Author's Note: I'm posting this too early. I'm only a couple of pages ahead of this, and I like to be chapters, but I'm curious to see what interest there is out there. So here goes. Enjoy!
Sheila
Chapter 1
Mary stiffened when she saw her walk in. The woman was casually dressed in a pair of jeans and a tank top; her hair pulled back in a simple ponytail and her face scrubbed clean. And yet, even at her most simple, she would never blend into the crowd. Every bone in her body was long and graceful, her hair thick and curly, and her skin was a rich caramel color. Against that flawless skin were a pair of green eyes flecked with gold. She was one of those women who could cause the most jaded person to stop in their tracks and wonder how genetics could be distributed so favorably to one person.
Mary didn't like her. She hadn't liked her since the day she met her three months ago. Others, particularly men, speculated that she was jealous of the women's incredible beauty, but Mary didn't care. She hadn't liked her on sight , and it had only deepened when Stan assigned her to Marshall.
She surveyed the room, noting Mary at her desk and Marshall missing from his. She fixed Mary with a look that easily as pained as the one Mary gave her. She faked a smile. "Hi Mary. You look well. Is Marshall coming back soon?"
"He relocated to Brazil," was on the tip of her tongue but she held it in favor of civility. "He'll be back in a few minutes. He's just down the hall consulting with a US Attorney on something."
She sank into his desk chair, her perfectly shaped arms draped over the sides. "It's been one of those days."
"Does he know you're coming? We don't usually encourage witnesses to meet us here…after the initial meeting. It sort of defeats the purpose of anonymity if you're bouncing in and out of the Federal building on a regular basis."
"Mary, did you like me even a little bit in the beginning?"
Mary nodded. "That's a good question, Angel. I'll have to think about it."
Angel crossed her elegant legs. "I'm not threatened by another beautiful woman."
Mary snorted. "That's wonderful, Angel. Clearly, that could be my only motive here."
"If there's another, why don't you get it off your chest?"
"I'm not much for con artists." Mary started tapping her pencil on the side of her coffee.
"How do I qualify as a con artist?"
"You're good, Angel. When men look at you, they see a beautiful woman who smiles sweetly and talks a good game. You're not just beautiful, but you're smart too. You have a master's degree in Social Work, and you're a great mother to those twin girls."
Angel laughed. "Let's jump to what you're really thinking."
Mary leaned forward. "How does a woman like yourself end up marrying to the biggest drug kingpin on the West Coast? How does a smart woman not understand that the millions coming into the house are dirty and bloody? How does that woman justify the furs and the shoes and the private jet while babies are being born this very day addicted to crack cocaine? How do you make sense of all that? Angel, I don't like you because you perpetrate the fiction that you're not culpable for any of it."
Angel sighed. "Why dig for a deeper story when the superficial facts will do? You see only that because that's all you want to see. For you it's simple."
"Okay, fill me in."
Angel shook her head. "You're not worth my time, Mary. Think what you want."
"Ewww! I thought I heard something burning when I got off the elevator. I had no idea there were two combustibles in the same room. For God's sakes, nobody light a match!" Marshall sauntered in and eyed the two women warily.
Angel smiled. "Mary was just explaining to me some of the deeper aspects of my character."
"And the proper channels through which a witness should contact their agent."
Marshall shook his head. "Don't mind Mary. She's allergic to civilized behavior."
"Hey!" He deftly sidestepped the pencil she threw in his direction.
He turned his attention. "What can I do for you, Angel?"
"That thing happened again." She gave him such a look of innocence that Mary could barely contain herself.
"We have to find you a better babysitter."
"We do, but, in the meantime, I have a contracts class tonight…and I really need to be there."
Marshall rubbed his chin. "Tonight's a play-off game."
Mary nodded. "Which you were going to watch at my house, if you recall."
Angel stood. "The short notice is lousy. I'm sorry. It's just that I'm new to law school, and contract language is so dense to read. I just don't know—"
Marshall waved her back into her chair. "Mary's got a pool. Tell them to bring their suits. We'll pull the TV outside and watch them at the same time."
"We will?!"
He narrowed his eyes at her. "It will be Mary's way of apologizing for the nasty things she says."
"Hey!" Mary searched for another pencil.
Marshall pointed at her. "It only bordered on cute the first time you threw one. This time there will be consequences which will start with you having to watch basketball play-offs all by yourself."
Angel smiled at her before walking over to Marshall and kissing him on the cheek. "Right now, you are what makes this new life bearable."
He turned to watch her disappear behind the closing elevator doors.
"So you're a babysitter now."
He looked over his shoulder. "You really want to talk to me about appropriate behavior with witnesses?"
