Fandom: LFN
Pairing: Madeline/Operations
Author on LJ: jaybee65
Why this must be read:

For my second rec, a "TR" story featuring Madeline and Paul, and the white room chair. This story must be read because Jaybee captures fully all of the elements that make this partnership sing: the power games, the snark, the sex - more or less in that order! Set right at the end of "I Remember Paris" (S3 - if you aren't familiar with LFN, one of the show's gimmicks was that the number of words in the episode title matches the season number. One word titles = S1, two word titles = S2, and so on) this story is well worth your read.

( Here is a short taste )

Read it now!

Breaking Point

Fandom: SENTINEL
Pairing: Jim/Blair
Author Website: Story found here
Why this must be read:

In this story, Jim and Blair met years before when Lieutenant Ellison picked up a rain-soaked, hitchhiking teenager. What follows is a beautiful story of coming of age, finding love, finding yourself, memory and loss, which culminates in a rather brilliant playing out of first season canon to make this less of an AU and more of a might-have-been. Come read and get your heart broken.

"If I were in a situation like this..." the captain flashed a quick, hard smile that made it clear that he would never *be* in a situation like this, "I would choose to believe that I had passed through a phase of experimentation, led astray by a particularly attractive young man."

Wanting to protest, Jim held his tongue when Hguang frowned at him, warning him. "I would hope that my superior officers would understand this and keep all mention of it out of my file."

It was getting hard to breathe. Jim could just barely hear the words, then the tension eased.

"And if...by some twist of fate, some bizarre act of God, these feelings remained, I would wait until my time was up and then act on them in the safer environment of the civilian world."

Struggling not to heave too large a sigh, Jim managed to keep it quiet. "If an officer had to make a decision like that..." he said quietly, meeting the dark eyes, seeing not understanding, but the compassion he'd come to expect, there, Jim tried to phrase his request appropriately. "Would his commanding officer give him some time to think it over?"

Sweet Memory

Fandom: SENTINEL
Pairing: Jim/Blair, minor Jim/Naomi
Author Website: Nine Muses
Why this must be read:

This is one of several stories in the fandom with sequels by other people where all the stories are very much worth reading. Jim and Blair want a child, which Naomi carries to term. What follows is life, messy, complicated, and wonderful.

"Yeah. You, me, Mom and the turkey baster."

Blair's eyes widened in horror as Jim looked away.

"It was a turkey baster, wasn't it?" he had to ask.

Jim's gaze had dropped to the floor.

"Jim! That was my mother! How could you!" Blair shrieked.

"I was nervous, she helped, it just happened."

"Oh God Oh God oh God oh God." Blair was holding his hands over his ears, muttering his mantra over and over.

Paternity Blues by Jen Riddler
Puppy Dog Tails by Jen Riddler
Snapshots by Saraid

Fandom: Due South
Pairing: Fraser/Vecchio
Author on LJ: xtricks
Why this must be read:

Something a little different for my third rec. There's a hell of a lot of genderfuck floating around in the DS fandom, but surprisingly little of it seems to centre around the show's canonical cross-dressing episode. This one does, but that's only one reason why I love it. Xtricks takes us through the process Fraser goes through to become Ms Fraser/Miss Pinsent in a way that's funny but not at all mocking, and then, to make it extra special, shows us that Vecchio can actually be attracted to Ms Fraser just as much as he is to Constable Fraser. And if cross-dressing Fraser isn't enough incentive to read, then any story that contains the line,

Fraser was playing with his breasts when his phone rang

has to be worth a look.


Unbecoming, part one and part two.

Fandom: THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN
Pairing: None
Author on LJ: Unknown
Author Website: Unknown
Why this must be read:

AU's are the norm in Mag7, the biggest being a modern day ATF setting for the boys. This entire AU started out as a dream sequence almost and expanded to something that has its own canon. I've seen many people read ATF fic that have never seen the show, and have found the episodes only because of the fic.

This piece was my introduction to the Mag7 ATF world and as such I have a real soft spot for it. When I read it I didn't realise that the AU was so huge, but it's a great introduction nonetheless. A lot of fic, both ATF and old west, plays on the distrust between Ezra and the rest of the boys, in this story it's a case of whose word to take. Heather has managed to bring the Old West dynamics across to ATF really well and it's a good rounded story to break you in.

Witness

Fandom: SUPERNATURAL
Pairing: Gen
Author on LJ: traveller
Author Website: memories
Why this must be read:

I am SO GLAD that I get to rec this universe to you all. We all remember back in season one when Dean and Sam passed themselves off as Men of the Cloth? And how that sparked off a thousand kinks we didn't know we had? Cee took this idea and ran with it. This is an AU, obviously, where Sam and Dean do their thing... but with a little more heavenly influence.

Cee just has this way of building universes and drowning you in them. It's a good thing, honest. :)


( Excerpt. )



Rituale Romanum

Fandom: MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E.
Pairing: Illya/Napoleon
Author on LJ: graculus
Author Website: The Grotto

Why this must be read:
Once again Illya is captured. Once again Illya is used as bait. Once again Illya is tortured by a psychopath. And once again Napoleon rescues him. Then the story takes an unusual twist.

Something is very wrong with Illya, even though he denies it, and Napoleon is worried. What exactly happened in the warehouse? And what did Thrush do to Illya? To make matters worse, Illya is supicious of Napoleon's actions as they seem out of character. Illya is having trouble remembering exactly what happened in the warehouse, but still, his partner's response to his capture seems unusual. So now both agents are circling around, trying to find out what's wrong with the other, while denying that anything is wrong with themselves.

Not exactly your typical hurt/comfort story. Illya's been hurt, which isn't unusual, but here Napoleon is not only having to deal with trying to comfort him, but also determine what happened to his partner at the same time as he's trying to ignore his growing recognition of just what Illya means to him. And the more he tries to hide his emotions, the more suspicious Illya becomes. And then Illya snaps and breaks and Napoleon realizes a few things about his partner and himself.

A fascinating insight into the mens' brains and their feelings for each other.

( read a segment of the story )

The Reciprocity Affair