Outside These Walls by Jael Lyn (PG)

[magician113.livejournal.com]

See? I like and recommend gen stories too!  ;-)

Fandom: THE SENTINEL
Pairing: none
Length: 164K
Author on LJ: unknown
Author Website:  at Mackie’s Idol Pursuits  and at The Cascade Library
Why this must be read:   Because aren’t you sick of stories where Jim is feeble without his guide?

What if Jim hadn’t met Blair when his senses re-emerged? Could he have found a way to survive? Jael Lyn says “yes” and gives us a credible rendering in this “different meeting” AU. 

When Jim "comes online” during the Switchman case, no one can help him. Unable to continue his job at the PD, he nevertheless uses his excellent detecting skills to come up with coping mechanisms that allow him to have a life:

Jim was on another midnight drive. He went almost every night now, a plan slowly taking shape in his mind. It had been three months since he'd signed his disability papers. Three months of experimenting, finding his limits, and mastering his fears.

He'd finally accepted that he wasn't going to die, and apparently he wasn't crazy. He'd slowly, but surely, reached some conclusions. If he wasn't going to expire, it was damn well time to start living, even if he had to work around his current situation. He'd always thought of himself as a loner, until his self-enforced isolation. As the months slid by, another reality became clear: Jim Ellison didn't keep his own company well. He realized now that his world had always included a small, well-defined group of companions: sports teams in his youth, his unit in the Rangers, the Chopec in the jungle, work colleagues in Vice or Major Crime. It came as a shock that he needed other people like breathing, and didn't want to live his life alone.

This revelation was complicated by a physical reality. For whatever reason, his senses were unbelievably sensitive, and totally unpredictable. Since he couldn't control his senses, the only alternative was to control the environment. He was gradually learning how, through trial and error, usually more error than trial.

Meanwhile, Blair’s warehouse blows up from the drug lab just as in canon. Since he and Jim don’t meet, he moves into a new place and resigns himself to writing his diss without finding a living sentinel. He gets his PhD and happily joins Eli in Borneo. But Jim and Blair both feel a “pull” towards something unnamed. Is it their destiny to meet? Is there even a question? See how it happens in this very enjoyable story.

Outside These Walls

Like it? Send Jael some feedback, then go read the sequel  ”To Go Home Again”