Author's Note: Hello to all my readers and reviewers. I have another installment for you. I hope you are ready for Carly and Freddie's long journey back to friendship.

Chapter 12

Carly sat down her checklist on Freddie's tech cart as she was about to head down and to meet up with Freddie. "So I should be back by six-thirty or seven then we can do a quick run through and be done by seven thirty at the latest," she reiterated to the three just as she was heading out the studio door. She had just gone over with Sam, Brad and Gibby what needed to be done before she got back. Brad and Gibby were quite content on what needed to be ready for the rehearsal when the brunette returned. However, Sam had kept an irritate look on her face since they had left school earlier and to Carly's eyes, still upset.

"You shouldn't be ditching us like this Carls," Sam stated in a firm tone.

Carly sighed as she reached the glass and red trimmed door. "I'm not ditching you, I'm just going to hang with Freddie for a little bit and be right back."

Sam snorted out with a hint of anger in her voice, "He throws a fit and make you feel guilty so you drop everything to please the little nub. Maybe I should walk, maybe that would get your attention and snap you out of the way you've been acting since L.A."

Carly felt her chest tighten and flush of heat form on her chest and neck. She snapped around and shouted, "You already did that once and nearly ended the show!"

Sam leaned back and blinked. She tried to speak, but Carly turned around and walked out the door. Brad and Gibby looked to each other as they wondered what just happened as Sam stood watching the door trying to figure out the same thing.

Freddie was leaning against the wall beside his door to his apartment with his phone against his ear. He chuckled from the comment on the other end and replied, "Are they going to get that fixed anytime soon or are you going to get a new number?"

The Shay door opened and Freddie cleared his throat when he saw the brunette exit the apartment. Their eyes met momentarily then Freddie continued, "I have to go, Carly's here and we're about to head out to my fencing lesson. I'll talk to you… yeah, I will, bye."

He pulled the phone from his ear and pressed the end call button. He slid the phone in his pocket and gave the brunette a bashful smile. "Hey."

Carly cleared her throat and replied, "Hi." It wasn't hard for her to guess who was on the other end.

The brown eye boy studied her for a moment and a look of concern formed on his face. "Are you alright?"

"What?" Carly asked in a higher than normal pitched voice.

Freddie pointed to around her neck and stated, "You're kind of flush around the neck and cheeks."

She reached up and palmed her neck. "Oh, just… it's nothing. You ready?"

Freddie resisted the urge to roll his eyes at her just brushing off his concern for her. Baby steps, baby steps. I can't expect her to get it right overnight. He leaned down to his right and picked up his sports duffle bag and gave her a muted smile. "I have everything, so we can head out."

As they headed towards the main elevator, she asked as she motioned with a hand to the pocket he slipped his phone, "So, you were finally able to get with Cat?"

Freddie glanced at her for a moment with a guarded look, but decided to be truthful, "Yes, I tried your suggestion and it worked. She's been getting their calls for the last few days and scrambling to call an ambulance for everyone she gets. It's kind of scary for her, but they said they're working on fixing the problem. Thanks, by the way for the suggestion."

Carly forced a smile and nodded her head. "You're welcome." I am not jealous. I am not jealous. I am not jealous.

Fencing Studio

Seattle, WA

Carly sat on the bench as she watched Freddie as he was lightly dueling with one of the younger students trying to polish back up on the basics. The warm-ups for Freddie and the individual instruction to start him back into dueling shape had gone fine. They had started off easy to see if Freddie could progress and what pace he could go if it was possible. The smile that Freddie wore as he was starting brought a small smile to Carly's face as she realized that his happiness made her feel happy.

After about an hour and a half assessment, Freddie was paired up with the younger student. From her vantage point she kept an eye on his left knee and watched for any signs of trouble. She covered her mouth with a hand a few times to prevent from saying anything as she watched him struggle a few times with his footwork terrified that his knee would give out and he'd hurt himself. However, as his motions got finer, his footwork improved and the frequency and risk of his leg from slipping out from under him diminished.

