author's note: hiii. thank you all for reading and reviewing. means a lot. :) I just wanted to say to the Guest who said, "Sam is the type of girl to have a coat hanger abortion': ...anyway

Chapter Twelve

Sam returned home later that night around seven. She wanted to take a few hours to herself, so she busied herself by running a bunch of errands. She was exhausted and wanted to sleep by the time she was finished with everything, so she caved in and went home.

Upon entering the house, the first thing she noticed was that the whole place was dark. The only lighting that was visible was located in the living room, where she discovered Danny. He was sitting on the couch and staring at the television, which wasn't turned on.

"Hey," she greeted softly as she entered the living room. He glanced over at her, but didn't really address her. She frowned and kicked off her shoes before shuffling towards him. "Where's Amaya?"

"I dropped her off at my parents house for the night since they really wanted to spend some time with her," he replied, not even attempting to look at her. "I'm going to pick her up tomorrow morning."

"Well, wake me up before you go because I'm going with you." She sat beside him on the couch and glanced sideways at him. "So, why are you sitting in the dark? Are you okay?"

"You know, I could ask you the same question." He finally turned his head towards her, appearing more hurt than upset about her earlier episode. "You just snapped for no reason and booked it out of here without even telling me what was wrong."

"I didn't snap for no reason," she admitted, looking away from him and towards the television screen instead. "I panicked because you were saying all that stuff about my symptoms being related to Jazz's pregnancy symptoms."

"But I didn't mean anything by that. It was just a passing observation," he responded, sighing.

"No, don't worry about it." Sam closed her eyes and inhaled deeply. "You were right, by the way. I am pregnant. I took two tests earlier after I left and they both came out positive."

She felt the couch shift roughly, which seemed to suggest that Danny had shot up from the couch. She opened her eyes and stared at him, not knowing how to feel about the shocked expression plastered on his face.

"Y-You're pregnant?" he stammered, his face blanching as he spoke. She nodded, growing more and more nervous as the seconds crawled by. She expected him to start leaping with joy, but instead, he was just standing there and gaping at her.

"Yeah." She slowly took a few steps towards him, bouncing her index finger in place. "I am, and you know what? I'm absolutely terrified." Since she was feeling overwhelmed with everything that was going on, she began to tear up. "I really am, Danny."

He blinked several times before replying with, "Sam, I—"

"Let me finish." She clasped her hands together and bowed her head, drawing a deep, shuddering breath. "I've always been told that kids hold you back, that they stop you from living, you know? I didn't want that. I really didn't want to settle for that."

She thought he was going to interrupt her again, but instead, he simply nodded his head, signaling that he wanted her to continue. A lot of feelings and words were rushing through her head, so she chose to say the first thing that came to mind.

"I really don't know what I'm talking about right now. I guess all I'm saying is... I want this, Danny. I want to try this. Even though I'm scared out of my mind, I want to try. It'll be a whole new and different learning experience for the both of us."

Danny retained his surprised expression, but he finally found his voice. "Y-You really want this?" he asked. Sam nodded. "What changed your mind?"

"Honestly? Finding out I was pregnant completely took me off the fence about the subject," she confessed, laughing slightly. "I still hate children, don't get me wrong, but this child is going to be my child. I could never, ever hate something that's apart of me."

The half-hybrid cracked a smile for the first time, but as soon as it appeared, it disappeared. "Do you still have the tests you took?" he inquired, sounding hopeful.

"Uh, no. I only took two of the three that I bought—"

"Please take the third one right now," he interjected. Sam was officially confused; he had been harassing her for the longest about wanting a child, and now that she was finally having one, he was being extremely short about it.

Rather than interrogate him or show him that she was hurt by his lack of reaction, she did as she was told and went into the bathroom by the living room with her purse. She had the third test tucked inside of her bag, so she pulled it out and got to work.

Five minutes after taking the test, she didn't hesitate this time to check her results. As expected, there were two lines, letting her know again that she was, in fact, pregnant. She walked out of the bathroom and handed the test to Danny, who had been waiting outside.

He took it from her and stared at it intensely, his eyes growing as wide as saucers. "Oh, my God." He leaned his back against the wall and shook his head in disbelief. "Holy crap. I can't believe this."

Sam awkwardly shifted on her heels. "What does that mean? Do you not want—"

"I'm going to be a father," he said quietly to himself. He then quickly looked up at her, his eyes lighting up and a toothy grin gracing his features. "I'm going to be a father! Yes! Woo-hoo!" he cheered, throwing his hands up in excitement.

