Author's note: Thank you again to everyone who has been reading, reviewing, following and favouriting, especially my regular reviewers. You make me happy, and I'm so glad you're enjoying this story.

Characters remain the property of someone else, no Casey in this bed (unfortunately).

Chapter 11

"What?" Nic looked shocked, her eyes wide.

"Marry me." Casey said it again, because the words felt unexpectedly good in his mouth.

She climbed off his lap and reached for his shirt, pulling it on over her naked body. She walked away from him, staring out of the glass wall at the snowy mountains. He felt a shiver of cold run through him, and it had nothing to do with losing her warm body from his lap.

"Nic, say something." He pulled on his boxers and came to stand behind her. He put a hand on her shoulder and felt the tension there. You've fucked up somewhere here, soldier.

"I really wasn't expecting that." She turned to face him and took a deep breath before continuing. "I love you, I'm in love with you, I have never felt like this about anyone else. You know that. You can have me, you've got me, I'm yours. But trust me John, I am not the marrying kind."

He opened his mouth to reply, then realised he had no idea what to say.

"I'm never going to be a 'wife'," She continued, "I told you when we first met, I'm not the type to be there in the kitchen, doing laundry and waiting for you to come home from wherever you are in the world. I'm going to be out there in the world myself, doing-"

"And I would never ask you to, want you to!" He interrupted. "I asked you to marry me, not to become someone else. I meant everything I said before – you, me, together, that's it."

She shook her head slightly. "That's what I want too. Just that."

"Then…?" He wrapped his arms around her and she leant against his chest, but her body was still tense.

"I'm not exactly saying no," She said, looking up at him. "But can you understand why I won't say yes?"

He nodded slowly. "I think so. Yeah." But even as he said it, he wasn't sure it was true. He pulled her tighter into his arms and felt her slowly start to relax, and they stood entwined, looking out at the view, for a long time without speaking.

Casey woke before her, and the first thing he saw was his ring on her hand resting on his chest. Nic's head was snuggled into his shoulder, her body pressed close against his side. She was here, she was his, so that had to be enough, didn't it?

He glanced at the clock and gently stroked her face to wake her up.

"Come on beautiful, we've got packing to do."

She groaned and buried her face in his shoulder. He chuckled softly and tickled her waist.

"Come on, time to wake up."

"Nurrrrgh." She swatted at him, her eyes still closed, and missed.

"We have a flight to catch, wish we didn't, but we do. So up and at 'em soldier."

She finally blinked her eyes open. "I should check my phone."

She sat up and reached into the bedside drawer for her phone, then kissed him while she waited for it to power up.

"Morning." He kissed her back, his hand in her tangled hair.

"Mmmm." She smiled. "Sure you don't want to stay here for another year or two?"

"We'd be broke inside a month." He slid out of bed and went to fetch his own cell phone. He knew what to expect and wasn't surprised by messages from Chuck, Sarah and General Beckman, and a sweet one from Alex. He allowed himself a little fantasy about her and Nic meeting, which was probably nowhere close to reality but made him smile.

Nic was looking out the window, her phone to her ear and a smile on her face that was growing by the moment. She hung up and turned to him.

"How do you feel about a small detour?"

If Austria had been five star luxury, then this had to be the polar opposite, Casey thought as their taxi drove along a street of fast food restaurants and discount stores, litter strewn and all but deserted. He'd been to London a handful of times before, but this was so out of town he wasn't sure they were technically still in London at all. The length of the underground train journey certainly suggested otherwise.

Nic was directing the driver, and a few minutes later they pulled up outside a somewhat rough looking pub.

"We're here."

She paid the cab driver, and Casey lifted their bags onto the sidewalk. He looked around with an element of disbelief.

"This is where you live?"

"I don't live anywhere, you know that, but this is as close as it gets. Come on."

She led him down the alleyway at the side of the pub and around to the back of the building next door. The back wall boasted a garage style rolling door. She reached up and felt around the side of the doorframe and extracted a small key, using it to unlock the padlock at the bottom of the metal, and pushed the door up and away, revealing a large dusty open space that must have been the whole ground floor of the building. In the centre was a boxing ring, the ropes sagging. Otherwise it was empty.

"Home sweet home." She said with a heavy dose of sarcasm.

He stood in the doorway as she strode across to a side door and unlocked it with a key from her pocket.

"Yuri's place?" He realised he was seeing somewhere deeply personal to her.

"It was. Mine now. Come on." There was a briskness in her tone, and he had a feeling it was masking something else.

He followed her up the staircase behind the side door, which led to a corridor running the length of the upper floor. She gestured to the first door.

"Locker room. Still stinks, ten years on."

She moved down the corridor and unlocked another door, beckoning him through into a square room furnished with a sagging couch, and a kitchenette in one corner. There were two other rooms leading off it, their doors open, and the one Nic led him to was full of plastic storage boxes, neatly labelled and organised.

