recs and links

When all else failed, Jim always came back to the Vulcan thing. Nyota didn't quite know why. She accused him of racism, which he reasonably countered with the fact that he had it on very good authority that he himself was capable of sustained emotional intimacy with her very boyfriend ("Oh really? This is the argument you're going to make, to me? He almost nervepinched you three times yesterday"). He had amply demonstrated his complete lack of discrimination when it came to his own partners, sometimes resulting in hungover mess hall discussions about his exciting new career of adventures among the stars. After a while she began to suspect Jim just found the word "Vulcan" to be really funny. Kirk and Uhura form an unlikely friendship. Uhura is awesome, Kirk is hilarious, and Scotty has a cameo that made me die with laughter.

"So you're a drug-addicted messianic cult dedicated to drinking your own distilled urine so your descendants generations down the road can grow palm trees. How's that working out for you?" Awesome set of mini crossovers. Gets the voices just right.

"So basically,” Bones says, “it’s just going to be you and a bunch of guys living together, and hanging out with each other all the time, and showering together, and getting trashed with each other every night, and then passing out next to each other." / "Yeah!" Jim beams enthusiastically behind his stupid glasses. / "Isn’t that a little…homoerotic?" Kirk tries to start a frat at Starfleet Academy. Hilarity ensues. Even funnier if you've ever actually spent any time with fratboys.

"Your mother sounds like a wise and kind woman." His eyes fluttered shut as he nodded. "Her son is a reflection of all that is good in her." Beautiful and moving look at Uhura (and through her, Spock) after the battle of Vulcan.

"Spock, seriously. You and Uhura. How did that happen?" Kirk finally asks the question. This is adorable.

Spock and Uhura have an encounter in a bookstore. There is poetry and flirtation. Lovely.

Dean worries himself sick after the shtriga attack on Sam. Should be read with the sequel, Getting Home, which features wee!Sammy as the best little brother ever. Oh, boys...

Sam and Dean come down with the flu, and John isn't quite sure how to deal. Lovely look at the boys when they're young that also ties into the larger world of the show.

"Mr. Scott. What is the one thing I hate more than anything else in the entire universe?" / Cringing, Scotty's eyes turn even more apologetic than before. "Having your pain and personal life being made into fodder for the shipwide gossip mill, sir?" / Jim feels his expression turn baffled. "Dude, have we met? No, fuck, I hate being left out of the loop, you know that! Look, I get that the crew wants to gossip about their senior officers. That's cool-- fun tradition. But Scotty! I thought we were Delta Vega bros forever! We almost got tattoos together! Forward me all the good stuff, okay? No one's going to get in trouble, jeez. Unless they say racist shit about Vulcans, because, you know, fuck that noise." / Scotty frowns. "You-- want to be in the loop. Of gossip. About you." Hilarious sequel to "cut and paste".

"Why did you never inform me of-- of what you know about me?" Spock doesn't get flustered too often, or vague, so Jim reluctantly guesses that he's talking about the potentially creepy erotic dreams he's been having for, oh, six months. / "Hey, not about you! Exactly! Most of that is about...you know, the other you. Grandpa you. And it isn't me, anyway, it's the dead long lost me who was exactly like me in every way." Hee! The mindmeld is fucking with Kirk's head. I enjoyed this a lot.

Four times Spock Couldn't Say 'I love you'; One time he tried (and one time he did). Utterly gorgeous look at Spock and his relationships through the years.

Some people, when they study medicine, develop a mild form of hypochondria. It's understandable. Suddenly being informed of all the myriad ways you could die - of all the ways the human body can break down - well, it can be a little disconcerting. McCoy never considered himself particularly soft, though there are certain things - flying objects (particularly being in them), snakes, constricted spaces and clowns - that rattle him and do fit the symptomatic bill for being dubbed "phobias". Which is of course ironic given his current situation - working in a small, constrictive flying thing with a bunch of clowns. Damn space. Damn Starfleet. Damn it all to hell. I enjoyed this look at McCoy a lot (could use a good beta).

Bones has to rescue Kirk after a drunken night out. Hilarity ensues. Really gets McCoy's voice right.

Exactly what it says on the tin. Lovely. For a character who was barely in the movie, I love all the fic about Gaila.

