Life - A Crews/Reese Ship Manifesto
“This is Zen, right?” ~ Dani Reese, Life, 1x06 - Powerless
In a perfect world, I would have started this manifesto off with a Zen proverb that would have encompassed the essence that is the Crews/Reese relationship. I assure you that I searched for ages, but alas, my efforts ended up being fruitless (ironically). Perhaps because the Crews/Reese relationship is Zen itself. Self-discovery, healing, understanding, just being, all of these elements describe the beautiful partnership between Charlie Crews and Dani Reese.
Pretty, yes?
The Universe Makes Fun of us All
Charlie Crews
Everything is connected to Charlie. He served 12 years in a maximum security prison for a triple homicide that he didn’t commit. He was a young, by the book cop looking for his 20 and his pension, happily married to his high school sweetheart, running a bar with his best friend, and then one day… it was all taken away from him. His best friend had been brutally slain, the love of his life had abandoned him, his partner didn’t have his back, and his father refused to see him (and prevented Charlie’s mother from seeing him as well). He was all alone in a dark hell. An ex cop in prison is a bad thing. A young, skinny, pretty ex cop in prison is worse. There is evidence to suggest that the guards were even worse to him than his fellow inmates, so much so that Charlie ended up seriously injuring (or maybe even killed, not quite sure) one of his correctional officers at Pelican Bay when he retaliated. Being stuck in a 6 by 8 foot cell for 23 hours a day understandably messed with Charlie’s head. The only thing that kept Charlie from going completely insane was a book of Zen that he had found in the prison yard. It became his guiding light, and it helped him reconcile with the fact that he’d be in prison for life. By the time attorney Constance Griffiths came to him, he had given up hope, given up on justice, but Constance refused to give up on him. Constance became his entire world. Finally, after 4 years of fighting for the release of Charlie, DNA evidence came up that proved his innocence. The city of Los Angeles gave him a settlement of 50 million dollars (maybe, the exact amount has never been disclosed) and a position on the LAPD as a homicide detective. He’s embraced his freedom, eating all the fresh fruit that he can his hands on and fooling around with all the women who proposition him, all the while trying to live by the philosophy of Zen, quoting from his book whenever the moment presents itself. He brings an unorthodox approach to investigating homicides, and he often identifies quite strongly with the victims or the wrongly accused. He takes in strays and lost souls that remind him of himself, and he likes wide open spaces, doesn’t like to use the locks on his doors, and fences are a big no-no. He likes being around people, he needs that human connection. He’s also constantly working to solve the conspiracy of who set him up and why. Prison made Charlie stronger. It made him cherish all that he had taken for granted. But it also created a demon inside of him that he is constantly fighting to suppress. Charlie’s usual bubbly demeanor makes the moments where the demon comes out all the more startling. He has a darkness in him that reaches depths we can’t even fathom. The challenge, then, for Charlie, is to not lose sight of the light.
Dani Reese
Dani Reese is a no-nonsense, by the book cop. She says only as much as she needs to and she gets her job done well. Loyalty is important to her. She doesn’t mix her personal life with her professional life. Unlike Charlie, she makes it a point to avoid human connection. She doesn’t like people getting to close to her, and she tends to be very withdrawn and lost in her own shell of self-loathing. She likes to pick up men in seedy bars and have one night stands with them, preferring anonymity to exchanging niceties. Was she always like this? I suspect not. Her father is Captain Jack Reese, the man who had a part in setting Charlie up for the murder of the Seybolts. It’s clear that he was a hard man to live with, most notably when Dani says to Charlie in episode 1x09 Serious Control Issues: “I spent my childhood trying to figure out if my dad was only mean, or just plain bad.” Dani excelled at the police academy and she ended up as an undercover cop for vice. She fell in love with the man that she was investigating and became a junkie herself (which suggests that she used to be a little too good at developing a connection with people). She got pulled into the dark hell of addiction, screwing up her job, disappointing her family, and eventually seeing the man she loved shoot himself (hinted at, not confirmed), but she was too wrapped up in her addiction to care. She hit rock bottom, went to rehab, and did whatever she had to do to get back on the force. She was reassigned to homicide under Lt. Karen Davis (Jack Reese’s old partner) and she got stuck with the crazy guy who just got out of prison as her partner. Reese is just trying to wake up every day and simply live. Just like Charlie, she has a darkness inside of her, and she’s fighting to not lose sight of the light.
