A/N: This was written for the Simply Seddie oneshots collaboration under the account VoteforSeddie. This is chapter 17 in that story but I wanted to post it in my account as well. Sam/Freddie came in fourth place in the Portrait Magazine poll. Thank you all for voting!

One

It was a tradition that had started with Jonah. The wedgie bounce had been satisfying revenge but after they had finally let Jonah off it and he had gone running home crying, Sam felt the triumph washing away, leaving behind an empty, cold feeling in her chest. She felt stupid and duped. She thought that Jonah really liked her, they had a lot of the same interests and they had the same sort of twisted sense of humor. She had become one of those fruity girly-girls and blown off her friends and iCarly to be with him. And all for what? He tried to make a move on her best friend the second her back was turned. Carly was looking at her with such pity in her eyes that Sam couldn't stand it, she wanted to wallow in her heartbreak and misery alone, so she left the Shay loft and it was only once she was out the door that she realized that she didn't want to go home and face her mother. She had introduced Jonah to her mom a few days before and she disliked him right away. She had told Sam that "kid had the look of a player about him" and now she didn't want to go home and endure the "I told you so's" from her mom.

And so Sam was stuck. She couldn't go back into the Shay apartment and she couldn't go home but she really had to go somewhere before she lost it and started crying right there in the hallway. As if her day couldn't get bad enough, the door in front of her opened and none other than the nub stood in front of her.

He was a holding a cable in his hand and looked at her in confusion.

"Sam? I was just going over to install this -" He stopped at her glare. "You going in?" He asked.

"No," Sam said, making a considerable effort to stop her voice from shaking. "I was just leaving. See ya, Freddie."

She walked away, resigned to going home.

"Sam!" Freddie called out. She turned around.

"Uh, my mom isn't at home and I've got bacon. Wanna hang out for awhile?"

"I don't need your pity, Frednerd."

"Who said its pity? I can't finish that bacon all by myself and if my mom finds it she'll enroll us in mother-son aerobics," he shuddered at the thought.

Sam rolled her eyes but pushed past him and walked into his apartment. She could never say no to free bacon. He followed behind her and closed the door.

"You, uh, need to take off your shoes," he said.

Sam snorted and flopped down onto the couch, shoes and all.

"Come on Sam, you'll get me into trouble," he pleaded.

She sighed and kicked off each of her shoes. Freddie bent down to pick them up and lined them up neatly next to his by the door and made his way over to the kitchen.

Sam picked up a picture of baby Freddie on the end table and smiled at how cute and chubby he was. And then she dropped it in disgust at her thoughts.

She got up and walked over to the kitchen where Freddie had taken out a large pan and was heating it on the stove while he cut open two packages of bacon.

"So where did this rebellious streak suddenly come from?"

He shrugged. "There's only so much tofu I can eat."

Sam looked up at a picture of a little Freddie, about five years old, hanging on the wall beside the kitchen counter.

"I still can't get over how much of a shrine this place is to you," she laughed.

Freddie grimaced. "Yeah, well, my mom is fond of taking pictures."

He placed the bacon into the pan and the smell of it made Sam's mouth water.

"Hurry up with that, Benson. Mama's hungry."

"Just a couple of minutes."

She groaned and lay her head down on the counter.

"You okay?" He asked.

Sam propped her head up on her arms and looked up at him.

"I mean, about that whole Jonah thing. He was a dirt bag."

She glared at him. "I'm fine."

"He didn't deserve you, Sam," Freddie said.

"Give me my bacon and shut up, Fredbag."

He sighed and went back to cooking the bacon. It was only a few minutes later when he placed a plate of bacon in front of her. Sam inhaled it within a few minutes and Freddie put a can of Wahoo Punch in front of her, which she downed in a couple of gulps.

"Better?" Freddie asked when she was done.

Sam didn't know if he was referring to her hunger or her heartache but either way, she found that the answer was yes, she did feel better. When she smiled at him, it was genuine.

Two

Pete was cute but once Sam had stopped pretending to be a daffodil, they really had nothing in common. When she didn't have to pretend to laugh at his jokes she began to realize that Pete wasn't all that funny and actually kind of dumb. He liked baseball and skateboarding and it was his life's ambition to move down to California and learn how to surf. Sam thought that lifestyle would suit him very much.

