Northern Light by Shadow, NC-17

[julia-here.livejournal.com]

I did not notice until I was going through the list of fics I'd been accumulating since April that I had accumulated two "Blind Ray" fics; this is a very different story than "Due For a Change" whatever structural or thematic commonalities they share.


Fandom: DUE SOUTH
Pairing: Kowalski/Fraser
Length: Novellette in four linked parts
Author on LJ:unknown
Author Website:A Real Adventure
Why this must be read:Because it was an award winning story in 2003 but hasn't been recommended here before, because it has some wonderful OCs and gives a great picture of how people in small towns take care of each other, because Kowalski and Fraser are both rational and yet it still manages to be a little romantic and very hot.

Excerpt:

"What's at the truck?" I said suspiciously, trying not to stumble. There was a tapping sound off to my right. "And what's that sound?"

"I'll show you what's at the truck," John chuckled. "And the tapping is my cane. Don't you have one?"

Oh, yeah. The life skills lady had given me one. I'd never gone out, so I'd never used it.

"Yeah, somewhere," I said vaguely. "I could make a comment right now about the blind leading the blind."

"And I'd tell you I'd heard it about a million times," John laughed. "Okay. Here we are. Here, take this." Something hard and dry was shoved into my hand - a dog biscuit.

"What's this for?" I asked, but I already knew, I could hear the panting on the other side of the door. I heard John open the truck door.

"Go ahead and give it to her," John urged. "Her name's Niri."

"Hey, Niri." A big old soft mouth gently took the dog biscuit, and I tried real hard (and successfully) not to poke any eyes out as I ruffled the big fuzzy head. "Hey, that's a good girl. What a nice big girl." Okay, nobody can say I'm not sentimental around dogs. I gave her a hug and got a kiss on the cheek for my trouble. She was big, all right - as big as Dief, or maybe even a little bit bigger.

"So what's her name mean?" I said, still hugging.

John chuckled.

"Believe it or not, it's Inuktitut for 'eat'," he said. "Which is her favorite pastime in the world. I think she gets it from Diefenbaker."

"Oh." I grinned. "You mean she's - "

"His daughter," John said. "Her mother's a full-blooded malamute."

"Is she, like, your guide dog?" I asked.

John chuckled again.

"Nope," he said. "She's yours."

Northern Light

Comments

[akamine_chan]

Thanks for this one. I had not read it...

[julia-here.livejournal.com]

YAY! I found it in the earliest part of the ds_ficfinders archive. That's a great place to while away a few dozen hours- when I started to look for fics to rec, I looked at it every night for most of a month.

Julia, a discouraging number of the links are dead, but the ones which aren't contain some good stuff.

[akamine_chan]

I had run across Shadow's Bucket series through a request for a fic find at ds_ficfinders, but I missed Northern Light somehow...finding a good story I haven't read always makes my day...sleep tight.

[sophiap.livejournal.com]

Thanks for reccing this! I'd read it ages ago, and had forgotten about it until now. Methinks it's time for a re-read.

[julia-here.livejournal.com]

It does seem to be forgotten, maybe because it's not as epic as other better known takes on this trope (a few of which I recommended on my journal yesterday, along with a story with one of my favorite female OCs).

Julia, thanks for commenting!

[nos4a2no9.livejournal.com]

That's an excellent rec! Very good selection, and hopefully one that's new to a lot of folks.

I've really been enjoying your crack_van recs. Thank you very much for shining the spotlight on so many great stories! It's been a pleasure to rediscover some old favourites, and you've pointed out one or two new stories that I'd somehow missed. I'm looking forward to the rest of your recs!

[julia-here.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I'm trying to find stories which have fallen through the cracks and recommend them on my journal, too, although I'm dealing with a case of the viral intimation of mortality which sometimes leads to some less strenuous searches (although, hey, I know at least one person in my home posting board who had never read anything by Speranza! so even the easy searches serve someone, yes?).

Julia, today I'm going to ramble on for a bit about living in the area where Hudson Bay Co. was the first settler, and where all our weather comes from the same place.