"I feel like we should celebrate," Freddie said, wearing the same enormous smile he had had on since him, Sam and Heather had returned home after the blood test. "Want to order pizza?"

Freddie felt as though nothing could bring down his mood right now. The relief that Heather's blood test had come back only to show that she was perfectly healthy had risen his spirits so high that he just wanted to shout for joy.

"Sure," Sam chuckled, amused at her husband's good mood, though grinning herself. "Lauren should be home any minute now from cheer practice. She changes her favorite pizza toppings every time so wait until she gets here to find out what she wants, though."
Right on cue, the couple heard the front door open and a moment later Lauren walked into the kitchen wearing her cheerleading uniform that Freddie openly despised.

Normally he'd always have a comment about how her skirt was far too short or that her shirt looked like it could fit Heather, but today Freddie simply beamed at his daughter.

"Hey, honey," he said, giving her a quick kiss on top of her head. "How was practice?"

"Um, fine," Lauren replied, giving her father a strange look.

"We're ordering pizza for dinner," Sam told Lauren. "What kind do you want?"

"Pepperoni's fine," Lauren said.

"Classic, good choice," Freddie said.

"Er, you okay dad?" Lauren frowned. "You seem really…happy."
"Well you know, I had a pretty good day today," Freddie said simply. "That's all. Hey, you know what we haven't done in awhile? Watched a movie together as a family!"

"Is this what you've been dealing with all day?" Lauren asked Sam as she sat down next to her stepmother at the table. "I'm so sorry."

"Eh, it hasn't been as annoying as you'd think," Sam told her. "Oh, Lauren…isn't there something that you've been wanting to talk to your dad about? I mean now might be a good time to bring it up since he is in such a good mood."

"Huh?" Lauren said, confused. "What are you-Oh…"

"What is it, Lauren?" Freddie asked.

"Um…daddy?" Lauren said sweetly, using the voice that had a history of getting her whatever she wanted from her father.

Freddie's smile instantly dropped. "Well…this can't be good. Okay, Lauren, what do you want? Money? More driving lessons? A later curfew?"

"I was just wondering if I could go to the mall tomorrow night," Lauren said.

"The mall?" Freddie repeated. "That's it?"
Lauren nodded.

"Oh," Freddie said, his smile coming back. "Well sure, that's fine. I was thinking you were gonna ask for something ridiculous. You know you don't mind if you go to the mall, as long as you're home by eleven. So who are you going with? Just Danielle?"

"Well…Danielle and-and a couple other people," Lauren said slowly.

"Uh-huh, and have I met these other people?" Freddie asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Er, not-not exactly."
"Well what are their names?" Freddie asked.

"Um, well there's Mike, Danielle's boyfriend," Lauren said carefully. "And-And then there's Scott-"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," Freddie said, his eyes widening. "Boys? Boys? You want to go out with boys?"

"It's just the mall!" Lauren said quickly.

"Oh what? You think I was born yesterday?" Freddie asked, rolling her eyes. "If Danielle is going with her boyfriend and there's a second guy going, I know it's a double date!"

"But daddy, I'm fifteen!" Lauren pleaded. "Isn't that old enough for you to trust me to go to the mall with a guy?"
"I-I-" Freddie stammered.

He very well wanted to tell Lauren no. He didn't want her dating! She was just a little girl, after all.

But in the past twenty-four hours Freddie had been awoken to the fact that there really worse things that could happen to his children other than them growing up. In fact, maybe he had never fully appreciated that his daughter had been fortunate enough to grow into the strong, independent young woman standing before him.

He glanced over at Sam.

After all, there should've been one more teenager in the house right now…

"Okay," Freddie said heavily. "Here's the deal Lauren. You can go on this date-"

"I can?" Laure gasped. "Thank you daddy! Thank-"

"But you are to stay only at the mall," Freddie said firmly. "And you're still to be home by eleven. I want you to have your cell phone on you at all times and if anything at all happens that makes you feel even the slightest bit uncomfortable, call me or Sam and we'll come pick you up, got it?"

