Despite the fact that everything had changed between Mary and Marshall, nothing really did. They still spent all their time together and were still each other's best friend. Occasionally, Marshall could now convince Mary to get dressed up and let him take her out to a nice restaurant, but they'd been going to movies, the bowling alley, and bars together for years. They'd also had a home cooked dinner together at least once a week since Marshall had started taking cooking lessons 6 years ago. Between Marshall's newly cultivated skills, and the skills Mary had been forced to acquire growing up, in order to both feed her family and earn money, they were able to switch off each week with the responsibilities. They decided to hold off announcing their new status to the public at first, not wanting to ruin their partnership unduly. They were both fully capable of being professional when on the job. And no one was the wiser. The only real difference was the sex, though Marshall insisted they wait six months before getting into bed, in order to both let her heal and give them a chance to be a couple without rushing things.
Though both entered the relationship fearing that things would not work out, they were happily surprised. Both were amazed to find, that while they pretty much sucked at other relationships, this one came easily to them. There was no point where Mary felt suffocated and, despite her many warnings that she was a horrible girlfriend, Marshall never felt that was the case. Before either of them truly realized it, they were reaching their one year anniversary. While they had continued to keep silent for the most part about their relationship, they'd come clean to Marshall's parents and brothers. Mary had opted out of telling her own family, both to avoid having to hear their commentary and to avoid being outted. But as more and more time passed, both Mary and Marshall wanted to come clean with their friends, people like Stan and Bobby, whom they spent eighty percent of their time with.
The decision was taken out of their hands the week before their one year anniversary. Marshall was out of town, delivering one of WitSecs newest initiates to Kansas City. Mary had been packed and ready to go with him, but Stan had received word that she would be needed in Albuquerque to welcome a new witness of her own. So rather than spending four days out of state, two of them gloriously alone, Mary was forced to watch from the conference room window as Stan bid Marshall farewell. They'd been caught off guard, and didn't even have a chance to say goodbye privately. As Stan turned his back, Marshall blew her a quick kiss, knowing that he'd at least get a smile from her before he left.
Mary could do nothing but watch him go. His cheesy blown kiss did bring a smile to her face, but she couldn't reciprocate with a crude gesture of her own, or even a return kiss, because Stan was facing her. Instead she watched him go with a sinking feeling in her chest. She hated sending him off alone, almost as much as she hated going over the MOU with a girl who looked like she couldn't spell the abbreviation with a cheat sheet. Christie, her new witness, was 107 lbs of air headed bimbo, and at least 3 of those pounds were hairspray.
Mary spent three long days with Christie. The first was spent going over the MOU and explaining to her new witness just how the program worked. The two remaining days were spent moving Christie into her new apartment, helping her find a job, and pretty much being at her beck and call, per the orders from Stan's boss. Between the long days with her witness and Marshall's absence, Mary had gotten very little sleep. On what would be Marshall's third night away, and hopefully his last, Mary caved. Instead of heading home to her own house, she decided to crash at his, hoping that being in Marshall's bed, even without him, would allow her to get even a few hours. She crawled into bed at eleven, and surrounded by Marshall's presence she was asleep in minutes.
She heard the glass break just after three. Being a marshal had taught her to sleep with one eye open at all times. It only took her a moment to come fully awake and register the noise for what it was. Unfortunately, in her haste to actually get some sleep, she'd left her bag, with her hand cuffs and gun in Marshall's foyer. Luckily, on his last birthday, she'd given him a gag gift- fur lined handcuffs. It had been during his imposed six-month waiting period, and she'd been trying to get a reduced sentence. He hadn't cracked, but after that six month mark, he'd more than made up for it. She snuck quietly from the bed and padded softly to Marshall's dresser. She found the cuffs in the back of his sock drawer. His spare weapon, the one he kept in the house at all times was in his office, at the other end of the house, she'd never reach it.
Knowing she'd be better off safe than sorry, she picked up her cell. Rather than dial 911, she hit speed dial 5 and connected directly with the ABQ police department. When the desk sergeant answered, she asked if Detective Dershowitz was on duty. The sergeant affirmed that he was and transferred her over. It rang once before he answered. "Dershowitz here."