He picked her up afterwards and threw her over his shoulder, spinning her around. She held onto him and started laughing, more satisfied with his genuine reaction.

Instead of being asleep at six in the morning the way Danny was, Sam was wide awake. She had her hands pressed against her abdomen and was feeling for any sort of movement, even though she was aware that she wasn't going to feel the baby kicking that early.

Baby.

She still couldn't believe that there was a little human forming inside of her. The whole thing felt so surreal, which is why she was up so early trying to check if it was actually reality.

"I'm pregnant. I'm really pregnant," she whispered, more with fear than excitement. "Holy crap. I'm actually pregnant." She swept her hair out of her face with one hand and took a deep breath. "Wow."

Her eyes welled up with tears from an emotion that she was unsure of. Maybe it was fear, maybe it was shock, or maybe it was disbelief. She couldn't quite touch on what that feeling was, but then again, she didn't really want to at the moment.

She immediately started having doubts; what if she couldn't do it? There was no way that she was a natural nurturer the way Jazz was. A bunch of 'what if?' questions raced through her head, doing nothing to alleviate her anxiety.

She fell asleep thirty minutes later and woke up again around nine in the morning. This time, Danny was awake and sitting on the bed instead of lying down and sleeping. Upon noticing her waking up, he smiled warmly and shifted his body to the side to face her.

"Hey, beautiful." He leaned over and pursed his lips, ready to steal a kiss, but she moved her head away and looked at him funny.

"Beautiful? What's with the pet name?" she asked him, lifting an eyebrow. He smirked, skipping over that question and settling for pecking her cheek instead. She smiled and rolled her eyes, sitting upright in bed. "Why are you up so early?"

"Nine isn't that early, but I went to pick up Amaya," he answered. When she frowned at him, he held up his hand. "I wasn't going to wake you up just to go get her from my parents house. You needed the rest. Besides, she's here now."

"Oh, yeah?" Her eyes flicked over to the door with a small hum. "Where?"

"In her room. She was still asleep when I brought her in, so I just tucked her into bed." Danny reached down into a bag by his feet and pulled out two thick books, handing one of them to her. "By the way, I stopped at the store and got these."

Sam accepted the book and curiously surveyed the cover of it. "Being pregnant with one is lots of fun," she monotonously read, shaking her head. She opened the book and started skimming through it with a snort. "What is this?"

"A pregnancy book. You know, for... pregnancy." He flipped open his book and started browsing through it. "I haven't exactly read it yet, but I figured it would help us with-"

The front door swung open at that moment as Amaya entered the room. She glanced from Danny to Sam, and once she saw her aunt, she grinned and ran towards her. "Aunt Sam!" she exclaimed, throwing her arms around the woman.

Sam chuckled and, surprisingly, hugged the child back. "Hey, kid." She moved her arms from around Amaya and leaned back a bit. "I'm guessing that you missed me."

"I did! Where did you go yesterday?" the girl inquired, slightly pushing Danny to the side so that she could sit in-between them on the bed. "Did you go to the mall?"

"No," Sam answered.

"The park?"

"No."

"The zoo?"

"No... why would I- nevermind." She glanced over at her half-hybrid spouse, who merely shrugged at her. She briefly closed her eyes and gave a dismissive shake of her head. "I'm here now. That's all that matters."

Amaya nodded and clasped her arms around Sam, giving her another hug. "Well, don't leave anymore. Okay?"

Sam's heart began to swell and a tender smile formed at her lips. "Yeah." She curled her arms around the younger girl and rested her chin on top of her head. "Did you eat breakfast yet?"

"No because uncle Danny picked me up too early," Amaya complained, prompting Danny to laugh and stand up.

"Then let's go get you some breakfast." He extended his hand out to her, waggling his fingers. She took his hand in hers and tried to pull him out of the room, but before she did, he asked Sam, "You coming?"

"Oh, nah. I'm going to get some more sleep if that's okay," she answered. He nodded his head and left with Amaya, shutting the door on their way out. Immediately afterwards, Sam grabbed his phone from the nightstand and started going through his contacts.

After finding the name that she was searching for, she pressed call and raised the device to her ear. It rang for a few seconds, and for a moment, she thought she was going to be sent to voicemail, but then the person answered.

"Hello?"

Sam cleared her throat and inhaled gently. "Valerie? This is Sam."

a/n: this story is finally almost over. ah. i might go back to doing one-shots after this because whew, these long stories aren't the move. feel free to pm me if there's a specific one-shot you'd like to see. i don't bite!

also, just wanted to say: rest in peace, Cameron Boyce. you'll forever be loved and missed by all of us. xx