*** Down to the wire. Another ulcer for Marshall ***

She shivered awake in the darkness and was scared for a few moments. She had been standing on a cliff with her box of letters and a gust of wind blew them out and they swirled around her. Trying to catch them, she saw a few fly out beyond the cliff. Her father's voice whispered, "Go get them, Princess!" and she had jumped. The subconscious fall had hurtled her into wakefulness. Slowly coming to awareness, Mary noticed the wind had picked up some and she saw lightning far in the distance. A little concerned the storm would impact her, she decided to get up and have a look at the weather. Sleeping in an overturned car in the bottom of an arroyo is a bad choice of activity if flash flooding is on the menu.

Her legs were very wobbly and her ears kept ringing slightly and it was annoying. Her whole body felt kind of hollow and echo-y…it was hard to describe. Mouth rivaling eyeballs for dryness, Mary gave herself a shake to try to provoke a little more life into her limbs. She remembered to turn on her cell and saw it was half past two in the morning.

"Shit. I wanted to get that turned on earlier." A whisper was all she produced as her throat was so dry.

Eyeing the moist water bottle, Mary forced herself to ignore it until morning and stumbled to the ramp out of the arroyo to go look at the sky. There were clouds well off to the southwest with lighting shooting through their tops. Given that it was August, they were surely products of the monsoon. They wouldn't move this far north, Mary knew, as the usual path was northwest for this time of year. Her legs gave out as she turned to go back down into the gulch, so Mary decided to just sit there and watch the storms for a while. "Marshall would like this." the thought danced around in her head as she gazed at the spectacular show and zoned out for a while.

It got too chilly to sit in the open after a time, and she forced herself to get to her feet and stagger back to the car. An hour had passed since she had woken and she decided she was going to drink the water. It may be the little bit that kept her going until morning, and she could make a new plan then if she needed to. The nearly quarter cup of liquid was golden and she sighed in delight. Her stomach cramped a little bit with the intrusion, but the sensation vanished fairly quickly and Mary relaxed. The combination of stars and lightning continued to intrigue and fascinate her, and she pulled the blankets out of the car to wrap around her shoulders while she leaned against the door to ponder the sky.

She didn't really think of much while she sat there, it was hard to keep thoughts in her head for very long and she may have dozed off once or twice. Staring at her hands in the moonlight, she was a little dismayed by how dirty they were and all the scratches and cuts from crawling around in the brush and rocks for three days. She hoped they didn't get infected or anything.

"Ha!" she whispered, "I managed to keep my ass alive for three days in the wilderness. Take that Mr. Mann." smiling in triumph while nodding her head. She was so going to remind him of this the next time he called her pathetic. She missed him.

Jerking awake as she slid sideways, Mary noticed the sky starting to lighten in the east and fumbled for her cell phone to check the time. Almost five thirty. She didn't really know if that was meaningful in any way, but the fact that the sun was coming up meant she had lived to see another day.

"Rock on." Her fist weakly pumped the air as she gave in to gravity and lay on the ground in front of the car. Comfortable, Mary went back to sleep.

The men took turns monitoring the GPS tracker, and by midnight Marshall was sure something was so very wrong. Stan tried to keep him occupied, but was antsy himself as he wanted to take some action but there was nothing they could do. If she didn't show by eight the next morning, they were going to officially report her missing. He certainly hoped they'd find her by then.

At two thirty, the machine blipped and Marshall nearly fell out of his chair.

"Stan!!" he yelled, and the older man charged out of his office to see the screen.

"Her phone is on. Call her." Stan instructed.

Marshall dialed immediately and it went right to voicemail and he realized the problem. "She's out of range, Stan. She's been out of range for the last three days."

They looked at the screen as the coordinates came up and her dot appeared on their map.

"Jesus, the signal's from the middle of nowhere." Stan mused, "What the hell is she doing way out there?"

Marshall had written down the coordinates and was grabbing his coat and said, "Well, let's go get her and find out."

The men fueled up and plugged the coordinates into the SUVs guidance system and were on their way into the desert by three a.m. Marshall drove with his hands gripping the wheel, and Stan asked him to slow down a time or two, especially after they reached the less well maintained roads southwest of the city limits.

"She must have headed out here for solitude Thursday night." Marshall was just talking to relieve nerves.

"She may have had her phone off on purpose, Marshall. You have to consider that this was a deliberate absence. Christ, she had good enough reason to want to hide from the world for a while." Stan blew out a breath, "If that's so, she is going to be royally pissed at you for coming out here."

"That's fine. I'll handle it. But I can't take the chance that she needs me out there and not go."

"Yeah. I hear you."

The road became a dirt trail and they had to pay careful attention to the twists and turns as they ventured further and further into the high desert. Marshall didn't even notice the storms to the southwest as he was utterly focused on watching the screen of the guidance system get them closer and closer to Mary.

Finally, after two hours, the system told them they had arrived and he braked, idling the SUV and looking around as the sky slowly lightened in the east. There was nothing here. No car…no Mary, and his breathing increased with stress.

"Where the hell is she?" he turned to Stan to demand an answer.

"Calm down, Marshall. The signal is still strong, so she has to be around here somewhere. Let's go look."

They got out of the car and began to walk along the road, calling her name.

She was dodging cars in her dream this time and woke groggily thinking she had heard an engine nearby. Rubbing her face, she listened and tried to make out any sound over the tinnitus, and levered herself up on one elbow when she thought she caught the sound of a voice. She looked around and considered getting up to investigate, but couldn't get her legs under her. Laying back, she quietly waited.

"Mary!!"

