Chapter Nine

"Emily?" Leah yelled into the phone. "Is that really you?" Then she laughed.

Sam looked up from the makeshift folding table in their kitchen, and smiled, Leah had finally gone back to being…Leah. She stopped coming to work with him, and calling every two hours. But he still woke up at night and saw her staring at the ceiling.

He knew she was worried that he would leave. That he wouldn't be able to help it again. When she did that he just pulled her closer and tucked her head under his chin.

"Shhh, honey, go to bed. Sleep." And eventually she would.

Three weeks after he had come back and they found a little house to rent, it wasn't too far from the garage where he worked, and it would be easy to leave when Leah went to college in December, she had applied for a late admission, since Sam hadn't heard from his community college and she wanted to be sure she had gotten in.

"University of Washington, Seattle." She answered when people asked her where she was going. Then she would look at Sam and smile. "Most likely."

As it turned out he had gotten in, and was taking business classes at a community college not far from hers, they had their current place until November. It was all perfect.

"Yeah Em, I know it's been way too long. Right you still have to meet him. Oh really? No, she didn't tell me yet. So you and your mom are coming for your party? Well I guess you'll meet him them. Okay, yeah talk to you later. You too."

Leah hung up the phone and sat on Sam's lap. "You get to meet Emily." She announced happily. "Her and my aunt are coming, and Harry and Sue are having a welcoming party."

"Good, I've heard enough about her."

Leah rolled her eyes. "She's like my sister. We practically grew up together. Actually she's much more like my mother, even though she's not much older then me."

"A second Sue, sounds a little scary Lee-lee." Sam teased. Leah only kissed him.

"Well I'm off, I have to go help my mom clean my room out, she already has plans for it. Think she misses me much?" Leah shook her head and rolled her eyes. "Be back in a few hours!" She called as she went out the door.

Sam turned back to his cereal. It was his third bowl that morning, ever since becoming a wolf, he was hungry, all the time. He was the only one yet, but had a pretty good handle on his phasing, as the elders called it.

Sam finished his food and dumped the bowl in the sink. A little too hard apparently, since it broke.

"Aw, fuck." He swore, then looked under the sink for some paper towels. His hand reached into the very back corner, no paper towels only a plastic bag.

Plastic bag? he wondered, what the hell. He pulled it out. It was from the 7-11 down the street, and inside it was a…oh fuck.

Sam turned the box over, like it would tell him what it was doing there if he did it enough times.

But really, it didn't need to tell him anything, what else would Leah be doing with a pregnancy test.

Sam put the box in the bag, wrapping it up, and the bag back under the sink, well, at least Sam knew they would have something really…interesting to talk about that night.

He went to work, that day, and went through all the motions of his car fixing, without really thinking about it.

What if Leah was pregnant? They had been careful, every time, but that didn't mean it was impossible. But what if she was? Would it be so bad? He thought. He could see himself and Leah with a baby, but she was going to college, and he didn't want anything to get in her way of that.

But he didn't have to go to college, or he could arrange his schedule to be home when she wasn't. Sam had always wanted a family with Leah, it was just happening a lot sooner then he thought.

At the same time, Leah was at her parent's house trying to clean out her very full closet. When you lived in a small space, you made every part of it functional.

Sue was happily humming and dusting. Trying to chat with Leah, who was answering yes. No. Maybe. She couldn't concentrate, and her hand kept flying down by her stomach.

But she couldn't think about it too much, or else it would show all over her face and her mother would ask questions. Her mom wasn't too thrilled about Leah moving in with Sam, a little over one month after graduation, Leah didn't think she would jump for joy at a grandbaby quite yet.

And she didn't want one either. Really. Not now. But she kept seeing her holding a little Sam looking thing in her arms…

All in all it took about three hours to get the room "prepped." whatever the hell that meant for Sue. Leah was a little nervous. They had lunch, and Seth stayed at the television, watching like a loser.

"Hey Leah!" He called as she was leaving. "Absence really has made the heart grow fonder!" Then he grinned.

"Haha." Leah said, and flipped him off. Rise above. She told herself, she was going to rise above. But then she saw the old corduroy pillow from her room on the counter, picked it up and flung the heavy thing at his head. It hit in square in the face. Leah couldn't help but cackle a little, and left, leaving that one on a pretty high note.

When she got home that night Sam was sitting at the table in the kitchen.

"Hey." He said when she walked in the door. He stood up and went over to greet her.

"How was your day?" She asked. "Mine was good, I got to nail Seth in the head, and you know how that just warms my little heart." She said smiling.

"Good, it was good, but Leah…"

"And my mother has lost her mind, even more. Now the room is 'prepped' whatever that means, I think she is doing something really dangerous in there. Perhaps a poison lab, for the people she doesn't like…" She kept babbling.

"Leah." Sam said a little louder, clearing his throat. "I think we…need to talk."

"Yeah?" She finally said, looking concerned, he had gotten her attention. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing's wrong, but I found…I found your, uh, pregnancy test. Under the sink." He finished quickly.

"Oh." Was all Leah said, no longer meeting Sam's eyes.

"Leah." He asked. "Talk to me, why haven't you told me yet?"

"I just…didn't want you to be upset, or worried…I don't know, I thought you might be mad…and I wasn't sure, I've only missed one month… "

"Mad? That we might be having a baby?" Leah looked up to see if he was just trying to make her feel better, but he didn't look upset, actually he looked kind of happy.

"Well, it's just not a convenient time, with us going to college."

"Leah, we would make it work. I want to have a family with you, okay? So why don't you just take the test, and then we can find out."

"Yeah, I guess."

It took fifteen minutes in all to take the damn thing. Leah opened the door.

"We have to wait for two minutes." She announced, setting the stick carefully down on the table by the sink.

She was pacing around the room, as Sam set the egg timer, and she didn't stop pacing until it dinged! Sam watched her walk back and forth, then back and forth again.

After the little ding Leah looked at him, she went over to the stick, looked at the stick, then consulted the box, looked at the stick again, then the box as if to make sure.

She then deposited the stick in the trash can, along with the box, and came to sit next to Sam on the bed.

"So…?" He asked her, after she didn't say anything for a couple of minutes.

"Nope." She said quietly shaking her head. "No, I'm not…pregnant."

She looked away from Sam, and quickly wiped something out from under her eyes.

Sam put his arm around her, forcing her to face him. "Shhh, it's alright Lee-lee, it's going to be okay."

"I know." She said, her voice sounding a little thicker than normal. "I just…I guess I just wanted this more then I thought I did." She cleared her throat.

"But we'll have it one day. It's going to be alright Leah, I promise, we will have our little family one day. In a nicer house." He thought out loud.

"And who is going to pick this house out?" She asks.

"Well, I have to know it won't fall down, so unless you go to school for architectural work…"

"Well fine." She said, smiling. "But then I get to pick the color, and I want a green house. Like dark green, like the forest."

"Okay." Sam happily agreed. "And four kids. So I have to have plenty of rooms…"

"Four? Uh, try two, if you give birth then we can have ten, but since I'm all over that one we are having two. Maybe three."

Sam smiled, seeing his house with their kids running around outside.

It seemed too go to be true.