Five Reasons Ray's Glad He Never Had Kids by Giulietta, PG-13ish

[julia-here.livejournal.com]

Fandom: DUE SOUTH
Pairing: Kowalski/Fraser
Length: 4253 words
Author on LJ: mondschein1
Author Website: Giulietta's Lair
Why this must be read: Because for a man who never had kids, Ray is a good dad. Because the story of the kid he never had shows, with affection and insight, Ray's growth as a person, the way that the divorce, his job, and his growing relationship with Fraser are effected by the presence of someone who needs cared for. All of this makes the kid he never had (whose name is Chuck, or sometimes Charles) end up being a pretty great human being. This is a witty and gracious piece of writing, and a welcome addition to the kidfic library of Due South fandom.

Excerpt:

"Yeah, Chuck?"

"Daddy. My name is Charles."

Yeah, right. Like a three-year-old needs to sound like a forty-year-old stockbroker -- that was Stella's idea, anyway. Give the kid some fucking dignity. Ray, on the other hand, has some trouble figuring out how to stick diapers and dignity on the same kid, but then that's probably why she left him. Left them both. "Right, right. Sorry. What's up, Charles?"

Chuck drives a car over his right knee, making engine noises with his mouth. After a second, he seemed to realize that Ray's watching him. "I, um." He blinks. "I miss mommy."

Oh, boy. Here come the waterworks. Ray abandons his socks to go comfort him, or something -- only Chuck doesn't really seem to need it. He looks pretty happy, which Ray himself probably would be, if he was three years old and sitting in a pile of toy cars. "Uh, yeah. About your mom -- " Ray rubs at the back of his neck, trying to come up with a good way to put it. "She's -- not gonna be around so much anymore. She's -- well, she's -- "

"She's working," Chuck finished for him, totally matter-of-fact.

"Right. Right, I guess." Not like the kid hasn't heard that before. "But it's not that she doesn't love you, yeah? And I'm not going anywhere, so you don't have to -- "

"I know."

" -- worry about -- uh. You do, huh?"

"Yeah. We're buddies." And he holds up a fist for Ray to pound.



Five Reasons Ray's Glad He Never Had Kids

Comments

[primroseburrows.livejournal.com]

Wow, this is great. I must have missed it when it first was posted. Yay for crack_van (and yay you for reccing!)!

[julia-here.livejournal.com]

This was posted right before DS_Match (I think) started posting last August, and I suspect a lot of people missed it; I had the rest of my crack_van recs set in stone at that point, and mentioned it in my personal journal as something worth reccing.

I was sort of surprised it hadn't been recommended in the year since.

Julia, this round of recs is turning out to be something of a tidying up of stuffI missed back then; good thing, too, because I've got the punies.

[mondschein1.livejournal.com]

Wow, I completely missed you reccing me -- stupid bloody RL. Thank you so much for doing so; I must admit, it startled me somewhat when I logged onto my site counter and found that I'd gotten nearly 300 visitors. (Usually a large number of visitors for me is, like, forty-five. So yeah.) Eventually I tracked all the people down to here, and was pleasantly surprised at all the kind words. Again, thanks so much for reading, and for your feedback!

[julia-here.livejournal.com]

Wow, now I'm feeling drunk with power!

It's a great story, and thanks for writing it!

Julia, and thanks for commenting here, so I could see a big whacking sentence fragment and correct it, oops.