A/N: I am so, SO, sorry for not finishing this sooner. I had a bit of writer's block, not to mention a big blow to my confidence in writing this. Oh well. This chapter covers my favorite holiday. Seddie + Christmas= me in paradise! xDDD
Oh! And down in there you'll find a line that begins "For a minute or two, he watched her sleep…" That is a reference to The Best Laid Plans. For those of you who don't know, The Best Laid Plans was a fanfic I wrote before I began working on this. It showed how Sam and Freddie first began to date. So for all of you who read The Best Laid Plans, YES, this fic is the follow-up to it. And if you haven't…well….go read it!
I think you're really going to like this !
Freddie shook Sam awake cautiously. It was a Saturday, and he was taking this particular day off to his advantage.
Sam awoke very slowly and with the attitude of a bear woken from its hibernation.
"Mmmmf…"
"Sorry…" Freddie whispered.
"Not sorry enough to just let me sleep." Sam mumbled sleepily, closing her eyes again.
"This won't take long. I just need to ask you where the axe is."
Sam's eyes flew open. Now fully awake, she turned around sharply to face Freddie.
"Where the what is?"
"The axe." Freddie replied with a smirk.
"What do you need an axe for?"
"Well, see, Griffin told me about this really cool Christmas tree lot, and you get to chop the trees down yourself, so I needed to know where the axe was so I don't have to use a steak knife or something…"
"Oh…" Sam rolled her eyes. Now it was her turn to smirk.
"That makes sense."
"What do you mean?"
"For a second there, I actually thought you were doing something, you know, cool and exciting."
Freddie rolled his eyes.
"But…wait…" Sam said, realization hitting her.
"What?"
"Carls and Mel are both out of town, and you won't be here. I need someone home, remember?"
"I already thought of that."
Reaching to the bedroom floor, he grabbed his laptop and a small camera. Fastening the camera behind his ear, he showed her the laptop.
"See? With this camera, you can look at the laptop screen, and you can see and hear everything I do. And you can press these keys…" he held down Command J, "and talk, and I'll be able to hear you and everything. So if you need me, just yell."
Sam nodded. "Nice nerd piece."
"Sam…"
"OK, OK…sorry…"
"So, where's the axe?"
"Oh, yeah! It's on the top shelf of our closet."
After Freddie had dressed, he took the axe in his hand. "I can't believe you keep this in our closet."
"Well, if anyone were to rob us or something, we'd know where the weapons were. So we'd be prepared. And prepared means safe, since safety means the world to you."
"It does not."
He leaned down to kiss the tip of her nose.
"But it's a close second."
Sam smiled.
Staring into the fluorescent light of the laptop screen, Sam gave Freddie advice in choosing the right tree, laughed when he dropped the blunt part of the axe on his foot before asking if he was alright (he was), and giving him a hard time when he had to get Griffin to cut down the tree for him because his fingers were too numb. (Sam called it "Typical Fredward Weakness", and Freddie replied "Typical Puckett Meanness")
She was forced to sit and watch as Freddie set up the tree by himself. He, however, had taken the liberty to move their TV to the left and position the tree in front of their bed so that she would be able to actually look at it over the holidays.
Sam sat with the box of ornaments on her lap, telling Freddie exactly where she wanted each one of them. It was perfect; she not only got to do something somewhat fun, she got the added bonus of bossing Freddie around. It took him the entire rest of the afternoon to set up the tree so that it met Sam's requirements exactly. By dinnertime, snow was falling thick and fast outside of their window, nearly obscuring their view of the outside world completely.
Dinner that night was a Hawaiian pizza from the Pizza Shack, which Sam and Freddie ate almost absently, transfixed by the light of the tree before them. They ate in absolute silence, just listening to the sound of wind breathing on their windowpane, causing snowflakes to tap on the glass gently. After a long time, Sam kicked the pizza box on the floor with a sweeping motion, causing Freddie to give a small chuckle.
"It's almost time." Sam said suddenly.
"Hmm?" Freddie replied, having been sucked out of his little world of light bulbs and the fresh scent of pine trees swirling around their room.
"For Abby." Sam said, looking over at Freddie.
"What makes you say that?"
"I dunno…just…instinct, I guess."
Freddie nodded. He put his arm around Sam's shoulder, and she obligingly leaned against his.
"Well, regardless…" Freddie said soothingly, "I'll be right here the whole time."
"You'd better be, Benson." Sam said with a small smile.
"Benson yourself."
"Seven years ago I would have slapped you across the face for saying that."
She stuck her finder in her mouth and then into Freddie's ear with her free hand.
"But since we're married and all, that's all you're getting."
"Lucky me."
"Lucky you."
Neither of them said anything after that. Sam eventually dropped into sleep there, leaning against Freddie. He flicked off the lights with the Universal remote he had received from his cousin as a wedding gift.
For a minute or two he simply watched Sam sleep. It reminded him of a time not so long ago…maybe six years? …when he had first begun to date Sam Puckett. That project seemed so long ago, but it was the whole reason they were here today.
And so it was with her on his mind that Freddie, too, fell asleep.
At around two in the morning, beads of sweat were forming on Sam's face. She was dreaming, and in her dream, she kept experiencing flashes of increasingly large jolts of pain. Her hand, which was entwined with Freddie's, was twitching in its place. It felt like a knife was being pushed into her, deeper and deeper each time...panic was beginning to set in…
Her blue eyes flew open, but all she saw was a sheet of blackness. The searing pain from her vivid dream was still present…her hand crushed Freddie's as she shouted out loud…
"Sam!" Freddie cried, immediately turning the lights on. Sam squinted in the brightness, refusing to release her vice-like grip of Freddie.
Freddie and Sam looked down at the mess of wetness around Sam, her broken water having spilled out all over the bedcovers.
And as Freddie looked her over, it became obvious in an instant that in her sleep, Sam had gone into labor.
Their nervous eyes met eachother.
"Oh, God…" Sam breathed hoarsely.
And then they spoke at the same instant.
"It's time."
A/N: And with that, I leave you with this cliffhanger.