But Marshall pulled up to his house fifteen minutes, Mary had been silent for most of the trip back, instead, she just sat and stared, observing the scenery as it went by. Marshall grabbed Mary's bag from the back of the truck and walked up to the front door and dug his keys out of his pocket and opened the door. He held the door open for Mary to walk inside.
Marshall relocked the door and checked the locks were catching properly, twice. He turned around to find Mary still standing in the entry, staring off into space.
"Mare?" he tentatively asked.
"Mmmm?" she replied, turning her head to look at him.
"What are you doing?"
"Huh? Oh, just processing. It's been a long day, Marshall" she sighed, smiling sadly.
"I know it has, Mare" he agreed.
"I'm going to take a shower, I can still smell everything on me and I feel gross" decided Mary, heading towards Marshall's bathroom.
"There should be a spare towel in there" he called out, watching her retreat down the hall.
Ten minutes later, Mary emerged from the bathroom, wrapped in a fluffy white towel.
"Hey, Marshall, I need help rebandaging my arm, I forgot to wrap it before I got in the shower" said Mary, entering the kitchen where Marshall was preparing food for them, as they hadn't eaten since lunchtime.
Marshall turned at the sound of her voice and drank in her appearance. Her freshly brushed wet hair hung loosely around her shoulders and her towel fell to mid-thigh, giving him an unobstructed view of her toned legs. Marshall gulped.
"Yep, just give me a minute" he managed to squeak out.
Mary screwed her face up at his reaction, and then looked down to take in her sate of dress, more like undress, then recalled his reaction to her outfit for Treena's bridal party, and suddenly it all made sense.
She caught sight of the food Marshall had been making on the bench and went over to investigate it. Is that just rice? She thought to herself.
Marshall re-entered the kitchen and put his first aid box on the table and began rummaging for the required supplies.
"Hey Marshall, what's this?" asked Mary, pointing at the food.
"I believe it's what we call rice, Mare" sarcastically replied Marshall.
"I know what rice is, Doofus, but is it just rice or is there a secret, invisible ingredient in it?" she continued her line of questioning.
"It's rice and sugar" replied Marshall, confirming her suspicions of the mysterious, invisible ingredient.
Mary opened her mouth to protest, but Marshall cut her off.
"You'll like it, I promise" he assured her. "If you come over here, I can rebandage your arm now" he said, holding up the bandages for her to see.
For once, Mary complied with his request, and sat on a chair opposite his, putting her arm on the table, unwrapping her soggy bandage, peeling away the protective sticky sheet and gauze to reveal a very angry looking red wound. Marshall sucked in a breath at its appearance.
"Did you have that checked out?" asked Marshall, studying the wound.
"Of course I did, Doofus, what do you think I did while I was there? Baked cookies and supped tea?" snapped Mary. He let it go since he knew she was still depressurising form the stress of the previous day. He took the disinfectant from the first aid box and cotton wool balls.
"This is going to sting" Marshall warned.
"Marshall... do we have to?" whined Mary.
"You know it's for the best" he sympathised.
"Fine, but make it snappy. I don't want this to be slow and painful. She grumbled. Marshall smirked.
He wet the cotton wool balls with the disinfectant and gently applied it t to the wound on Mary's arm, watching as she closed her eyes and screwed up her face in pain at the sting of the ointment. Once he was done, He applied the gauze and attached the sticky sheet to keep it in place, then finally wrapped it. Once he'd finished he allowed his hand to linger on her arm, tracing soothing patterns with his fingertips below the bandage.
Mary cracked an eye open to see what all the touchy feely was about, but didn't say anything, instead she welcomed the comforting feeling of his fingertips, and sighed in contentment, which ultimately brought him out of his reverie.
"The food's going to get cold if we don't eat it soon" Marshall whispered.
"Go take it into the lounge room, I'll be back once I put some clothes on" said Mary, getting up from the table and heading towards the bedroom.
Five minutes later, Mary entered the lounge room dressed in a pair of loose black pyjama pants and a white three quarter pyjama top. She flopped on the couch next to Marshall and put her feet up on the coffee table.
"Thanks" she said, accepting her plate of rice and her spoon from Marshall.
The pair ate in comfortable silence, occasionally making small talk about anything and everything.
Once they'd finished, Marshall took their plates over to the sink to wash later. He returned with a serious expression on his face.
"We need to talk" he told Mary.
"Damn it, I always hoped I'd never hear those words from you" joked Mary, trying to lighten the mood a bit.
He resumed his seat next to Mary, but faced her this time.
"I need to know what happened there tonight" said Marshall in a non-forceful tone.
"Oh boy" said Mary, tucking her legs under herself and tucking her hair behind her ears.
Marshall listened intently as Mary explained how she worked out where the drug dealers were holding their witnesses.
"After I called you, I picked the lock on the front door to get in without being heard. The house was a mess and it had this... sick lavender smell to it, I heard yelling coming from the basement, Marie was there with her hands up and Sophia was hiding behind her leg" recalled Mary. "I must've stepped on a squeaky stair or something, because the next thing I know, I have three guns trained on me. Then Marie, ever the genius, decides to make a break for it. She picks Sophia up, holds her out in front of her and runs for the stairs. Obviously that didn't go well for them, since they ended up with 11 bullets between them" said Mary.
She reached out and ran her finger along the couch, watching as the suede changed as she touched it.
"But what I can't get out of my head, are her screams. I keep hearing "Please don't hurt me, mommy" and "help me". It just plays in my head like a broken record over and over again" whispered Mary.
Marshall reached over and encased her hand with his.
"Then they're lying on the ground, I manage to get a few shots off at the guys, two of them were fatal, but the third was only in the thigh. He was relentless, Marshall, he barely faltered. He ducked to pick up his gun that he dropped just as I fired, and my bullet went over his head. His aim was right on me and I could see his finger about to pull the trigger, then I heard a shot from behind me and the next thing I knew he was on the ground, and it was you" she finished as a few tears slipped down her cheek, her voice becoming quiter.
"I would've died tonight if it wasn't for you" she looked up at him and the tears continued to stream down her face.
Marshall pulled her into his lap, being mindful of her arm as she buried herself into his shoulder and sobbed loudly, starting to let go of the pain of the night. He just held her, rubbed her back in soothing circles and whispered reassurances in her ear until she calmed down.