"Wow, that meeting went on forever," Freddie said late one night, returning to the apartment.
"Don't complain, you still get to work from home most of the time," Sam pointed out, looking up from her laptop as Freddie gave her a quick peck. "Unlike some of us."
"You know you like your job," Freddie grinned.
"Just arresting people," Sam mumbled.
"So what are you up to?" Freddie asked, sitting down next to her.
"Oh, I was just writing down a few names of people to invite to the wedding," Sam said.
"Really?" Freddie replied. "Well that works out nicely, because I happened to be doing the same thing during my ridiculously long meeting."
"Freddie Benson not paying attention at work?" Sam gasped. "What's the world coming to?"
"Let me just see your list," Freddie said, rolling her eyes.
"Fine," Sam said. "Let's see…I have Carly and Spencer, Caleb and his wife, Mrs. Fisher from across the hall, Melanie, my mom, assuming she's allowed back on planes to fly over here, the six of my cousins who are out of jail and the manager from Inside-Out-Burger who always gave me extra fries whenever I ordered there."
"Nice," Freddie said approvingly. "Now who else?"
"Who else?" Sam frowned. "What do you mean? That's everybody."
"Oh," Freddie said quickly. "Oh, well, um, that-that's great then."
"How many people are you planning to invite?" Sam asked, crossing her arms.
"Well," Freddie said thoughtfully. "There's my mom, my cousin Stephanie, my Aunt Margaret, my old roommate, Tony, from college, a bunch of guys from my old office back in Seattle, the members from the Technology Enthusiasts club I was in, my old neighbor, my-"
"Well excuse me for not being as popular as you," Sam said. "What happened to a small wedding?"
"It's still going to be small," Freddie said, putting an arm around her.
"I guess," Sam said, resting her head on his shoulder. "But-"
"Mom?" Leah said suddenly, coming out of her bedroom wearing her pajamas and clutching her stomach. "Mom, I feel sick."
"What?" Sam frowned as Leah collapsed onto the couch next to her. "What's wrong?"
"My stomach," Leah cringed. "It hurts, really bad. It feels like it's on fire."
"Was it maybe something you ate?" Sam asked anxiously. Even though it had been over two years since Leah had been in the hospital with kidney failure, Sam still felt her heart stop every time the girl would even cough.
"No, it doesn't hurt like that," Leah moaned. "It stings. Really badly."
"Stings?" Sam repeated.
"Hold on," Freddie said, gently pushing up Leah's pajama top just enough to reveal her naval. Just as he had predicted, it was bright red and there was a white substance forming around her new belly button ring.
"What the-When did that-?" Sam demanded.
"It must be infected," Freddie said, cutting her off.
"Okay, I'm taking her to the hospital," Sam said, scooping Leah into her arms. "You grab Kira and follow behind us."
"Okay," Freddie nodded as Sam hurried out of the apartment.
I should've told her, Freddie thought to himself as he headed back to Kira. This is all my fault…If anything happens to Leah…God, how could I have been so stupid?
…..
"She's going to be fine," a doctor told Sam about an hour later as he flipped through some papers on his clipboard.
"Are you sure?" Sam asked, glancing down at her daughter, who was sitting drowsily in a hospital bed. "She only has one kidney and she's had trouble with infections her whole life and-"
"We know all that," the doctor said kindly, offering her an understanding smile. "And she's still going to be fine. I see this sort of thing all the time; those body shops sometimes simply don't sanitize their equipment correctly. Where did you all go to have this done?"
"I don't know," Sam said, giving Leah a cool glare.
"Well just make sure that next time, you double check with the shop to make sure everything has been cleaned correctly," the doctor told her. "Usually the infections aren't this bad. They'll just make you a bit sore for a few days. But as you said, she does only have one kidney…We gave her some antibiotics and that seems to be doing the trick. I want to keep her overnight to make sure she doesn't have any other reactions, but she should be all set to go home in the morning."
"Good, thank you," Sam sighed.
Sam waited until the doctor had left the room before turning back to Leah. "Are you kidding me?"
"All my friends got their bellybuttons pierced," Leah pointed out. "Megan's mom even let her get it done when she was eleven!"
"Oh? Did Megan's mom have to spend eight years worrying about whether her daughter's kidneys were going to last another day?" Sam snapped.
"I'm fine!" Leah moaned. "I'm not sick anymore. I can get stuff pierced, you know."
"No, you can't!" Sam said. "Especially not behind my back! I swear, this is probably the stupidest thing you've ever done!"
"You know," Kira mumbled to Freddie as the two watched the scene from the corner of the room. "It's nice not being on the other end of one of mom's fits."
Freddie said nothing as he continued to let the feeling of guilt flood his body.
"I'm sorry," Leah mumbled, looking down at her lap.
"You better be," Sam said. "I can't believe you, Leah…You just wait until you get out of this hospital. You're going to be grounded for a long time."
"But the school dance is next week!" Leah cried. "Mathew was so close to asking me to go with him!"
"Too bad," Sam said simply, starting towards the door.
"Where are you going?" Freddie asked.
"To grab something from the cafeteria," Sam replied. "Believe it or not, having to rush your kid to the emergency room at one in the morning takes a lot out of you."
Freddie sighed as he got to his feet and followed Sam out of the room.
"Sam-" he started.
"You knew she did that," Sam said, stopping in her tracks. "And you didn't say anything to me?"
"I-I didn't want you to overreact," Freddie said lamely.
"She's in the hospital!" Sam exclaimed. "How am I supposed to react?"
"I-I-Okay," Freddie said, defeated. "You're right. This whole thing is my fault."
Sam looked up at him. "Why didn't you say anything? Even if it was Kira, who probably wouldn't have wound up in the hospital, bellybutton piercing is kind of something they should be grounded for."
"I know," Freddie said. "It's just-"
"You're afraid to, aren't you?" Sam said knowingly.
"Well I want them to like me!" Freddie defended.
"Pfft, they'll still like you if you don't let them do whatever they want," Sam scoffed. "Trust me, I've been grounding them for years!"
"Oh come on, you're their mom," Freddie said, rolling his eyes. "They have to like you. Who am I? Just some dude who happens to be marrying their mom. If I start trying to ground them, they'll hate me!"
"No they won't," Sam said. "And baby…you're not just some guy to them. They love you. You're the closest thing they've ever had to a dad."
"You-You really think so?" Freddie asked.
"I do," Sam nodded. "And I know I don't exactly have first hand knowledge, but I'm pretty sure dads don't always just give kids whatever they want…"
Freddie chuckled. "I guess not. It's just still sort of new to me. I mean, I've never really dealt with kids before I met the twins."
"It's not as hard as you think," Sam said, patting his shoulder. "It's even sort of fun sometimes. You know, when they aren't bugging you for money or complaining about a million things."
Freddie laughed. "Okay," he said. "I-I guess I can start working on trying to discipline the girls more."
"There you go," Sam said. "Now come on, let's go grab us some of those fancy hospital pudding cups."