Author's Note: Hello my dear readers. Sorry for the lateness of this update. I didn't realize that it had been this long since the last update to this story. I've been working on a lot of things in the meantime.

Responses to some questions:

Fanfic-Reader-88: That is the exact reason I think as to WHY they haven't. I don't see her giving it up to him with that level of doubt of him.

sugarTown: Differences in interpretation of the show. Add to her trust issues with him and I don't see it happening on her part and I don't see her using it to keep him hook to her.

Jeremy Shane: Thanks.

Challenge King: I think the caring parts are intrinsic qualities for each of them. Jade's just comes off as possessive at times due to her trust issues with Beck. If you see 'The Slap Fight', it outright proves he knows exactly what he is doing with the ladies and he was purposely playing dumb with Jade over the matter.

PD31: Trina is the queen of comedy and Jedi are slowly opening their eyes to something that might be right in front of them.

Twilight Warrior 627: The more I write about them, the more and more I find that I think they would wore so well together and irritate me that there is practically zero interaction of them on screen during the crossover.

I hope you enjoy.

Rating: T

Chapter 4

Vega Residence
Friday, September 16, 2011

Jade had settled in a seat on the side of the kitchen table with her back to the kitchen island while Freddie took a seat on her right. She passed him a quick glance as he settled in his seat while he flashed a quick smile to her. She cracked one of her own before realizing she was doing such a thing and just looked to one another for a few moments.

The momentary spell was broken when Tori stomped down the stairs in a hurry and caught the Seattleite's attention. He turned slightly in his seat and called out as he saw Tori walking from the bottom of the stairs and cut through the living room to come to the kitchen, "How's Trina?"

The younger Vega sister blew out a breath and rolled her eyes as she finished walking into the kitchen. "I finally got Trina back in bed. I found her asleep on the toilet."

Freddie sucked in a breath through clenched teeth and put on a sympathetic expression. "Uhh, sorry."

The slim girl blew out a breath and flicked her eyebrows up acknowledging his sympathy as she started picking up the side dishes (rolls, green salad and fried apple slices) for the dinner off the kitchen island and onto the table and answered, "No, it's alright. It's better than having a repeat of when she had her wisdom teeth out."

Mister Vega walked through the door to the garage as he heard Tori's answer with his eyes shooting open and quickly agreed, "No, we don't want that." He gave his wife a quick kiss on the cheek then dodged mother and daughter to take a seat at the end of the table with his back towards the living room where Freddie was on his left.

Freddie cracked a smile as he tried to comment with a tone of levity, "So I take it that it's not one of those 'ha ha' type of funny stories."

Tori quickly answered and took a seat on the other side of the table and directly across from Freddie after setting plates for each of them, "No, it wasn't funny or pretty. I had to look after her."

Jade softly mocked, "With Trina's blood all over her arms."

Freddie made a queasy face then gave Tori a sympathetic expression.

The conversation was cut short when Mrs. Vega scooted between the raven haired girl and brown eyed boy to place the family pot pie in the center of the table. She quickly went about getting glasses and various drinks for them while they politely waited for her to finish and have a seat before cutting the pot pie.

Tori happily announced as she cut a slice for Freddie whom he offered his plate up for her to place it, "You're being treated: we're having family pot pie."

Jade's stomach dropped at the connotation that the meal was reserved for a family setting for the traditional nuclear family, something in which she and her mother didn't share since her father hadn't lived with them for years and now was spending all his free time with his new wife and a yappy dog.

Freddie seemed to laugh it off as Jade caught a quick look of uneasiness on his face, "We certainly are." She realized that she didn't know about his family situation, but guessing it wasn't like the Vegas' either from his facial expression. She didn't get to think further on it as he handed his plate to her and took her empty one.

Tori knotted her brow at the action, but said nothing as she cut another slice for him. The rest quickly cut themselves slices and started on their meals. After chewing a morsel of her food and swallowed it, Tori commented, "Trina's going to be upset that she's missing this."

