I feel like I owe you guys - my readers - something after taking forever to finish 'New Year New, New Future'. I promise I'm working on it, but the muse has been very absent lately. Please enjoy this little treat. PS: I made this one pretty long, thought of splitting it, but decided that I owed you guys. Thank you all for reading and reviewing.

Mary walked into Albuquerque PD to drop off some paperwork, she always dreaded going into the department and running into Abigail. She was always so cheerful and asking if she'd want to tag along on a girls' night out. She would rather get caught dead then hang out with a bunch of drunk females.

"Hey Sam, can you give these to Stewart?" the young blonde man looked up at her and smiled.

"Hey Mary, yeah I'll pass them over when I see him."

"Thanks Sam," she waved and turned to go, she hadn't finished turning when someone punched her, "What the hell!"

The next second was covered by chaos. Mary threw her arms up ready to punch back, but Sam had jumped over his desk, holding her back. Another pair of uniforms appeared out of nowhere holding back the culprit. Damn, she had just gotten sucker punched by none other than her Chief's fiancée, Abigail stood in front of her, glaring.

"You couldn't leave well enough alone, couldn't you? Always calling him like a psycho ex-girlfriend. You're a selfish stupid bitch!" she pulled on her restrained arms, as if ready to attack Mary again.

She was just in shock; she couldn't believe that she would get punched by her best-friend's fiancée. What the hell had she done to deserve that? Call him? She stopped calling when he asked to be released. What the hell is she talking about?

"I repeat, what the hell is wrong with you?" Mary pressed her finger tips to her eye socket, pressing around the eye to make sure the bone wasn't broken. It hurt like a bitch, and decided to go to the doctor's to get a scan, before Marshall saw it and took her himself. Marshall will NOT be amused.

Mary wouldn't physically fight with someone without damn good reason and she wasn't about to start a fight at the Albuquerque PD precinct with the younger woman. She wasn't into cat fights; she grew out of those way before she joined the Marshal service.

Within minutes, the Chief of police came over and yelled at Abigail, "What the hell has gotten into you?! You're suspended until further notice. Get the hell outta here! NOW!"

Mary tapped him on the shoulder and cleared her throat, "Don't worry about it on my behalf, not going to press charges. But I would like a private moment with the detective."

He glanced over at Abigail and back at Mary, judging to see if there was any more animosity. "You can use the conference room down the hall."

He turned to Abigail and pointed a finger in her face, "Come see me in my office as soon as you're done. Do not touch her. This is far from over."

Mary walked over to the conference room, still touching her eye, now swollen. She didn't even want to look at it, she was sure she would be sporting a black eye before she left the building. Before the door closed behind Abigail, Sam held the door in one hand and a cloth napkin wrapped around ice in the other. She nodded her thanks before closing the door.

"Now, do you mind explaining what the hell's gotten into you?" Mary tried to glare, but with her swollen eye it was too painful to accomplish without wincing. She pressed the iced covered napkin over her eye.

Abigail wrapped her arms around her chest and glared, "Marshall is – was – mine! You have no claim to him, you had your chance. Why can't you let him live his life? Why did you always have to get between us?"

Mary heard the past tense and stared at her, "Okay, I still don't get it. Maybe you hit me too hard and my brain hasn't settled. Mind explaining that?"

"So you're going to stand there and act like you don't know Marshall broke it off? Completely? No more wedding, no more dating, It's over, it's over because of you!" the tears started rolling down the detective's face.

She sighed, pulled a chair out and sat unceremoniously, "And how is that my fault? I haven't spoken to Marshall about anything personal for quite a while. You said, back there, that I call him? I already have a partner, that isn't Marshall and I only talk to him at the office. I don't call him."

"Then why did he break up with me?" now the younger woman was whining like a little child.

"You know what detective? I don't know and to be honest with you, I don't really give a flying monkey's ass. Grow the hell up," Mary stood up to walk out the door but before turning the knob she turned back and warned with a growl, "Don't ever put your hands on me."

Mary walked into the office, head down to cover the swollen eye with her hair, with a doctor's note in her back pocket. The detective had only bruised her eye, no fracture found after the x-ray was done.

Marshall walked out of his office, "Hey Mare, what took you so long at the station?"

"Huh? Oh, nothing, you know. Small talk with some of the guys, then out for lunch," she didn't dare look up at him, there was no way to cover her swollen eye.

The elevator door dinged and she looked over to see who it was, trying to avoid looking at Marshall. Delia stepped out and hurriedly swiped her card on the gate.

