Reminder

"Alright, well, everybody's knocked out," Freddie said, coming downstairs where Sam was finishing packing Tyler's diaper bag. "Though part of me still thinks we should let them stay up all night so they sleep on the plane. Man…you realize how stressful it's going to be tomorrow flying with four kids under the age of nine? Tell me again why we're doing this?"

"Because my stupid sister wants to see Tyler," Sam sighed. "Which I guess is kind of valid, seeing as she hasn't gotten a chance to yet. But I don't get why we have to come to her instead of it being the other way around. She has one kid to travel with! But nooo, she's got to work."

"Well…I'm sure it will be fine," Freddie said. "Hopefully…maybe…probably not. But, we'll handle it. I mean it has been awhile since we've seen Melanie. And Jason and the twins will have fun playing with Nicole. So, how are we on packing?"

"Um, I got the twins stuff and Tyler's stuff done," Sam said. "Jason insisted he was too old to have his mom pack his stuff for him, so he did it himself, which means I have to wait until I'm sure he's fallen asleep to check and see if he did it right."

"Great," Freddie nodded. "Alright, well, we have to be out of here pretty early, so we should get everything else done before we got to sleep."

"What else is there?" Sam asked. "I told you, the kids are basically packed, we're packed, I have stuff in my carry-on to keep everybody entertained-"

"What about the tickets?" Freddie asked. "I think it'd be a good idea for you to just put them in your purse now so you don't have to worry about it while we rush everybody out tomorrow."

"Yeah, smart thinking, nub," Sam grinned. "I knew I kept you around all these years for something."
"Aw thanks," Freddie chuckled. "Where are the tickets? I'll go get them for you."

"Um…they-they're…okay, I think they're somewhere on my desk," Sam frowned. "Maybe. Or-Or-"

"What? Sam!" Freddie exclaimed. "You lost the tickets?"

"I did not lose anything!" Sam snapped. "They're somewhere! I-I just can't remember where exactly they are."

"Sam, we need to be leaving for the airport in eight hours," Freddie said, frustrated. "How can you just be realizing now that you lost the tickets? Now we have to spend the whole night trying to find them, which means we'll have absolutely no sleep before having to deal with three rowdy kids and an infant!"

"Will you calm down?" Sam hissed. "We'll find them in a sec. I just lost track of them, okay? Go check my desk, I'll look on the counter."

"Alright," Freddie said darkly.

Aw man, Sam thought frantically as she quickly raced over to the counter as Freddie headed into her office. How could I have forgotten where I put those tickets? Freddie's gonna freak out if we can't find them. Think! Where did you put them? Alright, I-I printed them out this morning…then-then I went to feed Tyler…did I leave them up in his room?

"They're not on your desk," Freddie said hotly as he stepped back into the room. "Though about thirty candy bar wrappers are!"

"Okay, I-I think maybe they might be-"

"You know Sam, this little stunt is really getting old," Freddie said.

"What stunt?"

"This!" Freddie said loudly. "You're loosing stuff stunt! Every time you you're in charge of holding onto something, you go and lose it!"

"I do not-"

"What about the car keys last year?" Freddie said, crossing his arms. "I gave you my car keys to hold when we were at the beach, and you lost them! It took me and the kids three hours of digging around in the sand to find them!"

"I-I was pregnant with Tyler!" Sam defended. "My brain was all loopy with hormones."

"Well even before any of the kids, you've always done this," Freddie said. "You'd lose your head if it wasn't attached! During iCarly rehearsals, you'd lose prop after prop after prop! On our honeymoon you lost our room key and we spent six hours stranded in the lobby! I swear, you are so careless!"

"I'm careless because I lost plane tickets?"

"Yes, that's like, the definition of careless!" Freddie said. "Those tickets weren't cheap, Sam! If we can't find them we're going to have to just cancel this trip, because we can't afford to buy six more. Think! What did you do with them! What was the last thing you remember doing with them?"

"Um…okay, I-I think the last thing I remember doing with them is…I-I set them down on the counter to make the kids lunch today," Sam said. "But I checked the counter, and they're not there!"

"The kitchen counter…it's a mess there!" Freddie said, rolling his eyes. "Bills, magazines, recipes, things that belong in the trash-Trash! That's it!"
"What's it?"

Freddie hurried over to the trashcan in the kitchen, popped open the lid and began carefully riffling inside.

"Yup, just what I thought," Freddie sighed, pulling out the plane tickets, which were covered in old coffee grinds. "You threw them out. Good thing you never take out the trash."

"Oh, I-I guess I must've just thrown them away without looking-"

"Yeah, careless," Freddie said, shaking his head. "Sam, it's like you lose or misplace everything with even an ounce of importance!"

"Will you knock it off?" Sam snapped. "We found the tickets! It's done!"

"Yeah, until the next time it happens," Freddie scoffed. "What are you going to lose next? Your ID? One of the kids' birth certificates? Tyler?"

"I would not lose my baby!" Sam said fiercely. "You know what? I'm not gonna deal with you right now! You're being a-a-a jerk! I'm gonna go to bed, and you can sleep down here for all I care!"

"Fine!" Freddie retorted. "Hopefully you haven't lost the couch."

About an hour later, Freddie was sitting alone in the living room, flipping through channels. He was beginning to feel really bad about his fight with Sam. Maybe he had been a little hard on her. Throwing the plane tickets away had been an honest mistake. And he had found them, so really, there was no harm done.

Freddie sighed. Poor woman has been running around here all day with four kids trying to get all packed up…that'd be enough to make anybody distracted enough to throw plane tickets away by mistake.

He slowly got to his feet and turned to head up the stairs. Hopefully Sam wasn't asleep yet, and he'd be able to apologize to his wife. He didn't want to start their trip off like this anyway.

Lucky for him, when he stepped into his and Sam's room, their bed was empty.

"Sam?" Freddie said, looking around. He spotted his wife curled up in the armchair in the corner of the room near the window. She had a large shoebox sitting on her lap, and she was silently going through the contents.

"Sam, I'm sorry about what happened down there," he said heavily. "I didn't mean any of that. You're right, I was being a jerk. We found the tickets and I should've just left it at that."

"You said I lose everything that's important," Sam said softly not looking up from the shoebox.

"Er, right," Freddie nodded. "And I'm sorry for that too. Look, I was just frustrated. You know I'm not the biggest fan of traveling and-"

"Crazy Bat Lady," Sam suddenly, pulling a small ticket stub from the shoebox and handing it to Freddie.

"Huh?"

"Crazy Bat Lady," Sam repeated. "It was the first movie we ever saw together as a couple."

"Yeah, I-I know," Freddie said, taking the stub. "I just…is this from your ticket?"

Sam nodded.

"You mean you saved it?"

"Course I did," Sam said simply. She looked back down at the box. "I have the corsage you gave me on prom night, all of the love emails you sent me through college when we were apart, a leaf that fell from the tree that you proposed to me underneath, one of our wedding invitations, the little hospital bands they put around each of the kids' ankles when they were born and the tiny wool hats they got, Jason's first straight-A report card, the mother's day card Emma and Ashton drew for me, the-"

"You-You saved all of this?" Freddie asked quietly, in complete disbelief, as he sat down on the arm of the chair. He picked up the leaf, and instantly he felt as though he was transported back to that cool, autumn night, when he had been nothing but nerves as he braced himself for asking the most important question of his life. "Wow, I-I can't believe you saved all of this. I mean this-wow, this is everything Sam."

"I don't lose important things," Sam said, looking up at him. "Not things that really matter."