Holly Vega laughed before digging into her food, "Oh well."

Jade caught a glimpse of Freddie raising a curious eyebrow at the careless attitude she had for her daughter.

Mister Vega smiled to the tech-producer and asked with a cheerful tone that did however carry the faintest of fatherly concern, "I'm not saying we're not happy for the visit, but I still a little curious at it. It's not a holiday or any special occasion for a trip down."

Freddie shrugged a shoulder and answered, "I just needed to get away from it all and when I saw on Tori's Slap page that she was going to be putting on a play, I thought it was a perfect incentive to go ahead and go while getting to see everyone. I'd like to thank you again for letting me stay."

The police detective gave an accepting nod of his head while Mrs. Vega curiously asked, "Would it have anything to do with your girlfriend breaking up with you?"

He gave the Vega Matriarch a hesitant expression which for some reason caused Jade to send a death glare into Mrs. Vega's direction, but Freddie apparently rallied himself and laughed off the question, "You might say my ah… former relationship with Sam is a factor, but not in the way you might think ma'am. She didn't break up with me; I let her tell that story as a courtesy to make her feel better about what was a mutual decision. She wants to keep her image at school and I really don't have a problem with it. Besides, they really wouldn't believe me anyway."

Tori raised an eyebrow and questioned, "Oh? So why did you break up with her?"

Jade tried to suppress a frown (and wasn't sure how successful she was at such a thing) at how eager Tori wanted to dig into the details of the failed relationship and at the sheer disrespect Sam had showed him by spinning a needless tale. She had seen nothing about Freddie that suggested he was some kind of suck-fish jerk that deserved getting his reputation shredded like Tori and Carly's mutual ex Steven or Ryder Daniels (actually the complete opposite from his actions back at her house) when the truth would have sufficed with neither of their reputations damaged.

Freddie let out a soft laugh then answered, "I don't want to go into the details, but long story short, we went into it for the wrong reasons and found that we just don't work that way. She's my friend and I thought why not give her a fair shot? I didn't want to disregard her feelings out of hand and hurt her. You never know, it might have worked out, but it wasn't a good enough reason because we're just not compatible and trying to pretend otherwise was just us fooling ourselves."

Mrs. Vega praised him with a warm smile, "I think that was pretty noble of you Freddie to give her a chance and not bruising her ego. There would be many guys that wouldn't even give the girl a chance and disregard her without a second thought."

"Thank you," he politely answered then quickly sipped on his tea.

Jade bit her tongue to prevent herself from commenting that Sam's ego could use a little bruising along with a few other things.

Tori curiously asked, "Why did she want one? Did she just one day wake up and started liking you?"

Freddie clenched his jaw tightly and softly bit his bottom lip, which wasn't such a good idea with his bruised lip. He cleared his throat and answered, "Yes, one could interpret it that way."

Jade immediately noticed that Tori tried to hide an embarrassed expression as apparently she realized that she may have went too far in her probing about the failed relationship. The green streaked hair girl realized that from their conversations that he hadn't revealed why Sam suddenly wanted a relationship with him. Her mind instantly went into overdrive in thinking as to why would Sam after all her years of mistreatment of him, she'd suddenly become attracted to the handsome, smart, nice, strong, tender… the pale girl cleared her throat and quickly sipped her drink to hide her embarrassment from herself in mentally asking such a stupid question.

Mrs. Vega continued unabated, "Has it made it awkward for you two?"

Freddie took a quick sip from his tea then answered, "No, not really. Nothing has really changed."

Tori curiously asked, "You didn't find some new appreciation for one another?"

Freddie shrugged a shoulder and admitted without thinking, "That would assume she appreciated me in the first place." He looked down at his food and cleared his throat. He muttered out, "Ah… I mean… our relationship for the most part is still the status quo. I'm sorry to say that it turned into a fling, but I think I learned from it and reaffirmed what I want in a girl."

Mrs. Vega eagerly questioned while passing a quick glance towards her youngest daughter, "What kind of girl would you want?"

