The Teeth of the Hydra

Fraser/Kowalski Fanfiction
Title:	The Teeth of the Hydra
Author(s):	Resonant
Date(s):	July 13, 2002
Length:	25,000 words
Genre:	slash
Fandom:	due South
External Links:	online here online at AO3
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"The Teeth of the Hydra" is a Fraser/Kowalski slash novella written by Resonant. The story explores Ray Kowalski's backstory through a series of flashbacks interspersed with scenes from a present-day case he solves with Benton Fraser. The author's summary is A tattoo story.

The story was posted to Ex-wood on July 13, 2002.

Sequel

See Display.

Author's Notes

Believe it or not, this whole sprawling thing resulted from multiplying Ray Kowalski by T.Rex's 'Bang a Gong.'"

She has also written a DVD commentary, in which she states:

Here's what the story is all about, basically.

We've got a bunch of canonical information about Ray Kowalski. In love at the age of twelve or so, divorced, still in love with his ex-wife, wanted lots of kids, became a cop over his father's objections. Fairly conventional working-class tough guy, right?

But then we've got the stuff that Callum Keith Rennie brings to the character -- the tattoo, the rings and bracelet, the dyed hair, the strut, the smoker's gestures, that undefiniable air of sexual ambiguity.

The Kowalski stuff is in hopeless conflict with the Rennie stuff. And this whole story is more or less a way to reconcile them.

Podficced

In 2010, general_jinjur created a podfic of the novella and of Resonant's sequel short story, Display.

Reception and Reviews

The Teeth of the Hydra and the short sequel Display: This is probably one of my favourite Due South stories. It combines two story arcs, Ray's relationship with Stella as a teenager and then as an adult, and parallels this with Ray's gradual epiphany about his own feelings and what this means for him and Fraser. It's a great story, not least because the relationships are very real, and because I actually cared about Ray and Stella as well as about Ray and Fraser. The search for a serial "ink rapist" was a fascinating storyline and the ending was spot-on.

I can think of perhaps three writers who have ever made me feel truly envious; Res is one of them. This story chronicles the evolution of Ray Kowalski, bits and pieces, intermingled with a present-day story set in 1997. And it turned me that unique shade of green that makes a fan fiction writer glow in the dark. *sigh*

I really like the style of this story. The past and the present being weaved expertly together to tell two stories that seem separate, but are really part of a whole. The story in the present is about Fraser and RayK trying to find a perp who drugs his victims and tatoos them against their will. While at the same time Fraser and Ray are starting to realize that their feelings for one antoher are more than friendship. The stories from the past that Resonant slowly weaves in each give a little insight into Ray. Like memories flooding in connected to the present in some way. I love how seamlessly she weaves them in. All of it giving hints and clues to Ray that even he has missed. I just adore Resonant's stories. I've read her work in several fandoms. My favorites are her DS stories. This one is one of my favorites of hers. A lovely plot driven story that's layered so well.

A wonderfully paced story that blends a slowly-unfolding history with the present to create the most amazing character evolution/introspective piece. This is a Ray Kowalski story, and then a Fraser/Kowalski first time fic, and finally, almost as an afterthought, a mystery about an "ink rapist." While the actual mystery isn't so engrossing, it does aid the story in coming around full-circle like the best TV episodes -- only this one has gay sex in it (and it's not even nauseatingly cheesy like all the rest of DS slash). Read the notes and get a bonus sex scene.