Disclaimer: I don't own In Plain Sight, and I'm too sleepy to make my disclaimer sound clever! So let's just pretend I did. =D

Author's Note: Finally, an update! Not getting to work on this story for two days was just killing me! But despite my dad's distraction tactics (not fun vacation stuff either, I'm talking about him wanting me to help him choose a new air conditioner, a topic about which I know NOTHING) I am happy to present you with the latest installment of our story! Yay!

Fish Out of Water

Chapter 7

"Hey, Mary!" Marshall called as he spotted his friend walking her sister to school. The girls turned around, stopping to wait for him, Brandi waving enthusiastically. He broke into a trot to catch up with them.

"Good morning, Marshall!" Brandi cried happily, hugging him. He hugged her back by way of greeting, and turned to her sister.

"Did you mail in your college applications like you promised?" he asked, slightly breathless from the sudden run in the cold morning air.

Mary rolled her eyes. "Yes, I did, for all the good it will do. You can stop nagging me now."

Marshall fell into step with them, smiling. Things were going well between him and Mary. They were still only friends, but they were better friends than ever, and he spent as much time with her as he could.

This early in the morning, his breath frosted in the air when he exhaled. The rest of October had slipped away and it was now nearing the end of November, marked by cold air, naked trees, and temperature drops at night. Gone were the storms of late summer and early fall; winter, though not in full force, had arrived.

Walking home with Mary, and often Brandi as well, had already been part of their routine for some time, but now Marshall also met the sisters on his way to school occasionally. Mary was leaving her house earlier these days so she could be assured of seeing Brandi safely to her elementary school while still making it to her own classes on time, which caused her schedule to align with Marshall's, who was a naturally early riser and liked some cushion in his schedule. It helped, too, that he often turned up ahead of time to wait for them to appear, pretending when he saw them that he had only just happened along. He was pretty sure that Mary suspected the truth, but he also knew she needed the pretense in order to be comfortable with his presence, however much she enjoyed it.

It was becoming clear, he realized, that she enjoyed his company more than she would generally care to admit. It wasn't uncommon for him to be included in all sorts of activities as a matter of course; unless he had other obligations, which were rare, his inclusion was simply assumed and he accepted whenever possible. They went everywhere together. The park was the usual place, but there were also errands like grocery shopping which Jinx often did not do, and every now and then they went to the mall. The latter, he sensed, made Mary slightly uncomfortable, because she couldn't really afford to buy much, but Brandi loved to go and look in all the windows, and Mary was increasingly won over every time Marshall paid for lunch.

He and the sisters were fast becoming inseparable, which Mary wouldn't admit to herself but which he accepted, and he was certain that he was not alone in that sentiment. Brandi, at least, seemed to feel the same. He'd even watched her again on a few occasions so Mary could more easily deal with her mother, though there had been no overnight stays and no repeats of the debacle with the police.

Marshall's mother had even taken a liking to Brandi, though she still held reservations about Mary, whom she had not yet met. He could say this for the younger of the sisters: the kid could really turn on the charm when she was so inclined, and his mother, though dubious, had eventually been won over. He'd helped Brandi navigate the finer points of his mother's personal code of etiquette, a process of careful coaching that had involved many questions which had no particularly good answers other than "just because."

He smiled fondly as he recalled a particularly good memory. Brandi had a Halloween carnival at her school on the last weekend of October, and she'd wanted to go as a cat. Mary had complained to him bitterly that it was probably the last time her sister would get to dress up, but she couldn't afford to buy a costume for her, so she would have to give up that idea in favor of whatever the closet yielded. Mary seemed to accept the unfairness of it, but was resentful that she couldn't take the burden of it upon herself and spare Brandi the loss of this one last vestige of childhood.

Marshall had casually mentioned it to his mother while Brandi sat in front of his television set one afternoon. The girl had been staying with him on that occasion after Jinx had fallen while inebriated the night before. Though not seriously injured, once the woman had woken up the next day she had pitched a fit until Mary agreed to drive her to the emergency room. In any case, Marshall's mother had perked up noticeably at the notion of sewing a costume for a girl after having raised all boys, and over the course of the next few days, Brandi's dream found fruition.

The costume featured a white cat hood with, at Brandi's request, a big pink bow on it; there were gloves with paw pads sewn on, and the body of the outfit was comprised of a dainty white button-down shirt with lace trim and a knee-length, frilly, ruffled skirt. Marshall privately thought that his mother might have gone overboard with all the ruffled layers, but the overall effect was adorable. His mom had even gone out and purchased pink and white striped tights to match the bow, and a pair of white Mary Janes in Brandi's size.

