Casey Jones
I grinned at the picture on my nighttable. It depicted a raven-haired woman, whose face beamed back at me.
"You're hopeless, man," Eligio informed me from the top bunk.
Which just earned him a pair of rolled eyes and a playful smirk.
"And you're jealous," I pointed out.
"Oh, come on. Of what exactly? I have the choice of ladies out there, while you are going home to Julia Child and your white picket-fence."
I snorted at the idea of Jane being compared to a pearl-wearing housewife who was so bored out of her mind that she started writing a cookbook. Scratch that, Jane in pearls was enough of an impossibility in real life. And her cooking?
There was a reason we'd had the lastet smoke-detectors installed in our apartment.
Between the two of us, it was me who cooked and and took care of the everyday running of the household more often than not when I was home.
I loved her to bits, but that woman left her clothes wherever she found the space, and the mere idea of a picket-fence, white or not, would have her break out in hives in no time flat.
"At least you haven't gotten around to starting on the kiddies yet," Sorley sighed, letting himself flop back on his bed. (The one under Eligio.)
"Regrets?" Eligio needled, like a bloodhound scenting injured prey.
"No, never. Wyatt is all I could have asked for, but sometimes it's nice to come home and just be a couple for a while if you catch my drift. Not possible with a little kid around," Sorley told the top bunk, unable to look at us.
Sorley was married with one son, and his relationship with his wife was occassionally tricky. To say the least. Despite that, Sorley was a good man, a good comrade, to have by your side in combat.
I looked away, feeling a bit jealous. "Isa is her name, she's four so I've been told. This will be my first time meeting her." Jane and I never really discussed the idea of us having children, at least not together. If so, I knew we would've waited until I was home permanently.
Which would entail either not re-enlisting after my current contract ran out or working for one of the agencies.
But that was still in the far off future.
I shrugged. "You have to figure out your priorities and then decide what to do about them. I love Jane, but I'm not ready to quit. At least not yet. She respects that and doesn't pressure me into doing anything I don't want. Of course, I do the same for her."
I ran a hand through my hair, wondering for the n-th time how I'd gotten so lucky. Right, I'd seen her with Frankie, Tommy and some of my friends, taking care of them with her special brand of tough love. Subsequently, I'd decided to hold onto her for as long as she would allow it.
"Casey, you back with us?" Eligio grinned at me. "Were you just thinking of the Stepford Wife? Or how best to escape her clutches?"
That just earned him another snort.
Sorely openly rolled his eyes at our teammate. "Dream on, Jesús. Casey's Jane is a perfect angel."
I thought that the absence of sarcasm from this conversation made it sound far more surreal than absolutely necessary. It was bad enough I was going to have nightmares of a zombified Jane who was into cooking and white picket-fences now.
A shudder ran down my spine at the mere thought. No, thankee sir.
Jane was perfect the way she was. At least to me. And anyway, whose opinion, other than ours, counted?
Eligio dismissed that with the lazy wave of his hand. "As if. You're the one with the perfect wife, the perfect life, and probably also the perfect home."
Home. I wonder what Jane and our young one were doing at this very moment. It's been four years since our last visit.
"We're just," Sorely hesitated for a moment, "a little jealous. And curious as hell. Why the heck have you never introduced her to us? I thought she was supposed to be your arm candy at the ball last year?"
I sighed, not particularly bothered. "Something came up and she had to cancel, unfortunately. If you're lucky you're gonna meet her when we land tomorrow. Maybe she'll even bring along Isa."
The second those words left my mouth, two things happend. First, both of my friends perked up simultaneously. Secondly, I realized I should have kept my trap shut.
Too late for that now.
"You're on," Eligio smirked, rubbing his hands theatrically.
I closed my eyes and shook my head. "Shut up and lights out. We're gonna need all our energy tomorrow."
__________
The following day, Eligio and Sorely basically glued themselves to my side. They didn't let me out of their sight, unless they didn't have any other choice.
I texted Jane: Are you still okay with getting me from the airport?
Within a few minutes, she replied: Gonna do my best. Got a new case, sorry. Be safe.
I sighed, stuffing my phone back into one of my many pockets. I tried hard not to let myself feel the disappointment of possibly not seeing Jane first thing the plane landed.
We both had made our job choices with our eyes wide open, same with our relationship.
Catching a killer and protecting more innocent people from getting murdered and landing on Jane's table was much more important than her picking me up at the airport.
But still. I had allowed myself to hope. Just a little bit.
However, fortunately, I didn't have time to brood because we were scheduled to board in an hour and I wanted to conduct one last sweep of our room. Just to see if I had forgotten anything of importance.
