Like We Never Had a Broken Heart

Fanfiction
Title:	Like We Never Had a Broken Heart
Author(s):	Djinn
Date(s):	2002
Length:
Genre(s):	het
Fandom(s):
Relationship(s):
External Links:	Like We Never Had A Broken Heart on Djinn's Lair at Archive of Our Own
Click here for related articles on Fanlore.

Like We Never Had a Broken Heart is a Kirk/Chapel story by Djinn.

It was nominated for a 2002 ASC Award.

Series

• Like We Never Had a Broken Heart
• A Particular Pain
• Living in Ashes
• Claiming Happiness

Reactions and Reviews

This was my favorite fan fiction story this year and its impact hit me like a ten ton truck. It takes a pairing that would make anyone scream no damn way in hell! -- Kirk and Chapel -- and makes them work as a couple. A lot of that I thought (until I read the sequel) was that Djinn picked her time and place very carefully. There's probably no time and place when Kirk was feeling more isolated than what fanon calls "the unhappy Admiral years." One thing that came thru very well in the otherwise stultifyingly boring Star Trek: The Motion Picture, was how in losing the Enterprise, Kirk has lost so much of himself. That makes it a very interesting period to explore Kirk's character and Djinn writes Kirk's character like a dream (a great part of what made the story so winning as far as this Kirkophile is concerned) Kirk's desperateness to connect is shown so well at the very beginning of this story when he bumps into Chapel and asks her to call him "Jim." What has always told us who Kirk is close to is never who he calls by first name--but who he allows the privilege of calling *him* by first name. Chapel was never part of that inner circle so that detail is very revealing. How the relationship develops from there is true to both characters, has the most passionate love scenes Djinn (or just about any other fanfic writer) has ever written, and is absolutely heartbreaking. Beautifully, poetically told. Here's hoping we see more Kirkfic from Djinn. Much more. She made me very happy with this one!

I liked the Kirk/Chapel pairing and didn't find it too 'out there.' In the hands of a skillful writer *any* pairing can be made plausible and Djinn certainly did that for me. It was inevitable that this romance wasn't going to last. But while it worked, it really *worked*, showing once again that there really isn't 'one true pairing' but what's right depends upon place and time, needs of the moment. Not a typical portrait of Kirk, but it fits beautifully with the man we saw at the beginning of 'TMP' dying to be recapture his greatest loves, to once again be in the position he was born to occupy.

I was surprised to like this one. It's not your usual pairing, and I can't say it's anybody's favourite time period (certainly not mine) but it's hot, hot, hot and extremely angsty and, heck, it works. You'll wish Kirk and Christine could stay together at the end, even if you've got your heart set on them being with others.

Okay, how do you make a Kirk/Chapel romance work this well? Kudos for making the seemingly impossible work, and leaving us all clamoring for more. This alternately hot, poignant, funny, and gut-wrenching tale spawned the alternate-Carterverse for all of us Djinn-junkies out here. Your Kirk and Chapel are beautifully matched in this eye-opener of a story. I love this volatile pairing, and I love the way they are each strong enough to deal with one another's pain and damage, to borrow one of Djinn's best lines. There's an emotional rawness to this story that just hangs onto the reader long after the story is finished. I defy anyone NOT to hope these two survivors make it as a couple.

Who could possibly make a Kirk/Chapel pairing work? I'm sure that must have been everyone's first thought, but Djinn actually manages to pull it off, with believable sex, yet. This isn't a nice tame romance, either -- both halves of this couple are struggling with various inner demons. But then, when did anything ever come easy in a Djinn story? And the best part is, she wrote sequels, yay!