Madrigal's Fanfiction Recs: Miscellaneous.

*****MOST STORIES HERE ARE SLASH*****

Here are some of my favourite Miscellaneous stories, those from the rarer fandoms.
Click on the author or story name for the link to the place they can be found on the net.

Stories by M Fae. Glasgow are linked to the Oblique fanzine website,
where you can search for the story via fandom.

Warning: Description of the stories may contain spoilers.

Stories marked with this symbol

are highly recommended.

I'm happy to supply a copy of any story that has no link supplied by email on request.
This offer does not apply to stories marked "zine only".

These recs are sorted alphabetically by FANDOM, THEN AUTHOR, then TITLE.

All stories are dated and the latest added to the site are marked

21 JUMP ST:

	SUAINE: "Candles And Chemistry." [No Link]
12/11/09 29kb	Tom Hanson/Doug Penhall. The McQuaid brothers are sent undercover to a school where a principal is murdering the students.
	"Do you kiss guys a lot, because that was- that was-" Penhall made a gesture of frustration. Neither of them had the words, because this was wrong and very much the hottest thing Hanson had done in a long time, but also wrong.
	Except, not as wrong as it could be. Hanson chuckled, too much emotional stress spilling out of him.
	"What's so funny?" Penhall looked almost pleading and that just set Hanson off on another bout of giggles.
	"Just," Hanson said, between laughs, "I'm really kind of glad we're not actually the McQuaid brothers."
	Penhall looked amused, and fixed which was far more important - he didn't seem to want to run off at the next opportunity. "Hmm, maybe. But you know, those McQuaid brothers really do touch a lot."
	This story is quite good, although I found the background plot a little thin.
ACTION:

	VALERIA: "Fire And Ice."
16/10/04 146kb	Peter Dragon/Cole Riccardi. Cole Riccardi is threatening to "come out" as gay and interfere with Peter Dragon's profits from their latest movie. In desperation, Peter pretends that he, too, is gay.
	Weird feeling, having someone you'd seen in seventy-millimeter Sensurround closeup nine dozen times actually there, inches away from you, staring--at you. No screen, no lens. Even after you'd dealt with these guys in person for years, with their minus I.Q.s and their killer B.O. and their tantrums and DUIs and underage girlfriends (boyfriends?--oh, Jesus, fourteen-year-old girls are one thing but DragonFire can't handle a "man-boy love" scandal, Riccardi, you stupid fuck), and their idiot ramblings about their "art" and their utter and complete lack of any shred of fucking gratitude--even after that, and with no trace of fresh-off-the-boat starfucker left in your soul, you could still get a little lurch in the gut to have one of them right there, face to face with you.
	It was one of the many, many reasons he fucking hated actors.
	The sex in this story is HOT, as Peter falls in love with Cole despite his best intentions. I love this story and I think Valeria has captured Peter Dragon's difficult characterisation perfectly: despite how unattractively venal he can seem, she manages to make him appear sympathetically human as well, which is no mean feat. There is a sequel, which is also excellent, but it's no longer on the net and last time I checked with the author, it was still unfinished.
ADAM DALGLIESH:

	GLASGOW, M. FAE: "Quantum Of Solace."
01/06/04 82kb	Adam Dalgliesh/OMC. Adam Dalgliesh is suffering from burn-out and he finds a deserted bed and breakfast in which to lick his wounds. While there he meets a grieving man who sees right through his walls to the loneliness and isolation at his core.
	He needed a holiday: at least, he hped a holiday was all he needed. This past time had been a cacophonous maelstrom of murder cases sensationalsied by the hunger of the press and an infuriating whirlwind of unwanted publicity. There seemed to be no peace for him either about his 'staggering success' as solving three rather nasty crimes in a row or about his 'hauntingly stunning' new book of poetry. And, much to his extreme distate, most often of all, the desire to unearth what made a 'policeman like him' write 'poetry like that'. An exceedingly unwelcome question for him, especiall since he had no idea what the secret might be.
	As usual, M. Fae Glasgow writes intelligent prose that delights me with it's grammatical perfection <g>. Her characterisations are always interesting and her stories deal with the psychological as much as the emotional - and that's definitely my cup of tea. I love her take on the complex Dalgliesh and also her ability to create a three dimensional original character who can meet the imposing Dalgliesh on equal terms.
AIR FORCE ONE:

	SUE: "Unprecedented."
01/03/05 264kb	President Jim Marshall/Major Ryan Caldwell After the hijack of Air Force One, an openly gay Caldwell is hired by the President to keep him company - and only gradually does Caldwell reealise just exactly what that means.
	"Ryan, let me tell you something about our President. Something that may surprise you."
	"No." Firmly, Caldwell put a lid down on the conversation.
	"What?"
	"I know what you're going to say, and I don't want to hear it. I was in Vietnam too and I know how people got through out there. It was usually booze or drugs or corruption or sex, and the way you're talking… well, it wasn't booze or drugs or corruption, was it?"
	"No. It wasn't."
	Caldwell nodded. "He must have been very discreet; I've never heard a whisper against him."
	This is a lovely story about these two characters, although it's rather more serious in tone and has more sex than Taliesin's "Give A Mouse A Cookie". I was a little put off by the way Ryan was set up as virtually the President's male call-boy at one stage but since he wasn't upset by it, I guess that just me!
	TALIESIN: "Give A Mouse A Cookie."
01/03/05 336kb	President Jim Marshall/Major Ryan Caldwell Jim moves Ryan into the White House to recover from the injuries he sustained protecting the President during the hijacking - and then manages a way to keep him on as his private bodyguard.
	Caldwell could handle all of that. A man of many faces, he could be all those things to these people and more. And he could also be Major Ryan Caldwell, the nobody Air Force officer who'd landed in the softest featherbed he could imagine. Who had his heart on the wrong side, a lot of scar tissue where it was supposed to be, and a hand that never felt the cold. Ryan Caldwell, who was in love with President James Marshall.
	He could even be that last without cracking the facade. Loving Marshall would have been easy, if that were all it was. What he couldn't be was the man who desired James Marshall. That was another Ryan Caldwell, and that face never showed. Except in his dreams. On the bad nights, he dreamed about the plane and was grateful for his soundproofed room. On the worse ones, he dreamed of Marshall and was even more thankful for the soundproofing. Most nights were either bad or worse. Ever since their stay in Britain, an unbroken night's sleep was an unheard-of luxury, and Caldwell wondered how much longer he could keep this up without cracking.
	This is a lovely, sweet, slow get-together story. There is a little too much "we're all gay and everything in the the garden is lovely" sort of fic in places, but this is a tiny criticism of what is, overall, an extremely well-written, well-characterised, very sweet love story. This is highly recommended.
AMERICAN IDOL:

