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fifty-three

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all i want is for you to have
a life you love and live
take from me all i have to give
because you are in my heart
-Vertical Horizon, "The Man Who Would Be Santa"

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10:00 pm

Martin leaned back against the soft cushions of the sofa in the living room of his parents' house. So much happened over the last 24 hours that he was grateful for the opportunity to simply relax for a few minutes and enjoy a quiet moment with Sam and his sisters and brothers-in-law.

His parents had retired to bed not long after Caroline put Kelsey and Bridget down, although Martin suspected that neither one of his parents would be falling asleep for some time now. They had remained calm when Becca and Scott arrived with the twins, but that was likely more from the sheer shock than from unruffled acceptance.

He felt awful because he could understand both points of view: Rebecca, wanting to minimize the 'disapproval' from their largely traditional father, and his parents, feeling deeply wounded that their daughter willingly chose to keep such an important piece of news from them.

But nothing - nothing - could get him down today. There was nothing she could give him this Christmas that would come close to what she had given him already. He had been in love with Sam for quite some time now, and not only did he finally tell her how he felt, but he discovered that she felt the same way. For the first time in his life, he felt he was with someone who truly balanced him out. In a world where the majority of the people he worked with operated on false pretenses and worked solely for their own personal gain, he knew how lucky he was to have someone in his life who could bring him perspective -- on both the big issues and the little things.

He looked up as Rebecca shuffled back into the room and sank down into the opposite sofa right beside Scott. She leaned in to her husband and laughed good-naturedly, "Well, I got her to go back down pretty quickly, so that means in two hours when Alex wakes up and needs something, it will probably take us several hours."

Martin grinned, shifting against the sofa cushions to lean forward. He narrowed his eyes as he smirked, "They inherited your impeccable sense of humor, then, didn't they Bec?"

Rebecca gave him her best annoyed older sister glare as everyone else laughed.

"You know what this reminds me of?" Caroline asked, setting her glass of wine down on the end table next to her. Her eyes fell on the Christmas tree, colored lights sparkling in the otherwise darkened room. All of the presents were already laid out in careful piles, the largest piles the ones designated for Kelsey and Bridget. Martin met Caro's eyes and smiled, instantly knowing exactly what she was recalling.

"Christmas morning before Mom and Dad woke up," he finished for her. He leaned back against the sofa and felt Sam rest her side against his, tilting her head to give him a questioning look.

"Christmas morning was the one day every year that Dad would allow himself to sleep in," Rebecca said with a dramatic roll of her eyes. "Every year, Caro used to set her alarm clock for 5:00 AM. She would sneak into both of our rooms and wake us up, and we would come down and sit in front of the Christmas tree and try to guess what was in all of the presents."

Martin held Samantha's hand in his and laced their fingers together. "We would stay down here talking until the sun came up, then we would sneak back upstairs to bed."

Across the room, Caroline grinned and raised her eyebrows. "I think Dad was completely clueless, but Mom definitely knew." She paused, looking from Martin to Rebecca and then back again. "Oh, don't look so shocked. She always knew more than we gave her credit for. When I came back for winter break after my freshman year at Swarthmore, she told me that if we were going to get up early on Christmas morning, we needed to remember to keep it quiet going up and down the stairs."

Martin furrowed his eyebrows and asked, "How could she have heard us, though? We were always so careful."

Caroline laughed. "You wouldn't understand, Marty. Some people think it's mother's intuition, but I believe that something happens to a woman's body when she gives birth that permanently alters the way her ears work."

Everyone laughed. Rebecca quickly rose from her seat, however, and said, "Speaking of..." as she shuffled out of the living room and back down the hall in the direction of the guest room where she and Scott were staying.

No more than five seconds after Rebecca's figure disappeared from the doorway, everyone turned as Alex's cries could be heard on the baby monitor.

"She didn't give birth," Tim proclaimed authoritatively, looking down at his wife bemusedly. "So how do you explain that?"

Caroline grunted in displeasure and snatched a throw pillow from the end of the sofa, lobbing it at him defiantly.

xx

December 25, 2003
7:45 am

Martin awoke the next morning to find the bed cold beside him. Rubbing the last vestiges of sleep from his eyes, he threw the comforter back and sat on the edge of the bed, glancing around as he wondered where Sam had gone.

