Sort of a postscript to COTW, an attempt at understanding how these heretofore
semi-sane people could possibly have ended it the way they did, when
Benny and Ray so obviously love each other.  Let me know if this makes
sense.  (shameless begging for feedback)

Disclaimer:  I don't own them, I'm not making money off them, please
don't sue me.  And the Farley Mowat quote belongs to Farley Mowat. 

LETTER TO RAY

Det Raymond Vecchio
c/o Precinct 27, Chicago Police Department
Chicago, IL, 60607
USA
Please Forward

Dear Ray,

  It is unknown when we will next encounter a post office, so I am leaving
this letter with Sgt. Frobisher to send to you.  I feel I must apologise
for the way I left things between us.  I owe you an 
explanation as to why I left.  

  You and I were-- are-- closer than I have ever been to anyone.  I would
like to quote to you a passage from one of our Canadian authors. I can
hear your voice objecting even now:  "Hey, Fraser, you got to have a
story for everything?" but you aren't here to cut me off, so I am going
to write it anyway.  I'm standing up for myself, as you
so often insisted that I should.

  "There was no other wanderer on that road, yet I was not alone, for
his tracks went with me, [...] as familiar as the print of my own hand.
I followed them, and I knew each thing that he had done, each move that
he had made, each thought that had been his; for so it is with two who
live one life together."  -- Farley Mowat

  That is how I feel about you, Ray.  We know each other so completely.
In police work, that kind of bond was a great help in solving cases.
The force was directed outward, so to speak.  But now?  You have been
honorably discharged from the force, and as your unofficial partner,
so have I.  If we were to remain together now, without that outlet, our
bond would be...   

  We have, as you might say, chemistry.  If the energy generated in a
chemical reaction has a place to go, you have a power plant.  If you
try to keep it bottled up, it explodes and that's something else entirely
and there you are.

  I will always be with you, Ray.  Just as you will always be with me,
no matter how many miles are between us, whether either of us wants it
that way or not.  It is like I told Ray-- Stan, I mean-- soon after you
returned to Chicago.  No matter how far apart we are, we always know
that we are partners.

  It is different with him.  We are friends, and right now he needs me.
We enjoy each other's company, but when this trip is over we will go
our separate ways, perhaps to keep in touch, perhaps not.  He and I are
not, and could never be, what you and I were.  What we are.

  I carry you inside me, Ray.  And that is why I had to leave.  I hope
you understand.

  -Sincerely-  
  -Yours-Truly- 
  Love,
  -Benton-Fraser,-RCMP-
  Benny

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email me at circuli2@hotmail.com   Please!!  I love comments!  Even otters!