Author: Butterfly Ghost
Title: Tracking Back Home
Fandoms: due South
Characters: Benton Fraser/Ray Kowalski
Rating: Gen
Length: 593

Author's Notes: Although this can stand alone, it is a sequel to desireearmfeldt's lovely Tardiest Explorers I could write a lot more in this universe, but chose to keep it short this time, since desireearmfeldt already wrote a perfect epistolary piece. If you haven't read it, go read. And smile at it's perfection.

Thank you to happy_29 for help with the last line.

Also, of course, inspired by the recent discovery of one of Franklin's ships. As any dueSer knows, this is big news! Massive, people! Let's all join the ficathon!




The airport is teaming with people. Well, of course it is. It’s O’Hare. It’s a world of its own; an alien hive, where the noise never stops and the lights are always shining.

Fraser has been travelling for what feels like – well, approximately sixteen years at this stage. Or fifty-four, depending how far back he tracks his journey. It’s a story that would take too long for even him to tell, wherever he began it.

The first time he arrived at this airport, he took the stairs. Today, he takes the escalator, trying to keep his stance straight, trying not to feel old. Although the seating arrangements got progressively roomier and more comfortable the further south he travelled, and the larger the planes, he has been cramped for too long. His back is on fire.

More security rigmarole to go through this time, of course. The metal detector flashes as he goes through, and he’s pulled to one side. He has to explain his entire medical history (shot in the line of duty, friendly fire, inoperable) to the security guards before they’ll let him through. In the wake of 9/11 the world is understandably a more suspicious place. He suspects that his RCMP badge helped reduce the time they held him, but he’s not sure. He should be grateful they let him through at all, but under the circumstances it is one more irritant that he just doesn’t need. The unexpected delay adds another couple of hours to his journey time. Ray must think he changed his mind at the last minute, and decided not to come.

Fraser sighs. He hasn’t been this afraid in years – and it has nothing to do with the metal detectors, or the armed security guards. What if, when he meets Ray there’s – well – nothing? What if he has made a mistake, a terrible mistake, and his visit will do no more than ruin a boy’s birthday and Christmas in one fell swoop?

Lord. Ray has a son. Fraser still can’t wrap his head around it. What if the boy doesn’t like him?

He shakes his head, silently chastising himself for foolishness. Why is he thinking of worst case scenarios? Fear put him off speaking his mind years ago, and he has regretted it ever since. He took a wrong turn in his journey. Perhaps he can track back, and take the right turn. Perhaps this time it will be different.

Perhaps.

He hefts his solitary satchel to his shoulder. The weight tugs at his lower back, and he winces. He has no idea anymore what time it is. He walks stiffly toward the exits, planning on hailing a cab.

“Fraser!”

He turns at the familiar voice, and feels the smile blossoming all over him.

“Ray!” He walks swiftly toward his friend, forgetting about the pain in his back and his travel-induced exhaustion. Before he knows it, he is engulfed in a hug. He hugs back, squeezes in fact, and Ray’s pounding his shoulders with delight.

“Buddy!” Ray steps back, his whole face radiant, beaming with pleasure as it had done the first time they met. He reaches out, and pats his face, still smiling. “Holy shit, your hair went white.”

Fraser smiles slightly, falling back into the old banter. “Well, you’ve gone grey, Ray.”

“Yeah. But on you it looks good.”

Fraser grins, his cheeks aching from it. “You look good,” he says, a tiny part of him astonished by his boldness, but he grins even harder. He should have said this years ago. “You look amazing.”