The Hours And The Days 7 : Some Enchanted Evening    

(Standard, all-purpose disclaimer) All pre-existing characters are the
property of the creators and producers of "Due South." No copyright
infringement is intended. All new characters and situations are the sole
property and responsibility of the author. 

m/m relationship (again, nothing that needs a rating), some swearing. 

This story refers back to events in part three of this little saga, "High
Noon," so it might help if you've read that one first. It's on the DS
archive, but if you can't find it I'll send a copy to anyone who asks. 

 THE HOURS AND THE DAYS 7: SOME ENCHANTED EVENING 

by Katrina Bowen 

"Ah, yes ... you see here?" 

Frannie glanced down impassively at the blood-red talon tracing its way
down her palm. "What am I supposed to be looking at?" Peering over
Frannie's shoulder, Molly looked down more eagerly. 

The fortune teller tilted Frannie's palm a little. "You've been
disappointed in love ..." 

Molly poked Frannie in the side. "That'll be your ex. Didn't I tell you
she knew her stuff?" Frannie and the fortune teller both ignored her. 

"... But there's a man in your future." The fortune teller looked up into
Frannie's eyes. She went on calmly, "You haven't met him yet, but don't
worry. He'll be along soon, when you're not expecting it." 

Frannie heard Molly take a breath -- probably getting ready to disagree,
ready to tell this stranger that Frannie already knew who the man was --
and she glared up at her friend. Molly shrugged and didn't say anything
after all. 

Still turning Frannie's hand this way and that, the fortune teller went
on. "And a family matter is due for a resolution --" 

That was a little too much. Frannie took her hand back as quickly as she
could without seeming to yank it away. "Really? I'm glad to hear it.
Thanks." 

"If you'd like more insight into your future, we could try the crystal
ball. It's only another five dollars ..." 

Frannie stood up. "No thanks. I think I heard enough already." 

"Very well." The fortune teller reached under the table and handed Frannie
a sign. "Would you mind hanging this on the front of the tent? It's time
for my break." She sat a can of pop on the table and started digging
through her purse. 

"Sure." Frannie gave the sign to Molly and started to follow her out. 

"There's one more thing you should know." Frannie stopped at the entrance
to the tent and turned back. The fortune teller took a few seconds to
carefully open the pop can, and she examined her nails to see if she'd
chipped the polish. She looked up at Frannie and for just a moment, her
professional mask dropped. "He *does* love you, you know ... just not in
the way you want," she said kindly. 

Frannie stared at her. Finally she said, "That doesn't make me feel a
whole lot better." 

"I know." The fortune teller nodded. "But it's the best I can do, I'm
afraid." 

Frannie walked out of the tent. "Come *on*, Frannie!" Molly grabbed her by
the sleeve and pulled her along for a few steps. "So what did she have to
say to you?" she asked urgently. 

Frannie pulled her arm free. "It wasn't important. She didn't know what
she was talking about anyway. I told you all those people are fakes,
didn't I?" 

"Oh, yeah? Well, Gina saw her last night, and she told Gina where to look
for the car keys her boyfriend lost. You call that a fake?" Frannie didn't
answer, and Molly rolled her eyes. "Geez, you've been talking about going
to this carnival since they announced it. Now we're here and you're acting
like it's a funeral. What's the matter with you?" 

"Nothing's wrong. I'm just not in a carnival mood, I guess." She pulled
her jacket a little closer around her, even though the evening air wasn't
that cold. 

"Yeah, I've noticed." The two women stood aside to let a group of kids run
past. When they were gone, Molly turned to Frannie again. "You haven't
been in the mood for anything except sitting around and looking depressed
for a couple weeks. What's going on with you?" 

"Nothing's going on with me." Frannie shrugged herself deeper into her
coat and stared up at the lights strung between the booths. They started
to blur, and she blinked hard to bring them back into focus. 

Molly looked at her. "Frannie, I know how you act when there's nothing
bothering you. Believe me, it's not like this. Just tell me what the
problem is, okay? Whatever it is, you'll feel better if you talk about
it." When Frannie didn't answer, Molly said, "Fine. Don't talk about it.
Come on, let's go check out the rides." 

"Maybe later, okay?" 

