Author's Note: A quickie in between to get us to the next chapter.
"Marry me, Jack."
Her words were simple enough. A child could understand them. And yet they made no sense to me. She had cut me off as I ranted on, trying to mitigate whatever I'd gotten myself into when I'd loosely promised her 'everything and anything' because with Phryne Fisher those words actually meant something terrifying and terrible and not that I'd tell her this but it wouldn't take much from her to actually convince me to do one of those terrifying and terrible things and so I'd just been ranting on nervously as she watched, her arm propping her torso up, a small, happy smile on her face as we lay on the floor and then she'd gone ahead and said 'marry me, Jack'. What on Earth could she possibly mean? What was she talking about? I didn't... she couldn't possibly mean... perhaps a joke - a cruel, cruel joke to be certain - but she must know I never expected that out of her. I knew she wasn't the marrying kind. She'd made in incredibly clear. She'd made it so obvious and even if she were the marrying kind, she wasn't about to marry someone so utterly below her station, not just socially, I knew she couldn't care a whit about that, but personally. She was... well.. Phryne. She could have anyone she liked. The world was in love with her. She wouldn't want to marry me. She couldn't want to marry me.
"Are you just going to stare at me with your mouth open like that, or are you going to give me an answer Jack Robinson?" She demanded instantly, her eyebrow raising indignantly at my silence.
"I'm in love with you. I didn't know it could be like this. I don't want to have adventures and go off on dangerous missions if I can't do it by your side, or at the very least, coming home to you at night. They all just... you. Jack. You are by my side and caring for me when I'm at my very worst. I don't like to be vulnerable and you make it okay. God, you make everything okay. I love you more than life itself and I want to marry you. Probably not in a church though, because I honestly don't think they'll let us do that at this point. If you don't want that, it's fine, Jack. I just wanted to tell you what I want. And I want to marry you, Jack Robinson."
A few more minutes of silence occurred as I stared at her. She stared back, cocking her head in the other direction. We just looked at one another. Her eyes, and my eyes, bound together.
"Are you quite all right, Jack? You look a bit-"
"Am I alright?" I choked out, too shocked to be embarrassed by how much my voice cracked on those three simple words. I cleared my throat and stared at her some more. "I don't understand."
"Which part?" She asked, straightforwardly.
"The part... all the parts. I don't understand a thing you just said."
"I know you love me too." She replied, unfazed.
"More than I could put into words." I nodded. "But that doesn't mean I magically understand the whims and fancies of Phryne Fisher."
"Not a whim, not a fancy. Truly, permanently in love with you. Want to commit to you. Want to tell the world that you're mine and I'm yours and that we're together so fuck off."
"You-" More silence.
"I want to marry you. You do know what marriage is, yes? I mean you've done it before I didn't think I'd have to be explaining this to you."
"No, no, I understand what marriage is. I don't entirely understand you wanting to get married."
"Oh. Um... Again, I'm going to have to go with I love you and will continue to love you for the rest of my life and I want to spend each and every day with you and commit myself to you. Legally."
"Huh."
"Do you not want to get married? I suppose after the first one went a bit haywire, you might have some negative feelings on the subject, so if you don't want to get married, we can just stay together without the need for that."
"I definitely want to marry you, I just..."
"So let me spell this out. I asked you to marry me. I explained in great detail why I want to marry you. I know that you love me too, and you have also just admitted that you would like to marry me as well. Jack, it sounds to me like both of want to marry one another."
"See, that's the part I keep getting stuck on."
"You look a bit pale, do you feel all right, dear?"
"Hmm."
"Yes, you see that's not really an answer, should I call Mac?"
"No, I think I'm going to be okay."
"Wonderful news. Any word on when I might get an answer to my question? Tonight... tomorrow maybe. Next week. I mean you can think about it all you like, it's a big step."
"Mhmm."
"Am I only going to get incoherent noises from you the rest of the night? Because if that's the case, I can think of a few of your noises I prefer to these... we could get back to making those."
"Did you just propose to me?"
"Well right this minute I proposed we go back to having sex, but before that yes. I proposed marriage. Twice, actually."
"You proposed to me."
"Yes."
"And then I just stared at you."
"That is an accurate summary of our conversation, yes."
"Can we revisit this when I'm not intoxicated?"
"You had one drink!"
"On you, love. I find that when I'm wrapped up in your scent and just, you, like this, I can't quite think straight." She smiled, pleased.
"Very well. I'll propose again tomorrow."