Spock reflects, as he mounts the transporter pad, that he is aware of many of the ‘in-jokes’ on Enterprise. It is a novel experience. He is not sure how he feels about it. Spock, learning to fit in (not that he'd admit he was doing any such thing).

"In brief, Mr Spock," Kirk said. "Can you bust us out?" / Spock sighed. "Correct," he said. "I am capable of 'busting us out.'" / "Dude," Kirk said, hefting his fist. "Fistbump." / "I apologize, Captain, but I must refrain," said Spock. "I have seen where your hands have been and until you have sterilized the effected areas, preferably on a subdermal level, I do not wish to be in contact with any portion of your anatomy." Ahahahahaha! *dies* Kirk, Bones and Spock in rare form.

It’s not like anyone on Enterprise has a gambling problem – except maybe Scotty and his incomprehensible belief in his own talents at poker – but there’s always someone willing to take a bet Hee!

Vulcans have no word for "lover". Gorgeous meditation on language and love from Uhura's POV.

Dean doesn’t remember when Sammy got this beautiful. He could swear it was an overnight occurrence, like she went to bed a lanky teenaged girl with flat hair and a flatter chest, and woke up with more curves than a coke bottle and a silently defiant expression plastered on the stricter lines of her face. The soft, babyish curve of her jaw turned razor sharp like her cheekbones, the slow slope of her brow set with in permanent concentration are all new, are all damningly pretty in their own way. Sharp, achy girl!Sam/Dean UST.

Because pillow forts are ALWAYS the right answer, even when you're dealing with the apocalypse. Aw, boys.

"You are far, far from an open book, ace. I'm just saying, it doesn't worry you that I could ask, oh, say, about girls? You wouldn't flinch?" / "If these girls were a part of the San Dimas Junior High Student Council Spirit Death Squad, I may very well flinch a little. They are tougher than they look." A truth bomb goes off in the locker room, while Wendy and the Middleman are stuck inside. Adorable.

Sequel to "It Takes a Village." Kirk attempts to give Chekov The Talk. Hilarity ensues.

He is somewhat reluctant to admit it, but he and Spock still aren’t actually friends. Jim doesn’t fight with him any more – they work together well enough on the bridge, and there have been no punches thrown since that first time. When he turns to Spock after Scotty (or, God help him, Chekov) has explained something that would be incomprehensible even without the accent, Spock translates. He’s even lost about fifty-percent of the mild condescension. Jim can deal with the other fifty-percent; he’s had enough women berate him for his arrogance to understand a healthy pride in your own abilities. Wonderful look at Kirk's first year as captain of the Enterprise, and his growing friendship with Spock. I especially like the crew interaction.

There were a dizzying number of Federation ships and stations she was passed through, one human hand guiding her shoulder to her next caretaker. They were all women, though, that she remembers - that and at the time she thought they must all be different species to be so many colors. She doesn't even remember their names because it was back when English still sounded like gibberish and they hadn't found a portable translator unit that knew Orion. Lovely, achy backstory for Gaila.

His friends have got his back. He doesn't need more of a guarantee than that. Lovely look at the crew of the Enterprise.

Jack is the cool older uncle that Darryl never had, has been since he’d skulked his way into Jack’s shop at the age of thirteen, totally determined that whatever had killed his aunt sure as shit wasn’t gonna kill his little brother. Jack’d taken one look at him, raised an eyebrow, and said, matter of fact, "werewolf?" Cool outsider POV futurefic. Ignore the dialogue formatting issues.

Lovely look at Uhura and Gaila's friendship.

"I want to know every detail about my ship, Lieutenant, every nuance, every quirk. I want to be able to find my way round blindfolded and know what speed she’s going by the vibrations in the deck-plating. And that includes knowing how the communications console works." Adorable look at Kirk learning to be a captain.

Sequel to "Defect." Dean's not doing so well upon his return from hell, and Sam thinks talking to Jason Gideon will help. I enjoyed this a lot.

Mary is sorry too. She’s sorry every day that she wakes up alone and wonders what life could be like if she didn’t let her pride overwhelm her happiness. Mary doesn't take the deal. Smart, painful and true.