[Days Of Our Lives] Lucas/Sami. 028: Children.

[loverofunreason]

Title: Best Friends & Dysfunctional Families
Fandom: Days Of Our Lives
Characters: Arthur, Will, Lucas, Carrie, Sami, Austin
Prompt: Children
Word Count: 6000
Rating: R
Summary: Arthur and Will step in to set things straight with Will's parents.
Author's Notes: Yes, it got extremely, horrifyingly long. I blame Arthur.

Lumi Fanfic Table.

“Your mom has it all over Hilary Duff.” -Arthur

Arthur was Will’s best friend, but he could count the number of times he had been to Will’s place for more than ten minutes on one hand. Will never wanted to hang out at either of the apartments he stayed in. He always brushed Arthur off when Arthur asked why they never spent any time at Will’s. Will always had an excuse, whether it was that his parents were fighting or that his mom was going through a hard time and acting crazy. There was always some problem that Will tried to pretend didn’t bother him anywhere near as much as it did.

And now, as he sat on Will’s bed, engrossed in Will’s Tony Hawk X-box game, Arthur could understand why Will didn’t want friends hanging out in his home. He could understand why Will would rather not be here sometimes.

Arthur was pulling off a rare skateboard move on the game when Will’s Aunt Carrie popped her head through the door for the third time since they had come home from school.

“Hey, I just picked up some ice cream, and I was wondering if either of you wanted any?” The first time she had approached them, it had been to ask Will about his day. Will had grunted one word responses until his aunt had given up and retreated back into the living room. Will had been equally unresponsive during her second visit, rejecting her offer to get them something to drink.

“Not hungry,” Will replied curtly, rotating the joystick on his control determinedly, not taking his eyes off the screen.

“What about you, Arthur?” She gave him a smile that almost seemed desperate, like she was trying to latch onto even the slightest bit of amiability from either of them.

“That’s okay. I’m not thirsty either.”

She looked a tiny bit crestfallen, and tried once more to get through to Will. “Your dad’s going to get home from work soon, Will. I’ll talk to him about what he wants to do for dinner once he gets back. Do you have any requests?”

“Not that I can think of at the minute. I’m trying to concentrate here,” Will said, biting down on his lower lip with aggravation as his character bailed.

“I hate to break it to you, but concentration or no concentration, you still suck,” Arthur told him with a grin. Arthur had always been able to beat him at this game, while Will did much better with Grand Theft Auto. The only thing Arthur cared about when they played that game was picking up hookers.

“Shut up, Arthur.”

With one last pained look, Carrie seemed to give up. She left the room again, closing the door behind her.

Once she was gone, Arthur confronted Will. “What’s your deal, man? Is she some kind of horrible monster when you don’t have company over or something?”

“Not at all. According to my dad, she’s the most perfect person alive.” Will rolled his eyes and went back to his game, clearly finished with the discussion.

Arthur, however, wasn’t finished. “Then what’s your problem? You act like a real jerk every time she comes in here trying to be nice.”

“My problem is that she’s trying too hard. I know she’s marrying my dad, but she doesn’t have to act like my mom. My mom is right across the hall, and I don’t need another one, thanks.” Will gritted his teeth as his character failed at yet another trick, and he threw the control on the floor. “This game sucks. Let’s play something else.”

“I thought you were mad at your mom.” Arthur continued to play the game despite Will’s complaint.

“Well, I’m not anymore. She made a mistake, but my dad makes mistakes, too. One of his biggest ones was proposing to my aunt. I was mad at my mom for a long time, but I think she’s already suffered enough for her mistake.”

“Right.” Arthur finally fell silent and completed the round on the game while Will watched, neither of them speaking. In fact, neither of them spoke again until Will’s dad came back from work and let himself into Will’s room. Will’s dad frowned slightly when he noticed Arthur.

“Will, didn’t you remember our conversation from this morning?” Will’s dad asked carefully. “I thought I said we needed to have a long talk tonight.”

Will shrugged one shoulder. “What’s your point? I’m here, aren’t I?”

Arthur could see his friend’s father fighting back his frustration. “Is Arthur going to be here long? I really think we need to have a talk tonight.”

