This story takes up where the story "What the Night Revealed"
by Renny Ramos left off.  It is with her gracious permission...and
encouragement...that I have finally finished it...and am working up the
courage to post it.  It is my first DS story...and my first slash...so
please be gentle.  I would encourage you to read Renny's story first...it's
on Hexwood.  And of course...the characters are not mine...they belong
to Alliance...etc.

...and
the night brings truth 

by  KMC                                             

The sound of weeping filled the darkened room as Ray Vecchio held his
friend in his arms and wept with him.

Though it had only been two years, Ray had come to feel that he knew
Fraser better than anyone on earth.  God knows they had managed to cram
a lifetime of friendship...and pain...into that short time together.
Pain, and the experiences that caused it, which would have torn any other
two people apart, had bound them closer together.

The tears Ray cried were both for his friend and for himself.  For the
times they had stood back to back...two against the world.  For the times
when they had believed in each other...when no one else had.  For the
times they had hurt each other...when the wounds had run so deep that
there seemed no way for them to heal...still they had always managed
to find their way back to one another.

What seemed both strange...and ironical... to Ray, was that the times
that they had hurt each other the most were the times that each had turned
aside to reach for love.  Benny and the nightmare that was Victoria...and
Ray and the tragedy that had been Irene.  "Benny" he whispered,
"Benny caro, it's alright.  It'll be alright."  Ray mentally
winced at the banal words that he used to try to break through the walls
his friend had erected around his heart.  Walls that were a mirror image
of his own.

As his own tears subsided Ray wrapped himself even more tightly around
his friend,  hoping that the sheer sense of his physical presence would
somehow reach through the barricades that pain had formed around him,
and give him comfort.  Ray knew that for most of his life Benny had been
virtually starved for simple human affection...for the loving words and
kisses, hugs and caresses that Ray himself had always taken for granted.

Time stood still for the two in the dark room,  as Ray held his friend
close, gently combing his fingers through Benny's soft hair,  then running
his hand down to slowly caress his back.  

As Benny's tears subsided Ray felt him stirring in his arms, and he found
himself holding his breath as Benny slowly turned his face up to look
at him.  Ray felt his heart start to pound in his chest as he saw that
his friend's beautiful eyes were filled with pain and loneliness and
a desperate need...a need Ray knew that he would fill, no matter what
the cost. 

With gentle fingers Ray tenderly caressed Benny's face, brushing away
tears of pain and loneliness.  "Ray?" A word, a plea, spoken
in a voice made rough by grief and the tears Ray so desperately wanted
to wipe away...from Benny's face, from his heart, from his soul.  Blue
eyes gone dark with a strange, hungry yearning,  pale skin flushed with
emotion, nervous tongue darting out to moisten dry parted lips...it was
too much, far too much to bear. 

As his mouth descended on Benny's, Ray's soul sent out a prayer to anyone
who might be listening, a plea that their friendship would survive a
night of passion.  Benny's only prayer was a  silent thanksgiving.