Allow me to just say: I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'M SORRY.

The story is still, unfortunately, on hiatus, but I found this much scribbled in my notebook, so I decided to at least give you what I had written. I feel awful that my muse has abandoned this fic, but as soon as I even get the tiniest idea, I promise I'll get to work on it. I hope you all don't hate me, cause I love you guys, lol. Thank you all so much for the reviews, and "story-alerting", it is greatly appreciated.

And a warning: This fic hasn't been gone over a hundred times with a fine-toothed comb and revised like with my other ones, and I don't use a beta, so there very well could be a lot of mistakes. =/ Enjoy, I hope.

Marshall wordlessly walked into the room clad in his typical pajamas, his hair still damp and falling in his eyes slightly. After he put his old clothes away, he started for the door leading out of the room.

"Hey, what are you doing?" Mary asked, taking a step away from the bed, and more importantly, the note that was causing her way more stress than it should be.

"Checking on Rudy. He's in the room next to us." Marshall replied, stopping in his tracks and turning to look at her. Before she could respond he frowned and said in a scolding tone "What do you think you're doing? Get into bed, stay warm. I didn't pull you out of that pond for my health, you know."

Stubborn as ever, Mary marched over to him and poked him in the chest, rather hard.

"He's my witness. I can damn well check on him myself. I'm not gonna let a little chilly water get in the way of doing my job." she said firmly, a glare set on her face.

"Well, it'd make me feel a lot better if you'd just get in bed like I told you."

"Well then, using that logic, I'd feel better if you got into bed. You were walking around in a blizzard with no jacket. So there." She crossed her arms, as if daring him to argue.

"Mary…" he groaned, exasperated.

"Marshall…" she taunted, smirking at him.

A light, unidentifiable sound caught her attention, and suddenly she grinned, confusing her put out partner.

"What do you want to bet Rudy's listening to us right now?" she whispered.

Before Marshall could even open his mouth to answer, she let out a loud, fake moan.

Marshall positively goggled at her, while what could only be described as manly giggling (if there was such a thing) came from the room next to them. Mary tried her hardest not to laugh, and, only because Marshall looked oh-so-embarrassed, continued with a wanton "Oh, Marshall!"

Marshall glared at her as the giggling continued, and she just smiled smugly.

"Now can I go check on my witness?" she asked.

"Fine. I never want to show my face in front of him again anyway." Marshall mumbled, hanging his head and moving away from the door.

"That was kinda the objective." she said slyly, opening the door. He glared and lunged, and she closed the door in his face. She heard him curse lightly, and chuckled to herself.

When she reached Rudy's door she knocked loudly and called out "Hey, pervert! Open up!"

Boisterous laughter met her ears and she smiled. This guy was one hell of a character.

***

When Mary came back to the room, the first thing she noticed was that it was a lot messier than when she last saw it.

"Marshall?"

She found him standing by the chair she had hung his jacket over earlier, going through its pockets almost in a frenzy.

"Are you okay?" she asked cautiously. She had a vague idea of what was wrong with him, but she wasn't accustomed to this side of Marshall.

He didn't seem to register that she was there, muttering "Where the hell is it? Please tell me it didn't fall out in the snow or something…"

"What are you looking for?" she had a pretty good idea, but she had to ask.

Marshall stood up straight and looked at her with wide eyes, seeming surprised to see her there. "Oh. Um, it's nothing. Nothing important at least. I'm sure I'll find it later."

He was bad actor.

"Need help looking?" she offered, smiling slightly.

He looked positively petrified at the thought. "No. No, that's okay. I… I'll find it eventually." he said with a sigh, and began going about the room, cleaning up the slight mess he had made.

Mary watched him, and could tell that though he was trying very hard to hide it, he was upset. Really upset. Well, that certainly gave some insight on what he'd have to say about the evil little piece of paper that had started all of this drama and nonsense.

Well, technically she started it, being the one who wrote the damn thing in the first place, but whatever.

The prospect of losing the note/letter/testament-to-their-insanity seemed to be driving Marshall, well, insane, so she decided to end the ridiculousness once and for all and have some mercy on him.

While he went around the room tidying up, pretending not to be in the middle of a mini-meltdown, she went to the bed and lifted her pillow with a flourish.

"Could this be what you're looking for?"

"Huh?" He looked in her direction, and audibly gasped.

The look on his face might have been comical if Mary wasn't suddenly feeling exactly how Marshall looked.

***

Marshall wasn't completely sure how he felt.

He was definitely relieved. If the letter had been lost for good, he probably would've cried. It meant far too much to him. Way more than it should, at the very least.

He was also very confused. About a few things. Like: How the hell did it get under the pillow? And how did Mary know to look there? Did she know it was there ahead of time? More importantly, did she actually recognize what it was, or was there some other reason why she was staring at him like that?

I know, I know. I left it at a sorta cliffhanger, and I'm sorry. I just didn't want to hold out any of the story on you guys, since so many people seemed interested. Don't kill me por favor, and I hoped you enjoyed this tidbit of a chapter.