12.45pm

Once they got to Samantha's apartment block, Martin walked her to the door.

"Thanks." Samantha said unlocking her door. "Do you think you could tell Danny I'm not really up to doing anything tonight, as you're ringing him anyway."

"Sure. Will you be alright tonight?" asked Martin.

Samantha nodded.

"Okay, well you should go and get changed and warmed up before you catch anything." said Martin smiling.

"Yeah, ok. Bye." said Samantha surprising Martin with a hug.

"Bye Sam. Promise to call if you need anything." he said returning the hug.

"I promise." said Samantha going into her apartment.

2.00pm

Samantha sat on her couch, holding a cup of steaming hot coffee,

wrapped in a blanket, trying to get warm. She had changed and had a hot shower but she still couldn't get warm. She was just about to put a movie on when the door buzzer went. She got up and pressed the button saying "Hello."

"Hey Sam." came Danny's voice. "Thought you could use someone to talk to."

Samantha smiled, "Come on up." she said.

"So how are you feeling?" asked Danny, making himself comfortable on her couch. He looked at her concerned. "You okay? You're shivering."

"Yeah, I went for a walk to clear my head, and didn't quite realise how cold it was."

Danny rolled his eyes. "Well we can't have you getting ill. Sit down

with the blanket. Do you have a hot water bottle?"

"Umm, yeah I think so." said Samantha, "In the closet next to the

bathroom."

"I'll get it." said Danny.

"Thanks. Oh, did Martin call you?"

"Yeah he said you didn't feel up to going out, so I thought I'd come

and see how you are." Danny walked back into the kitchen holding the hot water bottle. He put the kettle on to boil, then when it was ready he handed it to Samantha. "Here you go." he said, sitting down next to Samantha.

"I hope you don't mind, I'm just not really in the mood to going out." she said.

"I understand." said Danny. "Now, if you don't mind, what did Atkins and Riley say?"

Samantha sighed and laughed bitterly. "Well Atkins basically said she'd be coming after me when she got out. And Riley..." Samantha paused. "He just said something." her tone of voice, saying she didn't want to talk about it.

"Atkins said that?" said Danny disbelievingly. "You didn't believe her did you?"

Samantha shrugged and looked away. "It was the way she said it, she meant it Danny. I know she did."

Danny looked at Sam, his practised eyes seeing her insecurity and

anxiety.

"We won't let her okay?" he said reassuringly. "Me, Martin, Viv and

Jack. We won't let her. You know that right?"

Samantha smiled. "Yeah I know. Thanks Danny."

"So...you wanna watch a movie?" asked Danny after a short pause.

"I was just about to watch Gladiator." said Samantha

"Okay then." said Danny. "You feeling any warmer?"

"Uhh yeah a bit." Samantha said.

"Good. Let's start the movie then."

It had been just over a week since the trial, and it was the end of

Samantha's first full day back at the Bureau. However, since the trial, the nightmares had gotten worse, she kept having dreams that they were out. Dreams that ended with her waking up in a cold sweat, shaking in terror. She hadn't told the others, she thought that they had possibly guessed though. She had been getting less and less sleep, and they would often comment on how tired she looked. She had been having regular sessions with Jane Smith. She had opened up a lot more and had started talking about her past, it had helped, talking about it. She hadn't really talked to any of the others in great detail about her past. She knew Martin wanted to talk, and she would. When she was ready.

The whole team were out to dinner, to celebrate Samantha coming back.

"So how does it feel to be getting back to work?" asked Danny.

"It's great." said Samantha. "Still got tons of people coming up to me asking if I'm alright."

"Well it's great to have you back." said Vivian.

"Yeah, it was getting annoying with everyone asking when you were coming back." Joked Jack.

Martin smiled at Samantha happily. Glad that she was finally getting back to her old self and that she was happier. He squeezed her hand under the table.

"Well that was a great meal." said Martin, leaning back in his chair.

"Yeah I'm completely stuffed." said Danny sighing.

"You shouldn't have eaten all your food and half of mine then should you?" laughed Samantha.

Vivian smiled, it was good to see Samantha laughing and joking again.

"Well I'd better take off." said Jack yawning and checking his watch.

Vivian also glanced at her watch. "Is that the time? I should head home too."

"We'll see you guys tomorrow." said Jack.

"Bright and early" said Vivian.

"Night." said Samantha and the other two to Jack and Vivian's

retreating figures.

Samantha yawned too. "Yeah I should get some sleep. Got physio before work tomorrow. Aren't I lucky."

"Yeah, how's that going?" asked Martin.

"It's going good. She said it's almost 100 better."

"That's great Sam." said Danny.

"Well goodnight." said Sam, leaning over to kiss Martin and squeezing Danny's shoulder.

"We'll walk you out." said Martin, standing up and slipping an arm

around Samantha's waist.

They walked out into the street, each getting into their own cars with a final goodnight.

9.15am

"Morning." called Samantha walking into the bullpen. "Sorry I'm late, physio overran."

"Morning Sam." said Danny.

