Title : Death is No Barrier to Miscommunication
Fandoms : due South, Hard Core Logo
Characters : Benton Fraser, Ray Kowalski, Billy Tallent, Robert Fraser
Rating : Mature Audiences
Warning : Author chooses to limit warnings to avoid spoilers; there's violence, but it's not graphic.
Word Count : 255

Author Notes : Written for the fan_flashworks "Communication" Challenge.

Summary : There's communication from the dying...and communication from the dead.



You ran toward the sound of an altercation in the alley, you and Ray both ran. You thought you had outdistanced Ray...but there in the alley -- oh God no -- there Ray sprawled, a knife in his chest, and his assailant running away. You had gone to your knees next to the lanky stilling form, crying out "Ray! Ray! RAY!"...trying to call him back from crossing over to death.

Then Ray came running up, yelling "Fraser!" -- and you thought the last one of your marbles must have escaped that hole in their bag -- but when Ray stopped there, shocked, and then exclaimed "Holy shit!" you knew by his tone that he too was seeing the same blonde dying man you were seeing, the one who looked exactly like Ray. Of course, THEN it registered on you : the difference in attire and no silver bracelet, the mingled scents of nicotine and alcohol.

Dying, Billy Tallent had looked at you, the last face he would see from this side of the Borderlands; he thought you were unearthly beautiful and he thought the word you had cried out was "Pray! Pray! PRAY!" He thought you were not a man, but an angel. His last words before death were "Angel...never expected an angel...not for what I've done...you're so fuckin' beautiful...."

As you stood and turned toward Ray, there appeared your father's apparition with one of his oft-unhelpful remarks : "Death is no barrier to miscommunication, Son." You sigh in response. How well you already knew that.