Ch 10: Desperate Times Call for Desperate Marshals

A/N: This chapter is a little different, but I hope you enjoy it all the same.

As soon as the elevator doors opened on the ground floor, Marshall was dialing Mary's cell phone. "Damn it!" he cursed as he checked his phone and tried again while climbing into the driver's seat. "Shit!" Something was definitely wrong and he sped out of the lot in the direction of the safe house. He tried Mary's phone two more times with no luck.

"Stan," Marshall said desperately as he drove, "something's not right. Mary's phone is going right to voicemail and I can't reach the security detail. I need back up now. I'm five minutes out."

"They're on the way and I'm right behind you."

There were only two times in his life when Marshall had felt truly desperate. The first was when he had to watch helplessly as his brother slipped away and the second was when Mary had been kidnapped earlier that year. He prayed with all he had in him that this did not turn into another one of those times. As he pulled up in front of the house, he saw the car of the agents on duty sitting empty on the opposite side of the street. "Oh God," was all he could muster as the alarms went off his head. He leapt from the vehicle and was met by the cavalry.

He ordered a perimeter set up and agents dispersed to cover the back of the house, while another two to took the front corners. Marshall made his way to the front door followed by yet another agent. The door was locked and he grabbed his key not wanting to spook anyone that may be inside by busting down the door. Guns drawn, they immediately spread out through the rooms in the front of the house, but found nothing. Marshall passed through the kitchen toward the den. There, he saw the laptop on the table still running, but no sign of Mary or Matty. He motioned toward the hallway and headed back toward the bedrooms scared to death of what he might find.

***

Mary had done some digging of her own into Snake's affairs. He had been picked up a couple of weeks ago for possession and released with no charges filed. She knew the D.A. was not going to let one of Albuquerque's biggest distributors just walk, so some kind of deal must have been cut. She had just dialed Eleanor to see if she could try and get any info out of the DOJ about Burke when the signal died on her cell phone. She stared at the lack of bars on the screen, but tried to dial again anyway with the same result. Her instincts kicked in and she knew something wasn't right.

She didn't want to leave the baby alone, but she wanted even less to expose him. So she left him on the blanket as she headed toward the front of the house and stood against the front wall to steal a glance out the window. The same government issue car was parked across the street, but she couldn't make out anyone sitting inside. Without a second thought, she went back to the den to get Matthew. Before sweeping him up in her arms, she drew her weapon and checked it. Then she headed for the bathroom off her bedroom. It was only accessible by the one door and the window was high and too small for a grown man. She felt this was the best defendable position in the house and if she needed to she could lay Matthew in the bathtub and he would be somewhat protected.

Mary sat in the tub holding Matthew close, gun drawn in the direction of the door. Her entire body was tense, yet she continued to speak soothing words into his little ears. "Don't worry. Everything's going to be okay. I'm right here. And Marshall, you see he's out there and he's not going to let anything happen to us. I trust him with my life and you can trust us with yours. And just as soon as we get out of here, I going to buy you a whole case of those carrots and you can spit them all over me. Deal? Peas too if you want?" Just then she heard the slight creak that the bedroom door makes when it's opened slowly. "Showtime," she whispered.

***

Marshall had started with the nursery and his room because the doors to those rooms were already opened. When he saw they were all clear, he moved on to Mary's room. He slowly opened the door and entered. The room was exactly as it had been that morning. On the one hand, he was relieved not to have found any sign of a struggle in the house. But on the other, he was petrified as to what could have happened. There was no way Mary would go down without a fight, but there was no sign of them anywhere. Then it clicked. The bathroom. He knew his partner. She would get Matty to the place she felt was the most defendable for her and the safest for him.

Without lowering his weapon, he took a few steps toward the bathroom door. His heart skipped a beat as he heard a faint noise from the other side. Matty? 'Please God, let them be okay.' The thought was repeating over and over in his head and the next few seconds felt like hours, but then he heard it again. It was definitely Matty. He positioned himself against the doorframe and called, "Mary!" as he held his breath waiting for a response.

"We're here!" she shouted releasing the breath she hadn't realized she was holding and squeezing Matty a little tighter. "We're here."

