Freddie sat in his car in front of the nearby middle school, watching the hundreds of pre-teens pour out of the building. He always picked Leah and Kira up from school; it was much more convenient than Sam having to rush to do it during her lunch break like she had been doing before Freddie came into the picture.

He saw Leah first, walking with a large crowd of laughing kids and wearing her cheerleading uniform. Freddie noticed one of the boys in the group was walking a bit closer to Leah than usual, but before he could give it a second thought, Leah gave her friends a quick wave before running over to the car.

"Hey Freddie," she said brightly.

"Hey Leah," Freddie smiled. "You ready to go?"

"Don't you remember? My mom said I could go to the mall after school," Leah told him.

"Oh, right," Freddie nodded. "Well, um, have fun then. You need any money or anything?"

"No, we're just going to look around," Leah replied. "But can you tell my mom I'll be home by dinner?"

"Sure thing," Freddie assured her. "Any idea where Kira is?"

"Who knows?" Leah shrugged. "Well, see you Freddie!"

Freddie watched as she ran back to her group of friends. He knew Leah must be one of the "popular kids" at school. Sam even sometimes said she was way too popular for her own good. Her and Sam would argue at least once a week about why she wasn't allowed to have a later curfew like all of her friends or why she couldn't date yet or go to all of the "cool" parties. Freddie liked to stay out of these fights. He obviously agreed with Sam on most of the matters; he didn't think a thirteen-year old girl should be staying out late at night at some party with absolutely no adult supervision, but he didn't want to risk ruining his relationship with Leah.

A few minutes after Leah had disappeared, Freddie spotted Kira coming out of the school. Unlike her sister, she was walking by herself.

"Hey, how was school?" Freddie asked as Kira slid into the front seat.

"Tons of fun," Kira replied, her voice dripping in sarcasm, reminding Freddie so much of Sam when she was that age.

"Well didn't you have a science test today?" Freddie continued. "How was that?"

"I got a B-," Kira mumbled.

"Good," Freddie said encouragingly. He knew Kira struggled in school a lot, so getting a grade above a C for her was a big deal.

"Yeah, well Ms. Perfect got an A," Kira said darkly.

"Come on, Leah's best subject is science," Freddie pointed out. "You did great, Kira."

"Thanks," Kira muttered.

"And it looks like it's just you and me for the afternoon," Freddie said as he began to pull out of the school parking lot. "So how about you and I go grab those milkshakes I promised you in the morning and then we go to the park and shoot a few baskets."

Kira gave him a small smile. "You suck at basketball, Freddie."

"Yes I do," Freddie agreed. "So are you still in?"

Kira nodded. "Only if you promise not to try and do another slam dunk; you fell flat on your face last time."

"Deal," Freddie grinned.

…

"Carly, I told you, we're going to start really planning everything tonight," Freddie said, holding his cell phone between his ear and his shoulder as he stirred a pot of steamed vegetables on the stove.

"Do I need to come over there?" Carly asked on the other line. "And make sure you really start?"

"Trust me, Leah's doing an excellent job of making sure Sam and I get this done," Freddie said.

"Well when Sam gets home, tell her to give me a call, because I have a stack of bridal magazines with all the dresses I know she'll love marked off," Carly said. "Oh, and I found a few bands that you guys might want to have play at the reception."

"Thanks Carls," Freddie said as he heard the apartment door open. "Anyway, I have to go. Dinner's almost ready."

"Alright, I'll talk to you later," Carly said. "Tell the twins I said hi."

"Will do," Freddie nodded. "Bye."

He hung up the phone just as Leah came into the kitchen.

"How was the mall?" Freddie asked as Leah slowly sat down at one of the chairs around the table.

"Um, it was good," Leah replied.

Freddie glanced over at her and noticed an odd expression on her face, almost like a pained one.

"You okay, Leah?" Freddie asked, concerned.

"Huh? Oh yeah, I'm fine," Leah said quickly.

Freddie raised an eyebrow. "Are you sure?"

