"No Greater Love"
Chapter One
"I hate mornings" Cosmo grumbled to himself as he made his way to his desk at the Chicago office of the U.S Marshals Service, "especially early mornings, the day shouldn't officially start until at least 10am."Shedding his coat, he went off in the direction of the conference room searching for a cup of coffee, after finally scoring a cup & thus feeling a little more awake, he made his way back to his desk returning just in time to see a bleary-eyed Bobby Biggs stumble through the door, "hey Biggs man, what happened to you? You look like shit." "Bobby Jr. kept us up all night" Bobby muttered stifling a yawn, "ah, the little tyke still not sleeping through the night huh?" Cosmo asked, "no & I'm starting to wonder if he ever will" Bobby answered heading off to the conference room for his own cup of coffee.
Bobby & Mary, his wife of three years, had just recently had a baby boy & it was proving itself out to be quite a big adjustment for all involved, "aw sure he will Bob, it'll just take a while that's all, Cosmo said trailing Bobby to the conference room "heck, maybe he'll turn out to be an early riser like you." "Early riser??!! speak for yourself," Bobby responded darkly just as the other two marshals, Noah Newman & Savannah Cooper wandered in "who's an early riser?" Noah asked heading for the coffee pot & began pouring two cups, one for him & one for Savannah "thanks" she said taking the cup Noah handed her, "oh, I was just telling Cosmo about Bobby Jr. keeping Mary & I up all night" Bobby said shaking his head, "I just don't know what we're gonna do if this keeps up, I don't know how much longer I can run on no sleep." "Don't worry Bobby," Savannah said, "it'll come soon" "I hope so" Bobby answered as the group started out of the conference room & headed to their respective desks, "hey, anyone seen Sammy?" Noah asked glancing at the clock on the wall, "isn't he usually here by now?" "Yeah, he usually beats us here" Cosmo said, "or he used to" he trailed off.
Everyone glanced at one another in concern, they had all sensed the change in Sam ever since Sam's boss, Catherine Walsh, had succumbed to cancer three months before, while they had all grieved, Sam, it seemed, took it the hardest of all, he was gruffer than usual & seemed to spend most of his time in his office only coming out when absolutely necessary & his team was beginning to worry about him, but they didn't know what to do, trying to get him to talk would do no good, past experiences had taught them that much, he would talk when he was good & ready & not a moment before.
At that very moment Sam was in his apartment struggling against the urge to call in sick, he hardly ever missed a day of work even when he was injured, but he just didn't know if he could face another day of concerned glances coming from his team, he knew that they were just worried about him though he had tried to hide it from them, he knew they sensed the change in him since Catherine's death but he couldn't bring himself to talk about it, he knew that if he tried, that he would lose control of his emotions & if there was one thing Sam detested it was not being in control. He looked at the clock on his nightstand "come on Sam," he muttered to himself, "better get your ass in gear or you'll wind up having the entire team over here busting the door down", he sighed & got up to get ready for the drive in to the office.
An hour later, Sam strode though the outer office straight into his office slamming the door shut behind him, garnering
he knew, more concerned glances from his "kids",as he called them but he was in no mood to explain himself. A moment later, Savannah came in with a cup of coffee & set it at his elbow, he heard her take a deep breath as if she was about to say something to him, but, he waved her off with a gruff "thanks" she sighed, turned & left the office quietly, as she pulled the office door shut behind her she glanced across the room at the other team members who were watching intently, she shrugged & shook her head at them indicating that she had not had any luck talking to Sam, "hell, he didn't even let me get a word out" she thought to herself as she made her way back to her desk "someone has got to get through to him, but who?" she wondered to herself as she stared at her computer screen for a while before mentally shaking herself, "I'm not gonna get any work done just sitting here" she scolded herself "I'll worry about Sam later" as she settled down to work.