	ASTOLAT: "Claused."
12/11/09 29kb	David Archeleta/ David Cook. Their record contracts have a clause that they have to date another artist if asked, so the David’s are asked to date each other. They have sex and Archie finds out that Cook doesn’t do casual.
	Carly laughed at him for about ten minutes straight when he called her. "Oh my gosh, this is not funny," David said.
	Apparently Cook didn't do one-night stands.
	"I can't believe you didn't know," Carly said. "Also, by the way, he doesn't break up with people. He has to be dumped."
	"I don't break up with people, either!" David said desperately. "I've never even gotten past first base before."
	"Then I expect to be in the wedding party," Carly said, which was so unhelpful.
	I love Astolat's fanfiction and would recommend absolutely any story she writes. I love her characterisations of Cook and Archeleta and the humour. Nicely done.
	ASTOLAT: "Fortunate Son."
12/11/09 69kb	David Archeleta/ David Cook pre-slash. The two Davids are involved in a plane crash, trapped in the middle of winter on a mountainside and caught in an avalanche. How will they survive?
	It was weirdly quiet. The snow muffled everything, covered everything, and only the bitter wind cut through the weird floating feeling David still couldn't shake. He kept getting hit with flashes of the stewardess's ruined face, the blood in a thick line down her chin and purple on her blue uniform. He put a hand over his eyes and pressed down on the lids, like maybe he could squeeze it out of his head. Six hours ago he'd been eating eggs and bacon in a hotel room in New York with a Rolling Stone reporter, feeling like he was pretty hot shit, and he'd never seen anyone killed. Now he was crash-landed in the middle of nowhere with David Archuleta, of all people, and there was a dead woman's blood on his shirt.
	This is one of my favourite AI stories - I love the marooned together, fighting for survival motif. Astolat's writing and characterisations are, as usual, superb.
	ASTOLAT: "Above Water."
12/11/09 69kb	David Archeleta/ David Cook. Sequel to "Fortunate Son.". The Davids go on a camping trip.
	The first moment it occurred to David that maybe he hadn't thought this through was when they pushed off from the bank and got around the first curve of the canyon. The base camp disappeared, and all of a sudden it was just him, and Archie, and not another damn person in the world.
	Nice clueless Cook with Archeleta making all the moves and a fitting sequel for Fortunate Son.
	ASTOLAT: "Mastermind."
12/11/09 27kb	David Archeleta/ David Cook. Archeleta plots the downfall of all the other idol wannabes so that he will ultimately win the crown.
	He put his head down on his arms on the desk and tried not to cry. He'd fought for like, years, to get here. His parents were no help with the stupid, naïve just practice lots! And it'll all work out! crap, and he was about ten minutes away from not being a cute young kid anymore, and the odds got about a million times worse as soon as he slipped out of that zone.
	This brilliantly funny Machiavellian Archeleta should not be missed!
	ASTOLAT: "Proximity."
12/11/09 15kb	David Archeleta/ David Cook. Cook likes to be touched but Archeleta is not so sure - until Cook touches him.
	And sometimes people put their hands on his ass, and it was so not an accident, even if some of them pretended it was, like, oh, wow! I didn't realize I had my hand on your butt. When it happened to him, Archie always wanted to jump a foot away and also be like, hello, what did you think it was! But Cook just grinned and didn't say a thing, and when they had walked away from the fans and were inside the stadium or whatever, he would still be grinning, and sometimes he would actually sort of jump up and down in the hallway and yell, "Whoo!" and say, totally serious, "This is amazing." And if people had been really grabby, he'd just roll his head back and forth and grin at Archie and grip him by the shoulder and shake him a little and say, "Man, is this ridiculous or what?"
	What, totally what, Archie always wanted to say. He liked the bodyguards, because they pushed people away before they could do that kind of stuff to him, as much. Cook usually made his bodyguards stay back—probably, Archie thought a little meanly, because they cramped his style of letting everyone grope him.
	This is a sexier story than a lot of Astolat's AI work but still has her trademark humour.
	ASTOLAT: "Real Forever If."
12/11/09 116kb	David Archeleta/ David Cook. AU. David becomes chemically/sexually “fixated” on Cook at the end of Idol and Cook agrees to mentor him through it, as is the custom. However, soon he becomes fixated on David as well.
	"You don't have to," David said, barely managing to get it out as Cook got close to him. All he wanted to do was grab onto him and beg—he didn't know what he wanted to beg for, but whatever it was, he wanted it so badly he almost wanted to cry.
	"I know," Cook said. "I'm going to, though," and he reached up and took the necklace off, the tight one he wore all the time, and David felt like his chest was going to explode. It was just a simple chain, with the star in the handcuffs, he'd always thought it was kind of a little funny-looking, and now he couldn't stop looking at it. "I thought this could work," Cook said. "That okay?"
	"Yes," David said, though he'd meant to say no, because they were making Cook, and he didn't want—except he did, he did want, and instead he said, "Please," and Cook was saying, "Hey, shh, it's okay, I've got you," and putting the necklace around his neck and fastening it shut.
	An interesting AU alternative to the "aliens made them do it" scenario. Astolat produces an intricatley interesting universe that absorbed me completely.
	ASTOLAT: "Something Wicked."
12/11/09 40kb	David Cook/ Faith. Cook is at a loose end staying with his parents when he gets a text message from an unforgettable one night stand.
	He was playing videogames after dinner when the text message came. hey rockstar im in town c u at the bar at 10 & dont keep me waitng
	It'd been three years and the text message was from an unknown number, but he knew who it was from. He looked at the screen and tried to figure out if she really didn't know. Then he decided he didn't care, and texted her back. im in kc b there by 11. He grabbed his keys and his jacket and kissed his mom. "I'm going to see some people in Tulsa," he said. "I'll be back tomorrow."
	"No, mate, really?" Michael said on the phone; David had called him from the car. "Some girl you were with once texts you out of nowhere and you're driving four hours to meet her? She was that good?"
	David laughed and floored the accelerator. "And then some."
	I can't believe I'm recommending actual Het - only for Astolat!
	ASTOLAT: "Time Of Your Life."
12/11/09 155kb	David Archeleta/ David Cook. David finds out he is gay and attracted to Cook, and has to work through it all as he struggles through the aftermath of Idol.
	"You can't fix it," David said. "It's not you—I mean, it's you, but it's not really you, it's me, I'm just, I don't—"
	"Whoa, there," Cook said. "Breathe, Archuleta. It's—"
	"I'm gay," David blurted. He didn't mean to, it just came out. It took him a second to even realize he had said it.
	Cook's eyebrows had some trouble deciding what direction they wanted to go, up or down, and then he said, "Uh. Okay?" He sounded confused. "And you thought I'd have a problem with that?"
	"No!" David said.
	"So, then—" Cook said, and then he said, "Oh—oh." He sat back and rubbed a hand over his jaw. "Um. Wow." He paused. "Wow," he repeated, and then he shook his head and said, "Okay, sorry, this is just so completely not the conversation I was expecting to have." He looked at David. "Seriously?"
	What I love about this story is the long slow development, Astolat's humour and the inclusion of other Idol characters to round out this sweet slashy tale. This is the first American idol slash story I read and it's still my favourite.
	CELLI: "Wake Up Married."
13/11/09 108kb	David Archeleta/ David Cook. Archeleta and Cook wake up in Vegas married after a drunken binge and are caught by the paparazzi in bed together. They try to save the situation by pretending that the marriage is real and that they are in love.
	"Oh God." Archie crawled to his feet, batting Cook's hand aside, and looked around frantically. His boxers and jeans were crumpled together next to the desk; he picked them up and tried desperately to untangle them. "Oh God, oh God, oh God."
	"Archie," he heard Cook say from behind him, but he wasn't looking, he wasn't looking, he was just going to put on his clothes, he was, oh God. "Archie, whoa, calm down. It's all right."
	"It's the exact opposite of all right," Archie said, yanking harder. Something ripped. "My parents are going to kill me."
	There was a bit of a pause. "Would it even help to remind you that you're twenty-one and they can't actually--"
	"No," Archie said, then caught his own angry tone and frowned. He turned back to the bed--keeping his jeans carefully bunched up in front of him--and made himself smile at Cook. "It's awesome that you're trying, though."
	Cook grinned back. He was sitting cross-legged on the bed, sheet barely covering his lap, and the sun glinted off the chains tangled on his neck and the ring he was playing with on his hand. Archie felt something twist hard in his chest. No. Bad. Okay. Okay. He shook the jeans, and they knocked a bunch of papers off the desk. He leaned over to pick them up. Cook made a weird noise behind him.
	He started to set everything back down and then stopped and grabbed the one on top back up again. "Cook. Cook!"
	"What?"
	Archie turned around and clambered onto the bed, abandoning his jeans. "It's okay!"
	"I told you it was--"
	"No, it's really okay!" He kissed Cook full on the mouth before shoving the paper in front of his confused face. "See?"
	Cook looked down at it, shook his head hard, and then read it again. "We're--" His voice went up a couple of octaves. "We're married?"
	"Thank God," Archie said, and collapsed on the bed next to Cook. "I was so worried."
	"You were worried? Archie, we got married at--at Elvis's Chapel O' Love and Rainbows. And you're fine with that?"
	"What?" Archie asked. "Do you think it's too tacky?"
	More slashy comfort food - funny and full of goofy Archelleta/Cook goodness. I love this story very much and highly recommend it.
BABYLON 5:

	BRUNSON, EMILY: "House Of Flesh." [No link]
01/06/04 62kb	Michael Garibaldi/ Jeff Sinclair After Sinclair has gone for good, Garibaldi mourns and remembers the way they loved each other so briefly.
	There was a later. A moment, some unknown space of time later, when it was over. When they lay spent, tangled together as hopelessly as the pasta Garibaldi so prided himself on making. A later without words, a time that stretched into the briefest glimpse of infinity, spinning a thread of connection that would not be broken. Somehow, as he lay dazed, cradled against Sinclair's sweat-streaked chest, listening to the strong pounding of his heart, Garibaldi knew that much was true. They had opened themselves, and each other, to something greater than the self. What remained, after the straining and noise and cresting pleasure of sex, was a bond stronger than any steel.
	I love this story, especially the scene where they get together and the one where they fuck. This is a very sweet, melancholy story. I love Emily Brunson's stories and this one doesn't disappoint.
	SABINE: "All Love's Unrequited."
08/02/05 86kb	Marcus/Lennier. Delenn's relationship with Sheridan is just beginning and Lennier is devastated. Marcus understands and takes him in hand.
	"You have no idea!" Marcus says. "Delenn is so careful with you, everyone is so careful with you, so afraid you'll break when you find out what the universe is really about."
	I feel sick. I want to leave, but he is a Ranger and I'm alone. So instead I say, "Perhaps."
	"Drink your klepari sour. Live a little."
	Now I stand up. "I think I should be getting to bed," I say. "Thank you for the inak'cha."
	"You don't want to go," Marcus says. "You want to stay here, let me distract you. You want to scream, because you know she's up there watching Sheridan sleep, and you can't admit that it's killing you."
	Not the happiest little slash story but it offers a unique perspective on these two characters who find some solace together away from their separate unrequited loves.
BACK TO THE FUTURE:

