Disclaimer: I don't own In Plain Sight; I simply use the characters to further the enjoyment of all.

ooOOoo

Marshall got up and got coffee and then talked to the doctor. Mary had only been awake for about an hour but had been significantly more coherent this time. She had slept in between the time that he had called her family and even a good hour after they had gotten there. When she had woken up, she was a lucid as she had been when she had woken up around him.

"Is she going to stay like this?" he had asked of her physician.

"Coma patients are hard to predict, but usually when they come out of it, they don't slip back in. It's actually surprising that she came out of it with so much of her own personality and such high responsiveness. Usually there are more complications. It's not completely unheard of, however," the doctor responded.

"Why does she keep falling back asleep?"

"That's normal for coma patients. They don't just magically wake up and are fine. They come in and out of it a lot until finally their brain builds up enough strength to keep them conscious for the normal span of time once again."

Marshall thanked the doctor and took up his usual post beside her bed. She didn't wake for the remainder of the day but he hadn't expected her to. She had been awake twice today, both times for long periods. It seemed to be a lot of stress on her recuperating body. Two days he stuck around and finally, her eyes opened once again.

"Marshall, what are you still doing here?"

"Making sure that no one steals your Jell-O."

"They're feeding me through a tube. I don't get Jell-O."

"Then I'm here to make a fuss about the indignity that you didn't get any."

"Marshall, please go home."

"You don't want me here?" His face dropped slightly. If she hadn't known him for so long she probably would have never noticed. That guilt part of her kicked in. He was just worried about her.

"I want you to go and be a normal person. I'm going to be fine. While I appreciate the fact that you're spending every waking moment with me, it's really no longer necessary. Go to work or something."

"Work's boring without out you around to fight with."

She knew that he had said it as a joke but that didn't stop the fact that her heart warmed a little at the comment. She knew that not having a partner there could get a little disruptive but it was different with Marshall. It seemed to her that he felt work just wasn't worth it without her around.

"So when is everyone coming back?"

"They're going to let you be for awhile. Having everyone here is a little overwhelming for you. Raph will be here tomorrow though."

"My mother must be just ecstatic about that," she mumbled. "Was Raph freaking out because he wasn't here when I woke up?" Mary loved Raph but sometimes he got a little overbearing. She knew that was just his nature but a part of her was quietly glad that he hadn't been around when she had been coherent for the first time.

"Not exactly," Marshall responded. Mary looked at him, seeing him fidget slightly under her gaze.

"Out with it, Marshall."

"I don't want to say anything. Talk to Raph when he gets here."

"Or you could tell me now and I won't have to beat it out of you," she threatened as she leaned back on the pillows. She was already starting to feel tired.

"You don't look like you could beat a confession out of a fly."

"I'll use my impressive brain power to break you."

Marshall raised an eyebrow.

"Oh, for the love of God, will you just tell me whatever it is that you don't want to tell me? I don't have enough energy for this bullshit."

Marshall stared her down for a few moments before giving in. There was a part of him that secretly wanted to tell her anyways, just to see how she would react. "Raph hasn't been to see you since the night that it happened."

"He… really? That seems… unlike him." Mary's brow knitted, not sure if she was relieved, upset or just plain confused. Usually she could predict Raph's behavior to the tee and him not coming to see her had never crossed her mind. It was completely out of character for the man she was engaged to. "At least someone had the sense not to wait by my bed every second, watching me sleep." To be frank, the whole situation confused her. It was like someone had turned the world on its head and now "opposite day" had become a national, daily holiday.

She thought Marshall would have gone back to work, visiting only when he could. After all, with both of them now out, who was working their cases? That hadn't happened though. He had waited by her bed every second, barely leaving even when she told him to, while Raph was no where to be found, the man who usually smothered her with his emotions.

"We drew straws," Marshall informed her, leaning back into his chair. "I lost."

Mary threw a pillow, which he promptly deflected. She wasn't really trying to hit him and they both knew it. Not that a pillow would have done any damage. Her face grew serious as her mind once again returned to what Marshall had told her. It was so unlike Raph to be scarce.

"How has he been taking it?" she asked her partner. Marshall shrugged, not really knowing what to tell her. He didn't know Raph as well as Mary did so he didn't know if that behavior was normal.

"Not well, from what I can see. If I hadn't already known it, I would have never guessed he was your fiancé. He hasn't been to see you, hasn't talked to anyone as far as I can tell. Brandi can barely get him to answer his phone." He could see that it was making Mary upset, though that was only because he knew her so well. She hid it, just like she had always done. He wished he could keep it from her, but that wasn't Mary's nature. She always had to know things and, at the end of the day, it was just better to tell her. She handled her trials better that way.

"So he's basically falling apart." She was quiet for a moment and then, "Damn it! I don't have the energy to put up with his emotional drama."

