A/N: This was written for my good friend Sandra as a birthday gift, and is part of the future!Stevie headcanon series that's been going around Tumblr, in which Stevie is the daughter of Freddie Benson and Sam Puckett (of iCarly) and goes back in time to get them back together.

I reference another fic of mine, Accidents and Cosmic Threads, in this fic. Just briefly, but that bit'll make more sense if you've read AaCT. Oh, and in case you're not aware, the Zander from book!HTR is from Seattle, so I've kept that as my own personal headcanon for show!HTR and it makes a small appearance in here as well.

Stevie approaches her house to find Zander sitting on the steps, and her stomach does a flip. It's probably only been hours since she last saw him (it's nearly dark now, and it was noon when she left), but for her it's been months, and she's missed him. She's missed all of Gravity 5, and her brothers too, and even her parents as her parents and not as seventeen-year-olds. Carefully, she picks her way across the driveway in her bare feet, trying her best to avoid the bigger pebbles. She's grateful for the warm San Diego weather - she wouldn't have wanted to walk that block and a half in, say, the snow.

"Of course," she grumbles under her breath, "if I had been dropped back in the house like I was supposed to have been, this wouldn't have been a problem." She's irritated over the loss of her shoes, too. She liked those shoes. And her suitcase is missing; she hopes it made it back to her room.

Zander practically leaps to his feet when he sees her, the book in his lap tumbling, forgotten, to the ground. From the look of things, he's been there a while: his backpack is open, papers poking out of notebooks and textbooks, and his ukulele case sits behind it. There are wrappers from the Taco Bell down the street stuffed into a side pocket of his backpack, and a half-full Coke bottle by his feet. She can't imagine what's so important that he's practically setting up camp on her steps on a Sunday afternoon.

"Stevie," he says, and he sounds somewhere between relieved and surprised, like he can't believe she's really there.

"Zander," she responds, confused. "What are you doing here?"

"Waiting for you." His words come out thick.

"Why? I just…" she begins, before realizing she doesn't have an excuse ready - she wasn't expecting to need one. She blurts the first thing that comes into her head. "Went to the store."

"And came back empty-handed?"

Crap.

"They… didn't have my favorite brand of milk." Who has a favorite brand of milk? she asks herself, pulling a face.

Zander doesn't seem to notice; he's busy looking at her feet. "And you went barefoot?"

"That's… well… it's nice out?" she tries, lamely. Her attempt at a cover story is falling apart before her eyes. Obviously, she didn't inherit her mother's knack for lying.

He sighs, running a hand through his hair. "Stevie, your brothers told me where you really went."

Stevie gapes at him because that was the last thing she was expecting, and she's torn between dashing into her house to scream at her brothers and calmly asking him what he's talking about. The strangled "WHAT?" that comes out of her month is somewhere in-between those two options. She forces herself to take a couple deep breaths, because it's possible that her brothers gave him a better cover story than she did, right? "What?" she repeats, slightly calmer.

"They told me that you went… you know. Back in time. To get your parents together."

He's looking at her like he's expecting her to laugh, to tell him how crazy her brothers are and that of course she didn't actually go to back in time because that's just silly; no one knows how to time travel. Which is probably exactly what she should do, but she's too gobsmacked to think straight.

"You didn't." It's not a question.

She draws in a breath, bites her lip. "I… kinda did."

"Why didn't you tell me?" He sounds angry, and it aggravates her a little. What right does he have to be angry with her? He's not the one who'd blip out of existence if she didn't go. And since when does she have to run everything she does past him?

"What was I supposed to say? 'Zander, I'm going to the past, I'll see you later?'"

"That would have been preferable to the whole lot of nothing I got!"

"You wouldn't have believed me!"

"I might have!"

"Look, it was just something that I had to do, okay?" They're both nearly yelling. Stevie bounces anxiously on her toes, forces herself to take a deep breath or two to calm down. Her parents are still on their business trip, but she doesn't need the neighbors to see her making a scene. "I didn't mean to worry you or anything," she continues, quieter, "but it wasn't a big deal. I was only gone a couple hours."

"A couple hours?" he repeats. "Stevie, you've been gone for three days."

She shakes her head, confused (three days? that's not possible, is it?), but he keeps going. "Your cell phone was out of service, you didn't show up to school, you missed band practice, you weren't home when I came looking for you. And your brothers said they didn't know where you were, and I-"

He cuts off mid-sentence, suddenly. Stevie hears him take a shaky breath. "Zander…."

"I nearly called the police, you know that?" he says. "I was in your living room dialing the number when finally one of your brothers blurted that you'd gone back in time. And I didn't believe him at first, but it was enough to keep me from making the call right then."

"Do the others know?" she asks.

"No. I made something up. Told them you'd gone along with your parents on their business trip; that it was a last-minute thing and you forgot to tell us."

"And they bought it?"

"More or less. They might be a little upset if you show up to school without any New York City souvenirs for them."

"So you've just been, what, camping in front of my house since then?" she asks, motioning to his stuff, still spread out on her steps.

He shrugs. "I wanted to be here when you got back."

She opens her mouth to tell him that if the time travel had gone correctly she would've just appeared back in her room - making waiting in front of her house a little pointless - but before she can say anything he grabs her and pulls her into him. It shocks her and she doesn't react right away, standing there stiffly as he presses a cheek into her hair. Her heart is thudding erratically in her chest and she hopes he can't hear it or feel it like she can.

"I was scared, Stevie." His voice is quiet; his mouth is right by her ear, but her hair muffles the sound. "I didn't know when you'd be back or where you were or if you were even okay."

"Zander, I was fine."

"But I didn't know that." She hears the words catch just a little and feels a pang of guilt. It hadn't been her intention to worry anyone, least of all him. He wasn't even supposed to know she was gone to begin with.

Reaching out, she wraps her arms around his waist, returning his hug. "Sorry," she says, letting her head drop onto his shoulder for a moment.

When he pulls back he keeps his hands on her shoulders, holding her at arm's length. "Take me with you next time, okay?" A grin appears, briefly, on his face. "I mean, after all, I do know Seattle pretty well."

She laughs and bends down to pick up the book at their feet, pressing it into his hands. "With any luck, there won't be a next time."

They pack all of his things into his backpack, and she links his arm with his as they walk to her front door together. It's there, walking in step with him, finally home, that she remembers Caleb's claim that it's possible the time travel knows exactly what it's doing. She's not sure that she buys that anymore. Why drop her outside of her house three days after she left? (And did it have to take her shoes?)

It's then that Zander looks over at her, relief written all over his face, and her insides twist themselves into a knot because Caleb had referred to him as Uncle Zander and things are clicking into place in a way she's not really prepared to deal with right now.

After Zander goes home, late that night, Benedict slyly asks her what happened between them.

"I don't know what you're talking about," she insists.

"Come on, Stevie, I'm not stupid," he says, ruffling her hair as he walks past her and down the hall, calling back over his shoulder, "You didn't look at him all night."