Author's webpage: http://victoria.tc.ca/~wy236/fic.html

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Revelation

"Ray!" Benton Fraser exclaimed to his friend and partner, Ray Vecchio. "Stop the car!"

Not knowing exactly why, Ray stopped the car. "What is it, Fraser?" he asked with a tolerant sigh. "A litterbug? Somebody jaywalking?"

Fraser had already jumped out of the car and Ray had no choice but to follow him. Well, he supposed he did have a choice, but somehow he couldn't imagine not following Benny.

"Oh shit," Ray said softly when he saw what had caught the Mountie's attention.

A schoolbus sat in the middle of a busy intersection. It seemed to have rear-ended a truck, and another car had struck it broadside. A few other vechicles were scattered around the intersection. One of them was blocking the emergency exit at the rear of the bus.

Fraser was trying to pull open the front doors but having no success. The children in the bus were crying and screaming. Ray tried to help with the doors but they were well and truly jammed. Fraser climbed up onto the bus' hood. "Everyone get back!" he shouted to the children. When they were safely out of the way, he kicked the front window in. "Ray," he called to his partner, "may I have your coat?" Ray removed his coat and handed it to Benny, who lay it over the few jagged bits of glass that remained in the bus window. Benny then climbed in to the bus and handed the children out to Ray, who noticed flames beginning to creep up the truck in front of them.

"Benny! Get out of there! The truck's gonna blow up any minute!"

Meanwhile, Fraser had helped the bus driver out and was searching under the bus seats for any frightened children who might be hiding. "BENNY! Get out of there!" Ray almost screamed. "You got all the kids out, now get yourself out!"

Some patrol officers had arrived and were herding the children to safety. Ray was just about to crawl inside the bus and drag his partner out when he saw the familiar red-coated figure finally emerge. Seemingly only seconds after Benny left the bus, it and the truck exploded in a fireball. Ray almost sobbed with relief to see that his friend was safe.

"Are you okay?" the detective asked worriedly as he and Fraser walked back to the Riv.

"I'm fine, Ray," Benny answered.

"You sure?" Ray asked.

"Yes, Ray, I'm sure."

"Benny, what the hell did you think you were doing?" Now that he was certain that Benny was all right, Ray could yell at him. "You could have been killed!"

Fraser shrugged as if to say, 'so?' "Those children were in danger. Someone had to act."

"Why did it have to be you? Why do you have to put yourself in danger and almost get killed?"

"Why not me? I have no family, no dependents. If something were to happen, who would miss me?"

"I would!" exclaimed Ray.

Ben looked at his partner. "Ray, you keep telling me that I'm the most annoying man in the world. You once said that even though you're my best friend, sometimes you want to kill me. You're always complaining about how many suits I've made you ruin. Why would you miss me?"

Ray suddenly felt ashamed of all the times he'd said things about Benny being annoying or complained about his suits. How could Benny possibly think the suits were more important than he was? "Aw, Benny, you shouldn't take me seriously when I say things like that. I don't mean them. The suits aren't important. You are. If anything happened to you, I really would miss you."

The Canadian smiled. "That's nice of you to say, Ray. I would miss you, too, if you weren't here."

//I didn't just *say* it, I mean it!// Ray wanted to shout, but he didn't. Benny put up with a lot from him, and sometimes Ray wondered why Benny still wanted to be his partner. Ray yelled at him, took his bad moods out on him, let his crazy sister hit on him, caused him to be kidnapped by a psycho from one of his old cases, and had pushed him away during the Irene Zuko case. He tried to make up for it by taking Benny home for dinner and spending time with him and the wolf, but did that really make up for all the wisecracks he'd made, the lack of trust he'd shown, his dismissal of their friendship?

"Ray, we're here," Benny's voice penetrated his train of thought. They had arrived at Fraser's building. "Thank you kindly for driving me home."

