Notes: Written for justbreathe80.
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Ray can't seem to find a job in Canada.
Seems like everything he tries, he's just not cut out for. The first thought he had coming up here was to be a mechanic, because hell, he's good with his hands, right? But there's only so many snowmobiles a guy can fix without going out of his mind. He did deliveries for a while (and wouldn't Vecchio give him an endless ration of shit if he knew that?), but had to call for a tow out of snowbanks one too many times.
He's helped Fraser out on cases, and the Canadian government's pretty good at looking the other way when the Mounties pay him for being an "independent consultant," but who knows how long that will last?
It's not like he needs the money. Fraser, he's never spent an unnecessary penny in his life (Canadian or American), and sure, being a Mountie isn't the best paying job in the world, but they've got more than enough to live a perfectly comfortable life, even way up here in North Moosefuck. But it's the principle of the thing. Because Ray's a Kowalski, like it or not, and Kowalskis don't just wander through life. They've got jobs, things to do, even if they're living in the middle of nowhere Canada.
Right now, Ray's a househusband.
"I'm still looking for a job," he tells Fraser every morning, and Fraser smiles into his mug, and nods, and never makes any comments when he comes home to find Ray burning a steak on the grill.
"Really, Frase," he'll insist as they're sitting down to dinner. "I didn't come up here to be your..." he waves his hand at the wooden walls, "cabin boy or whatever."
"I'm pretty sure that's not what that term means, Ray," Fraser says as he pretends not to notice Ray feeding Dief under the table, and that's their life now.
Guys like Ray don't do this. They don't sit around after dinner and poke the fire in the fireplace with sticks, lamenting the town's lack of marshmellows. They don't spend Saturdays dogsledding out into the middle of nowhere and huddling down into a tent late at night, leaving the flap open so they can see the stars above them.
They don't do a lot of things that Ray does now, but maybe he's not one of those guys anymore.
Maybe he's ok with being a househusband....just for a little while.