Thanks for the reviews! To those that are confused, Marshall and Mary can touch, just not physically hurt each other in the dreams. Trust me, there's going to be more touching and it's going to get interesting. Again, sorry for not posting regularly like when I first started. I'll try to be better about posting. Still don't own IPS! ;p

Marshall walked into the office and swiped his card before pushing the gate open; he saw Mary by the coffee pot, but not pouring herself a mug. She was rubbing her shoulder and elbow and wincing in pain.

"What happened?" he asked walking towards her.

Delia answered for her without realizing that their dynamic had changed, "Norah has started walking and almost walked off the bed, actually she did walk off that bed, causing my partner here…"

She stopped talking because Mary was shooting her a shut up! glare and that scared her into silence.

Before he could place a hand on her shoulder she took a step away from him, "Nothing to worry about."

"And Norah?" he asked concerned.

She rolled her eyes at him, "She's fine."

He sighed when she didn't add more, "When did she start to walk?"

His curiosity annoyed her, "Don't"

Marshall looked over his shoulder to Delia, seeing that she was still looking at them, he said, "Well, I've been told that I give a good massage. Do you want me to rub…"

Mary shot him a look and smirked, "Yeah, I bet you'd like to rub me Pervis. Forget about it, I'll live."

Delia laughed and shook her head, "Leave the Chief alone Mary, he's just trying to be nice."

"Yeah, I'm sure he's just trying to be nice," she didn't bother looking his way again.

Later when Marshall saw that Mary was still rubbing her shoulder and he was sure that Delia was engrossed at her desk he walked over to Mary's desk and asked, "Are you sure you're okay? Maybe you should get an x-ray."

"I'm fine"

"When did Norah start walking?"

She shot him a dirty look and warned, "Don't"

"Don't what? Ask about Norah? Am I not allowed to know for some reason?" he asked curiously, his eyes turned sad.

"Marshall, I don't need to remind you that you wanted to take a step back"

"Keeping your personal life from me is not what I meant."

"Yeah well, we can't all have what we want, right?"

"And what do you want?"

You. I want my best-friend back. "It doesn't matter what I want Marshall, but there are things that are better off left alone."

"So, Norah is on that list? How can you ask me to do that?" he sounded hurt and Mary looked up at him, her green eyes locking with his remorseful blue, "Huh, probably the same way you asked me release you."

Mary knew that it was a low blow, but she needed that space he had requested. Especially now, when her feelings for him had changed into something that confused her beyond belief, and the dreams were definitely not helping. Their eyes locked and both looked into each other's eyes, searching for something and coming up empty. He blinked and looked out the window, with a curt nod he turned and left her.

Mary turned and saw him sitting on her usual spot on the floor, his forehead resting on his knees.

"Hey"

He didn't respond.

She moved over to him and stooped down to his level, "What's wrong?"

"I've screwed everything up and you won't forgive me. You can't even start to understand how hard it was for me to have that conversation with you and now I can't even ask about Norah," he said reproachful.

Mary stood up and walked away from him, that had seemed more like real Marshall than she'd like. But in her mind, Mary knew that it was just a dream world she had concocted because she missed her best-friend so much. The fact that he was being more like the real Marshall was simply because she wanted real Marshall back in her life but afraid that if she pushed for more, he would completely break whatever friendship was still there.

She sighed sadly and jumped on the sex-bed, even without the pillows it always felt like a sexy bed.

"Come use your awesome great hands on my shoulder"

She had thrown caution to the wind and waited to see if he would take the bait. If this was the only way to have him, so be it.

It had only taken Marshall all of ten seconds to recuperate his shock and jump up onto the bed, he crawled closer to her, running his eyes all over her face, her eyes were closed, which gave him the opportunity to really look at her.

"Turn over"

Mary smiled and opened one eye, arching an eyebrow, "Well that was quick."

Marshall chuckled and shook his head, "It's better if I start from behind your shoulder, to loosen the strain a bit."

"Sure, Casanova"

She turned over on her belly and waited patiently for him to start, he didn't know where to start, he was finally going to be able to touch her without it being work related.

"Okay, here goes nothing"

Mary moan in appreciation, Marshall shut his eyes and clenched his teeth at what he felt were her sex noises, his body reacted and he prayed they would wake from this dream before he was done with the massage.

TBC...This is about to jump rating to an M in the next 2 chapters.