[[Just a short ficlet that I got an idea for after watcing "Hoosier Daddy" Took me about five minutes, so sorry if it sucks.]]

Mary Shannon has never been the baby type.

It never made sense to her why people go all goochie-goochie-goo whenever they see one. Seriously. What was the big deal with babies? They smell, they cry, they keep you up at night, and they cost far too much money.

Sure, they might be cute. But so are puppies, and look at all the damage those cause.

Mary just didn't get it. It made even less sense to her how Marshall, her nerdy yet secretly badass partner, could go all moony over the Billups' new daughter.

Whenever he wasn't subconsciously looking around to make sure the area was secure (like a good U.S. Marshal should), he was grinning foolishly, just staring at that little baby girl.

And then, to make things even more confusing for Mary, Marshall started with the baby talk. God, what was it with the baby talk? Did looking at babies just diminish one's IQ until all they could say was unintelligible and incoherent?

Then Marshall picked the little girl up, still smiling and babbling. And while Mary didn't understand it, she couldn't mistake the look of sheer enjoyment in Marshall's eyes.

It then occurred to her that she had never seen Marshall around babies before. She never thought that he'd be one of those baby types.

Then again, she mused, Marshall was the type to want kids when he finally settled down and had a family. That is, if he ever found time between all his reading, sudoku, random trivia researching, and dance and language (and probably instrument) lessons to ever find someone to settle down with.

And that raised a thought. What kind of woman would Marshall end up with? Mary didn't know what his type was. In fact, she had never really seen him with a woman. She knew that he had had girlfriends since she met him three years before, but she hadn't met any of them, and he never spoke of them.

So, what kind of woman would Marshall have babies with? Mary didn't know why, but she had trouble processing the thought of Marshall getting married, and having little Marshall Jr's crawling around the place. She didn't just have trouble processing the thought, she flat out didn't like it.

And that… wasn't good.

But whatever. Mary Shannon might not understand the big deal about babies or why she disliked the idea of Marshall having babies, but she did know that the smile on Marshall's face and in his bright blue eyes made her feel all warm inside.

Probably the way that babies made everyone else feel.