Um. Hi.
It's interesting; this is the first story I've ever written that I almost feel like putting a disclaimer of something on. But, uh, me and
lalejandra are perverts, and she wanted me to write this for her, and I could not refuse.
I expect that beyond the two of us, the audience for this story is very very small, and most people would think it squicky or gratuitous. I have no problems with this whatsoever.
All that said -- yay, story!
Title: Where is Your Sense of Indignation
Fandom: due South
Pairing: Ray Vecchio/Francesca Vecchio
Rating: R
Summary: Two a.m. phone calls were never a good thing.
Thank you to
estrella30 for beta.
About 12k, 2000 words.
Read
at my site or
below.
*****
Ray was in his bed, asleep, just like any sane person at two o'clock in the morning, but of course he was the one in the house who got up and actually answered the phone, because that's what he did, unlike Ma who wouldn't even wake up or Maria who would just go right back to sleep.
Early morning phone calls were never a good thing. Ray rolled out of bed and was across the room when it caught up with him -- his heart was pounding when he picked it and up and said hello.
"Ray?" said Frannie, and Ray huffed out a breath.
"Jesus Christ, Frannie, what the hell do you think you're doing, calling here at this hour -- I thought it was an emergency--"
"Ray," Frannie interrupted, in a soft voice, almost whispering, "can you come and get me? I want to come home."
Frannie's voice sounded like it did when she was trying not to cry. Ray frowned and said, "Yeah, yeah, Frannie, I'll be right there, okay? You stay right there and I'll be right over."
"Okay," Frannie said. "Hurry up."
Ray hung up the phone, put a pair of slacks on over his pajama bottoms, and grabbed his keys. It was a short drive to the apartment -- five minutes, give or take. Ray parked the car in the lot, locked it up, and jogged up the stairs to their floor.
Joey answered the door, dressed just in a wifebeater and boxers.
Ray said, "Where's my sister?"
"Ray, this has nothing to do with you, okay?" Joey started, and Ray pushed past him to get into the apartment. Ray'd only been here once before, when they moved all of Frannie's stuff over the day after the wedding; the place still looked spotless, like two weeks wasn't long enough for the wrapping to come off everything.
"Frannie?"
"I'm in here," Frannie called out sniffily -- her voice was coming from behind a closed door; Ray thought it was the bathroom.
Joey grabbed Ray's shoulder and twirled him around. "Look, man, this is none of your business, all right? This is between Fran and me--"
Ray knocked the hand off his shoulder and shoved Joey back from him. "When I got my sister calling me in the middle of the night to get away from you, I think that makes it my business, asshole."
Joey glared at him -- his face was getting red all over. "I'm telling you, Ray, stay out of this--"
"And I'm telling you to shut up," Ray said. He shoved him again for good measure, and went over to the bathroom door. It was locked, rattling when Ray tried to open it. "Frannie, open the door."
Frannie opened the door a crack. Her hair was a mess, her eyes swollen and red from crying. She didn't look like she'd been getting hit anywhere, so Ray decided Joey was gonna get to live.
"Get down to the car and wait for me," Ray said, handing her the keys. "I'll be down there in a minute."
Frannie hesitated a minute and then nodded. She opened the door and stepped out of the bathroom.
"Frannie!" Joey yelled, stepping forward again, but Ray grabbed him and slammed him against the wall.
"Don't touch her. Don't talk to her. Don't even look at her."
"Ray--" Frannie said. She was standing by the front door. Ray noticed her nightie for the first time -- it was light green and wispy, and short enough that Ray could see her panties.
"I'm taking care of this, Frannie. Go down to the car -- and for God's sake, put on a robe or something, will you?"
Frannie still looked uncertain, but she looked at Joey one more time and then disappeared into the bedroom. Ray glared at Joey, holding him still, until Frannie had grabbed her bathrobe and left the apartment.
"Let go of me, Ray," Joey said impatiently.
"You really think you're in a position here to be giving orders?"
Joey sneered at him but didn't say anything else; they both knew Ray was a fuck of a lot stronger than him -- the kid was scrawny as hell, barely even twenty-one. The runt shouldn't even be out of his mama's nest yet.
Frannie had just turned twenty. Ray had known she wasn't ready, but just like always, nobody ever listened to him.
"I don't know what's going on here," Ray said quietly, "but you don't come over to our house, you don't call, you don't do anything. If Frannie wants to see you again, that's her decision, but you stay the fuck away from her. You make my sister cry again, and you're going to be sorry."
Joey stared at him sullenly.
"Do you understand, scumbag?" said Ray. He punctuated the question with a smack to Joey's head.
"Jesus, Ray, yes, I get it!" Joey shouted, and Ray let go and stepped away.
"I'll come by for her stuff tomorrow. Have it all together for her."
Frannie was in the passenger seat, all curled up on herself, her face tucked into her arms on the dashboard. Ray let himself into the car and sat down.
