A/N: So this update took a little longer, but hopefully it will be worth the wait. This will pick up immediately where the last chapter left off and to keep you all fresh I will include the last bit of chapter 3 so you don't have to flip back and read it. Aren't I a nice guy? This is going to be shorter, but pretty balls to the walls if you know what I mean…and no that wasn't a euphemism. I will be announcing the contest winners at the end of the chapter so stay tuned. So without further ado, chapter 4…

Woe

{[…Freddie's P.O.V…]}

Sam looked up at me, and I saw all the vulnerability of a girl who didn't think she was worthy of anyone's love displayed in those eyes. And it broke my heart. I pulled her tightly against my chest and buried my head in her hair as she put her ear over my heart. God, I hadn't realized how much I missed the smell of her after just one night.

"I'm sorry Sam," I said sincerely.

"I know," she told me, grabbing a fistful of my shirt like she was trying to keep me from running away.

"That was amazing…You're amazing." I knew she needed to hear it, but it helped that I meant every word to the core of my being.

"It was just a kiss, dork," she deflected, but I could feel her smile against my chest.

"No," I shook my head, "It wasn't."

We stood there in comfortable silence for a while, just enjoying each other's presence. But there was one question nagging at me on the edge of my mind and I had to ask it.

"Hey Sam…"

"Hmm?" she mumbled.

"If the slap was for being an ass, what was the kiss for?"

She looked up at me and smiled the first real smile I had seen from her in months. Oh yeah, it was a good day. She opened her mouth to answer but we were cut off by my phone ringing. I looked at Sam and she nodded her head, letting me know she wouldn't be upset if I checked to see who it was. I pulled the PearPhone out and my brow knit in confusion. It was Akhmin. I weighed the options in my head for a moment before deciding that what was happening right now was more important than whatever he was calling about. He would leave a message if he really needed me. Pocketing the phone I turned back to the blonde haired angel in my arms.

"So," I started "you wer-" another phone went off, ending my sentence.

Sam pulled her phone from her pocket looking about as irritated as I felt. She looked at the caller ID and her look of disdain quickly shifted to one of deadly seriousness. Of course the universe couldn't let me be happy for more than five minutes at a time. That could end life as we know it. She answered the phone with a quick greeting and remained silent as she listened to whoever was on the other line. Was my mind playing tricks on me or did Sam just say something about a gun? Hanging up without a goodbye she looked to me and I could tell the moment was about as dead as dead could get. This was not good.

"We need to go now," she said.

I swallowed once at the intensity in her eyes, reflecting silently on how quickly it had changed from passion to something else.

"What's going on Sam? Who was that?" I managed to keep most of the rising panic out of my voice, but I'll admit she was starting to freak me out. This was how Hollywood action flicks started. A random call from some unknown guy while you're in the office and the next thing you know your climbing out a window running from some guys in suits…ok, so maybe I had seen The Matrix one time too many, but still. Sam sighed heavily at the bewildered look on my face.

"It was Detective Petbe," she said solemnly.

I opened my mouth to let loose with a barrage of question, but she silenced me with a gesture and a look that made my blood run cold. This wasn't kissy time Sam, this was survival mode Sam. I had only seen her like this a handful of times, usually when she would show up at Carly's in the middle of the night, on foot, with no bag. I shut the fuck up. She softened her demeanor a bit before looking directly into my eyes.

"Freddie, I need you to do two things for me ok?" I nodded and she smiled. "Things are gonna get weird for the next couple of hours so first I'm going to need you to trust me. Ok?"

"Of course I trust you Sam, but-" she put a finger to my lips, silencing me.

"Trusting me means no questions right now." I could tell by her tone she was deadly serious as she continued. "I will answer them all when I can, but it can't be right now. Deal?" I nodded my acquiescence. "Second, I'm gonna need you to bring back the sexy-as-hell, rugged, no-nonsense Freddie that almost hit me with a bat last night. Can you do that for me?" she was almost pleading by the end.

I smiled crookedly and gave her my best smolder. "You think me almost giving you a concussion is sexy?" I asked. "Have I mentioned recently how amazing you are?"

"I'm gonna take that as a yes on trusting me." She responded around a grin of her own. "We need to get over to your apartment quickly and quietly. So follow me and try not to be a clumsy nub for once."

