AN- This is a sequel to chapter 501, where Sam tells Freddie she's pregnant at the same time he was planning on proposing to her.

Governed

The next morning Sam was sitting on the couch of her and Freddie's living room, eating a bowl of cereal while absentmindedly admiring her new sparkling engagement ring. It was early, and Freddie was still fast asleep. She had woken up a few minutes ago with morning sickness and figured it was no use trying to get back asleep.

Sam could hardly believe how much had happened the last few days. She found out she was pregnant, her and Freddie were going to get married…she didn't know what she had done to have things turn out so right for a change, but she couldn't be happier about the way everything was looking right now.

Suddenly she felt a pair of warm arms wrap around her from behind, and she looked over her shoulder to see Freddie.

"Hey," she beamed, leaning her head back to kiss her new fiancé.

"Hey, beautiful," Freddie grinned, kissing her back. "I didn't hear you get up. It's not even ten yet."

"I know, but, well, morning sickness," Sam shrugged.

"You should've woken me," Freddie told her, sitting down next to her. "I could've done something."

"Baby, you can't do too much for morning sickness," Sam chuckled. "It's not like you can puke for me."

"No…I don't think that's possible quite yet," Freddie said, putting an arm around her and kissing her again. "But seriously; I want to be there for you through this entire pregnancy. Don't be afraid of waking me up for things like that."

"When have I ever been afraid of waking you up?" Sam smirked.

"True," Freddie said. He gently rested his hand on Sam's stomach. "I can't believe our baby's in there."

"I know," Sam nodded. "It still feels so strange. But a good strange, you know?"

"I know," Freddie said.

"Hey, I was thinking," Sam said, resting her head on his shoulder. "You know, while I was up barfing this morning…are we gonna get married before or after the baby comes?"

"Hmm," Freddie said thoughtfully. "I'm not sure. What do you think?"

"Well if we get married before, we're gonna have to deal with the stress of the pregnancy and planning a wedding," Sam said. "But if we get married after, we'd have to deal with the stress of having a kid and planning a wedding."

"So a lot of stress either way, huh?" Freddie chuckled.

"Looks like it."
"Well," Freddie said. "Good thing you've kept me on my toes these past few years and I've gotten some experience dealing with stressful situations."
"You saying I stress you out?" Sam asked playfully.

"Only occasionally," Freddie replied. "But for some weird reason…I happen to love it."

Sam laughed. "I hope our baby is okay with having such insane parents," she said.

"I hope the baby knows that no matter how insane we may be," Freddie said. "That we'll love him or her more than anything in the world."

…..

Later that afternoon, Sam was pacing back and forth in the living room, looking at her Pearpad. She had multiple pages open. Half of them were various crib ads, places to buy parenting books, and things to and not to do when you were pregnant. The other half were wedding planning sites.

Just then she heard a knock at her front door.

"It's open!" she called.

Carly let herself into the apartment.

"Hey," Carly said cheerfully. "So what's the big news you were texting me about that I had to come over here to hear about?"

"Oh, nothing," Sam grinned, holding out her hand, showing off her ring. "Just this."

"Oh my God!" Carly squealed. "No way!"
"Freddie and I are engaged!" Sam exclaimed as Carly rushed over to hug her.

"This is incredible, I'm so glad Freddie finally worked up the nerve to do it!" Carly said. "I mean he's been planning on asking you to marry him for almost two months now!"

"Wait, really?"

"Yeah," Carly said. "I helped him get your ring. See, a friend of my dad's works at this super fancy jewelry store and so when he told me he wanted to ask you to marry him, I set him up over there so he'd be in good hands and be able to find you the perfect ring. But do you know how hard its been keeping this from you all this time while Freddie tried to figure out the 'perfect way' to ask you? I was about to explode!"

"Well thanks for holding it together then, kid," Sam said, rolling her eyes. "Now you can help with the wedding planning because I'm lost. You know how much chiz you need? Invitations, flowers, food, not to mention a dress."
"Duh, of course I'm gonna help you plan the wedding!" Carly said. "I've been dreaming of planning your wedding with Freddie since you two began dating!"

"Okay…we'll pretend that's not weird," Sam said.

"So I'm thinking we do something with a lakeside view," Carly said. "Which of course means we theme all the decorations around earthy colors. Now, I can have tablecloth samples ready for us to look at next week. In the meantime we'll draw up a guest list and figure out what stationary we'll be using for the invitations."

"Um, well, Carly," Sam started. "Before you get too carried away, just keep in mind that this is going to be a small, simple wedding."

"What? No, no, no," Carly said. "You and Freddie are one of the most adorable couples on the face of the planet. Your wedding needs to reflect that! Don't worry, I'll take care of the hard stuff. You just focus on showing up and being the bride. Anyway, I'm thinking we do some real classic invitations. You know, parchment paper with wax seals? And then we can-"

"No, Carls, listen," Sam cut her off. "Freddie and I don't want a huge production. This wedding…it's not really the only thing we have to think about right now."

