The Sound of Life and Death

Title: The Sound of Life and Death
Rating:
PG-14
Fandom:
iCarly with minor Criminal Minds
Characters/Pairing:
Hints of Creddie and Seddie
Genre:
Drama/Suspense
Summary:
Sam is kidnapped by a serial kidnapper and killer that targets blonde girls through their own web shows. When bodies of other missing girls start to show up near Carly and Freddie, the FBI is called to assist the local PD on the case. They soon realise there can be a deeper connection that Sam has with the kidnapper than everyone else would like to believe.
Warnings:
Mature subject matter.


Disclaimer: I own neither iCarly nor Criminal Minds. However, I do own the plot of the story proudly.

Author's Note: I am so glad that people seems to be enjoying this story so far and sending these super delightful reviews~~~ BIG shout out to all of you. THANKS~~~ As promised, the next for the record, I've getting this question about whether the kidnapper is her father or not. I hope I can get that question answered in this chapter.

Chapter Six (Carly)

"Sometimes, when one person is missing, the whole world seems depopulated. "

~Lamartine

The presence of the FBI agent in the living room didn't make Carly less worried.

In fact, the FBI agent made her even more worried because of their status. The fact that they were FBI agents assisting in this kidnapping, no, Carly reminds herself, serial kidnapping case makes the whole situation more surreal.

Carly wasn't sure if she should feel safe with these agents in her living room.

Freddie had been dragged out by his mother a few minutes ago. She mumbled something about how unsafe the neighbourhood actually is and how someone like Sam could be kidnapped in broad daylight. Carly wasn't sure what she meant by "someone like Sam" and wanted to point out to her that it was raining at the time, but she can't gather enough courage to do so. Freddie sends her an apologetic look which she replied with a half-hearted smile. The door closed behind them.

Then Detective Parker had left, going back to the station with Agent Prentiss because apparently, the FBI's technical analyst had found new evidence.

She hoped that the new evidence can help them find Sam.

Now, only Agent Jareau is sitting on the couch, taking over the work of talking to the witness. Carly had felt some level of comfort from the hugs that Spencer had given her, she felt hopeful again after knowing that there's a chance Sam would still be alive.

But the comfort she feels wasn't enough to even out with the fear and worry she feels.

She leans back on the couch awkwardly, hyperaware of the agent sitting next to her. Spencer is in the kitchen, unloading the groceries he'd brought from the store. It's taking a lot longer than Carly expects, but she guesses it was because he's got a lot on his mind.

She knows exactly how that feels.

"Agent Jareau, do you get a lot cases like this?" Carly wasn't sure why she asked that question, it just escaped from her mouth. "I mean, cases where missing people don't show up." She feels the need to clarify, just in case Agent Jareau didn't know what she meant.

The agent simply smiles at her. It was a smile Carly couldn't quite place. It was somewhere between understanding and sadness. "Please, call me JJ." She offers without answering Carly's question. It took a moment before Carly realizes that she was referring to her nickname. Carly often wishes she could have another nickname other than Carls.

That's what Sam calls her.

She feels a pang of sorrow wash over her.

It was so strong; she almost didn't hear JJ starting to answer her question. "Unfortunately, we get do get difficult cases more than we like."

Carly nods, before a second question fills her mind. "What exactly does the Behavioural Analysis Unit of the FBI do anyways?"

"Well," JJ starts to explain, there was a hint of pride in her voice that Carly caught. "The BAU basically uses behavioural science to solve crimes. By talking to someone, we profile them and determine whether they're a threat or not."

"Like profilers?" Spencer's sudden appearance makes Carly jump.

JJ nods, "Yes, exactly like profilers."

Carly wasn't sure where Spencer had heard about profilers before but she didn't feel like asking. Right now, Sam was her priority.

"So are you profiling me right now?" Spencer asks, making Carly glare at him.

How can he be flirting with the FBI agent when he's supposed to be worrying about Sam?