She hadn't felt this kind of worry for him since the accident and the tinge of guilt pained her in the chest since she didn't usually feel this way the times he had been injured between the accident and now, maybe half-heartedly, but nothing like what she was feeling now.

The brown eye boy finished his match and bid farewell to his younger opponent. He then made his way towards his bag resting at Carly's side on the bench then proceeded to take off his gear and put away his sword.

As soon as he took off the face mask, she asked, "Are you okay?"

He looked up and gave a relieved smile and leaned forward to rub his knee for a moment. "It's a dull ache, but I'll put a heating pad on it when I get home. I actually feel pretty good. I'm glad I decided to start back. I'll probably feel it more in the morning, but it was fun." He picked his bag and threw it over his right shoulder then the pair started making their way towards the door.

As they walked just the first few feet towards the door, a slight limp was obvious to Carly's hypersensitive observation she had been keeping on him since they arrived. She was already on his left, so she looped her arm around his arm. He looked to her with a raised eyebrow as the memory of a redhead did a similar thing two weeks ago. She swallowed nervously then gave him a bashful look as she replied, "In case you need any support."

He gave a slight nod of his head and allowed her to lead him out the door. Once they were out on the sidewalk, she asked, "Do you want to swing by the Groovy Smoothie and pick something up before we go back home?"

He looked to her for a moment then relied, "Yeah, why not?"

Groovy Smoothie

The pair had settled at one of the triangle tables as Freddie decided that he wanted more than just a smoothie and decided to grab a hamburger and fries. Carly wasn't complaining nor was she in a hurry to leave him and make it back to the apartment for rehearsals.

"You were really good," she commented before taking a sip from her smoothie.

Freddie smirked as he looked down at the triangle table grabbing a French fry. After quickly eating it, he replied, "I was fighting a novice who was taking it easy on me. There isn't much bragging rights on beating a guy with a bad knee."

She didn't want to laugh at the statement, but he did intend it to be a lighthearted comment, so she allowed herself a smile. "If you say so, but are you going to keep doing it?"

He tilted his head back and forth as if mulling over the idea. "I think I will. We're going to see how the next two or three lessons go before I make a final decision."

"I hope it works out for you," she replied and offered him the best confident smile she could display.

They just stared at each other for a moment and he smiled warmly towards her. It was the first real, deep warmth that he had felt for her in the last two weeks and he felt for the first time that their friendship might get back on its feet. "Thanks, I really appreciate the sentiment."

She looked back down at the table suddenly feeling self conscious about is look towards her.

Since Carly had taken such an interest in his well being this afternoon, he decided to return the favor. After taking a bite out of his hamburger and swallowing the morsel, he asked, "Why were you upset before we left?"

"I wasn't upset," she replied bashfully and kept looking down at the table. She then took a sip of her smoothie in the hopes that he would let the matter drop.

The brown eye boy sighed loudly and shook his head. One step forward and another one backwards. "Wow… that's new even for us: outright lying to me. That's not a good way to put our friendship back together."

Carly felt her cheeks get warm and spread down her neck from the embarrassed of being called out by the Tech-Producer. "Sorry, it's just, Sam was upset that I was leaving and she's just so annoyed that she has to help out Brad and Gibby to get the show ready. I didn't want to talk about it and drag that into your afternoon."

Freddie nodded and replied, softly, "I understand and I can appreciate that, but don't lie to me about it. If you didn't want to talk about it, you should have said that and I would have respected your privacy on the matter."

She looked up to meet his eyes. They weren't as mad as she expected, if anything a little hurt. She could kick herself as in the effort to try to be a part of his afternoon and put him first she tried to violate what little trust he had left in her. She wasn't sure what she could say in response, but fortunately he continued, "Why are you surprised by Sam?"

"What?"

