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"Jason!" Sam called upstairs. "Come on, we need to get going!"
"Sam, no yelling, remember?" Freddie told her. "It's not good for the baby to have your blood pressure up."
"I'm not 'yelling'," Sam told her husband. "I'm just saying something loudly. I'm not gonna get stressed out from that."
"Where are we going?" Sam and Freddie's four-year old, Jason, asked, coming downstairs with an armload of toys.
"You," Freddie said. "Are going to stay at your Aunt Carly's for a little while. Remember what we told you last night? Mommy's going to the baby doctor to make sure your little brother or sister is doing okay."
"Oh yeah," Jason said. "And you get to find out if the baby's a boy or a girl too, right?"
"Yup," Sam nodded. "Aren't you excited?"
"Can you try and make the baby a boy?" Jason asked.
"Doesn't work that way, kiddo," Sam chuckled. "But hey, I'd bet you'd have just as much fun with a sister as you would with a brother. We just want the baby to be healthy, right? It doesn't matter if it's a boy or a girl."
"I still get to be a big brother, even if the baby's a girl, though?" Jason asked.
"Yes," Freddie smiled. "No matter what, you still get to be a big brother."
"Good," Jason said.
"Now come on, go get in the car," Sam told him. "Otherwise we'll be late for the appointment, and I'll have to listen to daddy go on and on."
"Well if you didn't sleep in until noon," Freddie said, rolling his eyes.
"Hey! This is getting my blood pressure up!" Sam snapped.
…
"Hey, Carly," Sam said as her, Freddie and Jason walked into Carly's house.
"Hey," Carly smiled. "Jason, I just made some cookies; they're in the kitchen."
"Yay!" the four-year old cheered as he ran off to the kitchen.
"You sure you can watch him?" Sam asked. "I mean, you do have Clarissa now."
"Yeah, we can always bring him with us and have him sit in the waiting room," Freddie nodded.
"Guys, it will be fine," Carly assured them. "I can handle a four-year old along with my one-month old. I mean, you two will be doing the same thing in, what, five months?"
"Yeah, I guess," Freddie said. "Well, he brought enough stuff to entertain himself, hopefully he won't be too much trouble."
"Aunt Carly?" Jason asked, coming back into the room with a cookie in one hand and a large picture book in the other. "Can I read Clarissa my dinosaur book?"
"Sure," Carly replied. "She's over there in her playpen." She turned to Sam and Freddie as Jason hurried off to Clarissa. "He can read now?"
"Nah, he just likes looking at the pictures and making up his own stories," Sam said. "Alright, well, we'd better leave. My appointment's in twenty minutes."
"Oh, and today's the day we find out if you're having Clarissa's future best friend or her future husband."
"You want our kids to get married if we have a boy?" Freddie asked, amused.
"Shoosh yeah!" Carly said. "How cool would it be if we got to share grandchildren?"
"Bye Cars," Sam said, chuckling.
…..
"Alright, Mrs. Benson, just have a seat right up there," the nurse told Sam once she had changed into a paper gown. "The doctor will be with you in just a moment."
"Cool," Sam nodded, sitting herself down.
"So," Freddie said. "You excited to find what we're having?"
"Uh-huh," Sam smiled.
"Just think…two kids running around," Freddie said. "Jason and this little one. Think we're ready for it?"
"It's too bad if we're not," Sam said. "It's happening."
"Good afternoon, Mr. and Mrs. Benson," Sam's doctor said, walking into the room. "How have you been?"
"Pretty good," Sam replied.
"Are you still experiencing morning sickness?" the doctor asked, opening up Sam's folder.
"Yup," Sam nodded. "And afternoon sickness…and evening sickness."
"Yes, unfortunately, that's quite common, as I'm sure you remember from your first pregnancy," the doctor nodded, rubbing some gel onto Sam's abdomen. "And have you begun experiencing any mood swings?"
"No," Sam said.
"Yes," Freddie replied at the same time, earning him a glare from his wife.
"I see," the doctor said, jotting a few things down. "Anyway, are you both ready to see your baby?"
"Yeah, and we can find out the sex today too, right?" Sam asked.
"If the baby is positioned right, then yes," the doctor nodded, turning on the monitor by Sam. "Just a moment…"
He began moving the ultrasound device over Sam's stomach.
"…And here we are," the doctor said, pointing to the monitor. Sam and Freddie looked and saw the faint outline of what looked like a small head.
"That's the baby?" Freddie asked.
"Yup," the doctor said, moving the device some more. "Now, let me see if I can tell you the gender…there we are. Now you both want to know?"
"Yeah," Sam said anxiously. "What is it? Boy or a girl?"
"You two are having a baby girl," the doctor smiled.
"A girl?" Freddie repeated, his face lighting up. "You hear that, Sam? We're gonna have a daughter!"
