A month later, Lily received a phone call that shook her foundation and she called the one person who she knew would help her to remain calm during the crisis. "Hey Secret Agent Man."

Her voice was shaky and he walked out of the crime scene, turning all of his attention to her. "Tiger Lily, what's wrong?"

"Where are you? I'm standing outside the FBI building and the guard is telling me that you aren't upstairs. I just need to see you really quickly."

"Lily, what's wrong?" He repeated.

"I've only got an hour and a half before my flight and just really needed to see you." She heard her voice crack. "Daddy had a heart attack, Martin. No one will tell me how he is so I'm flying to London tonight and,"

"Shh," he soothed, "Sweetheart, it'll be alright. I'm on my way. Don't move." Grateful he was only in TriBeCa, he sped back to the FBI Headquarters and found her pacing the lobby, but when their eyes met, she began openly crying and he pulled her to him, holding her as close as he could. "Shh, Lil, it'll be alright. I've got you. Your father is a fighter." After a few minutes, she pulled away and he offered her his handkerchief. "When do we leave?"

"No, Martin, I'm going by myself. I don't know what's going on and you need to work. I just couldn't sit in that airport for two hours worrying. I had to see you, to hear you tell me that everything was going to be OK."

"And it will be. He's an ambassador, Lil. He's going to get the best medical care available. He'll be fine." He touched her face and kissed her softly. "Are you sure you don't want me to come?"

"No," she smiled and held his hand, "but you need to stay here and work. We both know that."

"Promise me you'll call every night." She nodded and he kissed her again. "Come on. I'll drop you back at JFK."

Lily called when she landed even though it was one in the morning back in New York. Martin had wanted her to call and she had needed to hear his voice. He'd still been at the office, not wanting to admit that he was waiting up for her call, but she was grateful. He was the one person on earth that was able to get her to refocus her energy on the positive instead of worrying about all the things that could go wrong.

Two weeks later, Martin hung up the phone with Lily with a sigh. It was so hard to listen to her and not be there to comfort her. Her father had suffered a massive heart attack and, while they wanted to move him stateside to treat him properly, he still wasn't stable enough. The doctors over in England weren't sure what had caused a healthy sixty year old man to suddenly develop heart problems and Lily was terrified she was going to lose her father all because he'd had the bad fortune to get sick in a country with socialized medicine. It tore at his heart to listen to her so distraught and he knew that she didn't want to talk about it, but she needed to and she couldn't talk to her mother. It was tearing him up inside because he wanted to fix it, he wanted to heal her pain, take away her worry and doubt, and he was sitting an ocean away.

"Hi Honey, there's nothing new to report." Lily answered her cell phone that night as she and her mother walked back from the hospital to the embassy.

"God, you look beautiful." He couldn't stop himself. She looked radiant in the soft moonlight, even if she did appear thinner and paler than when she had left The States.

She laughed. "How would you know?" As they entered the courtyard, she looked up to see the most amazing sight she'd seen in two long weeks, and ran to him, the tears streaming down her face as she flung her arms around his neck, kissing his lips.

"Shh, it's OK. I'm here now. I'm going to help you through this. It's going to be all right."

"When did you get in? Better question, please tell me you haven't checked into a hotel yet because you do know you are staying here, right?"

He took her face in his hands and kissed her softly. "I will go wherever you need me."

"Good because I need you here with me."

"I am all yours."

"For how long?"

"I took some emergency leave so I'm yours until you want to send me home.

"Thank you." She smiled ruefully and kissed him. "Really, Martin, thank you."

"Hey, what are friends for, Lily?" He winked at her and they walked inside. "I also called a cardiologist friend at Colombia Presbyterian and he agreed to take your father on as a patient once he's stable enough to be transported." As she looked up at him, he thought he saw a look of both confusion and awe. "Lil, Honey, he's family."

"No, he's not, but you treat him as though he were your father. Why?"

Martin leaned down and kissed her softly. "Because he's your father and he loves you almost as much as I do." She smiled, though he was sure she hadn't wanted to, and he kissed the top of her head, wrapping his arm around her shoulders. "And he is a good man with a good heart that we will get fixed. I promise." She placed her head against his shoulder and they went up to her room.

He made good on that promise, though Lily wasn't quite sure how. Two days later, they learned her father was stable enough to travel and she filled out the paperwork to have him transferred to New York the next day, where he remained for another week before being allowed to return to England and to work, almost as good as new. After that week, Lily found herself changing her schedule. Her relationship, friendship, with Martin suddenly meant more to her than her career. He was more important that her important position and she began spending Tuesday night through Thursday morning at his apartment, working remotely from New York, instead of her office in D.C., and seriously considering doing something more permanent.