Chapter 25

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Sam's eyes flickered open and groaned when she realized that the sun hadn't even risen yet and she was awake. Damn internal clocks. She lay in bed trying to decide if she should get up or just linger in bed. She didn't feel tired, in fact, she felt better than she had in years. She considered getting up to a least get a cup of coffee when she heard a thump on her door. Deciding that it must be her morning paper she rolled out of bed and walked to her front door. She swung the door open and reached down to get the paper when she noticed a small Christmas present sitting on top of it. She looked up and saw a familiar figure heading down the hall.

"Danny!" she shouted, probably a little too loudly for this early in the morning.

He stopped and turned around smiling. "Damn, and here I thought I was going to make a safe getaway." He walked back up the hall to her apartment. "I see you got the gift. I didn't want to leave it on your doorstep but I didn't want to wake you up either. I know how moody you are in the morning."

"Why exactly are you leaving Christmas gifts on my doorstep?" Sam asked genuinely confused.

"It's not from me, it's from Martin. He called me yesterday and said that they had sent it to his apartment by accident instead of directly to you. He asked me if I could pick it up and drop it off on my way out of town."

"I'm sorry, that's out of your way isn't it?"

"Not really, Emma lives near Martin. Speaking of which, I gotta go if we are going to make it to her parent's house in time." Danny leaned over and gave Sam a brief hug and said, "Merry Christmas."

"Merry Christmas," she replied. "And tell Emma I told her Merry Christmas, too."

"You got it. Bye," Danny said as he disappeared down the stairs.

As soon as he was out of sight, Sam picked up her newspaper and headed back inside her apartment. She tossed the paper on the coffee table and sat on the sofa studying the gift. It was a small box wrapped in a shiny deep red foil with silk gold ribbon. When she shook it, it made some clanking noises.

She crossed her legs and sat back on the sofa, ripping the paper off to find a small black box. She opened it up and her breath caught in her chest. It was a silver charm bracelet. She picked up the bracelet and began examining the charms as she recalled telling Martin about the charm bracelet she has lost years ago.

XXX

They were entering his building and he stopped to check his mail. He opened up his little brass mail box and pulled out a small package when he exclaimed, "Alright, it's here!"

Sam eyed the box curiously and asked, "What is it?"

"My mom repaired my granddad's watch, the one he left me in his will. She'd been holding on to it all these years." He opened up the box and pulled out a leather box. He popped it open and inside was a wristwatch with a dark brown leather band and a gold encased face. Inside the face were the standard markings of a watch along with two smaller circles that when Sam looked closely showed the month and day of the week. It had hands to mark the hour, minutes and seconds and at the bottom was a small square that marked the day. It was an impressive looking timepiece. "It's a Stauer that was made in 1944. It has a hunter's back." Martin flipped the watch over and there was a secret compartment that reminded her of a locket. "My granddad had put a photo of my grandmother in there so he would always have her picture with him. The photo was removed long ago, I guess when the watch broke but I remember him showing it to me once."

Sam admired the watch and the way Martin held it, like he realized he was holding a little bit of history in his hands. He quickly removed the watch he was wearing and put the restored timepiece on his wrist. He held out his arm and said, "What do you think?"

"It looks like it was made just for you." She smiled as a little wave of nostalgia crossed her face.

"What?" Martin asked in that soft voice he used when he spoke to her.

"Nothing, it's just that your really lucky that you still have this link to you grandfather." Sam shrugged, gave him a quick kiss before motioning them to elevator.

When they boarded she could see Martin eyeing her and she knew he wanted to ask her a question so she decided to spare him any more discomfort. "When I was little my grandmother gave me a charm bracelet. It wasn't an expensive one, it was silver plated, but I loved it. She said she picked out each charm just for me. There was a one of two little girls holding hands that was supposed to represent me and my sister; a rose because I used to help her in her garden; a elaborate letter 'S' for my name; an airplane because I said I wanted to travel; one shaped like Wisconsin with the states name on it so I wouldn't forget where I came from; and there was one more…" Sam mentally tried to recall what it looked like when she used to wear it and unconsciously moved her fingers around her wrist. "Oh, and a firefly because I used to love collecting them so they would light up my bedroom."

"That sounds like a really thoughtful gift," Martin said softly as he pulled her close, wrapping his arms around her.

"It was. She said she would give me a new charm whenever something memorable happened," Sam quietly recalled. "But she died four months later of a stroke so we never added any more charms."

"Well, you could do that yourself you know, keep the connection alive that way," he whispered softly to the top of her head.

"I guess I could've but I lost it during one of the many moves I've made in my life." She leaned her head against Martin's chest and softly finished, "I didn't appreciate how important it was to me until it was gone."

XXX

Sam glanced at the charms and saw that he had remembered each one that had grandmother had originally given her as well as adding some new ones: a diploma which must represent her graduation from college; a gun and handcuff combo charm that she guessed was meant to be symbolic of being a federal agent; and the final new addition, a tiny little taxi cab.

She clenched the bracelet in her hand and softly said, "Damn you Martin. What are you trying to do to me?"