Author's Note: I want to thank Illman for beta-ing this. Many details were brought up that I didn't notice, mostly because I knew what I was trying to say so I understood it perfectly.
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"Hey, you're up late." Samantha said smiling as she entered Martin's hospital room.
"I wanted to stay up to see you." Martin said, his face looking normal enough but his eyes betrayed his exhaustion. Samantha smiled softly and sitting on the edge of the bed, leaned in to give Martin a brief kiss. Martin smiled and deepened the kiss, pulling her close to his still-healing body.
"I brought you something." Samantha said when the two had finally come up for air.
"Really?" Martin asked inquisitively. Samantha nodded, and reached into her jacket pocket. She pulled out a small leather case and handed it to him. Martin gave her a curious look as he accepted the object, and his eyes lit up as he felt the familiar leather. To be sure, he opened the case, and felt his heart soar with something…relief maybe…when he saw his face looking back at him, with the letters F.B.I. stamped across the badge.
"The doctors gave your badge and gun to Jack…I guess it was 'cause I was such a mess that night…I figure that you'd like that back." Martin looked at her with an odd look in his eyes, and she laughed.
"You are not getting your gun till you at least come home…besides, what do you need a gun for in a hospital?"
"I don't know, that nurse down the hall's a bit scary." He said with a smirk. "Thank you." He said softly, as he kissed her briefly.
Samantha smiled. "I know what it's like to get your badge back." She said, a touch of sadness in her eyes. She intertwined her fingers with Martin's free hand. "I love you so much." She whispered. "I was so scared and-."
"Shhh." Martin whispered, removing his hand from hers and pulling her close, so that her head was lying on his shoulder. "I'm going to fine."
"Were you scared?"
Martin remained silent for a long moment. "I was petrified." He said finally. "I could hear everything that was going on, but I couldn't react. I could hear Danny telling them to get me out of the car, I could hear the paramedics trying to get me out, and I could hear the doctors in the ER. I was so scared Sam. I was scared that I wouldn't hear Danny crack a joke again, or see Viviane talking to the families, or crazy as this may sound, I was scared I would never see the scary look on Jack's face when he interrogates a suspect. And corny as this may sound, I was scared that I would never see your smile again."
Samantha was quiet for a moment. "I'm not sure I should be telling you this, but you flat-lined in the ER." Martin didn't respond, so she continued. "I didn't get the call till an hour after you were brought in. By then they knew you'd make it but before that they weren't sure." Martin gave a slight laugh.
"Sam, you think I'd go out that easily?" He whispered in her ear. "You know that if I'm gonna go down I'm not going without a fight." He kissed the top of her head. "Go home, get some sleep."
Samantha pulled back, and looked him in the eye. "You sure?" Martin nodded. "All right." She agreed reluctantly, and stood. "I'm going to try and get in here a little earlier tomorrow."
Martin smiled, nodded and pointed at the door. "Go." He said, kissing her gently before pushing her toward the door. She smiled, shook her head and walked out of the room.
~*~
Samantha sighed as she walked down the hallway of the FBI field office at a brisk pace. Martin had been released from the hospital earlier that morning. As she walked by the glass windows that betrayed all the agents working, she wished even more that she was at home; not only had Martin insisted that she go in, but Jack had made it clear that he wanted her in the office if Martin was all right. The logical part of her brain agreed; down two field agents, the three remaining that were cleared to go into the field were stretched thin as it were. Luckily, Danny had already been cleared to do office work, and was doing all of the background checks and financial checks and so on.
She bit back a groan when she entered the bullpen and saw Viviane and Danny sitting around the small conference table, by all appearances doing nothing. 'I made sure to rush out to work to save people and all I'm going to do is sit around and do nothing?' She grumbled to herself.
"Hey Sam." Danny's smile, which was slowly regaining the energy that it had before the accident, put a slight smile on her face. "Nice flowers."
"What?" Caught up in her thoughts, Samantha was slow to react but when she turned her head towards her desk, she saw a beautiful bouquet of flowers there. Her breath caught in her throat as she read the small card stuck in between the flowers:
I love you
-Martin
"What's the occasion?" Viviane asked. Samantha looked up.
"Today's our nine month anniversary." She looked back down at the flowers. "Everything's been so crazy I almost forgot."
"Did you get-." Danny began to ask, but Samantha cut him off.
"I really don't think that's any of your business Agent Taylor." She said, with a twinkle in her eye and a smirk on her face. Danny and Viviane both began to chuckle as Jack came out of his office.
"Fifteen year old Ryan Anderson." Jack said, putting the photo up on the whiteboard. "His parents reported him missing when they came home from work and he wasn't there. They called his friends their neighbors, nothing. They called the school that their son goes to, his teachers said that he'd gotten on the bus as usual."
"Fifteen year old boy and his teachers vividly remember him getting on the bus? How big's this school?" Samantha asked, with a quizzical look on her face. Jack looked at her.
"He's been hearing impaired since birth, he goes to a school for the blind and deaf." Jack responded. "Viv, I want you to head to his school, see what you can learn. Danny, run the background checks on the parents, and look into their finances. Samantha, you and I are going to talk to the parents." He said, glancing at the photo. "By the way Sam nice flowers." Samantha rolled her eyes as she moved to follow him out of the office, with Viviane trailing right behind her.
The drive to the Anderson home was silent; the usual chitchat about whatever case they were working on at the time was absent. It wasn't a comfortable silence either; it had the strange awkwardness of two ex-lovers who didn't know what to say to each other.
"Nice house, nice neighborhood." Samantha commented when they pulled into the driveway of the Anderson home.
"Mmmm" Jack agreed, walking towards the door, Samantha following him.
~*~
"That's got to be the shortest case I've ever worked." Jack said, pulling easing the car onto the highway.
"Yeah." Samantha agreed, stealing a quick glance at her boss. "Jack, are you okay? You've been acting weird lately." She dared to venture, not knowing if she really wanted to know the answer.
He glanced at her for a brief second before returning his gaze to the road. "Does he make you happy?" Samantha was floored; she honestly did not expect that response.
"Yeah, he makes me very happy. Why?"
Jack shrugged. "Just wondering." The look in his eyes, and the tone of his voice told Samantha that that was not the case.
"You're lying." She accused, and he glanced at her quickly.
"All right. I've known for two years that he's had a crush on you, but I've also known that you would never fall for him. What changed?" His tone was slightly accusatory.
She turned slightly in the seat. "Something has to change in order for me to fall in love with somebody other than you?" She said, her voice a deadly quiet. She sighed, not really in the mood for a fight. "It just sorta…evolved I guess."
"Starting when?"
"I don't have to explain the details of my relationship with you." Samantha said through clenched teeth "Stop the car."
"Sam, we're still fifteen blocks from the office."
"I don't care. Stop the car." Her voice was cold, and Jack decided to comply with the woman who was armed and who was engaged to a man who was also armed, though her fiancée was in the position to do a lot more damage to Jack than to just shoot him.