Title: A Friend in Need
Author: Lysa-uk
Feedback: It's yours if you want it, just keep my name on it and give me a link.
Rating: PG-13/T
Characters: Mary/Danny
Summary: Mary's reaction and actions after she hears of Danny's father's death.
Disclaimer: These characters do not belong to me, although I kinda wish I had a little Danny McCoy of my own. They belong to NBC, Gary Scott Thompson, Universal etc. No copyright intended.
Notes: You know how you feel like you've been working on something for a reeeeally long time? In this case it's true. This was actually started as soon as I read a summary of the second season finale. That's how long this has been in my head. I'm the first to admit I don't do plot and action, but I like characters. I like getting to know them and studying them. That's what this was in a way.
Mary Connell stood at the open doors of the private aircraft in the balmy night air and looked across the skyline of Vegas at the Montecito for what would probably be the last time.
There it was, standing in the middle of the strip that she had always loved so much, in a city that she adored. For anyone else looking at that building, it wouldn't seem out of place, it might not even catch their attention in the middle of the flashing lights and garish signs that were de rigour for this city. For Mary, though, it was always her focal point because of what it stood for. It was strong and solid, and it was always supposed to be like that, there was never supposed to be a time when it wasn't right where it was now, looking as it did.
The Vegas skyline had always been one of the most beautiful things that Mary had ever seen, and now, the next time she saw it and forever after that, there would always be something missing in the place where the Montecito stood, and even if another casino was built, nothing would ever fill the void she had left.
She felt Jake's hand on the small of her back, pressing against the curve of her spine in a silent gesture to move her inside.
"Everything okay?" he asked.
Mary nodded, tearing her eyes away from the view to look at him. "Yeah," she said. "It's just… I guess I'll just miss it."
He smiled, leaning over to place a kiss on her cheek. "Once you've been to Hawaii, you'll never want to come back," Jake told her.
For a second, Mary felt like screaming, at him for making her leave, at the world for changing on her so many times lately that it almost made her dizzy to keep up with it. But then she wondered… Why? Why should she be so angry? She had always been so afraid of everything changing, wasn't that the reason she had broken it off with Danny?
She had always been Mary Connell. Steadfast, loyal, honest… All words that more or less meant boring. Maybe now was the time to be someone else, someone different. No one was forcing her to leave, to get on that plane and fly away, but she saw now that she needed to, to see if there was a life beyond Vegas. More than that, she needed to see if she could live in it.
She took one last, long, lingering look at the Montecito, and then back at Jake, her eyes meeting his.
"Promise?" she asked.
And then she turned and left Las Vegas behind.