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The energy stuffed into the body of a five year old is impressive. Having two of these perpetual motion machines can be daunting, but Mary could find no sign of stress on Marshall's face. He brought them over, threw them in the water, and then climbed in after them. The splashing and screaming went on for hours, but Mary had a hard time maintaining any level of annoyance. There is something pure in the laughter of a small child, and it was more than a little infectious. Unable to nurture her funk, Mary put on her suit and jumped in on top of them. The game largely ignored, the four of them played until the sun was only an orange haze sinking into the horizon.
It was clear that Mary could keep going for some time, but Marshall sensed the exhaustion in the girls and started herding them out. He'd just finished toweling off the twins when their mother appeared at the back gate. "They'll sleep like rocks tonight."
He grinned. "Me too. They're really a workout."
Mary dropped the towel she was using and faced Angel, her muscles lean in the plain black Speedo she was wearing. "Cute kids." Then she disappeared into the house.
"Do you think she'll ever like me?"
Marshall shrugged. "Mary is all instinct. Whatever it is, it's something she feels in her gut. Logic doesn't enter into it so talking to her isn't going to help."
The little girls trotted over and hugged her with damp, brown arms. "Shoo, my little fish. Go to the car. Mommy wants to thank Marshall and she'll be right there." All grins and ponytails, they ran out the gate.
"I'll find a more reliable agency. Plus, I figure that you'll start getting to know your neighbors soon, and then there will be teen-age girls climbing out of the woodwork for a chance to romp with those two."
"I've never known a man like you, Marshall. You are so giving and—"
He put a hand up. "Okay, stop right there. My guess is that men have been helping you out since the day you hit puberty."
She sighed. "Yes…to an extent. Men have always been generous with me as long as they got what they wanted. You're kind merely for the sake of being kind. There's a difference."
He nodded. "My job is to help you get a fresh start. I'm happy to do what I can."
"And what do you get out of it?"
"You're asking questions that don't need answers. Let's just keep it simple."
"You're a very proper U.S. Marshal, you know."
He shifted uncomfortably. "The rules aren't that hard. Plus, I'm not a man who wants the whole world. I'm pretty happy with the little piece I got hold of right now."
"I don't know very many content men."
He smiled. "Content men don't chase after women that look like you."
"What does that mean?"
He shrugged. "This might have come out wrong, but I guess I'm saying that the men who want you want an ideal, a fantasy. They want what's unattainable."
"And you don't?" Her smile faded.
"I guess I see myself as a man interested in a challenge, but stomping on WitSec rules for the sake of it just doesn't appeal to me. Being incredibly beautiful isn't enough to make me forget my job."
Her elegant fingers slid down his arm and she captured his hand. "You're a good man. I'm lucky to have you for a friend."
He stepped back and watched her leave. He was still standing there feeling oddly unsettled when Mary came out in a t-shirt and jeans, combing her wet hair. "I can't believe you're falling for her."
"I'm not falling for anyone."
"She's not who you think she is."
He snorted. "I think it's safe to say that you don't know what I am thinking right now."
"So tell me."
He looked at her for a moment. "Actually, I was just thinking about how much fun we just had in the pool. I like it when you are relaxed enough to have fun."
Mary was anticipating any response but this one. She struggled with it until her attention fell on his swimming trunks. "How did you find adult swim trunks with yellow duckies?"
He was unable to stifle a grin. "It took some real searching, I'll tell you that."
She rolled her eyes. "You're such a dork."
"Well, I try." He whipped his arm around and snapped her on the thigh with his towel. Then he dodged her reach and ran past her; executing a devastating cannonball into the center of the pool. She shouted in protest, and jumped in after him.
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By the time, he got over the 3rd hill, he was breathing too hard. The sun was high in the sky, and he knew he should have started the run an hour earlier. Perspiration clouded his eyes, and he buried his face in his tank top. On a normal day, he would abandon plans to go the full five miles before turning around to head back, but this was not a normal day.
He shook his wet head and headed for the 4th hill. Images crowded his thoughts of her soft lips and the smell of her skin against his. He couldn't remember how it happened. He'd taken them to the movies when their air conditioning unit broke down. They'd seen the latest Disney feature, and when he drove them home, she'd insisted that the girls wanted him there for story time. Then he remembered being in the living room and she was too close, and then her lips were on his and he was kissing her hard.
It hadn't taken a couple of minutes for his brain to kick in. She was working on his belt, and her shirt was wide open before he realized what was going on. He pushed her, and she fell back onto the couch. For a moment, he could see that she was waiting for him to climb on top of her, and so he turned away, awkwardly stuffing his shirt back into his pants. When he turned around, she was buttoning her shirt slowly, a look of confusion on her face. "I thought this was what you wanted. You sure acted interested."