Luckily, that was not the case.
Boarding and then the flight progressed as planned, no problems or surprises popped out of some pocket dimension. Naturally, my phone was shut off as long as I was on the plane.
So, I wasn't sure if Jane would make it or not.
Something Sorely and Eligio hadn't seemed prepared to accept, being under the misconception that I had just gotten cold feet and wanted to keep Jane all to myself after all.
As if she would ever allow that to happen.
A sizable crowd, consisting presumably of various family members and friends of the returning soldiers, greeted us in Arrivals. Cheers and cries rang out over the general din of a busy airport. People were hugging left, right, and center. More flags were waved than on Memorial Day, and there were entirely too many signs decorated with glitter for my comfort.
My eyes flickered over the crowd, trying to figure out if Jane had made it or not. Since I couldn't find her, I assumed she'd sent Frankie in her stead and allowed my shoulders to slump a bit.
Not enough to be too noticeable.
Eligio clapped my shoulder. "Come on, let's look for Jane. She's gorgeous, and has a dark, curly mob of hair. Anything else we need to know?"
She'd break your nose if she ever heard you say that, but details.
I sighed inwardly. There was no getting out of this. I didn't doubt that Eligio would go so far as follow me home, just to finally get the chance to meet Jane.
"She's actually pretty tall. Likely dressed in a black pantsuit. She seems to love them," I muttered absently, eyes again sweeping over the crowd.
Fortunately, the first families were beginning to leave, no doubt for greener pastures. Which cut down the number of people more and more.
Sorely was busy being smothered by his 4 years old son. He was dressed in a blue t-shirt which was liberally imprinted with toy soldiers. It unfortunately did not match the red shorts Wyatt was sporting, likely by force or bribery.
And then something caught my attention from the corner of my eye.
It was Jane. Dressed in her standard black pantsuit, combined with one of her white blouses.
I strode over to her, unable to resist lifting her lithe body, and twirling her around for my own sick amusement. (As Jane later put it.)
I also couldn't resist kissing her to within an inch of her life, chasing her lips as much as possible without becoming utterly pathetic.
"Casey," she whispered against my mouth, eyes twinkling.
Jane stepped aside to reveal the young child. For the most part she kept her head buried into her mother's side, her black curly hair and dark eyes made the two look identical. Against her purple jacket her skin was flawless, beautiful. I wanted to scoop her up, to give her a hug of my own, but I knew that would never do. I wasn't her mother and that's all she wanted.
I crouched down in front of her and brushed her soft curls from her face. "You must be Isa?" The young girl became still and was quiet for a moment, sinking further back into Jane's side.
Jane put a hand on my shoulder. "Don't worry, she'll warm up to you,"she promised. I nodded in agreement, standing back up.
Someone cleared their throat, forcing reality to reassert itself once more.
"Ah, yes. Jane meet my teammates. This is Lieutenant Eligio and that is Sergeant Sorely, his wife Evie, and their son Wyatt. Eligio, Sorely, this is Jane, Detective Jane Rizzoli. She works for the homicide division and that young one there is Isa."
"It's an honor to meet you, Detective and Isa. Casey has been telling us so much about you though he left out how adorable you were," said Sorely causing Isa to giggle, which instantly brought a smile to mine and Jane's face, "and we were disappointed not to see you at the ball last year."
"A rather artsy serial killer decided to grace us with his work," she told the motely crew assembled in front of us.
"It's nice to meet you," Evie said with a smile as she cooed over Isa's curly locks.
Wyatt was still staring at Jane, mouth dropped a little open. "Are you a hero?"
For the first time, Jane looked completely uncomfortable with the company or the conversation. "I'm just doing my job."
Eligio snorted, his eyes having regained their mischievous twinkle. "You're certainly not what we expected."
Jane raised an eyebrow in question at him. "Oh?"
"Casey here praised you to high heaven, you see. We were expecting a perfect angel, not a detective."
I snorted, rolling my eyes at the other officer. "Says the Messiah himself."
"What lies have you been telling them, dear?" Jane asked with a sweet smile.
"No lies. I may have omitted that you're a detective, but the rest is all on them," I grinned at her. "Just imagine, they thought you were the next Julia Child."
That managed to elicit another snort from her, the tension vanishing from her slender frame.
"You didn't correct that misapprehension?"
I shrugged halfheartedly. "They wouldn't have believed me."
Evie startled us back into reality this time. "It was wonderful to finally meet you, Detective, but we should leave now. Traffic is horrendous."
And so, off we went, one after another as the rest of the group left.