"Here," Freddie said, handing Sam a water bottle he had just purchased from the vending machine. "Drink this."

Sam took the bottle from him as she leaned against the stone wall of the courthouse. She had been sitting in that room for three hours, listening to the two lawyers go back and forth using legal jargon that she didn't couldn't follow. They were at a recess right now, but Sam just wanted to be done with this whole thing.

"I think the judge is on your side," Freddie said, gently rubbing Sam's shoulder. "She seems fair, so she should be able to see that Marshall shouldn't have any rights to Kira and Leah."

Sam didn't reply.

"There you are," Theodore said, approaching the couple.

"How much longer is this going to take?" Sam asked.

"Longer than I thought," Theodore told her honestly. "I was just with the judge in her chambers, it looks like this case is going to get spread out over a few dates."

"Why?" Freddie frowned.

"There's simply too much evidence that needs to be analyzed," Theodore explained. "Unfortunately, Mr. Motonson is using every stalling tactic in the book because he knows there is no way that this judge will fall for his client's crap story about 'changing his life'. I was just shown his next point of argument and he's going to be bringing up your own parenting, Mrs. Benson."

"What about my parenting?" Sam snapped. "He's saying I'm an unfit mother?"

"He's bringing up the fact you worked a full-time job for ten years as a single mother after he was arrested and weren't able to provide the developmentally stable home that the girls needed," Theodore said.

"Sam's a good mom," Freddie said firmly.

"So now every single mom out there is harming her kids?" Sam exclaimed.

"Of course not," Theodore said calmly. "As I said, this is simply a stalling tactic. I will have his point brought down in a second."

"Why's he stalling?" Sam moaned. "He knows in the end he's going to lose."

"It's more of a pride thing for Mr. Motonson," Theodore told her. "He doesn't want to go down without a fight. Now, most likely, when we return to the judge's office in a few moments, she's going to dismiss the case for today and it will be picked up at her earliest opening, probably in a few weeks-"

"Weeks?" Sam repeated. "What happened to this 'right to a speedy trial' junk?"

"Speedy is a relative term," Theodore said. "In the legal world a month is practically less than a day."

"But you said there could be a few dates for this case," Freddie said. "Just how long are you predicting this goes on?"

"My guess would be that it could get dragged on until the middle of May," Theodore told her. "June at the latest."

"I'm supposed to be giving birth at the end of May!" Sam exclaimed. "So let me guess, if that happens this whole thing just gets pulled out even more?"

"I'm afraid so," Theodore nodded. "Although it's likely that the judge will try to move this along somewhat so you won't go into labor in the middle of this all."

Freddie gripped Sam's hand. He didn't know how Sam was going to handle the stress of a pregnancy and a custody case at once.

"Mr. Breslin? Court will be resuming in two minutes," one of the court officers told Theodore, poking his head out of the office.

"Listen to me, Sam," Theodore said, using her first name for the first since he had met her. "If it's a fight these two want, then we'll give them one hell of a fight."

…..

Just as Theodore had predicted, when they returned to the judge's office, she announced that they were done for the day. She had many cases that she needed to preside over and she couldn't spend her entire day on just once. She told them that their next court date would be in four weeks, right around the start of February, and until a final decision was made, Marshall was still to stay away from Sam and the twins.

Sam and Freddie returned to the apartment just as it was starting to get dark, a few flurries of snow falling from the sky as they made their way up the many flights of steps.

Mrs. Fisher had been staying with the girls all day. Sam was impressed when she had told the twins this; they did not give her one complaint.

"Hey, Mrs. Fisher," Sam said when her and Freddie entered the apartment. "Thanks for watching the girls all day. I hope they didn't bug you too much."

"Oh they weren't any trouble at all," the elderly woman told her, beginning to put away her knitting. "It's always a pleasure getting to be around children. If only my own children would bring around my grandchildren…You know I have a five-year old grandson who I've only seen three times? They send pictures, sure, but can I spoil pictures?"

"Tell you what," Sam smiled. "You can come around to our new place any time you want and spend time with our baby once he's born."

"I'll take you up on that offer, dear," Mrs. Fisher laughed. "Have a good night, you two!"

"I'm gonna miss her when we move," Sam sighed as her neighbor closed the front door behind her.

"Me too," Freddie agreed.

"Did the judge tell you that he doesn't get to have custody of us?" Kira asked, running out of her bedroom to greet her mother and Freddie with Leah at her heels.

"The case isn't done yet," Sam explained. "It's going to continue in four weeks. Until then your father still has no rights to you and isn't allowed to see you."
"But he already did," Leah frowned. "Doesn't he get in trouble for coming here the other day."

"As far as the law's concerned, that never happened," Sam sighed. "We can't prove it. They're not taking my word for it because they claim I have some sort of vendetta against him."

"But we saw! We can testify or whatever!" Kira pointed out.

"My lawyer tried that," Sam smiled. "Apparently your words aren't any good either seeing as you've been exposed to my brainwashing about your father."

"The court system seems really stupid," Leah cringed.

"So you've noticed?" Freddie chuckled.

"Yeah," Leah nodded. "You know, when I become a famous lawyer one day, I'm gonna fix all these problems they have going on in it."

"I look forward to that," Sam said.

"Hey, why don't I go and pick us up some dinner," Freddie suggested. "I know I'm starving."

"Can you get Mexican food?" Kira asked.

"Sure," Freddie nodded.

"Wait, can I come with you?" Leah asked. "The make-up store is right next to the Mexican restaurant and I need to get some more gold glitter nail polish!"

"If she gets to go to the make-up store then I want to go get a new deck of NBA trading cards!" Kira frowned. "Can I come too, Freddie? The trading card store's across the street."

"Why don't we all just go and eat in the restaurant then?" Sam said, rolling her eyes.

"Works for me," Freddie shrugged. "Go get your jackets girls."

"I guess we get to see if this baby can handle tacos," Sam said, rubbing her abdomen. "I couldn't eat those when I was pregnant with the twins…hopefully this time this kid can hold them down."

"Hopefully," Freddie nodded. "Um, hey, baby?"

"Yeah?"

"Well, I-I understand if you don't want to do this, what with the case getting extended," Freddie said. "But I do still have those appointments to go look at those houses tomorrow…I can cancel them, but-"

"No," Sam said. "We'll go. We need to start looking around anyway."

"Are you sure?" Freddie asked.

"Yes, Freddie," Sam smiled. "It will be fun. We'll take the twins, we can go get lunch at one of those fancy suburbs coffee shops…It will be good for us."