TEAM REALITY: Day 2, "Suicide Is Painless"

[sage]

Title: Suicide Is Painless
Author: Giulietta (mondschein1)
Team: Reality
Prompt: "You made me come all the way up here for this?"
Pairing(s): Fraser/Kowalski, Kowalski/Stella
Rating: R
Word count: 16,600
Warnings: This story contains underage death, mercy killing, and gun-related violence.
Author's Notes: Many, many thanks to my betas, qe2 and secretlybronte who caught all my plot holes and leftover pronouns from frantically switching narrative voices in search of some sort of continuity. Also, many thanks to Nos for arranging our beta pods -- best. Captain. EVER. Seriously.
Summary: Fraser takes a breath, and looks down at his boots. "Love makes people do peculiar things," he says finally, voice soft and creaky. Americans especially, I've found."

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Suicide Is Painless

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Comments

[etcetera-cat.livejournal.com]

Okay, so I just about adore both of the character voices in this-- they are utterly spot on and engaging and really conspired to not only get me through a fic with warnings that usually squick me, but to make me enjoy it and want to read it again.

♥

[mondschein1.livejournal.com]

HA, I got you through squicks. *does a dance of triumph* Thank you so much for reading!

[simplystars.livejournal.com]

That was great casefic! Wonderful OCs, well-fleshed out, and just enough danger to keep things interesting. The shift between POVs was a an intriguing choice, too. And the relationship between Ray & Fraser was a lovely thing to behold.

Thanks for a highly enjoyable read! :)

[mondschein1.livejournal.com]

Thanks very much! My usual style is not the longfic, and I usually skimp on fleshing things out because I look at the length of a bare-bones storyline, yelp, post them as is, and run away. So I'm really glad it held together for you!

[mizface.livejournal.com]

Oh my, that was just. so. wonderful. one of those stories that I could really see being actual episodes, only then I'd miss the wonderful inner dialogue, so yay for it being written. brava.

[mondschein1.livejournal.com]

Also, you would miss the hook-up. :D Thanks a lot!

[zebra363.livejournal.com]

I soak some of it up and run with it.

Love this line! Partnership in action.

Interesting, well-developed story. I needed a little more convincing about the realism of the mercy killing and Frey's willingness to take the blame. The conversation about love and danger, where Fraser was thinking of Victoria, was really well done.

[mondschein1.livejournal.com]

Heee, yeah. I actually had some trouble getting them to do the partner-thing at first, but all's well that ends well, I suppose.

Yeah, there was more to Frey in my head than ultimately made it to my computer screen, but I was running on a deadline and -- well, yeah. You know this story. ;-)

Thanks for reading!

[keerawa.livejournal.com]

Casefic, woohoo! I love the give and take between Ray and Fraser, their partnership in action. This bit particularly struck me: A splash of faded color catches my eye: a yellowing piece of printer paper taped to the wall over the television, covered in streaks of fingerpaint. Ah, I think automatically, they have a child. Then I see the name printed at the bottom, DIANE, and I have to look away. Ouch.

And this makes it real: It's easy to catch criminals, easy to exchange gunfire with them and easy to truss them up and throw them into the back of a dogsled. But right now, the men responsible are behind bars—and that's not enough. That won't undo what they did.

[mondschein1.livejournal.com]

Awww, thanks. The second one I added when I was sitting around with the case all solved and trying to get Ray and Fraser to go do some celebratory naughty things, only they wouldn't go, and I was like, "Oh, hell, the plotty problem is not fixed. Um. Maybe if I acknowledge that this is the case, something interesting will happen?"

[lamentables.livejournal.com]

Great case fic!

"What, so I've gotta be the girl?"

Particularly liked the CSI scene where Ray has to be the damsel in distress.

[mondschein1.livejournal.com]

Heehee. Does that mean he is confident in his manly prowess?

Glad you enjoyed it!

[jadelennox]

wow, that finale with Stella, making it clear that she cares and worries as much about Ray as he does about her -- that totally killed me. *Stella love*

[mondschein1.livejournal.com]

Heh, yeah. She's not a bitch, really, she's just in an awkward situation.

Glad you liked it!

[chalcopyrite.livejournal.com]

Awesome. I loved the mirrored structure of the story, with Stella telling Ray he's dating unsuitable people. Great, tight, twisty case, great narrative voices, well-told and -paced romance plot. The Russian judge gives it a \o/!

[mondschein1.livejournal.com]

Heee, yeah, and the snake eats its tail. This amuses me, though of course usually not when it is an actual snake, because that probably means it is ill or insane or something.

HA! Paul Gross arms beat even a 10.

[spuffyduds.livejournal.com]

Wow! Really good case!fic, tense and scary and sad. And I loved the fraught edging forward of the Fraser/Ray relationship, where it could really go either way, and Fraser thinking, Not now, for God's sake. Not ever, really. is AWWWWW, and the whole thing is just extremely well done.

[mondschein1.livejournal.com]

Thanks so much! It was really hard for me to multitask the relationship and the case, so I'm glad it worked out well in the end!

[primroseburrows.livejournal.com]

Wow, this is great! Yay long plotty stories! And Stella is awesome. I usually am not much of a Stella fan but I really like her here, and her role in the story.

[mondschein1.livejournal.com]

I'm glad I did a Stella you liked! Thanks for reading!