"I won't be long, I just need to get a basic kit together for filming." She started removing lids from boxes.

"You keep all your gear here?" He raised an eyebrow.

"Yep. Never been burgled, no-one would imagine it's here." She was assembling equipment quickly into a large black hold all. "Take a look around if you like." She gestured vaguely. There was an awkwardness to her that he hadn't seen before.

Casey stepped back into the living area and through the other open door, finding a mattress on the floor, and a tiny ensuite bathroom.

"Do you stay here?" He called out.

"Not since I could afford hotels!" She called back.

He walked back through to the other room and found her rooting through a built in wardrobe, pulling out a few items. He watched from behind as she pulled her sweater off and selected a t-shirt instead. Before she could put it on, he gave in to temptation and stepped behind her, wrapping his arms around her waist. She stiffened slightly.

"Not here." She murmured. She turned to face him as his hands fell back to his sides. "This place is too full of ghosts." She pulled the t-shirt over her head.

"It must be strange." He looked around the room again, this time seeing the marks on the walls where posters must have hung, peeling stickers still visible inside the wardrobe door. "This was your room?"

She nodded. "Reminds me where I started from I guess." She sighed and threw the clothes she'd selected on top of the camera equipment in the hold all and then picked up the bag.

"Come on, let's get out of here."

He followed her back down the stairs and waited while she locked up, looking round the empty gym and trying to imagine her here, sparring, learning, growing up.

"Cub!" A voice bellowed from behind them.

Casey turned to see a large man in his sixties standing in the yard, a length of pipe held nonchalantly in one hand, and a beaming grin on his face. To Casey's surprise, Nic ran forward and threw herself into the arms of the bulky stranger. He dropped the pipe, squeezed her tight and kissed the top of her head.

"How's my girl? Doing alright are ya?" He had the thickest cockney accent Casey had ever heard outside of a movie.

"Good, I'm good." He heard her say.

"And who's this?" The man asked, nodding towards Casey. Nic disengaged herself from his hug and stepped back as he held his hand out in Casey's direction. "I'm Mike. I'm Cub's uncle. That's my pub." He gestured with his head towards the neighbouring building.

Uncle? "Casey." He shook Mike's hand, both of them sizing each other up.

"Nice to meet ya. You working with Cub?"

Nic interrupted before Casey could answer. "No, he's my… He's… We're…" She was struggling, and Casey noted she was blushing as well.

"Hang on, you telling me you're finally bringing a boy home?" Mike's face creased into a grin. "Well who woulda thought it?" He turned to Casey. "You should be bleeding honoured mate. Now yous two coming for a drink or what?"

The pub was quiet, only a couple of older men nursing pints at a table in the corner. Casey noticed military memorabilia on the walls, and Mike noticed him noticing.

"Twenty years in the forces, mate. You too, by the looks of it?"

"Yes sir, United States Marine Corps." He felt strangely nervous, and he realised it was because he wanted this guy to like him. If this was the equivalent of Nic's family, he wanted approval. He suddenly felt like an eighteen year old with his first girlfriend.

"Well at ease soldier, you're amongst friends here. What ya drinking? Whiskey?" Mike slammed three glasses down onto the bar and poured out generous measures without waiting for an answer.

"Where's Nic?" Casey realised she hadn't followed them in.

"Putting her stuff in the car I would think. It's in my garage out back. Where you off to then?"

"Wales. She's got a couple of days filming follow up for her last project. Then back to the States." Casey sipped his whiskey.

"You two living together?" Mike's gaze was shrewd.

"Kind of." He replied carefully. "I mean, she's been staying with me in LA in between trips." He decided not to elaborate too much until Nic was here.

"She's a good girl, our Cub." Mike said slowly. "And I'm sure you're a decent bloke. But don't you ever think that just cos Yuri ain't around no more, she hasn't got family here who'll protect her. You understand what I'm saying?"

Casey nodded. "Yes, sir, I do."

Mike looked at him for a minute, then turned and grabbed a photo from the wall behind him. It was covered with faded snapshots of people in the pub over the years.

"Here you are, there she is there, look."

Casey took the photo and stared at the girl in the picture. It was definitely Nic, probably aged around eighteen. She was standing grinning between a younger version of Mike and a huge man with a shaved head and a gold tooth.

"That's her eighteenth birthday. Me and Yuri and the boys bought her a car. Same car she's packing up right now. You shoulda seen her face, bless her."

He reached behind him again and took down another photo. "And here, that's her the last time she come back before Yuri died."

It was obvious Nic hadn't known the photo was being taken. It caught her in profile, her mouth smiling but her eyes sad. She looked tired.

