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chapter sixty-one
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send a wish upon a star
do the work and you'll go far
send a wish upon a star
make a map and there you are
-Sia, "Lullaby"
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February 13, 2004
Chicago
1:30 am
Martin awoke suddenly and shot up in bed, rubbing his eyes and scanning the darkened room. Moonlight crept in through slits in the blinds, but he could not see anything that would have awoken him so suddenly. Beside him, Sam shifted and rolled over onto her side before settling back down against the pillow, still sound asleep. He smiled to himself; Sam could sleep through almost anything.
Deciding that he might as well get up and make sure that everyone else was okay, he threw the duvet back and slipped quietly out of bed, not wanting to wake Sam. Padding out of one of the two guest rooms at Scott and Rebecca's, he made his way down the hallway. He and Sam were heading to Kenosha over the weekend for her mother's wedding, and on the way they stopped in Chicago to celebrate Rebecca's birthday with his parents, who were also in town spending some time with their newest grandchildren.
He decided that he was hungry and padded softly down the stairs to raid the fridge for dinner leftovers. He was surprised however to find the light on in the kitchen and his father sitting at the counter holding Alex and sipping a glass of water while he read the paper.
"Dad?" Martin asked, his original intent entirely forgotten as he sat down in the stool next to his father.
Victor folded the newspaper and set it down on the marble countertop. "Martin. I was up and wandering when I heard Alex start to cry; I think I got to him before either Scott or Rebecca woke up."
"You did." Martin nodded and looked over at Alex, whose eyes followed the ceiling fan, entranced. Martin motioned towards his nephew and commented, "He's quiet now."
"You used to be just like this, you know." Victor closed his eyes momentarily, pensive, before he added, "You could sit and watch the fan going for hours and hours. I used to walk with you in the middle of the night so that your mom could get some sleep, and I would walk in circles in the sunroom with the fan on until you would fall back asleep."
Martin remained silent, sensing that his father still had more to add. There was a pregnant pause before Victor changed the subject entirely.
"Have things settled back down at work?" he asked finally.
Martin inhaled sharply, not sure he wanted to cross this road with his father at almost 2:00 in the morning. Wringing his hands together under the counter top, he replied, "Things are going to be a mess for awhile, from what I can tell. The extent to which Wyland had his hands in Washington remains to be fully uncovered. I'm sure you know the FBI's involvement in all this better than I do though, and I think that's all going to happen before we hold our closed hearings." He ran one hand over his face with a heavy sigh. "Unless another even bigger scandal breaks, it's going to be a good couple of months before this is all over."
Victor took a long sip from his glass of water and, placing the glass back down on the counter with a clink, said, "I'm sorry I gave you such a hard time about it when the story broke. I would just hate to see you ruin your career over pissing someone like Hugo Wyland off, but I guess I should have given you a little more credit, you knew exactly what you were doing."
This was the problem with his father sometimes. Victor played too much by the rules even when the rules didn't make sense, because it was the only way he knew to be 'successful' -- never mind that this was Martin's career and he was an adult fully capable of making his own informed decisions.
Martin sighed and crossed his arms, leaning forward against the countertop. It felt cool against his bare forearms, and goosebumps began to form. "It wouldn't have mattered if my career were 'ruined' by this; it was still the right thing to do. I have an entire staff for input too, you know."
"It should work to your advantage anyway. The DSCC has come out in full support of you."
"I know." Martin replied curtly.
Victor seemed to sense that Martin did not want to continue on this line of conversation, and instead changed the subject. "It was nice that you and Sam were able to get away for the weekend. I know Rebecca appreciated seeing you both tonight."
"We wouldn't have missed it. It's an easy stop on the way to Kenosha, anyway."
Victor furrowed his eyebrows, deep in thought. "That's right. You mentioned that her mother is getting married this weekend, didn't you?"
"On Saturday," Martin nodded in reply.
"Valentine's Day," Victor commented off-handedly. "That's nice."
"Betsy - Sam's mother - she hates the cliché, but it was the best weekend to have it because of President's Day. Sam's sister Lindsey is a college English professor, and Charles' son Trent is a grad student in physics, so it was the easiest weekend for both of them to make the trip."
Victor nodded. "Tell me more about Samantha's family."
Martin shrugged, bracing himself. He hated doubting his father's intentions, but his father rarely ever showed interest in his girlfriends if not to disapprove. In spite of the fact that both of his parents seemed to genuinely like Sam, experience taught him to be wary.