"Oh my God! I just heard, how's the eye Mary?" she almost ran to Mary's side of the table and pulled her around. "Oh no!"

"What? What's wrong with her eye?" Marshall walked briskly over to see what Delia was yammering about.

Mary leaned her head down to try to avoid him looking at her eye, but he moved Delia out of the way and reached down, grabbed her chin and brought her face up.

"Who hit you?" his eyes were cold and calculating. He was ready to beat whoever hit her.

"It's nothing." She tried to pulled her chin away.

"Was it Kenny? Huh? I'm going to beat him to within an inch of his damn death," he growled and didn't let go of her chin. Moving her face to one side and the other.

"No, it wasn't Kenny. I haven't seen him in months. Anyways, I can take care of myself, you know," Mary said tersely.

"Apparently not. Look at your eyes, have you even seen it? No probably not since its SWOLLEN SHUT!" now he was yelling, he needed a name or names if that was the case. "Did you get jumped?"

He pulled her up and started rubbing her ribs and arms.

"What are you doing?" she tried to push him away, not liking that her body was enjoying the ministrations.

"Checking to see if you have any broken bones."

"I don't. Marshall, stop. I'm fine, well not fine, but it's just a black eye. I leaned down to pick something up and Norah is learning to walk, she pushed the door hard enough that it hit me in the eye, okay?" she tried to reassure him, but he glared at her.

"You really think you can make me believe that Norah caused this? How stupid do you think I am?" hands on hips he refused to move, he needed to know who caused that bruise.

"Detective Abigail Chaffee."

Mary and Marshall turned to look at Delia. Mary's verdant gaze had murder written all over it, Marshall's cerulean eyes were shocked, at first, but then hatred entered them.

Marshall turned to Mary and grabbed her arms, "Did she hit you? Where did she hit you? Did you press charges?"

"Marshall, leave it alone. Let's just forget today ever happened and get on with our lives," she didn't want to continue on this conversation. "Couldn't you keep your mouth shut?"

Delia shrugged, "I couldn't let you blame Norah."

"How'd you find out anyways?"

"Sam called me to ask if you were okay, he was concerned because you left without talking to him."

Mary rolled her eyes, "Why would I stop to talk to him when I didn't even want to be there anymore?"

"Men"

Both women nodded.

"Mare? Why didn't you press charges? This is assault!" he was so angry at his ex-fiancée, there was no reason for the younger woman to attack his best-friend.

"No, just drop it, ok?"

"Fine."

He turned and walked to the gate.

"Marshall, don't you dare do this!" Mary didn't even have a chance to follow him, the doors opened as soon as he pressed the elevator button and closed before she was able to come after him.

"She shouldn't have hit you."

"You shouldn't have opened your big mouth"

Delia shrugged again, "He would've found out eventually. Better now than later."

Marshall walked into ABPD and went straight to the Chief's office, but before he even had a chance to open his mouth the older man beat him to it.

"I already suspended her until further notice, your inspector said she wasn't going to press charges," he looked at Marshall tiredly.

"Well, I'm glad you did. Have a good day." He turned and walked out the doors, he was so angry that he couldn't pound anyone's face in.

He got in his truck and dialed the detective, he could go see her at her place, but he didn't want to see her. He was too angry.

"Did your girlfriend already tell on me?" Abigail answered angrily; she really didn't think Mary would tell him.

"No, my girlfriend didn't tell me, you have people with big mouths in your precinct, so don't go blaming Mary for telling me anything. You better keep your hands to yourself, don't ever put your hands on her again!" Marshall all but snarled. "What the hell did she ever do to you?"

"You broke up with me because of her! Or did you forget already?" she yelled indignantly.

"Because of her? Get your facts straight, I broke up with you because of you. Do this, do that…let's hang out with my friends only because I don't approve of your friends," Marshall rattled a few of the reasons why he broke it off with her. "You were never happy in our relationship; you tried to change everything about me. So I got out so you can find the guy that's already the way you wanted me to be."

"But…but…all I asked was to stop seeing Mary too much," she whined, tears in her voice.

"No, Mary was one of the things, but not the reason why I broke it off. I let you dictate my life until I couldn't take it anymore. This conversation is pointless, it's over and I want you to stay clear away from Mary anytime she goes into ABPD, or I'll have to fill out a complaint letter against you. Good bye Abigail," any conversation with his ex was draining and all he wanted to do was go home.

Marshall never went back to the office and Mary had waited an hour after her shift was over, when she finally left, she sent him a text. Come over, pizza. My treat.

