10.30am

"She must have been bottling all that up for so long, I don't know how she managed to keep that to herself." said Vivian sympathetically.

"Wouldn't Van Doren have known? I mean its got to be in her personal file." said Martin.

"I never saw the complete file when I was looking for suitable

candidates. I'd never thought about that before." said Jack. "I wonder why Van Doren didn't tell us?"

Danny shrugged. "I guess Sam didn't want people to know."

Martin smiled sadly, hearing what Sam had gone through had made him love her even more, and he was amazed by the strength she had shown, by not giving up.

Danny caught Martin's far off gaze and smiled knowingly.

11.30am

Samantha had been asleep for about an hour and a half, but had woken up due to the pain in her leg. She realised she left the pills in her bag and would have to get up to get them. She sat up too quickly getting a head rush, she waited until it had passed before getting up, grabbing her crutches and walking into the lounge to get her bag.

God, she hated the damn crutches and being treated like an

invalid. She hated James Riley for what he had done. She hated her

father for all the pain he had put her and her mother through.

She felt all her anger that had been building up especially over

the past week consume her. She saw red and she threw her crutches across the room, smashing a vase and several ornaments on the floor. She screamed trying to get rid of all her pent up anger. Not realising what she was doing, she threw several more photo frames, ornaments on the floor. She opened the bottle of pills and threw them on the floor. Releasing her anger through destruction.

She suddenly stopped, suddenly aware of what she was doing and sat down on the floor, leaning against the sofa, crying out all her pent up anger and frustration from the past few days. Usually she hated crying, she felt it showed weakness, but it seemed lately all she was doing was crying, and to be honest it did help.

She sat there, unable to move, the reality of what had happened

just kicking in. She had felt the pain and thought about it and had had dreams, but it had seemed so surreal. Now she realised that it was real, and she just sat in shock, shaking, trying to grasp onto reality.

11.35am

"Hey that was Mrs. White, you know Sam's neighbour. She called to say

That she heard some crashing and screaming from her apartment." said Jack worriedly.

"I'll go see." said Vivian immediately.

"I'm coming to." said Martin.

"Keep us posted." said Danny concerned.

Martin and Vivian rushed out of the office, anxious to see what was wrong.

12.00pm

"Samantha?" said Vivian knocking on the door of her apartment. "Sam? Can we come in?"

There was no answer, which worried Martin and Vivian. "Sam?" called Martin.

"You think we should just go in?" asked Martin.

"We'll have to." said Vivian, trying the door. To their surprise it was

unlocked. "Did you lock it when you left?" she asked.

Martin thought for a moment, "I don't think so." he replied embarrassed.

"Well we should be thankful you forgot this time." said Vivian.

She pushed the door open, and looked in horror at the state of the

room. There was broken glass and china everywhere. One of the small tables had been knocked over, and was laying on its side on the floor. But what most horrified her was the sight of Samantha, sitting on the floor, hugging her knees to her and gazing blankly at the wall.

"Oh God." she whispered rushing to Samantha followed by Martin.

"Samantha!" said Martin looking into her unfocused eyes. "Viv what's wrong with her?" he asked.

"I don't know." she answered. "Hey Samantha, can you hear me?" she touched Samantha's hand, and was surprised to feel that it was like ice.

"Viv?" whispered Sam.

"Yeah it's me and Martin's here. What happened?" asked Vivian. "Martin can you make some tea? With lots of sugar. It's good for shock."

"Ok." said Martin leaving Samantha's side reluctantly.

Samantha turned her pain filled eyes to look at Vivian. "I remember

what he did."

Vivian looked confused. "Didn't you know before?" she asked.

"Yes...in a way but it just hit me. You know. It's real now." said

Samantha quietly.

Vivian nodded understandingly. She had heard of cases like this before. When someone had gone through something really traumatic like Samantha had, and they knew it had happened. But they had been in a sort of denial and hadn't wanted to believe it was real, and then it would suddenly hit them, causing some kind of breakdown.

"Why did you do all this?" said Vivian gesturing at all the broken

glass that was lying around.

"I don't really know. I just got so angry, with everything, Riley and

my dad. I guess I just lost it."

"C'mon let's get you up. Martin's making tea." said Vivian.

Vivian carefully got Samantha to her feet, wary of hurting her leg

more, and helped her walk over to the table where Martin had set out some tea.

"Thanks." said Samantha smiling at Martin.

