The Cabin ….
Fraser rolled his bedroll out on the military cot. It had been too many hours since he'd gotten out of his bed that morning in Chicago. Traveling with Ben had been wonderful. The boy had a million questions. Fraser took the time to answer as many of them as he could. He remembered a time when his grandfather had answered his questions with gentle patience and understanding. Grandmother Fraser had been a little less patient but in her way, taught Benton just as much.
"Dad, Aunt Maggie wants to know if you want to ketchup or mustard on your mackerel patty sandwich?" Ben's voice interrupted Fraser's memories. The Mountie looked up to see a younger version of himself standing in the bedroom door frame, green eyes and all.
"Mustard, tell her I'll be along as soon as I've washed up." Fraser straightened up. The boy turned and walked back to the kitchen. Listening, Fraser could hear the sound of mackerel patties frying in the cast iron skillet. The smell of green beans simmering on the back burner filled the small cabin. Fraser walked into the kitchen after washing his hands in cold water and rubbing the clean, crisp water on his face.
"There wasn't a lot to work with, we'll have to get supplies tomorrow." Maggie spoke without turning around. She could tell her brother's heavier steps from Ben's as she tended the skillet.
"It smells good anyway." Ben piped up as he set three, Styrofoam plates on the rectangular table to the side of the stove and sink. Maggie turned back to look at him with a smile.
"Diefenbaker would be a pitiful beggar if he were here." Fraser missed his half-wolf companion. Maggie and Ben laughed. They'd both grown quite fond of the old wolf. Aurora got up from before the fire place and came over to beg for a mackerel patty at Maggie's feet.
"You are your father's daughter, aren't you greedy girl." The blonde Mountie pulled one of the finished patties in half and dropped it into Aurora's reach. In two seconds she had devoured it.
"Do you need help with anything, Maggie?" Fraser asked, peering over her shoulder at the stove top.
"Yes, would you get the cornbread out of the oven for me?" It had been over a year since she'd had to lift a heavy skillet of corn bread out of her oven. It wasn't that she wasn't capable, but Ray did it so much easier. It made him fell useful. Maggie stepped aside and let Benton haul the golden brown pone out. Quickly, he set the ten inch skillet on an empty burner.
"Will you turn it out on a plate for me, please, Benton?" Maggie flipped a mackerel patty with one hand and slid out a glass plate from the cabinet with the other. A few seconds later Fraser had emptied the skillet and cut it into eight, triangular wedges. Steam rose out of the thick wedges.
As a family, such as it were, Fraser, Maggie and Ben sat down to eat dinner. Aurora laid at Maggie's feet.
"Are you looking forward to going to camp, Ben?" Maggie asked, hoping he was.
"Yeah, I've never been to camp before." The boy shrugged as he put his mackerel patty between two pieces of bread. When he heard the silence after his statement he knew his dad and his aunt were exchanging one of their Fraser/Mountie looks while he wasn't looking.
"Mom never had the money to send me anywhere. We had a good time anyway. She would take me on long drives and tell me stories, or we'd sing along with the radio." Ben tried to make it sound like it wasn't a big deal. He knew his dad already felt guilty for missing the first thirteen years of his life. In his way, Ben knew the Mountie was trying to make it up to him. They caught baseball games occasionally at Wrigley Field the season before and played hockey at least once a week. Ben never had to wonder where his father was or who was waiting at the house when he got home from school. He liked having that kind of stability, even if he was too young to actually realize it.
"My mum would take me out for weeks at a time in the summer, just the two of us. She'd tell ghost stories before bed and teach me how to set traps." Maggie's eyes danced. Her mother had been a larger than life figure, not only to her but in the community.
"What kind of things do you think he'll need for camp, Maggie?" Fraser asked, shifting the subject. He didn't want to talk about his parents or grandparents.
"I don't know, can you think of anything, Ben?" Maggie asked. She hadn't helped him pack his things this time. After a spoon full of pork and beans the boy shook his head.
"No, Aunt Maggie, I think I have everything." His voice cracked halfway through his sentence. Maggie smiled, Ben had grown so much in the past year. She envied Benton sometimes, having a son. She'd hoped to start a family during her first marriage but that had went bust. In retrospect, it was probably a good thing she and Matt McKenzie hadn't had children. Instead, Maggie had found a comfortable life with the RCMP and now Ray. Neither of them had been in any hurry to change their lives.
"Hey, Dad, what do you know about this Inspector Thatcher?" Ben buried some of his mashed potatoes in pork and beans to disguise the taste of the potatoes. Fraser took a drink of water, thinking about his brief time with Meg at the Consulate.
"Inspector Thatcher is a career RCMP officer, she attained her rank early." He had to dig deep for something that wasn't personal about her. "She's proficient in semaphore." Maggie silently began shaking her head. Her brother was digging a hole and she recognized it. Aurora sat up, ears perked forward.
"You like her, don't you?" Ben grinned as he took a sip of water.
"Heavens to Betsy, is it that obvious?" Fraser leaned back in his chair and threw up his hands.
