Fandom: STARSKY AND HUTCH
Pairing: Starsky/Hutch
Author on LJ: http://mara-snh.livejournal.com/
Author Website: http://meandthee.shahrazad.net/author.php?authorid=97
Why this must be read:
I knew I was in for a treat after reading the first few sentences.

“This is how many keypunch holes it took for the Department of the Army to generate its April 1966 letter to Kenneth Hutchinson, of Duluth, Minnesota, informing him that it wanted his ass:
[][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][]
[][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][]
[][][][][][][][][][][][]
If Dave Starsky's immediate response to a similar message pulled from his Bay City mailbox in the same year could have been transliterated, hole for letter, into the vernacular of his Brooklyn boyhood, it would have read:
[][][][]”

Mara's "chapter" headings are fabulous. She's one great writer, and this is one great story.

Show Time

FANDOM: MAGNIFICENT 7
Pairing: Chris/Vin
Author on LJ: sara_merry99
Author's Website: Sara_Merry99
Why this must be read:

As promised - I give you my personal OTP: Chris/Vin.   I can definitely see other pairings - Chris/Buck being the big other one I can see, and even more so, I can see the triad that's already been rec-ced, The Skip Trace Universe as written by Charlotte C. Hill and Maygra.

But when I came into the fandom as a Vin-lover, Chris and Vin seemed the most 'together' to me - two men with dark pasts that we only see in little pieces here and there, two men who think so very alike that they can share an idea with a look.

Sara_Merry99 was one of the first writers in this fandom I had the great honor and pleasure to get to know, and her writing speaks for itself.  She can capture the softer side of these men - a gunslinger and a former bounty-hunter - in eloquent yet concise words and images, her writing spare and elegant.  Had I not already been a Vin-lover, I would have fallen in love with him just from her writing, and even if you aren't a C/V-er, her imagery is worthy of the read alone.

She's written a number of things, but this stand-alone is my favorite of hers.  It's a beautiful suggestion of Vin's past merged with the newness of his present and blended with the wild violence of the American west.  Little humor in this one, but well worth the read.

Hawk

Fandom: NCIS
Pairing: Leroy Jethro Gibbs/Donald 'Ducky' Mallard
Author on LJ: toomuchfandom
Author Website: Willow's Fanfiction Archive

Why this must be read:

Anita is well-known amongst Gibbs/Ducky fans for her Gibbs/Ducky stories, but this one is a little different. It is a Gibbs/Ducky story, but it is told entirely from Abby's point of view and the relationship is 'off-screen'.

Abby is not an easy character to write in many ways as getting the right balance for her bouncing and hyperactivity and her speech pattern is not always simple. It's easy to fall into the trap of just making her a whirl-wind without any pauses for breath, which isn't Abby. In this short story Anita achieves the balance to perfection. Abby is actually writing in her diary, and she writes as she thinks and talks. I could hear and see her so clearly as I was reading the story, I kept expecting her to be there.

There are several threads in her story, relating to her own beliefs, to Gibbs and Ducky's relationship, to her own relationship with Gibbs and Ducky, to the cases they work and the other team members - and Anita gets all this in in just under a thousand words. It's a very simple little story on one level, but on another level it's far more complex. And it gives the reader an incredible insight into Abby and how she feels about her job, and about her two favourite men.

She shows us they are in love, she shows us they are friends, she shows us how much they care  - and how much they trust her. It's a short read, but an excellent one.


( Extract )

---

Questions

Fandom: HOUSE
Pairing: Cuddy/House
Author on LJ: hihoplastic
Author Website: author's House tag on LJ
Why this must be read:

This left me fairly inarticulate when I first read it. I'm not overly confident I can express how wonderful it is, now. House and Cuddy have a secret language that sometimes they don't even understand. I think of this fic as a series of moments in which they learn to hear and be heard. It's about things as they might have happened, might still happen, might be happening right now, somewhere. It is solemn and joyful, beautiful and aching; full of sorrow and deep, abiding love.

( You can’t forgive someone when there’s nothing to forgive )

Read Straight to Center.