A Fool To Think

Chapter Nine

"Can I talk to you for a moment?" Danny asked Sam as they entered the elevator at work. They were heading out to interview the mother of their latest missing person.

"Sure." Sam sighed. "What is it?"

"Well, how should I put this delicately?" He hated having to bring this up with her, but knew that it needed to be addressed. Over the past two weeks, her professional relationship with Martin had deteriorated and Jack was catching on to the fact that two of his team members weren't getting along.

Martin and Sam's interactions were becoming more and more tense, mostly because of a change in Sam's attitude with him. Martin was still trying to be patient and try to develop a working relationship, but Sam seemed to have given up on that. She was short and snappy when she talked to Martin and they usually ended up fighting at work.

Jack was noticing this and was starting to think twice about ever pairing them together, at least not until they worked out their problems. But Jack didn't know the whole story between. Danny didn't even know the whole story between them.

True to his word, he hadn't asked Sam any more questions about her former relationship with Martin although he did make it known to her that he was available if she ever decided that she wanted to talk about it.

He tried many times to get Martin to talk to him, and usually his questions were met with denials and silence. But on Tuesday he hit the jackpot and got further insight into their past relationship.

"So what's the deal with you and Sam?" Danny asked Martin one day as they were driving to interview a missing person's boyfriend.

"What do you mean?" Martin asked, looking down at his watch.

"I know that you two used to be a couple." Danny admitted. When he saw the surprised look on Martin's face he decided to be nice and tell him how he knew that. "Sam told me. She said that you two were together in college, she was a fool, you hurt her, and she ended things. But that was all she would tell me."

"We were engaged." Martin confessed.

"You guys were really serious then, I guess, right?" Danny asked, shocked at the fact that Martin and Sam were once engaged to be married.

"I thought we were." Martin sighed. "But then all of a sudden she ended things. And you want to know how she ended things?"

"How?" Danny asked, curious and wanting to know more.

"She wrote me a note saying that it was over and that she didn't love me anymore. Then she had the note delivered to me so that I got it about ten minutes before our wedding was supposed to start." He couldn't help but let the bitterness enter his voice.

Danny sat there in the driver's seat for a moment, frozen by Martin's statement. "She left you on your wedding day?"

"Yep." Martin nodded. "We were so close to getting married but she didn't want that. She's mad at me for something. God only knows what!"

"You mean you don't know what she's mad at you about?" Danny asked. This made no sense. If Martin didn't know what he did, then what was Sam mad about?

"I have no idea!" Martin sighed, not really sure why he was telling Danny all of this. He had sworn to himself that he would keep this quiet and not tell anyone at work, but it felt nice to be able to vent and let it all out. "We didn't fight much, and the stuff we did fight about was petty and stupid."

He laughed at the silliness of what they used to fight about. "We'd just fight over whose turn it was to pay for dinner or who drank the last of the milk. We didn't fight the night before the wedding. I didn't even see her the night before the wedding because I went and stayed at my best man's apartment."

"So you didn't cheat on her or anything?" Danny asked. "Because that's what I thought might have happened when she said you hurt her."

"No!" Martin adamantly denied. "I'm not the type of guy who cheats, and I definitely wouldn't have done that to Sam. I loved her and I wanted to marry her. I wanted to spend the rest of my life with her. I just don't understand why she called off the wedding and left town. If I did something to hurt her, why couldn't we sit down and talk about it? Why did she feel like she needed to run away from me?"

"I don't know." Danny shook his head. "She didn't want to tell me anything else about what happened and I didn't want to press her for any more details."

"There's only one clue I have." Martin sighed. "Almost two weeks ago she mentioned something about a website. I think whatever happened revolves around a website. But I don't know what she's talking about. I've never had a website. The only computer skills I have are related to work. But I'm horrible at surfing the internet."

"So this could just be a big misunderstanding?" Danny asked, suddenly hopeful. He could see that Martin and Sam cared about each other, even though they both tried desperately to hide it. Sam hid it underneath a layer of anger and hatred, while Martin hid it underneath a layer of indifference.

