Challenge Day or, Mountie to the Rescue
by Birgitt Schuknecht (birgitt.schuknecht@uni-essen.de)

Author's Note: This little piece was written for the July challenge of
the ficwrite list (onelist). (Thanks for the inspiration, Karen Manetta.)
It was fun writing it, and I hope you enjoy the read. Feedback would
be greatly appreciated. It's a Due South story, and may fit anywhere
in the time line of the first two seasons. Standard disclaimers apply.
These characters do not belong to me. Rated: G. Thank you kindly for
reading this. Please do not archive this without permission of the author.
Birgitt
July 1999.

Challenge rules:

"Write a story using the following five words:
1) Star Wars
2) bleach
3) Presidential
4) filter
5) referee
Any fandom, any characters. The key is trying to stay under 750 words
for serious stuff, 500 words for humor." 

Normally the 27th precinct of the Chicago PD was full of activity. But
today was different, since a woman had entered and made her way to the
Lieutenant's office. When she had disappeared in it, Ray Vecchio looked
at his colleagues, but no one seemed to know anything about her. Even
Elaine, his best source of information only shrugged her shoulders. Everyone's
curiosity was piqued though. Ray was astonished at his own tension, but
somehow he just knew it had to do with himself. Ever since he'd become
teamed up with a certain Mountie, any kind of strange things seemed to
happen to him. 

The door opened and the woman peeped out. Her small eyes behind big glasses
scanned the room, looking at the astonished crowd. Without saying anything
she disappeared again. Only two minutes later Lieutenant Welsh came out
of the office and yelled: "Vecchio!" The detective muttered, "I knew
it," before entering the lion's den. 

Introduction was short: "Vecchio, this is Ms. Liza Marsh from the Mayor's
office." Before he could continue, he was interrupted: "The Mayor is
planning Independence Day big. And he had an idea of a huge picnic for
the Chicago population. To get the organisation going without to much
pressure for the Mayor's office I made up a plan involving the various
institutions of the town. You, Detective Vecchio, are my liaison officer
for this precinct. Responsible for catering and entertainment. Expect
that you have to feed about 250 people. Entertainment can be on any scale,
you just have to check with me after you'd made your plan. Deadline is
two days from now." 

Ray was shocked, to say the least. He just turned to his superior and
stammered: "Why me?" Before Welsh could say anything, Marsh answered:
"I picked you out, Detective. Trust me, I can judge people by just looking
at them. Seeing you told me you'd be perfect for this job." 

Ray stormed into the kitchen, warmly greeted by his mother. "Caro, you're
home early..." She caught her breath, when she saw the panic in his eyes.
"Raimondo, what have you got yourself into?" 

Next stop was Fraser's office at the Canadian consulate. Without knocking
he entered and briefed the astonished Mountie about his predicament:
"I've got Mama and Frannie on the catering front. They already started
bleaching the table cloths for the picnic. I need your help for entertainment.
" "Of course I'll help. How important is this? I have to filter through
tons of mail!" "God, Benny, this is Independence Day, the American Holiday!"
"And I thought this was changed since Star Wars came out on May, 19th.
Sorry, just a joke, Ray. What's the budget?" "This isn't the committee
for Presidential elections, Benny."
"I see." It took only two minutes and he came out with his plan: "Basketball
charity match: Canadian Consulate vs. Chicago PD, with the Mayor himself
as the one of the referees. How's that?" And for the first time of the
day Ray smiled.