”Jane.” Maura’s voice was small but honest. She’d obviously come here to say her piece and she would be heard. I loved that tone on her, it had always made my knees weak. ”I know this is the worst time to say this and that I should have come out and told you long ago but I can’t let you marry him.”

She started down the aisle to the horrified reaction of much of my family. The only ones who didn’t seem at all phased, were Ma, Frankie, Frost and Korsak, their expressions echoed what my mother had said back in the suite. They’d all just assumed things about me and Maura that were now coming true and were more natural for them than anything I’d ever had with Casey.

“I love you. I get excited whenever I’m about to see you and before you’ve even left the house, I miss you.”

“Get her out of here.” Casey snarled next to me. “This isn’t right Maura.” he spat. “If you love her, let her be happy. With me!”

I stepped away from him, this stranger beside me. Did he really not understand what Maura meant to me?

“See, but she’s not happy with you Casey.” Maura didn’t seem at all phased by his outburst and, thankfully, everyone else was too surprised to do much more than sit, open-mouthed and watch as this spectacle unfolded before them. “She wants to love you, I know she does and she’s tried but we all know she’s happiest when you’re in Afghanistan and away from her.”

Casey looked back and forth between us, his mouth flapping silently as rage coloured his cheeks with a deep red, almost purple.

“Its my bed she sleeps in Casey, my arms she craves when she can’t sleep.” I could feel myself nodding. “I don’t want to hurt you but she doesn’t really want to be with you.”

“Really?” He was apoplectic, almost to the point of catatonia.

Maura turned her attention back to me and I swallowed loudly.

“Jane. It’s always been you. When I wake up in the morning, when I feed Bass and let Jo Friday out in the yard before making our breakfast, when I start an autopsy or file a report you are always there, in my thoughts. I long to be with you even when we have just parted and when I am about to see you I am beside myself with elation. My heart is full and when you touch me I am home, only to no home I have ever known before. It is a place that is warm and full and safe.”