Fandom: HIGHLANDER
Characters: Methos, Duncan, Joe, Richie
Length: 2,723 words
Author on LJ: amand_r
Author Website: http://amand-r.livejournal.com/321506.html
Why this must be read:
With a nod in style to Bridget Jones' Diary, Methos records the events surrounding Archangel in his own journal. How does the oldest immortal deal with the events? Well, you know there must be alcohol involved.

Adam Pierson's Diary

Fandom: BATTLESTAR GALACTICA (NEW)
Characters/Pairing: Kara, Caroline; Kara/Zak, Kara/Lee
Length: ~4500
Author on LJ: spamdilemma 
Author Website: bsg fic
Why this must be read: On pre-apocalyptic Caprica, Caroline Adama meets Kara Thrace. Zak is there too, and even Lee, but this story focuses on the relationship between these two women; they're not exactly friends, and not exactly mother/daughter, but maybe somewhere in between. It's a lovely portrait of both characters, and Caroline (the pre-Day in the Life Caroline) is drawn with an exquisite hand.

Excerpt:
"Caroline," Kara says, testing the word out. She bites her lip. "About the other day, I just wanted you to know - I didn't want you to think that I'm like that normally. Well, maybe I am, but the thing is, what I feel for Zak is, um..."

"You don't have to explain," Caroline says gently. "I can tell you love each other."

"You can?" Kara asks, hesitant, unsure, and Caroline can't help herself. She takes Kara's hands in hers over the table between them.

"I can," she says.

Thy Delicious Notes

Fandom: CSI
Pairing: Nick/Greg
Length: 9110 words
Author on LJ: rurounihime
Author website: CSI fics archived at What Makes the Desert Beautiful
Why This Must Be Read:

I wasn't going to rec another story by the same author (and certainly not one right after the other) but then after rereading this fic, I changed my mind. Why? Because for the amount of trauma the boys have experienced in canon, they should have some issues, and this story deals with those issues and how they might arise (or not, as the case may be) as the boys try to navigate a new relationship.

Quite frankly, I'm always surprised that Nick isn't an emotional wreck after the events of "Overload" and "Grave Danger" and that's saying nothing about Greg's "Fannysmackin'" drama and the resulting lawsuit. Maybe Nick gets through it with a healthy dose of denial, but maybe there's a cost to denial. A physical cost. (Yeah, not too many stories deal with this subject at all, much less sensitively. Full marks for that.)

For once in a story the drama between them isn't about them getting together, or Nick coming out, it's about someone with a lot of baggage dealing with his insecurities in a quietly realistic way. With bonus points for Catherine and Brass, who have small parts in the story, but remain in character, full of silent and grim understanding, both of them sympathetic in entirely different ways.



Transcending the Trouble

Fandom: STARGATE: ATLANTIS
Pairing: McKay/Sheppard
Length: 4,700 words
Author on LJ: esteefee
Author Website: My SGA Fiction by Tag
Why this must be read: This is a fantastic character study of John, in which a lonely stint in an off-world prison brings the important things in his life into clear focus.

Solitary

Fandom: TORCHWOOD
Pairing: Jack/Ianto
Length: 23,000 words
Author on LJ: kuzibah
Author Website: None
Why this must be read: The premise of this is a classic: an alien child is stranded on Earth, and Jack and Ianto quite literally end up holding the baby. It's hard to do kidfic well, but this is one of the rare exceptions that pull it off with style.

Gift from Above: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3