The knock on the front door at 2.30 in the afternoon took Catherine Fitzgerald away from her favourite afternoon show. It was the only one she allowed herself to watch. If she didn't she feared sometimes she would go mad. Loosing her son almost seven months previous had almost killed her and she couldn't face going back to work so here she was sitting around her home, watching daytime TV and indulging in the hobbies she gave up when she married Victor Fitzgerald.
Opening the door she was faced with Samantha Spade. Her son's girlfriend, a woman she hadn't seen since before Martin died. "Samantha this is a surprise." Catherine said enveloping the young woman in a hug.
"I know it's been a while Catherine, but I hope you will let me explain." Samantha said quickly before she lost her nerve.
"Of course I will, come on in." Catherine stepped back and was shocked to see Samantha pick up a baby car seat from the ground.
"I know what this may look like but I want to tell you the whole story." Samantha started. "Firstly I want to apologise for not coming to you in the days after Martin..." Samantha paused, unable to say the word. "It was very hard for me as I assume it was for you. But I had other circumstances surrounding me that a lot of people knew nothing about." Setting Ben's chair on the floor, Samantha took a seat on the sofa beside Catherine. "No one in the bureau knew Martin and I were dating."
"You had been dating a long time, how come no one knew?" Catherine asked.
"We managed to keep it a secret. Your husband knew and he promised us he wouldn't tell anyone. It could have ruined our chances of working together and that we couldn't do." Samantha explained. "Did you know that three days before it happened Martin proposed to me?"
"I knew he was thinking about it. He had spoken to us a few weeks before and asked for his grandmother's ring. She had willed it to him before she died." Catherine watched as Samantha reached beneath the shirt she was wearing and produced the ring on a chain around her neck. "I take it you said yes?"
Samantha nodded before speaking again. "I was so happy Catherine. Happier than I had ever been in my life. I didn't have the greatest of childhoods and my life since coming to New York wasn't exactly all roses as well. Meeting Martin gave me a new lease on life. A life that I never thought I could have." Ben started to cry at that point and Samantha reached down and lifted him into her arms, softly kissing his cheek in the process. "But what Martin didn't know the day he dies was that I was pregnant. I had only just found out that morning and was going to tell him that night. That never happened."
"So I have a grandson?" Catherine asked looking at Ben. Samantha nodded before handing Ben over to his grandmother. "Samantha can I ask you something? In the months since Martin's death did you visit his grave?"
Samantha nodded. "Every Sunday, why do you ask?"
"A friend of mine used to say she saw a young pregnant girl at martin's grave but never knew who you were. You really travelled down here every Sunday?"
"Yeah, I had to feel close to him some how. Wanted to tell him all about the child growing inside me. The child you now hold."
"I haven't even asked his name?"
"Benjamin Martin Fitzgerald. He even looks like him." Samantha said proudly.
"That he does."
"Catherine, I am not down here asking for anything, I just Ben to have the chance to know you. For you to have the chance to know your grandson."
"Surely you need help though?" Catherine asked.
"Hadn't really thought about it yet. Haven't had time to think about a lot these days. Ben takes up most of my time and that I don't mind. I tell him about Martin all the time. Even though he will never meet him, or know him in person. I want my son, to know exactly who his father was."
"Samantha you are a very brave woman and I don't blame you for one minute for hiding away from us while you were pregnant, but you know we would have been there for you."
"I know, I just wasn't sure how Victor would take it. He agreed to Martin and I dating, but he never really liked me."
"But you went through this on your own."
"That I did, but I survived and look what I have to show for it." Samantha said, taking Ben back, just to have him in her arms again.