They had run and jogged through the backstreets of Seattle for about two hours now, always on the highest level of concentration. There were fighting sounds to be heard and every once in a while Carly and Sam had to take out an alien that was coming in their way.

"Sam!" Carly yelled out to her, as the blonde girl broke the alien's neck with a kick that was followed by a terrible crunch.

"What?!" She shouted, a little too loud, but the adrenaline was rushing through her, letting her take in everything a lot sharper and more... real than usual.

"We need to rest." Carly panted. She had just finished her fight consisting of a fist fight that had seemed to take forever.

Sam wanted to protest, but then took a look at the boys. Their hands on their knees, panting as if they'd just run their second marathon in a row, looking at them, their eyes tired. But there was something else in them. Sam wondered, was it respect for their skills or even fear of what the two iCarly girls had become? She swallowed.

"Okay. There are some abandoned houses down at the river. They're not very comfy, but at least I guess we won't be discovered until morning."

Carly nodded.

"Come on, guys. Only five more minutes and we can rest for a while."

They jogged extremely slowly towards the river. Sam in the lead, Carly at the end of the group, securing their backs.

"We're going to spend the night here?" Gibby asked as he took a disapproving look at the abandoned houses.

"It's that or running the whole night until we reach the Safety Spot." Sam said, while she took her hair pin out and picked the lock to one of the houses in the middle of the road. It took her only about 5 seconds, Freddie noticed.

"Your new record, Puckett?" he gave her his half-smile between heavy pants as he passed her to step inside the building after Carly.

"Tss." Was all she answered him, but he caught the tiny smile that krept across her lips and smirked even more.

Carly and Sam were silently checking the house for any other inhabitants and making it save to stay over night, while the boys waited in the tiny living room on the ground floor, close to the door, instructed to run if they were told to. Gibby looked around. The house was old and dusty, but there were still some pieces of furniture to sit on.

"I don't like that whole thing." He mouthed his thoughts eventually.

"What?" Spencer asked, he seemed to have been deep in thought.

"I don't like that. All of it. Carly and Sam have changed since they started their lessons, but that they hid something from us all that time. I don't like that at all." He said, plopping down on an old armchair, sending a cloud of dust into the air.

"I know what you mean." Freddie said. "I can't believe that Sam could hide that from me. I mean, I noticed that she and Carly had changed, but-" he looked up.

Spencer and Gibby were staring at him agitatedly.

"What?" He asked.

"Since when are you so close with Sam?" Gibby asked.

"Er- well... we are best friends after all!" Freddie tried to explain. He wasn't going to tell them, that he and Sam had that connection of understanding that nobody else had in their little group. One look could save them minutes of talking. And he was definitely not going to tell the boys that he felt that special spark whenever the blonde headed demon was around. They were his best friends as well, but he just wasn't ready to tell anybody, although he thought that Spencer might have an idea of his feelings for his second little sister.

"What about Carly?" Gibby asked.

"Yeah, what about Carly?!" Spencer jumped into the conversation. "I just can't believe that my little baby sister has become an emotionless killing machine!" he exclaimed.

"Shh!" Freddie said at once. He was standing nearest to the door to the little hallway. "They're coming down."

Spencer and Gibby shut their thinking up immediately.

"Okay." Carly said as she walked into the room, she looked exhausted and old, not like her usual peppy self. "The house is secured. We can get some rest now, our alarm systems will wake us up if something's near the house."

The boys nodded and got up to their feet.

"We're going to sleep upstairs, right?" Gibby asked and Carly nodded.

"It's safer."

The first story was as dusty as the ground floor.

Sam had gathered all the blankets and cushions she had found.

"It's not the most comfortable five star hotel, but it'll have to be sufficient." She said, sitting down on one pile of cushions, covering herself in a blanket, leaning her back against the wall.

"It will be all right, Sam. Thank you." Carly said and sat across from her in the dark room. Only the street lamps were enlightning the house.

