Title: Here Comes the Sun
Author: RabbitRunnah
Fandom: Check, Please!
Pairing(s): Eric Bittle/Jack Zimmerman
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: None
Genres: First Time, Romance, Drama, Alternate Universe, Medium (10k-25k)
Word Count: 19,599
Summary: For the past month, the man with the baby and the sad blue eyes has been stopping in for a cup of coffee an hour before closing. He always sits in an overstuffed chair in the corner and drinks his coffee while his baby sleeps next to him in the stroller. Sometimes he pulls a book out from the diaper bag he carries with him; other times he just stares straight ahead as if in a daze. He never asks for a refill, always respectfully gathers his things and leaves ten minutes before the shop officially closes. Eric desperately wants to ask him what his story is.
Why You Should Read This: This fic could better be called “The Courtship of Eric and Jack”, because it’s a semi-AU (Eric is a baker, Jack is a professional hockey player) where Jack is a single father that steps into Eric’s bakery one day.
Jack is his normally emotionally-repressed self, and Eric is the one that everyone loves – just like in the comics. But the author has a way of picking up the story, month by month, to not only show how their relationship grows, but how Jack and Eric, and Jack’s little baby girl Nora become a family.
If you’re looking for some schmoop that’ll make you smile, this is the fic for you. And to show you how much I love it, my comment to the author was, “I prefer your slow build of Jack and Eric’s relationship to canon!”