Title: A Daily Reminder Author: Ellen. Rating: General. Genre: Drama. Pairing: none. He scratched his chest for all it was worth. He hated the thing, but it was on his body to stay. Staring in the mirror, he looked at the remnant of a job long ago. A job that took him from his family and friends for over a year. A job he was surprisingly good at and enjoyed at times. But a job that turned him into an unfeeling person for a long time after it was done. Ray Vecchio frowned one last time before putting on his shirt and covering the offensive tattoo on his chest. The tattoo is of a knife plunging into a red heart. For a brief second, Ray?s reminded of how the tattoo came to be on his body. It was an unpleasant remembrance. The FBI had sent him to the tattoo parlor on the bad side of Chicago. Arriving at dusk, Ray headed in to the almost vacant room. A man covered entirely in tattoos met him on the other side of the door. "You Mr.Vecchio?" The man asked with a wide grin of crooked teeth. "Yeah. I was told you would know what to do." Ray warily looked around the room. The whole idea of a tattoo frightened him, but it was needed. When the FBI insisted, he knew there was no getting out of the ordeal. "Got my orders right here. If you ask me, it's not my best seller. But I was paid well for what you're about to receive." "Let's just get it over with." And Ray took off his shirt for the man to begin. The pain was unbelievable. Ray refused to watch and instead looked over his shoulder at all of the designs and artwork displayed on the walls. He countered the pain with studying mentally for his undercover assignment. His cover was mob connected and the facts to remember were astounding. One wrong move and his life would end unpleasantly. So Ray was constantly going over the information in his head. Hours later, with a pain not to be ignored, Ray got into his car a changed man. Forever changed. He carefully touched his chest where a bandage covered his new tattoo that was needed to portray the man in Vegas, Armando Langoustini. The flashback ends and Ray was still standing in front of his mirror patting his tattoo through his shirt. He really should investigate on getting the horrid thing removed, he mused. But a sense of pride kept him from doing just that. It was pride of having kept his cool and performing well undercover. But mainly pride for becoming Ray Vecchio again. Because the tattoo was a reminder of how evil he could be in a given situation. And that was what scared Ray Vecchio the most.