Disclaimer:  None of
the Characters in this story are mine except for the two FBI agents and 
Corinne Blair.  The copyrighted characters belong to due South and Alliance. I've divided
this story into chapters  cuz I was bored and it was something different. 
Enjoy!

 

And the Winner Is...

By:  Franklyn Wright

CHAPITRE UN: Meeting the Challengers

        Corinne Blair dove to
the ground just as two bullets crashed into the brick wall above her 
head.  She crawled a few feet, then got back up and was at a sprint
a split second later.  "Dammit,  I thought I'd lost 'em." 
She climbed up a fire escape and jumped across a few rooftops, then 
descended to the sidewalk the next alleyway over.  The street sign
said Stetson Avenue.  Again at  a run, not a sprint but above
a jog, she started down the eerily unpopulated street.  This was 
Chicago,  shouldn't there be people out?  She'd come to Chicago
so she could hide in the  masses... and now there were no masses?? 
What a gyp.  She ran past a large building with nice  mahogany
doors and a doorman out front.  Wait, that wasn't a doorman. 
That was a mountie.   She stopped and backtracked.  "Wow." 
She looked up at the six foot mountie from her lowly  5'2" stature,
her mouth open, as he looked off, unmoving in the distance with thunderhead
blue  eyes.  She knew he was alive, cuz he blinked... once. 
"Pardon me if I drool on you." 

        He didn't respond.  Nothin'. 
She heard her pursuers scrambling down the alley and knew  she better
get going.  "Aw, hell."  She ran off to the mountie's right,
her pursuers appearing and  followed her a few seconds later. 
The commotion faded away.  Fraser continued to stand stone 
still, though inwardly, he wondered who would be following that girl
around, and reeking of spent  gunpowder as well.  The girl
appeared again, approaching from the right.  She stopped in front
of  him.  "Well, well.  You certainly are disciplined. 
You on break soon?  You look like a cop, and  not a DC cop,
or anything, not a Chicago cop either, and I think that's what I need,
somebody  who can..."  She looked to her right, hearing the
pursuers returning.  "God, they just don't quit,  do they?" 
She ran off to Fraser's left, pursuers close at foot.  His break
was coming up soon,   maybe he could figure out what was going
on.  The girl appeared again, from his left.  "You get a 
break soon?  I need to talk to you.  You can keep secrets,
right?  'Course you can, you're  Canadian."  She stared
for a response. "C'mon, c'mon, I can't run past here too many more times,  
I'm gettin' kinda' tired."  At the very first strike of twelve,
Fraser unfroze from his position.  The  girl jumped back, sucking
in a startled breath.  "Oh, shit!" 

        "Oh, sorry."  Fraser
said.  "I didn't mean to startle you." 

        "Sure, okay."  She gripped
her chest.  "Just give me a sec to make sure I don't go into 
cardiac..."  She looked back to the left, they were coming again. 
"...arrest." She jumped up the  three stairs to the front door of
the Consulate in a single stride. 

        "Oh, um, miss...?"  She
tugged on the heavy door and found it hard to open.  Fraser came 
up behind her and pulled open the door.  She slipped in.

        "Wow, this place is nice." 
She looked around herself. 

        "Thank you.  Now is there
some business you'd like to..." 

        "Fraser."  Inspector
Thatcher appeared, coming down the stairs.  "Who's that?  Why
is  she here?  You can't bring every woman who ogles you while
on duty into the Consulate."  Fraser  cleared his throat.

        "I didn't intentionally bid
her in, she came in of her own volition." 

        "Name's Corinne Blair, nice
to meet you."  She held out her hand to the Inspector.  She 
didn't take her hand.  "What's your name?"

        "Inspector Thatcher. 
I'm Fraser's superior officer." 

        "Who's Fraser?"

        "That's Fraser, behind you."

        "Oh, yeah.  I met him, 
and I didn't ogle him, really.  I just looked at him a good while."  
Inspector Thatcher glared at Fraser.  "Nice place you got here,
ma'am," Corinne said, smiling.  

        "Fraser, can I talk to you?" 
Inspector Thatcher said through clenched teeth.  "In private."  
She motioned him back to her office.  Corinne watched the attractive
mountie disappear with his  superior officer, then she set to looking
around the consulate.  Inside one of the many ornate and  lofty
rooms, she saw another mountie sitting with his back to her.  She
wandered in and jumped  up on his desk, sitting on the edge of it. 
She took the paper he was writing on and looked at it. 

        "Hey!"  Turnbull said,
"What're you doing?" 

        "Running from the law, what're
you doing?"  She smiled. Turnbull looked up for the first 
time, his face a little bit confused, though it always was.

        "Paperwork."  Turnbull
stood up and took a few steps back from the desk. 

        "Miss Blair."  She turned
her head.  It was Fraser.  "Turnbull." 

        "Good afternoon, sir. 
I've taken the liberty of putting all of your files in this nifty manila 
folder and placing it exactly 13 inches from the sides of the desk, and
eight inches from the top  and bottom."  Fraser blinked at
him.

        "Thank you Turnbull. 
You can go, now." 

        "Yessir." He hurried away. 
Fraser looked down at Corinne.  

        "You look much better, now
that you're moving, and all," she said. 

        "Inspector Thatcher thinks
it best that you leave the consulate." 

        "Are you crazy?  They're
out there.  They'll kill me..."  She looked down, getting off
the  desk and pacing a bit, wringing her hands, "well, they'll wound
me, and drag me away, back to  DC, back there,  I don't
wanna' go back there, I can't, you know?"  She looked up at Fraser. 
"I  can't.  I won't, and I kept them away for this long, and
I'm not gonna' give up now."  Fraser  squinted at her as she
paced back and forth, wishing she would stop and clarify.  "You
saw them." 

        "Actually, I didn't. 
I couldn't focus on them, running by at such a rate.  I couldn't
turn  my head to keep them in my field of view long enough. 
Is there anything I can do?" 

        "You can let me stay here
a little while." 

        "I don't know if that's feasible. 
Inspector-" 

        "You do everything that lady
says?" 

        "Yes.  She's my superior
officer." 

        "You'd pick up her laundry,
if she told you to?"  The look on his face told her all she 
needed to know.  "All right, all right,  I'll talk to her myself." 
She moved past him, out the door. 

        "Oh, no, I don't think that's
a good  idea..." 

        "Miss Thatcher, ma'am!" 
She called as she approached the office he'd seen her disappear 
into with Fraser.  She walked in and Thatcher looked up, a bit surprised.  

        "What is this about?"

        "C'mon, ma'am, what's your
first name?" 

        "Meg."

        "C'mon, Meg.  Please. 
There are people out there who want to kill me... well, wound me, 
anyway, and I really need a place to hide, if only for a little while. 
I won't be a bother."  she put  up a hand as though swearing
an oath.   "Not even a single annoying American mannerism will
I  practice.  I'll be eloquent, speak when spoken to, and exude
Canadian innocence and charm."   She put her hand down. 
"I'm a writer.  I love to write.  It's what I want to do for
the rest of my  life, and that's all I'll do.  I want to write
about you and Fraser and Turnbull and this Consulate  and I'll make
you immortal.  Immortal I tell you! I want to write my life, and
now, if you let me  stay, you'll be a  part of it."

        "Immortal, eh?  Hmm. 
I don't see why you can't remain for a few hours, if you must. 
I'll  see to it you're given proper writing utensils.  Turnbull!" 
The attentive, but slightly goofy  mountie ran into the room.

        "Yes ma'am?"

        "Make this young lady as comfortable
as possible for her short stay with us.  See that she  gets
everything she needs."

        "First thing I'll have is 
the entire populous' awe and respect followed by world  domination." 
She smiled.  Turnbull mouthed the word 'what?' and looked between
her and  Thatcher.