We Are None of us Alone
Together, Crews and Reese are yin and yang. Charlie is tall and pale with brilliant red hair and pale blue eyes, while Reese is short and dark-skinned, with dark hair and dark eyes. There’s a bright innocence and openness that seems to surround Charlie, while Reese is very closed-off and practical. Charlie likes to talk, while Reese prefers the quiet. Despite their differences, they effortlessly get each other. They’ve both been to hell and back, and this commonality between them is a source of comfort. Reese always knows when to let Crews do his thing, and she knows when she has to rein him back in. She creates boundaries for him. She’s also the only character that ever forgets about his time in prison. Charlie knows that Reese can take care of herself. He takes joy in annoying Reese with his constant chatter and curiosity, but he also knows when to stay silent. He’s slowly drilling a hole into Reese’s shell and figuring her out. There’s a great equality to the Crews/Reese relationship, despite Reese being Charlie’s superior.
1x01 - Merit Badge
The very first moment when Crews and Reese meet is such a great setup for the tone of their partnership. We see Crews staring at the sun, off in his own world, and Reese’s voice pulls him back to reality.
“Detective Crews! Detective Crews! You are Detective Crews, aren’t you?”
“Yeah. I guess I am.”
“Okay, well, would you like to be sure? Because we’re about to walk into a crime scene.”
“…I’m sure.”
“Great.”
Right off the bat we see that Reese doesn’t screw around, and she isn’t easily rattled. She walks off and Charlie has to rush to keep up. He’s a little self-conscious about all the people that stare at them, while Reese faces them head on with a confident stride, and Charlie falls into step next to her, and already they look like partners for life.
Another important moment from this episode is The Shower scene. A bag of cocaine explodes on Reese, and she’s desperate to get it off of her. She finds the bathroom, but she struggles to get into the shower. Crews, having just killed a young drug dealer, runs to find her, and though he’s confused, he knows what she needs. He gets her into the shower and helps her turn on the water, and the second the water hits them they are both cleansed of their demons, for the time being. This scene was both erotic and spiritual. The organ music playing in the background helped to symbolize the cleansing of their souls, while the movements and the breathing were highly erotic, Charlie even thrusting into Reese and emitting a groan as the water is released from the showerhead, and when Charlie moves away from her and she’s near the end of her cleansing (or climax if we’re talking sexual metaphors), she reaches back to touch his face, prolonging their connection, then she pushes him away and refuses his help in getting out of the tub. This was Reese in an extremely vulnerable moment, and Crews was there to back her up, no questions asked. I really see this as the moment where Charlie gained Dani’s allegiance. From this moment on Charlie Crews is Dani Reese’s partner, for better or worse, and her loyalty will always be with him.
1x05 - Fallen Woman
This entire episode is absolutely amazing from start to finish, but one reason why I love it so much is because it’s the first episode where Crews and Reese really clicked in regards to the way that they viewed their investigation, and from here on out, they were always on the same page. There was much adorable banter throughout the episode, but more importantly, they were there for each other when they needed it. The interrogation of Roman still manages to put me on edge. I love that when Roman makes the comment to Charlie about still being able to stand after 12 years in prison and Charlie looks slightly shaken, Reese jumps right in and diverts Roman’s attention. Unfortunately, Roman starts messing with her head, talking about her junkie ex-lover and her addiction, and it’s interesting how Charlie just kind of stands in the shadows watching it all happen, finding out information about Reese’s past and seeing her in a vulnerable state, which gives the scene a voyeuristic feel. He knows she can take care of herself, but when he sees that it’s too much for her, he jumps in and takes Roman’s attention off of Reese.
