Title: Time to heal

Author: Adalisa

Feedback: I love it. It's inspiring... and let's face it, it's the only real reason to keep writing.

Distribution: My site, the Closet site, Ray/Ray site. Anywhere else, just ask. I won't say no.

Summary: A/U. What if Benny had gone with Victoria, and Ray had never gone undercover.

Rating: PG-13

Disclaimer: Everyone here is property of Alliance, and I believe, TNT. I'm not writing this to get any money. Really.

Content: RV/RK

Spoilers: Victoria Secret pt1 and 2.

By Adalisa Zárate.

Detective Raymond Vecchio was standing in the middle of the train platform, in the same spot he had been four months before, the same spot where he stood every week since that day.

He still could remember how cold the air had been in that night, how freezing it had been to see Victoria holding out her hand, the split second in which he thought he had seen a gun in her hand, the instant when he almost shoot, when Fraser jumped into the train to be with her... The moment when his best friend left him for the woman who almost destroyed their lives.

Leaving him to pick up the pieces.

Internal Affairs had been close to arrest Ray, but between Lt. Welsh and the boys at the Precinct he had managed to prove his innocence and keep his badge. Since Victoria's gun never appeared, his story about Fraser being held hostage was believed, and thus, the fine was returned to him. He could pay his house's mortgage. But that didn't ease his pain.

Ray knew the truth.

He hadn't seen a gun in Victoria's hand, and Fraser's life hadn't been in danger. That was the lie that Ray had created in order to protect his friend. The truth was that Fraser knew that Ray had put his head under the sword... and hadn't care.

That was what hurt him the most. That his friend, his best friend, for whom he had been ready to threw everything aside, had betrayed him. And Ray couldn't hate Fraser for it. So instead, every Friday he returned to the station, stood in the same spot where he had seen Fraser for the last time, and saw how the trains came in and out, wondering if things could have been different somehow.

* * *

Detective Raymond Kowalski was watching his partner from a safe distance. He had been transferred to the 27th Precinct a couple of months ago, as part of a new policy that insisted that detectives had to work in teams. Since he was an odd number in his Precinct, and needed to put some distance between him and his soon-to-be-ex-wife, Ray had asked to be transferred to wherever he was needed. And somehow had ended up paired with Detective Raymond Vecchio, who happened to be one of Ray's personal heroes. He had collected all the obscure newspaper clippings about Vecchio and his work with some crazed Canadian guy.

Only that so far, Ray hadn't seen any Canadian near Vecchio... and Vecchio wasn't exactly the most open person to work with. He barely spoke to Ray, only doing so if it was unavoidable, seemed to be always gloom and depressed and in the whole hadn't made much to make Ray feel welcome. That had infuriated Ray to no end. But he had put up with Vecchio's attitude for simple reasons: Everybody in the Precinct seemed to think that Vecchio was, even if slightly annoying, a good cop and partner... and Ray's own admiration towards the silent Italian cop.

But it was not only that. There was Dief, a beautiful white wolf that followed Vecchio everywhere and seemed endlessly fond of junk food. Ray had been scared at first of such a dangerous animal loose in the streets, but Vecchio had assured him in short sentences that Dief wasn't dangerous at all. For some reason, Vecchio was completely different around the wolf. Vecchio talked fondly with Dief, always talking to him in the face, as if the animal was a person. He joked with the wolf, and shared his food with him... and more importantly... Vecchio smiled to the wolf. It was as if Kowalski was seeing two different men.

And then there was the fact that every Friday at 6:00 p.m., Vecchio would disappear. It didn't matter if they were working in a difficult case, an important stake-out, or simply in the office. For four hours, Vecchio was impossible to find. Calling him to his cellphone was useless, because the Italian man never answered the phone anyway. So Kowalski had decided to try and follow his inaccessible partner one day. That had been three weeks ago, and now, every Friday Ray would find himself following Vecchio, trying to stay unseen by the other cop. Because that first time, he had seen another Ray Vecchio. One that wasn't the cold, guarded cop at the station, or the warm man who took care of Dief. Standing there, in the middle of the station, Vecchio seemed lost, heart-broken. His green eyes, which always seemed shadowed and dead, sparkled full of emotion, sadness and hope mixing in the emerald pools.

Now, Ray only followed Vecchio because he wanted to find out who was Vecchio waiting for, who had hurt such a complex man so much.

* * *

They were sitting in the Riviera, during a stake out, when Kowalski first knew about Fraser.

