Lightning briefly painted the night sky bright again. Ray gripped the wheel harder and tried to shake off the feeling of unreality. Everything looked too damned strange. When a family of small brown animals scampered across the road ahead, he hit the brakes hard. //Shit!// The GTO swerved a bit, but he managed to stop in time.

"Ray, what's wrong?"

Ray pulled off onto the grass near the side of the road, took a deep breath, and tried to restart his heart. "I almost ran over Chip and Dale." He opened the window to let more air in; maybe then he could start breathing again.

Fraser looked confused. "Aren't they male dancers? I don't see how they relate to us right now."

A world in which Constable Fraser knew about the strippers but not the Disney characters was a fine place to live in indeed. "I almost hit a flock of chipmunks."

Fraser smiled. "Ray, those were leaves. However, they did reach the other side safely thanks to your quick reflexes."

"Leaves?"

"A 'flock' of dried leaves."

"Yeah? Well, I'm protector of all wild things. Maybe they'll tell their descendants about me in their mouth to mouth history."

"Mouth to mouth?"

"Like yer Inuits, yeah."

"That would be oral history."

"Ya sher? That sounds too kinky."

"Yet 'mouth to mouth' does not?"

"You got a point there."

"I think you need sleep, Ray. I could drive--"

"And we'd never get there. No thanks. I just need a little air." He got out of the car and stretched. Leaves rustled hard in the strong breeze, and loud chirruping came out of the night in pulses of sound. Ray didn't know why people referred to the woods as quiet and peaceful, because it sure didn't seem to be. Ozone, sharp and bitter, hung in the cool, charged air. "Feels like it's gonna pour." Just what they needed.

Fraser had gotten out with him, no doubt so he wouldn't have to yell to make himself heard. "Then we should stop for the night."

Ray held out his arms and turned right. Trees. Then he looked left. More trees. "I don't see no hotels here, Frase."

"We could sleep in the car."

"I love the GTO like it was my firstborn, but I'm gonna be crippled come morning."

"From the directions, we should have reached an area with hotels and businesses by now. I think we're lost, Ray."

"No way. Can't be." Ray went back into the car and sat down to look at the map. Fraser got back in too. A cold, wet nose rubbed against his cheek. "Can you read maps, Dief? I doubt it. So give me some room here, will ya?"

"Actually, Ray--"

"No, I don't wanna hear about it. I have a little sanity left, and I wanna keep it, okay? If Dief really can read maps, I don't wanna know." Ray tried to unfold the map better. "Shit. I don't even know what number road we're on. What's our number, Frase?"

Fraser actually blushed. "I don't know."

"You throw suggestions from the passenger seat all the time when I don't want 'em. You pay attention to everythin'. Are ya trying to tell me that the one time I want ya to get involved in my drivin', you weren't paying attention?"

"I'm afraid so, Ray. We're lost."

"We're not lost. We just don't know where we are." Ray leaned back into his seat and started to laugh weakly at the look Fraser was giving him. "Okay, we're a *little* lost." Ray shook his head. "Damn, I must be tired. That's the second time I agreed with ya tonight."

"I see it as a show of your innate good sense."

Ray couldn't help smiling. "I should've known it's 'good sense' when I agree with ya."

Suddenly, giant drops hit the windshield hard, as if the sky were spitting at them, right before rain crashed down in sheets. Through the open window. Cursing, Ray got soaked instantly and rolled the window up as quickly as possible to prevent drowning. He'd never moved so fast in his life. That still left him cold, more than half- soaked, and sitting in a puddle of water. He could feel the dampness spreading out slimy tentacles to the right side of his body. He didn't even want to think about clammy his ass felt or what the water was doing to the GTO's upholstery.

"Ray?"

"I can't talk right now, Fraser." It came out strangled. "Ya don't wanna hear what I wanna say, 'cause what I wanna say ain't real polite. Hand me some napkins?"

"Of course. Anything I could--"

"Not really," Ray said. Since Fraser looked a little hurt, Ray continued, "Not enough room in the driver's seat fer *me* to do the wiping up, Frase."