He didn't take it too hard when she broke up with him and she was glad that she finally had a smooth break up for once. Until two days later when she saw him making out with a blonde a grade level below them.

She didn't know why she was so upset, she had dumped him. But still, did he have to move on so fast?

Freddie had been walking beside her when she saw Pete and the tramp and he looked nervously between her and the happy couple. When she turned and walked away, he chased after her.

"Do you want to punch my bag?" He asked.

"No," she said.

"Do you want to punch me?"

Sam looked at him. "You offering?"

"If it'll make you feel better," he scrunched his eyes shut and readied himself to be hit.

"Why do you care if I feel better?"

He opened his eyes cautiously and relaxed his stance when he saw that she wasn't going to hit him.

"You are my friend, Sam," he said. "And that was a pretty scummy thing Pete did."

She shrugged. "Like I care. I dumped him, remember?"

"Yeah," he smiled. "Slasher movie marathon?"

"What about your mom?"

"She's working tonight."

"Got any food?"

"We can stop by the store on the way home."

Sam's eyes lit up and Freddie laughed, despite knowing that his wallet was in deep trouble.

Three days later Pete turned up to baseball practice in a completely pink uniform. It had been blamed on a laundry mishap but Sam knew better. It was a tame sort of revenge compared to Jonah's wedgie bounce but the dork had done it all on his own. She'd never tell him how proud and grateful she was.

Three

Hearing Carly say that she kissed Freddie had been like a punch to the stomach that unexpectedly knocked the wind out of her. Seeing them kiss in the hallway at Ridgeway was a kick in the chest, painful with a lasting bruise that was still sensitive days afterward.

And while Sam did feel the green eyed monster lurking on her shoulder, that wasn't the reason why she told Freddie he was bacon. If Carly had woken up one day with a sudden epiphany about what she had been missing with her devoted next door neighbor and fallen madly in love with him then Sam would have held her tongue. It would have hurt like hell but Carly's happiness came before anything else in Sam's book.

But that wasn't the case. After finally getting her to open up the door and let her into the apartment, Carly had confessed to her that she still didn't really see Freddie as boyfriend material but what he had done was so brave and sweet that she thought that might be able to love him eventually if she really tried.

Sam had always been cynical about love but she didn't have to be all into roses and rainbows to know that love really didn't work like that. It wasn't something that you could control or force yourself into. It was like getting blindfolded and falling off a cliff, sudden, exciting, and scary as all hell. If Carly and Freddie continued on the road they were headed down on then they'd both get hurt and their friendship might never be the same.

So Sam told Freddie the truth. Despite what he, or anyone else, might think she didn't relish the experience. He had pined after Carly for four years, she didn't want to be the one that snatched the dream away from him when he thought it was finally within his grasp. She'd never admit it to anyone, she could barely admit it to herself but she knew all too well what it was like to want something that was constantly out of your reach.

It was later that night that Sam got the text from Carly. Freddie and I broke up, it said.

She had to admit that she didn't expect him to move so fast. But Freddie had always been the nice guy and his conscience wouldn't let him stay with Carly for a few more days and enjoy her affection and kisses if he knew her feelings for him weren't real. Sam liked to think she'd be as big of a person if she was in a similar position but she probably wouldn't be. Growing up a Puckett, she had learned to take what gold she could get. Even if it wasn't real.

She called Carly and got the full story of what had happened. It seemed that Freddie had taken her at her word and explained the whole shebang to Carly, Noseby Moseby and bacon story and all. It was something else that surprised her. He had listened to her. Carly sounded fine on the phone, a little bummed and a little worried that it might be awkward with Freddie now, but the usual break-up therapy of ice cream and chick flicks wasn't needed, much to Sam's relief.

Still, she found herself heading to Bushwell plaza at ten p.m. One best friend didn't need her but the other one just might.

And so she found herself climbing up eight stories on a fire escape and crawling across a ledge to Freddie's window. It was unlocked and Sam pushed it up and crawled in.

Freddie sat up in bed at the sound of the intruder and looked immensely relieved to see it was just her.

