Details: Small, one or two shot max.
Summary: After a long day, and the loss of a family member, Mary is left shattered. Not really a song-fic, but it is based on the song "Shattered (Turn the Car Around) by O.A.R.
Disclaimer: I own nothing.
Told in Marshall's POV
{}IN PLAIN SIGHT{}
"Are you Inspector Mary Shannon?" A cop asked Mary. He stood ominously over Mary with his hands on his waist.
"Depends on whose asking." She shot back, crossing her arms over her chest, narrowing her eyes, assuming her usual "Annoyed Mary" position.
Mary had been incredibly pissed off from the minute she had walked through the door (I suspected PMS), and had been looking for every opportunity to go home and lie down. Now that this man was delaying her, she looked ready to chew him up and spit him into the next time zone. Oh this was going to be good, I thought to myself as a smile spread across my face. I put my hands behind my head and settled back into my chair, ready to watch whatever went down.
"Albuquerque PD." The man said, flashing his badge. The man's face was grim, his eyes sad. Worry built up in my stomach. Whatever he was going to tell us was not good. I leaned forward and put my forearms on the desk, and stared at the man, ready to analyze whatever information he was about to tell us.
"Are you by chance, related to Brandi Shannon?" He asked. My heart jumped into my throat. What had Brandi done now? My mind quickly raced through a wealth of possibilities.
"Maybe. Why?" Mary's voice was still hard, but a bit of worry had crept into it. I got up from my desk and walked over to stand behind Mary. I leaned against the wall, with my arms crossed over my chest looking at Mary, as well as the officer standing awkwardly in front of her. I was there in case she needed me.
"Because we just found her fiancé's car totaled near a bridge."
Mary face went pale, and I put my hand on her shoulder. The room was eerily quiet for a moment, before I addressed the elephant in the room.
"Do you know where she is, officer?" I asked politely, allowing Mary some time to absorb the information.
"Actually, her fiancé was with her. We pulled two bodies from the river about an hour ago, and due to the extensive damage both of the people suffered, we suspect they are theirs'. Of course, we need you to come down to the city morgue to identify them." He paused a moment, and took a breath before continuing, "I am very sorry Inspector." The officer said gently. He reached out and patted her hand, and I tightened my grip on her shoulder.
Mary turned to look at me, with unshed tears brimming in her eyes. I held her gaze for a moment, attempting to offer some comfort, but she turned back to face the officer.
"When …" I began but was immediately cut off.
"I can speak Marshall, I'm fine." She turned to shoot me a half-hearted attempt at an annoyed glare, but it was futile, for there was a lone tear making it's way down her cheek, "What time should we come by?" She asked, wiping the tear away before anyone could notice her sudden show of emotion. Her voice had returned to being gruff, yet there was an audible underlying sadness in it.
"Come by, say, around five?" He said, his voice still gentle, as if Mary was a small child, and he was just waiting for the tears to come. "Of course, if that is alright with you." He gave Mary a sad smile,
She nodded, "I be there."
The cop shook Mary's hand, spun on his heel, and left the WITSEC office. Stan who had been leaning against his doorway the entire time, walked over.
"Excuse me." Mary said, demonstrating her rarely seen politeness. She all but ran out of the office.
I watched her go, and then immediately began gathering up her things, and mine, prepared to run after her.
I was stopped by Stan, "You and Inspector Shannon are dismissed for the day. I don't want you here until at least Thursday. She's not going to like that, but that's an order Inspector Mann. I want you with her 24/7. Now you can go." He patted me on the shoulder, and I sprinted out of the office after Mary.
I ran down the hallways and down two flights of stairs for the elevator appeared to be too slow, nearly tripping and falling more times than I would care to admit, and raced out the door before I found her.
"Mary!" I shouted, dropping the stuff and running after her.
Mary had failed to make it into her piece of crap Probe, yet instead had sunk down into a seated position near the purple car. Her eyes were glazed over and she stared off into the distance, searching for answers. Her hair blew in the breeze, and she didn't regard me as I sat down beside her.
"We had a fight this morning." Her voice was extremely quiet and almost inaudible. She paused for a moment.
"What happened?" I prompted, intently staring at Mary.
"We… we were arguing over stuff for the wedding… and how she wanted all of these different things, things that were very expensive… and we started yelling at each other for no reason… and I told her to go to hell and I left, thinking that I would apologize later for what I said." She was still staring off , and she wouldn't look at me.
I reached over and slipped my hand under her chin, and slowly brought her face over to look at me.
"There's no way you could have known." I spoke softly, and I could feel Mary's breath on my face.
"But I shouldn't have acted like a bitch to her. It was her wedding after all." Her voice was still small, and she was avoiding my eyes.
She closed her eyes for a moment, and then re-opened them. "Come on, we should head to the morgue."
I got myself up, and offered my hand back down to Mary. She took it and hoisted her body up, falling into me. I took the opportunity, snaked my arms around her back, and brought her into a hug. Her body went stiff at first, yet gradually she returned the hug, her hands wrapping around my waist, and I rested my chin atop her head.
"I'm so sorry, Mary." I whispered after a minute of dead silence.
"It's okay Marshall." She wriggled out of my grasp, and went to retrieve the things I had dropped in a desperate attempt to catch up to her. I stared at her for a moment, watching as she made her way over to the pile of stuff, and then I followed after her.
