The Co-operative

Fanfiction
Title:	The Co-operative
Author(s):	Sealie
Date(s):	13 October 2012 - 29 August 2015
Length:	367,236 words
Genre:	slash fanfiction
Fandom:	Hawaii Five-0
External Links:	The Co-operative (AO3)
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The Co-operative is a Steve/Danny series by Sealie.

Series

• Part 1: The Co-operative Prequel – HALO - “The personal casualty report is brief by necessity. Commander McGarrett was injured three days ago while on duty. He was the only survivor of the attack. He is currently being transferred to the Landstuhl Regional Medical Centre in Germany for treatment.” (6,768 words, 30 June 2014)
• Part 2: The Co-operative - Danny Williams, Professional Photographer, and his first month at the Seolh Co-operative. (134,170 words, 13 October 2012)
• Part 3: The Co-operative [season II] - Danny Williams, Professional Photographer, and his second month (season II) at the Seolh Co-operative. (226,298 words, 29 August 2015)

Recs and Reviews

So for the non-Leupagus rec I have a series. It’s called The Co-operative by Sealie and I found it when Kristen999 rec’d it. It’s a total AU, McDanno fic, and pretty sprawling. Part one, The Co-operative Prequel - HALO, is pretty graphically violent and details life threatening and permenant injuries that Steve sustains while deployed in Afghanistan. It’s fun for me because I like whump and it kind of sets up the beginning of the next two parts of the story, but if you’re not a big fan of graphic descriptions of violence and the aftermath of the violence maybe give this one a skip. It’s not really necessary to the rest of the story, they do explain what’s going on with Steve in The Co-operative. If you don’t mind the violence, read on reader and enjoy the doctor. I think he may be my favourite actual OC of the whole series, even though I think he is pretty much only in HALO. Also, as a non-medical professional in a family of medical professionals, I found Sealie’s descriptions of the medical side of things to be accurate, which is great because when stuff like that isn’t accurate it throws me out of the story pretty badly.

Part two, The Co-operative, is LOOOONG. Like 134,000 words long. Maybe read it on the weekend because it’s hard to put down. It’s from Danno’s perspective and details this really awesome commune life that Sealie has dreamed up as the setting for the story. It also starts, really slowly, the relationship between Steve and Danno, as well as setting up the plot. By the way, there is plot. SO MUCH PLOT. It’s so great. It’s AU of the canon, so there are differences but there are also similarities. As a side note, maybe don’t read this fic when you’re hungry because Sealie talks about food. A lot. Next time I read this fic I’m going to take notes of recipes so I can try them.

The, to date, last part of the fic is The Co-operative [season II]. I say last part to date because as per the series page on AO3 it’s not complete. Even if that’s inaccurate and it is complete that’s fine, it has a pretty definitive ending in this part. If it’s not the last part then I would very happily ignore any and all of my responsibilities in favour of reading a new part when it’s posted. Season II is very much a continuation of the first fic and you have to read The Co-operative to understand what’s going on in season II. It’s also where the McDanno starts really moving along. There’s a lot of stuff going on in this fic, Steve still recovering from the injuries he sustained in HALO, the whole McDanno situation, and then also more plot. It’s more or less the same plot with sort of the same big bad (the Hess brothers and Wo Fat are the villains of the story). It’s got some whumping in it as well, which is fun for me.

There is something about fics that you learn from and this is one of them. There’s a lot going on in this fic and while the fiction part is great, it’s also fun, at least for me, to read about stuff that I don’t know as much about, like architecture or woodworking or things like that. I consider it an absolute endorsement when I walk away from a story feeling like I learned something, and I don’t mean something intangible like about feelings but actually learned something like how to hide paracord on your person when going to a formal event or that you can use it to cut zipties or what an EPIRB is. As a last side note, you know that thing where the show injures the characters all the time and then suddenly they are magically healed five seconds later? Yeah, no, this fic doesn’t do that. In the epilogue of season II Steve is still dealing with the injuries he had sustained months/more than a year before. It’s a nice realistic look at what being permanently disabled might mean for someone like Steve and how they would overcome it, which in turn makes me love this fic even more because there are people out there who have been permanently injured in combat but haven’t let it stop them from living their lives. I have a lot of respect for that, given my very close to home feelings about people in the military.

This is one of my favorite stories in the fandom. I love being pulled in this gorgeously written AU and get lost in all the lovely details. If you like to roll around in a long getting together fic that includes elements of action, emotional h/c, and a lot of domestic feels….this is a perfect read for a long afternoon. Then there’s the sequel!