"I - I'm glad you're okay, Benny. That was really brave of you to rescue those kids like that." His words seemed inadequate, but Ray had to say something. Impulsively, he reached over and hugged the other man. Benny seemed surprised, but returned the hug. Then, with a tip of his hat and another "thank you kindly", he was gone and Ray was alone. He suddenly felt bereft, as if there was a large Fraser-shaped hole where the Mountie had been just a minute ago. Trying to shake off his mood, he drove home.

As Ben moved around his tiny kitchen preparing his supper, there was an inquiring whine from Diefenbaker. "Why do I have a stupid grin on my face?" Fraser translated. "I don't know about 'stupid', but I am smiling because Ray hugged me."

Dief barked.

"I'm not entirely sure why. He said he was glad I'm okay, that I didn't get hurt rescuing the children from the damaged bus. You know that Ray is an emotional person."

"Woof," commented the wolf. Then there was another questioning whine.

"No, he didn't give me any doughnuts for you. You know, doughnuts are not typically part of a wolf's diet in the wild."

Dief sighed and put his head down on his paws. Fraser returned to preparing his food, and the smile stayed on his face the rest of the evening.

In another part of town, Ray was not as happy. He felt restless. He couldn't concentrate on anything. A few times he had to stop himself from pacing because he was afraid his mother or one of his sisters would comment on it if he did. He told himself it was a delayed reaction to the stressful situation he and Fraser had dealt with that afternoon. He didn't deal with exploding school buses every day. Especially not exploding school buses that had Benny in them seconds before.

Eventually he went upstairs to bed, but he couldn't sleep. Every time he closed his eyes he saw that damn bus again, and saw Benny in the bus. Sometimes he would start to drift off, but he would be jolted awake again by dreams of Benny unable to get out of the bus before it exploded.

Finally, Ray gave up trying to sleep. He rolled out of bed, pulled some clothes on, and headed out to Benny's apartment.

The Canadian was surprised to hear someone knocking at his door in the middle of the night. He was even more surprised to see that it was Ray and not one of his neighbours. "Ray! What are you doing here?" he asked.

"I couldn't sleep," Ray answered.

Fraser still didn't understand. "You couldn't sleep, so you came to see me?"

"Can I come in?" Ray asked.

"Oh! Of course, please come in." Benny stepped back and gestured for his partner to enter.

"The reason I came to see you, Benny, is that you're the reason I can't sleep," Ray explained as he came in to the apartment and sat down.

"How am I interfering with your sleep?" Ben asked.

"Every time I close my eyes I see you and that damned exploding bus. And sometimes I see you getting blown up with the bus. It's like when Carver had you tied up in that car and I was afraid I wouldn't be able to get to you in time."

"But you did, Ray. You're always there when I need you."

"I have been so far ... but every time you're in danger I just get terrified that this will be the time I won't make it, this will be the time that you don't survive. I hate that feeling. I don't know what I would do without you, Benny. I - I love you." There. He'd said it. Now Benny could throw him out or whatever he wanted to do.

The Mountie's response was not exactly what Ray had expected. Fraser grabbed Ray in his arms, pulled him close and kissed him quite thoroughly.

After a few minutes during which he was too stunned to react, Ray pushed Benny away. "Whoah, Benny, what the hell are you doing?" he asked.

"Kissing you," replied Ben with a smile.

"Why?"

"Because I love you, too, Ray."

"You love me?" Ray was still stunned. He couldn't believe what he was hearing. Benny loved him? "Why didn't you ever tell me before?"

"Ray, I never thought you could love me. As I told you before, you're always complaining about how annoying I am. When you were involved with Irene, you pushed me away. There was never any evidence that you loved men as well as women."

Ray was thoughtful for a long moment. "Benny, I never loved a man before. You're the first. I did push you away, and I'm sorry for that. I was scared of my own feelings. But today, when I thought I might lose you ... I guess I had a revelation. I couldn't go any longer without telling you how I really feel."

Benny took Ray back into his arms. "And how do you really feel, Ray?" he asked softly.

"I love you, Benny."

"And I love you, Ray."

END

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