"Figured I'd find you here."

Fraser was climbing the part of the rocks you weren't supposed to climb, but until somebody noticed, might as well let him have his fun. When he wore jeans and those soft shirts, he looked like a giant four-year-old

But who didn't look like a little kid here? Ray Vecchio was covering his sunburned scalp with that dumb Dudley Do-Right baseball cap they'd bought all those years ago -- his "I'm buying you that thing, Benny" and Fraser's, "No, I'm going to buy it for you, Ray." dissolving into brittle laughter in front of a store window.

Stupid hat made him look like he was trying to relive those wild and wacky Frankie Zucko years.

Fraser's Mountie hat covered that little streak of grey; not that the grey did a damn thing to make Fraser any older anyway. In fact, it made him look a little bit like a kid pretending to be Pepe Le Pew. Fraser didn't get Pepe Le Pew; the lovesick skunk's comedic genius was lost on anyone who actually spoke French.

Ray felt one of those sharp little jolts of time. Damn, but they should have been kids together. "See anything from up there, Tom?"

"Nope. Not a thing, Huck." Fraser's mouth twitched into that itty bitty soft smile. "Climb up."

Ray stepped back. "Nothing doing. I came for Space Mountain, not mountain climbing." You paid out a couple hundred to get the guy down here, and all he wanted to do was pretend he was out in the great wild north somewhere. Typical. He'd be starting the day off with calisthenics if you let him.

Fraser put out his hand. The guy never had figured out how to take no for an answer.

"Fine." Ray clambered his way up onto the rock, scraping all hell out of his hands in the process. But he had to admit, once he was up there the view was pretty cool. "So, you having fun?"

Fraser sat down, which meant that damn leg was bothering him again. Not that Fraser'd ever admit he was starting to do the limping Mountie thing all the time these days. Hugging his knees to his chest, he nodded contentedly.

"So you admit it's better when nobody thinks you're one of the Disney characters?"

Fraser raised his chin. "Those people just needed help, Ray. They didn't necessarily think I worked here." But it had been pretty easy to convince him to leave the uniform at the hotel after that first day of people telling him what a rotten tour guide he was.

"They called you 'Prince Charming', Fraser."

"Look, there's Francesca." Fraser interrupted. Touchy.

And there Frannie was, on the mainland. A cadre of beefy college boys followed after her, carrying a ton of stuffed animals and cotton candy. Frannie was pretending to ignore them and having way too much fun.

"Since she got married it's like she gives off phermones or something." Ray muttered. Second time down the aisle seemed to be the charm for the Vecchios.

"She seems very happy in her second marriage." The Mountie was practically smirking at him.

Ray nodded, guilty as charged, and then laid back to let the sun pour down on him. They didn't have sun like that in Chicago. He caught a glimpse of the main army of Vecchios doing a quick-march towards a juice stand and blew a big goofy kiss to them. Life was so good.

Fraser suddenly went all stiff, the way he did when he heard a kidnapping or sighted a parking violation.

Ray looked around -- probably somebody was littering on the mainland, and he'd have to explain why his friend felt he had to swim across to pick it up. "What?"

But Fraser was watching a bunch of kids play down below. A small sandy-haired boy was running in and out of the cave mouth, being chased by two larger boys. A pale little girl with a dark ponytail was running back and forth on the floating bridge, making it tilt and jump. Three tiny mouse-eared children clustered around their mother, shrieking for ice cream.

With a yell, the sandy-haired kid slipped and fell into the dust. The other boys hauled him up and dusted him off, one of them immediately taking over the role of chasee.

When Ray looked back from that, the pale little girl was making a spectacularly bouncy run across the bridge. She skidded at the end and landed with a jolt on the ground, her hair-elastic snapping. Dark hair exploded over her shoulders. With that mane around her face she looked older, and Ray realized she was probably eight or nine, just small for her age.

"She does, doesn't she?" Fraser passed a hand over his eyes, then slid down the rock and walked slowly towards her.

The rock slammed Ray's elbow and the ground sent a mean little shockwave up to his knees as he landed. "Benny?"

"Are you alright?" Fraser called to the girl.

She ran back to the middle of the bridge, then turned to look at Fraser, bouncing up and down. "Nice hat." Her eyes were that wild blue; she was going to be some kind of beautiful someday.

For one sharp little moment she gave them her profile and Ray saw her as Fraser must have. Eight years, oh yeah.

Then she sighted some new kids coming along and ran to the end of the bridge to protect her territory.

Ray took a deep breath, clamped down and kept his voice steady, calm. "Yeah, she does. She sure does." He put his hand on Fraser's shoulder to lead him away.

Fraser stood there like a boulder. Ray had a brief, unkind vision of himself knocking Fraser's bad leg out from under him and simply carrying the bigger man away. Not that his back would let him pull crap like that anymore. Thank god they were nowhere near the train ride, anyway.

"Dief would have liked it here." Fraser said at last. There was a tone in his voice that it hurt Ray to hear. But he let himself be led then.

A war for the bridge started behind them. Ray hoped those kids' mothers were watching. He moved his hand across to Benny's other shoulder, letting the Mountie feel his support. Oh yeah, he hoped her mother was watching.

"Sure he would, Benny. Happiest place on earth."