ds_slash | Fic: Best Ending

New comer say hello! I started to watch Due South only recently and this is my first DS fic.

Comment please! I'd love to know what you think!

(Note from a Later Edit: This version is un-betaed. The betaed version, credited to

aukestrel, will come out later.)

Title: Best Ending (1/1)
Category: Due South Fan Fiction
Pairing: Ray Kowalski and Benton Fraser
Timeline: A couple of years after Ray Kowalski took Ray Vecchio’s identity.
Summary: Ray Vecchio was coming back…
Word Count: Around 1600
Rated PG
X-posted at

ckr_actorfic and my own place

jane2010

It was almost noon.

Ray walked to his desk, moved the chair a bit and sat down. In front of him the pizza he ordered was already there, but he didn’t feel like eating. “The weather’s bad enough,” he thought, “looks like going to rain.” But he couldn’t blame the weather; he knew.

And the air wasn’t right, either. It felt like the building were under some kind of weird vacuum treatment. The air around him were decreasing so fast that it almost made his breath difficult. “Got to get out for a while.” With the thought he rose and made for the elevator.

He stood there by the elevator door, his left forehead resting against the wall, eyes fixing on nowhere; one could tell from his appearance that he was depressed, or more than depressed—desperate.

The only thing he knew was, after this Lieutenant Welsh told him about Vecchio’s coming back this morning, he had been like this, and he didn’t know why.

Was it for that he was jealous of Vecchio’s accomplishment of the mission? Couldn’t be. He was too cocky to be jealous. Besides, he didn’t give a shit about how the secret organization had functioned through the years and craftily got away every time, or how Vecchio successfully nailed it down, or anything that Lieutenant Welsh had been prattling on all the morning like he were the hero. He didn’t give a shit.

Then what was it?

“Ray! Are you waiting for the elevator or is the elevator waiting for you? You know what? I don’t think it’ll wait any longer if you mean to test its patience.”

Ray looked up and saw the familiar big smile and the scarlet uniform. Yes scarlet, the bight, warm, and now almost life giving color.

“Your presence is a comfort, Fraser.” Ray walked into the elevator with Fraser.

“Is it?” Fraser cast a sidelong glance at Ray, whom still looked terrible.

“More than a comfort I think, “ Fraser continued, “If it were not for some of my ‘presences’, you wouldn’t have been here today, I mean, safe and sound.”

Fraser’s words worked. One could almost see a faint smile on Ray’s face.

“By the way, “ Fraser said, “Have you heard that Ray had done his job and was on his way back…”

“I know.”

“I mean, Vecchio.”

“I know.”

The streets were no different from those on any other day.

“I thought you’d be happy to hear that.” Fraser said.

“Why?” Ray still hung his head as if he didn’t expect an answer.

“Since Vecchio is coming back to his position, you can take you own identity back; or even, quit police work to do something you really like--I remember you once told me that you hated the job.

“I still do.”

Fraser shrugged—he gave up. Probably at the moment it’d be better leave this unhappy man alone.

Minding his own things, Ray nearly bumped into a short elder lady before Fraser took him by his arms.

“Excuse me!” Fraser said.

The wrinkles all over her face, the antiquated clothes, and that mysterious string of beads around her neck reminded Ray a palm reader or something.

“Yes I am.” The lady blurted out.

The unexpected “reply” made Ray felt blank.

“What?” The only thing Ray could say.

“What? You know what!”

The lady then turned to Fraser, whose expression showed interest, and politeness at the same time.

“You’re a police officer?”

“Yes Mam. Exactly, I am Canadian Royal Mounted Police. I first came to Chicago…”

“I see…” The lady didn’t wait till Fraser finished, “Be careful of kids in alleys. And be careful of gunshots that endanger your life.”

“I will. Thank you Mam.”

For the last time the lady turned to Ray, “You didn’t enjoy your lunch, did you?” Then she walked on, leaving Ray and Fraser behind.

“Did you?” Fraser laughed to Ray.

Ray was amused, “Wield woman.”

“I’ve got to grab a bite. You move on. I’ll catch you later.” Ray said.

“Fine.”

Food could have special effects, almost magical sometimes. Now Ray felt much better after his late lunch. “What a spooky woman!” He thought, “And funny as well, except for those words about ‘deadly gunshots’…”

“Bang!” Distant but clear.

