Chapter 7
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Martin was walking out of the tech room when he ran smack into Sam causing her to drop her files all over the floor. Shit. He mumbled a quick "Sorry" as he moved down to retrieve the files. Unfortunately, she moved at the exact same time, causing them to bump heads.
He was worried that she was going to get seriously ticked off but to his eternal surprise, she laughed. He gave her a puzzled look as she rubbed her head with a silly grin on her face. What in the hell was going on?
"How about I stay here and you get them?" Sam said, still rubbing her forehead.
"Right," Martin replied warily. He had no idea what was going on but he was not about to challenge it. He crouched down and picked up the mess of papers and manila folders. He straightened them out and stood up to hand them back to her. "Here you go. Sorry about that."
"Don't worry about it." Sam said cheerfully. She paused and a few beats later asked, "How was your Thanksgiving?"
"Good." Martin's mind was spinning. Sam wasn't angry at him and she was being friendly. He decided to embrace it and asked, "What about yours? How was Kenosha?"
"It was great. I actually had a lot of fun catching up with everyone." She smiled.
"That's wonderful. I'm sure they were really happy that you went."
They stood there staring at each other until they heard someone clearing his throat behind them. Martin turned around and saw James giving him an annoyed look. It was then that he realized that he was blocking the doorway.
"Sorry," he apologized as he moved aside so the agent could pass.
"Um, I should get these to Jack." Sam hesitated as she looked him over like she wanted to say something but change her mind. "See ya."
"See ya." He watched her walk away and thought maybe there was hope for their friendship if nothing else. He turned and headed to the bullpen where he found Danny and Viv sitting at the conference table looking at pictures.
"New case?" Martin asked as he approached.
"No, Danny wants to show off new pictures of his niece and nephew." Viv smirked as she slid the photos towards Martin.
"I'll look at yours if you look at mine," Martin told Danny as he pulled out his cell phone and waved it in the air.
"Sure. Let's have it."
"Meet Claire Elise Watkins, 6lbs 4 oz." He handed Danny the phone with the images that Parker had sent him of his newborn niece. She may have the Watkins' last name but she looked like a Fitzgerald: big blue eyes, blonde hair, and a tiny pug nose.
Danny leaned towards Viv so she could look at the photos too.
"She's gorgeous. How's Reese doing?" Viv asked with her eyes on the cell.
"She's good but really tired. She said she and Scott are operating on auto-pilot," Martin commented as he flipped through the photos Danny brought in. Rafi's daughter Julia was a beautiful little girl with big brown eyes and lots of curly brown hair. He stopped at a photo of Nicky holding his sister with a careful look of concentration on his face. "Julia has gotten so big."
"Just be careful you don't make any linebacker jokes around Sylvia. I learned that the hard way," Danny joked.
"Learned what the hard way?" Sam asked as she walked up to the table.
"To not make jokes about a baby's weight. We're comparing pictures. Did you bring any pictures of your niece?" Danny casually asked as he continued to scan through Martin's cell phone images.
Martin looked over at Sam who smiled and replied, "You bet." She walked over to her desk and pulled a packet of photos from her desk drawer before walking back over. She pulled out the first one and held it up for everyone to see and announced, "This is MY niece, Terri Anderson."
They all sat down and began sharing photos and stories of being an uncle and aunt. Viv, who was feeling left out, brought out the latest pictures of Reggie from his last basketball game so she would have something to share.
While they were all joking and telling stories about how crazy kids could be, Martin looked over at Sam. He couldn't help but notice how happy she looked – but in a different way than she usually did. She looked softer, like a weight had been lifted off her shoulders. He didn't know what happened on her trip home but whatever it was she was certainly the better for it.