My favorite moment, however, was the scene in the car right after they had interrogated Roman.
“When Roman said those things, did you want to shoot him?”
“Yes.”
“Me, too. Did you see yourself shooting him?”
“Yes.”
“Me, too. You lost your faith because of the guy, not the drugs.”
“My faith has been gone so long that I can’t remember when it was that I lost it… Or if I ever even had it.”
This is the most revealing, earnest conversation that these two have ever had.
1x06 - Powerless
Another amazing episode full of wonderful little moments. This is where we get to see protective Charlie, but I love that he trusts Reese enough to back off the second she tells him to. This episode was all about Crews trying to help Reese, and Reese thinking that she doesn’t need help from anyone. When Larson shows up in Reese’s apartment with a gun, she asks Crews for help by dialing his number. Intuitively, Charlie understands what Reese is telling him, and he gives her a moment, and she ultimately saves herself by being strong enough to reveal her vulnerabilities, then by clobbering that Larson bastard in the head with a huge vodka bottle. This scene is so incredibly powerful and absolutely beautiful, and I love that Charlie got to hear Reese’s story, and one could speculate that she wanted him to know her story, she wanted him to know that she’s been through the same kind of hell that he went through.
The scene after this, which has pretty much universally been dubbed The Walk, is quite possibly the moment that brought the majority of shippers out of the woodwork. A vulnerable Reese is stumbling out the door, and Crews rushes to her side, telling her that she needs help (not asking her if she needs it) and he’s clearly expecting a battle, but she takes his arm without an ounce of protest, and they march down the walkway together, the scene very reminiscent of a bride and groom marching down the aisle after having just been married, complete with everyone standing on either side of the path and watching with smiles on their faces, Crews and Reese giving each other adoring looks. Reese finally understands the essence of Zen here. This scene is a great contrast to The Shower, where she resisted help from Crews and was embarrassed that she needed it, whereas during The Walk, she knew she needed him and she was grateful to have him by her side.
1x09 - Serious Control Issues
This is the biggest partnershippy episode to date. This is the episode that solidified their partnership for Charlie, and Dani’s loyalty to Charlie won out over influences from her father and Davis.
For Crews and Reese, it’s often what they don’t say that’s important. They don’t judge each other, they don’t try to change each other, they just… exist. They find safety in each other and a bond that they don’t have with anyone else. They are both damaged, they both had their lives taken away from them, and they are both trying to heal the only way they know how.
We Shape Clay Into a Pot, but it is the Emptiness Inside That Holds Whatever We Want
Why do I ship these two? Because I really dig the opposites completing each other ships, and that’s exactly what this is. It’s all about the emotional connection, rather than the sexual, despite the fact that both of them are extremely beautiful people. I love that this ship isn’t cluttered with unneeded sexual tension. They are both aware that they’re pretty, but that doesn’t define their relationship. I love ships that aren’t definite in regards to turning romantic, and this ship could really go either way. Right now, they both have too much to deal with to even think about romance with anyone, let alone each other, but I’ve never been an instant gratification shipper. If I have it my way, it will be slow and tortuous and full of ambiguous subtext, and I’ll love every second of it. Do I want them to end up together? Yes. But I’m a fan of just subtly suggesting that they end up together in the last ep, and leave it up to interpretation as to whether they ended up together or not. I believe that this show could pull that off marvelously. But you won’t hear me complaining if we actually get to see them turn romantic, as long as it’s done right. Other people ship them purely as partners, while others only ship them in fanfic, so even the shippers are divided as to whether they want to see it happen on screen or not. So far, I’m loving the ride, and I’ll stay on board no matter where the ship takes me.
