Disclaimer: I don't own In Plain Sight
"Half caf, triple cap, heavy foam", Mary had gotten up that morning feeling happy and relaxed, she dwelled in it buying Marshall and Stan complicated coffee beverages.
She spots Marshall by his desk reading a letter. She doesn't bother to question it
When she handed Marshall his coffee reciting the type of coffee he liked, he made a sarcastic remark. Her happiness deflates a notch. She frowned and asked for her reimbursement. When he paid her for his coffee they engage in a back and forth battle about their relationship.
Stan comes out of his office as he notes his inspectors bantering, "Inspectors, lets go"
Mary hands over Stan's drink to Marshall and requests a reimbursement for that drink as well. She walks over to her partner's desk and takes the envelope she saw Marshall reading when she walked into the office. Looking back to make sure Marshall didn't catch her, she picks up the envelope and took out the letter.
I can't believe it, after all this time you're going to leave too, she thought after reading the job offer from the security company, her good mood completely banished. The emotions rolling down her body range from heartbreak to anger in a flash. She couldn't afford to get emotional, the heartbreak threatened to drop her to her knees; she immediately squashed the emotions, keeping anger. I can handle anger; anything else is out on a permanent vacation.
Her walls, the very walls she had kept to keep everyone out, same walls that had started to cave when it came to her partner, went up with reinforcements. Never again, no one will EVER come near my heart again.
Mary straightened and walked over to the conference room. She found Stan and Marshall already sitting on the conference table. Instead of sitting next to her partner as usual she opted and sat across from him. Making sarcastic remark after sarcastic remark.
What am I going to do now? I can't let him quit, he's 5th generation Marshal! Her thoughts kept evading her while Stan talked about the new witness transport. Horst.
They leave the office and on the road Mary does nothing to start a conversation with Marshall. What can I talk about? What's the point of talking? He's leaving anyways! Guess he got fed up with my attitude. God, I'm going to miss him. NO! No, I'm not, she contradicted herself.
Marshall kept glancing her way, trying to figure out what pissed her off. Did I do something wrong? What the hell's wrong with her? She seemed happy when she got to the office, what pissed her off between dropping off their coffees and the meeting?
Reaching the prison Mary never mentions the fact that she knows he's leaving. What am I going to say? So, I guess you got tired of my shit, huh? No, you're just going to have to figure it out. Should I transfer? I can always go back to Jersey. I'm sure my old boss wouldn't mind me back. What am I going to do without him? You'll live, she angrily told herself.
Once on the road again, a few hours into the drive Horst complains about going to the bathroom. After a while they decide to take a bathroom break at a gas station.
On their way back to the truck Marshall notices a man with his wife near the truck, he tenses when the man picks up something by the truck. As soon as he got to the truck he checks to see if he sees anything suspicious and doesn't see anything.
On the road, Mary looks down and notices that something's wrong with the truck. They pull over and all hell breaks loose. The couple from the gas station followed them and started to shoot at them. The partners return fire, but Marshall gets hit. Mary immediately jumped in the truck to cover Marshall, who is now lying on the ground. She stops the truck and shoots at the couple from her perch on the driver's seat. All of a sudden, she's out of ammo. Looking out the passenger window, she spots the man walking over with gun drawn. Pointing at her. Damn, guess I don't have to transfer. God, please help Marshall, keep him safe. That's all I ask.
She suddenly hears shooting and she turns to look at Marshall. Marshall! He's up and shooting at the couple, they run and speed off. She jumps out of the SUV and runs around and stops when she sees Marshall collapse. "Marshall! Oh my God. Can you hear me?"
Marshall groans, "I must've hit my head."
"Yeah, that's what happened. And then you fell on a bullet"
Mary manages to stabilize the gunshot wound, and after trying her cell phone several times, decide to just walk back to the gas station. They all walk back and stop at an abandoned diner. Marshall passes out several times before he instructs her to insert the tube down his gunshot wound. After a few hours, he tells her to leave. To get help. "You should go"
She gets angry. He's dying and he wants me to leave. Another reason to up and leave. I can't do this anymore. As soon as I'm back, I'll call and see if the FTF will take me back. No better time like the present to return to the past. "You should shut up."
They argue until she finally caves, leaning over and giving him a kiss on the cheek, "You better not die"
He looks up at her, "I will try not to die. For you."
She's about to leave when she spots the truck with the couple outside the diner. Waiting for them.
They decide to plan an ambush, knowing that once the night came the couple and their reinforcements would try to get in. To kill them. So they wait and sit. And talk.
"So, you won't die. For me?"
Marshall nods, "You're my best friend, my only friend."
"Yeah, you're my best friend, my only friend too" And now I have to get used to not having you in my life, damn you Marshall and your damn friendship.
"Sometimes I feel like the keeper of an exotic animal. And I spend my time either protecting you from the world, or the world from you. It's just my responsibility, that's why I will try not to die. For you" he murmurs amid coughs.
Mary sighs, "I'm sorry" I'm sorry you've had to carry that burden, I'm sorry I had to be an exotic animal, I'm sorry that this exotic animal got too difficult to handle. I'm sorry you have to put the proverbial bullet in my heart. I'm sorry for being me.
After another few hours she decides to go out and investigate, see if she could take a hit or two. Help their situation, but as she sneaks behind the assassins' SUV she looks back at their SUV and comes to a conclusion.
Running back before getting caught by the assassins' Mary confronts Horst, eventually calling him Lola. She immediately comes up with a plan, she uses Lola aka Horst to get leverage, Marshall in a working vehicle so she could get him to a hospital.
The assassins' and Mary argue until Horst gives his people orders to follow Mary's orders. Finally, Mary is in the assassins' truck on her way with Marshall lying on the back seat, but not before she had put her cell phone in Horst's medical bag.
As soon as she's on the road, Mary calls Stan, by the time she reached him there was a roadblock. Ambulance waiting for Marshall.
Oh Marshall, please don't die. You're the best US Marshall I'll ever know. You'll always be my best-friend. My soul mate.
After arresting Horst and the other assassins, Mary and Stan go to the hospital. Mary collapses on a chair, elbows on knees, she sobbed into her hands. Her whole body shaking from the sobs. God, please don't let anything happen to Marshall. I wouldn't be able to forgive myself. For the last time, I'm so sorry Marshall.
A week after the transfer from hell, where Marshall almost lost his life, where I almost lost the only man I've lo-, immediately Mary's brain ceases its rambling. Mary stumbles to a stop and realizes what she was about to think. She shakes her head and blocks all thoughts about Marshall, instead focusing in the pending transfer. With determination she walks straight to Stan's office.
"Stan, you have a minute?"
Stan looks up and waves Mary in, "Hey Mary, what can I do for you?"
She hands over the transfer form, filled out with her information. She had spoken to the FTF in Jersey two days after Marshall was admitted in the hospital, they didn't have an opening. But her previous boss told her about an opening at the FTF in Texas, he gave a good reference and they contacted her the following day.
Grabbing the extended sheet of paper, Stan scans the paperwork and freezes when he sees her name, on a transfer request. He frowns and looks up, "What the hell's this?"
Mary immediately stood up straight, crossed her arms with head held high, "It's my transfer request."
TBC