12.45am

Martin walked back into the office, still with a large smile on his

face. The sight of Danny and Vivian sitting at the table surrounded by papers greeted him.

"Hey." said Danny.

"You tell Samantha?" asked Vivian.

"Yeah." said Martin. "Where's Jack?"

"He's running some errands, and gone to talk to the counsellor and

other people." said Danny. "How did Sam take it and why are you

grinning like an idiot?"

"Samantha didn't take it too well, but she's gonna do it. I told her

we'd all be there with her."

Vivian nodded.

"And?" said Danny.

"And what?" asked Martin innocently.

"Why do you look so happy?" asked Danny.

Martin smiled even wider, "Well I asked Samantha out, and she said

yes."

"Really?" said Danny.

Martin nodded.

"That's great." said Vivian also smiling.

"Yeah." said Danny. "Finally worked up the courage?" he teased.

7.00pm

Samantha had been getting ready for the date, she was now waiting for Martin to come and pick her up, he was due any minute.

She was surprisingly nervous, it was only Martin she kept telling

herself. They had been out plenty of times before. But this was

different, her brain kept telling her. This was an actual date. Not

wanting to dress up to much, she had stuck with black pants and a white top that Martin once said he liked.

The buzzer went, and she rushed to answer it. "Hey, you ready?" came Martin's voice.

"Yeah. I'll be right down."

Samantha grabbed her coat and purse, and went down to meet Martin.

"Hi." he said, kissing her on the cheek. "You look great."

"Thanks." She smiled "So do you." Martin had gone for a blue shirt, and was also wearing black pants. "So where are we off to?"

"There's a great Italian restaurant, that I thought would be nice."

"Great, lets go." she said.

Martin lead her to the taxi, opening the door for her. The restaurant turned out to be a smallish, cosy restaurant run by an Italian family. Over dinner, they talked about random things, not bringing up work or past childhood. Doing everything they could to make the evening as pleasant as possible. Martin did his part to make Samantha forget about the trial and everything, even if it was only for an evening. After dinner they found themselves in Martin's apartment drinking coffee.

"Your apartment is very neat." said Samantha.

"Did you expect it to be messy then?" Martin asked.

"Not messy, but not as neat as this."

"Well I hate to admit it, but I'm a bit of a neat freak."

Samantha laughed, wandering around the apartment. Her gaze caught a picture, of a younger Martin smiling happily, with his parents standing beside him also smiling. Her own smile faded a bit.

"Come sit down." said Martin catching glimpse of her face not wanting her to be upset.

Samantha turned around, moving to join Martin on the couch.

"Thanks for dinner." She said when she had sat down. "It was really

good."

"You're very welcome." said Martin.

"I talked to Danny earlier, and he said something about you wanting to ask me out for ages, but never worked up the courage. What was that about?" asked Samantha innocently, a teasing smile on her face.

I'm gonna kill Danny, thought Martin. "Well, I just thought you weren't interested. I did ask you out soon after I joined, but you said some other time, so I assumed you weren't interested."

Samantha smiled. "It's not that I wasn't interested....it was just a

mix of things."

"Like you and Jack?"

Samantha looked at him sharply. "How did you know?"

"It was pretty obvious. Van Doren also said something when she was talking to Jack during the Barry Mashburn situation."

"What was going on between you?" he asked.

Samantha looked at him warily, not wanting to get into this discussion.

"I'm not going to judge you Samantha, I just want to hear your side."

Samantha sighed.

"It was basically a big mistake. He made me feel wanted, special. I

knew it was wrong, but I couldn't help it, I just wanted that feeling

of being loved. There were just some moments when I'd forget

everything, and just be in that moment with him." she said not looking at Martin, but at the photo of him with his family.

"Did you love him?" asked Martin dreading the answer.

Samantha sighed "Sometimes I think it was love, but he would always go back to Maria, so I never knew. But I think there were times when I loved him, and he loved me, simpler times. I know you probably didn't want to hear that but it's the truth. We both knew it was a big mistake and it could never amount to anything. After he kept having to leave and go back to her, I think I just fell out of love, I didn't want that sort of relationship."

He wrapped his arms around her, moving so she half lay across the couch leaning into his arms.

"Are there still any feelings there?" he asked.

Samantha shook her head. "We've both moved on. It was over before the whole bookstore thing, but I think that's when he realised it was final. He's gone back to Maria now, its a lot better this way."

Martin smiled at her, glad that everything was over between them, and that there were no unresolved feelings. He realised that it may sound harsh, but it was the truth.

"So that's the story." said Samantha softly.

Martin hugged her closer. "Thanks for telling me." he said.

Leaning down he kissed Samantha, they kissed, the kiss growing more and more passionate. They broke apart breathless, staring at each other for a few seconds before kissing again. Martin started to move his hand over Samantha's back. She froze, a flash picture of Riley coming into her head. She pulled away from Martin sharply.

"What..." said Martin incoherently, a hurt look coming over his face.

Samantha closed her eyes so she wouldn't have to look at Martin, but immediately her head was filled with images of Riley, his hands moving over her like Martin's had just been doing. She felt bile rising up in her throat. Without any explanation, she jumped off the couch and rushed into the bathroom. Shocked, Martin got up to follow her, he stopped outside the bathroom door, Samantha had locked it. He could hear the sound of her retching through the door.

"Sam? Are you alright." he called. There was no answer.

The toilet flushed, and Samantha opened the door, tears were streaming down her face and she was shaking.

