Form 1879 C

Barb G.

The desk isn't what I expected to see, but then, I was flying blind here. The mountie behind the desk looked like Fraser, same uniform. Older though, more gruff. I walk into the room expecting to see him... Fraser I mean, don't know who this old guy is so I'm obviously not expecting to see him. But Fraser's not there and I'm glad.

The other mountie motions me to sit down. There are two chairs in front of him; one all comfy and padded, the other a plain metal chair liked you'd find in a bingo hall. I take the metal chair; don't ask me why.

The mountie looks at me like this is all my fault. I shrug and stare at the toe of my boots until the door opens again. "Forgive me. I was... detained," Fraser says in his way of saying 'it's a really, really long story and I don't have the time so believe me when I tell you you don't want to know' kinda way.

The other mountie and I don't ask for the details. Fraser sits down, primly in his comfy chair and I slouch down lower in mine.

"To begin with, this is just an informal supposition, we're not here to lay blame or point fingers," the mountie says, but he's staring at me. I blink, looking back to Fraser, who bails me out for the first time today.

"It was all a misunderstanding," Fraser begins easily.

I snort. The mountie's taking notes and I'm guessing he's wondering how to spell it.

"Well it was, Ray. You have to believe I never would have done that on purpose."

"Fraser, when they say 'wait for backup', they usually mean wait for more people besides yourself and your stupid, blindly following partner to go inside a dangerous situation. I thought we went over this three years ago."

"But they were getting away, Ray."

"They were *arms dealers* Fraser! *Arms Dealers* Lots and lots of guns filled with bunches and bunches of bullets. Bullets that go bang? We were on vacation, Fraser. Vacation. I didn't need to be shot full of holes while on vacation."

"It was a judgement call, Ray."

"Your judgement sucked."

"You didn't have to follow," Fraser says, and his voice is petulant. "I gave you that option."

I look to the other mountie who is nodding along to Fraser, and realize I'm not exactly in front of a impartial judge. "So you went inside the building," the mountie says, leadingly.

"Well, yes, we did. As you are aware, the shipment violated numerous Canadian restrictions and importation laws. Not to mention the gross threat to human life that the guns posed to the general population of the greater Vancouver area."

I snort again, which is duly noted again for the record. "You forgot to mention the danger posed to a certain thick mountie and his stupid, blindly following partner," I say.

Fraser nods. "Well, to that as well. And Ray had certainly ascertained the situation correctly. There were indeed many, many large guns. We were surrounded by them, in fact."

"And then what happened, son?" the mountie asked.

"Well, we were killed, dad. Obviously."