A/N: I don't own iCarly.

Chapter 3

Web Cast?

FPOV

As soon as I saw Carly, I knew she was still upset about whatever she way crying about this afternoon. I also knew that I was technically in the dark about everything, so I put on my game face. I had trekked through the streets to get to Groovie Smoothie, and for once, there wasn't a huge line, although I had to yell at T-Bo about twelve times, telling him that I did not want any of his bananas on a stick. I ran the whole way back to Bushwell Plaza. There was a half hour before iCarly was supposed to start. Sam usually showed up with less than five minutes to spare so I figure that I would have a good amount of time to get something out of Carly about what was bothering her.

After noticing how upset she looked, my eyes dropped to the sweatshirt she was wearing, my sweatshirt. I had given it to her late one night when we were talking on the fire escape. I started to wonder if she wore it often, and then I realized that there were more important things than a sweatshirt. I looked up and locked my eyes with hers. I could see the pain that she hid there, even though I knew that she was probably trying her hardest to keep it all locked up inside.

"Hey," I said, quietly, not wanting to say too much at first. I smiled at her, and she smiled back, but I noticed that it wasn't the smile of hers that I loved. It wasn't quite as big, and her eyes were flat, and full of sorrow.

"Hi," she began. "What are you doing here?"

I looked at her, a little confused. Was she that upset that she didn't remember that iCarly was supposed to start in about 15 minutes?

"Carly, we have the web cast in 15 minutes...Sam should be here soon. I just figured we could have smoothies tonight."

While I was saying this, I could see her facial expressions change. Her face when from confusion to a blank stare to a wide eyed horror in about seven seconds.

"Oh my god, Freddie! I'm not ready! I look terrible, and fifteen minutes isn't enough to get my act together. I've been so preoccupied that I completely forgot what day it was!" She was losing it a little bit, and I saw a single tear fall down her cheek.

I put the smoothies on her desk and walked over to her. I couldn't tell if she was crying because she was overwhelmed or if she was crying because of what had happened before, but honestly it didn't matter. She was crying, and I needed to make it stop, before I said something that gave me away. I couldn't let her know how I felt about her. Not now, when she was so obviously upset. I wanted to wipe the tear off her cheek, but I didn't want her to run away. I decided that a hug would be a safe bet, and thankfully, she wrapped her arms around my waist and buried her head into my neck. Even at a time like this, her being this close to me quickened my pulse, and I hoped that she wouldn't notice. I felt so guilty for being happy at a time when she was so clearly miserable. Her hands squeezed my shirt, and I could feel her shaking.

"Carls? What's wr-" I began, until I heard a noise from behind us. Sam had arrived in her usual rude fashion.

"Hey Carly! Fredward...didn't bring mommy with you tonight?" Sam had been here for five seconds, and already she was getting on my nerves.

Sam looked at Carly, taking in her oversized clothes, and wet hair, and gave her a weird look.

"Did I miss the part about this episode being a pajama party? Because if I did, I'm going to have to borrow some pj's Carl."

Sam did have a good point. There was only five minutes until the web cast was supposed to go live, and there was no way Carly was going to be ready. I looked over at her, noticing that she had moved a good distance away from me when Sam had entered the room, just another thing for me to be mad at Sam for. She wiped her eyes before Sam had a good chance to look at her, and started to talk.

"Sorry guys, I've just been having a rough day, I think that the pajama theme sounds good, because I'm just really not in the mood to get changed."

The next couple minutes were a blur. I was ordered, by Sam of course, to go upstairs and get the set and all my equiptment ready and she would handle Carly and herself. I wasn't sure if I trusted Sam, but when I looked at Carly, she just nodded at me, so up I went. There was a minute left by the time everything was ready to go, and the girls still hadn't come from downstairs. I was starting to get worried when all of a sudden the door burst open, and in they came. Sam had borrowed Carly's favorite pair of footie pajamas, the ones with the butterflies on them, but Carly still had my sweatshirt on. Once again I had to snap myself out of whatever world my brain was in. They had both put their hair in pigtails, and Carly looked a little better, but her eyes were still far away and distant.

The show went surprisingly smooth, although I had to admit I was watching Carly the whole time, making sure that she was at least surviving this whole ordeal. After the show was over, Sam said something about her mom having a ham at home. I don't think I've ever seen her move that fast before. But then I realized that it was just me and Carly. Alone. I didn't know if it was the right time or not to discuss what I had noticed. While I was shutting off my laptop and my camera, Carly had sat down on the swing that we had installed for one of our web casts. I looked at her, and she wasn't swinging, just sitting there staring at her feet.

I felt weird just coming out and saying it, so I decided to try and back into it. I turned and started to walk over to her, and just as I was about to ask her if she was okay, she looked right at me.

"Freddie? Do you think we could take a walk or something? Or maybe go onto the fire escape? I really need to talk to someone. I know that you probably don't want to be stu-"

"Carly," I said, cutting her off. "We can do whatever you want. If it stopped raining, we could go out to the fire escape. I'll go check, and be right back."

I ran out the door of the studio, and out to the fire escape. Thankfully, it had stopped raining. I pulled out my cell phone, and quickly texted Carly that I had to run home for a second but that I would meet her at the fire escape in fifteen minutes. I had a plan. I just hoped that it would work.