Author's Note: Hey everyone. Sorry for the delay. Got busy with editing something else and something else this afternoon and has been giving me troubles for hours to try to post this. I hope you enjoy this chapter.

Chapter 13

"How are they different?" Taylor gently prodded.

Carly looked down at her feet and took a slow breath. The fingers on Carly's right hand started playing with the ends of Taylor's bandana that was resting in her mother's lap. "They fight."

"All friends fight at times," she attempted to comfort the distressed teenager with a reassuring tone.

"No, they fight all the time… Sam constantly starts stuff with Freddie. It never stops. She insults him, she embarrasses him, she torments him… she hits him… she even… she ruined my Freddie's chance to go to NERD camp. She got a hold of his application and changed all the answers into some very nasty things, so they rejected him… all because he didn't know what time it was… and I said 'Who cares?'. I've been saying 'Who cares?' to him for the last four years when she hurts him and that he should just accept her behavior."

Carly sniffled and took a breath as she continued, "But this Sam and Freddie… they get along. I saw some iCarly episodes and there isn't any hostility. They get along and seem genuinely happy around one another." The younger brunette snorted out a laugh and raised her left hand to wipe under an eye, "They even shared a slow dance at Junior Prom. My Sam and Freddie dated for a few weeks weren't like that. They were at each other's throats when they weren't being all cutesy with one another… she even hit him then. Your Freddie's right: it was domestic abuse and I did nothing to stop it. I really am a heartless girl like he said."

Taylor let out a slow breath then gently took the hand Carly was fiddling with the bandana in her gentle clasp. Her daughter's counterpart looked up at her as the tears threatened to fall. "Did you tell Freddie? Where you're from?"

"No, I… I told him about my life as if were the 'nightmare' that I had this morning. After I was done telling him, he joked about how chizzy that Freddie's life was with friends like us and how that Carly, meaning me without realizing it, was a heartless girl for letting it happen to him."

Taylor took a deep breath then kissed the teenager's forehead. Carly closed her eyes from the gentle contact that she hadn't experience in a very long looked at her with a compassionate smile, "I'm not your judge sweetheart. You can't change the past, but you can change how things are from now on and I think you've realized that already. You can't beat yourself up over it or let it haunt you or the guilt will just overwhelm you."

The web-hostess gave a slight nod. "I'll try."

The older artist gave her a reassuring smile and asked, "Tell me about Sam other than how she gets along with Freddie."

Carly cleared her throat and wiped away the moister that was threatening to fall from her eyes. She took a calming breath then answered, "She's… she's a bully but I love her. She's funny and she can be a lot of fun… if you keep her well fed. She… she constantly gets into trouble and we try to keep her out of it. She doesn't do well in school and I… I don't tell her this, but I worry how we are going to get into college together if she never does her work."

"I assume Pamela isn't doing her job as a mother?"

The younger brunette replied, "No."

The veteran school teacher frowned and narrowed her eyes in annoyance for a moment before asking, "So you and Spencer are looking out for her?"

Carly nodded as she replied, "Yes. We let her stay over whenever she wants to and she eats whatever is out of the refrigerator when she's hunger. I think it bother's Spencer sometimes.

"It's probably because it's not Spencer's decision."

Carly raised an eyebrow.

Taylor gave her half a smile as she explained, "I'm going to have to take some guesses about your father and your life, so bare with me. I assume you two still live in this apartment since you didn't act surprised by waking up here."

"Yes. Dad's away and Spencer volunteered to stay with me. He's… we've been together since you died."

She asked softly and in the most delicate manner as she muster, "When did I… when did she die?"

Carly took a sharp breath and stared at the woman with an identical life to her deceased mother. She wasn't sure why she had asked the question, either out of morbid curiosity or for some other reason, but she decided to trust the woman as she opened up the old wound. The younger brunette slowly let out her breath as she replied, "August of two thousand one."

"And did nine-eleven happen where you're from?"

Carly nodded.

"I die then he has to go fight…" she stated in a mournful tone. "So you didn't go live with your Uncle Barry?"

Carly shook her head. "Spencer volunteered to stay with me as he was going to college, but I thought I would have lived with Granddad if he didn't want to stay."

Taylor frowned and replied with a surprisingly short tone, "Over Steven's dead body and even then it wouldn't have happened. I doubt your dad and granddad's relationship is any better than my Steven and his father."

The teenager's brow furled as she questioned, "I've never seen them fight before."

"My Carly hasn't either, but that doesn't mean it's not happening. They have very different views on parenting plus a lot of other disagreements over the years."

"Like the Granddad Shay here not wanting you two to get married?"

She gave a slight nod. "He thought… thinks I'm too dorky and goofy and weird and I like to sing… Row, row, row your boat, gently down the stream, merrily, merrily, merrily, life is but a dream…"

Carly shut her mouth tight as her mother had repeated back the words that she had used to describe the Dorfmans one time to Sam and started singing the tune they always sing.

The older brunette quickly shut her mouth and gave Carly an embarrassing expression. "I'm sorry… I can get… distracted. We were taking about your father and Sam?"

Carly gave her a sad smile. "It's alright." She saw so much of Spencer from this woman at that moment. Oh, how much Spencer must have hurt when losing the person that probably understood him best, especially since there were times she had trouble relating to her brother. Her mother would probably have found the corn juice funny and wouldn't have found it strange at all.

