Sorry I haven’t posted in a while, crazy few days.

Ben glanced at his rearview mirror, and hazarded a glance at his partner, Deputy Tyler “Tang” Williams. Williams was a young veteran of the Afghanistan conflict, tall, fair-skinned, with an Irish complexion and temper. The two got along like a house on fire, much to the chagrin of their commanders. Ben had joined the Marines to get through college, and was still a reserve pilot for them, so he ribbed Tyler about the inferiority of the Army and their helicopters.

            The two were assigned to off-road patrol, and given a fairly new 2011 Ford Raptor pickup truck. It had a huge V-8, adept at chasing down gangbangers on the dirt roads that crisscrossed the county, outside the city. It was painted a flat black color, without any indication that it was a police vehicle besides the standard-issue flashing light across the roof, just like every other patrol car, and the requisite package of flashers and siren. There was a roll bar in the bed that had been fitted with off-roading lights, and they’d been hooked up to flash when the siren keyed up. All in all, Walker Texas Ranger would have been proud to drive ‘Raptor 1’.

            Today, however, they were on the streets of the county, preparing to assist the city cops in a pursuit. 34 Adam, a city unit, had attempted to stop the Cadillac CTS-V at 5:30 AM for failing to signal a right turn. For the past half hour, the criminal had been dodging through city streets, and had just hopped onto the highway. Dawn was coming up behind them, and the Highway Patrol had already put two cars on the chase and there were three LAPD cops still on his tail. Ben and Tyler had just gotten on duty and were heading into their patrol area when they were told to meet up with two other units at city limits to join a pursuit. For the past twenty minutes, while they waited for the chase to leave city limits, they’d been sitting in the truck, eating 7-11 donuts and drinking Monster Energy drinks. Tang was telling him about a firefight he’d gotten into in Afghanistan.

            The truck was parked on the left shoulder, while the two patrol cars were sitting on the right, waiting for the asshole to blaze by. Ben loved pursuits, and he got his fill quite often. In off-road patrol, he got a lot more freedom than other deputies; he and Tang wore jeans, T-shirts, with tan bulletproof vests on top as their uniforms. They both had legitimate cowboy hats, but they didn’t wear six-shooters on their hips. Ben carried a Walther P99, chambered for .40 Smith and Wesson, in a quick-draw thigh holster. Tang had kept his Beretta M9 service pistol, but he left his in a pouch on his vest, which was easier for him since his seatbelt would block his access to the gun otherwise.

            Other deputies hated but respected them- they got results. Guns, drugs, and prostitutes were just a few of the things they intercepted before they hit the streets of LA. For Ben, it was the best first assignment he could have had- he’d only been on the beat for two months.

            “Ready up, Deputies. ETA thirty seconds.” Ben looked into the mirror again, and saw the blaze of red and white lights coming up fast behind him. He nudged Tang and the two wordlessly buckled in. Ben gunned the engine, nodding over to the other deputies.

            The red sports sedan rocketed onto county land, and suddenly, he was prey for Raptor 1. Ben smiled behind his sunglasses, considering what a boner his younger self would have if he knew what he’d grow up to do.

            The city cars dropped behind, restrained by their city limits. CHP cars formed up on either side of the Sheriffs, and they all made quick eye contact. Ben was the lead car, the two CHP cruisers on either side of him and a little behind, while the other deputies were slightly behind them.

            Ben stared forward at the Cadillac, willing it to suffer some mechanical flaw to stop it. “What the hell you thinking, buddy? What are you running from?”

            They were headed west, the sun rising behind them, making the lights of the cruisers behind him seem insignificant compared to the golden corona blazing up behind them.

            “I don’t know, bro. Drugs? Prior convictions? Maybe it’s hot!” Tang took off his Stetson and readjusted the brim. He put it back on and picked up the radio. “All cars in pursuit of the red Cadillac, Raptor One. Are you all capable of dropping the hammer and boxing him in?”

            Individually, each car reported in that they had a little bit of juice left to catch up, but they were starting to run low on fuel so this attempt would have to be a takedown. Ben gritted his teeth as they coordinated their plan. He would zoom out in front of the car, while the other vehicles formed a ring around it. Once the ring was complete, Ben would slam on his brakes, hopefully deploying the Cadillac’s airbags and causing him to stop. It was bold, dangerous, and totally unorthodox.

A few miles away, a cluster of senior officers and dispatchers stood clustered around a TV screen in a crowded dispatch center, watching the chase unfold from the viewpoint of the LAPD helicopter flying overhead. All four cruisers took up positions alongside the sedan, while the big black truck swung wide, struggling to get in front.

Ben leaned forward, hoping that the weight transfer would give him a little extra speed. He had a half-ton pickup truck, designed for chasing other four-wheel drives. The CTS-V was a lean, mean, sports machine designed for flying down interstates. It was in its habitat, and doing well. The truck had a slightly more powerful engine, but an additional five hundred pounds over the little car.

