Disclaimer: Mary and Marshall belong to David Maples. If they hadn't been misused by others I wouldn't be writing this.
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Girls Will Be Girls - Chapter 21
Thursday, UNM hospital
One universal truth. Hospital chairs are uncomfortable. Despite that Marshall had fallen asleep holding Mary's hand. The morning sun from her window stabbed him as he slept. His eyes snapped open when he hear a groan. "Mary?"
"Marshall?" She stared at him, looking as if she'd seen a ghost. "You're alive? The blood..." her voice gave out.
"Here," Marshall got a spoonful of ice chips and held them in front of her lips. "You know the drill." He gently placed the spoon on her lips.
Mouth full, Mary eyed him oddly.
"What? Have I got something in my hair?" His hands rifled through his hair, making the long strands flop every which way. There could still be debris from the explosion. He hadn't looked. A nurse had given him some wipes. He thought he had gotten the blood, but hadn't checked carefully. He'd spent every minute waiting for her to wake up.
She shook her head, no. After a few seconds she croaked, "You're alive."
Marshall smiled warmly, an ear to ear grin, eyes sparkling. "And so are you, Sunshine." He gripped her hand a little tighter. "But if I don't let the doc know you're awake, he'll kill me," he joked as he pressed the call button.
A doctor and nurse took her vitals asked a few questions and smiled when they recommended, despite her protest that she stay overnight. As soon as they left Mary shook her head as if to clear it. "But, but," she spluttered. "The blood, all that blood. I saw you, in the firelight. You were covered in blood. You weren't moving."
"It was all yours Mare. You've got a new part in your hair, partner. The EMT said the blood from you head had gotten into your eyes. You were looking through your own blood. It was all over your face." He gripped her hand remembering the awful sight. "You looked like an extra in a slasher movie." He joked ineffectually.
Mary looked at him then shook her head. "You, you..." she gulped. "You weren't hit?"
"Nope." He raised both hands, stood and opened his jacket. The black shirt and dark jacket he still wore hid her blood from view. When she still looked unconvinced, he pulled up his shirt and undershirt.
Mary leaned forward and grabbed his hand and pulled him into a tenacious hug. He heard her mutter, "Thank God. Thank God. About damn time one of my prayers got answered." Marshall froze. His partner had prayed for him? Was this part of her PTSD reaction?
When she heard him gasp, she released him. "What the hell happened? The last thing I remember is seeing you, all..all bloody." She examined him, looking for bandages.
"When you passed out, the shooters had surrendered. Two in the SUV I hit are in the ER. The rest are in jail," Marshall reported. "The firefight, getting shot, coupled with what you thought you saw, caused a vasovagal syncope. That resulted in a sudden drop in your heart rate and blood pressure."
Mary tried to cross her arms, frustrated by the IV. "You mean I wussed out," she snorted.
"Not at all," Marshall retorted mildly. He scooted the orange plastic chair as close to her bed as he could get. He cradled her hand to his chest.
Mary laid back and put the other hand over her eyes. "I thought you were dead," she sniffed, reliving that awful moment. "If you were gone, I didn't need to be there. I failed." Other than the trauma of her kidnapping, Marshall had never seen her so close to tears.
"You didn't fail Mare," he assured her. "Your plan worked. We're both fine. Mike Washington and his cronies will be guests of the state, and we're no longer number 1 and 2 on their hit list. It's over," he soothed.
She peeked through her fingers. He could almost see the loose ends of the investigation tumbling through her head. He stroked the back of her hand. "What about Talltrees?" She coughed, and Marshall offered her another spoon of ice chips.
"There's a warrant out for his arrest. Money laundering, conducing a fraudulent business, witness tampering. And a few others. The DA is having a field day," Marshall confided gleefully.
"ABQPD?"
"Ah, that's a different kettle of fish," he sighed. "The Inspector General has picked up where Homeland Security and the FBI left off. Stan managed to keep the WITSEC piece of things out of it. The IG knows the Marshal Service was investigating but not that it was us."
