Title: Scenes from a Courtship
Disclaimer: Not mine, I'm just playing.
Summary: A series of scenes from Sam and Martin's relationship. In the same universe as "A Long Weekend."
Rating: If you are old enough to use the internet you are old enough to read this.
Chapter 10
A special thanks to Claire and "she who wishes not to be named" for beta reading.
It's the Little Things Part II
A very tired Martin sat in a cab feeling sorry for himself. Weather had delayed, and delayed his plane. He never liked doing these seminars with local law enforcement agencies anyway, but this one was the worst because someone figured out who is father was and that meant even more fawning than usual. Plus, he missed Sam and now Sam was off on a recruiting trip with Danny for the weekend.
Sam and Danny had been sent to help show the face of the "new FBI" or as someone jokingly said, mirroring the Oldsmobile commercials "it's not your father's FBI." Except it was Martin's father's FBI so he was exactly what they didn't want. Well to be fair, Jack was exactly what they didn't want, at least Martin was young.
Martin opened the door to his apartment. He walked over to the table to look at the accumulated mail that Sam had brought in. He noticed a note from her:
Dear Marty,
Sorry, I missed you. Call me and let me know if you want me to come over Sunday night after I get in or not. I could be late.
Groceries are in the fridge and I did a few other things around here too.
Love,
Sam
He debated calling Sam and telling her to come over no matter when she got back, but decided it was too late. He went into the kitchen to get a drink. He discovered that not only had Sam gotten him a few things to tide him over, but that she had had groceries delivered and restocked the whole kitchen. Based on the produce bags, Sam had ordered groceries online for him. That solved the mystery of when she found time to shop. The place was clean, but since Tina had come, he expected that.
Martin decided he was too tired to figure out what else Sam had done and was going to shower and go to bed. He found the first clue in the bathroom. There were fresh towels out and they were a matching set instead of his usual what ever he grabbed first assortment.
In his room, Martin discovered a freshly made-up bed, a closet full of dry cleaning and laundered shirts that had gone unpicked up during the previous two busy weeks, and an empty clothes hamper. Sam had dropped more clothes off at the cleaners and he discovered when he went to grab a clean pair of boxers and t-shirt to sleep in that she had done laundry. He smiled a huge smile.
Martin was a very self-sufficient guy and never had expected the women in his life to look after him. In fact, he was generally more domestic than Sam. The piled up laundry and things bothered him much more than it did her. However, before he left a series of early morning and late nights, as well as time spent at Sam's, had put him behind. Sam's work meant he could relax completely for the rest of the weekend.
Martin climbed in to bed thinking how lucky he was. He heard something crunch under his pillow. When he looked under it, he found a black teddy he was pretty sure he had never seen before with a note on it from Sam, saying "a little something for both of us when I get back." Yes, he was a very lucky guy.
A Realization
Sam was sitting in the pew at Saturday Evening Mass, next to Martin listening to Father Paul's homily. The subject was God's gift of grace and our inability to earn because it is freely given. Something clicked in Sam's head. She realized that her life was not hers to control. She needed to trust in God's grace and not try to control everything. She felt a heavy weight be lifted from her shoulders.
They stood to sing the last hymn. Sam noticed a couple several pews ahead of where she and Martin sat. They had two elementary school aged kids with them. The husband held the hymnal with one hand and had his arm around his wife's waist. The wife had one hand on each child's shoulder to remind them to be quiet. She realized that she wanted that ahead of her. Now she just had to figure out how to get there. She was pretty sure that grace had something to do with it. Maybe love, anyone's love, was something that she couldn't earn, but was worthy of anyway.
Sam felt a certain amount of joy as she filed out towards the Narthex. She and Martin would wait for Father Paul who was joining them for dinner. Sam was hoping she could get more stories of a teenage Martin out of him.