Trying not to alert the men in the living room, Mary whispered into the phone, "Bobby, it's me."
He immediately picked up on her tone, "Mary? What's wrong?"
"I need you to send a couple of black and whites my way. I've got at least one, possibly two guys in the living room."
"Somebody broke into your house?" Bobby was already putting on his gun and motioning for the nearest unit to follow him.
Mary corrected him, "No, not my place. I'm at Marshall's." She crept down the hallway as she spoke, needing to see what was going on. She knew that Marshall didn't keep any sensitive information in the house, but he did have quite a few valuable items. His living room wall was covered in book shelves boasting autographed first editions, first release vinyls, an impressive coin collection, and an assortment of semi precious stones and rocks from places he'd visited in his life. In addition to all that, he also had a Fender autographed by Springsteen, several one of a kind pieces of artwork, a collection of autographed sports memorabilia, containing greats like Babe Ruth and Wayne Gretzky, and a cowboy hat worn by the Duke on the set of True Grit. She would hate to have to tell him that someone had taken any of that.
"Mary, wait for back up to arrive. Don't do anything stupid." Bobby tried to insert some steel into his voice, but he knew it was useless.
She smirked despite the situation, "You know me." With that she hung up the phone and slipped from the hallway into the foyer. She slipped her phone into her pocket, along with the handcuffs and pulled out her marshal issued pair and her glock. She stepped silently into the living room, leveled the weapon at the closer of the two men and released the safety. "US marshal, freeze."
The one with the gun pointed at him did as told. She threw him the handcuffs, indicating he should put them on and then moved her line of sight to the other man. He wasn't as smart as his partner. Rather than go quietly, he decided to fight. He grabbed a chair from the dining room table and threw it. Mary was quick enough to dodge it, his partner wasn't. He went down tangled in cuffs and chair. Now panicking, the uncuffed man reached for the nearest shelf, containing Marshall's rocks. He hurled one with each hand. As they flew through the air, Mary took a small amount of girlfriendly pride in the fact that she recognized them as geodes, and then swiftly ducked under them, hoping they wouldn't shatter. She rushed forward hoping to tackle the thief, but hadn't seen the third stone coming. It glanced off her forehead and stunned her for just a moment. But she kept her forward momentum and tackled the man, making sure to throw him down to the side, rather than hit the shelves. She was none too gentle as she wrestled him onto his stomach and clicked the fur lined cuffs into place.
She hauled him up and dragged him into the living room, pushing him onto the couch. She then went and got his friend, depositing him on the couch as well. She took a few steps back, to the other side of the coffee table and sank into the chair. She crossed her legs and placed her gun, in view, on her knee, hand still ready to pull the trigger. "Now, you two are going to sit still and be quiet, or I'm going to get very angry." She threw them each a glare, waiting for them to nod in agreement. Using her free hand, she pulled her cell phone from her pocket. Though she hated to wake him when she had the situation completely under control, she had no delusions about how he would react if she waited till a decent hour to call him. She hit speed dial 2 and held the phone to her ear.
He answered after three rings, sans greeting, "If you're calling me because you can't sleep and you feel as though that means I should suffer as well, I'm hanging up." They had talked every day he'd been gone, he knew she wasn't sleeping well. He didn't mind her calling to have someone to talk to, but he was really hoping that's all it was.
Mary couldn't help the smile that came at hearing his voice. "Sorry, Sleeping Beauty, I was sleeping just fine."
Instantly on alert, Marshall sat up in his hotel bed. "What happened?"
"Somebody broke into your place, actually a couple of somebodies." Mary narrowed her eyes at the two in question. "But I'm sure they're really sorry about it."
Marshall read between the lines quickly, a skill that he had honed as an inspector. "You're at my place? You're staying at my place while I'm out. Does this mean you're ready to move in with me?" He was trying to make her smile, calm her down.
After a year together, he'd gotten very good at it. She let out a small laugh. "You wanna focus on the problem at hand, numbnuts? We can talk about that when you get home, okay? I don't think it's the kind of conversation we should be having in front of the two people who just tried to rob you, "she saw the lights from the patrol car pull up and heard the siren, "or the ABQ PD."