"Okay!" Lauren nodded excitedly, throwing her arms around her father. "Thank you, daddy! I have to go call Danielle and tell her the news!"

"Wow," Sam said as Lauren ran out of the room. "I'm impressed. I didn't think you'd be rational about Lauren dating. Good for you, baby."

"The mall…" Freddie mumbled, sitting down at the table. "Why do kids hang around the mall these days? Back when we were kids we hung around nice places like-"

"-the mall," Sam finished for him.

"I hate that place," Freddie muttered darkly.

…

Later that evening Freddie sat on his and Sam's bed with his laptop resting on his lap.

"Hey, did Lauren ever mention this Scott's last name to you?" Freddie asked as Sam pulled on her pajamas.

"No," Sam replied. "Why?"
"I'm trying to do a little digging," Freddie said. "But unfortunately there are four hundred and twenty-one teenage boys in this city named Scott so I can't narrow it down too much."

"I take back what I said about you being rational earlier," Sam said, rolling her eyes as she climbed into bed next to him.

"Maybe I'll look through Lauren's yearbook and see if I can find the guy tomorrow," Freddie yawned, closing his computer and placing it on his bedside table. He put an arm around Sam. "I'm glad everything turned out to be a false alarm today, though. I don't think I've ever been so relieved in my life."

"Yeah," Sam sighed. "Although if I hadn't freaked out over nothing we could've avoided that whole scare in the first place."

"Sam," Freddie said soothingly. "It was an honest mistake. And when it comes to things like this it's always better to be safe than sorry-"

"No normal parent assumes her child has cancer when it's really just the flu," Sam said.

"But Sam-"

"Every other parent can realize that a flu is just the flu," Sam continued. "Nobody else freaks out like I did!"

"Well most other parents didn't have to go through what you did," Freddie told her.

Sam looked down at her lap. "So what? Am I just gonna assume the worst every time she even coughs? What kind of mom does that?"

"Sam, baby, don't beat yourself up over this," Freddie said, gently rubbing her arm. "You're an incredible mom, to Lauren and Heather. And you were an incredible mom to Conner too."

Sam didn't reply.

"And the way you handled this whole thing," Freddie went on. "You were amazing, Sam. Me, I wouldn't have known what to do. After everything that you've been through…somehow you still managed to be strong for Heather. I-I don't know how you did it, Sam. I don't know if I could've."

Sam gave him a small smile as he leaned down and kissed her.

"Never tell yourself that you're anything less than an unbelievable parent to our children, Sam," Freddie whispered. "Because you're one hell of a mother. Always remember that."

….

The next morning, Freddie was woken by a series of loud coughs coming from his and Sam's adjoining bathroom.

"Sam?" Freddie mumbled, sitting up in bed. "You okay?"

He dragged his feet into the bathroom to find his wife kneeling down by the toilet.

"Baby, what's the matter?" Freddie asked.

"I dunno," Sam said, wiping her mouth. "I just woke up and felt really sick like I did that other day after the Mexican restaurant."
"You know, that's around the time Heather got sick," Freddie reasoned. "You probably caught what she has and was just too busy taking care of her to realize."

"Maybe," Sam nodded. "I actually don't feel too bad anymore…I think I got it out of my system for now."

"Well maybe you should still take it easy today," Freddie said. "After all…I think we're both still a little worn out from last night."
Sam chuckled as she swatted his shoulder playfully.

"Mommy! Daddy!"

Heather suddenly burst into her parents' bedroom, still in her pajamas.

"Hey, look who's up," Freddie grinned. "Looks liked those antibiotics are really kicking in."

"I hungry," Heather announced.

"Well I bet, you've barely eaten these last few days," Sam chuckled, scooping Heather up in her arms. "How does pancakes sound?"

"Pancakes!" Heather beamed excitedly.

"Good, daddy will get those started for us," Sam said. "Won't you, daddy?"

"And we're officially back to normal around here," Freddie said, heading down to the kitchen.