24 April 2013 @ 07:11 pm
For Ray  
The day had started out ordinary enough.

Asher had woken up first, and he had half a mind to wake Ray up, too. He doubted the other man would have protested too much at the method he'd have used to wake him, but he eventually decided against it, allowing him to continue sleeping in the end. Had he not, it would have otherwise been a lot more difficult to get any actual work done that morning.

He left a kiss on Ray's shoulder before sliding out of bed (it was a lot easier to be affectionate when the other party was more or less unconscious), and quietly went about pulling on his clothing. He would have preferred staying in bed himself, but the damn horses weren't going to feed and water themselves, no matter how hard he wished it.

He slipped out soundless when he was through, shutting the door behind him.

Maybe the lack of a herd of excited, barking dogs running to greet him should have been a clue that something was amiss. Instead, Asher just took it as a sign to hurry the fuck up and get out of there before they spotted him. It was a short-lived thought, though, as Asher only made it a few steps from the hut before spying Mr. Waffles' tail swaying on the other side of the hot tub before the dog sprung up, resting his front paws on the edge of the tub and peeking in, whimpering.

"Hey!" Asher called, whistling when that didn't automatically get the dog's attention.

Still nothing.

Maybe he'd inherited his father's 'deafness', Asher thought as he trudged over. Once close enough, though, he thought maybe he'd inherited the police dog skills instead.

It took a lot to startle a five-hundred year old vampire, but finding a corpse in his hot tub would apparently do it. Being more or less desensitize by that sort of thing, it was really just the shock of finding one there that rattled him, not the body itself. His initial ideal of how it might have gotten there didn't help, either.

"Holy fuck," Asher muttered under his breath. "Fuck, fuck, fuck," he continued to repeat back to the hut, through the door and for a moment as he paced by the foot of the bed.

So much for letting Ray sleep in. Maybe he should have given him that blow job first after all.

"Vecchio?"
 
 
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Ray Vecchio[personal profile] speakscanadian on April 25th, 2013 09:38 pm (UTC)
Ray always woke up a little bit when Asher got up but he had quickly fallen back into a comfortable slumber soon after the other man had left the hut.

He was on vacation, dammit. Early mornings didn't factor into his schedule at all, so why was Asher insisting he rise and shine?

Instead of replying, he stretched out across the width of the bed, moaning in the back of his throat, still more asleep than not. When he was done, he sunk back into silence, now curled up on Asher's side of the bed.
asher_talos[personal profile] asher_talos on April 25th, 2013 10:37 pm (UTC)
"Wake up, Vecchio," he said, yanking the sheets away from him. His pillow would be the next thing to go, then the mattress if it came down to that.

"Now. Up."
Ray Vecchio[personal profile] speakscanadian on April 25th, 2013 10:41 pm (UTC)
"Heeey!" It was sleep-tired and lacked any punch but it adequately expressed his dissatisfaction with Asher's tactics. This was definitely not one of Ray's favorite ways of being woken up by him.

"Where's the fire?" He eventually asked, peeling his eyes open. Had he gotten drunk last night and lost another bet? Was Asher seriously expecting him to hold up his end of whatever bargain they made? "I'm not mucking out the horses."
asher_talos[personal profile] asher_talos on April 25th, 2013 10:53 pm (UTC)
Well, he was awake enough to string words together into proper sentences. That was progress.

"Nothing as simple as that." Then again, he was a cop, and not of the mounted variety; bodies were still probably easier than horses for him. "In the hot tub..."
Ray Vecchio[personal profile] speakscanadian on April 25th, 2013 10:57 pm (UTC)
That certainly sounded miles more interesting but definitely like it required more energy than Ray had right now. He was never going to say no to sex though.

"Nuh uh," he shook his head and patted the mattress. "In the bed. You can be on top. I'll just lie here."

An offer Asher would find nigh impossible to refuse.
asher_talos[personal profile] asher_talos on April 25th, 2013 11:19 pm (UTC)
"So no different than any other time, then?" Asher retorted, hoping maybe insulting Ray's skills in the bedroom would drive him to at least sit up.

"Someone's in the hot tub. Not breathing. Or, you know... living." And being a poor swimmer had nothing to do with it. Not only because it was a hot tub, but he was pretty sure the gun shot wounds had more to do with it than anything.
Ray Vecchio[personal profile] speakscanadian on April 25th, 2013 11:25 pm (UTC)
"Didn't hear you complaining last night," Ray muttered, pushing himself up onto his elbows. The confusion was clear on his face. "Huh?"

He mentally ran through the last words out of Asher's mouth, breaking them down into bite-size pieces.

