Love and Marriage

Chapter Eighty-Eight

The next two weeks seemed to pass by quickly for Martin since he was busy packing up the rest of their house and getting it ready to be sold. He thought that the time would pass by slowly, but was pleasantly surprised when time flew by quickly. With everything that he had to do in such a short time, he hadn't had nearly as much time to miss Sam and Claire as before.

But at night, when everything was quiet and he stopped working on everything that needed to be done, that's when he missed them the most. It was good though that his late night calls to Sam had continued. They would talk for hours about everything that had happened to them during the day.

She'd fill him in on the cases they were working on, or even just the latest practical joke that Trevor had played on Joshua. He would fill her in on what cases they were working on and letting her know what was happening with the team.

The only thing that worried him was the fact that she was avoiding the serious topics that they needed to talk about. He knew that she was still worried about being pregnant. He could hear the anxiety in her voice every time she spoke.

But she didn't want to talk about it and always diverted the conversation away from it whenever he tried to discuss it with her. He figured that he would let it go for now, but when he got there he would force the issue with her.

Yesterday was his last day at work and it was bittersweet. As he packed up a box of books, he thought back to the party that the team had thrown for him yesterday.

"Shh, he's coming!" Danny silenced everyone in the break room.

Martin walked through the doors of the break room to find everyone crowded in there, yelling surprise at him. He smiled touched that his friends would throw him a party just like the one they had thrown Sam a few weeks ago. "You guys didn't have to do this."

"Yes we did." Danny told his friend as he walked up to him. "We threw Sam a party so it would only be fair to throw you one too. Everyone wanted to show you that you'll also be missed around here."

"Well I appreciate it." Martin told his friend as he started making his way around the room, talking to everyone that had come to his party.

About a half hour later, he finally got around to getting a piece of cake and turned around to see Vivian behind him. "Hey." He smiled.

"Hey." She gave him a small smile back. "You know this is hard. First we lose Sam and now you. Who's next? Danny?"

"Why not?" Martin grinned. "All of you could follow us to Houston. Who knows? Maybe Sam and I are starting a trend."

"No, I don't think that will happen." Vivian sighed. "But as sad as I am that you and Sam are leaving, I am even more happy that you two are doing better. I know that you thought you were hiding it, but I've known for almost a year that you two have been experiencing problems."

"How?" Martin was shocked by Viv's admission. He really thought that he was doing good at keeping that a secret, up until the past couple of months. But Viv knew for almost a year? Of course she did. She always knew everything. That was her job as the mother hen of the team.

"I just knew." Viv replied. "There was a change in both you and Sam. It was a small change, but a change."

"I'm really going to miss you Viv. You've helped me out more times than I care to count."

She reached over and gave him a hug. "You were always one of my most favorite people to work with. Just don't tell Danny that or I'll never hear the end of it."

Martin chuckled. "I'll make sure that Danny doesn't find out."

"I hope you know that I expect a lot of pictures and updates about your new life in Houston." Viv pointed out.

"And pictures and updates you shall get." He promised.

"Good." Viv smiled. "Be happy Martin."

"I am Viv." He told her. "For the first time in a long time, I am."

Jack came up to them and Viv excused herself from the conversation. "So, it looks like this is the end."

"Yeah." Martin nodded. "Listen Jack, I want to thank you for everything. You've been the best boss I could've asked for and you've also been a great friend. I've enjoyed working for you and I've learned a lot from you."

"Hopefully you've learned a lot about what not to do." Jack joked. "I've tried to teach by examples."

Martin laughed. "I have learned a thing or two about what not to do, but you sell yourself short. Whether you want to admit it or not, you're a pretty good role model most of the time."

"Yeah, well, whatever." Jack shrugged off Martin's compliment. He didn't think of himself as a good role model, but didn't want to fight about it. "Look, just be happy in Houston, and make sure that Sam's happy too. You both deserve happiness."

"Thanks." Martin smiled.

"I gotta get back to work on trying to find a permanent replacement for you, so…goodbye Martin."

"Goodbye Jack." Martin watched Jack leave and wasn't surprised to see Danny approach him. "Hey."

"Hey." Danny greeted.

"Thanks for the party." He really did appreciate it. It was a nice gesture.

"No problem." Danny shrugged. "So did you notice who is absent from this party?"

Martin looked around the room, searching the faces and trying to figure out who Danny was talking about. "I give up. Who's not here?"

"I'll give you a hint and then three guesses. Her name starts with a B." Danny grinned.

"Bethany." Martin groaned. "Why isn't she here? Shouldn't she be here stalking me and trying to ruin my life?"

"I just found out that she got fired." Danny happily explained.

"What did she do to get fired?" Martin asked.

"I don't know." Danny shook his head. "I couldn't find that out. I guess it was something serious though. Honestly, I don't really care because at least this means she won't be lurking around the building looking for her next target once you're gone."

"Yeah, I would have felt bad for her next target." Martin agreed. "Well that's good news."

"Yeah." Danny agreed. He was happy about Bethany getting fired. She didn't deserve to work here. But he was also unhappy about Martin leaving. "You know this was hard enough when Sam left. Now you're leaving too. This really sucks."

"I know." Martin nodded. "But like I told Viv, you could always transfer to Houston too."

"Believe me, I'm tempted to." Danny told him. "But I'm not sure Michelle would like that."

"Well you have an open invitation to visit anytime you want." Martin assured him. "I'm sure that Sam would love it if you and the family would come down sometime."

"We just might have to do that." Danny told him. There was a moment of silence between them. "Who would've thought that we would be such good friends?"

"I didn't think so, especially after my first day. You didn't really like me very much. I thought that if I was lucky, we'd at least be able to have a professional working relationship."

"It wasn't that I didn't like you…" Danny trailed off. "Ok. I didn't really like you. But it was just me being me."

"And now look at us. You're one of my closest friends and one of the few people I would trust with my life." Martin smiled.

"This really sucks." Danny complained again.

"You already said that." Martin pointed out.

"I know!" Danny exclaimed. "I'm just happy for you and Sam. Both of you deserve this and I'm glad that you're finally getting back on track again. It worried me when you told me about the whole therapy thing and when you admitted thinking about divorce."

"I haven't exactly had a lot of positive role models around concerning healthy marriages. Viv and Marcus are the only other couple I know who have managed to stay together. But you and Sam are kind of like my major role models. I look up to you two and it would have killed me to see you separate."

"Fortunately for you and us, that's not going to happen." Martin told him.

"And I'm glad." Danny smiled. "For everyone's sake. I just wish that you and Sam could've stayed here forever."

Martin reached over and gave Danny a hug. "Don't worry. Our friendship won't disappear just because we're not living in the same city anymore. We'll always be friends."

"I'm counting on that." Danny told him.

Sighing, he taped up the last box of books and labeled it with a permanent marker. That was the last of the boxes. Now all he had to do was wait for tomorrow. That's when the moving company would drop by to pick up the boxes and furniture. Then they would drive it down to Houston.

He would be flying down late tomorrow night. He wasn't supposed to come until the day after tomorrow, but decided to surprise Sam again by going early. It was amazing how well they were getting along and wonderful life seemed to be for them right now.

Nothing was going to ruin the good mood he was in, and nothing was going to ruin the positive outlook he had on life.