Some Guys

Disclaimer: dueSouth characters and concepts belong to Alliance. I'm just borrowing them. Inspired by "Some Guys Have All the Love" sung by Little Texas; lyrics (reprinted without permission) at the end. M/M slash implied.

We'd been back in Chicago less than three days, and I was still trying to get used to being back. Funny what you forget when you've been out in the boonies a while, like the fact that remote controls need fresh batteries every so often. I was scrounging around my kitchen, trying to find batteries, and coming up empty. I hadn't really been paying much attention to Fraser, though I'd been aware for a while now he'd been quietly staring at me. I'd just figured he was doing his share of watching me move. If I paid a lot more attention to that, we'd end up right back where we started this morning. Not that I minded that, but I had less than a day before I went back on duty, and I had other stuff I wanted to do, like find out if I really hadn't missed much on TV. Important stuff, yeah, but I'd only talked Fraser's ear off about how much I missed watching TV for weeks now, and if I didn't at least try to watch something, I'd feel really stupid.

It occurred to me that Fraser had been calling my name with exasperated affection for some time now. I tried, as always, to play like I heard him the first time, but he knew I knew that he knew I hadn't. "What, Frase?"

"Why did you stay for so long? I know you missed being here, and a year is a long time to be away from home."

I stopped pawing my way through a drawer and looked at him, caught by the wonder I heard in his voice. "Whaddya mean?" I asked slowly, studying him as he leaned against the opposite counter of the kitchen. How he managed to turn a simple navy blue Henley and a pair of jeans into the sexiest thing I'd ever seen was still beyond me. I reigned in my libido and tried to concentrate on what he wasn't saying. Somehow I knew it was important. It wasn't like Fraser to be looking for reassurance, that's more my style, but maybe he'd put it down to just making sure he'd drawn all the right conclusions, and it still would be the same damn thing. Something inside me warmed at the thought that he needed me to give him that.

"Well, Ray, you did have that offer for a promotion in another precinct, and then there was that offer from the private security firm to manage their district office. It would've been more money, either way, but you turned them both down because we were still in Canada."

I smiled as realization dawned. "I don't need a lot of money. Home's wherever you are, Frase. If you hadn't gotten the offer to come back to the Consulate here in Chicago, I don't think we'd have stopped chasing crooks up north. Or did you take that just so I could be back in Chicago with you?"

Fraser started to deny it, but his masks were clear to me. I started laughing. "I knew it. You turned down something just to come back here, didn't you?"

Fraser cleared his throat. "It doesn't matter, Ray. You were beginning to exhibit signs of extreme homesickness and I thought it would be best if we both returned."

I shook my head. There were times when it seemed incredible that I had his love; this was one of those times. I'd never been particularly religious, but I'd learned a lot from hanging around the Vecchios, and I sent a prayer of thanks for the twist of fate that had brought Fraser into my life. I shut the drawer, set down the remote control I'd been holding, and walked up to the one person who meant everything to me. I'd screwed up so much in my life, but with him, it didn't seem to matter. He made me stronger, helped me believe, and I didn't know how I'd survived without him. I wasn't sure I ever wanted to try and find out. I didn't have the words to tell him how much he meant to me, but then again, I'd always been better at doing than saying. I knew exactly how to tell him, and it only took a few steps for me to get that communication going.