Two weeks later………………

Dawn was just starting to cast it's pale light through the window as Sam stretched and yawned then wriggled in an effort to get comfortable. Danny watched her, an amused smile appearing when he saw the cross look she was sending him

'Don't look at me like that, I'm sore in places I didn't know I had'; she frowned as she saw Danny's smile become a smirk

'How can you not be uncomfortable, we've been sat in this car for 5 hours now and nothing has happened' she sounded as fed up as she looked

Danny shrugged his shoulders, 'It's got to be done, no point moaning about it,' he grinned again at the annoyance on her face, 'anyway, did you have something you would rather be doing?'

She scowled, 'I've a list of things I'd rather be doing and don't tell me you wouldn't rather be tucked up in bed with Amy or whatever her name is'

Danny's grin widened, 'Anna, and there's plenty of things I'd like to be doing with her, and not necessarily in bed'

Sam shot him a disgusted look, 'Oh stop boasting, just because you're getting some action…..'

Danny shifted in his seat so he was facing her, 'and you're not?' his voice was soft but with something in it that made her stop and turn and stare at him, a blush staining her cheeks

'W…what do you mean?' she tried to sound nonchalant but suspected that she sounded defensive

Danny looked over at the house they were watching, and, seeing that there was still no movement, looked back at Sam.

'What did you think of the spaghetti at Luciano's? Personally I prefer the lasagne…………' he watched as she went bright red and stared at him in horrified silence

'Anna lives two blocks from there, we, well I, saw you when we were walking back from the subway on Monday night'

Sam groaned and put her head in her hands and then looked back up at Danny, 'I know what it probably looked like but I swear it wasn't Danny'

He looked at her thoughtfully, 'Look Sam, it's none of my business; I just don't want to see you get hurt again. Be careful, OK?'

She nodded quickly and then stared out of the side window in an effort to hide the tears forming in her eyes.

A silence fell then a front door opened;

'Well, well, it looks as if Mr Lieberman is on the move' Danny started the engine, as Sam picked up her phone to call Jack and let him know that they were following their suspect.

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Jack looked at his team; they all looked as tired as he felt after working 48 hours straight searching for Jessica Lieberman. Of course the tiredness never felt quite as bad when there was a happy resolution as in this case when six year old Jessica had been re-united with her mother after being snatched by her father.

'OK, I need all your paperwork done and in my in tray tomorrow; Danny, I hate to tell you this but I've had a message from the US Attorneys office; apparently the defence is recalling you as a witness in the Donnelly case. Maggie is coming over after court finishes today to brief you because they want you on the stand first thing tomorrow.'

Danny nodded, 'OK, do you know what time she's likely to get here?'

Jack shrugged his shoulders and they both looked at Martin who stared blankly at them both hoping they would take the hint, however no such luck…

'Well?' Jack was grinning at him now

'Why would I know?' Martin noticed that both Sam and Viv were looking a little bemused at the undercurrent they were picking up.

'Maggie? Is that Maggie Carlisle the new US Attorney?' Viv asked looking between Jack and Danny's grinning faces and Martin's bemused one.

'Yes, and as it turns out, Martin's high school sweetheart'; Martin saw Viv grin and Sam stare at him at this news, Jack continued, 'in fact when she gets here I'll introduce her to you as she will be working a lot of our cases in the future'

With that Jack headed back to his office. Viv stood up, 'Well, I'll look forward to meeting Ms Carlisle when she gets here' she flicked an amused look at Martin before heading out of the bull pen leaving Danny, Sam and Martin sat around the conference table.

Sam was looking stunned by the news she had just received and for a moment no-one spoke then Danny stood up; 'well if I'm being re-called by the defence I had better review my case report' and without waiting for a response he disappeared toward the record room.

For a while Sam just sat and stared at Martin, then as he was starting to feel uncomfortable she spoke, 'You never told me about Maggie'; She sounded more curious than angry,

Martin looked at her for a moment before replying; 'No I didn't but then you didn't tell me anything about your past did you?'

He saw her take a sharp breath in then she smiled a little sadly and nodded her head, 'fair point,' she looked at him curiously, remembering how often he had been nearly late over the last two weeks and how cheerful he had been whatever had been thrown his way and the couple of times he had walked away to take a phone call………..'so, the two of you are dating then?'

Martin hesitated; since the night Maggie had cooked him dinner they had spent every night at her apartment or his, excepting last night of course when he had been stuck in a car with Jack watching one of their suspects. He had expected Jack to quiz him about Maggie, but he had been strangely distracted and the subject hadn't come up. It wasn't even as if he wanted it to be a secret………………………..'Yes we are'

For a moment Sam stared at him then she smiled, 'I'm glad Martin, I hope it works out for you' she hesitated again and then looking very awkward, 'er, does she know about us?'

'Yes she does and she knows we're friends and she's fine about it' he looked at the scepticism on her face and laughed, 'is that look because you don't think we're friends or that you don't believe Maggie is OK with us working together?'

Sam smiled, 'Well I hope we're friends but, I don't know, I don't know how I'd feel if my boyfriend was working with his ex girlfriend.'

'Wait until you meet Maggie, it'll be fine'

'So is it a secret? I mean obviously Danny and Jack know something but…?' her voice trailed away as she looked enquiringly at him

'Jack and Danny know we dated in high school but not anything more and although Danny suspects that something is going on, he just hasn't found a chance to ask me yet. So, no one, except you now of course, know that we are dating but no, it isn't a secret'

Sam smiled at him 'OK, well I look forward to meeting her then'

Martin stood up a smile on his face as he stared across the office, 'You can do that right now'

Sam looked around to see an attractive woman with chestnut hair talking to Jack and Danny; Sam followed Martin over to be introduced and nearly choked at the expressions on Danny and Jack's faces as Martin slid his arm around Maggie's waist and kissed her briefly on the lips. She saw Maggie's mouth twitch and knew she had seen their faces too.