"Sam!" He hissed. "I told you to stop doing that, it's dangerous."

"And I told you, that's what makes it fun," she walked over to his bed and gestured for him to scoot over. He did, gingerly lifting his broken leg, and she lay down on her back next to him.

"So, you know, don't you?"

"Yep," she said.

"Go on and say it," he grumbled.

"Say what, Fredwad?"

"Say 'I told you so'."

She turned her head to look at him. "Nah, too easy."

"I hate being the nice guy," he said. "Nice guys always finish last."

"Well, this nice guy just saved his best friend's life. Don't ever tell me you regret that."

"I don't," he said quickly. "I just…I thought this was it, you know? Four years and I finally have everything I ever wanted."

"If you're really meant to have it then she'll come back," Sam said quietly.

He turned to look at her. "Sam?" He asked.

"What?"

"That really you?"

She sat up and punched his shoulder.

"OW!" He howled and she quickly covered his mouth to keep him from waking his mother.

"Shut up!"

He said something but she couldn't make out what he was saying behind her hand. She took it off.

"You punched me!"

"Still think it's not me?" She smirked.

"You can't hit an injured person!"

"I can if it's you and you're being nubby."

She lay back down and pulled the covers off him, wrapping it around herself.

"Uh Sam?" Freddie said hesitantly. "What are you doing?"

"Climbing Everest, what do you think, nub?"

"Aren't you going to go home?"

"You going to make me walk home at nearly midnight?"

"B-but..but…" he spluttered and Sam smiled at seeing him so flustered.

"Just sleep, Freddie," she said and turned away from him, pressing her face into his pillow.

This wasn't the first time she had snuck into his room late at night but she had always gone to Carly's straight afterwards. But tonight, she didn't want to leave him alone and somehow she sensed that he didn't want to be alone either.

It wasn't even really about Carly and the break-up. It was the fact that Freddie could have died and Sam was really good at pretending and putting on a mask but she didn't think it was something she could ever get over. She had to throw herself completely into the Ninja Assassin game with Spencer otherwise she didn't think she'd ever leave Freddie's side.

Sam could feel Freddie moving around next to her, trying to get more comfortable and she reluctantly released some of the blanket so that he could get underneath it fully.

"Good night, Sam," he whispered.

"Night, Freddie," she whispered back.

Four

She had made it all the way to the lobby before a single tear had managed to escape her heroic efforts to keep them in and wound its way down her cheek. She swiped it away with her sleeve, the leather felt harsh on her skin.

She stood beside the bank of elevators, out of Lewbert's line of sight. Just like that time with Jonah, Sam found herself stuck with nowhere to go. She couldn't go up to Carly's and face an interrogation about what had happened, her mom was staying over at her boyfriend of the week's place and she didn't want to go home to an empty house either.

All the other times that she'd been upset over a break-up, there was one person that she had always turned to, one person that she could count on. But now he was the one she had just broken up with and she didn't know what to do or where to go.

Sam slumped against the wall and gave up the battle against her tears, letting them fall freely down her cheeks. She may have lost her boyfriend tonight but she'll be damned if she was going to lose her best friend too.

Resolutely, she crept out of the lobby, past a sleeping Lewbert, out of the doors of Bushwell and made her way to the fire escape, following the much tread along path up to Freddie's window.

It was unlocked, as it always was now, and Sam climbed in. Freddie was on his bed but he hadn't changed out of his clothes yet. He sat up when he saw her.

"Sam?"

She thought there might have been a hopeful tone to his voice but couldn't decide if she was just imagining it. She went over and sat beside him on the bed, kicking off her shoes and pulling her knees up to her chin.

"I just broke up with my boyfriend and I…" She hated how her voice broke slightly. "I need my best friend right now."

Freddie put his arm around her and pulled her into his side. "He's right here and he's not going anywhere," he said, pressing a kiss to her forehead.

"And for the record? I just broke up with my girlfriend too."

"That sucks."

"Yeah, but I have my best friend so I think I'll be okay," he smiled down at her and Sam found herself smiling back.

She knew right then that they'd both be okay. They'd get through this together, just like always.