"Not a good time, that." Mike said, smoothing the photo and pinning it back on the wall. "She'd had some kinda trouble out in Iraq, then she come back and found out Yuri was on his way out." His eyes met Casey's. "She probably don't tell you much, she ain't that kinda girl, but if she's brought you here, she must think a lot of ya."

"He already knows that, Mike." Nic came through a door behind Mike, and walked around the bar to join Casey. She picked up her glass of whiskey in her left hand, and Mike caught sight of the ring.

"So I see," He reached out and tapped it and Nic half jumped, as though she'd forgotten. "Never thought I'd live to see that happen."

"It's not-" Casey started, but Nic was ahead of him.

"Leave it out, Mike. You always told me I'd find a nice boy in the end." She smirked at him.

"Well, better than you hanging around us old reprobates, eh? I'd love to see Yuri's face right now." He turned to Casey. "He'd probably call you into that ring, make sure you was worthy of his little girl. Nah, I'm only kidding." He reached over and patted Nic's hand. "He'd be made up for ya, you know that. Military man and all."

Mike splashed more whiskey into his own glass and gestured towards theirs, but Nic shook her head.

"We've got to drive down to Wales."

"What, now? Why don't ya stay here tonight and go tomorrow?"

"I would if I could, you know that." Nic reached out and grabbed Mike's hand. "But I'm filming all day tomorrow, we've got to get there tonight."

"Alright darlin'. I know it's hard for ya coming back here and all." He squeezed her hand. "Glad you let me meet your fella though."

Nic gave him a look. "Did you threaten to kill him if he hurts me?"

"Nah! Didn't a say a word! Did I, Casey?" Strangely, his slight smirk reminded Casey of Nic's.

"Not a word." He replied, straight faced, and Mike winked at him.

Casey finished his drink and picked up their bags from the vacation, and Nic led the way through to the garage with Mike following behind. A battered Landrover was parked beside a blue van and a glossy Jaguar, and Nic opened the back for Casey to throw their bags in beside the camera equipment she'd already loaded. When he shut the door and turned back around, he found Nic in Mike's arms again, and he was whispering in her ear. She wiped her eyes and smiled.

Mike held out his hand to Casey and they shook again. "You take care of her right?" His stare was serious and Casey nodded. "Alright then, I'll see ya soon Cub. You too, soldier."

Nic was silent for the length of time it took them to reach the motorway. A couple of times she opened her mouth to speak, but then closed it again. Casey bided his time.

"I'm sorry." She said finally. "I wasn't expecting it to be that hard."

"What do you mean?" He reached over and squeezed her knee.

"I keep that part of my life in a box. I love Mike, and there are other guys you would have met if we'd stayed, but they're…" She shook her head. "You're the only person I've talked to about Yuri, and the club, and that part of my life who wasn't in it. That's a strange thing in itself. Taking you there… I don't know." She shook her head again.

"I'm glad I got to see it. I'm glad you told me about it."

She half smiled. "So am I, really. It's just hard. Especially after last night."

"What do you mean?" He asked again, keeping his tone deliberately neutral.

"What you asked me. What I said. How you must feel."

He started to speak but she interrupted him. "Don't. I know enough about you to know how much that question must have cost you."

He didn't want to lie, so he said nothing.

"This is still all so new." She said softly. "I've spent the best part of twenty years making sure I only ever had to look after myself, that I didn't rely on anyone else."

He couldn't help a wry smile. "That makes two of us."

"And then this happened." She turned to look at him briefly before directing her gaze back to the road. "And the scariest thing about it is just how much I like it. It's not a struggle to tell you things, I want to tell you things. Honestly, I wanted Mike to meet you. I wanted to show off that I have you in my life."

"I feel the same." He agreed. "I keep thinking what it'll be like when I can introduce you to Alex. I liked seeing you with Chuck and Sarah, and Ellie. I was proud to be with you." He glanced over at her and saw her smile.

"I was so nervous. I wanted them to think I was good enough for you."

"Hah!" He laughed. "I think me being good enough for Mike is a much scarier challenge than you being good enough for my neighbours!"

She laughed. "Yeah, I'm pretty sure he could still give you a decent fight. Well, him and the other ten or so of them."

She glanced over at him again, and then changed lanes and flipped the indicator to leave the motorway.

"Let's stop for a coffee."

They pulled into a service station and fought their way past what seemed to be hordes of people. It was clear they were never going to get a seat in the café area, so they picked up takeaway coffees and walked back to the Landrover. Nic curled herself sideways into the driver's seat so she could look at him while they talked.

"Last night… I meant it when I said I wasn't saying no. I need you to know that."

"I do." He took her hand, then realised what he'd said and snorted with laughter. She smirked back. "And I meant what I said too – I don't want anything to change, I didn't ask you because I want a 'wife', I want you."

There was a moment of silence.

"What's your real name?" She asked suddenly.

"John Casey." He replied firmly.

"You know what I mean."