Marshall took a step back. "Wanting you isn't the issue. I have a job to do, and being your boyfriend isn't part of it."
"I would never use this to hurt you, Marshall, but it just feels so right."
"For you, maybe," he ran his fingers through his hair. Then he dropped into a chair on the other side of the room.
"Wow, that stings."
He looked at her. "I don't mean to be hurtful, but it's sort of confusing to me that I'm not more drawn to you. You have been giving me signals for weeks, and I haven't felt…anything much. I am attracted to you, there's no doubt. A piece of furniture would be attracted to you, but I keep waiting for the other shoe. I should be imagining how we could make this work. I should be imagining you and me together, but I'm not."
She looked away. "I never thought race would be an issue for you."
"I don't think it is. People seeing us walking down the street together are always going to see me as the lucky one to have a woman like you on my arm. There isn't one part of you that isn't drop dead gorgeous to me."
She folded her arms across her chest. "So what's the mystery, Marshall?"
"I think this isn't a case of me not knowing what I want. I know what I want. These past few months have really solidified it for me. You were a big part of that. Here you were in all of your glory, giving yourself to me, and I can't think of anything but…"
She bit her lip. "Oh my God! Are you nuts? Is she even housebroken? You've got to be kidding me."
"She does have rough edges." Marshall had a grin pulling at his mouth.
"She will chew you up and spit you out."
He sighed. "Yes, probably."
"You're positively lovesick."
He nodded. "I've only started to come to terms with it, and it's pretty miserable. Any ideas on what I should do?"
She threw back her head and laughed. "Okay, you just reject me and now you want me my advice on how to get the other woman? That's amazing!"
"I'm going to say something that's not meant to offend, but I strongly suspect that you'll survive my rejection without much of a problem."
"So I am unfeeling?"
He shrugged. "Just very pragmatic."
She relaxed into the couch. "I should be furious at you right now, but I'm not. Maybe, you're right."
"I'm pretty good at human nature."
"So you want to know how to catch the She-devil, huh? Well, You could always drop raw meat by her car, and then use a tranquilizer gun when she starts to feed."
"Very funny. That's great."
"Okay, okay. Um, Mary is a strong woman like me. She probably appreciates the direct approach like I do. So I'm thinking that you should just ask her out."
"She could shoot me."
"Well, for some odd reason, that's the kind of gal you've got a jones for."
"You think I should be direct?"
"Mary isn't going to like a coward, and she isn't going to like a guy who's walking around all mopey and heartsick. Throw out the first salvo. It might shake things up a bit, and she might have to react, but my guess is that the idea of you and her is something not completely foreign to her."
Marshall hit the top of the 4th hill, and stopped for a moment. He was getting that metallic feel in his mouth that happened when he wasn't getting enough oxygen. He dropped his head down to his knees, and took time to settle his breathing. He eyed the landscape he needed to traverse to get back to his SUV. It was going to a long journey, but he knew he had to make it. A man couldn't live a full life, and not have the courage to share his feelings.
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"What are you doing tomorrow night?"
She eyed him warily. "Nothing."
He cleared his throat. "Well, I was watching Bobby Flay the other day and he was doing the most extraordinary thing with Chilean Sea Bass, and I picked up some filets and I thought you could come over…and, um, we could, um, eat fish…together."
Mary stopped what she was doing at her desk and glared at him. "Every time, you have quality time with Angel and her kids, you get like this. What's wrong with you?"
He threw his hands up. "What?! A guy wants to spend time with a friend."
"No way. Friends order pizza and watch the game together. This is what a guy does when he want a little slap and tickle or when he's trying to apologize for something."
"Mary, I—"
"I know. You're a man without an ulterior motive. Right! I don't want any part of it. You are trying to massage a guilty conscience. Where did you take her and those little girls yesterday: the zoo? the museum? the beach?"
He sighed. "I took them to the movies. Their air conditioning went out."
"How many of your other witnesses are getting this kind of personal service?"
"I haven't done anything wrong."
She leaned forward. "Then why are you grilling frickin' sea bass? You must be trying to apologize for something."
He looked down at his desk and spoke softly. "Earlier, you said that an apology isn't only reason a man cooks for a woman."
Her mouth dropped. "My God, Marshall, are you that twisted? You would risk our friendship just so you can get a distraction from the dragon lady. And here I thought I meant something to you."
"Mary, that's not what I'm trying to say."
She put up a hand while grabbing her things. "I've had enough. You're going to have to work out this little drama all on your own."
As the elevator doors closed behind her, Marshall closed his eyes and hung his head.
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Chapter 2 on Saturday