The case was apparently simple, a man who was suspect of an insurance fraud had been captured a week ago. However, he had insisted that the one who had planned and carried on with it had been his secretary. Kowalski didn't believed that, but after ten minutes of a private talk with Vecchio, Lt. Welsh had accepted that the case wouldn't close until they found the secretary. That had lead to Ray and Ray sitting in the Riv for a week, under the cold Chicago weather.

"Why are we doing this?" Kowalski asked, hoping that his silent partner would have at least the decency of answering.

"Because he might be innocent." Vecchio didn't took his eyes off the building. It seemed to Kowalski that, even when he was answering his questions, the Italian cop was not really aware of Kowalski's presence in his car. "She might be the one who planned all this... She might have forced him to do it."

"C'mon, Vecchio! You can't believe that! We have all the proof against him! It's impossible that she had done all the money disappear without leaving at least fingerprints."

"Victoria did." Vecchio turned to see Kowalski for one moment, and when Ray Kowalski saw those green eyes so full of hate and remorse, he felt his heart break. "You must have read about that when you got transferred. She managed to incriminate me and Fraser in a robbery and a murder. That's why IA has been over my back for the past months. If Victoria could incriminate Canada's most honest Mountie, then this girl could have easily pulled the same stunt in a lowlife like Andrews." Kowalsky didn't answer. He didn't know what kind of answer he could give Vecchio. The only thing that went to his mind in that moment was that his partner had been deeply hurt by that woman, that he had never seen his eyes gleam with so much emotion as they had when he mentioned Fraser's name.

Perhaps it was time to do some investigation by himself.

* * *

Two days later, Kowalski felt even worse. In his free time he had redone all the research that he already had on Vecchio, this time going past the simple 'and they made an arrest' that he originally had, to the details, the little things, the photographs.

Most of them showing Ray Vecchio smiling to a man who looked like a model or a t.v. star. Blue Eyes, sincere face. Red uniform. If Ray K. hadn't been already so enthralled by Vecchio's personality, he might have begun wondered where the Mountie had been all his life. But after reading carefully the reports and notes of the cases in which Vecchio and said Mountie had been together, that quick mental image vanished. Apparently, the Canadian had dragged Vecchio to all the cases they had been involved, and there had always been a great risk for Vecchio in it. At least once he had almost drown and in other case, he had almost died from hypothermia.

But that was not the worst of it.

The worst of it was that in every picture, in every description of the Mountie written by Vecchio, Ray could read the underlying love, admiration and loyalty that Vecchio felt towards the Canadian. Why, if not, had Vecchio sacrificed his beloved car to save the Canadian's life? And then, there was the Metcalf case.

According to the notes and the report, Victoria Metcalf was a Canadian convict who had been captured by Contestable Benton Fraser after the robbery of a bank. She had been out of Fraser's life for ten years, until she meet him in Chicago, after faking her own death. Then she had manipulated the Mountie into helping her to steal diamonds, all the while Vecchio tried to find proof against her.

The short version of it had been Fraser charged with the murder of Jolly, Victoria's former paramour, and Vecchio had backed him up, to get him out of jail. Then, with Vecchio's house as mortgage, Fraser had escaped with the Metcalf bitch.

Case closed.

Then why Kowalsky was so sure that Ray Vecchio had not closed it?

That every time he went to the Train station was to see if the damn Mountie returned?

And why that made Kowalski wish that he could punch that Mountie back to Canada?

* * *

It was Friday afternoon again, but this time Kowalski was not following Vecchio. He wanted to, but they were still on skate-out, still trying to figure out if Andrews was innocent.

What was worst, it seemed that way. Maybe Vecchio had been right. So instead of playing vigilante to his crush, to make sure that Vecchio would have another Friday without being more hurt, he had to do his real job. Maybe if they wrapped everything up and Vecchio's theory was right, IA would finally leave the Italian detective alone.

But then he heard the soft whisper from the bug that they had planted in Andrew's office, that small illusion shattered.

'I'm going out now... There's only one cop and I can loose him easily...' Andrew's was saying to someone in the phone. 'No... no, sweetie, they don't suspect anything... Just as you said, they believed that I was innocent after you disappeared... Yes... yes... Uh-hu... Easy street, babe. I'll be with you when it goes off.'

Then the communication was cut. Kowalski felt his blood boil with rage. So, after all, Andrew had been the one who had planned the fraud and his secretary... his secretary had been on it too.

Just to make everything worst, their crime had also opened a very sore wound in Ray's partner... a man Ray had begun to love.

Now _that_ was something that the very irascible Ray Kowalski was not going to let go.

He waited silently behind the wheel of his black GMR, thanking whoever who cared to listen that he was not with Vecchio in the green Riviera. It was a good car, yeah, but a car that would never support a real chase. Then when Andrew came out, he tried to follow him silently.