"No problem." he said.

"Sorry for making you all come back here again. You must get really

sick of this." said Samantha taking a sip of her tea.

"We don't mind honestly, do we Viv?" said Martin.

"Course we don't." said Vivian.

"You alright now?" asked Martin.

"Yeah. I just need to get my meds. That's what I got up for in the

first place."

"I'll get them. Where are they?" asked Vivian.

"Well half of them are on the floor, but there's more in the bag." said Samantha.

"You know if you want to talk anymore I'm here." said Martin softly.

"Yeah I know. It's just hard." said Samantha. "Thank you though. I will take you up on that offer one day."

"Here's the meds." said Vivian "We should really get that mess cleaned up. Where's your broom?"

"Viv don't you do it. I'm sure I'll manage."

Vivian raised an eyebrow at her. "Ok maybe I couldn't. Thank you." said Samantha. "The broom's in that closet."

"So did breaking stuff help?" asked Martin.

"You know it actually did... a bit anyway." said Samantha thoughtfully.

Martin reached out for Samantha's hand to see if she was still cold.

The sudden movement, and human contact startled Sam and she pulled away sharply.

Martin looked hurt and withdrew his own hand, not looking at Samantha.

Sam looked upset seeing Martin's face. "I'm sorry." she said.

"I wouldn't ever do anything to hurt you Sam. Don't you trust me?"

"Of course I do, it's " she sighed still seeing the

hurt look on Martin's face, she hesitantly reached out and grasped his hand, smiling shyly at him. Martin looked up, and saw complete trust in her eyes, he also smiled. They just sat like that for a few minutes, in silence, completely comfortable with the other's company.

Vivian walked back in and grinned at the sight. She coughed loudly, making Martin and Samantha jump and pull their hands apart. "Well it's

all clean in there." she said, holding in a chuckle.

"Thanks Viv." said Samantha.

"I should head back to the office, see how Danny and Jack are doing. I'm sure Martin will keep you company for a while." said Vivian a sly smile on her face.

"Just kick me out when you're sick of me." joked Martin.

Samantha smiled. "Thank you again Viv." she said.

"You're welcome. I'll pop back and see you later."

"Ok. Bye." said Samantha

"Bye." said Martin.

12.40pm

"Hey guys!" said Vivian walking back into the office.

"How is she?" asked Danny.

"Well she's alright now. Martin's still there to keep her company for a while."

"What was all the screaming and stuff?" asked Jack.

"I think the reality of all of it just hit her. Maybe she was in some

sort of denial earlier. She just threw a few things, she said she just

felt really angry."

"So you're saying like she only just realised what had happened?" asked Danny curiously.

"I think she knew it had happened, but it only just sunk in." said

Vivian.

"Oh." Danny nodded. "Poor Sam."

"Yeah she took her anger out on some ornaments. She was in shock when Martin and I found her."

"Are you sure she's alright now?" asked Jack.

Vivian nodded.

"Good." said Jack. "I thought I'd go asked Van Doren if she knew those things about Samantha."

"Ooo. Good luck." said Vivian.

"Thanks." said Jack.

Samantha and Martin were still sitting around the table, talking about trivial things. Martin had started the conversation, hoping to get Samantha's mind off other things.

"It's weird, all I've done for the last few days is sleep, but I'm

still incredibly tired." said Samantha yawning.

"Well it's perfectly natural. It's your bodies way of recovering. Plus

the medication will make you drowsy."

Samantha nodded. "Yeah the doctor said it would do that."

"Why don't you go back and get some sleep?" suggested Martin.

"Yeah that's a good idea." said Samantha. "Can you pass me the crutches please?"

"Here." said Martin handing them to her.

Samantha got to her feet, and limped down the hall to her room. Martin stood awkwardly in the kitchen not knowing what to do.

"Martin." she called from the bedroom.

"Coming." he called back.

"Thanks for staying." she said, as she climbed fully dressed into bed.

"It's fine. Well have a good sleep ok?" he said once she was all

settled.

"Umm Martin? Can you just stay till I fall asleep? I don't want to be

alone."

I'd stay forever he thought. "Sure." he said sitting down in the chair

next to the bed.

"Thanks." said Samantha already drifting off. Martin didn't have to

stay long, within 5 minutes Samantha was in a deep sleep.

"Bye." he whispered, kissing her cheek, then tiptoeing quietly out the apartment, making sure to lock up.