Hey everyone. I have another chapter for you and I hope you enjoy it. Thanks for your continued readership and reviews.

Also, Snapplelinz has started a new story. It is a Victorious story titled: 'Keep on Running, Tori' and I would suggest that you take a read and review after you finish reading this installment.

Special Guest Voice Appearance by Joe Flanigan as Colonel Steven Shay.


Chapter 11

Galini's Pie Shop

Freddie's hair was a little wet as he ran his fingers through his short hair then wiped the hand off with a napkin before turning his attention to the two pieces of pie sitting in front of him: the famous coconut cream pie and a piece of strawberry pie.

Carly was sitting across from him at a circular table with a piece of coconut cream pie tempting her to consume it. She had fared far better going through the ran to reach the pie shop as she had gone back to her room to actually get a proper raincoat so only the tips of her hair were wet.

She was hesitant to try the pie (and a little guilty if she didn't since he insisted on paying) as with all the differences so far she had encountered in less the five hours she didn't know if this pie would be as good as her native pie. Fortunately with the first spoonful in her mouth, she wasn't disappointed with the captured Heaven in her mouth. After a few more bites, she commented out, "I hate to point this out, but we're going to spoil our lunch eating pie."

The Tech-Producer addressed her concern in a nonchalant tone, "So? I like spoiling you."

Carly leaned forward and narrowed her gaze at the brown eye boy as she teased, "Careful, I might get use to it and expect it in the future."

"I'll keep that in mind," he answered with a smirk then went back to one of his pieces of pie.

Freddie's left hand slid across to the center of the table and gently clasped Carly's left pointer and middle finger between his pointer finger and thumb and lazily ran his thumb pad over her fingers. She watched the affectionate gesture for a few moments then looked to Freddie and realized the he didn't appear to know what he was doing. Apparently the other Carly and Freddie were so comfortable together that Freddie didn't give it a second thought of the contact and didn't expect her to have any problem with the contact.

Freddie scooped out a piece his strawberry pie with his spoon then held up the spoon to Carly as she was finishing a bit of her coconut cream pie.

Carly tilted her head to the side and looked to him as if he was serious. She thought it was kind of a childish gesture on his part and wondered if this was how they started interacting after they got together. She realized that they may have acted that way even before getting together as their friendship had developed without the constant tension of Sam or his underlining romantic feelings for her counterpart. How much closer were they in this universe than her own? If his account of what happened at Kenan's house was true then this Carly didn't have any problem saying 'I love you' platonically to him when she had never uttered the phrase to him.

He smirked and raised an eyebrow. "Just try it. It is fantastic," he playfully suggested.

"Oh alright," she answered with a quick roll of her eyes then allowed him to slip the spoon in her mouth.

Freddie lifted the spoon slightly so she could catch the piece in her mouth then slipped the spoon out and past her lips and allowed her to chew the piece of strawberry pie.

Her eyebrows lifted up in surprise as the flavor danced on her tongue. Once she swallowed the morsel, she commented, "This is fantastic."

Freddie snorted out a laugh. "I told you. I'm glad they're trying out a few new pies."

The sat in peaceful contentment as they enjoyed their respective pies until Freddie spoke up, "I missed you…"

Carly paused in mid-bite as she looked at his honest eyes.

"I don't… we were separated for six weeks, I don't know how your dad does it with your mom, especially with that last three year joint tour."

Carly nodded along. "Yeah." Her mind drifted to the thought of how it must be for her mom if this version of Steven Shay was gone as often as her dad.

"I guess she looks at the brighter side: he'll be a general by this time next year if not sooner. I always found it funny that she was more concerned about that than him, but I guess it's because she felt your Granddad Dorfman got cheated for not getting his star when he was in Vietnam."

Carly nodded along as she only had vague memories of her mother's late father. She took a wild guess as she replied, "Yeah, it always bothered her over that."

He nodded in agreement. "Well, I guess we should look on the bright side too: now any college you pick, I'll be guaranteed to be accepted too. Six weeks was a small price to pay for that reassurance."

"Yeah, any college you want—"

He lifted his spoon and pointed to her with a big grin on his face as he finished for her, "With you, with you."

She nodded and gave an awkward smile. What happened in her own world about Freddie missing out going to camp and the implications dropped on her like a ton of bricks. She had been so concern about what would be the fallout for Sam that she disregarded the true victim of Sam's actions: Freddie. She had even kept it a secret for weeks beforehand to cover for Sam and when he finally did find out, she had demanded that he forgive Sam on the spot regardless of what had cost him: the chance to go to any college he wanted. All because to Sam that Freddie's answer to the time was 'I don't know' and she had taken Sam's side.

She looked down at her plate so that her hair would partial cover her face as she suddenly felt sick on her stomach and the Heavenly taste in her mouth for the pie turned bitter.

Freddie gave a gentle squeeze of her fingers still being held with his and spoke up, "I'll pay for these and get a few more to go for everyone else. You know how much you mother would pout if she didn't get any."

Carly lifted her head and raised an eyebrow as she whispered, "Pout?"


The couple laughed as they made a dash down the sidewalk towards Bushwell Plaza through the moderate drizzle. They were just a few feet from the main entrance when Freddie stopped them just in front of the Plaza, but just short of standing under the overhead to shield them from the rain.

She looked to him with a perplexed expression at them stopping to stand in the rain as the drops may have been rolling off of her raincoat hood and keeping her relatively dry, but his head was for the most part getting soaked, but he apparently didn't care as she was met with an open and loving expression. He wasn't hiding or trying to shield his affection for her with his expression. It wasn't like when Steven looked at her when they were together or all the other guys she tried to get to be her boyfriend; his feelings were real and genuine.

