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Mary rolled away holding onto her ribs on her right side. She gasped in for breathes as she looked at the two men staring down at her. Shit, what the hell's wrong with you, you're supposed to have eyes behind your head Shannon! she thought through the pain, vision slightly blurred.
She could sense more than see most of the patrons start to move towards the exit, which she was glad of, letting go of her bruised, if not broken ribs with a moan. Mary noticed that neither of the men carried a weapon, she was glad for that, the minute both men turned to look at each other, she could only guess they wanted to plan against her. She reached around to the other side of her ribs and felt the cold metal of the Glock on her holster. Pulling it out with a grunt she pointed the gun to the men.
They turned as they heard her sit up with a muffled groan, their eyebrows rose in surprise at the weapon, she clenched her teeth against the pain and growled low, "Where the fuck is Payton?"
Michael Hurst aka Hurts looked at her in shock, "I don't know any Payton!"
Mary knew she had the upper hand and when the bigger dark man tried to lunge at her she took a shot, shooting him on the thigh. He collapsed in a heap of muscles with a painful moan. Fuck, this is definitely not going as planned.
Allison had given her the clearance to do whatever she could to bring her son back, and as much as Mary hated to fire her weapon and would like to kill Hurts for the kick to her ribs, she needed the fuckwad to get the kid, looking back at him, she noted the color had drained from his face, "Now, let's try this again. Where the fuck is Payton?"
"What do you want with the kid?" he asked nervously looking down at the dark man.
"Oh, now you know who I'm talking about, huh?" she grinned evilly at him, a grin she knew would look more like her baring her teeth like a rabid dog.
"Look, I didn't kidnap the kid, he willingly left with me," he looked around the bar, trying to find someone to help him. But most of the patrons had already left and the ones still behind continued to drink and go on with business as usual, even the bartender paid them no mind. The fact that the big bulky man was still laying on the floor with blood pooling around his thigh, didn't faze them, no one made a mood towards them. She could only imagine how many times this scene had played in the bar.
She looked around without really taking her eyes away from Hurts, "Take off your damn fucking belt and give it to the jackass on the floor, he's going to fucking bleed to death."
Damn, I'm really taking this role too seriously, but if it gets me Payton and my ass back home, so be it, she thought as she inwardly cursed that she had agreed to such a dangerous situation, knowing full well she had taken it so she could forget about the speech. Damn it, Marshall! You and your big damn mouth!
Hurts looked at her and followed her instructions, as she knew he would, she had him exactly where she wanted him. He was running scared, he was just a big bully, even if he was mostly skin and bones. She was sure she had learned to fight from the other thugs around his neighborhood. From experience she knew that tall and lanky did not mean slow and weak. Her partner might be tall and lanky, but he had proved himself time and time again, he was a bad ass law man that could kick anyone's ass. God, I miss that big Doofus.
The dark man took the belt and made a tourniquet to slow the bleeding, he looked up at her, his eyes had gone even darker, "You will die."
She smirked, "Yeah, I know, but before I do. Where the hell is Payton?"
Suddenly a kid walked into the bar, looking down at his cell phone, "Hey Hurts? I found it!"
Mary knew that it was Payton, inwardly sighing in relief, holding onto her ribs with her right hand and the gun on her left, she pointed the gun directly at Hurts and waved it to the left, "Move fuckwad!"
He moved to the left of the dark man with his hands raised in surrender, and she moved towards Payton, when the kid finally looked up, his eyes turned to saucers, she could tell he was about to run, she pointed the gun at him and snarled, "Run and you're dead!"
That caused Payton to freeze in mid turn, his voice trembled when he asked, "Wh-who are you?"
"I'm your worst nightmare kid," she said with a scowl.
Looking back at Hurts and the dark man she said, "Either of you move and the kid's dead."
Mary moved as fast as her injury could allow her to move, her breathing was becoming difficult. She was afraid that the cracked rib might've perforated her lung, grabbing the kid with the right arm around his neck she walked backwards to the exit. She wouldn't give the goons any chances to try something against her.
As soon as they stepped out into the dark she shoved the kid towards her car, "Move jackass!"
He moved still trembling, "Wh-who are you?"
"You'll know soon enough," she muttered as she pushed him into the car through the driver side, looking back to the bar entrance she saw Hurts run out.
She pointed the gun at him and growled, "You better not be around when I come back."
Jumping into the car Mary turned the car on and was glad she had backed into the space, with the limited use of her right side, she would've caused herself more pain trying to back out of the parking space.
She pulled her cell phone out of her jacket pocket and dialed, "Hey, I got him. I need assistance."
"What happened? Is he hurt?" Allison asked alarmed.
"No, I am," she muttered into the phone, keeping an eye on the scared Payton. Mary wasn't afraid the kid would jump out of the vehicle, she had child proofed the locks so only her door opened from the inside.
"Are you going to be okay?" she asked concerned.
"Look, where do you want to meet?" Mary asked frustrated, she wanted this job to be done with, "By the way, I shot someone."
There was a pause then, "Was it lethal?"
"No, shot him on the thigh," she said through clenched teeth.
She heard the sigh of relief, "Was he there?"
"No, he won't be tramatized until after I get through to him," she warned looking sideways at him.
Payton began to cry into the window, Mary knew the kid would be afraid, from what she learned from Allison, he was a sweet kid. The fact that his parents were divorcing had probably hit him hard, causing him to act out in a rebelious way. Something that Mary thought of fixing before it became a bigger problem, she would scare him shitless.
"Please, don't scare him. It's not his fault," Allison advised, a slight tremble to her voice.
