Love and Marriage

Chapter Fifty-Eight

"Does she suspect anything?" Viv asked as Martin entered the break room.

"No, I don't think so." Martin smiled. "She'll be right down."

"Great." Danny grinned, rearranging the small cake on the table. "She's going to be so surprised by this."

"Let's hope so." Jack stated.

Sam walked into the break room after getting off the elevator and was surprised to see Martin, Danny, Jack, Viv, and a bunch of her other friends waiting in there.

"Surprise!" They all yelled.

Sam smiled. "What's this for? It's not my birthday or anything."

Martin walked over to her and wrapped his arm around her waist. "When Danny started telling everyone about your transfer, everyone decided to throw you a small party to say goodbye."

"That's so sweet." Sam commented, looking at the people in the break room. There were about a dozen people there and it meant a lot to her that they would even think about throwing her a party. That was a lot more than her co-workers in White Collar had done for her.

"Who wants cake?" Danny asked, carefully waving around a knife.

Everyone in the room started congregating towards the cake and Viv decided to take pity on Danny and help him with his cake cutting duties since he was horrible at it. Sam stayed behind the crowd with Martin. She would wait until the crowd around the cake thinned out before getting a piece.

"So, were you surprised?" Martin asked.

"Very." She grinned. "I really thought something was wrong."

"Sorry." He apologized. "Didn't mean to make you think that. Just had to get you down here. I couldn't let you miss your own party. How did your co-workers upstairs take the news?"

She rolled her eyes. "I think that they will be having their own party tomorrow to celebrate that I'm gone."

Jack approached them, carrying three plates full of cake. He handed one to Sam and then one to Martin. "Here. I thought I'd save you from having to enter that circus." He pointed to the crowd gathered around the cake.

"Thanks." Sam and Martin told him.

"Ooh, you guys got my favorite cake." She exclaimed excitedly as she used her fork to get a bite of cake.

"Of course we did." Martin shrugged. "You didn't think we'd get you a carrot cake or something, did you?"

"With Danny's sense of humor?" She asked with a laugh. "I wouldn't put it past him."

They all shared a laugh at her comment because there was a ring of truth to it. Danny had originally been tempted to get her a carrot cake, even though she absolutely hated carrot cake. But he decided against it and settled on white cake with chocolate frosting. Jack looked over at Martin. "Would you mind if I stole her away for a few minutes?"

Martin looked at Sam and then at Jack. He reasoned that jack just wanted to say goodbye to Sam in private and understood. "No. Go ahead." He decided to go see how Danny and Viv were doing with cutting the cake.

Sam looked at Jack expectedly. He looked like he was deep in thought and she knew that he was probably thinking of a good way to say goodbye to her.

"So, you're actually leaving?" He started out by saying.

"Yeah." She nodded.

"I hear you're going to be back in Missing Person's and you're getting a promotion." He stated. "You deserve it. I think you'll do great."

"Thanks." It meant a lot to have him tell her that.

"And you won't have to deal with the cold weather as much." He was trying to look on the bright side of things.

"That will be nice." She nodded.

"We're all gonna miss you." He looked into her eyes and gave her a sad smile. "It was hard enough to send you to another division, but at least then you were still in the same building. Now you're gonna be hundreds of miles away."

"It's not like I'll be out in the middle of the Amazon rain forest or anything!" She laughed, trying to inject some humor into the solemn moment. "I expect everyone to call and write me about what's going on here—and don't think for a moment that you're excluded from that."

"We've been through a lot, haven't we?" Jack smiled.

"Yeah. We have." She agreed, thinking back on the past. It had been almost a decade since their affair, but he would always hold a special place in her heart and a small part of her would always love him. Not in a romantic way, and definitely not in the same way she loved Martin. No, she would love Jack for what he was—a former boss, mentor and good friend. "I'm really glad that I can call you a friend."

"So am I." Jack replied gruffly. He reached out and gave her a quick hug, being careful not to drop his cake. "If you get tired of Houston, just give me a call and I'll try to persuade Van Doren to bring you back here."

She smiled. "Thanks."

"Take care of yourself." He ordered.

"Yes sir." She said, knowing that it annoyed him to be called 'sir'.

"Don't call me sir!" He rolled his eyes at her use of 'sir' and then left the party to go back to his office and do paperwork.