"Anyone under arrest? From the police," she clarified.
"Two uniforms and the coroner. They're hoping to flip the uniforms for more names. The city and local elected officials are under house arrest while they go through their finances with a fine tooth comb. Shouldn't take long. Even I saw some suspicious transactions and I didn't look very hard."
"Abigail?" Mary reclaimed her hand and pushed to a sitting position.
"Wait, Mare. Lets raise the bed." Marshall handed her the bed controls.
"She had no part in it. Detective Lewis came up clean too. Most of the officers being investigated were named either by Officer Thomas or Bobbi. Abigail's fine. Or she was the last time I saw her."
Mary eyed her partner. There was something unsaid in that last statement. Now that she was sitting up, she looked in his eyes.
Mary moved her hand back to his, and raised her head to study his face. "Go home Marshall. Jesus. You look worse than I do." She flopped back onto her pillow and turned away to conceal how his presence affected her.
He asked mournfully, "Do you want me to go? I'll go, if that's what you want."
She raised her eyes to the ceiling. "What I want has nothing to do with it. You need a good night's rest. You need to relax with your girlfriend, away from here." Her voice broke on the last word.
"Do you want to relax with your girlfriend?" He knew having her family come would not be relaxing, and didn't offer to call Jinx or Brandi. "Is there someone I should call?" If she didn't want his company, maybe she'd feel better with one of her new friends.
"What? No! I don't have any girlfriends," she huffed, "not live ones."
"What about Dani?"
"What about him?"
"Would you rather he," Marshall stuttered, "er she stay with you?"
"No! Where are you getting this from? What is going on between those ears of yours Marshall?"
"I ... I just thought, with all that's happened recently. You know, hanging out at the Pagoda, meeting some woman on a regular basis...I thought maybe," he dragged it out as long as he could. "I thought you preferred women now."
After she swallowed a gulp of air, Mary smiled then laughed then guffawed. Concerned that she was becoming hysterical, Marshall stood to reach the nurse call button.
"No, no." She swatted his hand. "I don't need another Nurse Nancy in here. Jeez Marshall, if laughter really is the best medicine I should be healed and ready to go home now." She choked, and covered her mouth as she coughed.
"Water?" Marshall decided to disregard the ice chip only mandate to keep her from choking. He quickly poured a glass, which she sipped carefully.
Mary kept her eyes focused on her toes, but moved her eyes to the side to see him. "You really fell for it? Huh. I didn't think Dani and I did that good a job," she smirked.
"Wait," Marshall exclaimed, catching on. "You mean that whole scene outside the Pagoda was an act?"
Mary nodded and spoke into the water glass. "Cover for meeting a confidential informant."
"So you're CI's a woman?" Marshall ran several scenarios through and realized the Pagoda would be a safe place to meet.
"I didn't say that." Mary was determined to keep Roxanne's name out it.
"So you didn't dig up those photos and documents on your own."
"Never said I did," Mary retorted.
"So, someone in ABQPD gave you the roll calls and patrol car logs," Marshall insisted.
"Wasn't Abigail," Mary assured him.
"I didn't think it was," he retorted. "She hasn't been there long enough to have that kind of access."
Seeing Marshall's persistence, Mary threw him a bone. "Some of the documents came from Officer Thomas."
"Before or after he died?"
Mary shrugged. "Drop it Marshall," she demanded. "I kept you out of this as long as I could. For your own safety, dammit."
"Does Stan know?"
"About my source?" Mary shook her head no. Startled she jerked Marshall's hand. "Wait! Did Stan think I'd become a lesbian too?"
Marshall smiled his crocodile smile, keeping her in suspense as long as he dared before saying, "Nyah. He had no idea I suspected any such thing."
Mary relaxed and settled into her pillow. "Good," she mumbled. "Good."
It was her turn to play the girlfriend card. "When did you last see Abigail?" Her partner deserved to be happy. Abigail seemed to make him happy. Despite her feelings, Mary was determined to do everything she could so his relationship with Abigail would succeed.
