Title: Courtship of the Papermen by Neko
Fandom: Without A Trace
Pairing: Danny/Martin
Categories: Romance with a side of angst
Length: Medium (7,300 words)
Warning: N/A
Rating: NC-17


Author on LJ: this is love, this is porn
Website: nekosmuse


Summary: In his mind, he's watched Danny die a thousand times.

Review: The storyline of this one couldn’t be a lot simpler. After a particularly difficult day the team go out together for a drink. There's no information to say whether this is based on a particular episode so I'm assuming not; internal evidence dates it somewhere in series three, between the start of Martin's relationship with Samantha and the arrival of Elena who is not mentioned in the story.

However by the time of this story Martin and Samantha are history and she and Jack are an item. Danny is concerned; he thinks Martin's still brooding about his lost love, and is worried that he's drinking too much - and Danny, knowing something about addiction, is concerned to warn him off.

Martin, of course, has a whole other agenda. He's had feelings for Danny for as long as they've known each other, and watching his partner come close to death yet again in the line of duty has eroded his self-control well past any limits it might have had. When the evening breaks up and Danny drives Martin home, Martin invites him in - but Danny declines. That should be the end of it, of course, but Danny gets half-way home and changes his mind, returning to surprise Martin - and I'm sure we all know what happens next.

This is by no means a great story - it's written in the present tense, which I'm not especially keen on - and it has one or two other small flaws, but it's atmospheric and captures Martin's somewhat elliptical personality nicely. It also demonstrates how perfectly suited to one another he and Danny are; in the revolving door of relationships afflicting that particular department, this is the only one which ever really had a chance of working.

This is good, solid, in-character fiction which does exactly what it sets out to do, gets the guys together but makes them suffer along the way. You really can't say any fairer than that.

Link: Courtship of the Papermen