This was supposed to be a One shot...post a priest walks into a bar...I know I'm supposed to finish "Disappeared" (can't even promise to end the story before my trip, sorry :/), but I can't concentrate because of this story.
"…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…"
"Damn it, Marshall!" she thought as she sat in the airport waiting for her flight to be called. She couldn't believe he had called her on it, called her on her BS for claiming to wanting to ride a cowboy. She was just letting out steam, not really wanting to ride a stranger anymore. But nooo, you couldn't keep your trap shut, Shannon!
Now here she was, running on a vacation she really didn't plan, but decided to go because she wanted to take some time away from Jinx and Brandi. And Marshall had become part of the mix of people to run away from just because he spoke those words. She groaned as she leaned her elbows on her thighs, she looked down at her well worn jeans and the blue sandals on her feet. No reason to wear shoes when she was going to a beach resort, she thought.
Shaking her head, Mary sat back on the seat and pulled out her blackberry, checking her emails as she waited for her flight. After a few minutes, she thrust the cell phone back into her jacket, she never travelled without her trusty jacket.
"We are now boarding flight 439 to Cancun, Mexico, boarding at gate A28. Please make sure…," came the prompt over the speaker at the ABQ International Airport.
Mary stood up when she heard her flight being called, she hadn't taken three steps when her cell phone went off in her jacket. She groaned and pulled the blackberry out, wishing it wasn't a work emergency. It had taken her a few weeks to finally make up her mind.
"This is Mary," she growled into the cell phone.
There was silence for a few seconds, Mary started to get annoyed and she was about to let the caller know when, "Inspector Shannon?"
Looking around to see if someone was playing a prank on her, she replied, "The one and only."
"This is Allison Pearson," came the voice of doom.
She stepped back a few feet and flopped down on her vacant seat, asking resentfully, "What can I do for you?"
Mary knew that her vacation was over way before it even started. She was interested in what Allison had to say. So she waited to hear what the other woman wanted from her.
"I have an understanding you are on vacation?" Allison asked skeptically.
She narrowed her eyes, opening and closing her mouth in outrage, when she finally found her voice she muttered, "Yeah, I have an understanding that it was forced on me."
"Yes, you're right. I was…Can you meet with me? This is...personal," Allison sounded hesitant, very unlike what Mary knew to be true.
"Where are you?" Mary asked impatiently.
"I'm in...your plane ticket has changed course, go to the counter and request your new boarding pass. Hurry, the plane is going to take off in 15 minutes," she urged with a pleading voice, Mary never thought she would hear the woman sound so weak.
"Fine, I'll see you when I arrive," Mary hung up the phone and hurriedly walked to the nearest counter and requested her new boarding pass. She read her destination and cursed under her breath as she ran towards the other side of the airport, she made it just in time to stop the stewardess from closing the door to the plane.
"Sorry, I was on the wrong side of the airport," she sheepishly smiled at the stewardess. The woman took her boarding pass and let her through the door before closing it behind her, Mary walked into the plane and found her seat, throwing her carry-on into the only available slot.
"This is Marshall," he said into the office phone, looking around at everyone, but not really seeing any of them. He closed his eyes and sat back as he waited for the other person to speak.
There was a bit of shuffling on the other side of the phone then, "Inspector Mann, it's Faber. Mike Faber. Is Mary around?"
"Uh, no, she...isn't available at the moment, anything I can assist you with?" Marshall's curiousity was now piqued.
"No, not really. I'm supposed to meet her, I just wasn't sure if we were meeting at the office or the airport," came from Faber's all too knowing voice.
Marshall sat up and frowned, he looked over at his partner's desk and his heart sank all the way to his toes. His speech fresh in his mind, he swallowed around the acid and replied nonchalantly, "Sorry, can't help you with that. Mary is a one-track mind. You'll just have to figure it out. Good-bye Faber."
It took incredible strength not to slam the phone down, but he set it on its cradle and stood up, "Going on witness visits!"
By the time Stan came out, Marshall was in the elevator and the doors were closing.
A month later...
The stench of the bar she was in was so stagnant she felt bile rise, she had to swallow down hard to keep from puking all over the sticky floor. She was sure the stench was from that same floor, ignoring the floor when someone whistled a catcall, she looked up to meet a dark gaze looking back at her. He was a tall muscular dark man, she could easily guess that he was of mixed race. Maybe black with some white in him, she stared back at him, before looking down and away.
Mary had flown to Nowhere, Indiana to meet with Allison, something that had made her uneasy when the flight attendant announced her destination, knowing that her flight would take off within minutes, she didn't even pay attention to the destination. She had almost ran off the plane, but curiosity prevailed.
