The coke sprayed out across his desk, propelled by his shock

Pronunciation Key

Debbie Hann, January 26, 2000

PG, Humor

Teaser: Ray K misunderstands Fraser. . .

This is what comes of being tired and listening to Captain Tractor when I should be in bed! LOL!

Thanks to Courser and Jo and Kel for reading this!

~*~*~*~*~*~

The coke sprayed out across his desk, propelled by his shock. Luckily, he'd had his head turned so he hadn't shot the mouthful at Fraser. Red serge covered in coke wouldn't be good. Yeesh, he could see spots of coke all the way across to Franklin's desk across the aisle. Man.

Hurriedly brushing away wet spatters before they soaked through the papers on his desk, Ray (Kowalski) Vecchio cleared his throat. "The first time you went WHERE, Fraze?" he demanded, his voice incredulous. He couldn't believe the Mountie had just said what it sounded like he'd said. Surely he couldn't have heard what he thought he'd heard.

Not blush-at-the-slightest-thing-Fraser.

"Regina, Ray, Regina, Saskatchewan." He placed the map he'd been looking at on the desk, pointing to the city. "I was telling you about my first visit there. Did you know the RCMP had its headquarters there until 1920?"

"That's fascinating, Fraser; dunno how I lived this long without knowing that."

Fraser decided to ignore his friend's sarcasm. It was hardly the first time, nor would it be the last. "May I ask what it was about Regina that made you eject your drink over the surface of your desk?"

"Uh," Ray stalled, reaching up to pull on his ear.

Fraser watched in fascination as Ray seemed to grow more uncomfortable.

"I, uh, thought you'd said something else."

"I see. What was it you thought I'd said?"

"Doesn't matter."

"I assure you, Ray, I'm most interested."

Ray knew that look; that was Fraser's patented "I'm not going to let this go, Ray, so you might as well tell me because I'm a Mountie and can wait forever look."

"Well, uh, see, down here, we'd say that word 'reg-ee-na,' but you weird Canadians say it so it rhymes with 'Carolina,' or another word . . ." he let his voice trail off.

Comprehension spread across Fraser's face, along with a blush. "Ah. I see," he sputtered.

"Yeah, so when you started telling me about the first time you went there, I was a little confused, buddy," he replied with a naughty grin.

The look on his friend's face was now classic uncomfortable Mountie. "Understood, Ray."

"Thought you'd get it." He decided to take pity on his friend, "Wanna go find some lunch?"

Fraser cracked his neck. "A fine idea, Ray."

As they walked out of the bull pen, Fraser spoke, "I believe it was George Bernard Shaw who once said something along the lines of 'The United States and England are divided by a common language;' evidently the same axiom can be applied to Canada and the US."

"Makes sense to me."

"I'm sorry if this misunderstanding caused any of the papers on your desk to be ruined, Ray."

"Nah, don't worry about it, Fraze. 'Sides, yer worth it," he replied with a unrepentant grin. "Most days."

"Understood."

"You get more use out of that word than anyone I know, Fraze." He cocked a look up at his partner, widening his grin. "So, Fraser, ever been to Carolina?"

end!