Outside These Walls

Fanfiction
Title:	Outside These Walls
Author(s):	Jael Lyn
Date(s):	2002
Length:	29,470 words (Outside These Walls) 49,342 words (To Go Home Again)
Genre(s):	gen
Fandom(s):
Relationship(s):
External Links:	Outside These Walls and To Go Home Again at AO3, personal site
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Outside These Walls is a gen Sentinel story by Jael Lyn. It has a sequel, "To Go Home Again".

Reactions and Reviews

What Stuck With Me and Why: I actually had to stop reading fic for a while after I read this because it dismantled some canon and almost all fanon. I don't think that's what the author meant to do, especially since the sequel just drops back into fanon tropes and is... not great. But the AU is that Jim and Blair didn't meet until five years after they did in canon, and everything went completely differently. Which is in almost every fic a tragedy, because almost every fic has Jim unable to survive without Blair, and Blair career floundering without Jim (or both of them dying), but this was about how they are individuals who can negotiate life on their own even under, in Jim's case, absolutely crushing difficulties. The point of their friendship is not that they need it to survive like a some kind of parasitical co-dependency, but that it adds something to two already strong people. Yes, Blair in this story helps Jim, and Jim advances Blair's career, but they both could get along on their own. The relationship has value for its own sake, not because either of them NEED it. There's a lot of fic in this fandom that I like because it's about figuring out how to love someone without resenting them when you're basically handcuffed to them for the rest of your life, but this one I think was what showed me that the co-dependence wasn't at heart what I wanted. Or, if I wanted it, I wanted it to be underlined and shown as an obstacle, not a goal. It's also about ethics in science, burgeoning trust and has some nice iron woobie scenes, so, you know.

Blair doesn't meet Jim until several years later than he does in canon, with significant consequences for both. Blair managed to get his PhD and is able to support himself. Jim is coping (sort of) with his senses, but he's no longer a cop and his ability to interact with the world is very limited.

I love the character dynamics in this fic: Jim and Blair are both very much themselves, but Blair is vastly more mature than he is in most fics and hardship has tempered some of Jim's more volatile emotions. The end result is more a partnership of equals than you usually see in Sentinel fic, with Blair actually treating Jim with the respect and dignity that a human test subject deserves and Jim acknowledging that Blair has a purpose in life besides just following Jim around.

This is what The Sentinel could have been if the show writers were less focused on living out a childhood fantasy and more focused on writing a realistic, thoughtful show about a guy with heightened senses and the man who becomes his friend. If you're tired of stories where Blair is a moocher and Jim is an asshat, or if you just like Sentinel genfic with strong friendships and solid writing, this is the fic for you.

Obviously I'm a sucker for the classic "Jim and Blair meet at a different time" AU, but this one was a refreshing take on the theme. Jim doesn't end up in a psych ward, just because he doesn't meet Blair when his senses resurface. He has problems (and the story has some nice parts dealing with the senses), but he is resourceful and copes with them.

What if Jim never got help from Blair? What if he instead went ahead and found a way to live his life with his problems? Here, he does by buying property by Blair's old warehouse and turning it into a gym (for money-making) and a laboratory (for his senses) and figures out, little by little, how to get through each day. In the meantime, Blair gets his doctorate. They meet at a charity dinner where Blair is the speaker. After the dinner is attacked by terrorists, Jim reacts badly. Blair takes him home and the rest is, well, history. Great stuff -- I love the idea of Jim painfully figuring out how to survive with his senses.

If you like parallel universe stories in which Blair didn't meet Jim in Switchman, you'll like this one -- so long as I give you the reassurance that they do meet. The interesting thesis of this story is that, in meeting later, rather than have their lives fall apart, both Jim and Blair have had a chance to mature a little more. Not that I'm saying that the Jim of canon isn't mature, but in relation to his senses, he isn't, not really. What did I like about this? Let me count the ways... I liked the poignant bits where they almost met. I liked the idea that Jim was planning his life like he'd plan a mission. I liked how, even in this parallel universe, the characters were true to form, even the minor ones like Chancellor Edwards. I liked the bit in the newspaper offices where they were speculating about the mysterious reclusive James Ellison. I liked how the meeting of Jim and Blair was led up to in seeming coincidences. I liked how Beverley Sanchez was used. I liked the bit about the Wonder Burger... One could almost argue that what ends up happening was too good to be true; as if the author took many of the major flaws of the series and crossed them off, tick, tick, tick. What deep problems are there left to write about? Well, I guess reconciling with Jim's family, that's left... Sequel, sequel!