Author's Note: Hello my dear readers. Thank you for your support with this story. I'm glad you've enjoyed the opening chapter. I have two chapters for this update. I'm happy to hear from you with what you think as I continue. On with the story.

Chapter 2

Carly left her nearly dumbfounded brother behind in their parent's room as she quickly dash to her room to grab a jacket and what she assumed was her PearPhone. Once she reached her closet, she felt like it took her forever, but only a minute or so to find her zipped black hooded Air Force sweatshirt. She pushed her annoyance aside that it looked like all her other clothes were in the closet, but most of her Air Force clothing was missing and realized it was pure luck that she found the T-shirt she was wearing a few minutes ago in the first place. She pulled the sweatshirt over her shoulder then walked to her bed to grab her charging PearPhone off the nightstand then shoved it into her oversized left pocket. She took another moment to dig in her drawer and grab her wallet then shoved it into her right pocket.

She was out the door of her bedroom a moment later and down back downstairs in less than a minute, but she had to wait for Spencer to dress before they could head out. The brunette took a quick breath to help calm her nerves then started pacing about the living room. She pushed the idea of seeing her mother's grave to the back of her mind and focused on examining the first floor of the apartment to see if anything was different or more accurately due to her mindset that she was just in a nightmare, warped from her viewpoint. Nothing really looked that out of the ordinary except a few missing pieces of her mother's art that should have been mixed in with Spencer's art, which was oddly absent as well except for the green bottle-bot and a few older pieces. She blew out a soft breath from her noise as she was glad to see her mother's phone collection about the apartment.

As she paced, she naturally stuck her hands into her sweatshirt pockets and palmed over her PearPhone. Since she figured that this nightmare world was already playing tricks on her, she might as well see if her phone was just as messed up as what she had seen with the world. She frowned down at her pear shaped cellular phone as she started skimming through her contacts and realized that several significant ones were missing: her cousins Faye and Ozzy, Brad, Megan, her mother, Sinjin, Cat, Tori, Jade and the list kept going of missing names and numbers. She mumbled to herself, "This keeps getting weirder and weirder. I have to wake up soon."

A knock on the apartment door grabbed her attention away from the phone as she snapped her head to look at the door. She shoved her phone back into her pocket then headed to the door. She took a quick peak through the peephole then immediately went about undoing the locks and opening the door.

She blinked with restrained joy as she saw her technical-producer and more, Fredward "Freddie" Benson standing on the other side of the threshold. She cautiously whispered with a bit of disbelief, "Freddie?"

"Hey," he greeted her with a warm, but hesitant smile as he had his hands shoved into his jean pockets. "I know it's really early on a Saturday, but I needed to come over to tell you that I'm sorry that I—"

He didn't get to finish as Carly threw her arms around him and pulled him tight for a hug. She didn't care if he was just a dream after being six weeks apart from him she'd settle for a dream to get her through the next few hours it would take him to get back to her.

Freddie blinked in surprised then wrapped his arms around her to return her hug. He didn't get to enjoy the hug for long because she pulled just far enough away from him so that her hands slipped from behind his neck to cup his cheeks and pull him into a lip locking kiss. She grinned into the kiss and parted her lips slightly as she realized that even for a dream, he felt warm and real to the touch and that he was actually returning the kiss.

She pulled back a few seconds later with one last run of her tongue over his bottom then smiled at the blinking and wide eyed teenager.

He took a few seconds to gather his wits to realize what just occurred and that he had fell right back into the stride of kissing her even after a year and half since their last kiss. "Wh-what was that for?"

She snorted out a laugh and smiled brightly at him. "I haven't seen you in six weeks; I think I'm due a kiss from my boyfriend."

The tech-producer's mouth dropped open and he blinked at the pale brunette. His mouth opened and closed several times before his throat could utter a sound then form a question, "Your what? I'm your what?"

She sighed for a second as she dropped her hands away from his cheeks then pulled out of his embrace. She looked up the ceiling for some reason and called out, "Oh come on? That can't be different too."

Freddie started blinking as he looked to the web-hostess. He asked with evident disbelief in his voice, "Can't be different?"

She turned her attention back to Freddie and gave him a sympathetic smile. "I'm sorry, but you're a figment of my imagination since… well this is a dream I'm having. See, in the real world, you're my boyfriend, but apparently a piece of my subconscious doesn't like that. Stupid subconscious," she hissed at herself as she finished. She looked away from him, but just casually around the living room as she commented to herself, "Oh my God, could I still be with Steven in my dream?"

Freddie raised an eyebrow as he looked at her with a worried expression, "Okay Carly, seriously what's going on?"

Carly let out a breath and tried to calmly explain it to him, "I am having a nightmare that I know I'm going to wake up from any minute. Spencer is about to take me to our mother's gravesite."

"Why?" he cautiously asked then eyed Spencer just coming out of his room for some clarification, but the artist just gave him a look indicating that he was not going to argue with his sister.

Carly lifted a hand and rested it on the side of Freddie's right arm. She confidently smiled as she answered, "He said out mother is dead and I want him to prove it. I'm hoping it's like when you are falling in a dream and you wake up before you hit the ground; before I see her grave, I'm going to wake up then I'll be back home."

Freddie looked past Carly's shoulder to look to Spencer to see if he was in on the joke, but the look on Carly's older brother told him that there was no joke to be let in on. The brown eyed teenager took a slow breath then whispered, "Carly, I don't know what's happened, but this is not a dream."

