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"Sometimes I wish I had never met you. Because then I could go to sleep at night not
knowing there was someone like you out there." Will, 'Good Will Hunting'

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Chapter 7

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Giordano's was a chain restaurant but still always managed to have a family owned vibe. It was dimly lit with checkered tablecloths, candles in empty Chianti bottles, and an all Italian staff. The only exception being the TV's strategically placed so that the patrons can watch various sports events.

Martin, Louisa, James and Charlie were the first to arrive and stood at the hostess desk waiting to be seating.

"Well if it isn't my favorite federal agents?" Tony, the manager, knew his regulars well and always made a point of stopping by their tables to chat them up whenever they came in which absolutely included the MPU since they stopped by every Wednesday without fail. He had thick dark curly hair, squinty black eyes and a smile that was all teeth.

They all greeted Tony with handshakes and smiles. After making sure they got their usual spot at the back, he gave them a fresh batch of breadsticks, and then continued on his rounds of greeting customers.

Martin sat with his back against the entrance to the restaurant chatting with Louisa while James and Charlie sat opposite them watching the hockey game on TV. Since hockey was the one sport Martin wasn't obsessed with he let them have the better seats without any argument.

As Louisa updated him on the information she learned from the in-laws he adjusted the strap on his watch in an attempt to check the time without looking like he was checking the time.

"Come on!" Charlie shouted at the TV before he took a drink of his beer. He blew out a frustrated breath and slumped into his seat.

James laughed at his friend and nodded his head in agreement while keeping his eyes on the TV.

"Oh good, she's not here yet. I was worried I might miss something." Anna commented as she approached the table. She looked at the empty seat on the other side of Martin before deciding to slide into the spot next to James.

"Stop it." Martin playfully chided.

"Okay, okay, I'll be good." Anna un-wrapped her scarf and tossed it onto the rack next to her. She settled in and opened up a menu that offered both traditional pasta dishes as well as the famous deep dish Chicago style pizza. "I hope she gets here soon, I'm starving."

"I think we should order a pie." James commented with his eyes on the deep dish pizza being eagerly consumed by some teenagers a few tables over.

"Sounds good to me," Martin agreed.

The rest of the team was discussing what sorts of toppings to get when Martin felt someone tap his shoulder. He smiled widely as he turned around only to find the tech, Theo, standing behind him.

"Hey, can I join you guys?" Theo asked as he pulled out the chair next to Martin. "I hate eating alone."

"Um…." Martin began as he tried to think of a diplomatic way to tell Theo to sit somewhere else so Samantha could sit next to him but as he was thinking he was interrupted by a now familiar female voice.

"Hi." He looked up to find that Sam had arrived.

"Hi Samantha," Martin greeted happily as he stood up. He tried to appear outwardly cheerful while he was inwardly deflated that the seat next to him was occupied by Theo who had started munching on the last breadstick. "I'm glad you could make it." She smiled and his heart beat just a little faster at seeing her thousand-watt grin. He heard someone clear their throat and looked over to see Louisa eyeing him. "Oh, I don't think you've met Louisa or James yet." Waving his hands between the two he made introductions, "Louisa Roth, James Kresse, this is Samantha Spade."

"Hi Samantha," Louisa greeted with a nod of her head. "I'm sorry your partner couldn't come."

Sam gave an apologetic smile. "Yeah, he had….a previous engagement."

James stood up and leaned over the table with his hand outstretched. "Hello."

"Hi." Sam greeted as they shook.

"Hi Samantha. Just slide in here next to me." Anna offered while throwing Martin an apologetic look.

Sam scooted into the booth, picked up a menu and asked, "So what do you guy's recommend?"

"Well, we were thinking of ordering a pie." Martin shared as he suddenly realized that while Sam wasn't sitting next to him at least as long as she was sitting directly across from him he could look at her. "Have you ever had a traditional deep dish authentic Chicago style pizza?"

"Not in awhile. That sounds good though." Sam agreed as she put down the menu.

"You I don't know." Tony said to Sam as he returned to the table with a fresh batch of breadsticks.

"Tony, this is Samantha Spade." Martin shared. "She's an agent from New York helping us out with a case."

"Nice to meet you Samantha, my name is Tony, I run this fine establishment." He greeted happily.

"Hello Tony, nice to meet you." Sam put her hand out to shake but when Tony took it he turned it over and kissed it. She smiled uncomfortably at his gesture but went along with it.

"In honor of your visit, I'm sending over a bottle of wine on the house. Enjoy your dinner, Samantha Spade." He released Sam's hand and headed back to the kitchen.

Anna leaned close to Sam and said, "I think he likes you."

Sam laughed uncomfortably before giving Martin an amused look. He winked at her as he took a drink of his beer.

"Come on! Man, these guys are missing every goal." James announced.

Theo turned around in his seat to see which game they were watching. "Oh, man, I forgot they were playing tonight."

He was twisted around in his chair so he could watch the game when Sam tapped him on the arm and said, "Do you want to trade places?"

"Man, that'd be great." He stood up and he and Sam switched seats.

She took the seat next to Martin and asked, "Did you find out anything about Erica's supposed dead husband?"

