We're getting down to the wire, here! Marshall can't take much more and Mary's gonna kill something! There's a few more chapters, and then it's over, so keep reading! And plaese ignore my unrealisitic bits. It's called fiction for a reason, right? Right.
Disclaimer: Nothing is mine but ideas. And boy do I have those.
"Detective, I don't know what to tell you," Danny said with a sigh as he ran a hand through his hair. "Jason was a good kid. Quiet, minded his own business, but focused. He mentioned I might be seeing him soon, but I didn't think anything of it. Figured if he was in town, he'd call me."
Stan and Bobby shared a look. "What can you tell me about his relationship with Mary?" Stan asked, leaning forward.
Danny shrugged. "He really looked up to her. I think she was the one person here he really connected with."
"Besides you," Bobby offered.
"Well, to be honest, I was surprised he wrote me. I looked out for him, but it's not like we did things outside of work. Sounded like the kid didn't have much of a father figure. I like to think I helped there." He looked back and forth at both of them. "Do you think I helped?"
"Yeah, Danny, I think you did." Bobby nodded at him, then left the room, Stan right behind him.
"Okay, so maybe he got over Mary?" Bobby offered once they were out of earshot.
Stan looked unconvinced. "Marshall didn't think so. I could tell from the moment we found out Jason was missing that he suspected something."
"But he didn't tell you what?"
He shook his head. "There wasn't anything to go on at the time, and he was taken before we worked out any details." Stan sighed and rubbed his tired eyes. "This is feeling less and less like a kidnapping and more like a runaway."
"Okay, back to your building? More letters?"
Stan nodded. "I don't think we have anything better to go on at this point. We need to figure out just what Jason was into. It's our only shot."
"I'm sorry, Marshall," Mary said again, watching him.
"Stop apologizing, Mary," he rasped, his eyes still closed. "It's my fault."
She snorted softly and shook her head. "How exactly do you figure that, genius?"
"I knew Jason would be coming for you. I knew he hadn't been kidnapped. I should never have let you leave by yourself, no matter how upset we both were." He swallowed harshly and took a breath, albeit weak and gasping. "I should have protected you, it's my fault."
"Okay, you need to seriously stop, Marshall," Mary ordered, stomping a foot. "One, you shouldn't talk so much if it hurts, so don't. Two, don't be an idiot. You were right to send me home, I was way out of line. I apologized to Stan and Sara, and I was waiting to tell you how sorry I was. I am sorry, Marshall. I know I hurt you, and I promise you'll never see that again. Ever."
He started to take a breath, but she overrode him.
"No you don't, my turn. Three, how were you supposed to know that Jason was here for me? You couldn't know that for sure, so shut up about that. Four…"
"How many of these are there?" Marshall asked, looking at her finally.
She smiled tentatively at the show of spirit. "Some. Stop talking. Four, you were taken first, not me, so it should have been me protecting you. I almost went over to your house, you know that? I talked myself out of it because I didn't think I could face you if you didn't want to talk to me. I could have been there with you. I'd been calling you all night, but you didn't respond. I thought you were still pissed."
"See? My fault. I…wasn't mad…anymore…" he managed before he started coughing.
"Shut up, Marshall!" she begged, her voice laced with worry. "I'm not done, and you need to rest. I know you always pick up when I call you, even when you're mad at me, so don't tell me. I know. Now, what number was I on? Oh, right, five…"
Marshall smiled softly, turning back to watch her.
"Five, I'm the one Jason is after. He's using you because of me. He's here because of me. He is hurting you because of me." Her voice broke a little and she saw the flash of concern on his pained face. She shook her head and cleared her throat. "This is obviously all my fault. If he wasn't so psychotic, if he didn't think I could love him back, if he didn't think he was in love with me, then this…then I…you…" She couldn't finish and looked away.
"Hey," Marshall rasped, somehow managing to sound gentle through the wheezing.
She turned back to him, biting her lip.
He smiled softly. "You are blaming yourself for all of this because a man fell in love with you? That's not a crime, Mare, it's a force of nature. One I fell victim to a long time ago."
Her mouth dropped open at his words and she suddenly found it hard to breathe. Was he really saying that he…he loved her?
