Disclaimer: I don't own the copyrights to the television show iCarly on Nickelodeon especially any of the characters. I use them for my own stories with no expectations of compensation.

Author's Note: This is an angst ridden two-shot AU that shows what could have happen if Carly Shay rejected Fredward Benson one too many times. All of the characters are totally OOC here, but just live with it. I had to purge this from my mind to maintain my sanity. (Tho this story might prove otherwise.)

Warning: Multiple major character deaths occur in this two-shot. This is Black Hole dark. You've been warned.

Xxxxxx

THE END

Part 1

Xxxxxx

Freddie Benson was devastated.

It was nearing the holiday break of his sophomore year in high school and he'd just left Carly Shay's apartment for the last time. They'd been studying for a few tests that'd been scheduled just before the Christmas break and he'd once again tried to tell the dark-haired web hostess how much he loved her. But like always, Freddie's confession of his undying love was once again met by two simple words that he'd heard all too often before.

"Oh Freddie."

Those two exasperating, disbelieving words and the resigned, cute but condescending look accompanying them, words she would always used to shoot him down in a kindly manner coming from her luscious ruby red lips, well, they simply meant 'The End'.

Freddie's life was over.

If she didn't love him by now, she never would.

After those two deadly words, Carly went on to explain that she had her eye on another cute boy in school and that Freddie should finally, finally just get over his little crush on her.

The explanation was the same every time Freddie approached Carly, laying his heart out on the line. There was always another cute, dreamy guy out there that had caught her eye. Carly would date him for a week or two before she would discover that he wasn't all that dreamy or cute, or the cad would tried to move their relationship forward a bit too fast and she would break if off. Then Carly would come home crying.

And she would inevitably seek out a can of frosting and Freddie to ease the pain.

Freddie would always be there for her with a shoulder to cry on and a kind word. He would ease the pain of the breakup and she'd bounce back in a day or two. Carly would thank him profusely, give him a friendly peck on the cheek and move on to the next heartbreak... er, cute dreamy boy.

Freddie clearly saw the viscous cycle Carly was caught in but she wouldn't acknowledge it even when he took the time to explain it to her. (One time with a computer generated slide presentation complete with diagrams showing why all of her past relationships had failed.)

Well, he couldn't take it any more.

If his good friend, and that's all Carly saw herself as to him, didn't want to change then there was nothing left to do. He didn't, couldn't watch her chase after another boy and break her heart again. He wanted to be the boy she chased after. Carly knew Freddie would always treat her right and wouldn't try to get into her pants or take advantage of her in any way, shape or form, yet she wouldn't take the chance.

She didn't even believe in his deep love for her.

When he had approached any of the other girls in school, well, they hadn't been so kind. They would either avoid him like the plague or tell him that they'd rather date something with a little more personality, like a dead fish. Of course the really cruel ones would simply laugh in his face or state that they'd never go out with a tech geek.

So yes, something drastic had to be done.

Something final.

Freddie had already sent the e-mail to Carly explaining just how he felt and desperately tried, once again, to sway her way of thinking about the type of boys she dated and that he was different from all of them; That he'd treat her right. He went on to explain his reasons for leaving the iCarly show, that he couldn't bear to to see her suffer anymore heartbreak, and told her to keep his video equipment for as long as the show continued.

He wouldn't need it where he was going. They probably had better computers and video equipment in Heaven anyway.

Yes, the drastic, final measure Freddie was about to take was the taking his own life.

He'd had it with his overbearing mother treating him like a child. He'd had it with Sam's putdowns and physical abuse and he was fed up with the rejection from all of the other girls in school.

And he was finished with the constant rejection from the one and only girl he had, and always would, ever love, leaving him utterly devastated.

What was there left to live for? He could love no other.

Freddie's Last Will and Testament was already finished and printed out, splitting all his worldly assets between his mother and Carly, with a few provisions. The first was a request that his mother should attend therapy sessions for at least a year to get over the loss and grief of his death and to show her where her overprotective obsession partly led to his ultimate decision.

The second proviso was leaving all of the camera and tech equipment to Carly so that she could continue shooting the web show. (Hopefully with a guy who would grow to love and respect her as much as he did.) If she didn't want to continue the show then she could dispose of it however she wanted.

The third (and he had no idea why he thought it would be a good idea but, thinking about it, it was the perfect farewell gift to the blond-headed demon in his life) was that the largest ham that could be found in the city of Seattle was to be purchased, wrapped in bacon and given to Samantha Puckett as a farewell gift. (With a side order of fried chicken.)

