Author's Note: Special thanks to JJ2008, JMS529, and BrittanyLS for the reviews!
QUOTE PROMPT #097 – MARY/BRANDI
"I'm such a fool. For five minutes there, I thought he was the one."
"What am I going to tell her about her father?" Brandi asked, gazing down at the tiny infant in her arms.
"Tell her the truth," Mary replied, flatly.
Brandi looked up in annoyance and disbelief. "That I met her dad at some random bar in the middle of a bender, snuck off to the ladies room, and had a quickie? That I didn't even bother to get his real name and that I sure as hell didn't give him mine. Yeah, that's a great image to grow up with."
Mary bit back a sigh. "Tell her that you were in a bad place. Tell her that you were looking for something, anything to hold on to and that for a brief amount of time, you thought that her father might be just that, but that you were wrong because the only thing that can pull us out of dark places is ourselves. You tell her that you wish things could be different, but that you'll never regret what you went through because it gave you this angel right here."
"Maybe, I could just tell her that her father was a spy that had to leave to save the world."
"Oh, yeah, that's a much better image to hold on to," Mary told her, sarcasm dripping heavily. "That whole putting the absentee parent on a pedestal really worked out for me."
Brandi sighed. "Okay, we'll go with your thing."
QUOTE PROMPT #098 – MARY/MARSHALL
"I thought that if I gave it time, the feelings would go away. But after the last two days, I don't know if I want the feelings to go way."
"Marshall, what are you doing here?" Mary asked, letting him inside her hotel room. "You're suppose to be resting. Your brothers have a big day planned for our last day in Vegas."
"Yeah, I know, but I have to talk to you," he said, nervously. Marshall paced around her room.
She grabbed his arm to make him stop. After the last two days of drinking, gambling, and funny, she had had enough things making her dizzy. "What do you need to talk about?"
Marshall took a deep breath. "These last few days of just you and me-"
"-and your brothers-"
"Yes, and my brothers, but mostly, you and me, has got me thinking. I love you, Mary. I always have and I'm pretty sure that I always will. I thought that I could forget about you, about the feelings that I have for you, but I can't."
Mary blinked rapidly. "What?"
He grabbed her shoulders and kissed her. "I love you. Marry me. Tonight. Right now."
"Marshall, we are at your bachelor party; three days in Vegas, remember? You're getting married next weekend!"
"I'm calling it off," Marshall told her. "There is only one woman that I want to marry; one woman that owns my heart. What do you say?"
Mary's heart pounded, loudly, as she searched his face, wondering if he was drunk or high. Finding no evidence of him being anything but sober, she nodded. "Okay."
Marshall picked her up and spun her around. "Okay!"
Mary pushed on his shoulders to get him to let her down. "Listen, bub. I may love you and all, but there is absolutely no way that I'm getting married in my pajamas."
"Five minutes. You have five minutes to get ready and then I'm dragging you out of here, no matter what you're wearing," Marshall promised. Mary laughed all the way to the bathroom, debating just how far to push.
QUOTE PROMPT #099 – MARY/MARSHALL/NORAH
"You know, I always believed that nothing ever really changed. I'm old enough that I know that there's always gonna be trouble. War, taxes. Bad guys now are pretty much the same as bad guys have always been. That's not how I feel today. I feel like the world is getting worse and worse and worse. And that what we're watching is the slow, steady descent of the human race."
"My life is ruined!" Eight-year-old Norah Shannon sobbed, throwing herself across her parents' bed.
"If you're going to keep up with the dramatics, I'm not going to let you spend the night at Aunt Brandi's anymore," Mary told her, looking up from her book.
Norah sighed. "It's just as well, my life is over."
Mary rolled her eyes. "What eight-year-old talks like this? Oh, yeah, mine."
"Don't you care that my life is ruined?" Norah asked her.
"Did someone eat the last fruit roll-up again?" Marshall asked, sticking his head out from the bathroom.
Norah shook her, sticking her bottom lip out. "No. Tomorrow's school colors day and I can't find my blue shirt! All the kids will laugh at me if I don't have my blue shirt. I can't ever go back there again."
Marshall exchanged an amused glance with Mary before grabbing a shirt from his dresser. "Would it be this shirt?"
"Oh, Marshall! Thank you!" She leapt up from the bed and grabbed the shirt, hugging him tightly. "You're my hero!"
"Okay, Norah Elizabeth, time for bed," Mary ordered. Norah kissed her parents good night before skipping down the hall. Mary looked back at Marshall, who's chest was puffed out, proudly. "Oh, doofus, you're my hero!"
He grinned at her. "Just call me 'Super Dad'."