Spencer and the boys looked at each other and shrugged, making themselves as comfortable as possible on the hard ground. Freddie had sat down beneath Sam, while Gibby and Spencer were flanking Carly. Silence engulfed the group for a little bit. Then, Spencer had apparently build up enough courage, he asked:

"Why didn't you tell us?"

It was a simple question but it implied so much more. Why hadn't they told them? Hadn't they trusted them enough? Had they planned to ever tell them if this whole thing hadn't happened? Had they planned on dying with that secret, if necessary?

Carly exhaled deeply.

"Spencer, you know we love you guys more than anything else. It's not that we didn't trust you, but... we had terrible problems with the truth of those aliens being real and ready to attack any time." Tears were suddenly rolling down Carly's cheeks and she sobbed.

"We didn't want to bother you, if it wasn't necessary." Sam said, her voice throaty. "We had nightmares without end and barely slept for the past one and a half years." She gulped.

Spencer and Gibby shuffled closer to the crying brunette, who had now seemingly totally lost it and hugged her tightly. She wasn't only crying due to relief, but also for the people she had lost back at Bushwell Plaza. Griffin, her other neighbours, probably even for Lewbert. For her home that she'd lost and for all those memories that she couldn't save.

"We thought it wasn't fair to bother you. You should keep on living your happy lives as long as you could, while we-" Sam sobbed, just then she noticed that she was crying as well. "While we were being trained to save you, if necessary. Colonel Shay wanted us to have a better chance to escape and make sure we would be safe."

"Wait, what?!" Spencer shouted in shock. "Dad sent you there?"

Sam nodded, trying to calm herself by inhaling and exhaling deeply.

"We were told how to handle weapons, where to shoot to kill most effectively, we were trained to fight those aliens with our bare hands, if necessary. It was pretty hard." She sobbed again, harder this time. "But- but the hardest part was- was not being able to tell you."

"You have to believe us! Please!" Carly sobbed frantically, her voice sounding even panicked. "We did all of this just for you. Be-because we love you!"

Sam put her hand on her mouth, her lips were trembling heavily. Seeing her best friend like this made her even more hysterical. The fear that Gibby, Spencer and Freddie wouldn't want them anymore became overwhelming.

Then, she felt two arms that wrapped around her shoulders and her waist and pulled her into a tight embrace. She knew that scent. It smelled like cinnamon and lemons and she knew that it was Freddie who hugged her. Sam gribbed his shirt tightly and pressed herself against the boy.
"It's all right." He whispered near her ear. "We're not mad. Everything's going to be fine, Sam."

Spencer nodded. He knew Sam needed someone to comfort her and if it wasn't Carly it could only be Freddie. Sam would be too proud to let herself come down like that to Gibby or even himself. It hurt him a little bit, she was like a second sister to him after all, but it was all right, because that was just how Sam was. Although he thought, that there was something special that connected Sam and Freddie. Sure, they had shared their first kiss, but furthermore they had a kind of different connection from the rest of them. Spencer couldn't do different but believe, that Sam would tell Freddie even things, that she wouldn't tell Carly. He had never witnessed this kind of conversation or anything, but there was this feeling in his tummy that made him believe in that connection as strong as in the existence of the beavecoon.

The two girls kept sobbing and drenching the boys' clothes for a long time, but finally Sam's sobs died down on Freddie's shoulder and she breathed in an out deeply. She didn't let go of Freddie's shirt, though. Carly still sniffled on Spencer's chest but sat back up soon.

"It's so unreal." She sniffled, looking at her blonde best friend.

"Yeah." She smiled a little.

"What is it?" Gibby asked, squeezing Carly's hand that he had been holding the entire time.

"We- we can finally talk to you." Carly smiled.

"But you could always talk to us." Spencer said.

"Spencer, we mean really talk to you." Sam explained, her voice raspy from crying. "There are no more secrets between us anymore."

"Oh." He said.

"So why'd you cry?" asked Gibby.

The four looked at him, speechless. He couldn't be serious. But on the other hand... that was Gibby for you.

"Well, maybe because Carly and I had bottled up our feelings for one and a half years and set up an act to keep you unaware of everything, you nut!?" Sam said loudly, but cracked into laughing at the end of her sentence and threw a pillow at him.

