Fandom: SPOOKS (MI-5)
Pairing: Ros Myers / Andrew Lawrence
Length: 4500 words
Author on LJ: zulu_ottawa
Author Website: Fanfiction.net profile and stories on Spooky_doings
Why this must be read:

Ros and Lucas: those two just got each other. They were quippy, emotionally damaged, rabidly loyal, totally lacking in caution, and a lot of other things that are hard to describe. They were also completely awesome.

This story is a lot like that. It’s set between series 8 and 9 as Ros’ life hangs by a thread.  It’s about Ros at the end of her character’s journey, and Lucas coming to a new place along his own path. Andrew Lawrence, the Home Secretary no one quite knew what to think of, and Harry Pearce also get their moments.

Like a poem that stuns you into silence, this is a story that can’t truly be described, only read and experienced.


Excerpt:

“You look exhausted, Lucas,” Harry says sincerely.

Lucas straightens from where he's been leant against the wall, his jacket sliding against the surface. “I'm fine, Harry,” he insists roughly, rubbing a hand over his eyes.

Harry doesn't push him. He knows his concern.

“Ros seems to enjoy your company,” he says lowly. The hospital is near silent, repressive, so they are reverted to whispers.

Lucas gives a slight smile, leaning his head back against the wall. “Not as much as Andrew Lawrence,” he states. Harry sees the slight flicker of his eyes in the gloom, beneath the exhaustion; a flash of the same animosity he himself feels toward the politician.

Lucas' gaze is gravitated, stolid, so Harry speaks in earnest. “She trusts you, Lucas. After Jo.....”

Lucas seems to tense then, his gaze sharpening. Harry watches his Adam's apple plunge as he swallows. It is a look which lasts only an instant, but with Lucas, Harry finds he is especially attentive toward these moments. With Lucas he has to be careful, watchful, a mimic of the man himself. He takes in a breath. “All I'm saying is, it's good for her to have the support.”

The younger man relaxes, looks down with a lopsided smile of contemplation. “Yeah,” he says, barely audible. He looks up, hands in his pockets, blinks a few times. “I know.”

Jerusalem (also posted on spooky_doings and Fanfiction.net)

zooeyrye

Dimitri’s onscreen characterization was a bit thin, to put it lightly. This story assembles the puzzle pieces of Dimitri’s canon backstory into a dimensional character, a man who despite his courage and resourcefulness finds himself at a loss after an MI-5 operation goes wrong.

The author succeeds at bringing life to Dimitri’s character through his love for the sea, which is transformed into a post-traumatic terror of drowning. His interactions with the other characters, Lucas in particular, are also well done, and bring a small, unexpected ray of hope into the often bleak Spooks canon.

This story is a great Dimitri story, a great Lucas story, and a great exploration of Spooks’ longest-running theme, the price of spying.

Excerpt:

It was almost midnight when Dimitri left the docks. He debated on the drive back to London where he should go. He knew that the team needed to know he was alive. He knew they all probably assumed he was dead. Thames House was going to be nearly empty now, though. He was still mulling things over when a familiar face appeared in his mind, and he gave the driver directions to a flat he had only ever been to once. 

He paid the driver with the money David had given him, and waited until the black taxi had disappeared before heading up the street to the tall building and ringing the doorbell.

Several seconds later, the door opened, and Lucas appeared. He stared at Dimitri. The hand he was using to hold open the door came into view and Dimitri registered the now slackened grip on his gun.

“I swam to France,” said Dimitri, grinning tiredly. “How was your week?”

Cold Waters