7.15am
Martin woke to the sound of plates and cutlery clanging, and to the
smell of coffee. He got up, stretched and walked into the kitchen.
"Morning." he said to Samantha who was making coffee and toast.
"Morning." she said. "You sleep okay?"
"Yeah actually. Yourself?"
Samantha turned and put a pot of coffee and a plate of toast on the
table. She had dark circles under her eyes, and still looked exhausted.
"Alright I suppose."
"Sam?"
"Ok, I was awake most of the night, just couldn't sleep. Come, sit,
eat." she said changing the subject.Martin sat, helping himself to coffee and toast.
"This all you eat for breakfast?" he asked.
Samantha smiled, pausing in the middle of taking her meds. "Usually just coffee, I'm not a breakfast person."
Martin tutted. "You know it's the most important meal." he said.
"God you sound like a parent." said Samantha swallowing her pills.
"Your leg bothering you?" asked Martin.
"A little." said Sam.
"I should go soon, need to get changed. I'm probably starting to
smell." said Martin.
"Nice." said Samantha wrinkling her nose.
"What are you doing today?" asked Martin.
Samantha shrugged. "Might pop into the office later, just to say hi to everyone. Don't know."
They carried on for about 15 minutes just talking until they finished
and Martin had to leave to get ready for work.
12.00pm
"Hey guys." said Samantha softly as she walked into the office for the first time since she had come out of hospital.
"Hey Sam!" said Danny excitedly getting up to give Samantha a hug. Samantha hesitantly hugged him back still not fully comfortable with human contact, the dream last night having brought back all the feelings. Damn the dreams, it had been getting so much better.
"Hi, how are you feeling?" said Vivian.
"Hey Viv, yeah I'm alright." said Samantha then turned towards Martin.
"Hey." she said smiling.
"Hey." he said back, reaching out to clasp her hand, not wanting to
show any public displays until Samantha was completely ready.
Vivian and Danny watched the exchange, grinning.
"Aww look at you two!" said Danny. "Ain't it cute?"
"Isn't what cute?" asked Jack. "Hey Sam." he said seeing her. "How are you?"
"I'm fine."
Jack noticed Martin and Samantha's hands. "Is that what's cute?" he asked Danny.
Danny nodded hesitantly, apprehensive of what Jack's reaction would be. However Jack smiled at them, glad that Samantha could finally be happy with someone who was good for her. "When did this happen?" he asked curiously.
"Yesterday." answered Samantha.
Jack smiled again, to show that he was fine with it. "Congrats, if
that's the right word." he said.
Samantha smiled. "Thanks." she said.
"Hey Samantha, can I talk to you for a minute?" said Vivian.
"Sure." said Samantha.
"Jack, can we use your office?" asked Vivian.
"Go ahead." said Jack.
Vivian walked into the office, followed by Samantha.
"So what's up?' asked Samantha, both of them sitting down.
"Just thought you might need some 'girl talk' and I wanted to see how you really are, the truth." replied Vivian.
Samantha sighed. "I'm better than I was." she said, she could say she was fine, but Vivian wouldn't believe that and it wasn't the truth.
"How are things with Martin? I heard you went on a date last night."
she asked.
"They're alright. We went out for a really nice meal last night, that
was good. We went back to his place for coffee and uhhhh...well we were kissing and I saw Riley's face and completely freaked. I pushed Martin away and ended up throwing up in the toilet. So I told him it was too soon, and just ran out and went home. Martin followed me and he said that it didn't matter, and he would wait as long as I need." said Samantha smiling at the memory. "Well then I think I must have fallen asleep, the next thing I remember was waking up on the couch screaming."
"Do you still get the nightmares?" asked Vivian.
Samantha shook her head. "It's still the same, if not worse. I still
keep seeing him Viv." said Samantha raising her pain filled eyes to
look at Vivian.
Vivian got up and put an arm round Samantha's shoulders. "It will get better Samantha." she said comfortingly.
Samantha smiled sadly.
"Well I should get back to work." said Vivian.
"Alright. Thanks Viv." said Samantha.
Vivian smiled and walked out of Jack's office. Leaving Samantha sitting in one of the chairs, her head in her hands.
"Hey Sam." said Danny walking into Jack's office where she was still
sitting about 5 minutes later.
"Hey Danny."
"You alright?" he asked concerned.
Samantha shrugged. "I'm okay. Not looking forward to tomorrow though."
Danny cringed. "Can't say I blame you. Well we'll all go out and
celebrate when its over, alright? I heard that new Chinese place is
really good. The one on 10th?"
"Never heard of it." said Samantha. "Sounds good, been...."
"Hey Sam." said Vivian popping her head round the door interrupting the conversation. "Van Doren's on line 1. She wants to speak to you."
"Thanks." said Samantha walking over to pick up the phone.
"We'll talk later." said Danny leaving the room to give Samantha some privacy.
"Hello." said Samantha picking up the phone.
"Hi Samantha." said Van Doren. "How did the session with Jane go?"
"It was alright. We didn't really get into much." said Samantha.
"I rang to talk about the trial." said Paula.
Samantha sighed and she sat down on a chair. "Yeah, I kinda figured." she said.
"Well the good news is that as we have all the taped conversations, and the doctors reports, and the photographs. Both Riley and Atkins have admitted to being guilty, they knew the evidence was too strong. So there's is no need for you to talk about what happened. But you do need to be there just in case. This trial is mainly to decide what the sentence is going to be, so it won't require a lot from you."
"That's great. Thank you." said Samantha, grateful that she wouldn't have to talk about what happened.
"We will need you there though, 9.30." said Paula.
"Okay, I will." said Samantha. "Bye."
"Bye." said Paula.
Samantha hung up the phone, and went to see the others smiling.
"Great news." she said. "I probably won't need to testify, they only
need me there just in case, as they've got all the evidence and
everything else."
"That's excellent, Samantha." said Vivian, and the others added their comments too.
"I think I'm going to head home." said Samantha. "Hope I can get
downstairs without being bombarded by people wanting to know how I am, like this morning."
"I'll take you home." said Martin. "Got my car back from the shop
today."
"Thanks. I'll see you guys tomorrow. Bye." said Samantha.
"I'll be back later." said Martin.
"Bye." came the chorus from the others.
Martin and Samantha made it to the elevator avoiding most of the
people. Samantha breathed a sigh of relief when they got in. "Thank God." she said sighing exaggeratedly.
Martin laughed, but it was cut short by the sight of Samantha leaning heavily against the wall of the elevator and grimacing as if she were in pain.
"You okay?" he asked worriedly.
"Hmm?" she said distracted. "Oh, yeah I'm fine. My leg just hurts a
bit."
"You taken the pills?" asked Martin.
Samantha nodded, "It's nothing, I'm sure it will go. I've just been
using it quite a bit lately."
"If you're sure." said Martin still worried.
"Positive." replied Samantha.
Martin had dropped Samantha back at her apartment. After convincing Martin that she was alright to be alone and persuading him to go back to work she was left alone with her thoughts about the trial the next day.
She was so glad she wouldn't have to testify about what happened, she didn't think she could do that in the same room as them. She hadn't told anyone about what had happened to cause her to have dreams like that. She could still see their faces, and hear the malicious coldness of Lisa Atkins voice echoing in her ears. In her dreams she could still feel every cut and bruise they inflicted on her, they had mostly healed but at night they would get worse. She could still taste the coppery blood as it flowed down her face. She wanted to get it over with but she was dreading every minute of it. She had managed to do the report, after much agonizing over it and she was ready to give it to the prosecution tomorrow. It was one of the hardest, most painful things she had to do.