Chapter Twenty Two

At this very moment, in the ER waiting room at St. Vincent, Martin looked down at his daughter who was sleeping on Martin's lap with his own coat over her little body. Right now, when he looked down at his little girl, Martin just smiled at her because he got her back with the help of the guys and Sara just looked so peacefully when she was sleeping. A few seconds later, a still smiling Martin smoothed out Sara's long, light brown, wavy hair and whispered to her when he put his head to kiss her head, "Everything will be okay now, Sweetie. All of the bad things are gone now and nobody will not take you away from me, I promise." and then, he kissed Sara on the head and right after, Martin saw Sara smiling when he did that, telling him that she loved him for telling her that.

Five minutes later, Martin was staring at his daughter for awhile until he heard somebody calling out his name. "Martin." said the person. After hearing his best friend's voice, Martin looked up from Sara and saw Danny, walking toward with a Styrofoam cup of coffee in each hand. Martin smiled at Danny when he came over to them, sat on the chair left of Martin, and handed him a cup of coffee. The moment Martin grabbed that cup of coffee and took a sip, Danny was asking him a question. "How she's doing?"

Thinking that Danny was asking about Sara, Martin put the coffee down the metal table which is covered by random magazines and other items, turned to Danny, and answered back while smoothing out his daughter's hair again, "Oh, Sara. She is doing fine. I just saw her smiled when I told her that everything will be okay now." Not hearing the answer that he wanted, Danny looked down at Martin's hand on Sara's light brown mane and then, up to Martin's face, and said to him, "That is great that Sara is doing fine and just smiled at your answer but I was really asking about Katie."

Martin stopped smoothing out Sara's hair and looked at Danny like he was talking in a different language, and responded back with a confused face, "Katie? What about Katie?" Danny saw his best friend's confused face and said to him back, "You know, Katie Carter. The woman who knew Sara since birth and the only person here who needed medical attention." After he told him that, Martin quickly had figured out what Danny was talking about and answered back, "Oh, her. Um." Martin was thinking what one of the nurses had told him about before heading back to check on Katie.

He was thinking about that for awhile until he saw Danny's impatient face and before Danny was get more annoyed from all of this, Martin cleared his voice and said to him, "One of the nurses told me that nothing serious had happened to Katie's hand and will be fine but they had to wait a while because Katie really wanted to rest for a few minutes before going back." Danny had heard Martin's answer and asked him when that nurse told him this? "When Sara was smiling from what I just told her that everything will be okay which is probably about five minutes ago." said Martin to Danny.

In return, Danny told him that is good and moments later, both Danny and Martin quickly looked down at Sara who made a noise when her Daddy and Uncle Danny was talking but stopped the noise and went back to sleep. After Sara did that, Martin and Danny looked at each other and grinned at each other, knowing that the noise Sara just did was nothing and it was very clear that Sara did that because she is very happy that Danny and Sam had founded her and went back into Martin's arms, knowing that she is safe right now, in the past hour or two.

Five minutes later, Martin and Danny was talking about other things while Sara was still sleeping on Martin's lap when someone was calling out his name again. "Martin Fitzgerald" said the voice. To see who was calling out his name?, Martin turned around and saw the nurse who was told him about Katie about ten minutes ago, staring at him in her nurse uniform. To go talk to the nurse, Martin carefully lifted Sara up from his lap and into Danny's lap, got up, and walked toward the nurse.

When he got to the nurse, Martin asked the nurse if Katie is okay? "Mr. Fitzgerald, again. I told you that Katie had nothing serious and resting right now. Remember?" answered the nurse whose aging green eyes are staring at him. Martin saw those green eyes and had figured out that Katie was just fine and told himself that he just had to stopped asking that question. To tell the nurse that he had remembered that talk he had with the nurse earlier, Martin cleared his voice and told her that he had remembered that. In return, the nurse smiled at him and said to him, "That is good, then but I came here because I had something to tell you."

"Sure. What is it?" asked Martin who was staring at the nurse. The nurse saw him staring and answered his question, "Mr. Fitzgerald. Katie really wanted to see you right now." Seconds later, Martin told the nurse that he is okay with that and asked the nurse does she knows why Katie wanted to see him? The nurse shook her dark blonde hair with a couple of gray streaks here and there and answered back, "I don't really know why she wanted to see you and the only thing I knew that she really wanted to see you and talk to you about certain things that she wanted to talk between you and her."

To see if he should take Sara with him or just leave her here with a nurse in the waiting room, Martin quickly forgot that Danny is also here. Martin turned around to his best friend and before asking him to watch Sara while he go see Katie, Danny smiled at him and said to him, "I will watch Sara for you while you go talk to Kate if that is okay with you?" To tell Danny that the answer is yes, Martin smiled at him and told him that he is okay with it. Moments later, Martin turned to the nurse who was waiting for him nearby and told him that he wanted to see Katie right now. The nurse told him that she is okay with that and was about to take Martin to the exam room where Katie is that until Martin had asked her something else.

