Title: Knowing the Place
Fandom: Due South
Pairing: Fraser/Kowalski
Categories: Angst, Post-CotW
Length: Epic
Warnings: none

Author on LJ: kelliem
Website: http://kellie.mrks.org/

Review: 
Post-CotW fic, about what happens after Muldoon and before the adventure.

Miscommunication and misunderstandings are the bread and butter of fanfic, but I don't know that I've ever read a story that had as many misunderstandings as this one. And they aren't contrived by making the main characters dense as lead either, which is pretty amazing (and a nice change of pace). Instead, these misunderstandings are more of the 'God, fate, karma, and even the damn carpet hate me' variety (and if you don't get that reference, then you clearly haven't read Jude the Obscure, which is probably for the best, because I'm pretty sure that's the one where life is so miserable that the mother hangs her two young sons from coathooks till they're dead for their own good). All of which leads to a wonderfully achy, beautifully written story about two men who freaking need to learn to talk to each other, already.

Ray and Fraser are good in this, of course, but I'm most impressed with Welsh. His part isn't big, but this may be the best characterization of Welsh I've ever seen, and I love him even more for cutting through Fraser and Ray's crap and forging some much-needed lines of communication. Plus, you have excellent Vecchio characterization -- i.e., he's much less of a jerk and much more like canon!Vecchio than you usually find in F/K fic, even while he's coming to grips with the fact that Fraser is gay (because, as much as fanfic authors like to forget the fact, Vecchio *is* Catholic). A lovely, touching post-CotW story.

Knowing the Place