Disclaimer: I don't own 'em, I just play with 'em and hand 'em back, none the worse for wear.

Story Notes: Highlander/due South crossover, with a cameo here and there from Hellboy.

SequelTo: Geometry: Chapter 2, Chinese Is For Sharing

Early the next morning, Ray surveyed the crime scene and flinched. "Jeez, Frase, crime scenes always suck but this one takes the cake."

"I find it hard to disagree with that assessment, Ray," Fraser admitted. "I'm glad we left Diefenbaker in the car."

"Yeah..." Ray knelt down and scratched at the coating of dried blood that extended in an irregular blotch nearly forty feet across. Parking garages weren't known for their warm and homey feeling, and yellow and black crime scene tape always lent a macabre aspect to any place, but this was almost unbelievable.

The place was grim yesterday, with detectives questioning everyone and the meat wagon loading up, flatfoots chasing off the press crawling all over the place every five minutes, but this morning, empty and echoing, it was just this side of surreal. It made Ray's finely honed street senses jumpy as hell.

As opposed to the usual single white corpse outline left by the forensic team, there were seven separate smaller outlines showing where the various body parts had been discovered. A few of the outlines could be matched to specific body parts, but the rest were just irregular blobs, without any defining features.

"This guy was hacked to pieces, Frase. Glad we brought the crime scene photos the prelim team took, or we'd never know what half these... parts... were."

"The preliminary autopsy report specifies complete exsanguination as well as dismemberment?" Fraser asked; kneeling down beside Ray and cocking his head slightly to assess the patterns of movement left behind in the dried bloodstains. Ray had time to review the preliminary autopsy information on the case while Fraser checked in at the Consulate but while his partner had brought the preliminary file along for him to review, Fraser hadn't had time to read it completely on the trip over.

"Yep. Hardly any blood left in the... pieces... at all."

"What state was the body in when it was first discovered?"

"Body was almost run over by the woman who works the early-morning shift. The garage is closed from midnight to six am, and she unlocked the front gate at quarter 'til, pulled her car in to start the day, and nearly drove into this mess."

Odd, the crime scene was in the lowest level, not street level. "Why would she park down here, Ray? The station she would work at is up two levels and clear across the building."

"The good parking spots are for the paying customers, Frase. Employees get stuck with the ones nobody wants. That's why there's nothing on the security cameras, this area's in a blind spot."

Fraser frowned disapprovingly. "That's unsafe, Ray. Don't the attendants work alone?"

"No sh... no kidding, Frase. Heck, the building owner'll be lucky if the city doesn't pull his business license for this mess. And yeah, the staff sits in that little plexi box at the entrance gate; takes payments and monitors the security cameras. Kind of a no-brainer job, really. Strictly minimum-wage stuff."

Fraser's natural concern for people immediately came to the fore. "Is the woman all right?"

"Sorta. She quit on the spot after calling the police and the Channel Six news hotline, and she was pretty freaked out, but she's OK physically. The news van got here first 'cause the Channel Six building's only four blocks away. That's how they got that damn footage that's got the city in an uproar."

"That's irresponsible journalism, Ray." The condemnation in his partner's voice amused Ray.

"It's Channel Six, Frase, whadda expect? They corner the market on sleazy and inflammatory yellow journalism in this city. Anybody who'd hire that scumbag La Rosa can't have any kind of standards."

Ray had a real grudge against the disreputable Oscar La Rosa, Fraser recalled. He'd socked him in the jaw on the Margrave kidnapping case, when the reporter's irresponsible meddling nearly cost the kidnap victim her life. Only one of Ray's eerie hunches something was wrong during the ransom exchange saved her.

"Is he covering this story, Ray?" That would certainly be trouble.

"Nah, thank Christ. I had Frannie called the Channel Six news desk. Jerk's on vacation in Aruba, and won't be back for another week and a half. Which is a break for us. Story's been assigned to Janice Whitlow. She's awright, for a reporter."

"You know her?"

Ray nodded absently as he stood up and began circling the area, looking for anything the forensics crew might have overlooked. "Yeah, she's a friend of Stel's. Useta come over once in a while when Stella'd have her girlfriends over. I pretty much cut out on nights like that, but I know her a little."

"Will she be an interference in the case?"

"All reporters interfere, Frase, it's parta their job description. But we can probably work around her."

