Rated PG
These characters legally belong to Alliance. No offense or copyright infringement is intended by this story, and no profit will be made.
THE LITTLE THINGS
Ray shifted in his seat and sighed. There were days when he hated being a cop, and today was definitely one of those days. Being a police officer was supposed to be rewarding- cleaning up the streets of Chicago, arresting the bad guys, saving the citizens from crime. But today it had merely been depressing.
It seemed every person he had encountered today had been the scum of the earth, each one worse than the one before. The day had started with a teenager mugging an elderly woman, in the process knocking her down and breaking her arm. Then he had arrested a junkie who had stabbed a jogger in the park for her Walkman.
He had spent most of the afternoon trying to solve a hit and run case; finally arresting a young man who had assured Ray that he would never be convicted because his wealthy father had "connections". The fact that the kid was right saddened and infuriated Ray.
But the worst case of all had been his last. He and Huey had brought a murder suspect in for questioning, and the man had readily confessed to murdering his wife.
He had not seemed at all repentant of the crime, just annoyed that he had been careless enough to get caught. He had explained, with very little emotion, that he had killed her because she had a $500,000 insurance policy on her life and he had needed the money to help save his floundering business.
It was nothing personal, he had explained, but he couldn't get a loan from a bank, and he had been desperate. He had then told them, with about as much emotion as someone discussing last night's baseball game, how he and his wife had drifted apart in recent years. While deciding to kill her had been an agonizing choice, once it was made he had carried out his plan quickly.
Ray was finishing his notes on that case now, and he was becoming more and more depressed as he did so. Ray sighed and closed his notebook. Not only had the case angered and depressed him, he now had a terrible headache.
Resting his elbows on the desk, Ray buried his face in his hands, rubbing his eyes. He looked up at the sound of his name. Jack Huey was standing next to his desk.
"I'm going to go home now, Vecchio. The wrap up on this case can wait until tomorrow."
"Yeah." Ray agreed. He looked at his sometime partner. "You okay, Huey?"
Ray was worried about him. He knew the case had affected Jack as much as it had him, and he didn't like the idea of Huey going home to his empty apartment.
Before Jack could answer, Elaine walked up to him, wrapping an arm around Jack's waist. "You ready to go, hon?" She asked.
Jack smiled at her. "Yes." He then turned his smile on Ray. "Yes, I am."
Ray watched them go, and felt himself smile for the first time all day. "Good for you, Jack."
Ray walked through the door of the apartment and closed it behind him with a weary and grateful sigh. He paused for a moment. It smelled like dinner was cooking, and it smelled delicious.
Ben stepped out of the kitchen and hurried over to him, smiling happily. "Ray!"
"Hey, Benny." Ray said, turning to hang up his coat.
Ben kissed Ray, then gave him a hug. As his arms went around Ray, Ben was still for a moment, then he began gently rubbing and massaging Ray's back. "Rough day at work?" He asked quietly.
"You don't know the half of it."
"What happened?"
"I'd rather not talk about it."
"All right." Ben agreed, continuing to rub Ray's back.
"Dinner smells great, Benny."
Ben pulled away to smile at him. "Thank you. It's nothing fancy, I'm just heating up the stew from the other night. I was just about to start the biscuits when you arrived."
Ray nodded, then frowned slightly. "Hey, Benny, how did you know I'd be home now?"
Ben looked slightly embarrassed. "I didn't think you would be this late, and I was getting worried. So I called the station, and they told me you had just left."
"Oh." Ray said, the second smile of the day spreading over his face.
Taking Ray's hand, Ben led him into the kitchen.
"Can I help you, Benny?" Asked Ray.
"No. You can sit down and relax." Ben said, pushing Ray gently down into a chair.
Ray grinned and sat obediently in the chair, watching Benny as he poured a glass of lemonade and set it on the table in front of Ray.
"Thank you, Benny."
Ben nodded. As he watched his lover, Ben's eyes narrowed, and he walked over to the sink. Reaching into the cupboard above the sink, Ben pulled out the bottle of aspirin and shook two of the tablets into his hand.
Crossing back over to the table, Ben handed the aspirin to Ray, who smiled gratefully and swallowed the pills. Ben was still looking at him worriedly, and he reached out to feel Ray's forehead.
"Benny, I'm okay. It's just a headache."
"Mmm-hmm." Ben said, moving his hand from Ray's forehead to place the back of his hand against Ray's cheek.
"Benny, really. It's just tension. I'm okay."
"Okay." Ben said quietly. He ran the back of his hand lightly over Ray's cheek in a gentle caress, then crossed back over to the counter to begin mixing the biscuits.
As he worked, Ben chatted with Ray, talking about things that mercifully had nothing whatsoever to do with police work.
Ben finished spooning the last of the biscuits onto the cookie sheet and slid them into the oven, then moved to the refrigerator, pulling out the pitcher of lemonade and refilling Ray's glass.
Giving his lover a smile and a kiss, Ben returned the pitcher to the refrigerator, then started piling the dishes in the sink to be washed, humming softly as he did so.
Ray watched as Ben turned on the water, then stood up and walked over to his lover, standing behind him and wrapping his arms around his waist. "Leave those for now, Benny."
"What?"
Ray removed one arm from Ben's waist and turned off the water.
"The dishes can wait, Benny." Ray said, before drawing his lover into a kiss.
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