Thanks for the reviews!
After their lengthy breakfast consisting of pancakes, which Marshall prepared with Norah in his arms, they migrated to the living room.
They sat on her couch, the couch in which he had started the night off, making Mary blush as she recalled waking up in his arms. She looked at her daughter play with her toys on the floor in front of them, hoping the awkward tension that settled between them would go away. She refused to make eye contact with her former partner, not while her body was still humming in remembered arousal.
Marshall kept shooting her sideway glances, he noticed the blush creep up her cheeks and wished just this once, he would like to know what exactly made her blush. Another thought entered his mind, he would really like to know if her whole body would blush just as prettily as the rosy of her cheeks. He rubbed his face in frustration.
Breakfast had been too busy with him preparing pancakes and Mary setting the plates on the table for any awkwardness. For a few minutes, he could envision his life with Mary and Norah as a family. His heart had soared in glee, but plummeted as he recalled a certain brunette that had called him multiple times in the early hours of the morning.
When Mary was sure that the blush had disappeared from her cheeks, she turned to him and smiled feebly at him, softly asking, "So, what are your plans for the day?"
He shrugged replying, "I don't know. Maybe spend the day with you and Norah, if that's okay with you."
"That would be fine, but…what…shouldn't you call…I mean," she stopped and looked back at her daughter, unsure really of what she was trying to say. Seriously Mare? Since when do you get nervous talking to Doofus? She thought, but her conscious prodded her, Well, maybe since you woke up, with his hard body pressed against yours.
She blushed anew and shook her head, "I meant to say, shouldn't you, I don't know, call your fiancée?"
Marshall stared at the little girl playing with her cubes, when she looked up at him and locked green eyes to his blue, she shot him a toothy grin. He turned to her and said, "I'd rather hang out with you and Miss Norah."
"Seriously Doofus, Miss Norah? Anyways, we're really not going to be doing much. I'm probably going to take her to the park and push her on the swings for a little while," she warned looking sideways at him.
He shrugged again, nodding towards the toddler, "I don't mind. I haven't spent enough time with her."
"Fine, I'll get her things ready," she stood up and walked around back of the couch. With her luck as of late, she would trip and land on his lap. With her head down, to cover the deep blush that flushed her face with the curtain of her blonde locks, she walked into the little girl's room.
Abigail paced the living room in frustration, Marshall still hadn't shown up at home and refused to pick up earlier in the morning, but now it got worst, he hadn't turned on his cell phone. She flopped down on a chair and pulled her cell phone out, dialing, "Hello?"
The groggy voice on the other end had her clenching her jaw, "Jefferson? Are you still sleeping?"
"Um, yes?" he questioned softly, sleep still coating his voice.
She stood up and wrapped one arm around her as she held the cell phone on the other, she reproached him, "You should be at the park, waiting for Mary and her kid."
Jefferson sat up in bed and rubbed his eye, as he looked around at his bedside table, his alarm clock showed 10am. He groaned because he had been up late in regards to a case and had gotten to bed at 4am, he murmured, "Can't this wait for another day? Maybe tomorrow? I had a case…"
"I don't care!" she cut him off aggressively and then shook her head, rapidly changing her tone to her usual soft twang, "I'm so sorry, I just know that you and Mary could be good for one another."
The emotional change from harshly cold to sympathetic cheerful attitude had Jefferson worried to have trusted the detective; he scrubbed his unshaven jaw thoughtfully and shook his head in denial, believing the latter explanation. He really wanted to believe it, because he really wanted the blonde marshal in his bed, soon.
No other woman had ever turned him down, laughed at him for asking her out, most women threw themselves at him, which really bothered him that the inspector wouldn't give him the time of day. He frowned in confusion, he had never had to work so hard to get a woman. Which made Mary that much more desirable, he knew that there would be fireworks if he ever got her into bed. His bed.
"Alright, I'm up, gonna shower before going on this supposed 'run', he stressed the last word as he hung up without waiting for a reply from Abigail, muttering, "This chick is crazy."
Mary drove them to the park and turned off the engine, they sat in the car, staring out into the park. There were a few kids running here and there, a family having a barbecue to the right side. A couple of college students in the tennis courtyard to the left and a few kids on the playground.
She turned to Marshall and sighed, "You ready for this?"
"Aren't I always ready?" he turned to her and smiled, the smile not reaching his eyes.
She frowned at him and scowled, "Are you sure you should be here? Maybe you should go find your fiancée and fix…"
"NO! I'm fine. I just…I want to spend the day with you and Norah, can't we just do that?" he looked away after his outburst, watching the tennis match going on. He was angry with his fiancée, he just really wanted to spend the day with his two favorite blondes.
"Fine, but if you want to go…I'll be fine. I promise not to get mad," she said softly.
"Let's just go out there and show Miss Norah back there a good time on the swings," he opened the door and stepped out, only to have his cell phone go off.
Mary joined him next to the van and opened the side door, pulling Norah out she kept an eye on him through the corner of her eye. He pulled his cell phone out, which he coincidently turned back on when they left Mary's house, and sighed audibly.
It was Abigail, Mary didn't even have to ask, she touched his arm and nodded towards his phone, "You should get that."
Marshall looked at her and then down at his cell phone, he nodded and locked eyes with her, "I'll be right with you girls in a bit, okay?"
She scowled at him as she walked away, "I'm no girl!"
He chuckled and murmured softly under his breath, "Yes, you are…you're my girl."
"This is Marshall," he answered curtly, letting the caller know, even if it was his fiancée, that he wasn't in the mood for any interruption.
"Marshall, honey? It's me Abigail," she sounded concerned, which made Marshall feel even worst for enjoying his time with Mary and Norah, yet he wouldn't regret these moments.
"Yeah, what do you need?" he asked tersely, running his fingers through his windswept hair.
There was a pause, Abigail was now worried that her matchmaking attempts were going to cause a riff between her and her fiancé, "Sugar britches, you never came home last night. Is everything alright at work?"
"I wasn't at work, I recall letting you know that I would be spending the night at a hotel," he informed her, unsure if it was a lie, but it really wasn't a lie if he really thought about it. He recalled the heated conversation, he had said he would spend the night at a hotel, the fact that Mary had convinced him to stay with her was a different matter.
Another lengthy pause, before Abigail exploded, "Are you serious?! I can't believe that you're letting Mary get in the way of our relationship! Why is she so damn precious that Jefferson can't date her?"
"Mary isn't getting in the way of our relationship," he hissed into the phone, he didn't want to attract unwanted attention from passerby's, "You're the one getting in the way!"
"WHAT? I'm getting in the way? Of what relationship exactly are we talking about? Our relationship or the relationship between you and Mary?" she challenged, mocking his relationship with his former partner.
He frowned and shook his head, "I don't know what you're trying to say, so you better talk fast."
Abigail stopped pacing and sat on the edge of the chair, she hadn't left home in hopes that Marshall would eventually show up, but when he still hadn't shown up, she had called him.
She had been glad to hear the phone ring instead of going straight to voicemail. But now she wasn't sure if she should continue this discussion over the phone, for the first time Marshall Mann was showing that he really did have a backbone, chewing on her lower lip she murmured, "Sweetheart, I'm just saying…don't get mad, just…I just want you to…"
"What the hell!" Marshall had been waiting for an explanation when he looked up to locate Mary, afraid that she would be able to overhear his argument with his fiancée when he saw Jefferson hunched down to Norah's level on the swing. He was smiling down at the child and tickled her side, she shrieked and pulled away.
TBC