Disclaimer: Mary and Marshall belong to David Maples. If they hadn't been misused by others I wouldn't be writing this.
Provoked Too – Chapter 21 – Unraveling Caldwell
"Mr. Dieufus?" a man in scrubs asks.
"That would be me," Marshall replies tiredly. The orderly places the food on the tray table and moves it over the bed. Mary and Norah step out of the way. Marshall raises the bed and checks under the food covers. Seeing the disheveled woman and sleepy toddler, he asks. "You want some pudding? I ordered extra."
"Umm. Tempting but I'd have to share and Norah hasn't had pudding yet."
Fork in hand he looks her way. "Go home Mare. Norah's tired, you're tired."
Mary gives his shoulder a farewell squeeze. "Okay." She nuzzles Norah. "Let's go see Grandma Joanna. She'll take us home and you can have peaches." Norah smiles. Looking over her shoulder Mary teases, "Call me when they release you from this hellhole Mr. Dieufus. I'll arrange transport."
Eyeing the guards outside his door, Marshall wonders exactly where he will go. Is his house safe? Caldwell could have his home address. Wait! Abigail is still living at their place. How can he warn her without compromising the investigation?
When she doesn't see Joanna in the waiting room Mary checks her phone and finds a voicemail from Joanna. Mark picked her up. She also gives Mary the location of the mom-mobile. Mary sighs. She could use some time alone, time to think. Marshall is safe for tonight. She had just snapped Norah into her car seat when her phone rings. "This is Mary."
Marshall quickly explains his concern for Abigail. Caldwell could have given his address to his gun toting buddies. If they were after Marshall, they could hit his house.
"What a shit storm." She rubs her forehead. "Oh god, who do I call? Who can we trust?"
Call Chief Paradiso. He'll know about today's rescue. Hell he may have already taken care of this. Let me know what he says.
"Sure thing Chief." After spilling her guts in Marshall's room she needs to distance herself, protect herself from the turmoil of her feelings.
Mary calls the Chief of Police. He knew about the raid. He didn't know that someone had called Marshall by name. Even though Abigail is suspended, the department takes care of its own. "I'll see to it. What about you Inspector? You were at the warehouse too. I'll arrange a security detail for tonight."
"Thanks Chief." Mary sighs drawing her hand over her forehead. Where is my brain today?
Next call, Marshall. With one eye on Norah, Mary dials his hospital room. "I hate to disturb your fine dining experience but I figured you'd want to know Abigail's Chief will take care of her and me."
"Oh god, you're right. Caldwell would have your address too. Damn, I should have thought of that."
"Me too Chief. At least you have the excuse of having your brain drained today. The Chief told me it was better if I didn't know the details." She snickers thinking of all the times she's used that exact phrase. "Get some rest Doofus."
"That's Mr. Dieufus to you," Marshall retorts.
The drive home is uneventful. Mary gets her drowsy baby out of the car and hauls herself and Norah's baggage into the house. A new diaper a change of clothes, a jar of peaches and Norah is ready for bed. Mary's too tired to make dinner. She's sitting at the kitchen table with a bottle of beer and the baby monitor when her phone rings. Lucas.
How is he?
"He's awake and seems okay. Doc's keeping him overnight to make sure his brain's done bleeding. I told him all that trivia was bad for his health."
How are you?
"Tired, hungry, confused."
I'll be over with dinner in half an hour. Okay?
"If you want beer, you'd better bring it. DO NOT ring the doorbell. I just got Norah to sleep."
I'll text you.
"Good."
After hanging up she sits and sips pondering the day's events. Tonight would be a good time to talk to Lucas. He should be able to give her some insight into why she is feeling this way. Introspection is not her style, and lacking practice she isn't very good at it.
Her phone beeps. Lucas is at the door with bags of Mexican takeout and Michael. "C'mon in. I didn't realize your invitation was plus one."
"Hi Mary," Michael smiles ingratiatingly. "There have been some developments you should know about and I figured we could eat and talk and . . . . drink. I brought beer," he holds up two six packs as if that would make it all better. Hell, maybe it would.
