Another day, another case but this one's a bit too close to home for Samantha. Martin's trying to fight his feelings and keep things professional but things just aren't that easy anymore. S/M
Disclaimer: I don't own the characters or the F.B.I but the plot is mine, my own, my preciousssssssssssss.
A/N- Okay so, I don't know what drove me to write this fanfic but something did and the ideas kept coming so I hope it's something worth reading.
He'd had his suspicions for a long while but he didn't think he'd ever find any proof to back them up. He'd put it all down to his overactive imagination and the whole male jealousy thing kicking in but whenever he saw them together he immediately jumped to conclusions or examined their body language, eyes narrowed desperate that it would tell him something. Then it all came out, all at once and the storm had yet to pass.
He and Samantha had been working late, writing up reports. Vivian had gone home to look after her son, Jack was trying to sort out things with his wife over dinner and Danny was out with a friend. It was like everyone else had somewhere to be after work, something to do, someone to meet except him. Of course he had expected his new team to jump to conclusions about him when he had first arrived. How wrong they all were. Martin preferred to avoid seeing his parents as much as he could and such that he put all his time and energy into his work that he didn't exactly lead a life outside the New York Missing Persons Unit. Nor did Samantha. It seemed like every night for the past fortnight they'd been left in the building late at night trying to search for more clues for a case or else they were slaving away over their reports. Martin didn't mind. Having Samantha there gave him some company. Well, sort of. Whenever Martin tried to make idle conversation to lighten the mood, she always quickly drew the attention back to the case at hand. It was pretty obvious. She didn't want to become friends with her work colleagues, she wanted to keep things professional, she wanted to keep up this barrier, she didn't want anyone to know the true Samantha. And that's where the problem lay. She was so mysterious, silent and even sad sometimes that Martin just wanted to let her know that he was there. Like hell she cared. And still Martin struggled to get thoughts of his work colleague out of his head. He knew there had to be a happy balance and he knew the rules: Number one stated that you must never enter a relationship with a work colleague, especially if you work at such close quarters every day like he and Samantha, but on the other hand there was no need to be so cold and distant as Samantha was. Everyday Martin tried to devote all his attention to finding the missing person but it was hard sometimes, especially when he and Samantha were assigned a task together. That wasn't often. Samantha was much higher up and more experienced than he was and Jack liked to have her at hand. They'd known each other for years and were close. Martin had no idea how close until that night in the office.
He'd just finished work on a report and he'd sent it to Samantha to have a look at. He'd gone into her office to ask if she'd received it yet to which she said she hadn't and that her e-mail's been playing up for awhile. He had offered, completely unaware what he was getting himself into, to check it out since he knew a thing or two about computers. She'd smiled and left to go and get them some coffee. Martin called up her e-mail account. The screen flashed with 'You have 2 new e-mails' both not from him. He scrolled down and looked at her folders in case it had been filtered into one of them. 'Reports', 'Personal', 'Court', 'Contacts' and then one named 'Jack'. Martin stared at the screen for sometime. He shouldn't click on it. It was wrong. It was personal. She had let him look through her e-mail account. He clicked on it. And there were 227 e-mails from their boss. The last one was from the beginning of this year. Surely if he'd emailed her, like he emailed them all, about a case then she would have kept the recent ones too if she'd kept 200 odd others. Unless ……. None of the subject lines could shed any light – they all were blank with just a 'Re:' which Martin thought was odd. He randomly chose a link and clicked on it.
'Sam,
I couldn't stop thinking about you all night and then you came in looking even more beautiful than usual this morning. I feel so happy during our times together.
You handled that case yesterday really well. I'll have to talk to the department about getting you a raise this month.
What are you up to tonight? My wife and girls are out all night, I thought maybe we could meet up same place, same time?
Yours
Jack
xxxxxxxx'
Martin felt sick. It was true then. The boss he'd admired and looked up to was nothing more than a sick sleazebag. 'Getting you a raise this month ..' It was so shallow. Samantha must have seen through all of this and yet she had carried it on for at least a year until just before Martin joined the team. What did she see in him, what was she getting out of it? He never envisaged her as the type to sleep with her boss just to get promotion or more money. And now, what was happening now? They were working together as if nothing had happened. Jack just seemed to look at her as if she was nothing special and Samantha, well even her he saw nothing unusual there, except some slight awkwardness in her voice sometimes. 'Sam'. What had she once said to him? That no one calls her Sam except Jack ….. Martin was dazed.
Samantha had come back into the room then. He had stood up, announced that he had to go. She'd looked confused, put down the cups and asked whether he had managed to fix her computer as she walked back to her desk. He hadn't said anything, just put on his jacket, grabbed his bag and was halfway out of the door before she'd managed to look at the screen. She had run out into the corridor, calling him back but he was out of the building and into a cab before she could catch up with him.
That was a week ago and as fate would have it his mother had fallen ill and he'd taken the week off the go back home and check up on his folks. Now he was back and he neither knew what to do about what he had found out nor could he understand why his feelings for Samantha were still there.
Martin sat down in the conference room and looked aimlessly out of the door, his eyes coming to rest on Samantha who was going through some files. He hated the way he felt right now.
"Come on then, spill. How long has it been?" asked Vivian with a tone of amusement, coming to sit down next to Martin.
"How long what?" he asked.
