Just something quick to keep the creative juices flowing until I figure out whether to make iQuit Pretending into ot3 or not.

I closed my laptop as the plane began landing procedures. Not like I had anything left to do. All the editing for my latest film was done and Sam had signed off of her IM an hour ago. I still had no idea just where she had ended up after high school, but we kept in touch through IM and increasingly rare phone calls. She said something about having to get to work. If she was still in the Washington area, that meant the graveyard shift. Seems fitting.

I silently hugged Carly when I found her at the terminal and we set out.

It felt good to be driving back into Seattle. After five years away, it felt weird, but good weird. It honestly felt weirder to be driving at all. I have spent the last five years flying all over the world filming documentaries for the Education Network. So being alone, well, with one other person, even if that person was my oldest friend Carly, felt really awkward.

Of course, most of that particular flavor of awkward probably stemmed from the last time I had seen in Carly in the flesh. The "tension" that we had as kids had boiled over, fueled mostly by copious amounts of alcohol, into a strange, messy, night of passion. I had felt so bad about the whole thing that I left in the middle of the night and we had only recently started talking again. It seemed like the right thing to do, since for awhile at least, we would be living in the same building. Again. Good old Bushwell. Until we found places of our own, I was crashing with my mom, and Carly was going to stay with her brother and his wife and daughter for a few months. Spencer had extended the same offer to me, but with Carly and I not being as close as we once were, it could get weird. Anyway, back to the car. I decided to break the silence.

"So…. You ready for the real world?"

Carly stared out the window at the increasing darkness around us as we got farther from the airport and into the countryside. "I don't know… I mean… yeah"

"Carly… I have already apologized so many times…. It was just…. I didn't know what to do. I already told you all this, but maybe I need to say it out loud, to your face. I thought it would be everything I ever dreamed of. But I didn't want it to be like that. Can we just start over? Just be friends? Like in the old days?"

Carly turned to me "I'd like that. Now pick it up there, grandma, we've gotta' hurry if we're gonna make it into town before Spencer and Sasha (A/N: yes, THAT Sasha) go to bed."

"Okay, okay." I put my foot down on the accelerator, since we were the only car as far as I could see in either direction "So you heard anymore from Sam lately?"

"Not really. Her new job is apparently keeping her really busy."

"Yeah….. Third shift. I always figured Sam'd end up a lady of the evening." I laughed.

"FREDDIE! That's not funny."

"Well, since she hasn't told either of us what she is actually doing, I assume she's trying to hide it. And what else would the great Princess Puckett be doing but using her God-given beauty for illicit ends to the quickest buck possible?"

"She has more self-respect than… wait, what… Beauty? When did Freddie Benson start thinking SAM was beautiful?"

"Oh, don't deny it. She's was hot in school. She's just too damn abrasive for anyone to notice. I have no idea what she looks like now, truth be told. We have only talked on the phone and through IM since graduating from Ridgeway. Speaking of which, do you have any idea where she is?"

"Still in the Seattle area, but that's all I know. Spencer says he sees her out every once in awhile on late night smoothie runs, since T-Bo expanded Groovy Smoothie to 24 hours last year."

"Oh, so Spencer knows what she's doing? And he approves?"

"Freddie, you know that's not…. Uh, how fast are we going?"

"110…. you told me to speed up."

"Yes, well the speed limit is 65 and we just blew past a…"

I saw the flashing lights before she could finish her sentence. I pulled over and slammed my fist into the dashboard. "First night back in Seattle, and I'm going to spend it in jail for reckless driving. Well, look on the bright side, maybe Sam got picked up earlier and we'll see her tonight after all."

"Drop it, Benson."

I watched the Highway Patrolman…. Woman walk towards me in the rear-view mirror. I could not make out any real details, since the headlights from the police car were flooding my vision, but I have never seen a man that curvy… so I assumed the worst. Lady cops were never good news. And this one was walking towards us, brandishing her nightstick. This was going to end badly.

I still could not see her face in good detail, from the lights and the over-sized sunglasses she was wearing.

"Sir, I'm going to need you to step out of the vehicle. Have your woman there get me the registration for this vehicle. IF you have registration, that is." I opened my door and stepped out into the street. I started to protest "She's not my woman. And this is a..."

I felt the cop grab my arm, twisting it behind my back and slamming into the side of the car. "Sir, I'm going to need you to quit resisting. I will taser you."

"I'm not resist….YAARGH!" I hit the ground. Carly shot out of her seat, and stood on the opposite side of the car, screaming at the cop.

"Leave him alone, he was trying to tell you…."

"Ma'am, get back in the car, and hand me the registration." The cop bent down and fished in my pocket for my wallet. "Mr. ….Benson, you were exceeding the speed limit by nearly 50 miles per hour. That is not only dangerous, but incredibly stupid. These are my roads, and I take my job very seriously."

"Obviously…" I said, sarcastically "YAARGH! What the hell, woman?"

"I will not tolerate backtalk from criminals. And you will address me as OFFICER." She shocked me again before Carly stepped around the car, registration in hand.

"Here you are, OFFICER, now let him up…. Wait…." Carly stepped back like someone had hit her. The cop pulled off her sunglasses and pulled the pin holding her hair up out as she stepped away from the floodlight on her vehicle. Then she spoke, and this time, the "police" tone was gone from her voice, replaced by a barely contained humor.

"Some things never change. Still hanging wit the nub, eh, Shay? I guess I'll let him off this time, since you're here." The cop offered me her hand, and then it hit me.

"No wonder you didn't say anything for so long… I never thought I'd see the day when Sam Puckett was on the RIGHT side of the law."

SO there you go. I still need input on my other story, iQuit Pretending. Kinda' stuck. Well, not so much stuck as not sure if what I have written is really where I want the story to go.