Teeth of the Hydra, Our Fair Share Of Abuse
Title:Teeth of the Hydra
Author: resonant8
Pairing: Benton Fraser/Ray Kowalski
Rating: NC17
Length: Long, 20K+ words
Why I'm reccing this fic: This was one of the first due South stories I read and it was such an amazing story that I go back and read it frequently. Teeth of the Hydra alternates between the telling of a bizarre case that Fraser and Ray are working on, of someone who drugs women to tattoo them, and of snapshots of Ray and the events and actions that tie him to the people in his life.
resonant8 does a masterful job of showing us Ray Kowalski between the lines, as well as giving us a glimpse of Fraser and Ray as extremely competent police officers working on a baffling case.
We see Ray as he grows up, meets Stella, gets married, gets divorce and all the things that happen in between to make him who he is. The triumphs and the fuck-ups, one man's life laid out and spotlighted. This is Ray Kowalski.
That got him a look of such naked hope that he had to put his hand on Fraser's. Fraser looked down, then turned his hand over, slowly.
"Please understand," he said a little roughly, "that I don't intend any insult by saying this. But this --" he shook their joined hands -- "is a place at which I've arrived after many years of soul searching, and even so it's not a place where I feel entirely ... at home. And now you -- you have an instinct, an impulse --"
"A hunch," Ray said. "Don't devalue the hunch, Fraser. The hunch has never led me wrong." And Fraser wanted more words, but this wasn't something he could say with words.
He tucked his fingers behind the belt across Fraser's chest. "Say yes."
Fraser's eyes fluttered, but his voice when he spoke was firm. "Yes."
Teeth of the Hydra and the coda Display
Title: Our Fair Share Of Abuse
Author: secretlybronte
Pairing: Benton Fraser/Ray Kowalski
Rating: NC17
Length: Long, 10K+ words
Why I'm reccing this fic: I love secretlybronte and one of the reasons I do is because she writes a perfect Ray K. This story is no exception to that.
Our Fair Share Of Abuse starts with Ray working without Fraser, on a serial rapist case which is pissing him off in all the wrong ways. This is a great example of Ray being competent, rather than Fraser's dumb sidekick, and it highlighted a huge kink for compenent!Ray that I didn't even know I had.
Because he is competent. A decorated officer of the CPD, smart, intelligent, canny. He runs on instinct more than logic but his instinct is solid. And he solves the case.
And if that wasn't enough, secretlybronte goes on to finish the story off with lovely backrubs and scorchingly hot sex. Add snappy dialog, a fast-paced story and wonderful characterizations and you've got one of the best case!fics around. If I could marry this story, I would.
The stack of files in front of Ray was three inches high, filled with information about McInerny's misdeeds. Most of it was interviews and witness statements. He was the kind of perp you could throw things at forever, but nothing stuck. Too many friends, too much family meant a perp who always had an alibi. You could track phone records, but it didn't work with a family who was glued to the phone. Calls made after the police left proved exactly bupkis when there were two dozen calls before they even came. Some people just knew how to work the system and McInerny owned it.
Fraser would have read the files. Fraser would have read them in about five minutes, maybe licked some old evidence. Ray didn't have that kind of time and he didn't lick anything that didn't have a greater than break-even chance of tasting like candy. Instead, Ray did a little dance with instinct, got permission from Welsh, and took a drive down to the county jail.
Ray hated jails. They took his gun. They took his boot gun. It was like being in Canada, only less polite. Plus, no one was ever afraid of him and he always felt kind of stupid and scrawny, even when he used prison lingo.
Our Fair Share Of Abuse
Author: resonant8
Pairing: Benton Fraser/Ray Kowalski
Rating: NC17
Length: Long, 20K+ words
Why I'm reccing this fic: This was one of the first due South stories I read and it was such an amazing story that I go back and read it frequently. Teeth of the Hydra alternates between the telling of a bizarre case that Fraser and Ray are working on, of someone who drugs women to tattoo them, and of snapshots of Ray and the events and actions that tie him to the people in his life.
resonant8 does a masterful job of showing us Ray Kowalski between the lines, as well as giving us a glimpse of Fraser and Ray as extremely competent police officers working on a baffling case.
We see Ray as he grows up, meets Stella, gets married, gets divorce and all the things that happen in between to make him who he is. The triumphs and the fuck-ups, one man's life laid out and spotlighted. This is Ray Kowalski.
That got him a look of such naked hope that he had to put his hand on Fraser's. Fraser looked down, then turned his hand over, slowly.
"Please understand," he said a little roughly, "that I don't intend any insult by saying this. But this --" he shook their joined hands -- "is a place at which I've arrived after many years of soul searching, and even so it's not a place where I feel entirely ... at home. And now you -- you have an instinct, an impulse --"
"A hunch," Ray said. "Don't devalue the hunch, Fraser. The hunch has never led me wrong." And Fraser wanted more words, but this wasn't something he could say with words.
He tucked his fingers behind the belt across Fraser's chest. "Say yes."
Fraser's eyes fluttered, but his voice when he spoke was firm. "Yes."
Teeth of the Hydra and the coda Display
Title: Our Fair Share Of Abuse
Author: secretlybronte
Pairing: Benton Fraser/Ray Kowalski
Rating: NC17
Length: Long, 10K+ words
Why I'm reccing this fic: I love secretlybronte and one of the reasons I do is because she writes a perfect Ray K. This story is no exception to that.
Our Fair Share Of Abuse starts with Ray working without Fraser, on a serial rapist case which is pissing him off in all the wrong ways. This is a great example of Ray being competent, rather than Fraser's dumb sidekick, and it highlighted a huge kink for compenent!Ray that I didn't even know I had.
Because he is competent. A decorated officer of the CPD, smart, intelligent, canny. He runs on instinct more than logic but his instinct is solid. And he solves the case.
And if that wasn't enough, secretlybronte goes on to finish the story off with lovely backrubs and scorchingly hot sex. Add snappy dialog, a fast-paced story and wonderful characterizations and you've got one of the best case!fics around. If I could marry this story, I would.
The stack of files in front of Ray was three inches high, filled with information about McInerny's misdeeds. Most of it was interviews and witness statements. He was the kind of perp you could throw things at forever, but nothing stuck. Too many friends, too much family meant a perp who always had an alibi. You could track phone records, but it didn't work with a family who was glued to the phone. Calls made after the police left proved exactly bupkis when there were two dozen calls before they even came. Some people just knew how to work the system and McInerny owned it.
Fraser would have read the files. Fraser would have read them in about five minutes, maybe licked some old evidence. Ray didn't have that kind of time and he didn't lick anything that didn't have a greater than break-even chance of tasting like candy. Instead, Ray did a little dance with instinct, got permission from Welsh, and took a drive down to the county jail.
Ray hated jails. They took his gun. They took his boot gun. It was like being in Canada, only less polite. Plus, no one was ever afraid of him and he always felt kind of stupid and scrawny, even when he used prison lingo.
Our Fair Share Of Abuse