A/N: Thanks for all the reviews and keep them coming! It really puts a smile on my face to read them and motivates me to write more and get what I have up sooner. I'd take the time out to personally thank everyone right now, but I'm about to go to sleep because I have to be up early tomorrow, so I'll save that for the next chapters.

xo; Mari

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May 8th

It was the following Saturday morning when Sam finally decided that it was time to approach Alex about moving in with Luka. Sam had originally wanted to talk to Alex about it yesterday, but she hadn't gotten home from work until seven and Alex had hung out with two of his friends, Jake and Ben, before coming home around nine, hungry and tired. So she put it off until today, and hoped that it went over smoothly.

"Mom, are my eggs done yet?"

Sam glanced at the microwave clock. It was a little after nine, and she knew Luka had just gotten off of his shift. He'd be heading to her apartment any minute now, and she really wanted to have this conversation before he got here. "Yeah! They're done, hold on. You want orange juice?"

"Nah, do we have any Coke left?"

"I don't know, did you check the fridge? Why don't you have orange juice with them? How can you drink soda this early?"

Alex came into the kitchen and shrugged. "How can you drink that crap this early?" he mimicked her playfully, stealing her coffee cup and taking a sip. "Ugh. Tastes like crap."

Sam laughed and pushed him away playfully. "Go get your soda."

"Yeah yeah." He grabbed a soda can and sat down at the small kitchen table with it. "How come Luka wasn't here last night?"

"He had to work late." Sam set the eggs down in front of him and sprinkled them with salt and pepper. "Do you want toast?"

"Nah. Toast is crap too."

Sam smirked and grabbed her coffee cup off the counter, sitting down across from him at the table. "You think everything is crap."

"That's 'cause it is. Aren't you gonna have any?"

"Nope. Not hungry."

"You're never hungry in the mornings anymore."

"Yeah, so?" she smiled. "Eat them before they get cold."

"When's grandma coming?" Alex asked her through a mouthful of egg.

"Next weekend. You excited?"

"Yeah, I guess. Does Luka get to meet her?"

Sam nodded. "If he wants to and he's not working, then yeah."

"You only introduce the guys you really like to grandma. Do you really like Luka then?"

She laughed and stole his soda can, taking a sip of it. "First of all, the last time I introduced a guy to grandma you were four years old and that definitely didn't last. And yeah, maybe I do really like Luka. Do you like Luka?"

Alex nodded and stole his soda can back. "Yeah, I think he's cool. Plus, I was friends with him before you were."

"That's true," Sam laughed. "I told you that you shouldn't have friends over thirty."

"And I told you that you shouldn't date people older than thirty," Alex sarcastically joked back, mocking Sam again.

"Hey, can I ask you something?"

"Do I get money?"

"What?" Sam couldn't believe the hilarious things that came straight out of Alex's mouth sometimes. "No!"

"That's crap, Mom."

"What do you think about us moving in with Luka? At his apartment." There it was. Sam had finally gotten it out. Now it was just a matter of judging Alex's reaction. "We'd be living with him."

Alex continued chewing on his eggs and swallowed. "I don't know. I guess it's okay. I like his place better than ours anyway. Plus he's supposed to be getting that plasma TV soon. He told me. Do you know how cool it'll be to play Tony Hawk on that Mom?"

Sam laughed. Leave it to her son to only agree to move in because he liked Luka's television. "So you're okay with us moving in then?"

"When do we have to move?"

"I don't know. I was thinking that if you were okay with everything, we could run out, get some more cardboard boxes, and start packing some things up. Is that okay? Are you sure?"

"Yeah. I think Luka's cool. Do I still have my own room?"

"Yeah, you would," Sam agreed. "He has more space than we do. We'd just have to work everything out."

"So then when would we move? Before school's out?"

Sam nodded. "I kind of want to be out of this apartment before the beginning of June so I only have to pay this month's rent. Meaning I don't want to pay for June if we're only going to be living in the apartment for the first week."

"Okay, so like, the end of May?"

"Probably. I want to get a lot of things packed before grandma comes next weekend."

"You don't have to pack my PS2 or skateboard up right now do you?" By now Alex had finished his eggs and was moving his fork back and forth over the plate.

"Nope. Don't worry," Sam smiled. "You can just take that to Luka's. You don't even have to pack it."

"Okay."

Sam stood up from the table and collected Alex's plate and her coffee cup. She set both in the sink before turning back to Alex. "You going to the skate park with Mikey and Jake today?"

"Yup. Jake already called and his dad is picking us up soon."

"Okay."

"Hey Mom?"

"Yup?"

"Are you gonna marry Luka, or something?" Alex had gotten up from the table and was leaning against the doorframe of the kitchen.

"I don't really know."

"But if you do, then he'll be my step dad, right?"

"Yeah, he would be your step dad."

"But Steve is still my real dad?"

Sam sighed and nodded. "Yeah, Steve is still your real dad."

"So then would I call Luka my dad?"

"If you wanted to, I guess you could. I don't think Luka would really mind, but you might want to ask him first, just to be polite."

"Being polite is crap."

"Hey!" Sam laughed. "Go get dressed."

"Yeah, yeah."

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Alex had left for the skate park around ten, with the promise of being back "whenever Mom, before dinner".  Sam hadn't heard from Luka, so she had gotten in the shower. Just as she was rinsing the conditioner out of her hair, she heard the bathroom door open.

"Luka?" Sam called out, wanting to make sure it was him and not…anyone else.

"Yeah. Hey."

Sam shut off the water and rung out her curly hair. "Can you hand me that towel?"

Luka slid the door open and handed Sam the towel, which she wrapped around her body. He said nothing when she stepped out of the shower, and Sam immediately sensed something was wrong?"

