Prompt: Mary, Marshall! Crickets

Mary tossed and turned in the tent silently cursing her witness for running off into the Cibola National Forest right before they had arrived back from transporting a witness.

Stan had met them on the tarmac and let him know the SUV was packed with the gear that they would need. It would be dark and without them being able to see well they'd have to tent it for the night before beginning their search in the morning.

The chopper had caught sight of their witness before being forced to turn around when the wind gusts became too much. After allowing herself a string of swear words that made Stan blush, they had headed out towards the forest hoping to get as much travel time as possible.

Marshall had set the tent up at McGaffey campground when they were both tripping over tree branches because it was too dark to see anything. Beyond exhausted they ate some of the granola bars and quickly crawled into the tent to sleep.

Mary started to fall asleep to the soothing sounds of Marshall's light breathing when it started. That awful chirping sound of the damn crickets that she was about to go outside and shoot. In her annoyance she found herself glaring at Marshall's capability to sleep through it.

Tossing and turning for over and hour and unable to figure out how to get the crickets to stop she'd finally had enough.

"Wake up, Doofus," Mary said shaking his arm.

"What?" Marshall asked sitting straight up, gun pointing towards the tent opening.

"Make them stop," Mary demanded.

"Who stop?"

"The damn crickets. I can't sleep because they won't shut up. When I move it becomes quiet and just as I'm about to fall asleep it starts up again."

"Mare, crickets have a pair of tympanal organs on their legs, which vibrate in response to vibrating sound in the surrounding air. A special receptor called the chordatal organ translates the vibration from the tympanal organ into a nerve impulse, which reaches the cricket's brain which, responds to this message by doing what it can to hide. It stops chirping. Crickets are extremely sensitive to vibration. When you move it feels the movement. Just close your eyes and ignore it."

"Well thank you for the cricket lesson. How does that help me to go to sleep?"

Mary thought Marshall had fallen asleep when he didn't answer, but a few seconds later she felt him brushing her hair back. She felt her skin warm at the skim of his fingers on his neck just before she felt something being placed in her ear.

"What the hell is that?" Mary asked jerking away, before realizing what it was.

"Ear plugs, put the other one in and let me sleep. It's your witness that has us out here in the first place. Not to mention it was you witness that caused us not to sleep during the transfer. I'm tired, cranky and getting close to your natural urge to hurt something."

Mary felt bad when she could actually hear the exhaustion in his voice. Leaning over she kissed his cheek impulsively.

"Thank you, Marshall."

"Welcome," Marshall replied, before falling back to sleep again.

Mary put the ear plugs in and almost kissed Marshall again. With the blissful peace and quiet she finally drifted off to sleep.