Someone Like You 57/61: Family portraits - Beecher/Stabler

[drsquidlove]

Someone Like You
by Dr Squidlove
drsquidlove @@@ livejournal.com

Oz/Law & Order: SVU crossover

Tobias Beecher's trying to rebuild his family in the shadow of the man he was in prison. Elliot Stabler's struggling to continue in the wake of divorce while his job eats away at his soul. It makes for an odd friendship, but it works.

Comments

[wycombe]

What a nice surprise to have this new chapter so soon after the last one. Lots of great details here. One of the things I am especially savoring is how Toby, with some expert help from Elliot, under great duress is acting like a parent instead of falling into his usual distress pattern. Elliot's admonition that this is just one of those things that a parent has to roll with, and is not that unusual, regardless of the unique aspect of this particular situation was just perfect. It was very gratifying to read that Toby was angry (!!) at the absurdity of Jonah's statements instead of internalizing them and flagellating himself because something new had gone wrong. Finally. Such a breath of fresh air. Not that it wouldn't be hard to keep one's head on under the circumstances. I guess that's why it's called parenting. It's so interesting how so much of the present and upcoming dynamic turns around Holly's attitude and very deliberate decisions about how she wants to play this. She is also handling the stress very well. Task oriented coping. Great. The modeling healthy relationship to alcohol bit was great! Loved it.

[drsquidlove]

Heh. I managed to hit a three-day rhythm somewhere early in the posting, and that got me the drive to stick to it the rest of the way through. (Though of course, your day might change depending on what time I post.) I must say, I'm quite impressed with discipline, especially through these last few chapters, when I hadn't banked them ahead. :-D

I figure that - aside from a year of maturing, and Elliot's support - it would have helped that Toby and Elliot were both braced for this. When you're blindsided, you react emotionally, but Toby anticipated all of it. It still hurts, but there's some perspective.

I can't tell you how happy (and relieved) I am that Holly's place in the story is working. It's risky sticking children in the middle of slash stories, but I really wanted this whole Toby/Elliot relationship to centre on them as fathers, and she's the anchor in the middle of that.

Toby can be quite rational and thoughtful in the way he talks about his addictions. I thought it might carry through to the way he presents them to Holly.

Thanks wycombe!

S.

[wycombe]

Yes, you're right on with Holly. Not only does her character stand up to scrutiny, but she and Elliot's kids give Toby and Elliot substance and challenges that they would not otherwise have (although Elliot has the extra defining and evolving framework of his work, which Toby is missing due to unsubstantiated nature of his work life. Had there been more room for it, I would have liked to see some challenges in Toby's work life that could have fleshed him out a little more, post Oz, even if were no more than just coping with being a disbarred attorney version of a rent-a-cop. That was a great line, Squid!). As you have noted, in the more typical stories of this genre, adults are little more than children themselves, which becomes very tedious after a few iterations. But Holly is more than a foil or just a kid. She is definitely a player.

[drsquidlove]

Yeah, if this story was going to be infinite, I would have liked more of Toby's job. I threw in a few references early on to the frustrations of being a top-level lawyer working for a barely competent one, but there wasn't room for more. And while I was willing to spend hours researching parole regulations and NY gun storage laws and traumatic head injuries and the boundaries of disbarment, I draw the line at property law. Hell no.

Did I say something about adult characters being like children? That was insightful of me, heh.

S.