"Yup," Leah nodded. She got to her feet. "In fact, why don't I help you cook?"

She headed over to the spice cabinet and stood on her toes, reaching for the pepper grinder. As she reached, the top of her cheerleading uniform rose a tiny bit, and Freddie caught sight of something shiny.

"Whoa, Leah!" Freddie said. "Is that-Did you get your bellybutton pierced?"

"No!" Leah said at once, pulling down her shirt.

"Then what was-"

"Okay, yes," Leah conceded. "I-I got it done at the mall this afternoon."

"Leah," Freddie sighed. "You-You know your mom isn't going to be happy about this."

"But all my friends were going to do it," Leah told him. "And it was my friend's older sister that did it. She works at a body shop. And I really wanted it and I know mom would totally freak out."

"Yes, but still…" Freddie said. "You shouldn't have done it. I mean you have to be especially careful about infections you know. You only have one kidney! What if the piercing gun wasn't sanitized properly or-"

"But I'm fine, Freddie," Leah pointed out. "I swear. Everyone's sore right now, but it's supposed to feel better in the morning."

"Okay, but-" Freddie began.

"Please don't tell my mom?" Leah pleaded.

"Leah, she has to know," Freddie reasoned.

"I'll tell her," Leah told him. "Eventually…Just let me figure out a good time and I swear I will."

Freddie bit his lip. He knew Sam would kill him if she found out he kept something like this. But then again…He had such a good relationship with Leah right now. He sometimes almost felt like they were father and daughter. He didn't want to ruin that.

"Okay," Freddie finally agreed. "But you have to tell your mom soon, alright?"

"Totally!" Leah beamed, throwing her arms around Freddie. "You're the best, Freddie!"

Just then the apartment door opened again and Sam walked into the kitchen a few seconds later.

"Guess who got to arrest six people today," Sam announced.

"Good job," Freddie said, giving her a quick kiss as Leah smoothed down her shirt to make sure her mother wouldn't see her new piercing.

"Too bad that means about a ton of paper work," Sam sighed. "I can probably pass half of it over to Caleb, though. What's for dinner?"

"Baked chicken and steamed vegetables," Freddie replied.

"Excuse me?" Sam cringed.

"Come on, it's healthy," Freddie pointed out. " But since I knew you would react like this, I picked you up some cupcakes from the new bakery a couple blocks over."

"See, this is why we're getting married," Sam grinned. She turned to Leah. "So how was the mall?"

"Fine," Leah said, a bit too quickly.

Sam gave her a strange look but said nothing.

"Where's Kira?" Sam asked Freddie.

"In her room, supposedly doing homework," Freddie replied.

"Yeah…like that's happening," Sam said, rolling her eyes as she reached for some plates to begin setting the table.

"I'll do that," Leah said, taking the plates from her mother.

"Um…okay," Sam frowned.

"So Sam," Freddie said before his fiancé could question Leah's strange behavior. "You ready for some serious wedding planning tonight?"

"I guess," Sam groaned. "Or we could watch reruns of Full House."

"Mom, you promised," Leah reminded her.

"Okay, okay, I was kidding," Sam said. "Jeez."

…..

"So I guess the first thing we should do is pick a date, right?" Freddie said later that evening as the couple sat in their bed.

"I dunno, I've never planned a wedding," Sam shrugged.

"Well neither have I," Freddie pointed out. "Look, let's at least get the easy things done tonight, okay? We'll pick a date and a place."

"Fine," Sam agreed. "When do you want to get married?"

"Well," Freddie stared, opening his Pearbook and pulling up his calendar. "We'll want to leave optimal planning time, give everyone enough notice to RSVP, have time for us get the reception organized…I'd say in six months would be good."

"Six months?" Sam exclaimed.

"You think seven would be better?" Freddie asked.

"Come on, Fredward, do we really need six months just to get married?" Sam sighed.

"A wedding's a lot of work," Freddie told her.