Martin turned to the nurse and asked her while staring at her name tag, "Nurse Galloway, can you wait for a sec or two?" The nurse smiled at him again and answered back, "Sure, Mr. Fitzgerald. What is it?" Martin smiled at her again and told her that he had forgotten something in the waiting room and had to get it. Nurse Galloway was thinking about it for about ten seconds until she gave Martin the thumbs up and told him that he better go and get that thing of his. Martin thanked Nurse Galloway for that and went back to the waiting room, knowing that he had lied to the kind Nurse Galloway about what he told the nurse.

When he got to the waiting room, Danny was watching Sara sleeping on his lap and smiled at her until he had heard Martin's footsteps. To see Martin's face, Danny looked up from Sara to her father's face and said to him with a big smile, "Wow! That was fast and to tell you, Sara didn't do anything extraordinary in her sleep in the minute you were gone." Martin grinned at Danny, told him that he had his rest of his life to see Sara doing extraordinary things in her sleep or when she is awake, and right away, Martin said to him, "I came back because I wanted to give my little girl one more thing before I go back." Danny smiled at Martin again and said to him, "Sure. Do it then."

The moment Danny told that, Martin leaned down to his daughter's head, gave Sara another kiss on the forehead and right away, Sara gave her father another smile on her sweet face, telling him that she loved him too. Martin and Danny smiled again when Sara did that and moments later, Martin had left again to go back to Nurse Galloway to go to the exam room to see Katie. Seconds after Martin had left, Danny looked down at Sara again for the third time and said to her in a whisper, "Sara. I got to tell you something before you see it when you get so pretty digusted out about it and here it is: your Daddy and your Auntie are kissing in the exam room, K-I-S-S-I-N-G!"

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When Martin had leaded through the halls of the ER by Nurse Galloway, the halls were nearly empty. Martin thought that this walk to the exam room could lasts forever but when Nurse Galloway has stopped at exam room 203, opened the door a little, and peeked through the opening to see if Katie is awake from her nap. A few seconds later, Nurse Galloway turned around to Martin and told him that Katie would like to see him now. After thinking about it for a few seconds, Martin nodded to Nurse Galloway and right away, the kind nurse went back to Katie and told her before turning back to Martin and said to him, "she's all yours now." and then, left. After seeing Nurse Galloway leaving, Martin quickly calmed himself down, put his hand on the door handle, turned it around, and got in.

The moment he got inside the exam room, Martin turned around from the door and founded Katie, lying on the exam chair, looking at something. To see if she is okay, Martin got over to the side of the exam where she was facing, sat down on a nearby chair, stared at those pale blue eyes of her, and asked to her the way he talked to Sam when she got shot in the thigh in a hostage situation almost five years ago, "Hey, College Girl. How's you feeling?" In return, Katie stared at him for a second before telling him that she is going to be fine, will be discharged soon, and thinks that he is very angry to her about this for what she just did to him and the team that made them go on this wild goose chase she created.

Wanting to know why Katie thinks of that?, in a kind voice, Martin stared at the blue eyes of her and told her that he was not angry about it and this wild goose chase she created was well, very interesting. Katie listened to what Martin had told her and said back, "Well. That was good then." "Yup!"said Martin who gave her his boyish grin. Katie smiled at him when he did that and asked him, "Hey, Marty. I had to ask you another question." "Sure, Kate. What's it?" said Martin. Katie stared at Martin's blue eyes for a moment before telling him her answer. "Martin. How Sara is doing?" asked Katie.

With a smile on his face, Martin told her that Sara is fine and sleeping on Danny's lap now and from the look of it, for her, she looked like that she is very happy that we got her back. After hearing his answer, Katie ended up having another question she wanted Martin to answer. "Martin. Can I asked you another question?" With another grin on his face, Martin told her sure. Seconds later, Katie cleared her voice and asked him an important question. "Martin. Why you wanted to have a child?" asked Katie who was very curious about this for a while now.

For a while now, Martin was asking himself the same question that Katie was asking him that very moment. Why he wanted to have a child? He never thought about having children for a couple of years until something from a past case had made him think about having kids than before. But now, he remembered the reason why. It was happened a few months ago. It was September or something. An image of a little black boy hanging from his arm when Martin was walking him back to his parents had came into his mind. Now, he remembered that little boy's name. "Elijah Douglas" thought Martin. Moments later, from that name, Martin remembered the one thing he did when he got home had probably changed his life.