"Very well, Ray. Where exactly was the sword found?"

Ray flipped the open file in his hands until he found the chest photo. "Still embedded in what was left of the torso. Jammed into the breastbone so hard whoever did this couldn't get it loose. Forensics had to bag it that way- says here Mort finally cut it loose with a bone saw during the autopsy prelim. so we could get a decent look at it. Pretty weird artifact too, we're lucky Dief could scrape up somebody who could tell us something about it."

Mind you, the fact she was easy on the eyes and pretty on the inside too was a swell side benefit, Ray reflected, and squashed the thought. Dief's girl was wicked nice and he was definitely interested, but they had work to do.

"It seems exceedingly odd someone would commit a crime with such a valuable artifact, Ray."

"According to the patrol guys first on the scene, the blood was still wet when they got here. My guess is the perp was trying to get the blade loose when he -or she- heard the attendant's car and had to split or be seen."

"Logical, but why use such an exotic weapon?"

"That's what's buggin' me, Frase. Odds are lookin' pretty good we got a genuine psycho on our hands here."

"Or a serial killer?"

Ray shuddered. "Don't even say that word, Fraser. We got enough problems. Feds'll be crawling all over our ass if that happens. We'll run a search for similar m.o.'s on the computer when we get back to the station and see if anything comes up."

Remembering his last encounter with US federal agents, during the Lady Shoes case, Fraser would be just as happy to forego that experience as well. Having determined there was nothing to be discovered in the dried blood remains, Fraser stood up and began circling the scene the way Ray was doing, hoping to discover something -anything- overlooked. But there was nothing. Just dried blood and police tape.

Ray sighed. "I think we're wastin' our time, Frase, but grab Dief and sweep the resta the place while I check out the attendant's station. We've got the confiscated security tapes to go over but I wanna check the booth. We might get lucky."

Fraser finished circling the bloodstain and came up as empty as Ray. There was simply nothing to be found. "Very well, Ray."

Thirty fruitless minutes later, he and Dief rejoined Ray at the parked GTO.

"Nothing?" Ray said glumly.

"I'm afraid not, Ray. There's just nothing to be found."

"Crap. Awright. Think we can release the crime scene?"

"Unfortunately, yes. There's nothing to be found because there's nothing here, Ray."

"That's what I think too," Ray grumbled as he started the GTO. "I love a case with no leads."

"What course of action do you intend to pursue next?"

"Start reviewing the security tapes and interviewing all the employees and regular patrons, and wait for the full autopsy report and toxicology results. Not much else we can do. Heck, if it weren't for Doctor Mac ID'ing the saber like that, and handing us a pocketful of leads on a silver platter, we'd be floundering around just trying to trace the damn thing."

In the back seat, Dief sat up at the sound of his girlfriend's name and whined eagerly.

"I'm sorry, Diefenbaker, we are not visiting your lady friend."

The wolf's ears drooped visibly and he muttered a complaint.

"You could have stayed with her last night if you wished, Dief. It was your decision."

The wolf rumbled warningly in his throat and Fraser skimmed a finger over his eyebrow before answering. "Indeed? I was unaware. Please assure Doctor MacLeod such actions are not necessary. Your time is your own, Diefenbaker."

"What'd he say?" Ray asked, intrigued.

"Doctor MacLeod did not wish to hurt my feelings, so she told Diefenbaker to return home with me last night rather than stay with her."

Ray snorted out a laugh. "Nice right down to the core. She is a heckuva catch, Dief. I'm jealous."

Fraser turned to his partner, curious in turn. "You like her that much, Ray?"

"Are you blind, Fraser? Then again, yer Canadian, maybe you couldn't notice... you're a different kind of weird. Under the skin, she's a freak show like me... us weirdos can sense our own kind. Not too many of us, it's nice to run across one. Besides, it's been a while since I met someone as friendless as I am."

"You certainly have identical self-image issues," Fraser pointed out dryly. "And to utilize an American euphemism, what am I, chopped liver?"

Ray threw him an exasperated look. "That's what I meant, Frase. I got you; she's got Dief. And that's all we've got. Good thing you two are galaxy-class friends."

Fraser started to open his mouth to protest and then shut it again. "Thank you kindly, Ray," he said quietly.

Ray rolled his eyes. "S'only the truth, buddy. Doesn't require thanks."