Jade tried to keep an even expression on her face from the blatant attempt for the tech-producer to consider her daughter.

"Oh you know…" He looked down at his plate as he continued, "…obviously a girl that would care about me and my feelings. She'd support me and wouldn't mock my interests just because she doesn't share them. She'd let me support her in her endeavors and someone that wouldn't take the word 'love' for granted."

Jade gave him a sympathetic expression as she thought about what he meant about supporting one another. She could see at any time that she played a recording of an iCarly episode that he was a supportive guy yet at the same time she could see that he wouldn't be supported. His comment about not taking love for granted as well struck a nerve with her.

Mrs. Vega smiled in apparent approval while Mister Vega asked with fatherly concern while eyeing the teenager, "What interests?"

Freddie softly laughed off, "I'm a geek, a nerd… I'm into audio/visional and web production and computers. I like computer games that most people make fun of, the online RPGs, so… it's not like my hobbies can compete for the girls' attention like being on the football or basketball team. They usually overlook me unless they are a fan of he show then it's an entirely different category."

Jade let out a soft laugh and looked to her as she scooped up another morsel of her pot pie.

He gave her a curious expression while Tori slightly frowned at her sometime nemesis.

The pale girl looked up and was in mid-chew when she saw their expressions. She quickly finishing swallowing that bit of food and placed the fork down her on her plate so she could pat him on the knee under the table and answered, "No, I like video games too. I'm pretty good at them in case you ever want a challenge."

Freddie snorted out a relieving laugh then questioned, "I don't think we're into the same kind of games."

"You never thought about expanding your horizons?" She softly squeezed his knee to accentuate her question and hoped he understood her meaning even if she didn't entirely understand what she meant at the moment.

"Maybe I'll get a chance to take you up on that offer before the weekend is out."

Jade immediately noticed the uncomfortable look on Tori's face while at the same time noticed a slightly disapproving expression on Mrs. Vega's face. The matriarch quickly commented, "Jade, I'm a little surprised that you'd want to stay for dinner. You're not one to come over a lot."

The multitalented student politely smiled as she answered without a hint of expected sarcasm, "I'm not sure if you could hear us while preparing this wonderful meal, but Freddie and I didn't get a chance to catch up since Jet Brew gave him such a bad smoothie."

Mrs. Vega answered with a pleasant voice, but Jade could hear the faintest hint of disapproval in her voice, "Yes. That's horrible Freddie would get sick to the place you decided to go."

Jade held back a biting remark as she suddenly felt Freddie's left arm had slipped under her right arm (as she was still holding on to his left knee) and his hand casually rest on top of her hose covered thigh. Her instincts told her that he was copping a feel, but her rational side realized that it wasn't sexual in nature from his light touch, almost akin when he rested his hands on her breasts and not groping her while paying attention to her stomach. Rational and instinctual battled in her head for a moment as her right leg scooted over towards him where hose met denim, hoping he'd take the invitation to move his hand higher. Her conscious mind realized he was trying to comfort her, but couldn't rest his hand on her knee as her arm was still in the way resting her hand on his knee and trying to rest over her arm could draw the other's attention by the position of his upper arm.

His hand remained in place (her hormones mentally cried out in frustration) as he answered, "That's just a bad break that I got the one lousy batch. I know I would feel just as horrible as Jade if I had took her or Tori to my favorite place, The Groovy Smoothie, and they would get sick." He snorted out a soft laugh, "But I probably wouldn't have been able to get a refund from T-Bo since well… he will cheat his customers when I think about it."

His explanation was apparently satisfying to the two Vega ladies while Mister Vega continued on his meal, quite oblivious at what Jade saw what his wife's intentions were in regards to Freddie and Tori.

The meal eventually wrapped up with just some idle conversation about how Freddie was doing and how the girls were doing so far at the start of the new school year. Once Tori finished the last of her desert and putting her dish into the dishwasher, she commented, "I'll go head upstairs to change and grab some movies."

