Chapter 3

It's a Promise

Disclaimer: iCarly is owned by Dan Schneider and Nickelodeon. All the copyrights associated with iCarly belong to them. Only the ideas contained within this story are my property. I am not gaining any profit from writing this story.

"Okay, Sam, you have the lists?" We were in the kitchen, and I was in a rush to get to work. Sam was taking the day off again to get all the necessary things she needed,

but I couldn't risk missing another day of work.

"Yup." She was holding the lists that the doctor had given us the day before. Sam had groaned all night that she didn't want to do all the stuff the doctor asked, but I just ignored her. It's the best thing to do when Sam groans. Eventually, I suppose, she had gave in and decided to do all the things on the lists.

"Well, I gotta go. Remember, buy all the food and whatnot that you need. If you can, go shopping with Carly, the responsible one." I winked at her. I'd always called Carly the responsible one and Sam the beautiful one. Right now, though, I was depending on Carly to help Sam out.

After many kisses and lots of good-byes, I headed out. As always, I got caught in the morning traffic jam. I checked my clock which said I was late for work. Shit, I thought. I had already missed a day; I couldn't afford to be late, also. It wasn't until an hour later than I arrived at work. I literally flew into the office and pushed a little boy to the ground by accident. Not even stopping to apologize, I jumped into the elevator and tried to push the elevator to the ground. I have never been late before.

I pushed myself through the office door and saw everyone staring at me, jaws dropping. Worst of all, Mr. Bonner was standing a little to my left, speaking to Scarlett. I smacked my forehead and dragged myself through the room. Mr. Bonner stopped me.

"Benson! What's happened? You're late!" He sounded pretty angry, though I could also hear worry in his voice. He and I were very close, and naturally he couldn't let a note of panic out of his voice. I, very nervously, started to explain.

"Well, sir, I…you see…my wife…she's, um…well, she's…pregnant." I had been very scared to release this bit of information to my coworkers. So many of them had fallen for me the day I was hired and though most of them knew I was married, it would break their hearts to know that my wife was expecting. Not to my surprise, most of the women looked near tears. Mellie Linkingbird especially had slumped into a chair and had her head in her hands. Mr. Bonner, however, ran over to me in a very strange way, considering his weight, and shook my hand.

"Congratulations, my boy, congrats! Tell your Sam I am extremely happy for the two of you!" He did seem happy, with his big purple face and joyous grin. He reminded me at that moment of that Uncle Vernon from Harry Potter, though much more pleasant.

Before I knew it, everyone was streaming over to give me their congratulations. Scarlett was hugging me all over and even kissed my cheek, which I had to unfortunately wipe off, since I couldn't go around work with a big red kiss stain on my face. Margaret tried to squeeze in through the crowd, but no one would let her. She is very unpopular. John and Lily even muttered something to me. They still haven't gotten over that incident a couple weeks ago. The only people that didn't come over were my "fangirls" who seemed very annoyed with me.

I smiled in spite of myself and thanked everyone. Mr. Bonner patted me on the back and led me to his office, telling me all about his wife and how, twenty-five years, ago they same thing had happened to her. I listened half-heartedly. As we entered his office, it was as cluttered as ever. He didn't let me observe this, though, since he got down to business quickly.

"So. Have you thought about this laptop yet?" This was what I was worried about the most because the thing was, I hadn't figured out anything yet. I told this to him and a slight frown creased. I stared down at my pants and he looked away, deep in thought. After a few moments, he looked back up.

"Well, you'll need this money to take care of a child. From what I've heard, your wife works in a jewelry store with her best friend. What are you going to do?" I glared back at him, something I've never done, something that made him look taken aback. I didn't care what I did; all I knew was that he couldn't insult my family like that.

"I'll figure something out sir. I promise you." Right before I was going to excuse myself, my cell phone rang. It was a bright blue and it had Sam's favorite song as the ring tone. I excused myself and walked out of the room. I looked at the number and it was Sam's. Picking it up, I smiled joyfully.

"Hello? Sam? How are you?" Sam seemed quiet on the other end and I got slightly worried. She usually responded with a bag or an explosion or something. Any call from her brightened my day, but I hoped this wasn't a bad one.

"Freddie. Tijay's in the hospital."

I was in the car, rushing to St. Wind's hospital. Sam hadn't explained what was wrong the Gibsons' son yet, but I sincerely hoped it wasn't anything serious. I parked my car and met Sam where she told me to, in the front entrance. She seemed very worried.

"Freddie…the Gibsons' are over there, along with Spencer and Veronica." I saw Carly crying her eyes out on a plastic purple chair, Gibby comforting her but not able to stop an extremely panicked look on his face. Spencer kept checking his watch, obviously wondering when the doctor would come back and explain Tijay's situation. Veronica just seemed utterly confused. I walked over to Spencer, not wanting to upset Carly, and quietly asked him what happened. Spencer explained that Tijay had started vomiting quite ferociously and Carly had rushed him to the hospital. They were there for two hours at that point. That was when Sam came over and I caught a tidbit of the Gibsons' conversation.

"He's just a l-little boy…," Carly sobbed. "My poor, poor son!" At this point, she was literally screaming into Gibby's shirt and Sam was patting her on the back. Through all this commotion, we hadn't noticed the doctor walking over to us. Everyone was quiet at once, except for Carly, who was still weeping into her arm. The doctor took a deep breath, and then began to speak.

"Hi. My name is Dr. Jacobs." He spoke with a drawling voice, more boring than anything. "We have examined your son, Mr. and Mrs. Gibson, and come to a conclusion. Your son was vomiting blood, I'm not sure if you noticed, but we found traces of blood." At this, Carly sobbed even louder and Gibby had his hand clapped to his mouth. The rest of us were still in shock. "This has been caused from a tear in his esophagus, forcing him to vomit blood. Fortunately, the tear is small and we repaired it quickly. The mortality rate for this is extremely high, but Tijay got lucky. And yes, you may all see him now." He added this part since Carly was near the edge of her seat, obviously wanting to go and see him.

The doctor led us down a hall and into a room where Tijay was lying, fast asleep. I didn't really pay attention to what was in the room or the fact that Carly was freaking out again or even the fact that Spencer himself was crying. All I could notice was Sam, staring at Tijay, mesmerized. I frowned and tapped her on the shoulder. She jumped.

"Are you okay?" I chucked. Sam did look pretty funny, with that long leap of hers. She stared at me and spoke softly, but loud enough for me to hear her.

"I didn't do those things on the list today. I'm really mad that I didn't. After this….I…I feel really guilty. I'm sorry, Freddie. From now, I'll do everything on that list. It's a promise." With that, she set her jaw and stared ahead, unblinking. I turned this over in my mind. This incident was enough to make Sam realize that taking care of a baby wasn't an easy task. She even promised it. I really hope, though, that Sam won't break that promise. Remembering what she said, though, I don't think she will.

Well, that's that! I'm happier with this chapter than the second, much happier! I realize it's a bit short, but whatever! Sometimes we need short chapters, right? IDK. Anyways, the Tijay thing ISN'T the hurt baby; Freddie and Sam's baby will actually have something wrong with it. But we'll have to wait and see what's wrong!

As I wrote this, I realized this was another filler chapter, but bear with me. I promise, this will be the last filler chapter for a LONG while; I just needed these "starter" chapters out of the way. I promise the next chapter will get to the good stuff.

Again, thanks for reading! Feel free to review, leave criticism, or ask me a question. No flames please! Thanks!