(I really enjoyed this chapter, I feel like the last couple have been so overrun with drama, I tried- key word- tried to incorporate more Marshall, Mary humor… Please Enjoy reading it as much as I did writing it! Comments are always welcomed and much appreciated!)

Mary timed her steps with the beat of her racing heart as they approached the NICU. The nurse handed her a pair of scrubs and smiled as she fumbled around,

"Mary Shannon? Are you nervous?" Marshall asked playfully.

"What? No! Silly doofus, nerves are for wimps." She replied.

As the door slid open, and the smell of sterilized everything filled her nostrils, her eyes seemed to dart around, and she nearly burst into tears. For some reason she had thought she'd be able to recognize her own baby. Maybe she was just going stir crazy, being confined to the hospital all this time…

"Where is he Marshall?" she asked, her heart in her throat.

"He's right over there, in the incubator that has its top off, it's all right, go see him!" Marshall gently nudged her forward.

She walked over, and looked down at the tiny blue bundle,

"Hello little guy!" She smiled, pulling the blanket away to reveal his face. Mary looked at the little boy with new found love. Unashamed she let herself cry,
"Daddy has had you all to himself hasn't he? Well that's certainly gonna change- Mary turned to Marshall- this one's actually cute…" she cooed, letting him wrap his tiny hand around her pointer finger.

"Can she hold him?" Marshall asked, resisting the urge to tell his partner 'I told you so'.

"Of course!" The nurse said, turning back around from tending to another baby.

"All right there Mare, just make sure you support his head-

"Oh c'mon doofus, I'm not a monster, I won't eat him or anything! I've held babies before!"

She took a longer look at the tiny infant, only one tube ran up through his tiny nose, Marshall beamed as he watched Mary, his cold, socially awkward Mary handle another human being with the tenderness and the love he had always known she would someday give to another human being. The last week had been anything but engagement bliss for them, a messy delivery of their sick newborn, a few days in between of some serious bouts of Mary grumpiness which drove Marshall to the NICU for hours at a time with a mixture of Jinx and Brandi- it had been anything pleasant, but he knew that fate had been putting him through this hell for this moment.

Mary cradled the baby in her arms,

"I know this is impossible, but I think he looks like you…" she breathed, her cheeks burning with the way she so obviously acted naïve.

"You think? I know he definitely has your eyes…" he smiled.

"Marshall?"

"Yeah Mare?" he asked, with his arm around her and his big hand outlining the tiny foot of his son.

"I-I'm not good with names and stuff- I figure, maybe you could name him? I mean, if I do- the name could mean something like 'snail' or "slimy invertebrate' with you, I know he'll have a good, strong name…" she trailed off.

"Mare- I would be honored…"

"But I do have one request?"

"And what's that?" he asked, the pride practically spewing from his voice.

"His middle name should be Marshall." She said adamantly.

"Oh, you don't have to-

"I don't have to, but I want to, I probably wouldn't be here right now… Here with a baby, engaged…. Happy." She admitted, her eyes filling with more tears- "Jesus, when am I gonna stop crying?" she asked turning away from the nurse and looking away from her son,

"I don't think that's the hormones Mare…" Marshall smirked, wrapping his arms around her tighter than before.

In a short time they were forced to go back to Mary's room, which Marshall always found so hard, especially since forever didn't seem like long enough with that little boy, but this time around, he didn't realize that Mary would have put up the fight she had. After literally an entire half hour of trying to get his fiancée to stop arguing with the NICU nurse, he had to go all Marshall-pedia on her-

"Mary." He said, "Being around him for so long puts him at risk of infections, because he was born prematurely-

But he didn't even have to finish, Mary had put down the baby, her hands held up in surrender, sarcasm spewing from her mouth as she retreated out of the NICU.

Later that night, while Mary lay awake she couldn't help but remember the tiny face, and she couldn't help but know this was only the beginning. She knew it would get harder, as her hard blue eyes stabbed like knives into the ceiling of the hospital room, she found herself smiling. Something she hadn't done in a long time, she had spent so long dreading being pregnant, and convincing everyone including herself she was just "protecting" and then "relocating" that maybe this strange un- Mary like week had been the jerk she needed to get the stick out from up her ass into an actual life. From the darkness, Marshall's smooth voice filled the silence of the air, and the spaces in between her thoughts, sending chills up and down her spine.

"Mary?" he asked with uncertainty.

"Yeah doofus?" she answered, hiding her satisfaction that he too was awake.

"What do you think about Xander Marshall Shannon Mann?"

"Xander?" She thought back to her son's face, the name was truly a match, "I think you're on to something…" she added, showing the approval within her tone, like she was so famous for doing.

"Good." Since the day Mary had told him she was pregnant, his daydreams began to fill with ideas of names for the emerald eyed, thin lipped little girl or boy growing inside of his partner, although he could never tell her that- a scenario of her calling him a "dick" or some kind of "fetish freak" played over in his mind each time he came close to admitting it to her.

Both of them laid there in satisfaction,

"Doof, why don't you come up on the bed with me? Those chairs can't be comfortable…" Mary urged, patting an empty space on the bed.

"Mary, aren't you still sore?" he asked thoughtfully, that day just a week ago flashed back through his mind, sending his palms in a cold sweat like it had consistently done every time it came up within his head.

"Forget about it- she answered playfully- being sawed in half was just another titillating experience I can add to the 'things that I haven't wanted to do, but was forced into doing, because there's always a dire emergency that forces me to do them' list."

He chuckled, and carefully settled into her bed, she put her head on his chest, listening to the steady beat of his heart, and suddenly she felt a pang of guilt-

"Marshall, I know this hasn't been the ideal relationship so far, but I'm trying, and you know I'm not very good at this whole thing,-her eyes widened for emphasis out of habit with the blackness- and I want you to know, that it was never the drugs talking, every time I said 'I loved you' it was me. The drugs were just a cover, in case you didn't feel the same way." She stuttered.

"It's okay Mary. You've given me everything I've ever wanted just in this week. You had a baby with me, you got engaged to me, and you told me you loved me- the rest of my life with you will just be bonus."

"Oh alright- don't get too mushy on me doofus…" Mary teased.

"Hey, you're the one who said you'd take me and that means mush and all Mare- you're gonna have to get used to it."

"Just don't go reciting Shakespeare soliloquys to the kid kay? If this little guy grows up a mini Marshall-pedia, I swear I'll smack you so hard all of Albuquerque will hear your ears ringing."

He laid there for a moment, basking in her sarcasm, letting her suffer in the silence, because he knew she was burning inside for him to react, finally she gave up,

"What! No taken aback, defensive speech about how my sarcasm doesn't make friends, or it hurts your feelings? Really Marshall? One week engaged to you and I already have you whipped?"

"I've realized your sarcasm is equivalent to a cat's purr, it just means your content, you mean no harm by it, it's your sign of affection, and I take it with pleasure…" he retorted.

"It's flattering that someone finally understands me…"

She breathed in the sweet smell of Marshall,

"Hey Mare?" he asked, this time his voice filled with fear-

"What Marshall mcdoofus face?" she answered as if burdened by him, but actually relieved to realize he hadn't fallen asleep.

"Are you gonna kiss me or not?" he asked like a teenager doing this for the first time.

Mary looked up, and locked lips with Marshall, this time, with every intention of not holding back, she inched closer and closer, and finally swung her legs over him. The exhilaration of finally being on top of Marshal Marshall Mann was almost enough to overcome the sharp pain that ran through her stomach,

"Jesus Christ." She cursed as she plopped back down onto the bed, trailing blood all the way across Marshall's white button up.