AN-Hey, so this oneshot is a little on the rated T side I'd say, just because the content's a tad bit more mature than what most of these oneshots are. Hope you like it still!

Race

"You know the best thing about having an apartment?" Carly asked, coming into the living room of her and Sam's shared apartment. "Not having to share a shower with a whole dorm of girls. I'm sorry, but forty girls to three showers? That's just torture as far as I'm concerned."

"Huh? Oh, um, yeah," Sam nodded, looking over at her from the couch.

"And I mean, this apartment is just so great," Carly continued. "It's really close to campus, so we can still get to our classes quickly, it's not too expensive, and it's huge. I'm telling you Sam, we're really cut out for this life."

"Yeah," Sam mumbled.

"Hey, so after my Anthropology class, I was going to run and get some Chinese food for dinner," Carly continued, clearly in too good of a mood to notice her roommate's less-than-enthusiastic behavior. "That good for you?"

"Sure," Sam said.

"Awesome," Carly said happily, pulling on her jacket. "I'll see you later then!"

Sam waited until the apartment door slammed shut before she leaned back in her seat, covering her face in her hands and letting out a long sigh.

She felt so jealous of Carly right now. Right now her biggest worry was getting to that Anthropology class on time. Her, on the other hand, had much bigger things on her mind…

She slowly reached into her back pocket and pulled out the small pregnancy test that she had taken just that morning, the little pink plus sign starting up at her.

It was the fifth test she had taken in a matter of two days, and it had yielded the same results as all the rest. It looked like it was official.

She was pregnant.

She could feel the tears welling up in her eyes, and she didn't even know if they were from the hormones that she knew were currently running crazy through her body or if they were from her actual emotions.

How could this have happened?

Well, that was easy. She knew exactly how this had happened. And when too.

Freddie had come to visit her from MIT about a month ago, and after not seeing each other for far too long, they wasted no time in picking up where they had left off during his last visit…

They had been so careful though. And it wasn't as if this was their first time; they both knew what they were doing, and Sam had been so sure that with all the percussions they had taken that there could be no chance of this happening. It hadn't even crossed her mind…

But yet here she was. She was barely twenty, just starting her third year in college, had no job and no money, and was pregnant with her and Freddie's child.

Freddie…He still didn't know.

Sam wiped her eyes on her sleeve.

The sooner I do this, the better, she decided firmly, grabbing her laptop from the coffee table and setting up her webcam. Maybe after I actually tell someone I won't feel so horrible.

She wondered how Freddie would take the news…He would be freaked out, obviously. She was too. She was freaked out, shocked, scared, and a whole flood of other emotions when she had taken her first test yesterday. She just hoped he wouldn't be mad at her…

She pulled up the web chat window and a few seconds later Freddie's beaming face appeared on her computer screen.

"Sam!" he said happily. "I was just about to send you a chat request!"

"Oh," Sam nodded. "Well, um, guess-guess I saved you some time then. Um, baby? Listen, I-I need to-"

"Guess what?" Freddie cut her off, still smiling widely.

"What?"

"I just heard back from this amazing internship program I applied for a few months back," Freddie told her. "The one with the Pear Company! In just six months I will be spending ten weeks working with some of the top software developers there working on all these new updates and all sorts of cool tech stuff!"

"W-Wow," Sam said, pulling on a smile as she felt her heart sink. "That's-That's-"

"Oh, and there's more," Freddie continued. "My old professor from last semester was so impressed with my work in his class that he's going to make me a TA for his class! Can you believe that? Usually only graduate students get to do stuff like that, and he offered the position to me a junior in my undergrad!"

He's going to hate me, Sam thought to herself, looking at Freddie's excited face. There's no way he's going to want to deal with me and a baby now. Not with all of this stuff he has going for him.

"Baby, this is going to be my year, I can feel it," Freddie said, grinning.

"I'm really proud of you," Sam said shakily, trying not to break down once again. "I-I really-g-good job-"

"Sam?" Freddie frowned as Sam began to cry for the second time in less than ten minutes. "Sam? What's wrong?"

"Nothing," Sam sniffed as tears continued to flow from her eyes. "I-I'm fine."

"Sam…" Freddie said knowingly, his voice full of concern. "Please, you know you can talk to me."

"You'll hate me," Sam whispered.

Freddie blinked. "Sam," he said firmly. "There's no way I could ever hate you. Now please, tell me what's going on. I can help you. Whatever it is I'm sure isn't so bad that-"

"I'm pregnant," she said softly.

Freddie's mouth dropped, and for a moment, he stayed absolutely silent.

"You-You're-" Freddie finally managed to stutter. "I-But-Um, w-what?"

"I'm pregnant," Sam said again.

"I-Oh-w-what-oh…oh…uh-" Freddie said weakly, his eyes widening. "But-But-Are you-Are you sure? I mean, Sam, there-there's a chance that this is just a mistake, right? I mean, pregnancy tests and all those things aren't exactly entirely accurate all the time, so maybe-"

"I took five tests," Sam told him. "And they all were positive. I'm really pregnant."