"Who?"
asher_talos[personal profile] asher_talos on April 25th, 2013 11:50 pm (UTC)
"A woman... I don't know. I don't think I've seen her before." Asher may have not been the overly social type, but he was pretty good with faces. Between all the parties and working at the club, he didn't think there were many faces he hadn't at least glimpsed before, unless they were new to the Island.
Ray Vecchio[personal profile] speakscanadian on April 26th, 2013 10:15 pm (UTC)
Ray ran a hand over his face. He couldn't recall any outstanding missing person reports that hadn't been explained by the usual disappearance procedure on the island.

He groaned and dropped his hand, scooting over to the edge of the bed. The thing about Ray was that he liked to whine about things. Just yesterday he'd been complaining about the lack of crime. Today he'd complain about the existence of it.

"Jesus." He padded around without much purpose, looking for his clothes. "What're the chances that whoever is in there, your sister did it?" Who else would dump the body in their hot tub?
asher_talos[personal profile] asher_talos on April 27th, 2013 01:25 am (UTC)
"Would you just get dressed." Asher wasn't about to admit that Danica had immediately jumped to mind. Not now, anyway. Later. When there wasn't a body floating outside his home.
Ray Vecchio[personal profile] speakscanadian on April 27th, 2013 11:20 am (UTC)
Ray noticed that Asher didn't defended his sister, so she automatically moved to the top of his mental whoddunit list.

Doing up his pants from yesterday and securing the belt, he moved over to the drawers and pulled out whatever t-shirt his hand touched first. Sockless feet were pushed into shoes and he headed for the door, only to have second thoughts and retreat back for him badge and gun. Whoever had done it could be watching and waiting...

"You good?" Ray asked, nodding at Asher's chest. All he really wanted to know was whether he was packing too.
asher_talos[personal profile] asher_talos on April 28th, 2013 01:29 am (UTC)
It didn't add up. If Danica wanted to get a message across, why kill some nameless nobody? Why risk certain jail time without any kind of emotional impact?

Asher gave a small, distracted nod in response, trying to work out Danica's angle. Fishing the homicide victim out of his hot tub was Ray's job; figuring out why Danica did the things she did was his.
Ray Vecchio[personal profile] speakscanadian on April 28th, 2013 02:42 pm (UTC)
Ray assumed Asher had checked to see if the woman was still breathing but had he looked to see if there had been a struggle? Had she drowned, had she been drowned, were there wet water splashes outside the tub to indicate how long ago it had happened?

Ray felt a familiar rush of adrenaline as the hot tub came into sight. Being the first cop at a crime scene always brought with it added excitement.

No water splashes. No wet footprints. No clues he could see from afar. Mr Waffles appeared from behind the tub and barked at him, so he hurried ahead. "Who wears a trench coat in this weather?"

Professional curiosity turned into personal panic when Ray recognized her face.

"Oh my God! Oh my God!" He started dragging her out, the water in the tub turning a bloodier shade of red.
asher_talos[personal profile] asher_talos on April 28th, 2013 06:17 pm (UTC)
"You wore a turtleneck," Asher reminded him with a shrug, trailing behind him with his hands in his pockets. Ray might have been worried about the perpetrator still being around, but Asher was sure that wasn't an issue.

He snapped out of his daze when he heard Ray yell, rushing to catch up. "What?!" That wasn't exactly the reaction he expected from a big city detective who would have seen this sort of thing multiple times per week.
Ray Vecchio[personal profile] speakscanadian on April 28th, 2013 08:07 pm (UTC)
A tiny sprig of hope burst inside him as he laid her down.

"Irene, Irene!" He shook her, then listened for the sound of breathing. "Come on, oh God." It was like the island fell away and he was right back to that night in Chicago, only instead of EMTs pushing him aside to work on her, he had the chance to save her himself. To finally put right a wrong.

The rational side of him already knew it was futile but that tiny speck of hope was enough to make him press his mouth to hers and blow.
asher_talos[personal profile] asher_talos on April 28th, 2013 10:05 pm (UTC)
When realization finally hit, Asher quietly crouched down beside Ray. Maybe it hadn't dawned on him sooner because he'd done a good job of suppressing that it had ever happened to him. It definitely had nothing to do with the fact that Danica being responsible was completely far-fetched, because it wasn't.

The Island had made his dead wife show up before. Now, apparently it was Ray's turn. He couldn't remember him ever mentioning an Irene from back home, but he could understand why if this was what happened to her.

Asher knew dead when he saw it, and he was sure Ray knew it, too, but he just put a hand on his shoulder rather than state the obvious out loud.
Ray Vecchio[personal profile] speakscanadian on April 28th, 2013 11:36 pm (UTC)
The squelch from her chest as Ray compressed it made him sick to the stomach but not as much as facing the truth did. She was gone - still - and he had lived with that knowledge for years. But all of a sudden it was like he was learning it for the first time all over again.

He all but reeled back on his knees, palms of his hands sticky with blood. Twisting away from Irene and Asher, he opened his mouth to speak but nothing came out except the sound of retching.
asher_talos[personal profile] asher_talos on May 5th, 2013 10:41 pm (UTC)
"I'm sorry," Asher said quietly, wishing he'd have just let Ray continue sleeping.