"Understood." Fraser fell silent for a few minutes while Ray snaked the GTO through the morning traffic downtown. He had not been exaggerating when he commented Ray and Marina shared similar self-image issues. Both went out of their way for others regularly, refused all thanks with wry laughter, and poked self-deprecating fun at their efforts. Fraser found such behavior baffling, but while Ray had come a long way from the self-loathing loner and borderline stalker he'd been when Fraser first met him, try as he might Fraser could not break his friend of the habit of running himself down.

Marina had done the same thing yesterday, laughing at herself as a mother hen while going out of her way to help Theresa stay in school. And Lotus' grandmother's comment had been instructive; she'd commented Lotus was one Doctor MacLeod's scholarship 'students', plural, not singular. A professor who cared about their students on a personal level was a relatively rare thing in collegiate and graduate academic circles, where the concentration these days was on academic publishing and tenure acquisition.

What prompted such behavior? It was as if both were secretly convinced they weren't worthy of friendship or respect, and yet still were driven from within to help others whenever possible. Sighing internally, Fraser tabled the issue, but resolved to encourage the budding friendship between Ray, Dief, Marina and himself. A female friend to round out their little circle might be very pleasant, and as they were going to be neighbors, it should not be difficult to arrange to see her fairly often. As for those few odd flashes of attraction for Marina he'd had, he could certainly restrain himself if Ray took a genuine interest in her. If not, there wasn't any law that said he couldn't ask her out himself... provided he could scrape up the courage to do so. During his musings they'd reached the precinct house, and Fraser pulled his attention back to the case. There was work to be done.

Or not. Eight utterly fruitless hours later, both Ray and Frase were bleary-eyed with fatigue after watching endless footage of parked cars, moving cars, and generally bored people. There had been one amusing incident -or at least Ray thought it was funny, Fraser blushed so hard it looked painful- of a pair of smartly dressed guys in Armani business suits who had a wild encounter in the backseat of a black BMW sedan. Amused by Fraser's blush, Ray fast-forwarded past the incident, which had the hilarious effect of rendering it even funnier than it would have looked at normal speed. Ray would have needled his partner more about it, but Fraser was so obviously embarrassed at spying on someone like that, he let it go. At least for now.

"Feel like pizza? Or something else?" Ray asked, heading for his apartment on autopilot.

Fraser wasn't up to trying to modify his partner's atrocious eating habits tonight. He barely watched TV as a rule, and eight hours of staring at a screen had him groggy and suffering from a nasty eyestrain headache. "Pizza will be fine, Ray."

Surprised at how easily he'd given in, Ray decided to be magnanimous and get the spinach, mushroom and sausage special. At least it had some vegetables on it, and Frase was always after him to eat better. Honestly, the guy would make somebody a great wife someday. And in the meantime, he didn't mind. It was nice someone cared, even if it was a straight-arrow Mountie with an obsessive oral fixation and a proper-nutrition jones. Then again, Fraser was and always would be a complete original.

After parking the GTO, he, Frase and Dief slogged up the steps to Ray's apartment and once inside, Ray punched the speed-dial and gave Anton the order in a fog. He barely managed to not walk into the doorframe as he plodded into his bedroom to toss his holster harness, badge and gun on the bureau. He kicked his boots into the corner and after flinching at the smell of his socks, peeled them off and padded barefoot into the living room.

Fraser was sprawled on the couch, head back and rubbing the bridge of his nose the way he did when his head hurt. Ray detoured into the bathroom, grabbed the aspirin bottle and headed for the kitchen. His fridge was it's usual mess, but he grabbed two sodas and plunked down beside Frase.

"Here," Ray said wearily, handing him a soda and cracking the aspirin bottle, he shook out four, handed two to Fraser and took the other two himself.

"How do people watch TV for hours on end, Ray? My eyes feel..." he trailed off, unable to think of something suitably vile.

"Like they've been boiled in their sockets by radiation? Damn if I know, buddy. I can handle about the length of a football game and that's my limit."

"No TV tonight," Fraser said firmly and Ray groaned agreement.

"You said it."

Neither said anything for a while, but after twenty minutes or so Ray felt his headache recede and he rolled his head to the side.

"Better?"

Fraser nodded. "Yes, thank you."

"Feel like doin' anything or just wanna veg?"