“Arthur’s staying for dinner. Aunt Carrie asked him to.” That was a lie, but Arthur wasn’t about to call Will on it. Best friends just didn’t do things like that to each other.

“Fine. Then we’ll have a discussion about the way you’ve been treating your aunt after dinner.” He left his son with one last reproachful glance before leaving.

“Dude, I wish my dad let me off that easy,” Arthur said enviously.

“It’s not that great, actually. My dad’s been a total creep ever since he got together with Aunt Carrie. All he cares about is her. He barely has time for anything else anymore.” Will tried to mask his hurt with annoyance, but Arthur knew him well enough to see through his false front.

“I think your dad’s a little crazy, no offence,” Arthur responded. “I mean, your aunt isn’t very hot. She’s not hot at all, to tell you the truth. Now your mom on the other hand... She’s completely sexy.”

“Arthur! Don’t talk about her like that!”

Arthur smirked. “I can’t get over how much your dad is settling. Is it because she’s your
mom’s sister? Is that why he’s hot for your aunt? Because they don’t look anything alike. I kinda feel sorry for your dad. After having your mom, doing your aunt must be like... I don’t know, having sex with a board or something.”

“What the hell? Stop it!” Will was five parts disgusted and five parts irritated. “We’re talking about my aunt and my dad and my mom. I don’t want to think about that, you idiot.” Reaching for the football on the floor beside his bed, Will picked it up and hurled it at Arthur hard.

One end of the ball bounced off Arthur’s shoulder. Arthur glared at Will and picked up the ball, prepared to throw it back. Will had already left his position on the bed to move in front of the door, as far away from Arthur as possible. Arthur threw the ball at Will while Will was grabbing some DVD boxes to chuck at his friend. The ball hit Will almost squarely in the forehead, and Will gave a small, mock-outraged cry and threw two DVD’s at Arthur, then picked up the football and whipped it at Arthur as hard as he could. Arthur flung himself farther back onto the bed, hitting the wall with the momentum as the ball shot past him and flew into the lamp on Will’s desk. The lamp fell off the desk with a loud crash seconds later.

“Crap! Now look what you did!” Will hissed at Arthur.

“Me? You threw it first!” Arthur grabbed the football and threw it at Will one last time. Fortunately for Will, he was able to duck and avoid the incoming missile. Unfortunately for Carrie, who had opened the door just as Arthur had thrown the ball, the football hit her instead, nailing her squarely in the chest.

Carrie coughed a little bit and placed one hand against the wounded area. Lucas slid past Carrie to survey the scene himself. Will had already scrambled back onto the bed and was pretending to be intent on the video game again, obviously hoping he’d look innocent.

“What’s going on here?” Lucas’ eyes fell on the fallen lamp, and he looked from Arthur to Will, wordlessly demanding an explanation.

“Sorry, Mr. Roberts. I hit Will’s aunt slash soon-to-be step-mom with the ball.” He flashed Carrie a smile. “Don’t worry about it. You didn’t need that one anyway. I’m sure no one will be able to tell the difference.”

Carrie let out a tiny squawk of surprise, her hand still pressed against her chest. Lucas glowered at the teenager.

“Did you break the lamp, too?” he asked.

“Nope, that was all me. Sorry.” Will jumped in with a voice void of any contrition.

Sighing, Lucas walked over to sit next to Will on the bed, then turned to Arthur. “Can you give me and Will a couple minutes? I think we need to talk.”

“Sure, Will’s dad. Or should I say Will’s dad slash soon-to-be uncle? You know, they used to consider this kind of thing incest. My older sister had to read Hamlet in her senior year and she told me that-”

“Okay, okay. Just a few minutes then.” Lucas looked from the door to Arthur, his message clear. Once Arthur was gone, Carrie lingered by the door.

“Should I be in here for this, too? I know we both have news that we want to share with him.” Carrie gave Lucas a little smile. Lucas smiled back, but it was forced.

“I think I should do this by myself. Will and I haven’t talked in a while, and I think a father-to-son conversation is long overdue.”

“We never talk because you’re always sucking up to Aunt Carrie.” Will mumbled just loud
enough for his dad to hear. Lucas stiffened, but managed to wait until Carrie had left the room to confront his son on his behaviour.