He didn't worry about the Will being notarized or not. If his mother wanted to be petty about it and sue for everything it would just prove how screwed up she ready was. (He'd put that suggestion down in his farewell snail-mail letter to Carly that he would drop off in a mail box on the way to where he'd end it all. Freddie was sure Carly would get a kick out of that idea and use the defense if his mother challenged Carly for his worldly possessions.)

The only thing left to do was decide just how he would end his misery. Freddie was torn between poisoning himself on the tick bath soap his mother had an abundance of, jumping off his eight floor fire escape or leaping off the overpass onto Interstate 5. (The same overpass that he and Spencer had used during the competition with Sam and Carly to see which team could improve the show's ratings all those years ago.)

The idea of choking to death on that God-awful, toxic tick solution and causing his mother more anxiety over possessing the stuff in the first place nixed that idea, so it was down to leaping off the overpass or the fire escape.

Freddie knew it was idiotic, but he flipped a coin anyway.

Heads.

Overpass it was. (The irony wasn't lost on Freddie. The show gained a lot of viewers from that stunt at the overpass after they'd first started the web cast, and now taking his life there would more that likely lead to the show's demise.)

He took one last look around his bedroom. It was neat and tidy, like always. Freddie briefly debated whether he should mess up the room a bit as a last, final defiant act against his overly-tidy, overbearing mother. He discards that notion, knowing that his time was growing short. He needed to get to the overpass before rush hour traffic backed up everything and brought the fast moving cars to a slow crawl. Freddie wanted to end his life under the wheels of a fast moving vehicle that could really finish the job, not survive in the creeping traffic that could easily avoid his broken body. (He knew the fall from the overpass wouldn't kill him outright, maybe just break a few bones.)

Like everything else in his life, Freddie had really thought through his last moment on Earth.

Freddie walked out to the front room and said a quiet good-bye to the apartment he'd called home all these years. He opened the front door, locked the door knob from the inside and left his key sitting on the large medical kit stationed next to it. (All told, there were six first aid kits in the apartment, strategically placed so one would be within easy reach at all times.)

He wouldn't need the door key anymore, or the medical kits.

As Freddie shut the front door and made sure it was locked, the door opposite him in the hallway flung open and the raven-haired object of his desire swiftly dashed passed him and around the near corner.

"Freddie!" Carly hysterically yelled in near panic as she raced off down the corridor toward the front elevators at break-neck speed. Obviously she was in such a rush that she hadn't even noticed him standing there.

"She musta just got my e-mail," Freddie shrugged and headed off toward the back stairwell to avoid the brunette who had ripped his heart out and stomped on it for the last time. Just why she'd dashed off to the elevators, obviously heading for the lobby, he couldn't fathom. He hadn't told her just how he was going to take his life in the message so logically she should have tried to find him in his apartment first.

Oh well. The panicked mind does crazy things, he figured. Freddie took off in the opposite direction, to the stairwell in the rear of the building, to avoid any confrontations. (He'd thought about having a final tete-a-tete with Lewbert, finally punching the idiot's lights out, but time was growing short and he would let the next person who messed up the lobby floor by walking on it, deal with the hideous, insane doorman.)

Freddie took his time walking the streets on his way to the freeway overpass. He really enjoyed Seattle during this time of the year. There was less than a week left before the Christmas holiday and the town always decked itself out to celebrate the season.

The cool, crisp air was always clean and invigorating during the festive season. Freddie sometimes wished the city would get more snowfall during the winter months which, in turn, would make the holiday perfect in his mind. Christmas and snow just seemed to go together. Seattle only averaged six inches of snow per year, it wasn't cold enough to snow being situated on Puget Sound and so close to the Pacific Ocean, so they mostly got cold rain during their winter months.

As Freddie approached the bridge that would be his demise he saw a single, solitary person standing on the crosswalk of the overpass. The familiar brunette figure was absently leaning on the guardrail in total dismay, watching the traffic pass underneath. He walked up to the girl and leaned on the railing next to her.

"Hey Freddie," Carly Shay nonchalantly said without turning to him, just looking off at the on-coming traffic. "I don't know why, but I somehow had a feeling you would come out here."

"Hi Carly," Freddie greeted her in the same dull voice. "You aren't going to try and stop me, are you?"

"I was, but when I got here I realized that you're too level headed to take your own life; That your e-mail was just you blowing off steam."

"Have you changed your mind... are you finally going to go out with me?" Freddie dryly begged, not really hoping or expecting Carly to change her ways after all the times he'd attempted to sway her judgment in the past.

"Freddie," the brunette said as she finally turned to face the boy, "I can't love you. You're my friend and friends don't date or fall in love or get married to each other. It always ends up bad for the both of them. They end up fighting about something and break up, which ultimately ends their friendship forever."

"Except in the movies and on television," Freddie derisively snorted. "There's always a happy ending in the movies and on TV, not a sad one."