Marshall looked at his feet, straightened the sheet covering her, but didn't answer.
Observing him and reading the answer in his silence, Mary asked, "What? You and the Cheerleader have a falling out?" She took his hand and stroked it to comfort him. "You can fix it Marshall."
"No, no disagreement. We've both been busy, the investigation, you getting shot." His excuses sounded weak even to him.
"Lemme call her. I'll tell her it's my fault. You two seem to fit, y'know?"
"No Mare."
"No, you don't fit or no you don't want me to call her?" she harrumphed.
"Both. You don't need to make excuses for me. I'm right where I should be. At my partner's side."
"But," she hesitated, "you and her. You're happy. You deserve to be happy," she insisted, determined.
Marshall lowered his head. "That's just it Mare, I can't be happy with her."
"Why the hell not? She's perfect. She's pretty and smart. She can match you trivia for trivia, museum for museum, art gallery for art gallery. She's perfect for you. She's practically you in a dress."
With her last statement, Marshall raised his head. "That's it, Mare. You hit the nail on the head this time."
Puzzled by his reaction, Mary asked, "What? What did I say?"
"In some ways Abigail is my perfect match. She's ready to settle down. She's law enforcement. She understands about the job. We have a lot of the same interests, although," he grimaced, "I'll never be enamored of going to the spa."
Mary nodded in agreement as he listed each point. "Don't say enamored," she muttered.
"We're comfortable in each other's company," he added. Mary nodded. "I believe it takes more than comfort to make a marriage work. I like Abigail. We have fun together, but . . . . "
"What else is there Marshall? What's wrong?"
Marshall sighed. "WITSEC makes friendships, relationships, difficult. You know that. There's so much we can't share Mare. There's more to life than winning the triple letter score in scrabble. That's all her friends can know about me."
"Oh, c'mon. The king of deflection and redirect has a problem with making small talk? Is she asking you to give up wearing cowboy boots? What?"
"It's more than that. Can we," he paused and looked at her, "Can we talk about this another time?"
"Sure, sure, partner." Mary could see he was uncomfortable and let it go.
WITSEC Office three days later
Mary whooshed into the office and bounced into her desk chair smiling broadly. "It's Iike getting two prizes in one cracker jack box!"
Marshall asked, "Because Mike Washington was with them?"
A raid by the FBI and Homeland Security in Albuquerque and Chicago had resulted in the capture of Mike Washington and the arrest of Edwin Talltrees. A few more ABQPD officials were also under arrest.
Mary's grin was answer enough.
"Good job Inspectors," Stan greeted them. Stan had been busy keeping WITSEC out of the various reports. Being Chief was tricky. His bosses needed to know what they did, but other agencies couldn't know. With the rest of Mike Washington's organization under arrest Mary and Marshall were safe. As safe as any WITSEC marshal.
"Yeeesss," she exclaimed bounced out of her chair and ran to high five Marshall, then Stan. "With the hired guns under lock and key, we can go back to our sort of secret WITSEC lives, and not the super secret ones we've been living."
"What about you, Marshall?" Mary expected Marshall to be jubilant, but his expression was dour. "Awe, are we sad? No more spending quality time with that borrowed high tech equipment?" Marshall gave her a perfunctory smile and returned to his desk.
"I don't think that's everyone," Marshall replied. "There are more that have escaped the net. If they stop now, ABQPD won't be any less corrupt." Marshall's own research had uncovered more names than appeared on the arrest records.
Mary was downhearted at Marshall's accurate but pessimistic response. Something else was bugging Marshall and Mary was determined to fix it. Maybe she'd call Abigail after all. She wanted to check with Roxanne. Maybe she had more insight into the IG's investigation. Certainly ABQPD must be full of rumors.
As they wrote up their after action reports, Marshall thought about how he felt. He was glad the goons were in jail, and he'd do everything he could to make sure they stayed there. Despite their success, a thin layer of sadness accompanied the thought that he and Mary were going home. Alone.
TBC