It quite possibly was the worst day of Mary Connell's life. It seemed fate decided to deal her a cold hand of reality that shook her to her core and left her confidence and spirit in shambles.
The day started out pretty good for a Monday, however it went sour the moment she walked into the hotel. Supposedly, one of the acts coming today came down with the flu (in May mind you), one of the lounge singers decided that public nudity is a new part of his act, and finally she started to fell PMSie. Once all these crisis' were cleared up a major bomb was dropped, her father was back.
Mary by far is one of the most caring people in the world, but even she had dark moments in her past. With the return of her father came a flood of memories, starting with her early, horrible childhood. By the age of 4, her drunk of a mother finally and her father had free reign of the house and her. Her only sanctuary was the McCoys.
It was by complete accident that the Connell family met the McCoys. Susie McCoy and Lanie Connell (who at the time was clean) met at the grocery store and fought over the last big of diapers and one thing lead to another and they became friends.
Now, Susie recognized that Lanie and her family had some major issues; it wasn't until latter that she discovered how bad it truly was. For about two years Susie and her husband Larry tried to remain a constant positive influence in Lanie and Mary's life, hopping that some realization would befall on Lanie and lead her to leave her husband, but sadly no such thing happened. Day by day, month by month they saw Lanie fall apart and slip back into her old ways. Along the way she neglected Mary and left the McCoys to deal with the aftermath.
Lanie's running away was both a blessing and curse. It was blessing in that she got away from her husband and hopefully could find some peace. It was a curse because she left Mary at the mercy of her father. Mary's father, Mark Connell, was a truly evil man who manipulated his wife and did unspeakable things to his daughter. The day Lanie ran away was the day Mary was unofficial adopted into the McCoy family.
Mary was awaking from her day dreaming from the familiar British accent of her dear friend Nessa.
"Are you alright" asked Nessa. "you look like you just saw a ghost or something. Do ya need a glass of water or something?"
Mary turned the side of heard and sniffled a bit before turning towards Nessa and said "No I'm ok…just a little attack of PMS….nothing to worry about."
"Well, that's good. You had me worried there for a second….I though I was going to have to start to sing or something to make you laugh. You know my singing…it can make the most depressed person laugh out of fear some window was going to break. Blood Hell I'm just scared thinking about it."
"No I'm good………..Hey have you seen Danny?" asked Mary.
" Nope hadn't seen him….Bet his up in the Surveillance Room being a complete idiot with Mike as the usually are."
Mary nodded in response and waved goodbye faking a meeting she had to run to. As she walked away she had a sinking feeling in the bottom of her pit that the horrors of the day had only just began.
A couple of hours later
Danny was a complete mess and only by the grace of god did he have the ability to appear otherwise. It seemed wherever he turned somebody wanted something out of him. His father need him to be the ideal son and take over the family business, Ed needed him to be the son he never had and not report to duty, and the list went on from Mike to Sam to Delinda to Nessa. The only person who had yet to confront him was his rock, Mary.
That's who he was in search of right now. The moment he received his orders a thousand thoughts entered throughout his head, yet the only one to remain was Mary and how he was going to have to face her. IN the end he could deal with his own emotions, what he couldn't deal with was Mary breaking down and he had a feeling this was going to make her.
He was walking through the casino floor when he finally came upon Mary. The moment he saw her, he felt his strength disappear and for a tenth of a second thought about taking Ed's offer up; however, his sense of duty and belief in the Corp brought him back to reality. As he closed in on Mary took a big breath and told her about being called back to duty, unknown to him Mary's inner struggle upon seeing her father.
It was upon hearing Danny's news that Mary's life was turned upside down and she had the deepest desire to curl up into a ball and let Danny protect her from reality.