The Witness (Sentinel story)

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Fanfiction
Title: The Witness
Author(s): LitGal
Date(s): 28 January - 15 March 2007
Length: ~50500 words
Genre(s): Slash, AU
Fandom(s): The Sentinel
Relationship(s): Jim/Blair
External Links: The Witness on LitGal's website
Cover by LitGal

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The Witness is a Jim/Blair story by LitGal. It was originally posted as a work in progress to LiveJournal and later uploaded in full to the author's website.

It has a sequel written for Moonridge: The Observer.

Awards and Nominations

Author's Comments

Not all kink is sexual. The kink must match the emotional truth of a character, even when that emotional truth isn't sexual. I know, it sounds like kink and sex are the same thing, but often times they aren't. In The Witness, Blair performs as a sub for many men, but it's about money and more importantly, having a chance to turn off that big brain of his and relax. Yep, dressing up like a puppy and getting chained is his form of meditation. ... The Witness actually won the Light My Fire Awards (the one and only awards site for The Sentinel) for Best Multipartner/Kink. There are no multipartners. There is no sex! None. Zero. Zip. No one comes in that entire story. There is teasing and groaning and desire and long looks and the occasional questioning of sexual self-identity, but no sex. Don't think that you can make your story sexy by rushing to the sex. Sex is eating the chocolate bar. Sexy is the anticipation of eating that chocolate bar. Let the audience anticipate.[1]

Reactions and Reviews

This WiP is one which gets updated frequently, often daily, and I anticipate each one eagerly because it's such a delightful, different Jim and Blair.

It began as a one-off ficlet with a tongue in cheek premise but even in the context of that there was something about the way they interacted that really worked and I'm so glad lit_gal decided to expand it. It's remained a fic with a lot of humour and oodles of snark, but the darker edges to it and the background to the fic with Blair a witness to and eventually victim of some gay-bashers is dealt with seriously.

It's a D/s fic and it's moving at a slow, careful pace; the UST is killing me but I wouldn't change a bit of it ::g:;[2]

I love this AU. Jim’s in Vice. Blair’s a grad student, doing sex work on the side. They meet over a case and well, off they go.

"Punish? Chief, no amount of money is worth degrading yourself like this." Jim struggled with himself. After years of working vice, he knew he couldn't convince anyone to quit if they weren't ready to, but he really disliked the thought of Sandburg humiliating himself by crawling around on the floor like a dog. "Degrading?" Blair asked with a laugh. "Oh man, it's really something to just forget all the worries about school and money and which woman I've pissed off this week and just play. I get to lay by the fire and eat treats and annoy Mr. Espinoza until he puts me on the leash just to keep me from stealing his slippers. Man, don't knock it until you've tried it."

Blair stood up, and Jim couldn't even find a comeback for that. Of all the speeches he expected--the 'I need the money' line or the 'it's none of your business' counterattack or even the 'I'm turned on by it' bullshit--he never expected Sandburg to claim it was fun.” [3]

References

  1. ^ Kinky writing, Archived version by LitGal at Shared Wisdom. Posted 22 March 2008, archived 27 May 2015.
  2. ^ janedavitt. Sentinel rec 'The Witness' Jim/Blair NC17 by Lit Gal, Archived version. Posted 13 March 2007, archived 17 April 2023.
  3. ^ The Witness by Litgal (NC-17), Archived version at Crack Van. Posted 16 September 2007, archived 9 January 2023.