Chapter Fourteen

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It was a Saturday morning when this happens after a long and hard week that Martin had. Beside that Sara had been suspended for a week and got sent to Jamie for her punishment since Martin had to go to work, work had been hard as well for him.

The recent missing person had been founded dead after getting into an unexpected drug bust and got into the line of the fire in an abandon street alley before he and the team could find her. She was only eleven years old who wasn't been surrounded the people she loved when this happens and the moment Martin bent down and saw young Marie Geller with two bullet wounds on her abdomen underneath a pool of dark blood, he could only think of one person at the moment that he doesn't want this to happen to that person: his daughter, Sara.

He doesn't want this to happen to his daughter at all after seeing the remains of Marie Geller. He doesn't see her lying down with bullet wounds anywhere on her body while blood would be spilling out of it corpse if Sara ever get herself into trouble but still, Martin knew right away that if he keep thinking about this, he will get nightmares about this that wouldn't go away and he had to get himself home to be with his daughter to make it go away, no matter what.

Hearing Danny's voice in the background, asking him if there's anything that he could do for him. It was kind of like that Danny was reading his mind when that happened and to do the right thing, Martin turns to Danny who is standing right in front of him with a worried look on the Latino agent's face and straight out answered the question, "Yeah, Danny. I want to go home."

In return and knowing that Martin is tired of this since Martin can be a bit stressful with cases that involves children and his friend having a child of his own as well, Danny agreed with him on that and once the both of them were out of the dark and gloomy alley and over the yellow crime scene tape, Danny gave a nod to Jack, telling him that someone is going home seconds before hailing a cab for Martin.

Once the taxi came over and Danny opened the door before putting Martin in and closing it, Martin told the taxi driver his home address and getting the okay from the dark-colored man with a very deep voice, Martin thanked him for it and during the drive home, Martin looked out to the streets of New York and knowing that he had to spend the whole weekend with Sara, just to make sure that she know that someone love her so much that he could do anything for her, one of the reasons for it to keep her safe from all of the bad things in the world even if she doesn't want to do so or not but she had to because he love her for the rest of his life.

The moment the taxi got in front of his building, Martin paid the driver the ten dollars and got out of the taxi and into the building which he took his time slowly to get to his floor and into the dark apartment. After talking to Roger Toland who is watching Sara for him for the night and letting his uncle goes back to Long Island, Martin knew right away that he want to see his daughter before heading off to bed himself because she is the only reason why Martin can do his job, telling him that in bad situations, there always be some good effects in there but in this case, it came right after the situation ended but still.

To do so, Martin quietly walks over to Sara's room, opened the door a bit and saw her, sleeping peacefully and calmly with one of her teddy bears under her arms with the covers over her and the bear.

Martin doesn't know how long that he was watching her but when Sara was about to make her first move in her sleep, Martin quickly smiled at her and closed the door. Knowing that seeing her will help him fall asleep better that night, he smiled at the thought of it that Sara will help him out with this and after taking a shower and putting on his sleeping clothes, he got himself into bed and instead of sleeping right away, it did the opposite. Martin Fitzgerald couldn't sleep at all that night.

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Martin was so tired from staying up late that night that he wanted to catch an hour or two of sleep before Sara could come in to wake him up and telling him to get his butt out of the bed so they can start the weekend together. Martin tries to catch some 'zzz' about fifteen minutes in when he heard the door knob being turning around to be open and knowing right away that his daughter is coming in to disturb him from his sleep.

He moaned at that because he doesn't want this to happen to him right now and threw himself under the brown covers so he can pretend that he's deep in his sleep and sent Sara right away from his bedroom for an hour or two but that didn't happened at all.

Seconds later, he heard the doorknob being open, some soft footsteps before the door being shut closed and about ten seconds of hearing some more soft footsteps until she's about inches from his side of the bed, there was a soft and calm, "Daddy! Wake Up!"

Martin pretended that he didn't heard that and trying to 'sleep' some more but Sara didn't believed that and said to him, "Daddy! Wake up because I know that you are awake!"

Under the covers, "Sara, I am not awake and please leave the room and come back in an hour or two so I can catch some sleep because I didn't get any in the past couple of hours."

"No can do, Daddy!" She absolutely didn't listen to her father that time.

Doesn't understand the words she was saying to him about not letting him sleep, Martin got himself out of the covers and at that moment, he founded Sara next to him in her pajamas with her favorite teddy bear in her arms. After seeing that, Martin looks up to Sara's beautiful face and saw those brown eyes of hers, that sweet smile of hers while her wavy light brown mane was doing a bed head before asking the wide awake child, "Sara, why did you can say?"

Being very, very innocently about this, "Because…."

"Because of what?" asked Martin.