I got into the fandom through my friends list. Believe it or not, the pretty icons attracted me to the show (well, that and my f-list praising the show like crazy). I decided to watch the pilot, fell in mad love with Damian Lewis after about 2 seconds, then fell in love with Crews/Reese after The Shower scene. I didn’t become a full on shipper until The Walk though.
Fanfiction
Basically anything by
piecesofalice is a must read, she’s freaking amazing, definitely my favorite Life writer. My top favorites from her are:
The Edge Of
A Mass of Things
Dedication (a Life/In Plain Sight crossover)
Trifecta by
aj
Gobsmacked by
grimorie
22 Dreams by
adlervan
The Charlie Crews Guide to the 12 Days of Zen Christmas by
adlervan
Multi-chaptered fic by
15lbpurebunny
You can find even more goodness at:
life_fic and
crews_reese.
Fanvideos
Near to You by theevilpuppy06
You’re the One by imsanehonest
Learning How to Bend by
firthgal. I feel like a tool for putting my own vid on here, but… it’s my manifesto, so there you go.
Resources
crews_reese
pers_pineapple
life_fic
life_tv
damian-lewis.com
In a perfect world, I would have started this manifesto off with a Zen proverb that would have encompassed the essence that is the Crews/Reese relationship. I assure you that I searched for ages, but alas, my efforts ended up being fruitless (ironically). Perhaps because the Crews/Reese relationship is Zen itself. Self-discovery, healing, understanding, just being, all of these elements describe the beautiful partnership between Charlie Crews and Dani Reese.
Pretty, yes?
The Universe Makes Fun of us All
Charlie Crews
Everything is connected to Charlie. He served 12 years in a maximum security prison for a triple homicide that he didn’t commit. He was a young, by the book cop looking for his 20 and his pension, happily married to his high school sweetheart, running a bar with his best friend, and then one day… it was all taken away from him. His best friend had been brutally slain, the love of his life had abandoned him, his partner didn’t have his back, and his father refused to see him (and prevented Charlie’s mother from seeing him as well). He was all alone in a dark hell. An ex cop in prison is a bad thing. A young, skinny, pretty ex cop in prison is worse. There is evidence to suggest that the guards were even worse to him than his fellow inmates, so much so that Charlie ended up seriously injuring (or maybe even killed, not quite sure) one of his correctional officers at Pelican Bay when he retaliated. Being stuck in a 6 by 8 foot cell for 23 hours a day understandably messed with Charlie’s head. The only thing that kept Charlie from going completely insane was a book of Zen that he had found in the prison yard. It became his guiding light, and it helped him reconcile with the fact that he’d be in prison for life. By the time attorney Constance Griffiths came to him, he had given up hope, given up on justice, but Constance refused to give up on him. Constance became his entire world. Finally, after 4 years of fighting for the release of Charlie, DNA evidence came up that proved his innocence. The city of Los Angeles gave him a settlement of 50 million dollars (maybe, the exact amount has never been disclosed) and a position on the LAPD as a homicide detective. He’s embraced his freedom, eating all the fresh fruit that he can his hands on and fooling around with all the women who proposition him, all the while trying to live by the philosophy of Zen, quoting from his book whenever the moment presents itself. He brings an unorthodox approach to investigating homicides, and he often identifies quite strongly with the victims or the wrongly accused. He takes in strays and lost souls that remind him of himself, and he likes wide open spaces, doesn’t like to use the locks on his doors, and fences are a big no-no. He likes being around people, he needs that human connection. He’s also constantly working to solve the conspiracy of who set him up and why. Prison made Charlie stronger. It made him cherish all that he had taken for granted. But it also created a demon inside of him that he is constantly fighting to suppress. Charlie’s usual bubbly demeanor makes the moments where the demon comes out all the more startling. He has a darkness in him that reaches depths we can’t even fathom. The challenge, then, for Charlie, is to not lose sight of the light.