"Jason was right?" she asked him, her voice barely above a whisper.
He closed his eyes and nodded once. "About everything."
"No," she insisted, shaking her head. "No, Marshall, no. Stop it."
He moved his head and faced the opposite wall. "I'm a coward. I did fail you. I couldn't protect you, and now you're here and who knows what he's going to do, and I can't do anything about it."
"Shut up, Marshall!" she yelled, making him flinch. A sound was heard from above them, and they both stilled, looking up. When nothing happened, they relaxed.
"Don't you ever say anything like that again, do you hear me?" Mary hissed. "Look at me!"
He slowly turned his head towards her. His eyes were defeated, weary, and she hated it. Those eyes made her furious.
"You are my little annoying optimist, okay? I'm the negative one, not you. If I ever hear you say anything like that again, I will pound you to a bloody pulp. After we get you fixed up."
"I just can't forgive myself for you getting abducted while looking for me. You should have just left me alone, Mary. Everyone would have been better off." His voice was low, and not just from his damaged ribs.
Mary looked at him for a moment, wondering if he really didn't know what he meant to her, if he honestly thought she would be better without him. She sighed, and decided now was the time for brutal honesty. "I would never have stopped looking, Marshall. I would have hunted the rest of my life for you or whoever took you. I would not stop until I found you or killed them or both. Preferably both. You are my partner, Marshall, and my best friend. And no one is ever going to take you away from me. Ever. Not even you." She cleared her throat, which had suddenly become clogged. "So stop trying to, okay?"
A light appeared in his eyes and he swallowed again. "Okay."
She nodded in satisfaction. "Now, about the other thing…"
Marshall sighed as best as he could, but said nothing.
"Why didn't you tell me?" she whispered.
"When? When you were with Raph? When you were shot? When you ran off to Mexico with Faber?"
She winced. "You promised to never bring that up."
"Sorry. I tried, Mary, but you weren't ready. I've been trying to show you, but I didn't want to scare you off. Can you honestly say that my telling you straight out that I loved you would have gone over well?" He coughed, grimacing as he did so, then smiled gently at her. "I was more scared of telling you than I have ever been of you."
"I'm sorry," she breathed, feeling her heart rise up to her throat.
"You know now," he said, as if that settled things. "And I didn't even have to say anything."
But things were so not settled for her. He really was satisfied with that, wasn't waiting for an answer from her. It was so Marshall, willing to give everything and not expecting anything in return.
Noises from overhead told her that Jason was coming back. She had to think quickly, try to figure out what to do next. Marshall couldn't take much more, and there was no way in hell that she would let Jason touch him again if she could help it.
"Lots of talk about this girl," Bobby commented absently as he put down another letter. "He's pretty hooked."
"I'm getting that too," Sara said without looking up. "He wants her badly, but says he isn't good enough, he's scared of what stands in his way."
"You know what? Most of the content in here deals with the girl. How he thinks about her all the time, how he has this plan for making her fall in love with him… Let's see if we can figure out who she is." Bobby looked up at Stan, who nodded.
"He never went on any dates, as far as we could tell," Sara brought up. "He stayed in his house every night after work, never went out late."
"You know this how?" Stan asked, coming over and taking a seat.
"Donaldson was concerned about his apparent lack of social activity, and so every now and then he'd have someone watch the house, just to see what would happen. Nothing did. Never did anything with his coworkers, didn't belong to any clubs or groups, nothing. All he did was work, go to the gym, and random little errands."
"So who was the girl then?"
All of them went over the letters again, and then suddenly, Stan groaned. "Oh my God…"
"What?" the others asked in unison.
"It's Mary."
Their blank looks only agitated him.
"The girl, the one he's in love with, the one he has been doing all of this for. It's Mary. He's still in love with her, he's still obsessed with her. This creep wasn't kidnapped at all."
"He's coming for Mary," Sara breathed.
"No, he has Mary," Eleanor corrected softly.
"Which means..."
"Which means he also has Marshall," Stan finished, rubbing his forehead with one hand.
Bobby swore under his breath. "And how did he get along with Marshall?"
"About as well as Israel and Pakistan."
This time it was Sara who swore and she picked up her phone. "Darren, we've got a major situation."
