1"Oh my God! It's beautiful!" Emily Hayes exclaimed as she walked through the door and into the Seaborn house. "Ainsley, I absolutely love it!"
"Well thank you Mom." she smiled. "You remember Sam."
"Yeah. But this house!"
Ainsley and Sam glanced at each other and he shrugged, then walked into the other room and turned the football game on. Emily grabbed Ainsley's arm and pulled her close to her.
"Did you invite Brian?"
"Of course. He said he was going to his parents though."
Emily sighed and shook her head.
"What?" Ainsley asked.
"I have not seen Becca since your wedding."
"I'm sure he didn't mean any harm in not coming. It's hard on him too you know Mom."
"Becca needs to be with us too."
"Mom, stop." Ainsley walked into the kitchen and grabbed an Oreo off a plate. A few seconds later she gave a shriek, feeling someone grab her waist.
"Did I scare ya?" Josh smirked, kissing her cheek. "Merry Christmas."
"Same... well no not same to you."
"Hannukah's finished last night."
"Oh. Did Mommy send you lots of nice gifts?"
"She sent me Spongebob boxers."
"I don't even need to know that."
"Where's the hubby?" Josh asked.
"Watching football." Ainsley replied. "Josh, you remember my mother Emily."
"Oh yeah." Josh extended his hand to Emily, who quickly shook it then dropped it like it was burning. "Nice to see you again Mrs. Hayes."
"Yes." she said shortly. Ainsley gave Josh an apologetic look. But he just shrugged and went into the living room.
"Sam!"
His head snapped away from big screen TV and grinned.
"Josh!"
"What kind of man sits on his ass watching football while his wife cooks?" he teased, hugging Sam.
"A lazy man." Ainsley called. Emily watched the boys for a minute as they laughed and wrestled with each other.
"Ainsley, honey..."
"Yeah?"
"Have you ever wondered about Sam's sexuality?"
Ainsley choked on her Oreo.
"I'm sorry?"
"It's just... they're..."
Ainsley glanced around the corner and saw Sam throwing food at the TV as Josh jabbed him in the stomach.
"Sam's not gay Mom. They're just friends. Good friends. Best friends."
"Where is your father?" Emily sighed.
"Looking around at the backyard I think. Sam's parents and some of our friends should be here soon."
"Oh. Well that should be... interesting."
"Please be nice to them."
"Ainsley, I don't have a problem with any of them." Emily said. She just nodded, not wanting to fight with her mother. Sam came into the kitchen and leaned down, kissing Ainsley as he grabbed a handful of pretzels.
"I put pretzels out there." she said.
"Josh dumped them." Sam replied.
"JOSH!"
"I'm cleaning them up! Don't have a cow Ainsley!"
Ainsley walked over to the living room and glared at the back of Josh's head.
"You're watching TV and not even making an effort to clean it up." she said.
"Tommy Boy is on."
"Really?" Sam raced out of the kitchen and hopped on the couch next to Josh. Ainsley watched them for a minute as the two laughed hysterically and said lines along with the movie.
"Oh don't mind the pretzels on the floor and the guests coming in about fifteen minutes. I'll clean it up." she said, getting down on her knees.
"Hey, I'll get them." Sam moved off the couch and onto the floor. "Go back into the kitchen."
"I got them Sam."
"I'll clean it up. Just go sit or something."
"Sam..."
"Don't worry about it." he said as the doorbell rang. "Get the door. I'll get this cleaned up."
Ainsley stood up and walked over to the door, then opened it.
"Hey Donna!" she smiled.
"Hi! Merry Christmas." she smiled, hugging Ainsley. "No one's here?"
"My parents and Josh so far." she replied.
"Oh."
"Here, I'll take your coat." Ainsley grabbed Donna's coat and headed into the living room towards the closet. "Honey, Donna's here."
"Yeah." Sam mumbled.
"Great." Josh added.
"Honey, Donna's here!" Ainsley repeated.
"Huh?" Sam looked up at his wife and then at Donna. "Hey! Merry Christmas!"
"Merry Christmas Sam. Hi Josh."
"Hey Donna." he mumbled, not meeting her eyes. Ainsley and Sam exchanged a glance and returned to their unfinished tasks.
"Donna, you know my mother." Ainsley said, leading her into the kitchen.
"Yes. Hello Mrs. Hayes." she smiled.
"Hi Dana?"
"Donna." she corrected.
"Oh. Well it's nice seeing you again." Emily said, a fake smile on her face.
"Ainsley, this house... I can't believe it!" Robert exclaimed, walking into the kitchen. "You did fabulous honey."
"Thank you Daddy." she smiled.
"How far is it from the White House?"
"Farther than I would like it to be." Sam said, leaning in the doorway.
"Sam's just mad because he has to actually commute now." Ainsley said, smiling at her husband.
"How long did it take you to get to work before?" Donna asked.