“Look, Will, I don’t know what’s going on with you, but if certain things are bothering you, then you should talk to me instead of lashing out all the time. You’re really hurting your aunt. I understand that you don’t seem to like the fact that we’re getting married very much, but it’s going to happen. We wanted to tell you this together, but I think I should be the one to do it.” Lucas paused and took a deep breath. “There’s a good chance that Carrie is pregnant. We don’t know for sure yet, but it’s highly possible.”

“Great, you knocked her up, too? I bet it won’t turn out any better than it did the last time.” Will rolled his eyes, ignoring the hurt and anger sparking in his father’s dark eyes.

“That is enough.” Lucas tried to be firm with Will. “If something’s upsetting you, then you should talk to me about it instead of going around with this bad attitude.”

“Why should I bother talking to you, dad? You already chose Aunt Carrie over me and mom. I still can’t believe you did that. If I could forgive mom, why couldn’t you? I thought you really loved her.”

Will might as well have thrown his football into Lucas’ stomach with every ounce of strength he had. For a few seconds, Lucas could barely breathe. “I had no idea you felt that way. I - I didn’t choose Carrie over you. You’re the best part of my life. And I love your mother, Will. I do. But it won’t work. There’s too many things we can’t change.”

“You could have gotten over it. But you didn’t want to. Now you have Aunt Carrie and your future kid with her. You won’t need me. And you know what, dad? Maybe I don’t want to stick around anymore. I’m sick of Aunt Carrie trying to play the role of my mom. She was a great aunt, but I don’t want her for a mother or for a step-mother.”

Will got up and headed for the door. "I’ll be at mom’s if you need me."

Lucas was close behind him. "I wasn't finished."

"But I was. Arthur!" Will yelled louder than necessary. Arthur raised his head from the television set and scrambled to his feet when he saw the scowl marring Will's face.

"We're going to my mom's." Will told him.

Arthur broke into a slightly lecherous grin. "All right! I love your mom, man. She's hot. I
don't see how anyone would actually choose to stop hitting that." Arthur turned around quickly, then pretended he had just realized Will's father was in earshot of his comment. "Oops. Sorry Will's dad slash-"

"Mr. Roberts will do fine," Lucas cut him off, looking completely worn down.

"Hurry up." Will's eyes glittered impatiently. Arthur obliged and caught up to Will, who was already almost out the door.

"Your dad lets you off so easy.” Arthur made a face. "Why can't my dad be more like that?"

"My dad is too focussed on my aunt to worry about anything else. But I don't care. My mom might have screwed up big time, but at least her priorities are a little bit more in order than his." Will paused and gave his friend a small but grateful smile, slinging his arm around Arthur's shoulders. "All those things you said to my dad and aunt in there were pretty awesome. It's good to have someone on my side about this. You're a good friend, even if you are a perv."

"Yeah, yeah," Arthur grumbled, removing Will's arm from his shoulder. "I think if you're so upset about this whole thing, then you should get your parents back together. Then my best friend would stop acting like something crawled up his butt and died half the time."

Will stopped dead in the middle of the hall. "How?"

"I don't know. Lock them in a room together. Oh, and make sure your mom is naked. Then it's a
sure thing." Arthur shuffled out of Will’s reach so Will couldn’t hit him.

"That's gross, but it might work. Fine, you get her naked and I'll handle my dad."

Arthur broke into a huge smile. "Really?"

"Yes, but you can't look! Geez, you really need a girlfriend or something," Will informed him.

"Or something." Arthur nodded in agreement.

Much to Arthur's disappointment, he didn't get another look at Will's mom. He did get her in the shower after a "clumsy" incident involving the Chinese take-out Will's Uncle Austin had brought home though. That left the door open for Will to go through with his part of the plan. Actually, Will had decided to take advantage of his friend's eagerness to help him and had forced Arthur to go back over to Lucas’ apartment and lure Lucas into the bathroom with Sami.

Arthur stood outside the door to Lucas’ apartment for several minutes, and his incremental knocks had to grow louder in order to rise above the raised voices within the apartment.

