Author Note: May thanks to Kathiann for all her help to beta this story.

Disclaimer: I unfortunately do not own the characters they belong to the USA Network.

Mayday

Samantha Redding was a twenty-three year old legal secretary. She had the misfortune of dropping some legal documents off for her boss when she witnessed Oscar Manelli's hit on an arms dealer. She had been placed into witness protection program immediately and before morning had even highlighted the sky she was on her way from New York City to Albuquerque, New Mexico. She had been in their protection for two years before the trial finally came, and even it didn't go as planned.

Mary and Marshall loaded Samantha onto the plane for the trip back to Albuquerque. Neither was happy and Mary had no problems sharing it with her partner. "What the hell is with the delay in the trial? It's not even a small delay. Who delays a trial for several months when they are on the last witness?"

Marshall just shrugged knowing whatever answer he gave would not make her happy. "Well let's get home and then we can worry about it when she has to return. There's nothing we can do to change the court's decision." Mary glared at him. They did one more check around the airplane boarding and jetting down the runway.

An hour into the flight Marshall had to smile. Mary was resting with her eyes closed and Samantha had fallen asleep. He got up and grabbed a couple of blankets to put on the pair. Mary opened her eyes the second the blanket was put on her. "Give a girl a heart attack why don't you? Samantha could use one too. She didn't sleep much in the hotel." Marshall lifted the other one up to show her and then placed it over the sleeping form of Mary's witness.

Marshall began to walk back to his seat when suddenly there was a loud boom and the plane began a steep descent. The sudden pitch caused him to lose his balance and go tumbling towards the cockpit. He heard Mary calling his name and Samantha's terrified screaming. The last thing he remembered before blacking out was the pilot's panicked voice calling out a mayday.

Mary forced Samantha into the brace position for impact. "Keep your head down. Hang on." Mary tried to reassure her through the screams but there was nothing else they could do. She feared for Marshall as he was getting tossed around and knew it would be worse once they impacted. Mary could see the trees getting closer when she chanced a look. The plane hit hard and it was the last thing she recalled before being knocked unconscious.

Mary groaned as she became aware of her surroundings. Her head was sore and she could feel moisture trickling down the side of her face; blood. Then she remembered what happened. Undoing her seat belt she checked for a pulse and was rewarded. Tapping her cheek gently she called out "Samantha, wake up. Samantha, I need you to wake up."

Samantha let out a soft groan and her eyes began to blink open. She looked at Mary confused. "What happened?"

"The plane crashed. Do you hurt anywhere?" Mary waited impatiently for an answer. In the back of her mind she was very aware of the fact Marshall hadn't said a word and wasn't hovering over the two of them; it scared her.

Samantha began to test her body by moving it some. "I think I can move. I'm sore more than anything else. Are you okay?"

Mary nodded. "I need to check on Marshall and the pilot. Don't move." Mary got up and began to look for her partner. She knew he had been thrown towards the cockpit door when they were headed down but she could imagine that he had been bounced around pretty good. "Marshall!" She cried out after seeing him lying on his side and not moving to the left of the cockpit door. Finding a pulse, she let out the breath she had been holding. Tapping his cheek lightly she attempted to get him to come around. No response.

"Samantha, I need you to get me the first aid kit out of Marshall's away bag." Mary called out over her shoulder and the young woman could be heard scurrying around the cabin.

It had taken a few minutes to find them, but Samantha finally found Marshall's bag emptying the contents out onto the floor until she found it. "Yes!" she called quickly bringing the kit to Mary.

Mary searched the contents and finally found the smelling salts. Waving them under his nose a few times his head jerked away from the smell as his eyes began to open. "Doofus look at me." Mary demanded. He wasn't focusing and it concerned her.

"What?" His face was filled with confusion.

"I need to know where you are hurt." She could see the gash on his face and head.

Marshall looked at her and honestly couldn't answer yet. He was trying to clear his head of the fuzziness he was feeling. "Not sure. Help me up."

"Not until we know what kind of damage you did to yourself." She worried he might have internal bleeding or broken ribs. "I'm going to unbutton your shirt and check your ribs. You need to tell me what hurts if anything."

Marshall just nodded. She slowly unbuttoned his shirt; slid it off one arm and began poking and prodding. She moved him up a little to get the other arm loose of the shirt, when she tried to move the other arm he tensed and she could see the pain written on his face.

"Oh crap!" He bit out as his shoulder protested in pain. "Dislocated." He gritted through his teeth.

"Do you have a sling at all in your medical supplies?" Marshall nodded. He had saved the one they had given him when he had been shot and had added it to his ever growing supply of medical necessities.

"It's in the bag but not the kit. The black one they gave me before." Mary hated to hear about the Lola incident so Marshall always creatively worded things so as to not mention it. "Mary, sit me up. The only thing that hurts is my shoulder. You are going to have to reset it." She nodded at that. Samantha came over with the sling. "Did the pilot send out a mayday? I thought I heard one."

"I haven't gotten that far yet." Mary answered.

"Go check. If he did we are going to need to move. The trouble isn't over and if he sent one out we could end up with company. I promise I won't move until you get back." Marshall smiled over her shoulder at Samantha. The poor woman was scared to death.

Mary managed to open the door to the cockpit but knew instantly the pilot didn't survive. "The pilot can't tell us anything Marshall."

"Check the radio and see if you can get anything." Marshall yelled. With his good arm he reached for his cell phone and turned it. "No cell coverage."

Mary played with all the switches but couldn't get the radio to come on. "Is there a special way to turn in on?" Marshall yelled out the instructions. "Nothing is happening." She grabbed her cell and checked to see if she had anything. "My cell isn't getting a signal either."

"We need to fix my shoulder, get some supplies and get out of here." They couldn't risk the chance of someone coming after them. Sitting still in the plane made them too much of an easy target.

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Stan received the phone call that afternoon. "McQueen."

Eleanor noticed the change in his facial expression and wondered what was happening. "Where did it go down?" He hung up the phone "Eleanor, schedule a jet to be ready at the airport."

"When and where are you going?" Eleanor asked.

"As soon as they have an idea where Mary and Marshall's plane went down I'll know that. I need it on standby." Her face registered the shock of his statement. "We need to alert search teams to go on standby also."

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Mary had put Marshall's shoulder into place and into the sling. They were gathering supplies and making sure they had plenty of ammunition. When Samantha asked nervously, "Do you really think they will be able to track us?"

Mary and Marshall cast glances at each other. "A downed plane is hard to miss and if the news gets a wind of it then we will have plenty to be concerned about." Mary didn't feel the need to coddle the witness. She needed to know what they were up against.

Marshall picked up the supply bag and was about to sling it over his good shoulder when Mary snapped at him. "What is wrong with you? Did you hit your head harder than I thought?" She yanked the bag out of his hands. "Marshall you're the Boy Scout you lead. Samantha, you stay between us and do exactly what we tell you to."

Leaving the shelter of the plan they began to trek out into the forest, none of them really sure where they were. "Marshall if you figure out where we are at, feel free to share it with the rest of the class." He chuckled at that and kept walking.

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Victor Black came into the room in a hurry; he wanted to be the first to report the rumors to his boss. Maybe he could even move up in the organization with the information he had been given. "Boss, a friend of mine has mentioned that an airplane called in a Mayday. The rumor is that it belongs to the U.S. Marshals. It could be the one containing our girl."

Oscar Manelli looked up and smiled. "Good work. Do they have an exact location?"

Victor shook his head. "My friend is supposed to call me back with the information. I'll let you know as soon as I hear." His boss nodded.

"Get a group ready to go. I want her and her protectors dead before the trial resumes."