A/N: This is more of a prologue than an actual chapter, but I think this should take off soon… Sort of.
Anyways, my Mary/Marshall muse like grew up or something. I dunno.
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"Crist, Marshall. When did you become my mother?" She slams herself into her chair, turning hastily to her computer monitor and away from him, where she sits rigidly in tense irritation.
They've been fighting a lot lately, about little things and big things. About everything from where to get lunch to which safe house to stash a witness in when their identity is revealed. They fight like it's their job and they hate it. Mary hates it because as much as she likes a good argument, he's not only the best friend she's got, he's the only one. Marshall hates it because they used to be maybe going somewhere and now they're stuck having heated arguments on which route to take to get back to the Sunshine Building.
They're just sick of this fighting but they don't know how to make it stop. Mary just wants to get back to normal and Marshall would like a little more than that, but that's nothing new.
"I'm just trying to protect you!" She's so thick sometimes, thinking she can be the only thing she needs. She can't always be independent, she does, despite what she thinks, need him. She's his partner.
"Newsflash, Doofus, I don't need your help! I had the situation under control!" Does she really think she's unbreakable? She's strong, he'll give her that- she's the strongest person he's even known. But she's not the person she wants him to believe she is, she's flawed and maybe still a little broken and defiantly a bit more vulnerable than she believes she is. Or maybe that's just him, because he knows where all the cracks and fault lines are.
"You're not as infallible as you think you are, Mare. That guy was huge, he would have broken you in half with one hand," he can't believe she really thinks she could have taken him.
"Well, we'll never know, will we? Someone had to go and pull his gun and badge!"
"Inspectors!" For such a small man, Stan can certainly make some noise. The manila folder in his hand also looks like bad news for the feuding partners. Just what they need, a case where they will probably have to deal with each other.
"Mary, it's you lucky day. You've got a witness on the run. Get on it," he tosses the file on her desk and quickly retreats to his office, closing the door soundly.
She pages quickly through the file, quietly scoffing at what he assumes to be her witness' idiocy, snapping her jacket off the back of her chair. She makes for the door, obviously planning to leave without saying anything more to him, but he reaches over his desk and firmly grasps her arm.
"Mary," he sounds kind of reluctant now, like he wishes they had time now to fix this because she might have to go God knows where in the process of tracking down this witness. Well, he does.
She shakes his hand off sharply and storms out faster that the gates can buzz to let her out.
"Shit," he plops back down in his chair, knowing it will do no good to go after her. They don't have time to make it right.
He wishes he could take back half the things he's said and done in the last month or two, wishes he could go back to where they were before this started, before he ended it with Abigail, before the baby was stillborn, before they became this mess that could no longer function as two halves of something that was almost whole; he wishes they could just get past this spot where they were never on the same page when it mattered and on the same exact place on the page when it was a dangerous spot for them to both be standing in at once.
Before something changed and each started contradicting the other without purpose or even motive.
When that little baby was born, already gone, it broke another little piece off of the already chipped and cracked heart of Mary, who was more broken than she'd ever admit. Even as she busted from the inside out, he couldn't help but break with her. She'd never wanted a baby once in her life, but even she shattered at the sight of that almost there but so far gone.
Something changed, then. The second he told Abby that he couldn't keep on like they were, Mary knew something had changed. He crafted up these reasons why he broke it off with her, but it felt like she could see right through them. Well, she always could. She just usually chose not to because she was afraid of what she almost knew.
She almost knew a lot of things. She wouldn't allow herself to realize them, of course. It was dangerous to know them, at least to her. He'd been waiting for her to realize, she'd been staunchly refusing to do so. She thought she couldn't, but wasn't that some form of knowing in itself?
To her, they needed to go back. To him, they needed to move forward. But they were pulling in opposite directions with equal force, so they were going nowhere at all. He didn't know what to do about it and she didn't know what about it, so they did nothing and hoped for the best.
They just have time for a knockdown, drag out fight and he can't even almost win that without the risk of losing his partner for good. He can use logic to keep the top on her volatile temper, but he can't have an all-out screaming match with her, because that's where she's in her comfort zone and once he lets her get there, she'll never leave.
She'll use it as a fortress and it's always been easier to just chase her.
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