Finally, with an unsettling howl, the truck pulled in front of the patrol cars and settled in front of the Caddy.

“Ok, boys. We’re in position. Gimme a holler when you’re ready.” Ben locked his eyes into the rearview. This had to end now- in roughly three miles they would enter a very busy stretch of highway through a suburban area that would be choked with commuter traffic. He eased the truck perfectly in front of the car- he didn’t want to miss and strike a cop.

“Let’s do this,” one of the Highway troopers said through gritted teeth.

Ben shot his eyes toward the rearview again, and back to the road. He slammed on the brake pedal, and yanked up on the parking brake.

On the television back in the dispatch center, there was a puff of smoke from the Raptor’s tires, and suddenly, there was a jumble of metal. The driver of the sports sedan wrenched his wheel over, striking the Sheriff’s car on his left, before slamming into the back end of the pickup, dropping speed and getting hammered by the Highway Patrolman behind him. Suddenly, he slipped out of the ring between the truck and the car to his left. As he did so, the Sheriff he had hit shoved his accelerator pedal and struck the red car just behind the left rear tire. The criminal’s rear wheels lost traction thanks to the blow, and were suddenly swinging forward. The car’s suspension, taxed by the long chase, gave out and the car flipped on its right side, and began to barrel roll across the highway.

The rolling Cadillac was keeping pace with Ben and Tang as they slowed down. It finally came to a rest on all four wheels, just beside Ben’s door, along with the other four cars.

A dozen cops, all shouting and gesticulating wildly with their guns, suddenly surrounded the car.

“GET THE FUCK OUT OF THE CAR AND GET ON THE GROUND RIGHT FUCKING NOW, ASSWIPE! I START SHOOTING IN TEN FUCKING SECONDS!” Ben took the lead, walking slowly around to the driver’s side and peering inside. There were actually two people sitting in the mangled car, two young Hispanic males, both of whom were covered in blood and tattoos. One, the driver, dropped a hand to his hip.

“HANDS ON THE STEERING WHEEL NOW! NOW! DON’T MAKE ME SHOOT YOU, AMIGO!” The man complied; Ben decided he had probably been attempting to release his seatbelt. On the other side, Tang was doing the same. He advanced to the door and gave it a tug- it was jammed shut.

“Ben, we’re gonna need fire and rescue to pop these doors,” Tang called out as Ben found the same thing on the driver’s side.

Ben called the other officers into a huddle. Fire and rescue was on the way, but Ben had a plane to catch. He holstered his gun, stepped into the Raptor, and sped off towards the station.

Around the same time, Meghan was back at the loft, stuffing a suitcase full of clothing and high-heeled shoes. She had accumulated three full bags, and looked with loathing at Ben’s single bag of personal effects.

She heard his new mustang pull up outside, and she glanced out the bank of windows that spanned the western wall of their condo to see him getting out, dressed up like some kind of modern day cowboy.

She smiled as she realized her last name would be completely different in less than 72 hours.

Those 72 hours proved to pass far too quickly for her, and pleasantly slowly for him. The wedding was taking place “back home”, in Virginia, barely a mile from the neighborhood they’d lived in as teenagers.

The day of the wedding dawned gray, drizzly, and abnormally cold for an April day, but the daffodils and hyacinth Ben’s mother lovingly planted around the house stuck out from the dreary scene like highlighted text.

Sleeping without Meghan, in the bed he’d slept in as a kid, was quite a trip for Ben. Certainly, he’d always slept alone in it, but he had grown so accustomed to her tiny form snuggled against him, always warm and silent no matter the hour. He was an eternal insomniac; she slept like the dead.

 In the mid-morning hush, he stared up at the smoke detector over his bed, watching its green LED wink on and off.

He slid out of bed and got dressed for the day. It was going to be a late afternoon wedding, so Ben had plenty of time to just chill. He was going to go to the range for a while with his friend Russell, and then pick up Tang from Dulles airport before changing into his uniform and heading over to the chapel, the same chapel he’d been baptized in and had his first communion in.

After a quick and nutritionally devoid breakfast of blueberry pie, Ben hopped into the Chrysler 300C he’d rented for the trip and drove out to pick up Russell.

Russell was waiting for him, standing on his long gravel driveway, surrounded by nothing but cornfields. It always amazed Ben how there could be such a rural area ten minutes from the sprawling suburb he’d grown up in, but that was something he’d marveled at since the nights he spent with Russell, lying on top of the fire engine, staring at the stars he couldn’t see five minutes down the road at home, talking about life. One of those conversations had led to Ben asking Meghan to be his girlfriend, and he mused, had directly led to this moment.