Ray leaned forward against the steering wheel so he could mop up the seat. Any attempts to dry his clothing left shreds of soaked paper stuck to him, so he abandoned that. Since he didn't have any other place to put them, he left the drenched napkins in a small pile on the floor.

Ray reached for his cell phone. Maybe they could... It dripped as he brought it out. He already knew these things didn't work well when wet, but he tried it anyway. It wouldn't even turn on. He tossed the phone onto the dashboard, raised his hands to start beating on the steering wheel, remembered he was in the GTO, petted the wheel in apology //sorry, Dad//, and went back to muttering curses under his breath. He couldn't look at Fraser, who had that I'm-worried-and-here-to-support-you look going. Ray couldn't have kept his cool, such as it was, seeing that.

"You have a change of clothing with you," Fraser said. They both did; Lieutenant Welsh had known the drive would take two days and told them to pack for it. Since they wouldn't be reaching their captured fugitive until tomorrow, Ray had managed to convince Fraser to wear street clothing and leave the uniform for the next day's official duties.

Which got Ray to looking at Fraser and trying not to be distracted, *again*, by the stretched collar of Fraser's sweater. All of his non- duty shirts looked like that, and it made Ray wonder if he stretched them during violent necking or something. The thought made Ray feel a little warmer, but not enough. //We should do some--// Besides, he wasn't going to think about that, especially not now when it looked like they'd be spending the night confined in the car.

Ray sighed. "That's a nice thought, but do *you* wanna go out to the trunk to get 'em?"

Fraser gave it some thought, obviously listening to the rain pounding the car, then started to unbuckle his seatbelt.

"No! Frase, that's just stupid. No point in us both being soaked and cold."

"Your lips are turning blue."

Ray turned to face him. "I'm sure it's a good look on me." When Fraser's lips quirked, Ray asked, "What?" He looked at himself in the rearview mirror. The hair on the right side of his head still stood up the way it should, but the left had been plastered down to his skull in wet spikes. He looked like an extra from one of the _Road Warrior_ movies. "Son of a-- Next time you give me some guff about the wonders of nature, I'm gonna remind you about all this." Ray spread the water through his hair with his fingers to at least get an even, if still nearly flat, look, something like Rutger Hauer at the end of _Blade Runner_.

"I don't want you to get sick, Ray."

Ray thought of how cold and disgusting he felt while he looked at the water sheeting down the windows of his car. They really were stuck here for the night. Alone. In a small space. With not much to do to keep them occupied. And Ray could feel Fraser's heat and smell him and, oh, we were not going there.

"I already feel sick." He squawked as Fraser pulled him over to the passenger seat. "Hey! What's all this?"

"I need to get you warm, Ray."

Ray soon found himself pressed to a broad sweater-clad chest and partly wrapped in Fraser's buffalo plaid coat. While sitting on Fraser's lap. "Uh, sharing body heat, right?" Would he complain? Hell, no, not if he was forced to be here. But... "Frase, I'm gonna get you--"

"It's all right."

"I just don't want you to be cold and damp and smellin' like a wet sheep."

"It wouldn't be the first--"

"Oh, I so don't wanna know."

Ray could hear the smile in his voice. "Understood, Ray."

Given permission and encouragement, Ray tried to settle his legs in a more comfortable position--they were both too long to be sharing a seat--and pressed in closer. If there was one thing he was good at, it was clinging like plastic wrap. When Ray breathed in deeply, he caught the scent of some darkly spicy soap that he never smelled on anyone else. He thought of this scent as the non-duty one; it struck him as more sensual than the other, also good smelling, soap Fraser used while he was doing the uniformed bit. Fraser always smelled so good somehow...

As all the things he'd been doing such a good job of Not Thinking about came flooding in, Ray resigned himself to another night of frustration. Sure, he really enjoyed the kissing, hugging, and snuggling, and it gave him a deep thrill every time Fraser said, I love you. But he had wanted to pounce on Fraser since the very first day they'd met, and the time for consummated pouncing still hadn't arrived yet. It wouldn't be for the right reasons, or one of them was too tired, or they were in an impossible place, or... Most times, they were good reasons, and he respected good reasons and understood them. He'd waited for and courted Stella long ago, and it had all been worth it. Pushing always ruined things.