        "I like this girl," 
Thatcher said quietly. 

        "Never mind, Turnbull, is
it?" 

        "Yes, miss..."

        "Blair."

        "Where shall we be off to?" 
Turnbull asked her. 

        "Give me le grande tour," 
Corinne said, taking Turnbull's arm and pulling him out of the 
office.  Fraser looked in at Meg as she returned to work, and wondered
if he was dismissed. 

        "Ma'am, permission to-" 
Meg looked up. 

        "You're dismissed, Constable." 
She waved her and in a shooing motion.  Fraser turned on  his
heel and walked out of the Consulate, his mind still on the people that
had been pursuing  Corinne, but assuming that she was in the good...
well, adequately capable hands of Turnbull and  should be safe for
the time being.  Besides,  Thatcher was there, and she could
keep any situation  under control.  He went instinctively to
the police station, though his mind had wandered and he  only realized
where he was when he encountered the steps to the doors. 

        When he'd made his way to
the back of the station, he noticed that Ray Kawalski and  Lewis
and Huey were in the Lieutenant's office along with two people in trench
coats.  He  assumed that, since the door was closed, it was
a private conversation, and he tried his best to not  hear what
they were saying.  Unfortunately, without the intention of eavesdropping,
he could hear  snatches of the conversation, but the pieces he'd
heard didn't make much sense when they were  put together. 
Ray Kawalski, Lewis and Huey came out, but the trench coated deuce remained, 
talking to Welsh.  Ray came over to Fraser.  "FBI agents trying
to get us to do their job for them.   Good luck. Look, um,
you ready to go out for lunch?"

        "Yes, Ray."

        "Too bad, gotta' spend my
lunch hour working.  I'm just gonna' get something from the 
machines."

        Fraser was slightly taken
aback. "I've never known you to work through lunch, Ray.  I'm 
quite impressed."

        "Yeah, well,  it won't
happen again."  He looked up at Fraser as Fraser looked into 
Welsh's office.  "Don't you want to know why?"

        Fraser looked away from Welsh's
office and looked down at Ray.  "Yes, why?" 

        "I want to look busy for that
lady in there.  I- I wanna' ask her out, you think she'd say 
yes?"

        "Lady?"  Fraser asked. 
Then one of the trench coated two turned, and Fraser saw, for the 
first time, that one of them was a woman, the length of her hair covered
by the upturned collar of  her coat.  "Oh, that lady."

        "Yeah, that lady."

        "She seems familiar... well,
the smell of her is familiar, like honeysuckle, it seems.  Has she 
been in town long?"

        "I don't know Fraser, I just
met her.  What's with this smell thing?  You interested in 
her?"  Fraser was looking into the office again.

        "No, not at all.  It's
just that the olfactory sense is often the most strong and it certainly 
forgets the least.  A person is able to remember a smell from his
or her past much better than they  can-"

        "I don't care,"  
Ray said quickly.  Fraser looked down at him as he sat down at his
desk. 

        "Understood."  The two
FBI agents came out of the office. They looked at Fraser with a 
bit of interest.

        "Vecchio,  or Kawalski,
should I say,"  The male agent named White said. 

        "How'd you know I'm Kawalski?"

        "We're the Federal Government," 
the female named Lewis said,  "We know everything.   Who
is this young man here?" She looked Fraser up and down once.

        "That's Ben Fraser of the
RCMP, I thought you knew everything." 

        "He's Canadian," White said,
"Not our concern.  But now that you mention his name, he  came
to Chicago to track down the killers of his father, and for reasons that
aren't really  important to people such as ourselves, he remained
here, attached as liaison with the Canadian  Consulate, which we
passed by earlier today.  This leads us into our next question."

        "Did you or did you not see
us earlier today?" 

        "I'm not entirely sure. 
If I did, you were nothing but a blur..." 

        "I saw you,"  Agent Lewis
said.  White looked over at her.  "Well, I did.  He was
standing  in front of the Consulate.  We passed by him three
times, didn't you see him?" 

        "Not really.  You're
sure it was this one?"  Fraser looked over at Ray who looked at
him  and shrugged.

        "I'm quite sure.  Did
you see me?"  She asked Fraser. 

        "No, not really, ma'am." 

        "Oh."  She looked a little
disappointed. 

        "I- I'm sorry.  I don't
remember you face-"  She really had a beautiful face.  "But
I do  remember your scent.  It has honeysuckle undertones."

        "Honeysuckle mist."

        "Ah."

        "So you saw us, then." 

        "Yes, I suppose I did." 

        "And did you see the girl
we were following?"  Agent White asked. 

        "I did."

        "And where is she?  Do
you know?" 

        "Uh- Fraser,"  Ray said
getting up, "Come with me to get some lunch.  Out."  He was
up  and tugging on Fraser's arm.

        "I thought you were working
through lunch." 

        "I changed my mind." 
He pulled Fraser out of the squad room and out the door.  

        ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

        Once at their favorite restaurant
down the street Ray said, "That was close." 

        "Close to what, Ray?"

        "If you told her whatever
she wanted to know, then she'd leave and I'd have no chance to 
be with her."  Fraser blinked at his partner a few times.

        "That is interesting logic,
Ray.  But isn't it a crime to withhold information from your 
federal government?"

        "Meh,  they'll get over
it."  Ray looked at the menu, though he didn't need to,  he
always  got a potential heart attack on a sesame seed bun. 
Fraser always got the same so as not to trouble  the waitress with
a different order.

        "Hey guys.  The usual?" 
The waitress named Suzy asked. 

        "Yep."  Ray and Fraser
gave her the menus. 

        "Okay, comin' right up." 
She winked at Fraser and he smiled back. 

        "Fraser, do you think she'd
say yes?" 

        "Who?"

        "The Federal agent, Lewis. 
Johanna Lewis." 

        "I don't know, Ray. 
Perhaps not in this situation." 

        "You're right.  But she'll
go back to DC once she finishes her job." 

        "Not necessarily.  This
reminds me of a story of a young woman named Jan (yan) Huytuc  who
traveled from town to town skinning caribou and other fur bearing animals
for families that  did not have a member who could skillfully perform
this task.  She was so careful and so precise  that people
called for her from miles around."

        "Fraser, I love these stories,
but could ya get to the point.  I see Suzy with our food." 

        "To make a long story short,
a man named Xanadu, who had hurt his hand in a fishing  accident,
had called on her for help, and he fell in love with her and asked her
to stay.  But-" 

"Fraser, you know I don't like these 'buts' of yours."

"I know Ray, but she refused, though she felt the same towards Xanadu,
because she so loved her  freedom to roam and she loved her work. 
She simply couldn't give it up for him."   

After a few moments of silence, during which Ray stared, mouth slightly
open, at the mountie,  Ray said, "What the hell kinda' story was
that?!  What's the point?" 

        "Well, if Xanadu had given
her a reason to stay, she would have."  Ray blinked at him and 
shook his head.

        "You're a freak."  Suzy
placed the food in front of the gentlemen. 

        "There you go, guys. 
And, for the mountie, it's on me."  She winked at him again. 

        "Thank you, kindly," 
Fraser said and smiled. 

CHAPITRE DEUX: Flirting with Disaster

        Corinne scribbled feverishly
in the notebook that Turnbull had gotten for her.  He stood a 
few feet behind her waiting to get anything else she needed if she asked. 
She could feel him  peeking over her shoulder.  "Can you...
get me some water?"

        "Sure."  He quickly disappeared. 
Corinne thought that, though Turnbull was a little  strange and
a bit too talkative, he was cute in his own way... like a puppy that
gets so excited  when his owner comes home that he slides on the
linoleum into a wall. She threw her pencil down  and stretched and
yawned.

        "This place is so great," 
She said to herself,  "quite conducive to the creative process."

