Title: Flashback by The Ragged Rose
Pairing: Archer/Reed ER, Reed/Ash, Reed/James
Author on LJ:
raggedroseAuthor Web site: Port Of EntryWhy this must be read: Daniels sends Reed undercover on a mission to England during World War II. Reed joins an unexploded bomb disposal unit, but his real mission is to find a Suliban booby trap inside a bomb, thereby saving the timeline. The fic connects Reed and his 2.03 "Minefield" experience to his new job defusing bombs, focusing on the emotional intensity that certain death brings to relationships. It also presents Reed at work doing something he loves and is good at, all while concealing his true self and his true motives even as he finds himself drawn to the soldiers in the unit he's working with, leading Reed to ponder the essence of what makes up a person. The world-building is spot on, and the fraught conversations Reed has with both Ash and James ring absolutely true, telling us something about Reed as well as about the 1940s worldview of homosexuality.
Although the fic has a whole extra layer of resonance if you know who the
Danger UXB characters are, it stands alone as a wonderfully detailed period piece. Ragged Rose provides a summary of the show in her fic headnote as well as a
photo of the cast.
"I understood Ash's job so quickly because mine was built upon the descendants of the same weapons, just as your time and mine were built on the same lives. Strange to hold the past and the future in your hand."Flashback (NC-17)The photo at the top of Ragged Rose's fic page has Ash on the left and James on the right. Ragged Rose also posted a Reed/James PWP NC-17 sex scene that didn't make it into the story entitled Only A Dream.