"Oh, Benny you look so grown up," Chelsea breathed once I had found them in the crowd. I blushed slightly. Cass reached out and tugged on the lanyard with a smile on her face.

"Don't blush you do look grown up."

"I'm proud of you Benny," Ollie said as he walloped me on the back. "But I still think that if Dad gets any prouder, he'll pop the buttons on his serge."

"That I'm sure would be a disgrace to the uniform," Dad said blandly before he hugged me his voice dropping to a whisper. "Hey, I'm proud of you too kiddo."

"I'm sure if you put your mind to it Ray, you'll recall that you've popped buttons off this serge," Dad said, and we all winced.

"Dad oh my god!" Lizzie said while Tom wheezed out a laugh next to Cass.

"Not in front of the kids Ben," Dad said. Whatever Dad was going to say in response to that was cut off by Caroline leaping from Tom's arms straight at me and I lunged to catch her as she shrieked in delight.

"Unka an' Gampa Match!" Caroline said happily and I nodded.

"Grandpa and I do match. We do the same job now," I said as I smoothed her hair out of her face.

"And I am very intensely proud," Dad said as he ran his eyes over me in my serge before flicking his gaze over all of us. "Of all of my children."

"But Benny the most," Lizzie teased, and Chelsea leaned into her with a laugh.

"Oh, definitely Benny the most," she agreed.

"And Dad is proudest of Chelsea because she's a dancer," Cass added, and Dad held up his hands.

"We do not have favourite children."

"Caroline is definitely favourite grandchild because she's the first though," I said as I tickled her, and we all laughed.

"God Lizzie he's right how is our little goober going to hold up to this one?" Ollie asked dramatically as he reached over to help me tickle our niece. Lizzie grinned widely.

"Hey second favourite is still podium. Besides the goober could turn out to be even cuter come February," she said, and we all stopped dead to stare at her.

"Are you really?" Cass asked and Lizzie nodded.

"Yep. There's another Fraser in the making," Lizzie said and turned to me with a pleading look on her face. "I'm sorry to do it today, it's just that I knew everyone would be here and I wanted to tell everyone in person."

"No need to apologize Lizzie," I said as I swooped in to give her a huge hug.

"Unka squishin me," Caroline protested and pushed on my chest.

"Sorry Caroline." I stepped back from Lizzie and held her out to Cass.

"Before I forget to ask, where's your posting Benny?" Tom asked.

"Blaine Lake, Saskatchewan." Chelsea held up her finger and whipped out her phone to punch it into Google.

"That's not too far from home," Chelsea said and rattled off the distance.

"Sorry Chelsea you're still the furthest flung Fraser," Cass teased, and she sighed.

"If I could make a territorial dance company work from home I would." Dad leaned over and squeezed her shoulder.

"I know you would kiddo. And hey BC's a sight better than Toronto," Dad said and then he did that silent communication thing with Dad and herded the rest of the family away from us. Dad gave me a salute before extending his hand to me. I echoed his movements and bit down on my lip so that I wouldn't start crying.

"Constable Benjamin Fraser I am very very proud of you. Welcome to the service."

"Sergeant Benton Fraser I am honoured to join your ranks."

XXXXX

Somehow the pain echoed in my body at the same time as the crack of the gunshot echoed in my ears. I didn't really realize what was happening until I was blinking up at the blue sky and grunting.

"Dief!" I called before I remembered that he's deaf, but maybe his immortality had repaired his hearing because he appeared over me looking very concerned. "That bad hey?"

Not good Dief said before settling the majority of his weight overtop of my torso and I blinked frantically against emotion as I realized that he was trying to stem the bleeding.

"Make sure you stay with the Dads after this okay Dief? They're both going to need you to keep them together," I said and Dief nipped at my chin.

Shut up. Not allowed to die.

"I don't think that's how this works Dief," I said with a slight smile twisted against the pain. Though the pain I was feeling was mostly centered in my heart because I knew that this would crush my family. Dad would have to try and deal with the fact that he had lost both father and son to a bullet in the middle of nowhere in the pursuit of duty, my sisters would get to add another tally to the loved ones they'd lost, Dad would have to somehow manage to keep everyone's head above water when he felt like drowning.

"This is no time to get maudlin Benny," Dad-Ben said as he knelt down next to me and frowned at me worriedly. I blinked at him and almost sat straight up in shock before I remembered why that was a bad idea.

"Dad!?"

"Benny," Dad said gravely as he studied me.

"Are you alright!?" Dad quirked an eyebrow up at me.

"Now is not the time. Tell me the situation." I took the best deep breath I could manage and walked him through everything that had happened; getting a tip on some poachers, finding them in a wheat field of a nearby farmer, and miscounting how many poachers there actually were until one had shot me. "Where was your partner?"

"Don't really have one. There aren't enough of us here for us to have partners all the time," I said, even though protocol should have dictated that I bring someone else with me, but I hadn't wanted to create a big fuss over nothing. Dad must have understood my expression because there was a hint of anger flashing behind his eyes.

"Did the story of my father teach you nothing?" Dad snapped and I winced.

"That's, yeah okay, that's a good point Dad and I'm sorry. You have to tell everyone how sorry I am," I said because I was. I was sorry that I would never get the chance to see Chelsea dance again, wouldn't get to see Caroline grow up, wouldn't get to be there when Lizzie gave birth, would cause both my Dad's so much pain. And I had a whole lot to be sorry for with Steph.

"There's a vehicle on the road," Dad said, and I laughed weakly.

"They'll never see me in the field. Too much wheat." I gestured around slowly and went to close my eyes in light of my exhaustion and Dad pinched my cheek harshly.

"Get their attention," Dad ordered, and I suddenly remembered that I had a flare gun attached to my hip. I fumbled with it before I lifted it straight above me with what little strength I had left.