Recalling Ray's obsessive love for Trivial Pursuit and the new expansion card pack he'd gotten for his birthday two months earlier, Fraser nodded. "Would you care to try out your new card set?"

Ray brightened. "Yeah, I'd forgotten about that." He rooted it out of the closet and set up the game on the coffee table, and only when he plunked down on the floor did he realize something was wrong. "Frase, where's Dief?"

Fraser looked around and frowned. "He's probably sneaked out your kitchen window again, Ray. I imagine I know where he's gone."

"To see his babe?"

"It seems the most likely destination."

"Smart mutt. Still..." Ray opened the front window and looked out the street and laughed. "Hey, Frase, come take a look."

Fraser joined him at the window and chuckled himself. Diefenbaker was trotting up the street -wearing a leash, which he wouldn't usually tolerate- and leading Marina on the other end of it. She was wearing an obviously baffled expression and Ray snickered.

"Get out of sight, Frase, quick." He ducked out of view but left the window open so they could hear.

Although Marina had endured this walk to nowhere with good grace, when Dief reached the front of Ray's building and started up the steps she set her heels and refused to go any further.

"All right, Dief, what gives?" she demanded in exasperation. "Where the heck are we? And there's no way I'm going into some strange building until you tell me what's up."

Dief yipped encouragingly and tugged on the leash.

"Of course I trust you. That's got nothing to do with it. Now where are we?"

Another encouraging yip and a harder tug.

"No way! And in another minute I'm going home."

Dief sat down and whined, giving her the droopy-eared, sad-puppy-face look that always worked on Ray's soft heart.

"Oh, now don't you start with that! I'm being perfectly reasonable. You're the one who's going all cloak-and-dagger here."

Dief hunkered down on his belly and whined a little more, crawling toward her a few steps and licking her bare toes in her sandals.

"That's not going to work either. And for a wolf you have a severe foot fetish, you know. This obsession with licking my toes is downright kinky."

Another lick and another whine got him nowhere as Marina folded her arms and looked adamant. "I don't care if I do like it. That's irrelevant. And I'm going home right this minute."

Dief surged forward and locking his jaws around her ankle; tugged her toward the stairs.

"Diefenbaker!"

Ray howled. He would have liked to hold out longer but finding out Dief had a foot fetish was just too funny.

Marina looked startled, as well she might when wild laughter came out of nowhere, and Ray stuck his head out the front window.

"Marina!"

She looked up, saw him, put it together immediately and turned white, then red, and looked down at the pavement. Ray's laughter died instantly. This wasn't the funny embarrassed kind of blush Fraser got; this was someone genuinely hurt and badly shamed at being placed in an untenable position by a friend.

"Aw, shit, Frase, she's really upset. We better go bail out Dief before he's single again."

By the time they got down to the front door, Dief's leash was tied off to the iron railing on the front steps and the wolf was going half crazy trying to get loose. Marina was almost down the block, rounding the corner at a very fast walk; her spine straight as an arrow and Ray had the awful feeling she'd be crying if she weren't in public.

"Damn, Dief, you really blew it. Get him loose, Frase, before he hurts himself." Ray took off at a dead run -bare feet and all- and managed to catch up to Marina in front of the grocery store the next block over. "C'mon, Marina, wait up!" He caught her elbow and when she turned, Ray flinched at the betrayed hurt in her eyes.

"I'm very sorry to intrude on your privacy, Detective Vecchio," she said, carefully formal. "It won't happen again, I assure you."

Ray ran a hand through his hair. Shit, he couldn't stand to see a woman so unhappy and trying so hard to be polite. It tore him up inside. "Look, you didn't do anything. I'm not mad. Dief's a jerk but give him a break, OK? He just wanted you to come for a visit. And when did I stop being Ray?"

She didn't say anything but her lower lip trembled, and Ray knew -just knew- he'd completely freak if she started crying. How to stop her? "Does Dief really have a foot fetish?"

That broke the tension. She half-smiled and glanced away, a reluctant smile tugging at the corner of her mouth, but that miserably unhappy look was gone from her eyes. "Yeah. And he's never getting near my toes again."

"Aw, cut him some slack. He's a guy. That automatically means he's an idiot."

"I was kind of hoping that didn't apply to wolves."