“Long time no see, fat ass,” Russell grinned as he got into the car, tossing a duffel bag into the back seat. Ben smiled as he hugged his biggest role model, the older brother he’d never had.

Meghan stood staring at herself in the mirror, reliving the memories she’d had in this room. It was small, the walls a bright cheery blue, made all the cheerier by the row of windows on the wall that faced the door. She thought of crying with Ben in her bed the night she’d told him she was moving, and of losing her virginity to him in the same bed. She smiled a little as she thought of both experiences, and found a similarity in both: she had never been as close to anyone as she was with Ben, and both of those proved it. She loved being physically close to him, to have him inside her and around her, protective and supportive, but she also loved how he could do the same for her emotionally.

Her gown was breathtaking- it was shimmering white satin, with a strap over her left shoulder. Delicate stitching and beading ran the full length of the garment, starting on the strap, swirling unobtrusively to the floor. Her hair was pulled back out of her face, and tumbled down her back in rich brown locks, her veil temporarily flipped back over it.

She looked stunning, and she knew it. Her mother walked into the room and promptly burst into tears, taking Meghan into her arms.

“I’m so proud of you-both of you,” she began, taking off her glasses and wiping her overflowing eyes. “You guys got a very tough hand at staying together, but you both thrived. I admire you so much because I know I never could have done that. I just want to remind you how much today means to me, Meghan, because I never thought that anybody could be good enough for you, but I think if anyone deserves the job, it’s probably that jackass you brought home with you that day back in September, all those years ago.”

Meghan fought back tears, realizing that any moisture would wreck her make up.

“Could we get a move on? I’d like to get out of this damn uniform as soon as possible, it shrank over the years,” Meghan’s father yelled from downstairs.

The two women looked at each other; Meghan realizing that for the first time her mother really was regarding her as a fellow woman. There was a grunt of agreement from Meghan’s sister, also downstairs, and they proceeded to tromp down the stairs into the family Lincoln, like an overly formal road trip was about to commence.

An hour later, Ben was standing in a courtyard outside the chapel, in his Marine Corps uniform. The day had turned out beautifully; the sun was out and there were actually a few birds singing. Most of his groomsmen, who were standing with him, were wearing black tuxedos with blue vests, meant to look a little like his uniform. Russell and Tang were both in uniform: Russell was wearing his black fire department uniform, his gold buttons and pins carefully shined. Tyler had his green and black army uniform on, in sharp and intentional contrast to Ben’s Spartan Marine Corps uniform that consisted of a black jacket and white pants. Meghan loved it when he wore it; even she admitted that he looked hot in it, despite her usual abstinence from feeding his ego.

Jack and Tony, Ben’s boyhood friends, were the two civilians in the mix, but didn’t seem to mind their lack of shiny things on their tuxedos.

Meghan’s sister, Katherine, poked her head out of the chapel door and summoned them. Ben’s nerves went into overdrive; he was filled with an odd anxiety about the whole affair suddenly.

The ceremony commenced, organ music bellowing from inside the chapel while Ben and the rest of the bridal party, save the bride, stood outside. The groomsmen began escorting the bridesmaids in, and suddenly it was Ben’s turn to walk into the little church, filled with family and friends.

He felt awkward standing alone at the altar, waiting for “The Wedding March” to come on and Meghan to walk in. Ben felt like the spotlights in the high vaulted ceiling were giving him sunburn, and his anxiety increased. He felt silence, even though music raced around him. He was getting dizzy, and a little scared. Forever was a long time! What if things changed when he got older or if he got fat?

And then, she came in, escorted by her father. As Ben had expected, Mr. Kenney was wearing his old army uniform. He noticed that the majority of the men in the congregation were wearing uniforms: his father was wearing his blue coast guard service dress, his brother in law’s air force uniform, proudly bearing fighter pilot wings.

Meghan was another matter entirely. Simply put, she was breathtaking. He was dizzy again, for a new reason. At that moment, not a single eye in the room was turned away from her. Ben didn’t mind everyone ogling her, because she was the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen.

Her father took Ben’s hand in a firm shake. “Do your best, Ben. I know you’re in love, and I know that’s not going to change. Be gentle, be patient, and be yourself because that’s the only man she’s ever loved. And quite honestly, the only man I’ve ever wanted her to love.”

Ben was taken aback by his frankness; her father was usually not a man of deep words. “Thank you, sir.”

He stood in a stupor while the priest rattled off incantations and blessings, unsure of what to do.

            “…You may kiss the bride.” Ben’s ears perked up, and he turned to Meghan. His hands trembled as he pushed her veil away to reveal those beautiful hazel eyes.

            “I love you,” they said simultaneously, and Ben leaned in to kiss her. He felt her warm, soft lips on his and realized that his worry was for nothing- nothing was changing here, ever.