Invisible

By the Cloudwalker

Fraser and Vecchio

Spoilers for SLIR, VS, P&P

Ray wrapped up the arrests of the antiques dealer and his henchmen, sending them to lock-up in a squad car. The men had been caught red handed, and interrogation could wait until morning. Finally free for the evening, Ray went in search of his friend and unofficial partner. He found Fraser standing near one of the squad cars, just as one of the St. Fortunata students that the Mountie, as his guise of Miss Fraser, had befriended finished her farewells and walked away. As he walked past Fraser toward his car, he asked "You ready?"

"Yes," Fraser replied, joining Ray.

"You know Benny," Ray glanced at Fraser, who had abandoned Miss Fraser's teal dress in favor of his dress uniform, "you weren't a bad looking woman."

"Thank you Ray."

"Of course, you weren't exactly my type, either." Ray was still grinning.

Fraser frowned and asked, "What exactly is your type, Ray?"

"Well, I like a woman who is kind and honest, with a good sense of humor." Ray was grinning broadly now.

Fraser paused mid-step. "Well I don't have those qualities?"

Ray kept walking. "No, no, you do! I just like a woman who is, you know... a woman."

"Well, that's just... picky, Ray," Fraser complained.

Ray opened his car door. "Ah, don't get in a snit."

"Well I'm not," Fraser replied, half in and half out of the passenger seat.

"Well good."

"Well fine."

Ray decided to change the subject. "So, what you are doing after work?" he asked over the car roof.

"Nothing with you," Fraser groused, and slid into the car.

.

"Ooh, you're *so * sensitive," Ray laughed. He got behind the wheel, still laughing at his best friend. The Mountie was sulking.

As they approached the intersection where they should turn left to get to Fraser's West Racine apartment, Ray made a quick decision, and continued on ahead. Fraser glanced swiftly at the cop, so quick that Ray almost missed it, then went back to staring out the window.

After they had traveled another couple of blocks, Fraser finally spoke. "Ray, you missed our turn."

"No I didn't," Ray replied, voice carefully neutral.

"Yes, you did, Ray. If you turn at the next light it won't be too far out of the way to cross the river and take me home."

"That would be true, if I was taking you home, Benny," Ray replied calmly.

Fraser was incredulous. "Are you kidnapping me, Ray?"

"You could say that."

"Where are you taking me?"

"Do kidnappers usually tell their victims where they're going, Benny?"

"Well, no, Ray. I suppose not."

Silence fell. Ray drove smoothly through the early evening traffic. He made one turn, to head due east. After several blocks, Fraser broke the silence.

"Ray, if you keep on this way," he said severely, "we'll end up in Lake Michigan."

Ray smirked, but kept his eyes on the road. "No," he replied. "We'll end up on Navy Pier. Relax," and he looked over at Fraser, smiling genuinely. "I'm taking you to your favorite restaurant for dinner, my treat."

"You don't have to do that, Ray. Besides, you hate Bubba Gump's."

"Ah, hell, Benny. Shrimp is shrimp. So the place doesn't have the ambiance of a fine Italian restaurant. You like it, and that's all that matters."

"But I said I didn't want to do anything with you tonight," Fraser's tone had softened; though he was still complaining.

"Ah, you didn't mean it. We're best friends, right?" At Fraser's nod Ray continued with a one-shouldered shrug, "So who else you gonna spend the evening with? It's not like you got a girlfriend or anything." Ray frowned, and an edge crept into his voice. "You don't, do you? I mean, you'd tell me, right? If you were seeing someone?"

"Yes, Ray, I'd tell you. I won't make that mistake again." An uncomfortable silence fell for a moment, and then Fraser went on, "You'd tell me, too, wouldn't you, Ray?"

"If I had a girlfriend? Nah, I wouldn't tell you, Benny. I wouldn't want you to steal her away from me. Not that I think you would try to," Ray overrode Fraser's attempted protest. "You wouldn't have to. One look at you, and she'd be knocking over Frannie and Elaine to get to you."

"Ray, I don't encourage them," began Fraser, but Ray cut him off.

"I know you don't, Benny. You don't have to. Women flock to you no matter what you do, or don't do." The silence that fell this time lasted until they reached their destination.

Ray drove onto Navy Pier and into the covered garage. Bubba Gump's would validate his ticket for partial payment of the parking fee, which brought the cost of parking on the Pier down to the same as nearby open lots on land. Ray felt better about having his classic Riviera under roof, and he wouldn't have to walk a mile to get back to it after dinner, which made the deal a real bargain in his book. He found a parking space near entrance D into the mall, and they went inside.

