A Kinda Date Thing
Summary: A missing scene from Don't Cry.
Disclaimer: I don't own IPS, but (for the record) I was a Shannon long before Mary was.
.oO***Oo.
His "kinda date thing" was really dinner with his college roommate, Brandon, and his new wife of three months, Mariah. Who just happened to bring along their single friend Bernadette… who just happened to have a thing for cops (though he got the feeling it was more to do with the uniform, thus her "thing" didn't really apply to him). He wasn't the least bit surprised when Mariah suddenly started feeling sick ten minutes after Bernadette arrived and Brandon (loyal and caring husband that he was) offered to escort her back to their hotel room.
Marshall pointedly ignored the fact that they came back in 20 minutes later and sat at a table behind a tree whose branches and leaves kept twitching and moving as though being moved aside to spy on someone.
Despite the change in plans he tried to enjoy himself. He knew Mary would likely bug him to no end to find out every detail she could about this "kinda date thing" turned "date" the next day. Hell, if she could she would probably want to know what positions they had sex in if she thought she could pry it out of him (and, of course, if he and Bernadette actually got that far).
Plus, the raven haired woman sitting across from his wasn't that bad. A tad boring but compared to Mary who wasn't boring? Still, he couldn't help but wish every time he spouted off some random fact instead of sitting there with feigned attention, she'd just tell him to shut up or that she didn't care or come up with some sarcastic comeback. That's so interesting, could only be said so many times before it was obvious that she just wasn't interested.
He had been spouting off the origins and meaning of the name Bernadette (apparently she wasn't too pleased with being told her name meant she was as brave as a bear) when he had frozen mid-sentence.
A twisting in his gut told him something was very, very wrong. He had no idea what, but something was and of all the people he cared about, there was only one in a potentially dangerous situation at that moment (that he knew of anyway).
So of course the twisting in his gut immediately made the afternoon's events jump to his mind. The gang across the street, the red car, Mario calling him Papi. He'd run the guy off but how long would that last without him there? It was obvious the kid clearly saw Mary (and likely Franchesca as well, but he was less worried about that at the moment) as a pair of breasts and not the badass lawman she really was.
He barely heard Bernadette asking him if he was alright, he shook his head to her question. It wasn't a lie, he wasn't alright. She caught the waiter's eye, Marshall paid for their dinner, and she told him she had a nice time. Bernadette said nothing about getting together again but Marshall barely noticed. All he could think of was getting back to that neighborhood.
When he got there, Mary would tease him. Ask him what happened to his date, why he was done so early (it wasn't that early, but she would make it seem like it was). The next day she would make comments about how he just couldn't find a good man.
But he was ok with that.
Because he would take the teasing if it meant he was the one watching her back if anything happened.
He was halfway to the neighborhood when Stan's call had him making an illegal U-turn towards the hospital and driving twenty miles over the speed limit.