"All I’m saying is that you don't have to try and replace his mother. Sami might not be perfect, but she loves Will and she's a good mother." Lucas was practically shouting. "And no, I’m not taking Sami and Will’s side just because I feel that way!"

"But you are taking their side, Lucas!" Carrie responded in a whiny voice that made Arthur cringe. "Don’t you care that we might be having a child soon? I could be having your baby and Will isn't a baby anymore. You need to focus on me and our new family now."

"Will and Sami were my family first and they always will be. The two of us aren't even married yet and you don't know for sure that you are pregnant."

"But once I am sure, me and the baby will your family."

"And then what? You think I won't care about my son anymore once we have a baby? Will's the best thing that ever happened to me, and without Sami, he wouldn't be here." Lucas reminded Carrie. "I’m grateful to her for that, if nothing else.”

"It's not just that. I bet you still love her," Carrie accused. "Why did you propose to me then? I thought I was the one you wanted."

"You are, I swear. But Sami and Will-"

Arthur got bored of listening to their fight and kicked the door forcefully. Lucas opened the door within seconds. "Arthur? What is it?"

Arthur tried to look scared. "It's Will, Mr. Roberts. His mom and uncle went out and we were messing around and then he fell down and hit his head pretty hard. There's a lot of blood and I don't know what to do."

Lucas was heading towards Sami's apartment before Arthur had even finished. "Did you call an ambulance yet? Is he conscious?"

"Not yet, and yeah, so far he hasn’t fainted or anything. He's in the bathroom." Will had actually stayed behind to figure out how to get the bathroom door unlocked so Lucas would be able to get inside without any difficulties. It was the only work Will had done, Arthur suddenly realized.

Lucas ran inside the bathroom, too panicked to notice Arthur closing the door behind him. "Will?”

Arthur and Will used Lucas’ disorientation to their advantage and quickly wedged the chair they had gotten ready against the doorknob. They heard the shower curtain rustling inside the bathroom and when an indignant shriek followed this noise, they assumed Lucas had checked for Will inside the shower.

"Lucas! Get out!" Sami screamed at him. "What the hell are you doing here?"

"Sami? Arthur said you weren't home. Where's Will?" There was a second of silence before Lucas seemed to figure out what was going on. The doorknob began to rattle and the door jiggled slightly, but the chair stayed in position.

"Don't worry, dad. I'm fine. In fact, me and Arthur are leaving with Uncle Austin. We're going to go play football for a while. We'll be back in an hour. Or two." Will turned to his uncle, who had agreed not to interfere with his nephew's plan and had been hiding in Sami's bedroom until Lucas had wound up safely trapped in the bathroom with Sami. Austin had still drawn the line at helping Will though, despite the fact that he would have no complaints if Will’s plan succeeded. He was simply above plotting against his brother and friend so manipulatively.

"Will, open this door!" Lucas shouted. "This is the last straw, young man. You're grounded!"

"It might be worth it," Will said smartly, not responding to his mother's pleas to let Lucas out of the bathroom. Without another word, he, Arthur and Austin strode out of the apartment.

Lucas heard the front door to Sami's apartment slam seconds later. After throwing his weight into the door several times without the barrier giving away to his escape, he knew he was going to be trapped with Sami until the trio returned.

After turning the water off, Sami pushed back the curtain slightly to meet Lucas' eyes, her
face revealing a mixture of bemusement and indignation.

"Can you hand me my towel, please?" she asked, her tone rude and demanding, the please thrown in as an unenthusiastic afterthought.

Lucas grabbed the towel from its hook and flung it at her aggressively. "Don't take this situation out on me. It was your son's doing."

"Our son's," Sami corrected him. "What's the matter with him anyways? He seemed upset when he came over here. Plus, I practically had to beg to get him over here not long ago, so I'm assuming he's having some problems with you."

"He is not having problems with me. I'm having problems with him."

"Like what?"

"None of your business," Lucas snapped.

"How is it not my business? Like you said, he’s my son, too, Lucas. I deserve to know what's going on. Maybe I could help." When Lucas snorted in disbelief, she continued, "I'm serious. We're both his parents and maybe we need to work together to figure out how to get through to him."

