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Dinner that day was unusual and tension-filled. Everyone ate in silence, afraid of asking Mary any questions. They all desperately wanted to know why she was home so suddenly, and what had she and Wilson had fought about. No one in that family was stupid; besides the twins, they had all deduced that the young lovebirds had had some sort of a quarrel prior to Mary coming back.

Since they assumed about a possible fight, Mary's attitude confused them. Mary seemed quite happy- happy to be home and happy in general. You couldn't tell that anything was wrong by looking at her.

As they days passed, they all chalked up Mary's weird mind-set to her natural craziness and let her settle into a state of relative normalcy. Mary was happy that they had done that, too. Even her parents weren't bugging her about anything. As the time continued to fly by, Mary started to think about work. She didn't want to have a job, although she knew she should, so she didn't. There was nothing outside of the house that particularly interested her, and she had a decent amount of money saved up to cover her expenses for at least a couple of months. She knew that she should most likely be working to save up for another ticket out to Buffalo eventually, when she was ready to confront Wilson, but she just wasn't in the mood.

Instead of working, Mary spent her time around the house. She helped her mother with the majority of the housework, and spent plenty of time with her little brothers. When she came back home she realized that they didn't really know who she was. If she were gone tomorrow, in about a week they would forget all about her. She didn't want that to happen; she felt like she needed to become a part of their life. Family had become very important to her. They would never accuse her of not loving them.

Mary also tried to get involved with the rest of her siblings. When Ruthie and Simon came home, she helped them with their homework almost every day. She and Matt had started to play basketball together again after dinner, something they hadn't done since she was a preteen. She also spent a lot of her nights talking with Lucy. They discussed everything from school, to their family, to just life in general. Occasionally, the subject of boys would come up, as it often did with sisters of their age. Mary said very little about Wilson, but when she did she spoke of him forlornly, as if he were out of Mary's reach forever. What she said, though, never sounded bitter or resentful. Obviously, she wasn't angry with Wilson.

***

Since over the course of the seven weeks Mary had been home she had become such a prominent fixture in the family, people started coming up to her and asking for help instead of her having to volunteer herself all of the time to get involved. They valued having her around and hated the thought that they always got in the pit of their stomach whenever they spoke to her- she was not going to be there forever. Matt would, Lucy would, and everyone else would. If not physically, then their spirit would survive within the nuclear unit. Mary was the only one who didn't seem that way.

Ruthie, however, ignored that feeling whenever possible. She would be one of the last to leave, so she felt it the strongest, but didn't let the notion control her life. She was stronger than that. She walked up into the attic bedroom on a Friday afternoon, seeking out both of her older sisters for assistance.

"There's a dance tonight at my school for the sixth, seventh, and eighth grade classes. Everyone's going to look really nice- getting semi-dressed up. Could you guys help me get ready?"

Mary and Lucy got up off of their beds and said in unison, "Sure."

Their first stop was into the closet. Mary and Lucy decided on an outfit for Ruthie- one of the youngsters favorite dress tops, a jean skirt, and a pair of strappy sandals. Nice, they concluded, but not too formal. Ruthie had gotten clearance from her parents for some slight makeup, so next stop was the desk for some hair and face treatment. Lucy was in charge of Ruthie's maquillage, while Mary tended to her chocolate brown locks.

Ruthie watched in the mirror as Lucy started to look through her collection for a sheer eyeshadow and Mary began to brush her hair.

"Up?" Mary asked Ruthie.

"Sure, whatever. I just want to look nice."

Mary smiled. "You always look nice, we're just…enhancing your beauty."

"Close your eyes," Lucy said.

Ruthie closed her eyes for Lucy's application and felt Mary start to brush her hair upwards. When she opened her eyes again, she saw that Mary had put her hair half-up perfectly. She smiled as Mary combed through the front once more to get smooth down any stray hairs. Something on Mary's finger, though, caught Ruthie's eye.

"Mary, can I ask you something?" Ruthie said, gingerly backing into the topic.

"Sure kiddo."

"That ring on your right hand…is that your engagement ring?"

Mary froze in the middle of tying Ruthie's hair up and Lucy halted as well. She took in a deep breath and let it out slowly. "Yes."

"OK," Ruthie said quietly, appeasing Mary's mind by letting her know there would be no further questions around her relationship.

***

In the backyard of the thirty-year-old house surrounded by a white picket fence, Mary aimlessly chucked a basketball at the lonely hoop. She threw the ball at the backboard hard, not even trying to make a basket. The sport had lost all meaning to her anyways, and she knew form experience it was much too hard to play when she was this upset. Her father walked out of the house and passed behind her. He put the trash into the dark green plastic tub and went back toward the house.

Eric gave her a sympathetic look as he walked by, and then went inside, leaving Mary alone with her thoughts for a few moments. Mary turned back to the basketball hoop. She picked the ball up off the ground, and threw it lightly. It traveled through the net effortlessly, without any rim contact. Mary smiled to herself. Perhaps that was a sign of things to come. 

The ball bounced underneath the net, and Mary went over to pick it up. She grasped the ball in her hands, when she could have sworn she heard a noise outside on the driveway, stopping her dead in her tracks. "Maybe it's Matt," she thought. She turned around and walked back to the approximated foul line, when she heard someone approach the back gate. Still thinking it wasn't anyone important, she shot the ball once more. It went in again as she heard the creak of the gate opening. She turned to see whom it was, and was faced with none other than the man who had been ruling her thoughts and running through her mind since the last time she had seen him- Wilson.

"Hi Mary," he said nonchalantly as he came toward her. His casual attitude made her want to hit him- hit him hard. He obviously had no idea what she was going through.

The long silence was unnerving. Mary wanted to touch him, for him to touch her and tell her he wanted her back. She didn't know how to approach him, or what his motives were, so she was waiting for him to say something. Actually, she was waiting for an apology. Wilson wasn't saying anything, though, which made her angry and sad at the same time.

She stared at him for at least three minutes, studying his face. She had missed him so much and had forgotten what it was like to have him look at her the way he always did. She thought about what he had said to her the last time they had spoken- "…if you loved me like you say you do, you wouldn't want to be engaged for a year or two." She had to prove to him that she loved him. She wasn't going to let him leave until he knew that.

As she thought about everything more and more, she began to cry. At first it was just a few tears, but that quickly gave way to uncontrollable sobbing. Her vision blurred, she slowly walked toward Wilson. Mary threw her arms around him, squeezing him tighter than she had ever held him before.

Shocked by her actions, Wilson wrapped his arms around Mary as well. He took a cleansing breath before speaking to her. "I've missed you Mare."

Mary sobbed hysterically into his shoulder. After a minute, she choked out, "I've missed you, too."

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A/N: Aww, boo hoo. Poor Mary and Wilson. So, let's fill you guys in. Wilson is going to stick around for a while…until the end actually. Don't know how this is ending but I know he is staying. Besides that, I like this chapter a lot, especially the M/L/R scene.

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Oh reviews! I've missed you three.

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