Love and Marriage
Chapter Two

"Then the fairy princess married the handsome prince and they lived happily ever after. The end." Sam smiled as she sat on Claire's bed. It was a ritual that Sam would come in every night and tell Claire a bedtime story before tucking her in. Personally, she liked being able to just read a story that someone else had written. But Claire always wanted her mother to make up a new story. So every night, Sam sat on the bed and made up a new story full of love and adventure. No matter what conflict happened during the story though, every story ended in 'they lived happily ever after'. Perhaps it was naïve of her, but Sam didn't want her daughter to find out that some stories didn't end happily until it was absolutely necessary.

"Tell me another mommy!" Claire exclaimed. "I want another story!"

"No sweetie, it's late. It's time for you to go to bed because you have kindergarten tomorrow. It's a school night." She could tell that Claire wanted another story, but she was exhausted and didn't feel up to creating yet another happy tale tonight. "But I'll tell you another story tomorrow night. Ok?"

"Ok." Claire nodded with a yawn.

Sam leaned down and kissed her goodnight before pulling the covers up tight. "I love you Claire."

"I love you too mommy." Claire replied, already half-asleep.

"Goodnight." She whispered, kissing her forehead once more. Then she watched as her daughter fell asleep. When she was satisfied that Claire was in a deep sleep, she turned off the main lights and plugged in the nightlight before heading into their bedroom. As usual, Martin wasn't home yet. Releasing a long sigh, she decided to change into her pajamas and go to bed early. Maybe if she hurried up she could get to sleep before Martin came home.

Even though it had been two days, they still hadn't talked about their first joint therapy session. Looking back, she realized that they hadn't carried on a real conversation about anything these past two days. Everything they said to each other was related to Claire and everyday pleasantries. Maybe that was for the best though. If they didn't talk about their problems, they didn't fight—and that would definitely be a good thing.

Slipping underneath the covers, she looked over to the other side of the bed and felt sadness enter her heart again. There used to be a time when crawling into bed at the end of a long day was her favorite moment of the day because Martin would always be right there next to her, wrapping his arms around her and creating a safe haven for her to relax in. There used to be a time when this bed held the happiest memories of her life. But now when she crawled into bed she felt nothing but sadness and emptiness.

He was slipping away from her, or maybe she was the one slipping away from him. Did it really matter who was slipping though?

She really hated him sometimes for making her want a family with him. She was doing just fine on her own. Then he had to show up and change everything. He had to be so charming and funny and sweet. She didn't want a family. She didn't care about having a husband, children, or a house in suburbia. But he made her fall in love with him and now look at her. She was married with a daughter and a house in suburbia. The worst part was that she loved being married with a daughter and a house in suburbia. She released another sigh. Well, she had loved that—until about a year ago.

She didn't know the exact date, but it was sometime last June when everything seemed to change. They started fighting more and talking less. They started making hurtful, sarcastic comments about each other and the atmosphere around them changed. She no longer felt the same connection with him that she had grown to depend on. He became distant and so she reverted back to her old ways of being cold and shutting him out. It became a never-ending cycle.

She didn't want this though. She didn't want to feel so disconnected from her own husband and she didn't want to lose Martin. She wanted to be the happy family that they used to be. She started to cry softly as she remembered a happy memory from about four years ago.

It was raining on the day that they had planned to have a family picnic in the park. "So what are we going to do now?" Sam asked, looking out the window of the kitchen. "I don't think it's going to stop raining, and even if it does, the ground will be muddy and damp. I don't think that's the best place to take a small child."

Martin walked up behind her and snaked his arms around her waist. "Well if we can't take a picnic to the park, then we'll just have a picnic here."

She spun around in his arms so that she was now facing him and laughed. "A picnic here? Are you crazy?"

"No, I'm not crazy." He kissed the tip of her nose. "My Aunt Bonnie used to take me along on picnics in the park with her with my cousins. But if it rained when we were supposed to go, she would just make it an indoor picnic. We'd spread out a large blanket in the living room and pretend that we were outside. Sometimes it was actually nicer than having an outdoor picnic because if it's indoors, you don't have to worry about insects."

"But it's not a real picnic." She sadly pointed out. "This was going to be Claire's first real picnic."

"Sam, I don't think she's going to notice." Martin explained. "Besides, we'll go on another picnic some other time. But it would be a shame to waste these sandwiches."

