One True Guide

Sentinel Fanfiction
Title:	One True Guide
Author(s):	Bluewolf
Date(s):	25/10/10
Length:
Genre:	gen
Fandom:	The Sentinel
External Links:	at Artifact Storage Room 3, at AO3
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One True Guide is a Sentinel story by Bluewolf. It was hosted on Artifact Storage Room 3.

Summary: Written for Give & Take, for the prompt 'Jim is in Search & Rescue with his guide. Then a new helicopter pilot, Blair, arrives.'

Reactions and Reviews

I enjoy AU's where Jim and Blair meet under different circumstances. Jim is kind of heartbreaking in this, as he's learned to settle for contentment, not happiness, and for a guide who is friendly, but not friends. There are small things that say a lot about this Sentinels Are Known universe, such as Sentinels are forbidden to drive because of zones, much like people with seizure disorders aren't supposed to drive after having a seizure. Jim chafes under that rule but accepts it, as he accepted switching careers from Police work to Search and Rescue, and expecting to be alone the rest of his life.

Bluewolf writes in a very matter of fact style, and yet I found some lovely lines. My favorite phrase is at the end of the following sentence.

“What happened - or didn't happen - before that is spilled milk, water under the bridge... life on the mountains of the moon."

The way the story is structured also subtly emphasizes Jim's isolation, as the two times he goes out with his guide, Mark, for a rescue mission, we are only given glimpses into the lives of the people they are searching for in the woods. They drifted into his life, they drifted out of it. There's very little real human connection, until a new helicopter pilot reports for duty.