The Big Picture by Speranza (NC-17)

[versaphile.livejournal.com]

Fandom: THE DEAD ZONE
Pairing: Johnny Smith/Walt Bannerman
Author on LJ: cesperanza
Author Website: Speranza's Fiction
Why this must be read:

This is quite possibly the quintessential Dead Zone fic; certainly when I started looking for stories in the fandom it was first on everyone's list. The Big Picture is ambitious, tackling both the difficulties and intimacies of the Johnny/Walt/Sarah relationship, and the legal and moral challenges the visions can create. The story begins at the resolution of a crisis, and then exists between the lines of several more as the fabric of the Bannerman-Smith family unravels. It is only the most intimate of dangers that can weave them back together.

Light flooded the porch as Sarah opened the door, and she looked at Johnny warily before putting a smile on for J.J. and giving him a warm, tight hug.

"I know all about everything," J.J. said breathlessly. "Dad's not going to live with us anymore and I'm fine with it and I know it's not my fault and everything."

"Uh, okay," Sarah said cautiously. J.J. kissed her cheek and disappeared inside. She straightened, put one hand on her hip, and looked hard at Johnny, who was still standing on the porch. She didn't ask him to come in. "Thanks for bringing J.J. home."

"You're welcome." Johnny couldn't remember ever feeling more awkward around Sarah, and that included those first, terrible conversations when she'd had to confess that she'd married someone else. Johnny had vaguely imagined this moment on the drive over, and he'd thought that maybe he could talk some sense into her, or maybe she'd reach for him and whisper that it was him, that it had always been him--

Instead, she was looking at him with faint impatience, her head cocked, waiting.

"Uh," Johnny said. "I, uh, just wanted to tell you that Walt'll be staying with me for a while." This wasn't, as yet, strictly true, but he had to say something.

To his surprise, Sarah laughed out loud. "That's not a solution, Johnny," she said wryly. "That's a sitcom."

Johnny fumbled for a comic retort, and came up with: "Hey, the fun never stops when the town sheriff shacks up with the local psychic--"

He could still hear Sarah laughing after she shut the door.

The Big Picture