6.00pm

"Well I'm gonna call it a night." said Vivian.

"Me too." said Jack.

"I just got one thing I need to finish here." said Danny. "You staying

or going Martin?"

"Martin looked up from his desk filled with papers, his eye catching

Samantha's empty desk. "I'm gonna stay for a bit too." he said.

"See you guys tomorrow." said Vivian. "Night. I'm gonna go see Samantha tomorrow morning before work anyone else want to?"

"Maybe." said Jack

"How about you?" asked Vivian to Danny and Martin.

"Yeah possibly." was the reply.

"Well call and let me know." said Vivian, then she and Jack left the

office.

"So, when you're done with the paperwork you wanna go see Sam?" asked Martin.

"Sure, I'm almost done." Danny said scribbling down a few more

sentences. "There you go. You ready?"

"Yep." answered Martin.

6.35pm

"Hey Sam!" said Danny cheerfully as he walked in.

"Hey" said Martin.

"Hey guys. Hows it going?" asked Samantha, a strained but happy smile on her face. She wasn't able to smile too much for fear of ripping the stitches on her cheeks.

"Well work's work." said Danny.

"So hows things here?" asked Martin.

Samantha's face fell. "It's so boring! I hate hospitals. And hospital

food. But we got to have jello!" she said in sarcasm.

"Wow jello." said Danny. "I haven't had that since I was about 5." he chuckled.

"You been able to sleep?" said Martin a look of concern on his face.

Samantha shook her head, a mix of different emotions coming over her face. The most noticable, a look of fear in her eyes. "Not much." she answered.

"So you know when you get to go home?" said Danny.

"My mom talked to the doctor and he said that I should be out in about 3 or 4 days, if I continue to improve."

"Thats great Sam!" said Danny. "Bet you're looking forward to that."

"You bet." said Samantha.

Martin smiled. "Well its been really quiet in the office without you."

Samantha smiled back then looked at Martin slyly. "Are you saying that cuz I'm really loud or you miss me?"

"Well....don't worry you're not that loud. We just all miss you."

"Don't worry I'll be back as soon as I can"

Martin and Danny shared concerned looks, "You do need to make sure you're completely healed you know. And get lots of rest." said Danny.

"Yeah I know. God, you worry too much." said Samantha.

"So, do you still see him when you try and sleep or anything?" asked Danny, bravely asking the question that had been on his and Martin's mind from the minute they had stepped in the room.

Samantha sighed, she looked at Danny and Martin's face, both holding looks of worry and care, maybe even love in Martin's face. Not disappointment or pity that she sort of expected, or the patronizing sympathy she had seen in Jack's face. She didn't want to admit to being scared, or not being able to cope, but looking at their faces she knew she could trust them to not judge her, and she nodded.

"Do you see it a lot?" asked Martin, thankful that Samantha had decided to tell them the truth.

Again she nodded, "Almost everytime I close my eyes, even sometimes when my eyes are open." she admitted, involuntary tears springing to her eyes. "It's just his face. He had this manic look in his eyes and this weird twisted grin." she said softly, lost in the memory and shuddered. "God, its horrible."

Martin and Danny looked uncomfortable, not knowing what to say to comfort their friend, to make her forget. Martin reached out and held her hand tightly in his, as if that would keep him away.

Danny smiled at the simple gesture. "Anything you want us to do Sam?" he asked, offering his help as a way of showing his support.

She smiled, "I'm ok thanks Danny. Don't worry when I think of something I'll let you know. Don't take this the wrong way but you both look dead on your feet. How long have you been awake since?" she asked.

"Since about 5." said Martin and Danny nodded.

"You should go home and get some sleep! Jack won't appreciate it if you fall asleep on the job."

"Someone should stay with you." objected Martin.

"I'm fine by myself." said Samantha strongly, although inside she was doing all she could to stop herself begging them to stay and not leave her alone. "Seriously go home. Come back tomorrow nice and rested."

"Will you be alright?" asked Martin, he was dead on his feet but that

wouldn't stop him staying if Samantha needed him.

"Of course. There's tons of people here I can call."

"Really?" asked Danny.

"Yeah the nurses are really nice. Honestly I will be ok." she insisted.

"If you're sure." said Danny.

"I am. Anyway my mom will probably come back tonight." she lied.

"Do you want us to stay till she does?" asked Martin.

"No it's ok. She will probably be in quite late and by that time it

will be even later when you get home." said Samantha.

"Ok. Goodnight Sam." said Danny, leaning over and kissing her forehead and squeezing her hand in comfort.

"Yeah. Night Samantha." said Martin also leaning over to kiss her

cheek. "See you tomorrow."

"Bright and early!" added Danny.

"Night guys."

The door shut and Samantha was once again left with her thoughts, in the dull, depressing hotel room.

