Chapter 11

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Sam walked towards Martin's room. She and Jack were at a frustrated stand still until they could get the warrants processed so she decided to check in on Martin and Danny.

The door was open and she peeked in and saw Martin's mother, Katherine, seated next to him. Even if she had never seen a photo she would have recognized her immediately. She looked a lot like her sister, Bonnie, only more stylishly dressed in her Chanel suit and coiffed blonde hair.

Katherine sat perfectly composed next to Martin's bed, and if it wasn't for the fact that she was in a hospital, she could have easily been sitting on her judicial bench.

"….Parker said the girls are making you pictures and she'll fax them as soon as they are done. She and Reese are going to try and get out here as soon as they are able," she continued talking to Martin as if he were an active participant in the conversation and could sit up and respond at any moment. "I also talked to Jamie. She sends her love and said that she and Roger will be by tomorrow to check up on you…"

Sam decided that she didn't want to intrude and made move to leave when Katherine spotted her hovering in the doorway.

"Hello," Katherine's voice was filled with warmth.

"Hi," Sam cringed at the high pitched level of her greeting. "I, um, I work with Martin. I'm Samantha Spade." She hated at how stiff her response sounded but what else could she say? Hi, you don't know me but up until a few weeks ago I was sleeping with your son on a daily basis. He broke-up with me when he realized that I am emotionally closed off to love as a result of numerous disastrous relationships with men. And how are you?

"I know who you are," she replied with a smile at Sam.

She was taken aback by this admission and said, "Yeah, I'm sure Martin told you about the whole team…"

Katherine shook her head. "No, I know about you and my son." She turned to look at Martin. "He told me about the two of you after I made another attempt at setting him up for his cousin's wedding." She turned her gaze back to her and asked, "So Samantha Spade, are you going to come in or not?"

Sam hesitated a moment before entering. So Martin had told his parents – or at least his mother – about their relationship. Then she wondered if he also told his mother about their breakup.

She took the seat on the other side of the bed and looked at Martin. He was bandaged and connected to tubes and machines that beeped incessantly. While his eyes were closed he still looked so different from how he usually looked when he was asleep. It was one of her favorite pastimes, seeing him sleeping soundly alongside her. The rhythm of his chest rising and falling always seemed to soothe her.

"Do you remember underoos?"

Sam was startled out of her reverie by this strange question. "Pardon?"

"Underoos," Katherine said again in case she thought Sam didn't hear her. "They are those underpants that were so popular with kids. They usually had superheroes on them."

"Yeah, I remember them." Of course, Sam remembered them. They were expensive and as much as she begged her mom for a pair she never got any. They were too extravagant for a single mother living in a trailer park, raising two kids.

"When Martin was five he was completely obsessed with Superman so Bonnie gave him a pair with the Superman insignia on them." She set her gaze back on Martin. "He never wanted to take them off. We finally had to buy him seven pairs just to get him to change his underwear daily. If we had let him, he would have worn just those underpants and nothing else. Fortunately, for us, Superman had his alter ego, Clark Kent, and we were able to convince Martin to do what Superman does: wear his superhero outfit underneath his everyday clothes. It seemed to pacify him. That is until Karen Wentworth's annual garden party."

Katherine looked back up at Sam and smiled.

"It's the Wentworth's biggest social event of the year. She loves to show off her prize-winning garden that is centered on her 500-year old oak tree." She raised her eyebrows in mockery. "All was going well until I heard someone yell out, 'That boy is in the tree!' Immediately I knew it was Martin. I just knew it. And sure enough, I looked up and there he was, wearing nothing but his underoos and climbing that damn tree."

Sam couldn't help but smile at the thought of Martin as a little boy who was so precocious.

"I was completely beside myself. People were crying out to call 911, the men ran to the garage to get a ladder, women were making make-shift tarps to catch him if he fell, a complete frenzy. Despite all the hysteria below, Martin kept climbing higher and higher. I couldn't figure out what possessed him to climb the tree until I saw a cat on one of the branches. He climbed within a few feet of the cat but when he reached out to grab her, she scurried off and jumped onto the roof of the garage." Katherine chuckled. "He managed to have a complete look of indignation that he set out to rescue this creature only to be rebuffed.

"So he climbed right back down and when he was within reach, Victor grabbed him and promptly handed him to me. I was torn between wanting to hug him and wanting to strangle the living daylights out of him for scaring me half-to-death. I asked him what on earth he was thinking, he could have been killed! But he just looked at me with his big, blue eyes and very seriously replied, 'Mom, if you want to be a hero you have to go where the danger is.'" Katherine sighed heavily with her eyes on Martin's still form. "That's my boy; he likes to be in the mix of things no matter what the consequences."

Sam glanced at Katherine and for the first time didn't see her as the Deputy Director's wife or a federal judge, but someone's mother; Martin's mother.

"I never wanted him to an agent. I spent enough sleepless nights worrying about his father to know that I didn't want that life for him. I told him that if he wanted to do good things he should do it in a fashion that could have sweeping, broad effects." Katherine reached over to hold his hand. "I still think he would make a great senator."