Brandi was in heaven; Mary told Marshall as she stared at the costume in awe that Brandi had never gotten to own anything so nice. It had been the highlight of the carnival, too, for Brandi had entered the costume competition and won in a landslide, earning her a photograph that would be printed in her sixth-grade yearbook. Mary had started setting aside money immediately thereafter to make sure her sister would be able to buy a copy of the book when it came out.

Ongoing, too, were Marshall and Mary's study sessions; the park served well, if it was warm enough, though with the weather becoming colder they had recently taken to more frequent trips to the indoor mall, where they would settle into a back corner of the food court and read to each other. Mary, it turned out, was beginning to take a liking to that activity as well, though she still felt the need to loudly proclaim how stupid she thought Shakespearean English was, how stupid she thought the characters and their actions were, and so on. He had learned it was best to simply let her have her say and move on; her outbursts, while not exceptionally constructive, were something he had come to recognize as indicating she was engaged with the material at hand.

Marshall reached for Mary's hand, catching it and holding it in his as they walked. She acted like she was ignoring him, but she didn't pull away; more and more, she was allowing these little gestures of affection on his part, and he considered that progress. Furthermore, in light of the fact that she now spent so much of her spare time with him and the rest with her sister, and owing somewhat to the fact that her life had been going unusually smoothly lately, she had given up smoking entirely. Her excuse was that she'd rather put money away than waste it on cigarettes anyway, but whatever the reason she decided to claim, Marshall was relieved. Aside from the health concern, on the few occasions she had smoked around him, he'd received a watchful glare from his mother when she'd caught the lingering odor of smoke on his clothes.

This, he thought to himself happily, is definitely going somewhere.

English class started out pleasantly enough, for once; Mr. Brunswick had encountered an improperly cooked turkey over the Thanksgiving holiday, and has succumbed to a rather virulent form of food poisoning which evidently still had him out of commission. The substitute teacher was still in a festive mood, and declared a period of free study. The class as a whole largely ignored the study part of the announcement. Marshall, doing well enough in all of his classes, was content with studying Mary instead.

"So what are you going to do during the winter break?" Mary asked, already looking forward to having a few weeks off even though she knew Jinx would be more of a handful than usual during the holidays.

"I meant to talk to you about that," Marshall replied. "I'm actually not going to be around that much. My parents and I are going to my oldest brother's place down in Virginia for Christmas, and before and after that, I'm going with my mom to visit some of the colleges where I've applied, so I won't be in town much… or at all, really."

"Oh," Mary replied, her face falling almost imperceptibly… almost.

"Are you going to be okay while I'm gone?" he asked, slightly concerned.

"Pfff," Mary scoffed. "Of course I'll be okay. Why wouldn't I be?" She tried to play it off like she meant it, but Marshall thought she didn't sound all that certain.

"I could ask my mom and see if you can come with us on some of them," he ventured.

"Yeah, right, because my family can totally take care of themselves," she bit out sarcastically. "I'd probably come back to find Jinx in prison and the house burned down, and I don't even want to think about what could happen to Brandi without me here to watch her. Besides, your mom doesn't like me, remember?"

"She doesn't dislike you. She just doesn't know you. And you really shouldn't choose a college without visiting first," he countered. "This could be a big opportunity for you."

"Let's get something straight," Mary snapped. "First, I only filled out those applications to spite Brunswick, and second, I only mailed them to make you stop bugging me about it. But Marshall, you and I both know none of those colleges will accept me, and I'm not going to pretend it's any different than that."

"Neither of us knows that because it isn't an absolute," he replied, his eyebrows knitted in consternation. "Why can't you open yourself up to the possibility?"

"What possibility?" she sighed, exasperated.

"The possibility of something greater!" he growled, trying to keep his voice low. "The possibility that your life can one day become more than it is right now."

"Yeah, because that's ever going to happen," she snarled back. "Listen, Marshall. I am not going to play into this… this fantasy you have of what my life can be. I'm not going to invest myself in something that's just going to fall apart or blow up in my face and leave me feeling like an idiot, like the butt of some cosmic joke for only about the millionth time in my life!"

Mary launched out of her seat and barreled out the door before the started substitute could say a word. She hadn't even taken her bag; it laid on the floor, kicked over in her rush to leave, the contents spilling everywhere. The teacher stared at him with wide eyes, silently demanding an explanation.

"There was a bad burrito at lunch," he offered a lie, hoping the sub would buy into it. "She left her things. Can I go find her and give them back?"

The teacher thought for a moment and then shrugged. Marshall scooped up Mary's things and stuffed them into her backpack before grabbing his own and heading out the door himself.

