"Okay! Scott's almost here!" Lauren announced loudly, stepping into the kitchen. "Are we ready, people?"
"What? Are we going to war or something?" Freddie scoffed, looking up from the coloring book he was working on with Heather.
"Daddy, what are you guys doing? You can't be coloring when Scott gets here!" Lauren frowned.
"Yeah, it's not exactly intimidating," Sam whispered to Freddie as she pulled a tray of garlic toast out of the oven.
"We have to get this out of here," Lauren said, grabbing the coloring book.
"Mine!" Heather cried indignantly. "I color!"
"It's okay, sweetie," Freddie soothed Heather, trying to calm her down. "You and I will get back to our picture later.
"How's dinner coming, Sam?" Lauren asked, shoving the coloring book into a nearby drawer.
"It's done now," Sam said as she finished mixing sauce and meatballs into a large pot of spaghetti on the stove.
"See daddy, this is how you should be preparing!" Lauren said.
"Oh I'm prepared," Freddie mumbled as he placed Heather in her highchair.
Just then there was a knock at the door.
"He's here!" Lauren gasped. "Okay, everybody be nice!"
"I should've brought my fencing gear in here so this guy would know he's dealing with a skilled athlete," Freddie said as Lauren raced out.
Sam laughed.
"What?"
"Nothing, nothing," she said quickly, patting his shoulder as she leaned up to give him a quick kiss. "You ready for this?"
"Not really," Freddie sighed.
"Dad? Sam?" Lauren said as she came back into the kitchen followed by a tall, dark-haired boy. "This is Scott. Scott, these are my parents."
"Hi," Sam smiled. "Nice to meet you, Scott. We've-"
"Hello, Scott," Freddie cut her off, extending a hand to the boy. "Glad you could make it. It's a good thing you could come this weekend because next weekend I'm going to be away at a fencing tournament. You know, the sport with the long, sharp swords that you jab each other with? Yeah, I'm somewhat of a professional-"
"You haven't fenced in over twenty years," Sam said, rolling her eyes.
"That doesn't mean I still don't know what to do!" Freddie hissed.
"Uh-huh…I'm sure you can still-"
"Um, excuse their insane arguing," Lauren said quickly to Scott, shooting Sam and Freddie a glare. "They do this all the time. You-You really get used to it if-"
"It's okay," Scott said, shaking Freddie's hand. "Nice to meet you guys. Um, actually, when my mom dropped me off here a few minutes ago, I-I sort of promised I'd get her your autographs."
"Huh?" Lauren said, confused. "You want their autographs?"
"How come?" Sam asked, also confused.
"Well when Lauren gave me the address here and my mom entered it in her GPS system in her car, it showed your names and apparently you two were on her favorite web show when she was a kid," Scott explained. "I think she said it was called-"
"iCarly," Freddie finished for him. "Wait…your mom was really a fan?"
"But that show's, like, a hundred years old," Lauren said.
"Thanks," Sam said, rolling her eyes.
"Well she said she really liked all the technical effects on the show," Scott said. "She said it inspired her. Now she has a job adding all sorts technical effects to video games and stuff."
"Wow…" Freddie grinned. "That's actually pretty cool."
"You mean someone actually liked the boring tech junk on the show more than mine and Carly's comedy?" Sam frowned.
"I mean it's easy to see why she was so inspired," Scott continued. "She showed me some of your work and it's really impressive. I sort of want to go into the tech field myself when I get older…I'm nowhere near as good as you were at my age, though, sir."
"Oh, I'm sure you're talented," Freddie said, clearly enjoying the flattery. "If you'd like sometime, I could show you-"
"Um…so are we ready to eat?" Lauren asked, quickly changing the subject. "Hey Scott, why don't you tell my parents about the football team? You know, something unrelated to computers…"
…
"I've got to say…" Freddie said later that evening as him and Sam did the dishes (or rather, while he did the dishes while Sam watched). "That Scott seems like a pretty decent guy."
"You just like him because he called your tech junk impressive," Sam scoffed.
"And you're just jealous because finally, after two decades, somebody appreciated my tech work on iCarly more than your comedy," Freddie smirked.
Sam raised an eyebrow. "Wow…Looks like somebody is still just as gullible as he used to be."
"What? What are you talking about?" Freddie frowned.
"Come on," Sam said. "You don't really think that kid actually cares about white balances or tripods or whatever other stuff he brought up during dinner?"
"They're interesting topics!" Freddie defended. "And you should be happy we talked about them all through dinner. I didn't even get a chance berate Scott about his top college choices."
"Freddie, he was faking it," Sam told him.
