Somewhere I Belong

Chapter Nine

The smell of bacon and eggs wafted into his nostrils, rousing him to wake up. He resisted at first, choosing to turn onto his side in hopes of reclaiming the peaceful sleep he was having. But when he reached out to the side of the bed where Samantha should have been and found that it was empty, he sighed and opened his eyes.

A smile formed on his face as he rejoiced in the simple joy of getting a good, full night's sleep. He had been right; Sam was his personal dream catcher. The only dream he remembered having during the night was an uneventful dream where a cat was chasing a ball of yarn around in the rain. While that dream was weird, it didn't drain him emotionally as the nightmares usually did. He was very thankful for the opportunity to rest.

Slinging his legs over the side of the bed, he began to wonder about the food he was smelling. It smelled great, and he figured that Sam was cooking, but that confused him. She wasn't the greatest cook. In fact, she usually burned anything that she attempted to cook. Curious to see what was going on, he stood up and walked out to the kitchen. Though nothing could have prepared him for what he was about to witness.

There was Samantha, frying bacon while checking on her scrambled eggs. Amazingly enough, nothing was burning yet. But even more surprising than that was the fact that she was softly singing and swaying her hips to the music playing in the background. She looked absolutely beautiful in his old shirt and baggy pants as she moved to the rhythm of the beat and, as he watched her, he couldn't help but think about how lucky he was to have a second chance with her.

He had always dreamed about having a future with her, full of children and love, but until now he never thought that she would want any of those things—and especially not with him. That's one of the main reasons why he broke up with her. He wanted to settle down, or at least have plans to settle down. Now he had that with her. They were going to be parents in just a matter of months. That was just another one of the things that he had to be grateful for.

Amazed that she still hadn't noticed he was standing there, he leaned up against the doorframe and crossed his arms across his chest. He could spend the whole day watching her and never be bored.

Samantha used the tongs to flip the bacon over and continued to move to the music she turned on. It was turned down softly so that it wouldn't wake Martin up, but she kept it loud enough so that she could still hear it while cooking. Martin was going to be so surprised by her new and improved cooking skills and she couldn't wait to surprise him with breakfast in bed. Looking back, she realized that she should have done these kinds of nice things for him from the beginning of their relationship. Maybe then he wouldn't have dumped her. Shaking her head, she pushed those thoughts out of her head. The past didn't matter now—only the future mattered.

The future. She always hated thinking about the future because it scared her. Maybe it was because she never thought in a million years that she would have a real future. She could easily picture herself as one of those stereotypical old women with no life who just complained about everything and never had anyone who cared about them. Sadly, she had resigned herself to that fate. Luckily though, Martin came into her life and changed everything.

Martin made everything in her life brighter and gave her hope, which was something she had never really had before. He didn't just give her hope for a future, but hope for everything. She found herself smiling a lot more and for no apparent reason, she felt better about her life, and she was generally in a much better mood. Just being in the same room with him and seeing his smile or hearing his laugh was enough to boost her spirits. She loved him for everything he was and everything he didn't pretend to be.

But of course loving him scared her, so she retreated back to her old ways of being cold and unapproachable. She shut him out of her life, refusing to let him know just how much he had affected her and how much she loved him so that he wouldn't be able to hurt her. Ironically though, it didn't work. He broke up with her once he got fed up with her and smashed her heart into tiny pieces.

While she admitted she was mad at him for quite a while for giving up on her and their relationship, she knew he was doing the right thing. It hurt her a lot, but it did force her to confront her feelings about him. Well, in all honesty, it was the breakup and the shooting that forced her to own up to her mistakes as a girlfriend.

When she would sit at his bedside after the shooting, she would reflect on the many ways that she failed as his girlfriend. She'd go through her memories of the time they spent together and catalogue her failings. She'd think of things that she should have done or should have said. What started as a mental list soon morphed into a long list written in a notebook. Once she felt satisfied with that list, she started a new list. This new list contained a detailed description of things that she planned to do if Martin woke up and would give her a second chance. Breakfast in bed was just one of the items on the list.

She continued to sing along with the lyrics of the song from the radio and moving to the beat while she cooked, not realizing that she was being watched. So when she heard a clapping noise, she was startled. Turning around, she was surprised to see Martin standing in the doorway, applauding her.

He had been watching her and waiting for the right time to announce his presence. He chose to reveal himself when the song ended and started clapping. "I didn't know you could sing like that."

She blushed, embarrassed that he had heard her singing and seen her dancing while she cooked. Instead of replying to his compliment, she changed the subject. "What are you doing up? Why aren't you still in bed?"

He smiled and crossed the small kitchen to wrap his arms around her and give her a soft kiss. "Well the beautiful blonde who was supposed to be sleeping next to me was gone. I had to go and find her." He then looked at the stove. "Also, I smelled food."

