Marriage and Family

Chapter Ten

Sam walked up the walkway to the door of the two-story house and paused for a moment before ringing the doorbell. She had called Leslie before she left Michigan to make sure that Leslie would be in town and to make sure that it would be ok if she visited. She was pretty sure that Leslie could tell from the tone of her voice that she needed to talk and assured her that she would be happy to see her.

Leslie opened the door and smiled when she saw Samantha. "Samantha. It's wonderful to see you again. Come on in."

"Hello Leslie." She gave the woman a hug as she entered the house. "How are you?"

"Fine. Just fine." Leslie replied. "And you?"

"Fine." Sam replied.

Leslie's eyes narrowed as she looked at Samantha. "For some strange reason I don't really believe you. Would you like some tea while you tell me what's bothering you?"

Sam smiled nervously. "Tea would be wonderful."

Leslie led Sam into the kitchen and let her sit down while she fixed the tea. A few minutes later she placed a cup of tea in front of Samantha. "So why don't you tell me what's wrong?"

"It's Martin and I." Sam sheepishly told her. "We've hit another wall. We don't communicate very well anymore and we can't talk without getting into an argument. It's like we've forgotten everything that you and Jackie taught us."

"I see." Leslie nodded.

Sam was confused. She was expecting Leslie to say more than 'I see'. She was expecting her to say that she was disappointed in them and then wonder how they let it happen again.

"That's all you have to say about it? I see?" Sam laughed. "You aren't going to say that you're disappointed or ask how we let this happen again?"

"No Samantha. I'm not going to say that. Maybe you should follow me." Leslie smiled, motioning for Samantha to follow her into her office. There were three walls with photos of families on them. "This is the wall of success, well I guess I should say walls of success. Each photo is a family that I have counseled and that have stayed together. I ran out of room and had to use more than one wall."

Leslie walked over to one of the walls and started studying the photos, pointing to them as she talked. "There are many families here that have had setbacks and hit walls after getting therapy. This family, this one, this, them, they did…You know, it would probably be easier and quicker to just point to the ones that didn't encounter some kind of setback."

"So what are you trying to show me?" Sam asked.

"It's normal to have some kind of a setback and fall into familiar patterns of behavior. Honestly, I'm surprised it took you guys this long to revert back to your old ways." She laughed. "Impressed, but surprised."

"So what do you suggest we do?" Sam asked.

"Do you still love each other?" Leslie asked.

"Yes." Sam nodded. After he conversation with Martin last night was at least convinced of that.

"Do you remember what I told you eighteen years ago?" She questioned.

"You told us a lot of things eighteen years ago." Sam chuckled. "Care to be more specific?"

"Do you remember what I told you about communication?" Leslie clarified.

"That it was important?" Sam guessed.

"Yes." Leslie nodded. "It's one of the most important parts of a successful marriage."

"Neither of us have been very good at communicating what we're thinking or feeling." Sam sighed.

"When did the problems start?"

"When his father moved in with us." Sam admitted. "His father was getting sick and Martin brought him home. He lived with us for about four years before he died."

"I see. That can be rather stressful to have to care for an older person like that."

"Yes it can." Sam agreed. "Martin was still working full-time so most of the time it was my job to look after Victor."

"And I'm guessing that you didn't like that?" Leslie asked.

"Not really." Sam shook her head. "Victor and I never really got along. He always felt like I wasn't good enough for his precious son and told me that every chance he got. He was rude, cantankerous, belligerent, mean-spirited…"

"Ok I get the point." Leslie cut her off. "You two didn't get along well. So then why did Martin bring his father into your home?"

"Martin was pretty oblivious to everything that his father said or did. Victor was usually at least polite to me when Martin was around, making it very difficult for me to prove to Martin what Victor was doing while he was away."

"Did you try?"

"Yes, I did." Sam assured her. "Many times."

"And Martin never believed you about it?" Leslie guessed.

"No, not really." Sam explained. "He'd tell me that it was in my imagination or that Victor was just adjusting to living here and that I was being too overly-sensitive. So eventually I just quit trying to tell Martin about it. He wasn't listening anyway."

"You mentioned that Martin's father is dead now." Leslie pointed out. "When did he die?"

