Here is chapter two. I've read through it and it's been to my beta so hopefully, all mistakes have been ironed out. I hope you enjoy this next installment of Mary/Marshall fun. And reviews are always welcome.

"Why do you need me to go see one of your witnesses?" Marshall asked.

"Because you're my partner. And you're better with people. And because I said so." Nancy had been in the program for about a year now but Mary was notorious for staying close to her witnesses. Of course, there was an actual purpose for her visit today. Mary pulled into a parking garage across the way from Nancy's apartment building.

The pair looked at the tall building. They stood outside in the heat, just staring at it, hoping that the structure would get shorter or that the elevator would suddenly lose the "out of order" sign that was posted on it.

Mary leaned slightly towards Marshall, still looking at the building in front of her. "What floor is she on?"

"The eighth."

"Shit," she said, straightening. "Do you think they have another elevator?"

"Doubtful, but I guess we could ask the doorman."

"This neighborhood isn't nice enough to have a doorman."

"Then I guess we're hoofing it up eight flights of stairs."

Mary groaned but followed Marshall into the building. The stairs were to the right of the elevator, hidden so that it didn't upset the aesthetics of the lobby. It was probably the only nice looking part of the building. They hadn't even gone one flight before the questions started again.

"What do you and Sarah even have in common? Have you seen the house she lives in?"

There was a long pause before Marshall spoke. "Have you?"

"I might have Googled it."

"How did you even get her address?"

"She might have mentioned her first and last name in her little visit last week."

Marshall rolled his eyes; he should have known that Mary would figure it out. He didn't know why he thought he'd be able to hide it from her.

They were only on the second story and Marshall didn't know how he was going to field her questions for the next six. The past few weeks of answering them had already worn him down and he had been able to do other things to distract himself in the office. Now he was stuck in a stairwell with her and nothing to save him.

"I don't see why who I'm dating is any of your business."

"Because we're friends. If you were a girl and I were more girlie we'd be screeching about the new hot guy you're dating and I'd want to know every last detail."

"She's smart. I can have an actual conversation with her and not a single sarcastic comes out of her mouth," he finally relinquished.

"You get that with me." Marshall shot her a look. "Ok," she conceded, "maybe not the sarcastic commentary part."

"We have a lot of similar interests."

"Like ballroom dancing?" she laughed and then, when she got another look from him, "You like my sarcasm. Don't serve me this bullshit that it's been so terrible for you all this time and secretly my biting comments actually hurt you."

"What if they do?" He was annoyed at her. For once he wanted her to see that maybe her words actually had an effect on people. Just because he had learned not to respond to her didn't mean that he had learned to cut his emotions off. Mary was painfully oblivious to the havoc that she caused around her. She knew that she wasn't the easiest to get along with but she also didn't seem to see the effect her words had on people. Marshall was a perfect example of that. He had learned to deal with the things she said to him because he knew there were few other options. It was either ignore her or take them all personally. Somehow, he managed to do both.

"Don't be such a pansy." They were silent for another flight and at the fifth floor her questions started again. "Did you talk about me to her?"

"I might have mentioned you once or twice."

"That's it?"

"What do you want from me, Mary, a detailed report of everything that I've ever said to her? She asked about my job so I told her that I was in law enforcement and that I had a partner named Mary."

"You didn't tell her what you actually do, did you?" She turned around to look down at him, stopping just above him on the stairs.

"Of course not. I'm not stupid. Nor do I discuss my job with my significant other without first talking to my partner."

"Jesus, you tell your fiancé about your job one time and you can never live it down," Mary mumbled as she resumed walking up the stairs.

"I'm just more considerate than that."

She turned on him again. "Christ, Marshall, what crawled up your ass today?"

"I don't know. Maybe I just got tired of my partner giving me the third degree about my love life." He pushed past her, practically stomping up the last two flights of stairs. Mary didn't say anything, just followed him up to the eighth floor. "What room is she in?"

"She's apartment 823," Mary volunteered. Marshall knocked loudly on the door. A short blond answered, smile spreading across her face when she saw the two Marshals at her door.