Before I could respond her grim mask was back up and she darted into Carly's apartment, leaving me with no option but to follow. We strode quickly through the living room, pausing only so she could snap a piece of pipe off of a sculpture hanging from the ceiling. I saw Sam look down at the broken edge, noticing that it was now jagged and she smiled to herself. Ok, freaky, but also kind of hot. I locked my feelings on the situation in a dark corner of my mind to deal with later. Right now I was "Freddie the Lumberjack" or some other equally manly version of myself. Wow, it was hard to stay focused when your mind ran a mile a minute and your dream girl's ass was bobbing enticingly right in front of you.

We reached the front door and she stopped to peer through the peephole. Satisfied that there was no one directly in front of our exit route she cracked the door just enough to get a good look down the hallway. Sticking her head out she looked both ways before finally signaling me to follow her. We dashed across the hall to my house and, taking my keys, she undid all of the locks with a manual dexterity that was as shocking as it was impressive. In moments we were inside, the door locked again behind us.

"Go get your duffle bag and cram as many essentials into it as quickly as you can," she told me while she checked out the windows.

"And leave you out here alone? No way. I don't know what's going on, but I know it's dangerous!" I set my jaw, fully prepared to be stubborn as hell.

"You really took that sexy, manly Freddie thing to heart didn't you? Mamma like." She eyed me up and down and I blushed, effectively destroying any masculinity I had built up to that point.

"I'm just going to pack up some food and then I will be right behind you." I gave her a skeptical look. "Promise," she assured me. "Now go, you're wasting time!" she said as she shooed me down the hall.

I dashed down the hall top speed, driven more by the potential risk to Sam's person than my own. It was funny how after one kiss I already felt like we belonged together. Or maybe I had always felt that way, but had locked the emotions up, afraid that they would never be returned. The two of us really needed to have a chat when there wasn't a huge, mysterious threat looming over the horizon like some kind cock-blocking giant. I grabbed the bag I used for overnight visits with family and friends and began piling everything I thought I even might need into it.

"Better to have it and not need it than need it and not have it," my mother's voice rang in my head. My heart gave a painful twinge at the memory of her voice. That wound was still fresh, current events acting like a Band-Aid over the wound. Covering it, making it easier to ignore, but never really healing.

I resumed my packing with fervor, hoping the work would push the thought out of my head. I tossed in clothes, toiletries, a book, charge cords, my PearBook and, after a brief moment of hesitation, a condom that Spencer had forced on me after we had "the talk."

It had been one of the most awkward moments of my life. When he had given me the little foil pack, I was pretty convinced he had lost his mind. I mean honestly, the man knew every detail of my love life, or the lack thereof. I couldn't imagine needing a contraceptive without having any contra to cept. He, however, had insisted the day would come and the last couple of hours made him seem far wiser than I gave him credit for at the time.

The last of my items safely stowed, I threw the bag over one shoulder and marched out into the living room. Sam was waiting patiently with a large bag of her own in hand. I assumed it contained the food she had mentioned going after earlier and once again I was struck with the urge to ask her just what the hell was going on here. She must have seem the conflict in my eyes because she sighed for what seemed like the millionth time that day and set her pack on the floor gently.

She walked forward tentatively, unsure of herself and where the two of us stood right at the moment. Peeking up at me through her golden tresses she bit her lip in the same adorable way she always did when she knew that she had to talk about "feelings and all that other sissy shit" as she so eloquently put it.

"Listen," she said softly, looking directly into my eyes "we have enough time for me to tell you what's going on, but not enough for me to answer questions. Is that enough for now?"

The ways she said it sounded more like "Are we enough for now? Do you still believe in this?" I nodded my head in response to both the spoken and unspoken questions. She grabbed the front of my shirt and pulled my lips down to hers, crushing me against her. The kiss was desperate and greedy. She was searching for something and I didn't know what it was, so I just gave her everything I had. The tempo of her mouth against mine was increasing at an alarming rate and just when it seemed we had reached our crescendo she pushed me back again, breathing heavily into the space between us.

"Sorry," she murmured, still gripping my shirt "I needed something to calm me down."

"Do I do that?" I couldn't help my mouth twisting up into a self-satisfied smirk as my eyes tried to burn holes into hers.

"I said no questions," she punched me in the chest "but yes."

She saw the ridiculous grin on my face and rolled her eyes disparagingly.

"Don't get too excited Casanova, I can get the same effect from a Christmas ham."