"Hey." said Martin getting up to greet Sam with a peck on the cheek.

"Hi Sam." said Vivian. "Jack will be here in a few minutes. There's a new case he rang on his way in."

"Okay." said Samantha sitting down at her desk.

"Hey so how was physio then?" asked Martin.

"It was alright. Got some new exercises. She said that now I'm back at work, there will be more pressure on it so I have to increase the muscle strength, or something like that."

"Sounds fun." said Danny.

"Yeah sure." replied Samantha.

About 5 minutes later Jack rushed in. "Sorry traffic was a nightmare. Well we've got a new case."

Right. What are the details?" asked Vivian.

"28 year old Joshua O'Connors, works in a small real estate company. He's been missing since at least 12pm yesterday. He was supposed to meet some clients at a house at 12, but he never showed up. His partners, 2 of them, were at the office, when the clients rung and said that O'Connors hadn't shown. They tried his cell but he didn't answer. He wasn't the type to miss any appointments, so one of the partners, a Charles Driver, called the police before they shut up, when he still hadn't heard anything from him."

"Any enemies?" asked Samantha.

"Not that they can think of. Viv, Martin, you're going to go to the

office. It's called Roberts and Co, number 5, 16th street, Brooklyn."

"Right. We're on it." said Martin grabbing his jacket, followed by

Vivian.

"Danny, Samantha. Here's his address, I want you to check out his

apartment. I'm going to run a credit card and phone check for the past 24 hours."

"Okay." said Samantha.

"Let's go." said Danny.

"Keep in touch." Jack called after them.

22 hours missing.

10.00am

"Nice place." said Samantha looking around. "Quite empty though." she added.

Danny nodded. The apartment had all the necessary furniture but there were very few personal items. All they could see were a few framed pictures on a small table.

"Hey was this the house he was showing clients?" asked Samantha looking at some papers on the counter.

"He was supposed to be showing a house on Beech Drive, number 1503." said Danny checking his notebook.

"Nope, this isn't it, But it's circled in red and he's put a question

mark next to it."

"Maybe he wants to buy it?" suggest Danny.

"I'm going to send this to Martin, see if his partners know anything

about it." said Samantha.

"Look what I found." said Danny a few minutes later, opening a desk drawer. "Bullets, lots of bullets. But no sign of a gun."

"Now why does a real estate guy, living in a nice neighborhood, with no enemies that anyone can think of need a gun?" asked Samantha.

"Maybe he got into some dodgy dealings with a house or some clients." said Danny.

"Do you think he ran?" Sam asked.

"No signs of it." said Danny. "I checked the bedroom no clothes, or at least not many seem to be missing."

"Well we'll look round for a bit longer then head back to the office."

said Samantha.

23 hours missing

11.00am

"Well his partners seem to be hiding something." said Vivian, when they were all back at the office.

"In what way?" asked Jack.

"They seem a bit shifty, they got quite nervous when we asked them about the house that Samantha found the picture of."

"What did they say?" asked Samantha.

"They said they had no idea about it but kept giving each other funny looks."

"We found some interesting articles too." said Martin. "There were

several 'missing' items reported from houses that Roberts and Co had looked round. It was never decided what really happened, but many clients suspected them."

"Any recently?" asked Danny.

"Ummm, an antique clock, just a small one, but worth $1,500 went

missing from a house just last week."

"So maybe they were all in this little scheme together, but O'Connors got greedy and makes off with the goods." suggested Samantha.

"But if his partners were in on it, why would they call the cops? They must have known that if they found out about the stolen items then they would get done for it too." said Danny.

"Maybe they thought it would look suspicious if they didn't." said

Martin.

"Or maybe they just wanted to find O'Connors and didn't think about the consequences." said Vivian.

"Well according to his phone records, O'Connors made several calls late last night to a cell phone number. The number belongs to David Roberts, the manager of the company."

"So maybe the other partner, Charles Driver, got cold feet and called the police when O'Connors went missing, but didn't tell Roberts." said Vivian.

"Sam, Danny I want you to check out the house and we'll bring Driver and Roberts in for questioning."

"Okay." said Samantha.

"We'll be back later." said Danny.

24 hours missing.

12.00pm

"Huh. This is nice." said Danny. The house looked nothing like the

picture, it was completely run down and half boarded up.

"Well if you're going to hide stolen goods, then this is the right

place." said Samantha, walking up to the door followed by Danny.

"So how do we get in?" asked Danny when they discovered the door was locked.

"Let's try the back." said Samantha.

They walked round to the back door.

"It's open." said Danny testing the handle and getting out his gun and walking in.

Samantha also took her gun and following Danny in.

"You take the downstairs. I'll take up." said Samantha.

"If you're sure." said Danny.

Danny walked through the downstairs rooms, looking at all the stolen items cluttering the room. "Hey Sam. We got goods." he called up the stairs.

Samantha walked through the upstairs rooms, she walked into the

bedroom, and saw a lived-in bed and several real estate papers.

