Packing

Sam knew early on that her and Freddie's oldest son, Jason, would be going to a top college. Heck when the kid was only four years he was already taking apart his electronic toys to try and see how they worked.

So when Jason was in his senior year of high school and ecstatically threw up his acceptance letter from his dream school, Cal Tech, Sam and Freddie both, weren't surprised.

Freddie was of course overjoyed that his son had gotten into such a prestigious school. He had always dreamed of going to a school like Cal Tech, and if he hadn't gotten such a good job with the Pear Company right out of high school, he would've actually considered attending such a school.

Sam was happy for Jason as well. She knew that Jason would do great at college, and that he needed to go, but that didn't stop her from feeling a sense of depression when she realized that her first born child, her baby, would be leaving her.

"Wow, this place is pretty nice looking," Freddie said as he heaved one of Jason's suitcases into his new dorm room at Cal Tech. "Did you see the size of that computer lab? You could really do some fast research in there!"

"Forget the computer lab," fourteen-year old Ashton said as her and the rest of the family joined them in the dorm. "Have you seen all the hot college guys here?"

"What hot college guys?" Emma frowned. "This place is geek city!"

"Girls, just go with Tyler back out to the car and grab some more bags," Sam said, rolling her eyes.

"So when do classes start again?" Freddie asked as his other three children filed out.

"Next Monday," Jason replied as he opened on of his boxes and began to place some of his clothes in a dresser drawer. "Can you believe I'm actually taking a physics class taught by Leo Cooper? One of the country's best physicists is actually going to be my teacher!"

"I know! How cool is that?" Freddie exclaimed.

"You sure you don't want to go here?" Sam asked.

"Ha, ha," Freddie said. "I'm gonna go back out to the car and help the kids bring in the rest of Jason's stuff."

Sam watched as Freddie left, leaving her and Jason alone in the dorm.

"So," Sam said. "You need help unpacking the rest of this stuff?"

"Nah, I'll do it later," Jason replied. "My roommate doesn't move in for another four days, so I'll have plenty of time."

"Well, are you sure you have everything?" Sam asked, beginning to open up some of the boxes anyway to help Jason move in. "Your dad and I can run to the store if you forgot something. You have enough winter clothes? This may be California, but it still gets cold, you know. What about money? You have enough? I'll put some more money in your bank account when we get back to Seattle. And do you have-"

"Mom, I've got everything need," Jason said.

"Yeah…I guess you do," Sam said softly. She didn't want to cry…she had never cried in front of any of her kids, and she wasn't about to start now. "Just…Just remember to call, okay?"

"I will," Jason promised. "And I'm coming back home in a few months for Thanksgiving, remember?"

"I know," Sam said. "But…oh just come here!"

She pulled her son, who now stood a good six inches above her in height, into an embrace.

"Promise you'll take care of yourself down here," she whispered.

"I will, mom," Jason said, hugging her back. "And you know, California's not that far away. You can always come down and visit."

"Yeah well, considering how in love your dad is with this place, I don't doubt we'll be taking you up on that," Sam smiled.

"Oh man, we just passed one of the library's on our way back from the car," Freddie said, walking into the room with the other kids. "This place is better than Dingo World!"

"Glad you like it," Jason said. "Are-Are those the last of the boxes?"

"Yup," Freddie said. "That's everything."

For a moment, the family stood there, knowing what was going to come next.

"Well," Freddie said finally. "We-We need to get that moving truck back to Seattle by tonight. We-We should probably be getting back on the road now. You know, if we want to beat traffic."

"Yeah, probably," Jason said.

Freddie stepped forward and hugged his son. "Good luck here, Jason. I'm proud of you. And you know you can call home whenever you need to."

"Thanks," Jason grinned. He turned to his younger brother. "Good luck being the only son in the house now, Ty. Make sure you hold your ground, okay?"

"Okay!" Tyler said. "And I'll email you pictures from all my hockey games!"