Ray put his hand of the fluffy back of Frannie's robe and said, "You okay?" but Frannie just started sobbing louder.
Ray sighed. "I'll take you home now, okay? You can get some sleep. Ma hasn't laid a finger on your room, it's just the same as when you left."
"All right," Frannie said, voice muffled from her hands.
*****
Instead of going straight to bed as soon as they got home, though, Frannie took a sudden turn once they entered the door, and Ray followed her to the kitchen. He pulled out one of the chairs from the tiny kitchen table and sat down; Frannie fluttered around the room, putting on a tea kettle, reaching up on top of the fridge for the good cookie jar, opening and closing lots of cabinets and the fridge and the oven for reasons Ray couldn't even fathom. Maybe she just wanted to keep moving.
"Frannie," Ray said finally, and she stopped short and turned around and faced him. "Sit down."
"I don't want to sit down," Frannie said. She was biting her lip and her arms were crossed in front of her chest.
"C'mon," Ray said. He pulled out the other chair next to him and gestured toward it. "Sit down," he repeated. Frannie hesitated a couple seconds, and then walked towards him, stopping right in front of him.
Frannie's robe had come undone. Her breasts were right there in Ray's sightline. In a perfect world, baby sisters wouldn't have breasts. Ray went red and looked immediately up to Frannie's face.
"Oh, jeez, Frannie, don't start crying again, okay?"
Frannie sniffled. "I didn't thank you for coming and getting me."
"You don't have to thank me for anything, Frannie," Ray said, but it didn't work; she was crying again anyway. "Oh, jeez," Ray mumbled to himself, but he stuck in arms out anyway, and Frannie took the inch and made it a mile, wrapping herself completely around him.
Ray patted her back awkwardly. "Come on, Frannie."
"It's -- I'm so stupid," Frannie said. "I thought he loved me, I thought all this stuff, and really--" Frannie was shaking like a leaf, and Ray wrapped his arms tighter around her, too. He forgot how freaking tiny Frannie was, really, way smaller than she seemed; Ray could practically go twice around her, and even the fact that she was more or less sitting on his lap wasn't much of a burden.
"Hey, hey, hey," Ray said, trying out his most soothing voice, but it didn't do any good.
"I'm a freak," Frannie mumbled into his shoulder. "I'm a freak and a -- a dummy, and an idiot and I am going to die alone."
"Hey," Ray said again, "quit it. Look at me."
Frannie moved her head slowly until they were facing each other -- their faces were uncomfortably close the way she had them situated. She'd stopped crying by now, but she was still breathing heavily from the sobs, which meant when it heaved it was drawing a little unwanted attention to the fact that Ray's chest was pushed up awfully tight against her chest.
"What?" said Frannie.
Ray moved one of his hands from her back and put it on her face. "You're not a freak. You're my sister. Anybody who thinks anything else, they're the idiot."
Frannie's face softened a little more. Ray leaned forward to kiss her, a nice brotherly peck on the cheek--
Except not, because Frannie turned her head just a tad and Ray shifted his head just a little, and that wasn't Frannie's cheek, and that wasn't a peck, and Christ, that wasn't brotherly at all. They were still holding each other tight, and Frannie was still shaking, and none of this -- Jesus Christ.
Frannie made a soft, soft moan against Ray's mouth, and she shifted again, and Ray could feel her ass brushing against his crotch, and he wasn't sure quite how it happened but now one of his hands was against her breast. "It'll be okay," Ray mumbled helplessly, and Frannie moaned again, this time a little louder, and she moved again -- and that had to be on purpose, that had to be, the way she was rubbing against him, she had to feel his fucking hard-on, so Ray slowly moved his other hand down, down her back, Frannie's ass, around and up her thighs. And those tiny flimsy little panties she had on, they weren't doing a damn thing, and Ray could feel her, wet and ready -- ready for his fingers, his hand, his--
Jesus Christ, this was his sister. This was Frannie.
Ray was so turned on he was shaking. He thought maybe he was going to throw up. He tightened his grip on Frannie's thigh and said hoarsely, "I think maybe you need some sleep."
Frannie closed her eyes. Her lips were swollen, too, now, from kissing. "Sleep," she repeated. "I-- Yeah, that's probably a good idea, Ray."
"Yeah," Ray repeated weakly.
Frannie kept her eyes closed for another minute, and then slowly dragged herself up out of the chair. She pulled her robe tight around her and cleared her throat, not looking over at Ray.
"I'll go to my room, then."
"Good night," Ray managed. He stayed in the chair, completely still, for a couple minutes, before he stood up very carefully and headed to his own room. He took off his pants, climbed into bed, and fell asleep within five minutes; his next day was the day off from the station, and he didn't wake up until Ma started banging on his door to come down and have breakfast with his sisters and take Frannie down to see Father Behan before the day was out.