He sighed. "Why does it matter?"

"The same reason that it mattered to you who I was growing up. About me and Yuri. And at some point you'll want to know how I went from being a gym rat to being a filmmaker, and I'll tell you. I'll tell you the entire history of me, as and when you want to know pieces, because it matters to you."

He nodded, realising that she was exactly right.

"So that works the other way too," She continued. "You told me about leaving Kathleen for special ops, and about your mom, so you do understand why I would want to know things. I'm not trying to trick you, I'm trying to know you better."

He squeezed her hand. "Alex Coburn. My name was Alex Coburn."

She nodded. "Alex was named after you?"

Casey looked down for a second. "Yeah." And we can discuss that clusterfuck another time.

"If we got married-"

His head jerked up in surprise.

"I'm saying IF we got married, are you envisaging a whole white wedding thing?" Her expression was unreadable.

Casey had a flashback to organising Ellie's impromptu beach wedding, and couldn't help shuddering. "I'd do it for you." He answered.

She snorted with laughter. "I'd rather you didn't! Couldn't we just go to City Hall or something? Isn't that the American way?"

He looked at her, really looked at her. The messy hair, the narrow dark eyes, that full mouth that he couldn't stop kissing, the long legs and the curves and the confidence and the scrappiness and the vulnerability. The woman I love.

"Sweetheart, if you want to marry me, I will marry you any damn where and any damn how you like."

She looked thoughtful, then smirked a little. "Vegas? With an Elvis impersonator officiating?"

He shrugged. "I'm serious. I just want to marry you. I don't care about the details."

She nodded slowly. "Okay. Vegas, no fuss, no white dress and definitely no gift register."

Casey swallowed. "Nic, are you-"

The corners of her mouth quirked into just a hint of a smile. "Yes. I'm saying yes."

He lunged forward and kissed her, pulling her awkwardly into his arms, the gear stick in between them. "Now. I want you now." He growled, pushing his tongue into her mouth and kissing her deep and hard. She kissed him back with equal force, twisting her head to the side to give him greater access.

"Hotel," She panted. "Right there." She gestured over her shoulder at the service station motel.

Never had a hotel room been secured so quickly and with so few words. Casey gripped Nic's hand so tightly as they waited for the receptionist to process the credit card that she winced and he had to shoot her a grimace of apology. It was lucky they had to share the lift with another couple, or he might have ended up taking her there and then.

As it was, the second they made it through the door of the room he started pulling her clothes off. She responded with equal force, scattering buttons from his shirt, biting his lip, grinding herself against him. When they were finally naked he lifted her and slammed her against the wall, her legs wrapping around his waist, and pushed into her. She gasped, kissing him, moving on him, as he pinned her against the wall with his chest. It was fast and frantic and over too quickly, but in the moment it was perfect.

He supported her in his arms as she lowered her legs from around his waist and slid back to the ground.

"Wow," She breathed. "Maybe I should agree to things more often."

He growled and tipped her onto the bed, dropping onto his back beside her. She ran a hand across his chest, tracing patterns in the dark hair.

"How long do we have to stay in this room before we can leave without them thinking we're crazy?"

"Oh, I'm not done with you yet." He rolled onto his side and cupped his hand around her breast. "That was just the appetiser." He lowered his head and sucked her nipple into his mouth, teasing her with his tongue. She moaned softly.

He ran his hands over her skin, ghosting lightly, making her shiver. He slid his fingers between her legs, feeling for her sweet spot, circling it with his thumb, sliding two fingers inside her, kissing and tonguing her breasts as she moaned and whimpered. She was bucking against him, gasping, and begging him softly.

"Please, please…"

"Please what?" He kissed her trembling mouth.

"Please make me come, please…"

He twisted his fingers to crook inside her, stroking her, and she exploded, riding his hand, coming hard on his fingers, gasping his name.

The sight and sound of her had made him hard again, and he rolled her onto her back and slid inside her, kissing her deeply as she clung to him, still riding the end of her orgasm.

"I love you," He murmured in her ear as he moved slowly in and out of her, holding her close. She wrapped her arms and legs tightly around him, rocking against him.

"I love you." She gasped.

He felt her come again, her muscles fluttering around him, and let go gently inside her, groaning softly.

He rolled slowly onto his side, bringing her with him, still wrapped around him. He nudged her mouth with his, kissing her gently as her eyes slowly opened.

"Mmmm." She smiled. "That was definitely worth the rest stop."

He snorted with laughter and kissed her again. "Telling me."

"Are we safe to get back in the car now, do you think? Can we make it to Wales before you jump me again?" Her eyes were sparkling with laughter, but there was a softness there too.

"I'll do my best." He rested his forehead against hers and closed his eyes for a moment, smiling.

COMING UP in Chapter 12:

"You remember I'm a Marine, right? Drunk and rowdy I can handle."