JJ laughs, a laugh so real that Carly wishes she could just copy and paste into her system. "Unfortunately, my job description in the BAU does not include profiling. I'm not a profiler like Agent Prentiss and the Agents downstairs, surveying the neighbourhood." Carly couldn't help but feel surprised. Spencer must be as well because JJ laughs again, and answers to their confusion. "In the BAU, I'm the media liaison for the team. I'm the one that decides where we go and do press conferences and establish a comfortable working relationship with the local police and talk to witnesses."

"Oh," Spencer actually sounds disappointed. "I was hoping to get a few lessons in people reading. You see, when I was in law school for three days, one of the reasons I left was because I couldn't tell whether people are lying or not."

The way that Spencer said this feels different to Carly somehow. She had never heard him so serious when he talks about his history in law school. It was always told as a joke.

It seems like Carly wasn't the only person affected with Sam's disappearance.

She was far from it.

A knock on the door distracts Carly for a second as she stands up to get it. She opens to door, revealing a woman and man.

The man she'd never seen before in her life but the woman she recognized instantly.

It was Sam's mother.

JJ stands up as well, greeting the two as Carly closes the door behind them.

"This is Samantha's mother." The man says, seemingly in control. Carly still wasn't use to hearing Sam's full name.

No one ever called her by Samantha. It was always Sam as far as she could remember.

"Please, call her Sam, Agent Rossi." Ms Puckett says. She seems a few years older than the time Carly had seen her. "Everyone calls her Sam."

The man - Agent Rossi - nods solemnly and looks at Carly and Spencer. "I'm Agent David Rossi." He introduces himself with a small smile that was meant to be reassuring. For some reason, Carly didn't quite feel it. "You must be Carly and Spencer Shay." Carly was a bit startled at the fact that he knows her name but she figures that he'd got it from the other agents or detectives. Spencer nods next to her, taking Agent Rossi's hand to shake. Carly did the same.

"Hi," Spencer says mechanically. Carly didn't feel like talking at all.

"I got it from here, Agent Rossi." JJ says, guiding the woman to take a seat on the couch where she'd sat a few moments ago. Ms Puckett smiles weakly as she sets down. Spencer, who Carly thinks never met Ms Puckett before today, offers her a drink. She thanks him and sips it.

Agent Rossi casts one last glance around the room and nods a JJ briefly. "If I have anything useful, I'll call you."

JJ smiles when Agent Rossi closes the door behind him as he left.

Carly looks back at Ms Puckett from Agent Rossi's back. Her eyes are red and puffy around it. She looks like she'd been crying ever since she'd found out.

Carly wonders whether she looks like that too. She hasn't checked the mirror ever since she came out of the bathroom.

"Thank you for coming, Ms Puckett." JJ says and meaning it. Carly watches as Ms Puckett nods, on the verge of tears again.

"Well, I came as soon as I heard," She says, running a hand through her short, but bright, blonde hair and takes a shaky breath. "My place is a mess as always, I couldn't have you go there."

JJ nods in understanding and starts to ask her questions. "When was the last time you seen your daughter or spoke to her?"

Ms Puckett thinks for a minute, "I saw her this morning, before she came over here." She looks a Carly with a hint if uncertainly. Carly don't know what to say to the woman to comfort her.

Ms Puckett isn't the only person that needs comfort right now.

Carly feels Spencer shift, rather uncomfortably, next to her as Ms Puckett's gaze land on him. Apparently, he didn't know what to say to the grieving woman neither.

Luckily, JJ was there. And she puts on her most reassuring smile for Ms Puckett. A smile that Carly knows Ms Puckett believes in.

A smile that Carly knows she believes in.

"Do you notice any strange person or cars that followed her when she left? Anything out of place?" JJ is now asking, and Ms Puckett shakes her head, making her look more and more devastated by the second to Carly.

"No," She answers honestly. "I wasn't paying attention. I was too busy making breakfast for myself." A tear escapes from her eye and Spencer immediately offers her a tissue. Carly looks at Spencer, silently asking him how he does that. He simply shrugs.

