Sam woke up to her front door closing with a loud noise.

"Sam, are you home yet?" Cassie shouted through the apartment.

Blinking a few times to get the sleep out of her eyes Sam answered: "I'm here, Cassie. Bedroom!"

"What are you doing in bed in the middle of the day?" Cass asked while entering the room. "Wow Sam, you look pretty awful. Are you sick?"

"Good to see you too, honey." she replied "Not sick, just exhausted. I worked a lot of hours lately, overtime most of the days."

"You're really pale and lost a lot of weight. I can see that. You have to take better care of yourself. Mom would give you the third degree if she could see you right now. You'll stay in bed and I'll fix us dinner. We can eat in bed then, so get your rest."

"I'm supposed to take care of you, not the other way round." she complained.

"Yeah, I know. Doesn't matter, I take care of you now. Does Jack know about all of this?"

"God, no! Don't tell him, please. He doesn't have to worry. We weren't able to connect much in the last weeks. You'll see, one weekend with you, relaxing and a good amount of food and I'll be myself again in no time."

As Sam started to leave the bed Cassie asked" What do you think you're doing, Sam?"

"I'm allowed to go to the bathroom, aren't I?"

She stood up and swayed a little. The girl was instantly by her side to steady her, looking accusatory at her.

"Just stood up too quickly after lying in bed too long. Don't worry."

"Ok, bathroom and then back to bed. I'll meet you there with the food. You need to eat properly, but maybe nothing too heavy."

It took her a good half an hour to fix some soup with bread. She put everything on a tray and went to bring it to Sam.

The wait was enough for Sam to fall asleep again.

Cassie put the tray on the nightstand and took a seat next to her on the bed. Carefully watching her she pushed back a few hairs that fell over Sam's eyes.

Opening her eyes Sam looked straight in Cassie's.

"Hey sleepyhead, come on, dinner is ready. Let's sit against the backrest and watch some tv."

They made themselves comfortable in bed and watched a movie. Sam's phone rang and she knew I could only be Jack.

She grabbed her phone and answered: "Hey!"

Cassie stood up to take the dishes away.

"Hello you!" Jack replied surprised "I was sure I would have to talk to your answering machine again. You're sounding tired. Everything alright?"

"Yes, everything ok. Just worked too much lately, as you know. Cassie and I have a few days off, she came to visit. I'm sure I told you about it over email or one of our talks over the answering machine. We're not planning on doing much. Chatting, good food and maybe a short hike. Maybe I'll let myself talk into a trip to the mall. We'll see."

"Then don't let me bother you. Have a nice time together. I just wanted to hear your voice. I miss you a lot."

"I do miss you too. And I promise to cut back on my work, but you know how I am. When there's a problem to be solved I can't get my brain to shut down and get captured until I have a solution."

"Yes, I know. I'm looking forward to seeing you soon. I love you!"

"I love you too, Jack. Take care and see you soon!"

Cassie returned already in her night gown ready for their movie night.

Sam made it through half of the movie before falling asleep. Later Cassie tinted off the TV and cuddled up next to Sam, they used to do this a lot when the girl was younger, but that doesn't mean she didn't like it anymore.

She opened her eyes, woken by the sunlight shining through the curtain. Sam was instantly greeted by a wave of nausea. She untangled herself from her duvet and rushed to the bathroom just in time to open the toilet and threw up.

Woken by Sam's action Cassie made her way to the bathroom to see if she could help. As she reached the door Sam already sat with her back against the tube and her head between her nebt legs.

Cassie went to the sink, took a washcloth and wet it with cold water. She placed herself in front of Sam, handing her the wet piece.

"Thank you!"

"Sam I'm worried, maybe you should really go and see a doctor."

"I spoke to Dr. Parish yesterday, she was the one sending me home early. She noticed how stressed I am and told me to relax. I promise if it isn't better by Monday, I'll go to see her again, ok?"

"Ok, so another day in bed I guess?"

"I wouldn't say that. Give me a little time and we can go for a walk. The fresh air will do me good."

A few hours later they left the apartment and took a long walk around the neighborhood.

"See," Sam said, "I told you I'll be fine. I feel much better now. What do you say, would you like to go for a piece of cake at the nice little bakery down the road?"

"I'd love to, I'm glad you're better. Let's go."

They enjoyed the nice weather and had a great day together. They took a detour to the grocery store as they wanted to cook together in the afternoon.

Dinner was great.

After Sam took a shower she nearly felt like her old self again.

"I'm going to sleep Cassie, thanks for the great day! Good night, see you in the morning."

"Night Sam!"

After a peaceful night sleep Sam woke again to a wave of nausea. She carefully sat up, trying to get rid of the dizzy spell and stop the room from spinning. As soon as she felt she would be able to get to the bathroom safely she rushed to the toilet again.

She threw up a few times before she felt someone entering the room.

"Oh Sam, what can I do to help?"

"I'm afraid there's nothing for you to do. I was so sure yesterday morning was an exception. I felt so much better in the afternoon."

"If I didn't know better I would say you're pregnant." Cassie giggled.

A shock bolted through Sam. Bright blue eyes were staring directly into Cassie's.

"No!" Cassie exclaimed surprised. It was supposed to be a joke.

Another silence.

"Sam? Is there any chance you might be pregnant." her surrogate daughter asked.

Sam took a deep breath and counted back the weeks she slept with Jack. Was she late? She hadn't had her period for quite some time now, but that didn't bother her before because since Jolinars it wasn't regular and sometimes she skipped a few.

Otherwise she hadn't slept with anyone in a long time as much as with Jack and she always used a condom with Pete.

"Sam???"

Sam closed her eyes gathering her courage to answer: "Maybe!"

"Maybe? What do you mean 'maybe'?"

"I mean there might be a slight chance."

Cassie was stunned.

Was this the woman who had a talk with her about contraceptives a few weeks ago? And was it the same woman who now maybe was faced with an unplanned pregnancy?

But she had to smile.

"I wasn't sure it was a possibility."

"What do you mean by that?"

"When I was blended with Jolinar she left a protein marker behind. Your mother did some tests afterwards. She told me that I would have problems getting pregnant, if it was even possible."

She bowed her head and spoke quietly "When I worked things out with Jack we talked about my father, he made Jack promise him that Jack wouldn't let me marry the wrong man and told him he would have loved to see us giving him more grandchildren. But that's about it, that's all we said, we didn't really plan this. I'm not even sure that would be something Jack wants, I mean with everything that happened to Charlie. Shouldn't we've had a talk about this first?" it seems like she couldn't stop rambling.

"I would say it might be too late to think about that now." Cassie's smile grew wider and wider.

"Oh god. What am I gonna do now?"

Cassie stood up and left the room, just to return a few seconds later, just to throw a pregnancy test at Sam.

"Now we're going to find out."

"What are you doing with a pregnancy test?"

"You really wanna go there now? Be glad I have it. Mom always told me to be prepared. Now go, pee on that stick and let's find out if I'm going to become a big sister soon."