Dexter: Damned if You Do...Damned, Period (Dexter/Deb) R/NC-17

[shealynn88]

Title: Damned if You Do...Damned, Period
Author: Shealynn88
Rating: R/NC-17 (sexual content, disturbing themes)
Word Count: ~2400 words
Characters: Dexter/Deb
Spoilers: Spoilers for 1X12, season finale
Summary: It's not love, but it's something.
Author's Note: Dark themes. Written for HotelMontana, Yuletide New Year's Resolutions.

Comments

[fractal_moonshi]

That's so good! I was a little averse when I saw the pairing, but you make it plausible. And you have a firm grasp of their voices. I can't say which line I like best. Some that people have already mentioned, and this one:

"God, this could totally screw things up for us and I can't let that happen. Not now. I just gave up everything I could have been because of her."

Reminding us that it wasn't just the memory of their bond before Laura's murder that drew him to Brian. It was admiration for his artistry as a murderer, and "master teacher".

His ambivalence, and the way the Code has kept him from getting in touch with his own sex drive, which most thrill killers express by killing people who turn them on. With Rita and his other sex partners, he keeps sex separate from passion, follows their signals, because it's part of his cover. But when he starts to feel his lust, it's dangerous, and he has to worry about letting the beast out. With the person who trusts him most of all in the world.

You bring all that out with such an economy of words. This is one of the closest fanfics I've read in any fandom to being perfect, in showing who the characters are without bogging down in exposition. I do hope you write more.

[shealynn88]

Thank you so much! I have to say that is some of the most thoughtful and complimentary and just...WONDERFUL feedback I've ever gotten! I appreciate SO MUCH the time you took to put all your thoughts down and tell me what you saw--it's so fascinating to know what people get out of my stories.

I absolutely agree that Dex really isn't in touch w/ his sexual side--not his desires or his drive or any real need for contact. It created a difficult situation because it was so easy for me to see chemistry between them early on, but his characterization quickly made it clear that he wouldn't intiate sex with anyone. And it would take a lot for Deb to ever get past societal conditioning and start something. But, boy, they really gave me an opening at the end. I really felt like she wouldn't trust her own judgement after what happened with Brian. She doesn't open herself easily, and I think the fact that she misjudged him so completely would clamp her right down and make it impossible for her to go to therapy or trust in anyone outside of Dex, who she feels like she knows completely. And it made sense to me, too, that she would go to him for help and not TOO much of a stretch to make it sexual, because despite being very protective emotionally, she seems to be a very sexual person.

Thanks for commenting so thoughtfully!! It reminds me of why I wrote it in the first place, and I'm incredibly flattered that you feel it's so balanced and in character.

Thank you!!!

[fractal_moonshi]

Excellent voice. Great characterization. Don't stop now!!