This is probably one of lots of stories about this sort of thing, but hey, I wanted to write one, so I did. This is inspired from iParty with Victorious, when Sam said that her dad told her mom he was coming back.
As much as I love to dream about owning iCarly, it will never happen :( if I did own it, Seddie would have happened AGES ago.
Sam never mentioned her dad. Maybe she was ashamed about him. Maybe it was because she didn't know whether he was dead or alive. Maybe because she wanted to pretend she didn't care.
But she did care. She just wasn't going to let anyone know that.
She had no idea what drove him to leave. It seemed like no reason at all. But it made her lie awake in her bed every birthday, wondering if he was thinking about her, did he ever see her on iCarly, what he was doing at that moment.
She made her mind stay away from the memories. Memories of the week that she didn't want to remember. But sometimes they would leak into her mind, and she would stop eating, or arguing with Freddie, or whatever it was she would have been doing at the time, and her friends would look at her.
They didn't have a clue. They had no idea where her dad was, but they assumed that she saw him. So what if they'd never met him, or seen him at her house. They knew nothing about the week Sam had gone through when she was 9.
SAM IS 9 YEARS OLD.
Sunday
David Puckett opened the door to his house and went inside, immediately his daughters, Samantha and Melanie, ran down the hall towards him, he braced himself as they pounced on him and hugged him.
He hugged his daughters back, as they fought for his attention, he smiled at them.
"It's not fair that you have to work on weekends" said Samantha.
"We never get to see you" said Melanie.
"You're seeing me now" he said, putting them back on the ground. "Is your mom in the kitchen?"
"Yeah, she's making dinner" they said, as they ran, giggling down the hall, David right behind them.
"Hey" he said to his wife, kissing her on the neck.
"EWW" chorused the twins. Their parents looked at them, so they ran off to their bedroom, and collapsed on the bed laughing. They were happy.
Monday
"I'll have to go out tonight, after the girls are in bed" said David over dinner.
"Your job is taking advantage of you, tell them you need to be with your family" said Pam.
"It'll only be for a couple of hours. I'll come back after woods" He replied to Pam, taking his plate over to the sink. "Have you done your homework?" he asked his daughters.
Melanie nodded, Samantha hesitated. "Sam, go and do it" he said. "Do you need any help?" she nodded. "OK, you go make a start; I'll come and help you in a minute"
Samantha jumped down from the table. She didn't really need help, but she liked being with her dad, even if it meant doing Math homework.
Later that night, David quietly pushed open the door to Sam and Melanie's bedroom. He went over to the bed nearest to the door, where Melanie was asleep.
He Bent down over her, and kissed her head as she slept, peacefully. "Bye, honey, I love you" He said, straightening out the duvet, and trying not to let his voice break.
He walked over to Samantha's bed, going through the same ritual he had just done with Melanie. Samantha stirred.
"Daddy, are you going out" she whispered, sleepily.
He nodded in the dark.
"When will you be back?"
"Not too long" he whispered.
She nodded, closing her eyes again.
"I love you Sam" he told her.
"Love you…" and she was asleep.
David walked out of the house without a backward glance.
Sam always wonders if he knew that would be the last time they saw each over.
Tuesday
Samantha woke up, as always, only this time David wasn't there to wake her up for school. She looked at the clock. It was time to get up.
"Mel" she said, shaking her twin sister. Melanie sat up, rubbing her eyes. "Dad didn't wake us up, come on"
When they were dressed, they went to the kitchen for their breakfast. Their dad wasn't sitting at the table eating Fibre Nuts, like he should have been. Instead their mom was there, looking like she hadn't gotten much sleep.
"Mommy" said Melanie. "Where's Daddy?"
Pam blinked, "Oh, sorry, your dad. Um he went to work early"
Samantha groaned "he's always at work"
Pam nodded shiftily "now eat your breakfast, or we're going to be late.
"Will he be back when we get back from school?"
"Probably not" said Pam.
And he wasn't.
"Samantha" Melanie whispered, that night, when they were meant to be asleep.
"Yeah"
"When do you think dad is coming home?"