"Hey, come on in." She stood aside to let the two people by. "Can I get you anything?" She gestured to the couch, inviting them to sit down.

"No, thanks, Nancy," Mary answered as she sat down next to Marshall. Nancy sat down in a nearby chair.

"What brings you here?"

"We found him, Nancy. He was in Jersey, hiding in suburban America," Mary told her softly.

Nancy's face dropped, her smile vanished at the news. Her hands shook and tears came to her eyes, not quite knowing whether to laugh or cry at the information that the Marshals had just given her. Mary leaned over, squeezing her hand lightly.

"What, uh, what am I, uh, going to need to do?" Nancy asked, wiping a few stray tears from her eyes.

"He's was moved down to DC, being held by the feds," Mary explained softly. "On the day that you need to testify, we'll fly you down there, you'll testify and then we'll fly you back to Albuquerque."

Nancy nodded, biting her lips. She kept looking at her hands. "What if… what if they find me? What if they follow me here?"

"Hey, hey," Mary consoled as she rose from her seat and squatted in front of the witness. "What did I tell you on the first day that you came into the program?"

"I believe your exact words were, 'Is she serious with that hair?'"

"Ok, well what was the second thing I said, when you were worried about being found?"

"That no one who followed the rules had ever been found."

Marshall came over and sat on the arm of the oversized chair. "And no one is going to find you now," he told her. "They'll never know how you got there, where you came from or where you're going. We are going to be with you every step of the way and we are not going to let anyone find you."

"When am I going to have to go there?"

"Probably in about a month," Mary told her. "But we're going to have to meet with the DA a few times first to make sure that you're trial ready."

"I'm going to have to go to DC before the trial? Where he is?" Nancy's voice was beginning to get frantic.

"No, not DC," Mary told her. "We'll meet him at a different location, a different city entirely. We don't want you in Washington unless you absolutely have to be there. We don't know what kind of people Jason has trolling around DC looking for you."

"We go to St. Louis a lot," Marshall told her. "It's kind of a melting pot. An easier place to lose a person than you would think. We can meet the DA there a few times just to make sure that everything goes smoothly at the trial. We'll also coordinate security with him so that we can get you in and out without issue. The only time that Jason is going to see you is when you testify against him."

They sat with her a little while longer, answering all the questions that she had, reassuring her about her safety. After about an hour, they left her, at least comfortable in the knowledge that it would soon all be over and she could go back to living, if not a normal life, at least an unexciting one.

They were both quiet as they started back down the stairs. This time it was Marshall's turn to break the silence. "Sometimes you baffle me."

"You can't seem to figure out how I so skillfully walk down the stairs without falling on my ass? It's not that hard. Just put one foot in front of the other."

"I don't understand how one second you're the biggest jerk in the world and the next you're the most compassionate person that I know."

"It's like I really have a heart."

The trip down the stairs was infinitely faster than the trip up and soon they were in the car. Marshall didn't start the car right away. "I just don't get why you're human with your witnesses and then not with everyone else you're supposed to care about."

"Maybe I just use it all up on them. Will you just drive so that we can actually get something done today?"

Marshall didn't answer her, just started the car and drove off. It was pointless to try and get information out of Mary, just like it was pointless to try and keep it from her. Mary had always been like this, though. Compassionate to every witness but cold and closed off to everyone she was supposed to love. Marshall never said anything, but it was what had ended her relationship with Raph, or so he assumed.

The thing was Marshall had never cared much before now. He had never really thought about the fact that Mary was so stand-offish to everyone she knew and just about everyone who wasn't a witness. He had dealt with her blunt personality, even come to embrace certain parts of it. At the end of the day they were friends and even if she acted like a jerk sometimes, she knew when to shut her mouth and be a friend.

There was something, lately, that had just irked him about it all. Ever since he had started dating Sarah, Mary's antics had gotten more and more annoying and, sometimes, hurtful. Sarah was the exact opposite of Marshall's partner. Sarah loved the people around her and it was obvious. She cared about her appearance, her attitude. She was serious when it was necessary and joked when it was appropriate. Spending so much time around the two women was causing him to notice Mary's flaws. He was starting to realize that maybe they weren't ok.

