Families

Chapter 21

A/N: Ray in handcuffs.

Danish Consulate in Chicago

Ray arrived soon after ten in the morning. He parked his GTO in front of the building on a spot marked for guests. He had been to the Canadian consulate to pick Ben up but Ben had been called away to the Danish consulate Turnbull had said.. He didn't know why his Canadian friends had so much to do with the Danes. Between that cooperation and little Molly it wasn't that often that Ben had time to help him anymore. Ben had even announced that he would take some time off during the autumn and stay home with Molly so Meg could work a bit. He adored his God child and felt that his own clock started ticking, mostly that he didn't want to be an old dad when his kids graduated.

He opened the front door of the Danish Consulate and was pulled inside by a big man. "What's your business here?" the guy asked ruffly holding Ray's hands behind his back.

"Calm down pal" Ray started reasoning with him "I'm just here to pick Ben up"

"There's no one with that name here" the guy said and pushed Ray forward to a small room that reminded him of Ben's office. He pushed Ray down into a chair and handcuffed him to it.

"Hey, get those off" Ray called as the guy started to leave "I'm an American detective at the CPD"

They guy ignored him and Ray heard him lock the door. Quickly he looked around but there were nothing he could do or use to get out.

The guy knocked on the Ambassador's door and entered "The enemy is captured, he's in the spare office"

The Ambassador, a woman in her mid thirties looked up "What?"

"The enemy.." the guy started.

"But please Jacob, the drill isn't until tomorrow. That's why Constable Fraser is here today, to go over all the details" the Ambassador stood up "Did the person identify himself?" she asked.

"He shouted something about CPD and someone named Ben" the guy said.

"Oh dear" Ben said "It must be Ray, he's probably been by our consulate to pick me up"

"And who is Ray?" the young female asked.

"Ray Vecchio, first grade detective at the Chicago Police Department currently working at the 27th precinct" Ben explained and described how Ray looked.

"That's how he looks" the guy said.

"Take me to him" the woman opened a drawer in her desk and took some keys out. As the security man unlocked the door she sent him away.

"I'm terrible sorry about this" the Ambassador started even before she had looked at the 'prisoner'.

Ray was sitting back quite relaxed with his legs crossed on the desk. Ben had to laugh, he stood leaning on the door frame remembering an almost exact thing happening more than a year ago.

"How do you do it Ray?" Ben asked.

"Ben buddy" Ray grinned "I don't know but I'm starting to think I'm not very welcomed at consulates"

Ben, for being him, quickly told the story how he first had met this Ray.

"You're getting good at telling stories short buddy" Ray complimented him and rubbed his wrists as he was uncuffed. He stood up and held out his right hand "Detective Ray Vecchio, CPD" he introduced himself to the lovely lady.

"Line Andersen, Danish Ambassador I'm terrible sorry about this, apparently the security thought it was today and not tomorrow we were to train a conflict with the Canadians" she looked at the blond American, he was quite attractive with his spike hair.

"No harm done. Nice to know your security can fend for themselves, God only knows we have enough to deal with on the streets" Ray flashed Line a bright smile.

"I will have a talk with him later on" Line promised. "So now that this is done, may I ask what your business is with the Danish Consulate?"

Ray looked at her she was almost as tall as him, her hair a bit on the red side and bright green eyes. "I'm here to pick Ben up, liaison work buddy" he said when he looked at Ben.

"I believe we're done for today Ambassador?" Ben said questioningly.

"Yes, I believe so. We'll meet up tomorrow at some time" Line answered, they had plans but the Danes didn't know all the Canadian ones and the sane the other way around to make the situation as real as possible. "It was nice to meet you detective" Line added.

"The pleasure was all mine" Ray said and even dared a wink with his eye. He hadn't noticed any rings on her fingers.

Ray whistled a happy tune as he unlocked the car.

"You seem cheerful" Ben said and put his stetson on the dashboard.

"Did you see her? I mean really see her, she's a real looker that Ambassador" Ray nodded towards the building.

"I suppose she is" Ben said.

"Oh I give up you don't see any other woman than Meg I suppose" Ray started his car.

"So where are we off to?" Ben asked his friend and Ray told him.

Inside the consulate Line stood in the window. She noted down the license plate of the black GTO, Ray Vecchio certainly seemed like a man to be fun to know. A plan started to form in her head.

The next morning Ray looked himself in the mirror, around his right eye and down the cheek was a big blue and purple bruise. The perpetrator that he and Ben had caught had managed to elbow him before he got the cuffs on him. Ben had insisted that he'd have a doctor look at it so he had spent half the night at the hospital. After his shower he put some gel in his hair and ruffled it with his hands. He dressed while having a second cup of coffee before he headed out to the police station.

The guy they had caught the previous evening had been on the list for a while so everyone cheered and clapped their hands as Ray entered the bullpen. He sat down to start his report, he hated paperwork. He put his glasses that as always hung in the neck of this t-shirt on. It was awfully quiet in the station this morning for being a Friday. He knew Ben wouldn't come either since he had that thing with the Danes. Ray lent back in his chair thinking of that Danish Ambassador, she was really something. He put the report to the side and opened the phone book to find the the number for the Danish Consulate, he scribbled in down in his note pad for later use.