Hearing the sirens, Marshall quickly realized that until that point, his girlfriend had been sitting in his house alone with two criminals. He rolled his eyes at the way her brain worked. "Alright, we'll talk about that later. What's the damage?"
Mary heard the double meaning in his words, he'd revisit the cohabitation thing when he got home, but he'd also try to yell at her for not getting the cops there sooner. "Umm, at least one broken window, and a dining room chair, possibly some dry wall, I haven't had time to inspect it yet, hold on." Keeping her eyes on the two men on the couch, she moved toward the front door and pulled it open, ushering in Bobby and the two uniforms that had accompanied him. "Hey Bobby, I got your guys over there." She gestured to the two men.
Bobby stepped to the side and ushered the two officers in to retrieve the burglars. He then followed toward the scene of destruction. He looked around, taking in the damage. It was nowhere near as bad as it could have been. "I'll start with this, get the pictures and everything."
Mary let out a sigh, "Thanks, I'll be right back." She needed a few moments alone with Marshall before she answered any questions for Bobby. She made her way back down the hall into his bedroom, closing the door for privacy. "Alright, what do I do?"
"What do you mean?" Marshall was trying to follow Mary's brain, but it wasn't an easy task.
"I mean, in about five minutes, Bobby's gonna ask me why I'm here, asleep in your house in the middle of the night and you're nowhere in sight. And later today, Stan's going to want the same answers. People broke into your house, Marshall. We're going to have to treat this as a possible breach until an assessment proves otherwise, which means I have to tell Stan. The question is, how much do I tell him, or Bobby for that matter." This was their chance. While coming up with a cover story wouldn't be hard, this was a golden opportunity to just come clean.
"Yea, I guess you're right. Really, it's up to you." Marshall was tired of hiding his relationship with Mary, he didn't care who knew they were in love, and he knew she didn't either. What they both feared was the possibility of being reassigned.
Mary narrowed her eyes, even though she knew he couldn't see her. "Have you noticed that when it comes to picking the restaurant or the movie, it's all you, but all the actual decisions are left up to me?"
Marshall rolled his own eyes. "We both know you prefer it that way."
Knowing he was right, she let it go. "It's our chance, Marsh. We can get it out in the open. I'm tired of hiding this, I mean we've been together a year. It's this huge part of our lives, and we're hiding it from all of our friends."
"And if Stan insists on separating us?" Marshall didn't want to play devil's advocate, but he wanted to make sure she was positive about this.
"Just because we're not partners anymore, that doesn't change anything, right? We still love each other. If it comes down to a choice, I'd rather be with you, than work with you." Her voice was quiet. She didn't want a new partner, but she would take one if she had to. She held her breath waiting for his response.
"Me too; I love you, Mare, friend, partner, girlfriend, makes no difference. We'll figure it out." He said the words firmly, hoping to quell the fear he knew she was feeling.
"Alright, then," Mary reached up and combed her fingers through her hair, a hiss escaping when she pulled on her cut forehead. "Shit."
The sound of her pain had him on instant alert, "Mare, what happened?" He tried to cover the panic in his voice.
She leaned over his dresser, examining her head. There was a steady stream of blood, but the cut was nothing major. "It's nothing. When I was trying to cuff Bonnie and Clyde, one of them decided to try their hands at being a pitcher."
Marshall waited for further explanation, when none was forthcoming, he spoke, "Umm, what does that mean?"
"It means he used your rock collection to practice his curve ball. I didn't completely dodge one of the geodes. It's just a small cut, won't even need stitches. I'm fine." Mary downplayed the whole thing, not wanting to upset Marshall.
But he knew her to well. He made a mental note to have her pass the phone over to Bobby so he could make sure she was really okay. "Bobby's probably looking for you."
"Crap, I totally forgot, I should go find him." She knew him too well for his secret plan to be much of a secret, but she let him slide. Instead she took a deep breath and prepared herself for what was coming. She and Marshall had spent an amazing year together. And while she knew that that wouldn't end later today when their secret was revealed, she did know that things would never be the same.