He was sitting in his truck outside her house, he had been waiting for her to get home and was about to call her when he got her message. He smiled. Maybe his luck was finally starting to turn for the better.

Mary drove home with the music off. Marshall didn't reply to her message and she was bummed. As she turned on her street, she spotted his truck, she smiled and drove into her driveway.

She hopped out and smiled over at him, he was sporting the same goofy smile she loved. Loved? No, love.

"Hey Mare, how's the eye?" they met on her porch and she shrugged.

"It'll be better by tomorrow, I have a steak I was saving for this weekend, but I'll put it to good use now," they walked into the house and found Joanna on the phone.

She hung up, "Norah's already asleep. I ordered you that pizza. Melvin should be by in 20 minutes. Gotta go. Hi Marshall, bye Mary"

Mary threw her jacket over a chair in the kitchen and reached into the fridge for a couple of beers. He took off his jacket and tossed it on top of Mary's, he reached for his beer and walked to the living room.

They sat on either side of the couch, she reached for the remote and turned it on to a sports channel pressing the mute button, something both could enjoy without having to hear it.

"So…"

"Yeah…" he took a swig of beer and nodded.

"When did you guys break up?" Mary didn't want to look at him, but when he turned to look at her she couldn't help herself.

"About a month after the dinner party, we – I was missing you, talking to you, hanging out with you, but after what I asked you to do…Well, I couldn't well just call and ask you to hang out," he scrubbed his face and shook his head as if trying to clear the webs.

"You could've called, I would never answer a phone call from my friend," she tried to reassure him. "Marshall, I may not like change and believe me, releasing you hurt like hell, but I understood the situation. You needed to move on."

He took a long swig and shrugged, refusing to look her way.

"Was it because of me?" she asked in a small voice.

Marshall turned to look at her in surprised, "No…I mean…sort of, but not you. Okay, I don't think I'm making sense. Ab…she became this obsessed crazy woman. Always me obsessively. Where are you? Who are you with? When are you coming home? Is Mary with you? The questions just became more insanely crazy as time went by."

"I didn't know."

"I didn't know how to tell you. It went to a head one night, I had been in a conference call and it ran longer than I expected, she called and I didn't answer. She texted right away and I ignored it. I forgot to reply or call her back once the conference call was over. When I got home, she started throwing accusations; you were with Mary weren't you? Are you cheating on me with her? Why are you cheating? She threw a few things at me, I just got tired and walked out." Marshall was pacing in the living room, hands on hips as he explained how everything seemed to get out of control in his household. How crazy jealous Abigail had been.

"Why didn't you come here? Marshall, haven't you always been there for me when I ran away from Brandi and Jinx drama? Wasn't your place the one I always ended up in when shit hit the fan?" Mary got up and went to him, her hands on his ribs, holding him in place, meeting her verdant gaze with his cerulean eyes.

"Yeah, but that's the problem Mare. I've always been there until I asked you to stop. What kind of fucking friend am i? huh? Can you explain that?" he tried to move away from her, but she pulled him close and in a un-Mary way, wrapped her arms around his waist, pressing her face to his chest.

"You are and always will be a kind friend. I knew when you asked me to release you that it wasn't you, it had always been Abigail." She looked up at him and he finally wrapped his hands around her, his face buried in her hair.

"I missed you Mare"

"I missed you too Doofus."

He barked out a laugh and pulled her closer, "I fucking missed you calling me that."

"Let's stop missing things," she rubbed her hands up and down his back. "Norah is walking."

"What!" he pushed her away. "I missed her first steps?"

Mary shrugged, "It's okay."

She pulled away and reached into her back pocket, pulled her cell phone out. Pushed a few buttons and thrust it at him, "There…now you can see it."

He grabbed her hands and pulled her to the couch, they sat side by side and he pushed play on the video on her cell phone. Norah came into view and Mary murmured, "Come on baby, don't be afraid."

The toddler grinned, eight little teeth in her mouth. She let go of the couch and stood in place, her face went serious for a micro second before the child began the descend. She grinned again, her hands balancing as she took her first steps towards her mother.

"Come on baby, come to mama," Mary blushed at her voice, she sounded so happy, elated to be there on a special day like that day.

The video ended when the baby collapsed on Mary's arms.

"For a preemie, she sure walked early. She's what, 10 months?" he sounded proud for her little girl.

"Yeah, this was just 2 weeks ago, now she's into running," she tried to sound tired, but it came out as proud parent.

