Title: The Shadow Over Chatsworth
Author's LJ/DWJ: saffronhouse / saffronhouse
Categories: Crossover with SGA, Daniel and Rodney Friendship, Horror, Drama
Warnings: violence, torture, general creepiness, some bad language
Author's Webpage/Fic list: Good Morning Sunshine
Link to story: The Shadow Over Charsworth

Why this should be read: I found this mixture of mystery, drama, and horror enthralling and wonderfully creepy. The entire story takes place on earth after Daniel and Rodney are stranded when their car breaks down in the middle of nowhere. The character voices are excellent. A subtly ominous buildup and southern gothic atmosphere are blended perfectly with the Stargate world. You don't need to be familiar with SGA to enjoy this story, in fact I think it stands up well on its own. A fun read, definitely one of my favorites (and I don't even really like Rodney McKay).


Then he felt a funny tingling at the back of his neck and whirled back to look at the statue again.

Dammit!" he burst out. "I knew I wasn't imagining things! Arlene and Dakota really were wearing the sign of Exu. The town has a monument to him in the town square!"

"I told you that meatloaf was a bad idea," Rodney said. "Who the hell is Exu?"

"He's known in African and South American spiritual traditions. God of the crossroads, the divine trickster. Look!" The monument was all stark outlines, black against the night sky full of roiling gray storm clouds. "He has the archetypal horns on his head and the exaggerated phallus --"

"Definitely the meatloaf. I'm no archaeologist," Rodney snorted, "but even I know little towns in the Southern U.S. don't generally erect statues with big dicks to wave over the town square."

"Which doesn't change the fact that we're standing right here looking at it."

Rodney was digging in the outer pocket of one of the laptop cases, producing at length a flashlight that he trained upon the rain soaked monument. The wavering yellow light destroyed the silhouette, suddenly giving the monument weight and depth, texture and color. Marble, brass. The figure of a soldier with his rifle at his side leaning wearily atop a columnar pedestal.

"On April 30, 1863, Confederate Brig. Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest’s brigade caught up with Union Col. Abel D. Streight's provisional brigade," Rodney read off the placard at the base. "They attacked the rearguard at Day’s Gap on Sand Mountain, but the Federals repulsed this attack and continued --"

"All right, all right," Daniel said.

"Not a whole lot here about Exu and his supernatural penis," Rodney pointed out mercilessly.

"Just turn off your flashlight for a minute."

"Because there's nothing like shedding a little dark on a subject," Rodney snapped, but he turned off the light. Daniel blinked, waiting for his eyes to adjust, and tried to brush the rain off his face with his fingers.

But the illusion was gone, and no matter how Daniel tilted his head or squinted he couldn't recapture his original impression. The monument looked nothing like the horned, priapic sculpture Daniel had first seen. Or first imagined, he corrected himself. "You're right," he admitted. "It's a civil war monument."

"So we can get out of the rain now?" Rodney demanded and tromped off without waiting for an answer. Daniel followed, looking back only once. A brass soldier from a century - old war stood waiting in the rain. Nothing more.

To his surprise, Rodney was waiting for him when he turned back. "The adrenaline never really wears off, does it?" he said to Daniel , his voice unexpectedly gentle.

"Not so much, no."