"Fine. It's nothing that he won't get over though. He's a little bent out of shape about me
and Carrie getting married. He feels like Carrie's trying to take over as his mother and he doesn't want that."

Sami couldn't resist smiling behind the shower curtain, out of Lucas' line of vision. She felt a fresh wave of affection towards Will, even though he and his little friend had just locked her in a bathroom with the one man she had been trying to avoid ever since he and Carrie had become engaged. Will didn’t care who his father was marrying. He still wanted his real mother, despite all the terrible things she had done that had hurt and humiliated him. Suddenly her whole life felt a little bit less painful and disappointing.

"I can't blame him. In fact, I understand completely." And she did. Will was definitely her son, which explained his scheme to get her and Lucas alone together. He clearly wanted his parents back together, too.

"Of course you do," Lucas snarled. "You just want him all to yourself to get back at me, don't you? You can't stand the fact that I've moved on with the good sister and that we're going to be a family together. Well, guess what? Carrie and I probably have a baby on the way right now. She's already a week late, so we're hoping it means that she's pregnant."

His words drew all of the oxygen from her. She felt her lungs burn and her knees weaken. She hated herself for letting him affect her like this, and she tried to force herself not to care. She didn't want to give a damn about Lucas and Carrie and whatever children they might have. He wasn't worth crying over anymore, but her tears began racing down her cheeks of their own volition anyway.

Standing had become a chore, so she slid onto the floor of the bathtub, hugging her knees to her chest. The cool, still-wet porcelain was cold against her bare skin, the towel unable to ward off a slight shiver as silent tears rocked her body.

When Lucas realized that Sami wasn't going to reply anytime soon, he paused and stood in the middle of the bathroom stupidly, unsure of what to do. Through the remotely transparent shower curtain he could make out her general form crouching in the bathtub, and guilt instantly hit him hard in the stomach.

"Sami?" When he didn't get a response, Lucas took a step towards the shower, only to finally get a reaction from Sami.

"Stay the hell away from me, Lucas! I don’t care about you and Carrie and all the great kids you're going to have. I think it's great news, actually." She barely managed to say the words without her voice quivering with emotion. She hoped he hadn't been able to make out the tears in her voice, but it was futile to hope. She knew that he had heard them. He had always been able to sense how she was feeling better than anyone else.

He never listened to her. Only a few seconds of his hesitation kept her safe from him before he pushed back the curtain and stepped inside the bathtub, sitting down in it next to her. She turned away from him sharply, wet hair shielding her face.

Puzzled, Lucas watched her for several minutes, observing the small shake in her shoulders and listening to the tiny sobs she tried to muffle. Then he did what he had never been able to stop himself from doing when she got like this. He pulled her into his arms, closing his eyes as he suddenly became reacquainted with the warm curve of her body against his. She was stiff and unresponsive at first, but when he brushed her hair from her face and planted a small, comforting kiss on her temple, she fell apart in his arms and cried without trying to hide it from him, her arms holding him tightly.

Lucas kept his eyes closed and held her for a while. God, he had missed this. He had missed it more than he had realized until now. He had missed her. He ran one hand along her arm in a soothing gesture. Her skin was soft and supple and smelled like the scented soaps she used that he had always loved. At that moment he wasn’t sure if he’d be able to stop holding her.

"What's wrong?" he finally asked her.

That was when she regained some of her composure and pushed away from him, scooting to the far edge of the tub. "I get it, Lucas. I get that she's the one you want and that she makes you happy. I just hadn't expected her to be having your children so soon." The flow of tears had slowed, but small trickles still made their way down her face. "Your children. Before her, it was only me. We had Will, our child, and that was the one thing we had left that was ours. Now she's having your children, too. We have nothing."

A surge of desperation attacked him, a surge he couldn't explain. He had almost convinced himself that he didn’t want there to be anything between him and Sami anymore. But now he knew that he wanted them to have more than nothing.

"She might not be pregnant." Lucas avoided the real problem. "She's only late by a week or so."

Sami shrugged. "But she'll get pregnant one day. Then it’ll all be over. Having Will won't hold us together anymore. We'll still have him and you'll still be the father of my child, but you'll be the father of her children, too."