"Look, Fran. If you don't want to tell me what's wrong with you, that's
fine. But why should I spend the whole night watching you being miserable?
We're here to have fun, right?" Molly demanded. 

"Well, no one's asking you to stay with me, are they?" Frannie started
wandering down the line of tents and booths; even from a few yards away,
she heard Molly's theatrical sigh as her friend walked in the opposite
direction. Fine. That was fine with her. If Molly wasn't a good enough
friend to bug her into talking about what was wrong, Frannie was better
off on her own anyway. 

It wasn't like Molly would understand anyway. This wasn't the kind of
thing she could talk about with any of her girlfriends. Shit. If she
hadn't spent the past two years telling them all that she'd really found
the man of her dreams this time, if they hadn't kept on giving her ideas
on how to catch Benton's interest, it might be different. Then again, with
her luck, they probably knew by now. Hell, all of Chicago probably knew
about it. Even her own *mother* knew before she had. 

Would it have been that difficult for Ma to say something more -- more
specific? Sure, she'd kept on telling Frannie not to chase Benton, that
things wouldn't work out between them, but that hadn't been much of a
clue. What would have been wrong with "Francesca, cara, give it up. I'm
afraid Benton's in love with your brother"? It would have been blunt, and
it would have hurt like hell ... but she could have stopped making an
idiot of herself, making passes at a man who'd never be interested in her.
She could have gotten out of the whole mess with a little dignity. 

Frannie stopped to lean against a counter at a concession stand and stare
at the passing crowd. She'd halfway expected to spend most of the evening
here while Molly loaded up on cotton candy, anyway. She watched groups and
families and couples, parting and coming together and parting again. The
embarrassment of knowing she'd been an idiot was bad enough, but Frannie
knew she'd get over that in time. She'd done stupid things before and
survived. If Benton was gay, then he was gay and there wasn't a thing she
could do about it. 

What she couldn't live with was Ray never telling her how *he* felt about
Benton. After all the times she poured her heart out to him, all the
alternating misery and hope of being in love with Fraser ... sometimes
he'd been sympathetic, and sometimes he hadn't, but he always seemed to
wind up saying the same thing. "I know how you feel, Frannie." Oh, he'd
known exactly how she felt about the Mountie, didn't he? And Frannie never
figured it out, never put two and two together. Never put Benton and Ray
together. 

Now what was she supposed to do? She loved her brother, and she hadn't
gotten over loving Benton. What, was she supposed to sit down to dinner
with them and pass the vegetables and make conversation like nothing ever
happened? How was she supposed to watch them -- 

Oh, God. Frannie tensed up. There they were, walking along like they had
any right to be there without warning her. Walking along like they'd never
done anything to hurt her. Ray grinned and pointed at something in one of
the booths; Benton looked over, one corner of his mouth quirking up in a
smile, and whatever he said made Ray laugh. Of all the inconsiderate,
self-centered things they could have done ... How *dare* they come here?
It wasn't fair. 

They'd see her in another minute, and there was no way she was going to
talk to either of them. Frannie turned and pushed through the crowd, just
wanting to get out of sight. She hurried in the direction Molly had gone
... maybe she could find her, talk her into going home now. 

Frannie slowed down, defeated. There was no way she could find anyone in
the press of people surrounding her. She knew she was being unreasonable.
She also knew she didn't care. The last thing she wanted to see right now
was Ray being in love with someone she thought would love her someday. 

Frannie came to a stop in front of the beanbag toss. She stood off to one
side, looking through the people playing the game, lost in her own
thoughts. Someone came up behind her and she froze. She knew who it had to
be even before she heard his voice. 

"Hello, Francesca." 

Her first thought was to ignore him. She wanted to walk away without
saying anything, pretend she hadn't heard, let him think she didn't give a
damn. Instead, she turned around. "Hi, Fraser. You here alone?" She'd been
trying for nonchalant, but her voice sounded brittle in her own ears; she
could only imagine how it sounded in his. 

Typically, Ben answered only what she'd asked. "No, I'm with Ray. I asked
him to wait for me at the car ... I didn't tell him that I saw you." 

"You ditched him to come talk to me, huh? It must really be important." 

"Yes, it is." Quietly he added, "I told him I was going to try to bring
him something to surprise him." 