Ray rose immediately and ran towards the direction of the shot, so fast as he had meant to catch the fading away tail of the sound.

You could say it was a police officer’s instinct that made him do so. But not exactly this time. He could almost feel his heart sank at the shot.

“Be careful…gunshots…endanger your life…I will…thank you…” Those words started ringing in his ears at the shot but wouldn’t fade away with it. They only repeated themselves again and again, and got louder and louder. They came so illogically but he didn’t have time to think about it. Yes he didn’t think; he just ran. But there are times when things came to your mind by themselves and you cannot control. And at that moment, for the first time in Ray’s I-don’t-give-a-shit life, he felt there was something there that he couldn’t afford to lose.

And when they say your entire life plays a movie in your head before you die, they miss a point. The point is, you don’t have to die physically to experience this. For example now, Ray’s whole life started to play in front of his eyes. To his surprise, or as he had always known, it was all about Fraser.

“Raymond Vecchio, Detective First Grade, Chicago PD. Everyone knows who I am, Fraser, how about you?”…”You called me Ray…Yes you did.”…” Trust you, Fraser? I don't even know if I trust me. That might've been my finger on the trigger. ” …

It seemed to start with this person, and today most likely it would end with this person as well. Or it was not like a movie; it was like waking from a long sleep and coming to the real world that he had never known.

“Fraser! ” Ray searched all the way and found finally in an alley Fraser learned against the wall, one of his arms wounded.

Fraser managed to stand on his feet, intended to chase the kid running away from him, before Ray stopped him.

“Don’t! He has a gun.”

“What?” Fraser looked quite puzzled, “They all ‘has a gun’!”

“Just don’t.” Ray looked away from Fraser’s gaze, as though he couldn’t stand the heat and determination that had always been there in Fraser’s eyes.

“Er, are you OK?” Ray glanced briefly over Fraser’s face.

“I’m fine.”

“Are you sure you can manage it all by yourself?” Ray asked, concerned.

“I think so. Thanks. But I think I’d better go back to the police station for some treatment.”

Ray followed Fraser, his heart faltered with Fraser’s steps, “Better get a taxi…Taxi!”

Ray helped Fraser into the taxi and sat next to him, his eyes looked down, through the taxi floor, far far away through it as though he had lost in rumination.

“What’s wrong?”

“What?”

“Your eyes. Excuse me but was it tears? “

Yes it was tears, but Ray quickly wiped them away like nothing had happened. “No? Nothing. “

Fraser turned his head and looked out of the window as if he was finally persuaded that it was indeed a Ray Kowalski rainy day.

And at that moment, Ray knew that when he said “No nothing”, he was hiding his feelings. In fact, he had been hiding his feelings all the time since long ago, only he didn’t realize then. But now he knew, about his hiding, about his awful lunch, about “the bad weather”, about “the suffocating air”, about everything.

He came to admit that it was love, that he loved Fraser.

“Fraser we got to talk.” It was more exactly his mind talking than him.

“About what?”

“We’ll talk about it later.”

“Oh my god, Fraser, are you OK?” It was Francesca, “Let me help, let me help!”

“I’m fine, thank you, but I think I can manage it myself.”

“OK then…Oh! I almost forgot, there’s a postcard for you.”

“Whom was it from?” Ray asked.

“Vecchio. He said he would be back within the week.”

“That’d be… great. So, he sent postcards once in a while so you don’t forget this old friend?” Ray managed a smile.

“Yes…no, actually no. Saving the postcards I’d still remember him.”

“For what?”

“For what? For…he was a good partner.”

Ray hung his head for a second, and then raised his head again, “Am I?”

“You? … I think so?” Fraser put the card down and smiled to Ray, whom almost made a breathing spell at Fraser’s reply.

“You said you wanna talk?”

“Yeah, “Ray close his eyes for a little while, and then opened them, “Just forget it!”

You cannot always get yourself a happy ending but you can always choose a best one. Ray knew it, and he knew he would leave this place with a lighter heart, because he knew he would always be remembered, by the love of his life.

“I’ll get you some medications and things. Sit here! And don’t move your ass!”

Fraser laughed, “So Ray, I’m glad to see that some of your personalities are coming back!”

“Just sit there OK?”

“Okay.”

(The End)