Hemoglobin by Snowpuppies (PG)

[slartibartfast.livejournal.com]

Fandom: ANGEL
Pairing: none
Length: 645 words
Author on LJ: snowpuppies
Author Website: Unknown
Why this must be read: This is short and - not sweet, sweet is the wrong word, but it's beautiful in a dark way. It stays so true to how Fred's mind works, showing little pieces of her life twisted up with her thoughts on blood. The last paragraph is a killer that made me want to re-read it about fifteen times in a row straight after finishing it.

Blood, her fourth-grade science teacher had explained, is like a train. It follows along a carefully routed track, carrying oxygen and nutrients to one station, then picking up the wastes before heading off to dispose of them.

And the cycle repeats, continuing for the entire life of an organism.

She remembers this, remembers every word, all the way back from the fourth grade. Remembers being fascinated by such a simple and complex process—osmosis and semi-permeable membranes, erythrocytes and leukocytes—and although her attention soon moved on to the complexity of physics, the spin of electrons and magnetic dipole moments, part of her is still awed by the simple beauty of blood.

Hemoglobin