6.45am

She was awoken before 7 by her mother's voice calling her. She had finally dozed off into a restless sleep around midnight, disturbed by dreams so she was not the happiest she could be and still very tired.

"Hey Samantha." said Nicole. "We've got to go soon."

"Morning." said Samantha coldly.

"Honey, I am really sorry for doing this. You need me, just call and I will be on a plane straight back."

"It's ok. I have other people around." she said.

"Please don't be mad. I will call you, and keep in contact a lot more.

I promise."

Samantha softened hearing the sincere note in her nother's vioce. "I'll call more too."

"You feeling better this morning?" asked Nicole.

"A little tired. The increase in morphine helped the pain." replied

Samantha. "Tell John 'hi' and I hope his mom gets better."

Nicole looked at Samantha in surprise, that was her first real

acknowlegence of John and his part in her mom's life.

"He'll appreciate that." said Nicole, she checked her watch. "I'm sorry sweetie, but I have to go."

She leant down to try and hug Sam the best she could without hurting her.

"Bye." Samantha whispered.

"Bye." replied Nicole, she straightened up and walked to the door,

turning back to smile at her daughter before walking out.

This time Samantha didn't try to hold back try to hold back her tears and they streamed down her face.

6.50am

About 10 minutes had passed when Vivian came in to see Samantha on her way to work.

"Samantha? What's the matter?" Vivian asked surprised at finding

Samantha in tears.

Samantha sniffed several times and tried to regain control of her

tears. "It's nothing really." she said

"Samantha." said Vivian.

There was a pause. "My mom, she went back home." said Samantha eventually.

Vivian looked shocked, she was sure that Nicole Harris would have

wanted to stay longer. "Why?" she asked posivite that there must be a good reason.

"John's mother is really ill." said Samantha.

"Oh," said Vivian. "Why did Nicole have to go so soon though? Not being rude but did she really have to go right away?"

Samantha shrugged, well at least tried to. "I dunno. Guess other things are more important than her daughter." she said bitterly.

"I'm sure that's not true." said Vivian.

"Isn't it?" said Samantha angrily. "She wasn't even here a day, and..." she broke off not knowing what else to say.

Samantha shut her eyes, bringing her hand up to her head.

"You ok? Do you want me to call anyone?" asked Vivian worried.

"No I'm fine. Just a small headache. Nothing to worry about." said

Samantha.

"Ummm, do you and your mom get on well?" asked Vivian cautiously.

"We haven't spoken much lately. I didn't find out about her and John getting married until about a month after it happened. I didn't even know it was serious between them. When I was younger, we weren't incredibly close but it wasn't like it was with my dad." she said. "She wasn't around a lot. Mostly working, but in the evenings she would go out with friends quite a lot to get away from my father."

"And leave you with him?" asked Vivian shocked.

Samantha nodded a flash of sadness coming over her face and she

continued, "Then when he died, she was at home a bit more, but we never really formed a proper relationship. I think I reminded her of what had happened. We talked and all but we never had the same relationship that my friends had with their moms."

Vivian looked at Samantha sympathetically, her heart breaking for

Samantha who, as a child, had known very little love or affection.

"I'm so sorry Samantha." she said,

"It's alright. I learnt to deal with it. We did get talking a lot more

when I moved out, which is kinda ironic I guess. But we had a huge

fight about a year ago, just before I came to work in the missing

persons unit. She didn't want me to take the job. She thought it would be too dangerous. This was the first time I'd heard from her since then."

"God Sam. How did you manage to cope? I couldn't." asked Vivian.

Samantha laughed. "By acting stupidly." she said, "I got married to my boyfriend when I was 18. I thought that somehow it would help me start a new life and get away from everything else. But it didn't, and we ended up getting a divorce about a year later. I managed to sort things out. Finish uni and then I moved, got a job with the police and managed to work my way to the FBI."

Vivian smiled. "And we are very glad you did." she said. "I really

should get going, sorry Sam."

"That's ok. Thanks for listening Viv." said Samantha smiling shyly.

"Anytime. Bye."

7.05am

Talking to Vivian had made her realise that she didn't mind talking

about her past as much as she thought she would have. She had been able to say so many things that had been weighing down on her for so long.

Suddenly she felt the annoying tingling of pins and needles in

her right foot. At first without realising what she was doing she sat up and started to swing her legs over the side of the bed to try and get up. Then she froze, she shouldn't really be getting up should she? But on the other hand she felt a lot better and she really needed to stretch her legs.

Grasping on the the metal thing that was holding she drip, she

shakily got herself on her feet. This feels ok she thought, then took a few tentative steps forward. All of a sudden she was hit by a rush of dizziness. Maybe this wasn't such a good idea. The room started

spinning and before she could try and sit back down on the bed she had fainted, falling to the floor, the metal post and drip falling beside her.