	DR WORM: "Cold, Cold Wet Day."
08/02/05 12kb	Marty/George. George has never been able to forget Marty Klein.
	George, however, was surprised to find that, over the years, he could not let Marty go. Something little would bring the other boy back to him, almost every day. A smile from a stranger, blue eyes, a bottle of soda, Lorraine’s gentle touch on his wrist. And sensory memories would come flooding back, memories of some sort of strange adolescent love and lust and blind admiration. They would claw at his consciousness, begging for attention, which he would always give without hesitation.
	Dr Worm likes to play with the dislocation in character and time that Marty's time-travelling brought about and this is a look at George's reaction to a Marty who is becoming increasingly like his memories of a childhood friend. This isn't her best story but I liked the atmosphere created in the story.
	DR WORM: "Remembering Things That Never Were."
08/02/05 10kb	Marty/George. Marty muses over issues of time and the ghosts of a man who was, and one who was not.
	Daddy’s wristwatch went tickticktick in his ear as they embraced awkwardly as strangers on the living room couch. They were alone and yet not, because everywhere Marty went, he saw ghosts. There was his Daddy then, unhappy and tired, sitting at the kitchen table, hair slicked back and ill-fitting clothing bunching in all the wrong places as he tried hard to ignore his children and his wife. And Marty sighed with uncomfortable nostalgia, because that Daddy had been killed and buried without eulogy or headstone. But there was also George, young and fresh-faced and sweetly goofy and earnest; he would spend most of his time at the bookshelves, flipping through novels, smiling and nodding like an overgrown pigeon. Sometimes Marty would look up from his homework in the evenings and see George sitting across from him, notebook flipped open, pen in hand, but only staring. Staring at Marty with wide blue eyes that both beguiled and accused. And Marty would cringe and think, No, this isn’t right. You shouldn’t be here. I gave you what you wanted and more! This is the way it’s supposed to be. And George would lick his lips like a predator and Marty would hear a voice that sounded like George even though it wasn’t, not really. No, you didn’t, it said, time and time again. This isn’t what I wanted at all. Then the image would flicker and fade like the memory it really was, and Marty would be left with nothing but the bitter tangles of his own insecurities convincing him of the unreality of dreams, hallucinations, and things that never were.
	I like this story the most of Dr Worm's Back to the Future tales - it's complex and it made me think. And I especially like the Marty's bittersweet understanding of what exactly it is he has done by tampering with time.
BEND IT LIKE BECKAM:

	NEKO: "Far From Home."
01/07/05 6kb	Jules/Jess. Jules hates it when her mother is right.
	She hates that her mother was right.
	Because she's never right, and of all the things she could be right about, this is by far the worst. Anything else Jules could handle, but this, this just makes her life a thousand times more difficult than it already is.
	Neko is another author I've just discovered who writes in a lot of the rarer fandoms and does it very well. I'd recommend a look at all her fiction, especially her CSI stories. This story is short but sweet.
BIG WOLF ON CAMPUS:

	CRANE, CAROLINE: "History Lesson."
01/07/05 6kb	Merton/Tommy. Merton remembers all the firsts his old couch has seen over the years.
	They've had a lot of firsts on this couch – their first awkward, fumbling kiss happened there, somewhere in the middle of an Evil Dead marathon. One minute Merton was mocking the bad special effects and the next he was flat on his back with a very confused-looking Tommy hovering over him. And he'll never forget that moment, because their teeth clashed when he leaned up too fast and Tommy's elbow was digging into his ribs, but as far as he's concerned it was the most perfect first kiss in history.
	This is a nice, short, basic slash story but a well done one of its sort. Caroline Crane is one of the better writers in some fo the rarer fandoms, of which this is one.
BLACKADDER:

	GLASGOW, M. FAE: "Yule Log."
01/06/04 50kb	Blackadder/Baldrick. Baldrick has a “cunning Plan” and ends up gradually tricking Blackadder into letting him fuck him.
	"I have a cunning plan, Mr Blackadder, Sir."
	"Oh yes, and what is it this time? We go marching up to the Palace, bang on the door, apologise to Her Royal Fatness Queen Victoria and offer you to that ravening pansy prince Albert to roger and hope they give us the 50,000 after all?"
	This is a very funny story and I think the characterisations of both Baldrick and Blackadder are spot-on.
BOONDOCK SAINTS:

	AZRHIAZ: "Confiteor." [No Link]
10/06/05 14kb	Murphy/Connor. Connor McManus goes alone to church in the early morning.
	It shouldn't be this difficult, Connor thinks. He feels deeply that this is wrong--mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa--but on the matter God is strangely silent. He'd spoken to them clearly in the dream, and they had obeyed. Every second of every day since then had revolved, in one way or another, around being His shepherds. Around culling the wicked from the herd. And they had done it, one by one, a great and bloody sacrificial offering.
	But what did this make them, if not wicked? Sure enough and Scripture was clear on the matter. Even as Connor prayed for forgiveness he knew he wouldn't be forgiven, because he wasn't truly sorry. It had felt like stepping back inside a home you'd forgotten you owned. Murph had only spoken of it once, the morning after. He'd sat up from beside Connor, still languishing in the places that were half in the kingdom of sleep, and pulled on a tshirt. Looked at Connor and said "I'm not sorry" before heading off to the bathroom. Connor had no answer to that, merely twisted the cheap white sheets between his fingers and tasted ash and regret.
	This is an interesting look at what Connor might think, not only about incest with his brother, but about their recent acts of extreme violence.
	EROS, RANA: "The Passion Of Paul Smecker."
01/06/04 38kb	Paul Smecker/Murphy & Connor MacManus. Smecker can't stop thinking about the McManus brothers and he jerks off to images of their violent killing sprees.
	I like to fuck men, but most of the men willing to be fucked by me are men I can't stand. Fags. Fairies. Flamers. Men who want to cuddle and talk about their feelings. Men who probably pass out at the sight of their own blood. Do you know what I want? An honest-to-god man. A man who gets into bar fights and swears as much as I do and talks about death without flinching. A man who handles a gun like a pro. A man I can like.
	Don't be put off by the description of what this story is about - although I guess if you've seen the movie you aren't the sort who will be put off! "The Passion of Paul Smecker" is a very well-written story. I love the characterisation of Smecker, which the author has nailed completely, IMO, and I love the intensity of the emotion she generates in this brief glimpse of Smecker's convoluted psyche. I read it with enjoyment even before I saw the movie, and I like it even more now that I have seen it. I have to say, though, that every time I look at the name "Paul Smecker" I get a fit of the giggles because I always think "pecker" <g>. "Pecker", I hasten to explain for those not familiar with this usage, is a slang term for penis. "Smecker" also reminds me of the "Quarentine" episode of the British comedy Red Dwarf: Cat: "Don't correct me! You know how much I hate being corrected. It really gets my feckles up!" Kryton: "It's 'hackles', you moron. It really gets your hackles up. There's no such word as 'feckles'!" Cat: "Feckles, heckles, hackles, smeckles--they're up right now and pointed right at you!"
BREAKFAST CLUB, THE:

	KANEKO: "The Supper Club."
01/07/05 24kb	Bender/Andy. 20 years after the events of the Breakfast Club, Bender is a policeman and Andy is a prisoner in a dead-end job where he's belittled constantly by his father for his druggy past. One night, while delivering a package, he runs into Bender...
	On the week of his thirty-sixth birthday, he stopped to fill up on gas, and maybe buy a Mars Bar or two. It was late and Andy was tired and he'd had to wait nearly an hour for someone to turn up at the last delivery. He didn't even see the cop until he backed up his car and almost ran over the guy.
	"Oh fuck!" he said. And he was a terrible person, but all he could think of was that now he was in so much shit.
	The guy was still knocked on his ass when Andy got to him. "Fuck, man," he said. At least there wasn't any blood gushing - not that Andy could see, anyway. "You okay?" Andy put out his hand to help the guy up.
	"Am I okay?" The cop stared up at Andy like he was the biggest moron on earth. "You are so unbelievably under arrest."
	"Yeah," Andy said. He rubbed a hand over his eyes. "Yeah, I kinda thought so."
	The cop snorted. "I'm kidding, dumbass," he said. He grabbed Andy's hand and hauled himself up.
	It was Bender.
	This story is a little depressing at times - Andy is in a dark grey place where his life is going nowhere and it takes time for this to change - but it's still an interesting read. And it does have a happy ending.
BRIMSTONE:

	THE SPIKE: "Blasphemy." [No Link]
01/06/04 6kb	Zeke/Devil. Zeke and the Devil work through some power issues.
	As I suck his cock, the wind begins to howl. Rain beats down and something flaps once against the window glass. He tastes like ashes and like stone. And a faint essence of something unearthly sweet. I guess even the flesh of fallen angels is divine.
	This is a PWP that resonates with meaning - the best kind. It's short but it packs a powerful punch. I was blown away by this story.
CADFAEL:

	TALIESIN: "Upon The Snowy Field."
08/02/05 48kb	Cadfael/Hugh Beringar. Cadfael is lost in a snowstorm and Hugh Beringar goes after him, only to find him injured in the woods.
	He'd seen Cadfael in all moods at one time or another. Or so he thought. But trust as he did in Cadfael's steel-sharp mind, his dogged determination, even his worldly advice, so unexpected in a monk, he'd never particularly thought of Cadfael as deadly. He knew right well that Cadfael had fought in the Crusades, and was not like to forget it as some did. But there was a long cry from a warlike past to a man holding a knife to your throat.
	This Cadfael, lost in fever, was the young Welsh soldier. No more vigorous and alive than the Benedictine monk, but far more dangerous.
	It would behoove Hugh to remember that, until Cadfael came again to himself.
	This story captures the flavour of the original Cadfael novels extremely well and I love the way the relationship betwen the two develops. Plus I do like this sort of hurt/comfort, where one looks after the other who has been injured.
CASABLANCA:

	DORINDA: "Nom De Coeur."
08/02/05 75kb	Rick/Louis Renault During their long, gritty escape from Casablanca across Africa's increasingly barren landscape, Rick begins to realise that there might be more to Louis - and their new "beautiful friendship" - then he has previosly suspected.
	Rick grinned up at the ceiling. "Louis, you slay me. You're like a bachelor on the run from a bunch of matchmakers."
	"Some men are just not meant for matrimony."
	"Maybe. But I don't get it. You and Vichy bureaucracy, it's a match made in heaven. You can't tell me you didn't even consider it."
	The silence went on this time until Rick was sure he'd had the last word. But again Louis proved him wrong, speaking hesitantly. "I should have."
	Rick thought about the prospect of crossing into the Tibesti alone, really didn't like it, squelched that train of thought, and answered. "There's still time."
	"Not 'should have taken the job,'" Louis said, his voice sharp now. "Should have considered the job. Should have wanted the job. But I didn't."
	Louis lied when it suited him, sure. But Rick knew how most of his lies sounded, and this wasn't one of them. "You didn't. Why the hell not?"
	"You don't want to know. Which, you are thinking, is a ridiculous thing for me to say, since the very act of saying it guarantees that you will want to know. To which I'll say, go to sleep."
	Rick laughed quietly. "I guess that takes care of that."
	"Good night, Ricky."
	"You're really not going to tell me?"
	"Let's not lose all the mystery in our relationship before the honeymoon is even over."
	"Good night, Louis." And Rick turned onto his side and stuffed one hand comfortably under his pillow. His mind wandered vaguely around matchmakers, bachelors, weddings, and honeymoons before he finally fell all the way to sleep.
	As usual, Dorinda writes very subtle fiction. She does not bludgeon you with facts or force conclusions on the reader; rather she allows the story, and Rick and Louis' relationship, to unfold in a beautifully natural way that pleased me greatly. What a pity she writes so little fiction in any one fandom.
	LYRASTAR: "The Beautiful Dawn."
08/02/05 39kb	Rick/Louis Renault. What happens in the aftermath of Ilsa's departure? And how far will the "beautiful friendship" go?
	He pulls a chair up with me and sits arms and knees spread in the body language of unfettered communication. Again I ask him the same questions everyone wants to know. Again I get amusing evasions in return. That's Rick: on the surface so apparently open, but afterward you realize he has given you nothing at all. What he left me with was nothing, but my mind planted the memories and those seeds have sprouted and grown. Of course, it's still nothing; one cannot make matter out of naught; that is simple physics. But at night in my dreams--and in day when my mind wanders, after one too many brandies or one too few afternoon delights--those derivations of memory seem so real.
	Interesting take on the movie - I love what's she's made of the character of Louis, from whose perspective this story is told.
CHIEF, THE:

	ANTRIM, BRENDA: "Full Circle."
01/07/05 58kb	Alan Cade/Ray Doyle. Crossover with The Professionals. Many years after Bodie's murder, Doyle still chases vengeance. Seducing Cade as part of a cold-blooded plan to get his quarry, Doyle finds himself caring more than he cares to - but is that enough to stop his plan to kill?
	Now or never. Cade was as ripe for the plucking as he was ever going to be, and if he hesitated now, second thoughts and sobriety would take his chance from him.
	He stilled, willing the narrowed jade eyes opposite his to look up. It took some concentration, because Cade's attention was focused on the hollow of his throat, seemingly mesmerized by the pulse beating there. Eventually, his stillness penetrated the other man's preoccupation, and he glanced up. Doyle allowed the heat to show in his own eyes, and Cade stared, fascinated. Taking care not to lose that eye contact, Doyle leaned forward slowly, watching the other man's face flush, his eyes widen, pupils dilating. Yeah, he hadn't lost it.
	This is a well done crossover with nice emotional intensity. There's a little too much fanon at times - witness the "jade eyes" in the excerpt above - but overall this is one of my favourite Brenda Antrim stories.
DALZIEL & PASCOE:

	GLASGOW, M. FAE: "A Public Display."
01/06/04 58kb	Wield/OMC. Wield is awkwardly trying to find someone in a gay pub when he's chatted up by a handsome man called Kevin.
	Why the hell am I doing this to myself? Detective Sergeant Wield wondered, staring morosely into the remains of his pint. I've been here once laready and a miserable bloody experience it was an' all, but here I am, setting myself up again. Funny, what loneliness can do to a man.
	This is a realistic and well written story about a relatively minor character in a relatively minor fandom. Detective Sergeant Wield is, in his own words "as ugly as sin" and coming out of the closet late in life. He's uncomfortable with the concept of dating and public displays of affection and this is a wonderful look at how he comes to terms with his new relationship with Kevin, a teacher at the college and friend of Peter Pascoe and his wife, Ellie.
DARIA:

	KASS: "A Slice Of College."
01/07/05 23kb	Daria/Jane. Daria realises she fancies Jane when Jane tells her she's dating another girl.
	They didn't have pizza the next week. Neither one of them called to make a date. Daria told herself midterms were the reason why.
	She told herself she wasn't jealous of Rowena.
	She stood outside the house where the Raft Queer Student Union met, listening to the people laughing and talking inside, but couldn't bring herself to go inside.
	She thought about going to meet with a peer sexuality counselor during open hours, but every time she imagined the conversation and how it might go, she wanted to take up smoking or heroin or something less humiliating and painful than admitting "I have a thing for my best friend and she's dating another girl."
	Femslash! Kass is always good value and this story is tart and terrific. I love Daria and I can hear her voice clearly in this story.
DARK IS RISING, THE:

	ASHURA: "The End Of The Summer."
16/10/04 50kb	Gen? Het? Bran/Will? At the end of his life, Bran receives an unexpected visitor from his past.
	The house, it's about the way she left it. Her pillows, that purple afghan, thrown over the back of the couch; the flowers in the windowboxes and the watering can beneath. The harp in the corner, and he'd play it sometimes if he could, but his old hands are too rough and withered. The scattered leavings of a lifetime, of growing up and leaving home, of coming back, of nervous dates and laughing and newlywed arguments and staying up all night with a baby who won't stop crying. Of homework and first days of school, of long nights with birthing animals and cups of hot tea. Of growing up, and growing old.
	This is a rather mysterious little story and one of its pluses is that the reader can read into it the genre they prefer. It's rather melancholy in tone but I love these sort of mood pieces if the're done well.
	ASHURA: "Light Breaks."
16/10/04 68kb	Bran/Will. Bran and Will are 17 and Will is again spending his summer in Wales.
	Spica had just climbed above the horizon, dangling below crimson Arcturus. The fainter stars were becoming visible at last, tiny pinpricks of white and gold. As recently as half an hour ago, Will would have found them magnificent; but now they wavered in his vision. He was preoccupied now with those same colours in another form; the white of Bran's hair and skin against his own, the tawny gold of his fluttering eyes. A slender shadow dark against the heavens, he lay awkwardly atop Will, who wrapped both arms around his back, frustrated by the barrier of his thick jumper and fumbling for the hem to hunt for more smooth skin beneath. He heard a gasp as he found the knobby ridge of Bran's spine and stroked lightly up the length of it, tore his mouth free to press his hungry kisses into the curve of that smooth white neck, slip up to toy with the lobe of one ear. The salty-sweet taste of his skin was stronger there, and the muted herbal scent of shampoo. Bran's teeth grazed his collarbone, and he whimpered into the skin beneath his lips. For the first time in years, he thought it might be all right after all, that he might somehow survive the long years ahead as watchman of the Light, that he may not have the Pendragon next to him but he might still yet have Bran. And that maybe that would be enough.
	This is a wonderfully sweet first time story without even a drop of angst. The two boys get together simply and sweetly, and I enjoyed it immensely.
	ODDCELLIST: "Half Suite."
16/10/04 11kb	Bran/Will. Will is left behind at 12 by the old ones and, bereft and hurting, he determines not to care about anyone ever again -- until his hormones kick in!
	Once they've reached his room, Bran pulls off his dripping shirt - which should be ordinary enough, Will thinks, and certainly no extraordinary action - and all Will can do is watch, transfixed, forgetting his own dripping clothes for the moment. Because this time, he is the one who has forgotten - how absolutely shocking Bran's skin can be in the half-light that comes with a rain, how beautiful Bran remains. And for all he's seen of how much his absence wounded Bran, Will is enough of a man to note that if he had known, then he wouldn't have walked away, because he has wounded himself too, forcing the separation from Bran. If he closes his eyes now, and calls up the dreams that plagued him at home, even after his trips to London... he can admit now, in Bran's presence, that it was always Bran he held close to him in his dreams, always Bran he had every hope of catching.
	This story is darker than most of the other stories I've read in this fandom but I like the writing very much and it ends happily.
	PARES: "Alignment."
16/10/04 62kb	Bran/Will. Will meets Bran accidentally at a bar in London, in the year they both turn 21.
	Will had never yet had this with another. The people he knew were simple and kind, and he loved them, but he knew better than to hope for some spark of recognition, for some connection. But the world seemed full of sleepers who would never know him, never see the man he was behind his own round face, and now he realized that he had had no other because he had been waiting for this one.
	I like this story very much, especially the mystical parts that echoe the books.
DEAD POET'S SOCIETY:

	AZRHIAZ: "Would That My Tongue Could Utter." [No Link]
01/09/04 8kb	Todd/Neil. Todd is out on the lake in the snow, a week after Neil's death.
	Overhead the sky is metallic, and Todd thinks it will probably snow again today. It has been snowing all week and his heart is broken. The two seem somehow related, but he can't explain, and has no one to explain it to, in any case. Knox would listen, and Todd is fairly certain he wouldn't laugh, but he does not think Knox would understand. He doesn't exactly understand himself, because this is somehow more terrible than just losing a good friend and a roommate. It feels like a room inside him has been cordoned off, the clocks and mirrors covered in the harsh black crepe of silence.
	He realizes, now, that he loved Neil.
	The language in this is evocative and lovely - yet another to add to my collection of brilliant death stories.
	GRAYCASTLE: "To Live Deliberately."
01/09/04 10kb	Knox/Charlie. Every third Saturday, Knox and Charlie meet.
	Charlie runs the First National, and Knox just won a big case for GM. But sometimes, even if it is only every third Saturday, they let their lives get a little messy. Third Saturdays bring pillow fights, or long poker games that go well into the night, or even real stories from Hellton, ones that don't fit the lunchtime script and have to be mumbled into a pillow in the dull twilight. One time, Knox yelled "O Captain, my Captain!" while Charlie was rimming him and they both laughed so hard and for so long that they had to start all over again from the beginning. But that was okay, because third Saturdays don't have much to do with linearity or time frames or schedules.
	I like this story very much: it's deceptively simple but it has a hidden depths.
DIE HARD:

	DARGELOS: "Servant Of Two Masters."
01/09/04 116kb	Pik/Fouchon; Pik/Gruber; Gruber/Fouchon; Fouchon/Eroica. CROSSOVER WITH EROICA. Pik and Fouchon, long time lovers and professional killers, are hired by Hans Gruber to assassinate Major Klaus Heinz von dem Eberbach. As their relationship falls apart, so does the job.
	It wasn’t about money, no matter how many times they both tried to pretend it was. It was about them; the way they fit together, the way the corners were growing back on each of them and how that made it impossible for them to fit together in any comfortable way.
	Sometimes when Pik thought of what they’d become together he wanted to weep. But he was not a weeper and there was no release for this pain. So he simply grew more sharp edges, honed on people like Gruber, and realized that the day was coming when he and Emil would either part or try to murder each other. He wanted to be gone before that last step came. Get out before the rot set in. He turned his face into the cool, damp wind and, all unbidden, the image of Fouchon came to him - Fouchon on a beach in Morocco, dressed in white, laughing, limned with sunshine.
	The ache inside deepened.
	This is not a story for everybody and some of the things that happen within it will be too confronting for some people. This is a story about three very amoral individuals and they act accordingly - you have been warned! Fouchon and Pik are in love but their relationship is souring due to Fouchon's inability to give Pik the emotional security he needs. Pik turns away from him and starts a relationship with Gruber. How things go, and how the two get back together, is an interesting story, nearly a series of sexual encounters but the language is brilliant and Dargelos carries it off, keeping my interest to the end.
DOGMA:

	ANTRIM, BRENDA: "You're Welcome."
01/09/04 21kb	Loki/Bartleby. Bartleby kills Loki - but is that the end for both of them?
	"I'm sorry." His breath was hot and sweet on Loki's neck, his arm strong around him, and Loki felt safe for the first time since all the madness started. That stupid envelope. That stupid fucking newspaper clipping. He leaned against Bartleby and closed his eyes, dizzy for the first time in millennia with the beer, hanging on for dear life to his very best friend.
	This is an interesting take on Bartleby's motives when he killed Loki and a possible future. Nicely done.
EASTENDERS:

	GLASGOW, M. FAE: "Nor The Leopard His Spots."
01/07/05 196kb	Colin/Barry; Bodie/Doyle. Crossover with "The Professionals". Ray Doyle is exhausted from the demands of too many opereations and now he's required to go undercover in London. Unfortunately for his undercover role, almost immediately he meets someone he once knew very well - an old lover.
	The sky was crawling over the roof-top when he awoke, all the light leached from the streets in that strange time between full dark when the streetlamps shone brightly and the greyness that swallowed all light up into a uniformity of dullness. So he just lay on the bed for a little while, watching the way nothing in the room actually cast shadows in the feeble light, watching the blackness creep up the walls as the light from outside faded into night-time and the glow of lamps stayed up in the street away from his new bedsit. He should be up and bathing, he knew, but it seemed pointless. One more possible terrorist supplier, or just another entrepeneur in London's fastest expanding business. Didn't seem to matter too much, not now. Once, when first he'd started, he was going to be SuperCopper, Chief Constable Raymond Aloysius Doyle, the best and most incorruptible policeman on the face of this God's green earth, scourge of criminals and bent coppers alike. But that was half a lifetime ago, and he was feeling every single one of those years in every joint in his body.
	I adore M. Fae Glasgow's fiction. She writes extremely well: her characterisations are always a joy and there is a realism about her stories that I like very much. I'm not a big fan of Eastenders but this story is a contained universe within itself and tells you really everything you need to know.
EMPEROR, THE

	FISHER, KITTY: "Tribute."
01/06/04 20kb	Pu Li (The Emperor)/Wah Dee (The Tribute). Wah Dee, the Emperor’s old childhood friend and lover, is now tribute for his country's safety.
	He stood alone in the vast chamber, the sombre darkness of his robes a contrast to the golden opulence of his surroundings. Quite still, breath so soft as to hardly betray the reality of his life, he waited; poised, balanced, energy singing in the stillness of his bones like a flame hidden by shadow. He waited.
	This is an interesting short story and I like it very much.
FAST AND THE FURIOUS, THE:

	DEVIL CHILD: "Baja."
01/09/04 44kb	Brian/Dominic. After his undercover operation is over, Brian is no longer a cop and he goes after Dominic.
	It wasn't much. Just a dusty, rutted dirt road leading down to...a glorified shack really...about 100 or so yards from the sea.
	Brian O'Conner's motorcycle sputtered to a stop in the dusty yard. No one came to the door. "Hello?" he called.
	Eerie silence, broken only by the lapping waves and the sound of rustling the beach grass. Brian paused a few moments then swung a leg over and made his way up to the house, the weather beaten boards of the porch squeaking under his feet.
	This is an interesting story - two previously straight guys realising that they aren't as straight as they thought.
GALLIPOLI:

