iAm a Red Hawk

"I love you, Kiddos… Remember, if you need anything, I'm just a phone call away…"

Carly wondered if Spencer realized that she was starting college, not preschool. She loved him anyway. From the minute she set foot on campus, Carly knew she'd made the absolutely right choice. She knew none of those other schools – all of whom had given her carte blanche – would never – could never compare. This was her home. Her Seattle. The best rain-soaked place in the entire world.

Spencer grunted, unloading a box simply labeled SAM from the back of Socko's borrowed van in front of Carly and Sam's new place.

"What the hell have you got in here, Puckett?"

Sam looked at him like he was insane for even asking.

"What the hell do you think? Restaurant-grade Bacon Press!"

Carly snapped at her.

"Sam! This is college, not an episode of Food Fight, and besides, where in the hell did you get a restaurant-grade bacon press from in the first place?"

Sam shrugged. She thought it was obvious.

"Uncle Carmine."

Carly scoffed. She loved Sam with all of her soul, but love her or not, she was truly maddening.

"Sam, you do realize that your Uncle Carmine isn't really in the 'Restaurant Supply Business', right?" Carly made liberal use of air quotes.

Sam was incredulous. She was also completely oblivious to the fact that she had likely given Seattle's most eccentric sculptor a serious hernia.

"So? Mama needs her bacon."

"Cupcake will make you bacon, Sam…"

They weren't even moved in yet and already, Carly and Sam were having their first 'Big Girl Disagreement' right here on the sidewalk.

"You can catch more flies with honey…" Carly thought, changing tactics.

Though she was mortified, with Spencer right there, Carly decided to employ her 'Bedroom Voice' – the one that got Sam to do whatever it was that Carly wanted – in public.

"Sam…" Carly cooed, softly enough that she didn't carry, "If you let Spencer keep the bacon press at the apartment, I promise you that I'll do whatever you want for the entire week, Sweety…"

Carly laid it on thick, and she knew it. She loved Sam as much as Spencer loved his internal organs. It was a fair trade. Sam's eyes lit up like it was Christmas.

"Even make me grilled pastrami, bacon and cheese sandwiches?"

They were a new favorite. Sam had invented them one night around midnight during a Girly Cow marathon. Carly burst out into hysterics. Sam had that effect on her.

"Yes, you meat stick!"

Sam laughed, ran to Carly, and threw her into a hug. Spencer was still on the ground.

"A little help here? Puckett?"

Carly gave Sam a sweet look and, though grudgingly, Sam grabbed the box, loaded it back into the van, and helped Spencer to his feet.

"Sorry there, Spence. We cool?" Sam flushed slightly, embarrassed that she put bacon before Spencer, who had always been so good to her for so long. Spencer laughed it off, wincing through the mild pain.

"The coolest… Now, promise me you'll take good care of my baby sister?"

Carly was mortified. Embarrassed didn't even cut it. She stood there, hands on her hips.

"Standing right here, Spencer! I'm grown, by the way, thanks for noticing…"

Sam answered Spencer first, as though Carly didn't exist.

"Oh, I'll take plenty good care of her, don't worry about that…" she smirked.

Spencer chose to ignore it. He finished repacking Socko's van.

"Carly! Almost forgot….Here!"

Spencer tossed her two very small objects in quick succession. The first she caught. The keys to her new place, a duplex, essentially rented out as two small apartments. Carly and Sam had the bottom floor. A single girl, willing to pay extra, had snagged the top floor for herself, insisting on needing "the extra space for studying." The second flying object missed Carly entirely, landing with a soft thud inside her partially-opened box of clothing. Carly looked down and immediately sniffed back a tear. Leave it to Spencer. Sam looked at her, confused.

"But you haven't…"

"I know. It's his way of saying he cares."

Reaching down, Carly plucked the small object – her old asthma inhaler – now eleven years outdated, from the box and deposited it into her front jeans pocket. She knew she would never again need it, but she couldn't bear to part with it. Spencer kept it all these many years 'just in case'. The fact that Spencer's rationale was so overwhelmingly simple was part of the reason Carly never pitched a fit when he babied her the way he did. It was all he knew. Their mother was gone, she had rejoined the universe years ago. Their father had put country before family, and – save for the very rare occasion – was wherever the United States Air Force had told him he should be. Though she had cut ties with him completely over the way he had treated her upon learning the truth – that his notion of his only daughter as a princess – was a fallacy – Carly knew she would, on some level, always worry about the man. She could hate what he had become, but that did not mean that she wished him ill. Though she never intended to open another birthday card or take another phone call, that didn't mean that she – in the heart she had inherited from her late mother – had any capacity to hate.

With no parents in the traditional sense, all she had left was Spencer. She had Spencer and she loved him on par with Sam – more than life itself. She momentarily broke from Sam, running back to her big brother, hugging him tightly.

He winced. Carly had momentarily forgotten that her lover's industrial grade kitchen appliance may have cracked a few ribs. She spoke in a soft voice, only for him. She was instantly a little girl again.

"I love you, Spencer… I can't thank you enough for… for… for everything. You're the best."

Carly could read him like a book. She knew he didn't have to say a word. She knew he loved her more than life.

"Hey, Kiddo… it's ok. You belong here. Besides, I'm only fifteen minutes away, so you can see me anytime…"

This was another of Carly's reasons for choosing to stay in Seattle. She could never have left her beautiful blonde here in the Emerald City for life halfway across the country, but she would have died without her big brother. Realizing it was time to go, she pulled him close and kissed his chest, her lips meeting a paint-spattered t-shirt.

She returned to Sam, navigating the front steps, juggling boxes and her new keys. She slid the key into the front lock and turned. The door swung open with a slight creak. No sooner had they crossed the threshold, depositing boxes inside the door, then their heard the distinct rumble of shoes on hardwood, now clattering down the stairs from the top floor.

Carly Shay's face hitched itself up into a wide, bright smile.

A flowery, exuberant voice greeted them. It was one both girls instantly recognized, but only one knew was coming.

"You're here! You're here! You're here!"

Sam Puckett responded to her new housemate the only way she could. Slack-jawed. Mouth agape. The words came out of her mouth in a slow, stunned monotone.

"What? The? Hell?"

She could not believe who her new roommate would be.