Hey, this oneshot is a sequel to chapter 385, where Sam found out she was pregnant while and Freddie were in college.

Input

Sam wiped her mouth as she slowly got up from the bathroom floor. This had been the fourth morning in a row that she had thrown up her entire stomach before she even had breakfast.

Morning sickness really wasn't one of the funner sides of pregnancy.

Sam quickly washed her face and headed out to the kitchen, where Carly was happily pouring herself a bowl of cereal.

"Morning!" she said brightly as Sam sat down at the table. "I made some coffee. You want some?"
"Sure," Sam nodded. "Wait, no! No, I don't want any."

"You sure?" Carly asked. "You were up pretty late last night finishing your paper, which, by the way, I told you should've been done this weekend. Aren't you tired?"

"I just…don't want caffeine right now," Sam mumbled.

"Okay," Carly shrugged. "Well, I'm going to head to campus soon. I want to study for my exam at the library. You want to come?"

"No," Sam replied. "Freddie's going to be here soon."

"What?" Carly exclaimed. "Freddie's coming over and you didn't even tell me?"

"Sorry, must've slipped my mind," Sam said.

Carly stared at her best friend. "Hey…are you doing okay?"

"What do you mean?" Sam frowned.

"I mean…you've been acting different," Carly said. "I just want to make sure you're okay."

Well I'm broke, pregnant, and don't know the first thing about taking care of kids, Sam thought to herself. I don't think that qualifies as okay.

But Sam plastered a smile onto her face. "Yeah, I'm fine Carls. Just stressed from that stupid paper I had to write last night."

"Oh," Carly nodded. "Well, at least you got it out of the way. It was for that government class you're in, right? You know Sam, you're doing really well in there. I'm proud of you. I hear it's not an easy class but you're totally on track for an A!"

Too bad I'll probably have to drop out of it before I get the A, Sam thought miserably.

"Well, I want to get a seat at the library before all the spots are taken," Carly said, looking at her watch. "It's bound to be packed; midterms are right around the corner. I'll see you later. Oh, and tell Freddie I said hey! I can't wait to see him again; I can't believe it's been a whole month since he's visited."

Once Carly was out the door, Sam jumped to her feet and headed to the fridge and pulled out a jar of pickles. It was the only thing she was hungry for.

As she ate, she began to pace back and forth, deep in thought.

What was she even going to do once Freddie got here? Sure, she desperately wanted her boyfriend near her, but seeing him wasn't going to completely solve this problem. She would still be pregnant when he arrived, after all.

She was jostled from her thoughts by a loud knock at the door. She rushed to open it and before Freddie hardly had a chance to look at her properly, she threw herself into his arms.

"Sam," was all he said before she lost it and began crying into his shoulder.

Freddie wrapped his arms around her, not saying a word.

The couple stood there for a moment before they finally pulled apart.

"Sorry," Sam mumbled, wiping her eyes. "Stupid hormones."

"You don't have to apologize, baby," Freddie said gently. "How are you feeling?"

Sam shrugged. "Scared?"

"Yeah, well," Freddie sighed. "So am I. But I meant are you feeling sick? Have you been eating well? Have you seen a doctor yet?"

"My morning sickness kicked in, unfortunately," Sam told him heavily. "I've been eating sort of well, I guess…I had a salad yesterday. And-And I went to the doctor's yesterday."
She reached into her pocket and pulled out a folded sonogram and handed it to Freddie. "There it is. That's our baby."

Freddie stared down at the sonogram photo. "Wow," he breathed.

"It's not very big yet," Sam continued, sitting down on the couch. "The doctor told me it's about the size of a peanut right now. He couldn't even tell me if it was a boy or a girl."

"Yeah, you can't tell the gender until around the end of the first trimester," Freddie said. "I-I read up on some stuff during the plane ride."

"Ah," Sam nodded. "Maybe I should do that too…"

She took a deep breath. "We need to figure this out, Freddie. Soon."

"I know," Freddie said. "And look, I was thinking…I know you already told me you don't want me to, but I really do think the best thing for us if for me to move back here and-"

"No," Sam said firmly.

"But Sam-"

"You're not going to give up graduating from one of the best schools in the country!" Sam exclaimed. "Do you know how sorry you'll be if you do that?"