"There's not much to tell; there's just Sam, her sister Lindsey and her mother Betsy. I've only met Betsy once and that was just briefly."
Victor paused for a beat, looking down to Alex in his arms, and said, "So this is a big weekend for you?"
"I guess you could say that," Martin shrugged casually. The thought honestly had not occurred to him before. After all, Sam knew most of his family very well, wasn't it only logical that he would spend time with hers?
With a reflective smile, Victor said, "Of course it is. I remember the first time I met your mother's parents: I was a wreck. I was still a rookie agent, so they already didn't like me very much because your mother had recently broken off her engagement to her college sweetheart to date me. Now Edward was a medical student and her parents had loved him and loved the idea of him becoming their son in law, so you can imagine all the negative things they thought about me, still fresh out of the Academy and working entry level as a rookie in Violent Crimes. We went out to this upscale restaurant in Manhattan. It was her parents favorite restaurant, and I was so beside myself with nerves that I forgot that I am deathly allergic to walnuts. So naturally, when they brought out a basket of her father's favorite banana nut bread I had to try some. It was less than five minutes before I turned bright red and my throat started closing up, so instead of having a nice dinner, we spent the rest of the night in the emergency room."
Martin laughed in spite of himself, looking up to meet his father's eyes. It was hard to imagine that at one point, his hard, stern, dignified father had been so incredibly nervous from wanting to impress his new girlfriend's parents. His parents rarely ever talked about the time when they were dating, so Martin did not even know that his mother had previously been engaged. He filed that information away to ask her at another time, but in the meantime, he appreciated what he had just learned about his father.
"I never knew any of that," he said quietly, biting his bottom lip pensively as he took it all in.
"Really?" Victor furrowed his brow. "Your mother never told you that story? I would have thought she just saved it for a time when I wasn't around. It's not exactly an evening of my life that I enjoy reliving frequently."
Shaking his head slowly, Martin replied, "No, I've definitely never heard any of that before."
Victor curled his lips up in a soft smile, putting his free hand on Martin's shoulder as he said, "Then I guess we're going to need to change that."
Martin nodded, covering his mouth with his hands to stifle a yawn. He rose from the bar stool, stretching his arms as he replied, "I'd like that, but we'll have to save that for another night. Sam and I have a long day tomorrow. In the interim, I have no nut allergies so I think I should be safe."
"Fair enough," Victor laughed. "Goodnight, son."
Martin stopped at the door, resting his arm against the doorjamb. "Goodnight, Dad."
He turned around and padded softly back up the stairs and through the hallway until he reached the guest room where he and Sam were staying. He turned the knob slowly and tried to carefully crack the door open to avoid waking her, but the second the door shut behind him, he saw her move.
Sam was lying on her side, facing the door, and she propped herself up on one elbow so that her head was raised up slightly. Her long blonde hair was mussed from sleep as it fell haphazardly on her shoulders, try as she might to tuck it back behind her ears.
"Where were you?" She asked, her eyes wearily half-open and her voice thick and heavy from sleep. She motioned to the empty bed beside her and said, "I woke up and the bed was cold."
Martin pulled back the sheets and slipped underneath. He rolled over onto his side so that he was facing her and linked his hand with hers, squeezing it affectionately. "Is that the only thing I'm good for?" he asked teasingly.
Sam rolled her eyes and grinned slyly. "That, and using up all my frequent flyer miles. Before I met you they were just collecting dust in my account." They both laughed, and Sam leaned back, lying flat against her pillow. "You okay though? You don't usually get up in the middle of the night like this."
He ran a finger along the side of her rib cage, smiling to himself as he felt her shiver involuntarily. "I'm good. I woke up when I heard something from down the hall, and I went to investigate. I found my dad downstairs with Alex, and we talked for a little while."
Sam frowned, reaching out with her hand to grasp his upper arm. "And that was good?"
"It was good," he nodded in reply. "He told me some things that I never knew before."
"Mmmm," Sam sighed, her eyes drooping as she made no attempt to stifle a yawn. She looked for a second like she might be about to say something else, but within seconds, she had rolled back onto her side and leaned into him. Her breathing evened out, slow and deep, and he smiled to himself because she had clearly fallen back asleep.
He wrapped an arm around her and kissed her forehead as he settled back down against his own pillow when he heard her murmur through her own subconscious, "Night, love you."
He ran his finger slowly against the soft skin of her face. "Goodnight, Sam," he whispered. "I love you, too."
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