Freddie chucked for a moment and shook his head. "You two fought for days using Dave and Fleck as surrogates to fight your disagreement about how she doesn't help on the production side and doesn't think what you do to get the show ready is important, but then you had a near death experience together and that was the end of the fight, you never actually dealt with the problem. You let her be her same lazy self in regards to the show and she's still not appreciative of your efforts for the last year and a half. You just brushed it under the rug just like you always do when you can't or won't face a problem, especially in regards to Sam. You put on a smile on your face and pretend it isn't there."

In a soft voice, she replied, "You mean like when I didn't give you an answer after the casts came off?"

Freddie nodded his head. "That would be a good example but for the fact your silence was an answer: it was no. You just didn't have the courage or the decency to tell me it to my face until you went after Adam and then when you started dating Steven. The message was loud and clear then."

She tilted her head down slightly as she looked to him with a dark look. "You're just being mean now."

Freddie shook his head and snorted out a little breath in disgust. "That's exactly what I'm talking about. You say I'm just being mean then you don't actually have to address my points." Freddie watched for a few moments as the anger was replaced with uncertainty in the brunette's eyes as she wouldn't focus on anything in particular. "Fine, don't deal with it, because not dealing with your problems has worked out for us so well in the past."

She frowned and glared at the brown eye teenager. "You're the one that dumped me."

Freddie cracked a small smile as he replied, "And you're the one that let me waddle out without a fight. You didn't want to take no for an answer with Jake when he got back with is girlfriend and you went chasing after Adam when he walked out on Webicon. When that didn't work you let Sam go get him and wink, wink, nudge, nudge her tying him down with electrical cord so you could try to get him to give you another chance in front of everyone, but when I told you I thought you weren't in love with me, you couldn't utter four little words: 'Freddie, you are wrong'. I'm not going to sit here and feel guilty in trying to do right by you and if I knew then what I know now I'd still do the same thing, because I was right."

Carly looked down at the table and shook her head. Freddie noticed the slump in her shoulders before she asked in a quiet voice, "Why is every conversation we have now turn into a fight?"

Freddie took a deep breath then replied calmly, "Because we still have a lot of things to work out. If you want to do this friendship thing for real then we need to deal with these things when they come up, not bury them or we'll be right back where we started and I told you I'm not living like that anymore."

"Do you hate me?"

Freddie studied the soft brown eyes looking at him and saw the desperation in needing some sort of approval. "I don't hate you. I'm just still working out my anger about all the things that have gone wrong over the last four years."

Carly's mouth went faster than her brain as she asked, "Do you still love me?" She covered her mouth in an instant and blushed.

The comeback fencer blinked in response to the question, but replied a few moments later. "As a person yes, but if we are talking about romantically… I'm still mending a broken heart and that's all I'll say about that for the moment. Anymore on that topic is off limits for the time being."

Carly's breath hitched and she blinked as the unspoken word in his statement screamed in her head, 'Cat'. She felt the stinging in the back of her eyes and felt the tell-tale sign of tears, but she pushed them back. I am not jealous. I am not jealous. I am not jealous. "I never meant to break your heart."

In a tired voice, he replied, "From my side of the table, your meaning to on purpose or willful insensitivity most of the time is just a distinction without a difference, but on that matter, I don't hold any resentment towards you. What's happened has happened and we can't change the past."

Carly looked down for a moment and wiped her eyes with the back of her hand to prevent any tears from falling. His words stung, but he knew he wasn't using them to stab at her, but just telling him the truth as she wanted. She took a breath and looked up to meet his eyes once more and ask, "Thank you, but are you still resentful towards me in other matters?"

Freddie tilted his head to the side and replied, "I told you I'm still working on the anger. It's not going to go away overnight, but what matters is that we're here and we're working on it. I'm giving you the opportunity you wanted, but neither of us can guarantee a result."

"Fair enough, we still have a long road ahead of us?"

The brown eye teenager gave a slight nod and replied, "Still a long road ahead, but…"

She blinked in concern and slightly frowned. "But what?"

Freddie smiled and replied in a slightly jolly tone, "I'm glad you came with me this afternoon. I like someone that cares rooting for me on the sidelines."

Carly licked her lips and gave him a bright smile. He was happy that she was there and knows she does care.