Chapter 12:

2 years later:

It's been 2 years since Freddie and I found each other. Lilly's 2 & a half now.

Freddie and I are both juniors at UCLA since I took enough classes to skip a year so Freddie and I could graduate together.

Freddie and I still live in Cat's and my old apartment, speaking of which; Cat still lives with Jade in their apartment "Crystal Plaza" with Robbie, Trina, & Beck, just across from UCLA.

She, Beck, and Jade are sophomores there, all majoring in fine arts courses.

Freddie's still majoring in directing & plans to continue working as an intern working on a new movie in just a few months and he's finishing up one right now for a school project. I'm still planning on opening my own daycare company. I'm majoring in child care in school & actually have straight A's in all my classes. Freddie and I are still dating, but nothing else. We've been too busy taking care of Lilly as well as worrying about school and work to think about our future yet.

• •

Freddie's POV:

Sam & I have never been happier! We're both doing great in college, we're making a fair amount of money from small directing jobs and babysitting to cover all of our expenses and other necessities, & we've never been more in love.

Although we've both been busy with work and school, and of course Lilly; I finally decided to take our relationship a step up.

I'm proposing to Sam tonight. I've already got the ring in my pocket and a plan that even involves our old fire escape back in Seattle. Cat's spending the night here watching Lilly with Nonna, Dice, and Goomer. They're staying with her for the whole night.

I got a hotel in Seattle,(which is where I'm proposing to her) & we're spending the night there as well as the next day, before flying back here to finish up the school year.

"Daddy where Momma?", 2-year-old Lilly asks me.

"She'll be coming home soon baby. Come on, let's go get you dinner before your Aunt Cat, Uncle Dice, Nonna, and Uncle Goomer get here.", I say picking her up and carrying her to her high chair.

"Yay! Auntie Cat!", she cheers.

I chuckle at my daughter, as I give her some chicken soup for dinner.

Just as she finishes eating, Sam walks in.

"Hey baby!", I call, walking over to Sam and pecking her on the lips.

"Hey.", she responds with another kiss.

"There's my Lilly!", she exclaims rushing over to our daughter.

"Mommy!", Lilly yells as Sam picks her up out of her high chair and hugs her tightly.

"Are you all finished packing?", I ask her as I take her shopping bags from her and put them in our room.

"Uh yeah.", she answers. "I still don't know why Spencer wanted us to come visit him NOW when we can come in like 2 weeks when summer starts.", she says chuckling.

"Yeah, well he says he really misses us and wants to see us. My mom too.", I say shrugging it off. "Your bags are in the bedroom?", I ask her.

"Yup.", she says cleaning Lilly up and getting her ready for her bath.

I head to our bedroom and grab both Sam's and my bags. I check one final time to make sure the ring is in my pocket. I place it in the front pouch of my bag and bring all the bags to the front door with me. I clean up some of Lilly's toys and set up the air mattress for Nonna in the living room.

Cat's sleeping in her old bed, Dice's sleeping at his apartment, & Goomer is sleeping on our couch.

Sam comes out of the bathroom with Lilly, dressed in her princess nightgown as well as her adorable bunny slippers I bought for her.

"There's my little princess!", I say excitedly ruffling up her brown hair.

She giggles and says "Dada funny!"

Then the doorbell rings.

"I'll get it!", Sam says picking up Lilly and carrying her to the door.

"Hey guys!", she says to Cat, Nona, Dice, and Goomer.

"Aunt Cat! Ukle Dice, Nonna, Ukle Goomer!", Lilly exclaims squirming around in Sam's arms.

Sam laughs as she invites them inside and puts Lilly down on the floor.

"Okay we better get going.", I say looking at my watch.

Everyone says goodbye and after Sam gives like 20,000 different special instructions for taking care of Lilly, I finally get her to say goodbye to her.

We bend down to Lilly's level.

"Lilly sweetie, your mommy and I will be gone just for tonight and tomorrow. Until then your Aunt Cat, Uncle Dice, Nonna, & Goomer are gonna take care of you.", I say explaining the best way I know how to an almost 3-year-old.

Sam and I hug and kiss her goodbye and after several protests from Sam, I finally get her to leave.

We get to the airport, go through security and wait for our flight until we leave.

• •

Sam's POV

We arrive back at the airport in Seattle. It feels good to be back in the place where Freddie and I grew up.

We take a taxi back to Bushwell, since our check in time isn't for another 2 hours.

We knock on Spencer's door, but there's no answer.

Freddie & I walk inside, since we always used to do that as kids.