"Look, it's getting worst," she panted into the cell phone, praying that Payton didn't hear it.
"Where are you?"
"New Orleans, Louisiana," she corroborated.
"I'm in DC, but I'm sure I have a few favors to ask, I'll call you back in a bit," Allison assured her.
"Fine, but hurry," she hung up and pocketed the cell phone again, she turned to Payton and brusquedly said, "Turn off your damn cell phone if you don't want it to fly out this window."
Mary knew the risks of being tracked by cell phones and looked over to see Payton wipe his eyes with the sleeve of his hoodie. The phone turned off and he went to put it in his sweater but she snatched it from him, "Hey!"
She glared over at him, "Hey what?"
"N-nothing...wh-what do you want with me? W-what did I do?" he stuttered.
"Well, you'll just have to wait a little bit longer to find out," she advised on a snarl.
Mary had driven for about an hour before Allison called her back, "This is..." she trailed off, she didn't want to give the kid any names.
"Okay, are you near Baton Rouge? If so, go to the airport strip, there you'll find a plane. They know where to transport you both," Allison informed her.
"Yeah, I'm on my way there now, will probably get there in a few minutes," Mary told her as she continued to drive with a silent Payton beside her. She was glad she didn't have to backtrack to get to an airport.
She hung up, pushing her cell phone back into her jacket pocket, then moving her right hand over her ribs, for the past hour Mary had kept her breathing steady. Knew that she would make Payton get into that plane without her, she knew she couldn't get into the plane with the injury that she received.
After ten minutes she saw the signs for the detour into the airport, spotting the airplane on the strip almost immediately after she went through the gates. She had to flash her badge beside the car so that Payton wouldn't be aware of what she was. She drove into the airplane hanger and found two Marshals already waiting one on each side of the plane's door.
Mary got off the car with a muffled moan and held harder onto her side, "Hey, you two, come open the door for the damn kid."
The shorter of the two, a white slightly balding man hustled over and opened Payton's door. Pulling the kid out by the arm, he turned to Mary and asked, "Where are you taking me?"
"Get in the plane," she growled at him as she walked over to them.
The taller of the two Marshals, a hispanic man walked to her, a frown on his face, "What's wrong?"
"Get out of my way," she moved around him and pushed Payton towards the plane, as soon as the kid was safely tucked in it, she turned to leave, turning by the door, "Tell Allison I said hello."
His eyes widen before he tried to get up, but the short white man held him down by the shoulder, "You work for my mother!?"
"No, I don't, but fair warning, you pull this stunt again and next time you won't see your mommy for quite some time. It's not a threat, it's a promise. Have a safe flight little man," Mary warned before leaving the plane, hearing Payton curse a storm inside the plane.
As she stepped off she tripped a bit and groaned at the pain on her side, "What's wrong?"
She turned her head to look at the hispanic Marshal, "Got kicked on the ribs, pretty sure at least one of them is cracked. Tell Allison that I'll call her later."
"Will do, but do you need someone to come with you?" he asked concerned.
"Don't worry about it," she turned to walk to the car as she heard the plane start on. The noise was really loud and the vibration inside the hanger was hurting her ribs. Getting back into the car, she was glad that her ribs were the only ones that had gotten hurt.
She backed out as the plane began to drive out of the hanger, then she stayed until she saw the plane take off a few minutes later. She drove out of the airport strip and took out her cell phone, as much as she hated the hospitals, she knew that her lungs wouldn't take much longer and it would get more difficult to breathe.
Mary drove to the hospital grumbling the whole way, hoping that they were only hurt, but as soon as she walked into the ER she collapsed on the floor, gasping for air. She saw some nurses rush to her through her cloudy haze, felt her body roll to her right side, causing her to moan and reach for her ribs before she lost consciousness. Marshall, I'm sorry, was her last thought.
The police station was abuzz when Marshall Mann walked in late that afternoon, he had been called in because his witness, Lyle Myers had been arrested for being involved in a brawl at a nearby bar. There were several men at the station from that fight and all Marshall could do was focus on getting Lyle out and taking him back to the Sunshine building.
He walked around the front counter deeper into the department, he spot a friend and walked over, "Hey, I'm here to get Lyle Myers, I'm guessing he...was part of this...fight," he drawled as he pointed around the rest of the men sporting bruises.
The officer stood up and shook his hand, "Hey Marshall, I'll go see where he's at."
As Marshall stood watching around, observing the scene, he was reminded of how much he missed his partner, he winced at the remembered pain that she had caused when she went on vacation with Faber. He was so deep in thought that he almost missed it, he caught a glimpse of red through the corner of his eye as it came towards him, he turned to meet blue eyes smiling up at him. He took a step back when he looked down at her, he was taken aback at her cascading red locks as they fell down her back, pouty pink lips and her open expression. The total opposite of his partner. Then she opened her mouth.
"Hi! I'm Detective Abigail Chaffee, I'm new to the department," she extended her arm out and he took her hand, a firm grip.
He smiled down at her, "Uh...Hi, I'm Marshal Marshall Mann."
Her smile widen and she said, "It's great to meet you."
Even though her voice had started to grate his nerves, the fact that she didn't immediately make fun of his name and title had him thinking twice, "Great to meet you too."
As fast as she showed up, she swirled around and walked away, in measured steps. He smiled crookedly at her retreating form, he immediately thought of his mother, knew that his mother would approve of such a woman and decided right then and there that he would ask her out when he saw her again. At that moment, he knew if nothing else, that Abigail Chaffee would help him forget all about Mary Shannon.
TBC