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It’s been the craziest of winters—and that’s really saying something for any FoF (friend of Fraser’s)—a real turning point for each of them in their lives. If you’d asked, not one of them would have predicted any of it. Vecchio, back from his undercover gig and handed a golden ticket to a future out of the force, has found a beautiful (and smart) woman to spend it with. Frannie is most of the way through the Police Academy (forget about the hat problem, handcuffing people and reading them their rights is way too much fun) and quite unexpectedly expecting. Fraser and Ray have had their adventure and decided to return to Chicago; so long as Canada and the Chicago P.D. are keen on cooperation, so are they.
It will be a month maybe before Ray can reclaim his place from the subletter, so Vecchio has insisted they both stay with him.
“That’s very kind of you, Ray, but we couldn’t possibly impose for so long,” Fraser’s ever-polite voice predictably demurs across a scratchy long-distance phone line from Inuvik.
“Fraser! Ma, Maria, Tony an’ the kids are visiting the old country for the summer, so the house is practically deserted with just Frannie and me rattling around (she’s my sister and all but we really need a buffer). I know you both’ve forgot what a decent mattress is—there’s no way I’m letting either of you just put up a cot in a storage room somewhere. You’re my best friend, and Stella would kill me if I didn’t take in Stanley too. Plus Ante misses Dief.”
So here they are, more or less fresh off the ice and seriously jet-lagged but among friends. They arrived on the Vecchio doorstep, got fed the best meal they’ve had since pemican and reconstituted delicacies became their mainstay, and then each found a vacant room and crashed (Ray didn’t care if the whole house heard the positively obscene moan he let out when he hit that honest-to-god bed and snuggled into those blessedly warm covers).
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Next morning Frannie is the first one up, ’cause she’s rushing out to the Academy for class.
“Oh hey, Dief, whatcha doin’ awake? Thought you’d be catching all the zzz's you can get, since you didn’t have to pull a sled today. You can smell those donuts, can’t you?… I’ll give you one but only if you dish. They’ve been out on an iceberg in a teeny tiny little tent just the two of them for ages and they’re still taking separate bedrooms—what is the deal? I thought you were in on this with me, Dief… Yeah, I know you did what you could, they’re a pair of blockheads when it comes to admitting feelings… This could take extreme fissures… Oh, fissures, measures, whatever! See you this evening, we’ve got more work to do.”
Within the hour, Ray sprints down the stairs, suited up and suave as ever, on a goodmorning call with Stella.
“I can’t believe it! They’re still acting like there’s nothing but pure white driven snow between them…. Hold on, Dief’s giving me the pouting face, he won’t let up until I give him a donut… Yeah, I agree, would those idiots just kiss already! Whatever that duet thing is they’ve got going, it can’t just be buddies. We gotta think of something that will give ’em the kick in the pants they need… ’Kay, love you too, baby, see you here for dinner ’round seven… We’ll work on it then. Gotta run.”
Even though this time of morning constitutes sleeping in for him, Fraser knows Ray’s unlikely to emerge any time soon. He tries to talk Dief into a walk, to no avail.
“There’s no need to get flippant with me. Just because you’ve regained your arctic wolf fitness doesn’t mean you should slip back into bad habits… No, I am not giving you one of those donuts, no matter how politely you ask.”
“Oh, let up a bit, he hasn’t had a donut since well before the trek.” Ray is rested and relaxed-looking in his soft t-shirt and boxers, leaning on the doorframe with an indulgent smile on his face. Even after months of constant exposure, Fraser is as powerless to resist that smile as he’s always been. So when Ray saunters over, takes a bite of a donut and gives him a sweet kiss while passing the rest down to Dief, Fraser doesn’t utter a single indignant huff. “See, even you like the taste of donuts,” Ray smirks.
“I prefer the taste of you, Ray,” Fraser exhales in a deep voice into the space between them.
“Mmmm… House is finally quiet, everyone gone?” Ray waits for Fraser’s affirmative nod before he lets out a laugh. “They’re family and all, missed Frannie lots, but I got too used to the quiet and, y’know, having you all to myself.”
“And I you too, Ray.”
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It’s nearly midday before they make it back to the breakfast table—Ray’s savoring proper Vecchio household coffee topped with the Smarties they picked up in Duty Free.
“What’s up with Dief? He looks smug as the cat who got the canary.”
“I’m a bit concerned that he might have been equally successful in securing donuts from Francesca and Ray this morning as he was from you.” Fraser pauses to give a rueful look at Dief, then shakes his head (and mutters “you pay and you pay…” under his breath). But as soon as he looks up at Ray, he can’t help the warm smile that wells up from somewhere deep within him. “Do you think we should let them know about our… er… um… development in our… ah… relationship, so to speak?”
“Nah, let them stew for a few more days. The look on their faces last night when we headed off to separate rooms was priceless. Plus which, I haven’t even had a chance to wind up the Stella yet. She thinks she’s been on to us for ages, but without the evidence she wouldn’t dare bring it up. Bet you five ‘airs’ I can get a concerned but earnest ‘you deserve to be happy too, Ray’ conversion out of her in less than a week. What? After she’s gone and shacked up with the guy I impersonated all those months, I gotta play her a bit first, don’t I? Nope, no affronted virtue look from you, Mountie, or I’ll be forced to kiss it right off that deliciously improper mouth of yours.”
At that they disappear back upstairs and Dief is left to his own devices, to snaffle up the last donut that’s been forgotten on the counter, before snuggling up next to Ante on the dog bed. Chicago isn’t the Arctic, but that’s not a bad thing from where he’s sitting right now. Humans (especially his humans) don’t know what’s good for them; if he can just keep them happy it would be most fortunate for all parties concerned.