"Who said you had to? You take care of everyone all the time. Let Raph take care of Raph," Marshall suggested. He saw how her family's problems caused her stress and didn't want her to have to handle it. The last thing she needed was stress. Marshall had been handling her family since she had been hurt and, while he didn't have the experience at it that Mary did, he still thought that he was managing well.

"Now if only I had thought of that years ago. I could have saved myself a whole lot of trouble," she answered sarcastically. Marshall saw her eyes drooping closed and Mary struggle to keep them open, wanting to figure out what to do about Raph. Marshall was the easiest person to talk to and she usually got her best ideas when bouncing them off him.

"Go to sleep, Mary. You can think about it when you wake up."

"God damn drugs."

ooOOoo

Raph walked into the room quietly, praying that she still slept. The conversation was going to be long and tedious and he wasn't even sure he wanted to have it now. In fact, if he could've avoided her until she got out, he would have, but he knew that wouldn't be the case. He also knew that Marshall had probably already spilled the beans about his behavior. If he knew anything about Mary, she wouldn't let him go until she found out why he had been acting so strangely.

"Will you just get in here already? It's really hard pretending to be asleep for this long."

The voice surprised him and he cursed silently under his breath. He should have known she'd be awake. She put on a good façade though. Her eyes were closed, her breathing even despite already telling him that she was awake. She had actually been dozing, trying to keep herself awake for his visit. When he had opened the door it woke her again. She didn't want him to leave without figuring out what was wrong. Marshall had vacated her room for awhile, giving the couple some privacy. Raph sat down in the chair that Mary's partner had inhabited previously.

"So are you going to come right out and tell me what's wrong or am I going to have to go fishing?" she asked him, finally opening her eyes and turning her head to look at him.

"Mary," he said, "I'm not sure that we should talk about this right now."

"Fishing it is."

"It's not that I want you to have to guess. I just think that it would be better if we waited until you were better." Mary's emotions had always been difficult to decipher and he didn't know how she would deal with this after everything she'd already been through.

"Damn it, Raph, will you just tell me already. It's like ripping off a band aid; the quicker the better." She didn't have the energy for this and it was already showing in just the few short minutes that he had been in her room. Raph looked at her for a minute before deciding that trying to keep it from her was just going to make the situation that much more difficult.

"I thought about a lot over the past few weeks. I hate your job. I mean, I hated your job before but it's even worse now. You can't tell me anything about it and I am worried about you every time that you are not at home," Raph confessed to her.

"What exactly do you want me to do about that, Raph? Wave my magical wand that gets me a different job? This is what I do and, what's more, it's what I love." They'd had the conversation a million times before and Mary wasn't totally sure why he was bringing it up now.

"I know that. You also love me." They sat for a minute, looking at each other. Raph was hoping that she would figure it out, but she just sat there in confusion. He was sitting there telling her that he knew she loved him and her job.

She realized that he wasn't telling her what she loved, he was asking her which one she loved more. "Jesus, Raph, you're doing this to me now?"

"Well, as usual, you refused to let me do it later. It always was your way or no way, Mary."

"It's what endears everyone to me so," she mumbled. He was forcing a decision out of her. She had to pick him or her job. Looking at him, she wished it were a difficult choice. "My job is my sanity," she explained to him. "It's the only thing that remains constant and that I can always count on. People aren't like that. They're… unpredictable and messy. I need something stable in my life and I'm just not sure you're, we're, stable enough to replace my job."

She hoped that she had been nice about it. How do you gently tell a guy that you chose your job over him? Probably the same way that same guy tells you to pick one. She saw that he was hurt, that he had honestly thought that she would pick him and she hated seeing him like that. She loved Raph but not enough to change everything that made her Mary. Being a Marshal was as much a part of her as her blonde hair or her hazel eyes.

Raph just nodded at her, not sure where to proceed from there. He had prepared himself for the fact that she might pick her job over him. Now that she actually had, it was a lot more difficult to deal with that he had expected.

"So where do we go from here?" he asked.

"You go back to my house, move your things back to your own apartment and… we go our separate ways in life." It was like she was explaining things to a child.

"That's it?"

"What else do you expect? You asked me to choose. I did and this is what results from it. If you can't handle my job that's fine but don't expect a relationship now that I've made my decision. Separation will be better for the both of us, Raph."

"So… I should probably go," he said slowly.

"I think that it would be best."

Raph kissed her cheek softly and Mary watched him recede until the door cut off all views of him. She still didn't tear her eyes away despite not being able to see him any longer.

Marshall came in and saw her sitting there, vacant look on her face but even then Mary didn't remove her eyes from the door. "Mary?"

Mary blinked, her eyes focusing once again on the room in front of her. She looked at Marshall who looked worried. She couldn't figure out why. After being shot, a little thing like ending a relationship shouldn't worry him. Then it occurred to her that he probably didn't know what had just happened and there was something else that was causing the look of concern that was on his face. "What?"

