Thanks for the encouragement. I am eager for the last two episodes to be good Mary/Marshall ones. I'm keeping my fingers crossed. In the meantime, the drama is really going to explode in this story soon. Sheila
Chapter 2
The balled up piece of paper hit her on the nose. She sighed and pushed it off her desk. The second one hit her on the ear and she gave him a glare. The third one hit her between the eyes, and she grabbed it and threw it back. "Knock it off."
Marshall dodged it, and then returned to crushing paper. "I'm not going to knock it off. It's been a month you've been acting all mean and wrongheaded. It's enough."
Ball number four lodged itself in her cleavage and he threw up his arms and cheered. Mary pulled it out and threw it on the ground. "You're seconds away from a beat down."
"Aw come on, Mary. I miss you."
She returned to her work.
Marshall leaned back in his chair. "This is ridiculous, you know. And you can't keep it up. Our friendship is too strong for that. Mary, you are the wind beneath my wings."
Getting no response, Marshall went back to rolling paper weapons. "Mary, you're like the Antony to my Cleopatra." He stopped and frowned. "No, I mean, you're the…Cleopatra to my Antony. You're the Laverne to my Shirley. You're the Hutch to my Starsky."
Her head popped up. "I want to be Starsky."
He shook his head solemnly. "I'm sorry, Mary, but you have blonde hair and Hutch had blonde hair."
She pointed her pencil at him. "Well, you don't look like Starsky."
He pondered this for a moment. "But Starsky had a cool car, and you do not have a cool car. I'm afraid that makes it a lock. You just can't be Starsky. You could be Huggy Bear though, if you really want."
"Are you going to apologize for taking advantage of our friendship?"
"If I had actually attempted to take advantage of our friendship, I would most certainly apologize. However, this is not what occurred."
"I don't want to talk about it."
"I know you don't."
"How much time are you spending with the queen these days?"
"It's tapering off as it always does when the witness and family get acclimated. She has started to make friends at law school, and she got a membership at a gym. The kids are enrolled in kindergarten."
"Good."
"So we're not going to talk of the little incident involving Chilean Sea Bass."
"Never in a million years."
Marshall laced his fingers behind his head. "I'm not afraid to talk about it."
She narrowed her eyes at him. "Do you want me to drown you in a bathtub?"
"One day, we'll talk about it. I'll tell you why I asked you out, and you can tell me why you've never given Angel a break."
"You're treading in dangerous waters, Marshall."
He leaned back and looked at the ceiling. "Yes, but I'm feeling very bold these days."
"Suicidal is more like it."
He sighed deeply. "My adorable Mary is back."
"Both of you! In my office! Now!" Stan leaned out long enough to shout at them, then he disappeared again.
"Stan, we're getting along again. You don't need to be crabby anymore." Marshall got up. "Oh, and I'll pick up all these paper…ball things."
"Get in here!" Stan yelled. "Michael Benoit is getting out of jail tomorrow."
Marshall froze and looked at Mary. She threw her arms up. "What the fuck, Stan!?"
……………………………………………..
"This is un-fucking-believable!" Marshall paced the conference room.
"The judge should have retired years ago. It was a helluva thing to cover up."
Mary had both hands in her hair. "Let me get this straight. Angel's husband is getting out of jail tomorrow because a senile judge gave a jury the wrong instructions. We're talking about a lowlife who was sentenced to jail for life, no chance of parole. Stan, this has to be a setup."
"I don't think so. A juror came forward with it just a week ago. Benoit wouldn't have even been convicted if he had known about it."
Mary glared at him. "It was the 4th day of deliberations, and the judge sends in a note to the jury telling them he wants a verdict by the end of the day, but instead of verdict, he writes conviction. The jurors puzzle over the note, call in the bailiff who immediately sees the colossal error, tells them to disregard the note, and jokes, that it was a Freudian Slip. One of the jurors is a psychologist and explains to the other jurors that a Freudian Slip means that he accidentally wrote what he was thinking even though he didn't intend to do so. Then the idiots decide to convict, and a juror tells the L.A. Times it was because they figured it was what the judge was hoping they would do. Do I have it right?"
He nodded.
"Amazing!"
"How do we find out about this the day before he was released?!" Marshall couldn't contain his energy.
Stan sighed. "The U.S. Attorney has been scrambling ever since the article came out. They never conceived that a judge would overturn the entire verdict in the first hearing."
"Angel's file tells us a pretty grim story about the first time she testified."
"I know. The U.S. Attorney is very worried that Angel isn't going to take this well at all. Last time, they didn't think she was going to make it onto the stand."
"Two weeks is crazy."
"They refilled charges today. A trial date was set. Nobody wants this guy to have enough time to re-vitalize his organization."
"Does she know?"
U.S. Attorney wants us to handle it. He also wants us on her 24 hours a day until she goes back to L.A."
Mary rolled her eyes. "That's an amazingly bad idea."