"Sorry, it cuts across the species lines." Pushing his luck hard and for Dief's sake hoping like hell it'd hold, Ray reached out and took her hand. "C'mon, we ordered pizza. We're going to play dopey board games. Where ya gonna get a better offer than that?"

"Why are you being so nice, Ray?"

Shit, but she was direct. He shrugged sheepishly. "Maybe 'cause you're too nice to let something this stupid screw you and Dief up? The dumb wolf's nuts about you. Please come? You can snub Dief all night and watch him suffer. Heck, I'll lick your toes myself if it'll help."

She grinned half-heartedly. "I won't inflict that on you."

Ray grinned back. "Hey, you never know, I might like it. Never tried the toes thing before. Could be cool." He looped an arm around her waist. "Please?" He dragged out the last weapon in his arsenal, the same sad-puppy face Dief had worn five minutes ago. He did it better, though. For the first ten years of their marriage Stel hadn't been able to resist it, and Fraser still couldn't. Time to go for two out of three. He scored; she caved in under a minute.

"All right, all right. You win."

"Greatness."

They turned and began ambling back up the street, and Marina put her arm around his waist a little shyly and leaned against his shoulder. "You're a good friend, Ray."

He glanced around furtively. "Don't spread that around, huh? It'll ruin my image."

Back at Ray's apartment building, Fraser and Dief were sitting side-by-side on the front porch step; Fraser with the leash firmly wrapped around one broad hand. Dief's ears were drooping and the big wolf looked utterly miserable.

"Yes, I'm sure she's very angry with you."

Dief whimpered and hunkered down at Fraser's feet.

"Don't apologize to me. I'm not the one with the hurt feelings."

Dief's next vocalization was an utterly unhappy wail.

"I don't know, Diefenbaker. It's up to Ray."

When Marina and Ray came walking back around the corner Dief leaped to his feet and strained wildly at the leash.

"Behave yourself," Fraser admonished sternly. "If you'd minded your manners in the first place you wouldn't be in this mess."

Dief dropped down on his belly down so fast even Fraser was startled. When Marina and Ray reached them, the wolf crept forward, laid his head on Marina's feet and whimpered pitifully.

She deliberately stepped back. "No, it's not all right, and yes, I'm still mad."

Diefenbaker whined, crept forward again and flattened his ears back, guilt written all over his face.

"Forget it. And if you ever pull a stunt like that again, we are through, you understand?"

Dief rolled over on his back and flat-out cried. Ray was surprised there weren't tears in the wolf's eyes.

Marina sighed and dropped to her knees in front of the wolf. "Don't lie to me, Dief. Not even in fun. I can't stand it."

Diefenbaker's wailing howl was so high-pitched and miserable it hurt Ray's ears. How it felt to Fraser's superior hearing Ray couldn't imagine. The wolf's expression was tormented and Marina softened in spite of her determination to stay angry.

"Diefenbaker..." She held her arms out and Dief hurtled into them. Laid his head against her shoulder and cried, the whimpers practically out of the audible range. Marina wrapped her arms around his neck and hugged him tight, crooning a wordless reassurance. "I love you, you big jerk," she muttered. "But I'm still mad."

Fraser looked down at them, and then up at Ray and mouthed a grateful 'thank you' soundlessly.

Ray nodded and knelt down by Mina. "C'mon, you two, let's get this off the street. We're startin' to attract attention." He herded them up the stairs and into his apartment. Marina's discomfort returned once they were inside and Ray didn't let it get a grip. He plunked her down on the couch, shoved Fraser down beside her and when Dif tried to jump up on her other side Ray pushed him back to the floor mercilessly.

"Forget it, mutt, you're still in the doghouse. You get the floor and like it; and keep your mouth off those toes. They're mine tonight. I got dibs."

Fraser tried to choke back a laugh and failed miserably. What had Ray said to Marina to get her to return?

"What's your favorite color?" Ray quizzed.

Marina smiled a little hesitantly. "Blue."

"Blue it is, Frase always gets red -go figure- and green for me."

By the time the pizza got there, Marina and Fraser were tied with three pieces of pie each and Ray was getting absolutely skunked. Dief had managed to sneak his way back under the coffee table and had his head a bare inch from Marina's toes, but was pointedly not getting any closer. They took a break to eat while telling Marina about what little progress they'd made on the case, and when all that was left was the empty pizza box, Ray tossed it into the kitchen trash and they went back to the game.