        "Your water."  He set
down the glass on a coaster on the oak table.  "Be sure you always 
use the coaster."

        "Yeah, I hear those water
rings are killer,"  she said distractedly as she was reading over 
what she had just written down.  "No, no, this paragraph sucks."

        "Can I help you at all?" 
Turnbull asked. 

        "No, no, I just gotta' rewrite
this."  She frowned, still reading over the passage.  She 
stretched out her hand and felt around the table for her pencil. She
glanced up a split second to  see it was about a hands length out
of reach.  Back to reading, she willed the pencil to her  fingertips,
and it slid to her and she picked it up.

        "H-how'd you do that?" 
Corrine frowned and tore her eyes away from the page long  enough
to glance up at Turnbull's again confused face.

        "What?"  She was genuinely
unaware of what he was talking about.  She twirled the pencil 
between her index and middle fingers.

        "The pencil.  How'd you
move it..." 

        "Ooooh," she said, not remember
the act, but realizing what must've happened.  "Okay, I  think
it's time I be going now."

        "Wait-"   

        "Bye, Turnbull, tell Fraser
I had to leave."  She stood up and walked out of the room and 
out the front door of the Consulate.  Corinne moved cautiously out
of the doors and looked all  ways before she proceeded out into
the open.  No sign of any 'coats,' that's what she called them 
all, all those people who came after her time and time again.  They
all wore trench coats at one  time or another, so the name seemed
apt.  Where would she go now? Corinne wracked her brain,  and
decided it would be best if she just laid low, and there's no place lower
than beneath the  streets.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

          Ray and Fraser
returned to the police station, but the FBI agents had left.  "I
have to get  back to the Consulate, Ray."

        "All right. See you later." 
Fraser walked back to the Consulate wondering if miss Blair  would
still be there.  As he mounted the steps to the front door, he was
overcome by a hot and  sticky feeling, highly unpleasant. 
He could feel the humidity on his skin despite the cold crisp day 
around him.

        "Fraser,"  Thatcher had
her head sticking out of her office window. "Fraser!" she said 
more loudly to jolt him out of his daydreaming.

        "Yessir?" 

        "Get in here."

        "Yessir."  He shook off
the humid feeling and went into the Consulate and straight to  Inspector
Thatcher's desk.

        "Fraser, she's gone."

        "Gone, sir?"

        "Yes, Corinne Blair left,
Turnbull was watching her and he said she just got away from  him. 
I want you to go find her.  She told Turnbull she was on the run
from the law and I don't  want any kind of incident to arise from
this if the Americans find out we had her and let her go."  
It was as he had suspected.

        "Yessir."

        "So, you've got your new assignment. 
Dismissed,"  Thatcher said, no longer looking up  at him, but
looking back down at her work. He looked so good when he was taking orders, 
standing at attention like that and listening so intently.  "Keep
me appraised of the situation,  Constable."

        "Yessir,"  Fraser said,
turning on his heel and exiting her office as quickly as he could. 
He  walked down the hall to find Turnbull sitting in his office,
engrossed in the act of staring at a  pencil.  He turned the
writing utensil over and over in his hands, inspecting every angle.  
"Turnbull?"  The younger mountie jumped up and stood at attention.

        "Yessir."

        "What're you doing?"

        "Um, nothing, sir."

        "You were the last to see
Miss Blair?" 

        "Yes."

        "Did she say where she was
going?" 

        "No, she just left. She said
to tell you she had to leave, sir.  I- I didn't get a chance to
ask  her where she was going."

        "So you have nothing that
will help me find her." 

        "No, sir.  Sorry sir." 

        "That's all right.  Guess
it's square one for me." 

        "Perhaps your friend on the
police force can help you." 

        "Thank you, Turnbull." 
Fraser returned to his own office and sat down, trying to build 
Corinne's face in his mind.  He'd only seen her for a few minutes,
but he knew he could remember  it if he tried.  Fraser pulled
open the top desk drawer and extracted one perfectly sharpened pencil 
and a blank sheet of unlined paper.  He began to sketch out a picture
of her. 

        After work,  Fraser went
out on the streets asking people for their help, showing her  picture. 
There was no luck and Fraser went home empty handed.  He opened
the door to his  apartment, immediately tired.  Diefenbaker
came over to him and licked at his fingertips in  greeting. 
"Hey, Dief."  He bent down and pat his head.  He looked out
the window to see lake  Michigan on the horizon, and the last of
the glowing red sun sinking behind it.  That large glowing 
ball left a trail of crimson on the twinkling surface of the water. 
"Dief, have you seen a girl that  looks like this?"  He held
the paper down where the wolf could see it.  Diefenbaker mewled.  
"Now I know you leave this apartment whenever you please."  The
dog whimpered and looked  away from Fraser.  "You like me to
think that you stay here and honor my wishes, but I know you  don't." 
Diefenbaker looked back up at him.  "All right, Dief, all right. 
I'm just asking if you've  seen her... if only from up here, looking
down on the streets."  The wolf looked again at the  picture
and made a low sound in his throat.  "Okay.  I'll ask around
more tomorrow."  Fraser  removed his Stetson and his coat and
tunic. "Dief, can you get your own dinner tonight?  I'm so 
tired,"  Fraser said lying down on his bed, not trying to fight
the aching fatigue that had nestled  into his body and letting his
leadening eyelids fall closed.

        Fraser's dreams were 
troubled and his sleep fitful.  There were many colors, but a 
pervading blue throughout.  His body felt hot and cold all at once,
and there was something  uncomfortable wrapped about him, that same
humid stickiness he'd felt outside the Consulate.   He could
feel the cold air blowing in from the window he always kept propped open,
but it did  little to offset the oppressive humidity around him. 
And then, there was Victoria, telling him  everything was okay,
he should come to see her and they would live happily ever after, and
he felt  himself want to be happy, but he knew the sadness and bitterness
that was wrapped up with her.   He was also, for the first
time, painfully aware that he was dreaming, but couldn't rouse himself.  
He was quite uncomfortable in Victoria's dreamscape embrace.  

        Corinne crept up the fire
escape to the apartment she'd seen the mountie disappear into  during
daylight.  She'd waited until the wee hours, when the streets were
virtually deserted, to  come from the shadows and make a break across
the street to the apartment building.  His  window was propped
open making it a bit simpler for her.  She slipped in through the
open  window without moving it at all and then she was standing
above him.  Not a sound had she  made, she'd become good at
this over the years.  Corinne just watched him sleep for a few 
minutes.  His brow was creased in worry or distress.  Perhaps
a nightmare.  He really was  exceptionally beautiful, even
with his eyes shut.  The eyes were the first thing that got her,
bluish- gray and clear and... unexpected.  They seemed like
they'd be easy to read, but proved a little  difficult to decipher. 
She moved closer to him so her shadow fell across his face, beginning
to  wake him.  Before he could come completely into consciousness
she sat down on the edge of his  bed and placed her hand over his
mouth.  Fraser's eyes flicked open.  Corinne touched her lips 
with her index finger.  "Ssh."  Fraser nodded and she removed
her hand.  "Hi, Fraser,"  she  whispered.

        "Miss Blair," he replied,
quite surprised that she had gotten into his apartment without 
waking him.  He looked down at Diefenbaker, still sleeping at the
foot of the bed. 

        "Your dog's fine."

        "He's a wolf, actually." 
She slid away from Fraser a moment to run a hand through the  fur
on the wolf's head.  Dief stretched and shifted in position so he
could see who was petting  him.  He looked at her and made
a sound deep in his throat, not far from a sound of acquiescence, 
and closed his eyes again to sleep.

        "Cute."  She sat back
on the bed next to Fraser, who was still reclining. 

        "Odd behavior."

        "I'm used to dogs.  Maybe
he's not worried cuz I'm not worried." 