"Faking it?" Freddie sputtered. "That-That punk! Are you sure? Well I'm gonna go out there right now and-"
"Dude, chill out!" Sam said quickly. "Don't you see? You had Scott so worried about making a good impression on you tonight that he actually took the time to research all that boring junk."
"Wait…really?" Freddie said slowly.
"Baby," Sam said gently. "Lauren told me a few nights ago that Scott's so dumbfounded when it comes to technology he once tried to make a call from his tablet."
"So-So he doesn't really care about anything he was talking to me about…" Freddie said slowly. "He did that just because-"
"Because he wanted you to like him," Sam nodded. "And obviously if he's willing to torture himself reading up on white balances, he cares a lot about what you, Lauren's father thinks of him because he really cares about Lauren."
Freddie pondered this for a moment. "I guess…I guess he does seem to really like her. And he does seem like a good kid…"
"So you're gonna be okay with this?" Sam asked, squeezing his shoulder.
Freddie sighed. "I'll try."
….
A few nights later, Sam lay on her bed, watching television. Freddie was downstairs working and Lauren was out with Scott, who was now officially her boyfriend.
Sam noticed that Freddie would still purse his lips whenever Lauren mentioned his name, but she was quite impressed with the way Freddie was handling this big step in his daughter's life.
"Mommy?"
Sam looked over and saw Heather standing in her doorway.
"Aren't you supposed to be in bed?" Sam grinned, holding her arms out for the toddler to join her on the bed.
"I not sleepy," Heather said. "How long until baby comes?"
Heather had gotten into the habit of asking this question at least once a day.
"It's the same answer I gave you during your bath," Sam replied. "Seven months."
"Why?"
"Because," Sam said patiently. "All babies take about nine months to grow before they're born."
"Not me," Heather pointed out.
Sam laughed. "Yes you. You took nine months before you were born too. Just like your brother or sister is now."
"I did?"
"Uh-huh." Sam nodded. She lifted her daughter onto her lap. "Hey? You wanna see some of your old baby pictures?"
"Yeah!" Heather said excitedly.
Sam reached into the drawer of her bedside table and pulled out a small photo. Freddie had insisted they put it together a few months ago as an attempt to organize the mountains of photographs they had. Ironically, as much as Freddie loved technology, he liked to keep his photos the traditional way, and Sam had to agree.
"Let's see…" Sam said, flipping through the book. "Yup, here you are."
She showed Heather the picture of her that had been taken about an hour after she had been born. Sam was holding her as she lay in her hospital bed and Lauren was standing next to Sam, smiling down at her new sister.
"That me?" Heather asked, staring at the small bundle of blankets.
"That's right, that's you," San said. "See how tiny you were? Well right now your brother or sister is even tinier than that. According to the doctor, the baby's about the size of a peanut right now."
"That small!" Heather gasped, amazed.
"I know," Sam agreed. "And that's why we need to wait for the baby to grow before it can come out."
Heather nodded. "Lauren a baby?"
"Yeah, Lauren was a baby once too," Sam chuckled, flipping through the book, finding some of Lauren's old baby pictures that Freddie had put in. "See, this is Lauren when she was a baby. I bet it's kind of funny seeing what your big sister looked like when she was a baby, huh?"
"Funny!" Heather laughed.
Sam watched as Heather turned the pages of the photo album, looking through pictures of her and Lauren at all different ages.
"Who this?" Heather suddenly asked as she turned past the page with pictures from Lauren's middle school graduation.
Sam's smile dropped as she stared down at the picture Heather was pointing at. It was of a two-year old Conner playing at the park.
Heather didn't know anything about Conner yet; Sam had always planned on telling her, but two-years old was far too young for her to understand, she reasoned.
Now, though, it didn't seem like she had anyway out of it.
"That's Conner, sweetie," Sam sighed heavily. "He's-He's your big brother."
"I have brother?" Heather asked, confused.
"Yes," Sam said softly. "Or well, you-you did. See, Conner was my son that I had before daddy and I got married."
Heather stared blankly up at her mother, clearly not understanding these details.
"Conner got really sick, Heather," Sam explained. "And he died way before you were born."
"That sad," Heather said, and Sam gently kissed the top of her head.
"It is," Sam whispered. She wrapped around her daughter tightly. "You know you look a lot like him…"
Shortly after she had gone through the photo album, Heather fell asleep in Sam's arms. Sam knew she still didn't understand too much about Conner and that she'd have to explain it again once she was older. She didn't mind though; in fact, she almost envied Heather's child-like ignorance.
Freddie walked into the room later that evening, yawning.
"What's Heather doing in here?" he asked, kicking off his shoes. "We put her to bed hours ago."
"She found her way back in here," Sam said simply. "You care if she sleeps with us for tonight?"
Freddie smiled. "Of course I don't."