"That's not the way I see it," Carly defensive stated as she turned back to watch the traffic zoom by. After a few seconds, she whispered, "I just don't want to lose your friendship if we break up after getting together."

"So that's all I am to you?" Freddie asked a little heatedly. He desperately tried to keep his anger in check but couldn't stop from letting a little bleed through in his voice. "I'm just a friend? I want more."

"I don't want to risk it so I can't give you more. I can't give you what you want."

"Flash over substance," Freddie murmured. "What you're looking for is flash over substance. You can have one or the other, but you can't have both."

"What?" Carly asked, not following the statement.

"You're looking for a piece of arm candy that'll treat you like a queen, and you'll never find it."

"Yes I will, Freddie," Carly heatedly said, turning on her friend. "I can and will have both. I just know it."

"No you can't," Freddie solemnly said, shaking his head. "And you know why? Because when you find it, it'll already have been spoken for. That's what ever girl wants and they'll find it before you do. They'll find it before you because they'll have recognize and grabbed it up as their own before they're out of high school. If you haven't found it at Ridgeway by now then you'll never find it because all the good guys are already spoken for. Except for me." Unfortunately, those last three words were drown out by a loud car horn from below so he wasn't sure if she heard them.

"I still have to look," Carly whispered and turned back to idly watch the traffic. She had to steer the conversation away from her love life, as pitiful as it'd been so far, so she asked, "What about you? You've dated a few girls from school."

"Do you really want to go there?" Freddie indignantly begged. "Need I remind you of Valerie who only wanted to date me so I'd abandon you and run her web show? Her dating me was just a big convoluted plot just to shut down iCarly."

"But you've dated a few other girls," Carly quickly said to prove he had other options.

"Sure, there have been one or two other girls that have gone out with me," Freddie ceded. "But they never want a second date because they were too afraid to be seen going steady with a geeky nerd. At least we're friends and you wouldn't abandon me for that reason if we hooked up."

"I would never abandon you," Carly said, briefly turning to him once again. He could see the hurt in her eyes from him even implying that she might abandon him because he excelled with all things technical. Just as quickly, she turned away and said, "But I could never love you as more than a friend."

"Is that your final word?" Freddie sullenly asked as he turned to watch the cars and semi trucks pass below them. He had seen the tears welling in her eyes and couldn't look at her any more. He knew this conversation was taking its emotional toll on her, but he had to try just one last time.

"I'm... sorry," Carly sobbed, her voice hitching from all of the emotions racing through her.

"I'm sorry, too," Freddie said when he spotted the perfect opportunity coming at him. A huge semi rig towing a double trailer was going to pass in the lane directly below him in about ten or fifteen seconds.

Freddie took a deep breath and said, "I hope you'll find your guy, your flashy substance, someday. I found mine and she'll always have my heart. Good-bye my love."

At his final declaration, Carly turned and watched as Freddie Benson suddenly grabbed the rail and vaulted over, disappearing in the fast moving traffic.

Carly Shay didn't see the accident. She didn't hear the screeching tire or metal meeting metal, loudly crunching from the violent collisions when breaks were hastily slammed on, too late. She didn't see or hear anything because her mind was gibbering into total shutdown mode after watching he friend jump over the rail. All Carly managed to do was collapsed to the pavement in wracking sobs.

Carly Shay's mind reeled at what had just happened, what she couldn't comprehend.

Freddie Benson had pushed her out of the way of the taco truck and took the hit himself, saving her life.

Freddie Benson had put their fledgling love on hold, making sure her feelings were real and not foreign bacon or hero worship after the truck accident.

Freddie Benson had made her little web show a reality; One of the most popular, award winning shows on the internet.

Freddie Benson had brought her out of a depression on too many occasions after some boy broke her heart.

Freddie Benson put up with Sam's almost constant physical and verbal abuse because the blond she-demon was her friend.

Freddie Benson whole-heartedly loved and supported her in whatever she tried to do.

Freddie Benson...

Freddie Benson...

Freddie Benson...

... ...

Freddie Benson knew the true meaning of love.

Freddie Benson loved her so deeply that if she couldn't return that love, he didn't want to go on living.

She, Carly Shay, didn't know the meaning of true love.

Xxxxxx

You can stop reading here if you'd like. It makes a great single chapter story but I needed to have the rest of the characters deal with this tragic tale, so there's a second chapter.

I was going to have this as a very long one-shot but decided to let you breath a little before the rest of the carnage happens. The not so simple act of Freddie taking his life will cause a domino effect, toppling everyone around him. So grab a soda (or something stronger if you need it) and turn the page. The death toll is just starting.

Remember, I warned that this story is blacker than a Black Hole. And so it shall be.