Fic I am absolutely not writing (Sentinel!Neal 1)
With the "Collared" sequel in beta, and the Collar 'verse no longer eating my brain, I should now have some time to focus on things like applying for jobs and writing final papers for my last semester of library school.
So I will not actually be writing this fic. It would eat my brain, and I need my brain for other things for the next month or so.
But I can talk about it, and maybe comment-fic it a little, if people encourage me, without letting it eat my brain. So, okay, here goes.
The setting is something like the Dreaded Bonding AU, only it's about two generations past the revolution in Sentinel/Guide relationships that Blair and company are fighting for. Only it's still the present day, because I don't want to mess around with, like, jetpacks and things. Just say that the Guide Liberation thing happened in the 60's, with the rest of the civil rights movement, okay?
Sentinels and Guides are not longer required to serve in the military, although it's still strongly encouraged. They are required to register for the selective service if they want to get government financial aid for college, have a government job, etc, just as males are in the real-world US today, so there's a list available if the draft becomes necessary. Guides are seen as people with ordinary human rights, and (because Guides are way better at interpersonal relationships than Sentinels, so without forced pairing-up they are more likely to marry and have children) in this new world, there are significantly more Guides as Sentinels. (I was thinking maybe twice as many, but that might be too much for two generations. Maybe 50% or 25% more.) So lots of them have the option of doing something else. But...well, when people think of a Guide who isn't working with a Sentinel, they picture like a nursery school teacher or something like that.
In this environment, Neal is a Sentinel--unregistered, obviously. That's why he's so good at forgery, safecracking, etc. Kate's a Guide, likewise unregistered. (Mozzie may be one, too.) Neal gets caught, by Peter, and goes to prison, as in canon. Nobody realizes he's a Sentinel, because he has pretty good control, and as long as Kate keeps visiting him once a week he manages. Then Kate stops visiting him, for much the same reasons as in canon.
Meanwhile, Peter is also a Guide. Also unregistered--he lied about it when he joined the FBI, because of the nursery-school-teacher stereotype. They do let Guides be Agents, but they aren't taken particularly seriously, so he hid it. Elizabeth knows, they're still married, etc.
When the thing with Kate happens and it's revealed that Neal's a Sentinel, the prison system doesn't know what to do with him. It's not unheard of for Sentinels to be criminals--Alex Barnes exists in this universe, for example--but they tend to fall into one of two camps. If they're successful criminals--like Alex Barnes--their Guides are accomplices in their crimes, so they're sentenced together and sent to the same prison, with protective custody and any other necessary accommodations, similarly as for disabled inmates. The other kind are Sentinels who never found Guides and function extremely poorly--they tend to be arrested for things like vagrancy or stealing things they need to survive. They end up in secure psychiatric facilities, where there are Guide-nurses available. There aren't too many of either kind, but that's what the criminal justice system is set up to deal with. Neal isn't either of the two recognized criminal-Sentinel types--Kate wasn't his accomplice, and they can't arrest her just to provide him with a Guide. And secure psychiatric facilities are not secure enough to hold Neal Caffrey. The prison system is at a loss for how to come up with some arrangement that will be both secure and reasonably humane for Neal.
Neal eventually tells a prison doctor or somebody that he has an idea, and he'll explain it to the FBI Agent who captured him. Peter is filled in on these developments and wonders if maybe being a Guide gave him an edge in catching Neal. He agrees to the meeting, against his better judgment, because he doesn't like the idea of Neal suffering.
The meeting happens, and Neal proposes essentially the same arrangement as in canon--assisting the FBI, tracking anklet. Peter says, how exactly is this going to help with your problem? Neal says, "Because you're a Guide, Peter."
Peter, internally freaking out, excuses himself from the meeting. He thinks that Neal is, essentially, blackmailing him: if he doesn't agree to the arrangement, Neal will tell the FBI that he's an unregistered Guide. And if he does agree, Neal will still have that hold on him, so Peter won't be able to control him. He concludes that the only solution to this problem is "Publish and be damned." He goes to Hughes and confesses to lying about being a Guide on his application for the FBI, and says he understands this is a firing offense. Hughes says that given his exemplary record, and his choice to come forward when he knows he's been compromised, maybe something can be done. As Hughes gets into this with his superiors, they start thinking that Neal's plan--minus the blackmail part--is really not such a bad idea. Peter gets to keep his job, with a disciplinary notation in his jacket for the lying, and is asked to become Neal's handler-and-Guide. A quid pro quo is not openly discussed, but Peter knows he's lucky to still have a job, so he accepts.