Dani Reese
Dani Reese is a no-nonsense, by the book cop. She says only as much as she needs to and she gets her job done well. Loyalty is important to her. She doesn’t mix her personal life with her professional life. Unlike Charlie, she makes it a point to avoid human connection. She doesn’t like people getting to close to her, and she tends to be very withdrawn and lost in her own shell of self-loathing. She likes to pick up men in seedy bars and have one night stands with them, preferring anonymity to exchanging niceties. Was she always like this? I suspect not. Her father is Captain Jack Reese, the man who had a part in setting Charlie up for the murder of the Seybolts. It’s clear that he was a hard man to live with, most notably when Dani says to Charlie in episode 1x09 Serious Control Issues: “I spent my childhood trying to figure out if my dad was only mean, or just plain bad.” Dani excelled at the police academy and she ended up as an undercover cop for vice. She fell in love with the man that she was investigating and became a junkie herself (which suggests that she used to be a little too good at developing a connection with people). She got pulled into the dark hell of addiction, screwing up her job, disappointing her family, and eventually seeing the man she loved shoot himself (hinted at, not confirmed), but she was too wrapped up in her addiction to care. She hit rock bottom, went to rehab, and did whatever she had to do to get back on the force. She was reassigned to homicide under Lt. Karen Davis (Jack Reese’s old partner) and she got stuck with the crazy guy who just got out of prison as her partner. Reese is just trying to wake up every day and simply live. Just like Charlie, she has a darkness inside of her, and she’s fighting to not lose sight of the light.
We Are None of us Alone
Together, Crews and Reese are yin and yang. Charlie is tall and pale with brilliant red hair and pale blue eyes, while Reese is short and dark-skinned, with dark hair and dark eyes. There’s a bright innocence and openness that seems to surround Charlie, while Reese is very closed-off and practical. Charlie likes to talk, while Reese prefers the quiet. Despite their differences, they effortlessly get each other. They’ve both been to hell and back, and this commonality between them is a source of comfort. Reese always knows when to let Crews do his thing, and she knows when she has to rein him back in. She creates boundaries for him. She’s also the only character that ever forgets about his time in prison. Charlie knows that Reese can take care of herself. He takes joy in annoying Reese with his constant chatter and curiosity, but he also knows when to stay silent. He’s slowly drilling a hole into Reese’s shell and figuring her out. There’s a great equality to the Crews/Reese relationship, despite Reese being Charlie’s superior.
1x01 - Merit Badge
The very first moment when Crews and Reese meet is such a great setup for the tone of their partnership. We see Crews staring at the sun, off in his own world, and Reese’s voice pulls him back to reality.
“Detective Crews! Detective Crews! You are Detective Crews, aren’t you?”
“Yeah. I guess I am.”
“Okay, well, would you like to be sure? Because we’re about to walk into a crime scene.”
“…I’m sure.”
“Great.”
Right off the bat we see that Reese doesn’t screw around, and she isn’t easily rattled. She walks off and Charlie has to rush to keep up. He’s a little self-conscious about all the people that stare at them, while Reese faces them head on with a confident stride, and Charlie falls into step next to her, and already they look like partners for life.
Another important moment from this episode is The Shower scene. A bag of cocaine explodes on Reese, and she’s desperate to get it off of her. She finds the bathroom, but she struggles to get into the shower. Crews, having just killed a young drug dealer, runs to find her, and though he’s confused, he knows what she needs. He gets her into the shower and helps her turn on the water, and the second the water hits them they are both cleansed of their demons, for the time being. This scene was both erotic and spiritual. The organ music playing in the background helped to symbolize the cleansing of their souls, while the movements and the breathing were highly erotic, Charlie even thrusting into Reese and emitting a groan as the water is released from the showerhead, and when Charlie moves away from her and she’s near the end of her cleansing (or climax if we’re talking sexual metaphors), she reaches back to touch his face, prolonging their connection, then she pushes him away and refuses his help in getting out of the tub. This was Reese in an extremely vulnerable moment, and Crews was there to back her up, no questions asked. I really see this as the moment where Charlie gained Dani’s allegiance. From this moment on Charlie Crews is Dani Reese’s partner, for better or worse, and her loyalty will always be with him.
