Fandom: Due South/The Crying Game
Pairings: Victoria/Fraser mentioned, Fergus/Dil
Rating: PG-13 for language
Spoilers: For the first season of Due South and obviously the movie.
Note: It wasn't even going to be a crossover at first.

BREAK

I met her in a roadside bar outside Austin, on a day when the sun was turning the streets to furnaces. They had the best air-conditioning in the county, which is why it was packed that night, dingy as it was. Neither of us was from around. She looked like she belonged to a high-rise, in her suit trousers, and her head held high like a queen or a gypsy. I'd fought with Dee that night, so I bought her a drink. She raised an eyebrow; we both knew she was out of my league. She took the drink anyway. Maybe she was just lonely.

We got to talking, and to drinking, and I told her about the porcelain dogs. Dee had been collecting them, one from each year of her life. She keeps them in a glass cabinet, as if she likes to look at her life set out in fragile, transparent kitch. Victoria said she might have the makings of an artist in her. I said I thought she had the makings of suicide, and she accused me of Freudianism. At that point I ran out of points, 'cause I work fucking construction, and I never cracked a book since I quit Ireland.

'You have to be careful who you love,' she said. 'It's usually the wrong person.'

'Your turn,' I said. 'It's Heartbreak Hotel night.' Hours had passed, it was pitch-black already outside, and inside, in the darkest corner, someone was sobbing.

She smiled with half her mouth only, red-painted lips slightly parted. 'He stabbed me in the back. Twice. Broke my heart. But I always knew he would. It was in his nature.'

'A scorpion does what is in its nature,' I murmured, and lit a cigarette.

'What's that?'

'Nothing. Just a story.'

The door opened and a gust of night chill blew in. She leaned into it. 'Funny,' she said, 'I came south to feel warm, but now I miss the cold.'

The jukebox began to play a halting version of Heartbreak Hotel, and we looked at each other and laughed a little. We danced to that tune, and left it at that.

I went back home to Dee and said I was sorry. It was true too. I don't know where Victoria went, only that I've never seen her since. She'd do fine, though. That was her nature. But I was glad I hadn't kissed her - glad I hadn't taken her to the back and pressed her fine shirt against the grimy wall at the back. I wanted to. That didn't matter. I remembered the glass.