Peter waits until it's all arranged, and Neal is in his car leaving the prison, before he springs on him that the blackmail plan was not successful, his superiors already know. Neal is shocked because he had not been blackmailing him in the first place--he didn't know that Peter was unregistered, or that registration is mandatory for government employees. Never having had a job or gone to college, those issues weren't really on his radar screen. He just noticed that Peter was a Guide, and he likes him, so he figured it would work. Peter is skeptical of this, but tells Neal that in that case, it makes no difference, since the arrangement is exactly what he thought he was getting into. Neal is a bit pouty over Peter not believing him. Their working and living arrangements proceed as in canon.
Fast forward, and it becomes evident that Neal has been doing all of his Sentinel-stuff purely on instinct, without training of any kind, and without really knowing how he does it. He doesn't have dials, he can't piggyback one sense on another, etc. So they start getting him some training, private classes a couple of times a week in the FBI building. As was discussed in the Sentinel School story in the Dreaded Bonding AU, Sentinels usually don't have a lot of trouble with their senses, spiking and zoning and so forth, until they start using them actively. Neal is no exception. Up until now, he's been fine on really minimal Guidance--see, weekly no-contact visits from Kate in prison--but once his lessons start, he has more problems. Things like where he'll get some dust on his skin and it'll feel like being scrubbed with sandpaper, but he can't wash it off because that'll hurt too. Having gotten the "cowboy up" lecture from Peter many times, over his complaints about things like food and clothes and the motel, and having been told by the Sentinel lesson teacher that it's normal to have some sensory difficulties when he starts using his senses actively, Neal sees no point complaining about these problems. He ends up leaving Peter with the impression that he gets headaches from the lessons, which Peter tells him is not a good enough excuse to not do them. However, Peter makes sure they have them at the end of the day, so Neal can go home and lie down afterwards, and Peter will sit with him for an hour or so before he goes home to Elizabeth. Peter figures he's giving Neal everything he needs, and Neal figures he's better off than he would be in prison. And the Sentinel teacher keeps telling him these problems are normal, so he figures this is something everyone goes through and he just has to make the best of it.
Then, eventually, Peter and Neal end up working a case with another Sentinel/Guide pair (possibly this occurs in Cascade, Washington). Neal's examining some evidence, doing his Sentinel thing, and then he starts spiking and crawls off into a corner to sit quietly trying not to throw up. Peter has seen him do this many times before, both in their training sessions and on other cases, so he's not alarmed, and does what he usually does when this happens, namely, stands about ten feet away from Neal and makes sure nobody bothers him. Again, Neal has given him the impression that he doesn't need or want anything else from Peter in these situations. (Neal feels that it would probably help if Peter would, for example, touch him, but he knows that Peter is no more interested in babysitting a needy Sentinel than he is in being a nursery school teacher, so he doesn't ask.)
Witnessing this, the Guide from the other team--let's call him, oh, Blair--freaks the fuck out, telling Peter that he's the most disgustingly abusive Guide he's ever seen in his life, and even if Neal is a convict, he's still Peter's Sentinel and deserves a Guide who will take care of him. Then he tells his Sentinel--Jim, we'll say--to throw Peter out of the room--Neal's in the corner with his arms wrapped around his head at this point--and Blair goes over and helps him.
Jim takes a very confused Peter out of the room, per Blair's request. Peter protests that he's doing what he always does, that's what Neal wants, etc. Jim asks him if he got his Guide training in the Army, as their Guide training is notoriously poor. Peter says he never got any Guide training anywhere, and isn't it basically instinct and doing what the Sentinel asks? Jim alludes to a rant that Blair has on the subject, and describes some of the things that Blair would do if Jim were the one huddled in a corner trying not to throw up, such as providing skin-to-skin contact, talking him through adjusting his dials, letting Jim scent him, and otherwise being something other than a completely useless idiot. Peter has never done any of those things, ever. Sometimes, when Neal has one of his post-lesson "headaches" Peter will sit on the edge of his bed with him, and Neal will sort of put his forehead against Peter's hand; apart from that, their physical contact is limited to manly pats on the shoulder. Peter is appropriately horrified to realize that, far from providing Neal with everything he needs, he's probably been the worst Guide in the history of the universe.
