Disclaimer: AA owns everything, but the ideas. They're mine.

Author's Notes: As always, anita and karen/s for being there through the highs and lows. Also, thanks for karen/s for writing the last part for me. I got stuck and she was the pick-up truck with the chains. So to speak.

Story Notes: No spoilers. Post COTW.

It's a Miracle June 16, 2004
By BJ Cochran

(dS, F/K, PG13)

Disclaimer: AA owns everything, but the idea. That's mine.

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Ray eased out of the tent as he eased on his turtleneck. April mornings in the back of beyond started out too damn cold. Well, okay, they were fine as long as you stayed in the tent. The tent was toasty warm from that body heat, breathing thing, but the cold light of dawn - it was damn cold.

Cold light of dawn. Okay, exaggerating. It was the cold light of 9 AM. They'd mushed for two days straight heading toward White Horse and a plane home. Getting closer to civilization, they camped late the night before and decided to get a late start. Late for Ben probably was hours ago, but Ray wallowed in the nice warm sleeping bag, in the nice warm tent, hoping the nice Mountie had put on some nice hot coffee.

The pot was on the small camp stove, the flame low underneath. A small pan of oatmeal was on an equally low flame beside it. It'd probably be paste right now, but with enough sugar and some coffee stirred in, might be okay.

Stretching, Ray felt the hem of the turtleneck rise up to let the cool breeze in. He had to admit, it wasn't as cold as it had been last week. He must be acclimatizing if he could tell 20F from 30F, and think it was warming up. Too bad their time together was almost over, now that he was getting the weather thing together.

Looking out across the horizon, he realized that the snow would be mush pretty soon and the dogs would have a tough time pulling them through the slough. The sun was hidden by a bunch of thick puffy clouds trailing off in three directions, but it made its presence known by streaming red through the trails of clouds. Ray frowned a minute as he looked up into the display trying to figure out what he was looking at. His frown got deeper as he squinted, still not sure what the clouds looked like.

He reached back into the tent for his parka to get his glasses before squinting back up at the clouds. "Ben, you wanna come here and look at this?"

Ben glanced up from the dog harnesses he was massaging, or whatever he did with them. "Look at what, Ray?" He stood to move beside Ray.

"The sky. Look at the sky."

Frowning, Ben did as he was told. "Ah, there seems to be a great deal of particulate -" he began then stopped abruptly when he looked back at Ray.

Ray's shirt was off and he was working on the zipper of his snow pants.

"What are you doing, Ray?"

"I'm taking it as a sign."

"A sign of what?"

"A sign that I need to act and stop wishing for things I want, but don't got. So, I'm getting with the program." Ben was dumbstruck as he stood watching Ray bend to loosen his boots, snow pants around his ankles.

"Ray, why are you disrobing?"

Ray kicked a boot into the tent; he didn't want them soaked. "Look up at that cloud and tell me what you see."

"I see cumulo-nimbus, as well as-"

"Nah, Ben, what do the clouds look like?" Sheesh, his feet were cold. He reached for the boots again when he was down to his long underpants.

"Oh."

Ray smiled at that. "Yeah: oh."

Moving behind Ben, Ray slid his hands up under the other man's parka moving under Ben's undershirt. Looking up together they saw three long diverging cloud formations. They met at a broad base with something that resembled a stem. The cast of red glow made the formation look like one huge, big as all outdoors, maple leaf. Although the background was blue, not white, the statement was not wasted on the two men on the edge of the Canadian wilderness.

Pulling Ben around, Ray reached up for the edges of Ben's hood and pulled him into a fiery kiss. If there was one thing Ray could do, it was kiss. Lips, tongue, teeth in just the right measure, just the right pressure. And Ben tasted like the sweetest candy.

But after a minute, Ben pushed him away. "Ray."

"Just let go, Ben. Follow the sign."

"Ray, this is -"

A light went off in Ray's head. "Oh. Shit." He stepped back, wondering what he'd just stepped into. Stepped on. "Shit."

His movement backward was stopped by Ben's hands on his hips pulling him forward into full body contact. Ray wished his could tell if the guy had a matching hard on to his own. 'Cause Ray was sporting wood for a man he'd been wet dreaming about for, like, the last year and a half. Even when Fraser irritated the shit out of him, he wanted him. Wanted him down and dirty.

"Ray, I want this - you. I just want to make sure that you're not indulging in - this - merely because of wind currents, electromagnetic..."

Ray stared at Ben and stared hard. "Why the hell would you think that I would think about electromagnetic anything? Look up in the sky." Again, Ben obeyed. "I'm looking at a fucking maple leaf the size of which I cannot comprehend, and I'm thinking it's God talking to me. Saying, this is where you wanna be with who you want to be with, so go for it."

"With whom."

"Damn it, Fraser, can it." Ray was getting torqued. "I'm spilling my guts here and you're correcting my grammar."

"I understand, Ray," Ben said quietly pulling Ray closer still, into a full body hug. "I will take your sign, and you, too."

"You wanna let me into your coat; I'm getting a little chilly here." The coat was unzipped like a laser and Ray was engulfed in it. "Oh, yeah," Ray sighed when he came into contact with Ben's shirted chest.

"So, you down with this sign thing?" Ray asked Ben's stubbled cheek, his lips rubbing across the scratchy surface.

Ben's answer was to turn into Ray's mouth to resume the kissing. Ray now could feel the matching hard on as he rubbed against rough jeans. "You want to take this into the tent?" he groaned against mobile lips.

"I do."

"Greatness," Ray said, turning away, but not actually breaking contact. The two men moved easily to the nest of sleeping bags, letting the dogs to continue to rest from their exertions. They had their own exertions to take care of.

Ray came back to the land of the living and reached for his now literal pain in the ass, frowning as his hand came to rest on empty bedding. A quick glance at the end of the bags provided him with the memorable sight of a blanket wrapped Mountie sitting cross-legged and staring pensively out the tent flap.

"Uh, Fraser-" His question died at the other man's smile.

"I must confess that it has been a number of years since I studied the sky for purely aesthetic reasons. I had forgotten that it could be quite pleasurable."

Ray pulled the blanket out of Ben's grasp, draping it around both of them while quickly molding himself to the larger man's back. "We could make that our next quest, ya know...finding out just what all you find pleasurable." Ben placed his hands over the ones clasped lightly against his chest.

"That is liable to be a lengthy trek, Ray. Possibly years long."

Ray smiled into the curve of Ben's neck. "I'll consider it job security."

"I would be forever grateful if you would." Fraser suddenly chuckled. "Are all maple leaves going to be treated as signs, now? Things could be a bit interesting going through Customs--" Ray silenced the Mountie by crawling over Ben for a full frontal assault. Nipping his way out of a rather heated kiss, he grinned.

"Don't need a sign any more, ya big dummy. And you'd better not either." He kissed Ben once more for insurance.

From the look in the other man's eyes, he'd made his point.

End.

Note: I did see this cloud formation on the way to the bank one day and nearly drove off the road staring at it. The sad part was it was only days after the Miracle Challenge ended, and I've been waiting for an amnesty ever since. Hope it translated well enough.

Like it? Hate it? Tell me.

End It's A Miracle by BJCochran: bjcochran@epix.net

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