He headed for the bathroom. She had to know he'd come looking for her; if she was there, she wanted him to find her, and if she wasn't… Pausing just outside, he heard a sound, a low, muffled sobbing. He entered slowly, not catching sight of her at first, but then he spotted her shoes under one of the stall doors. Setting their bags down, he carefully pushed the door open.

Mary looked up in surprise from where she sat on the seat, the broken toilet useless for anything other than sitting. Her eyes were already puffy and her shoulders trembled from the held-in sobs she'd abruptly cut off when she'd become aware of his presence.

"What the hell are you doing here?" she muttered as she glared at him, bitterness evident in both her voice and her eyes.

"I could ask you the same, if you really didn't want to see me," he replied evenly. He was careful not to sound angry with her, because she was on the defensive and in truth he wasn't angry so much as sad that life had left her defeated before she could even try.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"You had to know I'd come looking for you," he said softly.

Mary heard in his voice how much she cared, and that just made it worse. She didn't feel like she deserved it, and shining a light on her perceived inadequacies made her feel exposed; the monster, locked in a cage and put on display for everyone to see, no privacy, no dignity, no self-worth.

"Why?" she shouted, standing and advancing on him. "Why do you have to be like that?"

"Because I care about what happens to you, about how you feel," he replied honestly.

"Nobody asked you to care!" she cried, shoving him.

He stumbled back a few steps and she kept advancing until his back was against the wall. She pounded her fists against his chest, hard enough to make him grunt softly, but not so hard that she might actually hurt him. Nonetheless, when she tried again, he caught her hands gently in his own. She tried to pull away and he tightened his grip slightly.

"I'm sorry," he murmured, "but I can't stop now."

His whispered kindness broke her; the tears came, and she couldn't stop them. She shook with great wracking sobs. Marshall drew her to him and encircled her in his arms, and when her knees trembled and refused to hold her up, he slid down the wall with her until they both sat on the floor. She remained settled between his knees, still wrapped in his arms, and he held her while she cried. The bell for the next class came and went, and still he stayed, knowing he wouldn't make it to the class even to be counted tardy and that he was now officially truant for the first time in his life.

It was a long time before she quieted, and when she finally did, she said nothing, but didn't pull away. Curled in a ball, she listened to the sound of Marshall's heart beating as his chest rose and fell against her with each breath. It was, beyond all doubt, the most intimate she'd ever been with another person; no one had seen her cry, wholeheartedly and without reservation, in an entire lifetime of hidden tears. She didn't know what to do, or say, and so she remained silent and still.

Marshall thought over everything that had happened. She had seemed happy enough that morning, and then… he thought he finally understood. She had mailed her applications, but she couldn't allow herself to hope it would come to anything, because she couldn't handle a blow so devastating in the event that it really came to nothing, or worse, to something she would be denied. That she saw that rejection as inevitable only strengthened her resolve. There was a schism in their perspectives; she was so cautious, and he had gotten so caught up in his own hopes for her that he had finally pushed her more than she could handle, the very thing he'd taken such care not to do for so long. And then, perhaps, by being so enthusiastic, he had inadvertently suggested that their friendship somehow depended on her success, which of course it did not... he hoped that he would be able to prove that to her, was in fact trying to prove it even now.

For a long time, he didn't move either. Then, slowly, he slid one hand up her back and into her hair, cradling her head against his chest. Mary closed her eyes and let out a shuddering breath; the gesture was an absolution, an acknowledgment that she wasn't a monster at all but a human being, deserving of love rather than abandonment or condemnation. She didn't know what to do with that, but she knew, reassured by his gentle hands and his heartbeat in her ear, that at that moment nothing was expected of her. She needed only to be.

Eventually, the last bell of the day rang, and by silent agreement, each picked themselves up from the floor. They couldn't stay; the chances of someone wandering in now that everyone was out of class were too high, and they had to go get Brandi in any case.

As they left the school, cautiously avoiding being seen by any teachers who might have missed them in their respective skipped classes, a passing car rumbled up the street, catching Mary's attention. She stared at the vehicle, a battered Camaro with mismatched parts, rust, several dents and a smashed headlight, her expression something Marshall couldn't quite define. Whatever she was thinking or feeling, she appeared conflicted, but before he could ask she seemed to push what she was feeling away.

He decided it was better not to ask after the emotional upheaval of the day, but something in her eyes as she'd watched the car drive away left him feeling uneasy.

A/N: Well, we knew Mary had to lose it sooner or later. Also, does that Camaro make you feel uneasy, Dear Readers? It's certainly giving me the creeps...

Anyway, I'd like to give a big thank you to all of my readers and special thanks to those who have continued to review this story. I hope you're all hanging in there! Please let me know what you think of this installment, and I will see you next time, my darlings! =D