Chapter 20

They were met at the airport by Lieutenant Welsh, Inspector Thatcher, and another Inspector that Fraser didn't know. Now that Fraser was more aware of his senses and what they could do, he felt an almost audible (to him at least) click when they stepped out of the airplane (and Ray was rolled off the plane in his wheelchair) and officially into Chicago. It seemed that to his senses at least, Chicago was home. That was a bit disturbing to him as he had never really thought about the city as home before. Yes, he had grown much more comfortable within its boundaries the longer he lived here, but home had been the Northwest Territories in Canada, not Chicago, USA.

"Hey, Lieu, Inspector," Ray greeted them as soon as they met their superiors at the gate, and then before anything more could be said he turned to Fraser. "Let's go get furface before he gets himself loose and goes after a kid's ice cream cone."

"Oh dear, yes that would be just like him to do that for not being allowed to ride with us," Fraser groaned. While Dief had flown before and knew the regulations as well as he did, the wolf never failed to get upset with him for the perceived insult of being crated up like a package. As a result, he usually indulged himself by tracking down treats that he wasn't supposed to have, such as the aforementioned ice cream.

The unknown Inspector was surprised at how the brash American just nodded at both Constables and they proceeded to take off without even waiting for an introduction, with Detective Vechio in a wheelchair with Constable Fraser pushing him and Constable Mackenzie walking along side them using crutches. He had read Constable Fraser's file and so knew that the 'furface' that the American referred to must be Constable Fraser's wolf. What he didn't know was why they thought that a simple animal would be able to get himself out of an airline crate much less cause some type of disturbance. He, Inspector Thatcher and Lieutenant Welch followed them, him bewildered by their behavior and Thatcher and Welch resigned.

It turned out that they were correct in their assumption. Diefenbaker had gotten out of his crate as soon as it was unloaded and it had caused a commotion. Or rather, the fact that he was allowing a very young child to pet him had the child's mother screeching up a storm and demanding that security get that wild animal away from her baby. "That is not necessary madam," Fraser assured the mother. To her shock, Fraser walked right up the wild animal that security was afraid of and spoke to him. "Diefenbaker, I know that you are merely being polite to the child but his mother is very concerned."

"In other words Dief, you're about ta give the lady a heart attack. Send the kid back ta his mom before ya get inta any trouble." Ray had followed Fraser and they had both positioned themselves so that Dief and the little boy were between them and the mother. Dief heaved a sigh and pushed the little boy with his nose, not hard enough that he was in danger of toppling over but hard enough that the boy did take a few steps towards his mother. Step by step, Dief herded the child back to his mother at which point he sat down and politely lifted his paw for her to shake.

In shock the woman did so and then took her son by the hand. Satisfied, Dief got up and trotted back over to his humans. Welch didn't need to be fluent in wolf to read his 'told you so' attitude.

Fraser and Ray merely looked at each other and sighed. They both knew that Dief was going to make them pay for doubting him. "It isn't that we doubt your diplomatic abilities," Fraser began as they headed to get their luggage.

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"Gentlemen, life is good," Simon beamed at the men crowded around Buck Wilmington's hospital bed. He leaned back against the wall as there was no place for him to sit down. Team Seven occupied every chair in the room, Blair was busy at the Loft screening secretaries for the Sentinel and Guide Center and Jim was down at the station wrestling the paperwork that the bust had generated. "We not only have half of Jensen's suppliers in custody with so many charges they won't get out from under them for a century, tech squad finally broke Jensen's encryption on his computers. We have a concrete list of everyone he ever worked for, with and against as well as his independent buyers going back fifteen years. Congratulations gentlemen, you just helped to put a major dent in not one but several international crime rings."

"I wonder who won this trip's pool?" Ezra wondered out loud as he endlessly shuffled his deck of cards.

"Johnson, Team Three," Vin said without missing a beat from honing one of his knives.

Chris snorted, "The man had to win sometime."

"Now brother, it isn't nice to make fun of the crippled," Josiah grinned as Nathan snorted coffee out his nose.

"Damn Josiah, don't do that!" he said as he recovered. The rest were to busy laughing at him to help him wipe up the mess. "Private joke," he muttered to Simon who was staring at him in bewilderment.

"Don't worry about it," Chris waved at the laughing hooligans he called a family. "They'll find anything funny right now. We're glad to help Simon. Consider it payback for getting our boys set up."

"Here, here," came from around the room. No matter what their injuries were, or how close some of the close calls had been, seeing Vin and Ezra bonded as Sentinel and Guide had made everything worth it; even knowing that they had added yet another part to their 'travel curse' legend.

