"Blood Ties" by PhoenixE (PG)

[fhartman.livejournal.com]

Rec Category: Hurt/Comfort
Pairing: None
Category: H/C (emotional), Angst, J/D friendship
Warning: Spoilers for "Secrets"
Author on LJ: None that I know of
Author's Website:

http://www.jd-divas.com/phoenixe/phoenix.html

Link:

http://www.jd-divas.com/phoenixe/bloodties.shtml

Why This Must Be Read: God, I love this. Being the slash fan that I am, it was only recently that I started to read any of PhoenixE's friendship fic, and boy, was I happily surprised! In many ways, she nails these characters far more accurately in her friendship fic than in the slash, and it shines through particularly in this piece. What also gets me here is that most post-Secrets fic deals with Daniel's trauma, but this one gets down and dirty with Jack's demons. His world got rocked in this episode as well, but because of who and what he is, we tend to sweep that under the rug. Phoenix takes a good hard look at that, and Jack's struggle to make sense of his role in the "damned distasteful things" his government has used him to do. It's a great character piece that shows how sometimes just being there for your friends and being who you are can help you both get through the day.