Author's Note: Good 2013 afternoon, everyone. Hopefully, everyone had a safe night out yesterday. To kick off SSS 2013, as promised, here is the canon compliant Green Eggs and Ham fic. I still have lots of IPS rage and disdain in my gut so this story, while it will give us what we deserved to see, will have a decidedly bitter and dark tone with blatant OOCness. I'm not one for writing violence but there will be foul language and rip the scab off honesty on everyone's part and maybe a little sex. I don't know. This is gonna be a very short chapter fic and I hope you guys enjoy it.
Disclaimer: "Honestly, it's not mine!"
"You don't even want to marry me at all, do you?!"
"Of course I do!"
"Bullshit! It's been 6 months since you proposed and we barely have a priest, much less a wedding date! You haven't shown up to any of the appointments and when you are there, it's like you're a damned zombie or you get called away almost immediately!"
"Abigail, I gave you my great-grandmother's ring, I moved out of my place, I took a less dangerous position at my office, and I gave up my fucking best friend for you! What more do you want from me?!"
"Best friend…right…she's nothing more than a best friend to you but you've acted like a sick moping old dog ever since you…how did you put it…re-established boundaries?!"
"What are you implying?! I'm not cheating on you, Abigail!"
"Maybe not with your dick but the rest of you? Definitely. You know, people at my work warned me about you. They said that no matter how much progress I made with you, no matter how close we got, I'd always have to compete with your precious partner for scraps of your attention. They said that getting with you was setting myself up for a huge fall and they were fucking right! I'm nothing more than Mary goddamned Shannon's sloppy seconds! You only asked me to marry you because you couldn't have her! You're pathetic! Pining after a woman who will fuck any and everyone else but you…"
The tumbler of scotch he had been holding shattered against the wall and she just laughed, following as he went towards the bedroom.
"The truth hurts, doesn't it?! And just where do you think you're gonna go?! After all, you gave up your place…"
He pivoted on his heels and she stepped back at whatever look was on his face.
"I don't care where I'm going, just as long as I'm far the fuck away from you. Give me the ring. That's what you want, isn't it? You want me to take the ring back so you can run off and be the damned victim amongst your friends and family. You don't know a goddamned fucking thing about whatever feelings I have for Mary and now, I don't have to explain anything to you. Keep the house and Oscar. I just want the ring. Now."
Abigail's face went from rage to resignation and he took the ring back, pocketing it as he emptied drawers, clenching his jaw against the prick of tears in his eyes.
Who he was crying for was anyone's guess, now…
"Fine. Just fucking fine, Marshall. I hope you're happy now. You don't have to pretend with me anymore. And you know what? You can stay. I'll leave. I'm not nearly as stupid as you think I am. As soon as you started doubling up your hours, I knew what time it was."
She pulled a duffel bag and a suitcase out of the closet, whistling for Oscar as she moved out the front door. The hound bounded into her truck and she closed the door, looking at him with hurt, disgust, pity…
"I am no one's sloppy seconds, Marshall. If you want to keep pining after her when she's never given you an inch after a decade, fine. Don't expect me to put up with it, anymore or anyone else later on. You're gonna grow old and die all alone just because of Mary fucking Shannon…"
All anyone knew was that it was over.
Abigail Chaffee had left Albuquerque and Marshall Mann behind. No one knew details, no one asked. There were plenty of theories though, ranging from Marshall cheating with her to Abigail running off with a bassist from the band that played at the Two Fools Tavern. Mary Shannon had already had to deal with one of the woman's indignant friends. The caustic blonde had scathingly told the meddling doe eyed defender that she had nothing to do with the dissolution of anyone's engagement except for her own and that hadn't said more than a dozen non work related words with Marshall in 6 months, 2 weeks, and 4 days. Well, she had said six months but her brain supplied the rest. The cheerleader's friend had looked at her hard and then softened, patting her arm before walking away with an apology, grumbling about what an inconsiderate heartbreaking fuck that her partner…her boss…was.
It took everything she had not to follow after the bitch and pound her face into hamburger. Even though he had dropped her like a bad habit in the name of love, Marshall Mann was still her best and only friend in the world. Nobody had the right to talk about him like that…
"… I need you to release me. I need to be free enough to have a life with Abigail, and I need you to be okay enough for that to happen, because if you call I'll come. Every time."
"Well, I don't know a lot these days. All I know is that more than anything in the whole world, I want you to be happy. So, I'm going to say this once and only once: I want you to marry Abigail. She makes you happy. I like her and I like you together. I know, I hide it well."
"Yeah. Okay. So, shall we get on with the rest of our lives?"