Freddie stepped up next to the brunette to place his own plate into the washer and replied sparing a glance towards Jade as she offered her plate for him to take, "So what kind of movie are we going to watch? Jade, what are you up for?"

Jade's eyes shot open in surprise at his question while Tori's brow knotted up.

He looked between the girls and his face showed that he had stepped in it. "Sorry, I…" Freddie laughed out nervously as avoided Tori's eyes, "…I assumed she was staying. I just made things awkward."

The brunette gave curious expression to Freddie then to the raven haired girl. Tori finally answered, but with greater hesitation this time than when she agreed to let Jade stay for dinner, "No, it's… it's alright. Jade can stay."

The Vega parents retired for the night to their room as the teenagers had pushed the couches together to form the complete half circle the couches formed when together so there wouldn't be an awkward separation as they watched the movie. Fortunately it wasn't a big fight on what movie they would be watching as each would get their chance to see their movie of choice: Tori, a romantic comedy (which Jade felt nearly sick on her stomach in having to watch); Freddie, a sci-fi movie and Jade picking a horror movie they would watch off of Webflix.

Trina had woken up from her parents entering the second floor, she insisted in coming down to watch the movie when she found out that Freddie and Tori were downstairs, but that was a futile effort as she quickly had fallen asleep at one end of the couch towards the kitchen.

Since the movie watching was intended to go late into the night, it was decided that Jade was going to have her first sleepover at the Vegas'. The green streaked hair girl didn't have any night clothes to sleep in and didn't want to make a double trip back to her house, so Tori offered her some sweatpants and Freddie offered one of his shirts he brought, a grey Penny Tee he called it with the words Penny Tease printed on the front, as it was big enough to hang loose on her as none of Tori's shirts would probably fit her. She held back her complaints about having to wear something of Tori's, but was quite content in wearing Freddie's shirt.

They could have easily watched the movie in one of girls' rooms, but Mister Vega was still concerned about having the handsome teenager under the same roof as his two daughters for the next two nights. The raven haired girl held back a smirk when she watched the teenager charm the police detective in completely agreeing with his concerns and the appearance of Freddie being in one of the girl's rooms that late. He had played it off cool as he had idly dropped that he had known Carly since he was eleven and they were best friends and even with that, he was never in Carly's room that late at night for modesty's appearance.

Jade had a seat on the left side of the couch to towards the door, Freddie sitting in the center and Tori to his left. The younger sister unfortunately didn't have a comfortable seat as Trina wanted to keep leaning her head on Tor's shoulder or left cross legged thigh.

Jade on the other hand sat quite comfortably next to Freddie, so close in fact that her left knee from her crossed legs was pushed up and rested against his right thigh as they shared the popcorn bowl with the near cliché of their hands occasionally colliding in wanting popcorn at the same time (that's not to say the same thing didn't occur between him and Tori). He apparently didn't seem to mind the closeness, but from the look on Tori's face, she didn't approve.

As the credits rolled on the first movie, Freddie commented and got up, "If you ladies with excuse me for a moment, I need to use the bathroom before we start the next one."

Tori asked with a concerned filled voice, "Not to throw up?"

The brown eyed teenager gave her a reassuring smile and shook his head in the negative. "No, just have to use it."

Once he was out of sight, Tori quickly turned to Jade and questioned while pointing past Jade's shoulders in the direction Freddie disappeared up the stairs. "Why are you staying for a sleepover? You've never wanted to have a sleepover."

"Cat's had plenty of sleepovers with you." She snorted out a laugh, "How many of those times have you put on your Slap page?"

"Yeah Cat and I, not you and me, so what's going on?"

Jade rolled her eyes. "Nothing's going on. Freddie assumed I was staying to watch the movie and you agreed that it was alright knowing that it would be late when it finished and staying for the night was the more logical thing to do than drive that late at night. What? You're afraid of some competition."

Tori put on an outraged expression. "I'm not interested in Fre—"

"You weren't giving him your flirtatious eyes this afternoon? Resting your hand on his arm? Trying to feel up his muscle? Did you forget to do your hair flirtatious toss too?"