"Are you alright? You look… upset." Marshall was putting it lightly but he didn't want to alarm her. He didn't know what Raph had said to her but, by the look that was on Mary's face, Marshall knew it couldn't be good. If it had been anyone else he would have said they were about to cry but, well, it was Mary. She just looked hurt but wasn't sure what to do with the emotion.

"I'm fine," she answered him. "Just the usual bullshit of my life."

"What happened?"

"He asked me to chose, to decide between him and my job."

Marshall caught on quickly and his fist tightened in anger. How dare he put this decision on her now, or ever for that matter? He couldn't believe that Raph would make her decide between his love and the love of her job. What was worse was that Marshall wasn't completely sure which she had chosen.

"Mary, you can't leave the Marshal Service. You just… can't." Marshall forced himself to relax, to not show how angry or hurt he would be if she decided to go with Raph and quit her job. "You love your job and you would never be happy anywhere else."

"Calm, down. Jeez, Marshall, do you really think I would leave?"

"I wasn't sure. You love Raph."

"Yeah, but not enough to leave my job for him. If he can't deal with me being a Marshal then he certainly isn't the guy for me." She placed her hand over Marshall's and it clenched tightly in anger. She could understand his anger. When she thought that he was leaving, she was furious. "I'm not leaving WITSEC. I'm leaving Raph. Well, left Raph, I guess. I already told him to clear his things out of my house."

"So… you're not leaving then?" Marshall felt himself calming at her words. Mary was the only friend that he had and he wasn't sure he could handle the Marshal Service without her.

"No, I'm not leaving. Did you really think that I would leave my job for a guy?"

"What if I left WITSEC?" he asked, his voice playful but part of him genuinely curious.

"You leaving is a different story. They'd never be able to find another partner that would put up with me. I'd be forced to leave," she told him with a harsh laugh.

Marshall chuckled along with her, but they both knew it wasn't entirely untrue. Mary was hard to deal with and he just happened to work well with her. He wasn't sure that anyone else would be able to deal with her personality. Most people didn't see Mary when they met her. All they saw was a rude, hard-ass Marshal who seemed to hate the world. Marshall had gotten past that easily enough and found that, while she may be pig-headed, it was only because she cared so fiercely about things. He knew that she had this need to protect everyone she cared about. He figured that's why she got into WITSEC to begin with: a job where she did nothing but protect people. "You sure you're alright? I mean, you did just call it off with your fiancé," he asked delicately. He also knew Mary's aversion to talking about anything that even remotely had to deal with her emotions.

"It's just a relationship, Marshall. One that, for some time now, I thought wasn't going to last. Let's not talk about it. Let's talk about when they're finally going to let me out of this hell hole."

"This hell hole saved your life," Marshall reminded her. "In fact, they save thousands of lives a day and the percentage of you surviving any given ailment increases 50% upon entry into a hospital. I don't understand people's dislike of hospitals."

"I bet it's a direct result of the food," Mary mumbled as she picked at the remains of her dinner. She hadn't been able to stomach any of it and not just because she had been shot through the stomach. Being shot was almost preferable to the food that was on her plate.

"Haven't you asked your doctor about it?"

"He's keeps avoiding the question like he wants to hold me hostage here as long as possible," she complained.

"He must know you."

"What's that supposed to mean?" she sneered at her partner.

"That the second you get home you'll be trying to do a ton of things you're not supposed to instead of just relaxing and letting yourself recover."

Mary had a hard time arguing with him about that one. She always tried to do things before she should but even now she could tell it would be a little while before she'd be able to accomplish anything. However, it had been about three weeks since she had been shot and, even though she'd only been awake for five days, she was tired of looking at the same old walls. She also knew that Marshall wouldn't set foot back at work until she was out of the hospital. She had a sinking feeling he wouldn't return until she got back on her feet, but she hoped that if the doctor released her then she could convince him to go back to his job. Stan had to be drowning in work by now and she didn't want Marshall getting fired because of her.

"Do you think you could convince him to let me go?"

"No."

"Please, Marshall. You're a lot better at that whole bargaining thing and relating to people and-"

"Talking civilly to them and not like they're trained monkeys," Marshall interjected.

"Well, yeah, there is that part."

They both sat and stared at each other for a moment, one trying to get the other to concede. Finally Marshall sighed and threw his hands up.

"Fine, I'll go talk to him, but only under one condition."

"What?"

"That you follow every one of his instructions. That means no stress, no job, no heaving lifting, no heavy breathing if that's what he tells you to do."

Mary stared at him a minute and quickly realized that this was one argument she wouldn't win. Marshall wanted her to recover and wasn't taking any chances. She agreed, thinking that at the very least going home would be a change of scenery.