Originally posted on tumblr during my absence here. I actually just finished part 4 (not yet published) and will be posting all parts at once. I plan to mark it complete at the moment, but sometimes my muse has been known to drag me back into "completed" universes from time to time. Who knows?
Regardless, if you didn't read it on tumblr, I hope you enjoy. :)
The knock was booming, insistent, echoing in the quiet corridor.
She heard the distinctive metal on metal scraping of someone sliding the chain lock to open the door.
As it slowly opened, the look on the man's face was certainly of surprise. "Maura, wha—"
"How dare you!" she cried indignantly, clenching her teeth and shoving a perfectly manicured finger toward his face. Her eyes burned a fiery green.
"I'm sorry, I'm not sure I understand," Casey began to reply before the petite, well-dressed woman quickly interrupted him.
"You know exactly why I'm here, Casey."
"I'm afraid I don't, actually," he replied politely.
"You can't just propose to her like that!" she growled. "In fact, you didn't even propose. You gave her an ultimatum! 'I'm going back to Afghanistan, unless you marry me'." She shoved her finger into his chest, pushing him backwards into his apartment. "You can't just dothat! You know she cares enough about you that she's not going to send you back to a war zone halfway around the world!" Maura was then forced to take a deep breath, which allowed Casey enough time to interrupt.
"Maura, I think you're overreacting a little, wouldn't you say?" he replied calmly.
"Overreacting? Really?!" Maura shrieked. "Jane is the most important person in my life. She's my best friend, and I'll be damned if I just stand by and let her be emotionally blackmailed by a man who clearly has absolutely no understanding of what constitutes a healthy, romantic relationship, much less a marriage!"
"I love her!" Casey barked.
Maura instantly snarled. "Like hell you do, Casey Jones! If you truly loved her, you'd accept your orders and leave! What you love is the idea of having a woman pining away for you back home, worried about your safety, because you're nothing but a sadist! You get off on making her feel this way!"
"She needs someone to take care of her," he argued; his tone was condescending.
"No!" Maura refuted immediately. "She needs someone to stand beside her as her goddamn equal, you idiot!"
The soldier's expression immediately darkened. "You mean someone like you?"
"Excuse me?"
His lips curled into a smirk. "This isn't about Jane and me. This is about Jane and you. You don't want her to marry me because you're jealous."
Maura crossed her arms on her chest. "I'm not worried about my friendship with Jane."
"No, you're worried about losing the chance to have her for yourself."
The medical examiner was silent, shocked by the turn in conversation.
"You're in love with her," he stated simply and confidently.
Golden green eyes narrowed, quickly assessing Casey's intent in the conversation. "Well lucky for you, I'm not a manipulative misogynist who'll make her choose between us," Maura replied coolly. "Though I'm fairly certain she'd choose me any day over the likes of you."
"'Fairly certain?' That sounds like a guess to me, which is something I very much remember you don't do."
Shoving her index finger in his face again, she responded, "I don't, and I'm not guessing now."
"Do you honestly think Jane would choose you over the man she's in love with?"
"She's not in love with you!" Angrily Maura slapped her fists on her upper thighs.
"Sure doesn't seem that way to me," he said with a smirk.
"Then feel free to explain why every time we have a conversation about you, all she does is whine. 'Casey washed my underwear today. It freaked me out.' 'Casey cleans my apartment more than my mother does!' 'Casey and I, you know, last night, but I didn't, you know, so I had to fake it.'" Maura's smirk was triumphant and smug.
"Well then the joke is on you, because she already told me yes," Casey snarled at the honey blonde.
Still Maura remained calm and collected. "Then if you think she won't change her mind, you're a bigger fool than I thought you were." And with those words, Maura immediately turned on her Jimmy Choo heels and stormed out of the apartment.