Back inside, after Blair manages to Guide Neal through his massive episode of sensory distress, Neal is a little embarrassed by the fuss and tries to shrug it off. Blair reprises the rant about how he deserves a decent Guide, which Neal finds confusing. Peter's doing as much as he's seen any of the other FBI Guides do (he's only seen them in public situations, where the Sentinels aren't having sensory distress), and sure, Kate touched him more, but she was his girlfriend, as well as his Guide, so that was different. Peter has a wife and a job to do other than being a Guide, so he doesn't have a lot of time to fuss over Neal, and that's fine. The FBI doesn't have anyone else who is qualified to be both a Sentinel's Guide and a CI's handler, so he doesn't have much choice but to make this work and not bother Peter with his needs. Blair sputters with indignation and decides he's going to have Peter fired, if not taken out behind the FBI building and shot.
The two pairs reunite, and Jim talks Blair down off the ledge. Peter admitting that he screwed up and that he obviously doesn't know the first thing about being a Guide helps. With Peter on board, Jim and Blair are able to convince Neal that he really deserves better Guidance than he's been getting. Blair reluctantly agrees that getting Peter some training in how to be a Guide would be an acceptable alternative to having him shot. Lesson one, which Blair provides free of charge, is that Peter should take Neal back to their hotel room and cuddle him for several hours. They do so.
**
And that's pretty much what I have. I suppose if I were writing the fic, there would be a case in there somewhere, and some form of plot resolution. When Neal and Peter get back from their trip to Cascade, the conflict between Peter's roles as husband and Guide would be resolved with a hearty dose of OT3.
As previously noted, I am not writing this fic because I cannot allow it to eat my brain. (I could write it in May, when I will have finished my degree and, hopefully, secured a job.) However, if anyone wants to discuss it, or write up bits of it as comment-fic, or suggest which bits they'd most like to see me write up as comment fic, that would be fun.
So I will not actually be writing this fic. It would eat my brain, and I need my brain for other things for the next month or so.
But I can talk about it, and maybe comment-fic it a little, if people encourage me, without letting it eat my brain. So, okay, here goes.
The setting is something like the Dreaded Bonding AU, only it's about two generations past the revolution in Sentinel/Guide relationships that Blair and company are fighting for. Only it's still the present day, because I don't want to mess around with, like, jetpacks and things. Just say that the Guide Liberation thing happened in the 60's, with the rest of the civil rights movement, okay?
Sentinels and Guides are not longer required to serve in the military, although it's still strongly encouraged. They are required to register for the selective service if they want to get government financial aid for college, have a government job, etc, just as males are in the real-world US today, so there's a list available if the draft becomes necessary. Guides are seen as people with ordinary human rights, and (because Guides are way better at interpersonal relationships than Sentinels, so without forced pairing-up they are more likely to marry and have children) in this new world, there are significantly more Guides as Sentinels. (I was thinking maybe twice as many, but that might be too much for two generations. Maybe 50% or 25% more.) So lots of them have the option of doing something else. But...well, when people think of a Guide who isn't working with a Sentinel, they picture like a nursery school teacher or something like that.
In this environment, Neal is a Sentinel--unregistered, obviously. That's why he's so good at forgery, safecracking, etc. Kate's a Guide, likewise unregistered. (Mozzie may be one, too.) Neal gets caught, by Peter, and goes to prison, as in canon. Nobody realizes he's a Sentinel, because he has pretty good control, and as long as Kate keeps visiting him once a week he manages. Then Kate stops visiting him, for much the same reasons as in canon.
Meanwhile, Peter is also a Guide. Also unregistered--he lied about it when he joined the FBI, because of the nursery-school-teacher stereotype. They do let Guides be Agents, but they aren't taken particularly seriously, so he hid it. Elizabeth knows, they're still married, etc.
