Love and Marriage

Chapter Eighteen

She stood on the porch, waiting for the door to open. Once it did, she was face to face with Sarah's mother. "Hello Angela."

"Samantha! How is Martin?" Angela asked, sincerely hoping that everything was ok. Samantha had called her last night, filling her in on everything and explaining that she would come by in the morning to tell Claire.

"He's going to be fine." Sam replied with a smile. "He's in a lot of pain right now and will have trouble walking for a while, but he'll be ok."

"I'm so glad." Angela nodded.

"I hope you don't mind that I came over."

"Nonsense! It's fine." Angela assured her. "I'll go get Claire so you two can talk."

"Thanks." Sam replied, waiting out on the porch. A few seconds later, Claire appeared.

"Mommy? What are you doing here?" She asked, confused about her mother's presence.

"I just needed to talk to you about something before you went to school." Sam told her, taking her by the hand and leading her to the nearby porch swing.

"Is something wrong?" Claire asked.

"No, everything's fine now. I just wanted to tell you that last night daddy had to go to the hospital."

"Why?" She asked. She knew that they hospital was a bad place where sick people went. "Is he sick?"

"No, not exactly." Sam shook her head, trying to think of the best way to explain this to her. "He got hurt, kinda like you did at Kyle's birthday party."

"Why didn't you just put a band-aid on it and tell him a funny story? That helped me."

She smiled at her daughter's comment. "Well because there are some things that a band-aid and a story won't fix. So he went to the hospital and the doctor's fixed him."

"Is he ok?" Claire asked, starting to cry. She didn't want to think about her daddy getting hurt.

"He's fine sweetie. He's going to be just fine." She wiped the tears from Claire's face and then hugged her. "I thought that I would pick you up from school and we'd go visit him. Knowing him, he's going to be kinda bored and I know that he would love to see you. Would you like that?"

"Yeah." Claire nodded as the tears stopped. "Can we see him now? I don't want him to be bored."

"Oh I don't think so." She wished that she could take Claire over to see Martin right now, but she had to go to school. "You need to go to school and learn and he needs to rest for a bit. But I promise that we'll go just as soon as school is over. Ok?"

"Ok." She wished she could go see her daddy now, but if mommy promised they'd see him later, then they'd see him later. Her mommy wouldn't lie to her.

"I don't want you to worry about your daddy. He's fine. I promise." She kissed the top of her daughter's head.

Hearing that her mommy was promising that he was ok, she smiled. "Then I won't worry mommy."

"I love you Claire." She kissed Claire on the cheek.

"I love you too." Claire repeated, placing a kiss on her mommy's cheek.

When he woke up the next morning he immediately noticed that Sam wasn't there with him anymore. He frowned, wondering low long she had stayed once he fell asleep and if she was going to come back later. He hoped to find answers in the note that she had left lying on his stomach

Martin,

I had to leave to go talk to Claire before she left for school. I also talked to the doctor and he said that you're going to have to stay here for at least another day, so I thought I'd bring Claire by later this afternoon. That way she can see that you're really ok and hopefully won't worry as much. Unless there's an emergency at work, I'm planning on coming by during my lunch hour to see how you're doing. If you need anything before that, I'm only a phone call away.

Sam

He re-read her note about three times before folding it up and placing it on the table next to the bed. He was glad that she was going to bring Claire to see him later, but disappointed that he had to stay in the hospital. He had been hoping to be released today. Judging from her note it sounded like she had stayed the night here with him but he couldn't be certain of that. The last half of the note was encouraging. Maybe she was telling the truth last night when she said that she still loved him. After all, she was going to visit him later and explicitly offered her help to him. Maybe it wasn't too late to save their marriage after all.

Sam walked down the hallway of the hospital to Martin's room. True to her word in her letter, she was coming by during her lunch break. But she couldn't help being slightly nervous about how he would react to her visit. Would they start talking about their problems? Would he want to talk about that? Would they gloss over their problems and just make small talk for an hour? She wasn't sure that now was the best time to bring up their problems, but what else would they talk about? Taking a deep breath, she opened the door to his room. "Hey."

He looked over and saw Sam standing there with a smile on her face. She was here, just like her letter said. "Hey."

