Author's note: I dreamt parts of this, and just had to write it.
Today is November 25th, for most people, this is just another day of the week, another day in November, and another day in the year. However, for those in the US Marshal Service, such as myself, today marks a very important day. Today is the annual US Marshal Service ball for New Mexico.
It's a little after 7pm, and I've done the usual mingle, schmooze and chat with the other Marshals I know for the last fifteen minutes, but there's been no sign of Mary all evening. She said she was coming, and by policy, she has to come. But there's no telling with Mary...
I decide texting her would be the easiest option.
Where are you? I message her.
I'm in the car park. Just give me a few minutes and I'll be in. Was her prompt response.
A few minutes passed and still no Mary. Was she jerking my chain about being here? I think not. My curiosity is currently getting the better of me, so I decide to go and look for her.
Naturally, the car park is my first place of searching, because that's where she said she was. I push the glass door open and step into the night, feeling the cold bitterness of the wind, I pull my suit jacket tighter around me in an effort to fight the cold.
I head over to the car park, and sure as the sunset, there was my extraordinary partner, Mary Shannon, sitting in the driver's seat of her not-so extraordinary Probe, furiously applying the last of her makeup and adjusting her black dress. She was breathtaking.
She notices me standing near her car, and she gestures for me to get in, or at least that's what I think she means.
I open the passenger door to the Probe, look over to the driver's seat and find she's not there anymore. Instead, she's situated herself in the back seat of her car, just sitting there.
Oh, what the hell I think to myself, I pull the seat forward and join Mary in the back.
For awhile we're just sitting there, soaking up each other's presence, the only sounds being our breathing and the forgotten world outside Mary's car.
A few minutes pass and suddenly, I feel the warmth of her body pressed up against my right side, and a strange feeling floods my body. Comforting. Familiar.
"I've missed this" she whispered.
"What have you missed?" I ask her to clarify.
"Us. The closeness. I've missed your mindless trivia, you renting a space in my head, the banter, the sarcasm, the teasing. I miss my partner, Marshall. You've seemed... distant since I came back from Mexico, and I don't like it. Scratch that, I hate it. I mean, it's not that I don't like you being by-the-book and professional, when we're actually supposed to be working, but all the time, it scares me" she confessed. These were one of those rare moments when Mary fully confessed how she felt, and I wasn't about to let it go to waste.
"Mare, you remember what I said before you went to Mexico, don't you?" I remind her.
She bit her lip and nodded. I knew she wouldn't be able to forget it that quickly, even if she'd wanted to.
"I didn't really get much of a response aside from 'I'm thinking', so I thought that it was your way of rejecting me. Plus, then I hear you go on vacation with Faber doing god knows what" I reply in disgust.
Her head whipped around to glare at me.
"First of all, when I said 'I'm thinking' I actually meant it. And second of all, I didn't go on vacation with Faber. Slimy bastard followed me all the way to the door of my hotel room. He tried to come in, but I told him that I'd either call hotel security, or indulge in the pleasure of literally kicking him out myself. And last but not least, I didn't touch him, let alone have sex with him".
She took my hand in hers and ran her thumb over the back of it and began to study it, as if it were the most interesting thing in the world.
"I'm sorry for not giving you a better answer than 'I'm thinking', but I can only give you as much as I have, and right now that isn't much. Marshall, I honestly still don't know what I want, the past year has been a circus and I haven't had that much time to think" she continued and looked up at me.
"But at least I know what you want" she whispered so softly I almost didn't catch it. I reach over to brush a stray lock of hair from her face and tuck it behind her ear.
"I forgive you, Mare, but somewhere down the line I need to know what you want. I'm not going to force you into doing anything you don't want, But I need to know" I murmur, looking at our clasped hands and linking our fingers together.
"I will tell you once I know, I haven't been able to promise many people anything in my life, but I can promise you this" she replied, squeezing my hand.
I sigh in relief and pull her to me, wrapping my arms around her waist, feeling her return my embrace and lay her head against mine and I certainly didn't miss her sigh of contentment.
"Thank you" she whispered, tightening her hold on me.
After a few minutes we loosen our grip and pull back, but never letting go.
"Does this mean we're back to normal?" she asked hopefully.
"I think it does Mare, I think it does" I reply, smiling and seeing her return it.
"Come on, we'd better get out of here, people are going to be suspicious if we don't show up soon" she said, sliding away from me and out of the car.
"Oh yeah? What makes you think that?" I reply, pretending to be ignorant, as I follow her getting out of the car.
"Gee Marshall, what could two people be doing in the backseat of a car?" she replies sarcastically, pretending to be in deep thought as she locks the car.
"I guess we'll have to find out later" I tease, a mischievous glint in my eye.
I offer her my arm, she rolls her eyes, but accepts it anyway and we head back to the service ball.
And all was right in the world.
Although though we didn't put a sticker on our relationship that says "Our relationship can be defined as _", we managed to move past the last three months, we've made an agreement, a promise to take things as they come. Once Mary's ready, then I am too.