"So tell me more about your partner now that I've actually met her." Sarah looked at Marshall from across the table. Marshall had decided that he needed a night out so he had called Sarah and took her out to dinner, the pressure of the day starting to dissipate.

"What do you want to know about her?" He poured a second glass of wine. He didn't really want to have this conversation, but he felt it was as inevitable as Mary finding out that he had been dating Sarah. It was something that could only stay hidden for so long.

"Is so always so… brash?"

"Regularly."

"Really? How do you put up with that?"

Marshall shrugged. "That's just how she is. But she's a good Marshal. One of the best that I know."

"I thought you had to have people skills to be a Marshal."

"Mary has people skills. Just, not with people she likes."

"I just don't understand." Sarah took another bite of her food. "You two just seem completely different."

"We are but I think that's why we do our jobs so well."

"So," Sarah began slowly, "is she seeing anyone?"

"She had a fiancé until about six months ago. They broke up not long before I met you." He finally, really looked at Sarah, placing his fork on his plate. "Why does it matter?"

"I guess it doesn't," she said with a shrug. "It's just unusual to see partners of the opposite sex together." She looked down at her plate, moving her food around it but not really eating it.

"I know a few," Marshall told her. "It's not as unusual as you would think. A lot of times it's actually better for partners to be different genders." He smiled slightly, taking on a teasing tone. "You're not… jealous of Mary are you?"

"No, of course not!" Sarah straightened in her chair. "I'm just curious about her. That's all."

Marshall leaned across the table, taking her hands in his. He looked straight into her eyes, never letting his waver. "There is nothing going on between Mary and me. We're just good friends."

"Friends and partners who seem to spend an excessive amount of time together."

"I'm not going to deny that she's my best friend. We've been through too much together not to be. But she's just my friend. I mean, you've met her. She's not exactly someone you can be romantic with." He leaned closer to Sarah, lowering his voice. "And I like being romantic."

Sarah couldn't stop the smile that spread across her face. She leaned across the table and kissed him. "How about we get out of here?"

"You're finished with your meal?"

"Yeah, I'm ready to let you be romantic."

"Why are you snooping in Marshall's desk, Mary?"

Mary cursed, wondering how Eleanor seemed to know what she was up to without even lifting her head. That didn't stop Mary from continuing to rifle through Marshall's desk. She pulled open his pencil drawer, sifting through the pens, erasers and thumb tacks that were kept there.

"Because. He's keeping something from me and I'm bound and determined to figure out what the hell it is."

"Heaven forbid anyone have any privacy from you," Eleanor mumbled. She had learned long ago to lock her drawers against Mary, not that it helped much. Mary had been known to pick locks. Eleanor just kept everything important out of her desk. She had encouraged Stan to do the same, but the man never listened. Subsequently, everyone's personal files had been viewed by Mary.

"If Marshall wanted privacy, he shouldn't be friends with me." She opened the drawers on the left side of his desk. There were files of all his witnesses, all in perfect order, alphabetical by last name. Mary flipped through them but saw nothing of interest. She pulled open the drawer above it but found only pads of paper, notes scrawled over the pages. She closed it and then closed the drawer with all the files in it. As she did, she heard something bang softly against the back of the drawer. She pulled it out again and pushed all of the files forwards, creating a space at the back. There, sitting at the bottom of the drawer was a little black box. Mary picked it up, praying that it wasn't what she thought it was.

When she opened it, there was a silver ring with a big diamond on top. She was so shocked by the discovery she didn't notice Marshall walk in the door.

"Mary, what are you doing?" Marshall sounded more exasperated than upset. Mary looked at him, standing up to face him.

"Marshall, what the hell is this?" She held out the ring. Marshall took it, closing it with a distinct snap.

"It's an engagement ring, Mary."

"Thank you for stating the obvious."

"You asked an obvious question. I gave you the obvious answer."

"What the hell is it doing in your desk?"

Marshall put it back in its hiding place and sat down at his desk. He didn't look at Mary, just turned on his computer like it was any other day. Like Mary hadn't just discovered a huge secret.