"Sami..."

"You know, even when we hated each other and fought over Will, he was both of ours. He was the only thing that held us together, the only thing that kept us from killing each other at times. Then after we got together, I wanted more children. I wanted us to give Will all the little brothers and sisters we could. But now Will's brothers and sisters won't be a part of me. Our having a child together... it's not something we're only going to share with each other anymore. It's over. But I'm glad you're happy." She tried to smile at him. She failed, and new tears cascaded down her cheeks at full force.

"Dammit, Sami, it's not over. I'm not happy." It was the truth. He may have believed he was content with Carrie once. But now he realized that a rush of triumph over winning Carrie had buried all the misery and bitterness which had kept trying to dig its way out of the dirt every time he saw Sami. Now he understood.

"I know you’re not happy right now. Why would you be? You're stuck in a bathroom with me and I’m being overly dramatic as usual. Let's drop it."

"No," Lucas said firmly. He inched closer to Sami until he was close enough to hold her
again. "My not being happy has nothing to do with being here. I screwed up. That's why I'm not happy. I don't know why I never saw it before. Carrie is an amazing person and being around her is great and I love the fact that she chose me-" Noticing the look of disgust on Sami's face, Lucas cut himself off. "But I don't want to be with her. I don't want her to be the mother of my children either. I don’t want the two of us to end up with nothing.”

A hopeful smile began to spread across her features, but it froze before it had finished forming, and she threw him a questioning look. "What are you saying?"

"I'm saying that I want us to have the connection of only sharing children with each other. I want us to have more than that. Look, I'm not going to pretend I don't know what I've done to you. You made a huge mistake, but I turned around and made ten more to punish you. I was wrong. And I know I shouldn't ask, not after everything-" Lucas’ words caught in his throat, so he kissed her.

A sob slipped past Sami's lips before they collided with Lucas', but it wasn’t a sob of the heartbroken variety anymore. It was one of relief and happiness. She kissed him back fiercely, her hands snaking behind his neck to tangle in his hair. Lucas felt like fire was searing through him as he melded his mouth against hers until her lips parted. His tongue explored her mouth, refreshing his memories of what it was like to kiss her.

When they broke apart, Sami touched his face gently. "Yes. It's what I want, too."

"But I didn't ask yet," Lucas protested.

"You don't have to." She kissed him again, the knots in her towel barely holding together. The terry-cloth material slid lower, enticing Lucas to touch more of her. He had to force himself to pull away.

"Can you forgive me for leaving? For everything I've done to you?" he asked.

Sami’s eyes sparkled and her cheeks were flushed with pleasure. She was incredible. Lucas couldn't remember how he had been able to steel himself against her and stay away for as long as he had.

"Of course I can." She interlaced her fingers with his and gave him another brief kiss.

Lucas gave her hand a grateful squeeze. "Thank you. I'll do better this time, I really will. I won't make the same mistakes with you again. I don't want to hurt you anymore."

"I don't want to hurt you either. I love you, and I'm sorry, too." She returned his solemn look as she pushed her hair over her shoulder. This caused her towel to drop even lower, which gave Lucas an even better view of the tops of her breasts.

His voice had a catch in it when he spoke again. "I know. And I love you. I never stopped. It was never Carrie. You were always the one I loved."

"Oh, Lucas," she whispered. Before she could start crying again, she brought their mouths together for another kiss. It wasn't long before her towel had been pulled away and thrown in the corner of the bathtub, only to be surrounded by Lucas' clothes immediately.

“Mom? Dad?” Sami started in the warmth of Lucas’ arms and lifted her head from his chest at the sound of Will’s voice. After Lucas had made love to her for a third time, Sami had settled into his embrace and the two of them had held each other and kissed and talked until their current interruption. When they heard the doorknob turning, they both scrambled into action. Sami snatched up her towel and hurriedly wrapped it around herself again while Lucas worked on redressing himself in his boxers and dress shirt from work.

Will filed into the bathroom first. Arthur and Carrie were close behind. Austin stood behind all three of them, leaning against the doorframe with a raised eyebrow.

