Chapter Four

"Oh dear…" Marshall muttered when he saw Mary lead Cody out of the elevator.

She was a cyclone storming in and ready to destroy everything in her path. Marshall had no doubt she would do just that if he said anything to her at this point. Fury was rolling off of her in waves, and he'd learned long ago that talking to Mary when she was like this was asking to get killed. For now it was best to ride it out. Marshall watched as Mary led Cody into the conference room and left him there. When she came back out Marshall pointedly turned his gaze away. No point directing her ire toward him. He needed to play this delicately.

Mary dropped down in her chair and started rummaging through her desk drawers. She was so intent on finding whatever it was she was looking for that Marshall could watch her unnoticed. He didn't like what he saw either. Her face was blanched white and her eyes burned with frustration. If Marshall had to guess, he would say she was hurting pretty badly.

When Mary's frustration became more and more apparent, Marshall knew he needed to act. If this continued Mary could break which would hurt her even more. Without a word he grabbed a bottle of painkillers from his drawer and set them down on Mary's desk. She groaned in relief and snagged the bottle.

"Thank you, sweet Jesus."

Mary downed three pills and dropped her head down onto her desk. Marshall waited patiently. When Mary still didn't say anything he answered the question he knew she wanted to ask.

"I'll assist with Cody if you need back up in there."

Mary popped her head up looking truly grateful.

"I love you."

"I know. I'm guessing he didn't get the message the first time."

"Nope. Found him talking to some guy in an alley again. Guy tried to brain him. Real friendly like that."

"I see," Marshall replied dryly.

Mary grunted and pushed herself out of her chair to head toward the conference room. When she was halfway there she seemed to think better of it and returned to her desk. Marshall couldn't help grinning when he saw her put her gun safely in the drawer before heading to the conference room once more.

"Good girl. No shooting him."

"Keep it up and I'll shoot you."

Marshall was a bit surprised by the intense vehemence of the response, but he took it in stride. Mary must be hurting more than he'd figured. He made a mental not to ask what happened and subtly keep an eye on her once they were through with this issue. As Mary stormed toward Cody, Marshall picked up on the nervous look that crossed Cody's face when he saw her. Apparently he still may need to pull back on the reins a little, though Cody could probably use the shock of dealing with a furious Mary. She leaned over the table and got up in his face.

"You're going to answer my questions honestly and listen close or I swear to God, Cody…"

Mary trailed off, but the threat was clear. She was through with the crap. Cody nodded in understanding.

"Why did you go back there?"

"Just to tell him we couldn't talk anymore. That's it, Mary. I swear," Cody pleaded, his eyes darting between the two Marshals.

Mary growled and looked like she was about to lunge, so Marshall took control. He gently touched her shoulder before addressing Cody himself.

"What could have possibly possessed you to go back and tell him that? You would have made a better, smarter choice to simply leave him to his own devices."

"That sounded rather rude to me, and he seemed like a really nice guy. He deserved a farewell."

"He deserves a good kick where it hurts and some time in jail more likely," Mary snapped back peevishly. "And yeah, he was nice since he wanted to play you like a freaking banjo. Idiot!"

She slammed her hand down on the table to punctuate the last word. Cody flinched back away from her and turned to Marshall for support. Mary actually flinched as well thanks to the ricocheting pain through her left arm, but she managed to keep it small and controlled.

"Don't look at me. For once she isn't being overly dramatic," Marshall shrugged.

Mary threw her good hand up in relief, though Marshall could have left off the overly dramatic part.

"Thank you!" Then she turned to Cody, her expression stone hard. "Time to stop putting yourself in danger. You need to fly under the radar and stay alive. Since you can't seem to make those decisions on your own, you better start thinking about whether or not I'd approve of what you are doing and who you're hanging out with. That means no alleys, no bad parts of town, no places most people are avoiding. Got me?"

"Yeah, I'll be more careful, Mary."

"Damn well better be because next time I may not be around to save your ass."

And if she was she may very well save it just so she could be the one to destroy it later.

"Find yourself a safe group of friends to hang out with. Join a bowling league or a book club," Marshall suggested. "There are a lot of options out there that won't run the risk of getting you killed or imprisoned."