He did not have to look long however, as he her Sam's voice carry up from downstairs. She was talking on the phone with someone and had obviously forgotten that the any sounds from the living room carry upstairs pretty easily. They had returned from his parents' last night and fallen right to sleep, exhausted from the events of the day, so Martin was surprised that Sam had woken up so early.

He rose from the bed and ambled towards the door. He stopped when he got to the top of the stairs though, as he caught exactly what she was saying. It sounded like she was talking to her sister.

"... Yeah, Linds. It will be good for you to go to the party. You never know; he might actually be nice," Sam paused to listen to the voice on the other end of the line. She was silent for a few minutes, and Lindsay must have changed the subject. "No, we're doing really well..." She laughed softly, "At least, I think so. He told me he loves me, so I think that qualifies, right? ... Anyway, I should probably start moving towards getting ready go to back over to his parents'. Merry Christmas, and call me to let me know how the party goes tonight."

As Martin heard her hang up the phone, he was torn between wanting to rush downstairs immediately and see her on Christmas morning and not wanting her to know that he had been listening in on her conversation. It wasn't really his fault though; the second he heard her talking about them, he wanted to know what she would say. He was relieved to know that a day later, she was not suddenly panicking because they were "moving too fast."

He slowly started down the stairs, covering his mouth with one hand as he stifled a yawn. Sam looked up as she saw him approaching, smiling at him. "Merry Christmas," she greeted.

"Mmm," he mumbled, leaning over the arm of the sofa to kiss her solidly on the lips. "Merry Christmas. How long have you been up?"

"That depends. How long have you been eavesdropping?" she replied with a grin.

He narrowed his eyes, feigning ignorance. She cocked an eyebrow at him, and he relented. "Not long..."

"Then," she replied with a playful glint in her eyes, "I haven't been up for long, either."

"Tease," he muttered, the sofa cushions shifting accordingly as he sat down right next to her. He ran one hand along her thigh and leaned in to kiss her again. "Good morning. What did your sister have to say?"

"Nothing much," Sam replied, "She just called to say Merry Christmas. A friend of hers from the university invited her to a Christmas dinner party tonight, and she was telling me about that. Apparently, her friend knows someone she's just dying to set Lindsey up with, but Lindsey isn't so sure." Sam paused and shrugged her shoulders. "I told her to just go with an open mind; you never know what might happen."

"When did you get to be so wise?" he teased, relaxing back into the sofa cushions.

She swatted her forearm at him playfully, releasing a grunt to signify her mock displeasure in his insinuations. Of all the time he got to spend with Sam, moments like this one were among his favorites. The moments in the early morning when everything was quiet and they could lounge around alone together in their pajamas.

Sighing, he glanced down at his watch.

"You're right. We should probably think about getting ready to head back over to your parents," Sam agreed. She patted his thigh and jumped up from the sofa, picking up a box from under the fully decorated tree in his living room. "But I think you should open this first."

He tilted his neck casually, peering at the carefully wrapped box she held out to him. "You want to do gifts now?" he asked.

She shook her head as she handed him the box. "No, I think we can wait until tonight. But I did want you open this one before we go over to your parents."

He furrowed his eyebrows in curiosity, concentrating as he slid his index finger to break the tape on the underside of the parcel. Shaking the lid free from the box, he revealed several silk ties. He glanced up at her, and she was standing triumphantly in front of him with her hands on her hips.

"Do you like them?" She asked, her tone low and scheming. She looked remarkably pleased with herself.

"Of course I do Sam," he replied honestly. He was genuinely touched that she had gone out of her way to pick these out for him.

"Good," she said defiantly. She picked the tie from the bottom of the box and held it in her hands. It was a deep hunter green. "This one will work nicely with the shirt and jacket you're wearing to Mass with your family tonight."

He narrowed his eyelids in confusion. "What do you mean?"

She cocked her eyebrows suspiciously at him and laughed. "Do you honestly think I am going to let you out of the house in that horrible Santa tie that you have?" She looked at him intently, and he shrugged his shoulders, smiling. "Honestly, Martin!" she proclaimed, "It never ceases to amaze me. A man as powerful and influential as you are can't find someone who can help him pick out a tie that matches!"

She folded her arms authoritatively across her chest and grinned.

He couldn't help but laugh.

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