She was sleeping next to him, curled into his side with her head on his chest and her arms wrapping around his waist. She was twitching slightly in her sleep—it didn't seem to be from a particularly bad dream, just in reaction to whatever her mind was showing her, but something about her twitching let him know that it wasn't a particularly good dream either.
He hadn't been as lucky as her to fall asleep almost as soon as they were under the covers. For now, he was more than content to watch her sleep, and hope that soon enough her peacefulness would start to influence him.
He kept his hand moving at a consistent pace up and down her back, mumbling, "It's okay, Jen, sh, I'm here."
She sighed in her sleep, a small pained sound escaping her throat as she tightened her grip around him. Even in her sleep she was still finding ways to assure herself that he was real and there, the time spent a part from each other never far enough in the past for either of them to truly forget.
He rubbed the arm that was wrapped around his middle with his free hand and kissed her forehead, "Sh, Jennifer. It's just a dream. Come back to me."
Slowly, she started to wake up, saying his name, "Duke?"
"I'm here, love, I'm right here." He assured her, moving his hand from her back to being wrapped around her. He smoothed her hair away from her face with his free hand, cradling her face as he placed another kiss on her forehead as her hand came to rest over his on her cheek. She sighed out his name, her eyes not really opening in the dark as a reassurance for herself that she was out of whatever dream she was having.
"I…I thought…" she mumbled, before burying her face into his chest, "I think I was remembering some of the stuff that the black goo made me think was happening."
"Like what?" Duke asked.
He couldn't see her face clearly, but he could tell that she was chewing on her lip in thought before she finally answered, "The stuff I thought you said to me. About Audrey and…and me, about me being crazy. But this time my head took it further and made it so…so that you actually did do those things and—,"
"Stop." He said gently, moving his hand to tilt her head up to look at him, "Just stop. Jennifer, that is never going to happen."
She nodded, "I know."
"Apparently not." Duke replied, trying to smile at her, "Jennifer I—I haven't had the best of luck with people. In any relationship. Not really anyway. But I—but with you everything just—you make me happy, Jennifer. Happier than I'd ever thought I'd be and…well, I mean, I know we've only just come back together after all this time apart but I'd—I'd like to try—,"
"Are you proposing to me?" Jennifer interrupted, over the course of his rambling, she'd become decidedly more awake and was now looking up at him wide eyed as she sat up to look into his eyes.
He laughed nervously at her, "Well, I'm fucking trying to!"
Even in the dark, Duke could tell that her eyes lit up at that—and the way she threw herself at him helped to clear up any confusion he could've had about her reception of his proposal.
"Is that a 'yes'?" Duke laughed, rolling with her so that she was over him.
"Depends; what's the ring look like?" She smirked down at him.
His hand fumbled briefly over the top of his nightstand table until he opened the drawer to pull out a small velvet box. He placed it on his chest and opened it to reveal the diamond ring inside it.
"Damn!" She said, letting herself lie on top of him to pull the ring out of the box and slide it on to her finger.
He wrapped his arms around her to hold her securely against him, "D'ya like it?"
"Duke it's—!" She started to say, before looking back at him, eyes bright in a smile, "I almost feel like I should ask if there's a diamond smuggler we're going to owe a favor or two to pay back this thing—it's huge!"
"'We'?" He asked, already liking the sound of that—of being a 'we' with Jennifer.
She smirked, slipping into her Boston accent, "Ain't no one gonna put the screws on my man so's long as I'm 'round."
He laughed and rolled her back over onto her back so that he was over her, mimicking her accent back to her, "Yeah, see? Ain't nobody gonna fuck with my old lady."
She laughed back and pulled him down to kiss him. He settled his weight on her gently as the kiss ended and pressed his forehead to hers, "So am I going to get to call you Mrs. Crocker? Or am I going to have to give back the ring back to that diamond smuggler?"
"It was always going to be 'yes,' Duke." She said gently and seriously, touching his face to try to impress how sincerely she meant what she'd said and was going to say, "I love you."
Duke kissed her back with everything he had.