To answered Katie's question, Martin got closer to Katie and asked her if she remembered the Elijah Douglas case, the little Sudanese boy who got kidnapped from his home back in September. Katie nodded her head, telling him that she remembered him pretty well and asked him, "Marty. Why are you asking me this?" With those blue eyes of his, Martin smiled at her and told her that night, after founding him, the moment he got home, something from that little boy had made him want to have a child.

--

September 27, 2007

Martin was putting his house key into the lock to get inside his apartment to relax for a while and then, sleep on his bed until he had to wake up and goes back to work to do the desk work on the case he and the team had just finished, the missing person case of a little Sudanese boy named Elijah Douglas. When the key he was using had finally unlocked the door, Martin quickly got inside the apartment and closed the door behind, Martin throw his suit jacket on the couch and turned around to the alarm clock next to the television to see what time it is? The clock in front of him had said to him in glowing green numbers: 10:41pm. After seeing the time, Martin decided to do some things until he goes to bed which is to watch the 11'o clock news, drink some beer, get himself for bed, and sleep his butt off until the alarm clock wakes his grumpy self up and starts the day all over again which seems kind of boring when Martin thinks about it.

After he did all of the those things, Martin changed into his sleeping clothes and got into bed right at 11:45pm, over an hour after he came home. A couple of hours later, Martin was deeply sleeping when a dream had came to him. In that dream, Martin dreamed about a child who was smiling at him, giving him hugs and kisses, talking to him, playing with him, and couple of other things but most importantly, the child was calling him the following word, "Daddy." In return, Martin was smiling to that child when that particular child had called him that. It was a sweet, kind of wonderful dream that had occurred in Martin's mind.

Moments later, Martin had woken up when the dream ended and founded himself hugging his pillow. "Whoa! That was a weird dream." thought Martin when he saw himself hugging his own pillow and to stopped hugging the thing he put his head at when he sleeps, Martin turned to the alarm clock to see what time it is? This clock in front of him had told him that the time was a couple minutes after two in the morning. Martin mumbled something to himself when he saw the time and put his head on the pillow he was formerly hugging a couple of minutes earlier to try to go back to sleep until the alarm clock wakes him up but that didn't happened.

That didn't happened because Martin was very awake when he was trying to fall asleep. He was too wired to fall asleep. To do something to past the time, Martin turned himself around to the ceiling and stared at the ceiling to think what that dream meant and to make him fall asleep again. After about fifteen minutes of thinking, Martin had figured out what that dream meant. He think that the little Sudanese boy had made him have that dream. Come on, Elijah was a good, kind, little three years old boy that he ever met and that little boy had made him smile when he had been reunited with his parents. After thinking about that, another thought had came into his mind and that thought will change his life.

Even through that he always liked kids, Martin was thinking about having a child of his own. To do that, Martin had to think how he can do that and even through that he don't had a girlfriend to do it with him at the moment to do it the old fashioned way, he had to think of another alternatives. For about ten minutes, Martin was thinking about surrogate but it might be going to take too long to do that. Sell his sperms? Probably not because he will not be seeing his child and he is kind of scared about that. One night stand with a stranger? Not thinking about it. Kidnapping a child? Not going to happen!

After thinking about it more, there was only one thing left which is adoption. Martin thought about it for a few minutes before agreeing that could be a good plan than the others. To do that, Martin had to call an adoption agency and tell them that he wants to adopt a child, any type of child but at that time, Martin was thinking that calling them at 2 in the morning will be a very bad idea and not to forgot about it, Martin grabbed a phone book, flipped over to the adoption agencies section in the yellow pages and on a piece of paper, wrote down the first number on the paper in there with a pencil. After he did that, Martin put that aside and promised himself to call the adoption agency first in the morning and hope that is a good idea. Right away, Martin Fitzgerald had fallen asleep again until he had woken up by the alarm clock hours later.

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After telling her that, Martin looked at Katie again who was smiled at him for telling her that and in return, Martin smiled back at her. Katie saw Martin's smile and said to him, "That's very sweet, Marty. So after all of that, you met Sara, fell in love with her, and adopted her to be your child months later." Martin nodded his head at the answer Katie just told him, telling what she just said is true. After seeing Martin's nod, Katie smiled at him again and told him that she got something to show him.

Martin don't know what Katie was going to show him but on the smile on Katie's face when she was reaching in her sweater pocket to get it, it got to be good. Seconds later, Katie finally founded what she wanted, reached a folded photo out of her pocket, unfolded it, and gave it to Martin while saying, "Marty, here." Martin grabbed the photo Katie just gave him, looked at it, and suddenly, a big smile had appeared on Martin's face.