Sam thought about it for a moment. "Well I guess it's been seven or eight months now."

"And things haven't gotten better for you two?" Leslie deduced.

"No." Sam shook her head. "If anything, they've gotten worse. At one time he even blamed me for his death. He might still blame me…I'm not sure and kind of afraid to find out."

"How could you be responsible for his death?" Leslie asked, wondering how that was possible.

"Martin and I used to go out to dinner without the kids every once and a while. We did it so that we could reconnect and have a chance to talk without any interruptions. But when his father moved in, those dinners stopped because Martin didn't want to leave his father."

She sighed, pausing for a moment. "It took me a long time to convince Martin to come out to dinner with me. After a lot of convincing and practically begging him, he agreed." She thought back to that night.

"This is going to be fun." She smiled at him through the mirror as she put on her last earring.

"Yeah." He replied, unenthusiastically.

She sighed, shaking her head and moving to where he was standing. "You don't want to go, do you?"

"It's not that." He gave her a weak smile and leaned in to kiss the top of her forehead. "I want to go. I just don't think that we should leave my father here by himself."

"I told you we could get him a babysitter." She pointed out.

"I know, but that seems a little ridiculous." He laughed. "Maybe we could just order in some food and eat in here. That way we'd still be close by…"

"Martin, we haven't gone out to dinner by ourselves in almost four years. I don't know about you, but I have missed that. We don't get to spend any time alone together anymore."

"I know, and I'm sorry about that." He apologized, grabbing a hold of her hand and linking their fingers together. "But my father's getting worse and…"

"And he takes priority over everything else." She removed her hand from his grasp and moved over to the bed, picking up her purse and pretending to shuffle through it like she was looking for something. "I get it."

"Sam, you know that's not it." He argued.

"No Martin, actually I don't." She turned to face him, throwing her purse on the bed. "Let me ask you something. If your father and I were both sinking in quick sand, who would you save first?"

"What kind of a question is that?" Martin laughed.

"The kind that I want you to answer." Sam replied, putting her hands on her hips.

"It's a silly question though." He countered.

"I don't think it's silly. I want you to answer it." She wanted to know where she ranked on his priority list and figured that this would be a good way to figure it out. " Please?"

"Fine." He relented, thinking about the question for a moment. "I guess I'd try to save my father first and then check on you. But that's only because…"

Sam closed her eyes and shook her head, unable to believe what she was hearing. He'd save his father first? Anger started boiling up within her as she realized how he felt. She pushed past him and stormed into the bathroom, slamming the door behind her.

Martin sighed, realizing that he had done something to make her angry. He walked over to the bathroom and knocked on the door. "Sam…" He tried to open the door but it was locked. "Sam, can you unlock the door please?"

"No." Came the sharp reply.

"Please? Just let me explain."

There was silence for a moment until Sam unlocked and opened the door. "And just what are you going to explain? Why would you save your father before me?"

"Because he can't take care of himself." Martin reasoned. "You're a strong, clever, resourceful federal agent who can take care of herself."

While she could see the reasoning behind his answer, it still hurt her to think that if faced with that situation his first concern would be getting his father out safely.

"I'm sorry if my answer made you mad. That wasn't my intention."

"I realize that." Sam replied.

He pulled her into a hug, lightly rubbing her back. He wasn't sure why his answer upset her so much, but was sorry about it and didn't want to see her angry with him. "Can we have a nice dinner with no fighting tonight?"

"You're still going to come?" She asked hopefully. Although he had finally agreed to come out to dinner with her a week ago, she kept thinking that he would find some reason to weasel out of it.

"Of course." He grinned.

"Then let's go." She told him, eager to get him out of the house before he changed his mind or Victor convinced him to stay. She went over to the bed and picked up her purse. "This night will be fun."

"I have no doubt it will be because I'll be with you." Martin put his hand on her back, gently guiding her out of the bedroom.

"So you managed to get him to go out to dinner with you?" Leslie asked.

"Yes." Sam nodded. "And dinner was great once I got him to stop talking about his father. We had a really good time and I felt like there was still hope for us."

"Well then what happened?"

"Then we went home and everything fell apart." Sam answered.