RATED PG
Alliance legally owns these characters and I make no legal claims to them by the writing of this story. The story is written for entertainment purposes only, and no money will be made.
HOMECOMING
Ray Vecchio hummed along with the radio as he steered the car through the streets of Chicago. He was in such a good mood that he didn’t even mind driving a late-model tin box of a car. He would get his Riv back soon enough.
He was home now. His assignment with the federal government was over, and he was ready to re-claim his life. His car, his home, his family, his job, and most of all, his lover.
He was heading to the Canadian Consulate right now, to pick up Benny and start the process of becoming Ray Vecchio again. He knew that he should have gone to the station house first, to officially check in with Lt. Welsh; and when Ma found out that he hadn’t gone home first thing she would probably skin him alive, but he didn’t care. He needed Benny. He needed him now.
He had needed him every day for the past six months, actually. Six long, dark, terrifying months of ugliness and danger; with no Benny to turn to. Not once during his assignment had Ray heard an insane and completely illogical idea for getting out of a sticky situation. Not once had he heard an Inuit story. How had he survived?
Ray grinned, but the grin quickly faded as he thought about his lover. He had made a mistake taking the assignment, he knew that now. He had known it at the time, but he had taken the undercover assignment anyway.
He had told himself it was the right thing- the only thing- to do. The federal government had need help- his help- and without him, some very bad men would be free to continue their criminal activities, and some very bad deeds would have gone unpunished. He had heard a voice whispering in his head that it was his duty- and the voice had been Benny’s.
Benny… Ray knew that on one level, his lover would understand why he had taken the assignment. He would have expected and accepted nothing less from Ray, and he would understand why he had taken the assignment and gone so far away.
But on another level, Ray knew that Benny had to be feeling abandoned- left alone again by someone who had told him that they loved him. Ray had left him all alone in a city that was still a little bit strange and overwhelming to him, even after nearly two years of living there. And worst of all, he hadn’t said goodbye before he left.
Ray could only imagine what that had done to his lover. He knew that Benny would forgive him- that Benny already had forgiven him- but he hoped and prayed with all his heart that Benny would be able to trust him again.
He would have to make sure that Benny did trust him again. He would devote the rest of his life to it, if necessary. He knew now what mattered most to him, and it sure as hell wasn’t his job, or the glory that came from completing a big important police operation.
What mattered most was love. Particularly love involving Benny. He would be perfectly happy to spend the rest of his days living a quiet, anonymous life as a Chicago Detective, with Benny by his side.
He was looking forward to convincing Benny of this truth, to showing him every day- and every night- that he was there to stay, and was never, ever going to leave his side again.
Ray parked the car by the sidewalk outside the Consulate and walked into the building, a decided spring in his step. As he entered the lobby, a smile spread across his face.
Hanging on the wall was a picture of his lover. Ray grinned proudly. He wondered what Benny had done to earn having his portrait hung on the wall of the Consulate. Just what exactly had his lover been up to while he was away?
Ray read the inscription on the bottom of the portrait, and stared at it for a moment, waiting for the words to make sense. He squeezed his eyes shut and rubbed them; but when he looked again, the inscription still said the same thing: “In Memoriam: Constable Benton Fraser, Killed in the Line of Duty, 1997.”
Ray felt his heart stop in his chest, felt himself stop breathing. No. That was wrong. It had to be. Oh God, what had he been thinking, going off like that and leaving Benny behind?
Benny never carried a weapon, and he was always rushing into dangerous situations, trying to help people, most of whom were scum who didn’t deserve or appreciate his help in the first place.
He never should have left. His reasons for leaving had all been bullshit. It hadn’t been about duty, or helping the government, or making Benny proud of him. He had been afraid. Afraid of loving Benny. Of what that love would do to him, do to his family and his career; his life.
But he knew now. He finally realized that the thing that mattered most, the only thing that really mattered in his life, was Benny. It was time for his second chance, for him to prove that love to Benny, and receive Benny’s love in return. It was time for him and Benny to finally find happiness.
He reached out and gently touched the portrait, looking up at Benny smiling down at him, wearing that damnable red serge. “I’m sorry Benny. Oh God I’m sorry. Please forgive me. Sorry, so sorry, so sorry…”
Ray’s legs gave way beneath him suddenly, and he collapsed to the ground. The reality of the situation came crashing down upon him, and his voice raised in a scream that seemed to shake the very walls of the Consulate.
“BENNY!”
In an opulent bedroom suite in a penthouse in Las Vegas, a man sat up in bed with a loud gasp, the satin bed sheets tangled around his waist. Leaning back against the headboard, Armando Langostini buried his face in shaking hands.
THE END
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