Chapter 21

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Dinner was going well. After the initial hellos they all sat down and made polite conversation about the restaurant, what dishes Martin recommended from the menu, and deciding on which appetizers sounded good. Their waiter brought them a bottle of the house wine and took their orders. Once the distraction of selecting food and drinks had passed, they all looked at one another unsure of what to say or how to say it so Martin decided to break the ice.

"So, worked any interesting cases lately?" Martin asked, trying to sound nonchalant.

"Actually, the one we're working right now is pretty interesting." Danny shared, "Steve Hermann. He's a music professor at NYU who disappeared three days ago. We can't find anything on this guy, his trail stops dead cold when he left his class on Friday."

"I still say it's a mid-life crisis and he's off at some hotel with a grad student." Sam wryly commented.

Viv turned to look at Martin, rolling her eyes and smiling.

Danny was about to chime in on his theory when his cell phone rang. He pulled it out and glanced at it before excusing himself from the table. "I gotta get this. Be right back."

Jack, Viv and Sam exchanged knowing looks so Martin casually asked, "Emma?"

Viv and Jack turned to look at Martin with surprise and Martin was immediately grateful that he had already talked to Sam about Danny's new flame.

"The way he hustled, it's most definitely her." Viv remarked while looking at Martin. "How do you know about Emma? Oh wait, that's right." Viv turned to look at Sam.

"Hey, how could I not tell him? It's great to see Danny walking around on cloud nine." Sam replied, taking a sip of her wine.

It suddenly occurred to Martin that Sam never mentioned how Danny and Emma met.

"So how did they meet?" Viv, Jack and Sam all exchanged nervous glances and Martin suddenly regretted asking the question. He knew that Emma was a doctor and they had started dating right after the shooting but somehow he hadn't made the connection. "Oh."

Sam looked at Martin. "I'm sorry. I should have told you but…."

Martin waved his hand and shook his head. "Don't worry about it." He saw Viv and Jack eyeing him carefully.

Since the topic was already out there, Viv was the first to ask. "So, how are you adjusting?"

Martin wanted to tell them that he would sometimes wake up in the middle of the night panicked that more months had passed as he slept. That he was incredibly conscious of the ticking of the clock almost to the point of obsession. That he was worried that when he was finally able to get back to work that he wouldn't be able to do his job anymore; because along with his memory of the shooting, he may have lost some critical piece that made him a good agent. But being raised to be a politician he did what he knew how to do best; smile and say everything was okay even when it wasn't. "I'm doing well; getting better everyday."

However, being trained FBI agents who know when a suspect was lying they didn't believe a word of it; but being Martin's friends, they acted like they did.

"That's great." Jack responded.

Fortunately at that moment their waiter arrived with their appetizers so they became very interested in calamari.

Martin took advantage of this distraction and asked, "So, Danny and this Emma person are pretty serious?"

"Yeah." Viv said, spooning a serving onto her plate.

"Considering they've only been dating two months it must have been fireworks from the get go." He commented as he dipped his calamari into the marinara.

"Hmm, that's one way to put it. When he gets back be sure to ask him about their 'amazing' first date." Viv remarked.

"'Amazing?' It was that good?" Martin asked; his curiosity peaked.

"No, it was that bad." Jack shared. "It's just amazing that he got a second date."

"Speaking of the devil, Danny's headed back over." Sam motioned towards Danny.

"Sorry 'bout that." Danny said as he returned to his seat. He picked up his fork and stabbed a ringlet of squid.

"How's Emma?" Viv asked, twiddling her fingers on her glass of wine.

"She's fine." Danny looked over at Martin who was smirking as well. "So, I guess they gave you the full update?"

"Not yet, apparently I have to hear about the first date." Martin commented mid-chew.

Danny groaned out loud and the entire team could help but laugh at Danny's obvious discomfort.

Danny relented, held his arms up in the arm and said, "Okay, it's all the rains fault, but I guess I should start at the beginning…."