Pairing: Benny/Ray V.

Categories: Drama, Episode-Related.

Rating: PG-13 for violence.

Warning: Violence, Vicious Vicky, Death.

Comments welcome off and on-list. E-mail: jeanniemarie@sprintmail.com.

Disclaimer: I don't own 'em, Alliance does, more's the pity.

(c) May 11, 2000

*Dying, in the light.

Choked and watching the blood run scarlet in the snow. Why? Red tunic sliced to ribbons, fair skin stretching over bones as the snow falls.

Am I in a snow globe? Tossed and turned upside-down and all around? Why am I...?

I see her. She is coming through the snow. No, stalking through it. My heart beats a mile a minute. She holds out her hand and smiles. I can smell her perfume on the cold, night air.

"Come with me, Ben." She tosses her head and her dark eyes sparkle. "You're going to regret it if you don't."

I can feel my soul starting to leave me, sucked toward a darkness that I cannot fight. I reach out with a shaking hand, my world starting to go dark...

"Nooo!!!"

The sound pierces the cold, skewering me with its anguish. She turns and scowls with pure venom.

"Go away," she spits out, her hair blowing in her face.

"Never!" A familiar, beloved voice. He chuffs through the snow, his green eyes desperate and frightened. "Benny, don't go with her! She'll eat your soul and then throw your lifeless husk away!"

I look at him: so fine, so graceful, so elegant. He is wearing that long coat and his eyes are glowing. My heart flutters.

"You...love me." I say it with wonder, unable to grasp it. Ray Vecchio loves *me*, Benton Fraser!

"Yes!" Green eyes blaze with warmth and love as he looks at me. "I always have, Benny."

Victoria laughs, a very unpleasant sound. "How nice." She bites off the words like breaking icicles from a roof. "Your skinny Italian loves you."

"He's slender."

"What?" She pierces me with black-souled eyes.

"I said, he's slender."

She looks incredulous, then her eyes take on a crafty look that makes me shudder. Her smile is so sickly-sweet that I am nauseous. She reaches into her the long folds of her coat and draws out a gun. Before I can move my frozen limbs she aims and fires.

Blood blossoms out like a dying rose.

My throat is raw as I scream my loved one's name. I dig through the snow to reach him, my arms lifting his torn body. He looks at me with brilliant emerald eyes. His shaky fingers reach up to touch my cheek and a small smile plays around those delicious lips.

"I love you, Benny."

Ray closes his eyes, slumping in my grasp. My heart freezes in that instant as I throw my head back and howl.

It's done. I've gotten rid of that interfering American. How *dare* he threaten me with his Italian macho words: *"Listen, you hurt him and I'll kill ya."* Honey, it wasn't *you* doing the killing, was it? Now Ben is mine, the poor dear. I'll bring him to my cabin, and once the shock's worn off, he'll perform for me under the furs like he did under the sheets in that dreadful little apartment of his in Chicago.

I turn with my hand outstretched, ready to take him away.

My heart stops.

The snarling beast springs for my throat!

The snow swirls as the wind howls, the echoes of screams snatched away. The snow is soaked through with scarlet, torn flesh scattered as ice begins to form. Madness rocks back and forth, dying in the light.

Don't wolves and Mounties mate for life?