Chapter 7

XoXoXoX

"So I think we need to figure out why he was making all those calls to," Sam finished as she closed her notebook. She glanced at Paul who nodded his head in agreement.

Jack nodded his head and in his scratchy voice replied, "Good. Well, let me know what you find out."

Paul stood up and walked out of the office but Sam lingered behind, waiting for the office door to close before she quietly said, "Why don't you go home? We can handle things here and you really should be with your family."

He slumped back in his chair and looked at a framed picture of both Hanna and Kate. "Nah, the girls are spending the day with Maria before she leaves and Elaine is in court. Besides, I'd feel even more useless there."

"How is Kate doing?" she asked, her heart heavy with sadness for what the young woman must be going through right now.

"She's as good as to be expected, I guess," he replied sadly. "She's putting on a brave face for Maria but you can tell she's lying…"

"She's just trying to process it all," she said, trying to sound comforting.

"I know," he breathed out. He glanced at his computer and said, "I've been reading through rape cases from the last year and unless it was a date rape most of them are unsolved."

She knew what he was alluding to – the accusation that Reggie may have been the one involved. When she and Martin had returned from his mother's funeral Frances told them that Viv had called. Martin called her back to find out that she was hoping that he would be able to help her get access to cases and that's when they got the details regarding the possibility of Reggie being the one. She knew that Martin had agreed to help her but that was the last she heard.

But she also knew that it might be best to not tell Jack at this time so she simply asked, "So no new leads?"

"Not yet," he said bitterly. "But I am going to keep working it until I find one."

"Do you need any help?" she asked, certain that no matter how Jack and Viv approached the investigation the ultimate goal was to find Kate's attacker.

"Not yet," he replied, giving her a grateful look.

"Okay, let me know if you need me to do anything," she stood up and started to leave before stopping and looking down at him. "Just be careful that you keep your objectivity. You are very close to this case and I would hate for you to read the evidence based on what you want to find and not at what is."

He gave her a hard look. "I always do." She gave him a polite smile and nodded before walking to the door. She had her hand on the door when he spoke up, "Sam?"

"Yeah?" she asked, looking back at him.

"I didn't have a chance to tell you but I'm sorry about Katherine."

She gave him a small smile and said, "Thank you," before exiting his office.

As she walked back to the bullpen she fiddled with the bracelet on her wrist. It was a Paloma Picasso cabochon stone bracelet. It was an extravagance to own such an expensive piece of jewelry but it was bequeathed to her from Katherine. Before they left Parker distributed a few pieces that she knew her mom wanted Sam to have.

XoX

"I don't know if I can take this," Sam replied as Parker handed her a teak jewelry box filled with beautiful pieces of jewelry.

The family had just finished breakfast when Parker took Sam aside, asking to speak to her in private. She took her into Katherine's study and they both sat on the loveseat by the window when Parker handed her the box, saying that it was written into Katherine's will that Sam inherit the pieces and hopefully pass them onto Grace as she grew up.

"Mom wanted you to have these pieces," she replied, a quiver of emotion in her voice.

"Are you sure you and Reese don't want them?" she asked even though she had long coveted the bracelets, earrings and cameo locket. "You were her daughters, her family."

"You are family, too, Samantha," Parker replied with so much conviction that it reminded her so much of Katherine.

She nodded and clasped the bracelet around her wrist; it fit perfectly. "I'm going to miss her so much. She was my anchor to Martin all those years ago. I don't know how I would have managed without her."

Parker tilted her head so it rested against the back of the sofa and said, "She said she didn't know how she would have managed without you." She glanced out the window for a long beat before looking back at her and saying, "She and Martin got along okay before he had been shot but during those months he was in a coma, it changed her and it changed my father. I don't think I had ever seen her so scared before." She tucked a strand of hair behind her ears and continued, "She spent hours every day talking to Martin and one day I asked her about what. She told me that she would read your emails and talk to him about whatever you had written. It was strictly a one-sided conversation of course, but she would talk to him about any topic you would share. She said she learned more about Martin's adult life from your emails than she had from his visits or phone calls."

Tears welled in Sam's eyes, remembering how precious Katherine's emails were to her as well. "And I got to learn more about Martin from her."

"Take these pieces and when you were them, think of her because you are family," Parker had a small sad smile on her face as she reached into the box and ran her fingers over the ivory cameo. She held it up for Sam and said, "And believe me Samantha, in my mom's opinion you were much more a daughter than a daughter-in-law."