While Fraser was genuinely enjoying himself, he was still mulling over the earlier incident. Ray had gone running up two city blocks of scorching hot pavement barefoot to fix Dief's mess without even thinking about it. To help what most people would consider a dumb animal. Every time Fraser thought he had his partner's measure, Ray would show a new facet, more wonderfully special than the last. Assistant District Attorney Kowalski was a nice enough woman, Fraser reflected, but in truth, she was an imbecile. How had she let someone as amazing as Ray get away? And the divorce had been her idea! Baffling. He should be grateful, though, he, Ray and Dief would never have become the inseparable team they were if Ray was married. Ray was too loyal for that. If they were still married, Stella would have always come first for Ray. Always. But now he and Dief came first for Ray, and his partner had room in his heart for Marina, who Fraser was beginning to realize had a very fragile heart hidden under that coolly collected faade she held up to the world. Very much like his own, Fraser thought. And Ray saw that right from the start, in both of them.

"Hey, Frase, it's your turn."

"Excuse me, Ray," Fraser said immediately, and picked up the die. "I was distracted."

"What were you thinking?" Marina asked, curious. "You had the oddest expression on your face. Kind of happy and confused at the same time."

Fraser flushed. "I was pondering the implications of friendship."

Marina's brows drew together, and Fraser had the oddest feeling he wasn't fooling her. "Whose friendship?"

No, not fooling her at all. "Friendship in general. In the abstract."

She let it drop, to Fraser's relief. How to explain the love he felt for his best friend without sounding, well... obsessed? Or homosexual, not that there was anything wrong with that. Dear Lord, if Ray leaned that way Fraser would swap gender orientation so fast they'd both get whiplash. There were several openly gay Mounties in the RCMP and Fraser even knew a few. All were superior officers, and if anything had more consideration for the people they served than the straight ones did. But Ray liked women, had been married for fifteen years, so time to put that thought away before he really did become obsessed with his partner.

"Funny old thing, friendship," Marina commented idly, toying with a card. "So many variations on a theme."

"Whadda ya mean?" Curious, Ray set down the card pack.

"Think about it. How many different kinds of friendship are there? You can have 'work friends', people you work with and are friendly with but you never see outside of the job. Then you have 'casual friends'; people you go out with socially but would never call if you were in a real jam. Then there's 'close friends'; people you care about and trust deeply, and then there's the kind of friends you and Fraser are."

Ray was intrigued now. "What kind of friends are we?"

Marina grinned. "Fishing for a compliment, Ray? All right, I'll bite. There's the kind of friends you two are- you'd die for each other and consider it a privilege. Come on, Ray, tell me you wouldn't take a bullet for Fraser and consider it a personal victory."

Both Fraser and Ray glanced awkwardly at each other, went beet-red and stared at the floor.

Marina's eyebrows went way, way up. "Well, well, well," she murmured. "You have, haven't you? I fail to be surprised. You'll have to tell me the story sometime. Proves my point, though." Deciding to tweak the conversation in a different direction, she continued, "Then of course there's fuck-buddies, but they're kind of a class by themselves."

"There are... what?" Fraser looked baffled.

"That slang hasn't made it up to the Great White North?" she asked.

"Not that I've ever heard," he admitted.

"It's mostly a college thing, "Marina explained helpfully. "It tends to happen in dorms or residence houses where you live with a roommate or group of people for an extended period of time. You get to know someone so well you end up in the sack more or less by accident. Friends, taken a step further. Not someone you're in love with, just someone you love. No angst, you understand? The envelope of friendship stretched a little further. A lot of so-called 'experimental phase' relationships are that type."

Fraser still didn't get it entirely. "Experimental phase relationships?"

Marina snickered. "Good God, Ben, are you telling me you didn't have one in college? They're practically mandatory here in the States these days. Trust me, I know. I work on a campus, remember?"

"I didn't go to college," Fraser explained, baffled as to what she was driving at. "I entered the RCMP training camp -it's called the 'Depot'- at seventeen. When I graduated, I got my first assignment and I've been a Mountie ever since."

"Oh, I see." Marina nodded understanding. "I guess I assumed you'd gone to college first and then became a Mountie. You talk like you've got a degree in... everything."

Ray snickered. "You have no idea. Fraser is an expert on everything."

"Obviously not, or I'd know what an 'experimental phase' relationship is," Fraser pointed out logically.