Ray's heart felt lighter upon seeing Fraser's glum expression change to one of child-like delight when they stepped from the drab gray parking structure into the bright colors of the Navy Pier shopping mall. He had to lengthen his stride to keep up with the Mountie, who seemed to be trying to look at everything at once.

They passed small shops on their right, selling leather jackets with brightly dyed logos, imported Russian, Chinese, and Indian trinkets, clothing and jewelry. On their left were pushcarts with toys, novelty socks, and New Age jewelry. Behind the pushcarts, the wall was all glass with a view of the lake.

Ray paused to look at possible gifts for his mother and sisters, while Fraser walked on. He had no concern about losing his friend in the crowd, even if Fraser hadn't been in a bright red tunic. Ray knew that Fraser would be stopping, himself, just up ahead.

Sure enough, Ray caught up with the Mountie at a pushcart selling fresh candied nuts. As Ray had known he would be, Fraser was dithering over whether to get the candied pecans, or the cinnamon almonds.

"Ah, go ahead, Benny." Ray said, placing a hand on his friend's shoulder. "Get 'em both."

"Now Ray, what makes you think. . . ." Fraser paused, taking in the smug expression on the cop's face. "Yes, I guess I am rather predictable." Smiling, he turned to the teenage boy working behind the cart. "I'll take a quarter pound of pecans and a quarter pound of almonds, please." He reached into his hat for his money.

The young man handed Fraser his nuts and change, then turned to Ray. "Can I help you, sir?"

"Yeah, gimme a quarter pound of almonds." As Ray paid for his purchase, Fraser said "I'd be happy to share mine with you, Ray."

"Ah, c'mon, Benny. You know a quarter pound isn't enough for you. You're gonna want more later."

"Now, Ray---"

"Okay, I'll give 'em to Dief." Ray smirked, knowing how Fraser would respond to that.

"No, you won't!" the Canadian exclaimed indignantly, then caught Ray's grin, and smiled back. "Thank you, Ray."

"Oh, anytime, Benny," Ray replied airily. He slipped the warm paper cone full of almonds into his jacket pocket. The two walked off, strolling side by side, window shopping and sharing the pecans that Fraser had bought.

As they passed Alamo Flags, Fraser paused. "That reminds me, Ray. Inspector Thatcher wants some new flags for the consulate cars. The old ones are getting a bit shabby. I won't be a minute." He started toward the store's entrance, but Ray grabbed is arm and steered him into the Chicago Store instead.

"Oh, no you don't, Benny. You're off duty. If the Dragon Lady wants flags, let her send you there on Consulate time. Let's see what's new in here, instead."

To Ray's relief, Fraser had been easy to distract from Consular business. The Mountie could be quite stubborn, especially when miffed at Ray for any reason. He must be getting over his pique. Bringing Fraser to Navy Pier had been a good choice to brighten his mood, Ray congratulated himself.

Finding nothing new among the tee shirts, ball caps, key fobs and other items emblazoned with Chicago themed designs, they wandered on down the mall, taking in the colors and activity, and indulging in their favorite pastime: people watching.

Soon, they arrived in front of Bubba Gump's Shrimp House. Ray looked at Fraser inquiringly. "So, you ready to eat, or do we wanna shop some more first?" There was still quite a bit of the mall they hadn't traversed.

"Well, I am hungry, Ray, and there doesn't seem to be a long line right now."

"Okay, eat now, it is." Ray went inside, Fraser on his heels, and gave his name to the hostess.

"There will be about a fifteen minute wait for non-smoking, sir," the pretty young woman told him.

Ray drew breath to reply, but Fraser beat him to it. "That will be fine. Thank you kindly," the Mountie smiled, nodding over Ray's shoulder. They stepped away from the hostess station and found room to sit together on a bench next to shelves full of Bubba Gump souvenirs.

A companionable silence fell between them as they went back to watching the people around them. After a few moments, Fraser leaned his head toward the cop and said, "You know, Ray, you didn't have to do this. I do appreciate it. Thank you."

"Ah, it's nothin', Benny. I mean, I don't know quite how I did it, but I know I hurt your feelings back there, and I wanted to do something to make it up to you, is all."

Before Fraser could answer that, the hostess approached, smiling at Ray. "Mr. Vecchio, your table's ready."

"Thank you," Ray paused, looking at her intently, then continued "Lisa. Lead the way." Ray gave Lisa one of his brightest smiles. She dimpled back, then turned to take them to their table.

Once they were settled with menus in front of them and Lisa had gone to give their drink orders to their waitress, Fraser asked, "Do you know her, Ray?"

"Who? Lisa? No, never saw her before in my life." Ray smirked. "You're not the only one can read a name badge, ya know."