I laughed, filling in the time she needed to bring her walls back up and prepare herself for what she needed to say. This was how we worked now, in tandem, in sync, it felt good. Before I knew it, Samantha was gone and Sam Pucket was back. It was time to get some answers.

"Remember last year when I said I was doing a "school to work" program?" I nodded. "Well that was only half true. I was working, but it wasn't exactly school sanctioned. I just rearranged my schedule so I would have some empty periods." She paused, gathering her courage. "About a year ago something happened to me…something bad. I was framed for something I didn't do to take the heat off of some prick with way too much money. If he took the fall for what he did then he would have gotten kicked out of the university that mommy and daddy dearest had bribed him into. So, they did what wealthy bastards who think they are above the law do; they made it someone else's problem. They falsified events, destroyed evidence, and basically did everything except put a huge sign on my back that said "She Done It."

She stopped here, seething with barely-suppressed rage at the memories she was reliving. I realized that it was my insistence that had caused her to go back to that place and I wanted desperately to tell her to stop, that it didn't matter, but I knew she wouldn't hear me. She was in her own world now, her own personal hell. I swallowed the rising lump in my throat and listened intently to what came next.

"They made one crucial mistake though. They didn't want this going public and tarnishing their reputation, so they hired a private detective. Only the best for their precious son, of course. So Akhmin Petbe was put on the case, but they realized too late that he didn't give two shits about their money or their political power. All he wanted was the truth and no bribe would change that. So they fired him, but he kept digging, because that's who he is, The Ghost Killer. Eventually he showed up at my door, gave me a way out and saved me from prison or worse. I had never seen anyone screw the upper-class like that. I was completely enthralled by his strength. He had effortlessly accomplished in two weeks the kind of damage I had been trying to cause my whole life, and done it within the law."

She grinned, happy and bordering on maniacal. It was the bittersweet taste of seeing someone you hated brought as low as they had brought you. If anything this story was only leaving me with more questions, but I knew there was a time and a place for those. She needed to get this out as much as I needed to hear it. She continued.

"He had saved me, but only for so long. The thing about people who are used to winning is they don't know how to lose graciously. The way Detective Petbe saw it, they would be out to get me again soon."

She must have seen my eyes widen in fear because she shook her head to ease my concerns.

"Not a hit-man or anything so crude," she said the word with an air of disdain, clearly mocking the family in question. "It would be subtle, but no less painful. They bought my family's house, evicted us, and tore it down. I was followed by the police everywhere I went, pulled over for anything and everything, from littering to jaywalking. So he offered to teach me how to defend myself against them. To fight back in ways they couldn't see coming or stop. He gave me a job and set me up in a rent controlled apartment since he knew how bad my home life was. He knew everything. He always does."

"So…when you said you were out at a job the school had set you up with, you were really working for Akhmin?" I said it slowly. Only fully realizing the weight of the situation as the words left my mouth. She nodded. "Sam, that's awful," I stepped forward to wrap her up in a hug, but she put a hand to my chest stopping me.

"No," she stated simply. My arms dropped uselessly to my sides. "Someday I'll tell you the whole story Freddie," she promised "but I can't right now. It took a long time for me to put those walls up and when I bring them back down it won't be pretty. I can't do that now." A couple tears fell from the corner of her gorgeous blue eyes, but she pretended they weren't there, so I did too. I clenched my fists at my sides and took a step back, giving her the space she needed, but ripping my own heart with the sharp stab of her suffering.

"I don't understand though," I told her, all business now. "What does that have to do with this? Are they after you now?"

She shook her head, slowly, in a way that told me she did not want to tell me this, but she knew she had to.

"Since I work for Detective Petbe, I help him with his cases. Including your mom's," she looked at me pointedly.

I took a deep breath, suppressing the absurd rush of anger I felt at the knowledge that she had hid knowledge of my mother's murder from me. It wasn't her fault, it was her job, but it still stung. When I didn't say anything, she continued.

"We've been tracking down the killer for a long time, but the deeper we have to dig; the harder it is to fly below their radar. Jesus found out what we were up to and devised a surprisingly clever plan. He sent word to his men to tell us just the right pieces of information to make us think we were on to something. Once we had enough info to bring back, they tailed Detective Petbe all the way to you, the punk who was causing them trouble. The one who wouldn't stop asking questions. The only person involved they couldn't bribe or stop. You've gotten too close Freddie and now they want you silenced." She swallowed heavily. "Permanently."