"How long have you liked Samantha?"
"What?" he said, turning towards her quickly.
Vivian laughed. "Oh I wouldn't worry about it. Every hot blooded male in the building has had a thing for Samantha. It's only natural. She's very pretty and oozes confidence. So did it start the moment you walked in the room for the first time or-"
"I don't know." Martin said, distracted. "Do you think she knows?"
Vivian shrugged. "You're quite the quiet, discrete type aren't you? You've been acting normal so she probably hasn't noticed. Even if she has it wouldn't bother someone like Samantha - she gets it everyday. You'll get over it, everyone does. Danny got over it quite quickly."
"Danny liked Samantha?" Martin asked curiously.
"Sure, but only for a short while. Now they're more like brother and sister."
"How long did it take for Jack to get over her?"
Vivian looked at him oddly. "Jack's the boss. I'm sure he's far too professional to even look at her in that way." she said firmly.
"Yeah, sorry," Martin said. Vivian obviously didn't know about the affair and Danny wasn't exactly the discrete type, Martin was sure he didn't know. Great. It was just him then.
Samantha came in the room. "What have we got then?" she asked, glancing up from her files. As she caught sight of Martin, he could see a touch of surprise in her eyes. Maybe she hadn't been expecting him back so soon.
"Don't know yet, I'll just go and find out where Jack is." Vivian said, standing up and walking out of the room.
Samantha sat down on the other side of the table and looked at Martin awkwardly. "Look Martin, about the other day, I want you to know-"
"I'll keep your little secret if that's what you're worried about." he said bluntly, leaning back in his chair.
Samantha's cheeks coloured a little bit. "I don't want you to think that I'm some kind of slut who was sleeping with her boss just to move up in the firm or to get more money."
"No, why would I think that?" Martin said sarcastically.
"You don't know, you'll never understand, I didn't enjoy it-" Samantha said hotly.
"No of course not. I'm sure it must have been really hard for you sleeping with him for a whole year. Oh I am sorry."
"Don't think you know me!" Samantha exclaimed, standing up angrily.
Just then Jack came through the door, with Vivian and Danny following him. "Is everything okay in here?" he asked looking from Martin to Samantha. He prided himself on running a smooth ship and he seldom found two team members arguing with each other in the conference room first thing in the morning.
Samantha nodded and sat back down calmly.
"Martin?" Jack questioned.
"Yes." he answered reluctantly without looking at him or Samantha.
"Good then, we can begin." Jack stated, walking up to the white board and sticking a picture on it. "Laura Haywood, 19, waitress. Lives with her parents. Last seen leaving the restaurant where she works yesterday at 11pm. Danny, I want you to go and talk to the restaurant owner, Vivian check up her cell phone, see if any calls were made."
The two agents nodded and left the room. "Martin, Samantha I want you to both go and talk to Laura's parents." Martin looked down at the table. "Is that going to be a problem?"
"No." they both said.
"Good, get to it." he ordered.
They walked down to the car park in silence. Martin hated the thought that they had a two-hour car journey in front of them to thrash it out. He opened the car and got in the driver's seat. "18 West Park St, right?" he asked, checking his map.
"I believe so." Samantha answered, doing up her seat belt.
"Good." Martin said starting the engine and driving out the car park.
They were ten minutes on the road before anyone said anything and when Samantha spoke, Martin knew what it would be about.
"Martin, if we're going to work together, we can't go on for the rest of eternity with you thinking I'm a piece of dirt."
"I didn't."
"But you do now?"
"Bingo." Martin sighed, his eyes concentrated on the road.
"You have to understand I didn't do it for a raise or a promotion or just to be the 'boss' pet.' It's just I was young, green and insecure when I joined the team and Jack was strong and supportive. He helped me settle in, showed me the ropes, said that one day I'd be able to lead a team all by myself ….. we spent a lot of time of time together. One day he made a move and I didn't do anything, I knew he was having problems at home and I …………I don't know. I guess he was the one stable thing in my life and I felt safe with him. I knew that it was wrong, unprofessional and yet I just let it happen ……. One day Jack's daughters came to visit him at the office and I knew it had to stop and Jack agreed. He's been acting like it hasn't happened since."
"Thanks for sharing." Martin said wryly pulling into a garage to get more petrol ('gas'). How ironic that all of a sudden Samantha felt like talking. He got out of the car and walked to the pump, Samantha got out also.
"You just don't get it do you? I guess that's hardly surprising, growing up in upper class New York, I guess you've had it easy. Daddy always getting you want, being there at your birthdays, at your graduation, your mother phoning you ever night just to check that you had a good day and ate dinner. Ever had to make your own way in the world? Don't judge me." she said, her voice stronger and louder than she had intended it to be. A couple people on the pavement ('sidewalk') turned to look at her.
Martin turned. "What do you want from me? I already told you that I'm not going to spill."
Samantha took a few deep breaths to calm herself down. She couldn't believe that she just felt like sitting down on the wall and crying. Samantha Spade did not cry or show emotion. "I want you to understand." she said steadily.
A/N- Okay, I know that wasn't the best of places to finish this chapter but this was originally going to be a One-Shot but by the time I'd finished writing it, it was an EPIC one-shot so I decided to make it a two-parter. The next half will be up soon. Any comment or criticism would be appreciated especially since my knowledge of the show and the characters is rather limited.