"Well," Emma said, crossing her arms. "I guess it'll just be me and dad watching Galaxy Wars from now on."

"Nah, we'll still catch them when I'm home," Jason said, giving his little sister a hug.

"Yeah, and I guess I'll only have dad to threaten my boyfriends now," Ashton said, joining the hug.

"No, don't worry, I'll still find a way to threaten them," Jason grinned.

"Be safe, okay?" Freddie added. "We'll call when we get back home to see how you're getting settled."

"Got it," Jason nodded as he gave the family one last hug.

Freddie, Tyler and the twins all waved to Jason as they left the dorm room.

Sam stood at the doorframe. "Bye, sweetheart," she said, giving Jason one last fleeting smile. "I love you."

"Love you too, mom," Jason replied.

Having already sent one child off to college, Sam and Freddie weren't expecting it to be quite as hard to send the rest of them off as well. But when Emma and Ashton's turn came around, they were sad to say they were very wrong.

Neither of them had any doubts about Ashton. She was a straight A student, and while she was not exactly a born genius as Jason was, she got into every single college she applied to.

Emma, on the other hand, was a different story. She had never made the best grades, and struggled to maintain her average throughout high school. Freddie, and even sometimes Sam, would continually hound her about her performance, especially during her senior year of high school, but Emma would always fight back, claiming that school wasn't her thing.

But when the acceptance letters began coming out, Emma wasn't left empty handed. Quite the opposite, actually. While Emma may not have been the best student in the classroom, she was by far an extraordinary athlete, and her impressive track times got her on the radar of many colleges, who were willing to offer her full scholarships to get her to run for them.

"I can't believe how amazing this is," Freddie said, sliding into his and Sam's bed on the evening that the girls had received their acceptance letters from their first few schools. "Especially for Emma. I have to admit, I was starting to get scared about her."

"Hey, she's half-Puckett," Sam said. "And Puckett's always pull through."

"They're going to have to start looking into all the schools they got into," Freddie said. "And we should probably start booking tours for them to go on…where do you think they'll wind up choosing? I'm personally hoping for University of Washington. Not too far from home, but it's still a great school."

"Eh, I don't think Ashton like's their business department," Sam said. "And that's what she's studying, remember? I think she's leaning towards University of Southern California."

"But they have the weakest track team for Emma though," Freddie pointed out.

"Um, baby?" Sam said gently. "You do realize that Emma and Ashton don't have to go to the same college, right?"

"What?" Freddie frowned. "Why wouldn't they? They're twins!"

"Yeah, and they've shared a room for their entire lives," Sam said. "Don't you think that they may want to each do their own things?"

"I-I never really thought of that," Freddie admitted. "I just always assumed they would go off together."

"I know," Sam said. "But you know they each need to go where they want to."

"I know…" Freddie muttered.

"You okay?" Sam asked.

"Yeah," he sighed. "It's just…wow. We have to do this all over again. Twice this time too!"

"You thought it would be easier too, huh?" Sam said.

"It doesn't get easier, does it?" Freddie said, chuckling.

"Guess not," Sam said.

…..

After about a month, Emma and Ashton had both finally made their decisions of where they would attend college.

Ashton had decided to study at Berkley, where she was excited to begin studying accounting and enjoy the California atmosphere as well.

And Emma decided to take her track scholarship from University of Oregon, where incidentally, her boyfriend Quincy Gibson was also planning on attending.
"You guys call when you get to your schools, got it?" Sam said as Freddie finished loading the last of the twins' luggage into their respective cars.

"We will," Ashton said.

"Maybe," Emma said.

"Emma…" Freddie said warningly.

"Okay, okay, I'll call."

"Drive safe," Sam said as she hugged each of her daughters. "We'll be up in a couple days to come help you get moved in. Ashton, if you need anything before then, you can always call Jason. And Emma, Oregon's not to far of a drive; we can be up sooner if you want us to."

