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Disclaimer: If they were mine, they'd have a lot more fun<g>

Author's Notes: Written for the listmom Scary Store Challenge on Serge.

Story Notes: My first DS fic, so be gentle<g> Not beta'd, so any and all errors are mine.

Going Home
By MR

It was nearly winter again.

From what little he could see of the courtyard below, Ray Kowalski watched as the first snow of the season began, camouflaging the dirty red bricks with a pristine layer of white. The thought made his mouth twitch; Fraser'd always loved the first snowfall in Chicago. Before the city had a chance to trample it into dirty gray slush.

With a sigh, he shifted his attention to his roommate. He wasn't sure why they'd put him in with the guy. There was a lot he wasn't sure of these days, things that seemed, somehow, just out of his mental reach. On the tip of your tongue, his Mum used to say. When he'd been small, he'd always stick his tongue out and try to look at the tip, expecting to see something there.

But none of that mattered now, did it? Because today was the day he got to go home. Fraser's dad had promised him that last week, when he'd come to visit. Today he'd be going home to Fraser, and none of this would matter. Faulty memory, comatose roommate, those surly bitches that took care of him...none of that would matter anymore. He'd be out of here.

Maybe it was that knowledge that made him do what he'd never done till now; cross the room and take a really good look at the guy in the other bed. There'd always been something about the stillness of the body that made him nervous. The nervousness seemed to have vanished, though, and he stood by the side of the bed, looking at the man he'd shared this tiny cubbyhole they called a room with for...how long? It seemed like forever.

Plant person. That's what the aide's called him. Turn him once a day and keep him watered. Up close like this, it was hard to tell there was anything wrong with him, other than the burns on his face. If you could ignore the IV's he was hooked to, you'd almost think he was just sleeping, and any minute now, he was gonna open his eyes and smile at you.

"Who are you?" Ray asked, knowing he'd never receive an answer. "Who are you and why are you here? How'd you get burned? Rescuing someone you loved, maybe?" For some reason, the thought caused another tug on his memory. Something was there, if he could just look at it from the right angle. Something on the tip of his...

"Son?"

He looked up at Fraser's dad, standing in the doorway. Funny how he'd never noticed the resemblance between the two before. He supposed this was what Ben would look like in 20 years. "Hey. Time to go?"

Bob Fraser nodded. "Time to go. Fraser's waiting."

And Ray smiled, really smiled this time. "Yeah." It'd been so long since he'd seen Fraser. Too damn long. "Why didn' he ever visit me?" He asked Bob, as he took his jacket off the chair.

"Too hard on him, son." Bob Fraser held the door open. "It's been so hard for him to not see you Ray, but he just couldn't."

"I know." And he did. Bob had told him before why Fraser couldn't come to see him. "So what say we get this show on the road?"

They walked down the hall in silence, and if no one seemed to notice them, well, that didn't surprise Ray. They'd been ignoring him for as long as he'd been here. After the first week or so, he'd quit trying to get their attention. He could manage okay on his own. He just wished...

He stopped suddenly and looked at Fraser's dad. "What about my roommate?"

"He'll be fine, Ray. He's be leaving here today to."

"Yeah? They gonna ship him somewhere else?"

"You could say that."

And now, they were at the big metal doors that led into the ward, and if it was strange that Bob just pushed the handle and they opened, Ray didn't care, because he'd seen a flash of red through the window; just a small flash, but he knew what it meant...

And then they were through the door, and Fraser was there, with Dief, and he didn't care that Ben's old man was watching, he ran into Ben's arms and hugged him, and was enveloped once again in the warmth and heat that was Benton Fraser, and he could've stood there forever, just stayed where he was and never moved again.

"Ray." Fraser's voice was soft in his ear. "It's time to go home."

He untangled himself and stood back, looking at his lover, and Bob, and good ol' Dief, and nodded. "Yeah it is, Ben. Way past time to go home."

EPILOGUE

Danielle Cathart was pissed. It wasn't bad enough that she'd gotten stuck dealing with Plant Man again, she didn't even have Angie there to cheer her up. No, Angie was out with the flu, and they'd saddled her with some little old lady who came from the era when nurse's still wore caps, for Chrissakes, Helen somethingorother.

"We'll do 303 first," She told the shadow beside her, in a tone that just dared her to question why. "Get the Pod Person out of the way."

"Pod person?" Helen looked confused, and Dani suppressed the urge to hit something. Just her luck to get someone who was clueless.

"303. The coma patient."

"Oh, yes." Helen nodded. "I read his chart this afternoon. Such a terrible thing to happen to a young man."

"He's not that high maintenance," Dani pushed the door to the room open. "Just make sure the IV's are running clear, turn him, check for bed sores, that sort've thing." She was all the way over to the bedside when she realized Helen was still standing in the door. She bit back a sigh. "He's perfectly harmless, Helen. Been here six months and he hasn't even twitched."

Helen came in and stood beside her, looking at...hell, Dani didn't even remember what his name was anymore. Kolaski? Something Polish. "Look, you wait here. I'm gonna go into the bathroom and get his basin."

Helen nodded.

She had the basin halfway full when Helen suddenly appeared in the doorway, white as a sheet. "Danielle? He's quit breathing."

Oh shit. She dropped the basin in the sink and followed Helen out. "I was checking his IV's, and that's when I noticed he didn't have any respiratory sounds. I know he's DNR, but I thought maybe..."

She trailed off abruptly, because Dani wasn't paying any attention to her at all. She was standing beside the bed, staring at the body lying there with something akin to fascination.

Six months, Dani thought. Six months, and never once had he opened his eyes. Hell, she hadn't even known what color his eyes were, though she was sure it was written in the chart.

"I was reading about him this afternoon." Helen said timidly. Then, when Dani made no move to stop her, she continued. "Stanley Raymond Kowalski, age 38, Chicago PD. He was badly burned and suffered a closed head injury during a fire in his apartment building. The neighbors, the one's he'd already gotten out, said he was going back in for his lover, Benton Fraser. But the roof caved in before he could get to him. Fraser and their dog died in the fire. "

"He's smiling." The words were strangled, but Dani managed to get them out. "He's smiling, Helen. People who have irreversible brain damage don't smile. They just don't."

Helen looked at the younger girl and sighed. Such a hard facade, but underneath, she was still just a scared child. Then she looked at the body of Ray Kowalski, at the pale blue eyes, already starting to cloud over, and the slight smile on his lips. He looked, she decided, like a man who'd finally gotten what he wanted.

Like a man who'd been set free.

FIN