Sam turned over to face her sister "Soon, he said he would be back" she whispered.
Melanie nodded.
Wednesday
Samantha and Melanie looked for their mom when they came out from school, they waited but she wasn't there.
"I don't think she's coming" said Samantha.
"What do we do?" asked Melanie, panic clear in her voice.
"Easy" said Samantha. "We walk" she looked at Melanie's face "don't worry, I know the way, come on"
It wasn't the journey home that was hard. The hard part was when they got home. They knew from the second they opened the door that their dad wasn't home, they also knew that something was wrong.
They walked into the living room. Pam was sitting on the couch, staring into space, tears leaking out of her eyes. This scared the girls; Melanie turned and ran into her bedroom. Samantha stayed rooted to the spot.
After a short hesitation, she wrapped her skinny arms around her mom, wanting to be hugged back, to be reassured that everything would be okay. Pam pushed her daughter away, not in the mood. She saw the hurt and tears in Samantha's eyes, she saw her turn and run off. She wondered why everyone in her life ran from her; she wanted to know what she was doing wrong.
Thursday
Every time Samantha and Melanie looked out of the window and saw a man, their hearts jumped. They wanted him to come back, to lift the dark cloud that had descended since his departure. They wanted him to make their mom better again.
They had seen the bottles that day. Even at the age of 9, the twins could tell that these bottles were bad; they only saw one, every year at Christmas, but never so many. Pam was crying, reaching for the bottles, one after the other. They could tell pretty quickly that they should leave. So they had taken to their bedroom, staring out of the window.
They both jumped, as another man passed, hope taking over them, but it wasn't him. They slumped down again, defeated.
"Don't worry" said Sam. "He said he'd be back. Why would he lie? It's just taking him a while."
"Then why is mommy so sad?" asked Melanie.
"Because she misses him, don't you miss him?"
Melanie nodded.
"It won't be long now"
Friday
Samantha woke up, it was late at night, but she had heard her mom talking to someone. She heard her use her dad's name. She smiled. She knew he'd be back.
She got out of bed and crept down the hallway in her pyjamas. She put her head around the door. Her dad wasn't there; instead her mom was on the phone. She was angry.
"So that's it then, you're not even going to pay for your daughters" Pam growled into the phone. "Don't talk to me like that, you make me sick. Don't think you can come back on their Birthday, they deserve better than you"
Pam listened for a moment, and then threw the phone to the floor. She stormed out of the room, not even noticing Samantha on the floor by the door.
After Samantha had heard her mom's door shut she ran to the phone, her heart hammering.
"Pam?" said her dad, on the phone.
"Daddy!"
"Sam, what are you doing up?"
"Daddy, when are you coming home?"
There was a silence.
"Daddy?"
David hang up the phone. She would never hear her father's voice again. Samantha ran back to her bedroom and lay on her bed. She cried into the pillow for hours, wishing her tears would wash away her pain and her fear.
Saturday
Samantha knew she had to build a wall around herself. She knew, after last night, that she never wanted to cry again. She had to pretend she didn't care, to avoid the questions from the kids at school. She didn't want to be weak. She wanted to be strong like her dad.
Melanie walked into the bedroom "Samantha, can I talk to you?"
Samantha turned around "only if you call me Sam"
Today, Samantha is hidden from the world, under the girl who doesn't care, the girl who annoys others, so she can forget her own pain. The girl who hides her feelings.
Melanie left, she went to a boarding school. Sam didn't want her to leave. Melanie said Sam should support her. Instead Sam started to hate her, because she left Sam to deal with the pain alone. Melanie got away from it.
"When he gave me this charm bracelet, he said it was one of a kind, like me" said Carly, going on about her new boyfriend.
"So what, my dad told my mom he was coming back" said Sam, then she winced, realising what she had said. Everyone looked at her, even Spencer looked up from his massage. "Moving on…" said Sam quickly.
She knew Carly would ask her about it later, trying to get her to talk. But Sam would just say she didn't care.
But she did. And, even after everything, there was still something inside her that hoped David Puckett would walk through the door.