"I know," Sam said. "But…I don't know if I want that huge of a wedding. I mean, do we really need to plan for that long just to have some people watch us say some things and kiss?"

"You're really making this wedding sound romantic," Freddie smirked.

"I'm serious," Sam said. "I want to marry you. I don't need some fancy ceremony in some giant church for that. Can't we just have a small thing? You know, with us and the girls and Carly and your mom and a few other people?"

Freddie smiled. "Is that what you really want?"

Sam nodded. "But if you want to do something bigger…I'll deal with it."

"Sam," Freddie chuckled. "I don't want you to "deal with" anything on your wedding day. It's supposed to be the best day of your life. Of our lives. Honestly, I don't care what this wedding is like. Giant ceremony or not, at the end of the day, I just want to end up with you as my wife. I've never exactly been in love with the idea of some over-the-top wedding either."

"Really?" Sam said.

"Really."

Sam laughed and gave him a quick kiss. "I love you so much right now."

"I love you too," Freddie said. "Now let's finish this up so maybe we'll have some time left tonight to do something else…"

"Well…how about this?" Sam said slowly. "There's this really nice gazebo type thing in that park over on 43rd street where I used to take the twins to play when they were little. People rent it out all the time for things. We could maybe rent it out for a small wedding."

"A wedding in the park," Freddie repeated thoughtfully. "I think I like that. We'd have a great background for pictures, plus the fresh air would be great."

"And you're totally okay with it, right?" Sam asked.

"I'm more than okay with it," Freddie said. "And now all we need is a date and we're done with step one of planning. How's March grab you?"

"March?" Sam frowned.

"You're right…it'd still be a little cold," Freddie said. "Maybe we should wait until April. Or May. You know, because April is always so rainy and-"

"Why do we have to wait until then?" Sam asked.

"Huh?"

"Come on, even if we do it in March, that's five months away," Sam pointed out. "I-I sort of don't want to wait that long…"

"You don't?" Freddie asked, a small smile creeping onto his face. "You really can't wait?"

Sam rolled her eyes. "Don't make such a big deal out of it, nub. But…no."

"You know," Freddie said. "Since we're having a smaller ceremony, we really don't need to wait that long anymore. We could probably have everything ready in a month."

"Whoa there, let's not get crazy," Sam said. "I still have to find a dress and all that chiz. We can do two months."

"Alright, then it looks like we're having ourselves a December wedding," Freddie said. "I guess I'll bundle up."

"We're doing it at the beginning of December though," Sam said firmly.

"Wow, you really can't wait," Freddie chuckled.

"Oh shut up," Sam smirked, hitting his arm playfully. "I just don't want people thinking they can push together wedding and Christmas presents."

"Of course," Freddie said, rolling his eyes. "It has nothing to do with you being so eager to become Mrs. Sam Benson."

"Puckett-Benson," Sam corrected.

"My mistake," Freddie grinned. "Isn't it harder to put the hyphen in your last name though?"

"No," Sam shrugged. "You just go down to city hall and they'll let you change your name to whatever you want. It takes five minutes to fill out the forms."

"How do you know?" Freddie asked, raising an eyebrow.

Sam's face faltered a little bit. "Um, I had to have Kira and Leah's last names changed to mine…I didn't want them keeping their father's after he got arrested."

"Oh," Freddie said softly, mentally kicking himself for bringing up the subject. Even though him and Sam had been together for quite some time now, he still didn't know all too much about Kira and Leah's real father. They didn't talk about him at all, and all he had managed to get out of Sam was that he was a deadbeat and in jail since the twins were three. "Sorry. I didn't-"

Sam shook her head as she gave him a quick kiss. "Don't," she said. She sat up and moved to sit on Freddie lap and wrapped her arms around his neck, giving him another, deeper, kiss. "Now…Don't you think we deserve some sort of reward for finally getting a date and place picked out for this wedding?"

"What kind of reward were you thinking of?" Freddie asked, running his fingers through her long, blonde hair.

"I'll let you figure that out," Sam said, kissing him passionately.