X-Files/OZ (not rated by author but I'd say R for violence)

[lapillus]

Title: Slash Evidence: The Vignettes -- Cakewalk by Saundra Mitchell
Pairing: none
Author on LJ: Unknown
Author Website:No ones that I can currently locate. Her stories at Down In The Basement can be found here.
Why this must be read:

Because there are too few Krycek-in-prison stories and this one is a wonderfully hard-edged and unromanticized vision of Krycek paying for the crime of being caught. Everyone is in character here (it's set sometime after Terma in X-Files and in the first couple of seasons of OZ, and in the case of OZ ends up departing from canon) and if you know one show but not the other you'll still be able to follow along just fine. This is definitely more a Krycek character study with Oz providing a background in which the study takes place than a story designed to illuminate both sets of characters equally.

"Kak dva pal'tsa obossat." The words echo in the dank cell, filling the space. He could do this, easy. He's been in worse places than this, and he already knows a few tricks. Keep talking. Don't bother moving. Eat when you get the chance. "Kak dva pal'tsa obossat." This is a piece of cake. Somehow it was more amusing in the short term to keep the patter up in Russian; one of the hacks had already peeked through the slot to see what the hell he was up to. That was in his first half-hour, when he'd still been hopped up on enough adrenaline to sing folk songs at the top of his lungs.

For a brief moment, he had been wary of the hole, a dark place too much like the silo he'd been trapped in months before, but somehow this place is different. If he listens closely, he can hear people outside. The walls here are damp to the touch, and the air isn't thick with dust to choke him. This place seems almost comforting, so he settles in for his stay.

Twenty years. He laughs out loud, just because he can. I'll be out in two months, he thinks confidently. This is just a lesson, an object lesson, he could hear the Dark Haired Man's voice in his head if he tried. //You got sloppy, Alex, and this is not acceptable. Do your penance so we can work together again in the future.//

This little stint in Oswald Maximum Security is punishment; not for committing a crime, but for getting caught. One shot, one kill, don't get caught. He laughs to himself again, rubbing the stump of his left arm. "Two out of three ain't bad," he murmurs. Some things just sound better in the original English.

Cakewalk