Around two in the afternoon the desk sergeant called that Ray had a call on line one.

"Ray Vecchio, how may I help you?" he answered.

"Detective, I'm sorry to disturb you, but have you seen constable Fraser today?" a woman asked.

"No, should I?" Ray was suspicious.

"I'm sorry, this is Line Andersen at the Danish Consulate, Constable Fraser was to come here in the afternoon, you know we had that security exercise today" Line said as she realized she hadn't introduced herself.

"Oh Miss Andersen, sorry I've not seen Ben all day, I thought he'd be busy with that thing you had on" Ray said "Do you want me to go over to the Canadian Consulate to see if he's there, I mean if they're 'under attack'" he made signs with his fingers although she couldn't see them "they might not answer all calls" Ray suggested.

"Hmm, maybe you should come here instead" Line suggested "He might show up here before you managed to get there" Line hated to lie, the exercise had been over since lunch.

"I'll be there in.." Ray looked at his watch "About 20 minutes" he said and hung up. It was a warm day so he took his black leather jacket over the arm and left the precinct.

Danish consulate

Line had sent all the personnel that had participated in the exercise home and now it was just the backup security and herself left at the consulate.

Much as the previous day Ray was captured when he came inside the doors.

"This has to stop, are you still playing your games?" Ray asked the security man as he put the handcuffs on him and tied him to the same chair as the day before.

The security man didn't say a thing but locked him in the room and went to report to the Ambassador.

"I'm so sorry Sven, I forgot to tell you the exercise is over. I actually called for the detective, but I'll take care of it" Line stood up and took her keys out of the drawer.

As she opened the door and looked at Ray she got scared "Did my security do that to you?" she walked over and began examine his eye.

"No, it was someone else" Ray said mockingly "You know we should stop meeting like this" Ray was totally relaxed.

Line uncuffed him "I'm so sorry, I actually called you here under false pretenses, but I had forgotten to tell Sven the exercise was over"

"So you mean Ben's not amiss?" Ray asked.

"No, I think he's at the Canadian Consulate writing up his end of the report" Line said. "Does it hurt?" she asked with her head on the side looking at the big bruise.

"Nah, it's OK" Ray said, he didn't want to seem like a whimper.

Ray stood up so he was face to face with Line "So what did you want Ambassador?" he asked.

Line blushed, she wasn't this forward usually. But she had once let her dream guy slip through her fingers, she certainly wasn't going to let it happen again. She took a step back but the desk was in her way and she was kind of trapped between it and Ray.

Ray took half a step forward and put his hand on her cheek, he let the thumb run just under her eye, he closed his eyes halfway and through his thick lashes he looked at her and slowly lowered his lips towards hers.

"Coffee, do you want some coffee?" Line slipped to the side and got herself free from him. She had so much wanted him to kiss, but at the last second chicken out.

Ray lent on the desk with both his hands and looked at her "Coffee would be nice" he said. He wondered why she had done what she'd done, apparently she'd wanted him to come over. He straightened and followed her towards the kitchen. The building was pretty alike the Canadian Consulate.

Stine got herself busy with cups and pouring the coffee "Do you want milk and sugar?" she asked Ray.

"You don't happen to have some smarties laying around?" Ray asked.

"No, but I think I have some M&M's" Line answered.

"Not the same, one sugar then please" Ray said.

"Were you to have the smarties in your coffee?" Line sat down opposite him at the table.

"Yeah" Ray answered simply and Line couldn't hold back a laugh.

"So, Miss Andersen" Ray started.

"Please call me Line" Line cut him off.

"Line, why did you want me to come here, it's pretty obvious you weren't looking for Ben at all" Ray said trying not to sound too much like a detective.

Line felt nervous, she had wanted this and in her head it had sounded like a good idea. She took a deep breath "I guess I felt something yesterday and wanted to get to know you" she finally said.

"You could just have called and asked me over, or to meet me somewhere in town, you didn't have to go to this much trouble" Ray said softly looking her straight in the eyes "I want to get to know you too" he reached for her hand. Right then his cellphone begun to ring.

"I'm sorry, I have to take this, I'm still on duty" Ray excused himself and walked out of the kitchen.

Stine put the cups in the dishwasher and tried her hands on a towel.

"I have to leave" Ray was leaning against the door frame.

"OK" Line said calmly.

"Maybe we could meet up over the weekend" Ray suggested and took out his business card. He scribbled his address and home number on the backside "Give me a call or drop by"

"Maybe I will, I've got a dinner engagement tomorrow evening though" Line smiled at him.

"We'll take it as it comes along" Ray said and quickly lent forward and kissed her cheek "I'm looking forward to getting to know you"

"Me too, very much" Line said after he was gone.

Disclaimer/Copyright 2014 and forward: I don't own the characters from Due South, but I've written the story and therefore feel I own that. I also want to say I don't know about how the Academy for RCMP or something alike works so I've made it up a nice way to fit my story. I'm also not familiar with names for different kind of people in a village such as the Inuits live in.