"As I was saying, your father can't be entirely in the dark when it comes to Pamela,"

The younger brunette slowly answered, "No he's not."

"Then he's the one telling Spencer to let her stay and feed her."

The Seattle teenager gave her a curious expression. "I don't understand."

"Your father… he's… he looks at the world in black and white, right and wrong, good and evil. The way Pamela refuses to be a mother to Samantha disgusts him and I assume it is the same with yours. If Samantha was your friend, he couldn't deny her a sanctuary here and it wouldn't matter what Spencer's thoughts were."

Taylor shrugged a shoulder. "And if the only difference so far is me then your dad probably worked something out for Spencer to stay there, but the final decision on anything is with him. I mean me and Steven had a huge fight about Spencer staying in the apartment after he finished college and he was away when the war started in Iraq. He wasn't going to let Spencer stay unless he paid me rent. " Taylor snorted out a laugh, "Your dad was adamant about it."

The older brunette took both of Carly's hands in her hands and whispered, "You need to tell Sam your concerns and you just can't let her blow you off. If her friendship means as much as it does between my Carly and Sam, she'll listen… she has to listen, because you are her friend and you love her."

Carly nodded along with a relieved smile. "I'll tell her."

Taylor gave her a wide smile then released her hands as she continued, "Good, now tell me about Freddie."

The web-hostess thought bringing him up would dampen her lifted spirits, but she cracked a bigger smile then started with a caring tone, "He's… he just like this one… he's sweet and caring and kind… except he can't stand up to Sam."

"How does that work when you're dating?"

The younger brunette frowned and broke eye contact with the older artist, "We're not. We're not together."

"Oh?"

Carly nodded to Taylor's eyes as a regretful gesture.

"Another change," Taylor stated in a rhetorical manner.

"Yeah…"

She gave the teenager a gentle squeeze of her hand then asked, "Do you mind if I ask why?"

Carly started to speak then closed her mouth. She swallowed down nervously then answered, "After just spending a few hours with this Freddie, I don't know… my Freddie's always had his crush on me… he never hid it like yours… and I never saw him as boyfriend material, except one time."

"When was that?"

"Sam let it slip that it happened here, but I guessed things turned out differently. After Freddie saved me from the taco truck I kind of fell for him and we dated for a few days, but… he broke up with me when he thought I didn't really return the feelings. He didn't want to take advantage of my misplaced feelings."

The older brunette smiled warmly. "Sounds just like our Freddie… and just as honorable."

"Yes he is," Carly whispered more for her benefit than for Taylor's benefit.

"If I may be so bold? You may want to take a second look at your Freddie—"

"I've already been doing that…"

"But…" Taylor dragged out and caused Carly to turn her attention back to the artist. "You shouldn't make any decision just on what you've seen here. You should do what is best for you and if you think you'll be happy with him, not with what you think you might have with living my Carly's life for a few hours."

"I'll keep that in mind… can I ask, but did your Carly and Freddie date after the accident?"

Taylor shook her head. "No, they never dated after the accident, but Carly was really upset and practically babysat him until the casts came off and he was done with official rehab. I did wonder if anything would develop from that, but nothing ever came of it until after Steven."

Carly looked away and admonished herself with a whisper, "I should have let him beat Steven…"

"Excuse me?"

The younger brunette looked back to reply, "I didn't let my Freddie fight Steven… I thought he was too nerdy and Steven would pound him."

Taylor playfully chuckled, "That scrawny runt against Freddie? I guess that's another lesson you've learned."

Carly joined her a moment later with a soft laugh, "I guess so."

The pair sat quietly for a few moments until Carly began, "I guess I should ask you since I'll never have another chance, but…" Carly trailed off and started to blush.

"You didn't have me to ask all those mother/daughter questions."

Carly gave an awkward laugh, "Dad gave me the talk and Spencer… he doesn't like having those conversations, but that's not what I'm asking."

She gave her a reassuring smile. "You can ask me anything, even about that."

Carly blew out a relieving breath then asked as solemnly as she could muster, "How do I know when I truly love a boy? Not just an infatuation or like him because he's hot, but truly love him?"

Taylor grinned widely and a hint of joy shined in her eyes. "When you don't have to ask anyone else the question, because when you love him, you'll know you love him and you don't care about other's opinions."

There was a worried edge in her voice as she followed up, "Are there second chances at love? Even after you screw up?"

"You'll find in life that the forgiveness and love are far stronger than resentment and hate. If your Freddie is as strong as ours and loves you just as much, he'll forgive you… maybe not right away if it truly starts bothering him after the fact, but he'll forgive you. You do have to remember one thing though."

"What's that?"

"To forgive yourself eventually."

Carly gave a nod then wrapped her arms around the woman who was the closest thing she would have to her mother back. Taylor smiled warmly and hugged her in return. Taylor just held her as long as Carly needed the contact as it pain her that the counterpart to her child had missed out on the love of her mother for the last ten years.

Carly finally pulled away enough to face her 'mother' but still in her arms. "Thank you."

"You're welcome cupcake… since I've answered your questions, would you mind answering some of mine?"

Carly shook her head and answered welcomingly, "No."

Taylor broke eye contact for a moment and bit her bottom lip then asked hesitantly, "How is your father?"