A Mile in Your Shoes by Jane Davitt (NC-17)

[magician113.livejournal.com]

Fandom: THE SENTINEL
Pairing: Jim/Blair
Length: 152K
Author on LJ: janedavitt
Author Website:  http://www.janedavitt.com

Why this must be read:  Because Jim’s desire to be normal and Blair’s wish to know what it’s like to be a sentinel begs for this plot to be written. And the talented Jane Davitt delivers a very nice treatment of the subject.

 

Don’t get fooled into thinking this is a Sentinelized version of Freaky Friday. Neither man finds it funny when they are inexplicably switched into the other’s body. With no way of knowing what created the situation nor how long it will last, they try to deal with it. Blair now has the senses and is both thrilled and overwhelmed. Jim, who often wishes the senses were gone, learns that he misses them more than he would have thought.  Frustrated, he’s relegated to teaching Sentinel 101 to Blair.  On top of this stressful situation is the fact that they are new lovers, which brings a tension all its own.

Blair stared down at the lime. Without taking it out of Jim's hands, he ran his fingers over the torn peel and felt the shallow channels the blades had carved. Then he brought his fingers to his nose, breathed in --

*green, intense, smoky, sharp, sour, greengreengreengreen -- lime *

"Lime. I smell lime. I do, I smell it, Jim." He choked on saliva, welling up in an automatic reaction. "God, it's all I can smell."

"Too much," Jim said authoritatively, Mr. Expert at work. "Ease back, Chief."

"Better stop calling me that," Blair said and with that distraction, the world snapped back into focus -- a sentinel's focus, everything clear and intense, vibrant and pitch-perfect, singing to him.

"Oh, my God," he said quietly. "Jim, this is unbelievable. I can --" He held up his hand and saw the wavering line of a bitten fingernail like the teeth of a saw, fretted, intricate, without losing his awareness of the rest of the room. "I can choose what to see, how to see it, I can -- God, I can do anything." He grinned, exultant, delighted, suffused with power. The edge was taken off his joy when he saw Jim's expression; hunger, desperation, like a starving man looking at food through a window, out of reach. "Jim, is this what it's like for you?"

Jim didn't even try to pretend that he didn't know what Blair meant. "No, not always. Sometimes, yes, it just... balances. It doesn't last long; something will happen and it'll come crashing down, but when it's like that, it's -- it's good."

"Oh, man, it's just --" Blair shook his head and then reached out for Jim, reaching past the barrier of his own body, not caring that his hand was caressing his own face because that was Jim in there, behind that too-familiar flesh and bone, and it was Jim he was touching. "Kiss me. Before it goes away. I want to know how good it can be for you. I want to know if you've ever felt like this when we were making love." A flash of something like guilt answered his question, and he moaned. "Oh, man, you have? Details, Jim, I want details, but right now --"

 

Old hurts, insecurities and pettiness abound. Loyalty, self-sacrifice and love are there as well. A good read.

A Mile in Your Shoes 
 
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