"Marshall!" she croaked, not able to make more sound than a whisper. Frustration flared through her as she tried to call again, but her throat was too dry. She could hear her partner and boss calling her, and even if it was a hallucination, she was going to try to call back to them. Even her usual ability to emit a piercing whistle failed her and she would've cried if she had any tears left. "I'm down here!" She desperately sent the thought out to them.

Marshall and Stan were calling and looking and Marshall worked his way to the edge of the arroyo and looked down.

"Oh my God…Stan!" shouting as he saw the overturned car and the prone figure of his partner next to it. The steep embankment the car rested against hid it from view unless you stood right on the edge to look down into the gulch. Stan rushed over as Marshall quickly found a way down into the dry wash.

Marshall's mind was trying to process and erase as he stumbled and slid down the dusty slope to get to Mary. He didn't know what he would do if she were dead…just want to die right there with her, he supposed. Even if alive, if she had laid there for three days her injuries from the immobility would be life threatening in themselves. She wasn't responding to their calls, and he cursed himself for not looking for her sooner.

He slid down beside her and she looked at him.

"Hey" she rasped. It was the first time she had been happy to see his goofy face before six in the morning.

"Hey," Marshall replied, looking her over as waves of relief almost knocked him down, "are you hurt?" He was very worried about a neck or back injury and didn't want to move her yet.

"Just my knee. Thirsty."

Marshall saw the dry, sunken eyes, parched lips and sunburned face, and as he peeled back the blankets, she shivered when he took her wrist to get her pulse. Her skin was paper dry and had lost most of its turgor and her breathing was fast with a rapid heart rate. She was decidedly dehydrated and he was immediately more concerned.

"How is she?" Stan called down from above.

"Bad. She's really dehydrated and we need to get her to a hospital. Toss me down a water bottle."

"Sorry…I'm probably pretty ripe." Mary whispered with a grin, "Couldn't get a decent shower."

Marshall shook his head at her and then scooted backwards quickly to catch the water bottle tossed by Stan. He sat Mary up and supported her against his chest as he uncapped the water bottle and poured some liquid into the cap. She watched his actions as if mesmerized, and when he brought the cap to her lips she allowed the water to flow over her tongue and groaned in delight. Mary reached for the bottle and Marshall pulled it back.

"No…you have to go really slow or you'll puke. Just a couple of sips and we're going to get you up to the truck. Did you drink all that whiskey?"

"No. Just some the first night, before I knew I was stuck. A few sips after that for the sugar."

"Smart girl. How did you hurt your knee?" Marshall gave Mary another capful of water before she answered.

"I was climbing down the hill in the dark dodging rattlesnakes. It's been a blast, you should've been here."

"I wish I could've been." Marshall thought with a grimace.

Mary rallied enough strength to sit by herself and Marshall gathered her things out of the defunct car, grabbing the gun, badge, cell and ready to back out when he saw the writing on the pad of paper. Thinking she may want it, he snagged that too. Tucking all items into his pockets, he moved back to the dirty and disheveled woman on the ground.

"I can walk if you prop me up." she offered, not one to accept help even in this dire of shape.

"Mare…you're shaking like a leaf. You don't have to prove anything to me."

"I've made it almost four days, Marshall…I'm going to walk to that car." She stared at him with determination and pride and he nodded in understanding.

Marshall would rather have carried her, but knew better than to overextend his assistance and obeyed her wishes. She managed a decent stagger to the less steep area of the arroyo bank, leaning on him heavily, and while he pushed, Stan pulled and they got her up to the SUV.

"I'm gonna have to take a sick day, Stan." Mary mumbled as a greeting, then keeled over as her energy was sapped.

The men loaded her into the truck and climbed in as they turned towards home, Marshall in back with her head in his lap. She was filthy and covered with cuts and scrapes. He laced his fingers through her scratched and dirty ones and wished he could slow her breathing, it was too fast and he knew her body was desperately trying to counteract the effects of dehydration and exposure. Looking around the campsite as he had gathered her things, he noted the little bottle full of plants and knew she had used his trick taught to her a few years ago. It pleased him to know he had somehow helped her survive even though he hadn't been there and he stroked her forehead with affection.

Mary hummed and stirred back to awareness with the sensation. "I called off the engagement." The words were soft and he bent to hear them.

"I know, I'm sorry."

"No you're not." She was watching his eyes and saw the lie.

Marshall considered debating her, but she was right except for one thing, "I'm not sorry the wedding's off, but I am sorry he hurt you."

She looked at him for a few more minutes and narrowed her eyes with a grin. "You punched him, didn't you?"

He looked slightly embarrassed and shrugged, "He didn't know when to shut up."

Mary closed her eyes for a few minutes, then quietly spoke again without looking at him, "You were right, you know, and I'm sorry." her resolution to apologize fulfilled.

"Okay, but we can save this discussion until later, Mare. Just rest."

"I've been resting all night. I want to know if you're still mad." She gazed at him again and made an attempt to sit up that he foiled too easily.

"No. I'm not, but I can get there if you don't settle. We need time to talk about it, but this isn't it."

He determined that she needed an 'off' switch. Stan chuckled in the front seat, coming to the same conclusion and meeting Marshall's eyes in the mirror to share their amusement.

"Five." She said sleepily as her eyes drifted shut again.

"Five what?"

"I remembered five constellations you told me about."

Marshall smiled and prompted, "Which ones?" But she was back in a dream world and didn't answer.

*** Whew!! They made it. Now we'll have to see if they can resolve that last argument. Stay tuned and keep reviewing!! ***