"You okay?" She opened the medicine cabinet and took out her prenatal vitamins, cupped some water into her hand, and downed the pills.

Luka shrugged and shook his head. "I got a phone call today."

Sam nodded and pulled her hair up. She left the bathroom and walked into her bedroom, and Luka followed. "Okay, you're scaring me. What's wrong?" She grabbed an old football jersey that fell almost to her knees and pulled it on, searching for a pair of her boxer shorts.

"They need my help again back in Africa."

She sat down on the edge of the bed, tossing her damp towel in the dirty laundry basket. "Does that mean they need your help and you're going, or they need your help and you're not going?"

"I already told Charles I'd go."

Sam rested her head in her hands and nodded. "When do you leave?" She was trying, really trying, to stay as calm as possible and not lose it. Just when things were finally good between her and Luka, he was going to leave her. Leave her and Alex to go to a place that was dangerous, a place where he had been presumed dead, and a place where Gillian still might be. The last thought didn't bother her much. She knew that whatever Luka and Gillian had was over, and she was much more worried about Luka's safety then anything else. But Sam knew, Sam saw the stares Luka would get from other women, and she knew he was good looking. You didn't have to tell her twice. It still made her feel inadequate to be Luka's girlfriend somehow—like she didn't compare with him and his looks well enough. But dammit, this wasn't about her right now. It was about Luka, and the continent that would separate them for who knew how long.

"June tenth."

"When do you get back?"

"The first week of July. I'll be gone for about three weeks."

"Three weeks?" Sam bit her lip and nodded. "Okay."

Luka was a little taken aback at how well Sam was taking everything. He half expected and wanted her to beg him to stay. She wasn't showing very much emotion, and that scared him a little bit. "Sam…are you okay with this?"

"I don't really have a choice. You already made up your mind, so whatever I say to you right now won't change it. If you have to go, then go. I just want you to come back safely."

"I—They need good doctors there, Sam. Carter and I, we're going together. They need me there."

"And I need you here!" Sam was surprised at how much she had raised her voice to Luka. She hadn't meant to yell at him exactly—she was just frustrated with the situation. "I need you here."

Luka sat down next to her and Sam laid down, turning onto her side and placing her head in his lap. He linked his hand with her and looked down at her. She had started crying, and he had started wiping her tears away with his thumb. "I'm sorry. I don't—this is the last time I'm going to go. I told Charles that on the phone. I told him that I couldn't go for the two months he had wanted me to—that I had someone waiting for me and that I couldn't leave her for that long. He told me to bring you with me once I told him you were a nurse, saying that they needed all the help they could get, but—"

Suddenly Sam was sitting up, wiping at her eyes. "Take me with you. I'll go with you. I want to go."

"Sam, I'm not letting you go. It's too dangerous."

"If it was so dangerous you wouldn't go! I heard the rumors Luka! When I came to County, people told me you had almost died. That if Carter hadn't gone back to look for you, you wouldn't have made it. How can you sit here and go back to a place that almost killed you? I won't let you go alone. I want to go with you," Sam told him defiantly.

"Sam—"

"You told me we were in this together now. Luka, please. I want to go with you."

"It's dangerous. The clinic in Matenda, there was always a chance it would get raided or bombed."

"Is that where we'd be going?"

"No. We'd be going to Kisangani, in the Congo. I don't think it's a good idea for you to come. Who would watch Alex?"

"I'd ask my mom, or my friend Claudia."

"Claudia?" Luka questioned. He had never heard Sam, or even Alex, talk about a Claudia.

"Alex's godmother. She was my best friend in high school. We kind of got separated for a few years after high school—she couldn't decide what she wanted to major in."

"When was the last time you heard from her?"

"About six months ago. She lives in Santa Monica with her fiancé, Bobby, who's in the Navy. Back then she was talking about moving to Chicago, because Bobby's parents live in the suburbs. I just know that if I ever needed anything, she'd be there for me. And I guess now wouldn't be a bad time to ask her if I needed to."

Luka sighed. "I don't care. I still don't think it's a good idea for you to come."

"If other women can be down there, then so can I. If this is turning into some sexist issue—"

He laughed and shook his head. "It's just that, they're most likely not pregnant."

"I'd be almost four months when we'd leave. I'd be in my second trimester down there. I won't be sick, and I won't be complaining," she pointed out.

"Nope, not until two months later when I have to start running out in the middle of the night to get you five different kinds of ice cream because you can't make up your mind which flavor you want," Luka joked, getting a light punch from Sam. "Then I'd be the one complaining."

"Haha. Funny."

"I'm not saying I don't want you to come because you're a woman. I'm saying that I don't want you to come because it is dangerous, you're pregnant, and Alex needs you. I just, let's not make a big decision about this today. And, I need you to stay healthy. God forbid if something happened to you or the baby, I don't think we have the kind of medical equipment for that kind of emergency. And even if we did, it would still be risky and most likely in short supply. I want to be careful. I don't want to risk that with you. Down there it's not County General, we can't transfer anyone that easily to get better medical care. We ration out and make use of what we have."

Sam nodded. Now that she was thinking logically about it, she understood where Luka was coming from. He was only thinking of her safety when she wished she would think of his own more.  "Okay."

He yawned and kicked off his shoes. "You want to get dinner after I wake up?"

"Who said you could sleep here?"

"Oh, okay." Luka pretended to get up, as if he was walking out of the room, but Sam laughed and grabbed his arm. He grinned and spun her around, kissing her. "Come lay down with me."

Sam nodded and agreed. She shuffled onto the bed next to Luka and got comfortable, while he turned onto his side and draped his arm across her. He was out within minutes, and soon enough, so was she.

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