"And how many times do I have to tell you I'm not going to leave you to have this child by yourself!" Freddie said loudly. "You can't raise a baby by yourself, Sam!"

"Who says we're even going to keep it, huh?" Sam snapped.

Freddie stared at her. "What?"

"Maybe…maybe we could put the kid up for adoption," Sam said softly.

"Adoption?" Freddie repeated.

"Don't pretend the thought hasn't crossed your mind," Sam whispered. "Think about it. We're both broke. We don't have jobs and we don't know the first thing about taking care of a baby! How are we supposed to handle this?"

"Okay," Freddie said heavily. "If-If that's really want to do…I guess I can't stop you. But…is that what you want to do?"

Sam sighed. "I-I don't know. I thought it was. But then when I went to the doctor and I saw the baby inside of me…I don't know anymore."

"That's okay," Freddie said gently. "Look…we have time. We'll look into adoption."

"Freddie?" Sam asked. "If-If we decide to keep the baby…how will we afford it? I'm serious. That doctor's trip the other day alone wiped me out."

"We-We'll figure it out," Freddie said.

"Come on," Sam said. "You didn't fly all the way over here just to tell me we'll figure everything out. We need to actually figure stuff out now."

"I know," Freddie mumbled. "But there's just so much to figure out. I-I don't even know where to start."

"Let's just pick one thing and we'll start from there," Sam said.

"Okay," Freddie agreed. "How about we figure out…what we're going to do for money? That's probably the biggest thing right now. Because even if we do give this baby up for adoption…hospital bills aren't cheap."

"I applied for a job at the bookstore the other day," Sam said softly. "And-And I think a few places are hiring in the food court."

"And…a lot of students at MIT have jobs as tech assistants," Freddie said. "I'm going to try and see if I can get a position. You do all the work over the phone; you just have to help customers who call with problems with their laptops and stuff. It doesn't pay a lot, but…it's better than nothing."

"Yeah…better than nothing," Sam echoed. She rested her head on Freddie's shoulder. "Have you told anybody yet?"

"No," Freddie replied. "I-I didn't think you'd want me to. Besides, the only person I'd have to tell is my mom, and I really didn't want to deal with her criticizing input. Have you told anyone?"

Sam shook her head. "Not even Carly. But I think I may need to soon…She said something this morning about me acting different. I just wonder how she'll react."

"Carly's our best friend," Freddie told her, gently playing with the ends of her blonde hair. "She's practically your sister. I'm sure she'll be supportive."

"I hope so," Sam said. She sat up and leaned over to give her boyfriend a soft kiss. "Listen…I don't want to tell her tonight. Do you think that maybe we could, you know, just spend tonight in my room so we don't have to see her? She knows you're coming, but she'll also know not to barge into my room if the door's closed."

"Whatever you want," Freddie nodded.

Sam put her head back on his shoulder. "I'm really scared," she said for the second time that morning.

Freddie wrapped his arms around her. "So am I."

….

As per Sam's request, the couple spent the entire evening in Sam's bedroom. They talked well into the night; about the baby, about their lives and what they were going to do. Freddie was still insistent on moving back to Washington to be with Sam throughout the pregnancy, but Sam was still firmly against it. Sam proposed that she could drop out of school if she needed to, but Freddie told her that was completely unfair; that she had worked so hard to get where she was and it would devastate him if he had to see her give it up.

By the time they finally fell asleep, they still hadn't solved any of their problems, yet Sam awoke feeling better than she had all week.

She looked over at Freddie and saw him begin to stir next to her.

"Morning," she whispered when he opened his eyes.

"Morning," Freddie smiled. He leaned over and kissed her.

"Well," Sam sighed. "Last night wasn't exactly productive, was it? We didn't get anywhere. We're just as lost as we were when you got here."

Freddie didn't reply.

"This is the most confusing thing ever," Sam moaned. "I swear, it's like-"

She stopped talking suddenly and jumped up from the bed and rushed into the adjoining bathroom.

"Sam?" Freddie frowned, his voice full of concern. He hurried after her and saw Sam hunched over the toilet, vomiting.

"You okay?" he asked, pulling back her hair.

"I'm fine," Sam mumbled, taking a deep breath. "It's just morning sickness."