"Yeah, yeah. C'mon in. There've been a few developments on this end too." They saunter to the kitchen where Lucas is laying out containers of chips, guacamole, rice, beans, tacos, and burritos.
Mary sits, grabs a burrito and takes a bite, while Michael opens the beer. "The police Chief will make sure Abigail is safe." Michael looks confused. "Abigail is Marshall's fiancée. Uh, former fiancée. She's still living in their house."
"Aha," Michael hands her a beer. "If Caldwell or his buddies have the address she's in the line of fire."
"That's if Marshall is being targeted. Do we know that?" Mary needs to know if he needs additional protection. She's ready to relocate him if necessary. Stan would approve it. Assuming Marshall would go.
Michael takes the beer Lucas hands him. "Umm, we don't think so."
"Not good enough," Mary contends between bites.
"I know I know. These things take time. We haven't connected all the dots yet." Michael confesses.
Lucas takes a taco. "We know Caldwell called Marshall's name and shot him. What we don't know who he's working with besides the Feeb and the AUSA."
Mary crunches a chip and considers. How can she be sure someone else isn't after them? She's not Caldwell's favorite Inspector.
Michael picks up the tale. "So far none of the Boss's customers have mentioned any marshals. They don't even know Caldwell is a marshal. No marshal's names appear in any of their records, and let me tell you, these guys are obsessive record keepers. Of course we've only looked at the last two years. The Boss's stuff is a mess. We think they tried to corrupt the files but didn't do much. They did know Albuquerque PD was nosing around, but didn't seem to know who. The snitch," he coughs, "protected witness, doesn't know the real names of the guys in charge but he's seen their faces. They've called in a sketch artist."
Mary could see that asshat Caldwell shooting Marshall just for spite. Caldwell shouldn't be able to reach out to any of his friends as long as he's locked up. "How many friends does this douche have?"
Michael has crammed half a burrito in his mouth so he waves at Lucas to answer. "They think he blackmailed the Feeb and the AUSA. Somehow in the course of his WitSec duties he found something incriminating. There could be others."
"Where are those two now?" Mary helps herself to a taco.
"They are under surveillance." Lucas looks at Michael who nods in confirmation. "The ATF thinks there's another supplier ready to pick up where the Boss left off. If there are others they could be there when the deal goes down. Michael says they will grab them all when they meet."
Mary stares at Michael. Does she trust his intel? She barely knows him. How certain are they that other marshals aren't involved? Still Lucas trusts him. At least she thinks he does. "What do you think Lucas? If it was your life would you be leaving the hospital without protection?"
"My life?" Lucas asks. "Sure. I can take care of myself." He leans his shoulder against hers. "You know, if you really wanted to gauge my trust in this you should have asked me if I was willing to bet your life."
Mary scrunches her nose and furrows her brow. What in the hell is that supposed to mean?
"And the answer is no, it's not solid enough. If this douche has Marshall's address he could have yours. Right?"
"Maybe." Mary had already considered that.
"In that case you should be in a safe house with Norah. If you don't go tonight I'm staying until all the parties involved are under lock and key or dead. I'm sure Michael or your old chief would authorize a security detail for Marshall."
Instead of bristling at his attempt to run her life, Mary cocks her head. "I know," she states casually taking another swallow. "You didn't happen to notice the security detail down the block? Or the guy on the lounge chair by my pool?" She points her bottle to her back yard. "Either those guys are better than I thought or you two are getting sloppy. The police chief arranged it."
Lucas and Michael look appropriately chastened. "I don't look for security guards around the women I date, but you're right, that's no excuse." He and Michael clink bottles. "Good for you, Mary, but you're not getting rid of me tonight."
"Okay, okay. Fess up Lucas, you got a thing for my couch." Not her usual level of snark, but tonight she doesn't have the energy. "Marshall's safe for noe but I know he wants to be out investigating Caldwell. If the docs hadn't insisted, he'd be home now." She sighs. "We tell Marshall everything we know ASAP. All right?"
