Paian is one of my absolute favorite Jack/Daniel writers; her characters are mature, wholly dimensional, believable entities whose feelings and thoughts I can empathize with and care about, in short she achieves what so many people can’t quite reach: real stories about real people who I really care for. This story is no different. It’s set after Fragile Balance and centers around both the clone!Jack and the regular Jack and Daniel. It’s lovely, plotty, and satisfyingly long.

Not Us

This is a short, lovely set of vignettes which beautifully illustrate a future I would love to see happen in the Atlantis universe. This story definitely falls outside of my norm (long, plotty, R/NC-17) but it’s an absolute jewel.

Five Ways Daniel Improves Atlantis

I really like princessofg’s Jack and Daniel. This story is set in early season 7 while Daniel is freshly de-ascended and is still regaining his memories. Lovely details.

Time Is An Arrow, Time Is A River

This is a different, harsher Daniel than canon really suggests but Komos makes me buy it the same way she makes me buy nearly everything she writes: because I am a complete sucker for internal logic and interesting characterization.

Pars Pro Toto

This makes two het!threesome recs in one day which is weird for me because normally I am not all about the threesomes. But this is so much more than that. Warm and layered, and told from Sam’s point of view, I love that she really gets John and Rodney and genuinely cares about them. I also love that John is so hesitant about it all, because for serious, the only way this could ever go down would have to be like that. And this is as much a John/Rodney story as anything else, which was a lovely surprise.

Yoshino

Gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous new Jack/Daniel with angst and lovely characterization and just, everything in due time. I really love this story. It’s long and just fundamentally beautifully written.

Rules of Evidence

This was started in 2003 and finished just this March. It’s one of my favorite clichés, Jack gets telepathy after a mission, and while this isn’t my absolute favorite telepathy fic, it’s really good and very hot.

Understood

First time fic, romantic and lovely without ever crossing the line into schmoopy or sacharrine. I really like Princessofg’s Jack and Daniel and I love that this story is just ansgty enough that you’re not quite sure where she’s going to take it.

A Date, But No Flowers

Mmmmm this is gorgeous, a slow molasses building of movement all in this lovely sleepy tone. Excellent Jack and Daniel and just lovely.

Avalanche

So I’ve been reading Jack/Daniel fic for a while now but the thought of trying to rec it was so overwhelming that I never did. This is officially my first Jack/Daniel rec. It pushed so many buttons for me it’s not even funny. Hell I’m pretty sure it created some of them from scratch. This is so, so smutty and so, so hot. Intense and just — guh. Seriously. Very, very guh.

Slipping

I pretty much always love Lilly’s writing and this is no exception. Fabulous characterization, her possessive John is totally, totally hot. Plus, I’m a total sucker for SGA writers who bring the SG-1 history to their stories. Seriously people, there’s 8 whole years of stargate exploration just waiting to be hinted at in your stories!

Catalyst

This is one of those stories that really helps solidify the characters in your mind. Basically, it’s Jack’s take on John after their post-Seige III return.

Cosecant

Frostfire’s characterization is always, always amazing. It’s like she lives in Sheppard’s head. This is the perfect crossover. It’s set in Afghanistan pre-Atlantis (pre-SGC for Cam.) Seriously, read this even if you don’t like seeing Shep with anyone else or if you don’t know who Cameron is. It’s a fantastic read. John is brutally realistic and the Afghanistan backstory is just how I think it should be.

Here Is No Water