"It could." Martin shook his head. "I'm just so tired of her dumping on me for something I don't know if I even did!"

"I think that's understandable." Danny nodded.

"And after ten years I've pretty much given up all hope that I'll ever find out what horrible thing she thinks I've done to her."

"I wouldn't give up hope." Danny tried to install some hope into his friend. "There's always hope."

"I don't think so." As much as it pained him to say this, he knew it was the truth. "I used to think that if I saw her again, I would be able to get her back. I thought that I would be able to get her to tell me what I did wrong and then I'd make amends for it somehow."

"But here I am, ten years later with nothing. I can't move forward with my life because I'm still stuck on her. You and Vivian were right when you said I look for something wrong with every woman I go out with and it's because I'm still in love with Sam. But I have to let her go because she doesn't want to have anything to do with me. She won't even be civil to me when we're working."

"She has it stuck in her mind that I'm just another creep and she doesn't want to have anything to do with me. I don't know how many times I need to pound my head into the brick wall that is Samantha Spade before I realize that, but I think I've reached my limit."

"What are you saying?" Danny asked.

"I'm saying that I'm done." Martin explained. "If she wants to think of me as a creep and if she wants to be mad at me, then let her. I'm done letting her words and actions affect me. There's only so much I'm willing to take from her and I'm done. I'm through letting her blame me for everything that happened."

"So what exactly does that mean?"

"It means that if she wants to treat me horribly at work, I can do the same thing to her." He hated that it has come to this, but was tired of her venting her frustrations out on him when he didn't even know what he had done. "Turnabout is fair play."

Danny could understand Martin's frustration, yet he could understand Sam's point of view also. While he believed her when she said that Martin did something to hurt her, he also believed Martin when he said he didn't know what he had done to her. So that left him in an awkward position.

He really hoped that this whole ordeal was just a huge misunderstanding and that he could help them get past this. If not for themselves, then for the rest of the team. Constant bickering wasn't going to help them be productive and would only cause problems for everyone.

"Danny? Did you want to ask me something?" Sam asked, getting slightly impatient. It seemed like Danny was a million miles away, thinking about something else and forgetting that they were having a conversation.

"What?" He suddenly realized that he had been ignoring Sam and retreating into his own thoughts. "Sorry about that. I was just thinking about the right way to ask you this without making you mad."

"Oh I don't like the sound of that." She cringed as they got into Danny's car. She clicked her seat belt into place and then watched him as he started the car. "Ok, just ask whatever it is that you want to ask me."

"Well, I know that you said you didn't want to talk about this, but…"

"You want to talk about Martin?" She guessed.

"Well, yeah." Danny nodded as he pulled out of the parking garage and onto the street.

"Why?" She questioned.

"I was talking to him earlier this week and he told me about the fact that you two were going to get married. He told me about how you left him at the alter and he said that…"

"I don't really care what he said." Sam interrupted Danny.

"He doesn't know what he's done to you." Danny decided to try and play devil's advocate for Martin.

"I find that hard to believe." Sam told him.

"It's what he says." Danny countered. "Look, I'm not going to pretend to know what happened between the two of you, but this is what I see going on right now. I honestly believe that Martin has no idea what he's done to you and you seem to think that Martin has done something bad to you. Maybe he did and maybe he didn't. Maybe it was just a misunderstanding. All I'm saying is that…"

Sam had heard enough of Danny's devil's advocate pleas and interrupted him in the middle of his spiel. "You want to know what Martin did?"

Of course he wanted to know. He was extremely curious about the mystery surrounding Martin and Sam. "What did he do?" Danny asked.

"Promise me you won't tell anyone." She commanded.

"I promise." Danny swore.

"And I mean you can't tell a single person, not even a priest if you go to confession. This never leaves this car. Understand?" She explained.

"I understand. Sam, you have to know by now that you can trust me." Danny told her.

"I know. Why else do you think I would tell you?" She took a deep breath before starting. "It all started about a week before our wedding day…"