Rec: A View From the Door

[mysticalchild_isis]

Story: A View From the Door
Author: Aenaria/io_aenaria
Rating: Listed as All Ages, but I'll give it Teen for safety's sake
Word Count: 5131
Author's Summary: On the third day, Zuleika interviews an interesting girl of about her own age. She appears to be just the same as every other neo-human that has come through their doors, but something’s strange about her. She suspects it’s not just the dyed blonde hair either.
Characters/Pairings: Ten, Rose, OCs, Ten/Rose
Warnings: Minor sexual situations

This is a really lovely and thoughtful story, in part due to the third person narration from an original character's point of view. Zuleika is a novitiate at The Sisters of the Hallowed Words, an alien abbey. The story unfolds after a battle gone wrong, during which time Rose and the Doctor were separated.

The author really put a lot of time into creating the OCs and their abbey, and it really shows, especially in the Sisters' relationship with words and flower imagery. The background development and the elegant prose alone make this story well worth the read, but on top of that, there's also a delicately referenced love story running through it all.

Rec: Atonement

[wendymr.livejournal.com]

Story: Atonement
Author: Sahiya
Rated: All Ages
Word count: 11092
Author’s summary: The Doctor goes back for Jack a bit sooner. But sooner still might not be soon enough.
Characters/Pairings: Jack Harkness, The Doctor (10th)
Warnings: None

Reason for Recommendation: There’ve been hundreds of stories where Jack finds the Doctor again and hostilities ensue. There’ve been hundreds where, after explanations and apologies, they fall on each other and make up in a variety of different ways, some tame, some X-rated. This one is different for a whole host of reasons. Here, the Doctor decides to find Jack himself, for a set of quite complex reasons he probably doesn’t fully understand himself. And he does find Jack, in a location and state of health that’s as uncomfortable for us to read as it is for the Doctor to see - and even more so as he realises that the situation, and Jack’s presence there, are both his fault. Sahiya pulls no punches, in description, in how Jack reacts to the Doctor, in the Doctor’s temptation to turn and run and in how Jack shames him into staying. It’s a story about consequences, of both actions and inaction, and about the nature of qualities such as friendship, loyalty, trust and selfishness - and about cleaning up your own mess, something the Doctor rarely sticks around long enough to do. Sahiya knows her characters well, and writes them flaws and all, and I can’t recommend this one enough. 

( Little excerpt under the cut: )