Fraser opened his mouth to reply, but the waitress walking up interrupted. "Hi, I'm Shelly. I'll be your server this evening. Do you gentlemen know what you want yet, or should I give you a few more minutes?"

"Oh, I'm sure Benny knows exactly what he wants, but I'm gonna need a few minutes to look at the menu. Why don't you bring us some bread while we decide, okay, Shelly?"

"One Mama Gump's Garlic Bread Basket, coming right up." She grinned at Ray before turning away toward the kitchen.

Ray smiled back and watched her walk away, admiring how her slim body moved, before turning back to catch a slight frown on Fraser's face. The expression was quickly masked, however.

"What?" Ray asked challengingly.

"What what, Ray?" Fraser was obviously puzzled, his usual polite smile in place now.

"You're still mad at me, aren't you?"

"Why? Because you were obviously admiring that young woman?" Fraser snapped. Then his voice softened. "I'm not angry, Ray."

"So I like to look at pretty girls, so what? Is that it? Are you, I don't know, jealous or somethin'?" He watched in fascination as Fraser's face slowly turned crimson. "I don't believe this!" he teased. "I already said you weren't bad lookin', what more do you want from me?"

"Well, Ray, if you must know, it bothered me that you were unhappy with me for impersonating a woman. I only did it to help you, Ray, since none of the women you knew were available. I did help solve the case, didn't I?" the Mountie pouted.

"Yeah, Benny, I couldn't have done it without you. But I didn't mean---"

"Here's your garlic bread." Shelly interrupted. She set the basket of bread and a couple of serving plates on the table. "Are you ready to order?"

"Benny? Go ahead, anything you want."

Shelly turned to the Mountie expectantly. He quickly picked up his menu and scanned the pages. "Ah, yes. Well, I'll have a Bucket of Boat Trash."

"Okay, and you, sir?" Shelly turned back to Ray.

The cop never picked up his menu. "I'll have the same thing." He really didn't know what he had just ordered, but he was pretty sure it didn't include grubs or furry nightcrawlers. If Fraser could eat it, so could he.

Shelly wrote their orders on her notepad, thanked them, and turned toward the kitchen. This time, Ray carefully did not watch her walk away.

"Look," Ray went back to their earlier conversation. "All I said was that I like women to actually be women. I also like men to be men. I think I spent enough time up north with you to know that you're all man, Benny. When you showed up as Miss Fraser you really surprised me, ya know? How'd you ever think to do that, anyway?"

"You really want to know, Ray?"

"I wouldn't ask if I didn't, Benny."

"Ah. Well, during my RCMP Academy training, at the Depot in Regina, I took an elective class in undercover techniques---"

"You took a class in how to go undercover? You must not have gotten a very good grade. I remember when you tried to go undercover as a used car salesman. You were pathetic. No offense, Benny."

Fraser looked highly offended. "I got the only A+ the instructor ever gave, Ray."

"You? How? I've seen you undercover, remember?"

"Yes," he said wryly. "We had several lectures, and lots of practice work in disguising ourselves, as well as in thinking like criminals, ourselves, in order to mingle with real criminals without giving ourselves away as police officers. I'll admit that my interim grades were below average. I scored high on the theory involved, but not so well on practical application."

"Gee, imagine that," Ray grinned sarcastically, remembering 'Billy Bob' Fraser's attempts to gain information from Tex Markle, though to be fair, it did turn out that Tex wasn't involved in the stolen car scheme.

"Do you want to hear this, or not?" the Mountie groused.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm sorry. Go ahead, Benny. I shouldn't have interrupted," Ray waived one hand airily. Fraser looked doubtful, so he added, "Really. I wanna hear it."

Looking not entirely mollified, Fraser nevertheless continued. "We were given three hours notice of our final exam. The test was simple enough: use the intervening time to disguise ourselves, and meet in the student lounge. Grades would be based on how long it took for the instructor to recognize us."

"Yeah, and?"

"As I said, I hadn't done very well on the practical application during the class, and I very much needed a good grade on the final. I remembered something that Sargent Fisher had said about trying to hide in plain sight. He said similarities beg recognition, but opposites are invisible."

"And the opposite of a man . . . ." Ray smiled, seeing where Fraser was going with this.

". . . Is a woman. Yes, Ray. I went into Regina and bought a wig and a dress, shoes, hose, jewelry, and a large handbag. I slipped into a janitor's closet in the mall and changed into my new clothes, carefully folding my cadet's uniform into the handbag, then went to a cosmetics counter where a very nice young woman gave me a complete make-over."

"Wow, Benny, that's incredible. How did you know to do all that?"

"Simple, Ray. I overheard some of the female cadets talking during the training sessions."