Marshall banged his head against the wall. Stan looked from one to the other. "Well, we're going to have to make it a good idea."
Marshall sighed deeply. "Stan, she's got a bit of…a thing for me."
Mary was on her feet. "I knew it!"
Marshall whirled on her. "Nothing happened! I made sure of that."
"Sit down! Both of you!"
Stan got up. "God forbid, either of you let me in on the reason the two of you have been so surly. My role as your supervisor clearly doesn't extend beyond handing out your paychecks every two weeks. You think this is the first time a witness has developed feelings for a WitSec Marshal? My God."
Marshall sighed. "Stan, I'm sorry. It's just—"
Stan pointed a finger at him. "Don't talk. No talking. Only Stan talks now. As I see it, we have two options: I can call the U.S. Attorney and tell him that my agent is playing footsy with his key witness or the two of you get over your problem with this and protect her."
"The two of us?"
"Yeah, Mary, the two of you. I'm not sending him back in there by himself. She'd eat him for breakfast."
"Angel and I don't exactly get—"
"I know. I've been watching this whole sad drama for months now. But you and Angel are going to have to stop acting like Marshall is a pair of Manolo Blahniks you're fighting over."
"What!?" Marshall screwed up his face.
"They're shoes, Marshall."
"I'm a pair of shoes?"
"Very expensive womens' shoes, Marshall." Stan shook his head. "The two of you are missing the point. You're losing focus. This is the big time. Put the petty shit away. Protect the witness so we can put the very bad man back in jail. Understood?"
Marshall nodded. He gathered up his suit coat and headed out. Mary started after him and then turned, "Manolos?"
Stan threw up his hands. "I don't know. It just came to me, but I thought it worked very well."
…………………………………….
Angel muttered a few things, but she seemed to be relaxing more. Marshall sat by her bed for another ten minutes until she started to gently snore. Then he got up and closed the door quietly behind him. Mary was waiting in the dimly living room.
"She sleeping?"
"Finally."
"The rugrats made me read them 9 bedtime stories."
He nodded. "I bet they almost suckered you into the 10th."
"Yeah, they would have too, but they fell asleep in the middle of the last one."
He sat down in a recliner across from Mary.
She leaned forward. "Did you know about the drinking?"
He shook his head. "There's a mention in her file, but she seemed so healthy once she got to Albuquerque."
"She drank most of a fifth of Bourbon in 4 hours. That takes some practice."
"She's stressed; terrified that he'll find her."
"If she keeps this up, she'll have to testify from Detox."
"She'll calm down."
"I bet you're glad you didn't take a bite of that apple."
Marshall looked down at the ground for a long moment before responding. "I didn't because I wouldn't, Mary."
"I'm just saying—"
"No, this is not just about Angel. You've shown no faith in me since she first came to Albuquerque. Am I too weak to resist her charms or too desperate?"
"Marshall, her beauty is very tempting."
"And I'm telling you that beauty isn't enough. I wouldn't risk everything I have worked for just because I'm hot for someone. I'm saving all of that risk for the person who touches my heart, and I happen to know someone who does that for me."
Mary looked away. "She's a maneater, you know. You have to watch her all the time."
"You're just not listening." He stood up. "Look, I'm not in the mood to fight about this. You're going to take tonight and tomorrow night, right?"
"I'm not trying to ignore you. I just…don't know."
"You may need to bring in some cameras the nights that I stay here. You know, just in case I get a little fresh with the witness."
"Aw, come on, Marshall. Don't be mad."
"It's late. Remember that the girls need to be at school by 7:30. I wouldn't count on Angel to be in any condition to take care of it. See ya' later."
……………………………….
The view from the beach house would take anyone's breath away, but as he looked out the tremendous expanse of shoreline, all he could see was the beautiful woman that stole his heart and his life. The house, the view, the cars, the clothes: none of it meant so much that he wouldn't risk it all to crush her. He'd go back to living on the streets he came from if necessary. If it meant he went back to jail, he could do so knowing that she had died hard. It was the only thing that mattered right now. He would do anything to make it happen. He heard a noise behind him, but he didn't move. He wanted his men to know that he'd lost none of his infamous cool.
"Boss?"
"Did you get it?"
"We got a bead on the agent who carries the information."
He whirled around. "Then why are you here?"
The two men facing him were large men who would do whatever he wanted without batting an eye. They could kill a man, and then pick their kids up from school without missing a step. The larger one stepped forward. "Boss, we just needed to clarify…your wishes."
Benoit felt tension building in him. "My wishes are clear. Find her. Don't bring her back. Kill her. If opportunity presents itself, do it slow. Keep my babies out of it. Then bring them home. Questions?"
They shook their heads.
"I don't want to see you again until you've got some good news Okay?"
The way they set the jaws as they said good-bye to him told him that they would have no more clarity issues.
Next Chapter Monday