1x05 - Fallen Woman
This entire episode is absolutely amazing from start to finish, but one reason why I love it so much is because it’s the first episode where Crews and Reese really clicked in regards to the way that they viewed their investigation, and from here on out, they were always on the same page. There was much adorable banter throughout the episode, but more importantly, they were there for each other when they needed it. The interrogation of Roman still manages to put me on edge. I love that when Roman makes the comment to Charlie about still being able to stand after 12 years in prison and Charlie looks slightly shaken, Reese jumps right in and diverts Roman’s attention. Unfortunately, Roman starts messing with her head, talking about her junkie ex-lover and her addiction, and it’s interesting how Charlie just kind of stands in the shadows watching it all happen, finding out information about Reese’s past and seeing her in a vulnerable state, which gives the scene a voyeuristic feel. He knows she can take care of herself, but when he sees that it’s too much for her, he jumps in and takes Roman’s attention off of Reese.
My favorite moment, however, was the scene in the car right after they had interrogated Roman.
“When Roman said those things, did you want to shoot him?”
“Yes.”
“Me, too. Did you see yourself shooting him?”
“Yes.”
“Me, too. You lost your faith because of the guy, not the drugs.”
“My faith has been gone so long that I can’t remember when it was that I lost it… Or if I ever even had it.”
This is the most revealing, earnest conversation that these two have ever had.
1x06 - Powerless
Another amazing episode full of wonderful little moments. This is where we get to see protective Charlie, but I love that he trusts Reese enough to back off the second she tells him to. This episode was all about Crews trying to help Reese, and Reese thinking that she doesn’t need help from anyone. When Larson shows up in Reese’s apartment with a gun, she asks Crews for help by dialing his number. Intuitively, Charlie understands what Reese is telling him, and he gives her a moment, and she ultimately saves herself by being strong enough to reveal her vulnerabilities, then by clobbering that Larson bastard in the head with a huge vodka bottle. This scene is so incredibly powerful and absolutely beautiful, and I love that Charlie got to hear Reese’s story, and one could speculate that she wanted him to know her story, she wanted him to know that she’s been through the same kind of hell that he went through.
The scene after this, which has pretty much universally been dubbed The Walk, is quite possibly the moment that brought the majority of shippers out of the woodwork. A vulnerable Reese is stumbling out the door, and Crews rushes to her side, telling her that she needs help (not asking her if she needs it) and he’s clearly expecting a battle, but she takes his arm without an ounce of protest, and they march down the walkway together, the scene very reminiscent of a bride and groom marching down the aisle after having just been married, complete with everyone standing on either side of the path and watching with smiles on their faces, Crews and Reese giving each other adoring looks. Reese finally understands the essence of Zen here. This scene is a great contrast to The Shower, where she resisted help from Crews and was embarrassed that she needed it, whereas during The Walk, she knew she needed him and she was grateful to have him by her side.
1x09 - Serious Control Issues
This is the biggest partnershippy episode to date. This is the episode that solidified their partnership for Charlie, and Dani’s loyalty to Charlie won out over influences from her father and Davis.
- Davis tells Dani that she’s close to Crews, the same way that she got close to the junkie. After this, Dani tries to distance herself from Crews, but in working the case, he pulls her right back in.
- While reprimanding Crews, Dani takes his stresses into consideration, which previously she hadn’t done.
- Dani’s personal and professional life collide when Jack Reese and Charlie have a confrontation. Dani looks like a little kid, and it’s clear that she’s curious as to what’s going on, and nervous about what her father is saying to Charlie.
