the shower, can't remember if I had already washed my hair or not, so I can see Jim being absentminded, too.
Laurie

[dimity-blue.livejournal.com]

You're welcome, Laurie, and you're right - Jim is soooo doomed! I'm glad you enjoyed it, and can relate to it. I've done stuff like that (though not that one) myself! Embarrassing though, isn't it. :oD

[thistlethorn.livejournal.com]

That was cute!

What are "E numbers"?

[dimity-blue.livejournal.com]

Dang! You guys don't call them E numbers? They're additives, so called because (over here, anyway) they're usually labelled with an E at the beginning. I've changed it in the story now.

Thanks for catching that - glad you enjoyed the story. :oD

[thistlethorn.livejournal.com]

It works perfectly now. :-) (We don't call 'em E numbers here, but "additives" works fine, or chemicals.)

This story was a perfect little character study -- completely *them*.

[dimity-blue.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I'm really glad that the story worked for you. :oD

It's amazing how different the two languages can be, isn't it? And it's the weirdest things that are different sometimes! I read a character description of Mack in One West Waikiki, and it said that he wore suspenders. What we call suspenders, you guys call garter belts. I was picturing Richard as a cop who wore women's underwear. Fortunately, before I made an idiot of myself, I found out that I was wrong!

Btw, your icon is of one of my favourite drawings of yours. A friend of mine bought me a copy of it. It's gorgeous!

[thistlethorn.livejournal.com]

LOL I totally understand about "suspenders." Way to get thrown out of a story! I mean, yeah, Mack was a lot wackier and looser than Jim, but not *that* different, despite the undercover-as-a-stripper ep. <g> The English ones that always weird me out particularly are "jumper" (what we call a "sweater." Here a jumper is a sleeveless women's/girl's dress, usually worn over a blouse or turtleneck, and never worn by men -- a drag queen wouldn't be caught dead in anything so prim and casual) and "torch" (called a "flashlight" in the US -- to us a torch is a long stick or branch of wood soaked in a flammable liquid with live fire burning at the top end).

What's the phrase? "Two countries separated by a common language"? ;-)

I'm so glad you like my Sacrifice pic. <beam> I had fun doing that one -- it cooperated nicely, despite the fact that my perfect reference shot of Blair was about the size of my thumbnail, and Jim's expression didn't look nearly as "boo-boo" in the photo I used of *him* -- I'm still not quite sure how he turned out actually *better* than the reference shot. Luck, I think. :-)

I'm feeling the urge to do more J&B.

[mab-browne.livejournal.com]

Life is full of little misadventures. Thanks for the giggle. :-)

[dimity-blue.livejournal.com]

You're welcome! Thanks for the feedback. :oD

[snailbones.livejournal.com]

::sniggers and slopes off to join Jim in the bathroom::

[dimity-blue.livejournal.com]

At least you'll both smell lovely! Thanks for the inspiration. :oD

[betagoddess.livejournal.com]

LMAO! Poor Jim! Poor Snail!

*guffaw* *snort* *giggle*

[dimity-blue.livejournal.com]

LOL! At least Snails isn't supposed to have enhanced eyesight! :oD

I'm glad you enjoyed the story, Helen, thanks.

[betagoddess.livejournal.com]

You're most welcome. My pleasure. =>}

[janedavitt.livejournal.com]

Too funny the way Jim's righteous indignation fizzled out like that; grinning here.

[dimity-blue.livejournal.com]

Hee! What could he say after that? He was totally in the wrong. :oD

Thanks for the feedback. I'm glad you enjoyed the story.

[bumpkin-is.livejournal.com]

Insert foot after opening mouth - check

Figuring out that roomie (family member of any sort) was in fact long ago vindicated, and that this time wasn't going to be different either - check

Knowing this only makes you human but not feeling any better for it, and also knowing that roomie (or family member of any sort) is only human too, so they are not going to let you forget this and they will use it to utterly humiliate you in some way - check

Hee! Poor Jim. :D Great fic, thanks for sharing.

keep penning,
Marns
~pobody's Nerfect

PS: boy can you ever tell I have a large family and have had roomies in my past... :P

[dimity-blue.livejournal.com]

LOL! I hope you never gave them that much ammo though! :oD

Thanks for the feedback, Marns. I'm glad you enjoyed it.

[bumpkin-is.livejournal.com]

Looks back over the years.... *groans* Oh yeah, ammo galore was given and received ;)

And you are very welcome :)

[t-verano.livejournal.com]

Heh heh. Serves Jim right :-)

Fuming Jim and baffled Blair and the puncturing of Jim's Broken House Rule Wrath, and Blair's glee are great fun -- thanks for the laughs!

[dimity-blue.livejournal.com]

You're welcome! I'm glad the story worked so well for you.

Thanks for the feedback. :oD

[angelvette67.livejournal.com]

Poor Jim! Blair will never let him forget it. :) It's such a typical male reaction that it really made me laugh.

[dimity-blue.livejournal.com]

Hee! Thanks, Karen. And yeah, you know Blair's going to use this one for years to come. If not decades. :oD

Thanks for the feedback!

[luna-61.livejournal.com]

LOL I have to tell you this---my friend accidentally gargled with alcohol!
She had it right next to the mouthwash. And they are completely different bottles and how she mixed them up is beyond me. She must have not been awake or was thinking of something else when she did it. But man we laughed about that for weeks.

I loved this Jim so adamant it was Blair's shampoo and him finding out it was his cough medicine and hiding in the bathroom afterwards had me laughing.
Thank you.