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Summary
The prequel to To Live A Little and All The Way Home. Illya is blinded during a mission in Stockholm. His world has become completely changed, and he is forced to adapt to a new way of living. But Napoleon is there to help him through.
(I'll probably never be entirely happy with this one because I like confident adjusted blind!Illya much better than newly blind!Illya. But if I don't upload it now I never will. I'll try to get it all up over the next few days.)
Series
- Part 4 of To Live A Little
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Bookmark Notes:
Excellent story. It's the first I've read in the series (said it was Prequel, so I started here) and it's been such a ride. The blinding, when Illya gets acid thrown in his eyes, is horrific, and you're along for the ride with all the pain and shock and fear. Poor Napoleon can't always stick around, he has to corral the bad guys (they're in Sweden at the time), and hospital rules are strict, so sometimes Illya had to be on his own.
Getting back to New York is an ordeal, and once Illya's out of UNCLE hospital, Napoleon just moves him in with him. It's a long, slow slog. Illya is terribly depressed and even suicidal at times, and Napoleon is just as scared and worried and overwhelmed. But in the middle of this they find each other in a different way, and romance brings a little comfort and respite and hope. Illya eventually gets his depressed angry sad sack of a self up and into a school for the blind to learn how to function, Thrush attacks a couple of times, and Waverly patiently waits for Illya to figure out some skills so he can come back to work in UNCLE.
Author did some research on schools for being blind, and aids (in the 60s) and there's so much thought into the psychological and physical adaptations Illya has to make. (And Napoleon, too.) But the end goal is for Illya to be independent, rather than an object of pity, and by god, he's going to get there.