Sam tried to relax in her seat as they continued the drive to Seattle. By the end of the day, hopefully she and Freddie would be married and then they could go confront Marissa and get their baby son back. She couldn't wait to hold and snuggle baby Freddie again.
Following a quick stop at the courthouse and before going to the apartment buildings where Marissa and the Shays lived, they dropped Melanie off at the Puckett residence. "Good luck, Sis," Sam said to her twin. Jonathon handed Melanie the paperwork that she would need to have her mother sign in order for the wedding ceremony to take place.
"Meet us at Spencer and Carly's once you get the signature," said Jonathon to Melanie.
"Don't worry, you can count on me," Melanie promised.
~*o*~
Melanie walked up to the front door of her mother's home, the house where she had grown up, and just let herself in. "Mom!" she called out, entering the livingroom. Melanie almost walked back out. She had almost forgotten that horrible smell. Booze, cigarettes. It wasn't a welcome odor.
"Mom?" Melanie continued to call out, but where was she? Pam Puckett wasn't in the livingroom and she wasn't answering her daughter.
Melanie finally found her mom passed out on the bed, a whiskey bottle still in hand. Pam opened one eye, looking at her daughter.
"Sam? Is that you?" Pam said softly, sitting up slightly and looking hopeful.
"Yeah, Mom, it's me," replied Melanie, sitting down on the edge of the bed and putting on her "Sam persona."
"Samantha, why did you leave me?" Pam asked, looking very sad.
"Because Mom, I was pregnant. Freddie and I were having a baby... and I couldn't raise a baby here, with you drinking like this," Melanie said softly...
sadly.
"Pregnant?" Pam said in surprise. "Sam? You had a baby?"
"Yes... I have a baby boy," Melanie said, smiling while speaking of baby Fredward.
"I'm a grandmother?" Pam spoke with happiness and surpise. She didn't seem upset at all. In fact, she seemed unusually excited and happy.
"Where is he?" Pam then asked. "Where's my grandson?"
"I will bring him to see you soon, Mom... I promise," said Melanie as she yet pretended to be her twin. "But, Mom, right now I need your help with something. See, Mom, Freddie and I are in love. And we want to get married.
But I'm not quite 18 yet." She handed her mom the parental consent form which needed a parent's signature.
"Please Mom, sign this... let me marry Freddie," said Melanie in a pleading voice. "I love him so much."
"I loved your dad, too... but he left me," Pam said sadly, tears filling her blue eyes.
"Why did he leave me, Sam?" she was asking, still rather drunk.
"I dunno, Mom," sighed Melanie. "I was very little then... I don't remember a lot."
"I drank too much. I can't stop drinking..."
Melanie nodded. Wasn't that the truth? "Mom, please... can you sign this for me? I want to marry Freddie now... today."
"What's the rush?" said Pam as she looked at the papers. The little words and numbers on the document were nothing but a blur. How her head ached. Too much Vodka.
"Freddie's mom is gonna take the baby away, if we don't get married," Melanie explained. "She's not a nice woman, Mom. I don't want her to have my little boy."
"I never did like that uppety bitch," hissed Pam. "Okay, I'll sign this paper... where's a pen?"
~*o*~
Meanwhile, Sam, Freddie and Jonathon had arrived at Carly and Spencer's. Both were so surprised by the visit. Carly grabbed her best friend and hugged her tight, then gave Freddie a massive hug as well. "Where's baby Fredward?" was the first thing she asked. She couldn't wait to get her hands on Sam and Freddie's baby son. "His Aunt Carly wants to spoil him," said Carly with a smile.
Sam shook her head, her eyes full of pain. "Freddie's mom took him away," she said softly. "Have you seen her?"
Spencer and Carly were shocked and disturbed by the news. "No, but she's not acting right... forgive me for saying this, but I think she's a nut-job,"
replied Spencer. "She's been obsessed with finding Freddie and bringing him back home."
"When she couldn't have Freddie, she took the baby instead," Sam explained.
"That's just awful," Carly gasped. "I'm sorry, what can we do to help?"
"Do you have a dress I could borrow?" Sam asked Carly. "Freddie and I are getting married... like now." Carly stared at Sam and Freddie in shock.
Jonathon quickly explained why the wedding would take place immediately and all they hoped to accomplish with the marriage. "As soon as Melanie gets here with those parental consent papers, we can go the courthouse for a quicky ceremony,
then Marissa will have no choice but to give the baby back," Jonathon spoke.
"Want to borrow some duds?" Spencer then asked Freddie. He was excited -
there was going to be a wedding.
Freddie nodded when Spencer asked if he wanted to borrow some clothes. " That would be great. Thanks," he said. He couldn't very well get married dressed like he was, he wanted to do the best he could for Sam even if it was a quickie courthouse ceremony.
Spencer found some dress clothing for Freddie and said that Freddie was welcome to go change in his bedroom. Meanwhile, Carly had gone through her closet and had selected the perfect dress for Sam to borrow. It was stunning. It was silk, ivory in color, and had blue accents that would match Sam's eyes. She found a matching pair of dark blue dress shoes, too, handing them to Sam. Thankfully, she and Sam were the same size. Sam was in Carly's bedroom upstairs, slipping on the dress. She gasped as she gazed at her reflection in the mirror. Her boobs had seemed to have grown about 2 sizes larger since she had been breastfeeding her son. And because of that, she was gonna fill out the bodice of the dress in a rather big way and show off a bit more cleavage than she was accustomed to. She was staring at her boobs and trying to adjust them in the dress when Carly walked in. "Sam?"