Tori gave her a deep frown and a slightly annoyed expression. "I am not flirting with Freddie. I'm just trying to be a good friend after his break up with Sam. Why do you think he's staying here for the weekend?"

Jade raised her pierced eyebrow and asked with a coy tone, "So you invite him to stay over for the weekend?"

"He called up to tell me that he wanted to see the play and wanted to see m—us, so where else was he going to stay?"

"Right…" she toyed with her rival.

"I'm not going to apologize for being nice to Freddie or trying to be a good friend to him."

"Good friend? How well do you know him? A couple of video chats at best over the months?" Jade was sheer guessing at the closeness of the pair as they could have been talking for the last six months without letting know and really could have been good friends, but was hoping her audacity with throw the girl off.

However, the pale girl was surprised when the lovely Latino snapped back, "Better than you."

Jade clenched her teeth then whispered out, "You don't know that."

Tori raised her brow and retorted, "How well did you 'bond' with him while he was throwing up?"

Jade narrowed her gaze on her rival and whispered in a cold voice, "We got to talk before that happened."

"He said you really didn't get to catch up and that's why he wanted you to stay for dinner." Tori raised a challenging eyebrow. "Which is it?"

Jade bit her tongue as Tori had trapped her in a word conundrum: she couldn't dare tell the truth or even a partial truth without making Freddie look bad and underhanded when he was just trying to make her feel included and lying would just prove to Tori that she was correct and had an advantage in a relationship with Freddie. There was an inexplicable feeling that formed in her chest that screamed out that wasn't acceptable and she couldn't allow for such a thing to stand.

She didn't get a chance to formulate a reasonable response as Tori continued in what Jade saw as arrogant self-righteousness, "Is that why you're flirting with him? Hoping to catch up somehow with a little flirting to get his attention since you're a pretty girl and he's kind of vulnerable at the moment?"

Jade raised her pierce eyebrow and ignored the fact that Tori had just admitted that she was pretty. "What?"

Tori crossed her arms under her chest and whispered in muted outrage, "You're flirting with Freddie. You started it as soon as he walked into Lane's office which I don't understand since you can't stand to Beck to let any flirt with him."

Jade mimicked the gesture and sneered at the girl while her brow knotted, "Flirting? What? I just can't be nice to him?"

"You're not nice to anyone."

Jade frowned and shook her head. "That's not true. I'm nice to plenty of people… it's just the irritating ones I can't stand and don't have the patience to deal with… like you."

The brunette frowned and narrowed her eyes on the pale girl.

Jade smirked as she answered in a snobbish tone, "André. I'm nice to him."

"So Freddie doesn't irritate you? He's like André?"

The raven girl smirked at she answered, "Yes. He's genuinely a nice guy, not some idiot or pathetic loser. God, it's not like he's Robbie or Sinjin. Isn't that why you're making goggling eyes at him? Have you thought you might be misdirecting your feelings for André onto him?"

Tori snorted out a breath and deeply frowned while she tightened her arms around herself. "I am not into André like that. He's my friend."

"Oh? Really? He's just your friend that you're nearly attached to the hip and that he'd do anything for you?

"Yes he is and he does that because he's just that good a guy. I'm sorry you don't have someone that would care enough about you to stand by you like that." Tori quickly shut her mouth as she appeared to realize that she had crossed a line and directly commented on her friendships and to an extent on Beck's behavior with her or lack of behavior.

Jade was about to unleash on the brunette when a concerned voice called out, "Hey, is everything okay?"

The girls looked towards the bottom of the stairs to see Freddie looking between them with a confused expression then focused on Jade for a few moments. The best Jade could read his expression was one of concern with a little confusion on the side.

Jade saw that Tori was going to answer, but she was just a bit quicker to shout out, "We're fine!"

The pale girl didn't believe she had convinced him of such a thing with his facial expression, but he remained quiet.