"All right. An 'experimental phase' relationship is when a by-and-large straight person has a relationship with someone of the same gender, basically as an experiment. Testing the waters, to see if they like it, you understand? A lot of people end up bi or very gay-friendly as a result. They're very popular on campuses these days, since the academic community is quite relaxed in that respect, in comparison to the outside world."

"Did you have one?" Fraser blushed beet-red again when he realized what he'd just asked. "Please excuse me, I had no right to ask such a personal question."

"Chill out, Ben. It's no big deal, and yes, I did." A fond smile slipped over her face. "Her name was Barbara."

Ray grinned lecherously. "Oooh, pony up the details."

Marina grinned. "I'll tell you mine if you'll tell me yours."

"Deal."

"I was a sophomore, and Barbara was a senior. Five feet two, didn't weigh a hundred pounds soaking wet, red hair, china-blue eyes and that milk-white skin redheads have. And the cutest little freckles on her nose. It lasted a semester, and then she lost her grant and joined the Marines, of all things, to pay for school. We lost track of each other after that, but I remember her very fondly."

"She sounds great," Ray chuckled.

"She was." Marina grinned back. "Now tell me about yours."

"His name was Luke, and he was a theater major in college before I dropped out. Looked like a model straight off the cover of GQ. Long black hair, those big melting brown eyes, olive skin and so damn hot half the college wanted him, boys and girls. Honestly, I could never figure out what the heck he saw in scrawny, weird me. Stella was in her 'we're too serious and we should see other people' phase, but it felt too weird seeing another girl, so Luke and I hooked up." Ray's grin was positively evil. "I tell ya, Stel dropped that 'see other people' crap in a stone cold second when she heard I was boffing Luke. I thought she was going to shi... flip."

"So what happened to him?" Marina inquired.

"He lives in New York City now, does pretty well on Broadway, even. We swap Christmas cards every year and I drop by when I'm in town. We're still friends."

"That's nice." Marina smiled. "And you never had one, Ben? That's too bad. Gives you an appreciation for the other side of the fence."

"I didn't say I didn't have such a relationship," Fraser said slowly. "I just wasn't aware that's what the term meant."

"You don't have to tell us anything if you don't want to, Ben, it's not a contest," Marina said kindly. "Not to mention you both work in one of the few remaining professions that's horribly homophobic."

"You said it," Ray agreed. "The Duck Brothers'd never let me live that story down if they knew it. Heck, I think Huey's seen one of Luke's plays."

They were leading the conversation away from his personal experiences to be kind. Fraser was so thrown at Ray's casual admittance of a relationship with another man he genuinely needed a minute to collect his thoughts. Ray had a male lover, one he remembered and cared about, and was obviously fine with if he was discussing it with Marina, who he barely knew, even if he admitted he and Marina were... how had he phrased it? 'The same kind of weird'.

"Actually, you've met him, Ray," Fraser said abruptly. "Mark. The first year we were partners."

Startled, Marina and Ray swapped surprised glances, but Ray was a lot more surprised then she was. That was the first Ray Vecchio's life...

"The hockey player?" Ray asked hesitantly, after a quick fast-forward through Ray Vecchio's case files in his head.

"Yes."

Catching the faint tension between the two friends, Marina wondered at the cause, deciding to try and defuse it. Besides, she was curious too, now. "I have to admit I'm a little surprised, Ben."

Distracted, Fraser focused on her. "Why?"

"Forgive me, Ben, but you seem like such an intensely law-abiding person..." She was plainly choosing her words with great care. "...I guess it surprises me a bit that you'd do something so many people consider a cultural abomination. Hell, the US still has laws on the books against it, even if they're not really enforced. Mind you obviously I don't think that."

Bless her. He could discuss this in a cultural context without blushing himself to death. "I was raised in the Canadian Northern Territories, where Inuit culture is predominant, Marina. Homosexuality doesn't carry the stigma in Inuit culture it does in this one. It's simply viewed as different, not evil. Since homosexuality occurs in nature, and Inuit culture is very nature-based, there was never the connotation of perversity it carries in Christian-based cultures."

"Fascinating. Did the introduction of Christianity during the colonial expansion period affect that mindset?"

"To a certain extent, but it never really acquired the stigma it has here."