"I'm sorry." she said brokenly.

"Hey, it's alright." said Martin reaching out for her hand.

She pulled away. "I can't do this." she said. "It's too soon." Before a

shocked Martin could process what she had said, Samantha grabbed her purse and coat and rushed out of the apartment.

Too soon? he thought confusion filling his brain. "Shit." he swore.

Grabbing his own coat, he rushed after Samantha.

"Sam!" he yelled running out into the street. He caught sight of a

blonde head getting into a taxi on the other side of the road, he

started to cross the road but the taxi pulled away leaving him standing there.

"Shit." he swore again, before crossing fully to where Samantha had

been, and waiting to hail the next taxi that passed. One pulled up, and he climbed in hurriedly, giving Samantha's address. His taxi was just behind Samantha's and he could see her blonde head in the rear window.

The taxis pulled up outside Samantha's apartment block.

"That's $6.40" said the driver.

"Here." said Martin, thrusting a $10 bill at the driver. "Keep the

change."

He rushed out catching Samantha in the lobby of her building.

"Hey Samantha."

She whirled round in shock. "Martin? What are you doing here? Look I'm sorry about rushing out..."

"Let's just go up to your apartment and talk ok?" said Martin.

The silence on the way up to Sam's apartment was unbearable for Martin, but looking at Samantha, he could tell that she didn't want to talk yet. Once inside her apartment she began talking though.

"I am sorry, but its too soon, its going too fast. I just

couldn't...I'm sorry."

"Hey you've got nothing to be sorry for. Okay?"

Samantha nodded, more tears making their way down her face.

"Look, I know its hard, but I'm going to be there with you. I would

never push you to do anything you don't want. I don't care how much time it takes but I am not going to leave you. I love you."

Samantha looked at him, and saw the love shining through his eyes. In that moment she knew that this was it, what she truly wanted. Who would have thought that she would fall in love with Martin. She'd admitted to Danny that he was cute when she first met him, but she had never imagined this happening. Over the years her feelings for him had grown without her realising.

She smiled. "I love you too." she said finally able to say her true

feelings.

Martin smiled, "You wanna sit down?" he asked.

Samantha nodded "Sure." Martin lead her over to her couch, and sat down. Martin pulled Samantha down to lay with her head on his lap, and her legs stretched out over the couch. They sat in comfortable silence, Martin gently stroking Samantha's hair.

About 10 minutes passed with them just sitting there, Martin felt

himself drifting off to sleep, "Hey Sam.." he started to say, looking

down he saw that Samantha had fallen asleep, she looked so peaceful and serene that he didn't have the heart to wake her, so he just let his head fall back and his eyes close.

He woke up a few hours later due to an incredible neck ache, and a

murmuring from Samantha. He leant down to hear what she was saying.

"Please stop, please don't hurt me." she pleaded in her sleep.

Martin tensed, he could imagine what she was dreaming of. He looked at her in worry, her face was no longer peaceful, but scrunched up and scared.

"Hey Sam." he said in her ear. "Wake up okay? You're alright, you're in your apartment." He stroked her cheek firmly, having heard somewhere that it was a very effective way of waking someone up.

"Please." she whispered again. Suddenly she screamed loudly, scaring the crap outta Martin. He jumped, which jogged Samantha who shot up, and sat there breathing in deep breaths.

"Sam?" asked Martin. She turned her face towards him. "You okay?"

She nodded. "It was just a dream." she said, trying to convince herself as well as telling him.

"How often do you get them?" he asked.

"Pretty much every night." she said.

"I'm so sorry." he said. "C'mon, lets get you to bed."

"Okay." she said standing shakily.

Martin took her arm and helped her into her room.

He sat and waited on the bed while she got changed in the bathroom. She walked out, dressed simply in joggers and a t-shirt, but with a natural, fresh beauty that awed him.

"I'm gonna stay on the couch tonight ok?"

"I'm alright Martin." protested Samantha.

"I don't care, I'll just stay in case."

Samantha sighed in resignation. "Ok. I'll grab you some spare bedding."

Going to the closet, she got him a spare quilt and a pillow, walking

over to him she handed it to her. There were several thin, white scars marking her perfect skin on the inside of her arm.

"What's this?" he asked, grabbing her arm causing her to drop the

bedding.

She pulled her arm away from him. "It's nothing. It was a long time

ago." She picked up the bedding and walked into the couch in the other room.

"Samantha it's not nothing." said Martin angrily, following her.

"Well what do you want me to tell you?" she snapped turning sharply to

face him and dropping the bedding on the couch. "That I couldn't handle being my father's punching bag anymore and I wanted the pain to go away? That I thought it was the only way to escape? That I would rather have the physical pain cuz I couldn't deal with the mental pain? I was

16! What do you want to hear? Huh?"

She sat down heavily on the couch. Martin sat cautiously next to her.

"Samantha, I'm sorry." he said. "I just....I can't imagine you like

that you know."

Samantha looked at him, he did look truly sorry. "I'm sorry too. I

shouldn't have reacted like that."

"You had every right. It's none of my business." said Martin.

"Look, there's lots of things that I still haven't told anyone, you all

know the basic story, just none of the details. This being one of

them." she said waving her arm. "It'll take time."

"I don't have anywhere to be." said Martin.

Samantha smiled, "I know. Why don't you get some sleep?"

"Ok." said Martin. "See you in the morning."

"Night." said Samantha, walking back into her room.