	LYRASTAR: "Raised Up From The Clay."
01/07/05 52kb	Frank/Archie. Frank and Archie go gaily off to war together - and neither knows what realities they will have to face before they are through.
	You don't have to be best mates to decide to run off to war; to lock yourselves together in a freight car headed to god-knows-where in the middle of the night with nothing to do except think and talk; or to decide to trek across fifty miles of dry, snake-infected lake bed with neither map nor compass and with minimal provisions. You don't have to be best mates to do these things, but if you are lucky enough to make it through them alive, you probably will be best mates in the end.
	This story deals with the awful reality of being injured during the war - the details are very gross, but the relationship aspects are sweet. One of the most interesting things to my mind about the source material is that the makers of Gallipoli have stated that one of the main things they were interested in doing with the film was exploring the homoerotic elements of close male friendships.
GEORGETTE HEYER:

	JAT SAPPHIRE: "The Wages Of Vice."
01/06/04 217kb	Justin, Duke of Avon/Hugh Davenant. Hugh is in love with Justin but how does Justin feel about him?
	"Justin," Hugh said quietly, not for the first time.
	The tall, lean figure in the opposite armchair stirred. In the dim light of the fire he might have been the far younger man whom Hugh had first known: he had worn powdered wigs then, but now his hair was white whether he powdered it or no; the stillness that had once been affectation now was weariness. The slender hands that lay upon his lap were thinner, the knuckles larger, and the skin if seen in daylight was as translucent, as flecked with tiny dark spots, and as full of faint wrinkles as Indian gauze ... but they had always been just as white, and the ruby ring upon one finger burned with the same fire as ever.
	So did his Grace of Avon's eyes, when they focussed on his friend.
	This is a long story detailing the ups and downs of the relationship between Hugh and Justin, as friends and sometime lovers.
GET REAL:

	BONE: "Reunion."
01/06/04 97kb	John Dixon/Steven Carter. Ten years after school, John Dixon is still running from who he is – and realises he can't survive like that anymore. He returns for a school reunion and meets Steven again – and tries to change.
	I still run.
	I've been running all my life. My mother told me once that my first steps were actually a halting gallop across the lawn, but I've only run with purpose for the last, oh, twelve years or so. Since I had a choice between football and track and field at the start of sixth form and decided track would be less work. I didn't know, when I started, what it would come to mean to me.
	This is a wonderful story - it's by Bone, after all, and that should say it all. I've never seen the movie on which this story is based, but I'll read anything that Bone writes and I still enjoyed this thoroughly.
HARDY BOYS:

	HIGGINS, ANNE: "In All Ways."
01/09/04 73kb	Frank/Joe. Frank is seriously worried by his sexual feelings for his brother.
	Never run away from a problem.
	Frank Hardy had heard those words of wisdom more than once, but the walls were closing in and how could a man think when he was slowly suffocating?
	Anne Higgins is a well-established fandom writer and always writes good stories. If you're not into incest, give this one a miss.
HAVE SPACESUIT, WILL TRAVEL:

	RIVKA T: "Once More."
01/09/04 36kb	Het. Peewee/OMC; Peewee/Kit implied. Peewee and Kit grow up and find themselves on another planet again - but this time they are alone.
	You see, I had this spaceship.
	No.
	That's the wrong way to start. That's a Kip way to start, "you see," all chummy and hail-fellow-well-met....
	...I was very lucky, growing up. I had a father who adored me, a thin intellectual skin and a near-absolute indifference to other children. If I hadn't ever hit puberty, I could have been happy forever.
	This is quite a dark story, dealing with the reality of attempting to travel to different worlds, rather than the kids adventure style of the original Heinlein novel. It's well-written but it's not a story likely to appeal to readers who like happy endings.
HAWAII FIVE-0:

	SHEETS, DENISE: "In Sunlight Or In Shadow."
01/06/04 41kb	McGarrett/Danno. McGarret, in a moment of weakness, admits to himself that he has feelings for Danno. He drives Danno home and struggles against his feelings.
	"God damn," he muttered and punched the buttons of the remote control, trying to find something else to think about besides behind that door. It didn't help. In fact the frenetic flashing of images and rattle of broken dialogue made him more tense than ever. In the end, he left it on the delayed broadcast of a baseball game and went for the other beer. He paused to absorb some of the cool air that rolled out of the open refrigerator. Not that it helped. Going away would help, but he had committed himself to stay at least for a while. A part of him knew very well he should walk out forcefully, though truthfully another part was still in the thrall of the madness and would not allow it. Madness. Indecency. He chugged the beer without stopping for a breath and was ashamed of himself for doing it.
	This is the only slash I've seen for Hawaii Five-O and I enjoyed the novelty of it. The idea of the stiffly upright (you'll pardon the pun) McGarret giving way to feelings for Danno was compelling, which makes up for the fact that this is a very ordinary story in a lot of ways. [Note: I found this story at The Android's Dungeon a UK fandom slash site. The following remarks appear with the link to "In Sunlight And In Shadow": "The only known outing of this story was in a zine called ‘Tongue in Cheek’ printed by Dobie Cat Press of Parkersburg, West Virginia, in 1984. Having entirely failed to make any contact with the copyright holder, I have bitten the bullet and included this story on The Android's Dungeon simply because I feel it is too good not to share." I haven't found the story anywhere else on the web.]
JEREMIAH:

	KILLASHANDRA: "So Tonight That I Might Sleep."
01/03/04 60kb	Markus/Jeremiah. Jeremiah has some difficulty with facing the thought of being a leader - and the reality of what happened to his parents. Markus is there to help him, but his motives are not entirely altruistic <g>.
	He knew, even before he saw him, though how he knew, he'd have been hard-pressed to explain. Something about the single-minded focus in the speed and force of the blows, maybe -- something that was more fury than strength, more desperation than fury. He stopped in the doorway and leaned on the jamb, folding his arms. Jeremiah's back was mostly to the door, and he didn't see Markus there. Bam bam BAM! The big bag shuddered under the impact of determined fists. His black T-shirt was soaked through, and from the way he was breathing, he'd been at it for some time.
	I think you killed it," Markus told him, trying not to smile.
	This is a typically beautiful story by Killashandra and I love it.
JUGHEAD:

	RIORDAN, MICHAEL: "Moments Not Allowed." [No link]
01/06/04 63kb	Jughead/OMC. Jughead grows up waiting for "heterosexuality" to hit him over the head but it never does.
	My pivotal moments happen in stairwells, have you noticed? I guess it's symbolic that I am halfway up or down somewhere, and that I'm always accompanied by one person. I look for stairwells now but, at seventeen, in the stairs there with Betty, I missed the chance. I knew I could spill it out in two words, and that she wouldn't damn me, but I was afraid how far else it would go. I just couldn't trust her, yet the problem didn't lie with her. It lay with me.
	There is no real resolution here but this is a lovely story. Jughead finally realises he's gay and spends a week in a misery of self-loathing and doubt, not wanting to accept the truth but not willing to live a life of denial and lies either. In my innocent childhood I identified strongly with Jughead, despite the fact that "gay" was pretty much something that hadn't crossed my conscious radar at all. Obviously my unconscious radar was operating quite well on its own!
LAWRENCE OF ARABIA:

	DERRY: "During The Night."
01/06/04 7kb	Lawrence/Ali. During their winter lay-over in some old ruins, Lawrence thinks about the way Ali loves him and the way he loves Ali.
	He does not often laugh. I think this may be for the best. When he laughs, my heart laughs with him and, for that one brief moment, I plan to abandon the Army and my duty and all the trappings of western civilisation to live free, as a Beduin man.
	Nice little story and interesting Lawrence POV.
	DERRY: "Strange And Beautiful."
01/07/05 23kb	Lawrence/Lord Peter Wimsey. CROSSOVER with Lord Peter Wimsey (see below). Peter Wimsey seduces Lawrence at college, when they are both beautiful blond men.
	"Oh, yes," Peter breathed and Lawrence lost himself in the feel of Peter's hands on his chest and stomach, the tension in Peter's stomach as he reached up to touch Lawrence's shoulders. He had expected Peter's hands to be soft but there were callouses that caught against him, frissons of texture that brought more pleasure than smooth skin could have. "You're still tanned. You didn't wear a shirt in Syria, did you?"
	Memories of the sun beating down, beating him down, and he shook his head.
	"Did you sweat?" Peter's hands traced down from his neck, following the path the perspiration had taken as it trickled down. "You shone in the sun, I know. And your hair was bleached white. White hair against brown skin." Peter strained upwards to touch Lawrence's face, stomach muscles quivering between Lawrence's legs. "I wish I'd seen you."
	This is an interesting story and the sex is very well done. The characterisation is particularly accurate to canon - at least in my opinion.
LETHAL WEAPON:

	FISHER, KITTY: "New Year's Day."
01/06/04 49kb	Martin Riggs/Roger Murtaugh. Riggs is in despair, looking out over the waves, when Roger turns up.
	After a while, Riggs leant his head back against the wall and stared. His eyes were full of unconscious hunger; the hopeless hunger of a starving man. The confusion in his brain left him incapable of decision. He wanted this with every atom in his being. Yet... When the towel was used to dry the hollows of his throat he moaned in denial, his mouth helplessly, soundlessly forming one word — No.
	Roger smiled to himself and concentrated on the touch of his fingers on drying skin.
	Partners. Friends. Lovers.
	Was that a mathematical progression?
	Excellently written, evocative piece with a melancholy edge.
LORD PETER WIMSEY:

	DERRY: "Strange And Beautiful."
01/07/05 23kb	Lawrence/Lord Peter Wimsey. CROSSOVER with Lawrence of Arabia (see above). Peter Wimsey seduces Lawrence at college, when they are both beautiful blond men.
	"Oh, yes," Peter breathed and Lawrence lost himself in the feel of Peter's hands on his chest and stomach, the tension in Peter's stomach as he reached up to touch Lawrence's shoulders. He had expected Peter's hands to be soft but there were callouses that caught against him, frissons of texture that brought more pleasure than smooth skin could have. "You're still tanned. You didn't wear a shirt in Syria, did you?"
	Memories of the sun beating down, beating him down, and he shook his head.
	"Did you sweat?" Peter's hands traced down from his neck, following the path the perspiration had taken as it trickled down. "You shone in the sun, I know. And your hair was bleached white. White hair against brown skin." Peter strained upwards to touch Lawrence's face, stomach muscles quivering between Lawrence's legs. "I wish I'd seen you."
	This is an interesting story and the sex is very well done. The characterisation is particularly accurate to canon - at least in my opinion.
	GLASGOW, M. FAE: "A Gentleman's Gentleman."
01/06/04 53kb	Lord Peter Wimsey/Bunter. Peter Wimsey has a nightmare. Bunter helps him through it.
	Bunter came to him, of course, perching himself on the edge of the bed and holding the beloved hand while the very last of the man who called himself 'Peter', and who loved him, was subsumed by sleep and lost to him,if not forever, then until the next bout of nervous agony. Though it grieved him dreadfully to watch Peter fade away and leave him yet again, Bunter could not wish for his return, for such a return meant untold horrors for Lord Peter, whom Bunter loved as much, though more discreetly, as he did Peter.
	This may seem to be a hoary old fannish chestnut of a plot but it really is a unique twist on this formula. The story is wonderfully well written and the tone is delightfully melancholic.
	KESWINDHOVER: "Ring Out, Wild Bells, To The Wild Sky."
01/07/05 53kb	Gen; Lord Peter Wimsey/Harriet (implied). Harriet visits St George in hospital in 1942. He's been injured and sidelined for good from the airforce, his eye and half his face burned badly.
	"I didn't think so," said Saint-George, "Thought it was a damn shame Uncle Peter had already snapped you up. I rather fancied someone sensible - and deuced attractive of course," he added quickly, "Someone to keep me on the rails." He paused, looking away from Harriet into space for a moment, "I was rather hoping that this War might finally be the making of me. And now here I am. I've made some widows and orphans, my eye's gone and half my bally face is burned off, and I expect I'll get a shiny medal, but it doesn't make one feel a jot more manly, I assure you."
	"Well, if you've learned that, then you're a wiser man than you give yourself credit for, Gerry," said Harriet softly.
	A rather nice sweet story in which nothing major happens but its still interesting to read, if a touch melancholy.
LOST:
	NEKO: "The Passing of Summer Places." [No Link]
01/07/05 17kb	Sayid/Charlie. Sayid and Charlie become close on the island.
	The scent of jet fuel still hangs in the air.
	It covers everything, clinging to him like a second skin. He can feel it in his hair, in his lungs, and he's fairly certain it's probably made its way into his bloodstream. It leaves him feeling dirty, suffocated.
	Nice story that follows the whole island experience until they're rescued and beyond.
LOST BOYS, THE:

	LEMON, AUDREY: "Young Love."
01/06/04 20kb	Sammy/Michael. Michael and Sammy are in love but their obsession with each other is dark and dangerous – it's so intense and the incest taboo hovers over everything they do.
	But what kind of normal could his life go back to now? A community college program somewhere, a tiny basement apartment where he could start over, without Sammy? But he couldn't really imagine it, could no longer imagine a future without Sammy. He wondered what the world could possibly hold for him now, never able to have what he wanted, or to even speak of it, his secret making him as monstrous in others' eyes as if David's blood still ran in him. And for a moment he hated Sammy as much as he loved him, hated him for how necessary he had become.
	Wow - a wonderfully dark story about the nature of obsession.
MILLENIUM:

	ALLISON, KAT: "Revenant."
01/07/05 51kb	Mulder/Frank Black. CROSSOVER WITH THE X-FILES. Frank and Mulder assuage their mutual loneliness after meeting on a case.
	I've never liked having other people around me when I'm working. In my days with the FBI, such intrusions were inescapable, a downside of the job. Since I've been on my own, though, I avoid them when I can. There are a few exceptions: Catherine was always welcome to be with me, back in the days when that was something she wanted; Jordan, as much of a distraction as a child her age can be, keeps the work in some kind of perspective, which I value. But as for others--even Peter's restrained presence rasps on me, watching, demanding; even Bletch used to get on my nerves at times, though I'd give anything to have that irritation back now.
	Alternating Mulder and Frank POV slows the pace down a little - as each narrator goes over the same actions - but Kat Allison pulls it off.
NARNIA:

	CULLINAN, KYRA: "Girls Grow Up Quicker Than Books."
01/06/04 22kb	Gen. Lucy is too old to return to Narnia ever again.
	Years later, the smell of mothballs will make her feel like crying. A hot and prickly sensation blooming suddenly behind her eyes and aching in her chest, not exactly like sadness but subtle enough that even if she were to try, she couldn't name all the emotions tangled up inside her.
	This is a very poignant look at the loss of childhood joys.
NOW AND AGAIN:

	DEBBIE K: "All The King's Men."
01/07/05 9kb	Gen? Michael Wiseman' body has been crushed completely in a massive explosion and even his superhuman body may never recover.
	We knew this could happen. We had a contingency plan for it in the event that it did:
	'Should the experiment become no longer viable, terminate it.'
	We made you as strong and as resilient and as fast as we possibly could. We made you immune or resistant to every known pathogen, and we gave you a fighting force of antibodies that rivals the armies of Alexander.
	But no living organism, no matter how "perfectly engineered" is a match for a kilo of semtex and the consequent entombment beneath the rubble of a ten-story building.
	This is a nice angsty short story with an ambiguous ending.
OCEAN'S ELEVEN:

	DORINDA: "Confidence Men."
01/07/05 39kb	Danny Ocean/Rusty Ryan. Danny's just out of gaol and he goes straight to Rusty, who makes him feel like himself again.
	On a chill and waning afternoon, they paroled Daniel Ocean for the first time. Daniel was a good guy, a regular guy, with a flat, calm manner and a heavy, almost lumbering walk. He didn't smile much. He wasn't a victim, but he wasn't a bully, either. He kind of hovered in the upper-middle of the pecking order, for no discernable reason. He helped guys with their appeals, he did the jobs he was assigned, he shot bull about who was gonna win the Super Bowl and the Final Four. He won at cards, but not enough to piss people off. He was never short of cigarettes and chocolate for trading. And when there was trouble, he always seemed to be somewhere else.
	God, Danny was going to be glad to get out of this guy's skin.
	I love Dorinda's writing and this story is no exception. I love the way it delves into the guys' history together. I like the way they finally get together almost casually and the way the characterisation is handled throughout the story. Lovely.
	KIRRIN, KEIKO: "And Then You Take The House." No Link
01/07/05 76kb	Danny Ocean/Rusty Ryan. Rusty and Danny nearly have sex several times - and finally do just before Las Vegas.
	Danny hadn't felt this calm and confident -- himself again, his old self -- since before prison. Being with Rusty, all that old rhythm had come back. And that list he'd made? Reasons why they wouldn't have sex? Dumb list. Dumb reasons. It was great sex, but great in ways he hadn't expected and couldn't have anticipated.
	This is nicely done, especially the background of the many times they nearly had sex but somehow didn't. Despite the gentle delightful sex scene, the rather ambiguous ending is still dictated by Danny's canon relationship with his ex-wife.
OZ:

	DARGELOS: "Big Yellow Taxi."
01/09/04 131kb	Beecher/Keller. Beeecher is back as a laywer in Austin, Texas, ten years after his release from Oz. And one day he runs into Keller - but is it really his old cell-mate?
	"Keller’s gone. He’s been transferred."
	"Where? Why?"
	"I don’t know."
	"What d’you mean, you don’t know? You have to know!"
	"Beecher, I don’t know where he’s been taken and I don’t know why. I released him into custody, and that’s the end of it as far as I’m concerned."
	"Will he be back?"
	"No."
	And just like that, Tobias Beecher’s world changed. What had been a life lived in vivid colors became gray again. He tried to be angry and he tried to feel betrayed, but all he really felt was lonely. As long as Chris had been there in Em City, even if they were enemies, Tobias knew there was one person in the whole lousy place that knew who he was. Belatedly he realized that Chris had been the one person on earth who knew who he really was and loved him anyway.
	Maybe the hardest part was not knowing why Chris was gone.
	This is one of my favourite scenario kinks: is it Keller or isn't it? This story has lots of emotional intensity and I enjoyed it thoroughly.
POIROT:

	SUE: "The Real Captain Hastings."
08/02/05 293kb	Poirot/Hastings. Who is this strange young man from South America and what does his violent death have to do with Hastings?
	But he did not really need to ask, because he already had the answer. Whilst she had been speaking he had looked properly into the empty place in his life where a wife ought to have been, and instead of some conjectural feminine form dispensing love and consolation and strength and reassurance what he had found there had been Poirot, endlessly resourceful and irritating and loyal beyond any hope of understanding. He had never seen it in those terms before, but it was pretty damned obvious to him now that Poirot loved him.
	And I suppose I love him, he thought, for the first time. I suppose that's what love really is. Wonder why the hell I didn't realise it sooner? Nothing strange about it; neither of us is the limp-wristed type, thank God. But you can see why chaps settle down together and how they make a go of it, if one of them's somebody like Poirot. Infuriating, of course, but I could happily make my life with him if that was the way things turned out. Actually, come to think of it, I probably already have, without ever even noticing.
	This story is, for me, the quintessential comfort food of slash. I've been reading Agatha Christie since I was 10 and, when I was sick, there's nothing I loved more than to curl up in my misery and read one of her mysteries. There was just something about them that was comforting to me, that gave me a sense of safety that I still treasure today. This story gave me the slash equivalent of that and I was blissfully content through every word of this story. I adored the portrayal of Hastings, Japp, Miss Lemon and Poirot; their affection for each other shone clearly through the text without any gooey sentimentality. I particularly adored the way Poirot looked after Hastings in his grief - that was just SO incredibly sweet I nearly melted. This mightn't be everybody's cup of tea but I loved it. I loved the romanticism, the affection between the four main characters, the scenes where the penny finally dropped for Hastings, and I particularly loved the parts where Poirot and Hastings gently teased each other. <blissed out sigh> I thoroughly recommend this story for anyone who, like me, has always had a thing for Poirot.
RED DWARF:

	CULLINAN, KYRA: "Couplets Out Of Rhyme."
01/01/05 7kb	Het. Kochanski can't stop thinking about Lister - and comparing him to her Dave, who's lost to her in another universe, along with every other thing she valued.
	When he plays, sometimes, she sits in the hallway outside his door and listens, eyes closed and head resting on the wall and pretends. Pretends that when the music stops she'll walk in and it'll be her Dave, who'll smile at her and ask what she wants for dinner and all of this will be a bad dream. The rusty, tiny ship and bizarre crew and all the other horrid differences.
	And it's so strange, because she remembers him like this, if dimly. Remembers those first long nights (and days) of cheerful, exuberant sex, a Lister who might not have taken his socks off in bed, but could kiss her senseless and make her actually like chutney. She hasn't thought of him in years, takes for granted the gradually genteeled, improved hologram version of himself he's become. Holly tried to explain to them once how it had all happened, but he got muddled partway through and for once in her life, who was she to question? She does wonder now, though, when Lister pauses in the doorway as if to speak to her before losing his nerve. Did his years as a softlight hologram add something ineffable and gentle to her Dave or did it strip away some of the rawness, make him the sum of his possibilities? Is her lover trapped somewhere inside the man who drinks cold curry sauce for breakfast or has he yet to be realized in this universe's Dave Lister?
	You gotta love Kyra Cullinan: I wasn't very impressed with Season 7 Red Dwarf and Kochanski left me cold - but this story makes me care about both! I love the emotional intensity she brings to her writing and the poignancy that very much hits my bittersweet kink.
SPLASH:

	KAI: "Fathoms Deep." [No link]
01/07/05 35kb	Madison/Allen. Madison and Allen have made it down to the depths - but what happens now?
	She always knew he’d choose her. It was never in question, pretty tears and goodbyes aside she always knew in her fathoms deep mermaid’s heart that he would follow her to the sea. They always did, the men the mermaids brought Below to give them their swift viciously bright children with their sharp teeth and treacherous smiles.
	Madison's POV - she has lured her prey down to the depths and now all secrets are revealed. A creepy, sinister look at mermaids and their real motives. Very well done.
THE WALTONS:

	RIORDEN, MICHAEL: "Sforzando." [No link]
15/05/04 202kb	Johnboy/Rev. Matthew Fordwick. At 17 Johnboy is having a crisis of faith and conscience - and then Matthew Fordwick arrives.
	"There is so little hope but you're one of the ones who can try."
	"I'm not strong enough."
	"I'm not, but I think you are," Matthew said. "I also found that paper with the single word sforzando written on it."
	"What paper?"
	"On your dresser."
	Johnboy frowned, then said, "There's nothing to that. It's the only word I missed on a spelling test. I didn't want to miss it twice."
	"You know what it means, don't you?"
	"In music, the part with sudden emphasis."
	"In the entire song, it's that one, single note that's meant to be louder and clearer than all the rest. Of all the people around here, you are the only one I ever see. I have no hope for myself, John, but if I had even an iota, you and I would get on a bus and just leave."
	This story starts out very slowly but if you stick with it there are some very nice parts to it, not least of which is what happens after Matthew's introduction to the Miss Baldwins' "recipe". The grammatical errors are annoying at times but, I mean, "The Waltons" slash - ya gotta include that if only for the sheer improbablility factor, right? <g>
WARSHIP:

	SUE: "Out Of The Blue."
08/02/05 155kb	Commander Mark Nialls/Lieutenant-Commander Derek Beaumont. On leave from their ship, Derek sets sail to pick up some researchers from an isolated island for his father - and he's horrified when his commanding officer offers to come along.
	"Poor Mark," he said instinctively, without thinking how odd it might sound. "I fought all these battles years ago; you've still got them to come. All the uncertainty and the abject terror of saying and doing the wrong thing. Everything's always been so simple for you and now you're ... " inspiration struck suddenly, " ... casting around in the fog. I wish I could help you." "You can. Hold my hand." He'd meant it figuratively at first, but then impulsively stuck out a hand and waited a thousand or more years until Derek's fingers slowly wrapped around it. "All right. But no promises. I want to take this very slowly." "Best way in fog," Nialls agreed with a grin, squeezing the hand that held his and which squeezed back with deep and genuine affection.
	A typically restrained British slash story - who would have thunk it? I enjoyed it all the more for being so faithful to the time, place and occupation of these two seafaring gentlemen. Unfortunately, no sex at all in this one. I wish there was a sequel that went into their first time and how they coped with their new relationship but I love the way this one doesn't duck the difficulties inherent in such a relationship but has two intelligent men explore them sensibly before starting something that could lose either one of them their job and reputation if discovered. This is a very nice, sweet read of its type and I enjoyed it, even though I'd never actually seen the show.
WIZARD OF OZ, THE:

	SHAYE: "Rum Punch Is A Colour Of The Rainbow."
01/07/05 6kb	Gen. Dorothy has moved from Kansas to New york after they released her from the madhouse. And now she's drinking rum punch at a speakeasy.
	Dorothy has heard of Harlem speakeasies filled with poets and painters and people who just might believe her story. This, she realizes dimly, is not one of those places. The wrong part of town, she thinks, and sighs
	Her silver shoes won't save her this time.
	(Did they ever, now? Be honest with yourself.)
	Interesting surreal look at what the aftermath of Oz has done to the innocent Dorothy of the beginning of the movie. This story is not for the fainthearted or those who only want to read happy endings.

Celtic bird animation from:	Headings from:	Divider & Bullet from: