Pairing: Fraser/Kowalski

Rating: PG-13

Summary:

Quoted from Aerye:

I had this image of Kowalski stranded under a pavilion in the park, and heavy Chicago rain, and Kowalski pacing from corner to corner to corner, like a bright, hard, shiny silver ball in a pinball game. Bing! Bing! Bing!

With her permission and with many thanks to her. Thanks to Nowlive for the quick read through. Apologies to the Cowsills for stealing the title, and if you're old enough to know that reference I know you're smiling. :g:

Disclaimer: I put these on everything. You've got to keep the lawyers happy, eh? For the record, Due South and its characters do not belong to me. No copyright infingement is intented, and I make no money for these stories.

The Rain, The Park and Other Things

A. Kite (July 2004)

Ray Kowalski, soaked to the skin, ran for the shelter of one of the covered pavilions. He'd cut through the park looking for Manny, his favorite snitch. The sky had opened up and poured.

A gust of wind blew the rain in at Ray where he spaced at the edge of the shelter. "Fuck!" He pulled back further and shivered as the breeze hit his wet skin. He didn't know which was worse, Chicago in the winter or Chicago in the summer. Days like today, he wished he and Fraser had stayed up north.

Speaking of Fraser, Ray thought as he pulled out his cell phone. He flipped it open, and the display was blank. It had either gotten wet or the fucking battery was dead again. Piece of shit phone wouldn't hold a charge. Ray resisted the urge to throw the phone against the concrete. Oh, but it was tempting. To smash the damn thing to smithereens would do a lot to lighten his mood.

It'd been a hell of a day, and it was only noon. Ray paced from one side of the pavilion to the other glowering at the sky, looking for a sign of a let up. An early morning call had him up and out looking at a murder scene before the sun came up. He'd left Fraser in bed with a promise of lunch later.

Now that wasn't going to happen because of this fucking rain. Some days it didn't pay to get out of bed. Not that he had wanted to. What kind of nut would want to leave a sleep tousled, naked Mountie to look at a dead body? It was his job or as Fraser would say, his duty, to go and make Chicago a place where good people could tuck their children into bed at night and know they're safe.

Ray rolled his eyes thinking about it and cursed the rain again. Why hadn't he run for the restrooms? At least there was a 50/50 chance of there being paper towels or toilet paper, something he could use to dry out his phone. Not to mention himself. Okay, maybe a 25% chance that anything would be in the restroom but a busted blow dryer. Let's be realistic here, he told himself. This is Chicago after all.

God, he needed a break on this case! If he could find Manny, Manny would know something. Nothing happened in this part of town that Manny didn't know about. He wasn't at any of his usual hangouts. So, Ray cut through the park on his way back to the car and got caught in this deluge. Damn, it was raining hard. Lightening streaked across the sky and the resulting thunder cracked so loudly that Ray flinched.

Ray paced to the other side of the pavilion. Not able to sit down and just chill out until the storm was over. Somebody had killed a 15 year old girl and left her body in a dumpster. Until he caught whoever had done it, he couldn't sit still. He needed to get on the trail before it got stale. If he could just find that no-good Manny, Ray thought as he smacked both hands down on the nearest picnic table and stood leaning over it taking deep breaths trying to keep his cool.

Yeah, cool. It was cool up north even in the summer, at least cool for a native of Chicago. Fraser always said it was quite pleasant in the Territories in the summer. Today settled it in Ray's mind. He was going to tell Fraser that he wanted to go back. He wanted to go home. Chicago wasn't home for him anymore. He could hack it up there. He knew he could, whether Fraser believed it or not.

He'd tell Fraser today. Start the paperwork for immigration, right now. Just as soon as he could get in the car and drive to the consulate. Just as soon as the fucking rain stopped.

End