He inhaled her perfumed and answered, "Yeah, the only Colin Harding we could find on record in either New York or Chicago that could possibly be him died in 1984." Martin tilted his head and leaned back in his chair. "We're hoping that your team in New York can come up with someone that she might have been seeing at the time of her disappearance there."

"I checked in with Jack earlier and he said they were looking into it." Sam shared when Tony returned with the wine.

Once the glasses were poured and the pizza was ordered everyone slowly fell into their own conversations. Charlie, Theo and James were caught up in discussing the game while Louisa and Anna were discussing their kids so that left Sam and Martin free to get to know one another.

"It was pretty impressive to see you in action today." Sam said as he took a drink of her wine. He looked at her questioningly and she added, "The signing. How do you know sign language anyway?"

"From college, I needed four semesters of a foreign language to graduate." He lifted up his glass as he added, "I chose sign."

"I remember when I was in college I had thought about doing sign language but they told me it was one of the hardest to learn." She said as she ran her fingers along the stem of the wineglass. "You must have been really devoted to learning it."

"You want to know the honest truth about how I came to learn sign?" Martin asked with a smirk. Sam nodded her head so he continued. "No accents."

"What?" Sam asked with a light laugh.

"In prep school I had to take Spanish, French, Italian, even German, but I cannot seem to pronounce things correctly. I have this incredible inability to have an accent. It's horrible. All of professors would tell me I was butchering the language. So I figured with sign it wouldn't be an issue and I could still get my language credits."

"Are you serious? It can't be that bad." She said with her eyes on him.

He leaned in close, smiled and replied, "My French professor told me it sounded like I was doing a bad impersonation of Pepe Le Pew."

She laughed and the light lilting sound sent a tingling sensation through Martin's body.

She cocked an eyebrow and said, "It can't be that bad."

Martin gave her an amused grin and took a drink of his wine.

She looked at him uncertain and said, "Hmm….maybe you should say something in French so I can have an honest, informed opinion."

He shook his head and in a serious tone replied, "Nope. Never gonna happen."

"C'mon." Sam urged but Martin tightened his lips.

"Give it up Samantha." Anna chimed in. "We've all tried."

Martin turned to her and said, "I have deep emotional scars about my accent."

He laughed as she looked at him studiously. She was about to ask again when the pizza arrived and everyone started in on dinner.

The rest of the evening passed quickly with lively discussions about the case, hockey, and Sam's lame attempts to try and trick Martin into saying something in another language. She almost thought she had him when she asked about the desserts on the menu but he wouldn't even say cannoli.

After the check was paid, they all lingered out in front of the restaurant as they said their goodbyes.

"So I'll see you guys tomorrow." Charlie said as he pulled out his car keys.

"Hey Charlie, can I bum a ride?" Theo asked as he stuck his hands into the crevice of his armpits. "It's too cold to walk to the El."

"Sure." He agreed and the two of them started down the block to his car.

"Goodnight. See you guys tomorrow." Anna said as she unlocked the door to her car. She was the lucky girl who found a parking spot right in front of the restaurant. James and Louisa got into her car with her so they could get a ride back to the office to retrieve their own cars.

Once everyone was on their way Martin looked at a shivering Sam and asked, "Where are you parked?"

"Danny needed the car so I took a cab." She replied as she stepped near the curb to hail a cab. "Now I just need to catch one back."

"It's freezing. I can give you a ride back to the hotel." Martin offered.

"Are you sure? I don't want to put you out." While Sam's tone was hesitant the look in her eyes indicated that she really wanted to get out of the cold as soon as possible.

"I'm positive." Martin smiled and nodded his head down the street. "Come on, I'm parked this way."

"You have a great team here." Samantha casually commented as she and Martin walked to his car. A chilly breeze rushed through causing Sam's hair to whip around.

"Yeah, they are pretty great. It's always hard joining a new unit but they made me feel at home right away." Martin strolled casually next to Sam. He turned to look at her and added, "You know, I almost joined the unit in New York."

"Really?" She looked at him and he nodded his head. He slowed down and indicated that the Jeep Cherokee was his car. As he fished the keys out of his pocket she asked, "How did you end up in Chicago?"

"I was about to submit my request to transfer to New York when the position opened up here." Martin pressed the key to deactivate the alarm and unlock the doors.

"Why did you choose Chicago?" She asked, making no move to get inside the car.

"My sister lives here with her husband and my two nieces." Martin reached over and opened up the passenger door for her. "It wasn't a hard choice."

Sam lingered at the open door and said, "So you and I might have ended up working together anyway."

"Yeah," Martin breathed. "Sometimes I wonder how differently my life would be if I had joined the unit in New York. But if my sister is to be believed she would remind me to not think that way; that destiny or fate or whatever puts you exactly where you are meant to be."

Sam nodded her head slowly and said, "Destiny? So it's fate that we are standing right here, right now in the freezing cold?"

"Yeah, I guess you could say that." Martin said softly with his eyes focused intently on Sam's.

They continued looking at one another but neither making any move to get in the car as the cold air rapidly warmed up. Martin felt an incredibly urge to kiss her and was about to lean in when a car horn broke the spell. He looked over and saw a man in car waiting to take his parking spot. He looked back at Sam who glanced at him nervously before getting into the car.

Martin closed the door behind her and wondered just what exactly fate was trying to tell him now.