Frannie closed her eyes and concentrated on not letting her face crumble.
"Let me guess. You and I are gonna have a heart to heart talk, and you'll
tell me that you think of me as a sister. Then we'll go back and I'll say
hi to Ray and we'll all be a happy family again. Is that your plan?" She
took a chance and looked at him. He stood there, looking handsome and
miserable and determined. It wasn't fair. 

Ben took a deep breath. "Something like that, yes." 

"Figures," she muttered. It was just like him -- trying his best to make
everything all right for everybody. "When you go back to Ray, just tell
him you didn't win your little game. He doesn't need to know about this,
does he?" She didn't wait for an answer before she turned away. 

"Francesca ..." Ben put a hand on her shoulder to stop her; and Frannie
couldn't make herself shake it off. "Francesca, your mother tells me you
haven't spoken to Ray at all since you found out about the two of us being
..." His voice died off. 

"About the two of you being lovers. You can say it, Ben. I know about it
now, it can't hurt me any more to hear you say it." She wanted to scream
at him, loud enough to bring Ray running so she could scream at him too.
Instead she walked over to the corner of the booth so they could have a
little more privacy. "I just need you to answer one question. How long
were you and Ray ... together before I found out?" 

"Almost seven months." He said it simply, just giving her a piece of
information, like that's all it was. 

"Almost seven months." Frannie nodded. "And how long did you love him
before that?" That was harder for him to answer, and Frannie wasn't in the
mood to give him time to frame it nicely. "It was a lot longer than that,
wasn't it? You wanna know why I'm so mad? I was in love with you, Benton.
I'm not ashamed of that." Her voice started to tremble, but she was beyond
caring. "I told Ray about it, and I damn sure let you know. And you know
what? Even if you didn't want to tell each other how you felt, one of you
should have told *me*. Why didn't you? Even if you'd never love me the way
I wanted, you should have been enough of a friend to tell me what was
going on." 

Ben looked away. "You're right, one of us should have been brave enough to
say something to you. I suppose ... we didn't want to hurt you,
Francesca." 

Frannie pushed her hair back from her forehead and laughed shakily.
"That's great. I hate to tell you this, but I would have been hurt no
matter *when* you told me. Still, I could have coped with this whole mess
a lot better if I'd found out that I never had a chance a year ago, six
months ago, whenever. I wouldn't have spent all this time trying to figure
out what it was about me you didn't like, and what I could do to change
for you." 

Ben took a step forward. He started to reach out to her again, but let his
hand drop. "Francesca, I never wanted to hurt you ... and I know Ray
didn't. He's furious with himself for the way he told you ... he won't
talk about it, but I know how much pain he's in. What happened between me
and Ray ... neither of us was expecting it. It was never about you." 

"Yeah, I know that now." Ben's misery level was clearly going up by the
second, but he didn't show any signs of abandoning his mission. Frannie
rubbed gingerly at her eyes, grateful that she'd decided to go easy on the
eye makeup for once. Geez, even facing her brother would be easier than
having Fraser stand in front of her all night, looking so certain she'd do
the right thing. "Okay. I'll talk to Ray. But I'm not promising anything,
understand?" 

Ben's face split into a huge, relieved smile; Frannie almost turned around
and walked away right then. It just wasn't *fair.* But she fell in step
with him anyway as he led the way to the car, not really listening as he
told her that he understood how hard the whole situation was for her, and
how much Ray needed to speak to her, and a host of other things that she
knew were true but that she still didn't want to hear. 

"Well ... there he is. Do you want me to go with you, or shall I ..." 

Frannie shook her head as she stared across the parking lot. "No. I think
it'll be easier if you don't." 

"Ah. Yes. Well, I'll just -- I'll be back." He walked back to the
carnival; even though she didn't watch him go, Frannie knew he was tossing
anxious glances over his shoulder, and that they were equally divided
between her and Ray. 

Ray was leaning against the Riv, arms folded, facing away from her.
Frannie was grateful for that, at least. She would never have been able to
cross the distance between them if she'd had to do it with him watching
her, trying to act like he wasn't nervous or scared. Not when she knew
perfectly well what he'd be feeling. 