She tilted her head slightly to the side and gave him a disbelieving smirk. She asked with a bit of Dorfman sass in her voice, "Really? Spencer said you didn't go to NERD camp because Sam sabotaged your application because you didn't know what time it was; even if I didn't know any better, it's so stupid it has to be a dream."

Freddie cleared his throat and his brow furled for a moment then answered, "Ah, that really happened. Sam changed my answers on my application and they rejected me for it."

The brunette straightened her head and crossed her arms under her chest as she put on an obvious disbelief expression on her face. She retorted with a near sarcastic tone, "Sam would not do that. You've been looking forward to going for months. It's like a dream for you then you could go to any college you wanted. She knows that."

Freddie frowned and gave her a disappointed look. She slightly frowned in return with the look he was giving her. He whispered with a sad tone, "No, she really did. I missed out going and I've been here for the last six weeks." He slightly shook his head then finished, "Like you said 'Who cares?' that Sam did that because it doesn't matter anyway; I couldn't have gone since we're in school."

"Who cares?" Carly blinked as the words seemed foreign and strange in her mouth. She licked her lips then stated with ferocity, "I wouldn't say such a thing and what's this about us being in school? Freddie, we're out for the summer. School doesn't start back until September seventh."

Freddie closed his mouth for a second then hesitantly countered, "Ah, Carly? Ridgeway switched to a year round school; we're in school now."

Carly tilted her head down slightly, but maintained her eye contact with him as she asked in a tone that was questioning his sanity, "So, my mother is dead, you're not my boyfriend, Sam messed up your application, I told you that I didn't care that Sam messed up your chance to go to camp and we've been in school for the summer?"

When Freddie looked back at her with the expression that he was being serious about what he was saying, the brunette shook her head and complained loudly, "Oh, now I know I have to wake up from this janked up nightmare." She looked over her shoulder to her older brother and spoke with an irritated tone that said she wasn't going to wait for him, "Come on Spencer; let's go."

Mount Pleasant Cemetery
700 West Raye Street
Seattle, WA
Saturday, August 20, 2011

The quiet drive was relatively short to where Spencer said was their mother's resting place. Spencer quickly parked the SUV and the siblings got out of the vehicle under an overcast sky and surprisingly crisp August morning. Carly pulled her sweatshirt tightly around her body then zipped it up nearly to the top as she looked up at the sky and the wind blew her hair. Freddie stepped out from the back seat and was immediately by the web-hostess side. Carly didn't ask the tech-producer why he decided to tag along, but she didn't question it either as she was glad he was by her side even if he wasn't real.

The artist wore a concerned expression on his face, but remained silent as he turned away and started leading the teenagers out of the parking lot and down one of the concrete paths, but the brunette stopped at the threshold between the parking lot and the cemetery grounds.

"Carly?" Freddie whispered from her side.

She remained silent for a few second as she knew the sooner she got this done the sooner she would be waking up in her bed, but she had the sudden apprehensiveness in taking another step.

Spencer seemed to sense that they had stopped and turned to look over his shoulder to his sister.

Freddie took another step closer and stood so close in fact to her that her right arm pressed against his chest. He whispered, "You don't have to do this."

She took a few calming breaths then turned her head to meet Freddie's concerned eyes. Her mouth became a thin line as she raised her hand to palm his left cheek. She answered with a confident tone, "I have to wake up." She dropped her hand away from his face and turned her attention forward then took a step forward and caught up with her brother. She quickly commented, "Let's get this over with."

The taller Shay blew out a soft breath through his nose then started back down the path with his sister by his side and Freddie trailing behind them. After about a minute or so of walking down the path, Spencer stopped and motioned towards a group of graves. He was the first to take a step on the grass and headed down the way he was obviously familiar with traveling.

Carly blew out a breath then took a confident step onto the grass. The well maintained grass softly crumbled under her tennis shoes then sprung back upright once she lifted her foot to take the next step and carefully walking around the other graves.

Spencer stopped feet away from a headstone that was longer than the surrounding ones, but Carly continued walking cautiously a few more steps to get a better view of the headstone.

She swallowed as she stopped to the right of it and noticed that it was designed to mark two graves, but only had writing on one side of it for the moment. She cautiously knelt down on one knee and rested her right forearm on her raised right knee as she looked at the gravestone. She warily reached out with her right hand and let her fingertips run over the top of the headstone then down the front of the polished grey stone as she read the inscription:

Taylor Faye Shay

Teacher, Friend, Sister, Daughter, Mother, Wife

The World is a Little Less Joyful without You

January 1963 – August 2001

Carly drew back her hand from the text of her mother's name as if she had been burned and cover her mouth with the hand as she sucked in a sharp breath through her nose. She read the headstone epitaph several times then closed her eyes tightly as the first tears started running down from her tear ducts. She fell backwards and she landed on her behind. The only thing that stopped her from completely falling on her back was Freddie quickly knelling behind her and catching her. She started mumbling to herself, "This can't be real, this can't be real, this can't be…"

Freddie wrapped his arms around her and rested his chin on her left shoulder. He started whispering softly anything he could think of to try to comfort her.

She pulled her hand away from her mouth and latched onto his forearms over her waist with both of her hands. The brunette started sobbing with the tears running freely down her flushing cheeks. Her breath caught several times in her throat as she tried to speak, but was finally able to choke out, "Wh-what kind of Hell did I wake up in Freddie?"

Freddie's face fell and eyes shot open wide as he had no idea how to answer her. He just held her tighter then whispered in her ear, "I don't know, I don't know…"