Fic rec!

[kristen999]

Title: “Devil and the Deep Blue Sea”
Author: Santa
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 33,000
Warning: Contains some relatively mild horror-movie-esque imagery and creepiness
Spoilers: Set post-Enemy at the Gate, potential spoilers for all aired episodes.
Summary: John is dealing with his teammates' love lives just like any other emotional issue: by ignoring the situation and hoping it goes away. But when a mission gone wrong traps John, Rodney and Jennifer a thousand feet beneath New Lantea's ocean -- injured and out of touch with Atlantis, with the clock running down and a mysterious enemy in pursuit -- they're either going to have to work out their differences ... or die trying.

This part of the SGA Secret Santa, so the author will be not be revealed unil later.


Why rec’ed:

This is a very rare gem of a fic, a realistic and spot on exploration on the confusion and miscommunication that can spiral out of control when members of a team develop relationships outside the ‘unit’. This is such a mature and thoughtful look at John and Rodney post EATG. I think many people will be scared off at the ‘het McKay/Keller’ label and I want people to read this! I think the label is mis-leading, as the focus is all about John and Rodney and their bumbling inability to talk with each other.

The characterizations are spot on, and I love the Jennifer voice in this, one of the best I’ve seen. Most of all, this is an exciting action/adventure story with lots of h/c, drama, and it is just plain creepy and fun! I can not stress enough to give this story the chance it deserves. You will not regret it. I saw it late last night, read half of it, then finished it this morning.

Comments

[friendshipper.livejournal.com]

I wish there were more stories like that out there! As much as I love gen, I also love stories that take a series look at grown-up relationships, of both the sexual and nonsexual variety. I really like stories in which couple-hood plays a role but the story isn't an excuse to get two characters together -- because adults do have relationships, there's just no way around that, but I'm generally not that interested in reading romance for the sake of romance. Stories that look at how being in a relationship changes people, and affects their relationships with the other people around them, really delight me; I wish there were more of them out there. Some fandoms do go more for that sort of thing than SGA does -- it helps when there are canon couples to work with. But with SGA, having such clear dividing lines between het, gen and slash means that a story which is labeled het or slash tends to be all about the romance, and a story which is labeled gen is utterly devoid of any hint of it; people don't write about the messy border areas very much. I wouldn't want to read that all the time -- I do love my action, h/c and team -- but I wish there was more of it.