"Mama!" Mary startled awake and felt a hand pull her closer. She lifted her head slowly and found herself face to face with Marshall's relaxed sleeping face. They had fallen asleep sitting on the couch, shoes off still in their work clothes. His arm slung around her waist keeping her close to his body, her legs curled close to his body and her head had been tucked into the crook of his neck. She closed her eyes and tried to savor this moment and then slowly extracted herself from his embrace. "Mama!"

"Coming bug," she whispered and tiptoed away from her best-friend into her daughter's bedroom.

Marshall opened his eyes as soon as she closed Norah's bedroom door. He had been awake for the better part of the night, only dozing off for an hour or so. He had felt at home in her arms, like waking up from a terrible nightmare.

He got up and walked into the kitchen, looking through cupboards until he located all he needed to make pancakes.

Mary walked out slowly and when she didn't see him on the couch frowned and looked around, he smiled at her and she blushed, coming into the kitchen with Norah on her hip.

"Say hi to Marshall," she pressed her nose to the child's temple.

Norah grinned and shook her hand, she gurgled some things at him.

"Hi Norah," he came over and called her to him, she leaped off Mary's arms into his. He pulled her into his chest and kissed her chubby cheek. She smiled and opened her mouth over his cheek.

"It seems all the girls want you, Marshall," Mary laughed and walked to the fridge.

"Not all the girls," Marshall said looking at how Mary would respond to that. She was frozen in place.

She slowly turned to him and shrugged, "Some girls just know their place. And sometimes as much as they want something, it's better not to screw something that's already good."

They stared at one another, he read her like a book and slowly walked over to her, wrapping his arm around her waist, pulling her softly into his side. They had their well-known silent conversation, everything that hadn't been said before was now being transmitted in their special personal way.

"Mare, you name it and it'll be yours. Whatever you ask for."

Mary looked into his eyes and seriously said, "I want chocolate chip pancakes."

Marshall stared at her incredulously and smiled when she winked at him, he pulled her closer and kissed her forehead, "I aim to please."

10 years later

The food sizzled in the pan as Marshall swayed to a song only he heard in his head, from his moves he was probably hearing salsa. Mary chuckled and he turned, face red at being caught.

He pulled her against him and attempted the move again, "I love dancing with you, we haven't gone out dancing in a while."

"For good reason Doofus," she draped her arms over his shoulders, running her fingers through his hair. He pulled one arm free of his hair and pushed her so he could twirl her around the kitchen.

"You guys look silly, dancing with no music," Norah came into the kitchen, dumping her backpack on top of the counter.

Mary leaned up on her toes and kissed him, pulling free and pushed him towards the stove, "Cook"

The door slammed shut, "I'm never going back to school!"

Everyone turned to see 8 year old Seth walk into the kitchen, Marshall set the stove to simmer and walked over, pulling a chair out and setting his son on it, "What happened? She didn't like it?"

Seth had a crush on a girl and was infatuated with the little girl, "She didn't tell me. I never want to go back to school. I'm so embarrassed."

"Of course you'll go back sweetie, I don't know if I like this girl anyways. What kind of girl wouldn't fall in love with my son, huh?" Mary moved over to her son and wrapped her arms around him, kissing him on the cheek.

"Moooom! Stop it! Dad, make her stop…pleeeeasee," he pleaded as he tried to get away from Mary.

Marshall laughed and said, "You let your mother coddle you. Where'd you leave-"

The door opening and slamming shut again cut him off.

"Daddy! Look what I did today!" she ran into the kitchen and launched herself into Marshall's opened arms.

"What do you have there beautiful," Marshall held Seth's twin sister, he peppered her face with kisses which she relished.

"Daddy, we made puppets, put me down!" she wiggled until Marshall set her down, she went down on her knees and opened her backpack. She had made a sock puppet.

"Elizabeth Grace, Is that one of my socks?" Mary asked as she moved from Seth.

"Uh-oh, you're in trouble Gracie," Seth said with a smirk on his face.

"Sorry mommy, the teacher asked us to bring a sock and I liked this one. But you still have the other one, I didn't use the other one mommy, it's still in your sock drawer," she said innocently.

Mary sighed and walked over to her, pulling her up into a hug, "Show me your puppet, pet."

After the little girl's demonstration, all kids sat around the counter to do their homework. Mary took the time to go through the kids backpacks for any teacher's note. With Seth always forgetting to turn in paperwork to Mary and Marshall she had decided to just dig into their backpacks.

Mary pulled papers out of Norah's backpack and found a flier 'Spring Father-daughter dance', she smirked at that. Then frowned, the date was set for two days and Norah hadn't mentioned the dance or that her dad would attend.

