Machinations by Betty Bokor
Mary/Marshall. Marshall surprises everyone with his new plans and Mary has to learn to live with his decisions.
Spoilers: All episodes, including Second Season Finale.
Disclaimer: The In Plain Sight original characters belong to USA Network and Universal Media Studios (UMS). This was written strictly for the purpose of entertainment. No attempt at copyright infringement has been made.

Machinations

Chapter 1

The day my father left, I learned a new meaning for the word loss. Losing him implied so much more than the lack of his physical presence or his fatherly comfort. It meant waking up and leaving childhood and innocence behind. In the years that followed, there was little I could keep. Loss became a daily event.

Ever since then, I have carefully avoided putting myself in the position of losing something –someone– else. I know I cannot stop death, but, hell if I will care about anyone enough to feel the loss when they are gone. These days, my mother and my sister are –as when he left– my only solid attachments. After Raphael, men –like Faber, for example– don't hold real meaning, beyond whatever physical satisfaction I can get from them. Of course I'm afraid of losing Stan, especially since he's the best surrogate for my father I've met until now, but, most of the time, he's safely ensconced between the walls of our office.

Now, Marshall… Marshall, that's another story.

Mary looked at her watch one more time. She tried searching for something in her desk drawers and then typed a few words on the document she had still open on her computer, but her thoughts went predictably back to Marshall. He was not there yet. He had said he would be there by nine and, though it was only a quarter to nine now, she somehow felt uneasy about it.

Marshall never took personal days, much less a week.

Mary could feel something had changed in their relationship right since she had come back from Mexico. He had not said anything and their daily interaction seemed to be the same as before, but she could feel a subtle difference and it was not a positive one. Every single exchange between them was now related to work and whenever she tried to get into a more personal area, Marshall delicately moved the conversation back to the safe waters of witness protection. It was as if he did not want to know about her life and that was hard for her to take from her best friend. She was still interested in his life… Right?

The truth was he had never talked much about his own life. Or she had not really asked. Or listened…

Now, he was taking time off. That was something almost unheard of before.

Why did he need to help a friend move to Albuquerque? She was his only friend; he had said so.

Who was this friend about whom he had never talked before? He had not even said his name… or hers.

Besides, who moved to Albuquerque these days?

As soon as the thought crossed her mind, she remembered Marshall spewing data about the city. The sixth fastest growing city in America… Almost one million inhabitants in the metropolitan area… Near half the population of New Mexico in it…

Okay. That was not a good argument. It seemed many people were moving to Albuquerque lately, but, still, who was this friend?

She felt the uneasiness grow stronger.

Ten to nine.

She wondered why it bothered her so much that Marshall took care of someone else. Mary had a life beyond the office and Marshall should have one, too. She had been engaged to Raph for quite a while and she probably would have married him if his aunt had not come for a visit and opened his eyes to what Mary already knew but refused to acknowledge. Nevertheless, that did not mean that she had abandoned the idea of settling down. Being shot while protecting Francesca had been a wake-up call. She had realized that if she had died that day, there would have only been accomplishments in her professional life and most of those would have been kept secret. She had suddenly seen the virtues of having a family and, though it scared her deeply, she had given it some thought. And then Norah had come and changed every one of her plans.

Five to nine.

On the other hand, she knew Marshall dated now and then and that had never been an issue. She had encouraged him to talk about his dates and she had been there for him when they had not worked out well.

Now that she thought about it, she usually believed his dates would not lead to anything else. It was hard to date when you had to hide most of the details of your job —of what you did everyday all day long— to a person who was trying to get to know you. It was easier to give up than to get caught in a lie.

Marshall should have understood why she had told Raph about her job. It got them closer…

That was a lie. Ever since he had found out about WitSec, Raph had been upset about it.

In any case, Marshall was not dating anyone lately and now he was just helping a friend. Nothing to worry about.

Nine o'clock.

As if on cue, she heard the elevator reaching the floor and sighed with relief. He was back.

Marshall entered the office with a wide smile and an air of contentment that made Mary get a smile of her own. He looked rested, happier than when he had left a week before.

After leaving his coat and some small boxes on his desk, he turned around and said in a loud voice, "Gather 'round, people. Gather 'round… I have news!"

His smile was even brighter —if that was possible— and he was signaling them with his hand to get close to him.

Stan came out of his office, intrigued, and Mary and Delia followed him towards where Marshall was standing. He turned to his desk and picked up the boxes.

"First of all, a few souvenirs from my recent journey to Washington, D.C.; chocolates for you," he said as he handed one box to Mary and one to Delia, "and a good bottle of Portuguese port for the boss."

As she opened her chocolates, Mary looked at Stan, "Care to switch?"

Stan smiled as he shook his head.

"Had to try at least," Mary commented.

Stan thanked Marshall and then asked, "So what's the news?"

Marshall took a deep breath and smiled again, "I'm getting married, folks," he said enthusiastically as he lifted his left hand and showed a simple gold wedding ring on his finger.

"You got married?" Mary asked in disbelief.

"No, Mar… I said I'm getting married," Marshall corrected her.

"But you're wearing the ring already," she countered.

He shrugged. "We had them; Leslie liked the idea of not being the only one wearing the ring."

"Leslie…" Mary repeated very softly, but her voice was drowned by Stan's congratulating Marshall. Delia joined him soon.

"This is a surprise, boy, but it looks like it's making you very happy, so, congratulations!" Stan said as he shook Marshall's hand. "I just can't believe you kept it a secret."

"Not really," Marshall replied. "It was a sudden decision, but we think it'll work just fine."

"So, when are we meeting the bride?" Stan asked.

"Well, we can check the calendar for this week, but maybe we can do dinner on Wednesday. Leslie really wants to meet all of you." He looked at Mary, who had not moved from her spot and had a polite smile on her face. "I've told her a lot about you."

Mary nodded slowly and walked to him to hug him. "Congratulations, Marshall," she said softly. "I'm very happy for you."

"We have to plan a celebration," Delia said as she started walking to her desk.

Stan walked to his office and checked his calendar. "Wednesday… yeah, it looks like we could do it on Wednesday if nothing comes up…" he confirmed from his desk. "But," he walked back out and looked at Marshall, "there's a pile of stuff for you to do today, if the bliss of the impending nuptials allows you to go back to work."

"Yes, boss," Marshall replied with the same happy smile and started grabbing folders from his desk.

Mary was still standing in the middle of the room, holding her chocolates, looking at him.

Marshall raised his head and smiled questioningly at her. He was expecting something from her, but he was not sure what. Mockery, maybe sarcasm, even anger… Anything but silence.

She noticed he was looking at her and nodded her head. "Good... good." She walked to her desk and looked at her computer without really seeing what was on the screen.

During the rest of the morning, Mary glanced at Marshall many times, half expecting him to be looking at her, but it never happened. He earnestly worked on updating his files and taking care of his witnesses. Before leaving at midday to visit some of them, he smiled at her and Mary felt he seemed somehow relieved, free of some heavy invisible burden.

She had really wanted to ask about his fiancée, but she had not been able to bring herself to do it. She would wait until Wednesday and judge for herself. If he wanted to share something before that, she would welcome it, but she could not ask. Stan had tried and Marshall had avoided giving a straight answer, joking about how they needed to meet Leslie to truly understand why he had decided to marry her.

When she finally went home, she was feeling as if Marshall's indiscernible burden had fallen over her own shoulders.