Terms of Surrender

Zine
Title:	Terms of Surrender
Publisher:	Nuthatch Press
Editor:
Author(s):	Jane
Cover Artist(s):
Illustrator(s):
Date(s):	March 1997
Medium:	fanzine, print, A4, xerox, coil bound
Size:
Genre:
Fandom:	Due South
Language:	English
External Links:	WayBack Archive link to Publisher's site
Click here for related articles on Fanlore.

Terms of Surrender is a Due South 170-page slash novel written in 1997 by Jane and published by Nuthatch Press.

The story cycle focuses on crafting a new resolution for the second season of Due South with a focus on the Fraser/Vecchio relationship.

Proposed Sequel

A proposed sequel called "Due North" was never completed:

Jane's final DUE SOUTH opus, DUE NORTH (the sequel to TERMS OF SURRENDER) is still in the works! It hasn't been abandoned, but it's on the back burner because it looks like we're doing a massive zine for under 10 readers. It's going to be expensive because of the minute print-run, and it also can't be given much priority for the same reason ... but it WILL be done eventually!

Description

From the publisher:

A story cycle building a massive novel... For slashfen, the first season was close to paradise ... and the second was something of a minefield. Nut Hatch’s ‘old warhorse’ takes up the gauntlet; the challenge? To craft a Resolution for the second season, consistent with everything portrayed on-screen, and supporting the integrity of the first season! Every angry word, every jarring scene, is here woven into a tight-knit whole filled with angst and hope, friction and affection, despair and optimism. Here is ‘the vast story behind the aired stories,’ of a love affair gone wrong, two lives almost broken, and an emergence into joy

...

The massive text has been squeezed into a normal size zine (don't even ask how...) and will be ready to print in March 1997. Note that this story cycle takes no account of the upcoming Third season! Definitely for adults-only!

Contents

Summaries from the publisher:

• If You Just Stand Still: The classic ‘first time’ story, taking place right after Chicago Holiday. Love may be grand, but everything in this garden is far from rosy, and stormy water lies ahead. The Italian in Ray, the ‘born patriarch,’ is nowhere near ready to accept the committed, exclusive, permanence that Fraser wants.
• 'Tis the Season: It's Christmas, and Ben Fraser is being haunted by a would-be Ghost of Christmas Past. For Ray, life is getting ... very complicated. After Gift of The Wheelman. Nothing is getting easier, and Ray’s digging himself in deeper and knows it.
• Could I Spend Forever Here?: Suzanne has turned Ray’s head, leaving Fraser desolate; his thoughts turn to a darkly beautiful woman he knew almost a decade ago. And then Suzanne is gone, and Ray arrives at the apartment on Racine... After You Must Remember This. Perhaps not so oddly, Ray is angry. And not with Ben.
• Absent Friends: The Riviera is history, and Dief will die tomorrow. Both Ray and Fraser are mourning, and grief has a way of driving people together. During The Wild Bunch.
• Skating on Thin Ice: Ray is one big bruise after that hockey game. But the bruises inside, those that don't show, are more painful than anything physical. After The Blue Line. Ray is in so deep, those stormy waters are over his head and he's drowning.
• Liniment and Black Lace: Fran gets a big surprise when she actually turns on the light and takes a look at Fraser; and Ben gets the shock of his life when he discovers a new friend, because ... Fran knows. After The Deal. And it's Fran’s idea to stir things up!
• A Gift Unwanted: Garret’s uncanny perceptions offer a prophecy for Fraser. Things are not going well, and Ray is struggling not to ‘drown,’ lose himself, in his relationship with Ben, when Garret foretells that there will be a woman. For Ray? Oh, no. He describes the woman with that darkness. After Heaven and Earth. And while Ray remains deeply troubled, Fraser, resigned to losing him, begins to unconsciously watch for her.
• Ye Jest at the Scars: Following the shooting, both Fraser and Vecchio are in very deep, very real legal trouble. Fraser was seen running to catch that train, and he could be imprisoned for many years for abetting a fugitive murderer. After the accidental shooting, Ray made a terrible mistake, and he'll pay for it, even while Fraser recovers. But first, during Letting Go, he has to get Ben out of this legal muddle, before Fraser buries himself. And then there's a blow for Fraser when Ray tells him to really let go ... that after the traumatic experience of Victoria, they must return to being simply friends.
• Being of Sound Mind (and Rather Dubious Body): Back in his right mind, walking and sighted, even if he and Ray are marooned in the wilderness after North, Fraser faces a minor confrontation. Who the heck is Steve? It's the tip of a very large iceberg.
• One for the Wheelman: Now, just who taught Fraser to handle an ordinary car properly on a city street, in traffic? Between Witness and Promise, he had to learn somewhere! His pretty teacher has ample experience. At driving Buick Rivieras, that is.
• That's What Friends Are For: Life doesn't get much rougher for Fraser than when he has Ray moody and snarling on one side and the Dragon from Ottawa breathing fire on the other. She bites; and so does Ray, these days. After Masks, while Ray borrows the sweat lodge for a date, Fraser is alone, far from happy, and considering his options.
• Where the Heart Is: Flashpoint for them both arrives at last, as it always had to. The catalyst is Irene Zuko; Ray himself is the trigger, and the whole thing blows up in his face and Fraser’s. But the weird thing about an explosion is, it often clears the air. Near the end of Juliet is Bleeding, the healing begins.
• Be It Ever So Humble: With Ray’s help, Ben has just saved his apartment building ... and in the calm after the storm of Irene and Frank Zuko, Ray is almost his old self. An eight-month-old resolution is broken one night, and they begin again. After One Good Man.
• Not Quite How to Win Friends or Influence People...: Jittery after his ‘identity crisis,’ is Fraser. The Sunday after the NAFTA conference, a sooty wolf is getting a bath. Ray and Ben are drenched, and their talk turns to the Inspector. After The Edge.
• No Good Deed: Welsh and Thatcher wreak vengeance for the hijinx at Rosewell, but Ray’s noticed Meg noticing Benny. After Starman and We Are The Eggmen. The question is, what's Fraser going to do about it? Things are pretty good between him and Ray...
• ... And Others Like It Blue: ...until blue eyed, red haired Ms. Bennie Fraser shows her beautiful face, and all at once Ray Vecchio is a boat tossed in a storm. After Some Like It Red. Too late, Benton realizes he's come very, very close to ruining everything he ever hoped to have.
• ... And Some of the Queen's Men: With Ray running scared and seeking ‘breathing space,’ Fraser is resigned to loss and defeat. He's grieving for broken dreams, and when Meg Thatcher turns to him, he's human enough to need that human contact. Problem is, Ray has eyes: he saw. It's flashpoint time again, and this time when Ray lights the fuse it almost blows off his hand. This time, there's no turning back.
• Positive Thinking: It's pancakes for supper, after Body Language. Dief thinks Ray has gone with the blonde ... Fraser knows better. At Ray’s bidding, he's practicing optimism. And he's right.
• Memories Are Made of What?: But for Ray, the final straw comes when he really does ‘lose’ Benny ... when Ben literally forgets him! Flashback affords Ray a taste of being without the intimacy they cherish. And the problems that began just after Chicago Holiday resolve here only to generate other problems entirely...
• The Female of the Species: Victoria is back. She's one of the two dangling loose ends in their lives, but neither Ray nor Fraser could possibly have foreseen how this would end. Or who would end it for them.
• Never Say Die: The final unresolved complication for Fraser is the bullet lodged in his spine. It was only ever a matter of time before it moved, and when at last it does, Ray thinks he has opened a door into hell. And yet ... never, never say die.