July 4

Sam sleepily rolled over and curled up against Luka, entwining her bare legs with his own. Alex had spent the night at one of his friend's houses, which had left her and Luka some much needed alone time. It had only been three days since he had returned from Africa, but in those three days they had both acted like they hadn't even seen each other for three years. Sam had to admit she could get used to the feeling of Luka always kissing and holding her, and hadn't realized how much she had come to miss it until he had come back.

She felt one of his strong arms wrap around her lower back, while the other arm brushed up against her swollen stomach before he rested his hand on top of it. Sam smiled when he kissed her collarbone and she opened her eyes.

"Morning," he greeted, planting a long, drawn out kiss against her lips. "Sleep well?"

"Very," Sam replied. "I think we better start finding better positions to do what we've been doing before I get too big to do it anymore."

"What? Say that again, but slower," Luka teased her. "And don't worry, I'll find a way. I don't care if you're two weeks overdue, it won't stop me from making love to you anytime soon."

"Think about what you just said when you need a forklift to lift me onto the bed," Sam smirked, reaching her hand over and running her fingers through his hair. "And two weeks overdue? Oh god."

"You'll go earlier."

"You don't know that."

"I doubt you'll stay two weeks overdue. Maybe a week at most," Luka grinned. "Then it's six weeks of celibacy."

"You talk like you're so deprived."

"Yes, that's what I've been trying to tell you all along," he added, rolling on top of her briefly. He kissed her quickly before moving off of her again and landed on his stomach. "I missed you."

"You only told me since you got back," Sam smiled. "But I missed you too."

"I almost forgot, Susan called last night while you were in the shower. She and Chuck invited a few people over to their apartment tonight for the fireworks. Apparently you can see them from their balcony without getting attacked by mosquitoes. Did you want to go?"

Sam nodded. "Sure. At least Alex won't bitch about being out in the heat."

Luka gave her a smirk and nodded. "That's true."

"How old is Isabella now?"

"About a month and a half. Susan was telling me that she's been getting on a better schedule and sleeping about seven hours each night."

"Not bad." Sam wrapped the covers around her chest and watched as Luka got out of bed and hastily threw on a tee shirt and sweatpants. "Aren't you hot?"

He laughed and shook his head. "Actually, no. It's sort of freezing in here. I think I put the air conditioning down too low last night."

Sam heard the familiar ring tone of her cell phone go off and watched as Luka took it off of the dresser top and tossed it at her. She caught it instantly and pressed the 'talk' button on it. "Hello? Oh, hey. No…what? Yeah. Yeah, I saw him. No. He told you? Mom. Mom! I'm twenty-six, I can make my own decisions. No, I don't want to see him. I don't care. Mom, I don't want him a part of Alex's life. Yeah, I'd like to see him try to take me to court for custody. Do you know how many things his has against him on his record?" She glanced up at Luka, who was watching her with a concerned look on his face. "No. Forget it, I have to go. Mom, I have to go! No, I'm not discussing this with you. No, I'm not engaged. I don't really care about your opinion right now, I have to go. I have to go! Because I do! What? Fine, I have to go now. I'm going. I'm hanging up. Okay Mom, great, you too. Bye." She ended the call and leaned over, placing the cell phone on the nightstand. "Can I have a pair of your sweatpants, please?"

Luka nodded and grabbed a pair of his gray sweatpants out of the bottom dresser drawer and brought them over to her. He watched silently as she quickly changed, pulling on her shirt from the night before. He couldn't help but smile as Sam tugged the shirt down over her growing stomach. It was cute, the way her stomach slightly protruded from the rest of her small body, even if she didn't look too happy right now. "Yours aren't fitting?"

She shrugged and got up off of the bed. "I don't know."

"What happened?"

Sam pulled her hair out of the tie and shrugged as it cascaded over her shoulders. "Nothing. I don't want to talk about it."

"Did your mother say something to upset you?" Luka followed her out of the room and into the kitchen, where she had started pouring herself a glass of orange juice.

"What do you think?"

"You don't really need to be so hostile, Sam," he replied softly. "If I didn't care I wouldn't ask. I want you to be able to talk to me about these things."

Just as the words came out of Luka's mouth, Sam did something that he rarely had seen her do in the few months they had been together. She started crying. Hard.

"I really don't need this from her. All she does is call me and put me down all the time and tell me how I'm not raising Alex right and I should be with Steve," Sam blubbered. "And then she says she's disappointed in me that I'm pregnant again and that didn't I learn my lesson the first time, and that I should have been married this time around, and if I stayed with Steve we would have been married by now and, I don't, I don't—"

Luka gently took the orange juice glass from her hand and set it on the counter, just so she wouldn't spill it over herself, or him, or the floor. He then wrapped his arms around her and tightly pulled her into his chest with a sigh. "Shh. How did she find out?" He helped her over to the kitchen table and sat her down, setting the juice glass in front of her.