Carly said softly, trying not to laugh.
"Ohhh gosh, Carly... something's wrong..." Sam mumbled.
"What is it?" Carly asked, looking at her best friend in concern.
~*o*~
Meanwhile, in the apartment across the hall, Marissa was trying her best to get her grandson to take a bottle of formula. Little Freddie whimpered, turning his head away, crying softly. He had never had formula before, and he wasn't about to try. Baby Fredward wanted his mommy.
"Baby Freddie, whats wrong with you? Aren't you hungry?" Marissa asked the tiny dark-haired baby boy as she continued to try to feed him the nourishing formula. It seemed Little Fredward had a stubborn streak as he looked at Marissa and began to cry - loudly.
~*o*~
"Carly," Sam said miserably. "I'm ... I'm leaking! What shall we do?"
"I can't marry Freddie now ... not when I am leaking!"
Carly looked and saw that Sam had reached for some kleenex to pad the cups of her bra in an attempt to keep the front of the beautiful dress from getting soaked with breastmilk.
"Uhhhh well... I dunno..." Carly babbled.
"Help!" Sam said desperately. She wanted her baby so much right now. And she wanted to cry. But if she didn't marry Freddie, now, she couldn't get her son back.
"I'll be right back," Carly said, as she left her bedroom and made a mad dash to the kitchen.
She was in the kitchen, grabbing a handful of ziplock baggies from the kitchen when Spencer saw her doing so. "What is that for?" he asked, wondering what Sam could possibly want with a bunch of baggies. Wasn't she upstairs getting dressed for the wedding?
"Uhhh... well, Sam sort of has this problem..." Carly said, not knowing what else to say ... or how to explain it.
"She does?" Jonathon spoke up with concern, coming into the kitchen to join Carly and Spencer.
"Yeah- uhhhh..." Carly said, looking at both guys and not knowing how to describe the situation Sam was having upstairs.
Just then Freddie came into the kitchen too, now fully dressed and ready for the wedding ceremony. "What's wrong with Sam?" Jonathon questioned, worried about his soon-to-be daughter-in-law. Afterall, Marissa had given Sam a pretty bad knock on the head earlier.
"She's lactating! Okay?" Carly gasped, just blurting it out. Holding the baggies to her chest, she rushed up the staircase, taking them to Sam.
When Carly returned, Sam was so grateful. She used the baggies to collect the breastmilk that should have been Baby Freddie's feeding. She had to express the milk by hand, so it took a little while, but after she was finished, she felt incredibly better. She gave the three baggies of stored breastmilk to Carly. "What am I supposed to do with these?" Carly asked, staring at them.
"I dunno, stick em in the freezer. Breast milk once frozen keeps for a week or two."
"Thanks for that information," Carly said, under her breath. "I'm sure I will need that for future reference."
She did as Sam suggested, returning downstairs, bags of breastmilk in hand. "OMG, is that what I think it is?" Spencer said, staring at the baggies in disbelief.
Carly laughed as she was putting the baggies into the freezer. Just then the doorbell rang so Spencer went to answer it. It was Melanie and she had Gibby with her.
"I stopped by and got Gibby on my way here. He didn't want to miss the wedding," Melanie said, giving everyone a huge smile. She then handed Jonathon the parental consent papers for Sam, complete with her mother's signature.
"Where's my sister?" she then asked.
"I'm right here," Sam said, coming down the staircase wearing the beautiful dress. "It isn't often any of you will see me in a dress," said Sam as she joined everybody in the livingroom. "So take some pictures or something."
"Good idea, Sam," said Spencer, grabbing his digital camera so he could snap a few pics. "How about some of the happy couple?"
"Sure, lets make it quick though. I'm soooo ready to get married." Sam then looked over at Freddie, gazing into his dark-brown eyes. She hoped he was ready for this, too. Later she hoped they would have a chance to talk because she was wondering how he felt about this quickie marriage thing now that it was happening. Suppose he hated having to get married to her right now considering they were only 17?
Freddie's breath was taken away at the site of Sam; she looked absolutely gorgeous to him. He was gazing back at her, he couldn't wait to be married. Even if it was rushed and they hadn't talked about it, he wanted to be with Sam;
he loved her.
Spencer snapped a few pics of Sam and Freddie before Sam called halt to it. "Enough, already..." she said with a slightly irritated laugh. "Let's go to the courthouse now. Melanie, did you get those papers?"
"Yeah," Melanie beamed, handing the consent forms to her twin. "And Mom was actually being NICE for once. She can't wait to see the baby."
Sam stared at her twin in shock. "She's happy about the baby?"
"Ohhh yeah... she said a lot of stuff; I'll have to catch you up on it when there's more time."
"Wow, that doesn't even sound like OUR mom," Sam said, shaking her head in disbelief.
"She said she's been missing you," Melanie told Sam.
"OMG, is she on drugs now, too?"
"No, Sam, really!"
"We better get to the courthouse now," Jonathon spoke up. "Freddie? Sam? Are you ready?"
"I'm as ready as ever," said Sam, turning to look at her handsome, dark-haired boyfriend. Boy, was she super lucky to be marrying him. He was everything; a super guy, a great father to their son, amazingly hot; not to mention a fantastic lover - how did she get this incredible guy? Sam gave Freddie a huge smile, placing her hand into his.
"Let's do this..." she said to him eagerly.