FIC REC: Five Times Sherlock Hated Gladstone (and One Time Sherlock Thought Gladstone was a BAMF)

[bluebrocade.livejournal.com]

Title: Five Times Sherlock Hated Gladstone (and One Time Sherlock Thought Gladstone was a BAMF)
Author: katie821
Pairing: John/Sherlock
Length: ~2500 words
Rating: PG
Warnings: none
Verse: Sherlock BBC
Author's summary: Sherlock hates Gladstone.

Reccer's comments: For my last rec of the month, I present an adorable, fluffy, first-time fic featuring Gladstone. There is nothing more delightful than Sherlock being forced to interact with a puppy. He forbids John from bringing the pup home, then spends the rest of the fic glaring at and resenting the little dog in his childish, self-centered way. But hilariously! What I especially like about this fic is how John, while more patient & accomodating and plain old nicer than Sherlock, is not a pushover. Sherlock's loud and obnoxious, whereas John just quietly goes about being the boss of him. Hence, we get Sherlock walking a happy little bulldog while resenting it for making him appear normal. Hee!

( Excerpt )

Fic Rec: A Hundred Thousand Miles

[chapbook.livejournal.com]

Title: A Hundred Thousand Miles LJ AO3
Author: what_alchemy
Pairing: Gen
Length: 2,107
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Original character death
Verse: Sherlock BBC

Author's summary: Sally Donovan didn’t daydream of being a police officer when she was young.

Reccer's comments: A nuanced, sympathetic character study of Sally Donovan. The Sally of this one-shot is a hard-working, determined, flawed human being, loving and loved. Tragedy mars her childhood, causing her to choose a path that clearly is intended to fix what was destroyed. Food is a central motif: a reflection of familial love, something to be strictly controlled (when all else seems uncontrollable), and one step in the healing process.

What-alchemy's ability to sketch a character swiftly and vividly is admirable:

Sally remembers her father removing her from school on 22nd April, 1995. She was fifteen, he was forty-seven, and when she met him in the head’s office, he was not her father but a waterlogged study in reds and whites, a diminished spectre of himself in the chair. The head herself, a starchy woman with a dour disposition and a belted waist, seemed to be having trouble keeping her own upper lip suitably stiff.

Sally's mother is a wonderful OC, fierce in her love, strong, and set in her ways:

When Mummy drew back long moments later, she wiped Sally’s face with her bare hand, pinching at her nostrils when she was finished. Mummy reached up to wipe that hand on a tea towel, but then she knelt back down to cup Sally’s head with two firm palms. Her black eyes shone with banked fire, and there was no looking away.
“Listen to me, Sally girl. Are you listening?”
Sally’s breath stuttered and a keening whine seemed to be rising from her throat, but she managed to nod.
“You’re whole. A whole person, no matter what anyone else says, no matter where your family’s from, no matter how it feels on the darkest days. And you are exactly as God Almighty made you. No one can take that away from you, understand?”

The Sherlock fandom could use many more quality efforts at rounding out this too-maligned character.