        "Could be.  How did you
find me?" 

        "I followed you today." 

        "I'll have to tell the FBI
I saw you." 

        Corinne frowned down at him. 
"You always do your job, don't you?  No matter what?" 

        "Sadly enough, yes."

        "Why sadly enough?"

        "A long story."  

Corinne looked deep into his eyes, colorless in the moonlight. 
"It's that woman, isn't it?  The one  with long curly dark
hair.  Her name begins with a V... Veronica?" 

"No, no, Victoria.  But how'd you know that?"

"Yes, yes, now we get to the heart of the matter."  She stood up. 
"That's why they're coming,  Fraser, that's exactly why." 
She paced.  "I don't want to be someone's lab rat.  I can't
get rid of  them though.  I can't shake 'em.  You'd think
that damned government would have more  important things to do than
to follow me around."  She stopped pacing and sat back down on the 
edge of the bed.  "I've been looking over my shoulder for five years
straight.  I haven't spent  more than a week at home for four
of them. I'm at a loss,  Fraser, I'm at an utter loss for words, 
me at a loss for words.  It's odd."

"Are you normally quite verbose?"

"I write.  I can't even write a thing.  I can usually write
what I feel, but I don't feel anything right  now.  I'm numb. 
Have you ever been numb inside?"  

Fraser looked away from Corinne, out the window at the low hanging moon.
"I have." 

"I haven't slept," her voice quavered, "for three days, and not soundly
since I can remember.  I  can't think, I can hardly eat, they've
got my nerves frayed, I can't even hold my hands steady."  
She held out a hand for Fraser to see.

"I- I'm sorry."

"'I'm sorry'.  You're sorry?  You can't be sorry because
you didn't do anything except make me  feel warm and okay for the
first time in a long time.  At the risk of being cliché and
corny, you're  my palpable sunshine."  She stretched out next
to Fraser on the small amount of mattress she  could snag without
forcing him to move and lay her head on his chest.   

"Well- why me?"

"I saw you, and I knew."  She had her eyes shut now.  Fraser
didn't know exactly what to do with  her, he wasn't exactly suited
to deal with teenagers.  Children were a different thing, easier
to  handle.  But teenagers... only God knows how to deal with
them.  He pat her on the shoulder and  got used to the weight
of her head on his chest. After a while, he found the pressure and warmth 
soothing.  Her deep rhythmic breathing indicated that she was asleep
and soon he joined her, his  dreams now light and forgettable.

Fraser awoke as twilight was beginning to fade from the washed out gray
into purples and the  beginning of dawn.  Corinne hadn't moved. 
Fraser stretched out his hand to his Tunic, which lay  out on the
chest from last night.  He removed the handcuffs from the compartment
on the front,  careful not to wake his guest, and snapped one cuff
on his left wrist, the other cuff on her right.   He hated
to do it, but he knew he had to.  The absence of the street noise
this early in the morning  lulled him back to sleep.

Diefenbaker licked Fraser's face as the sun of morning spilled in through
the open window.   Corinne was gone, vanished like a shadow. 
The single cuff was still on him, so he knew he hadn't  dreamed
the action, but the other cuff dangled, empty.  There was a note
on the kitchen table.   Fraser got up, stretched, and went
to the table to read the note. 

                       
Fraser,  

Thank you for letting me stay at your place for a while,  it's really
very nice.  A bare home  indicates a fullness of heart and
spirit.  It's good for the soul. I fed your wolf, so don't feed
him  again, he'll get fat.  About the handcuffs, I don't approve
of that at all, but they all have simple  locks, it wasn't difficult
to disengage them. I hope this note finds you well, and not too 
disappointed.  I'll see you another day.

Sincerely,

Corinne Addams-Blair

"Well, Dief, looks like we have an escape artist on our hands." 
The wolf looked expectantly up at  him.  "She told me she fed
you already.  You aren't getting anything extra."  Diefenbaker
let out a  loud expellation of breath and padded over to the foot
of the bed and lie down. "And don't pout,  you're a wolf, for God's
sake.  If you're hungry, go forage for food."   Fraser
looked up at the  ceiling and shook his head. "Ingrate."

CHAPITRE TROIS: Facing the Consequences

"Have you made any headway in your current project?"  Thatcher
asked. 

Fraser looked away from her a moment "I- um- no, no sir."

"And why not?"

"I think that she is a person who will show herself when she wants to,
and no time sooner." 

"Uh huh."  She looked Fraser square in the eye and just waited.
"I saw her last night, sir." 

"And you didn't detain her?"

"She got away from me, sir.  I don't know how she did it, really."

"Let's hope that the next time you see her you'll have better luck."

"Yessir, I'm sure I will."  

Fraser called Ray to ask if any leads had come in over there.  "No,
not a one, Agent Lewis is here,  though... and her partner, Agent
whatever-"

"Agent White."

"Yeah.  Have you seen her, got anything?"

"I saw her last night, Ray.  But she got away from me."

"You?"

"Yes,  I'm mystified as to how it happened, myself."

"I guess I'll let you get back to work,"  Ray said as Lewis approached
his desk. 

"Oh, okay-"

"Bye Fras." 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"And I took this bullet in my side, went right through."  Ray said
looking up at Agent Lewis as  she leaned back on his desk, looking
at him, seeing his lips move, but not really hearing a word he 
said.  "I lost a lot of blood, though, nothing too serious, two
sets of stitches.  You wanna' see?"   He gripped the bottom
of his shirt ready to pull it up.

"Uh, no, no."  Agent Lewis said quickly, holding out a hand to stop
him while averting her pale  green eyes.  "That- that's okay. 
So, um, when's your partner gonna' get here?" 

"The Mountie?"

"Mm hmm." She nodded.

Ray looked at his watch.  "Soon, he's always on time, about 12:15." 
Agent Lewis looked at her  own watch, 12:09.  She looked away
from Ray.

"White."  Her partner turned around. "I'm getting some coffee, you
want a cup?"  He shook his  head.

"I could go for some."  Ray said.  Agent Lewis rolled her eyes
as she stood up to exit the squad  room.  

Francesca crossed paths with White as she was walking for the doors to
the squad room.  She  was on her way to Welsh's office and
when she passed Ray's desk she said, "Way out of your  league, Ray."

He scowled at her. "Thanks, Franny."

Fraser walked in through the squad room doors and went straight to Ray's
desk.  "What is it the  FBI wants her for?"

"Hello to you too."

"I'm sorry, Ray.  Thatcher-"

"The dragon lady."  Ray shuddered. "She's tough."

"Yes, well, she's been pushing me to find the whereabouts of the young
lady, and I think it would  behoove me to know all the facts of
this case to which I am devoting my full and undivided  attention."

"It would behoove you?"

"Yes, Ray."

"Constable."  Lewis had returned with two cups of coffee. 
Ray stretched out his hand for his.   "Would you like a cup
of coffee?"  She offered him one styrofoam container. 

"Uh, no.  I don't drink coffee, thank you."  Agent Lewis set
the cup down on Ray's desk.  "But  perhaps you can help me. 
What is it that the young lady is wanted by the Federal government 
for?"

"I can't tell you that, Constable.  You know, unless..."  She
leaned back on the edge of Ray's  desk and removed the clip that
held her hair back.  Her blonde hair fell forward in a floral scented 
wave and rested on her shoulders. "Unless you drag it out of me." 
Ray smiled, getting the  message before the perplexed Fraser even
got a hint. Fraser shook his head slightly, accentuating  his utter
befuddlement.

"I'm not sure I follow."

"Oh, you know, two officers of the law-"  She looked up at him,
"sharing information, ideas,"   She stood up and leaned in
close to him. "A hotel room-"  Ray laughed silently into his cup
of  coffee.