The trio retook their seats on the couch as Tori put in another movie. Jade sat just a hair away from Freddie as she had a feeling that since he caught a little bit of her arguing with little miss perfect he wouldn't appreciate the closeness. She was quite surprised that once he retook his seat, he nudged himself over so that they were sitting as close as ever.

Freddie happily called out, "Okay, so whose movie is it next?"

Jade quickly answered, "Yours."

He looked to her and she tried to ignore his concerned expression.

"I got it," Tori commented as she picked up her PearPad off the coffee table and brought up the Scifi movie Freddie wanted to see.

The movie started a few moments later and the trio once again settled into a quiet viewing and sharing popcorn, only interrupted by the occasional snoring from Trina.

About twenty minutes into the film, Jade's phone vibrated on the coffee table and the pale girl quickly picked it up. She looked at the caller ID and blew out an irritated breath. She noticed on the phone's display that she had missed almost a dozen text messages from her actor boyfriend. She quickly answered, "What?" She frowned at hearing his irritated voice.

"Hey… I'm over at Tori's." She paused then answered with a slightly irritated tone, "I'm staying the night." She rolled her eyes at him questioning such a thing as her willing spending the night at Tori's house. She interrupted him on the other end, "The movies we're watching are going to run late and I was invited to stay so I wouldn't have to drive back home that late."

Jade bowed her head and pinched the bridge of her nose in frustration of him starting to try to ferret out some diabolical motive as to why she would be staying at Tori's house. She felt a soft hand on her left shoulder and looked up to see Freddie's concerned expression.

He gave her a soft smile and offered his hand out to Jade in what she saw was his hope that she would hand him the phone. Surprising herself, she did hand the phone over to him. He looked to Jade with a playful smile and gave her a wink then picked up the conversation, "Hey Beck… yeah it's me Freddie. I just wanted to speak to you while Jade had you on the phone. Oh? I'm over here with her and Tori." Since his turned his torso to face Jade and his back was turned to Tori, he felt it safe to give Jade a wink with a smirk on his face. "I'm sorry I missed you at Tori's play and you missed dinner with us; Mrs. Vega's a great cook."

Jade remained silent as Freddie nodded along to whatever Beck was saying on the other end of the phone. He let out a soft laugh, "Oh, Jade's been with me or I've been with her, whatever you want to call it after the play. We got over here about three hours ago?" He looked to Jade to see if he got the number correct and she instinctively nodded to show he was in be ballpark for the time.

"Hey Beck, I'd love to talk to you more, but we're in the middle of our movie night and I know the girls are eager to get back to the movie. We'll meet up tomorrow if you're not too busy…" He paused for a moment to look Jade straight in the eyes then finished, "Jade and I haven't decided what we're going to do tomorrow, so give us a call if you're free and we'll work something out."

Jade noticed that Tori's brow instantly furled at hearing Freddie's statement that he and Jade were going to do something tomorrow.

Freddie laughed out softly, "Later." He pressed the end call button and handed the phone to the actress.

Tori quickly asked, "So you two are going out tomorrow?"

Freddie turned back to Tori and playfully answered, "I thought we were all going out to do something. I thought maybe we would meet up with everyone else: Cat, André and Robbie. Obviously when we leave tomorrow Jade's going to be with us and I thought Beck would assume you were included was a given."

Jade smirked as she commented and asked, "I'd like to go out. Anything particular in mind?"

He put on a smooth smile as he answered, "Ladies' choice."

The green streaked girl softly laughed, "Careful Freddie, you don't know what you're getting into with that kind of offer."

He gave her a charming smile as he smoothly answered her, "If anything Seattle has taught me is that maybe I like living a little dangerously."

Jade gave him an inviting smirk.

Tori's mouth became a thin line as she eyed the pair and they turned their attention back to the movie.

Author's Note: Could someone be a little bit jealous? Can someone be a little bit possessive? Oh, Webflix is the Schneiderverse version of Netflix if anyone was wondering. Make sure you tune in on Friday, January 25, 2013 for a new episode of Victorious: Star Spangled Tori