Benton Fraser is in Chicago and he meets Ray "Killer" Kowalski. Benton Fraser is either in his canon role, or he's just been sacked from the RCMP, or he was sacked from the RCMP years ago and is now a folk singer. Ray was the onetime lead singer of a punk band called Area 2 and is now the manager of a Gilman Street/ABC No Rio type DIY punk venue called Unit 2. They like each other despite their obvious differences. Ray Vecchio is also there, heartily disapproving of the whole thing (and falling in love with Stella, who in this universe is a public defender, not a prosecutor, but is still Ray K's ex). Ray tries to explain punk to Fraser and plays him some cassette tapes. If Fraser is a folk singer in this, Ray agrees to record a song with him, and maybe play guitar at some shows. If not, not.

That's it! I don't really have much of an idea for a plot, really.

• Benton Fraser: the same as in the show, unless he's a folk singer. If he's a folk singer, he's become popular with a wholesome image and small-c conservative musical choices. He's recording in Chicago, but still lives in the North and plays a lot of benefit concerts. If not a cop, has a lot of unexplored feelings about leaving the RCMP, which he did not choose to do - either because a) he let Victoria go all those years ago and she then held up a store and killed someone, or because b) the plot of the pilot went differently and he was forced out of the RCMP.
• Ray "Killer" Kowalski: Former lead singer of CUJO, Area 2 and the Kowalskis. Still reeling from the breakup of Area 2, the gruelling lifestyle required from being in Area 2, some stressful years involved with HIV/Aids activism and his divorce from Stella. Now running Unit 2 but somewhat jaded and faded, as he is in canon at the start of series 3. Feels out of his depth at Unit 2 and is unhappy about having to run it.
• Ray Vecchio: basically the same as in the show. Vehemently outraged by Kowalski, and Fraser's friendship with/attraction to Kowalski. His idea of punk comes from police training about gang violence and extremism. Attracted to and trying to start a relationship with Stella. Becomes conflicted when he finds out that Stella 1) is Kowalski's ex, and 2) was very involved in the punk scene herself.

  "Yeah, yeah," Vecchio said, rolling his eyes, "We try to put 'em away, you try to get 'em out." "Two little words, Vecchio: due process," Stella said, without even looking up from her files. "I understand that the Chicago Police Department sometimes has trouble with those two little words."

• Stella Kowalski: Was married to Ray, managed Area 2, and wrote some of the lyrics to their early songs. She booked punk shows and later helped set up Unit 2 to provide a permanent non-profit venue for punk and DIY music in Chicago. Her ugly breakup with Ray K means she's no longer involved with Unit 2 and has spent the last few years concentrating on her career. Is conflicted about starting a relationship with Ray V.
• Louis "Gardie" Gardino: bass player in Area 2. Died pre-fic, eventually leading to Area 2 breaking up.
• Jack Huey: drummer in Area 2. Became a cop after Gardie died and the band broke up. Ray K does not understand or respect this decision and is still bitter about it. Huey has his own resentments towards Kowalski, especially about Gardie's death.
• Sam Franklin is also there, but I don't know how, exactly.

The basic problem is that in this AU Ray Kowalski would probably hate cops, and Fraser is a cop, or at least an ex-cop. Kowalski would hate cops because the fictional punk scene he's part of is based on real life punk scenes which a) were subjected to police harassment and b) had a strong anarchist and left influence. It is possible to make Ray Kowalski hate cops - he has a strong sense of justice rather than a devotion to following the rules - but I don't think it's possible to make Ray Kowalski hate cops and fall in love with a cop or ex-cop. Similarly, it's very difficult to make Fraser fall in love with a cop-hater (even though in canon he seems to have a bit of a weakness for law-breakers). Plus once you let a little bit of realism in, you have to deal with the fact that the real life Chicago PD of the 70s and 80s did a bunch of really evil things. Like, there is a design picked out for a memorial to all the people they tortured, that's how evil. And also that queer activists in early 90s Chicago got beaten and homophobically harassed by cops.

So, what to do? I haven't figured it out.

Area 2 are meant to be a hard-edged, politically charged punk band. Kind of a Chicago equivalent to Fugazi in DC or SS Decontrol in Boston or the Dicks in Austin: a band that made a big splash back in the day and are still considered "legends" in their local scene. Unfortunately for the band members, being a legend in DIY hardcore punk legend doesn't pay the bills or buy you lunch.

I never really had a concrete idea of what they should sound like, but then I started listening to the Angelic Upstarts a lot and weirdly, I now see them as being similar to the Angelic Upstarts. Shouty, populist, 2nd-generation punk with a lead singer who can't exactly sing but is powered by fury, and an anti-police message rather than anything more "sophisticated". Area 2 would be more concerned about their role in the scene than their artistic purity, they would do plenty of covers (including of Police Oppression by the Angelic Upstarts) that they thought would speak to The Kids. They would kind of carry the memory and history of the Chicago punk scene, and play songs that were of symbolic or cultural significance to their audience, doing something that Fraser the folk singer can recognize.

Important Bands:

• Angelic Upstarts
• The Clash
• Dead Kennedys
• Fugazi
• Los Crudos
• Limp Wrist
• The Replacements
• Tribe 8

• the fic is called "the 39th parallel" because that's where Chicago is.
• In real life, the CPD divide Chicago into different Areas. So Area 2 the band are named after the real life Area 2, the Southside of Chicago, which is where Jon Burge tortured over 100 people to try and obtain confessions to crimes.
• Area 2's first band name was CUJO, which was of course an acronym (it stood for Chicago Under Jackboot Oppression). But they changed it, because it didn't really make any sense.
• Unit 2 is of course named after a line from Kids of the Black Hole by the Adolescents, which is maybe the best song ever written. In-universe, it got its name from Area 2.
• Stella and her role in Unit 2 is inspired by Nancy Barile (a punk whose husband Al Barile was the lead singer of influential Boston band SS Decontrol) and by all the other women who ran the US punk scene in the 80s. Nancy's memoir is called I'm Not Holding Your Coat. I couldn't imagine Stella having any other attitude to the scene if Ray was involved.
• Stella divorced Ray because she wanted to pursue her law career more seriously, and Ray didn't like it.
• I am of course stealing Gardie's nickname, his closeness to Ray K and his pre-fic death from the Hockey AU.
• In this fic Ray knows Canada pretty well, because he toured Canada back and forth several times with Area 2.
• When he isn't volunteering at Area 2, Ray sometimes takes a few shifts at Championship Vinyl.
• The Crystal Ballroom was a rock venue in this universe.
• In this universe, Beth Botrelle is a civilian aide at the 2-7. She was never charged with her husband's murder.
• Unit 2 is on Haymarket Street.

  "It seems a little unusual to name a street after a riot," Fraser said. Ray snorted. "Well they didn't name the street, we did." At Fraser's disbelieving look, Ray explained, "When we opened Unit 2 this whole neighborhood was way more rundown. We were the gentrifiers, I guess. The street sign was so faded and fucked up that we stole it and replaced it with a new one that said Haymarket Street. When the city came in to start fixing up stuff I guess they didn't realize we invented the name." He nodded to the sign. "Now they've even got a Haymarket Lane to go with Haymarket Street."