"They day that you came home, I had shift, and Steve showed up at the hospital. He told me that he had this new job in Santa Monica and that he wanted Alex and I to come out there and live with him. I basically told him no way, which really pissed him off, and then I dropped a chart I was holding and he kind of realized that I was pregnant again. He asked if I had gained weight or something. Carter ended up calling security on him, but not before Chuny walked by and asked me when she could drop off the baby clothes from her sister at the apartment."

"So Chuny let the cat, uh, out of the bag?" Luka smirked. Sometimes he still didn't understand all the American expressions. "Did I say that right?"

She smiled. "Yeah, you did."

"So security escorted him out?"

Sam nodded. "He went pretty willingly, which surprised me. That probably won't be the last I'll see of him."

"And your mother is angry at you because you're pregnant again?"

"Let's just say the idea of her becoming a grandmother again really doesn't thrill her too much," Sam added sadly. "I've never had a good relationship with her."

"I'm sorry," Luka said softly. "I don't really know what to say to make you feel any better. Family situations…they're tough."

"The thing is though, she's my mother, but she acts like Steve is the son she's never had. She's always wanted to see us work everything out and be a real family or something."

"Maybe it's because she wants what's best for Alex," he pointed out. "And she doesn't see why a relationship with Steve could never work out like you can."

Sam wiped her eyes and nodded. "Yeah."

"I haven't talked to my father or brother since Christmas. I should call." Sam watched as Luka appeared to get a far off look in his eyes, like he was deep in thought about another part of his life that Sam didn't know too much about. Besides the little things that he had told her about his family, Danijela, and his children, she didn't know if it was her place to ask anything more of him.

She stood up from the table and rinsed out the glass quickly in the sink before placing it in the dishwasher. Luka suddenly came up behind her and kissed the back of her neck.

"I never asked you, how did your last appointment with Coburn go?"

"Good. I heard the heartbeat again."

"Nice and strong?"

Sam smiled. "Yeah. She set up another ultrasound two weeks from now to check how the baby's growing and to make sure everything's progressing okay, but she said at that appointment she can also try to get a good position to find out the baby's sex."

"Good. So then we might be able to get a head start on painting that room after all?" he grinned. Luka grabbed the bread out of the cabinet and placed two slices in his toaster while Sam ran the dishwasher.

"I forgot to pick up those paint samples."

He shrugged. "We have time." Luka glanced up at the cordless phone placed on his wall. "I really should call my father."

By seven, Sam, Luka and Alex had arrived at Susan and Chuck's apartment. Last minute, Sam couldn't decide on anything to wear, so she had settled on a navy blue tracksuit that didn't cut off any major circulation around the waist. Luka had run out to the store to get a case of Coronas, and while he was there Sam had managed to finish up the batch of brownies she and Alex had made last minute to bring over Susan's.

The door opened and they came face to face with Chuck. "Hey! Come on in." He was holding a bottle of formula in one hand and a bottle of beer in the other.

"Hey, I picked this up for Susan," Luka said. He walked into the apartment and Sam and Alex followed.

"Oh, thanks! Come on in the kitchen and we'll put them in the cooler. Abby's on her way, and so is Carter. Chuny and Yosh are around here somewhere, and my mom's coming later." Chuck, Luka, and Alex headed off for the kitchen just as Susan came around the corner carrying baby Isabella.

Sam smiled at the tiny baby, who was just about seven weeks old. Susan had her wrapped up in a yellow receiving blanket, pacifier snugly in her mouth.

Susan smiled. "Hey. I'm so glad you and Luka made it. The turn out's been kind of crappy so far, with mostly everyone working." Isabella clutched onto her mother's finger and closed her eyes.

"She's beautiful," Sam stated, running her fingers lightly over the baby's fine light brown hair. "She looks just like you."

"You think so? Everyone tells me she looks like Chuck. It's a little bit discouraging."

"Yeah well, she'll have the boys chasing after her in no time."

"God, let's not even go there yet," Susan laughed. Isabella yawned and waved her arms in the air. "Do you want to hold her?"

Sam nodded. "Sure." Susan carefully placed Isabella in Sam's arms and took the opportunity to sit down on the couch for a minute. "God, this brings back memories."

"I bet it does. Isabella reminds me of when I used to take care of my sister Chloe's baby, Susie. It's been a long time."