"Yeah, we'll come right away if either of you need anything," Freddie said, hugging each of the girls.

"Don't worry, daddy. We'll be fine," Ashton assured him.

"Yeah, I know you will," Freddie smiled. "But you two should get going. I don't want you to be driving at night."

"Oh yeah…" Emma nodded.

The twins stared at each other for a moment. For the past year, all they could talk about had been how excited they were that they'd finally be on their own; no longer always being grouped together. But now had the moment had actually arrived, it seemed that they had just realized how close they had been for their whole lives, even though all the fighting, and that this would be the first time they would be apart.

"Come and visit me sometime?" Ashton asked Emma.

"Maybe if I decide I want to work on my tan," Emma smiled. "But there's supposed to be a huge mall by my school, so you know, if you ever want to go shopping…"

Ashton laughed as she threw her arms around her sister. "Bye, Em. We'll webchat as soon as we get to school, okay?"

"You better," Emma said, smiling.

As the twins got into their separate cars and pulled out of the driveway, Sam put her arm around Freddie's shoulder. "Hey. You doing okay?"

"My babies are gone now…" Freddie mumbled. "I thought it was hard when we had to say bye to Jason, but…both of my little girls going off in two different directions?"

"They're still your little girls," Sam told him.

"Yeah," Freddie sighed. "You remember when they were babies and I used to say I couldn't wait for them to get older because it was always so hard taking care of the two of them at the same time?"

"Hey, I said that too," Sam pointed out.

"You wish you could take that back as much as me?" Freddie mumbled.

"Oh yeah," Sam nodded.

And then when Tyler, the baby of the family, was getting ready to start his college journey, Sam and Freddie both knew that it would be the hardest. For once Tyler left, that would be it. They would have no kids left at home with them.

Tyler got okay grades at school, but like Emma, he made up for it with his athletic abilities; he was a star running back on the school's football team.

"You know, I can't believe your son is going to be playing for a college team," Gibby said as he helped Freddie load boxes into the Benson's car as they prepared to take their last college trip.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Freddie frowned.

"Dude come on, you're like, the least athletic person around," Gibby chuckled. "If anyone had come up to me and said that your son was going to be playing football at Arizona State University, I would've thrown ferret food at them."

"I'm athletic!" Freddie defended.

"What was the last sport you played?" Gibby asked.

"I-okay, fine, you've made your point," Freddie mumbled. "Just finish loading up the car for me, will you? I'm gonna go inside and see what's taking Sam so long."

Freddie headed into the house and saw Sam sitting on the couch.

"Hey, I thought you were helping Tyler pack up the last of his things," Freddie said.

"I did," Sam muttered.

"Oh," Freddie said. "Well where is Tyler?"

"He's on the phone saying goodbye to some friends," Sam replied.

"Okay, well we need to leave in ten minutes if we're going to try and avoid the traffic rush," Freddie said.

"Yeah, whatever," Sam sighed.

"You okay?" Freddie frowned.

"No!" Sam said. "This sucks!"

"What sucks?"

"How dumb are you?" Sam snapped. "Tyler going off to college!"

"Oh," Freddie sighed. "Yeah…it is rough. Our last one…"

"I can't believe we're finally out of kids," Sam said softly. "They're all grown up now…"

"Yeah," Freddie nodded sadly. "It just hit you, huh?"

"Yup," Sam said, showing a small smile. "I guess now it's just us…I mean, until one of them needs money or something."

"True," Freddie chuckled, putting his arm around his wife. "But you know what? I think we did a pretty good job with all of them. We managed to put four kids though college; that's no small achievement."

"I know," Sam said, resting her head on Freddie's shoulder. "But I still wish we hadn't finished with them so fast."

"Time really does fly, doesn't it?" Freddie said gently.

"Unfortunately," Sam said.

"But it was still a pretty great ride while it lasted, wasn't it?" Freddie pointed out.

Sam smiled up at him. "Yeah," she nodded. "The best."