"What else do you guys have going on that could possibly be as important as your wedding?" Carly scoffed.

Sam took a deep breath. "I'm pregnant."

Carly's eyes widened. "You're-You're…You're pregnant?"

Sam nodded.

"I-Wow…" Carly said. "I-Congratulations!"

She hugged her best friend once more.

"Thanks," Sam said. "I just found out a little while ago…I only told Freddie last night. That's when he proposed to me."

"Talk about the perfect moment," Carly chuckled. "It looks like you and Freddie really have your whole lives coming together."

"I know," Sam smiled. "But since I'm pregnant and the baby's going to be here in a little over eight months, we figured it would be best to just do a small-scale wedding. That's why we want to put it together quickly; I kind of want to still fit in a normal-sized wedding dress, you know."

"Hey, I can work with a deadline," Carly said. "And you know what? Even if you have a small wedding, it's still going to be incredible. You and Freddie are in love…that's all that matters."

…..

Carly, holding true to her reputation, had managed to put together a spectacle, yet practice wedding in just under two months. Sam and Freddie were to be married in a small, local courtyard with only their close friends and families attending. She had used her fashion knowledge to help Sam pick out the perfect dress and get a size that would fit her small baby bump on the wedding day. There would be a small reception after the ceremony at the Groovy Smoothie, which Carly had talked T-Bo into renting out to them for the day. In fact, the only thing about the wedding that wouldn't be small was the wedding cake, which Sam said was practically the most important thing.

And so, with two days left until the big moment and Sam three-months along in her pregnancy, it seemed as if everything was going according to plan.

Freddie let himself into the apartment after a long day at work. His office was working on designing a new web page to be used by the governor's office and he had been going out of his mind. All he wanted to do was see his soon-to-be wife and forget about the rest of the world.

"Hey, princess," Freddie said, stepping into the couple's bedroom, where Sam was sitting on the bed.

She looked beautiful; the pregnancy glow had certainly taken to her well. She was just beginning to show, and Freddie smiled as he looked down at the small bump of her abdomen. But a second later, Freddie noticed Sam's face…she looked almost…sad.

"Baby, what's wrong?" Freddie frowned.

"I went to go drop off your mom's jacket that she left over here last night when she had dinner with us," Sam mumbled.

"Oh jeez," Freddie sighed, knowing this story wasn't going to end well. "What happened?"
"I heard her talking to your aunt through the door," Sam said. "She said…she said that she thinks I forced you to marry me because I got pregnant. She said the only reason this wedding is happening is because you're too good of a guy to just leave me on my own like this."

"Oh, Sam…" Freddie said, wrapping his arms around her. "You know that's not true. You know I was planning on proposing to you the night you told me your were pregnant before I even knew about this baby. I'm not marrying you because you're pregnant…I'm marrying you because I love you."
"I know that," Sam sniffed. "But come on, you know how this looks? Some young couple finds out they're going to have a baby, they panic, and get married out of pressure…If your mom thinks that, I'm sure other people do too."

"But Sam, we're not getting married out of pressure," Freddie explained, wiping her tears gently from her cheeks. "We're getting married because we love each other. If the time wasn't right for us to do this, we wouldn't be doing it. It just so happens that this overlapped with us having our first child together."

Sam nodded. "I know…I'm just being stupid and these dang hormones are making me all moody and-"

"Hey, you're not stupid," Freddie said firmly. He pressed a kiss to her temple. "I'll talk to my mom and make sure she knows how wrong she is about thinking we're rushing into this marriage just because we're having a kid. But you know what? It doesn't even matter what her or anybody else thinks in the end. We know we love each other and are getting married out love…who cares if people think differently? That's their problem, not ours."

Sam gave a small smile. "True…I'd still bring out the butter sock, though, if I wasn't pregnant and not allowed to get into any 'altercations'."

Freddie laughed. "That's my fiancé." He kissed her again. "Anyway, I picked us up some Chinese food on the way home for dinner."
"Chinese food?" Sam cringed.

"You don't want Chinese food?" Freddie frowned. "But I got the eggrolls you love."

"I know," Sam said. "But I've really been craving some tacos all day…Would you maybe want to go me, your fiancé and mother of your child, something from El Guapo Taco instead?"

"But I just got home!" Freddie moaned. "And I had a rough day and-"

"Please, it's for me," Sam pouted. "Actually, no…" she placed her hand on her abdomen. "It's for us."
Freddie sighed. "Fine. I'll go get tacos. But enjoy using the 'eating for two' excuse while you can."
"Thank you, baby," Sam smiled sweetly. "Oh, and while you're out, pick up some chocolate ice cream…and some garlic toast. Oh, and some gummy worms. Yeah…Mama loves her some gummy worms."