The Teeth of the Hydra

[mergatrude.livejournal.com]

Title: The Teeth of the Hydra
Author: resonant8
Pairing: F/K
Rating: NC-17
Length: 140K
Why I'm reccing this fic: I read this story early on in my exploration of Due South fic, and it completely imprinted as Ray Kowalski's backstory. Resonant has an amazing ability to write people interacting in such a real and visceral way, and in this case she's written complimentary narratives weaving together Ray and Stella, and Ray and Fraser. The story is written in alternating timelines: Fraser and Ray are working a case which for Ray resonates strongly with his past and causes him to both re-evaluate that past and to reassess his relationships with, well everyone, but with Stella and Fraser most of all. It was really hard to select an excerpt, as each section is loaded with significance. This is probably one of my desert island fics.

1976

Ray was beginning to think they weren't lying when they said smoking stunted your growth. His dad was pretty average height, and his mother's father had been over six feet, but he was one of the shortest guys in school.

Half the tenth-graders were tall as men now, with deep growly voices and big chests. Some of the ones who'd been shrimps last year liked to use their size to hassle the ones who hadn't grown yet. They didn't hassle Ray, though, because Ray knew the way to walk.

It was easy for a guy who'd sneaked in to see "Bullitt" five times in the third grade. You didn't walk like you were going to beat the other guy up. You walked like you'd already beaten him up, and it never crossed your mind that he wouldn't stand back and give you some room when you went by.

Ray's dad had taught him a few moves where a little guy could knock down a bigger one if he caught him off guard. But mostly he didn't need them. A guy who could walk like Bullitt didn't get in a lot of fights.

Stella liked it, too. If he put on a full-scale strut in the lunchroom, she'd look right past whatever Gold Coast guy she was sitting with and give him a long, hot smile.

He made her mom nervous, and that was exactly why she'd haul him out to the Fallout Shelter every week, exactly why after midnight she'd forget whatever boyfriend she'd said no to that night and let Ray kiss her in the dark corners or in the gravel parking lot, let him put his hands under her T-shirt and touch her through the little scraps of satin and lace until she was breathing even harder than when she danced.

"Ray, don't," she'd whisper, and then lick his ear, which was the kind of mixed message that made him sure he was never going to understand girls.

The Teeth of the Hydra

Comments

[nos4a2no9.livejournal.com]

Yay! Awesome rec, 'trude. I think this one and Ces' "The Border Between Life and Death" form the basis of my whole understanding of Ray and his backstory. I love what you've said here about the parallels Res develops between Ray's relationships with Stella and Fraser: it's a cool way to look at the story, and I think I should head off and re-read this one... :-)

[mergatrude.livejournal.com]

Yay! Thanks, Nos. This challenge just begged for these two recs, as like you TBBLaD is my other "Kowalski" fic. I only allowed myself one rec, being as how I'm supposed to be working.

[julia-here.livejournal.com]

Link?

[mergatrude.livejournal.com]

Doh! Have edited the rec.

http://trickster.org/res/hydra.html

[julia-here.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I'm afraid to just go to Res' site for fear of coming out ten hours later having read it all.

Again.

Julia, weak that way

[mergatrude.livejournal.com]

I know that feeling!