Pairing: Benny/Ray V. (Sort of)

Rating: PG-13

Categories: Drama, Episode-Related.

Warnings: Vile Vicky; the complete and utter destruction of a man's soul.

This idea popped into my head in my favorite half-waking, half-sleeping state. I wrote out the whole thing in my head during my daily walk. I sat down tonight at the computer and wrote it in half an hour.

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

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

(c) April 5, 2000

*Ray Vecchio turned up the collar of his coat, trying to stave off the bitter wind. It sliced through the material and into his bones. What did it matter? He was cold all the time now, anyway.

He was being investigated by IA. There was a good chance he was going to prison. And to top it off, he was losing the house.

All because of Benny.

It still hurt, seeing the man he loved chasing after that bitch Victoria and leaping onto the train to be with her. He'd never even looked back at the man he was leaving to hold the bag, his best friend's life shattered like glass at his feet.

He would never forget the look on Welsh's face when he had asked him to turn in his badge and gun. He didn't want the gun now, anyway. It had almost shot Benny.

Man, what a mess. He'd fallen in love with a straight-arrow Mountie who hadn't had a clue as to his best friend's feelings, yet he'd been so lonely and screwed up that he had grabbed in desperation at the sick love that Victoria had held out to him.

All you had to do was turn around, Benny, and know what love was.

But that was over now, and the funny thing was, he wasn't even angry. Maybe later, when he stopped being numb, but right now, he still loved Benny. He probably always would.

How could he not? The man had come into his life, looking for his father's killer, like some fuckin' angel from a church window. Beautiful, crisp, and good in that red dress uniform, and so naive that Ray had immediately felt protective of him. And that protectiveness had grown to love.

He sighed. Benny had gotten him to fall in love with him like he'd been handed a script, for heaven's sake. He'd known all the right buttons to push, like someone who knew him really well had written it. Every move had been choreographed like a ballet dancer. Naive, trusting, crusading for justice while that tongue flicked out over pink lips...

Ray shivered as the wind threw an especially sharp gust at him. All he could do was walk the streets now, night after night. He had no job to go to anymore. And if prison came...he shivered again. A cop in prison could count on the four-letter word 'rape' in his future. Night after night. Among other things.

He was growing desperate. His mother's eyes still haunted him. She and Frannie and Maria were packing up over forty years' worth of accumulated possessions. Some would have to be sold, as what they could fit in Aunt Lucia's house was not much. And they could not expect to stay at his mother's sister's house forever. Aunt Lucia had family there already. But how could they find another place? Tony had no job, and Frannie's didn't pay enough to support them. His job was gone. And if he was convicted of keeping the money from that bank robbery and other dirty dealings, how could they get enough money to pay for another place?

Such a sadness in his mother. His sisters were angry, the children bewildered. He had practically thrown them out in the street for a man who was so bewitched by a woman of darkness that he had betrayed them all.

He had to do something!

As he passed a big house with all the windows lit, he thought of where he could turn, but immediately rejected that idea. He could not crawl on his hands and knees to...

"Ray."

The whisper was soft. He almost hadn't heard it over the howl of the wind. He turned and his suffering eyes widened.

"Benny!"

Joy flooded through him. Benny had come back! He flung himself at the Mountie, laughing and crying at the same time. It didn't matter. None of it mattered. Benny had come back.

He suddenly realized how stiff the Mountie was and drew back. No doubt feeling guilty. Ray could not see Fraser's eyes in the shadowed darkness. The streetlight here was broken.

"Benny, I'm so glad you're back! You got away from the bitch! Now you can tell everyone that you and me were set up!"

"I can't, Ray."

"What do you mean, you can't? Sure you can! Look, we'll go right down to the Precinct now and get those IA bozos on the line and..."

"Ray." Fraser's voice was calm. "I can't do that."

"Why not?"

A small, almost pitying smile touched Fraser's perfect lips. "Did you really think that I was that naive?"

"What?" Confusion clouded Ray's mind.

"Did you really think that I couldn't see the way that things were going from the first moment Victoria got into town? Do you really think that I'm that clueless?"

"You...you were feeling guilty..."

Fraser shook his head. "I have loved Victoria for over ten years."

"Yeah, but she betrayed you! C'mon, Benny, let's not take loyalty and love too far! My family's gonna lose the house, I'm gonna wind up in prison..."

"I know."

A chill went through Ray, then his eyes darkned. "Is that bitch here with you?" he asked in a low, dangerous voice.

"Not yet."

Ray's hand itched for his gun.

"She's still got you wrapped around her little finger."

"She always has, Ray."

"Listen, you can't sacrifice my career and family for...!"

"I can." Fraser's voice was so calm that Ray thought he was hearing things. "You saw what I wanted you to see. She and I were together before that bank robbery. She and I have been together nearly all the years since."

"She was in prison for ten years! You sent her there!"

"She spent a few years in prison, yes, but I managed to get her out. She went deeply underground and we pulled other bank jobs to keep ourselves in the style to which we had become accustomed. It was easy with my inside information. Jolly had the money from the first robbery but we couldn't find him. Still, our years together were lucrative. There is an advantage to being a legend's son. No one ever suspected me of anything. Everyone trusted me. Anyway, we made a deal with the people building the dam in the Territories that was going to net us a lot of money. Then my father found out and was going to expose us. So Gerard had him killed. He arranged for everything, for which I was grateful. I would have felt strange arranging for my own father's murder. But Gerard got greedy. He was going to expose us. Victoria and I had to get him out of the way. And we made sure he knew that if he talked, he would be dead. Yet I was disgraced because I'd turned him in. We were short of funds. Then someone in Chicago contacted us and arranged for me to be sent here to work at the Consulate on a regular basis."

Ray simply stared. This was a dream. No, not a nightmare. His defender of little old ladies and their pocketbooks was standing here telling him that he was a crooked cop? With Vile Vicky, of all people?!

"I was essentially handed a script and told how to act to attract you. It was difficult to follow the whole thing, because that apartment! Did you think I could really live like that? Or be so goody-goody?" Fraser shook his head. "I knew you were falling in love with me. It would have been interesting to go to bed with you, but I wasn't allowed. Pity. Italians are so sensuous. Actually, my benefactor was quite imaginative in how to attract you. More than I'd expected, but it must be in the genes. By the time Victoria was summoned to put our final phase of the plan into motion, I knew you would do anything for me."

Fraser held out his hand and Victoria appeared from the shadows, smiling sweetly as she wrapped herself around Fraser, his arm enclosing her.

"Now, Ben, don't be too hard on Ray," she cooed. "After all, with his help, we found Jolly and the money from the first bank robbery. And we did get a lovely train ride and some diamonds out of it, not to mention our benefactor's payment for services rendered."

"Benny..." Ray said with no voice.

"Ray, meet my benefactor and the person who choreographed every move I made."

The figure who stepped out from the shadows was smiling.

"Hello, Ray."

Ray felt a fist slam into his gut. Oh, god!

"I can save you, you know. Your family won't have to lose the house. You won't have to go to prison. I won't save your job, because I want you to come and work for me. And you'll return to my bed, just like I've always wanted."

Frankie Zuko's smile brightened and the entwined Fraser and Victoria smiled, the Mountie's eyes glittering.

Ray saw the shimmer of a ghostly presence behind Frankie's left shoulder. Great, his father's ghost. This was Hell, then, and he was about to make a deal with the devil's playmate.

Ray felt his soul screaming as the Darkness descended...*