Chapter Seven
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When Martin got over to Sara's school a little after three in the afternoon and went inside the schoolyard to be with the other parents who are waiting for their children to come out of the red brick building, he was having a conversation with Emily's father, Ben the moment he heard the children's voices coming out of the building.
To see his daughter walking out of the building and running toward him with a big smile on her face while saying to him, "Daddy!", Martin turned to the front doors and watched the children, running out of the building and into their parents' arms or to whoever watching them for the afternoon for a few minutes until most of the children were out of the building and it surroundings and there was still no Sara.
Martin is about to start worrying about his daughter when he saw that and he want to know where she is at and to do that, he had to find out about it from Sara's friend, Emily.
Watching Ben putting his arms around Emily's body and carrying his friend's own little girl up, Martin smiled at that and turned to a smiling Emily and with the same smile on his face, Martin said to her, "Hey, Emily. I had a question to ask you."
Getting a few kisses on the forehead by her father, Emily giggled at that and with a big smile on her face, she turned to Martin and said to him, "Hi, Mr. Fitzgerald. What's it?"
"Did you know where Sara is at right now?"
Emily stares at him for a few minutes until Ben noticed this silence and said to his daughter, "Em, can you tell Mr. Fitzgerald where Sara is at right now?"
Emily stared at her father and then, to Martin who looks very worried about this and then, at this moment, Emily stared at both of the men while saying to them a little quietly, "Yes, I know where Sara is at?"
"Where?" asked Martin who got a sigh of relief when he received the first clue of finding his daughter.
"Inside the classroom with Miss Walker." answered by Emily.
Martin was surprised of that answer and asks Emily another question. "Inside with Miss Walker? Do you know why, Emily?"
Emily stared at Martin for a whole minute before saying straight to him, "No, Sir."
"Emily, can you think a little harder about this?" asked Martin who know that he was about to scare Emily for the first time since last Halloween when he accidently scared the three little girls at the horror house at the school gym of the school Halloween event but he wasn't with a flashlight in his hand during a blackout that night this time. He is trying to look for his daughter.
"I am trying to, Sir…" quietly said back by Emily.
"Please, Emily……" responded back by Martin who know that Emily Roberts can do this while his friend, Ben Roberts is starting to have a bad feeling about this.
Being a prosecutor that he is and to protect his daughter on this, Ben looked straight into Martin's eyes and with a lawyer-ish tone in his voice, he said to his friend, "Martin, can you don't do that to Emily, please? I think that you are starting to scare my daughter."
Knowing about Ben was telling him, Martin looked at Ben's dark-colored eyes and said to him with a calm tone in his voice, "I know about that, Ben. I'm very sorry about that."
Ben smiled at Martin for getting that and said to him and chuckled to the FBI agent/ the father of Sara, "I'm fine with that, Martin but you gotta said that again to Emily.", referring to the scared little blonde-haired girl in his suit-jacket covered arms.
"I'm okay with that, Ben." said Martin who seconds later, turned to the scared Emily who was resting her head on Ben's shoulder, and him with a smile on his face and a cool and calm tone in his voice, "Hey, Emily. I got something to tell you."
"Sure, Mr. Fitzgerald. What's it?" asked quietly by Emily.
"I'm very sorry that I had asked you that question harshly. I was trying to find out where Sara's at before. Can you ever forgive me?"
Both Martin and Ben stared at the little girl for an answer and right away, Emily looked at Martin with her blue-colored eyes and a slight smile was slowly appearing on her face before saying to him, "I forgiven you, Mr. Fitzgerald."
Martin smiled at Emily for getting that moment of forgive and forget and shook Emily's small hand while Ben was saying in the background to Emily, "That's my girl!" and kissed Emily on the forehead.
Martin chuckled at the moment he saw that and can't wait to do that to Sara the moment she comes out of the school which is soon, he hope and continued watching Ben and his daughter for a while until he heard Sara's voice, saying to him, "Daddy!"
He turned around and saw Sara, running toward him with her arms wide open with Renee Walker walking right behind the little girl. He smiled at his daughter; running toward him but the smile suddenly went a little bigger every step Renee was walking over to him with a smile on her face.
"Hey, Daddy!" said Sara who ran over to her father after a long day at school. In return, Martin picked his daughter up in his arms while saying to her, "Hey, Baby. How's school?"
"Fun, Daddy. Just like you told me this morning." said a smiling Sara.
Kissing Sara on the forehead, Martin smiled at her and said back to her, "I'm glad you did, Sara."
Sara Fitzgerald started cuddling in her father's arms while Renee finally came over to him with the same smile on her face, "Hi, Martin. It's nice to see you again."
"Nice to see you too, Renee." said a smiling Martin.
In the background, Ben was seeing this moment between Martin and Miss Walker with Sara smacked in the middle of all of this and knew that he doesn't want to be involved in all of this and so does Emily and to say their goodbyes without a ounce of rudeness in it, Ben told the three of them the goodbye of the day.
