Title Half-Full Disclosure
Author Amedia (amedia@fanfic.tv)
Remix of: A to Z by diabolicalfiend
Summary: Tin Man/Due South crossover. Ray Kowalski tries to explain how his resemblance to a certain Longcoat complicated a missing persons case.
Characters: From Due South: Ray Kowalski, Ray Vecchio, Benton Fraser; mention of Lt. Welsh, Elaine Besbriss, and Armando Languistini. From Tin Man: mention of Wyatt Cain, Jeb Cain, Raw, Ambrose, DG, Azkadellia, and Zero
.
Rating: G
Word count: 1457
Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by Imagiquest Entertainment and Alliance Communications. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.
Author's note: Beta'd by wonderful Due South author and aficionado akite.

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Benton Fraser was surprised how much he looked forward to returning to Chicago; his visit to Canada had seemed pleasant, but strangely quiet without either of the Rays who normally cluttered, complicated, and bedevilled his life. Upon arrival, he made a beeline to the station, where he found Vecchio and Kowalski looking strangely discombobulated. "Did anything happen while I was gone?" Fraser asked.

Ray Vecchio looked at Ray Kowalski. "I'm not gonna tell him."

Ray Kowalski looked at Ray Vecchio. "Well, I'm sure as hell not gonna try to explain the last forty-eight hours."

"Gentlemen," said Fraser, "You are only inducing me to believe that something complicated and potentially fascinating happened during my absence." He folded his arms and put on a patient expression. "I will be happy to wait for one or both of you to give in and tell me everything. You realize that will happen sooner or later."

Vecchio sighed and turned to Kowalski. "You get that report done?"

"Kinda. I'll get it." He left the room, returning almost immediately with a sheaf of papers. "Look, just read this," he said. "It'll explain everything." He began to hand the report to Fraser, then pulled it back. "Welsh says I gotta rewrite the whole thing, so ..."

Fraser smiled. "I shall not form any opinion of your narrative capabilities based on the draft, I promise," he said, reaching out.

"Ha ha. Like that would be the problem," said Vecchio.

Kowalski was still holding the draft report back. "What about my sanity?" he asked.

Fraser looked at him curiously, but Kowalski appeared dead serious. "Promise," he said, and Kowalski handed him the report.

Fraser flipped to the narration, which was much longer than usual; Kowalski had stapled several extra sheets of lined paper covered with his quirky handwriting. Welsh's comments were in black marker, probably a Sharpie, Fraser deduced.

"We'll leave you to it," said Vecchio, nudging Kowalski through the door. "Have a good read, Benny!"

Fraser sat down at an unused desk and began to read. The entire first paragraph had a single diagonal line through it and the words, "Are you NUTS?!" written next to it in Welsh's Sharpie, but could be easily read through the markings.

"It all began when I was called in to help on a missing persons case. Two girls, one twenty with blue eyes, one twenty-six with brown eyes, both dark hair, fair skin. A group of four guys had come in, claiming they were looking for these girls who had been gone for a month. The minute I walked into the room two of these guys jumped me. Took me totally by surprise, no chance to defend myself. Elaine tried to stop them and they whomped on her, too. One of them was going on about how I killed his wife and the other one insisted my name was Zero. As if! Vecchio and the lieutenant showed up with some uniforms and got them off of me. Vecchio was gonna take me down to the first aid station when the weirdest thing happened. Another guy that was with them, sort of a furry guy with a hood over most of his face, put his hand on me and all the pain went away and I was okay again, like it never happened. He did the same for Elaine. Said he was a healer, a special kind called a Viewer. Name of Raw. From another universe called the Outer Zone. He didn't say this stuff out loud, he just kinda passed it on while he was healing me. Then he told the first two guys that I was okay and that I wasn't Zero, and they believed him. Turns out this Zero is a bad guy in their universe and looks just like me.

