Author's Note: Special thanks to JMS529, JJ2008, thena-ditey, and Jayne Leigh for the reviews!

QUOTE PROMPT #136 – MARY/MARSHALL

"Look. I appreciate you trying to be his friend. I just don't want things to get weird. You're a good guy, I'm sure."

"What are you doing here?"

Marshall looked up from his position on the floor where he was playing cars with Mary's nephew. He frowned at the tense look on her face. "Brandi asked me to baby-sit Evan for a few hours while she ran a few errands."

Mary tossed her bag and coat onto the couch. "Why? Joanna would have been glad to take him along with Norah."

"I don't know. You'll have to ask her," Marshall told her.

"Yeah, well, I'm here now so you can head out," Mary all but ordered.

Evan jumped up suddenly, grabbing onto Marshall's arm. "No! No go, Marsh! No go!"

Mary picked him up when he began to cry. Evan whimpered in her ear as she soothed, "It's okay, Evan. Aunt Mary's here."

"Really, Mary. I can stay. It's not a problem," Marshall said, standing up himself.

"I don't think that's a good idea."

Marshall's face fell. "Why?"

Mary moved away from him, rubbing Evan's back. "Because Evan gets attached very easily as you can tell and I don't want his heart broken anymore than it has to."

"You think I'm going to break his heart?" Hurt overwhelmed Marshall's voice and Mary felt her heart tug.

"I think that you'll get involved in his life, that he'll come to depend on you, and then your wife will decide that you're spending too much time with him and you'll have to pull away from him. You'll still be around, but not like before, which is even worse because it won't allow his heart to heal."

Tears welled up in his eyes as he listened to her describe the emotions she had gone through over the last two and a half years. "Oh, Mary."

She shook her head, willing her own tears to stay away. "Go home, Marshall. I'm here now."

"No," he said with conviction. He stalked over to her and wrapped his arms around both Mary and Evan. "I didn't know. I didn't know. I thought we were okay. I'm not leaving Evan and I'm not leaving you. I so sorry, so sorry. I never meant to hurt you. I'm not leaving you."

"What about Abigail?" Mary sniffed, nuzzling into his neck.

"Screw her," Marshall commanded. "I'm not letting her dictate my life anymore. If she can't understand your role in my life, then I don't want to know her."

Mary pulled back to look at him, her eyes red. "She's your wife."

"Because someone else didn't want to be," he whispered, honestly.

"Maybe she did," Mary admitted, her own tone hushed, "but she just didn't know how to be."

Marshall placed a gentle kiss on her lips, one that could still be called friendly. "We have a lot to talk about."

Mary shook her head. "You have a lot to figure out, but in the meantime, if you want to go back to being my friend, if you want to hang out with Evan, well, I guess that's okay."

QUOTE PROMPT #137 – MARSHALL/ABIGAIL

"Even heroes are human."

"How could you do it?" Abigail asked him as he walked into the door. She was sitting on the couch, twirling her engagement ring around her finger.

For half a second he considered playing dumb, but he knew he owed her more than that. "It wasn't intentional."

Abigail slammed her hand on the coffee table. "So what? You slipped and fell into her over and over again?"

"It was one time. I screwed up," Marshall admitted. "We had just survived a gun fight and there was alcohol and adrenaline... I wasn't thinking clearly."

"I don't want you to see her anymore," she demanded.

Marshall took a deep breath. "I work with her. She's my best friend. I have to see her."

Abigail stood suddenly. "Find a new job! Find a new best friend! You can't expect me to trust you with her, not after this." She covered her mouth with her hand when we went silent. "You won't do it, will you? I am your fiance and I am telling you that I am not comfortable with you being around her."

"Abby..."

"I should have known," she whispered. She took her ring off and handed it to him. "I'll pack up my things and be out of here."

Marshall shook his head. "You should keep the house."

Abigail let out a mirthless chuckle. "I don't want it. I don't want anything that will remind me of you."

"How did you know?" he asked after her as she headed upstairs.

"I ran into Mary at the grocery store. The guilt was written all over her face."

Marshall nodded. "For what it's worth, I'm sorry."

Abigail shrugged. "It's not worth very much at all."

QUOTE PROMPT #138 – MARY/MARSHALL

"You're good at building things, I'm good at blowing them up."

"How do you want to do this?" Mary asked her partner, a hint of annoyance in her voice.

"I think we should talk to her," Marshall replied, evenly.

Mary huffed. "Yeah, right, 'cause that worked out so well the first time. If she had listened to either of us, we wouldn't be in this situation now!"

Marshall shook his head. "She's scared. If we go in with two guns blazing, we're going to spook her. Who knows how she'll react then?"

"What's your suggestion, then?" she demanded.

"Good cop, bad cop," Marshall told her, unable to suppress his grin completely.

Mary felt the ends of her own lips curl upward. "I get to be bad cop."

Marshall rolled his eyes. "Of course, dear."

"Norah Elizabeth Shannon, get your butt in here right!" Mary yelled.

"We could have talked strategy first," he muttered.

Norah shuffled into the kitchen, her head down. "Yeah, Mom?"

Mary put her hands on her hips. "Don't 'yeah, Mom' me. So, I got a call from your teacher, again. Do you want to explain to me why you got in trouble for talking again? So much so that your teacher had to send you to the principal's office?"

"I'm sorry, Mom," Norah replied.

"Not gonna cut it this time, Bug," Mary countered. "You're in big trouble."

Marshall knelt down in front of Norah. "Do you want to tell us why you keep talking in class? You can tell us."

Norah sighed, miserably. "I'm bored."

"In class?" he clarified. Norah nodded. "Is it because of the teacher? Is she boring?"

"No." Norah shook her head. "I already know everything that she's teaching."

Marshall looked up at Mary, surprise in both their eyes. He turned back to Norah. "We're going to call your teacher on Monday to see what we can do to challenge you more."

Mary tap the top of her head. "But you're still grounded for the weekend. That means no TV and no playing outside."

"Okay," Norah pouted. She turned and flounced away.

"See, if we had gone in blazing, we never would have learned that," Marshall said smugly. Rolling her eyes, Mary pushed him over and walked away.