"How can we be sure about this?" Bobby asked as they scrambled to go over all of the information with this in mind. "Can we be sure about this?"
"No, we cannot be sure about this," Stan said, rising out of his chair and pacing slightly. "But Jason was fixated on Mary enough that Marshall moved him out. That's not going to go away quickly. And it's the best lead we have right now."
"So he comes for Mary, and takes Marshall as well? Why would he do that?"
"Because Marshall would find Mary. Marshall would suspect him, and find Mary. Marshall would never stop looking," Eleanor answered, rapidly typing away.
"True enough." Bobby picked up the nearest letter and scanned it hurriedly. "I don't think that was all, though."
"What are you thinking?" Stan asked, coming over to read over his shoulder.
"Well, here he talks about this other guy being in the way, and he says he needs to deal with him. And here," he picked up another and pointed, "he says that he knows he is better, if only he can prove it."
"So if Mary is the girl…"
"That means Marshall is this other guy."
"How is he going to prove he is better than Marshall?"
Sara looked at her phone and swore vibrantly, making the other three stare at her in shock. She met their gazes and swallowed. "Darren sent me a picture of Jason's most recent sparring partner. His trainer said all of the men looked roughly the same, that Jason was very specific about it, which was strange, but as Jason was a promising student, he went along with it." She turned the phone around and three mouths were suddenly gaping open.
It could have been a picture of Marshall's brother.
"He's going to kill him," Stan said softly, staring at the picture in horror. "He has been training for four years to physically take down Marshall. This isn't just some blind obsessive kidnapping of Mary; he has a vendetta against Marshall."
"And that's not all," Sara sighed as she put her phone down. "Seattle PD just found a drug dealer who swears a guy looking like Jason paid him three weeks ago for as many roofies as he had on him. Paid him a full two grand for 10 pills."
Bobby whistled and looked up at Stan. "This thing just got a whole lot scarier." His phone buzzed and he answered, waited a moment, then snapped and everyone looked to him. "We've got a body."
"No offense, Detective, but unless it's one of our three people, why do I care?" Sara asked with no small amount of irritation.
"Because the ID on the body has it as Inspector Clayton Parks."
Sara shot from her seat. "Clayton? But he's one of ours!"
"What the hell is he doing in Albuquerque?" Stan barked, turning to her.
"I don't know! I came by myself!" She swore and dialed Darren again. "Darren, why the hell was Clayton Parks just found dead in Albuquerque? …I don't know, but someone was covering for Jason and now we've got a dead inspector in the same city as our missing witness…No, I don't have proof other than a pile of letters, two missing inspectors, and a dead one! You want something more than that? ….No, run everything, run it now! Yes, while I'm waiting!" She shot a half-panicked, half-irritated glance at the others.
"Awww, damn!" Bobby yelled reading another letter.
"Now what?"
"Jason told Danny he'd just reconnected with one of his foster brothers, who lives in Seattle, and he was going to help him out."
Stan swore and seized the letter. "When was this written?"
"Three months into his stay."
"Sara-"
"Darren! Was Parks in foster care as a kid? Get Rita to run that!"
For almost a full minute, there was silence as they waited for answers. Stan paced around rubbing his face, Eleanor had her eyes fixed on Sara like a hawk, Bobby leaned back in his chair with his eyes closed, and Sara bit one fingernail anxiously. Finally, she closed her eyes.
Stan swore and Eleanor commenced her typing and picked up her own phone. Bobby dialed his department again for more details.
"Parks was in a foster home from April of '93 to January of '94, which was when his mom regained custody and he left," Sara reported.
Eleanor nodded, and typed it in.
"Single GSW to the head, the gun was not on him or anywhere around the body," Bobby said, again earning a nod.
"I bet you anything Jason has it," Stan muttered. "Great. We have an armed psychopath with an obsession for one inspector and a vendetta on the other, and both are in his custody. I gotta call the FBI and tell them what we found. You're right, Bobby: this thing just got a whole hell of a lot scarier."
I know, I know, you all guessed that earlier, but hey, I had to string SOMEONE along, it might as well be the characters. So anyway, keep reading, keep reviewing, and wait for the goodness to unfold! =)