"Ten minutes." Sam replied, hugging Ainsley from behind.
"It took us twenty minutes." she corrected. "Someone just likes to speed down Pennsylvania Ave."
"I drive at the right speed limit."
"How long is it now?" Robert asked.
"Half hour." Ainsley said.
"So why did you buy the house?"
"Anything for Ainsley." Sam replied. "She fell in love with it the second we pulled up to it. I'm not going to make her move somewhere she doesn't just so I have a short commute."
"He's a good boy." Robert said, smiling. "You treat her good."
"Yes he does." Ainsley smiled as Sam kissed her cheek.
"We still have a lot of work to do on it though." he said.
"What's there to work on? It's beautiful already." Donna said.
"Some of the rooms we don't like the colors so we're painting."
"And we have to do the baby's room." Ainsley said without thinking. The room went silent and Emily turned her attention to her daughter.
"What?"
"N-Nothing."
"Baby's room?"
Ainsley glanced behind her at Sam, who didn't know what to say.
"You're pregnant?" Donna asked, her voice barely above a whisper.
"We were kinda waiting until everyone was here to tell you guys." Ainsley said.
"Josh!"
"I know about the baby." he called, still chomping away on pretzels and watching TV.
"How does he know?" Emily asked.
"Josh figures everything out." Sam replied.
"I wasn't asking you."
"Here we go." Ainsley muttered. There was a knock on the door and Sam excused himself and went to open the door. He opened it and smiled, seeing it was his mother.
"Hello sweetheart!" Elizabeth smiled, kissing Sam's cheek.
"Hi Mom." he said, taking her coat.
"Hey, wait!" CJ called, racing up the sidewalk. Sam quickly opened the door back up and CJ kissed his cheek as she stepped into the house. "Merry Christmas Spanky."
"Merry Christmas to you too."
"Hello Mrs. Seaborn." CJ smiled.
"Hello CJ. Call me Elizabeth."
"Okay. Where's Ainsley?"
"In the kitchen with her parents and Donna." Sam replied.
"Ah. Mi amour!"
Josh turned around and smiled.
"Claudia Jean."
"Oh but it didn't matter when Casey told you she was pregnant with Becca!" Ainsley yelled from the kitchen. "It never mattered what Casey did! She was perfect and could do whatever she wanted and you wouldn't give a damn!"
"Don't you dare talk about your sister like that!" Emily spat.
"What is going on?" CJ asked quietly.
"I have no idea." Josh shrugged as Sam walked back into the kitchen. Elizabeth walked over to Josh and kissed his cheek.
"How are you sweetie?"
"Oh I'm good Elizabeth."
"That's good. He's such a nice boy." she said to CJ, patting Josh on the shoulder.
"Oh he is." she smirked. "Honestly Josh, what's going on?"
"From the looks of it Ainsley blabbed about being pregnant and her mom's not too happy."
"Ainsley's pregnant?"
"Yeah."
"When did you find out?"
"A few weeks ago but everyone else just found out right now." Josh said. In the kitchen, Sam was holding Ainsley around the waist, hoping she wouldn't break out of his grasp.
"You know, I thought you'd be happy not chastise me!" she exclaimed. "Let me go!"
"Ainsley..." Sam started but she started fighting against his hold.
"Let me go Sam!" she swerved around, trying to push him away from her but she let out a sob and buried her face in his chest. He held her for a minute, then she shoved him out of the way and raced upstairs. The doorbell rang, jolting everyone out of the silence.
"Could uh... could someone get that?" Sam asked, heading for the stairs. CJ went to the door as Robert began arguing with Emily. Sam walked into his bedroom and shut the door behind him, then sat down next to a curled up Ainsley. "Honey..."
"Go away."
"Sweetheart, I didn't do anything to you."
"I know but go away." Ainsley sniffed. Sam rubbed her back and she moved over to him, burying her head in his lap. "I thought this would make her happy."
"Ainse, it came out of nowhere. She's just shocked."
"No. She's mad. She's mad that you got me pregnant because now there's really no way to get rid of you."
"Hey..." Sam ran his fingers through Ainsley's hair, making her look up at him. "There wouldn't be any way to get rid of me even if we weren't having a baby."
"I knew that but she didn't. This was a bad idea."
"No. Stop. It's a good idea. We'll go back downstairs and everything is going to be okay."
"No. She's mad and I shouldn't have said those... I..." Ainsley broke off, tears trailing down her cheeks. "I shouldn't have talked about Casey like that."
"Stop it. You were upset. It happened. Don't worry about it." Sam wiped the tears off her cheeks and sat her up.
"Are you parents here?"
"My mom is. My dad may be here. The doorbell rang when I followed you up here."
"We better get back down there then just in case they try killing each other."
"You don't want to stay up here for a few minutes?"
"I'm fine."
"Okay." Sam pulled Ainsley into a hug and kissed the side of her head.