Author's Note: Special thanks to JMS529 (thank you!), BrittanyLS, JJ2008, BravoExpressions (yay! You caught up!), and Jayne Leigh for the reviews. You guys really didn't like Raph and Brandi together, did you? Given Raph's sleeping with his physical therapist while he and Mary were on a break or whatever, I never had an issue seeing Raph as a potential cheater, I guess.

QUOTE PROMPT #127 – MARY/DELIA

"No, hearts don't really break. They can stop and they can leak, but they can't really break. It just-it gets tired. Gives up after a while."

"It's not a big deal."

"Not a big deal?" Delia repeated. "Mary, this is the fourth guy that you've broken up with since Kenny."

Mary shrugged. "So?"

Delia's eyes widened. "So, it's only been seven months since then."

"Yeah, well, none of these guys are really keepers, Delia. They're just... entertainment for awhile," Mary told her. "I'm done with all that relationship crap. It doesn't get you anywhere." Her eyes flickered to Marshall's office so quickly that Delia doubted she even realized she had done it. "The only things that matter are raising my kid, keeping my sister out of trouble so that she doesn't run off on her own kid, and this job. This guys are just to blow off steam."

"But... don't you want someone there for you when things are bad and you need to talk? Or when things are good and you want to laugh? Don't you want to go to sleep in the arms of someone that you love, knowing that they'll be there in the morning?" Delia asked her.

Mary shook her head. "What I want is a really good orgasm and to go to sleep alone, in my own bed. Save all the schmoopy stuff for someone else." Mary snatched her keys. "I've got to go check on a witness. I'll be back in a few hours."

"Bye," Delia muttered, lost in thought. Her own heart ached for her partner's outlook on life. Delia had been here day after day, watching as Mary and Marshall struggled to find their way with the new parameters that he had placed on their relationship. The result was the disintegration of the strongest partnership in the service. They rarely talked anymore unless it involved work and even then, Mary often found ways to make Delia deal with their boss. Mary's personal life was becoming more of a mess with each passing day and Marshall walked around in a daze half the time.

"Hey, Delia. Everything okay?" Marshall asked, standing in the doorway of his office. "You were really lost in thought there."

Delia frowned, clearing the fog from her brain. "Do you think we could talk, chief? There's really something that I need to talk to you about."

QUOTE PROMPT #128 - MARY

"You know those people who can predict when change is coming in their life? I'm not one of them. Change has a way of just walking up and punching me in the face."

Twenty-four hours ago, she was a single mom.

Twenty-four hours ago, she only had one daughter.

Twenty-four hours ago, she was unhappy, angry, and lost.

Twenty-four hours ago, she though her best friend was lost to her forever.

Today, she was married to her best friend. She had called him in the middle of the night after her sister had dumped her niece on her and walked out. She was nearly beside herself with fear over how she was going to raise two little girls on her own.

He had walked into her house and immediately a calming affect took over. He had put both babies to bed before turning his attention to her. He let her rant and rave, cry and talk endlessly. As morning light appeared, he offered her a solution.

"Marry me."

"What?" She looked him as though he had grown a second head.

He smiled calmly. "Pack up the kids. We'll drive to Vegas, get married, and on Monday we'll file for custody of our niece."

She thought it over before shrugging. "Okay."

Twenty-four hours ago, her life was completely different. She had never embraced change as fast as she had today.

QUOTE PROMPT #129 – MARY/BRANDI

"We stumble along, don't we, doing the washing, and filling the car, and making the best hash of it we can. We never get to that moment, do we? Where we go, 'Right, decision time'. Tellies flying through the air, dreams are trashed, people are falling off pedestals like skittles. This is where I take control of my free-fall life cause no one's gonna do it for us, are they?"

Brandi did it so quietly that Mary never even noticed that it was happening, even though she usually caught on to most of the things that Brandi tried to get away with. It started with nursery. Brandi asked her all types of questions about what Mary did for Norah. Mary never noticed that Brandi followed every one of her suggestions.

In passing, Mary told her that she had briefly considered naming Norah "Elizabeth." She had forgotten the conversation by the time that Elizabeth Mary Shannon was born. The outfit that she took Elizabeth home in was the only one that Mary had bought. Brandi used the diapers that Mary used, the formula, the bottles, the pacifiers, etc.

After a few months, she began to leave Elizabeth with Mary in the evening and on the weekends. Brandi claimed she was going back to school. Within a few weeks, Brandi moved back, saying it would be easier for her to be there full time than to lug the girls back and forth between the two places. Mary began to slowly be more responsible for Elizabeth's care and Brandi sunk into the background.

Mary shouldn't have been surprised when Brandi took off. All the signs were there; the twitching, the picking fights, and of course, turning over responsibility of Elizabeth to Mary. Yet, she had missed it. Bogged down in the day to day life of her family and her witnesses, she missed the biggest thing to impact her niece's life.

But she couldn't cry like Jinx. She couldn't run away like Brandi. She couldn't bang her head off the wall, bury it in the sand, or drink her troubles away. No, she had to get up day after day and live her life. She had two little girls depending on her.