I normally put my updates up Saturday night or early Sunday morning, but I had so much fun writing this chapter that I couldn't wait to post it.

Thanks to everyone who reviewed. I appreciate all the support. It's hard to believe how much of a following this story is getting but I'm glad everyone is enjoying it.

Chapter 10

The brunette pseudo-wedding planner came over and hugged Sam. "Sam! Oh my gosh I missed you. When did you get in, why didn't you call or anything? Speaking of which, what have you been doing the last five years? We all thought you dropped off the face of the Earth, didn't we, Freddie?" She subconsciously took his hand. Sam cringed to herself at the sight.

Carly soon came to her senses when she saw the blonde girl sitting a few chairs from her childhood friend, talking on a phone. "Oh, um, I - I guess I sort of, can-uh see why you were out of touch. So, um, who's the lucky guy, when do I get to meet him? Is he here with you?" Carly quickly backed off her line of questioning when she saw Sam shake her head slowly. He was there, alright. But Carly was currently holding onto him lik ehe was her property.

As the two girls continued to talk, Mrs. Benson wasted no time in grabbing her son by the arm and pulling him out the door like there was an emergency.

"Gheesh, Mom. What's the matter?" He asked innocently, trying to free himself from her talons. "Are they out of antibacterial sanitizing spray in the ladies' room or something?"

"Is that Samantha's daughter, please tell me that's not her daughter." Marissa panicked. "That simply can't be her daughter. Freddiekins, please tell me that's not Sam's kid."

"Um, yeah, that's Sam's daughter, apparently. Her name's Stephie."

"How old is she?" Marissa's breathing quickened and her face flushed. Marissa had already done some calculations in her head as she walked across the room. It was almost five years since Freddie was in L.A. to visit Sam. Marissa would never forget that, because he wound up in the hospital and barely came home in time to start college .

"Well, Sam didn't exactly say, but I'd say she's like, maybe four or so. What's it matter?" Poor Freddie, despite his intelligence, was clueless as could be.

This child looked just like Freddie at age four only with long, blonde hair. 'This can NOT be happening!' Marissa said to herself, standing silent, her eyes glazing over.

"What's wrong, Mom? Mom, you're scaring me! Do you need a glass of water?" Freddie asked. "Are you alright? Mother!"

"Um, m-maybe I should try something a bit stronger." She answered and went back inside in search of the bar.

That evening, as Carly and Freddie were laying in their bed, he kept thinking of Sam and how strong she was to be raising a child by herself. He also thought about the jerk who left Sam with a child to raise on her own. 'What kind of man does chiz like that?' he kept thinking to himself repeatedly.

"So, you met Sam's daughter." Carly said out of the blue. "Cute little thing, isn't she?" Blissfully unaware that she was just as cute as the young man beside her.

"Yeah, she's really cute, she'll be a heartbreaker some day." He replied. 'Just like her mom.' he thought to himself.

"Sam's single, did you know that? I can't imagine raising a child period, let alone by myself." Carly said.

"You mean, you haven't given any thought to kids?" Freddie asked. They had never fully discussed the subject and he was not even positive how she felt about having kids, though he knew she wasn't fond of being around them as a habit.

"I've thought about it, and I don't want any, simple as that." Carly said flatly. "Sure, Sam's kid is cute and all, but I'd just as soon not deal with diapers and throw up and the endless questions and uggh, potty training. Basically, I prefer not to be around kids till they're like, twelve or so. That's why I teach middle school. I already told your mom all this."

"C'mon, Carly, are you seriously saying that in five or ten years, you'll never want any kids? And you talked to my mom about this." He gulped, knowing his mom had already planned on him having at least two children.

"I just can't see it, Freddie. I'm not mother material. But I guess if you're the mother type a kid at thirty would be better than a kid at twenty. Poor Sam."

Meanwhile, four floors up, Marissa Benson was pouring through piles of family photo albums. There was no doubt in her mind that Sam's little girl was the spitting image of him, only with blonde hair. "Oh, Freddiebear, what have you done?" She said aloud to no one and took another gulp of wine from the glass sitting on her coffee table.

The next day was the day of Spencer's bachelor party. Gibby, Freddie, T-Bo, Socko and even Lewbert were in the smoothie shop, which had closed early, to celebrate the last day of the artist's single life.