"I'm making you breakfast." She sighed, slightly saddened that her plan was ruined. "I was going to bring it to you once it was ready if you had just stayed in bed."

"You were planning on giving me breakfast in bed?" He was touched. That was something that he had done for her a few times, but she had never done that for him—partially because she couldn't cook.

"That was the plan, but not anymore."

"Sorry." He could tell that she was sad about not being able to surprise him with breakfast in bed and for that he was sorry. "But you're cooking for me. That's a nice gesture that I appreciate. Is it going to be eatable?"

Her eyes narrowed and for a moment she thought about yelling at him for his comment. Is it going to be eatable? Of course it was. But then she remembered that he wasn't aware of her new cooking skills and she shouldn't get mad at him for that. He was only trying to make sure that she didn't poison him…again. "It's going to be great. I promise you."

He released her from his embrace and watched as she went back to cooking. "It certainly smells good."

She chuckled at the tone of his voice when he said that. "Don't act so surprised."

"I didn't mean it in a bad way." He explained. "I just…well, the last time you cooked it wasn't very good."

"You're right." She agreed. "It was terrible and it made you sick. For that I apologize. This is going to make up for it though."

He was skeptical that it would be good, but would eat it anyway. 'You know, we could always go back to bed and then we could still have breakfast in bed."

She considered his offer for a moment and then smiled. "That sounds good." The food was ready, so she started dishing up the bacon and eggs. Then she reached over to the toaster and picked up the toast. On the counter was a serving tray with orange juice and coffee. She put the plates on the tray and started to pick it up, but Martin reached over and grabbed it first.

"I've got it." He told her, not wanting her to carry anything.

She sighed, knowing that he had good intentions. "Martin, I'm pregnant but that doesn't mean that I can't pick up a tiny tray."

"Just humor me, please?" He asked, leading the way back to the bedroom. Carefully setting the tray on the bed, he fixed both of their pillows before sitting down.

She followed him and carefully sat on her side of the bed, scooting closer to him so that they were touching. Looking over at him, she noticed that he seemed hesitant to eat her food. "Are you just going to stare at the food or actually eat it?"

"Sorry." He chuckled, taking his fork and picking up a large bite of eggs. He was surprised to find that they were great. In fact, they might have been the best eggs he had ever eaten. "What did you do to these eggs?"

Because of the tone of his voice, she wasn't sure if he had enjoyed the eggs or if he thought they were disgusting. "Why? Are they no good?"

"No." He replied. "They're great. Wow Sam, I'm impressed."

She smiled, happy that her cooking lessons were paying off. "If you're impressed by a simple dish like eggs, imagine how you're going to feel once I cook dinner for you."

He looked at her suspiciously. "Ok, who are you and what have you done with the real Samantha? When and how have you become such a good cook? You used to burn everything."

"What can I say? I had a good teacher. Danny gave me some cooking lessons." She proudly replied, picking up a piece of bacon and chewing on it.

Danny had taught her. Of course he had. The more he heard about the time he was in the coma, the more he realized that Danny and Sam had been practically joined at the hip. He wasn't normally a jealous person, and although he knew that Danny and Sam weren't romantically involved, the fact that she spent so much time with him bothered him. "So Danny taught you? That's great."

"Well, I don't know how to cook a lot of things. I only wanted to make sure that I could cook something for you and our child. It wasn't fair that you always had to cook all the meals for me." She smiled. "This way, I can cook for you sometimes."

"That's sweet, but I like cooking for you." He took a drink of coffee.

She laughed. "Can we please not fight about who gets to cook?"

He laughed too. "Yeah, that is kinda ridiculous." He leaned over and gave her a kiss. "We won't fight about who gets to cook. Ok?"

"Absolutely." She replied, initiating another kiss. "So how did you sleep?"

"Fine." He replied, taking his fork and scooping up more eggs. "And you?"

"Great." She replied, picking up another piece of bacon. "I have to admit that I really missed sleeping in your arms."

He smiled. "And I missed having you sleep in my arms."

She picked up the glass of orange juice. "I would have stayed the night with you at the hospital more but I didn't because of work and the bed wasn't very comfortable."

He nodded. "I understand. That's what I figured."

They continued making small talk until they finished their breakfast. "So what do you want to do today?" Martin asked, setting the tray on the floor and stretching out on the bed.

Sam also stretched out, cuddling close to him and letting her arm wrap around him. "I don't care as long as I get to spend my day with you."

"In that case, I have a suggestion." He pulled her close to him and kissed the top of her head. "I know one thing that we could do that we haven't done in quite a while."

She giggled softly. "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"

"I don't know. What are you thinking?"

She propped herself up on her elbow and looked into his eyes. "Well I'm thinking that if we're going to do what you suggested, we're both wearing too many clothes."

"Yes, that is a problem." He replied with a devilish smirk. "Let's see if we can't fix that."