"I don't know what happened," Sam said that same evening as she laid next Freddie on their bed. "I-I just panicked. I never panic like that!"

"Well you thought that Marshall was following you and Carly," Freddie reasoned. "It was normal for you to feel freaked out."

"Yeah but once I got a better look at that guy…he looked nothing like Marshall. Sure, he was tall, but he was thinner and-and he had different colored hair and a mustache and-"

"Sam, you made a mistake," Freddie said. "That's all."

"I told you he tried to psych me out," Sam sighed, leaning back against her pillows. "Looks like he succeeded."

"He only succeeds if you let him," Freddie said firmly. "Sam…you're so much stronger than him. That's why he has to resort to making you beat yourself like this; because he knows he can't do it alone! Please don't let him take any more than he already has from you. I hate seeing you like this."

Sam looked up, giving his hand a light squeeze. "At least he can't take you away from me…"

"Never," Freddie promised, kissing her temple. "Never."

….

"Donut?" Caleb said a few days later, stopping at Sam's desk with a dozen of donuts.

"Could you look more like a cop right now?" Sam smirked as she took one.

"Maybe if I hadn't just thrown away my coffee cup," Caleb replied. "When do you start your maternity leave?"

"End of the month," Sam replied. "Thank God…I need to start packing the apartment up."

"You're not moving yet," Caleb said, rolling his eyes.

"Yeah, but hopefully once we finish up with this whole custody thing we can put an offer on our dream house we found and we can get started," Sam said. "Our realtor told us some couple almost put an offer on it a couple weeks ago…if they know what's good for them, they'll look somewhere else. The last thing they want is a pregnant lady mad at them."

"Why are you guys waiting until the end of the trial?" Caleb asked.

"Just…because," Sam shrugged.

Caleb lowered his voice. "You're going to leave if the court winds up awarding Marshall custody aren't you?"

Sam looked right into his eyes. "I shouldn't be discussing that in a police office."

Caleb nodded slowly, clearly getting the message.

"You know," he sighed. "I would too…if I was in that situation. But come on, Sam, no judge in their right mind would award that monster custody of a goldfish, let alone children."

Sam gave him a small smile. "That's what everyone keeps saying."

"Because it's true," Caleb said firmly. "Now, do you want this last donut or should I save it for later?"

"Give it here," Sam said. "You know I don't refuse food. Especially when I get to use the 'eating for two' excuse. Oh! I was supposed to ask you about something! Your brother Alex is coming up tomorrow for your grandmother's birthday, right?"

"Yeah," Caleb nodded. "Why?"

"Well my friend Carly's in town," Sam said. "You remember her from the wedding, right?"

"Sure," Caleb replied. "What about her?"

"Any chance Alex would maybe wanna go on a blind date with her?" Sam asked. "She's sort of down in the dumps with her love life and I promised her I'd try and see if she could maybe start talking with your brother."
Caleb gave her a strange look. "You don't listen to me when I talk, do you?"

"What?" Sam scoffed. "I always listen to you."

"Tell me what I've told you about Alex."

"He's a stockbroker, he's a year younger than you, he's single, what else is there?" Sam replied.
"Let's just say Carly's not exactly his type," Caleb smirked.

"Oh why not?" Sam said, rolling her eyes. "She's cute! If you think he'd be worried about the whole her living in Seattle thing, tell him she's kind of loaded and flies back and forth here anyway."

"That's not the problem."

"Come on, just ask him!" Sam said, exasperated. "She's a hot chick, what more does he-"

"That's the problem," Caleb grinned. "She's a hot girl."

"What's the-oh," Sam said slowly. "Oh…you did mention that. Well, tough break for Carly."

"Sorry," Caleb chuckled.

…

"Hey, Sam?" Freddie said one afternoon, looking up from yet another parenting book he was reading. "Do you know that a lot of newborns wind up getting fevers, coughs and other illnesses during their first month because their immune system isn't fully developed yet?"

"Really?" Sam said. "Huh…I guess that makes sense. The twins both got sick when they were really young."

"Maybe if we work out a sterilizing system, we can prevent that…" Freddie said thoughtfully.

"Oh my God, do you know how much you sounded like your mom just then?" Sam frowned.

"Well we can't let the baby get sick!"

"All babies get sick at some point in their lives," Sam said, rolling her eyes. "When the twins got sick I took them to the doctor and he told me it was normal and to just give them this baby medicine he gave me."

"Oh…" Freddie nodded. "Well I also just read a chapter about how the proper diaper brand choices can impact a child the rest of their life."

"What?" Sam laughed. "Dude, it's time to put the parenting books away. They're just getting stupid now."

"Sam, I need to read up on this stuff," Freddie said. "You realize that in less than three months this baby's going to be here?"

"Yeah, believe it or not having the kid growing inside of me makes that pretty hard to forget," Sam smirked. "Freddie, come on, how many of those books have you read?"

"A few," Freddie replied.

"More like a few dozen," Sam said. "Just relax, baby. You're going to be a great dad."

"How can you possibly know that?" Freddie frowned. "I'm not like you, Sam. I don't have experience! You've gone through this all before but this is all new to me. I don't know what I'm doing. I've never changed a diaper before or-or fed a baby or prepared formula or taught anyone how to walk or talk. I-I'm just afraid that I might wind up screwing this poor kid up with my lack of parenting skills."
Sam gave him a small smile as she sat down next to him.

"You don't get parenting skills from books," Sam told him gently. "You get them on the job. Trust me…when I found out I was pregnant with the twins, I was terrified. I was eighteen, just moved to New York, and was dating some jerk that I barely knew. I had no money, no family near me, I wasn't speaking to my two best friends…By the time I had wrapped my head around the idea of having one kid the doctor came and told me I was gonna be having two. But-But when you first hold our baby in your arms…you'll just know that you can do it. When I held Kira and Leah I knew that they were the two things in my life that I hadn't screwed up yet and I was going to make sure I did whatever I could to give them the best lives they could have."

"You really have given them the best lives you could," Freddie said earnestly.

"And we'll give our son the best life we can too," Sam promised. "He's going to have the best dad out there, after all."

"And the best mom," Freddie smiled. "He's a real lucky guy."