XoX

Sam adjusted the bracelet once more before dropping her hand to her side as she strode into the bullpen to help Paul with the background check. She sat down at the conference table and started reading through pages of phone records while Paul sat across from her with the laptop open as he reviewed their missing person's bank records.

Every now and then she could feel a pair of eyes watching her and she would look up in time to see some of her fellow agents suddenly look away, as if interested in the glass window pane that lined the hallway or found their fingernails to be fascinating. She would stare at them, challenging them to talk to her about all the media accusations flying about Martin and Kelly but so far no one had the courage to ask her about it.

She rolled her eyes at them and returned her attention to the forms when she heard Paul laugh and mutter, "What the hell?"

She looked over at him to see him staring at one of the television screens mounted on the wall. The channel was set to a news channel and she saw Kelly standing next to a chubby man in a suit as she talked to reporters. The sound was muted so Sam grabbed the remote off of one of the shelves and turned up the volume in time to hear Kelly say, "…while I am actively looking at having a child of my own I am not having an affair with the man featured in the photo that was published. He is just an old friend and he is happily married. I apologize for any embarrassment or inconvenience this misunderstanding may have caused him and his family."

Sam started to give sigh of relief when one of the reporters asked, "Is it true that he told you no because it would upset his life partner?"

"Yes," she replied with a small smile. "They are very much in love and he did not want to upset their life."

"Were you specifically seeking to have your baby fathered by a gay man?"

Kelly scrunched her eyes in confusion and asked, "Excuse me?"

"Your mystery man's boyfriend talked to us earlier and he said that they were in a committed relationship and were raising their own children."

The show cut to some video of Danny standing where Kelly was moments earlier. He was looking cool and confident as he said, "Yes, I am his partner, for lack of a better word." She couldn't hear what question was being asked but he laughed and replied, "Yes, we have kids and we know how important parenting is, you can't take it lightly. But they are also so wonderful. Recently, we were watching our kids during a school play and I think it's safe to say we were both beaming with pride that day." He laughed again and looked at another reporter who was asking a question that again she couldn't hear. He had a snarky smirk on his face as he replied, "I prefer to think of us as extra special…" before the show cut back to Kelly who was shaking her head but it was clear that the reporters were ignoring her protests.

Sam groaned and lowered her head, the palm of her hand pressed up against her forehead. She couldn't decide what was worse, everyone thinking that Martin was having an affair with Kelly or him having an "extra special" relationship with Danny. She looked up at the screen, wanting to hear Kelly adamantly reply that they had it wrong but at this exact minute the only thing she could hear was the roaring laughter of every agent around her as they watched the show.

She turned around to see that even Paul was laughing so hard that there were tears in his eyes. She gave him a steely glare and turned to look back at the news show to see that it had cut to commercial. She clicked the TV back to mute and turned around to face all the snickering agents. "If anyone has anything they want to say, don't hold back, say it."

Just like she figured, most of the agents lowered their heads and remained quiet. Everyone that is except Paul who just started laughing louder as he said, "Come on, Samantha, even you have to appreciate how funny this is," he stepped closer, folding his arms over his chest, "I mean, Danny inadvertently just outed himself and Martin on national TV. While, we all know," he waved his hand around at all of the agents, "that they aren't gay and Danny probably didn't realize how what he was saying sounded, it's pretty hilarious."

Despite herself, Sam's lips twitched into a grin. "It's a little funny."

"Oh, no, it's a lot funny." Paul laughed and stepped closer. "And I for one cannot wait until they get back here because I plan on having a lot of fun tormenting them about this for a long time." She smiled at his obvious mischievous glee as he looked over at the other agents who were all smiling now; pleased that Sam's irritation was slowly dissipating. He pointed to one of the agents and asked, "Does your cousin still work for that office supply store?" The agent nodded. "How long do you think it would take him to get us a couple of nameplates that read: Extra Special Agent Danny Fitzgerald and Special Life Partner Martin Taylor?"

As Paul and the other agents conspired, Sam smiled at them; happy in the knowledge that Danny's obvious attempt at running interference has completely changed the scandal from one of infidelity to one rife with humor. She had to admit that not only does this new development detract from the Kelly pregnancy rumor but this also meant that Martin was going to pay big time at the office. When it came to real serious issues, everyone kept their distance and never directly asked questions but something like this was going to be office fodder for months.

"Hey Sam," Paul called out.

She looked over at where he stood with the other agents plotting practical jokes against Danny and her husband. "Yeah?"

"I don't suppose you have a copy of your wedding photo that we can photoshop?"

She gave him a wicked grin and replied, "Oh, you bet I do."