ds_flashfiction | Time Challenge by Aingeal

Title: A Time to...
Author: Aingeal
Pairing: Fraser/Vecchio
Rating: G
Summary: Fraser thinks about the nature of time.
Notes: Thanks to

leda_speaks for a quick beta check.

A time to...

Benton Fraser was acutely aware of the fact that as time had passed through his life so too had his perception of it. It had taken on different meanings; there were different ways of measuring it. He understood it differently at key stages of his life. .

A time to play…

As a child his sense of time had been broad. He was aware of the seasons and of the time his father spent away from him – out first snow, back at spring thaw. Fraser recognised the signs that heralded his father's leaving and also his return. The seasons and the changes in nature were Fraser’s clocks as a child, everything was a rhythm created by nature.

The only time this had deviated was when his grandmother would come to find him playing hockey and then take him back home to do his homework. Fraser had known it was getting late when it got dark but he didn’t notice the passing of time so much when he was having fun with his friends. Their play never had a time limit.

A time to work…

The limits didn’t really appear until he went to the academy. All of a sudden he found there were routines to learn and master. Time became rigid, inflexible. There was a time to get up, a time to get his meals, a time to learn. Time was set not by the world around him but by a schedule. It had taken a few weeks for him to fully accustom himself to this schedule, but once he had done so the routine became as ingrained as a boy waiting for the first snow and willing it to be late this year.

Routine had stayed with him throughout his career. Of course, back in the territories it had taken on a different form. Routine would be structured around patrols; 24 hour, 48 hour or 72 hour patrols depending. Within that time frame he would have a set routine for getting up at first light, and bedding down when the sun set. It was a hybrid of the more rhythmical timekeeping of his youth and the fresh discipline of his Mountie training.

A time to think…

Then he’d come to Chicago and suddenly things had been very different. There was no discernable night anymore; the night was as busy as the day, bright neon lights blotting out the stars and the moon like an artificial sun. The seasons were still there but were affected by Man’s attempts to keep them at bay.

People too rushed about, not stopping for anything. The city was always on the move. Time was a commodity many believed wasn’t theirs to own or control and that it was something fleeting, slipping away. It was a mindset Fraser didn’t understand. Time was freely available if only people took the time to notice.

Fraser noticed this when he was standing guard duty. Guard duty reminded Fraser of his life before he had come to Chicago, when time was something that merely consisted of moment of duty followed by another. For Fraser, unlike the people hurrying past him who seemed to be willing time to slow down or speed up, the time never went quickly or slowly, it simply passed. Fraser couldn’t understand it. That was until he realised that time could be sped up.

It was when Ray started a habit of coming to talk to him long before his shift was over. Ray would stand next to him and talk about the day or a case, anything really. Sometimes he’d make a joke to try and break the infamous guard pose, sometimes he’d help tourists by giving directions. Fraser realised after a few days that the time went quicker with Ray there. Guard duty seemed to pass in the blink of an eye.

A time to love…

Ray Vecchio seemed to have altered how Fraser experienced time. With Ray time passed but it passed in a different way. Fraser always felt so much had been packed into the time that it was as if it had been sped up. They would go out for a meal, or go to see a movie and Fraser would be left wondering where the evening went. This was different to the play of his youth where he’d simply forgotten about time. He was more aware because he wanted to spend more time with Ray. Almost as if enjoying himself meant he was cheated out of time.

Then Fraser had discovered Ray could slow down time too. He’d noticed it the first time Ray had kissed him. Suddenly time was completely unimportant and Fraser felt he was living in a moment. He was so focussed on the kiss that time seemed to slow and stop. It was a strange feeling and one Fraser didn't notice until after the kiss had ended and it seemed no time at all had passed. And that was what happened with every kiss.

It wasn’t only the kisses that affected his perception of time. Every time they made love it felt like one single moment. A moment that lasted a long time but one which Fraser wished could last even longer as it seemed to last a long time but, once over, felt like no time at all. When lying in bed with Ray, Fraser felt the natural ebb and flow of time return to him. Together they created their own rhythm, a time far removed from clocks, dawn, dusk or even the seasons. It was a time made entirely of love and it was the time Fraser would cherish for as long as it lasted which he hoped would be forever. Never-ending, this time of love.