"Dad if I survive this, I really need you to not be dead," I said after I had fired and let my arm drop back by my side.

"No ifs Benny."

XXX

I awoke with a groan in a hospital bed and turned my head to one side and made eye contact with Steph.

"Hey Benny," she said.

"Where's Dief?" I asked, but it came out sounding more like 'hare speef'.

"Getting pampered at the clinic under duress. He didn't want to leave, but the hospital was kicking him out due to sanitation reasons and he was covered in blood. Doctor is pretty sure that him sitting on you kept you alive," Steph said as she stood up and started spooning ice chunks into my mouth before she pushed the call button. "I called your parents they're on the way."

"Which Dad answered?" I asked as I remembered Dad talking to me out there in the field while wearing his red serge and felt a spike of fear.

"Ray." Any further questions I had were interrupted by the arrival of a nurse, a doctor and Sergeant Everly. The nurse didn't say much, but the doctor told me about the surgery to fish the bullet out of me and put me back together and cheerfully informed me that I had a great deal of physical therapy in my future. Sergeant Everly told me if I ever pulled this shit again, he'd find me a latrine to clean, but that somehow the three poachers had still been there when Constable Michaels had been made aware of my position.

"Hell of a day," I said to Steph after everyone left and she shot me a look.

"If you think that you're done being chewed out just you wait. I'm going to lay into you and then I'm sure your Dads will too."

"Steph I'm sorry," I said and fire flashed in her eyes and she was off, not shouting or anything like that, but making her opinion known about me chasing a lead without a partner and almost dying in a field because I was too stupid to take a radio with me.

"You're a giant idiot Benny Fraser," Steph said to finish off her rant, sounding aggrieved for the first time as she reached behind me to fluff up my pillow roughly.

"I come by it honestly," I said while trying to pretend that I wasn't grinning at her like an idiot. She noticed and gave me a quick kiss even while she rolled her eyes at me.

"I'm going to go rescue Dief from the clinic and see if I can smuggle him in so that he'll know you're okay. Try to get some more rest," she said and squeezed my hand.

XXXX

I woke up some undetermined amount of time later to the sound of my Dads bickering about whether or not they should wake me.

"Ray he's not going anywhere. And Stephanie said that he was already awake once."

"Frase, come on I gotta see him awake okay? For the sake of my heart," Dad said, and I blinked fully awake because Dad only referred to Dad as 'Frase' when he was really stressed or worried. The last time I'd heard him say it was when Cass crashed her car when she was sixteen.

"Dad thank god you're okay," I said as I studied them both and felt the last bit of worry ease from my chest. Dad quirked an eyebrow up at me before he reached up and rubbed it with his thumb.

"Is there any chance that you suffered a head injury?" Dad asked and Dad stormed over to the side of my bed and gently cupped my cheek in his hand.

"Nah his eyes are normal," Dad said.

"Pupils Ray," Dad corrected idly while sparing a glance for the door. "Perhaps you should tell the nurses not to be alarmed."

"Did it on the way in, let it all go Frase," Dad said with a smile before shooting me a dirty look. "Before I do."

"So how much trouble am I in?" I asked and a fire lit in Dad's eyes and he was off, chewing me out along the same lines as Steph had except with pointed words about how he had taught me better than this, and getting shot in my first year of service was not a precedent to be set. He paused briefly to greet Steph when she arrived, before continuing on until I was squirming guiltily, and he ran out of words.

"You ever do something this stupid ever again and I'll do a hell of a lot worse than just yell at you," Dad said before he pointed at Dief. "And where have you been furface?"

"He was getting cleaned up at the clinic. Don't worry I made sure that he got the hero's treatment," Steph said as I leaned my hand off the bed so that Dief could lick it. Both my Dads frowned in tandem.

"Hero's treatment?" Steph turned to me at their question.

"What you didn't tell them?"

"Well Steph I haven't had much chance to speak. Dad's been chewing me out for forty minutes since I woke up again," I said and tugged on my earlobe. Dad pinned me with a pointed look and I quickly explained how the doctors had posited that the only reason I survived was due to Diefenbaker sitting on top of me.

"Both the Ben's in my life seem pretty dedicated to putting me in an early grave," Dad muttered, but my attention was on Dad, who knelt smoothly on the floor next to Diefenbaker with all the benediction of a saint, and wrapped his arms around him.

"Thank you, Diefenbaker." His words made all my lingering guilt swell into a lump in my throat. My death would have killed Dad no question about it.

"I am sorry Dads. I won't do it again."

"Damn right you won't," Steph and Dad said at the same time, while Dad unwrapped himself from around Dief.

"You expressed relief that I was alive when you awoke Benny. Would you care to explain?"

"You appeared and talked to me when I was in the field. I thought of the fact that Grandpa Fraser used to appear to you as a ghost and I was worried you'd died," I said, and Dad snorted loudly.

"Unbelievable. Un-freaking-believable! My son is dying in some wheat field, hallucinates his father and worries more about his father being dead than himself!" Dad shouted and then must have realized that he hadn't chewed me out himself yet and started in, though at a much higher volume than Steph or Dad, and with a great deal more swears.

"Ray I understand your ire, but that instance you just mentioned was me, not Benny. I fear that you're going over old history," Dad said after Dad started yelling about someone called Warfield.

"My point Fraser is that Benny over here didn't get his lack of understanding of back up from me!"

"Be that as it may Ray, I think that Benny has learned his lesson." Dad smiled at me with a teasing twinkle in his eyes. "And if he hasn't yet then I'm sure his sisters will hammer the lesson home."

"It's been a good life," I said as I slumped back against the pillows and Steph giggled. "Shorter than I would have wanted, but still good."