crack_van | Penumbra by Veronica (PG)

Fandom: THE SENTINEL
Pairing: Jim/Blair
Author on LJ:

veronicaluv
Author Website: ooooh, shiny

Why this must be read: I love stories from an outsider’s pov, where another character considers and reacts to the main characters and their relationship. The best of them reveal insights about all the characters involved.

This is one my favourites. It’s set post-series; Blair is officially a cop and Jim’s partner.

Simon’s a good detective and police captain but events can still take him by surprise even – or especially – when the clues are under his nose. Here, his discovery of a relationship between two of his officers, who also happen to be his friends, is pretty damned inconvenient for him.

Simon’s a decent man in canon and it’s great to find a fic that keeps him in character, trying to understand and sympathise but still having to be professional and do his job.

On a hunch, I strode over to Sandburg's bedroom door and opened it to peek inside.

Bookshelves lined one of the walls, and against another was a desk and PC. Tucked underneath the window that looked out into the living room was a futon in its couch position, a basket of unfolded laundry sitting on it. A pair of bikes hung vertically on the third wall. It was all very neat, very domestic, and very damning.

No one had slept here for a long time.

"So," came a dry voice from behind me, "now you know."

Penumbra

This fic is a companion piece to another superb story by Veronica, The Sun from Both Sides, which has already been recced here on

crack_van. Penumbra is set after that but easily stands on its own.