Fountain

"I don't know why you're mad at me, Sam," Freddie snapped as him and Sam stormed back into their house. "You're the one who I should be mad at; and I am!"

"Um, hey," Carly said, looking up from her PearPad.

"What do you mean you don't know why I'm mad at you?" Sam yelled, throwing her jacket onto the ground forcefully. "You were a complete jerk!"

"Because you were being obnoxious!" Freddie retorted.

"Um, guys," Carly said again. "Everything okay?"

"Yeah," Sam said, still glaring at her husband. "Everything's just fine, Carly."

"Are the kids asleep?" Freddie asked, still frowning at Sam.

"Yeah, they all went down a few hours ago," Carly said, quickly grabbing her bag, sensing that the couple probably wanted the house to themselves right now. "Well, um, I'm just gonna go now…I'll see you tomorrow."

Once Carly had left, Sam opened her mouth again. "This whole thing was your fault in the first place."

"My fault?" Freddie exclaimed. "How was any of this my fault?"

"You had to go make a big deal over nothing!" Sam said loudly. "Like you always do!"

"You were about to get into a physical fight with my boss's wife!" Freddie said. "I think that's a pretty big deal! You realize that I could lose my job over this? Because you couldn't just behave for one night? What do you think we're going to do if my boss fires me over this, huh? Your income can only keep us afloat for so long on its own; we have four kids and a mortgage to worry about!"

"Well then why'd you have to drag me to your stupid work function tonight in the first place?" Sam snapped. "How many times did I tell you I didn't want to go? But noooo! You just had to drag me anyway!"

"Well sorry for thinking that maybe, just maybe, it'd be nice to have my wife supporting me for one night!" Freddie said. "I thought it would be worse for me to just show up by myself when every other guy there would have his wife, but clearly I would've been better off doing that!"

"You see! You didn't want me there to support you!" Sam said. "You just wanted me there so you could be just like the rest of your little work friends!"

"Regardless, you shouldn't have tried to push my boss's wife into a fountain!" Freddie yelled. "You're a grown adult, Sam! You'd think you'd know how to behave in public by now!"

"Well you'd think that after almost ten years of marriage, you'd actually know that I'd rather chew my own foot off then spend the evening at some overly-fancy work party where the most interesting thing that happens the entire night is when the power went out for two minutes!"

"I-I can't even believe you," Freddie said, shaking his head in disbelief. "You are being completely unreasonable right now!"

"Yeah, I'm unreasonable," Sam scoffed.

Freddie sighed, too angry to even argue back. "Look," he finally managed to say. "It's late. I don't want to wake the kids up."

"Fine," Sam said simply. "I'm going to bed."

"Fine," Freddie said. "I guess…I guess I'll sleep down here."

"Yeah, smart move," Sam said coldly.

She climbed upstairs without a goodnight to Freddie. When she got to the couple's bedroom she collapsed onto the bed. After a few moments of laying there, though, trying to get to sleep, she realized that something didn't feel right. Even though she was beyond exhausted, she just couldn't seem to fall asleep. It wasn't until a few minutes later, however, did she realize that her sudden insomnia could be because the bed suddenly felt two times bigger; for this was the first time since her and Freddie had gotten married that they were not falling asleep next to each other.

The next morning, Sam was in the kitchen, fixing the kids breakfast.

"Mommy?" five-year old Emma asked, taking a bite of her toast. "How come daddy was sleeping on the couch this morning?"

"Um, because he fell asleep watching T.V. down here last night," Sam said swiftly.

"Can we sleep in front of the T.V. tonight?" Jason asked through his mouth filled with eggs.

"No," Sam said firmly.

"Morning daddy!" Ashton said brightly as her father walked into the kitchen, looking a bit tired, no doubt from trying to sleep on the hard sofa.

"Morning, sweetie," Freddie yawned, grabbing a piece of bread and popping it into the toaster.

Sam and Freddie didn't exchange their usual good morning kiss, but instead chose simply to pretend the other wasn't there.

"You kids ready to go to school?" Freddie asked as he poured himself a large cup of coffee in his to-go thermos.

"Yeah, my class is learning about dinosaurs!" Jason said excitedly.

"Have fun then," Sam said, smiling at her son.

"Bye mommy," the girls said as they jumped down from their seats at the table.

"Bye girls," Sam said as the kids ran out to Freddie's car.

Freddie stood in the kitchen for a moment. "Bye," he finally mumbled.

"Bye," Sam mumbled back.

Once Freddie and the kids left, Sam quickly threw the dishes into the dishwasher and grabbed Tyler from his high chair so she could drop him off at Spencer's before driving off to her own job.

….

"Hey," Carly smiled as Sam sat down with Carly at a cafeteria at the television studio where the two worked. "You feeling okay?"

"Sure, why?" Sam mumbled.

"Well it just seemed like you and Freddie were a little upset last night," Carly said. "Did you two have a fight or something?"

"Yeah," Sam sighed.

"You wanna talk about it?" Carly asked gently.

"Not really," Sam muttered. "But Carly…I think this was the biggest fight we've ever had. I know we can barely go a week without arguing about something, but this wasn't an argument. This was full-out screaming and yelling. We've never done that before. Ever."

"Oh, Sam," Carly said. "This is really bothering you, isn't it?"

Sam nodded.

"Well, clearly if it's bothering you this much," Carly said. "You want to make up with him."

Sam shrugged. "Or I could wait until he comes to me to make up…"

"Sam," Carly said firmly. "Which is more important to you? Your pride? Or Freddie?"

Sam sipped her water.

"Sam?" Carly said.

"You think I have time to run down to his office before our lunch hour is up?" Sam asked quietly.

"I'll cover for you," Carly smiled. "Don't worry about it."

Sam headed outside to the parking lot. She was just about get into her car when she heard a voice behind her.

"Sam?"

She spun around and was surprised to see Freddie getting out of his own car that was parked a few spots down from her.

"Hey," she said as he walked over to her. "What-What are you doing here?"

"Um, well, I had some time during my lunch break…" Freddie said. "And I was, you know, in the neighborhood."

"Oh," Sam nodded. "So, um, did-did you talk to your boss today?"

"Oh, yeah," Freddie said. "And he basically said that I was too valuable to the Pear Company for him to even consider getting rid of me over something like what happened last night. But, um, I don't think he'll be throwing anymore work functions at places with giant fountains."

"Oh…good," Sam nodded.

The two were silent for a moment.

"Listen, Sam I'm sorry," Freddie blurted out. "I didn't mean to yell at you like that. I know how much you hate going to those stupid work things of mine, and I shouldn't have dragged you along there just so I wouldn't be the only guy there without his wife."

Sam smiled. "I'm sorry too, baby. I probably shouldn't have tried to push your boss's wife into the fountain. I knew that it was an important night for you and I should've just kept myself busy at the buffet. I probably would've gotten mad at me too."

"Yeah, but I still shouldn't have called you obnoxious and said you never supported me," Freddie said. "You're not obnoxious. And you're a great wife. Plus there was obviously a reason you were fighting with that woman. What were you two arguing about anyway?"

"She might've said something about your PearPad Apps being overrated," Sam said. "So I told her that she'd better shut her face before I pushed her into that fountain with her precious little pearls on and everything."

"Aw, you were defending me?" Freddie grinned.

"Someone's got to," Sam said.

Freddie chuckled as he pulled Sam closer to him and leaned down and kissed her.

"I love you," he whispered as they pulled away.

"I love you too," said softly.