"You're going to ask her, aren't you?"

He turned on her, his eyes genuinely angry. Mary took an involuntary step back. She had never seen him angry like this. There was hurt underneath his fury and it confused her.

"What does it matter if I ask her? If I do, that's my business. I like her, Mare, love her even. She makes me happy. If I want to marry her, that's my decision."

"It's a bad one! You've only known her six months! How could you possibly know she's the one that you want to spend your life with?" She was yelling at him, getting in his face. Marshall stood up, bringing his face inches from hers.

"Because I'm not like you! I don't string people along for years and then, three weeks before the wedding decide that I don't want to marry them and ask them to move out of my house!"

They were both silent, horrified at what he had just said. Mary couldn't believe that he knew. Not only knew, but used it against her. Marshall couldn't believe that he had hurt her so much. It had been a stupid mistake that he wished, more than anything, he could take back.

"Mare-"

She didn't let him finish, just turned away and stalked out of the building. Marshall winced when the door slammed.

"That little piece of shit!" Mary slammed her front door and threw her coat on the couch. "How did he even know? And what the hell is he thinking?" Doors, glasses, cabinets, even the water pitcher was subject to Mary's wrath.

"What are you making so much noise for?"

Mary turned, seeing her sister walking into the kitchen. "Aren't you supposed to be in class?"

"The professor is at a conference. No class today. Now what are you so angry about?" Brandi grabbed a glass, pouring herself some water, though infinitely calmer than Mary had. She put the pitcher back in the fridge and sat on one of the stools surrounding the island. Mary took a large gulp of water, somehow managing to do that in an angry fashion.

When she had finally calmed down enough to be semi-civil to her sister, she spoke. "Marshall is going to ask this twit that he's dating to marry him."

Brandi seemed unmoved by the revelation. "Does he like this girl?"

"He claims that he loves her."

"I'm failing to see the problem." Brandi took another sip of her water, giving her sister a puzzled and slightly bored expression. "I mean, if he's in love with her then he should totally marry her. God, I bet he's going to do something really romantic too." She leaned her chin in her hand, sighing, lost in romantic fantasies.

"Could you come back to reality for a second?"

Brandi stuck her tongue out at Mary, but reined in her day dreams. "So why is this a problem for you, Marshall getting married? Doesn't he deserve to be happy?"

"He barely knows the girl! They've only been dating about six months. How do you decide that you want to get married to someone after that short of a time?"

Brandi shrugged, but in that way that said she understood him. "I know that I want to spend my life with Peter. I knew it only a few months after I started dating him." About a month ago, Brandi had come home in excitement. After dating Peter for some time, he had finally popped the question. Mary couldn't be happier for her sister. Not only did she actually like Peter but it also meant that Brandi wasn't going to be living in her house anymore. Brandi had cleaned up her act in a way that Mary never thought she could and a lot of that had to do with Peter.

"Yeah, but he didn't actually ask you to marry him until you had been dating for over a year."

"So what? Do you know why he waited that long? Because he said he thought that if he asked me two months after we started dating I would have said no." Brandi finished off her water and stood up to put her glass in the sink. Mary was leaning against the counter, arms crossed, usual grouchy look on her face, but she wasn't speaking. Brandi took it as a sign that she was right, not that Mary would ever admit to it.

"I still think it's a stupid idea. I mean, the girl is an idiot. She runs a daycare but doesn't like kids! Why would Marshall even be interested in someone like that? Not to mention she is so girlie it sickens me. The woman manages to cram more designers on her body than you do."

"Jesus, Mary, are you listening to yourself? You're like the little boy on the playground who pulls the pigtails of the girl he likes. If I didn't know you, I'd think you were in love with Marshall."

"Shut up, Squish. I'm not in love with him." Mary shoved her sister but Brandi just laughed.

"Whatever. I have studying to do." She waited until she was safely down the hall before loudly singing, "Mary and Marshall, sitting in a tree. K-I-S-S-I-N-G." She booked it down the hallway, hearing Mary's feet pounding after her. She slammed the door just as Mary reached it, laughing as her sister futilely pounded on the wood, threatening the little sister inside.