"Yeah, we are," Sam laughed.
"Everything looks good with her," the doctor continued. "Nice, strong healthy heartbeat…Hmmm, now this is interesting…"
"What?" Freddie frowned.
"Is something wrong?" Sam asked, concerned.
"Just a moment…" the doctor said, fiddling with the device. "Aha! I see it now! Well, this is certainly a surprise."
"What?" Sam and Freddie both asked anxiously.
"Mr. and Mrs. Benson, it looks like you'll not only be having one daughter, but another one as well," the doctor said.
"Huh?" Sam said, looking at Freddie.
"Congratulations," the doctor said. "You're having twins."
"T-Twins?" Freddie stuttered. "As in two? Two babies?"
"Yes, two," the doctor chuckled. "We must've missed this the first time because the heart rates were in sync, and one must've been directly behind the other."
Sam and Freddie exchanged shocked looks. "Wait…you-you're serious?" Sam said.
"Very serious, Mrs. Benson," the doctor said. "Now, baby number two seems to be just as healthy as her sister, perhaps a bit smaller, but nothing to be concerned with. Everything's going along just smoothly so far."
"I, um, great," Freddie said, clearly still stunned at the news he had just received.
"I realize this is quite a shock," the doctor said.
"You think?" Sam said, still staring at the monitor.
"I'll leave you two to digest the news while I go and get you two a DVD of this sonogram," the doctor said, clicking off the monitor. "I'll be back in a moment."
"I-how-how can we be having twins?" Freddie asked as the doctor left the room. "That's two babies, Sam!"
"Yeah, I know, Fredley, I am a twin, remember?" Sam snapped.
"Two babies," Freddie repeated. "Well…there's nothing we can do now but just embrace this, I guess. I mean, sure, two babies means double the work, but it's also double all the good stuff too."
"Yeah," Sam nodded slowly. "Yeah, you're right."
"And, sure, we're both a bit…surprised now," Freddie said. "But we'll get used to the idea soon, I'm sure."
"Yeah," Sam said. "Well…I guess you know what this means?"
"What?" Freddie asked.
"I'm gonna be huge!" Sam said. "Two babies…Oh man, I'm gonna be practically double the size I was when I had Jason!"
"Baby, relax, it'll be fine," Freddie assured her.
"Easy for you to say!" Sam snapped. "Aw, you know what this means? I need to go buy new maternity clothes, which means Carly will want to make me buy all these gross dresses like she did last time!"
"Yeah…can't help you with that," Freddie said.
….
"So? What's is it?" Carly asked the second Sam and Freddie walked into her house after the appointment. "Boy or a girl?"
"Well, it doesn't look like Clarissa's getting a husband from us," Sam said.
"So it's a girl?" Carly said excitedly. "Oh my God! Clarissa's going to have a best friend!"
"Make that two best friends," Freddie smiled.
"Two?" Carly frowned.
"We're having twins," Sam grinned.
"T-Twins?" Carly repeated. "Are you serious? That's awesome!" She threw her arms around her best friends. "I can just see it now, our girls playing together, going to school together, going on triple dates-"
"No, no, no," Freddie said. "Unless those dates are happening when they're thirty."
"Aw, and you're already an overprotective dad, how cute," Carly laughed.
"Mommy! Daddy!" Jason exclaimed, running downstairs. "Did you find out if the baby's a boy or girl?"
"Yup, we did," Freddie said, scooping his son up in his arms. "And we have a surprise for you. Instead of just one baby, mommy's having two."
"Two?" Jason said, his eyes widening.
"Uh-huh," Sam grinned. "You get two little sisters, Jason. They're gonna be twins."
"Like you and Aunt Melanie?" Jason asked.
"That's right," Sam said.
"We know you kind of wanted a little brother," Freddie said. "But hey, you're gonna be very happy with little sisters, I promise."
"I can't wait!" Jason said happily, jumping down from his fathers arms and running over to his mother. He put his hands on her stomach. "Can they come out now?"
"Not for five more months, Jason," Sam said.
"Five months?" Jason pouted. "That'll take forever!"
"Aw, I'm sure it will come faster than you think," Carly told him.
"Yeah, and in the meantime, you can help us get ready for them," Freddie said. "There's still a lot we need to do, especially now that we're having two."
"Can I clean out our storage room for them?" Jason asked.
"Sure," Sam said.
"Yay!" Jason cheered.
"Now why don't you go get your toys and we'll head home," Freddie told his son.
"Okay!"
"Wow, you're going to make your four-year old clean out the twins bedroom for you?" Carly asked as Jason hurried off.
"Hey, he wants to!" Sam said. "And relax, we won't make him do any of the hard stuff. But if he wants to sort through boxes, who am I to stop him?"