But Ray had never spent so much time so close to Stella in those wooing years. Sometimes Fraser could just look at him, just for a moment, and he'd have to fight the urge to slingshot himself at his partner shouting, Take me now! But that was unprofessional, uncool. Pretty much un-everything that had anything to do with respecting the boundaries Fraser had set for them.

Except that *Fraser* was the one who wasn't respecting the boundaries right now. Hot hands pushed up under Ray's shirt and seemed to leave steaming trails across his cold, damp skin. Sitting on Fraser's lap told him something else.

"*Now* yer up fer this?" Ray asked with a smirk.

"Ray." Fraser's voice was all breath, all sex. Ray shivered. "I have something shameful to confess."

//This could be good.// "It can't be too bad."

"I don't know what route we're on because I spent the whole ride watching you drive instead."

If Ray hadn't been hard before... "I think that's the sexiest thing anyone's ever said to me."

"Well then, I have another confession to make." Fraser's voice somehow went *deeper*. "I need you right now."

//Wow. Just, wow. I have a new number one sexiest thing already. Go, Frase!// Ray still couldn't resist a little teasing, not when the shoe was on the other foot. "Confession's good fer the soul, Frase. So, what are you gonna do about it?"

Fraser pulled Ray up a bit and claimed his mouth in a devouring kiss. Just took possession, and possession was nine-tenths of the law, yeah... Usually his brain didn't start running off in weird directions this early in the make-out, but his partner wasn't "usual" in any way, not at all. //He's so *hot* it's like burning alive, but in a good, wanting-it way...// Wrapped around Fraser as Fraser was wrapped around him, Ray didn't think he'd ever feel cold again.

"You taste wonderful, Ray," Fraser breathed between kisses, and Ray had to grin as he thought a sending a testimonial to the Big Red people: "Yeah, you can kiss a little longer..." He almost choked on the thought of swapping gum with Fraser sometime. //Brain, if ya can't do anything useful, take a hike, huh?//

Fraser's hands seemed to be everywhere, which Ray didn't mind at all. Ray rocked against him and kissed and stroked everything on him that wasn't against the seat. It was so cramped here that they were forced into near full-body contact at all times, which was fun now but would become a problem later. Ray decided not to think about later right now. He couldn't tell if the pounding he heard came from the rain or his own heart.

When Ray heard a *whuff!* from the driver's seat, he opened his eyes and turned to look. Diefenbaker stared back at him. "Uh, Fraser, yer wolf's watching us."

"He's never done that before." Fraser showed a total lack of concern and stared to suck on a spot behind Ray's ear that Ray hadn't even realized was a Spot.

Ray bucked. "Ohhhhh... Ya got yerself a peeping wolf there."

"Is that a problem?"

"Not really," Ray moaned. When Diefenbaker sighed, Ray's brain tried to work and brought up something about him and Fraser once switching, passenger seat to driver seat, without getting out of the car. //Wait a minute.// "If Dief's here in the frontseat, he's not in the backseat."

Ray almost giggled as he could feel a frustrated Fraser trying hard not to say something snippy in response to such a stunningly obvious remark. Fraser settled on: "I would have to agree, Ray."

//Good Mountie, but yer brain's not working too good either right now. It's cute.// "Fra-ser. The. Back. Seat. Is. Empty." //Brain, 1. Ray, 1. Hey, Fraser, 1, too. Everybody wins.//

"Oh."

Ray smirked and pulled away, though with a bone deep reluctance. //Patience. Soon.// Fraser managed to squeeze over the top of the seat to get to the back. Before Ray followed, he said, "Thanks, Dief. I owe you one."

"That's not a good idea, Ray. He'll never let you forget it," Fraser said from the backseat. Diefenbaker whined, sounding insulted.

"I'm feeling mag-- I'm feelin' generous. Now look out below." Fraser actually squeaked when Ray landed on him. "Did you just squeak? I like it."

"Ray..."

"Yeah, yeah, I can always torture ya later."

The seat wasn't long enough to lie all the way out, so it forced Fraser to bend and separate in ways that Ray could take full advantage of. Ray used his own flexibility just as ruthlessly, draping and sliding atop his partner as they kissed. //I claim this Mountie in the name of--// He had the delirious feeling that he should have a flag to plant. His dirty mind immediately gave him the image of what he could plant instead, and he nearly choked.

