The Ends Justify the Means - Chapter 4

[shadownyc]

THE ENDS JUSTIFY THE MEANS

Title: Chapter 4 - Heating Up
Written By: shadownyc
Timeline: Post-513
Rating: PG-13 to R for language and sexual references
Warnings: Some angst
Summary: The lives of the QaF Family move forward. This fic was written for the NaNoWriMo 2007 challenge
Disclaimer: Don’t own the characters, Cowlip does…but wish I owned some of them

Comments

[jule1122]

What a wonderful chapter! You did such an amazing job writing Ben. It's easy to neglect the other characters in favor of Brian and Justin, but I can see Ben becoming a real strength of this story.

I love seeing a friendship develop between him and Brian. And Brian realizing how similar he and Ben are in some ways. Especially in their need to protect and take care of people to the point of assuming they know what is best for everyone. I hope Brian can help Ben.

One of my favorite things about S3 is the relationship that developed between Ben and Hunter. The hug at the end of 314 kills me. You did a fabulous job of showing how that relationship will evolve in the future. Ben and Hunter have such a natural bond, and you included that perfectly. I like the doctor using that to try and convince Ben to go to the hospital.

There were others in the waiting room and Ben thought guiltily that he was happy that they looked a lot worse off than he did.
This is my favorite line! It's such a human moment and one anyone who has been sick or had a sick loved one will recognize. Such a simple thing but it shows how much you know these characters.

[shadownyc]

Thank you so much for that AMAZING feedback! This was the chapter that led to the rest of the fic writing itself. While this particular chapter ended up being Ben-centric it completed what I had called the set-up chapters. From here on in all of the snowballs just started rolling and growing towards the climaxes of the fic.

Each of the four men (I hope) continues that journey of boys to men that I really think was not quite completed by C/L. I felt there was still some growth to be had and that the end was prematurely reached.

I see very important similarities between Ben and Brian and the way they act as the alpha-male or top-partner (so to speak).

I'm so pleased that the waiting room scene worked for you. By the end of the series I no longer thought of Ben as Zen Ben. He was real with real emotions and reactions...which aren't always pretty and selfless.