"Well, I better get going then. Sara and Miss Walker, I'll see you girls tomorrow.
"Okay with that, Mr. Roberts." said Sara who waved her hand at Ben. "Also, okay with that, Mr. Roberts." responded back by Renee who smiled at him also.
Ben saw that and smiled at the two girls before turning over to Martin and said to him, "and Martin?"
Martin turned to him and said to him, "Yeah, Ben."
"See you at the court hearing with you and Sam, tomorrow. Okay?"
"Okay with that, Ben. Sam and I will see you tomorrow, then." said Martin.
In return, Ben nodded at Martin for that while putting Emily down on the schoolyard floor, grabbed the little girl who was saying her goodbyes loudly to Martin, Sara, and Miss Walker, Ben chuckled at that, and went out of the schoolyard together, leaving the three of them behind.
Watching Ben Roberts walking away with Emily, Renee smiled at that before turning to Martin with the same smile on her face and asked him, "And so, are you and Ben are working together?", referring to the remainder of tomorrow's court hearing Ben gave Martin and another person named Sam.
Martin chuckled at the thought of that and looking at Renee's eyes and smile; he smiled at her and answered her question by saying to her, "Not exactly, Renee."
"How exactly did you meant of that, Martin?"
It took only about thirty seconds for him to think about it before having an explanation for it and turning to a waiting Renee and said it to her with a nice and calming feeling of his in case that he ended up making a fool of himself in front of her again.
"Exactly, both Ben and I are in the FBI but Ben is an attorney for them while I work as an agent along with my co-worker, Sam…."
"Don't you meant Auntie Sam, Daddy?" asked Sara who had interrupted the two adults' conversation to make herself clear that Sam is a woman, not a man in case that Renee Walker get confused of the gender of Sam.
Martin ruffled his daughter's hair and said to her, "Yeah, I know about that. Why did you tell me that?"
In return, Sara looked up to him with a cute smile on her face and said to him, "Just want to make sure of that, Daddy."
"Oh" said Martin, who can only tell her that one single word that moment. Sara just smiled at him, knowing that she was right about that.
Watching the moment between those two, Renee studied the father and daughter before realized that Martin was staring at her with his blue eyes and gorgeous smile of his while asking her, "Renee, are you okay? Want to me to tell you more about it?"
Renee nodded to him with a sweet-looking smile on her face. Martin saw that before grinning at her, "Are you sure about that? It's a pretty long and boring story. Sara sure got bored about it when I told her about it. Right, Baby?", staring at his daughter.
Sara saw her father staring at her with that grin of his and nodded her head while saying to him with a smile on her face, "Right, Daddy." before turning to Miss Walker and with the same look on her face that she gave to Martin, Sara looked at her and said to the teacher, "Miss Walker, long story short. Daddy and his team caught the bad guy, bad guy went to jail, same guy got out of jail, now suing the FBI for his wrongful arrest, and Mr. Roberts is helping them getting out of the lawsuit by telling the judge and the jury and the news people about what the bad guy is really about."
Renee was a little shocked that how could a six years old daughter say those words without any help and very straightforward that she asked the smart girl with a smile on her face, "Sara, how did you learned that?"
In return, Sara grinned at her teacher while holding Martin's hand and answered her teacher's question by saying to her, "It was a bedtime story that my Daddy told me one night."
Renee laughed when she heard and after a minute or two of laughing, Martin chuckled at that and joked to Renee with a grin on his face, "Don't worry about it, Renee. I will make sure that Sara doesn't use my work stories for show and tell."
"I might use the most interesting ones for show and tell instead, Daddy." said Sara who got the news that she can't use all of her father's work stories for show and tell.
Martin turned to Sara and responded her statement by saying, "But with my permission, Sara."
"And my permission also, Sara. Okay with that, Sara?" said Renee who wants to make sure about this. Sara stared at the two adults and answered the question, "Okay."
The two adults smiled at that before Renee looked at the time on her watch and now realized something that she had to do that involves school. To do that, Renee looked at the two Fitzgeralds and immediately said to them, "Sorry about this but I better get back inside the building for a meeting."
"Oh, what's the meeting about?" asked a disappointed-looking Martin about this coming into an end.
Renee saw the disappointed look on the man's face and smiled at him. "About the aftermath of the first day of school between all of the teachers in the school."
"In other words, the teachers will be going to gossip about the students, picking who might be the good students and who are going to a little trouble to interact with."
Renee nodded to Martin, telling him that might be one of the things that the teacher including herself might be doing and seconds later, the student between the three of them asked Renee a question.
"Miss Walker, am I part of the good students?" Renee and Martin looked down at Sara who was staring up at them with her brown eyes and uneasy smile on her face.
"Sara, of course that you are part of the good students. Why did you ask me that?" asked Renee who showed the child a sweet smile on her face.
In return, Sara just shrugged her shoulders and said back to her teacher, "I don't know. I just wanted to know about it."