Shelly arrived then with their dinners. Ray was relieved to find that a Bucket of Boat Trash was a combination plate that included shrimp, slipper lobster, and whitefish, served with French fries and coleslaw. Fraser began to eat, seeming to have lost interest in telling his tale.

Ray didn't want to let it end there, however. "Still, I don't think I would ever have thought of trying to hide as a woman," he said, tucking in to his own meal.

"I thought of it as being very similar to camouflage techniques I had learned for hunting, Ray. I didn't want Sargent Fisher seeing me as Cadet Fraser, even when he looked right at me." He shrugged. "It worked admirably well."

"So how long did it take him to figure out it was you?"

"He never did, Ray, until I told him." Fraser paused to eat some of the slipper lobster, his face showing just how much he enjoyed it, before continuing. "I arrived at the student lounge just moments before the doors were locked, and signs put up that read 'Closed for Testing'. My classmates had all takes seats already, some in small groups and some alone. I found a chair near a group of women, well, other women, and set my handbag at my feet."

"Just like when you walked in to the station the other day."

"Yes."

"Were you nervous?"

"At the station? No."

"I meant back then." Ray waived his fork around to indicate the difference.

"Oh. Oh, yes, I was. Very nervous. Our instructor had been trying to guess who we were as we entered, making notes on a clipboard. After he locked the door, he announced that all but one of the cadets had made it to the rendezvous on time, one male cadet, and that as soon as he had determined who it was that had not reported, that man would receive a failing grade."

Ray swallowed hastily. "Wait a minute. I understand why he was short one male cadet, Benny since you were. . . you know. But shouldn't that have given him one too many female cadets?"

"Well, yes, ordinarily you would be right, Ray, but as it turned out, Sylvia Porter had met with an accident before she could carry out the assignment, and was in the Depot's infirmary having a broken leg attended to. She was allowed to complete the exam at a later date."

"That's good. I mean, I'm sorry about her leg and all. So then what happened?"

"You know, Ray, it's really gratifying that you are actually interested in one of my stories." Fraser had both eyebrows raised as he dipped a piece of whitefish in tarter sauce.

"Hey, I'm always interested in you, Benny. Maybe you just don't see it," Ray replied, grinning.

"Ah. Well, after the room was sealed, Sargent Fisher went around trying to guess whom each of was. Some he guessed pretty quickly, others took longer. Every time he passed by me, he would try the name of one of the female cadets he had not yet identified."

"And of course you said no."

"Well, I didn't actually say anything. I was afraid that my voice would give me away, so I just shook my head and tried to smile."

"Ah."

"Yes. So when everyone had been guessed Sargent Fisher came back to me and announced that by process of elimination, I had to be Cadet Porter, and as the last one identified, I would receive the highest grade in the class. He went on to say that the missing cadet must be Fraser, and that he---I--- would fail the class."

"Oh, no, Benny! What did you do?"

"I did my best to disguise my voice, and I asked him if he was quite sure of his reasoning. Of course, the other students had all 'fessed up to their identities, and Porter and Fraser were the only ones left. He said that he was quite sure."

"What'd you do then?" Ray popped the last shrimp into his mouth and pushed this plate away.

Fraser's voice took on the dulcet tones of Miss Fraser. "I told him who I was, Ray. He didn't believe me." Fraser let his voice return to normal. "I had to remove my wig in order to prove who I was. Everyone knew that my short dark hair---"

"Pelt."

"Ray," Fraser admonished, then continued. "My own hair could not possibly be mistaken for Sylvias' long blonde tresses."

Fraser finished his dinner, and began stacking dished neatly, until Ray stopped him. He picked up a dessert menu and seemed to be studying it intently.

"I woulda liked to have been there and seen that. The looks on their faces musta been priceless." Ray was grinning from ear to ear.

Fraser smiled back impishly. "They were quite stunned. As was I. I never expected to be so successful. When Sargent Fisher said that I was the first cadet ever to so completely fool him and so he was giving me an A+, I felt. . .well, I felt good, Ray."

"I should hope so, Benny. You deserved it. So, you gonna order dessert there, or what?"

"Oh no, Ray, I was just looking."

"Well then, you ready to get out of here?"

"Yes, Ray."

Ray paid the check, and the men went back out into the mall. They wandered a bit further, then decided that it was time to head for Fraser's apartment to walk his wolf.

"Could we walk back to the parking garage out on the Pier, Ray? It's not too cold tonight, is it?"

"Nah, it's fine, Benny. There's an exit over there." Ray gestured toward the glass wall. They went out, walking side by side, all differences forgotten. The evening was clear, and stars shone down.