"You first…" – In Plain Sight Episode 5x08: All's Well That End
It had been a delayed reaction but she was fucking pissed at him for his words. He was supposed to be her friend but then he had the balls to imply that he was a prisoner with her? He wasn't. He could've walked away at anytime before that little perky country bitch showed up but he hadn't, making her feel like she could trust him, that he was the one person in the world that wouldn't abandon her. Shows how much she knew…
It's not all his fault, you know, a pointed inner voice reminded her. You're not exactly a walk in the park to deal with and treating him like you did…can you really blame him for wanting an out? 8 years he put up with you and it's not like he left you a box of shit filled lies letters like dear old Dad. Sure, he was like an inmate at the parole board on the balcony but he gave you a choice. You could've said no about releasing him. You could've told him how you really felt about Abigail having her normal little claws into his ass. You could've been your usual selfish bitch honest self and I bet you dollars to donuts that he would've gone with it. And let's not forget that it's your own damned fault that he ended up with Abigail in the first place…
"…You've done the cowboy. And when you weren't doing the cowboy, you were the cowboy, like with Raph. You don't need to let off steam, what you need is— I get that you don't like messy, but maybe messy is what you need. Maybe instead of just anyone you should be looking for someone. Someone who challenges you, who calls you on your BS and gets in your face and makes you think…" – In Plain Sight Episode 3x13: a Priest Walks into a Bar
Fuck. Right. It was her fault, wasn't it? Marshall had sledgehammer to the tits hinted that day that he wanted more from her (not to mention the Toast from the Engagement…) but he had ultimately left it up to her. He always left it up to her. In response, she had ran away to fuck Mike Faber into a cheap, tequila reeking mattress and Marshall had taken that as not only but a no but as a 'fuck you and your heart and your loyalty…' so off he went to find someone else. And now, the someone else had broken his damned heart just…just like she had for all the years. Shit. The guy just couldn't catch a motherfucking break with women, could he?
"Hey, Chief? I'm heading out."
Marshall nodded once and continued looking out of the main office window, the scotch he kept in his desk open and a quarter of the way empty. Crossing the empty office, she saw that he was holding the ring he had given to Abigail, the ring that had belonged to his great-grandmother. She remembered finding it while helping him Spring Clean his place (she had lost a bet…) and he had told the story about how his great-grandfather had picked it up during the war and held onto it through thick and thin so he could propose to her as soon as he got home. It was like that The Notebook movie Squish loved so much, only with a happy ending. Even though Mary personally thought that happy endings were bullshit, she knew Marshall deserved one…
"I know that I suck at this but…you'll find someone better. You'll find someone that deserves that ring if you don't throw it in the sewer and…yeah. Fuck her. You'll find someone better and less hickish."
"My father saw it coming. When he was here…he saw it coming. And the people at PD saw it coming too. Everyone but me saw it coming. I should've. I knew that once I fell in love with you then I was fucking screwed."
A hot slam of pain went through her heart and she narrowed her eyes, both in anger and in an effort to hold back tears.
"No one forced you to love me, jackass. You should've known better not to. I'm too fucked up and fucked over to love anyone."
"Bullshit.", he replied in the same flat angry tone. "There's nothing wrong with you except for cowardice. How long are you gonna hide behind your daddy issues, Mary? The old bastard's rotting in the grave where he belongs and he might as well have died the moment he walked out on you, anyway."
"You don't know what you're…"
"Don't insult me or my intelligence anymore, Mary. I'm in no mood to deal with it."
She sighed raggedly and snapped, "Fine! Stand here and brood over that bitch if you want to! This is what I get for trying to be a decent friend!"
"It's about 8 years overdue, anyway. See you in the morning."
/
"Mann."
"Marshall?"
"Brandi? Why are you…?"
"Whatever the hell is wrong between you and Mary, you need to get your ass up and go fix it right now! I'm sick of seeing my sister miserable and I know damned well that it's your fault!"
"Brandi, this is between me and Mary. Does she know you're calling me?"
"No, and she's probably gonna skin me alive for it but I don't give a fuck. I've had to listen to her cry herself to sleep every fucking night since you two 'talked' before your boss left and she came home so pissed last night that I took Norah and Beriah to Mark's."
"Beriah?"
"Beriah James Shannon-Alpert. My kid with Peter who I'm trying to work shit out with like an adult instead of running off like a little kid like last time. You would know about it if you bothered to be a decent friend for the last 6 months. Just because you're all engaged and stuff doesn't mean you get to toss Mary and the rest of us aside like garbage. Abigail's not the only person who gives a shit about you around town, you know."
"I'm not engaged anymore. Abigail left 3 weeks ago. Look, Brandi, there's a lot more to this than you're seeing…"
"You love Mary. You've been in love with her for forever but you got sick of waiting around and her screwing you over with other guys all the damned time so you hooked up with Abigail to try and move on, it failed miserably, she got sick of playing second fiddle to Mare, left you, and now you blame Mary and yourself for the deep shitty hole of despair you're in right now. Did I miss anything?"
There was a long pause on the other end of the line and then a soft, impressed sounding, "…no."
"I figured. FYI, just because I do stupid shit sometimes doesn't mean I'm a stupid person. Look, I don't care nor do I wanna know the exact dirty twisted deets going on between you and her but you two need to either take your prideful heads out of your asses and be together or just leave each other alone for good. One or the other but no more of this limbo, mambo, 1, 2, 3, bullshit. It's not kosher for either of you…and I'm sorry for yelling at you."
He laughed weakly and replied, "I think I deserved that. Brandi, I'm not promising anything. Mary and I have been messed up for a long time, even before Abigail and…I don't know if it can be fixed back to the way things were."
"The way things were sucked for both of you. Fix it so it's different."