Marshall remembered to start breathing again and opened the bathroom door. He saw the shower curtain move and pulled it back to reveal Mary squatting the in the tub holding Matty in one arm and her gun in the other, now limp at her side. He couldn't hide his relief and didn't try. With a huge smile, he bent down to take Matty and made eye contact with Mary. Neither said a word, but their eyes remained locked conveying everything that needed to be said. Once he had Matty, he held out his hand to Mary to help her out of the tub. She held it tightly and let her fingers linger longer than necessary as she regained her footing.

"You good?" Marshall asked finally breaking the silence.

"Yeah. I'm good," she answered giving him the smile he knew all too well. It was the same one she gave him after that fateful night on the bridge with Norman. The look that said No, I'm really not okay. But we're here, and together we'll get through it so that we can get up and do it all over again tomorrow.

As she let go of his hand, Marshall had to physically fight the urge to grab it again and pull her close. And just for a fraction of a second, he saw something flash in her eyes. He wasn't sure what it was, but it filled him with hope. 'Maybe, just maybe,' he thought. Then he shook his head bringing him back to reality.

"Mary, Marshall!" Stan's voice bellowed from the hallway. "Inspectors?"

"In here Stan," Marshall responded.

"Everyone okay? Mary?" Stan questioned as he placed a hand on her shoulder.

"I'm okay," she said and almost as if a switch had been turned on in her head she got right down to business. "Now does someone want to tell me what the fuck just happened here?"

Marshall smiled and thought to himself, 'That's my girl.' "I had just gotten to the office and was going to start on the threat assessment when we got word that Harrison was in the wind, so I came here and found Jack's car empty across the street."

"Jesus, Mary and Joseph! Those numb nuts at FBI lost Harrison. So much for 24 surveillance," Mary said condescendingly. Then she gave Marshall her what are you talking about moron look and said, "Who's Jack?"

"Jack Taylor and Walter Reynolds?" Marshall said as if trying to make her remember, but Mary just shrugged. "The agents on security detail."

"Jack and Wally are fine," Stan said trying to regain control of the conversation. "When they noticed that the cell phone and radio frequencies were jammed, Wally went over a couple of blocks trying to pick up a signal to call it in and Jack headed toward the house to talk to Mary, but he saw someone on the roof of the house next door. When he called for him to stay where he was, the guy jumped and took off. Jack pursued on foot and finally caught up to him a few houses over." Stan rubbed his hand over his head and shifted his stance slightly before continuing, "turns out it's just a kid."

"Who's just a kid Stan?" Mary said exasperated as she tried to put the pieces together.

"Kid next door, maybe 15 years old, built himself a radio frequency jammer just for kicks. Probably bought all the parts on the damn internet," Stan answered in a voice that relayed his frustration with the situation.

"So you're telling me that all this is the result of some nerd practicing to be the next Unibomber?" Mary said seething. "Where the fuck is he? I swear to God I'll take the antenna off that jammer and…"

"Mary, there are children present," Marshall said reminding her of Matty's presence.

"He doesn't know what I'm saying."

"You may think that but studies show…"

Mary glared at Marshall. "I suggest you think very carefully before deciding whether or not you want to finish that statement."

"C'mon people." Stan said interrupting, "We got a lot of paperwork to finish up on this one and we have to get Matthew moved."

"You're not relocating him Stan, are you? Poor guy just got settled in here." Marshall was just getting used to the little guy and was genuinely concerned about moving him again. He looked over at Mary briefly while waiting for Stan to respond and could see she was also concerned.

"You both know he can't stay in this house. After today's events, you might as well paint a bull's eye on the roof. I'm not relocating him out of Albuquerque, not yet. But we've got to get him someplace safe and now. Then we need to find out if ABQPD's got any suspects in this Snake's murder and most importantly, we need to know where Harrison is. The second any connection is made between Harrison and Snake or anything in New Mexico for that matter, Matthew gets relocated." Stan held up his hands indicating it was not up for discussion and then turned to leave.

Mary and Marshall stood in the bedroom a moment longer looking at the baby and then it was as if a light bulb went off over their heads. They rushed out of the room calling out after their boss in unison, "Stan!"

***

In response to all your wonderful reviews, I tried to break away from all dialogue and add a little action to move the story along. I'm not as comfortable in this area, so please do me a favor and let me know what you think. Thanks.

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