Sam was then left to mingle around with the rest of the guests. They were all people that she used to hang out with all the time when she was working in Missing Person's and she knew them all pretty well. All of them said basically the same thing. They would miss her and good luck in Houston. Unlike her co-workers upstairs, she actually believed these people.

Vivian saw that Sam was alone at the moment and made her way over to her. "Hey."

"Hey Viv." Sam smiled. "Thanks for this party."

"Well we couldn't just let you leave without some kind of fanfare." Viv explained. "Although your transfer comes as quite a shock."

"I know." Sam nodded. "But I needed a change and when this job opened up, I couldn't say no."

"The fact that you're leaving doesn't have anything to do with the rumors that are circulating about Martin and Bethany, does it?" Viv asked hesitantly.

"No." Sam shook her head.

"That's good." Viv smiled. "Because everyone who knows Martin knows that he wouldn't cheat on you."

"Yeah." Sam glanced across the room at Martin, making eye contact with him. He winked at her and gave her a small grin. She smiled back before turning her attention back at Viv. "Martin will be coming with me as soon as he finds a new job there."

"That's good." Viv was glad to know that her friends weren't splitting up. "We're all going to miss you. I'll miss you."

"I'll miss you too." Sam reached over and gave the older woman a hug. "You've been a good friend. I've really appreciated your advice over the years."

"Well if you ever need any more advice, just give me a call." Viv told her.

"I will." Sam promised.

"I better get back to work." Viv sighed. "Make sure you don't lose contact with us or we'll track you down."

"I won't." Sam told her as she watched Viv leave.

"Looks like it's my turn now." Danny said as he walked up to Sam. "Everyone else has been monopolizing your time."

She giggled. "What can I say? I must be popular or something."

"Something like that." He grinned.

"Thanks for this little party." She gestured around the room.

"You didn't think we'd let you skip out on your last day without some kind of send-off, did you?" He asked.

"I don't know." She shrugged. "I guess I didn't really think about it too much. I didn't want to have to say goodbye cause I didn't know how. Kinda dreading it too. But I appreciate this."

"I still can't believe that you're leaving." Danny admitted. "I always thought that you'd stay here forever and we'd raise our kids together. They'd go to the same schools, have the same friends, maybe even marry each other."

"Claire married to Kyle?" Sam laughed. "I don't know about that."

"Why not?" Danny asked, pretending to be hurt by that. "Are you trying to say that Kyle isn't good enough for Claire?"

"No." She assured him. "I just think it's too early to playing matchmaker."

"Maybe you're right."

"Besides," she smiled, "I don't know if I want you as an in-law."

He hated to turn the conversation back to more serious topics, but had no choice. "So, you and Martin are going to be ok? I mean, this move isn't a break-up, right?"

"It's not a break-up." She explained. "It's just a break. I think we both need some time to re-evaluate everything and get some perspective. Therapy has been helping us, but there's only so much help we can get from that. It's helped me see that I don't want to lose him and it's helped identify problems that we weren't fully aware of. But with everything that's happened lately, I think we need some time alone."

"I don't fully understand, but if that's what it's going to take to get you two back to the way you were before, then it's a good thing." Danny admitted.

"Can you do me a favor though?"

"For you Sammy?" He asked with a grin. "Anything."

"Can you try and keep Bethany as far away from Martin as possible?" She wouldn't be there to do it and, although she doubted that Martin would immediately seek out Bethany's presence as soon as she left, she knew that Bethany would seek out Martin. She was already circling around him like a vulture stalking its' prey.

"I will do everything I can to make sure that Bethany stays far away from him." Danny promised.

She smiled at him. "I knew I could count on you."

The smile left his face and was replaced with a look of heavy sadness. "I'm really gonna miss you."

"I'll miss you too, and also Michelle and Kyle." Sam added. "By the way, how is Kyle doing? Is he feeling better?"

"Yeah, he's feeling a lot better." A huge smile appeared on Danny's face as he talked about his son. "Michelle would have come and brought him with her but she didn't think it would be wise for him to get out of the house yet."

"That's understandable." Sam nodded. "I expect all of you to come down and visit."

"Only if you'll visit us up here too." Danny added.

"Deal." Sam held out her hand to shake on the deal.

"Deal." He shook her hand and then pulled her into a hug. "You're the closest thing I've ever had to a sister, Sam."

"And you're the closest thing I've ever had to a brother Danny." She hugged him tightly. Aside from Martin, Danny was going to be the person she missed the most.