Allison had asked Mary to track down her teenage son, but with one catch, she couldn't tell Marshall and definitely couldn't tell Stan. Her son, Payton, had ran away a few weeks prior to the call Allison made to Mary, all she knew was that Payton had taken off with a buddy of his. An older guy from the wrong side of the tracks, a guy that was known for selling drugs to teenagers.
That got Mary hooked, anything to get that type of delinquent off the street and away from the good kid Allison claimed her son to be. He had just began to rebel against her for divorcing his father. Mary didn't ask about the divorce, the less she knew the better she could work to get the kid back home.
After literally travelling up and down the United States, she finally tracked the kid down in New Orleans, Louisiana, capital of the shirtless-beads. She had never been there before, not even in her wild days.
Now, here she was standing in a hell hole, with a guy staring at her, checking her out. Walking to the bar, she sat on a bar stool calling for the bartender, "Get me a beer."
"Anything in particular beautiful?" the heavy black man with arm tattoos asked her with a wink.
Mary smiled crookedly at him and said, "Draft will be fine."
He stalked off and came back with a glass of beer, foaming at the top. She managed to look at the man with the dark eyes through the corner of her eye, he was staring intently at her. He was still checking her out, which made her skin crawl. At moments like these, which had happened for the past month, at every bar she had been throughout the month, she had wanted to reach out to Marshall and have him help her find the kid, but the promise she made Allison kept her quiet.
She pulled out her cell phone and sighed sadly, Marshall hadn't contact her since she had left him in the office after the speech he gave her. She felt guilty for running away from him, but the risk of losing him had prevented her from reciprocating. After their shared almost kiss at Trenna's bachelorette party, she hadn't been able to get the almost kiss out of her mind.
Mary pulled the glass to her lips and took a deep drink of beer, feeling refreshed after being out in the hot sun most of the day. She had gone into several bars that day, until she found him.
Looking around the bar casually, like a tourist without showing her true profession, she turned back to the man staring at her and stared back at him. As far as what she had found out from many of the guys she had questioned, he fit the profile of the guy that would know where the moron that took Payton was.
They had finally supplied the name of Payton's 'friend', it had only taken a few broken noses, a Michael Hurst aka Hurts, a nickname he had earned for hurting teenagers that didn't want to sell his drugs. Word was that Hurts was supposed to be meeting this man, her informant had given her the location after she broke his nose, if he was wrong, she would break his arm when she found him.
Mary took her beer and sauntered over to his table, he continued to stare at her, she came up to the table and pulled out a chair, she sat and crossed her leg over the other, setting her beer on the small table.
He arched an eyebrow at her boldness, "I don't recall inviting you to sit."
She grinned at him, "Are you sure? Because I'm sure that your eyes were calling to me."
He frowned at her audacity and leaned forward growling, "I suggest you get your pretty ass up and move back to the counter."
"What if I refuse? huh?" she asked challengingly, arching an eyebrow at him, smirk in place as she took a gulp of beer.
The man stood up, he was at least six feet five inches tall, three hundred pounds of pure muscle, he muttered, "I'm sure I can manage to move you there with no problem."
She leaned back on the chair, arched an eyebrow and smirked up at him, "You and what army, buddy?"
The man stalked around the small table and was about to reach down to grab her arm, but she didn't give him the chance to touch her, she kicked his knee in with all her force, causing her ankle to twist in a weird angle. That's gonna bruise, jackass! she thought, as she saw the man flail onto his back. He hit the floor with a thick thud and a loud groan, he rolled, but Mary was too quick and with much more fighting experience, she straddled the man and held him down.
Mary lifted her hand up to stop the bartender without looking at him, she had seen him move towards them through the corner of her eye, he stood in place behind the counter. The man below her growled sideway at her, "I'm gonna fucking kill you, you bitch!"
"Huh...and here I thought we were becoming fast friends," she chuckled down at him. Looking around to make sure most of the other patrons were still sitting on their seats, she grabbed his thick arm and twisted the arm up his shoulder blades forcibly, "Now, here's where you and I become best-friends. As you can see, I have the upper hand, you can kill me later, but first you would have to get in line."
"Get the fuck off me you stupid whore!" he bellowed.
"Nuh-uh-uh, I make all the rules here jackass," she sing-sang on a growl back down to him, she was leaning closer to his head, saying forcefully, "Now, where were we? Oh, yea...Where the hell is Hurts?"
The man below tensed under her and then all hell broke loose when he started to wiggle and buck under her, she pressed his hand higher up his shoulder blades, causing him to growl in pain, "You fucking slut!"
"Let him up!" came from behind her a second before she felt a kick to her ribs.
TBC