Hola! Sorry for the delay, I think I forgot how to words for a bit, but it's coming back now! And I just realized that takes out my scene breaks, so I'm going to go back and fix that in my earlier chapters sometime when it isn't 4 in the morning. But yeah, here's hoping you enjoy this chapter!

Chapter 4

Artie wakes up feeling normal. It surprises him. Maybe it's stupid, but he had expected that he would wake up feeling pregnant. He doesn't, though; he just feels like Artie and for a minute he wonders if maybe he had some bizzaro dream. His overnight bag is still packed, so he fishes around inside it. If he pulls out a hospital bracelet, it's true. If he doesn't, he can tell Sam all about the strange dream he had where Sam knocked him up. It really was kind of strange because if either of them was going to end up knocked up, it would probably be Sam.

When he pulls out a bracelet, he nods to himself. It was too vivid to have been a dream, and Artie would have been kind of disappointed if it had been a dream anyway. As long as he feels well, he figures there's nothing to do other than go about his usual morning routine.

Sam wakes up early the next day. He wants to leave and get to school early, but he knows that Carole would have told Burt and probably Finn and Kurt too. If he gets up early, hopefully he'll be able to move the process along. He showers quickly and goes down for breakfast.

"Good morning, Carole, Burt," Sam says.

Burt turns from where he's cooking pancakes and smiles at him.

"Sam, Carole told me about your parents." He comes around the island and claps him on the shoulder. "You've been a great addition to our household, but it's always best to be home."

"Thanks. It's been great living here, but I really do miss my family," Sam says, adding, "My siblings especially."

"Of course we understand," Carole chimes in. "But you'll be welcome to visit whenever you want."

"What's this about visiting?" Kurt asks as he strolls into the kitchen.

"My family is moving back here, so I won't have to go visit them anymore," Sam explains, grabbing a couple pancakes and heading over to the table. Kurt follows and sits down next to him.

"That's great Sam. Where's your new abode?"

Finn walks in right then, so Sam has to explain it again.

"Sweet dude, when's the move out?" Finn says with a pancake in his mouth.

Sam shrugs.

"I don't have all the details. It'll be around a month though," he says as he munches on his pancakes. "And then I'll be all moved back in with my family."

And then I'll drop a bombshell and who knows what'll happen then? he thinks to himself.

Chatter slowly turns to other matters and Sam stops paying close attention, making the occasional comment.

"So is everyone ready?" Finn asks.

"Yes!" Sam says.

He's been waiting for them to leave. All he wants is to get to Artie at this point. Finn and Kurt shoot him looks as they follow him out to the car.

"Miss Artie already?" Kurt teases.

"Of course!" Sam climbs into the backseat of the truck.

The ride is quiet except for the tap of Sam's fingers on the armrest on his seat. He's anxious to make sure Artie got through the night alright and that Artie is feeling alright this morning.

When they get to school, Sam says goodbye to Finn and Kurt as he jumps out of the car. After he's gotten the books he's going to need he rushes to Artie's locker. He isn't there yet, so Sam stands there awkwardly. It isn't that Sam never hangs near Artie's locker, quite to the contrary, he's there quite often. In the morning, however, there's no good place to stand and wait because everyone needs to get into their lockers, so he has to keep shifting out of people's way.

It isn't long before he's greeted by the sight of Artie wheeling to his locker. When Artie sees him, they wave at each other excitedly. Artie looks tired, but doesn't look too upset. Once Artie is at his locker, Sam leans down for a good morning kiss.

"Alright night last night?" Sam asks.

Artie shrugs as he starts organizing his books for the day. By now the crowd has died down some so Sam can lean on the locker next to him.

"Close enough. Apparently you should have had me back an hour earlier and I don't know what else I tuned out halfway through," Artie rolls his eyes, "On the bright side, I think if we end up married, they'll just adopt you, set you up with a beard, and then get the family life they always wanted. I'll be like the unspoken mistress. It'll be a twisted family, but it'll work for them better than this."

Whether it's a good or a bad thing that Artie can talk like this jokingly and without seeming to be the slightest bit upset, Sam doesn't know, but it always upsets Sam a little bit when Artie is so blasé about his family's attitude. They've told him more than once that they really did like Sam, and if maybe he could teach Artie to be a little bit more, they could come to accept his and Artie's 'peculiar relationship.' What more he's supposed to be teaching Artie, he doesn't even want to know, but he almost screamed at Artie's dad when he said that.