"Sure, why not," Michael agrees. "Four heads are better than three. He might have learned something from Albuquerque PD that can help. There's a task force meeting about Caldwell tomorrow at the Federal Building." He points his bottle at Mary. "It's at 1 o'clock. You need to be there."
Mary narrows her eyes figuring out how to do that. It feels like she's been out of the office for weeks. How long can Delia handle things?
Michael finishes his beer and thumps it on the table. "Gotta go. Places to go, people to see. Call me if you learn anything new."
As her front door closes she and Lucas sit staring at what's left of the meal. "You want another beer?" Mary offers. "I don't stock the good stuff, so it's now or never."
"Sure. Let me help you clean up first."
"Leave the chips!" Her request is muffled as she puts leftovers in the fridge. Knowing Mary he leaves the guacamole too.
Beers in hand, elbows on the table, Mary sighs. "Even if I had a safe house, I'm too tired to go anywhere tonight."
"So I'll stay and be your personal guard dog."
"Yeah. Like you said not for me, for Norah."
Since they have all night Mary brings up the topic that's been on her mind. "I talked to Marshall about why I reacted like that. He wasn't any help." She takes a chip. "He said I should talk to you because you've done a lot of counseling."
Lucas demurs. "I'm no counselor but I've talked to my share of troubled folks. However," he seeks her eyes, "their troubles were different from what's bothering you."
"That's just it. I can't put my finger on what it is. Why I would be so weak? I asked Marshall if it meant I couldn't do the job anymore, if being a mother made me soft. He didn't think so."
"And neither do I," Lucas says sincerely. "I've seen you do what's needed. I owe you my life Mary."
She turns away. Compliments make her twitchy, especially when they are sincere.
"As to why you went into shock. You were running on adrenalin and ran out. That's the simple explanation. The bigger question is why were you so jacked up in the first place? In the warehouse, you were cool as a cucumber. I've seen battle tested vets more on edge. When did you start feeling different?"
Mary closes her eyes and tilts her head back. "When Marshall fell. When he went down right outside that office. I wasn't expecting that." Her eyes are far away, remembering. "It scared me."
"I bet there isn't much that frightens you Mary."
She harrumphs. "These days, with Norah, I'm scared all the time."
"That's called being a parent," Lucas assures her.
"But I'm not Marshall's mother. Why would I react like that when I saw him go down?"
Lucas holds his beer in front of his mouth and looks into her eyes. "Think about that for a minute. Why would you have a reaction to seeing your partner…."
"Former partner," she interjects holding his gaze.
"Seeing your former partner fall. What were you thinking at the time? Were you even thinking?"
Mary closes her eyes going back to that awful time. "I didn't. I just felt. I felt as if someone had yanked my guts out. I swear I couldn't breath."
"Okay, good. You know how you felt, now think about why you would feel that way."
Mary pounds her beer onto the table. "That's just it. I can't."
Lucas takes her hand. "Yes you can. You know the answer. You just don't want to say it out loud. Don't worry about me."
Mary drops her head. Her hair falls shielding her face. When she looks at Lucas he sees pain, longing and confusion. "God help me, I think I love him. Dammit!"
"There you go. That wasn't so hard was it?" This was what he feared from the getgo. For once he didn't want to be right.
Mary shakes her head. It wasn't easy. It was the hardest thing she's ever done, but after admitting it to an unconscious Marshall this time was easier.
Lucas rises and puts his hand on her shoulder. "I love you Mary, but I know I wouldn't be the love of your life. No matter what you decide, I will be your friend."
"Promise? I don't have many friends." She smiles sadly.
"I promise."
Mary sniffs back tears. "God, I haven't been such a blubbering mess since I was housing Bug." She stands and walks to the hallway. "Let me get you blankets and a pillow."
She returns and Lucas takes the bedding from her and whispers, "No matter what, Mary Shannon, you are a fascinating woman." He kisses her on the cheek and goes to the couch.
Mary gets to her bedroom, closes the door and puts her back against it. She closes her eyes and moans. "What in the hell do I do now?"
A/N: Mexican again? Does Lucas only know one takeout place?