She could tell that he was excited about this whole indoor picnic idea so she relented. "Ok. Go set up a blanket. I'll bring Claire and the food into the living room."

"Great. It'll be lots of fun." He promised, turning to leave.

But Sam pulled him back and wrapped her arms around his neck. "Wait a minute."

"For what?" He asked with a grin on his face.

"For this." She replied, leaning in a placing a passionate kiss on his lips. When she was done, she kissed his lips once more before letting go and heading to the nursery to get Claire.

That was a good day. She missed having days like that. She missed feeling loved and wanted. She missed his touch, his kiss, the way he would pull her closer to him while he was sleeping. As she thought about all the things she missed, she started crying even harder.

Downstairs, Martin entered the house and laid his keys down on the table next to the door. It had been a hard day at work, searching for a missing woman who ended up being found dead. As hard as that was though, it wasn't the only thing weighing on his mind. He hated this situation with Sam. His marriage was falling apart. Everyday he felt them growing farther and farther apart, yet he felt powerless to stop it from happening. Whose fault it was remained a mystery to him. Maybe it was his fault, maybe it was hers, or maybe they shared the blame equally.

Entering the kitchen, he found that Sam had left him some leftover food from dinner in the fridge. It was one of the few nice things she still did for him. Too bad he wasn't hungry. He knew by looking at the time that Claire was already in bed and most likely asleep. He also knew that Sam was probably upstairs trying to get to sleep before he got home. So, partially to give her more time to fall asleep and partially to give himself time to think, he pulled out a beer from the fridge and headed to the living room.

Sitting there in his favorite chair, drinking his beer and flipping through the TV channels, he reflected on their joint therapy session. Some of the things Sam had said hurt him, especially the part about how he didn't make her happy anymore. He knew it was true though; all he had to do was look into her eyes and he could see it was the truth. She wasn't happy anymore. It still hurt though because he had prided himself on being the guy that had finally made the elusive Samantha Spade happy. Now he was the guy who was making her miserable.

Sam was also right when she said that they didn't talk or laugh anymore. He couldn't remember the last time he had managed to make her laugh. Sure she laughed with Claire all the time, but her fun-loving mood always seemed to sour once he joined in.

Maybe it was him. Maybe she just didn't love him anymore. Maybe they made a mistake getting married and starting a family. He wasn't saying the Claire was a mistake, but maybe it was a mistake to bring a child into their relationship.

Leslie told them to think about when their problems started to become, well, problems. He'd been thinking about it for the past two days and had come up with only one real answer. He didn't know. He didn't know when exactly it started. He didn't think there was one day where their marriage turned inside out. It just snuck up on them. It just happened.

About a year ago they started fighting more. They had always fought—it was just something they did. But usually it was over silly things like who would take out the trash or who would do the grocery shopping and they'd quit being angry after a couple of minutes or hours. Now when they fought, they stayed mad for days and would go out of their way to avoid talking to each other. That wasn't healthy and sooner or later Claire would pick up on that. Neither of them wanted that. So they agreed to go get some therapy together.

He softly climbed the stairs and headed first to Claire's room. He saw that she was fast asleep and decided not to wake her up just to tell her goodnight. So he placed a kiss on her forehead. "Goodnight princess." He whispered. She looked so much like Sam when she slept. Of course their daughter was a lot like her mother—with the same golden blonde hair and the same rambunctious spirit. Maybe that's why they were so close. Taking one last look at his daughter, he left the room and closed the door.

He took a deep breath before entering their bedroom, pretty certain that he would find Sam already asleep. That's why he was surprised when he saw that the light was still on. Curious, he opened the door and found Sam was in bed. Upon taking a closer look, she looked like she had been crying. He wanted to go over to her and try to comfort her, but he didn't think that she would be receptive to that because she had turned to lie on her side so that she wasn't facing him anymore. "Hey." He greeted.

She thought about ignoring him, but decided against it. "Hey."

He started getting ready for bed, stripping away his clothes and changing into a pair of old sweatpants. As he climbed into bed he tried to think of something to say to her, anything that would make them talk to each other, but came up empty. Everything he wanted to say to her seemed pointless. So instead he turned off the light on his nightstand and pulled the covers up tight.

They stayed there, lying in the bed, each awake and wondering what the other was thinking. Neither realizing just how much in love they actually were with each other.