To his bad luck, the man spotted him, and they ended up in a real chase, breaking more laws than the ones Kowalski actually remembered by heart. In a successive run of rude turns, almost impossible cuts and the briefest second taken to call for reinforcements, they arrived to the train station...

Where Ray was sure that his partner would be there, waiting for a passenger that was not going to show up.

He almost tripped over a woman when he saw Andrews and his secretary near the lockers, grabbing two big bags with them. So they really planned to elope. But then she looked over and saw him, shrieking, so Andrews looked up too... Soon they were again in a chase, this time over the train platform.

He was running as fast as he could, knowing that it couldn't be fast enough, when he caught sight of Vecchio, standing in his usual place, looking at the train that was getting ready to go.

Without a second thought, Ray yelled at his partner. "RAY! It's Andrews and his secretary! You've got to help me!"

Green eyes shoot up, and for a moment, Ray was not sure what would Vecchio reaction be.

He prayed that it would be the right one, that he would not lead his too sensitive partner into shock.

Because he knew that it was a very familiar and painful memory for Vecchio.

* * *

Ray heard that someone called him and immediately lifted his head to the sound. It was not Benny's voice, even when it was the only voice he wanted to hear right now. It was Kowalski's.

His first thought was to ask himself what the hell was Kowalski doing there.

His second thought fled his mind as he saw his blonde partner chasing after Andrews and his secretary, through the station, right into the train platform where he had seen Fraser for the last time.

The woman jumped to the train as it began moving, but she was straining her hand to reach for Andrew's hand.

Andrew was trying to reach her, as Kowalski was closing in.

Then, the woman lowered her hand, and Ray could see something that glinted in her hand.

"RAY! SHE HAS A GUN!!" Kowalski yelled "I CAN TAKE ANDREWS, SHOOT HER!!"

* * *

Ray was not sure if his partner had heard him. He wished that he had heard him, but there was no time to check. He had to catch Andrew, and not worry that his girlfriend could shoot him.

He had to trust Vecchio.

* * *

The woman's hand began to shake, as the train was moving faster, still inside the station.

There was a gun. Ray was positive of it. And Kowalski had said so too.

He only had to shoot at it, make her drop it. Maybe it would be enough to make her loose her balance, and fall to the platform.

That would stop her.

That would have stopped Victoria...

If Victoria had had a gun.

And if he didn't act now, another woman who had done almost the same as Victoria had would escape free...

And she would kill his partner while doing so.

With almost the speed of thought, Ray began running, pulling out his gun. There was no time to yell, there was no time to warn anyone. He only had one shoot before the train led the woman away.

One shoot to make everything all right.

* * *

Ray heard the shoot at the same time he jumped and tackled Andrew to the floor. He didn't had to check himself for wounds, as he knew who had shoot, and where the bullet had found it's mark. A few meters in front of him, Andrew's girlfriend was trying to regain her feet, as she had fell from the train when the bullet had hit her weapon.

They had got their arrest.

Together.

Ray Vecchio and Ray Kowalski. Ray Kowalski and Ray Vecchio.

The order didn't really mattered.

What mattered was if his partner was all right, after having to revive a very personal nightmare.

* * *

A week later, both detectives were sitting in the green Riviera, as they had finished their turns and Vecchio had offered Kowalski a ride. It was the first week in almost seven months that he had not gone to the train station, and Vecchio was feeling a little nervous, a little out of place.

After Andrew and his secretary had been secured in the Precinct, Kowalski had offered Vecchio a ride, not wanting his partner to roam alone in the streets after what had happened. For a long time they both stayed silent inside Kowalski's car. But when they reached Vecchio's house, the Italian detective broke down. He cried and told Kowalski everything about Fraser, about their friendship, about the hurt he had felt when Fraser left with Metcalf. And Kowalski did the only thing he could. He held his partner in the safety of the darkness that enveloped his car, and waited until Vecchio was ready to go out. He never say a thing, knowing that he couldn't make a judgment on the situation. After all, he hadn't been there.

Not to mention that his love for Ray Vecchio would make any comment he made about Fraser to be tinted with jealousy.

But that was in the past, and now perhaps it was time to let it go.

"Hey, Ray..." Vecchio began. It was the first time he called his partner by his first name, usually preferring to call him 'Stan' or 'Kowalski' "Why don't we go and get some pizza?"

Kowalski smile could have lit up Chicago. "Sure, Ray. Sounds great." For Detective Ray Vecchio, after six months in the darkness, it was finally time to heal.

The End.

--

Adalisa

-Obi Wan and Darth Maul Rule!

(WhiteKnight's own Dama de los AU)