"How are you feeling?" She asked as she walked closer to his bed.

"I've been better and I've been worse." He replied honestly. "They gave me more pain medication but at least this stuff won't make me sleep for ten hours."

"That's good." She laughed. "You weren't exactly the best company last night because of the snoring."

"I don't snore." He objected.

"Well you did last night." She argued, playfully slapping his arm.

He laughed, enjoying the fact that they were actually joking around with each other and making the other laugh. "Did not."

"Did too." She stuck her tongue out at him, even though she knew that it was a childish thing to do. But it was an impulsive move, inspired by the playfulness of their conversation.

"Did not." He shook his head vehemently.

She placed her hands on her hips. "If you don't stop being difficult I won't give you what I brought for you."

"You brought me something?" He asked, surprised that she would do something like that.

"Yes." She replied, noting the look of sheer surprise on his face. Had things really gotten so bad between them that he didn't think she'd do anything nice for him? "I brought you two things." She put her large purse on his bed.

"You brought me a purse?" He joked.

"No." She replied seriously. "Why? Do you want one?"

"Not really." He grinned.

"I didn't think so." She reached into the bag and pulled out a deck of playing cards. "I know that you've probably been bored sitting here all day so I brought you these. I thought you could work on your solitaire game."

"Thanks." He replied. "So why did you have to bring a bigger purse for that?"

"I had to bring the larger purse so that I could smuggle everything into the hospital."

"Why?" He asked, picking up the cards. "Does the hospital have a no playing cards rule?"

"No." She chuckled. "But they don't allow this in here." She pulled out a big box of takeout food from her purse and set it down on the bed within his reach. "I was thinking about the last time you got shot and remembered that you said one of the worst parts about being stuck in the hospital was the food. So I smuggled you in some decent food."

He opened up the styrofoam container and noticed that it was his favorite sandwich from his favorite restaurant. She was really going all out to be nice to him. He couldn't help but wonder what she was up to. Was she trying to prove that she loved him or was she just trying to be nice since he got shot? Besides that, they weren't fighting; they were actually joking around with each other. Other than the night that they got drunk, they hadn't joked around like that in months. So what changed?

"This isn't just decent food." He explained to her. "This is my favorite food. You didn't have to…"

"I know." She interrupted. "But I wanted to do something nice for you."

"Thanks." He appreciated the effort that she was making to get along with him and to be nicer to him. Now he wondered what he could do for her to show her that he appreciated it.

"You better eat it before a nurse comes in and takes it away." She advised, removing her purse from his bed and sitting in the chair next to the bed.

He quickly moved to sit up in the bed and licked his lips in anticipation of eating some real food. The slop they had given him for breakfast and lunch wasn't good enough for him. He hadn't eaten much lately so he was starving.

She watched him eat and enjoyed seeing the look of sheer joy on his face. The fact that he could be so happy and content just by eating his favorite foods had always amazed her. It was such a child-like quality—one that she didn't have.

"This is great." He said in-between bites. Noticing that she wasn't eating and was instead just watching him, he became slightly embarrassed at the way he was scarfing down his sandwich. "Have you eaten?"

"No," she shook her head, "I haven't."

"Have you eaten at all today?" He asked.

"No." She replied.

"Are you going to eat at all today?" He asked. Not eating all day wasn't a good idea.

"Eventually." She shrugged.

He eyed his sandwich and then her before tearing off a piece and handing it out to her. "Here. Take part of this."

She looked at him strangely, like he was offering her something weird. "I can't. I got that for you."

"And I appreciate it, but I don't want you to starve." He told her, waving part of the sandwich in her face. "Take it, please?"

She sighed, taking the sandwich. "Thanks."

"You're welcome." He smiled, grateful that she didn't argue with him about it. They continued to eat for a few minutes in silence, each lost in their own thoughts.

"I better get going." Sam finally sighed, not looking forward to going back to work. She would have liked to stay with him longer.

"Thanks for stopping by and for the food." He thanked her.

"It's the least I could do." She shrugged it off. "I'll be back later with Claire."

"Can't wait." He replied. He really couldn't wait until Sam came back and not just because she was bringing Claire. He couldn't wait to see how long this new cease-fire between them would last before they started fighting again.