"Phone away at the table, Lauren," Freddie said, setting a carton of orange juice down on the table a couple of mornings later.
"No phone!" Heather echoed.
"That's my girl," Freddie grinned, high-fiving the toddler. "You tell your sister."
"I was just sending one text," Lauren said, shoving her phone back into her pocket.
"Well it can wait till you leave the table," Freddie said.
"Man, why's today have to be my eight hour rehearsal," Sam moaned as she walked into the kitchen. "My feet are killing me!"
"From what?" Freddie asked.
"I think those heels I wore at your boss's party you dragged me to really dug into them," Sam said.
"That was two months ago!"
"Your point?" Sam snapped.
"Well you're still going to the doctors after work, right?" Freddie said.
"Baby, can't you just drop this and-"
"Sam, you're obviously sick," Freddie said. "You keep puking up your guts when you wake up in the morning."
"That's lovely," Lauren cringed, pushing away her plate of toast.
"Doctor good, mommy," Heather said.
"Man, you are just on my side today, aren't you?" Freddie chuckled, picking Heather up out of her high chair. "What do you want?"
Heather kissed his cheek sweetly. "I love you, daddy."
"Aw," Sam chuckled. "How cute…I can't wait until she learns to use that power."
"Sam? Are you ready to drop me off at school?" Lauren asked, bringing her plates to the sink.
"Wow, somebody's eager to get there for once," Freddie said.
"Yeah, we still have half-an-hour," Sam nodded. "Aren't you usually still in bed now?"
"Scott wants to meet me before class," Lauren grinned. "Hey, I'm gonna go wait out in the car, okay Sam?"
"Meeting before class?" Freddie frowned as Lauren rushed out of the kitchen. "What is this?"
"I thought you weren't gonna freak out over all of this," Sam smirked, taking a swig of orange juice.
"Well that's when I thought this Scott was gonna take this super slow!" Freddie exclaimed. "But now he's asking her to 'meet before class'?"
"Yeah, that's real serious," Sam said, rolling her eyes as she got to her feet. "Who knows, soon they might want to 'hang out' before class and then 'talk' before class."
"You enjoying this?"
"Little bit," Sam smirked, kissing the top of Heather's head. "Bye sweetie, don't let daddy drive you crazy."
She leaned up and kissed her husband. "Bye Fredward, I'll see you when I get back from the doctors since I'm being forced to go against my will."
Once Freddie heard the door close Freddie looked down at Heather.
"Heather?" he said. "What are your feelings on boys?"
"Yuck!" Heather cringed.
"Boy, you are on a roll this morning," Freddie laughed. "Come on, I'm taking you to the toy store."
…..
"The Fencin' Bensons?" Lauren frowned as her and Freddie sat in the living room that afternoon after school, working on her family tree. "You come from circus people?"
"Not circus people per say," Freddie said. "Just…Okay, yeah. Circus people."
"Man, Sam's right," Lauren grinned. "Your family is crazy."
She picked up a stack of photographs Freddie had found and brought for her to use on her project and began rifling through them. "Hey, maybe I should try fencing. I mean if half of my ancestors were so good at it, it must be in my blood, right?"
Freddie quickly diverted his gaze. "Um, yeah…maybe I'll take you over to the gym to try it out some time," he said.
"Cool," Lauren said. "Hey, I think I'm gonna call it quits on working on this for today. I have a book report due on Friday that I should work on."
"Okay," Freddie nodded. "Let me know if you need anything."
Once Lauren had gone up to her room, Freddie took the stack of photographs and looked through them, spotting the familiar faces of his relatives.
Was it wrong of him to let Lauren construct a family tree made up entirely of people with whom she shared absolutely no relation to?
Freddie sighed, tossing the photographs down. He had to tell Lauren eventually, didn't he? He couldn't keep this a secret from her forever.
But then again, what would it solve? It would just create a big complicated mess for everybody.
Besides, how would he even bring something like that up?
Hey Lauren, how are you doing, sweetie? Oh, by the way, I'm not really your dad; I've just been letting you call me that your whole life.
Freddie shook his head. He'd figure this out later. After all, he had been putting off this task for ten years now. What was a little while longer?
…
"So describe your symptoms to me," Sam's doctor said that evening after work.
"I don't have any major ones," Sam shrugged. "I told you, me coming here is just to shut my husband up, really. I've just been feeling really nauseous when I wake up. But once I puke I feel fine. Until the next morning, that is. It's nothing too big."
"Uh-huh…" the doctor mumbled, scribbling something onto his clipboard. "So basically you're experiencing morning sickness?"
"I guess that's the-wait…" Sam frowned. "No. No, there's no-"
"Is there a chance you might be pregnant?" the doctor asked.
"No, that's ridiculous," Sam scoffed.
"So it's not at all possible?"
"Well I mean yeah, it's possible," Sam nodded. "But I'm not…am I?"
"We can do a quick ultrasound and find out right now," the doctor smiled. "If that's all right with you. If we can rule out pregnancy then we can work on figuring out another reason for your morning sickness."
"I-I-Okay," Sam stammered, feeling caught completely off guard.
"Just follow me down the hall and we'll take a look at you," the doctor said.
Sam followed him into a small room with an ultrasound machine; the same one that her doctor had used to confirm she was pregnant with Heather over two years ago.
But with Heather, Sam and Freddie had actively been trying to conceive a child. It had taken almost a whole year. Her and Freddie hadn't even discussed having another child right now.
"Alright, have a seat," the doctor said, signaling towards the long reclining chair by the machine. "This shouldn't take too long."
"So I-I really might be pregnant?" Sam asked as she pushed her shirt up, allowing the doctor to smear a cold jelly-like substance on her stomach.
"Well, like I said, it could be a possibility," the doctor said, turning on the monitor and taking the attached device. He began to move it around Sam's flat stomach. "However, considering you seem to be in perfect health, I really cannot think of another reason for your morning sickness."
Sam could feel her heart beating anxiously as she stared at the monitor.
"Hmm…" the doctor said slowly.
"What?" Sam asked at once. "What is it?"
"Yes, yes," the doctor said to himself.
"What are you-"
"Well, Ms. Benson, here we are," the doctor said, pointing to a small, peanut-shaped figure on the monitor.
Sam's jaw fell open. "Oh my God…so-so I am-that's my-"
"Congratulations," the doctor smiled. "You're going to have a baby."