crack_van | Retired Guy Hobbies by Greensilver (PG-13ish)

Fandom: DUE SOUTH
Pairing: Ray Vecchio/Stella Kowalski
Length: 4,214 words
Author on LJ:

greensilver
Author Website: Her Website
Why this must be read:

The series finale pairing of Ray Vecchio/Stella Kowalski might (to some) not make much sense. Learning about where they ended up could look like it's OOC. What

greensilver has done with this beauty of a story is show us what happens after their so-called Happily Ever After. Sure Vecchio loooves the beach and the retirement and, to a lesser extent, being so far away from Chicago. Stella seems to be thriving in Florida and so, Vecchio tells himself that he's happy.

Only that's not really the case.

For, despite brimming to his fingertips with love toward Stella and being reciprocated, he's lost as to what else is there to do with his life. So we see him try on different things and not quite getting the fulfillment he's seeking. Until, seemingly out of nowhere, he reconnects with some parts of himself that he though he had left behind. He ends up embracing the new and the old. Another thing that made me think that this was THE post-CotW Vecchio is his relationship with Frannie and what she becomes for him.

To me, this is how things went down for Vecchio and Stella after the show ended. The Vecchio in this fic is brave and loyal and human. The ending is full of grace and what I'd call pure Vecchioness.

And I, for one, wouldn't have it any other way.

In the concept stages, the ocean sounded great; when Stella rolled over one night and whispered at his ear, let's live on the beach, the idea even seemed kinda romantic. It would be just the two of them, down on one of those white sandy beaches with the palm trees and the bottle green water, and they'd have beach chairs and sunglasses and the kind of self-satisfied smiles that people who lived on the ocean always seemed to have. Ma could move into one of those fancy retirement communities where everyone did everything for you; she'd always hinted about wanting to live closer to Aunt Lena, anyway, and he could set her up real nice with all his back pay from the year in Vegas. Frannie could be a cop's secretary anywhere, and she'd love the beach. Maria and Tony were probably Chicago lifers, but that'd give him an excuse to get back to the city now and then; it all worked out.

Yeah, the ocean sounded great. And at first, it was great; they stayed in a hotel for two weeks while Stella searched for a house, living off take-out and snack food and whatever they could scavenge from the hotel vending machines. By day, Stella was all business, but at night, she could unwind with the best of them; a couple days into their stay, he even got her to bowl. She wasn't very good, but neither was he, so their scores sort of balanced out, and something about bowling or bowling alleys apparently got her all hot and bothered. The one time he did land a spare, she planted one on him next to the ball return and they high-tailed it back to the hotel.

Forget great; the ocean was fantastic.

Retired Guy Hobbies (Link goes to author's website)