Title: Future Tense 
Fandom: The Sentinel
Pairing: Jim/Blair
Categories: AU, drama
Length: epic
Warnings: n/a

Author on LJ: alyburns
Author Website: http://www.skeeter63.org/~k9kennel/Alyjude.htm

Review:
Though this story is by one of my favorite guilty pleasure authors, it's much better than that label warrants. Skipping all mention of the Alex Barnes saga and everything that follows, this is a plausible look at what could have happened at the end of the series (if TPTB had actually, you know, thought that far ahead). Blair has submitted his dissertation (not the Sentinel one) and goes off on an expedition with Eli Stoddard. Jim, being an idiot, doesn't try to stop him. He does send a message for Blair to call him when he comes back, but the message is lost and Blair's own call doesn't get through. (Sort of like a Thomas Hardy novel except for the fact that, since I'm reccing it, you know it has a happy ending.) So, he takes a consulting job with the SFPD. Then a serial killer moves from San Francisco to Cascade and, well, you can probably imagine what happens next.

Aside from Alyjude's usual wonderful banter, Future Tense features an intriguing look at Blair's relationship with Naomi and the way that parents and children are tied together, no matter how old they are. Eli isn't a jerk, which is nice, Naomi is sympathetic, and the SFPD is perfect -- fine job filled with fine people, but inevitably not Major Crimes. Most important, however, is the lovely Jim/Blair interaction, which manages to be angsty without being melodramatic (well, by Sentinel standards, anyway) and which shows two men who are friends first and foremost, which is something that doesn't always come through in Sentinel fanfic. An entertaining, enjoyable read.

Future Tense