E 153RD Street The Bronx

Danny motioned to the other FBI officer with him to cut the lock with the bolt cutters. The officer cut them and pulled the lock off the door. Danny pushed upon the door, gun in one hand, flashlight in the other. Suddenly the flashlights keen beam picked up a bound and gagged figure in the corner, squinting slightly as the harsh glare settled on them. Out of compassion Danny moved the flashlight away from them slightly as he ran over to untie Alec Parker. He had a nasty head wound that had clearly been bleeding for a long time. There was a mass of barely congealed blood around the wound, soaking down into the gag. Alec was suffering from acute blood loss which had brought on anaemia. He was also bleeding, Danny noted, from what looked like a stab wound to the abdomen. He was one lucky guy not to be dead.

Later Park Wood Hospital

Brooke ran into the hospital room where Alec was. He was groggy but that didn't prevent him from smiling when he saw her, or attempting to hug her back. Alice came in shyly after Brooke, holding Mrs Portman's hand. As soon as she saw her dad she ran forward with a big grin stretched across her face, all misery forgotten. Vivian smiled as she watched from the corner. She knew she should be at home, with her own family. This had been her first case though, her first case where the buck had stopped with her. She now understood completely why Jack got so involved; you bathed in the successes and wallowed in the failures. Families were made or broken by the outcome and when you were in charge, it was your responsibility. Vivian wasn't sure at that moment whether she could deal with that, particularly considering what had happened earlier. She'd talk to Jack about it when he got back to New York.

FBI Headquarters

Martin took down the picture of Alec Parker from the whiteboard. This was the first time today he hadn't been busy, the first time he'd been able to think about what had happened earlier with Sam.

Flashback Earlier Conversation

"About last night I . . it was . . what I'm trying to say is. . ." Sam tried, Martin could see her discomfort and immediately wanted to ease it.

"It's ok," Martin interrupted, "I understand." Sam looked at him, Martin looked back taking care to keep his face emotionless, he didn't want to make this any more difficult for her than it was already.

"Friends," Sam offered, Martin gulped and forced a smile and nodded.

"Friends."

End Flashback Earlier Conversation

Why had he let it end so easily? Why hadn't he fought for her? Because he knew it wouldn't last, that you couldn't have a relationship based on the feelings of one person, that it had to take two. Or was it because he'd observed something, something he hated to have seen but respected none the less. Jack was back now, for good and as a free agent. The wealth of emotions he saw that his return brought in Sam he knew could only mean one thing, true love. The one thing he couldn't tamper with because as much as he said he didn't believe in love, he knew he was in denial and that it did actually exist. He'd seen real, unconditional love once, it had been that day at the bookstore when the drop had gone bad and Sam had got shot. It took love to trade yourself for somebody else, love to risk your life in order to save theirs. He couldn't get in the way of that love, not even if he too admitted to himself that he was in love. That was because in order for true love to exist for him and Sam, she would need to love him back and as long as Jack was around that was going to happen. Until the day he knew for sure that there wasn't a future for him and Sam he would live in hope. Just then Sam walked back into the unit, she'd been with Vivian at the hospital for a while after she'd dropped Brooke off there, basking in the success they'd had.

"See you tomorrow yeah," Sam smiled as she picked up a few things from her desk. Just hearing her voice made feelings stir within him, pushing them aside he fixed a smile on his face. As he watched her leave, his shoulders slumped in resignation. Despite the torment it created, as she walked away, his eyes were unable to leave her. He nodded slowly after her.
"Tomorrow."

A/N: This episode/casefile is now finished. There is going to be another instalment, I'm working on it right now. You can probably expect it to start trickling in, in a couple of weeks. No promises though, I do have a life outside fanfiction however hard that may be to believe. Anyways hope you enjoyed! Thanks again to cynically optimistic for helping me, this time with the Martin/Sam last scene.

ETA: This did have music lyrics in, like it does on the show, but I removed them because it asked all writers to remove lyrics they hadn't written to avoid account closure. I want to keep my account.