Carly looked to Freddie with doe like eyes as he smiled at her and he leaned forward and captured her lips with the faintest of touches. The brunette felt like he was stealing her breath, but she didn't mind as she replied in kind with brushing her lips with his and poking her tongue out for just a moment to run across his bottom lip where she could taste the faint flavor from the coconut cream pie left on his lips.

As their kiss deepened, her mind screamed that this was wrong, but another part of her mind, maybe in her heart didn't care and just wanted to get lost in the moment of kissing a boy that cared about her in the rain. All the shame and pain she had felt at the pie shop was being stolen by this boy's loving gesture.

They finally pulled apart as they both needed to breath and Freddie softly laughed, "Still like kissing in the rain?"

Carly let out a soft snort and whispered, "I could learn to love it."

Bushwell Plaza

"I just mopped!" the irate doorman shouted as he came out of his back office at hearing footsteps entering the lobby. Lewbert quickly shut his mouth as he saw that it was Carly and Freddie entering the lobby. The disheveled doorman cleared his throat and quickly apologized, "I'm sorry Miss Shay. I didn't realize it was you… please don't tell your mom I yelled at you."

Carly looked to Freddie with a wide eye expression, but he looked at her with a curious one.

"What?" he asked with a generally perplexed voice.

Carly shook her head trying to cover up something she should have known but didn't. "Nothing." She looked back to the unshaven doorman and answered, "Okay, I won't tell her."

He nodded his thanks as the teenagers passed him and they headed for the stairs.

Shay Apartment

Carly opened the door with Freddie quickly following her inside and calling out as he held up a plastic bag, "We brought pie!"

Spencer was standing at the end of the couch with Sam and the pair instantly turned to the couple and held their fingers up to their respective lips to make the sound, "Shh!"

The brunette pair looked to one another curiously then back to the other odd pair. Spencer pointed towards the living room side of the kitchen counter.

Carly looked on at her mother sitting on the bar stool and casually turning about as she held the cordless phone to her ear. She was looking down towards the floor and grinning nearly ear to ear as she listened to whoever was on the other end.

Carly looked to the counterpart to her brother and asked curiously, "What's going on?"

He passed a glance to the brunette and whispered, "It's dad. He just called to let us know his tour's up and he should be home for some extended leave by next weekend."

"What?" Carly snapped as she didn't think she heard the taller Shay correctly.

The younger artist repeated himself slowly, "Dad-is-coming-hommme."

Freddie smiled and pulled Carly to a quick hug. "That's great," he whispered to her.

The brunette was still in shock as her mother stopped turning to face the group and waved Carly over with an ecstatic expression on her face. Freddie let her go and she cautiously approached her mother and heard her speak into the phone, "Here she is," then handed it to Carly.

Carly accepted and brought the phone to her ear. She swallowed down her trepidation before answering, "Hello?"

"Hey cupcake," Steven enthusiastically greeted who he thought was his daughter.

"Hi dad." It had been too long since she had seen her own father and the joy at hearing his voice was nearly overwhelming, but for the fact that in the back of her mind she was reminded that he really wasn't her father. "How are you doing?"

"I'm doing quite fine sweetheart. How are you doing?"

She gave an awkward smile that she knew he couldn't see, but felt naturally on her face as she answered, "No complaints."

"That's good to hear. Your mom told me Freddie's home."

"Yeah he is," she answered as she instinctively turned to look at the brown hair teenager who gave her a quick smile.

She heard a quick, playful snort over the other end then spoke in a teasing manner, "I know he's been gone for weeks and that he missed your birthday, but don't do anything I would in your place."

"Dad!"

She could her father laugh on the other end of the line. "I'm just kidding… don't do anything your brother would do with one of his 'lady friends'."

She blew out a breath and rolled her eyes at the fact that this version of her father had the same underlining bit of playfulness to him.

"I'm sorry to cut this short, but can I speak to your mom? I got to go in a minute or so."

"Yeah, sure."

"I will be home as soon as I can. I love you."

Carly frowned and cover her mouth and the mouthpiece of the phone as she whispered back, "I love you too dad."

"See you soon snug bug."

"See you soon," she answered with a regretful tone. The brunette handed the phone back to Taylor who was quite eager to take it.

Taylor held the phone to her ear as she was nearly bouncing as she started paced around the apartment as if she had been wined up and now the spring was uncoiling. The older brunette whispered with barely contained childish glee into the phone as if she was singing along with Steven, "I'm coming home, I'm coming home, tell the world I'm coming home, let the rain wash away, all pain of yesterday…"

She finally trialed off and had to press the end call button, but her smile didn't fade one bit as she looked to the rest of them. She shouted for joy, "Steven's coming home!"

Carly started taking deeper breaths as she saw the joyful looks of these native Taylor and Spencer Shays. Her mother was alive, her brother was a happy and respected artist, her best friends were actually friends, she was dating a guy that truly loved her and now her dad was coming home. She started shaking her head as the scenario was becoming too much for her. This nearly perfect life was cruelly mocking her life about how much it paled in comparison.

"I can't… I can't do this…" Carly shook her head and whispered out in a defeated tone. She blinked as she felt the burning and stinging sensation around her eyes and the first tears started rolling down her cheeks.

Taylor turned as she heard her daughter whisper, but the teenager turned suddenly and started dashing up the stairs. "Carly?" her mother asked in concern.

Carly snapped around when she reached the mid-way point at the stairs and shouted to her mother, "You'll just stick me in Trouble Waters!"

Taylor's expression turned from curious concern to abject horror. "Carly! Carly!" the older artist shouted as she dropped the phone and started after the teenager that was already out of sight.