Rubbing Ray's back, he wondered just what sort of random occurrence this was. When his wife's body had turned up, there was no trace of it again after twenty-four hours, no body to put into a grave. Last time, though, when he'd found an entire rack of bodies from one of the blood farming facilities, those all stuck around.

He wasn't sure which this was, but he wasn't about to ask Ray if he'd been having hallucinations involving this woman over the past few month in order to figure it out.
Ray Vecchio[personal profile] speakscanadian on May 5th, 2013 10:55 pm (UTC)
Ray swallowed down the bile, taking a deep breath through his nose to catch a hold of himself. He could quite easily let himself slip into despair, indulge his self-pity, but hadn't he done that all those years ago? It hadn't brought her back then and it clearly wouldn't this time either.

Letting out a groan of annoyance, mostly with himself, he rubbed the back of his hand against his forehead.

"Not your fault. I thought for a second--I hoped--I thought she mighta still been breathing."
asher_talos[personal profile] asher_talos on May 5th, 2013 11:52 pm (UTC)
"Come on," he urged, hoping he could coax Ray away. Back inside, to the Compound, anywhere, really. Somewhere he wasn't going to lose the breakfast he hadn't even had yet.

"I can get the Mountie. He's probably been up for five hours already, right? We can deal with this... If you want."
Ray Vecchio[personal profile] speakscanadian on May 6th, 2013 12:02 am (UTC)
"No," Ray insisted quickly, surprising even himself. "I don't need him."

Fraser knew what had happened, everything, knew Ray's part in it all. The rational side of him didn't believe Fraser would say anything, but the other side, the side in control right now, didn't want Asher anywhere near the truth, even in tight-lipped Mountie form.

He did move away with Asher though, his acquiescence calculated. Give him that much and he might not push the question of bringing Fraser here.
asher_talos[personal profile] asher_talos on May 6th, 2013 12:36 am (UTC)
It was a fairly strange response, granted, but not one he was prepared to dwell on. Nor was he prepared to put a body in the ground by himself.

"Okay... but I might. Unless you're going to help me do it." It was clear by his tone that he didn't think that was such a great ideal, but he couldn't exactly stop Ray from doing it if he decided to.
Ray Vecchio[personal profile] speakscanadian on May 6th, 2013 12:57 am (UTC)
"She just got here," Ray replied tiredly, walking ahead and tipping his face up to the sky.

Why her? Why now? What was he supposed to do with this? Would he wake up tomorrow and find Gardino in bits? If the island was going to send every dead body Ray had on his conscience, Asher would be digging graves for a long time to come.

"Do we have to think about that right now? I can't..."

Oh, God. This was wrong. It was so wrong. He could hear Frank warning him, cocking his gun, could feel Irene behind him. To this day he didn't know whether she had knocked him out of the way to save him or to stop him from shooting her brother. Either way, the ending was the same. The ending was lying less than twenty feet from him.

He lifted his arms across his eyes, hiding his face. "Oh, my God."
asher_talos[personal profile] asher_talos on May 6th, 2013 01:34 am (UTC)
"We can't just leave her there," Asher insisted. Out in the open, under the sun, with dogs in the area. He guessed they could leave her there, but he didn't think that they should.

"You don't have to deal with it, but if you want me to, I can't do it alone." At least if the Mountie helped instead of someone else on the IPD it would be somewhat contained.
Ray Vecchio[personal profile] speakscanadian on May 6th, 2013 02:05 am (UTC)
"Alright, okay, okay." Despite himself he felt a little harangued, even though he knew Asher was talking sense.

Mr Waffles padded up to Ray, whining quietly, ears flat. He left a trail of faint bloodied paw prints in his wake. Turning, Ray looked over at Asher, the body a blurry image in the background behind him.

"Tell Fraser it's, tell him it's Irene and that's all you know."
asher_talos[personal profile] asher_talos on May 6th, 2013 03:27 am (UTC)
Asher nodded. He didn't like the idea of leaving Ray alone, but it wasn't like he could switch on the Mountie Symbol or ring him on his cell in order to get him to show up.

Walking up to Ray, he gave him a quick kiss, making sure to meet his gaze when he pulled away. "Don't stay out here, okay?" He didn't want to come back to find Ray just standing over to the body.
Ray Vecchio[personal profile] speakscanadian on May 6th, 2013 03:45 am (UTC)
It was ironic really. Asher told him about a dead body and he automatically assumed Danica was to blame, when all along it was him. He briefly wondered whether Asher would leave him here with her if he knew what he was really thinking.

"Okay," he answered but only because he had to. Looking at her was pretty much his only plan of action right then. Ray'd never thought he'd get to see her again. If nothing else, at least he'd gotten that.