"That was good to know, Sara." said Renee before looking up to Martin who was smoothing his daughter's brown hair with his fingers, Renee asked him a question before heading back.
"Martin, I got a question to ask you." With a smile on his face, "Yeah, Renee. What's it?"
"Can I have your number?" said Renee in her southern drawl. A grin was slowly developing on his face the moment he heard that and said to her, "Sure, Renee. You can have mine if you give me yours."
A grin also slowly developing on her face the moment she heard that and said back to him, "Since when you started reading my mind?"
During the minute of giving each other their home and cell numbers plus e-mail addresses with the help of Sara's pen, Martin gave Renee his card while Renee wrote all three of the connections on Martin's palm with the pen to add a personal touch on it.
Martin was in awe when he saw the numbers and letters and symbols in black ink on his palm and knew that there's one greater thing about Renee Walker from all of the things that he learned about her so far. Renee saw Martin Fitzgerald's face goes into awe the moment she wrote down everything on his smooth palm and had to leave right away because the meeting will be starting soon in five minutes and counting down, Renee took Martin's free hand and shook it while staring at Martin's face and saying to her, "It's nice to see you soon, Martin and I will see you and Sara tomorrow."
Martin shook Renee's hand and said back to her with a nice grin on his face, "Nice to see you too, Renee and I am pretty sure that Sara and I will see you tomorrow too. Right, Sara?"
"Right, Daddy!"
Renee slightly laughed at that and said to them with a smile, "Fine with that. Bye, Martin. Bye, Sara."
"Bye, Renee. See you tomorrow." said Martin. "Bye, Miss Walker." said Sara who gave her a wave.
"Bye, guys. See you tomorrow." said Renee who waved back to Sara before turning around and walking back to the school to get to her depends on how much talk meeting before heading back to her place for the night.
Walking Miss Walker walking back into the school, Sara grabbed her father's hand again so they could get a snack together before heading back to her Daddy's workplace and there, she had realized something about him. Martin kept at Miss Walker's back and he was smiling like she never saw him before. She might saw him drooling also.
"Daddy, stop doing that please!" said Sara a little loudly, referring to the drool that Martin is developing with his saliva now and pulling his hand a little harder to make him stop doing the habit.
"Doing what, Sara?" asked Martin who doesn't understand a single word coming out of his daughter's mouth. "You are drooling like a dog!" straightforwardly said by Sara.
It took a moment for Martin to realize this before he felt himself drooling on his jaw and after wiping it off of his jaw line with his suit-covered arm, Martin looked down at Sara's now smiling face and asked her, "All better now?"
"All better now, Daddy and before you forget, you promise me something from a long time ago about going into the first grade."
"What's it, Sara?"
With a sweet smile on her small face, Sara answered her father's question by saying to him, "Daddy, you had promised me the moment the first day of first grade is over, you and I could get a snack together and if you can, I could get a nap just like Kindergarten!"
"Sara, you remembered all of that all this time?!" asked Martin who was quite surprised of all of the words that Sara just told him. In return, Sara just nodded at her father and after seeing that, Martin kissed her on the forehead before asking her with a smile on his face, "Hey, Sara. What could you want for a snack: ice cream, cupcakes, cookies, a piece of cake, my leftover sub at work…..", giving her some options for the snack of the day.
Sara giggled when she heard the options especially the leftover sub part but she wants something else from him. "No, Daddy. None of that. Actually, I want a donut. A jelly-filled one I want the most."
Martin gave her a weird look on his face and asked her, "Are you sure about that?" He is very unsure about this. Sara saw that look that her father is unsure about something and said to him, "Sure that I am sure about this, Daddy. I really want a jelly donut."
It took Martin only a minute to think about it and about where to find a shop that had pastries and coffee for him since he is having a craving for one of each at the moment before turning back to Sara and said to her, "Fine, Sara. You get a donut. I might get a cup of coffee along the way. Maybe a pastry also."
"Are you hungry, Daddy?" asked Sara. Martin nodded to his daughter. "I knew that you're and let go to the food!" said Sara who completely understood her father about food. Martin chuckled at that and together, the two of them walked out of the schoolyard and to the nearby café where all of the pastries that you could think of and the best coffee in New York were in to get their snacks and the drink for Martin.
After getting inside the café, greeted the owners who know the Fitzgeralds well, and the moment Sara got her donut and her juice while Martin had his piece of chocolate cake and cup of coffee, they walked over to a vacant round table, sat down on the comfy chairs, and while watching her father reading the newspaper after taking a bite of the donut and a sip of the juice, Sara asked him a question.
"Daddy, can I ask you a question?"
While staring at the scores at the sport section of the Daily News, Martin said to her, "What's it, Sara?"
"Do you love Miss Walker and I meant, really love her that you want to marry her and she will be my new Mommy?"
Hearing that strange question from his one and only daughter, Martin put the newspaper down and with a questionable look on his face and tone in his voice, Martin Fitzgerald asked Sara Fitzgerald: "What?"