She stopped on the other side of the car; her heart sank as she realized
that she had no idea how to start talking to him again. Well, she should
have known it wasn't going to be easy, and she might as well get it over
with now. "Hey. You doing anything important, or can we talk?" 

Ray stiffened, and for just a second Frannie wasn't sure if he was going
to look at her. But then he did, and that didn't make it a lot better ...
at first he looked as unhappy and as hopeful as Fraser had, but whatever
he saw on Frannie's face made him look away as he tried to react casually.
Damn, it looked like it was going to be as painful as she thought it would
after all. "No, I'm just -- I didn't know you were gonna be here,
Frannie." 

"Me either." She shoved her hands into her pockets and leaned against the
Riv. "Ben saw me ... he thought you and I should talk." In spite of
herself, she smiled. "He doesn't really like to see people fighting, does
he?" 

Ray snorted gently. "Nah. But he's probably watching to make sure we don't
kill each other." There was a long, awkward silence between them; Ray
broke it, saying almost too quietly for Frannie to hear, "I'm sorry." 

"What are you sorry for? You fell in love with him. I can't say I blame
you ..." 

Ray stared down at the Riv, rubbing at a spot of dirt on the hood that
Frannie couldn't see. "I'm sorry for a lot of things. I'm sorry for the
way I told you ... I really blew it." 

"Yeah, I won't argue with you there." Suddenly, Frannie was too tired to
be angry anymore. "Look, I know you probably think I reacted the way I did
because I was jealous of you and Ben." 

Ray shrugged, and risked a quick glance at her. "I know that's not all of
it." He stopped running his fingers over the car and sighed. Folding his
arms, he leaned against his side of the Riv. "I should have told you a
long time ago what was going on, Frannie. I was just ..." 

"You were just what?" Frannie asked softly. "You were afraid I was gonna
freak?" 

"Well, yeah, that too. But I didn't say anything because I was afraid if I
did, I'd lose you. I figured you'd hate me. So I kept on finding really
good reasons why I should keep my mouth shut. And then when I finally did
tell you ..." Ray trailed off. 

Frannie picked up the thought for him. "When you finally told me I blew
up, and you thought I'd never speak to you again." She took a deep breath
and let it out slowly. "Ray, I don't think I've ever felt that -- that
betrayed. It's not about you and Ben being together, I can live with that.
It's knowing that neither of you trusted me to handle it. That hurts a
lot, and I can't pretend it doesn't." 

"Yeah. Frannie, I'm sorry. I don't know what else to say. I just ... I
just want us to get back to how we were before, ya know?" He looked down.
"I know it's probably not enough, but I can't think of anything else to
say but I'm sorry." 

Tilting her head to one side, Frannie considered her brother. To her
surprise, she realized that it *was* enough. "Look, it's getting late. We
can talk about this tomorrow, okay?" 

"Yeah. Sure." Ray nodded. He gestured to the Riv. "You want a ride home? I
can go and find Benny if you want to leave now --" 

Frannie thought about it for a few seconds, then shook her head. "No, I
came with Molly. I'd better try to find her -- if I know her, she'll be by
the concession stand. She's got a serious sugar habit." 

"Okay. I'll see you at home then?" 

"Yeah." She briefly considered walking around to give him a hug, but
decided against it ... that might be a little too much for either of them
right now. "I'll see you later, okay?" Ray just nodded, and that was
enough too. 

She started back towards the carnival. Ben was waiting for her at the
entrance, standing not quite at attention. "Did everything ... well. I
guess I probably shouldn't ask ..." He looked down at the ground,
embarrassed. 

Once again, Frannie found herself smiling. "Ben, it's okay. We're gonna
work things out one way or another. We always do." He still looked
uncertain, so she went on. "Ray and I fight. It's just something you'll
have to get used to, okay?" 

Ben looked searchingly into her eyes, then grinned. "I'll do my best,
Frannie." 

"Good. I came here with a friend, so I'd better try to find her." 

"Oh, would you like me to help you?" He asked the question eagerly and
automatically, and Frannie smiled again. 

"That's okay, Ben, I know where she's going to be. And Ben?" She took a
deep breath and plunged ahead. "I haven't told Ray this yet, but ... I'm
happy for you guys." She walked away without waiting for an answer.
There'd be time for that later. There'd be time for a lot of things now.