Author's Note: Special thanks to redbrainbluebrain and JJ2008 for the reviews!

QUOTE PROMPT #079 – MARY/MARSHALL

"It is the struggle itself that is most important. We must strive to be more than we are. It does not matter that we will never reach our ultimate goal. The effort yields its own rewards."

"Mary! Mare! Mary, get in here!" Marshall called from her living room. He was spending the Saturday hanging out with her, Norah, and her niece, Alyssa, as he had taken to doing often since his engagement to Abigail had fallen apart.

"What?" Mary asked, Norah on her hip.

Marshall looked up from his position on the floor. "Watch this." He moved slightly to the right of where Alyssa lay on the floor. "Lyssa. Come on, Lyssa. Come to Uncle Marshall."

Mary laughed. "You've been trying to get her to roll over for two months. She's only four and a half months old. It's still early."

"I'm telling you, she can do this." He focused back on Alyssa. "Come on, Lyssa. Show your auntie Mary that she's completely wrong about you."

"Marshall," Mary said after a few minutes, "come stand over here for a moment."

Shooting her a curious glance, he stood beside Mary. "Okay?"

Mary nodded towards the floor. "Call for Alyssa."

"Alyssa. Alyssa," Marshall called. He grinned when she turned her head towards him.

"Do it again over there," Mary ordered. Again, Marshall called to Alyssa and she followed his voice. "You have yourself a fan."

Marshall blushed furiously as he pulled the tiny girl into his arms. He kissed Alyssa's forehead. "She can't help it. She's a Shannon. They all fall for me, eventually."

As if to prove his point, Norah reached out for him. Mary rolled her eyes and turned to leave. She looked over her shoulder as she went. "Tell you what, Mr. Charisma. You get that kid to roll over and I'll go out on a date with you."

"What?" Marshall shouted, startling Alyssa. Mary didn't stop, just continued to sashay towards the kitchen. Marshall looked at the baby. "Okay, Sprout, time to practice rolling over! You just may be my ace in the hole."

QUOTE PROMPT #080 – MARY/MARSHALL

"I'm just saying there's a risk in anything that you do, right? But don't you want to stack the odds in your favor? I mean, I'm drawn to you. It's kind of that simple. I've been drawn to you for two years, but chaos always seems to rule, and I don't want it to rule. I want to know where it's taking me."

Mary sighed as she turned down her street. It had been along few days. She had spent much of it on the road with a whiny witness in an SUV that barely kicked out any air conditioning. The only thing that she wanted to do now was take a long, hot bath and drink a bottle of wine. She had already asked her mother to take the girls for the night so she could be alone.

Pulling up to her house, however, she found her daughter and niece standing in the middle of the driveway. They waved enthusiastically at her as she parked on the street. Mary got out of the car and put on her best smile to greet them.

"Hello, ladies." Mary kissed each of their foreheads. "I thought Grandma was going to take you for the night."

"Alyssa didn't want to go," Norah explained, causing Alyssa to blush furiously. "She wanted to wait for you to come home. Marshall said it was okay. We drew these pictures for you."

Mary looked down at the driveway to see it covered in chalk drawings. In the middle, in Marshall's handwriting, was "Welcome Home, Mom". Mary smiled, sincerely. "Thank you, guys. This is amazing."

Marshall hurried out of the house with keys in his hand. He pulled Mary into his arms and kissed her soundly. "Mm. I missed you."

"I missed you, too," she replied, ignoring the giggling behind her. "So, what happened with the rugrats?"

"I know, I know," he said, raising his hand in mock surrender. "But, don't worry. I'm going to take the girls out for pizza and ice cream. We'll bring you back something. The bathtub is all ready for you and the wine is chilled. We will see you later and I'll give you a back rub."

Mary breathed a sigh of relief. She kissed him once again. "If you're lucky, I'll rub you back."

QUOTE PROMPT #081 - MARSHALL

"So why don't we just ignore each other until we go away"

"Hey, boy!" Marshall exclaimed, walking into the house. Oscar galloped over to his owner, licking his hand. Marshall stepped forward to the kitchen. He found no evidence of his wife, though to be honest, he couldn't remember whether or not he had seen her car in the driveway.

"I bet you're thirsty," Marshall said to Oscar, noticing that the bowl was empty. He filled it up before turning to the answering machine to see she had left a message. That, too, however, was empty, as was the voicemail on his cell phone.

Curious, he searched the house for any sign of her, ending in the bedroom. It was there that he found her clothes missing and a single white sheet of paper on the bed. Marshall sank slowly on the bed as he read,

Marshall,

I think by now we both know this isn't working. Neither of us is happy and hasn't been happy in a long while. Do you know that we haven't talked in eleven days. I first noticed after three days. It then became an experiment to see how long we could go without talking to each other. By day nine, I had had enough. I've spent the last two days finding a place to live. I'm leaving you the house and the dog. My lawyer will be in touch with the formalities.

Good-bye, Marshall, and I hope you find happiness.

Abigail

Marshall sat there on the bed for nearly an hour. His thoughts were all over the place, but his emotions were relatively calm. He felt a twinge of guilt over their break-up, but mostly, it was relief that flowed through him. He jumped when his cell phone rang.

"Hey, Marshall," Mary said when he answered. "I didn't get a chance to talk to you today since you were in meetings and I just wanted to check in. Did you know that Sarah Stoffer bakes?"

Marshall smiled as Mary drawled on. There wasn't any sound sweeter to his ears that the voice of his best friend.