A/N: FYI, I will be continuing 'Love and Marriage'. So don't worry about that:)

A Fool To Think

Chapter Two

Later that morning, Sam walked up to the sink in the restroom after exiting the stall. As she ran her hands underneath the facet, she took a deep breath. When she decided to transfer out of Florida she realized that she would be making certain sacrifices. For one, she would no longer be living in a temperate climate where it never snows. New York would be colder and she'd have to hang up her bikini in the wintertime.

She'd also be giving up the few friends that she had made in her office. She wasn't Miss Popular. That had never been her style, but she was well liked and respected by most people. Of course she would miss her old co-workers though. After all, she had been working with them for a few years now and had gotten to know them pretty well. They also knew her pretty well too, but she still kept herself guarded.

There was an invisible force field around her heart that no one had been able to penetrate and that's exactly how she wanted it to be. She'd had quite a few relationships since her break-up with Martin, but none seemed to last more than two months. After two months, the guy would always ask her why she never wanted to share anything with them and accuse her of not trusting them.

And they were always right. She didn't trust them. She didn't trust that they wouldn't crush her and disappoint her. But she'd tell them that they were wrong and that she really did trust them. Then they would always demand something from her that she just couldn't give. They'd want her heart and soul.

Those were just two things that she couldn't part with again. The last thing she needed was to let a man get into her soul like Martin had. It had hurt her too much when she realized that he wasn't worthy of her trust, her secrets, or her love.

So eventually she just quit dating altogether. It was better that way. It made everything less complicated, and while she did miss it, she wasn't ready to give anyone a chance to hurt her again.

She was reaching for some paper towel when she noticed Vivian entered the bathroom. "Hey." She gave the older woman a small smile.

"Hey Samantha." Vivian greeted back, returning the smile. "Can I ask you something?"

"Yeah, I guess so." Sam nodded, throwing away the paper towel now that her hands were dry. "What you want to know?"

"This may be none of my business and you may want to tell me to stay out of it, but is something going on between you and Martin?" Vivian asked. She had noticed some tension between them and wondered about the origins of it. Had they met before?

Sam knew that there would be questions like this fielded her way ever since she saw Martin this morning. But she had no idea how to answer them without telling the whole, long, messy story. "Nothing's going on with Martin and me." That was partially true since there hadn't been anything going on between them for the past ten years. So she didn't feel too bad about lying to her new co-worker.

"Are you sure?" Vivian asked. "Because it seems like you two are avoiding each other and I can feel the tension surrounding you two. Given the fact that this is just your first day and there's already tension, I was just curious…"

"Everything's fine." Sam lied. She hadn't talked to Martin yet and truthfully didn't want to. That was one conversation that she would put off indefinitely if she could. If she could, she would ignore him and keep on trying to pretend that he was never born. But she couldn't do that anymore now that she was working with him. They would need to talk and try to form a semi-friendly working relationship.

"Ok." Vivian didn't believe her, but decided to let it go. "I was just curious and concerned."

"Well I appreciate it but it's not necessary. Everything's fine." Sam tried to assure her before walking out of the restroom.

Danny watched Vivian leave the bullpen. Knowing that Samantha had left for the restroom a few minutes ago, he took this opportunity to slide his chair over to Martin's desk and interrogate him. "So what's the deal with you and the new girl?"

"What do you mean?" Martin asked, not glancing over at Danny. Instead, he kept his gaze focused on his computer screen. He was hoping that if he played it off like it was nothing, then Danny would leave him alone about it. Although he knew that the chances of that working were smaller than the chance that he was going to get struck by lightening five times in his lifetime, he still had to try.

"You are never that rude to anyone." Danny pointed out. "And you won't even look at her."

"I…" Martin was about to say that Danny was wrong, but Danny was right. He hadn't even looked at her. Just hearing her voice was enough to send him into a spiral. He was angry at her sudden appearance in his life, hurt because of the things in their past, and, worst of all, happy to see her.

He hated the fact that he was happy to see her. He should hate her. He should be angry and bitter. And while he was angry and bitter, he couldn't help but be happy to see her. Damn her! She always had this effect on him.

He hadn't seen her for ten years, and had found himself sneaking a few glances her way when she wasn't paying attention. She had been beautiful back in college, but now she was absolutely gorgeous.

There were so many things that he had never had a chance to say to her. He wanted to go up to her and just yell and scream at her about the way she treated him until his throat was sore. But there was another part of him that wanted to talk to her calmly and at least re-establish the friendship that they had once shared.

"Don't even think about denying it." Danny warned his friend. "I have this theory that you and Samantha know each other from somewhere outside of work. Am I right about that?"

"Perhaps." Martin replied.

"Wanna talk about it?" Danny offered.

"Not really." Martin shook his head, returning to his paperwork.

Danny knew that he wasn't going to get Martin to talk right now and decided to let it go. "Ok. But you know where I am if you change your mind."

"I won't, but thanks." Martin looked over at his friend and smiled.

"No problem." Danny slid back over to his desk. "That's what friends are for."

When the day was over and people started to head home, Sam hurried up in an attempt to leave before Martin so that she could avoid having to talk to him. Unfortunately that didn't look like it would happen because Danny kept talking to her and preventing her from leaving before Martin came back form talking to Jack in his office.

"That's very interesting Danny." Sam smiled sweetly. "Now if you'll excuse me, I think I'm going to head home now."

