Casey Jones
I grinned at the picture on my nighttable. It depicted a raven-haired woman, whose face beamed back at me.
"You're hopeless, man," Eligio informed me from the top bunk.
Which just earned him a pair of rolled eyes and a playful smirk.
"And you're jealous," I pointed out.
"Oh, come on. Of what exactly? I have the choice of ladies out there, while you are going home to Julia Child and your white picket-fence."
I snorted at the idea of Jane being compared to a pearl-wearing housewife who was so bored out of her mind that she started writing a cookbook. Scratch that, Jane in pearls was enough of an impossibility in real life. And her cooking?
There was a reason we'd had the lastet smoke-detectors installed in our apartment.
Between the two of us, it was me who cooked and and took care of the everyday running of the household more often than not when I was home.
I loved her to bits, but that woman left her clothes wherever she found the space, and the mere idea of a picket-fence, white or not, would have her break out in hives in no time flat.
"At least you haven't gotten around to starting on the kiddies yet," Sorley sighed, letting himself flop back on his bed. (The one under Eligio.)
"Regrets?" Eligio needled, like a bloodhound scenting injured prey.
"No, never. Wyatt is all I could have asked for, but sometimes it's nice to come home and just be a couple for a while if you catch my drift. Not possible with a little kid around," Sorley told the top bunk, unable to look at us.
Sorley was married with one son, and his relationship with his wife was occassionally tricky. To say the least. Despite that, Sorley was a good man, a good comrade, to have by your side in combat.
I looked away, feeling a bit jealous. "Isa is her name, she's four so I've been told. This will be my first time meeting her." Jane and I never really discussed the idea of us having children, at least not together. If so, I knew we would've waited until I was home permanently.
Which would entail either not re-enlisting after my current contract ran out or working for one of the agencies.
But that was still in the far off future.
I shrugged. "You have to figure out your priorities and then decide what to do about them. I love Jane, but I'm not ready to quit. At least not yet. She respects that and doesn't pressure me into doing anything I don't want. Of course, I do the same for her."
I ran a hand through my hair, wondering for the n-th time how I'd gotten so lucky. Right, I'd seen her with Frankie, Tommy and some of my friends, taking care of them with her special brand of tough love. Subsequently, I'd decided to hold onto her for as long as she would allow it.
"Casey, you back with us?" Eligio grinned at me. "Were you just thinking of the Stepford Wife? Or how best to escape her clutches?"
That just earned him another snort.
Sorely openly rolled his eyes at our teammate. "Dream on, Jesús. Casey's Jane is a perfect angel."
I thought that the absence of sarcasm from this conversation made it sound far more surreal than absolutely necessary. It was bad enough I was going to have nightmares of a zombified Jane who was into cooking and white picket-fences now.
A shudder ran down my spine at the mere thought. No, thankee sir.
Jane was perfect the way she was. At least to me. And anyway, whose opinion, other than ours, counted?