"Hey bug?" she looked up at the top of her head.

"Yeah?" she replied without lifting her head.

"When is Mark due?"

Marshall was finishing up dinner when he looked up at the question; he frowned at her with a silent question, what's up?

"Dad?" this time she looked up with a frown, "Why would he be due? It's not like he's a regular."

Mary waved the flier at her and saw her blush.

"Oh."

"Yeah, oh. Did you call him?" Mary tried to catch her eyes, but she hung her head.

"No."

"Why not? I'm sure if you explained, he would've come."

"He never comes, why would he for this?" she asked crossly.

"Maybe because he would want to go with you? Do you want me to call him?" Mary was concerned now, why didn't she want to ask her dad?

"No! I don't want him to go!" she jumped off the stool and ran to her room.

Marshall stood staring after her, in shock. She wasn't the kind of kid that would yell angrily. When Mary put the paper on the counter, she started to walk towards the girl's bedroom, but Marshall stopped her.

"Let me go."

Mary stalled, staring at him, "I…"

"Let me just go see what's on her mind, okay?" he kissed her neck before following after the young girl.

He knocked on the door and waited for a reply, "Come in"

He walked into the bedroom and sat beside her, "What's going on princess?"

She shrugged, "I don't…want him to go with me. He's not really my dad."

Marshall sighed inwardly, he didn't have to hear an explanation, he understood her better than even Mary, "You don't have to go with him. Not if you don't want to go with him. I'll talk to mom, okay?"

Norah nodded and looked like she wanted to say more.

"We don't have secrets, what are you keeping from me?" Marshall asked softly, pulling her onto his lap, pressing his forehead to hers.

"I want to go with you Daddy," she wrapped her arms around his neck and held on. "I don't want mommy to get mad at me."

"She won't, well…she might be upset because you didn't want to explain it to her. We can go shopping tomorrow after school. I'll pick you up from school and you can get a cute dress for the dance, will that be alright?" Marshall pulled her up into his arms and carried her back to the kitchen.

The kids and Mary turned at the squeal of laughter ripped from Norah, the kids laughed, Mary just stared. She didn't know how, but Marshall always got her to open up. She would have to learn a little from him regarding their daughter.

"So? What's the verdict?"

Norah walked over to her mother and hugged her, "I want to go with my daddy."

Mary looked at Marshall and nodded, "Perfect choice bug."

"We're going shopping tomorrow, daddy's gonna buy me a dress. Can it be pink daddy?" she hopped back onto her stool and picked up her pencil to continue her homework.

"Of course," Marshall stood up taller, winking over at Mary.

"I need to take my tux over to the dry cleaners tomorrow, maybe I should call out, what do you think Mare?" he looked at her with a smirk on his face.

She rolled her eyes at him, "You're suck a dork."

"Daddy! I want to go shopping too!" Elizabeth yelled to get attention shifted to her. "But I want my dress to be gray, mommy's favorite color."

Mary laughed at that.

"I hate shopping, just like mommy," Seth said proudly.

This time, they all laughed.

Marshall crawled into bed and pulled Mary against his chest, "I love you."

"I love you too Doofus."

"I love our kids"

"Eh, I just tolerate them until they get up out of here."

"You kid Mrs. Mann, but you know you'll miss our little monsters when they go out into the world," he kissed her neck and moved his hands up to her shoulders and down to her hips, pulling her closer.

"I know, we should've had a few more," she says morosely.

Marshall leans up and stares at her, "Seriously?"

"No Doofus!" she laughed and pulled him down for a deep kiss.

He rolled on top of her and kissed her soundly, she wrapped her legs around his waist, "Thank you."

"No, thank you my lady for giving us a chance."

A week after they woke up in each other's arms.

"Mare, I want a chance."

Mary looked at him and frown, "A chance? What kind of chance?"

They were out to lunch on a hot New Mexico day, he had taken her to her favorite taco truck.

"I want a chance to be with you, in a romantic way. I've held on to my feelings for too long and now I'm throwing in all my chips on the table. I don't like to gamble, but I know that we can be good together." He stopped eating once he started talking, because he felt like the food would crawl back out if she didn't agree.

She stared at him and shrugged, "Took you long enough. Dump your place and just move in. In for a pound, right?"

Marshall stared at her and his goofy smile grew into a grin, "Really?"

She shrugged again, "Yeah. Let's go all out."

"Thanks for giving me a chance, Mare. I promise never to let you regret this," he finally reached down and brought her chin up, kissing her softly for all to see.

Thank you for reading, please review. :)