I spent half the month traveling, and so most of what I read was under the 10k mark. Here are the few exceptions!

First: And Your Nemesis Closer by beerok23. This retelling of Bridget Jones’s Diary was far better than the original. I loved the way beerok intermixed classic Pride & Prejudice lines with classic Aziracrow speeches!

Second: I Could Never Stay Away by Ro_Fell. A S3 fix-it, essentially rejecting the entire premise of S3 and creating a new world with that framing as a setup but with events that go entirely differently. I found this one a bit disjointed, but I’m pretty sure that’s because I was reading it piecemeal as I was moving across the world, so I don’t think I’m in the best place to judge it in any way.

Third: Sparks and Pressure by IneffableToreshi. An electrician and an instrument tech are paired up on the nightshift at a paper mill. They take an immediate dislike to each other due to the inherent rivalry of their professions, but it’s not long before they’re working as a team. Y’all. This one blew me away. The setting is practically its own character, and it’s an unusual one for GO. The author has worked in the industry and brought in so much detail, both in the fic and in the notes. The story careens from lighthearted and fun to tense and heartbreaking, but in a way that’s also unusual for GO, before it slowly builds back to peace again. Very rarely do stories manage to pull my emotions from delight to crying to awwww so masterfully.