Work Text:
1. The 1900s. "Appeal to Reason." Vecchio is an anarchist union organizer with a rule: "Never get involved with a worker on one of your campaigns." Then he meets Kowalski, a wage slave in the Chicago meatpacking plant he hopes to organize. Fraser is a muckraker (although he prefers the term "investigative journalist") who hopes that his book about the horrible conditions in the industry will touch America's hearts. But as the workers in Kowalski's plant go on strike and the Pinkertons descend, it's the hearts of the three men that are in the worst danger...
2. The '10s. [I could not come up with one for this, so I asked for suggestions. My favorite was catwalksalone's: "Somewhere in southern England in a hospital for wounded soldiers, three men are waiting only to go home. Shell-shocked, ex-boxer Ray Kowalski can't bear the slightest noise, jumping at shadows and unable to sit still. Ray Vecchio, a tailor by trade, is learning to cope without the eye and the three fingers he lost to flying shrapnel and Benton Fraser, champion birler, is wondering what kind of life a one-legged lumberjack can have in the wilds of Canada. Can the friendship (and more) that grows between the three of them heal them in unexpected ways? Will they find the new lives they so desperately seek?"]
3. The '20s. "Tax Evasion." Stella's running a Sanger clinic with Kowalski's help (he smuggles the diaphragms over the Canadian border), and Frannie's a liberated woman who could use some reliable birth control. Fraser and Vecchio are teetotalling cops who'd give anything to take down Al Capone, so they're understandably annoyed when Lieutenant Welsh assigns them the job of shutting down Stella's clinic...
4. The '30s. "Lady in Red." Victoria's the moll of a small-time bank robber whose biggest claim to fame is that he used to run with Dillinger, and she wants out. Ray and Ray accept her help in setting up a sting for the guy. Everything is going according to plan until two rival law enforcement agencies try to horn in on the CPD's turf--Agent Ford of J. Edgar Hoover's FBI, and a Mountie who claims he's been tracking Metcalf across Canada. This Fraser guy says he can help, but Ray and Ray are deeply suspicious of his funny red uniform and the way he gets all dreamy and hot-eyed whenever anyone says Victoria's name...
5. The '40s. "The Great Escape." Fraser and Vecchio fly a bomber together in a Canadian-American International Goodwill Brigade, and they've--bonded, I guess you could say. But when Vecchio is called away to go deep undercover in Mussolini's fascist government, Fraser does his best to adjust to his new partner, ace fighter pilot Kowalski. Then Vecchio's cover is blown and he ends up in a concentration camp. Fraser knows he will sacrifice anything to save his friend, but what he doesn't expect is Kowalski's offer to help. Using Fraser's tracking skills and Kowalski's knowledge of Polish, they set out on a terrifying journey...
6. The '50s. "Blacklisted." McCarthyism is at its height, and Kowalski was fired after it came out that his dad's a card-carrying Communist. Vecchio quit the force out of loyalty to his partner, and now they run a PI business (although Vecchio's pretty sure he does most of the work while Kowalski's out tailing his ex-wife, Stella). Fraser collects Inuit folk music, and he's also helping organize Paul Robeson's latest concert. Robeson's passport has been revoked, but he's going to perform for striking Canadian miners from just this side of the border. Fraser believes there will be an attempt on Robeson's life, so he hires the two ex-cops to work security...
7. The '60s. (Okay I cheated here, this one is Hugh/Callum but it's too perfect to resist!) "Blowing my lungs out for a dollar a day." Hugh's a Canadian folksinger trying to make a start in New York City with nothing but attitude and his harmonica. He wants to bring in an edgier, angrier kind of folk, but things are slow to get going. By the time a shady fat guy in a bandana offers him a role in a roadtripping film homage to Woody Guthrie and Cisco Houston, Hugh's hungry enough to consider anything. But it's not until he meets Callum Rennie, the guy slated to play Cisco, that he knows he's gotta do this...
8. The '70s. "Dodging." Kowalski's run away with Stella to a small Canadian town to escape the draft. It's mostly American hippies in their part of town, and all the cabin-building and acoustic guitars and pot and experimenting with lesbianism kinda puts Kowalski on edge. He spends most of his time with the local cop, Fraser, even though the guy keeps trying to bust Stella's friend Frannie for growing and also runs the local library in his spare time, which is just creepy. Kowalski's working up his nerve to make a move ("Of COURSE Fraser won't arrest you for indecency," he keeps telling himself) when a new guy shows up in town--Vecchio, in town to drag his baby sister home to Chicago. Vecchio is sexy and sarcastic and wouldn't have the faintest idea how to macrame, and Kowalski is more confused than ever. Maybe this free love stuff isn't such a bad idea after all...
9. The '80s. "You Should Probably Try To Repress This. Or We Could Fuck." Kowalski's job as an ATF agent gets a LOT more complicated when crack cocaine hits the streets. Then he almost runs down a cop with a truly APPALLING haircut, and the guy and his wacky Mountie friend stake out Kowalski's apartment, threatening to ruin the bust he's been working on for months--which doesn't mean he can resist changing without closing the blinds...
10. The '90s. Fraser comes to Chicago on the trail of his father's killers, and because he falls in love with Vecchio he remains, attached as liaison...and the rest is history. BOYS!