"Because I want you to bring me to the playground right away."

"Is this a little too early to go to the playground right now? What time it is, Sara?" asked Martin who doesn't completely understood the words that Sara was telling him. Something about the time right now and isn't it a little too early to go to the playground anyway. The both of them usually go there in the afternoon, not this early.

He watches Sara staring at the alarm clock on his bedside table before turning to him with that smile on her face and answered the questions, "No, it's not. It's never too early to go to the playground and plus, it's ten in the morning right now and so, can we go?"

"Ten in the morning?" thought by Martin when he heard the time and to see if this is true or not, Martin turns around on his bed to see the alarm clock and there it is: 10:04 am.

"Shit!" thought by Martin again when he saw the digits. This is far more late than usual on the weekend and why Sara still in her pajamas at this time? He got to ask her that.

When he turned around and asked her that, all that he could get from her is that: "Because I was just waiting for you to wake up and didn't know that I am in my pjs when I came here to do so." She's still doing her innocent act while doing this.

After hearing that, Martin just stared at her for a minute before Sara noticed him staring and giving her that look on his face before asking him again, "And so, Daddy. Can we go to the playground when you are ready to do so?"

Now wide awake but not completely to do and it would be a while, Martin leans over to Sara and kissed her on the forehead and then, both of her cheeks while Sara was giving him some light giggles.

"So, is that a yes?"

Martin smiled at her and answered the question by saying to her, "Yeah, Sara. That's a yes and we can go there in an hour when you and I are ready to go there." Right there, Sara leans over to her loving father and gave him a huge bear hug and this time, Martin chuckled at that and ended up asking Sara, "Honey, why did you did that?"

With a big smile on her face and before she can go back to her room to get herself ready for the outing, Sara answered the question, "Because you are the best Daddy in the world and I love you because of it."

Martin smiled at her again for giving him that compliment and said to her, "Aww! That's nice of you, Sara. Thank you!"

"No problem with that, Daddy! See you later!" said a smiling Sara who hugged her father again before leaving the room and letting Martin know that in bad situations like getting awake by your daughter at ten in the morning because she want to go to the playground right away, there are some good effects in it like seeing the sweetness of the child and Martin thinking that this will be a good start on their weekend together.

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Martin sat down on a nearby bench with a 'hopefully can keep him from falling asleep' cup of coffee in his hands and took a large sip of the hot coffee before studying the environment he is in: the small playground smacked between the apartment and Sara's school.

After watching Sara sliding down the slide multiple times with her friends and talking to the friends' parents for a few minutes, he was a bit surprised of whom he saw. She's there. A few feet east of him. Walking toward him with the smile that Martin like about her. Renee Walker is walking toward him while carrying a baby carrier toward him.

Martin gulped when he saw her with probably a baby in the carrier and wondering if the baby is her or her roommate or someone else instead. He doesn't know why he gulped the moment he saw her or the reason why but he is beginning to calm the moment he heard the flat but warm accent in Renee's voice, greeting him, "Hey, Martin. Mind if I can sit down next to you?"

For some odd reason, he can sense that Sara's now looking at him weirdly again but when he did a quick look and founded out that she is still playing with her friends, Martin sighed to himself again until he heard Renee's voice, asking him with a smile on her face, "Martin, were you thinking that Sara was looking at you weirdly every time that you had to me?" It was still like that she was reading his mind again. What the heck is wrong with him lately?

He had been like this since Monday and no wondering why that he ended up canceling that lunch date with Renee the day they supposed to have it. He was thinking that he might have ruined Renee's day back then but Renee's still here for him and not minding what had happened between them. There is still another chance to do so and he want to do that at that moment.

Looking up to Renee with a smile on his face, Martin greeted back to her by saying to her, "Hey, Renee and sure, you can sit down next to me.", and made some room for Renee.

Still seeing the same smile on her face, Renee accepted it and sat down next to him before rolling the carriage between her and Martin and enough to see the baby who made Martin relaxed a little because the baby doesn't look like Renee at all. The baby is black.

Studying at the sleeping baby with his eyes and eventually asking it, "Hey, sweetie. What's your name?", he heard Renee doing a slight giggle and doing the job for the child, she answered Martin's question by saying, "Her name's Lily Grace and if you are wondering about whom she belongs to, I'm sorry, Martin but this isn't my child so you can calm down a bit."

Martin turns to Renee who is still smiling to him and Lily Grace and with a boyish grin on his face, Martin answered the question, "I know that the moment I saw her but I am still wondering who this baby belongs to. Who's it?"

Watching Renee smiling at Lily Grace and then, to Martin, she answered the question, "I'm watching her for a neighbor of mine and Andrea, my roommate and Lily Grace had been a sweetie since this morning."