When the thing with Kate happens and it's revealed that Neal's a Sentinel, the prison system doesn't know what to do with him. It's not unheard of for Sentinels to be criminals--Alex Barnes exists in this universe, for example--but they tend to fall into one of two camps. If they're successful criminals--like Alex Barnes--their Guides are accomplices in their crimes, so they're sentenced together and sent to the same prison, with protective custody and any other necessary accommodations, similarly as for disabled inmates. The other kind are Sentinels who never found Guides and function extremely poorly--they tend to be arrested for things like vagrancy or stealing things they need to survive. They end up in secure psychiatric facilities, where there are Guide-nurses available. There aren't too many of either kind, but that's what the criminal justice system is set up to deal with. Neal isn't either of the two recognized criminal-Sentinel types--Kate wasn't his accomplice, and they can't arrest her just to provide him with a Guide. And secure psychiatric facilities are not secure enough to hold Neal Caffrey. The prison system is at a loss for how to come up with some arrangement that will be both secure and reasonably humane for Neal.
Neal eventually tells a prison doctor or somebody that he has an idea, and he'll explain it to the FBI Agent who captured him. Peter is filled in on these developments and wonders if maybe being a Guide gave him an edge in catching Neal. He agrees to the meeting, against his better judgment, because he doesn't like the idea of Neal suffering.
The meeting happens, and Neal proposes essentially the same arrangement as in canon--assisting the FBI, tracking anklet. Peter says, how exactly is this going to help with your problem? Neal says, "Because you're a Guide, Peter."
Peter, internally freaking out, excuses himself from the meeting. He thinks that Neal is, essentially, blackmailing him: if he doesn't agree to the arrangement, Neal will tell the FBI that he's an unregistered Guide. And if he does agree, Neal will still have that hold on him, so Peter won't be able to control him. He concludes that the only solution to this problem is "Publish and be damned." He goes to Hughes and confesses to lying about being a Guide on his application for the FBI, and says he understands this is a firing offense. Hughes says that given his exemplary record, and his choice to come forward when he knows he's been compromised, maybe something can be done. As Hughes gets into this with his superiors, they start thinking that Neal's plan--minus the blackmail part--is really not such a bad idea. Peter gets to keep his job, with a disciplinary notation in his jacket for the lying, and is asked to become Neal's handler-and-Guide. A quid pro quo is not openly discussed, but Peter knows he's lucky to still have a job, so he accepts.
Peter waits until it's all arranged, and Neal is in his car leaving the prison, before he springs on him that the blackmail plan was not successful, his superiors already know. Neal is shocked because he had not been blackmailing him in the first place--he didn't know that Peter was unregistered, or that registration is mandatory for government employees. Never having had a job or gone to college, those issues weren't really on his radar screen. He just noticed that Peter was a Guide, and he likes him, so he figured it would work. Peter is skeptical of this, but tells Neal that in that case, it makes no difference, since the arrangement is exactly what he thought he was getting into. Neal is a bit pouty over Peter not believing him. Their working and living arrangements proceed as in canon.
Fast forward, and it becomes evident that Neal has been doing all of his Sentinel-stuff purely on instinct, without training of any kind, and without really knowing how he does it. He doesn't have dials, he can't piggyback one sense on another, etc. So they start getting him some training, private classes a couple of times a week in the FBI building. As was discussed in the Sentinel School story in the Dreaded Bonding AU, Sentinels usually don't have a lot of trouble with their senses, spiking and zoning and so forth, until they start using them actively. Neal is no exception. Up until now, he's been fine on really minimal Guidance--see, weekly no-contact visits from Kate in prison--but once his lessons start, he has more problems. Things like where he'll get some dust on his skin and it'll feel like being scrubbed with sandpaper, but he can't wash it off because that'll hurt too. Having gotten the "cowboy up" lecture from Peter many times, over his complaints about things like food and clothes and the motel, and having been told by the Sentinel lesson teacher that it's normal to have some sensory difficulties when he starts using his senses actively, Neal sees no point complaining about these problems. He ends up leaving Peter with the impression that he gets headaches from the lessons, which Peter tells him is not a good enough excuse to not do them. However, Peter makes sure they have them at the end of the day, so Neal can go home and lie down afterwards, and Peter will sit with him for an hour or so before he goes home to Elizabeth. Peter figures he's giving Neal everything he needs, and Neal figures he's better off than he would be in prison. And the Sentinel teacher keeps telling him these problems are normal, so he figures this is something everyone goes through and he just has to make the best of it.