I could tell she was watching me warily, waiting for my response to the news that there was an organized team of professional felons out for my head, but there wasn't anything for me to give away. I felt surprisingly calm. I was coping with this the same way I had with my mother's death. I took the emotions I couldn't process or deal with and I put them in a box in a deep dark corner of my mind. Someday I would have to open that box, but that day wasn't today.

Right then I was cool, I was collected, I was very much not myself and, admittedly, loving it. It felt good to know I could handle a crisis as extreme as this one, to know that when the chips were down, I could keep a level head. Even if somewhere in the back of my mind I knew that as soon as it all got quiet, I was probably going to lose my shit.

"Ok," I nodded to Sam, "what do we do?"

She looked at me for a long time. Trying to find out how much of my collected demeanor was an act, but seemed to accept it all at face value for the time being, much to my relief. If she had pushed the subject too much, my tenuous grip on sanity may have collapsed. Finally deciding I wasn't going to come undone at an inopportune moment, she nodded once to herself and shouldered the bag of supplies she had dropped at her feet.

"Follow me and stay quiet. We are going to meet Petbe downstairs. Take this," she stopped to toss me the bat. I felt safer with the familiar weight in my hands. "Once we go through that door we don't talk until we find him. They could be here now. Ready?"

My face was set in what I hoped was grim determination. I tightened my grip on the bat and adjusted the bag straps, keeping my movement unrestricted and weight balanced in case of a fight or a run.

"Let's do this," I told her, my voice low.

She eyed me up and down in the same appreciative way she had the night before. Clearly, I needed to take up baseball…or street fighting. She checked the peephole and the hall before signaling for me to follow her into the hall quietly. I tried to match Sam's walk, hurried, but nonchalant and I'm fairly sure only succeeded in making an ass out of myself. We reached the elevators and she kept watch while I hit the down button. The lights above the door lit up, of course the car we got was on the first floor, it just wouldn't be a day in the life of Freddie Benson if you didn't get screwed at least once every hour. Every second that ticked by, the tension in the hall ratcheted up another notch. I was so nervous I was starting to sweat, but Sam seemed completely collected. I marveled at her ability to stay calm under the circumstances, but considering how much trouble she has gotten into previously, I guess it wasn't especially surprising.

The elevator dinged! signaling that it had reached our floor and I jumped 3 feet straight up. Sam laughed at the look on my face and I couldn't help but crack a smile myself.

God she's so beautiful when she smiles.

I realized that half of the tension I had been feeling was a result of seeing her so tense. Anything that could make Sam afraid had to be serious. I held my hand out toward her and she took it, giving me a reassuring squeeze. We faced the doors together as they slid open, revealing two men in sunglasses and pristine suits.

They looked at us.

We looked at them.

Sam dropped my hand.

They dropped a photo.

I saw my face on the floor.

They saw the bat in my hand.

They pulled a gun on us.

I pulled her away from them.

Two shots rang out.

I blacked out.

…Maybe it wasn't such a good day after all.

A/N: And now to announce the winners!

First place goes to everythingthatsparkles12! Congratulations, you have earned the right to make any creative story suggestions you please. Just PM me with something you think should happen, or just think would be cool. I reserve the right to completely ignore you, but if its good it will make its way into the story for sure.

Second Place goes to my lovely editor icarlyangst. She figured it out on her own, honest, she is just a smart lady. She has earned herself a cameo in the story at a point still to be determined.

Third Place is the property of AxBeautifulxDisaster. You may ask me any one question about the story which I have to answer honestly and to the best of my abilities. Think carefully before asking. You could unravel the whole mystery with the right inquiry.

Admittedly this is not where or how I planned to end the chapter at all, but it worked out so well I just couldn't help myself. Did you guys know that you can review each chapter individually? Me either. Amazing right? *Hint hint* This chapter was short, but intense and I really like it that way, even if I didn't get as much into it as I had planned. The next chapter will introduce a very interesting dynamic to the story. I'm as curious to see how it affects our intrepid duo as you all are. Until next time my friends. As always, hope you enjoyed it.

Apologies from the Beta. I was swamped with real life, but this guy really had it done a crazy long time ago. My bad! –iCarlyAngst

See, it wasn't my fault for once :P but it's a damn good thing she edited it because it was probably 25% red text when I got it back. Some of it didn't even make sense to me and I wrote it lol