Carly's POV

I sent Gibby into my apartment with Spencer's smoothie and went into Freddie's apartment across the hall. His mom was still at work, which was good; I didn't want to lie to her about why I was here. I'm not good at lying, that was always more Sam's department.

I went to Freddie's room; it was dark except the small amount of light coming through the shades on the window. After stumbling, I found his bedside lamp and clicked it on. Sam was motionless on the opposite side of the bed, facing the window.

"Sam" I whispered as I climbed onto the bed next to her. "Sam, what happened?"

She didn't answer, except she started to cry. Turning to face me, hugging me closer and continuing to cry softly, in the faint light of the lamp I could tell that Sam's eye was blackened and her lip split. These are wounds that Sam would be proud of if she had been in just another fight, this was different. This was as much an emotional attack as a physical one. I can't believe I didn't notice this was happening to my best friend.

"He said he loved me" she whispered into my dark brown hair. Wiping the tears from her eyes she looked into my eyes. "Freddie, he said he loved me"

My heart raced, Freddie had told me months ago, but told me to keep it a secret. I wanted to be overjoyed but I don't think Freddie the type to say the L-word lightly, at least not to Sam. I nodded and she continued. "He thought I was asleep." Suddenly I became very scared for Freddie, "Where did Freddie go?" Sam looked more worried than I had ever seen her, "To find Carlos"

I sat at the bar, watching Spencer who for some reason decided to cook bacon, I finally had convinced Sam to come over to my apartment and take a shower, and change into some fresh clothes. I was calling hospitals all over to see if Freddie had been admitted. Finally Spencer walked over grabbed the phone book and flung it across the room. "You should trust Freddie to know what he is doing"

"I know, but fighting Carlos, when Sam couldn't" Gibby chuckled and stood, tearing his eyes away from the door, "Carly, you know that art class me and Freddie were taking?"

I nodded, but didn't see how this played into Freddie getting killed by Carlos, "Well it wasn't exactly an art class, that is just what we told his mom, and everyone she could get information out of." He smiled and stepped up behind me and kissed my cheek gently. "We were taking mixed martial arts classes. He's pretty good too, won a few tournaments around town" I was exasperated, that must have been why Freddie had a sudden unverified klutzy phase when we entered high school.

Finally Sam reemerged from the shower, she was dressed in a pair of my jeans and an iCarly promotional t-shirt. She still looked like a ghostly shell; I know she must have scrubbed in the shower for at least half an hour before she finally reemerged. Her blonde hair lay damp on her shoulders, I stood from the bar and walked over to her, "I'm sorry I didn't notice something was wrong." She shook her head, "It's not your fault Carls, I shouldn't have stayed with him, and he just always said the right thing, which had me melting at his feet." Every word was whispered, as if she was afraid to use her voice, I always knew Sam to be loud and boisterous, this really scared me. Spencer grinned, "I got bacon! I know you love your pork products" Sam just looked forlorn, "No that's okay, I'm not hungry, but I am thirsty though." Sam turning down pork? Now I was more worried.

Spencer handed Sam a can of Wahoo! Punch, "Maybe we should go look for him?" Gibby looked at Spencer and smiled, "This is something he does by himself, always has" I looked at Gibby, confused by what he said, "What do you mean always has?"

Sam opened the can of punch and sat down on the sofa with Spencer and me as we waited for Gibby to explain, "Well over the past few months Freddie started to notice how people talked about you two. At first it was about both of you, then it would turn more towards Sam. He was almost arrested three times for fights."

A heavy knock thudded at the door.