She got to her feet and sat down on the edge of the bathtub.

"Freddie?" she whispered.

"Yeah?"

"I-I know this is crazy," Sam said. "But…I don't know if I'd want to put this baby up for adoption."

"But…But yesterday you said-"

"I know what I said yesterday," Sam said. "And I still think it would make the most sense to give this baby up. But…It's growing in me. It's our baby. It will always be our baby. And I know we're young and we have no money and we're both in school and it's totally stupid to even be bringing this up-"

"It's not stupid," Freddie said at once. "I-I don't know how I'd feel about having a stranger raise my child either. But…we do have to think about what would be best for this baby. If-If we can't provide for it-"

"I know," Sam nodded.

Freddie put a hand on her knee. "Baby, I know you said you wanted to get everything figured out now, but-but this is one thing we can't rush a decision on. We can figure out how we're going to get money to cover the hospital bills and what we're going to do about school right now, but this decision we can't make on a whim. We need more time. Let's both really consider it, okay? Let's see how we do making the money and we'll see how supportive our parents are and if they'll help us out. That way we'll have a much better idea of how our situation will be. If we realize that there's no way we can take care of this baby…we'll-we'll arrange for a family that we like to adopt it. And if we think we're in a position to be able to totally provide for it…well, we'll do it."

Sam showed a small smile. "I think I like that idea."

"I'm glad," Freddie said, kissing the top of her head.

"You know," Sam said. "I think I smell waffles cooking in the kitchen…which means Carly's up."

"Oh," Freddie said. "Does that mean…are we going to tell her?"

Sam squeezed his hand. "No use putting it off anymore."

And so slowly, the couple headed out to the kitchen, hand in hand.

"Wow, look who finally decided to come and say hi!" Carly grinned the second she saw Freddie. She ran over to him. "Dude, I haven't seen you in like, a month!"

"I've missed you too, Carls," Freddie said, giving her a quick hug.

"I hope you two enjoyed totally ignoring me last night," Carly said playfully.

"Sorry," Sam said. "We-We were both pretty tired. So we went to bed early."

"Uh-huh, and I'm sure you both just slept in your room all night," Carly grinned knowingly. "But whatever, let's all hang out today! It can be just like old times."

It's never going to be just like old times, Sam thought to herself. She looked up at Freddie, who nodded.

"Um, actually, Carly," Freddie said, taking a deep breath. "Sam and I really can't just hang out today. We have a lot to discuss."

"Discuss?" Carly frowned. "Is everything okay?"

Sam slowly shook her head. "Um, actually Carls, no. No, it's not."

"What's wrong?" Carly asked softly. "Are you guys okay? Did-Did something happen?"

"We're okay," Freddie said. "Well…sort of."

"You guys are scaring me now," Carly said. "What's going on?"

Sam sighed. "I'm pregnant, Carly."

Carly blinked. "W-What?"

"Sam's pregnant," Freddie repeated. "That's…that's sort of why I came down here this weekend."

"Oh my God," Carly breathed. "I don't believe…come here."

She ran over to her friends and threw her arms around both of them.

For a moment, the three of them simply stayed like that. Finally, they pulled apart.

"Well, um, congratulations," Carly said lamely.

Sam chuckled. "Thanks, but um, we're not exactly celebrating right now. We didn't plan for this. At all."

"Oh," Carly said. "Well…do you need anything? I'm here for you guys, you know that, right? If you need anything, all you have to do is ask."

"We appreciate it, Carls," Freddie said. "We really do. But right now…we don't know what we need. We have no idea what we're going to do. Sam and I have a lot to figure out right now."

"Of course," Carly nodded. "Why-Why don't I leave you two alone then?"

"You don't have to do that, Carly," Sam said quickly.

"It's fine, you two need to talk, and I don't want to get in the way," Carly said. "We-We can order a pizza tonight, maybe. After you guys have some time to discuss things."

Sam smiled. "We'd like that."

"Right, well…I guess I'll go hang out around campus then," Carly said. She grabbed her bag and threw it over her shoulder. She looked back at her two friends. "Just remember, you guys. I'm here for you. No matter what."

"Thanks," Freddie said sincerely. "You have no idea how much we needed to hear that."