I completely understand what you mean about needing canon to latch on to, bb - I'm a complete canon whore and can't ignore it, with maybe one or two exceptions :/

And pilots were the OTP for so many of us, I'm with you in feeling that it'll be hard to recapture the magic with another couple (even the pilots-reminiscent couples, like Rob and Cassie, seem to suffer inordinately - that ending left me so gutted, I doubt even fanfic could make things feel even temporarily better :(

tv-wise, the closest I've found to pilots is, weirdly, on Downton Abbey though of course they are very different characters, and things are executed a bit differently there, couple-wise. And I do like Kalinda and Cary, though more in an 'interested observer' way than in 'oh goodness please get together already', I love her as a character.