{}IN PLAIN SIGHT{}
The ride to the morgue was filled with bitter silence. Mary's eyes remained forever attached to the road stretching out in front of her, and mine glued to her, waiting for her to show any kind of grasp as to the gravity of the situation.
She pulled up and parked her car a reasonable distance from the building. She took a deep breath, and sat for a moment. I got out of the car and walked over to her side, and opened the driver door for her. She gave me a lousy attempt at a smile; her eyes were begging me not to push her into another long and painful conversation. I wrapped my right arm around her waist and guided her through the blue morgue doors. She didn't protest.
We walked down the long white hallway until we reached the two sliding doors, with the words "autopsy" written across the front in neat black lettering.
I looked at her, and she nodded. We made our way forward, and the doors slid open with a creak. blowing freezing air in our faces as we entered the chilly crypt.
There were only two lights on in the huge room corresponding with the two black body bags lay towards the end of the room on silver tables, waiting for mourning visitors. Mary broke away from me and walked silently towards them. A small man greeted us, politely asking us if we were the family of the deceased. I nodded, seeing all Mary could do was stare.
I asked the mortician if we could open the bags, and he replied yes, and left us with a moment to ourselves.
Mary's fingers glided over the shiny bags, looking for a zipper. Her long fingers found it, and she slowly opened it. She flipped back the covering and stared at her dead sister.
Brandi had sustained quite a few injuries. Her blonde hair was matted to her head, full of blood oozing from a wound across her forehead. Her stomach had been almost sliced open, and her legs were bent at an odd angle. Her pink shirt was covered with bloodstains, and soaked from her encounter with the icy waters, her purple bra was showing through her shirt. There was a scrape running above her chest that still had dried blood smeared near it. Her blue eyes were opened, empty and broken in her dead world, and her neck looked nearly crushed. Her engagement ring was smashed into her finger. Bile rose in my throat as I took in the horrendous scene.
I moved to open the bag next to her's, and revealed a dead Peter. He wasn't as bad as Brandi, obviously in the passenger seat. His arms were bloody, yet his face looked nearly unharmed. A long shard of glass had caused his demise though, striking him fatally in the heart.
Mary stared at the both of them, her eyes running over them multiple times, as if she was taking account of all of their wounds. She took one final look at them before she turned and walked out of the autopsy room. I followed after her, and thanked the mortician, who offered me a look of sadness and pity. Mary walked quickly towards her car, but dropped her keys into a puddle near the vehicle. She just stared at them, uncomprehendingly. I bent down to pick them up for her, and handed them to her. I stared at her for a minute.
"I'm fine Marshall." She repeated. She looked me in the eyes. "I'm fine." Her voice cracked on the final word.
I stretched my arms around her as the tears spilled down her face. She began sobbing so hard, that both her body and mine shook. I kept her close to my chest, and allowed her salty tears wet the front of my shirt as she let her pain go. A few tears of my own slipped down my face silently, for I hated seeing my best friend in pain, and I lightly kissed her golden hair. All of the sudden, she leaned away from me, and began vomiting in the street. I quickly slid her hair away from her face and into a makeshift ponytail, and rubbed soothing circles into her back.
Once she was finished she collapsed into my drenched grey dress shirt, her body hot to the touch, covered in a sheen layer of sweat. I gave her my already ruined shirt to wipe her mouth off, and found a water bottle in the passenger side of the Probe and gave it to her so she could rinse out her mouth. She was as pale as a ghost, and her eyes were moving constantly around, unable to focus on one particular object. She stumbled to the car, and nearly fell until I caught her. Mary's hand grabbed desperately at my shirt, fingers twisted in the soaked fabric. I lifted her easily, and deposited her into the passenger side of her car. Once I shut the door, she curled up against the window, pressing her burning body against the cool glass. I rounded the car, put the key in the ignition, and coaxed the engine to life.
{}IN PLAIN SIGHT{}
When we reached her house, I carried her bridal style into her house. Mary was still sleeping, her face contorted in pain. She was weak and vulnerable, a side of her I had never seen before.
I brought her into the bedroom, and placed her onto the bed, arranging the blankets around her, careful not to wake her. I watched her sleeping form for a moment before heading to the door. As my hand was on the knob, I was stopped by a raspy voice.
"Don't leave me, Marshall. I need you." Mary whispered.
I stopped for a moment, contemplating what to do. Then, I quietly made it over to the opposite side of the bed. I removed my shoes, jacket and soaked dress shirt, and crept into bed beside her. I imagined this moment numerous times in my head, yet never had I thought of these horrible circumstances. Mary rolled over into my chest, and I wrapped my arms around her. She began sobbing quietly into my t-shirt.
"Marshall… I…I." She choked out.
I stroked her hair, "Love, it's alright." I bit my tongue, realizing that I had said 'love' by mistake. She didn't appear to be angered by it.
She finished crying a little while later, and had fallen back to sleep in my arms. Feeling tired myself, I re-adjusted my position to make it more comfortable for Mary. I realized that she hadn't changed clothes since she had gotten home. I thought about putting her in pajamas, but then quickly stopped myself. That would get messy fast. So I settled myself, with the world's most beautiful girl in my arms, and drifted off to sleep next to her, ready to help her through whatever challenges the world threw at us the next day.
{}IN PLAIN SIGHT{}
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