Before Danny or Jack could say anything Sam walked over and held out her hand, 'Hi Maggie I'm Samantha' she waited to see the response and knew that Danny and Jack were doing the same………but Maggie smiled warmly at her, 'It's good to meet you.', Sam found herself smiling back.

Jack's mouth twitched; 'Right, so how is the case going?'

Maggie frowned; 'Well I managed to get the diary admitted as evidence but the defence managed to exclude some of the photos. Gavin Childs is very good and he's not trying to make his client seem whiter than white he's just trying to raise enough doubt in the jurors minds to get a hung jury' she looked at Danny, 'which is why he's recalling you, he's going to try and make it seem that Donnelly's actions after his arrest were prompted by fear and I suspect he's going to throw any complaints you've had made against you into the mix.'

Danny looked angry; 'that's such BS, he wasn't scared he was boasting and he had his rights read to him twice to make sure he couldn't claim that he hadn't understood that what he said could be used against him in court'

Maggie shrugged her shoulders, 'OK, but you did law, if you were his council and you were faced with a client who had pled guilty all the way until the trial what defence would you put up?'

Danny stared at her for a moment then nodded slowly, 'yeah, I see what you mean,' he looked at Jack, 'can we use the interview room, I think this might take a while'

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Danny stretched, yawned and then sat back and looked at Maggie. She smiled at him; 'Sorry, I know you must be desperate to get home and get some sleep but I think we've covered everything now. They should call you first and Judge Goodwin is always on time so if you can make it to the court house for 8am I'll stand you breakfast'

Danny grinned, 'Breakfast sounds good,' then he frowned 'there's no way Childs is going to be able to get any previous complaints made against me admitted as evidence, he's just trying to muddy the waters isn't he'

Maggie sighed; 'Yes, he knows it only takes a couple of jurors to have had a bad experience with the police or the feds or know someone who has, to buy that our 5ft 6inch weedy non descript defendant felt threatened by a 6ft tall federal agent who had been pointing a gun at him. He won't be able to get any complaints admitted as evidence but once he has mentioned them we both know that you can't un-ring the bell'

Danny groaned, 'So this could mean the difference between conviction and acquittal?'

Maggie smiled tiredly at him, 'No, if it comes down to this then it is because I haven't done my job well enough, just remember what we talked about and try not to let it show on your face that you think he's a scum bag'

'Who? Donnelly or Childs?'

Danny grinned at the look Maggie shot him and they stood up and headed out of the interview room; Jack and Martin were chatting at the door to Jack's office but stopped when they saw Danny and Maggie

'All done?' Martin was smiling at Maggie who nodded and turned back to Danny; '8am'

'8am' he agreed.

She smiled at Martin, 'OK, let's go home'; they headed to the elevator, Martin's arm around her shoulders as Jack and Danny stood watching them.

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'We could order in tonight, Chinese, pizza….whatever you want'

Maggie smiled, 'You know that sounds like such a good idea, get whatever you like I'm really not fussed'

Martin picked up the fast food leaflets from the table by the front door; 'You tried any of these yet?'

'No'

'Well this Chinese is very good' he waved a leaflet at her, 'so if Chinese is OK….?'

She smiled, 'Sounds great, do you mind if I have a quick shower while you order?'

Martin looked concernedly at her 'You OK, you look really tired?'

She laughed, 'I am and feeling guilty, I mean it wasn't me that's just worked 48 hours straight, it should be you dying on your feet'

Martin slid his arms around her and looked at her closely; there were shadows under her eyes and she looked distracted; 'Hmm, well I've drunk so much coffee that at the moment I'm on some sort of caffeine high, but you look as if you didn't sleep well last night.'

She dropped her eyes and leaning against him, placed her forehead against shoulder. Martin knew something was wrong but didn't push her, instead he stroked her hair and dropped a kiss onto the top of her head.

She looked up and smiled at him; he pushed some stray hair from her face and waited…………

She sighed, 'Robert rang last night'

Martin felt himself tense and looked at her questioningly, 'What did he want'

She was looking worried, 'I honestly don't know, he was rambling, telling me I was the only one he could trust, that he had to see me, that I was the only one who could help him….' She paused, 'Martin I think he was on something; he sounded dreadful and he was crying at the end, begging me to meet him'

Martin stared at her then took a deep breath, 'OK, did you say you would?'

Maggie shook her head, 'It was 1am and he wanted me to meet him at his apartment. I told him no and said he should call me again today if it was so important and that if we met it would be somewhere public and certainly not in the middle of the night'

Martin felt a sense of relief creep over him as she continued; 'He hasn't called today and I didn't call him but I'm worried, he sounded scared and that's not like Robert,' she met his eyes.

'Why don't you call him now and see, it might have been nothing and he's feeling embarrassed now and that's why he hasn't called'

She nodded and flipped open her cell phone, located a number and then dialled;

'Robert, it's Maggie, I just wanted to check that you are OK?'

She listened for a minute and he saw her face change to one of annoyance, then, sarcastically, 'Yeh, really good speaking to you too'

She shut the phone with a snap and she looked at Martin and shrugged her shoulders, 'Apparently I'm interrupting a 'business' meeting,' she looked angry and he saw her jaw tighten, 'well, don't I feel like the fool'

He put his arms around her waist and kissed her, 'Chinese?'

She laughed, 'Yes, definitely, Chinese!'