Chapter 11: Guns, Arguments, and Proposals
It had been seven months since the night of their first date. The two were happily together, and Casey had pretty much moved in with Cragen. No one at work knew of the two's relationship, not because they were embarrassed or anything, it was that they preferred to keep work, and their personal lives separate. Everything seemed to be going great until…
"Casey, the kid had a gun to your head!" Don Cragen shouted loud enough for everyone else on the sidewalk too hear.
"Don, Keep it down," Casey scolded, as they were walking back to his place. Don looked at her hard, he was infuriated.
Earlier that day, Casey was in court presenting a case that dealt with hate crimes. A shooting at a school, where two Jewish kids, and a black child were shot; The African American boy was killed. They had found it was part of a "white power" cult. The Leader was on trial for the crimes, and having the shooter testify against him. The son of the leader, and two other members of the cult were attending the trial. One of the members attending had a fake badge, and was able to smuggle in some guns. When things didn't go the way they wanted, the son pulled out his gun, and shot the skin head, and the judge, killing them both. Then grabbed Casey, his Casey, and put the gun to her head. Stabler had his gun on the son. The attending member shot Munch, Stabler shot the member, and the son threw Casey to the side, and shot Elliot. As the son was going to finish off Elliot an undercover FBI agent shot and killed him. Now two of his detectives were in the hospital, and Casey was acting as if it was just another day at work. This made Cragen very uneasy.
"Don, look, its not like I have never had a gun to my head before," Casey informed, " and in my line of work I'm sure its not the last. Its not the end of the world."
" Yes! Yes it is, Casey." Don shouted, "I love you! I can't lose you, if I did I would bury myself at the bottom of a bottle!" Casey stared at him; he had been sober for years, and in a job like his that wasn't easy, seeing the things he does on a daily basis. Not even when his wife died did he start to drink again. Now he was telling her that if she were to die he would completely lose it.
"Well, what do you want me to do?" Casey said a little angry, " Lock myself at home, and never come out. Don't even think you are the only one who feels this way. I am afraid everyday that my phone will ring, and the person on the other end is going to tell me you have been killed in a some shooting or another." Casey had tears in her eyes, and all Don did was look at her, so she went on, " what do you want? Want me to quit my job? Or what? What is it you want me to do?!"
"I want you to marry me!" Cragen shouted in a not so loving manor. Casey was taken back, and she just stood there wide-eyed. Had he really just asked that? Even more importantly, what was she going to say?
"Casey, I love you with all my heart," Cragen started in a calm voice, " I can't think of any better way to spend the rest of my life. I don't care about our age difference, I don't care what other people will think, or what might happen at work because of our relationship. I know that today when I heard what happened, I didn't want to ever be without you." He reached into his pocket, pulled out a small black box, he open it, exposing a beautiful gold band. " Casey Novak, will you marry me?"
Casey threw herself into his arms, and whispered, "yes" over and over again. He took the ring out of the box, and slid it on her finger. She stared at it a moment, and then looked up into his eyes. He placed a hand on her cheek, and she whispered, " I love you." He kissed her passionately. They walked with arms around each other the rest of the way back to his place.
Author's Note: the episode described in this chapter is season seven's RAW. The episode aired when I originally wrote this (back in 2005), and I thought it would fit nicely into the fic. Please remember to read and review, and thanks to those of you who have reviewed. 12 up soon.