Cassie is situated in her sitting room with a cup of aromatic tea when Sam returns. He finds a basinet nestled at the end of the coffee table.

"It occurs to me that we need to have a conversation."

"About our uninvited houseguest?"

"Cassie did you have some inclination that this was coming?"

Cassie glances into the basinet at the sleeping newborn, and then to her husband who takes a seat next to her.

"No. I was just as surprised as you were."

"I find it troubling."

"That I am a licensed foster parent, and I didn't tell you?"

He shakes his head, "No. I'm not upset about that."

"Oh."

"This isn't New York. This is Middleton. Babies don't get abandoned in Middleton. I worry that there is someone is trouble out there."

"You left in such a hurry this morning you forgot your phone. Derek thinks that he located the mother."

"So our little house guest is a short term one?"

"I don't know. Derek said that he would update us with more details. In the meantime I scheduled a pediatrician appointment for tomorrow."

Sam watches Cassie as her eyes once again drift to the newborn. He gently places his hand on her knee.

"I am having a hard time getting a read on you. What are you thinking?"

"All of these years I've renewed my license thinking that I would never really need it. Today was the first time I felt sad that I might not need it in the future. I can't quite wrap my head around it, because I feel like we've grown quite content with the way our life is. We aren't tied down. Our focus can be on our marriage. If the mood strikes we can pack up, and hit the road."

"I thought that was what you wanted."

"So did I."

He simmers in a moment of silence. Vacating his seat he rises to his feet. Ignoring all of the advice to let a sleeping baby lie he scoops up the tiny lad. His tiny newborn body is snuggled soundly into a green swaddle. His body doesn't even measure the length of Sam's forearm in his tiny nestled state.

"He looks a little jaundiced."

"I noticed. I held him in the afternoon sunlight that came in through the window until he fell asleep."

At the hospital Derek sits in the waiting room. Finally the lab technician greets him with a manila folder.

"We confirmed a match. The coroner mentioned that she had personal effects for you to take possession of."

Derek nods as he walks through a set of olive green double doors. He makes his way to the coroner's office. She rises to greet him. She hands him a bag of personal effects. She also offers him a note.

"Blairesville police department is releasing the belongings to you. They have already notified next of kin. I think that you will find the note she left particularly helpful."

"Thanks, Sandy, I appreciate it. I just wish we were seeing each other under better circumstances."

Cassie quietly sips her tea as Sam snuggles their tiny house guest. He meets her glance.

"Nick was never this small. He was almost nine pounds at birth."

"Grace never slept when she was an infant, so the whole thing was such a blur. I feel like one day I blinked, and she was up toddling around the house."

"I would have gone for a whole house full of kids, well… at least one more, but Linda could never be convinced. To be fair our marriage was never really stable enough to seriously consider another child."

"By the time Grace came along I had already spent so many years nurturing Brandon, and Lori that it felt like that chapter was closed. Jake, and I never really seriously considered adding anyone else to the family."

Sam smiles as the little lad nestled against his chest yawns. "Let's face it both of our kids know how to command a presence."

"In their very own unique ways."

"I worry that we didn't give enough credence to this topic of conversation."

"I'm not sure an earlier conversation would have proven fruitful. I felt content."

Sam nods, "All of a sudden we had a whirlwind of events, and there is this tiny nameless little guy taking up residence at our home for the time being."

"I'm not sure I can even recount the last time Grey House was home to a baby."

"It certainly does feel like his home though, doesn't it?"

"I worry that we are getting sucked in, and that we are going to set ourselves up for heartbreak."

Sam shrugs, "You don't have an intuition how this is going to shake out?"

"All I have is a sense of impending doom, and I'm not sure where it is coming from."

"Then let's just talk through all of the scenarios."

"As long as we can do so in the next twelve minutes," Cassie agrees.

The center of Sam's forehead droops into a V, "Do you have an appointment?"

"He's going to need to eat."

"If the mom turns up, and reunification is imminent it seems as if that path is pretty straightforward."

"Yes. We will shower him with love, and affection until that moment arrives."

"What if it doesn't?" His brow arches.

Her thumb gently caresses the back of the tiny baby hand hanging onto the swaddle.

"We will do the best we can to cope with whatever outcome arises."

"I get the sense that if reunification occurs that this has still opened a can of worms in our lives."

Cassie shrugs, "Maybe."

"What if he's never going to be reunified? Then what?"

"I would prefer to hear your input before I respond."