After a few hours of watching sci-fi movies on T-Bo's big screen and filling themselves on spiked smoothies and food on a stick, the men were sitting around and confessing about women they wish they could be with. It was clear that none were used to holding any amount of alcohol and all of them had dropped some of their inhibitions.

Lewbert said Marissa Benson to a chorus of woooh's and an unseen sneer from Freddie. T-Bo answered the name of some pop singer and made reference to her bust size with his hands. Gibby said Carly, which earned him a slap to the back of the head and a dirty look from Freddie and Spencer both. Spencer said he wouldn't want anyone other than Carrie, to a round of awww's. When Freddie's turn came, he suddenly felt the need to remain silent.

The others goaded him, but he sat in silence for a few seconds before quietly saying "Sam."

Spencer gave him a funny look and Gibby asked him to repeat himself.

"Sam, alright? I wish I could be with Sam." Freddie stood and said loudly. "She was my first kiss, the first girl I went steady with, my first, everything."

"Um, Freddo, I think you and I need to talk." Spencer got up and led the younger man to the bathroom, where he locked the door once they were inside.

"I'm not afraid of you, Spencer." Freddie said. "Go ahead and kick my ass if you want, but I wish I was with Sam. I mean, I love Carly and I don't want to hurt her, so I'll never say it in front of her, but I wish I could go back in time and choose UCLA instead of U-Dub and I wish I would have never left L.A. almost five years ago and lost Sam from my life. Both our lives would be way different. She certainly wouldn't be raising a kid on her own, I can tell you that. I miss her, Spence and I wish, aw, hell I don't know what I wish."

"I'm not going to hit you, Freddie, but I want you to tell my little sister the truth. If you're secretly in love with her best friend she has a right to know. You both deserve better than this and so does Sam. You can't go on living a lie, man. I can see you're not happy and neither is Carly. Everyone knows it." What Spencer wouldn't confirm was that Carrie had told him Carly wasn't truly happy either.

"I can't do that to Carly, Spence. It'll crush her. She'll hate me and worse yet, she'll hate Sam."

"Better a little crush now that a huge blow-up after you guys are married and this comes out. She thinks you're going to propose to her at the reception, you know that? Yes, Freddie, Carly told me about the ring."

"I'm making a mistake, aren't I Spence?" Freddie turned to the mirror and leaned his head against it. "With that stupid ring."

"Only you can answer that." Spencer laid his hand on Freddie's shoulder, unlocked the door and walked out of the bathroom. "You know I love you like a brother, but you need to do what's right, man." He said as he closed the door.

Freddie walked out of the bathroom shortly after Spencer and immediately left the party. He wandered the rainy streets of Seattle for over an hour thinking about what he had to do. When he stopped, he found himself on the sidewalk in front of the Puckett house. He took a deep breath and approached the door. There was no car in the driveway and he assumed Sam had taken it to the bridal shower, Carly told him she insisted on inviting her so they could reconnect.

He went up the three steps and knocked on the door. The house was dark, but a TV could clearly be heard. With no immediate answer, he turned and started down the steps with a sigh and slowly made his way back toward the street. Unfortunately, the rain had picked up and he was getting wetter, if that was even possible. From the corner of his eye his could see the porch light come on.

"Are you gonna come in or are you just prank-knocking?" Pam Puckett shouted from the doorway. "C'mon, Sport, get in here before you drown." She yelled, after seeing who the young man was by the dim light of the bare bulb by her front door.

Freddie stepped into the house and peeled off his soaking wet jacket. He was immediately greeted by a hiss from a one-eyed cat followed by a bite to his shin. "Ahhhhh!"

"Frothy!" Pam picked up the cat by his scruff. "That's no way to treat a guest." She shooed the feline into the kitchen with a magazine she was holding. "Now git!"

"I wish Sam would have taken that stupid cat with her when she left home." Pam griped. "Sorry about that, Kid. He's had his shots, don't worry."

Freddie rubbed at his sore leg and took a seat on the nearest chair as he was directed. "So what brings you by, Sammy's at that party, er-shower thing."

"I figured she'd be there." He said quietly. "I-uh, I sort of wanted to talk to you, instead of Sam."

"Heh, well, I'm flattered, Kid, but I don't think that . . ."