"How old is Susie now?"

"Nine. Around Alex's age." Susan took one look down at Sam's small stomach and covered her mouth. "Oh my god! I totally forgot! How are you doing? I swear I'm so behind on everything. How far along are you now?"

"Four months." Sam rocked Isabella gently back and forth. "And I'm doing better than I was. The morning sickness was a real pain in the ass."

"Tell me about it. Try having it when you're pulling a twelve-hour shift. It was the pits," Susan groaned. "It was worth it though in the end."

"Yeah. It always is." Just sitting on the couch with Isabella reminded Sam of how many sleepless nights she used to spend rocking a newborn Alex to sleep after a feeding, or when he was too fussy to actually want to go back to sleep. It served as a reminder that in another six months, she would be doing it all over again, except this time she wouldn't be alone. She'd have Luka there to support her through everything. "Did you get an epidural?"

"Oh, yes. I tried to tough it out for as long as possible, but when I almost crushed Chuck's hand, I said enough was enough and called the epidural man. He spent the next few hours with his hand in an ice bucket, and it was black and blue for a week after that."

"I'm hoping for a quick delivery this time around. I think I was in labor with Alex for twenty hours. Something like that. He was stubborn and wanted to stay in there."

Susan laughed and picked up Isabella again from Sam's arms. "I don't really blame him. It's warm, you have food, it's not too noisy, and you get to sleep most of the time. Not too bad."

"Exactly."

"How was Luka's trip?"

"He hasn't really talked to me about it, but he got home on Thursday, the first."

"He's coming back to work tomorrow?"

Sam nodded. "Yeah, before Kerry gives him anymore hell."

Susan smiled and shook her head. "That's true. Hey, that reminds me. I have a few things I thought you could use for the baby. Let me just take her to Chuck." She stood up off the couch and walked into the kitchen, returning quickly with an empty bottle. "Okay, I think I put everything in Isabella's closet."

Sam got up off the couch and followed Susan to the baby's room, where she watched her take a few things out of the closet. "Okay, I had so many extra packs of receiving blankets I thought people were thinking that I was expecting seven babies instead of just one…"

"Do you want anything else to drink?"

Sam turned and leaned her head back against Luka's chest, who had just come up behind her and wrapped his arms around her stomach. The fireworks had just started going off, and she had joined Carter, Abby, Yosh, Chuny, and Susan to watch them. Chuck was putting Isabella down for the night after Susan had fed the baby her nightly bottle and given her a bath.

Sam shook her head with a yawn. "No. Does Alex want anything?"

Luka smirked and glanced up at the sky. "He's been asleep on the couch for the last twenty minutes."

"You're kidding. He was so psyched for these fireworks too," she laughed.

"Well there's always next year. Except this time next year we'll have a seven month old with us," he remarked, kissing her cheek before taking another swig of his beer.

"And an almost eleven year old."

"We could be married by then."

She shrugged and watched as the finale of fireworks started from the balcony. Chuck had finally joined Susan and the two were cuddled up together near the doorway, baby monitor in hand. "Or we could have a house."

"With a white picket fence?"

"And two dogs."

He laughed. "You could be pregnant again."

Sam playfully hit his arm and shook her head. "No way. Not with having to take care of a seven month old and a preteen."

"I could retire," Luka joked back just as playfully.

"Right before your thirty-eighth birthday? Nice try."

The fireworks ended then, and shortly after, Carter and Abby left, followed by Chuny, then Yosh. Sam had managed to wake Alex up and get him in the SUV, where he had practically fallen back asleep before either she or Luka could get in. They thanked Susan for a good time, but in reality, what Luka had been saying to her about a house and getting married had stayed on Sam's mind for the rest of the night. Had he really meant what he said?

The drive back was silent, until Luka finally spoke up. "So what do you think about that house?"

Sam glanced over at him as they reached the stoplight. "I uh, I don't know. Are we ready for a house?"

"Maybe not right now, but I'd like to have Alex and the baby grow up with a backyard. I want a lawn that I can mow, and maybe a pool that we can all swim in one day. We'll eventually need the room and then some."

"I don't really think we'd need all that room until the baby is in preschool. I mean, Alex and I just moved in with you. I don't really know if that's a step we should be making right now."

"Oh." Luka's face fell slightly as he turned the corner. "Okay."

Immediately Sam felt terrible for what she had just said. She hadn't meant for it to come out the way it had, but it's what had been running through her head and she didn't want to lie and then back out of it later. She didn't know if she'd be comfortable living in a house—not unless they were going to get married, and Sam didn't see that happening anytime soon.

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