"Oh, I-"  Fraser cleared his throat beginning to blush. "I just, 
just the information."  Lewis  cocked her head to the side.
"Please."  He added.

"She's an asset.  There's nothing she's done, just an asset." 
She whispered.  "We offered to take  her quietly, but she's
not complied.  Now we're forced to put civilians on watch, and shoot
to  incapacitate."

"You told the public?"

"Yes."  She leaned back from him and reclined on the desk. "She
often hides in crowds.  If the  crowds know what she looks
like, then we have a better chance of getting her back." 

"Whoa, you gave her identity to the public?"  Ray demanded.

"Yes-"

"Well, for Christ fucking sake!  C'mon, Fraser, we better
find her before anyone else does." 

In the car Ray was close to furious.  "Can you believe they released
a photo of her?" 

"I don't believe they had a photo."

"They, did, a file photo of her presenting her wrist band.  Like
some juvenile delinquent." 

"She isn't a delinquent, Ray.  I think she has an ability far beyond
what either of us have." 

"Like what?  Her ability to disappear into thin air?  I've
never known you to lose anyone." 

"I'm not sure, Ray."

"Well, she's got to eat. And she doesn't have any money, does she?" 

"No, I don't think so."

"So we ask around soup kitchens and show her picture.  Someone got
to have seen her." 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"You seen a kid, looked like this?" Ray held up her picture.

"No, man, sorry.  I saw another guy, came around, looking for her
too.  He was dressed up, in a  suit, he was packin'."

"He pull a gun on you?"

"Hey, man.  I know when someone's strapped before they pull
the gun on me.  He didn't exactly  seem the uh, reputable type." 
The man put down his ladle and looked both ways and motioned  Ray
and Fraser in to hear a secret.  "Maybe mob related.  You didn't
hear it from me."  Ray  looked at Fraser.

"Let's not jump to conclusions,"  Fraser whispered to Ray.

"Is there a huge reward up for her?"  The man behind the counter
asked them.  "What'd she do?" 

"Nothing, sir, thank you, kindly for your time,"  Fraser said and
smiled. 

"Sure."  The gentleman went back to the kitchen to replace the now
empty vat of chili.   "Recommend us to your friends," he said
sarcastically as he disappeared. 

"Well, Fraser, it's gettin' dark and I only know one more kitchen within
walking distance of the  station. You think we should ask the drop
in shelters if they saw her last night?" 

"I- uh, I don't think she stayed at a drop in shelter."

"Why not?  You think she'd sleep out in the streets?"

"No-"  Ray looked over at him, away from the road for a second.

"Yeees?"

"She slept in my apartment last night."

"What?"

"She snuck in and stayed.  I cuffed her, but when I woke up, she
was gone." 

"She got out of handcuffs?"

"Yes. She made me feel at ease, it lulled me to sleep.  I should
have stayed awake."  He fingered  the brim of his Stetson,
which was placed habitually on the dashboard. "I should have stayed 
alert."

"How do you know she wasn't taken?"

"I would have been awakened, and she left me a note."

"A note."

"I know she's all right, at least she was when she left, so someone should
have seen her today.   She was on foot."

"We'll keep asking."

The last soup kitchen hadn't seen her either, and yet another day of
maddening stalemate came to  a close.  Ray drove slowly down
West Racine, tired out by the unproductive day, more than he  usually
was by an eventful one.  "All right, Fraser, you're home." 
He was silent, staring straight  ahead, not very aware of his surroundings. 
"This has really got you off your game, hunh?" 

Fraser looked over at him.  "I'm troubled by it, yes."

"You're great for feeling an overwhelming sense of duty where it isn't
due.  Just go home, get  some sleep, and we'll find her tomorrow."
He looked up at his apartment and felt the bad feelings  

of last night rolling off of it.  Victoria, Victoria, why, why,
why?  He'd been dreaming of her a lot  lately, for some unseen,
God forsaken reason, and it was starting to unravel him.  Living
through  it once was bad enough without having to relive it in his
sleep, his one escape. He opened the car  door as snowflakes began
to sprinkle from broken clouds in the sky, an odd condition for snow.  
He looked up.

"Perfect, just stab me in the heart, would you?"  He mumbled to
himself. 

"What, Fras?"

"Nothing , Ray.  Goodnight."  

Fraser removed his Tunic and white shirt underneath, leaving on his uniform
pants and an  undershirt, then made Diefenbaker his dinner. 
Fraser wasn't hungry himself and after a night of  little uninterrupted
sleep last night, he crashed early.  Restless sleep again plagued
him.  Victoria  beckoned him, and his heart was torn in two
with wanting to be with her and the fear of being  with her.  

Corinne again watched Fraser sleeping, knowing that she was playing hopscotch
on the crumbling  edge of ruin.  He was ready to take her in
in the blink of an eye, and here she was, back again.  He 
was wearing a sleeveless undershirt and the covers were pulled up to
around his belly button, and  he was dreaming again, a bad dream.

His whole experience with her played, with him as a bystander, looking
in and asking how he  could have been so gullible.  He was
normally so lucid, but she had draped a thick veil over his  face.
A veil scented with flowers and was very warm, very comfortable, something
he needed and  simply didn't have.  He was destined to be alone,
he was acutely aware of that.  The explosion of  pain from
the gunshot in the train station mixed with a feeling guilt for making
Ray Vecchio feel  guilty for it jolted him.

Corinne touched his bare shoulder and he jolted out of sleep in a cold
sweat.  He gripped his  heart, catching his breath.  "I
suppose now we're even,"  he whispered. 

"What?"

"When we first met-"

"Oh, right." She smiled down at him. "I guess I should stop doing this,
hunh?" 

"Why do you keep doing this?"  He sat up and swung his legs
over the edge of the bed and leaned  over, his elbows on his knees,
and covered his face.

"What's wrong?"  She sat down next to him and touched him lightly
on the shoulder again.  "It's  that Victoria chick, isn't it?" 
He still had his face covered.  "Tell me about it?" 

His gray eyes shifted to her face in the moonlight. He chuckled. "I don't
think so."  His voice was  a bit weak, like that ball of emotion
was stuck in his throat.

"You know, they say that hindsight is almost always 20/20, but when hindsight
isn't an option,  next best thing's the eyes of a child."  

"I don't even know you."

"I'm all you've got."  She shrugged.  Fraser realized that
one way or another, he had to unload his  feelings, or he would
break down.  Ray could see sometimes that he was preoccupied, sad,
and  reserved.  He'd ask, and Fraser would always say that
he was fine.  It was just the way he was, he  didn't want to
burden other people with his personal battles.

"Corinne, it's a long story."  He sounded wary.

"I've got time."  After a long hesitation, and a bit more cajoling,
Fraser began at the beginning,  when he chased her to a crag in
a mountain, where they stayed while a storm broke over them. He 
began his story at 1:00 and, with Fraser and all of his intricate detail,
it was almost 4:00 when he  finished.  His voice was hoarse
and Corinne had to lean close to him to hear. 

"Good God,"  Corinne said when he finished, "she put you through
all that, and you wanted to go  with her??"

"Sometimes I still do." 

Corinne shook her head. "I don't understand you.  Usually, if I
can understand,  I can decipher.   But you-"  she
stood up, "you take the cake.  You trouble me, and I trouble you,
I know that."   Fraser watched her from his seat on the bed.
"I need to understand. I need rhyme and reason on  this one. I don't
usually like rhyme and reason, but here..."

"I can't explain."  Fraser said.  "I loved her, I loved her
then, but I don't love her now.  Still, I  have this hole in
my soul, it feels like only she can fill."

"Only because you've never let anyone else in the way you let her in. 
Relationships that begin in   intense drama, often end in intense
drama.  Fraser, you can do better.  You could fall ass 
backwards into a better relationship than that.  I don't wanna'
yell at you, you're too cute to yell  at, but God." 
She sat back down next to him and his eyes looked haunted and tired. 
She sighed.   "Tell you what.  You told me that, 
I'll tell you something about me." 