"It's weird that he's not here.", I say to Freddie.

"Yeah, it is.", he says.

"I thought you told him that we were coming.", I say.

"I did. He's probably out with Sasha. That must be why he left the door unlocked.", he responds shrugging.

"You're sure he said we could come here right?", I ask him.

"Yeah positive.", he answers.

We set our bags down at the front door and Freddie goes to the bathroom to change, since he says that we're doing something "special" for dinner.

I change as well.

He comes out wearing a nice, suave black suit. I'm wearing a black button-down dress with a white shirt underneath and black boots.(From Jennette's bcbgeneration photo shoot)

"Wow you look great! I didn't know if I should dress up or not. Should I go change?", I ask Freddie.

"No! You look prefect Princess Puckett.", he says kissing my cheek.

I smile at him and then he says that he wants me to see something. Confused, I let him to lead me to none other than our old fire escape.

As we walk out onto it, I see candles and rose pedals covering the escape. I looked around, with a wide mouth, shocked at the beautiful sight of everything.

"Cliche huh?", Freddie asks with a chuckle.

"No I love it! I think it's just perfect.", I say, still in amazement.

Freddie & I sit on a blanket that he laid out for us in the small space. We eat the picnic dinner he made for us.

• •

Freddie's POV:

As Sam and I eat, I rehearse what I'm going to say to her in my head.

Before I know it, we're finished eating. I clear away our plates and get ready to do what I've planned.

"Sam? There's something I've been wanting to talk to you about.", I say taking my first approach.

"Yeah what is it Freddie?", she asks looking up. She's clearly oblivious to what's going on.

I smile at her adorableness.

I take her hands in mine as I say this next part.

"Sam, we've had an interesting relationship over the years we've known each other. We went from hating each other to tolerating each other, tolerating each other to liking each other, and liking each other to loving each other. The 4 months we dated when we were 18 were months that I will remember forever. But we've grown since then though, & now we're in a relationship where I feel more than comfortable in. We weren't ready for a relationship when we were 18. But we've changed to be more like each other & in a way, it's brought us closer together. Sam, you're funny, you're smart, you're talented, & even something simple like your beautiful smile can make my entire day. Your eyes; I could get lost just looking in them. Sam I love you & I love Lilly more than anything in the world. I've never been happier & I've never been more in love in my entire life than I am right now. So I wanna ask you this right now Sam: Will you marry me sweetheart?"

Sam gasps, then grins at me, tears filling her eyes. She crashes her lips into mine, wrapping her arms around my neck.

Looking up at me when we've finally pulled away, with her arms still wrapped around my neck, she quietly whispers "Yes."

I smile and kiss her again, pulling away to slip the diamond ring on her ring finger.

"It's beautiful Freddie.", she whispers admiring it.

"Anything for my Princess Puckett.", I say smiling down at her.

"It'll be Princess Benson soon.", she says excitedly.

"Yeah, that's right.", I say as she climbs into my lap.

I wrap my arms around her as she lays her head in the crook of my neck, still admiring her ring.

I kiss her hair gently and whisper "I love you."

"I love you too Freddie", she whispers back, sniffling quietly.

"You're so beautiful.", I whisper looking down at her stunning, petite frame.

She smiles up at me.

"You like your ring?", I ask her chuckling to find her beginning to admire it again.

"I love it.", she responds.

"Gosh, once you have kids you get emotional at everything.", she says laughing at herself.

I chuckle, carefully wiping her tears away. Then I bring out our dessert.

It's chocolate chip cookies, my recipe, which is Sam's favorite. She gets super excited to see that I've made them just for her and we feed them to each other.

While we're finishing, I tell Sam that it was my idea to propose to her here in our special spot & that I had gotten Spencer and my mom to help out. I had told her that they had missed us and had wanted to see us, which was true but we came here for the proposal.

Sam couldn't believe that I had done all that for her, but I had told her that she was worth that and a million things more.

When we were finished, I blew out the candles and left everything there for Spencer and my mom to clean up.

I quickly text Spencer and tell him that we're done and that Sam said "yes", & that they can come and clean up, which is what they've been waiting to do.

I'm so glad that they helped out, because without them, I wouldn't have been able to set everything up on time ad Sam and I are both glad that they got to be apart of it.

I pick Sam up bridal style, and kissing her, I carry her to the elevator & then to our hotel, which is right across from Bushwell.

We quickly check in and then I carry her up to our room, (the honeymoon suite ;) )

I kiss Sam gently, thinking of how much I love her and how things could not have gone more perfect as I carry her inside and we spend the rest of the night together