“Aunt Carrie was worried,” Will explained, looking annoyed. “She didn’t know where you were, dad, so Uncle Austin made us come get you.”

Lucas stepped out of the shower. “I see. Well, Sami needs to get dressed and uh, I need to talk to your aunt alone for a minute-”

“Oh, good. I really need to talk to you, too.” Carrie gave Lucas a sweet smile that made him flush with guilt.

Austin took in Lucas’ appearance. Lucas’ clothes were back on, but all of them were more than a little disheveled. Austin shook his head at Lucas knowingly, then spoke. “I’ll go get Sami some clothes, I guess. Arthur, Will, maybe you should hang out in Will’s room for a while.”

Lucas’ tousled hair and wrinkled clothes hadn’t escaped Will’s attention either, and he eyed
his dad hopefully. “Okay.”
Once Will, Arthur and Austin had left, Carrie began talking to Lucas as if she had already forgotten Sami was behind the shower curtain.

“Lucas, I have some news. I know that I was late and that we thought I might be pregnant, but it turns out I was just late and that’s all it was. I know it’s a big disappointment. It was a disappointment for me, too, but I know we can keep trying and that it will happen for us.”

Behind the shower curtain, Sami let out a long, silent exhale, relieved. Carrie wasn’t having Lucas’ child after all. It wasn’t too late for all of his children to be hers and only hers. She felt like a giant knot in her stomach had magically undid itself all at once.

Lucas reacted similarly, but he tried to hide it from Carrie. After being with Sami again, he couldn’t remember how he had convinced himself that he had wanted to have children with Carrie. It seemed so wrong to him now. The only person he wanted to have children with was Sami, and he was glad he had realized it before it had been too late. It almost had been too late though. He knew he wouldn’t make the same mistake twice.

“No, Carrie.” Lucas shook his head and spoke to her slowly, carefully. “Listen, I think you’re a wonderful woman. I’m honoured that you chose me and that you wanted to be with me. It’s not your fault that this isn’t going to work out.” Lucas sighed. “ We can’t get married. I thought this was what I wanted, but I was lying to myself. I know you still love my brother, and I made the mistake of telling myself that I had stopped loving Sami when I hadn’t.”

“What? So this is about Sami then?” Carrie’s voice was shrill and her lower lip quivered. “You’re choosing Sami over me? But I thought you wanted us to have a family. We’re getting old and we don’t have much time left.”

“What you mean is that you don’t have much time left. I already have a family: Sami and Will. I really hate letting you down like this, and I hope things work out for you. You still have Austin,” Lucas reminded her.

“I can’t be with Austin!” Carrie burst into tears. “I- I can’t believe you’re doing this to me.”

“Carrie, please don’t. We both made wrong decisions. I don’t know about you, but I’m tired of fighting with myself. It’s over. I’m sorry.”

Carrie sobbed relentlessly. “Fine. Here, you can have your ring back.” She pulled his ring from her finger and set it down on the bathroom counter next to Lucas, her hands shaking. She spun around and rushed out of the bathroom without another word, only to run straight into Austin, who had returned with a pile of Sami’s clothes.

“Austin!” she cried, throwing herself into his arms and kissing him. Austin dropped Sami’s clothes and kissed her back. Lucas watched them for a moment, realizing that he wasn’t jealous at all. He had what he wanted, and it wasn’t Carrie.

Turning back around, Lucas found Sami peeking out from behind the shower curtain, her eyes shimmering with happy tears.

“She’s not having your baby,” Sami said in awe. “It’s really going to be okay this time, isn’t it?”

“Yes,” Lucas answered firmly. “I’m not leaving you ever again. I won’t make the same mistake a third time.”

Sami leaned over the bathtub and wound her arms around his neck when he came close enough to her. “I love you,” she told him before kissing him and starting what they thought they had finished all over again.

Arthur and Will watched Carrie and Austin kiss with matching triumphant grins.

“You were right, Arthur. It did work.” Will grabbed his friend and gave him a big hug before pulling away with a tiny frown on his face. “Do you think I’m still grounded?”

Arthur laughed. “Your super hot mom is in that bathroom with him, and she’s practically naked. I think that grounding you is the last thing on your dad’s mind.”