Title: Climbing Everest
Fandom: Hollyoaks
Pairing: John Paul McQueen/Craig Dean
Categories: Romance, re-established relationship, slash, AU
Length: Medium (10,000 words)
Warnings: none

Summary:
It wasn't what I thought it was...

Review:
I've been looking out for good stories about Father Keiron Hobbs and his doomed relationship with John Paul McQueen for some while now. This isn't exactly what I had in mind, but it's far too good a story for me not to recommend to you all.

The plot is brief: Craig returns to Hollyoaks earlier than he canonically did, meets John Paul, and they rekindle their romance almost immediately. What is interesting is that we see this all through Keiron's eyes. In this story, he has literally just made his decision to abandon the priesthood for John Paul, hasn't even had time to do anything about it even, when Craig arrives and sweeps John Paul off his feet. The repercussions in the McQueen household and in Keiron's own heart are what really matter to us readers, and they are very well drawn. Myra's attempts to protect her son from the man who broke his heart are very much what I would expect of her, as are the sisters' varied reactions.

What I particularly liked was how well written Keiron himself is. A lot of people, sadly including the original script writers, have very little idea of what a priest does outside of church services. This Keiron is just right; thoughtful and pastoral, entirely capable of putting his own feelings aside to assess the rights and wrongs of the situation so that he can do his job and support his parishoners. He doesn't deny his feelings to himself, and yes they hurt, but it's enlightening rather than overwhelming. In fact, my one criticism of the story is that the meeting between Keiron and Craig is too mild. I was expecting Craig to be more defensive and abrasive, and Keiron to struggle more with himself, but neither really happens. What's there is still a perfectly good story, it's just a little nicer than I would have liked.

It's a shame that this story has been orphaned on AO3, because I really would like to have congratulated the author directly. As it stands, it's still a very good read.

Climbing Everest