Then, eventually, Peter and Neal end up working a case with another Sentinel/Guide pair (possibly this occurs in Cascade, Washington). Neal's examining some evidence, doing his Sentinel thing, and then he starts spiking and crawls off into a corner to sit quietly trying not to throw up. Peter has seen him do this many times before, both in their training sessions and on other cases, so he's not alarmed, and does what he usually does when this happens, namely, stands about ten feet away from Neal and makes sure nobody bothers him. Again, Neal has given him the impression that he doesn't need or want anything else from Peter in these situations. (Neal feels that it would probably help if Peter would, for example, touch him, but he knows that Peter is no more interested in babysitting a needy Sentinel than he is in being a nursery school teacher, so he doesn't ask.)
Witnessing this, the Guide from the other team--let's call him, oh, Blair--freaks the fuck out, telling Peter that he's the most disgustingly abusive Guide he's ever seen in his life, and even if Neal is a convict, he's still Peter's Sentinel and deserves a Guide who will take care of him. Then he tells his Sentinel--Jim, we'll say--to throw Peter out of the room--Neal's in the corner with his arms wrapped around his head at this point--and Blair goes over and helps him.
Jim takes a very confused Peter out of the room, per Blair's request. Peter protests that he's doing what he always does, that's what Neal wants, etc. Jim asks him if he got his Guide training in the Army, as their Guide training is notoriously poor. Peter says he never got any Guide training anywhere, and isn't it basically instinct and doing what the Sentinel asks? Jim alludes to a rant that Blair has on the subject, and describes some of the things that Blair would do if Jim were the one huddled in a corner trying not to throw up, such as providing skin-to-skin contact, talking him through adjusting his dials, letting Jim scent him, and otherwise being something other than a completely useless idiot. Peter has never done any of those things, ever. Sometimes, when Neal has one of his post-lesson "headaches" Peter will sit on the edge of his bed with him, and Neal will sort of put his forehead against Peter's hand; apart from that, their physical contact is limited to manly pats on the shoulder. Peter is appropriately horrified to realize that, far from providing Neal with everything he needs, he's probably been the worst Guide in the history of the universe.
Back inside, after Blair manages to Guide Neal through his massive episode of sensory distress, Neal is a little embarrassed by the fuss and tries to shrug it off. Blair reprises the rant about how he deserves a decent Guide, which Neal finds confusing. Peter's doing as much as he's seen any of the other FBI Guides do (he's only seen them in public situations, where the Sentinels aren't having sensory distress), and sure, Kate touched him more, but she was his girlfriend, as well as his Guide, so that was different. Peter has a wife and a job to do other than being a Guide, so he doesn't have a lot of time to fuss over Neal, and that's fine. The FBI doesn't have anyone else who is qualified to be both a Sentinel's Guide and a CI's handler, so he doesn't have much choice but to make this work and not bother Peter with his needs. Blair sputters with indignation and decides he's going to have Peter fired, if not taken out behind the FBI building and shot.
The two pairs reunite, and Jim talks Blair down off the ledge. Peter admitting that he screwed up and that he obviously doesn't know the first thing about being a Guide helps. With Peter on board, Jim and Blair are able to convince Neal that he really deserves better Guidance than he's been getting. Blair reluctantly agrees that getting Peter some training in how to be a Guide would be an acceptable alternative to having him shot. Lesson one, which Blair provides free of charge, is that Peter should take Neal back to their hotel room and cuddle him for several hours. They do so.
**
And that's pretty much what I have. I suppose if I were writing the fic, there would be a case in there somewhere, and some form of plot resolution. When Neal and Peter get back from their trip to Cascade, the conflict between Peter's roles as husband and Guide would be resolved with a hearty dose of OT3.
As previously noted, I am not writing this fic because I cannot allow it to eat my brain. (I could write it in May, when I will have finished my degree and, hopefully, secured a job.) However, if anyone wants to discuss it, or write up bits of it as comment-fic, or suggest which bits they'd most like to see me write up as comment fic, that would be fun.