"No, you don't have to do that."

"Well, Fraser, I'm putting a big hand full of trust in you right now. 
I'm gonna' show you why the  FBI is after me.  Just sit there,
and watch."  She stepped back away from him and picked up the 
note she had left on his table the night before.  She crumpled it
up and held it in her open palm.   "Watch."  The paper
levitated above her outstretched palm and hung there.  "Small scale,
but it's  the basic idea.  And the Victoria thing... I get
impressions from people, I draw my conclusion  about how they're
thinking from symbols that form in my mind."  She blew on the paper
ball to  cause it to spin.  Fraser stood up and walked over
to Corinne, eyes on the spinning object.  He  passed his hands
between her hand and the paper. "It'll keep spinning, too.  No friction."

"Phenomenal,"  Fraser whispered.

"You know the cuffs?"  Fraser looked up at her.

"Yes?"

"I know the lock, the mechanism, I mean.  If I know the mechanism,
I can guide it open." 

"How... did you acquire this somehow?"  Fraser plucked the ball
of paper out of the air. 

"It's just come easily to me, since I can remember.  I just learned
how to keep them under control,  the older I got.  They, the
FBI, put me in this research lab place when I was very young.  My 
mom died, and my dad needed money, so the lab paid him for my presence
there.  I busted out the  first time when I was about ten,
and went home.  My dad wasn't there, he'd run off with the 
money, but my sister took care of me.  FBI came and dragged me back
till I was thirteen, then a  broke out for good.  Here I am. 
Eighteen and five years free." 

"They took you against your will?"

        "Well, when I was a minor,
my father signed my life away.  It's legally binding; where the 
law meets justice and says 'see ya'."  Corinne went back over to
the bed and sat down facing the  window, staring into the darkness
beyond.  "And just because I can walk up to the president and 
see if he's lying or not, I'm some sort of threat to national security,
so I must now be kept in a  little white box where people watch
me all the time.  Does that seem fair?"   

Fraser sat next to her, looking out at the night.  "No, it doesn't. 
But then, whoever said that life  would be fair?"  Corinne
sighed and put her chin on Fraser's shoulder.  He smelled like ivory 
soap, a very nice smell.  He still looked out in the night.

"You and I are a little alike.  We don't get a lot of time for relationships
in our 'jobs,'  but you at  least have your partner."

"Yes, Ray Vecchio."

"Yeees,  'Vecchio'."  She said obviously humoring him. 
Fraser smiled in spite of himself.  He  perked up and sat stiffly
a moment.

"Wait-" he whispered.

"What?"

"Three people have just entered the building."

"That's three floors down!"

"Ssh,"  He lifted his hand for her to stop talking. "They're armed."

"Oh, shit."  Corinne said jumping up.

Fraser looked at her, then over at his tunic.  Corinne held out
her wrists to him.  "Do what you  gotta'."

"Run,"  He said softly.

"What?"

"Run, if you don't see me come out of the apartment, go to Ray's apartment,
or to the police."   Fraser got up and pulled on his uniform
shirt, since it was closest and grabbed his leather coat as  she
disappeared out through the open window.  Diefenbaker followed her. 
Corinne ran through  an alleyway and hid in the shadows, her limbs
shaking, she was embarrassed to admit it, even to  herself, that
she was scared.  She held Diefenbaker around the neck and shivered
in the cold night,  waiting for a solace that always seemed to evade
her.

CHAPITRE QUATRE: And the Fear Turned Flesh

The door the Fraser's apartment burst open and one of the very large
men was on top of him an  instant later.  The thug knocked
him backwards, but Fraser kept his footing. He backed towards  the
window, ready to make a break for it. "I wouldn't do that, mountie. 
Got two more just  waiting down there."  Fraser looked down
the fire escape, and there were two more of them,  looking up at
him.  When he turned his eyes back to the three in his apartment,
he was looking  down the barrel of a .45.  Fraser put his hands
up in surrender. 

"Come quietly?"  Fraser nodded and walked forward with the cold
metal digging into his spine.   "Take off the coat." 
Fraser slowly unzipped the coat, and as he began to pull it off, he threw
it  over the head of the one behind him, and broke for the hallway,
rolling right and out of the line of  fire.  Bullets exploded
into the floor just to his left. He slid his back along the hallway until
the  firing stopped, then he ran for the stairs.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Dief, what'll I do?"  She talked to the wolf as snow fell down
on her.  She knew she could hide  in the shadows for as long
as she needed to, her skin helped her disappear into darkness. 
Dark  likes dark, like attracts like.  "Look!"  Fraser
appeared across the street, coming out of the  building.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"We'll get him."  They saw him run behind the building and were
in quick pursuit. Fraser rounded  the corner and slid to a stop
in front of two gun toting thugs that had come around the other side 
of the building.  He put his hands up as the other three came up
behind him. "Gentlemen, I'm sure  we can come to a peaceful understanding." 
One of the men grabbed his arms from behind and  held them tightly
behind his back.  They forced him into a car that was parked in
the alleyway, and  sped off.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Corinne followed the car, trying her best to keep it in sight, but she
got tired too quickly, and the  car was moving too fast.  "Dief,
follow the car.  When you know where it is, come and get me, 
I'll be near Ray's apartment, okay?"  The wolf ran off. "To the
police," she whispered to herself.  "Like turning myself in." 
She sighed and started across town to Ray's apartment, she'd been 
spying on him as well.  When she got there, she pounded on the door. 
"Ray, Stan, whatever, I  need to talk to you!" She called through
to him.  He opened the door in boxers and a bare upper  body. 
"You look totally different up close."

"What d'you want?"

"Fraser.  He's in trouble, some guys took him."

His eyes half closed in sleep tried to focus on her. "Who are
you?" 

"I'm Corinne Blair. Now do your job and go to the station, put 'em on
alert." 

"Whoa, you're the Corinne Blair?"  He leaned in the doorway.

"Hello,  are you daft?!  Fraser's been kidnapped!  Big
mob guys, I swear it was the mob." 

"O-okay."  Ray hurried into his apartment and pulled on a shirt
and pants, and shoulder holster.   "Dammit all if Fraser doesn't
get into more trouble."

"Hey!  Tell them to wait for a call, or the wolf!"  Corinne
called in to him.  She couldn't see him,  but she knew he could
hear her.

"Call? From who?"  Ray came out to the door but she was gone. 
"Dammit," he mumbled, pulling  on shoes and running out of the apartment
to his car, and speeding to the station. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Stand up."  Fraser got out of the car and stood still.  He
was in a warehouse, boxes lined the  walls and the ceiling had the
metal supports visible.  Wearing only his white long sleeved shirt, 
after being told to take off his coat, he was cold, and the warehouse
was no warmer than the night  outside. In fact, it seemed colder. 
His breath streamed out in puffs and his eyes rested on the far 
windows, where he could see snow falling outside.  One of the thugs
pat him down and found his  throwing knife.  "He's clean, Boss." 
A man in a gray fedora and a matching trench coat walked  out of
the shadows.  He was young, younger than two of the men he had working
for him, maybe  even younger than Fraser, but probably about the
same age.  He flicked away his cigarette and  glowered at the
mountie.

"We can get this done now, or things can get ugly,"  he said to
Fraser as he walked up to about  nose to nose with him. His breath
reeked of the tobacco he had just extinguished. Fraser tugged at 
the rope that bound his wrists together behind him. "Where is she?" 

"She?"

"The little black girl, the one the FBI wants?  I saw her with you. 
I know she's come to you  before," he gripped Fraser's shirt, "where
is she?"   Fraser knew that she was either at or near 
Ray's apartment, or at the police station, somewhere he would know well
so he could find her if  he was all right.  He knew she didn't
think he was all right. 