Fraser had his mind on business, though, and sat them up to help the stripping process. Efficient all the way. Fortunately, one of the tasks he'd set his oh so capable self to was driving Ray insane with his mouth. Wet heat nipped and sucked on one, then the other, of Ray's nipples while assertive fingers undid his fly. Clever tongue, surprisingly sharp teeth... All the while he could only lean against the window and moan, since overload had made sitting upright and speaking impossible. At least he could still stroke Fraser's soft, dark hair and grind against his tormentor, showing his appreciation through body language.

Fraser kissed and sucked his way down Ray's ribs, tasting and seeming to savor every inch of skin, until he reached Ray's cock... and bypassed it completely. He ignored every whimpered plea with a smile before he relented and took it in inch by inch.

Ray wanted to buck and thrust so badly, but he wouldn't, not when it meant he might hurt the partner he loved. He managed to choke out: "Please, soon. Can't--"

Fraser must have known, because he stopped teasing and started to suck, gently toying with Ray's balls the whole time. Tongue, teeth, the vibration of Fraser's voice... //Oh God, it's my name, over and over.// Even through the haze of pleasure, Ray couldn't help being amazed at the sight of his usually prim and proper partner's head bobbing in his lap, that perfect mouth wrapped around him. Most of the restraints had been tossed away... He came hard, shouting Fraser's name.

Exhausted and euphoric, Ray sagged against the window, feeling as if his body had been molded into a different shape. They'd steamed up the windows, and his hair had scratched sharp, arcing patterns into it as he'd writhed.

Fraser's mouth met Ray's. //That's me on his tongue...// Between kisses, Ray whispered, "I love you."

"And I, you, Ray."

"Tell me what you wanna do. Anything. Anything you want. I'll do it for ya. Anything."

"I love your hands." Fraser took Ray by the wrist and started to suck on his fingers one by one. "I nee-- I want to feel them... on me." Fraser let his wrist go with a feathery caress that made his nerves sing.

Ray wrapped those slick fingers around Fraser's dripping cock and smiled at the gasp that followed. Smooth, hot skin seethed and moved at Ray's touch. He alternated caresses with pulls and teased the vein along the underside mercilessly. Fraser actually growled when he wasn't nipping at Ray's neck. They moved together in a flurry of stroking hands.

Ray could feel Fraser's oncoming orgasm in tremors through his cock and balls. "Come fer me, Fraser. Fer me..." Ray whispered into Fraser's ear before tonguing it. His partner obeyed, moaning, coming in a splash of warmth against Ray's belly.

Gasping, Ray slumped back against the window again as Fraser licked him clean in broad, thorough strokes. "Oh God, yer so good to me, so good..."

If he hadn't been driving most of the day, he might have been ready to go another time. Right now, he just wanted to curl up with Fraser and sleep. He couldn't stop grinning at how they'd gone after one another like horny teenagers in the backseat of his dad's car. Of course, the sex hadn't been this good back then.

"Did you like that, Ray?"

Ray looked at the laughing gleam in Fraser's eyes and displayed his most self-satisfied grin. "You need to ask?" Strong, capable hands started to put Ray's clothes back on. "Hey, hey, hey! What's all this?"

"We need to look presentable if someone comes across us while we're sleeping. Right now, you look like a hastily unwrapped present. A debauched, delicious, hastily unwrapped present, but I still don't think it would be right for anyone else to see you like this."

"And whose fault is that? Possessive git..." Ray surrendered himself to Fraser's tender, careful touches. "Yeah, you can dress me. Anything else you want to do to me is fine too."

"I'm glad you said that, Ray."

"What?"

"Oh, nothing."

"Fraser..."

A smile as slow and dark as honey settled on Fraser's face. "Got you."

"Yeah, yeah, ya do." Fraser kissed Ray and completed his ensemble with the buffalo plaid coat. "What's up with--"

"Your jacket is still damp."

Wrapped in Fraser's warmth and scent, Ray couldn't feel any more secure. "You don't have to--"

"I want to."

"Thanks," Ray said, his voice choking up in his throat. "Now I dress you."

