Due South Flashfiction Community

Y'know, there are some good psychological sketches out there that deal with Ray Vecchio. Most of them are post-CotW, and all of them work really hard to explain how and why he and Stella got together. Very few of them deal so honestly and directly with the motivations you ascribe to him here. Ray in this story is one ugly bastard - cynical, homophobic, in deep denial of his own true feelings and pretty heartless in the way he's using Stella (but then she's using him, too). And I really dug this take on him. It ain't pretty, but it fits with a post-Vegas Ray who's gotten so far away from what made him a good person and a good cop that it's almost impossible for him to find his way back. And I liked how you treated the complexities of his feelings for Fraser. Because for Ray, love ain't enough or even close to it - he's a straight guy and he cannot fall in love with a guy. It makes so much sense that Ray would accept the undercover gig to avoid dealing with his attraction to Fraser that I'm stunned it's not actually fanon :-) Anyway, great job on this tough, real and heartbreaking fic. Thanks for posting!