"Oh, well do you have plans tonight?" Danny asked.

"Yes. I have a very hot date planned with some take-out Chinese and a bubble bath." Sam sighed. She could definitely use a bubble bath to relax after today. Starting this new job wasn't stressful. All in all, she enjoyed her new workplace, with only one exception. Martin Fitzgerald. "Why do you ask?"

"It's sort of a tradition for the team to take the newbie out to dinner on their first day here." Danny explained. "You know, so that we can bond and get to know each other better in a non-work setting."

"That's nice, but I really…" She didn't really want to go out to dinner with Martin. She wouldn't mind going with the rest of the team, but didn't want to spend any more time around Martin than what was necessary for their job.

"We don't take no for an answer." Vivian approached her.

"But…" Sam tried to object again.

"I wouldn't try arguing with her." Danny advised Samantha. "Many have tried and few have ever won."

"I'll take that under consideration." Sam sighed. It looked like she didn't have a choice in this and would just have to grin and bear it. "Ok. I'm in. Let's go to dinner."

"Great." Danny clapped his hands together enthusiastically. "So since you are the newbie, you get to pick where you want to go."

"I don't know much about the kinds of restaurants are around here. I just moved here a few days ago." Sam warned them.

"Well then just tell me what kind of food you want and I'll point you to the right place." Danny told her.

Sam shrugged, not really caring what she ate. She was just hungry. "Italian? Is that ok?"

"That's fine." Vivian nodded, turning to look at Danny. "How about Cavatore's? It's within walking distance and has great food."

"That's exactly what I was thinking Viv." Danny grinned.

"Ok. I'll go tell Martin and Jack." Vivian offered. "Why don't you two go ahead and get a table? We'll be right there."

"Ok." Danny nodded, motioning for Sam to come with him. "You'll love Cavatore's. They have the best penne pasta in New York City."

"Can't wait." Sam replied as they got into the elevator.

They continued to make idle conversation about work until they were about halfway to the restaurant. It was abnormally cool for a March evening, but it was still pleasant—at least to Danny. He looked over and saw that Samantha looked like she was cold. He attributed that to the fact that she was used to Florida's weather.

"So how well do you know Martin?" Danny had decided to skip the 'do you know Martin from outside of work' question because he already knew in his gut that Martin and Samantha knew each other. Instead, he focused on asking how well they knew each other. Maybe if he started with this question he could get a straight answer. He was already disappointed that he hadn't gotten anything out of Martin earlier.

"Excuse me?" Sam asked, surprised by his question. "What do you mean by that? I don't know Martin very well at all." That was actually true. While she had dated him for over a year and was even engaged to him, she felt like she didn't really know him.

"Somehow I don't believe that." Danny shook his head. "You and Martin have met before, haven't you?"

"What would make you think that?" Sam asked, trying to play innocent and keep her former connection to Martin a secret.

"Well it's just that Martin is usually so polite and mannerly. He's always been a perfect gentleman when meeting new people, especially women. But today, when he met you, he wasn't. He was rather cold towards you and that's not like him." Danny explained.

Martin being polite and mannerly? She couldn't help but laugh. "It's all an act. He's not nearly the saint you are painting him out to be. Trust me, he's more than capable of being a grade-A, class-less jerk. It's just a façade."

"Ah-ha!" Danny excited pointed his finger at her. "So you do know him from somewhere outside of work."

She immediately knew that she was busted and berated herself for her slip. "Why do you even care, anyway?"

"Martin's been my friend for two years and although I just met you, I'd like you to be my friend too. I look out for my friends."

She chuckled. "You mean, you want to butt into your friends' personal lives?"

He chuckled and ginned. "See? You know me already. I can tell that we're going to be good friends."

"Well look Danny, I don't want to discuss this." Sam told him honestly. "This is all I'm going to say about this and after I'm finished I would appreciate it if you could just let it drop. Ok?"

"Ok." He didn't want to let it drop, but at least he would be finding out some more detail about Martin and Samantha.

"I know Martin from college. We went to the same one and even dated for a while. But it ended really badly. I trusted him with everything I had and…well that was a mistake. I was a complete fool. I should've known better. I should've followed my original instincts and never opened up to him to begin with, but I didn't. I ended things with him and haven't seen him in almost ten years." Her mind drifted off to think about what had transpired between her and Martin but she quickly shook herself from the memories. "So there you go. That's all I'm going to say about it."

"Oh." Danny could see the sadness and hurt in her eyes and knew that talking about this must be hard for her. They continued walking two more blocks until they reached the restaurant. After being seating and placing their drink orders, Danny felt the need to apologize. "I'm sorry for pressing you about Martin. I didn't realize…"

"It's ok." Sam reassured him. "You didn't know."

"No, but still…I am sorry." He felt bad for making her reminisce about it since it was obvious to him that she was still affected by it. He couldn't help but wonder though what Martin had done to hurt her so badly. Had he cheated on her? Martin didn't seem like the type to cheat, but maybe there were things about his friend that he didn't know.

"I won't hold it against you." Sam assured him. She didn't want to think about Martin or their failed relationship anymore. It was bad enough that he was going to be joining them for dinner. She didn't want to spend the entire evening thinking about him. Opening her menu, she perused the list. She wasn't going to let Martin ruin her evening. "So you say the penne pasta is good?"