"I don't know where she is."

"Liar!"  He yelled, then pointed an accusing finger at him. "Don't
you lie to me."  Fraser merely  blinked at him, calm and stony
faced as usual.  "Lou, take over, I have other things to do. 
You  know the plan, see that it comes through."

"Yes, sir."  The young man in the fedora walked out of the warehouse. 
Lou was one of the  younger men with eyes the color of tar and hair
to match, slicked back and greasy.  He had sharp  features,
too sharp, all corners and straight lines.  There was no softness
about him and Fraser  dreaded whatever he would next.  "All
right, mountie.  I'm not a talker, you see, I'm a much more 
physical person."  His breath smelled of cigarettes and coffee. 
"You wanna' save yourself some  trouble, start talking."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Diefenbaker followed the trail to the warehouse, and nudged open a ventilation
grating and  crawled in enough to see Fraser there with five other
men. Another sturdy grating kept him from  getting into the warehouse,
so Dief wiggled his way out of the shaft to return to Corinne as she 
had told him to do.  Diefenbaker had no idea how Fraser got himself
into so much trouble.  Just  doing good deeds, he assumed. 
But good deeds sure seemed to come at a price in this concrete 
wilderness.  Things sure were simpler back home, but a lot less
interesting. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Where is she?"

"What for?"

"We get her, we ransom her for a helluva lotta money.  FBI wants
her, she's worth a lot, worth  more because they'll pay to keep
her under wraps.  We've got some interesting info about this 
little girl.  Well, little, I suppose.  She is 18, technically
an adult-"  He shook his head and  discounted his digression. 
"Now, for the question of the night, where can we find her?" 

"I don't know."

"Now- now you and I both know that you're lying to me.  Want to
try again?"  Lou turned his  back to Fraser and walked away
a few steps.

"I can't tell you."  He turned and looked at Fraser.

"Progress.  Now you know, you just won't say.  Easily resolved." 
Lou knocked him hard in left  jaw.  Fraser stumbled a little
with the blow.  "Now, where is she?"  Fraser found it impossible
to  move or feel his jaw and he tasted blood in his mouth. "Aww," 
Lou tisked, "is it out of socket?   Let me see."  One
of the other men pulled Fraser's head up by the hair and Lou inspected
his  handiwork. "Hold still-"  as if he could move.  Lou
rested a hand against Fraser's temple, then  gripped Fraser's lower
jaw and it wrenched left. With an audible pop, his jaw was back into 
alignment and hurt so badly his eyes clouded over and his knees went
out a moment.  Two  gentlemen, one on each arm, held him up.

"Garret, make a call.  Tell them we got the mountie."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Hey Dief."  The wolf growled and whimpered at her.  "We should
get there, then."  Corinne  followed Diefenbaker all the way
to the warehouse.  She figured if the thugs hadn't made a call 
yet, and something told her they had, then she'd send Dief to the station. 
She hated to send the  wolf running through the city, but it was
her only choice.  Her fingers and toes were numb by  then,
but all thoughts of her well being disappeared when she looked in and
saw Fraser, held  hostage by the thugs inside. "Omigod."  Diefenbaker
pawed the door, telling her to go inside.  "Ssh."  She opened
the door, silently, and hid behind a row of boxes. "Watch the door." 
She told  Dief, and he planted himself just outside, watching for
friend or foe on the horizon. She knew  they'd placed the call,
when the hell would the police get there? 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Yeah?"  Ray said when his phone rang.

"We got the mountie."

"What?!"

"We got him, and the girl-"

"What girl?"

"The girl wanted by the FBI, she's quite attached to him, seems to pop
up when he's around, so  sooner or later, she'll be ours too."

Ray tapped the desk for a trace.  "What do you want?"

"Cash.  For big red, mmm, $10 Gs, for the girlie girl, well, when
the time comes."  The voice on  the line gave the address and
went dead 2 seconds before the trace. 

"Dammit,"  Welsh said.

"Let's go,"  Ray said snagging his ratty leather coat off the tree.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Lou slipped on the brass knuckles and kissed each one. "Well, mountie,
you have lots of will  power."  He punched him hard in the
stomach and Fraser doubled over.  The men on his arms  lifted
him back up. "I respect and admire that." Lou punched him again. Fraser
was again pulled  up so he was open to another blow. "Usually." 
Another blow to the gut that jarred a rib and  knocked the breath
from him.  He could no longer hold his head up and he let it drop.
"But in this  case-" another blow to the stomach, and someone lifted
his head up, "it's pissing me off."  Lou  knocked Fraser in
the left eye. They waited for Fraser to get his breath back, but he still
answered  no questions. At last the blue and red flashing lights
appeared outside but without sirens  accompanying them.

"Get the water."  Lou looked at the bowed head of the mountie he'd
been working on for almost  a half hour now.  It never took
this long, and he was getting annoyed.  The one named Garret 
hauled the fire bucket filled with ice cold water from the nearly frozen
pipes over to Lou.  He  dipped his hand in and flicked a little
on the mountie.  "You look cold."  Fraser was trying his best 
to keep his teeth from chattering, especially since any movement of his
jaw sent waves of pain  through him.  His stomach hurt from
taking punches, he was sure a rib on his right side was either 
broken or badly bruised. Breathing hurt and his nose oozed blood. 
Fraser lifted his head.  Corinne  saw the black eye forming
on his left side, the skin swelling to obscure the gray orbs usually
so  animated, now so dull.  He hadn't seen her.  "Quite
cold.  Tell us, you get a blanket,"  one of  them held
up a fleece blanket, "and you get to go home." 

Fraser dropped his head again, still held up by the arms only. 
His toes and fingers had gone from  numb to a burning, and now his
entire hands and feet were being invaded by the same sensation.  
Fraser shook his head slowly. "No."

Corinne couldn't take much more of this, and she didn't want Fraser to
have to either. Lou  hoisted the bucket. "Whoa," one of the men
holding Fraser's arms said. "I don't wanna' get wet,  I'm cold already."

"Set him down, then."  Garret took a steel chair from against the
far wall and set it down.  They  dropped Fraser into it and
Lou lifted the bucket.  "Last chance."  Fraser didn't move. 
He lifted  the bucket and dumped the cold water on his head and
watched it drip from the mountie's  clothing and his nose. Fraser's
whole body quaked because of the exposure.  Lou lifted Fraser's 
chin.  "We could just let that freeze on ya', or you could start
talking.  Or do you like this, being  from the Yukon Territories
and all."

"It's just the Yukon, or the Territories.  Not both," he mumbled.

"Did he just correct me?"  Lou quickly asked his partners. "Did
you just correct me?!" he  demanded. "Don't correct me! Nobody corrects
me."  He unholstered his .45, holding it by the  barrel. "You
don't correct me!" He yelled, simultaneously pistol whipping Fraser hard
enough to  knock him out of the chair. Without the ability to catch
himself with his hands, he fell hard on his  right shoulder, his
head bouncing on the concrete soon after.

This was the first glimpse Corinne got of the knot tying Fraser's hands.
If it was a standard knot  of some sort, she might be able to undo
it from there.  For once she prayed for rhyme and reason.  
It wasn't a knot she'd seen before; not a slip knot, figure eight knot,
anchor's knot, surgeon's  knot, reef, harness or bowline knot, nothing
like that.  It was a mass of random ties, many the  simple
knot used to tie your shoes done over and over until it was tight and
secure.  Fraser lifted  his head from the puddle on the floor
as the police tried communicating for the first time since  they'd
arrived.  "We are ready to negotiate," the bull horn blasted into
the warehouse. 

"Call the cell phone of that Vecchio guy.  Hey mountie, what's the
number?"  Fraser was lifted  back into the chair.  "Tell
me!"