"Yeah, kinda." Ben chuckled. Maggie hid her laughter. She'd seen the way Benton looked at Inspector Thatcher when they'd first met.
"Don't worry, Benton, we won't let it slip." Maggie reassured him, her laughter sufficiently suppressed. The Mountie shook his head.
"So, what are you going to do about it?" Ben pushed the subject. He hoped his father would put aside his awkwardness for a change.
"There isn't anything to be done, Ben. It was all years ago." The Mountie waved him off, his eyes hard. It was Maggie and Ben's turn to exchange furtive glances. They both let the subject drop and returned to their dinners.
"Good night, Dad, Aunt Maggie." The boy called from the bedroom on the right. He listened as his dad called back from the bedroom across the hall. Maggie called from the front room where she'd bunked on the couch, Aurora laid below her on the floor. The part wolf barked her good night to everyone.
"Good night, girl." Maggie scratched her best friend between the ears. She felt the warm, wet lick of Aurora's tongue in response. In a few minutes the whole cabin was silent.
Two o'clock …
Ben woke up, startled at not being in his own bed in Chicago. It took him a moment to realize he was in Spencer Falls, in Canada. Quietly, he got out of bed and tip-toed to the kitchen. As stealthily as possible, the boy poured himself a glass of water.
"Ben, is that you?" Maggie raised up on one elbow and peered over the back of the couch.
"It's me, Aunt Maggie, I'm okay." Ben whispered loudly. She got up anyway and walked into the kitchen. She wanted to see him for herself. Fraser had told her Ben had had a few nightmares about his kidnapping the year before. They'd been few and far between.
"What woke you up?" Maggie wrapped herself up in one of her brother's flannel shirts, covering her white, granny nightgown.
"I don't know, I just woke up." Ben sat down at the table with his water. He wiped the sleep from his eyes, his dark hair sticking up every which way.
"I was thinking, before I went to sleep, do you think Dad will ever get married?" The boy leaned on one hand, sipping his water. Maggie thought for a moment, trying to think of the right way to say it.
"Honey, I don't know." The truth was the only way to go about it.
"Why? I mean, women talk to him all the time. I'm not good with girls, but I know when they're interested. He doesn't seem interested back." Ben ran his fingers through his hair, making it worse.
"Benton is a complex man. He's loved exactly twice, the first time was your mother. It hurt him badly, how it ended between them. Now he has you, and that makes him very happy, happier than I've seen him since I've known him." Maggie laid the back of her hand against Ben's cheek.
"I know that. I've heard people say that." He straightened up, concentrating. "What I mean is, is he still in love with my mom?" Maggie saw the confusion in the boy's green eyes.
"In love? No. Does he love her? Yes. Benton loves unconditionally when he loves. That is why he still has feelings for the Inspector." Maggie smiled. She still didn't know why Benton had a thing for the 'Dragon Lady', but he did. The feeling was mutual from what she could tell from Thatcher's behavior.
"Is Inspector Thatcher the second love you said earlier?" Ben persisted, trying to fit the woman into his life's framework. Maggie nodded.
"Why is Dad so weird around her, and why did he shut me down earlier at dinner?" Ben was wide awake and his keen mind was in overdrive.
"Benton's been hurt before, it's hard to open yourself up to that kind of intense pain again." Maggie spoke from experience.
"Yeah, I'd say so." Ben toyed with his eyetooth as he thought. Maggie watched him, knowing that he would only be this innocent for a short while.
"Is there anything I can do to help?" The wheels in Ben's mind spun like pinwheels. Maggie read the progression across his face.
"Just be supportive, let him know if you're alright with him having someone in his life." Maggie answered through a yawn.
"Thanks, Aunt Maggie, I'm going back to bed." Ben stood up and gave his aunt a rare hug. "I do want Dad to find someone that makes him as happy as you and Uncle Ray are." He left her sitting at the kitchen table with his half empty glass of water and the overhead light on.
"I hope he does too, Ben." Maggie stretched and yawned. She put the glass in the sink and went back to her own bed.
Fraser heard his son's feet hit the hardwood flooring in the hallway outside the bedroom doors. He started to get up to check on him until he heard Maggie's voice in the living room. When he continued to hear them talking he got up. With his usual, casual stealth, Benton padded into the living room in his red long johns. Something in Ben's voice halted him before he got to the kitchen entrance. He heard Ben's questions and Maggie's answers. It hit him hard when he heard the boy's question about Meg Thatcher. His sister's answer was right on the money about him. Victoria's betrayal had cut him like no knife ever could. It had left his heart lying in pieces along the bottom of his soul. Being smitten with Meg felt like cheating on Victoria. He knew what he felt was not reality.
His son's words, "I do want Dad to find someone that makes him as happy as you and Uncle Ray are." made him feel grateful that he had gotten to know the boy before it was too late. Fraser also felt grateful that he and Victoria had such a wonderful son, even if it wasn't something either of them had anticipated.
Carefully, Fraser tip-toed back to his cot in the room on the left. He turned his back on the door so Ben wouldn't know he'd been awake.