The Assignment

Shelly Mumaw

"Ray! Ray, wait up! We have to talk about this!" He was moving away from
her, toward the elevator at the end of the hall.

"Cass, I've made my decision." He kept going, and she followed.

"Ray, please!" Ray stopped short of the elevator and turned to face her.
She wore her standard work clothes: oxford-cloth shirt, blazer, jeans
and boots. Today's shirt was white, blazer navy, jeans blue, and boots
brown. Her chin-length brown hair was cut in layers that framed her face.
She ran her hands through it, shoving back her bangs. It was what she
did when she was frustrated or upset. He felt a pang of guilt for putting
her through this.

"Cass, you heard them. You know what an opportunity this is. And you
know how good this will look on my record."

"Yeah, killed during stupid/dangerous undercover mission which he was
rushed into is always a career booster."

"I am not being rushed into this."

"Yes, you are. They tag-teamed you in there. I've seen them do it a million
times. Look, Ray, I thought you were happy doing what you do, being a
detective."

"I am. I like my job, Cass. I like helping people. But if I can help
bring down a mobster, imagine how many people are going to be helped
by that. This is my job. I want to do this."

"What about Frank Zuko? He knows you."

"Frank won't expose me."

"Why? Because of Ire..."

"Yeah. Besides, I'm taking down his rival. This is only going to help
him." 

"What about your family, Ray?"

"I don't know how they're going to take it, but I know they'll be ok.
They won't understand it, but they'll be ok."

"What about Fraser? You won't be able to tell him. You'll be in place
before he gets back from his vacation."

"I know. I'll call him, try to prepare him somehow. Fraser will be fine."
Ray looked away from her for a moment before asking, "What about you?"

"Me?"

"Yeah, you. We haven't been friends all that long, but you've been a
good one."

"I'll be ok. And I understand about you wanting to do this, sort of.
I just, I'm scared."

"Hey, me too. I mean, some guy I don't even know is going to be pretending
to be me. Doing my job, eating with my family, driving my car." They
both laughed.

"I've met Kowalski. He's a good guy. A good driver, too."

"That's a relief. You will keep an eye on them, won't you? My family,
Benny, the car."

"You know I will."

"Did you mean what you said in there? About being my contact being the
same thing as accessory to murder? Because,..."

"I'll do it, Ray. I'll be your link to everything back here. But you
better understand something. If you get yourself killed, I will never
forgive you." Ray pulled her into a fierce hug.

"I'm coming back. I promise."

"You'd better." They let go and stood looking at each other for a moment.

"I've gotta go talk to my family. I'll drop the Riv off tomorrow morning,
call Benny from my desk."

"I'll be here briefing Kowalski on the finer points of being Ray Vecchio.
Got any tips for him?"

"Yeah, he better take real good care of that car. Do you know how hard
it was to find it after the... tragedy with the first one?"

"I think I heard every excruciating detail when we were stuck in that
warehouse last month."

"I swear that wolf was laughing, no matter what Fraser says." They stared
again, knowing this was good-bye but wanting to prolong it somehow. Cass
knew she was keeping Ray from his family, and she felt selfish. She gave
him another quick, fierce hug.

"Good-bye."

"Cass...bye." They let go and he walked away, into the elevator. She
watched until the doors shut, and then went back into the office. The
two Assistant District Attorneys broke off their conversation and stared.

"Cassie..."

"All right. I'll do it. But I'm warning you both now, if anything bad
happens to Ray Vecchio because of this assignment, I will hold you both
responsible."

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