"Mare, I've got to go. Abigail just pulled up. See you tomorrow." Click.

Mary stared at the phone in her hand. Marshall had never hung up on her like that before. She supposed that he had every right to treat her with the same disregard that she had treated him with in the past, but she was still taken aback.

Stupid Abigail, with her bubbly personality and constant enthusiasm for life. It wasn't just Abigail's optimism that bothered Mary, because Marshall was generally an optimist. Mary could deal with optimism. It was the way that Abigail treated her.

Abigail hadn't tried to get to know her, but she went around acting like she had known Mary all her life. Abigail acted like Mary was only a grouch, could only ever be a grouch, and would always be a grouch. Abigail blew off Mary and her negativity but refused to consider that there might be reasons behind it.

Mary sighed and walked over into the living room. She had made an effort to reconnect with her partner and explain what had happened with Stan. She had been responsible and mature today. Well, after that deal with Stan, of course.

Marshall would just have to deal with her absence.

Mary turned on the news and lay down on the couch, unconsciously rubbing her rather large belly. She fell asleep before the initial report was finished.

Marshall entered the office at precisely 7:45 the next morning, grinning to himself. Abigail had made bacon and pancakes. He was going to get fat if he kept eating home-cooked meals instead of the sporadic take-out that he and Mary usually subsisted on.

Sitting at his desk and sipping his coffee, Marshall nodded at Stan and Delia as they entered at 8:00. "Morning, Stan. Morning, Delia."

Stan merely nodded but Delia stopped to chat for a bit.

8:15. No Mary, but that was certainly not unusual.

8:30. No Mary, but still not unusual.

8:45. Marshall started glancing up at the door every few minutes, willing his partner to come storming in, pissed off about something or other.

At 9:00 Marshall stuck his head in Stan's office. "Hey, Stan, do you know where Mary is?"

Stan briefly glanced up from the pile of paperwork he was working on. "Don't you two ever talk to each other? I'd rather not discuss Mary right now," he said icily.

Marshall took one look at Stan's face and quickly retreated. Clearly something had happened while he and Delia were gone that caused a major rift between Mary and Stan.

Marshall decided to call Mary, retreating to the entryway to keep his conversation private from Delia. He had a feeling that this conversation was going to involve a lot of profanity and yelling and he wanted to spare Delia from Mary's rant, which would definitely be audible from even a considerable distance. But he also wanted to have a private conversation with his partner.

Speed dial number 1. Ring. Ring. Ring. Ring. Ring. His call went to voicemail.

Hey, Mare. I'm just calling to check up on you. If you don't answer your phone the next time I call I will drive over to your house and drag your ass out of bed. And I won't bring in donuts for a month.

Marshall smirked. He suspected that Mary would consider his first threat irrelevant because she didn't actually think he would bother driving all across town to drag her ass out of bed. He totally would, but he didn't have to deal with the violence that would come with it. Mary was pregnant, but that didn't stop her punches from leaving bruises.

But he knew that Mary would feel truly threatened by the loss of donuts for a month. He knew that pregnancy was uncomfortable for her, so he had tried in her favorite treats more often than normal. She had never said "thank you", but he could tell that she truly appreciated his extra effort.

Marshall waited a few minutes to give time for Mary to grumble and listen to his voicemail.

Speed dial number one. Ring. Ring. Ring.

Mary's voice came on the line. "You'd really be so cruel as to deprive a heavily pregnant, cantankerous grouch of the one thing that makes her completely happy for at least a few minutes each day? I totally underestimated your capacity for evil."

Marshall smiled. He admired Mary's spirit and her ability to describe herself so accurately. He just wished she'd be able to see that who she is should be good enough for everyone. He loved her because of everything about her.

"You know I wouldn't hesitate. So, why aren't you here this morning?" A sudden, horrible thought came to Marshall's head. "Nothing's wrong with you or the baby, right?"

Mary snorted. "No, doofus. We're both fine. Again, I can take care of myself. And if I couldn't, I would've called you to drive me to the hospital because we both know Jinx is too far away and Brandi would probably freak out and crash into something."

It was Marshall's turn to snort. "Good point. So why aren't you here?"

There was a moment of silence on Mary's end. "Stan got a tiny bit upset with me yesterday. I may have blown up at him a little."

Marshall sighed. "Mare, you know Stan's been trying to be stricter with us lately because of presser from the higher-ups. What the hell did you say?"

"Well, I may or may not have told him Eleanor ran away from Albuquerque because she didn't want a relationship with him."

Marshall sighed again. "Mare, you know that he's still a bit…tense…about Eleanor. Why did you have to go and tick him off again?"

"Well Jesus, Marshall, he was treating me like his fucking secretary! If I wanted to be a fucking secretary I would dress like my sister, find a rich boss, seduce him, marry him, and take all of his money when the divorce was finalized."

Mary's rant startled a laugh out of Marshall.

"I'm serious, Marshall. He's been treating me like a housewife from the fifties!"

"He's just trying to keep you safe, Mare. You know that."

There was a minute of silence before Mary grudgingly answered, "I know. But it's hard, Marshall. All this fuss and bother for a kid I'm not even going to keep. I would give this whole pregnancy deal to someone else, but I can't."

"How long are you suspended for?"

"Until next Monday. It was only until Thursday, but I may have mouthed off a little bit more."

"Oh, Mary," Marshall groaned. "When will you ever learn? You know, you should've called me about this so I didn't wonder where you were this morning."

There was a long, long silence. It seemed to Marshall to last forever. Finally her voice broke the silence. "What the fuck do you think I was trying to tell you when I called you last night? Goddamn asshole."

Click.

Marshall thought back over their conversation last night. He had kept interrupting Mary when she was trying to tell him something about Stan.

Oh, shit.