Northwest Passages, by Wintercreek (R)

[akamine_chan]

Fandom: DUE SOUTH
Pairing: Benton Fraser/Ray Kowalski
Length: 1,537 words
Author on LJ: wintercreek
Author Website: ds fics
Why this must be read: because wintercreek is one of the hidden gems of our fandom and this story is a perfect example of why. Ray Kowalski ponders the meaning of Northwest Passages from the vantage of his settled life, thinking about where he's been and where he is now. It's a lovely introspective piece topped off with a terrible come-on line and laughter.


The first time Ray heard the song, he was 200 feet down an ice crevasse. At the time, he was thinking about facing death on two fronts. There was the stuck-in-an-ice-crevasse kind of death, which, yeah. Obvious. And there was the less obvious, the kind of death he'd been fearing in a way that hemorrhaged all over everything, that poured out into all his conversations, a rush much faster than any melting ice - the who-am-I-if-I'm-not-who-I-think-I-am death. Identity death. Ray was good at undercover, good at walking slowly over someone else's life and listening for the shifting creaks under foot. He could do that in a Zen kind of way, a way that let him focus in so close that he didn't have to hear the groaning of his own shifting self. Ice breaking, whatever. Do the job, Kowalski.


Northwest Passages