"Oh, um, Mrs. Puckett, no, uh, that's not what I meant. I, s-sort of wanted to ask you about Sam. How she's doing with um, the little girl and all."

"Aw, Sammy's tough as nails, just like me, she'll be fine." Pam said like she was talking about someone with a sprained ankle or a bad cold.

"That's not what I meant. She-uh-she told me that Stephie's dad isn't in the picture, that's got to be hard on her. And yesterday when I talked to her, I got this funny feeling that I can't quite explain. It was just weird. I've known Sam for so long an-and like I said, I can't quite explain it but . . . "

"Oh, Man. I knew this was coming." Pam sighed.

"Pardon?"

"He's not in the picture, as you put it, because he doesn't know Stephanie exists." Pam didn't want to let Sam's proverbial cat out of its bag.

"See, I was afraid of that. I figured that's what happened, Sam got hooked up with some dill hole that just knocked her up and ran off before she even realized she was pregnant. What kind of guy does that, just hooks up with a girl and then runs off like that." Freddie put his head in his hands, worried for his childhood friend, the first girl he kissed, his first love, the girl he lost his virginity to.

"That's not exactly the way . . ." Pam couldn't finish her sentence before he jumped to his feet and started in.

"I mean, we had something. After I went to see her in L.A., we reconnected, fell in love all over again. We called almost every day, sent texts constantly, skyped on weekends, sent love notes. Then all of a sudden - nothing." Freddie sat down again and sighed. "I just had this feeling that she met some guy and it made things weird between us. I feel so bad for her, but she could have come to me with this. I would have helped her, I - I love her, Mrs. Puckett. I do, I really do."

"Keep your voice down, the kid's upstairs asleep and Sammy didn't tell you for your own good." Pam tried again to help him calm down but was once more cut off by the young man jumping to his feet and going into another tirade, pacing back and forth.

"What kind of a-hole does that to a girl? Just sleeps with her and then runs off, lets her stuck with a baby, a-a child to raise!" He waved his arms. "How's she even getting by? Babysitting surely doesn't pay that much. She's giving up her life to raise some jerk guy's kid on her own." Freddie was beginning to get red in the face and progressively louder. "What kind of douche bag does that to a wonderful girl like Sam?"

"You! Alright! You did it!" Pam suddenly said loudly and pointed at him. "You were the jerk that knocked her up! Do the damn math, boy! Surely you know how a freakin' calendar works! You were the class valedictorian, weren't you? Stephie was born in the middle of May, you hooked up with Sam in August."

"Ex-cuse me?" Freddie gasped and his eyes tore wide open, staring at Pam. He had never given a thought to the idea that he was Stephie's father.

"You and Sam were together nine months before Stephanie was born, dumb ass! Sam wasn't with anyone else. She even named the kid after you, Stephanie Benson Puckett. That's your daughter upstairs asleep, ya damn dork." Pam shouted.

"Pammaw?" A sleepy four year old appeared on the steps, carrying a pink stuffed pig. The same pig Freddie won for Sam at the carnival in Venice the day he was released from the hospital. The pig Sam called "nub", the pig she sent him dozens of selfies holding or snuggling with, saying she wished it was him. How he wished he was that little, pink pig back then.

"What's wrong Pammaw, Mommy yells like that at Aunt Melly sometimes." The little girl rubbed her eyes.

"I'm sorry if I woke you, honey." Pam said softly to the child. "Go back to bed now, Stephie. Mommy will be home to tuck you in soon, I promise."

Freddie stared at the child and for the first time it hit him, he was the dipwad that left Sam with a child to raise. This was almost too much for his mind to process. Should he be mad, upset, break down and cry?

Sam stepped out of her mother's car and instantly heard Pam as well as a man's voice. She immediately thought her mother was arguing with some random boyfriend and after she promised she wouldn't have strange men in the house as long as Stephanie was there.

Sam slammed the car door shut, stormed up to the house and grabbed the doorknob, ready to go in for a fight. Suddenly she heard her mother's voice again, but she only made out the last few words. "That's your daughter upstairs asleep, ya damn dork."

Aaaand now, Freddie knows. And Sam knows he knows as well, so she's either going to run like the wind or face the music. Spoiler alert: Major Seddieness coming in the next chapter.