"The civilians had an address where the girls were supposed to be staying." Fraser smiled to see that the word "girls" had been crossed out and the word "women" written in the margins along with a note that said "20 and 26 are not GIRLS!" Fraser continued reading Kowalski's narrative. "Vecchio and I wanted to check out the location alone, but the civilians insisting on coming along. Turns out one of them - the older one of the two who jumped me - is a police man in their universe." Welsh had crossed out "universe" and written "jurisdiction" in the margin.

"I forgot to mention, the fourth one was named Ambrose. I think there was something wrong with his head because he never took his hat off. And he seemed kinda simple and smart at the same time. Anyway, we found a dead bodyguard at the hotel but no sign of the girls. Looked like they never came home from Wicked three nights earlier. The guy at the desk gave us the elevator surveillance tapes and we saw the girls being escorted by Armando. Armando! So that gave us a clue."

Fraser saw that Welsh had circled the name Armando and written, "Armando WHO? Not everyone reading this report is going to know who this is."

"Vecchio's evil twin," Fraser said under his breath. "Thought he was dead." Then he noticed another arrow leading to the bottom of the page - Welsh had run out of room on the side - where it said, "Wait, isn't Armando dead?" Fraser chuckled and read on.

"Vecchio got a lead that the princesses were being held in a warehouse over on Halsted." Welsh had stricken through "princesses" and written "girls" in the margin, then apparently thought better of it, crossed out "girls" with a dramatic "x" and written "WOMEN!!!" in block letters underneath. "Once again, all six of us had to go. I was able to exploit my resemblance to Zero to get into the warehouse and find the girls, and the others joined me shortly. There were some fisticuffs."

Fraser snorted. "Undoubtedly a substantial understatement," he said to himself.

"Ambrose turned out to be some kind of super-ninja, which was very helpful in dealing with the gang. We rounded them up and took them all in. The girls had been mistreated but with Raw's assistance and a short trip to the Emergency Room they were both okay." Fraser wasn't surprised that Welsh had crossed out the second reference to Raw's special powers.

"We did not investigate the perp's motive in any detail but he appeared to want the girls because of their--" Fraser frowned. Kowalski himself had struck out the next word and then scribbled over it to make it illegible. Fraser turned the paper over and looked at the impression on the back; he could just make out the word. "Magic?" he mused aloud. "Hmmm." He continued reading. Next to the scribbled-out "magic" Kowalski had continued with the words "specialized abilities that Zero wanted to exploit for some criminal purposes." Welsh had circled that phrase and written, "Good!" next to it. Fraser shrugged and read on. "We have since learned that not just Zero, but fifteen members of the gang are from the Outer Zone and we are attempting to extradite them." Welsh had circled "Outer Zone" and written, "how about CANADA?!" in the margin.

"Hmmph," said Fraser to himself. "I am disappointed that the lieutenant would even consider Canada to be a likely source for such hooligans." He had been defending his adopted homeland for so long, in order for his Otherside backstory to remain plausible, that he no longer needed to fake his indignation. He took out his own pen, crossed out "CANADA" and looked around the room for inspiration. A stack of older reports sat on one corner of the desk waiting to be filed; the top one said, "Theft, Diamonds" at the top. "Hm. Diamonds. Ice."

Fraser looked up from writing "Iceland" with a flourish in the margin of the final page to see both Rays standing over the desk, looking worried. "Well?" said Vecchio.

"Well, what?" There was no way that Fraser could share with his partners the staggering irony that he himself had been sent to the Otherside to provide assistance in just such a contingency, only to have been away when it happened. Nor could he properly convey his relief and gratitude that they had handled it successfully themselves.

"Whaddaya think? Are we nuts?"

Fraser considered telling them that he found it highly unlikely that either of them, sane or not, could have invented such a story. Instead, he pretended to give the question lengthy and serious consideration as the two Rays looked increasingly more anxious. "Of course not," he said at last, amused by their obvious relief. "Or, perhaps I should say--" they stiffened up again, and he smiled reassuringly. "I should say, no more than usual."



THE END

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