"555-2656."  He could feel the heat of blood oozing from the spot
where the metal of the gun had  bitten into his skin on top of his
cheekbone.  Garret dialed and walked away to the far wall. 
Fraser's eyes began to loose focus, but Lou knelt directly in front of
him. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Confirmed, he's in there."  Marion, a uniformed officer said. 
She'd been listening in on the  conversation inside for a few minutes
while Ray stood bye and asked her about every thing they  said..

"Good,"  Ray said, "so we bust in and get him outta there."

"They might put a bullet in him, we don't keep our cool,"  Welsh
said. 

"He's already got a bullet in him," Lewis told Ray ,"he doesn't need
another," he added. 

"So, where's the 'little girl,' hunh?  She stopped by my apartment,
she couldn't've gotten too  far."

"Wait," Agent White said from behind them, "she came to your apartment
and you didn't detain  her?"

"I was kinda' worried and preoccupied when she told me Fraser was at
the hands of some goons.   Silly me."

"Granted, but you should have detained her,"  Agent Lewis added.

"Know what?  I don't see how this Fraser thing is you guys' business."

"Everything's our business,"  Agent White said.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 "Still cold?  Ready to talk?"  Fraser closed his eyes.

"I c-can't tell you.  I'll keep saying t-that until you listen. 
I can't t-tell you," his words broken by  his shivering.

"You are trying my patience!"  Lou raised his hand to strike him
again. 

Corinne jumped out of the shadows, "Woah!" She held out her hands and
Lou found his hand  stuck in the back swung position. "Slow down,
there, Lou."

"Oh, no,"  Fraser mumbled.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Oh, shit!"  Marion yelled.  "She's in there!  The little,
I mean Corinne Blair is in there!" 

"She's what?!"  The agents asked in unison.

"How'd she manage that?"  Welsh asked.

"Beats me, but they found the wolf at the back door.  Door's ajar."

"Now Fraser's expendable,"  Welsh said.

"I'm going in there,"  Ray said, "and I'm going in shooting." 

"This ain't no gal durn western, Ray."  Lewis said. "You can't go
shoot up the place. Use tact."   Ray's cell phone rang again.

"We have her.  We want $10.5 mill by day break for the little chicken. 
Big red could be coming  out in a pine box we don't get that $10
Gs up front."  The phone went dead.  Ray rubbed his  forehead.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"What the-,"  Lou said, looking up at his frozen appendage, then
to the shaking girl half shrouded  in shadow.  "It's you." 
He smiled.  "This'll be easier than I thought." 

"Don't count on it," Corinne said softly.  "Ever seen Carrie?"

"Sure."

"Wanna' see it in 3-D?  Try me." Corinne stepped out into the light.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"What's happening?"  Welsh asked.

"Hold on."  Marion said.  Just as she was getting up to the
window, the lights went out and she  could see nothing, except for
momentary flashes of power surges in the ceiling wires. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Stand up."  She whispered to Fraser.  The lights blinked out,
but Corinne had memorized all of  their positions. Fraser managed
to struggle out of the chair, with the help of Corinne.  He bore
a  majority of his weight on her since he couldn't stand up straight
because of his bruised stomach.  The three standing near the car,
she pinned there, holding them fast with all the strength she could 
while dealing with the other two.  They struggled, frightened by
the mysterious force that seemed  to want to suffocate them. 
The one near the far wall she had three rows of boxes fall on, not 
crush him, but trap him there for the police to sort out.  Lou growled
and started to run at them,  or their general direction, in the
darkness.  Fraser tripped him up with a well placed boot, and Lou 
landed hard in the pooled water on the concrete.  Corinne had the
thick electrical wires from the  ceiling fall into the puddle, electrocuting
Lou on the spot.  Not dead, barely alive, but savable. She 
spoke to the three held against the car.

"You three, get in the car."  They obeyed, quickly.  The high
powered magnet on the ceiling  flicked on and lifted them into the
air where they would be safely held until the police could come 
in and get them down.  The lights flicked back on.  Fraser
groaned and Corinne led him away  from the sizzling water and lay
him down on the concrete.  The pain on his face brought tears to 
her eyes.  She sniffed. "Good thing you had on your rubber soled
boots, hunh?"  She grasped his  hand.

Fraser tried to smile, but it came out as a grimace. "Guess so."  

"Jesus," she said touching the skin next to where the gun had sliced
nearly to the bone.  "What  hurts?"

"Everything." 

The police exploded in through the front doors.  Two paramedics
accompanied the uniforms.   One went to Lou and one came to
Fraser.  He shinned a pen light into Fraser's eyes, noted the 
swelling in his jaws and looked beneath his shirt at the mass of bruises,
especially the serious one  on the right near Fraser's rib cage. 
Agents White and Lewis stood behind the paramedic. 

"I'm not leaving till I know he's okay."  Corinne said to them.

"This might hurt."  The paramedic told Fraser. He pressed into the
flesh and his hand tightened on  Corinne's.  His face registered
pain, but he tried to keep it hidden as well as possible.  "Nothing's 
broken."

"Whoa!  Little help!"  the other paramedic said as Lou went
into convulsions.  The paramedic  pulled Fraser's shirt down
and ran over there.

"God, Fraser, I'm so sorry," she whispered to him.  Ray walked up
behind the agents, carrying the  blue fleece blanket. He knelt next
to them, looking down on his fallen partner and over at the  elusive
fugitive.  "I've been nothing but trouble for you," she whispered.
"I wish I could make it  right."  She leaned down and kissed
him gently on the forehead.  Agent White then pulled her up 
by the arm.  "I'm coming quietly, no need for those."  She
pointed to the cuffs. 

CHAPITRE CINQ: Tying Up Loose Ends

Corinne sat still in the back seat of the FBI agent's dark blue car
and waited for Agents White and  Lewis to wrap up with the Chicago
PD.  The police had all of the men present in custody.  They'd 
ask Fraser his description of the man in the fedora when he got his head
clear and his cuts tended  to.  Lou had wailed off in an ambulance
already, the others were in two different squad cars. 

When Agents White and Lewis came and started the car, she looked out
the window at Fraser and  waved once  and mouthed good-bye
as the car lurched into motion.  Ray looked past Fraser, out 
the passenger side window to see the car disappearing into the falling
snow.  "She's going back to  some institute where people test
and watch her all day?  That doesn't seem right,"  Ray said
to  him.  After a moment of silence, he then added, "Justice
and fairness usually come together, in  one pop."  Ray shifted
and frowned out through the windshield at the snow falling onto the hood.  
"But this... which one wins this time?  Justice, or fairness?" 

"Maybe neither."  Ray started the car and pulled off as Fraser pulled
the blanket tighter around  himself. 

"No hospital, as always, I'd imagine.  We get you back to the station,
I'm sure Francesca will be  quite happy to palpate that for you."
He pointed to Fraser's midsection. 

"You know, Ray, they say everyone has soul mates out there for them. 
People that make  profound positive influences on one's life. 
Could be a spouse, or a lover, or a friend, or even a  complete
stranger."  Ray glanced over at his partner a moment, then back
out through the  windshield.  "You just ran a stop sign, Ray."

"What?  No I didn't.  What stop sign?"  Ray laughed. 

"You know very well what stop sign.  Look, you just did it again."
Ray was happy that Fraser  was lucid enough, despite his concussion,
to talk to him. He could still only open his mouth so  wide, so
he spoke softly.

"Nope.  If I didn't see it, it didn't happen." He, too was happy
that he had Ray to talk to, to fill  the void, and hoped that Corinne
would find someone that could do the same for her. 

"Oh, really, Ray,"  Fraser said exasperatedly. "And you're
exceeding the speed limit." Ray looked  over at him and couldn't
help but laugh, then speed up.

--END--
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