"I'll see what I can find." At the disbelieving look on Mary's face he added in a quick, "Really."

Mary just snorted at his reassurance. She'd heard it before more than once and it had always resulted in the exact same thing.

"I'll believe it when I see it. Now let's go."

Once Mary had escorted Cody out and sent him home she returned to her desk. Paperwork was the last thing she wanted to work on, but it needed to be done. Of course she wasn't thinking as clearly as she could be with her headache and the pounding in her arm. She lowered her head to her desk and stayed that way for a while. Marshall's eyes were on her, but she didn't really care. So far he was being smart and not saying anything. Hopefully he would stay that way. Explaining what had happened was not in her plans, and she really didn't want to fight him on that.

"You okay?"

Marshall knew her and realized instantly that she didn't want to discuss what had happened. Still, her behavior worried him. It wasn't unusual for Mary to drop her head onto her desk, but it was usually in frustration. Right now she just seemed tired. That combined with her frantic search for aspirin earlier had led him to ask the question even if it meant facing her ire.

Mary turned her head to face him with eyes that nearly withered him on the spot. Apparently even a safe question wasn't really safe. Marshall held up his hands in surrender.

"I know what you feel about Cody and today obviously didn't go well."

"I'm fine," she snapped.

Marshall lifted a skeptical eyebrow.

"Really, Marshall, I'm fine."

"Mare," Marshall began in exasperation before Mary cut him off sharply.

"Can it, Numbnuts, or I'm going to make you wish that you had."

Marshall gave her a slightly mocking nod of his head that said "as you wish" and returned to his desk. Mary being Mary he was going to have to keep an eye on her from a distance and make sure she didn't notice. Considering she was probably in more pain than she was letting on, Marshall didn't figure he would need to try very hard to keep his observations from her attention. She wouldn't be on the top of her game.

As the day wore on, Marshall continued to watch over his partner. She was quieter than usual, which wasn't a good sign. Plus, her face had a white-ish cast that made her look tired and even a little bit sick. For the most part she did her work attentively and wasn't showing much sign of being in pain even though he figured she was. It wasn't until a few hours later that he was proven correct.

As Mary reached out with her left hand to grab the correct forms, a wave of pain rolled through her. It felt like she'd just been hit with a pipe again, and she yelped.

"Son of a… ow. Stupid pipe."

Tears of pain blurred her eyes, and she tucked her arm close against her side to keep it still. Marshall's head had shot up when she'd first cried out, and he watched her intently. Being who he was, Marshall registered all of her actions and quickly realized that his partner hadn't shared everything that had happened when she'd found Cody with him. She'd gotten hurt somehow and it likely wasn't a small injury.

"What pipe?"

Mary's eyes snapped to his. She wanted to deny what she'd said, but one look in Marshall's eyes told her he wasn't going to let this go. One way or another he would get his answers. Mary sighed and decided to downplay what had happened. It wasn't really a big deal after all.

"Remember how I said Cody's friend tried to brain him? He used a pipe. I blocked it."

"You blocked it," Marshall repeated, sounding skeptical.

"Uh, yeah, Marshall, that's what I said. Are your ears not working today or something?"

Marshall just ignored her taunt and continued on unperturbed. He'd taken Mary's insults many times before.

"You blocked it with your arm?"

It wasn't really a question, more a statement of fact. Even so Mary rolled her eyes and snapped off a sarcastic retort.

"No, Doofus, I blocked it with my amazing mind powers."

Marshall sighed heavily and shook his head. He shouldn't have expected much else from her. She was in pain and therefore irritable. Or at least more so than she usually was.

"How bad does it hurt, Mare?"

"I'll be fine by tomorrow. Seriously, it's not a big deal. Now go back to work before I decide to throw something at you. Preferably something heavy."

Knowing better than to argue with her, Marshall held his hands up in surrender.

"Okay, but take it easy. The injury could be much more severe than you think."

"Marshall…"

It wasn't hard to read between the lines in that one word. He damn well better shut up now or else a stapler was heading for his face. In order to preserve his own life, Marshall returned to his desk and dropped the subject. For now.