They start down the hall together. Sam and Artie have first period study hall together, and they usually sit in the back, sometimes doing homework or else just hanging out. It was nice because Artie tutored him when he needed it. Other times they hang out with Quinn or Lauren. Both Quinn and Lauren were in study hall with them. Today, the two of them sit together with their chairs and desks pressed right up together so they can talk without being overheard.

"When I woke up this morning, I checked my bag for the hospital bracelet. You know, to see if it happened? In case you were wondering, yeah, it did," Artie says.

"I'm glad," Sam says.

"Yeah," Artie lapses into silence, staring at the wall. "You know, even if we don't end up raising the baby together, this is still going to be a long and probably expensive process. I should probably get prenatal vitamins somehow."

"Wait- what do you mean 'if we don't end up raising the baby together?' I thought we agreed..." Sam trails off.

Artie looks at him in surprise.

"I thought we just agreed that we wouldn't get an abortion. Especially when you said that it was my business because it was my body. Whether or not we give the kid up for adoption is a whole other matter. Although I think I'd want to have an open adoption. Kid isn't getting away from me that easy," Artie says, patting his stomach lightly. "But we might not even be able to raise it. You seem to think I'll be pretty much homeless in a month and we're high school juniors. Your family is just now back on its feet, with three kids to send to college yet. I'm an only child, yeah, but one who could be disowned by his parents by the time this is done. Might not be the best environment for a child."

Sam frowns. He had already begun envisioning a future with Artie and their kid. Maybe it was a little unrealistic, but he still thought it was possible.

"Hey," Artie touches his face to get his attention. "I didn't rule raising the kid together out. It's too soon to decide anything. Just pointed out that this is going to be a long thing. And that I need vitamins. Luckily I need to take a decent amount of pills anyway so I doubt anyone will notice one more." He pulls a face.

"Want me to take you home today? We can walk to a store and then maybe we can go to the park or something? Then I can drive you home after." Sam offers. They tend to hang out together in places other than their houses because Artie's parents make his house a bad place to hang out and as much as he loves the Hudmels, when Finn, Rachel, Blaine, and Kurt are all over it gets a little too loud for both of them. So they go to parks and window shop and basically wherever else they can go for free or close to it.

"That sounds good. It'll be too cold to go to the park soon, especially for me. Pregnant with the flu does not sound good to me," Artie says. "I'll have to make sure to get a flu shot as soon as possible. You should too."

"Maybe they'll have them at the pharmacy," Sam says.

"Hopefully. We're supposed to start getting in contact with high risk pregnancy experts at the local hospital, but I don't know how to do that discreetly. I can't have them calling my house or cell, and they can't call your house. Who knows who will pick up? Can you imagine if Mrs. Hudmel had to go through thinking Finn had knocked his girlfriend up? Again?" Artie says.

Sam doesn't like the idea of risking Artie's health because there's no easy way to get an appointment.

"A cheap pre-paid phone maybe? Like you wouldn't have to tell your parents about it and you could leave the hospital a number," Sam suggests.

"More things to check out at the pharmacy," Artie says wearily.

Sam wraps an arm around Artie and pulls him as close as he can. Artie leans against him, letting his head rest on Sam's shoulder. The teacher glares over at them and Sam glares right back. If Finn and Rachel can make out all the time, he can cuddle with his boyfriend. It isn't like he's giving him a blowjob under the desk or anything. That he could understand the teacher being upset over. Eventually the teacher sighs and turns back to his work. Good.

"Apparently extreme fatigue is a common occurrence during the first trimester. This is good news for you," Artie says, smiling up at him.

Sam arches an eyebrow. "How exactly?"

"It's hard to care about our PDAs drawing attention to us when I'm so tired I could nap right here. You win this round," Artie says sleepily, but with a smile.

"Naps are what study hall is for!" Sam says happily.

It isn't like they don't want to be affectionate with each other, but Artie in particular doesn't like to show it in school because of the bullies. They talked about it and Sam protested that he would be okay and that without Karofsky around their relationship wasn't likely going to incite the bullies into anything. Artie had insisted, worried that the football team would give Sam grief or worse, and of course Sam respected his wishes. The one nice thing about Glee club was that they never worried about PDAs there.

About five minutes before the bell rings, Sam wakes Artie up. He blinks a couple times then sighs. Study hall is the only 'class' they have together. Artie was in a lot of advanced classes, so the only other time they got to see each other during the actual day was lunch. In a strange coincidence, the entire glee club has lunch at the same time.

