Confine

Freddie blinked his eyes open, yawning as he slowly sat up. He glanced over at the bedside table at the digital clock, and was surprised to see that it was eleven in the morning. He never slept in that late. But then again, yesterday had been a big day…

Just then he felt the bed shift next to him, and he looked over to see Sam also beginning to gradually wake up.

He felt a huge grin spread onto his face as he watched his new wife open her eyes and let out a loud yawn.

"Morning," he beamed as Sam stretched her arms up. "Mrs. Benson."

"God, that makes me sound like your mom," Sam yawned.

"Fine, Mrs. Puckett-Benson," Freddie chuckled, rolling his eyes.

"Better," Sam smiled, lacing her arms around his neck and pulling him down to meet her lips.

"I think I can really get used to waking up next to you," Freddie said when they pulled apart.

"You say that like you haven't already been doing that for the past three years," Sam said.

"Yeah, but now I'm not just waking up next to you as my girlfriend or fiancé," Freddie said. "I'm waking up next to my wife."

Sam shook her head. "I married the biggest nub on the planet, didn't I?"

"Yup, and now you're stuck with me," Freddie said, giving her another quick kiss.

"I still can't believe it though," Sam sighed. "We're actually married. We're husband and wife…It hasn't even been twenty-four hours yet, and I still feel so different. In a good way," she added. "Like-Like we're finally-"

"Like we're finally official?" Freddie finished for her. "Like we're really about to spend the rest of our lives together?"

"Yeah," Sam grinned. "Like that." She moved closer to Freddie, resting her head on his shoulder. "What time is it, by the way?"

"Eleven," Freddie said.

"Oh, so it's still pretty early," Sam said.

"Sure, I guess if you're used to sleeping in until two in the afternoon," Freddie said, rolling his eyes.

"Oh that's right, I forgot you never like to sleep past ten," Sam smirked. "Guess I really wore you out last night then."

"I'll say," Freddie laughed, raising an eyebrow as he wrapped his arms around her. "We definitely kicked off our honeymoon right."

"So what should we do today then?" Sam asked. "Hang around and order room service? Go out and explore? Lounge by the pool?"
"Actually, baby, I've got today all planned out for us," Freddie said, grabbing his bag from the floor and pulling out his Pearpad. "I made us an itinerary for our entire trip."

"You're kidding, right?"

"Sam, we're in Aruba!" Freddie said. "We should take advantage of all the sights and attractions. And it's our honeymoon! This is supposed to be the most romantic vacation we ever take."

"I can think of plenty of romantic things we can do right here," Sam said suggestively, rubbing her hand up Freddie's bare arm.

"So, once we're up and dressed," Freddie began, oblivious to his wife's intentions. "We're gonna go get a quick breakfast at this nice little coffee house. Then we're gonna head out onto the beach to go on a glass-bottom boat tour, which will last until two. Then we're going to go to a class where they teach you to make vases out of sea shells, then we'll stop by a museum that teaches you all about the native animal species here, then we'll have a nice romantic moon-lit dinner followed by a romantic stroll along the shore."

"That's-That sure is a lot," Sam commented.

"It's gonna be great," Freddie said proudly. "A couple's honeymoon really sets the tone for the rest of their marriage, so I'm going to make sure we have the best possible honeymoon we can."

"Baby, we're gonna have a great honeymoon," Sam assured him. "But that doesn't mean we have to-"

She was cut off, though, as a loud clasp of thunder rolled through the hotel room.

"What was that?" Freddie frowned. "No…No, no, no! Tell me it's not…"

He quickly jumped out of bed and ran over to the window, ripping back the curtains to reveal a tremendous rainstorm.

"No!" he moaned. "It wasn't supposed to rain today! I checked the weather forecast last night! It was supposed to be sunny all day! This is just perfect. The coffee house we were going to go to was an outdoor place, the boat tours all cancel if there's bad weather, the museum and vase class both require us taking another boat to get to them…and you can't have a moon-lit dinner and romantic stroll in the middle of all this!"

"Well it will probably clear up soon," Sam said. "It can't rain all day. We might get to do a few of the things you had planned for today."

"But I had everything so planned and organized," Freddie sighed, sitting back down on the bed. "And now we're gonna be stuck in the room until the rain clears up. What are we supposed to do stuck in a hotel room?"

"There's plenty to do," Sam said. "We can watch T.V., we can try to guess what all our wedding presents are…we can go try out that fancy Jacuzzi tub…"

"Hmmm," Freddie said slowly, finally catching on as he wrapped his arms back around Sam. "I guess we could test that out while we wait for the rain to stop."

….

"Unbelievable!" Freddie exclaimed the next day after he angrily swung the curtains closed. "Rain again? What are the odds?"

"Don't ask me, you were the math wiz in high school," Sam yawned from the bed.

"But today we were supposed to go snorkeling along the coral reefs," Freddie groaned. "And play miniature golf and go see the Hooiberg volcano and-"

"Aw, come on, Freddie," Sam said, getting up and putting an arm around his shoulder. "Don't let the weather get you down. There's nothing you can do about it."

"But we only have two days left of our honeymoon before we go back home," Freddie sighed.

"I know," Sam said. "And it sucks about the rain, but we can still make the most of this."

"How?" Freddie said bitterly. "How can we have an incredible, unforgettable honeymoon while being confined in a hotel room?"

He let out a long breath. "I just wanted this to be perfect," he said softly. "I just really wanted our marriage to start off perfectly, without any bumps or anything. I-I spent weeks planning this trip so that I can give you the best start to our lives together that I could, and it's all just-it's all just ruined now."

Sam gave him a small smile. "Come on, Fredhead," she said, giving his hand a gentle squeeze. "You-You've already given me the best start to our lives together that I could've ever hoped for just by being here with me. In case you missed the point of that whole wedding thing the other day, I love you. I never cared where we went on our honeymoon or what we did once we got there, so long as we were there doing whatever together."

Freddie looked down at her. "You mean that?"

"Course I do," Sam nodded. She craned her neck and gave him a short kiss. "Whether it stops raining in the next five minutes, or it rains until the second we get back on the plane to go home, once we get back to Seattle, we're going to have the most amazing lives together because, well, we love each other. We'll decorate our new place together, we'll have everybody over at our place for holidays, we'll…we'll start a family one day, we'll grow old together…it's going to be unbelievable."

Freddie smiled as he hugged her tightly. "You're right," he said. "No matter what…we're still going to spend the rest of our lives together, and that's better than a perfectly sunny time here any day."
"Exactly," Sam grinned. "Besides…it's us. How weird would it have been if we had started off this marriage without anything going wrong?"