understood | IC Contact

Bullet's still there.

[ Which is literally all the information Fraser has given Andy about it in the past, but at least now he knows which scar it is?

And that this means his partner shot him in the back. ]

Can... can you help me understand the timeline. Was the basketball before or after you being shot?

... ah, certainly. Well, as you know, I first went to Chicago on the trail of the killers of my father. That case was in the hands of a detective with the Chicago PD, one Ray Vecchio, who, after assisting me in bringing said killers to justice, became my best friend and close colleague in my role as liaison to the Canadian Consulate. After a few months of working together, we ended up pursuing a case that resulted in the initial basketball incident—while attempting to protect innocent people from extortion at the hands of "basketball nemesis" [ He does air quotes. ] I was badly beaten.

Later that year... some months later, in fact... Ray Vecchio accidentally shot me. It wasn't until the next year, well after I'd recovered, that we encountered basketball nemesis once more, during the time surrounding Louis's death.

... okay, so we think the basketball's haunting you over the first time?

[ He can't actually address any of the heavier stuff without going batshit on Vecchio. So he's gonna try to be reasonable about this. ]

I can't imagine what else it would be. Well... no, I suppose I did also work on a basketball related case with our Ray. But I don't think I found it particularly emotionally significant...? Admittedly, I did lose my boots, temporarily, which was a bit upsetting, but they were returned, so I don't think it's really comparable.

When you let Ray V go look into that, did you think he was gonna abuse his power?

No. I believed implicitly that he would not.

Well Ben, I think trusting your partner is the entire point of having a partner, and in this scenario you did what you were supposed to do.

[ Sometimes you don't know you want to hear something until you hear it. Fraser swallows hard and presses even closer to Andy. ]

I appreciate the vote of confidence.

This is kind of a silly parallel, but Henry hated that I beat up that bully. He only found out after, and he was furious at me.

But he never told anyone it was my fault, because he knew the guy was a bully, and he trusted me, and he didn't wanna fight me over it.