"See you later?" Sam asks when the bell rings.

"I might not be at lunch, but definitely Glee," Artie replies.

Before Sam can ask what he might be doing, Artie is out the door.

Artie ends up in the counselling center during lunch. Sometimes he goes in there to chat with Ms. Pillsbury. He isn't getting formal counselling or anything, but he likes talking to her, especially when he's stressed. Just because Artie can't tell her what's stressing him doesn't mean she can't help. Although, even if Artie could tell her what's stressing him, he wouldn't. It's just not how he is.

So they spend the lunch talking about the weather and Sam and she edges near his parents (she knows they're a sensitive subject; she's met them) and since honestly that isn't really what he's upset about she gets more answers than she normally would have.

"Artie?" Ms. Pillsbury says as he turns to leave at the end of the period.

"Yep," Artie doesn't really turn all the way around.

It's a thing that happens sometimes: Ms. Pillsbury gives him a pamphlet she thinks he'll be interested in or some generic advice that makes him grin and roll his eyes good-naturedly. They have a comfortable pattern.

"You're better than that," she says.

"Good bye Ms. Pillsbury," Artie replies, voice tight. This isn't part of the pattern. He knows what he said to set this off, but this still isn't part of the script.

"I mean it. You're not a-"

"Good bye Ms. Pillsbury," Artie says again.

He leaves before she can say anything else. This isn't the first time that he's accidentally said too much. But if he wants to keep Ms. Pillsbury from growing too worried about him, he needs to keep from referring to himself as an 'unwanted spare limb his parents happen to keep around,' even as a joke. It isn't like he thinks of himself like that, most of the time anyway.

He shakes it off and heads to his next class. All this means is that he'll have to put some time before this visit and the next one. No big deal. Still, a queasy feeling starts in his stomach.

Considering it lasts until Glee at the very end of the day, Artie figures that it's probably the beginnings of morning sickness, which apparently isn't limited to the morning.

When he gets to the choir room, he's pleased to see Sam already there. Maybe there's something in his face, but Sam almost leaps out of his chair to get to him quicker.

"Morning sickness isn't limited to morning, I'm guessing," Artie whispers in Sam's ear by way of greeting.

"Are you okay?" Sam asks.

Artie nods.

"It isn't too bad yet. I'm guessing it's going to get a lot worse before it gets better," Artie says as they reach their spot.

Just then, Blaine walks in. As he nods in their general direction, a wave of nausea sweeps over Artie. He clutches Sam's arm and pulls him in close.

"Sam, I think I can smell his hairgel. And it does not smell good," Artie says weakly.

"You're kidding," Sam says, but Artie shakes his head and Sam continues on, "Are you going to throw up?"

"No, I don't think it's quite that bad yet. Whatever is in his hairgel though, it's strong," Artie says.

As more people walk in, he can smell the perfume on some of the girls and cologne on some of the guys. Artie has decided that unscented people are the best kind of people.

"You are not wearing cologne until this passes. Or anything that smells," Artie says.

Sam looks at him questioningly.

"It isn't just hairgel. It's everyone's perfume and cologne," Artie says, burying his face in Sam's side and breathing in. Luckily, Sam had always been an unscented boy. He smells nice and clean and doesn't make him nauseous. It is always good when your boyfriend doesn't make you nauseous. Then again, he muses, technically Sam did help start all this.

Mr. Schue comes in right in time to cut off any reply by Sam. They work on a couple pieces that they're thinking of using for competition, and then they're free for the rest of the day. Artie gets out of the room as quickly as possible and into the open hallway. Then he makes his way as quickly as possible to the door with the accessible ramp. When he gets outside, Artie breathes in deeply. The nausea doesn't leave completely, but it does recede, and that makes him feel wonderful.

"Hey," Sam says a couple minutes later, coming out of the school. "Sorry, they kept asking questions about our weekend away and the kids and everything."

Artie pulls him down into a kiss. Sam tastes so good and Artie loves it. Loves him. When he pulls back, Sam looks a little stunned and Artie grins.

"Now let's go get me vitamins! And flu shots! And a prepaid cellphone!" Artie yells out as he pumps his arms hard, waving them in-between each push like he's leading a charge.

It takes Sam a second, but he catches on and runs with him. They're both yelling and screaming until they're laughing hysterically. He pulls Sam in close for another kiss.

"I love you," Artie means to whisper, but ends up kind of yelling as they race on to the nearest pharmacy.