Love and Marriage

Chapter Thirty

The next day Martin watched the elevator doors open and took a deep breath. He'd only been away from work for a week, but that was still long enough to be nervous about coming back. Besides that, the doctor had insisted he use a cane while at work. So everyone would be focusing on that and taking pity on him like they did after the first shooting. He could still see the faces of the people as he came back six weeks after the ambush. All of them felt bad for him. He didn't want that then and he certainly didn't want that now.

He slowly walked out of the elevator and made his way to his desk. Only Vivian was there at the moment. "Hey."

Vivian looked over at him and smiled. "Hey. I'm glad to see you back." She closed a file that she was working on and came over to his desk.

"I'm glad to be back." He replied.

"How are you doing?" She asked, glancing briefly at the cane.

"I'm healing right on schedule." He smiled. "The cane's just temporary."

"I'm sure it is." Vivian nodded.

"So where is everybody?" He asked, looking around and not seeing any other team members.

"Danny's coming in late, Jack's in a meeting with Van Doren, and Elena's taking the day off." Vivian explained.

"Nothing's wrong with her though, right?" Over the years, Elena had become a respected part of the team. He hoped nothing was wrong.

"No, nothing's wrong. I think she just wanted a day to do nothing. She's been working herself pretty hard lately." Vivian assured him.

"Yeah. It's good that she will get a chance to rest a bit." Martin smiled.

"Well I hate to ruin the good mood that you're obviously in, but it looks like we're doing paperwork all day." She had noticed that he was smiling a lot more lately and wondered why that was. She wasn't about to complain though. It was a major improvement over the grouchiness that he was exhibiting before.

"Paperwork?" He moaned. "Great."

It was about noon when Sam realized that she hadn't gotten anything for lunch yet. Her team didn't have a case today so they were just catching up on paperwork. She needed to have lunch and she needed a break from papers. Picking up the phone, she dialed a familiar number.

Danny answered the phone at his desk. "Taylor."

"Hey Danny. Is Martin around?"

"What? No how are you today Danny?" He pretended to be hurt by her lack of manners.

"I'm sorry. How are you today Danny? Is Martin around?" She asked.

"I'm great. Thanks for asking." Danny smiled.

She was starting to get impatient. "So is he around or not?"

"He's in Jack's office right now. Why didn't you just call him to find out if he's here?"

She ignored his question and instead asked another one. "Has he had lunch yet?"

"No, I don't think so." Danny replied. "Why?"

She sighed. "I was going to surprise him and bring him lunch, but I didn't want to do it if he's already eaten. So please don't tell him, ok?"

"That's very sweet of you." Danny told her. "So you are planning surprise lunches for him and he's grinning like a Cheshire cat. If you don't mind me asking, are things getting better between you two?"

"He's really grinning like a Cheshire cat?" She asked, glad to know that piece of insider information.

"Oh yeah." Danny answered. "He's been that way all day even though we've been stuck doing tedious paperwork. It's quite annoying. Do we all have you to thank for that?"

"Perhaps." She answered, not wanting to take all the credit for Martin's good mood. It was possible that he was happy to be back at work.

"I'll take that as a yes." He grinned. "So are you two…?"

"We're working on it Danny." She interrupted, not wanting to get into that right now. "I'm going to go get lunch now so don't let him get anything to eat. Think you can handle that?"

"Of course I can." Danny assured her.

"Thanks."

He could tell that she was about to hang up. "Oh and Samantha?"

"Yeah?"

"I haven't had lunch yet either."

There was silence on the line for a moment. "I'll bring you your usual sandwich."

"Thanks Sammy." Danny replied before hanging up.

About twenty minutes later, Sam entered the bullpen of her former team carrying a bag of food. Martin hadn't seen her yet so she took the opportunity to watch him for a moment. He was sitting at his desk going over some papers and he looked like he was concentrating heavily on his work. Underneath his desk she could see that his leg was stretched out. She wondered if his leg was bothering him a lot.

"Hey! Food's here!" Danny exclaimed, walking over to Sam.

That caught Martin's attention and he turned around to see Sam standing there with a bag of food. "Hey. What are you doing here?"

"I came to see if you'd have lunch with me." She replied, digging through the bag to hand Danny his sandwich.

"And you brought Danny lunch too?" He asked, getting up and slowly making his way over to her.

"Well I kinda had to." She could see that he was curious to know why. "I'll explain later. You wanna come eat in the break room with me?"

"Sure." He was glad to see her. He had seen her this morning, but it wasn't the same as when they were alone. He was even more impressed that she had bothered to bring him lunch. It was a nice gesture. They used to have lunch together a lot after she got transferred to white collar, but that was one of the many things that stopped happening once they started having problems. It would be nice to start having lunch together again.

The break room was empty when they got there and Sam sat the food down on the table before removing the sandwiches. "I got you a ham and cheese. I hope that's ok."

"That's perfect." He smiled, sitting in the chair next to her.

"How's your leg feeling?"

"It's the same." He shrugged. The truth though, was that he was in a lot more pain now that he came to work and started walking on it more. It didn't hurt as badly when he was staying at home and only walking when necessary. But he didn't want to worry her so he kept it to himself.

She wasn't sure that she believed him. It seemed to her that his leg was bothering him even more, but she wasn't going to push him. If he didn't want to tell her that then she would respect that—for now. They sat there eating their sandwiches for a few minutes. "So how is your first day back?"

"Boring. We got stuck with paperwork." He complained.

"That's what Danny said." She nodded. When she saw the confused look on his face, she explained. "I called Danny to make sure that you hadn't eaten lunch already. He told me about the paperwork and I felt obligated to bring him something. That's why I brought him something too."

"I see." He nodded in understanding. "And when you say that you felt obligated, you mean Danny kinda not-so-subtly goaded you into it?"

"Exactly." She laughed.

"So how's your day going?" He asked, taking a huge bite of the sandwich.

"It's been just as boring as yours. We're stuck on paperwork also. Maybe it's a bureau-wide paperwork extravaganza."

Now it was his turn to laugh and he reached for a napkin at the same time that she reached for a napkin. Their hands touched and, on impulse, he grabbed a hold of her hand. Their eyes met and he ran his thumb back and forth over her hand. "I missed these lunches."

She felt the same. It was always nice to go to lunch with him and get away from her co-workers for a while. It didn't matter if they ate in this break room or left the building to eat at one of the nearby places. It was just nice to spend some time alone with him. "I have too."

"Wanna make this a regular thing again?" He asked.

"I'd like that." She smiled.

"Great." He smiled back. Slowly he leaned in closer to give her a kiss, but they were interrupted before their lips made contact.

"Hey you two." Jack greeted, completely oblivious to the fact that he just interrupted at the worst possible moment.

Sam pulled her hand away from Martin's and used it to pick up her drink. "Hi Jack."

"We don't get to see you down here much anymore Sam, but it's nice to have you back—even if it's just for a little while." He went over and refilled his coffee.

"It is nice to see everyone." She replied.

"Well I'd love to stay and chat but I have my own stack of paperwork to tackle. See you later Samantha." Picking up his coffee, he headed back to his office.

As soon as he was gone, she softly chuckled. "Why is it that people always seem to interrupt us?"

"We're cursed?" He suggested as he sighed heavily.

"Maybe you should hurry up and kiss me before someone else walks in." She suggested as a mischievous smile showed on her face.

"As you wish, milady." He answered in a formal tone before leaning over to kiss her. This time, they weren't interrupted.