"Shit." she swore. "Danny!" she yelled starting to walk out the room.

Before she got to the door, a figure ran out from the bathroom shoving into Samantha sending her painfully slamming into the wall. Downstairs Danny heard the yell and a thud and started anxiously making his way upstairs.

The figure came at Samantha again and through the pain filled haze, she could tell it was Joshua O'Connors from the photo she had seen earlier.

He grabbed her by the wrists and pulled her up.

"Sam?" They both heard Danny's yell.

He grabbed Samantha by the throat choking her, cutting off her air

supply.

Samantha started choking, trying to pull his hands away from her neck, and trying to kick him with her legs. But it didn't do any good. He slammed her back into the wall, pinning her there. Blackness started to invade her vision.

She felt herself losing consciousness, and was just about to give up, when she felt Joshua being pulled away by an irate Danny. She collapsed to the door, gasping for breath.

Danny aimed his gun at Joshua. "You alright?" he asked Samantha. She nodded unable to speak.

"Joshua O'Connors, you are under arrest for attempted murder and the taking and possession of stolen goods." he said putting the handcuffs on him.

Danny took out his phone and called the police, telling them the

location and that they had found him. He looked over at Samantha, who was now sitting on the floor massaging her neck.

"Sam? Are you sure you're alright?"

"Yeah." she rasped.

"Police will be here in a minute." he said.

Samantha nodded.

12.30pm

Joshua had been taken to the police station and Danny had talked to Vivian, he found out that Roberts and Driver had confessed and had also been taken down to the station.

Danny was still very worried about Samantha, she looked in pain and still had trouble talking.

"Samantha, let's see your throat." said Danny.

Samantha looked at him, Danny winced at the sight of the bruising and swollen skin.

"Sam we're taking you to the hospital."

"No. I'm fine." croaked Samantha.

"No arguing, we're going." said Danny.

1.00pm

"Danny just rang." said Vivian. "They got O'Connors, and they're on

their way to the hospital."

"What happened?" asked Martin anxiously leaping to her feet.

"O'Connors tried to strangle Samantha." said Vivian.

"What?!" said Jack.

"Danny asked Samantha what happened, as Danny was downstairs and Samantha said that he threw her into a wall, then when he realised Danny was there, he tried to strangle her." said Vivian.

"Is she alright?" asked Martin.

"Yeah, just some bruising, but they're getting the doctors to check it out. I said we'd go and meet them there."

"Ok lets go." said Martin.

1.30pm

"Well this feels too familiar." muttered Vivian to Jack, as they made

their way through the hospital corridors, Martin leading the way.

"Mmm." Jack nodded. "We're here too much."

"There's Danny." said Martin.

Danny was waiting outside a room just ahead of them.

"Hey guys." he said, when they caught up to him.

"How is she?" asked Martin immediately.

"She's fine, there's just some bruising round the neck, she has to have ice on it for a bit, and some cream or something to help reduce the swelling."

"What actually happened?" asked Jack.

"Well we got to the house, and the front was locked so we went in the back. Sam said she'd check upstairs and while I checked down. I found tons of stolen items, so I went to call her up the stairs, and a few seconds later I heard her yell 'Danny' and I heard a thud, so I ran upstairs to what had happened, I found her in the bedroom, O'Connors had her pinned up against the wall, and had his hands round her neck, so I pulled him off and handcuffed him. Sam said that he charged her, just as she was walking to the door."

"Oww." sympathised Vivian. "She's alright though?"

"Yeah. She put up a bit of a fuss over coming her, I told her better

safe then sorry. She didn't take that to well." said Danny.

"She wouldn't." said Martin.

A few seconds later Samantha walked out of the room they were waiting next to.

"Hey guys." she said. "All ready to go."

"Okay, we'll drop you at home on the way to the office." said Jack.

"Home? I'm not going home yet. Still got half a days work." objected Samantha.

"You should rest." said Vivian gently.

"I will rest, just after work." said Samantha stubbornly. "I have to

write up the report you know."

Jack sighed in resignation. "Okay, but the minute you start to feel

less than 100, you're going home."

"Fine." said Samantha, walking down the corridor, dragging Martin after her.

Martin offered to give her a ride. Danny, Jack and Vivian would go in Danny's car.

"You've been awfully quiet." said Samantha softly to Martin.

Martin smiled. "I could have lost you." he said.

"But you didn't." said Samantha. "Hey, Martin look at me. I'm fine, you know that."

"But I could of." he said.

"Yeah but that's what it's like in this line of work. When ever you

went out on cases, I was worried too. It's just part of the job." said

Samantha, not wanting to admit, that she too had been scared. Scared that she wouldn't have made it. That she would never see Martin, Danny or Viv and Jack again. It wasn't the first time she had felt that. This was the third time in the past 4 months, and honestly, that was 3 times too many. But it was part of the job.

"Anyway, do you want to come over for dinner tonight?" she asked,

pushing her morbid thoughts away.

"I'd love to." replied Martin smiling his little half smile, the one

that made her forget everything and just be lost in him.