Fic: The Rubber Band 1/1 Due South
Title: The Rubber Band. By: Lopaka Tanu Disclaimer: I do not own Due South Fandom: Due South Summary: "Tis the Gift to be Simple, Tis the Gift to be Free." Rating: Gen Pairing: Rayk/Fraser Author's Note: What symbolizes true love to you?
Okay, here's the deal. I'm a cop, a gay cop, a gay cop who is in love with his partner, a gay cop who is in love with his partner, who just so happens to be a Canadian Mountie. How appropriate. If you went by the name, you would have a whole government sanctioned group of sexually submissive people. So I am getting side tracked, it is easy with a man like Benton Fraser.
Ole Blue Eyes himself. Pale blue, like the sky in the winter over the lake. God, I got it bad. That man's eyes could make you feel like the world is yours alone or you are the lowest form of scum on the Earth. Every time he looks at me, I have to force my body to breathe again. Yeah, real bad.
As I am sure you can imagine, this has presented us with many problems. For starters, we are both cops. It's not like you can't be gay and a cop, but there is an unspoken rule among most of them. Next is the simple fact this guy is as pure as the driven snow. This man makes Bambi look like Snively Whiplash. Oh don't give me that, you know who he is, handle bar mustache, has the dog with the weird laugh, drives the evil car in those cartoon races. Anyway! Above all others, I can't tell him.
Why, you ask? Well, aside from being pure as the driven snow, he's also as straight as an arrow. He's an A-1 heterosexual, all Canadian Hunky Beef Cake that I can't even touch. Maybe just a little, but any more and he gets suspicious.
Now on to the next burning question. Why do I do it? Why stick around? I am in love, doesn't that mean somethin to you people? And some where deep down inside, probably around his kidneys, he loves me too.
Well, how do I know?
Simple, he gave me a rubber band.
Hey, what's with the silence? What, you think I'm nuts? Not smart enough to recognize love? Too bad, I'll prove to you, I know love. I have it with my partner.
This morning was a mess. The Lieu was goin on about how we needed to finish the Wilson case in a hurry, how we should have already done it. Frannie was scratchin and bitin at the duck brothers who were tryin to be annoying with everyone. And I was bouncin around from desk to desk.
By the time I got back to my desk, I had completely forgotten what I was lookin for. It didn't matter, for in that moment, Lieu sunk his claws into me. He was way pissed that I had not handed in my report yet. I told him that I couldn't remember why, but it was important. The only thing that saved him from ripping me a new one, was the fact that he knew I wasn't jerkin his chain. He said I had fifteen minutes because that was when the representative from the DA's office was coming.
That made me swallow and pray that they weren't cruel enough to send her. He just looked at me, and walked off. I knew then and there I wouldn't have what I needed to finish the report in time.
The next fifteen minutes went by in a blur as I looked over the report trying to figure out what it was that it was missing. All the evidence was there, the police statements, the reports of the first officers on the scene. Everything, including witness testimony and signed affidavits. So what the hell was missing.
When I heard Lieu clear his throat, I looked up. The neutral set of his face let me know that the Assistant DA had arrived, and she wanted her report. I nodded and stood, taking the report with me. Damn thing was so big, and my shaking from the prospect of seeing her again, made it start to fall from my hand.
That was when super Mountie slides in, literally, and catches before I drop it completely. He handed me back the report. I stared at it, barely comprehending what had just happened. "Here, Ray, I think you might need this." I looked at his hands and enlightenment dawned on me. He handed me a rubber band. The very damn thing I had been looking for, so that this wouldn't have happened.
I looked into his eyes, grateful for his thoughtfulness, and froze. I just stood there looking into those pale blue eyes, and everything else just stopped mattering. Not Stella, not the Wilson case, not even the busy station around us, nothing mattered but him. I knew that he was there to help me, always would be no matter what. Not because it was his job, or because he was taught to, but because he wanted to.
Of course the moment was shattered by Stella yelling for her report. I smiled at Frase, mumbled a "Thanks, Frase," then wrapped the rubber band around the report. Sticking my hand out with the report, I didn't move from Frase's side. When it was jerked from me by those vicious red claws, I didn't even acknowledge her existence. I just stared at Frase, who was doing enough blushing and stammering for the both of us.
I decided to rescue my Super Mountie from his personal Kryptonite, any woman, and walked out dragging him along. "See ya, Ms. Kowalski, Lieu, gotta stake out to go to." Of course that made her shut up, and the Lieu start to laugh. I think he will be calling me later about somethin he has been hinting at for the past year between Frase and me. This time I will be able to answer his questions.
So there you have it. True love. Not what you were expecting, was it? What? You didn't see it? Do I have to spell it out for you?
Frase loves me, else he wouldn't have put his ass on the line for me like that. I know, when Hewey or Duey get in trouble like that, and he could potentially stop it, he won't. He'll politely look uncomfortable, but he won't save them from themselves. He won't with Turnbull either. So, he must love me in some small way, cause he is always doin that. Handin over a paper clip, a rubber band, even a tissue when I need to clean the glasses. It's like he can tell what I need before I need it. You don't develop that kinda personal attachment without deep feelins.
Still lookin at me like I've gone nuts. Well maybe I have. Maybe it is all in my head. Like Frase cares enough about me to be there when I need him, maybe it is just his freak ways. Who knows, but until anything is for certain, I'll keep believin he loves me. Besides, what do you know, you're just a bathroom mirror.
I knock on the bathroom door. Ray has been in there for an excessive amount of time which makes me worry. "Are you all right in there, Ray?"
"I haven't fallen in, if that's what ya mean."
"I do not."
"Oh, okay, then sure, I'm fine, never better. I'll be out in just a sec."
"Okay, I will be waiting in my office."
"Sure, Frase, I'll see ya there."
Thinking of my office reminds me I need something from it. At a brisk pace I make it back to my office and open up my personal cabinet with the key. Inside I know exactly where to reach for this. Of course not everything goes according to plan as I knock over something else I have in there reaching for it. As it falls out along with what I was reaching for, Ray picks this untimely moment for his arrival. I will not blush and say 'oh dear', I will not!
"Hey, let me give you a hand."
"Oh dear." Damn! I know, it is impolite to even think it, but, I have just done exactly what I told myself I wouldn't. But there are extenuating circumstances. Ray has seen what I dropped, and has bent over, right in front of me. Something about Americans and their inability to bend down properly makes him bend at the waist instead the knees as he should. I know I shouldn't look, but it is too much temptation even for one such as myself to resist. "Thank you, Ray." And I am a bad Mountie for that had nothing to do with him picking up my boxes of rubber bands and paper clips.
He looks at me with a slightly tilted head to the right, and a lopsided grin. Examining the boxes, he looks between them and me. After a moment, a brilliant smile brakes over his face and I smile back. "Here ya go, Frase, and yer welcome." I feel relief as he hands me the boxes and turns for the door. I can not stop myself from watching him strut to the door. I look up as he pauses, then blush as he winks at me. "Any time, Frase."
"Indeed," I find my traitorous mouth agreeing before I put the boxes away. In a sudden relapse of memory, I grab the necessary rubber band to restock the Ray Supplies in my hat. Closing the cabinet door, I smile to the picture of him and me on it, then shut and lock it. I feel slightly giddy leaving my office as I remember he and I have a stake out tonight. I do not know why, I just do. Perhaps it will come to me as I sit and watch Ray... I mean the crime scene, tonight.