Tomorrow came and went without an opportunity to speak to Phryne let alone have a discussion of this magnitude. Her parents took up the large majority of the time, and it wasn't until Mac arrived to help her drag the pair of a therapist - a "newfangled, unnecessary employment which will do us no good, Phryne me dear, mark my words", according to her father anyway - that the house gained any semblance of quiet. Of course, now that there was peace and quiet in 221B the Esplanade, there was no longer a certain lady detective with whom I wished to converse. The next day, there was a murder. Embroled in both her parents' lives and the death of one Mr. J. Pereria, Phryne had little time or energy to have that conversation we so desperately wished to have. By the third day, I knew what I wished to say. But first, I had to make something incredibly clear.
"I didn't know you would ever want to get married."
"I didn't either. But to call you my lover, or my gentleman friend, or... whatever people may call our relationship... Jack it isn't enough. You are so much more to me than I can express and I want people to understand that. I want them to see our relationship, and know that you are my world and that we are a family. I want Jane to be able to tell people what you are to her. I want you to be allowed to make decisions for me if I end up on Mac's operating table, and I want you to be allowed to see me if I were in an accident. You are the only person I trust implicitly, Jack. And it's all so... ambiguous."
"Phryne, you must know I-"
"There you are Phryne, my dear!" I had never been so close to committing murder before in my life.
"Baron." She gritted out between clenched teeth. "What did we say about knocking?"
"Ah, well, I'm here now so little good that would do us. I need you to tell your mother something for me."
"You have lips! Tell her yourself!"
"But it would come so much better from you!" This went on and on until once again, we were forcibly separated as I was called off to work and she was forced to stay behind at her parents' whims. I hated to say it, but perhaps it would be better for all involved if the pair simply split up. I knew that the days which followed would occur much in the same vein, and so I decided it was time I take a step back. A step away entirely, perhaps. It was with this in mind, that I called Phryne after work and told her I was taking a trip north for a couple of days. She sounded... disappointed. Sad. I was certain that she saw this as my stepping away, my needing to clear my head and think about the question she'd asked me. Upon her slight prying, I was vague. I didn't tell her why. I didn't tell her what - or more accurately who - was waiting for me up north. Dot had several bags packed by the time I made it to 221B, I didn't press her as to where she'd obtained so much clothing and abolutionary tools for me - as mine were still safely untouched at home save the bare minimum I'd brought here. Instead I'd given Phryne a quick kiss goodbye, glared her father into quiet submission so as to give her a bit of rest as I left, and nodded to Mr. B before hoping in Cec and Burt's cab for the train station.
"I know full well that the pair of you intend to spy on me and deliver my intended destination to Miss Fisher." I told them straightforwardly as Burt drove. "But I was hoping that you would... well... not."
"She doesn't buy our loyalty, copper." Burt scoffed. "She's our friend. You can't pay us to lie to her."
"I'm quite aware, I thought perhaps I could, however, convince you."
"Why are you asking us to do this?" Cec asked. "Miss Fisher has been in all of your secrets before and you never minded too much."
"I'm going to see my parents." I admitted. "A few days ago-" I sighed, trying to find the words. "Miss Fisher asked me to marry her. I had no idea that was something she was even considering, let alone something she would ever consider. If I had I would have, well, I would have approached things differently. But as it is, she proposed and I was caught unawares. A bit shocked. I reacted... well actually that's the thing. I didn't react at all. She said she wanted me to think about it anyway, and since then, we haven't had the chance to really talk about it and I suspect we won't in the upcoming days as well, so I wanted to make my intentions perfectly clear. I'm going to see my parents to ask my father for my grandmother's ring. I'd like to propose to Phryne properly." Cec grinned.
"You can count on our silence, Robinson." He reached out to shake my hand. "I knew it, you know. I knew that one day you two would get hitched."
"You knew no such thing, just a month ago you said what a pity it was that Miss FIsher wasn't the marrying kind, 'cause the Inspector didn't deserve to die alone."
"You thought that I'd die alone if Miss Fisher didn't marry me?" I interjected. "Without the bonds of marriage was she so likely to leave me?"
"Course not, but if you weren't her husband, she'd go stark raving mad trying to figure out your relationship she'd get into even more mischeif than usual, and she was likely to get herself killed before her 50th birthday."
"You've put an awful lot of thought into this, Cec." I narrowed my eyes at him, curious.
"I've been saying you two were a perfect match ever since that train fiasco, what when Miss Fisher took in Miss Janie, and you helped her to keep Jane." Burt argued something back and the pair went back and forth until the train station.
"Alright, Copper. Say we lost you in the crowd and didn't see which platform you ended up at, okay?" Burt said with a shrug. "Do 'ya think that would work?"
"Splendidly, Burt, just splendidly."
Author's Note: Please Review!