Title: Post-Jailbait.
Pairings/Characters: Marshall, Mary/Raphael.
Rating: G
Summary: The news didn't deem important enough to wake her best friend in the middle of the night, so he didn't hear about it until the next day.
Spoilers: 2x11 - Jailbait
Marshall Mann heard the news the morning after, at work. He'd heard about the engagement party that Mary expected Raph to have canceled by the time she got home that night, and questioned her about it, so to say that he was surprised that she was in fact engaged was a big understatement. He hadn't seen that coming, and for a minute, or two, or ten, his world crashed, his brain froze and he found himself short of breath (and not in a good way). He managed to compose himself before Mary noticed he wasn't composed, for everybody's sake, until he got home that night. Only when he was alone and in the safety of his home did he allow himself to cry while drinking expensive Scotch directly from the bottle. He'd feel like death warmed over when he woke up, but he didn't care.
Mary Shannon said yes to Raphael Ramirez and so she was engaged. Raph's mother celebrated the real engagement, despite having been lied to - she understood everyone's reasons for going along with the fake-party, and appreciated Mary telling her the truth. Jinx and Brandi wouldn't have missed the celebration for anything in the world - it wasn't every day that Mary decided to get married. Raph held Mary the rest of the night as if afraid she'd run away. Mary, Mary was too busy thinking to pay attention to what was going on around her; she had a small smile plastered to her face, which seemed to please everyone. She thought about what she'd learned of marriage from her own parents (she's mostly learned how to make a marriage fail), and what Josefina had said about marriage. She thought about engagements and news and happiness and things that were normally important to people for them to share them with others. She thought about who they shared news with. Future brides, she'd heard, shared the news immediately with their best friends, and together they'd squeak and squeal and giggle and jump of excitement. She wouldn't do any of that, and she couldn't imagine Marshall overflowing with happiness over her engagement with Raph. Considering that, and that it was late and she knew he was tired (the news didn't deep important enough to wake her best friend in the middle of the night after a hard day at work), Mary decided the news could wait till the morning. And then someone interrupted her train of thought and the little voice in her head 'why wouldn't your best friend be happy about your engagement?' went unheard.