"That's very sweet." said a smiling Martin. "Yeah, she is" said an also smiling Renee. They continued doing that until they heard a noise from down below them. Lily Grace is waking up before their eyes and acting very fussy.

Seeing her acting like that and before asking Renee if he can hold her and calm down the fussiness, Martin leaned over to the carriage, picking up a pink-clothed Lily Grace carefully and the moment he put her toward him, rested the baby's head on his shoulder and calming her down by patting down softly on the back of the body while saying softly to her, "Hey, Lily Grace. There's no worry to be fussing about. Everything's going to okay."

After a minute of that, Lily Grace eventually got calmed down by Martin's soft and sweet voice and while Martin keep holding her some more against him, he can see Renee going into awe in front of him. "Martin, are you a natural father with Sara when she was a baby?"

This had made Martin stopped for a second or two and think about this. Renee doesn't know yet that he adopted Sara from spending more time in foster care about a month before Sara's fifth birthday and only knows a few things about Sara's past that would describe the experiment after birth a hard thing to do and to do this, Martin had to tell her the truth without screwing it up.

"Actually, Renee. I didn't have Sara until about over a year and a half ago."

In return, Renee just gave him a weird look on her face and said to him while being confused about this, "Martin, I don't know understand who you are saying to me. Are….." referring to if Martin did something that would be wrong for any reasons.

Seeing that look on Renee's face and her tone in her voice, Martin put Lily Grace down in her carriage so he can answer Renee's question with a calm and smoothing matter. "Renee, I am not saying that I had abandoned Sara when she was a baby or everything like that."

But at that moment, Martin is seeing that Renee looks a little uncomfortable around him when he told her that and about to get Lily Grace and go somewhere, Martin quickly got himself and said to Renee who is standing next to Lily Grace's carriage with a slightly serious tone in his voice, "Look, Renee. It's a pretty long and challenging story to tell you right now."

"How long and challenging is the story, Martin?" asked Renee who is giving her own version of a serious look to Martin while putting her hand on the handle of the light purple and light grey baby carriage which actually made Martin Fitzgerald quite nervous about this.

Martin know that he can't be that nervous about this and if he keep doing that, Renee will think that he might be an ass and wouldn't let him be her friend. Martin certainly doesn't want that to happen at all and to don't let that happen, Martin walked over to her and once he's inches away from her, he begins his plan to make the nervousness go away which also gave him a surprise of his own.

"Renee, the story is like a soap opera or something like that but everything went back to fine after that and it really changed my life but if you still think of me as that, I'm not type of that man. I love my daughter to death and I always care about her and I swear that I would never leave her no matter what and I wouldn't what to do without Sara and……"

"Martin, can please shut up about it?!"

After hearing that, Martin thought that Renee had finally reached her breaking point but she didn't. Right there in front of him, Renee walked over to him until she is inches away from Martin's face and with a smile on her face and the dark blue eyes were staring at his own eyes, she said to the right now confused as hell Martin, "Martin, I know that you're not that type of person way before you told me all of that speech of yours and I also know that you love your daughter very much and a bit and well, overprotected of her own being."

This sends Martin laughing, knowing that he being very overprotected of Sara and said to Renee with a grin on his face, "What are you telling me about this, Renee?"

Still with the sweet and same as always smile on her face, Renee answered Martin's question, "Martin, I really want to hear about your story of a pretty long and challenging story of getting Sara and I am wondering that you'll like to tell me about it over lunch or something."

This is nothing that Martin expected right now and ended up asking Renee seconds later, "Are you asking me out on a date?"

In return, Renee just nodded and looking for some last-minute support, Martin looks over to Sara at the playground and saw her smiling and being happy with her friends, telling her father to do it. Accept Renee Walker's request for a date and go ahead and to be very nervous about it after it.

Martin laughed to himself when he thought of that, thinking of those chosen words Sara might tell him if she is there with him and knowing that Renee is waiting for an answer, Martin just looks at Renee's beautiful face and with enough confident to make him and his daughter proud, "Renee, I would like to go out with you as much as you do but….."

"But what, Martin?" asked a curious Renee.

With the same grin on his face, Martin answered Renee's question by saying to her, "Would you like it to be a lunch or a dinner tomorrow?"

This took Renee only a second or two to think about this before she can tell Martin, "I'll be busy tomorrow afternoon but I would love to have dinner if that is okay with you."

Glad that Renee just gave him a whole afternoon of nervousness and Sara would be trying hard to calm him down, Martin unexpected ended up kissing Renee on her right cheek and seeing her blushing a light pink on the cheek he just kissed her on, Martin just gave her a grin and said to the blushing woman, "Dinner is fine with me, Renee. What time you want me to come over?"