Point of Contact

Jim/Blair Fanfiction
Title:	Point of Contact
Author(s):	Jane Davitt
Date(s):	13 March 2007 - 17 January 2008
Length:	~107,000 words (story); ~144,000 words (series)
Genre:	slash
Fandom:	The Sentinel
External Links:	Point of Contact at AO3 link to series at AO3
Cover by Jane Davitt
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Point of Contact is a Jim/Blair story by Jane Davitt. It won the Extra Sensual Pleasures Award for Multipartner and Kink at the 2009 Light My Fire Awards.

Categories: angst, AU, BDSM, dark, family, hurt/comfort, prostitute, discussion of slavery, first time male/male sex

Warnings: discussion of rape, reliving of rape, PTSD, graphic BDSM, dub-con, some Naomi-bashing if you squint

A podfic read by laurie_ky for Point of Contact and Point of Order can be found here on LiveJournal and here on the Audiofic Archive

Series

• Point of Contact
• Point of Order
• Loss of Contact

Author's Comments on this Story

PoC was originally just the first chapter; a 12,000 word one-off PWP because I wanted to try my hand at the classic plot of 'Jim is a hooker' and see if I could bring something new to the table.

The response was very positive and for once, when people said, 'will there be more?' I said 'yes' not 'sorry, no, that's it' because the characters were still talking in my head and I was curious myself.

Of course, then I ran into the problem of having to weigh a fragile framework down with a lot of expo and backstory that I hadn't originally intended. And I was writing it and posting it as a WiP so it was easy to paint myself into a corner. The sequel I may well finish before I begin to post to avoid that.

See Point of Contact by Jane Davitt at Epic Rants, ^{Archived version} for many more comments regarding this story.

Reactions and Reviews

[Fluterbev]
Phew, what a scorcher, as they say! An AU scenario in which Jim is a high-class escort, and Blair is a client... at the start, at any rate. The characters are so well rounded, as well as recogniseable - both of them dealing with their various demons as they learn to be together. There is angst in there too - Blair is so insecure in many ways, plus rather pushy; and Jim is finding it hard to leave his profession at the door and allow Blair to reciprocate. Plus, hot! Did I say hot? Oh boy yes. Kink, so not necessarily everyone's cup of tea, though most definitely mine!

[cheetahanabel]
On Blair’s thirtieth birthday he does something impulsive. Something he may have never done if it hadn’t been for the fact that there’s a double motive for it now. He hires a prostitute to fulfill his wildest desires. Only instead of the dominatrix he was expecting, one Jim Ellison shows up at his door.

Unlike most prostitute fic, this is actually almost believable. Jim is the owner, retired from the actual prostitution side of things. Blair is his same inquisitive self. All in all, it’s almost realistic that the two of them would get involved in a relationship with each other right after meeting.

When I first read this, it was the first BDSM I’d read that is actually well-written. The punishments are descriptive but not too descriptive. The dom/sub dynamic is a growing thing, not natural or perfect in any way. Perhaps the best part is that the characters are quite flawed.

The supporting characters in this are all fantastic. Sam is perfect as a heartless dominatrix. Simon is just the man you’d expect him to be in this situation. Perhaps best is Naomi; it’s fascinating to see all the ways she affected Blair’s life in this.

[llamabitchyo]
I started reading this during my lunch break. Whoa! Maybe a little too hot for reading in public. :D

[cheetahanabel]
It's lovely, and it will probably remain my favorite in The Sentinel for a good long while

[T Verano]
I get sort of incoherent about this 'verse. I'm not sure I can do it justice here at all, but here goes...

Barest of bones: Blair hires a female hooker from an escort agency and gets Jim by mistake. Things happen. Imperfect, messy, exploring, argumentative, difficult, nuclear-meltdown-sexy-hot, heart-hijacking perfect things.

Jane's writing is always a joy to read for so many reasons, all of which are as true here as in all her other fic: the words flow with effortless ease and naturalness, and you see and feel what's happening as if you were living it. There's honesty and the weight of reality and the incisiveness of a surgeon's scalpel -- and wry humor and gut-punch emotional connection -- running all through her words, through this Jim and Blair, this world.

Even if d/S isn't your thing (it's not an automatic "hot" button for me, actually -- the writing really has to make it work to make it work for me), or if you think TS can't be TS without the senses (which don't play a part here), this fic can totally get under your skin anyway. Jim and Blair are absolutely Jim and Blair, just with slightly different histories (or very different :-)) and a growing, uncertain itch beneath Blair's skin (that turns into an itch beneath Jim's skin) in a imperfectly, irresistibly, gloriously human way. The conversations they have as they start to get to know each other (and themselves) are among the best stretches of dialog I've read anywhere, and the smut -- wow. Just wow. Jane doesn't put her surgeon's scalpel away when she writes smut, so it's not just scorchingly written scorching-hot sex, but sex that lays the characters bare in more than one sense of the word.

[Jane Elliot]
Another one that has been sitting in my possible rec folder, another author I love. Unfortunately, one of the requirements for my recs to ER is that I have or am going to reread a story -- if I can't bring myself to read it twice, I can't in good conscience recommend it to anyone else. The thing is, the issues I have with this story are very, very much *my* issues. Two of my major squicks are control and pain, which is why I tend to avoid BDSM fic unless I know that there is a lot more to the story other than BDSM. While PoC does have interesting elements aside from the BDSM (the way Blair grows more independent and self-confident as the story progresses being the main one), the primary focus of the work is Blair learning to become a sub and Jim learning to enjoy becoming a Dom. That hits my control squick *hard* and the rest of the story isn't sufficiently independent of this element to allow me to overcome my discomfort (the way, for example, that the sheer romance of Coming Home allowed me to read and enjoy that story.) Well-written, interesting psychology, and overall a great fic, but just not a fic for me.

[Jane Elliot]
A *lot* of people loved PoC and I enjoyed reading it as it came out. The thought of reading it as one giant novel, though... Apparently I can only take so much BDSM at one time (and that amount is very, very small:)

[meishali]
I liked this story a lot :) Still might not have recced it, not because of the BDSM, but because I would have liked to see more interaction between Blair-Jim and other characters. I don't know what the fic was originally intended for; if it was written as a BDSM PWP, the author has done an exceptional job.

[whitsun]
I immediately friended this new comm and was rewarded with this story, which I enjoyed immensely. I think it is the best sort of entry to go here, a fic that is well-written and interesting but not your cup of tea. Because it may be my glass of oj! Which is to say, not really a fic to _rant_ about, not badfic (I don't need any more pointers to that, alas I find enough on my own!). But the comm name doesn't matter as long as you please please keep posting to them as often as possible!

[Jane Davitt]
Heh, I saw this entry show up on my webpage stats and went eep when I saw the name of the comm but thank you for being kind in your not cup of teaing :-)