RATED PG
The glowing face of the digital clock read 3:14 a.m. and all was silent in the apartment. Suddenly the silence was broken by a voice. "No! No!"
With a strangled gasp, Ray sat straight up in the bed, breathing heavily. A pair of strong, loving arms was wrapped around him. "It's okay, Ray," a soothing voice whispered in his ear. "You had a nightmare. It's over now."
The detective turned into the Mountie's embrace. "I'll say it was a nightmare," he said shakily.
A hand stroked his back lovingly, then moved up to play with his hair. "Do you want to tell me about it?"
Ray drew a deep, steadying breath. "It was terrible. I dreamed that I was sent on an undercover assignment."
"You've done undercover work before, Ray."
"I know. But this assignment was different. It was totally whacked. Another Detective had been sent away on an undercover assignment; and I was sent in to pose as him to maintain his cover. It was so weird, Renny."
Renny sat in the bed for a moment, thinking about what Ray had just said. It did sound terribly confusing.
"But wait. It gets even weirder than that. The Detective I was impersonating was Ray Vecchio."
Turnbull burst into laughter. "Really? Ray Vecchio? That is weird." He could not even picture that. He had met Detective Vecchio a few times, and he was nothing like his lover. Not only did the two men look nothing alike; they were not at all similar in personality.
His Ray, while he could be impatient and snappish at times, was as a general rule kind and loving. Ray Vecchio was just plain terrifying. Although Constable Fraser did seem inordinately fond of him. He turned his attention back to his lover as Ray continued talking about his dream.
"And in the beginning, I had to drive a Riviera." Ray shuddered dramatically. "Thank God, though, it blew up almost right away."
"The car blew up?"
"Yes."
"Were you hurt?"
"No. We dumped it in Lake Michigan. And that's another thing, Renny. I was partnered up with that weird-ass Mountie I met today."
"Constable Fraser?"
"Yeah. I'm telling you, lover, I don't know how you work with him. That guy is a freak."
"Now, Ray. Constable Fraser is an excellent officer, and a very good man."
"Yeah, yeah yeah. So, how come he kept making passes at me?"
"What?!"
"Yup." Ray grinned at him. "We had barely met, and he was feeling up my leg in the car. Then, we were on this ship, and he slapped a great big open-mouthed kiss on me."
"He did?" Turnbull felt himself becoming angry. With Constable Fraser, of all people! He tried to remind himself that it had only been a dream. And Ray's dream, at that.
"He sure did," Ray continued. "He called it 'buddy breathing'. Said it was sharing oxygen to save my life or some bullshit like that. But please. Have you ever heard of that before?"
"No," replied Renny shortly, trying to fight back his feelings of jealousy. Perhaps he shouldn't have been quite so forthcoming with details of Constable Fraser's relationship with Detective Vecchio.
Ray looked at him and started to laugh. "Are you jealous?"
"Jealous? Of a dream? I hardly think so," Turnbull said, fairly unconvincingly.
Ray smiled at him. "'Cause I could reassure you if you wanted."
Turnbull ignored that remark. "What happened next?"
"That's when I woke up screaming."
Renny pulled Ray into his arms. "It's okay, love. It was just a bad dream." He covered Ray's face with kisses.
"I know. But it seemed so real."
"Nightmares often do," Turnbull said. Silently, he reprimanded himself. He knew he should never have introduced his Ray to Constable Fraser. He would need to be extremely careful to make sure the two Rays never met up. He sighed.
Ray shifted in his arms and pressed his lips to Renny's in a lingering kiss. Renny pulled away and smiled at him. "Feeling better now?"
"I'm not sure," Ray told him. "I think I need some more... comforting."
"Well come here, then," Renny grinned at him, then lay back on the bed, pulling Ray down on top of him.
It was quite a long time before silence returned to the apartment.
THE END
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