[ifreet.livejournal.com]

Nice! What the previous commenters have said, plus I really liked the OCs of the case, as well as the reference to an earlier close call for Ray. There's a whole world here.

[mondschein1.livejournal.com]

World-building = brick laying, seriously. Also, betas are nice for patching holes in your wall, is what I've discovered.

Glad you liked!

[veronamay.livejournal.com]

I really enjoyed this one! Lots of angst and great character voices and that will-they-or-won't-they feel that I love in first-time fic. Also, a really nice comparison/contrast between Ray's relationships with Stella and Fraser. Great stuff.

[mondschein1.livejournal.com]

Thanks so much! Comparing and contrasting Stella and Fraser is something that so many people have done in this fandom, out of necessity; it's difficult to do it again and again and keep it fresh.

[thady.livejournal.com]

I enjoyed this story a lot. I like how the discussion between RayK and Stella frame the story. They are both concerned for each other. Most of the time we only see RayK's side not Stella's. It's nice to see it goes both ways.

And case!fic! How much do I love that you wrote case!fic. With intriguing OCs.

[mondschein1.livejournal.com]

Awww, thanks!

[pdxscaper.livejournal.com]

Wow, this was an excellent story. Tense and gritty and funny and angsty. So full of Ray and Fraser both. The voices were incredible.

The only thing that threw me a little was the change in POVs, but I enjoyed seeing things through Fraser's eyes also.

Great way to finish up with Stella's concern echoing Ray's in the beginning.

[mondschein1.livejournal.com]

Thank you kindly for reading. :-)

[sam80853.livejournal.com]

Great case-fic!

I liked the resemblance of the boy and Ray.

[mondschein1.livejournal.com]

Thanks! Wasn't sure how clear that was, but yeah. Glad it came through!

[the_antichris.livejournal.com]

OMG FLAIL. So complex and painful and emotionally, you know, REAL. FTW.

[mondschein1.livejournal.com]

Hehe. I hear real was the name of the game...

Thanks for reading!

[petronelle.livejournal.com]

I enjoyed tracing this through all of its twists. Fascinating.

[mondschein1.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

[suchthefangirl.livejournal.com]

I loved this so very much.

Long and plotty and agsty and so very them and just perfect.

I think I will be more coherent when I have time to reread it. I will try to remember to comment again then.

Beautiful job. Fraser's view of American's and their relationships especially. Wow, that sent chills.

[mondschein1.livejournal.com]

Hoooray, rereading! *does a happy dance* Thanks so much!

[springwoof.livejournal.com]

excellent casefic! I really liked that part of the story, with Ray and Fraser doing their one-two-punch duet thing.

[mondschein1.livejournal.com]

Heee, yay. The duet is somewhat compelling, isn't it?

Thanks! Also, HI.

[zabira.livejournal.com]

WHOA. just...WOW OMG WOW. absolutely OUTSTANDING casefic. all the details were fascinating, and the emotional KICK of jack's final confession was painful but just AMAZING.

i also love the way that fraser and ray's relationship was woven seamlessly into the story. it didn't feel shoe-horned into the case, but an organic part of their working partnership. yet SO intense and sexy for all that.

YAYS for this story.

[mondschein1.livejournal.com]

i also love the way that fraser and ray's relationship was woven seamlessly into the story. it didn't feel shoe-horned into the case, but an organic part of their working partnership.

YES. YAY. That was exactly what I wanted to have but it was SO DAMN DIFFICULT to do. So maybe there was very subtle shoe-horning. Mostly it was just difficult to figure out what to say in any given paragraph, because of COURSE two things are happening at once, but you've got to figure out what to mention first, right?

Anyway. Glad the struggle was worth it.

[luzula]

Wow. I couldn't put this down until I'd finished it. This was an awesome casefic, and could so have been an episode. I love the end mirroring the beginning, and well, everything just flows so well, both the case stuff and the relationship stuff. This story just sucked me in and impressed the hell out of me.

[mondschein1.livejournal.com]

Wow. I couldn't put this down until I'd finished it.

That is seriously the best FB ever. Thanks so much for reading!

[brigantine.livejournal.com]

The mercy-killing set me back a bit on this, didn't quite sit right in my head, but otherwise I enjoyed this quite a lot! It's always great fun to follow Ray and Fraser on the hunt for the bad guys, working their duet. Especially if their duet seems to be getting ever deeper, and kinda scarier.

Well done! :)

[mondschein1.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the mercy-killing was something I would have liked to explore a little further, rationalize a bit and get into Jack's characterization and whatnot. Only there was this giant looming deadline, and it kicked me, and...well. Yeah. Glad you enjoyed the rest of it!

[slidellra.livejournal.com]

I enjoyed this a lot. ♥

[mondschein1.livejournal.com]

Yaaay, thank you!

[umbrella-half.livejournal.com]

Dude! This is long, and good, and painful. I like the case aspect of it a lot, it just works nicely.

[mondschein1.livejournal.com]

Awww, thanks!

[leonandra.livejournal.com]

I am a sucker for long fics and case fics especially.

I especially liked that Ray was unaware of his insights into Fraser's and Victoria's entanglement but that it helped Fraser to put things into perspective.

[mondschein1.livejournal.com]

It's funny, how one can provide perspective when one is oblivious.

Thanks for reading!