- The first interrogation scene with Dean. Crews comes in, and he and Reese have a private conversation in front of the suspect about Jack. The fact that someone else was there gives this moment a very intimate feel, strangely. Crews is willing to tell Reese what Jack wanted, but Reese wasn’t ready to hear it.
- Davis asks Dani (right in front of Charlie) if she wants a new partner, and Dani defiantly and looks at her and says with much finality, “No.” This is huge. She’s just chosen Charlie over her own father, the department, and Davis. And this is the moment where Charlie realizes the depth of Reese’s loyalty. I think this is also when Charlie realizes that he wants Reese as his partner. He never really expected her to stick around, and you can tell while he’s waiting to hear her answer that he’s sure she’ll jump at the prospect of a new partner, and when she chooses him, he’s overcome with gratitude and relief, and that was the moment, for him, where Dani became his partner for better or worse. She became someone that he could trust completely, and this really solidified their bond.
- Dani explains that she’s never been sure if her father was a bad guy, and she tells Charlie, “I don’t really understand you, I don’t really like you, but… you’re not one of the bad guys.” This is as close to a lovey-dovey thing that Reese could ever say, and Crews knows it. She was telling him right there that her loyalty lies with him over her own blood, and she knows with all her soul that Charlie is a good man.
- Dani returns Charlie’s knife to him. This is a symbol of ultimate trust on Dani’s part, and it was an incredibly huge gesture for her.
For Crews and Reese, it’s often what they don’t say that’s important. They don’t judge each other, they don’t try to change each other, they just… exist. They find safety in each other and a bond that they don’t have with anyone else. They are both damaged, they both had their lives taken away from them, and they are both trying to heal the only way they know how.
We Shape Clay Into a Pot, but it is the Emptiness Inside That Holds Whatever We Want
Why do I ship these two? Because I really dig the opposites completing each other ships, and that’s exactly what this is. It’s all about the emotional connection, rather than the sexual, despite the fact that both of them are extremely beautiful people. I love that this ship isn’t cluttered with unneeded sexual tension. They are both aware that they’re pretty, but that doesn’t define their relationship. I love ships that aren’t definite in regards to turning romantic, and this ship could really go either way. Right now, they both have too much to deal with to even think about romance with anyone, let alone each other, but I’ve never been an instant gratification shipper. If I have it my way, it will be slow and tortuous and full of ambiguous subtext, and I’ll love every second of it. Do I want them to end up together? Yes. But I’m a fan of just subtly suggesting that they end up together in the last ep, and leave it up to interpretation as to whether they ended up together or not. I believe that this show could pull that off marvelously. But you won’t hear me complaining if we actually get to see them turn romantic, as long as it’s done right. Other people ship them purely as partners, while others only ship them in fanfic, so even the shippers are divided as to whether they want to see it happen on screen or not. So far, I’m loving the ride, and I’ll stay on board no matter where the ship takes me.
I got into the fandom through my friends list. Believe it or not, the pretty icons attracted me to the show (well, that and my f-list praising the show like crazy). I decided to watch the pilot, fell in mad love with Damian Lewis after about 2 seconds, then fell in love with Crews/Reese after The Shower scene. I didn’t become a full on shipper until The Walk though.
Fanfiction
Basically anything by
piecesofalice is a must read, she’s freaking amazing, definitely my favorite Life writer. My top favorites from her are:
The Edge Of
A Mass of Things
Dedication (a Life/In Plain Sight crossover)
Trifecta by
aj
Gobsmacked by
grimorie
22 Dreams by
adlervan
The Charlie Crews Guide to the 12 Days of Zen Christmas by
adlervan
Multi-chaptered fic by
15lbpurebunny
You can find even more goodness at:
life_fic and
crews_reese.
Fanvideos
Near to You by theevilpuppy06
You’re the One by imsanehonest
Learning How to Bend by
firthgal. I feel like a tool for putting my own vid on here, but… it’s my manifesto, so there you go.
Resources
crews_reese
pers_pineapple
life_fic
life_tv
damian-lewis.com