Once they had Fraser dressed, they tried to find a comfortable way to sleep. Lying down curled up on the seat together didn't work no matter how they twisted. Dief made sounds from his seat in the front that sounded to Ray like he was laughing at them. Finally Fraser and Ray got as comfortable as they could sitting up with Fraser's head resting, cushioned, against the window and Ray's against his shoulder. The slow, steady pounding of Fraser's heart and the fast rushing of rain against the car swiftly put Ray to sleep.

Barking woke Ray up. //Life in the big-- Hey, wait a minute.// He rubbed his eyes and groaned as his stiff back and neck reminded him that he'd be nothing without them. Every other part of his body sang with that warm, I-got-mine happiness. //Majority rules.// His fuzzy eyes took in car, Fraser, Diefenbaker, cop rapping on the window from outside. Cop outside?

Ray rolled down the window and twisted until he could lean out. It would help him see better. He smiled as he breathed in air washed clean and fresh by the night rain. Golden sunlight streamed in dancing patterns through the leaves. Nature wasn't all bad.

Oh yeah, the cop. "Ah, hi. Good mornin'. Can I help ya?"

It was one of those big, beefy Polish guys, the ones who looked like they could pull a plow if the family oxen ever took ill. Ray remembered desperately wishing as a kid that he could have looked like that instead of being a scrawny, skinny ass geek in Coke bottle glasses. //Being named "Stanley" sure didn't help either.// Eventually he realized that there was no shame in taking after his mother's side of the family, but it had been a long, hard road.

"I saw your car sitting at the side of the road and wanted to make sure you were okay."

//And to ask us to kindly move along. Can't blame him.// "We're dandy. Just decided it would be safer not to drive through the storm and dark, y'know."

"I would say that's good judgment."

Young and polite and starched into stiffness. The cop reminded Ray of Fraser a little, the official Fraser, and that made him smile. It also made him do something he would normally never do. "We got a bit turned around in the rain. We were takin' 55 to St. Louis. What should we do to get where we're going?" //Glad Fraser isn't awake to see this. If this kid smirks...//

The kid didn't smirk. "You didn't get too badly turned around. If you keep taking this road in the direction you were going, you'll hit 64. Can't miss it. Taking 64 west will get you to 55 again. You're good from there, right?" Painfully earnest.

"Yeah. That's greatness. Thanks!" //Didn't take us too far out of the way after all, see?//

The cop actually blushed. Blushed? Had to be that he was just blond, and that's how things went. "Uh, no problem. Glad to be helpful." He retreated to his car.

"What was that all about?" Ray asked aloud.

"You smiled at him, Ray."

Ray looked back at his partner. "That was one of those rhetorical questions. Weren't playing possum, were ya?"

Fraser looked like Mountie innocence personified. "No, Ray. I just didn't want to interfere."

"Riiiight. So, I smiled at him."

"More precisely, you gave him that smile that seems to say that you think everyone around you is beautiful and you want to make love to every single one of them."

"Get outta here! Yer kidding!"

"Not at all. I love that smile."

Ray put his hand over his eyes. "I don't do that a lot, do I?"

"No, Ray. People have to earn that smile from you."

"That's good. The thought of turnin' the world on with my smile all day long does not appeal."

"Normally I would disagree with that, but in this case I must concur."

Ray leaned back against Fraser. "Possessive git."

Fraser stroked Ray's hair. Just from the way the caresses felt, Ray could tell that his hair had fluffed up a bit as it had dried. *Good* morning.

"Your possessive git," Fraser said.

"Better be."

"In any case, if I had to defend you from suitors all day long I wouldn't have time for anything else."

"And some of that 'anything else' is a lot of fun." Ray sighed. "But if we don't get goin', I'm gonna be in a heap of trouble. Were you 'not interfering' through the directions?"

"I was. It seems that we weren't too terribly lost."

"See, there's really no such thing as getting lost."

"No?"

Ray smiled and wondered if it was the "you're beautiful" smile. He hoped so. "Nope. Every road takes you *somewhere*."

*********************THE END************************

More Viridian5 stories can be found in The Green Room at http://members.tripod.com/~drovar/viridian/