Disclaimer: Maybe in September...but I don't think I'll own iCarly by then.

A/N: This chapter has a bit more into where Sam was (which I'm sure you all figured out by now) and mentions of what happened.

Thanks for reviews, alerts, and favorites. Glad you're enjoying it.

Chapter 3

"How did Carly take the news?" Mom asks through the smoke rolling out of her mouth and passes me the cigarette. I inhale deep and hand it back to her, blowing smoke rings. Neither one of us had been by the store to buy at least another pack, so we're sharing the final two from her pack. She understands the need for a cancer-stick, especially after dealing with so much stress.

I shrug and glance at her. "I haven't told her yet," I tell her quietly. "I had to deal with both Spencer and Freddie to find out why they didn't tell her. Damn it, Mom, I thought she didn't want to be friends with me because she knew. I didn't know she was completely out of the loop." I stand and climb back in through the window, turning to her one more time. "Do you mind if I disappear for a little while?" She laughs and I take that as permission before leaving the apartment.

I almost take a cab but change my mind, thinking a walk will help me find the words to tell Carly where I've been for the past six years. Freddie had been there, had gotten hurt because of me even after I promised Carly that would never happen, and he had kept in touch through letters and even visited once. Spencer had been told by Freddie, but he hadn't bothered writing a letter or anything to tell me about Carly. Freddie kept me in the loop, making me feel almost as though I had never left Seattle, and he absolutely refused any apology I ever tried to make, especially about what happened that night.

Freddie sits on the other side of the glass with a frown and picks up the phone. I stare at him for a moment before picking up the phone in front of me. His arms are covered in light pink scars and I feel like throwing up, knowing that I'm to blame for his injuries, but he just shakes his head. "How are you doing, Sam?" he questions. I shrug. "You're going to have to give me more than that. I haven't seen you in two months."

The corners of my mouth twitch and I shake my head. "I'm doing fine, I guess." I sigh. "I still can't believe someone called the cops." I laugh. "I had the asshole. I saw the knife, Freddie. I could have defended myself." My eyes scanned every single visible scar. "Why did you push me out of the way?" He shrugs. "I'm going to need more than that, nub. It's been two months, and I've been wondering why ever since I got here." I want to be angry, but I can't. "You shoved me and I didn't even see the cop. So it's your fault I'm in here."

He laughs and shakes his head. "Sam, you're in here on your own. Even if I hadn't shown up you would still be sitting in here." He frowns. "Why were you even there? Can't you ever stay out of a fight? Or was this your goal? I mean, I'm really curious about whether or not you act the way you do just to get into prison." I glare at him. "Okay, maybe I'm wrong. Is there some sort of honor you're trying to defend? Did that guy try to do something? Is that why you were fighting him?"

"You need to shut the fuck up, Benson, because you're so far off-base I can't even tease you about it." I sigh. "You wouldn't know anything about it because you get everything you want. And don't try to deny it because it's true and you know it." He doesn't speak, just nods sadly. "Well, I'm not like you and Carly. I can't just reach somewhere and instantly have money to get exactly what I want. I have to do things to get money that Carly would never approve of to get money. If I have to steal or sell things or fight, then I'm going to."

I knock on the door to the Shay apartment and wait, remembering the days I didn't knock. Why should I have? Carly was my best friend and I practically lived here at some point. Of course, that was back in high school, and I had managed to screw everything up three months before graduation. I didn't graduate, obviously, but I was allowed to get my equivalent because I had been incarcerated while being a high school student. Wouldn't that have been something to frame? I roll my eyes and knock again. Where's Carly?

The door behind me opens and I turn on my heel to look at Freddie, almost the exact same scene from yesterday. He nods inside his apartment, eyes never leaving mine, and I step past him. He closes the door and motions to the couch, and I sit down, arms crossed. "We need to talk," I suggest. He nods. "Why didn't you tell Carly where I was? God, Freddie, you visited that one time. How could she not know? What was your excuse for getting hurt?" I'm interrogating him and it just feels so wrong, but I need to know. I want to know why my best friend was shielded from the reality.

He holds up a hand. "I'll answer you, I promise. Do you want a root beer?" I nod and he disappears into the kitchen for a moment before returning with two root beers and hands me one. Sitting down on the other end of the couch, he opens his drink and sips it before setting it on the coffee table. "Look, I didn't tell Carly where you were because she would have freaked out. Would you rather her think about you without knowing where you were or hating you because she knew where you were?" I roll my eyes. Nerd's got a point. "As for this," he holds up his arms so I could see all of the scars, "I told her I tried to break up a fight in the park."

I finish my root beer and lean forward, resting my elbows on my knees. "Freddie…did she ever ask where I was? Did she even care?" He raises his brow and I sigh, looking at the farthest wall. "I went through hell, thinking she hated me. Sometimes I would wake up and wonder, 'What's the point?' and Carly didn't even fucking know. I wrote her a letter everyday and they were returned to me, unopened. Was it you or Spencer?" I demand.

Freddie drops his head. "We didn't want her to know, Sam. She cared about you more than anything, you know that. Hell, she still does. She can't believe you're back out of nowhere, but she doesn't care about where you've been. All that matters is that you're back." He runs his hand through his hair. "God, Sam, if you have to tell her then do it yourself. She'll be disappointed at you for fighting and pissed off at me for lying to her. But she deserves the truth. So go tell her."

