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chapter twenty-seven

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so i'll check the weather wherever you are
'cause i want to know if you can see the stars tonight
might be my only light
-John Mayer, "Split Screen Sadness"

xx

June 2, 2003
New York City
8:25 am

"Jack?" Sam nervously knocked against the glass windows of his office and opened the door when he motioned for her to come in.

"Hey, Sam," he said, putting down the paperwork he held in his hands. "It's good to see you back."

Sitting down on the sofa and leaning her crutches against the side, she nodded tersely. She had not spoken to Jack in the two weeks since she'd been shot, other than a brief message he had left wishing her well and an even briefer message she had left telling him that she would be back at work this morning. "It's good to be back," she said. "Sorry I'm a few minutes late. It's hard to navigate with these things," she motioned to her crutches. "I should be rid of them by next week though, if all goes well."

"That's good to hear," Jack said, standing and walking around to join her on the sofa.

"Anyway, I just wanted to check in briefly," she felt suddenly uncomfortable, wishing he would have left more than a foot's distance between them. "I know I can't do too much, but are there any leads I can run down in the computer?"

Jack shook his head. "We don't have any active cases right now, but Danny has three weeks' worth of old leads that he's going back through so that we can file them away."

Sam laughed in spite of herself, glancing out to the conference table where Danny sat, posture slackened, with multiple large piles of paperwork stacked up in front of him. She could not see his face, but she could only imagine what he was muttering under his breath.

Jack smiled and raised his eyebrows suggestively. "You're sure you don't want to take a few more days off while you can?"

"No," she said curtly. "I needed to get out of my apartment and go someplace other than the doctor's or physical therapy. I want to keep busy."

"Good," he said. "I'm glad you're back. It hasn't been the same without you."

She frowned at him, her intuition picking up on strange vibes emanating from him. "Jack?" she questioned, raising her eyebrows warningly.

"It's just ... I'm sorry that I haven't called you or stopped by. Things here have been busy with us down an agent, and I wasn't sure if you would be alone..." Jack trailed off, a trace of bitterness hinted in his voice.

"Don't sweat it, Jack," she said tersely. She was not interested in his excuses, and silently cursed the days when she had been so dependent upon them. Once again, she considered admitting that she was seeing someone else. But it was obvious that he knew as much, and she did not want to field questions as to Martin's identity. Things were much easier between them without her former lover getting wind of the fact that she was dating the Deputy Director's son -- who also happened to have turned heads as one of the most persuasive, talented Junior Senators in the past few weeks with the way he came out against Mike Lively's healthcare bill. The general public responded well to the manner in which he was not afraid to advocate honestly at a level geared towards reality. And she smiled inwardly at all of the columnists she had read who proclaimed how refreshing it was to have a politician who could be trusted. Her smile grew when she realized how frequently she was tuning into CSPAN and CNN, and seeking out the political columns in the newspapers. She looked up, feeling Jack's eyes still on her intently. "Is there something else, Jack?" she said with a small sigh.

Jack looked at her sadly, a wistful expression on his face, and Sam found herself feeling sorry for him. Jack was not an inherently bad person; he just had a tendency to make extremely poor decisions. And just because she no longer felt anything romantic towards him did not mean that she did not value his friendship.

"Maria and I are getting a divorce," he said finally, wringing his hands together.

"I'm sorry, Jack," she said honestly. She mentally quelled her own sense of guilt, reminding herself that Maria and Jack had their marital problems long before she ever entered the picture. "I really am. How are Hanna and Kate doing with it?"

"Worse than I am, I think. Hanna is furious and won't speak to me. Kate is dejected and quiet, and won't speak to anyone. Maria and I are going to try to settle everything outside of court if we can, try to minimize what the girls have to go through."

"That's good," she nodded, not particularly interested in his legal proceedings. She stood and grabbed hold of her crutches, trying to indicate that listening to any more of this conversation would be improper and unprofessional of them. "I really am sorry, Jack," she repeated, leaning her weight forward on the crutches and leaving his office.

Back in the bullpen, Danny looked up from his stacks of paperwork and immediately rushed to greet her.

"Hey, hot stuff! Welcome back!" He exclaimed, embracing her awkwardly as her crutches got in the way.

She laughed and hugged him back, genuinely happy to be back at work.

xx

Washington DC
11:40 am

"Great work this morning, Martin" Colin Adair said, walking up to where he sat on a bench in the rotunda outside the Senate offices. "I think you really persuaded some of the people who were on the fence about moving forward."

"Thanks," Martin said, taking a bite out of his sandwich and leaning against the wooden back of the bench.

Colin sat down beside him, turning towards him and suddenly looking very serious. "You know," he started slowly. "When you were elected back in November, a lot of people were skeptical about you -- myself included. We assumed you were too young, too inexperienced, and that you wouldn't be able to cut it. Let me just be the first to say that you've proven everyone wrong a hundred times over." Colin paused, laughing quietly. "I should have listened to my wife."

Martin raised his eyebrows, both pleased at the professional praise and confused as to the purpose of the conversation. "What do you mean?"

"She knew you were going to be great from the get go. You really won her over with the way you handled your campaign, and then the way you handled the media frenzy following your election." Colin chuckled again. "This is something you won't understand until you're married, but when your wife tells you that she's right, don't argue with her. It's not worth the effort, and she's always right anyway."

Martin drank slowly from his water bottle, trying to hide the smirk on his face without much luck. "Duly noted," he quipped.

xx

New York City
4:10 pm

Samantha balanced her weight between her good leg and one crutch, lifting the other to push open the door to the break room long enough to hobble inside. She found Vivian and Naomi sitting at the table, their backs to her as they focused on the television screen in the corner.

"Hey, guys," she said as they turned around to see who had just entered. "What's going on?"

"Not much," Naomi said, her eyes sparkling and laughter hinting in her voice. "Just watching a replay of the Senate proceedings from this morning."

"I just suggested that we take a break from paperwork," Vivian said, turning her attention back towards the television. "She was the one who wanted to put CSPAN on."

"What can I say?" Naomi raised an eyebrow suggestively at Samantha, obviously intensely enjoying this moment. "I'm interested!"

Sam rolled her eyes playfully at her friend, who was having far too much fun being the sole person knowing about her relationship with Martin. "Anything interesting?" She said, trying to feign only casual interest in spite of the fact that Martin was planning on speaking that morning. She'd been trying to catch a break to see how it had gone all day, but to no avail. Whenever she had a few seconds' free time, Danny or Jack seemed to be in the way.

"Senator Fitzgerald seemed to pretty much seal the deal on that healthcare bill this morning." Vivian said offhandedly.

"Oh, really?" Sam asked, taking the seat at the table in between her two colleagues.

"Apparently, the guy who introduced it put in some fine print that would actually cut benefits for government employees and the military, among others, while adding benefits for big business owners only." Vivian explained, "We missed the detailed part of the explanation, but that was the general gist we got."

"That's typical Lively," Sam started, before she realized what she was saying. "He's done it a thousand times before, and people are finally catching on. There's no way he gets re-elected next year." She bit her lip nervously, feeling both Naomi and Vivian's eyes on her.

"Oh really?" Vivian narrowed her eyes, her gaze intense. "This is the first I've heard about it."

Sam shrugged, trying to play it down even though this felt akin to an interrogation. "I've been doing some reading," she calculated her words carefully.

"Reading," Naomi chimed in. "Right. So that's what they're calling it these days."

Sam shook her head, embarrassed, and her face flushed. Unable to think of a suitable response, she shrugged her shoulders once more, and Vivian and Naomi shared a knowing look.

She laughed in spite of herself.

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