"Sandburg tells me that since Vin already has had a lot of training, all he really needed was to find his Guide and learn the specialized techniques that he and Ellison had worked out for police work; evidence protocols, something called piggybacking, and what we as a team needed to look out for. You and your people gave us that and we're really grateful. We'll be headed back for Denver as soon as they release Buck. If you need anything for the case or anything at all, call us. We'll be on the first flight out." Chris got out of the recliner and held out his hand to Simon.

Simon took his hand and was glad to be able to call this man friend. He knew that not only did Sandburg and Ellison need as many Sentinel and Guide teams identified as possible, but the world did as well. If a Sentinel could be found before he or she was driven insane by their senses, they were one and all an asset to the protection of innocent civilians all over the world.

"Same here," he said and meant it, even if dealing with the Magnificent Seven did mean that he had more paperwork to deal with.

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It wasn't until they pulled up at the 27th Precinct that Ray realized that something wasn't just up, it was over the moon. Thatcher showing up (in full uniform no less) with a strange Inspector was one thing, he was probably here because of Maggie. But going to the station house rather than the consulate, and Welsh being jumpy meant that something big was going down. He didn't want to deal with something big. He just wanted to go to the consulate, pick up Fraser's and Diefenbaker's stuff and then go home. He had a bullet hole in his leg, two Sentinels to look after, a pushy wolf hounding his every move to make sure that he followed the doctor's orders, and a move to a two bedroom apartment to plan as he and Fraser had found out that Fraser didn't sleep well if he wasn't in Fraser's sensing range; he did not need anything else to deal with.

"Let's get this over with," he muttered as Fraser pushed him into the madhouse that was known as the 27th Precinct. It was amusing to watch as Maggie and Dief flanked him. He had too many 'Blessed Protectors' at the moment, even if one was a wolf and the other was a Mountie on crutches. The sight of Frannie in tears with a huge smile on her face shocked him out of his thoughts.

"Francesca, is everything alright?" She just grinned at them, not able to speak because of the tears that were still cascading down her face, and waved them into the Lieutenant's office. Fraser had never seen anything get that sort of reaction out of her before and although he was puzzled by it, followed the Lieutenant into his office, still pushing Ray in the wheelchair.

Ray on the other hand, wasn't puzzled by her reaction at all. He had seen it before, on other jobs, maybe not on Frannie's face, but on other people's. There was only one thing that brought that sort of look to a woman's face. So it was no surprise to him to see a bunch of feds standing in Welch's office around an exhausted man of Italian decent. Ray Vechio, the real Ray Vechio, was home.

Vechio was shocked when the small blond woman got between himself and Fraser when Fraser made a move to greet him and Fraser, for some reason known only to him backed off. He was here to see his family one last time and that included Fraser and to say a thank you to the guy that had taken his place for over a year. He didn't know why the lady was practically growling at Fraser, but he had to admit, he liked it. It had been a long time since anyone had tried to protect him, even if it was from his best friend.

One of the feds interrupted, "Ok Vechio, you got to see your family, and your partner, now let's go."

"That will not be happening," Fraser said turning to the fed. "Your services are no longer required. Detective Vechio will no longer be living within your jurisdiction, nor will he ever again be yours to control." Vechio gasped. This wasn't something that he had anticipated. Benny was actually telling off a fed, even if he was polite about it.

"He's going to Canada with me," Maggie said firmly. "As my brother has said, your services are no longer required." Diefenbaker made his wishes known to the feds as well, growling and even going so far as to show his teeth, making sure that he intimidated them right out of the office.

"Brother?" Vechio asked confused as he helped Maggie to sit down on the couch. He sat down next to her and absentmindedly helped her to put her feet up in his lap. The move wasn't unnoticed and everyone, including Frannie (who had gladly locked the door behind the feds when Dief had chased them out) gathered around the couch to tell Vechio what had happened in the time that he had been in Vegas. That included telling the new Inspector about the undercover assignment and the fact that Ray Vechio was Maggie's Guide and Ray Kowalski was Fraser's. It would be two weeks before Maggie and Vechio would be ready to leave for Canada. That meant that there was just enough time for Frannie and Turnbull to get married before they left.

Vechio turned to his sister, "Turnbull?"

"Yeah, you got a problem with that bro?" she demanded.

"Not as long as he makes you happy and he takes good care of you sis," he said. The very long explanation had left his head whirling, but several things had settled down as though they were puzzle pieces snapping into place. He had finally met the right woman, she was Fraser's little sister, Fraser looked happier than he had ever seen his friend, his sister was getting married to a Mountie like she always wanted and Kowalski had taken care of his family for him, which made him ok in Vechio's book. To Ray Vechio, nothing was more important than his family, and if he was really lucky one day he would be able to convince the lovely lady next to him to make his best friend his brother in law. Life was good, even if he did have to move to Canada.

The End