I haven't seen much of Freddie outside of school recently. He's been with Rachel a lot, even missing a couple of iCarly rehearsals this week. Sam's particularly angry at that, though I get the feeling that it's his choice of company as much as his missing rehearsals, which is upsetting her.

(2 days earlier)

"Hey Freddie" Sam shouted as Freddie and Rachel left his locker after school finished. "Don't forget it's rehearsal in an hour."

"Oh I can't make it" he replied, taking Rachel's hand. "We're going to see a movie. E-mail me a list of the sketches you're doing and I'll make sure I'm prepared on the night."

And with that they left before Sam could respond.

"I'm here" said Freddie as he walked into the iCarly studio. About time too, we were going live in under two minutes. Sam, already upset about the rehearsals, was now close to boiling point. We got through the show though, all the stuff we'd told Freddie we were doing worked well and I felt that the show had been a real success.

"And we're clear!" said Freddie, putting down his camera and heading for the door.

"Whoa there, Techboy!" yelled Sam, striding toward him. "We need to talk about this."

"What, Sam?"

"Duh, about you skipping rehearsals, and showing up seconds before the show. It's not good enough…" but Freddie cut her off.

"Who died and made YOU, of ALL people, Miss Punctuality?" he snapped.

"Freddie," I began gently, "since you and Rachel started dating, you HAVE been neglecting the show. We just think that you… that ALL of us owe it to our fans to make sure we keep delivering the best show we can for them."

"I accept that Carly, but I don't have the time that I used to."

"So dump the chick" interjected Sam. Great one Sam, you're really not helping here.

Freddie looked furious. "Are you telling me to choose between Rachel and iCarly?" he challenged her.

"No" I blurted out before Sam could make things worse and say something that we would all regret, "just that the show is important to all of us. You, me, Sam, Gibby, our fans – and that it needs us all to be here and to work hard at it, or the quality will drop, and I'm sure none of us want that to happen."

"Ok" sighed Freddie, "I'll try to give a bit more time to the show – but I can't devote all the time I used to. We'll see if we can find a happy medium. I'll see you later Carls" and without a word or a look to Sam, he left.

Sam was fuming – it took me a long time, and a lot of ham, to calm her down.

Sam and I talked a lot that night about what we could do. She was still intent on breaking Freddie and Rachel up and, with the show in danger of suffering from Freddie's absence, I was minded to agree. Of course we'd need to be subtle about it (which rules out many of Sam's ideas) so that Freddie didn't realise we'd been behind it. That would obviously alienate him completely – the last thing we wanted. In the end we decided that the best thing to do was to arrange a few more outside scenes and skits, making sure they were filmed and edited in advance, limiting the free time Freddie would have to spend with Rachel. We decided that the first one would be Monday, straight after school. Freddie had been with Rachel quite a lot that weekend (I'd heard them coming and going from his apartment a few times) so I figured he'd be willing to give us Monday evening. We decided to see him straight after school about it.

"Grab your camera, techdork, we're filming outside tonight" Sam said jovially as we left class.

"Sorry I can't" said Freddie. "I already have plans."

"With Rachel?" Sam asked slowly

"Yep."

"What about what we said after the show?" I asked. "You said you'd give more time to iCarly."

"Yes," he said, "but you can't spring things on me with no notice and just assume I'm free."

I could see Sam out of the corner of my eye. She'd clearly had enough of this. Before I could stop her she yelled out.

"That's it. Time to choose. Rachel – or iCarly, because clearly you can't carry on with both."

"Fine" he said. "I choose Rachel. I'll call in at the studio now and collect my things."

He got in his car and, leaving us behind, drove back to Bushwell Plaza. Fortunately Mrs Puckett pulled up a minute or two later so we weren't too far behind him.

When we got to my apartment Spencer was sat on the coach watching TV. He told us Freddie was upstairs and hadn't said very much as he passed. Spencer thought he looked angry. I found it impossible to disagree with him. We ran up to the studio, me to see if I could talk him into staying. Sam? Well I can only guess what was going through her head.

"Freddie, don't quit" I began as we walked into the studio. Freddie had packed up his tech cart and was stood by the elevator. "Please, we can work this out – we WERE working it out when we talked after the last show."

"Yes" he agreed, "then SAM told me to make a choice. I tend to feel that someone who asks you to make that sort of choice isn't worth choosing."

"Let's talk about this. Please, for me?" Hey, it always worked in the past.

"That doesn't work anymore Carly, I've grown up since the little boy you could twist round your little finger with that line and the puppy-dog-eye look."

"Please" I repeated, "please stay with us. We NEED you."

He looked at Sam for confirmation. She glared back for a few seconds before Freddie shook his head and stepped into the elevator.

"So that's it?" Sam began to stutter. "You're just gonna leave us? What do we do now?"

"You got your pearphone with you?" Freddie asked.

"Yes" Sam said, looking confused.

"Then call someone who cares" he said simply as the lift door closed and he headed downstairs.

We looked at each other for a few seconds until we heard the apartment front door open, then close a few seconds later. Freddie had done it. He'd walked out of iCarly. Maybe out of our lives altogether. How could this have happened? We talked and resolved to redouble our efforts to get rid of Rachel and get Freddie back where he belongs.