"Hey! Sorry!" Gibby said, throwing it back at her, he also smiled.

He isn't as stupid as Sam thinks. Good work, Gib.

Freddie thought and grinned at his friend. Carly giggled and dove behind Spencer as Sam threw another pillow straight at Gibby. Sam laughed and soon there was a true pillowfight going on between the five of them. Carly and Sam were laughing from their hearts for the first time in what felt like forever and could even forget the difficult situation they were in for a while.

Panting, the four teenagers and Spencer stood in a pentagram, smiles on their faces, not moving an inch. Every single one of them had one or two pillows in their hands, dreading another to make the first move.

"Okay," Carly panted, grinning widely. "Let's say it's a tie."

Slowly, everyone nodded and put their weapons down.

Sam was the first to plop down on the floor, leaning her back against the wall.

"I'm hungry." She said, pulling a fatcake out of her backpack.

"You seriously packed fatcakes?" Carly asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Sure. I had to secure the world's most delicious treat." She said, unwrapping it and shoving it into her mouth. Carly giggled. "Of course. I should've seen that coming."

"Yes, you should!" Sam said with her mouth still full of her beloved fat cake.

Spencer frowned. Sometimes that girl was more a man than he was. Ew. Those eating habits... double ew.

"Well how about sleeping? I'm really tired." He said instead, ignoring Sam's mannerless behaviour.

"Yeah, that's a great idea." Gibby said, stretching and yawning.

Freddie gathered some pillows from where Sam was sitting and was about to move further away from her, but she grabbed his sleeve in an instant. He looked at her, wondering what she wanted.

Stay.

That was what her sparkling blue eyes said and it was all he needed. The brunette boy plopped down next to her and started to build a little nest of blankets, pillows and cushions for them. Carly and Gibby looked kind of confused, but shrugged it off and cuddled together in the corner, Spencer grinned knowingly at Sam. She nudged him, but broke into a smile and of course, the elder boy didn't miss that. His grin widened as Sam hopped into the little nest.
"Man, Benson, that's so cheesy. What are you, a freakin' bird?!" she asked.

"Naah, shut up, Puckett." he answered and dissappeared mostly under his blanket.

"Good night, you weird kids." Spencer chuckled.

"Night." The teenagers mumbled in unison.

Sam lay down, facing Freddie. He looked at her, studying her face, asking himself when things had come so far that Gibby and Carly cuddled in the far away corner and he lay in a nest next to Sam.

"What are you staring at, nub?" the blonde whispered harshly.

"You."

"Don't get any ideas." She whispered. "That's a one-night-stand, you got it?"

Freddie chuckled. "Sure, Puckett. Just get some sleep. If I got that right you haven't slept too much in the last one and a half years."

"Tss. You try to sleep with such a secret on your mind." The blonde answered him, rubbing her eyes while the first snores could already be heard.

"I'd rather not." He grinned. Then, he sighed, becoming serious and whispering:

"I can't imagine how you two lived with such a burden that whole time. I'm so proud of you." He shot her a gentle, even proud smile and continued. "But now you can share that burden, Sam, don't forget about that. From now on, you can tell me everything."

She looked at him closely, her eyes began to water slightly.

"Thanks, nub." And again, one look said so much more than a whole bunch of words could. She wanted to thank him. She was relieved without end. She was happy to have lost this terrible burden, but was also scared. For him. For the others. Not for herself. And she was tired. So, so tired.

They scooted closer to each other, Sam even let him wrap his arms around her, squeezing her tightly to let her know he understood and that he was there.

"Sleep now. I'll watch you." he smiled and kissed her forehead, he didn't really have a reason. It was just a feeling and it seemed the right thing to do at that moment.

"Ngaah. You're just lucky I'm too tired to punch you for that." She mumbled, already drifting into sleep. He chuckled. That special spark within him that inflamed whenever he thought about her or whenever she was around was now burning like a giant fire. He knew it was terribly cliché, but he couldn't wipe that huge smile off his face. And so he fell asleep, too, that stupid goofy smile still brightly visible on his face.