Author: Caitlin
Title: The Case of the Missing Smile
Rating: PG 13 to R
Pairing: Martin/Sam (obviously!)
Disclaimer: not mine!
1.
"You know you could just talk to her!"
Danny's voice pulled Martin from his work…if staring at Samantha could be classed as work, which Martin didn't think it could as it was far to enjoyable task, actually being with her? Now that could be classed as work.
"What would that accomplish now?" Martin asked wearily, running a hand over his face and sighing.
"Well maybe, it might just mean that we'll all get to see Sam's smile again because I've gotta tell you buddy, it hasn't been spotted lately. Hey, maybe we should do a search for it, the case of Samantha Spade's missing smile, last spotted on…" Martin tuned out Danny's ramblings to return to his thoughts again. It was true, he had last seen Samantha smile over three weeks ago one the day he returned to work after the shooting.
Flashback
Martin walked cautiously into the offices after a month's absence. He still wore his left arm but he was fit enough for desk duty.
He felt his breath quicken as he spotted Samantha, standing in the break room. She had visited him, at least he was told so, everyday when he had been unconscious but after that, in the week he had spent awake and lonely she had only been once and that was with the rest of the team as well. Had it become that awkward between them? He inwardly sighed.
"Samantha?" he asked softly. She was Samantha again, not by her insistence but his own. Sam carried to many memories of late night kisses and heated arguments.
She looked up and her face broke into a smile that to Martin seemed to fill the room and she ran into his arms. This caught him by surprise and she knocked against his arm. He wouldn't have cared, she felt so wonderful in his arms again but she had felt him draw back slightly and heard his sharp intake of breath.
"Sorry! God, I'm sorry!" she said quickly as he cradled his arm against himself.
"Sam, it's fine, honestly." The name slipped out before he could stop it and though it bought a rush of images before his eyes, some good and some bad, it made Samantha smile.
"Guess I always manage to hurt you huh?" she murmured softly, her eyes downcast and he knew she wasn't only talking about his arm.
"Don't worry about it" he assured, and he meant it, life was too short to hold grudges, especially against the person you loved. Again she smiled.
End flashback
"Danny how many times do I have to tell you? She doesn't want me! She had a date with some guy last week" Martin said forcefully as his theories got too much for him to bare.
"Oh wake up and smell the coffee Marty! That was only after she heard that you had a date with the lovely Angelica from upstairs. She only did it to get back at you and I happen to know that nothing happened. She's lonely Martin.
"Yeah well, you know what? I'm sure that she can find plenty of people willing to keep her company" Martin sneered rather cruelly and resolutely turned back to his desk making it perfectly clear that the conversation was over.
"What upsets me the most, isn't that he ended it, I mean god knows why he didn't end it sooner…it's just he never gave me a chance you know, I wanted to try and now I'll never know what might have happened because I was to wrapped up in myself to even realise that I was pushing him away and now it's too late" Samantha flustered as she paced later that day in the break room.
She had been doing this for almost thirty minutes, it was a slow day and her paperwork was finished so she had nothing better to do then try and justify her feelings, not only to Vivian but to herself.
She had done a lot of pacing but Viv hadn't once interrupted her or made her sit down.
"It's just…hindsight is a wonderful thing, if I'd know how it was going to end I might have done things differently" she finished and sat down again as if waiting for Viv to judge her.
"Would you still have started things with him, knowing that they ended this way?"
This gave Sam pause. She hadn't expected such a blunt question.
"I don't know" she responded honestly "I've hurt Martin, more than I thought I could and I would want to avoid that…but that doesn't mean I regret any decisions I made on being with him!" she added quickly and Viv smiled.
"I never meant to imply that you did, merely that you've changed" Again Samantha paused, always wary of such judgements.
"Don't take offence but think about it, before you started up with martin, in fact even before you broke up with Martin, you were much less willing to discuss your feelings about anything yet here you are asking my advice. The relationship with Martin has changed you into a much more open person."
"Don't read to much into it Viv, I still can't share my feelings with the one person that really matters" She said with a wry and sorry smile and Viv shook her head kindly.
"Sooner or later, you'll both realise"