"Guess you all think I'm a bad mother now, huh?" Ms Puckett says, wiping her face with the tissue and dumps it onto the coffee table. "For not paying attention to my own daughter and noticing any strangers?"

Carly wants to walk over to her and hug her; she wants to say something that will make her stop blaming herself.

But she couldn't move.

She just looks at the mother who just lost her daughter and tries to feel the pain of not knowing where your own child is.

Not knowing whether he or she is still alive or not.

She wants to cry again. But she holds the tears in.

She doesn't want to break down in front of everyone here. She's stronger than that.

Or she hopes to be.

Ms Puckett suddenly turns to JJ; her eyes shines with a bunch of emotions combine together. "Do you have kids, Agent -" She stops, and Carly remembers that she didn't catch the agent's name.

JJ smiles, the same smile that Carly had seen ever since she got here. "Just call me JJ, Ms Puckett. And yes, I do have a son that's almost two years old." Her smile changes with added happiness.

"Then you understand, right?" Ms Puckett reaches for another tissue as another she sheds another tear. Carly had never seen her like this before.

This sad.

This devastated.

This depressed.

Carly was feeling the exact same thing the crying woman in front was feeling right now.

"Do you think she's," Ms Puckett swallows, "Dead?" The last word practically sucks the air out of her. Carly can now experience the pain she was feeling.

JJ puts a hand on Ms Puckett's shoulder, trying to soothe her. "We don't think that, no."

"I already lost her father, I can't lose her too." It was the first time Carly had heard about Sam's father and it takes her attention in an instant. She always wondered what had happen to her father but never wanted to ask.

Like Freddie, she never talks about the father role in her life.

Like how Carly and Spencer never talks about the mother role in their lives.

"He died when Sam was only two," Ms Puckett sobs, "Drunk driver." She takes her third tissue and blows her nose on it, the sadness she was feeling right now overpowering her.

"What happened to the other girls, then?" She asks once she was recomposed, putting the used tissue onto the coffee table.

"Right now they're still missing." JJ answers, her smile still intact.

Carly envies that smile. She wishes she could have one like that that she can actually brings herself to put on.

Spencer, who hasn't said a word since Agent Rossi left, all of a sudden sits down on the couch next to the crying woman, forcing JJ to shift over, and wraps an arm around her shoulders. A ghost of a smile appears on Carly's lips.

As silly as her older brother is, he is pretty useful when needed.

The rain had stopped, probably a long time ago but Carly didn't notice. The sun shone through the widows of the kitchen, and Carly feels the warmth of the sunray even if she wasn't under it.

Then she feels her stomach rumble. She looks up, noticing a few pairs of eyes on her and blushes.

Spencer let out a small hollow chuckle. "Well, I guess it's about dinner time, huh?"

Carly glances at the clock. Sure enough, it was almost six o'clock. About time they had dinner.

Time passes by fast when you're best friend's missing.

JJ walks towards the door, getting ready to leave. Before she was about to say her goodbye, her phone rang. She looks at it and picks up.

"Yeah, Rossi?"

She pauses, her expression stiff as she says, "I got it."

Carly immediately knows something was up, but Spencer asks JJ first.

"What happened?" He asks as Ms Puckett stands up. Carly sees JJ consider the question and looks up at them. She draws a deep breath and Carly wonders just how bad the news was. And whether JJ was going to tell them or not.

"Please," Ms Puckett obviously notices it too.

For a second she just though JJ was going to leave them at that, leaving them in the apartment as she goes to see whatever is wrong.

But the words she spoke changed everything. And Carly suddenly hopes they didn't push JJ.

"We found a body."


Cliffhangers~~~ Don't you just hate them? Please review at my other long chapter :) I really hope you guys like it! Because if you don't, I will find you... Just kidding... I want to hear your theories about the kidnapper. There's more to him than meets the eye. I spent a long time making his backstory. Look out for the next chapter up tomorrow~~~

XO - Spring