Ray was content to listen a discussion he'd never thought to hear. Fraser talking about sex without blushing, he would have bet the GTO it was impossible. Besides, he'd had a bad minute there when Fraser had really looked wigged at his admission about Luke. He'd almost looked... jealous? Nah. Couldn't be... could it?

Fuck, but there was a thought so hot it could fry your brain. Fraser buck-naked and moaning as Ray sucked him off... aw, shit, he was hard already. Thank Christ he always wore baggy jeans. What a helluva fantasy, though. If Frase weren't his partner and deserving of respect even in Ray's thoughts, he'd have added that to his permanent jerk-off fantasy roster on the spot. Wonder why he'd never really considered it before?

Probably because Frase was so damn straight in all other ways, it had never even occurred to Ray he could be anything but as relentlessly straight in his personal life. Too bad. He could really get into his partner's ridiculously good looks and even better personality. Crap, now he was going to be thinking about it all damn night. Well, he stunk, a shower after he dropped Marina and Frase off would be just the thing. No washing the sheets that way and at least he'd be able to sleep tonight.

Ray glanced over at the clock on the VCR. "Damn, you two, I hate to break up the party but it's midnight and we all gotta work in the morning."

"Midnight?" Both Marina and Frase were surprised by how late it was.

"C'mon, I'll give you guys rides home," Ray said regretfully.

"You don't have to do that." The sentence emerged from Marina and Fraser at the exact same second, and they exchanged slightly startled, amused glances.

"Nuthin' doin'," Ray said adamantly. "I'm host." Not to mention there was no way in hell he was letting Marina walk home at this hour, even if Dief was with her. It wasn't that good a neighborhood, and if Fraser walked back to the Consulate it'd be another two hours before he got to bed. Ordinarily he'd just let Frase sack out on the couch, but since he had to take Marina home he might as well take Fraser over too. If his partner stayed Ray might make a pass at him, and that had the potential to be disastrous. Or glorious, but Ray wasn't that much of a risk-taker. Some gambles weren't worth what you risked losing.

Fifteen minutes later Marina was safe at the front door of her building, and Fraser insisted Dief stay the night with her. The GTO felt a little lonely without the shaggy wolf in the backseat as they headed for the Consulate.

"I'll be glad when we move, buddy," Ray said suddenly. "Then she can just walk down the hall an' be home."

"And you won't need to take me back to the Consulate, either."

Ray was tired and not really thinking, just feeling. "Yeah, I hate leaving you there. Always feels like I'm abandoning you. It'll be worse without Dief to keep you company."

Fraser got startled again by what was coming out of his partner's mouth tonight. "You would never abandon me, Ray."

"Damn right I wouldn't. Never."

Surely Ray did not mean that the way it sounded. If only he did.

Ray pulled the GTO up in front of the darkened Consulate. "Least we don't have to do this much longer."

"Ray..." Fraser found he had nothing to say other than that name.

"Yeah?"

"Nothing."

Ray chuckled and rubbed his eyes. Driving in the dark was bringing that damn eyestrain headache back. "What, you want a good night kiss to keep you warm, buddy?"

"Yes." It slipped out so fast Fraser never had a chance to stop it.

Ray shook his head to clear it and stared over at his partner in the darkness of the car. Fraser was a dark shadow, only an outline, but Ray had the feeling Fraser was even more startled than he was. "'Scuse me, did you say 'yes'?"

"I'm sor..."

Ray's groan cut off Fraser's apology. "Jeez, partner, didn't we play this scene once already on the Henry Anderson? We can swap some spit without it changin' anything between us. Man, we really gotta work on your hang-ups. It's a kiss, not a marriage proposal. Now c'mere." And Ray leaned over, wrapped one long-fingered hand around Fraser's neck and pulled his mouth down to his.

A half-formed protest on Ray's non-logic died instantly. Fraser wanted to melt, just let his body relax until it was spread like a blanket all over Ray. Ray's kiss was wonderful. Delicious. So warm and reassuring. So much caring and kindness. He wanted it to never end. Fraser barely restrained a whimper of loss when Ray finally released him.

"Now go get some sleep, ya big goof. I'll pick you up at eight and we'll get back to the damn case."

"Very well, Ray."

Ray watched Fraser go into the Consulate and only when the front door was closed behind his friend did he put the GTO into gear and pull out of the parking lot. "Not much longer, buddy."

***