"O-Oh," Freddie said simply, looking as though he was just slapped in the face.

"Freddie, I'm so sorry," Sam said, still crying. "I'm so sorry. I know that-"

"Sam, don't-don't be sorry," Freddie said, still looking shocked. "It-It takes two people to make a baby…"

"I know, but…this can't be what you were expecting when you saw my web chat," Sam mumbled.

"N-No," Freddie admitted. "But, um, S-Sam…how-how did this-I-We used a-and you were on the-are you really, really sure?"

"Yes," Sam nodded. "I'm positive, Freddie."

"Ah," Freddie said softly.

"Look…I'm sorry I just laid all this on you," Sam said after another silence fell between them. "I know having this, um, discussion via webcam isn't exactly something we planned. But, um, just-just don't worry about it right now. Just focus on all your stuff going on at MIT right now and I'll worry about this. I-I guess I'll tell Carly later today, and then I should probably go see a doctor or something, right? And-And then I don't know, but I'll figure it out, and-"

"Sam, I'm not going to just leave you all the way across the country pregnant with our child while I sit down here at school," Freddie cut her off. "Absolutely not. I'm going to be there for you. Through all of this. Listen, if I sit in coach, I can probably get a flight out to Washington in a few hours, and then I-I'll just crash in your place again until I can find somewhere else. And-And well, maybe I can get a job without a full college degree that will be able to support you and the baby, or I can try and get a temporary job while I take some classes at a community college or something, or maybe I can-"

"Dude, no, this is exactly what I didn't want to happen," Sam moaned. "You're going to race back up here and leave all of those great things you've got going for you at MIT just because I screwed up-"

"Sam, this isn't just on you!" Freddie said. "How do you think you got pregnant? This is on me too! This is my baby too! I'm not going to be some guy that just leaves you alone to deal with this! I love you. Nothing can ever change that. Things are going to be…different, now, but that doesn't mean we can't get through them."

"It doesn't mean you have to be the one to drop everything to take care of us either!" Sam retorted. "I don't want you to have to give up everything you've worked for! You've dreamed of getting into MIT since you were a toddler! And you've worked so hard these past years to make sure you were amazing there! You've got everything going for you and I don't want to be the one who yanks it all away from you!"

"Well what about you?" Freddie pointed out. "Huh? You think you can handle this on your own? You've worked hard too, Sam. You've done well in college. You're telling me you'd be perfectly okay with just forgetting about all the hard work you've put in at Washington State?"

"I-I don't-I'd get over it," Sam told him.

"Sam, you always do this," Freddie said gently. "You never want to admit that you need help. You can't do everything for yourself. And this time…you're not the only one in the equation."

"I-I just don't even know what to do," Sam whispered. "I'm scared, Freddie. I don't want to do this on my own, but-but you can't just throw everything aside because of this."

"Sam, when will you get it?" Freddie asked. "As much as I love MIT and everything it has done for me, it comes second to you. You're the most important thing in my life. And-And I know that we didn't plan for this. We're not ready for a baby. But…well, we-we've just got to…accept this."

"I know," Sam said. "But I'm still scared."

"I'm scared too," Freddie said. "Terrified, actually."

"We're not ready, like you said," Sam said, grabbing a few tissues. "We're only twenty. Neither of us have jobs, we don't know how to raise a baby…what do we do?"

"I don't know," Freddie said truthfully. "I-I really don't. But I promise you, I'm going to be there for you."

Those words definitely made Sam feel a little better; knowing that Freddie wasn't furious and going to leave her for messing up his life. Still, though, she felt far from okay.

"How are we going to do this?" she asked again. "How can we…How can we have a baby?"

"Well, Sam, we-we are adults now," Freddie reasoned, but Sam could tell by his face that he wasn't buying what he was saying himself. "It's not like we're two kids in high school. We're twenty, and-"

"-And we barely know any more about the real world than we did when we were sixteen," Sam said. "We don't have any money of our own. Your mom pays for your dorm at MIT, Carly's dad pays for this apartment, I have a bunch of loans just to pay for my books and stuff."

"I told you, maybe I can find a job or something," Freddie said. "It's going to probably be hard the first few years, but once we get everything settled in a few years… And-And maybe our parents will help us out some."

"My mom can barely afford to pay for herself," Sam reminded him. "And don't you think that your mom is going to be ready to kill us once she hears about this?"

"Maybe at first," Freddie agreed. "But I sort of think once she wraps her mind around the fact that she's going to be a grandma, she'll be on board."

Sam gave a small chuckled.

"I guess I can look for a job too," she added. "I think I saw a sign in the college bookstore the other day that said it was hiring. I'll have to deal with people, but I can suck it up."

"You don't have to-"

"Freddie, I'm not going to let you do everything!" Sam said firmly.

"Well, I'm still coming down there," Freddie said. "Tonight."

"Okay," Sam nodded, happy that she would at least be seeing him soon. "But seriously, baby, don't get in your head that you have to give up MIT. I-I can always move up there and figure out what to do there too."

"We'll get through this," Freddie said gently. "I promise. We'll get through this together."