Ever After (Sentinel story)

Sentinel Fanfiction
Title:	Ever After
Author(s):	Myrna123
Date(s):	1998
Length:
Genre:	slash, sort of
Fandom:	The Sentinel
External Links:	Ever After at 852 Prospect Ever After at Squidge.org Ever After at AO3
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Ever After is a Sentinel story by Myrna in the zine Come to Your Senses #8. Many fans consider it a well-written, but depressing story.

One fan, Jean Kluge, wrote a responsefic to it, the zine changes.

From the Author

Author's notes: "This is a sad little story I wrote somewhere between the third and fourth seasons (I think!). My view of Jim has always been that of a 14 year old girl with a *bad* case of hero worship, so I think that when the chips are down, Perfect Jim will always come through."

Summary

In her zine, changes, Jean Kluge wrote a long summary of "Ever After" (caution: spoilers):

"Ever After" opens with Jim and Blair in bed together; they are making love, and the relationship seems fairly new. Afterwards, they discuss some minor, but disturbing incidents of harassment that have been directed toward them at the Cascade PD, considering whether or not the incidents are going to escalate. (It is indicated that the two were out ted rather than having made the relationship public on their own.)

Two weeks later, they are on a stake-out together to try to bust a drug syndicate, and go into a warehouse to check it out. They become trapped inside with no backup as the police outside are murdered by the bad guys, who've been tipped off by a dirty cop who has it in for Our Guys because of their relationship. Jim calls for backup and gets the dirty cop, Henderson, on dispatch. Henderson pretends to have a bad connection, and Jim knows they're screwed. The bad guys come into the warehouse at that point, and as Jim and Blair are moving away, onto the stairs, Blair is shot in the right leg (the same as in "Survival"), and can't go any further without slowing Jim down and getting them both killed. He convinces Jim to go off on his own, that he's going to get out the fire escape door, and that they'll have a better chance apart. As Jim heads further up the stairs, he hears the bad guys corner Sandburg, shoot him in the chest, then drop him forty feet to the warehouse floor below. Backup finally arrives, and the bad guys are apprehended. In the hospital, the news on Blair's condition is not good. He's in a coma, on a respirator, and there is some pressure on the brain, and over the following days, has several incidents of cardiac arrest.... Jim finally gels suspicious, thinks the cop(s) who set this up are targeting Blair, as the incidents always occur when Jim is away from Blair's side. Simon reluctantly sets a 24-hour guard; he doesn't believe it's a cop. Shortly thereafter, Joel is on duty and is slipped a Mickey Finn in his coffee, and Henderson goes into Blair's room, disconnecting the respirator and electronically altering the monitors to transmit false information to the nurse's station. Blair is rescued just in time. Jim blows a gasket, throws out all the cops... and later that night, disappears from Cascade, somehow taking the comatose Blair with him. Six months later, we see a bitter Jim return to the PD, uncommunicative and there simply to do time until he gets his pension. He refuses to answer all of Simon's concerned questions about Sandburg. We see him go home that night, to meet a severely-impaired Blair Sandburg, who is functioning cognitively on about a four-year-old level, has seizures, and is walking with difficulty, and only with a full leg brace. Even so, this Blair is very attached to Jim, who takes full care of him (except when at work, when a grandmotherly, "Aunt Bea" sort of lady named Emma is Blair's caretaker). Blair, it is revealed, has been pestering Jim non-stop about going camping in the backyard of their current home, a cabin about an hour from Cascade. Jim finally agrees, and Blair is thrilled.

After Jim puts Sandburg into bed in his room that night, and is in his own bed, he's feeling very depressed, thinking of all the things Blair will never do now - no Ph.D., no more travel to distant, exotic places, how they can't make love anymore - but comes to the conclusion that this Blair has a life as well, that he loves Jim unconditionally, that he's improved so much beyond the doctors' expectations, which had been grim (death, a vegetative state at best), that Jim can only try to look at the positive aspects and not dwell on the tragedy that can't be changed. The story ends with Jim saying goodnight to the memory of a whole, well Blair in his head.

Reactions and Reviews

[eliade]
Why you should read this: This is one of just two or three Sentinel stories I've ever read that made my chest clench up tight, made me feel true empathetic anguish, made me cry. Someone, I can't recall who, once called this a rara avis, a true 'catharsis' story, and said that at the end of the story you feel a sense of release, of joy. I pretty much agree with that.

What might throw you off stride: It may not be everyone's cup of tea--in fact, though this is mostly well-loved, I've seen a few strong critiques. You either accept the premise or you don't. It's a story crafted on carefully chosen terms, with a deliberate pace and focus. But even when I have issues with the pacing, or wordiness, or the length of attention given to a scene or subject matter, I'm also aware that these things serve the author's purpose. The thing is, respect for the characters permeates the fabric of this story, and demands that a certain respect be paid to the story itself--sure, I could pick at it using beta-vision and maybe mention some specific things that are less than perfect. I've actually done that on list, but I don't want to do it again here. Just read it, you maroon.

[Annabelle Leigh's Fiction by the Sea]
You have to be able to bear less than happy endings to appreciate Myrna's 'Ever After'. In it, Jim and Blair are the victims of anti-gay intolerance on the job. Blair is critically hurt and left permanently head injured, his mind that of a young boy. Jim struggles to care for him and to deal with his own bitterness. This story tore my heart out. It's a testament to the notion that love binds, even when romance is out of the question.

[Destinies Entwined]
No disrespect to Myrna, but I detested Ever After, probably since it was so well-written, and did exactly what it was supposed to: reduce me to tears. I read it once, and never again.