notes/disclaimers
Ray shifted in his seat and sighed. There were days
when he hated being a cop, and today was definitely
one of those days. Being a police officer was
supposed to be rewarding- cleaning up the streets of
Chicago, arresting the bad guys, saving the citizens
from crime. But today it had merely been depressing.
It seemed every person he had encountered today had
been the scum of the earth, each one worse than the
one before. The day had started with a teenager
mugging an elderly woman, in the process knocking her
down and breaking her arm. Then he had arrested a
junkie who had stabbed a jogger in the park for her
walkman.
He had spent most of the afternoon trying to solve a
hit and run case, finally arresting a young man who
had assured Ray that he would never be convicted
because his wealthy father had "connections". The
fact that the kid was right saddened and infuriated
Ray.
But the worst case of all had been his last. He and
Huey had brought a murder suspect in for questioning,
and the man had readily confessed to murdering his
wife.
He had not seemed at all repentant of the crime, just
annoyed that he had been careless enough to get
caught. He had explained, with very little emotion,
that he had killed her because she had a $500,000
insurance policy on her life and he had needed the
money to help save his floundering business.
It was nothing personal, he had explained, but he
couldn't get a loan from a bank, and he had been
desperate. He had then told them, with about as much
emotion as someone discussing last night's baseball
game, how he and his wife had drifted apart in recent
years. While deciding to kill her had been an
agonizing choice, once it was made he had carried out
his plan quickly.
Ray was finishing his notes on that case now, and he
was becoming more and more depressed as he did so.
Ray sighed and closed his notebook. Not only had the
case angered and depressed him, he now had a terrible
headache.
Resting his elbows on the desk, Ray buried his face in
his hands, rubbing his eyes. He looked up at the
sound of his name. Jack Huey was standing next to his
desk.
"I'm going to go home now, Vecchio. The wrap up on
this case can wait until tomorrow."
"Yeah." Ray agreed. He looked at his sometime
partner. "You okay, Huey?"
Ray was worried about him. He knew the case had
affected Jack as much as it had him, and he didn't
like the idea of Huey going home to his empty
apartment.
Before Jack could answer, Elaine walked up to him,
wrapping an arm around Jack's waist. "You ready to
go, hon?" She asked.
Jack smiled at her. "Yes." He then turned his smile
on Ray. "Yes, I am."
Ray watched them go, and felt himself smile for the
first time all day. "Good for you, Jack."
Ray walked through the door of the apartment and
closed it behind him with a weary and grateful sigh.
He paused for a moment. It smelled like dinner was
cooking, and it smelled delicious.
Ben stepped out of the kitchen and hurried over to
him, smiling happily. "Ray!"
"Hey, Benny." Ray said, turning to hang up his coat.
Ben kissed Ray, then gave him a hug. As his arms went
around Ray, Ben was still for a moment, then he began
gently rubbing and massaging Ray's back. "Rough day
at work?" He asked quietly.
"You don't know the half of it."
"What happened?"
"I'd rather not talk about it."
"All right." Ben agreed, continuing to rub Ray's back.
"Dinner smells great, Benny."
Ben pulled away to smile at him. "Thank you. It's
nothing fancy, I'm just heating up the stew from the
other night. I was just about to start the biscuits
when you arrived."
Ray nodded, then frowned slightly. "Hey, Benny, how
did you know I'd be home now?"
Ben looked slightly embarrassed. "I didn't think you
would be this late, and I was getting worried. So I
called the station,and they told me you had just
left."
"Oh." Ray said, the second smile of the day spreading
over his face.
Taking Ray's hand, Ben led him into the kitchen.
"Can I help you, Benny?" Asked Ray.
"No. You can sit down and relax." Ben said, pushing
Ray gently down into a chair.
Ray grinned and sat obediently in the chair, watching
Benny as he poured a glass of lemonade and set it on
the table in front of Ray.
"Thank you, Benny."
Ben nodded. As he watched his lover, Ben's eyes
narrowed, and he walked over to the sink. Reaching
into the cupboard above the sink, Ben pulled out the
bottle of aspirin and shook two of the tablets into
his hand.
Crossing back over to the table, Ben handed the
aspirin to Ray, who smiled gratefully and swallowed
the pills. Ben was still looking at him worriedly,
and he reached out to feel Ray's forehead.
"Benny, I'm okay. It's just a headache."
"Mmm-hmm." Ben said, moving his hand from Ray's
forehead to place the back of his hand against Ray's
cheek.
"Benny, really. It's just tension. I'm okay."
"Okay." Ben said quietly. He ran the back of his
hand lightly over Ray's cheek in a gentle caress, then
crossed back over to the counter to begin mixing the
biscuits.
As he worked, Ben chatted with Ray, talking about
things that mercifully had nothing whatsoever to do
with police work.
Ben finished spooning the last of the biscuits onto
the cookie sheet and slid them into the oven, then
moved to the refrigerator, pulling out the pitcher of
lemonade and refilling Ray's glass.
Giving his lover a smile and a kiss, Ben returned the
pitcher to the refrigerator, then started piling the
dishes in the sink to be washed, humming softly as he
did so.
Ray watched as Ben turned on the water, then stood up
and walked over to his lover, standing behind him and
wrapping his arms around his waist. "Leave those for
now, Benny."
"What?"
Ray removed one arm from Ben's waist and turned off
the water.
"The dishes can wait, Benny." Ray said, before
drawing his lover into a kiss.
THE END