In front of him was a close up picture of a nine months old Sara, smiling at the camera in her birth father's arms at the Sears Tower in Chicago with falling snow in the background. It was the photo that Martin wanted to see in a long time but didn't because no one he knows didn't had that particular photo and Martin was a little disappointed about that but now, Martin had a chance to see it and from the way Sara's light brown chunk of hair had fallen into her big dark brown eyes and that sweet little smile of her, Martin was very happy that he had finally saw the photo and hope to keep it forever and show it to Sara to see who she looked like when she was a baby.

The woman who gave him that photo of Sara saw Martin's smile and with a smile in return, Katie told Martin that she was with them when the photo was taken and Sara was the most happiest baby that she ever saw. Martin had heard the words Katie had coming out of her mouth, turned to Katie, and said to her with another smile on his face and his blue eyes shining at her, "Sara will and always be a happy child." Katie smiled at Martin for a while before in front of her, she saw Martin staring at her and with the same smile on his face, Martin got closer to Katie, said to her, "thank you for showing me this", move his lips over to Katie's lips, and gave her the most passionate kiss that he ever gave her.

Katie had never expected to get this type of kiss from Martin Fitzgerald before and not since she dated Nick Stokes when she was in Vegas but she let Martin plant one on her because this is probably one of the best things her lips had experienced. During the first few seconds, Martin did the whole thing but seconds later, Katie leaned over the exam chair and put her arms around Martin's neck to give her best on Martin's soft lips. They kept kissing each other for a while and almost forgot that they are kissing in the exam room. This kiss is one of the most passionate kisses that both of them had ever experienced in their whole lives.

Martin was about to kiss Katie's neck for a few seconds when the both of them had heard someone saying to them, "Daddy!" To stop from what they were doing, both Martin and Katie let go of each other, turned around, and saw Sara in the doorway, with her big, clear, dark brown eyes and her warm, sweet smile, staring at them with happiness. Finally founding her Daddy and Auntie Katie in there after running away from Uncle Danny, Sara ran to them with her arms wide open, and gave Martin a big hug. After hugging her Daddy, Martin put Sara on his lap and asked her with a smile on his face, "Hey, Sweetie! Have you had woken up already and why you are here instead of being with Uncle Danny?"

With another big smile on her face, Sara told Martin that she had woken up a few minutes ago, founded herself sleeping on Danny's lap instead of his, and went out looking for him and plus, Uncle Danny fell asleep. After hearing that from his daughter, Martin playfully said to her, "Sara Elizabeth Fitzgerald. Don't ever do that again when somebody like Uncle Danny was watching you and you should stayed with them unless they did something like falling asleep and then come find him." "Yes, Daddy." said Sara in return and gave Martin another hug.

After hugging her father, Sara's brown eyes had turned to the photo, sitting nearby on a table, and said to Martin, "Daddy. Is that me?" Before Martin was answer his daughter's question, Katie interrupted him by saying to her goddaughter, "Yeah, Sara. That is you as a baby." Sara stared at that photo for a minute before turning to Martin and said to him, "Daddy. I looked different back then.", referring to the short hairstyle she had on her head when she was a baby to the long, wavy hair she had right now. Martin stared at that photo for a while before telling Sara that even through that she looked different in the photo, she is still the same person and kissed her on the forehead. In return, Sara giggled when her Daddy did that and when she saw that, Katie just smiled at this happy moment.

Ten minutes later, Martin and Katie were talking about other things and are trying too hard to not kiss in front of Sara who was staring at the baby photo of hers when they are interrupted by an announcement on the loudspeaker, saying that Sara Fitzgerald, come back to the waiting room where your Uncle Danny is waiting for you. Realizing that Danny had woken up and finding Sara not there, Sara turned to her Daddy and Auntie Katie, and said to them, "We better go to him." Martin and Katie agreed with her and when he put her off his lap, Martin put down to Sara's level and told her that to tell Uncle Danny that she founded him sleeping and left to find Martin. Sara agreed with that, gave her father another hug, and said to him with another smile on her sweet face, "Okay, Daddy. I will tell him that."

When Sara gave him that, Martin gave her a smile in return, and with Sara leading the way, all three of them walked back to the waiting room where Danny is at and to tell him that everything is okay. Halfway during the walk, Martin was walking with Katie and was walking so slow that Sara turned to him and yelled at him nicely, "Hurry up, Daddy. We better get there before Uncle Danny get even more madder." When Sara told him that, Katie turned to Martin who was grinning at her when Sara told him that, and whispered to him, "She just called you, 'Daddy'. Just like you wanted from her." Seconds later, Martin turned around, smiled at her, kissed her on the cheek, grabbed her hand and hold it tightly during the whole walk and the rest of their lives.

Happy Holidays, everybody and please review the chapter because after this one, there are only two more chapters left :).