Disclaimer: I do not own In Plain Sight or any of the characters and whatnot.

So, this is an idea I got from a conversation in what I regret to say is the only IPS forum on this site…so sad…but anyway, much thanks to Iluvdolphins and shadowstorm13 for the idea!

Chapter 1: Jinx

The phone rang, harsh and grating against the sounds of the night. Jinx Shannon answered it with her usual cheery "Hello?" Stan's voice came through the telephone. He sounded grim.

"Ms. Shannon, you may want to sit down," he said to her.

"Why?" she asked, her tone suddenly accusatory. "What's wrong? Did something happen to Mary?"

Stan sighed audibly. "Ms. Shannon, your daughter has been shot."

The words themselves were like gunfire. She couldn't feel her legs. In fact, her entire body had gone numb. How could this be? Stan's voice continued.

"She's on her way to the hospital now." He paused before continuing. "Her condition is critical."

Jinx's world was spinning out of control. She couldn't fathom it. How could Mary, her little girl, who she had raised on her own, have gotten into this? How could she have gotten into any situation this dangerous? She could feel the tears well up in her eyes. Her hand went limp and she dropped the phone on the sofa next to her. Why couldn't she protect her own daughter? She felt like a terrible excuse for a mother.

Jinx walked outside to see her little girl sitting on the pavement, crying. Mary was clutching her knee and leaning up against her father's car. "Oh, baby girl, what happened?" asked Jinx, swooping over her like a mother goose protecting her gosling.

"I – I fell and – and s-s-scraped my knee and now it's – it's bleeding!" the little four-year-old sobbed. Jinx took a close look at the scrape on her knee. It wasn't bad. A quick rinse and a Band-Aid and it would be fine.

"Shush, my baby girl. It's OK. It's gonna be OK," she whispered to her daughter as she picked her up and carried her inside.

Why couldn't she help her now?

Brandi walked into the room just then and saw her mother with her head in her hands, the phone lying next to her. She walked over and put an arm around her mother's shoulders as she picked up the phone to see who was on the other end. Jinx looked up in time to see her other beautiful little girl's face change almost instantly from mild concern to a mask of shock and grief.

"Thank you," Brandi said into the phone. "We're on our way." She hung up the phone and turned to her mother. "Mom," she said, kneeling down in front of Jinx to look her in the eye. Jinx met her gaze. "I know this is hard, but Mary needs us now. We have to get to the hospital, OK?" Brandi only just managed to keep the tears in her eyes from spilling down her cheeks.

"OK," Jinx whispered back, standing up and heading for the door. "But we need to tell Raph, too."

--

Jinx and Brandi walked into the waiting room, closely followed by Raph. One look at the worried look on Stan's face and the positively distraught expression Marshall wore told Jinx all she needed to know. She was numb now, and all they could do was to wait.

She took her seat in the waiting room. She heard Raph and the Hispanic woman talking about Mary, and it occurred to her that she had no idea who this woman was. Eager for any news on what happened to her daughter, Jinx immediately started drilling the woman for any and all information she could gain. Only when she was satisfied that she had gotten all she was going to get from her did she stop the interrogation.

Jinx looked around the room. Brandi was trying to find anything she could to distract herself. Raphael, the poor man, looked like he was still in shock, like it hadn't really registered yet what had happened.

And then there was Marshall. Marshall looked like he was in more pain than anyone. He looked like…well, Jinx knew that look.

"Marshall, could I talk to you for a moment?" she asked politely. He looked surprised when he looked up at her, but he conceded and followed her out into the hallway, out of everyone else's earshot.

Jinx didn't look at him. She may not have always been a very good mother, but she knew how to play this game. She was looking at a poster on the wall. It was a diagram of the human heart. She stared at it for a moment, planning exactly how this was going to play out.

"Ms. Shannon?" Marshall asked uncertainly.

"Funny, when you think about it," she said.

"Beg your pardon?"

"The heart, I mean. It's kind of funny." She paused for effect. "I mean, it's what keeps us alive, keeps us going. It's what lets us feel and lets us be. It's what makes us human. And some of us bury it while others wear it on their sleeves. But the bottom line is, no matter how tough or strong you think you are, your heart is still so fragile." She looked up at Marshall. "You already know that, don't you?"

Marshall glanced aside, not quite willing to meet her gaze. Jinx could see the tears he had barely kept suppressed welling up in his eyes once more, and she knew she had him. "You know how fragile the heart can be, and how easy it is to break. So I'm giving you a warning."

Marshall's gaze snapped up to meet hers. "A warning?" he asked.

"Yes. Now I may not be strong, and I may not look like much, but believe me when I say that if you don't listen to what I'm about to say, we may just find out exactly how fragile your heart is." She paused again, this time to calm herself down. "I see the look in your eyes. I know how much she means to you. But I need to know how much you're willing to give for her."

Marshall looked straight at her, tears in his eyes and a look of furious determination on his face. "If I could trade places with her right now, I would. If I knew this was going to happen, I would have gladly taken that bullet for her." Jinx could see he truly meant it.

"But that's all hypothetical," she said, her eyes never leaving his, motherly protection meeting fierce determination. "I'm talking about reality."

"What do you –"

"I mean when she wakes up, what will you really be willing to sacrifice for her?" Jinx couldn't even bring herself to think the word if instead of when. "Will you still take a bullet for her? A shot to the heart? Even if it isn't fired from a gun?"

Jinx saw the understanding in Marshall's eyes. He knew exactly what she was talking about. "Ms. Shannon, I love your daughter. I love her beyond anything I've ever felt before. I would give anything to be with her forever. But what I want, more than anything else, is for her to be happy. I want to know she's where she needs to be. And if where she needs to be isn't with me, then I swear to you now, on everything that I am, that I will never lay a hand on your daughter."

Jinx looked at him for a moment longer. She could see the love and the truth burning in his eyes. "That will be all," she said, walking past him and back into the waiting room.

Now that she was done playing protective mother, there was nothing she could do but sit and wait in endless agony. At least while she was drilling Marshall, she had something else she could focus on. Now, however, she had nothing to focus on but the terror and the pain.

Mary, hold on, thought Jinx as she sat and waited for news on her little girl's condition. Just hold on for us, OK? I love you, my baby girl. I love you more than you know.