I stand and yank his hand until he's standing, pulling him into a tight hug. "I'm sorry, Freddie. Everything is my fault, and I wish it hadn't happened. I shouldn't have left Carly that night." I let go of him and cross the hall to Carly's apartment, barging in like old times. Spencer's in the living room, working on some sculpture, and he nods toward the stairs. Carly's in her room, watching some video on her laptop, but she pauses it when she sees me.

The brunette girl pats the bed next to her and I sit. She hugs me tightly and smiles. "You came back." Of course I did. I promised, didn't I? "Watch this video with me. It's hilarious." Of course the video is funny, Carly watches nothing less than funny on the internet. I laugh a few times, but I'm too distracted to be completely interested in watching the video. "Where'd you get that? It's cool." I look down and find her fingers playing with the pig charms on my bracelet.

"Oh, Mom got it for me for a 'welcome back' present. She was out getting food." I smile. "She's trying to change, and I like it, but it's just weird because of how much of my life she was scummy." She nods. "Did Melanie visit you when I was gone?" I ask her. Melanie had never said anything about Carly, just like Freddie.

Carly shook her head. "She called, but she never came to visit me." She leans her head back against the headboard and stares at me. "What happened to you, Sam? Where's my best friend?" I raise my brow. "Did something happen between you and Freddie? He never said your name once after you disappeared. It was like he kept changing the subject and when he told me he got jumped in the park, I knew he was lying but he wouldn't say otherwise."

I shrug. "Nothing happened between Freddie and me. He's a nub." I lean back against the headboard, my shoulder pressed against hers. "Some things take time, and I swear I'll tell you everything that's happened in the past six years, but for right now can we just get back to how we were? I really miss just hanging out and doing crazy shit together." Carly frowns and I know she's going to be curious as hell until I tell her. "Let's go see a movie or something. I haven't been in a while."

"I'm paying then," she states with a smile. I shake my head slowly. "You said you wanted to get back to how we were. That involves me paying for everything, you know." I roll my eyes. "I don't mind, Sam, really. I'm just glad you're back. I've missed you like crazy." I grab her wrist, dragging her off the bed as I stand up.

"Come on, you dork, let's go see a movie." Carly laughs and we walk downstairs to find Spencer covered from head to toe with what I assume was marshmallow cream. I reach out and swipe a finger across his arm, plopping the goop in my mouth. Yep, I was right. "Why are you covered in fluffy goodness?" I ask him, looking over the sculpture that didn't seem to have anything to do with it.

"Well, I went to open the jar and it exploded. I'm still trying to figure it out." He licks his arms. "At least it's something edible." I laugh and shake my head, scooping a handful off of the front of his shirt and scarf it down. Carly slaps my shoulder and I grin, sticking my tongue out at her. "So what are you guys doing?"

"We're going to go out for a little while, see a movie or whatever," I answer. I shovel off another handful and devour it. "We're definitely going to get something to eat." Carly grips my wrist and she pulls me toward the door. "Hey, save me some of that, will you?" Spencer nods and Carly and I take the elevator down to the lobby, where Lewbert is yelling at some little boy for chewing gum in his lobby. God, things haven't changed.

"Apparently your eating habits haven't changed," Carly teases as she drives to the mall. "Although I don't know if I ever remember you eating food off of people." She tilts her head and shudders. "Okay, that was definitely a weird thought." The rest of the drive is clouded by an awkward silence, which I don't mind because I honestly have no idea what to talk about with her right now.

The cinema is almost empty, since it's a Tuesday night and all the kids are at home doing homework or whatever their parents want them to be doing on a school night. There is seriously nothing good in this place, except the latest gore flick. Carly hates gore, so I'm pretty surprised when she gets two tickets before I can even voice my opinion. Okay, what the hell happened to this girl while I was gone?

We're the only two in the cinema, which is alright with me because I love to make noise, especially with a gore movie. For the entire first part of the movie, Carly is clutching my arm so tight I'm sure she's cut off all circulation from my shoulder to my fingertips and her head is pressed so far into my shoulder it's like she's trying to disappear into it. I'm cheering at most of the murder scenes and laughing when some dude loses an arm.

The end credits roll and I glance at Carly, nudging her. "Hey, movie's over, Carls. You can look now." What I wasn't expecting at that exact moment that she lifted her head to look, that a random still popped up of the guy losing his arm. "Oops, shit. I didn't know that was going to happen. Here, just watch me while we walk out." She wraps her arms around my waist from behind and I raise my brow when she digs her face into my spine, but I know if she doesn't she'll end up looking at the screen. We walk awkwardly out of the theater and she finally let go, running straight for the bathroom.

I don't get it. If she doesn't like gory movies, then why did she choose one? She finally returns, chewing on a piece of gum, and I'm positive she got sick. "Are you hungry?" she asks quietly and I gape at her like she's got three heads. She shrugs. "I'm a little hungry myself, but I just wanted to check if you wanted to eat."

"Are you sure you want to eat? I know you went and threw up, Carly. You hate gore, always have." She nods and grabs my wrist, dragging me to the food court. I guess that means I won't be getting any answers out of her anytime soon.

A/N: I went and saw Harry Potter today, which was epic, so I added them seeing a movie afterward. This chapter had been going in a different direction, but I thought it would be moving a little too fast. I was also eating ham and marshmallow cream (they're amazing together) while writing this...

For those wondering, I now have 3 one-shots in progress. They're a total pain right now and they definitely will be after next chapter of this because I only have 5 chapters of Fault pre-written (1-4 and then a later chap) so bear with me and my exploding mind.