We Love Each Other

by OneHorseShay

Sequel to Jade Likes Nice Guys. Freewill, not Fate, nearly tore them apart, but they came back stronger with 'I love you'. Now Jade and Freddie have to get through life's trials and tribulations before graduation without becoming casualties of Fate's unsuspecting even to themselves agents in trying to set things back to 'the way they were meant to be'.

25. Chapter 25: Easter Break Part 3

Hello my dear readers. I hope everyone has been doing alright. I'm sorry for the lateness of this chapter, but life has seemed to want to get in my way of writing this chapter. I hope you enjoy it, especially since it is considerably longer than usual.

Also, due to being business this last week, I haven't had a chance to properly PM my reviewers, so I'm getting back to all of you by tonight of this posting. Thank you of course for your continued support.

There is one thing I'd like to address: Why does everyone keep thinking Dusty's story to a four year old is somehow an accurate retelling of his encounter with the clown? Why does anyone believe the word of a four year old seeing wings on his back? Completely confuses me.

I'd like the throw some recommendation out: PD31 has posted a new chapter of his story, 'A Place to Call Home' and started another story, 'Here's to Us' and Subject87 Jade/Freddie story, 'iNeed a Change'.

One last thing since their is time, the Kids Choice Awards is less than two hours away, so keep voting for your favorite show and actress. I have a preference, but since this story is covering two shows and has two actresses up for winning, so I'm not advocating who one should vote for.

Special Guest Star Miranda Cosgrove

Special Guest Star Laura Marano as Mary

Other credits at the end of the story as I don't want to spoil anything.

Now on with the story.

Rating: T Language, Violence

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Chapter 25: Easter Break Part 3

West Residence
Tuesday, April 3, 2012

Jade and Carly were sitting across from one another at the kitchen island in the early morning eating cereal, both still in their night clothes. The girls only shared some idle conversation, but surprisingly for each, there was no real tension between them as they sat together.

Jade had been quite surprised that the girl she saw as almost sickening girl next door, even worst than Tori in some ways, could appreciate 'The Scissoring' and laugh at the appropriate times of the film. She hated to admit it, but her mind was already starting to reevaluate the girl.

Freddie nearly hopped down the stairs, dressed in one of his long sleeve red Pear shirts and jeans with his blue Hollywood Arts lettered jacket then reached the kitchen to approach the girls. He placed a quick kiss on Jade's right cheek then slipped his arms around Jade to rest on her abdomen then greeted the pair, "Hello ladies."

Carly wore a guarded expression at seeing the affection between the couple.

Jade smirked back and returned the greeting with a lively, "Morning."

He rested his chin on her right shoulder and asked the pair, "So what did you two lovely ladies do late last night?" He was curious as Jade had surprised him by slipping into his bed sometime after midnight and snuggling with him, but he wasn't going to dare ask as to the reason in front of Carly.

Jade turned her head and raised her left eyebrow and answered, "We watched 'The Scissoring'."

Carly happily piped up, "That is a good movie."

"Yes it is," Freddie agreed with a light tone.

His girlfriend looked back at him in surprise.

He let out a soft laugh as he explained, "Just because I have certain problems with it, doesn't mean it overall it isn't a good film."

Carly softly laughed out, "What problems?"

The couple turned back their attention to their guest with Freddie answering, "It's too early in the morning to start that movie analysis and I need to get to work."

The doorbell rang, interrupting any further conversation.

"I'm up, I might as well answer it," Freddie commented while regretfully pulling away from his girl. He quickly cut through the living room and towards the foyer.

Freddie opened the door and was momentary taken aback by seeing Sam on the other side of the threshold. He was so surprised by her appearance that he didn't notice that she was dressed up more 'girly' than normal or that she had her hair pulled back into a pony tail.

He eyed her as he cautiously asked, "Sam? What are you doing here?"

The dirty blonde laughed, "Nope, wrong Puckett sister."

Freddie frowned as he couldn't believe she was pulling this stunt again. He had debated back and forth with the true existence of 'Melanie Puckett' for some time and still hadn't made a decision.

Carly called out as he walked up behind Freddie, "Who's at the door?"

The brunette stopped in surprise at seeing her best friend. "Sam?"

The dirty blonde gave a genuine happy smile and shook her head.

"Melanie?" Carly laughed out as she was quite able to tell the sisters apart from that reaction.

The visitor nodded her head and Carly quickly pulled her into a hug.

Freddie frowned as he looked to the blonde and his brunette friend. He turned his attention to Carly and asked with a slightly impatient tone, "Is Melanie real? Is this really her?"

At this point, Jade had walked up behind them to see what was going on at the door and had overheard part of the conversation. She laughed out, "Too bad Sam doesn't have the scar anymore or you could tell for sure."

Melanie pulled away from Carly and instantly frowned and gave the L.A. girl a cold stare.

The younger pale girl crossed her arms under her chest and matched her stare. She whispered out coldly, "She's the one that started it by trying to rip Freddie's arm out of his socket and try to give him a concussion, but you'd know that if you were really Sam."

Melanie looked down shamefully and slightly frowned. She apparently didn't want to argue over that point, but decided to comment with a somber tone, "My sister has done a lot of stupid stuff in her life."

Freddie asked with a slightly impatient tone, "You really are real?"

The Puckett twin turned her attention away from Jade and let out a giggle, "Yep, I tried to tell you several times."

"Well after all the earlier chizz they pulled on me that week, I wasn't going to believe something that outrageous."

Carly put on a soft pout as she looked to her former tech-producer.

Freddie suppressed the urge to role his eyes and answered, "Yes Carly, I thought you and Sam was lying to me. That is what Sam does: she lies."

The Seattle-based web-hostess frowned in disappointment, but quickly discarded it so she could eagerly ask, "What are you doing here?"

"Well, I'm off for break too and I found out from Sam you were down here, so I'm here."

Carly's brow knotted in further confusion, "Why aren't you spending it with Sam and your mom?"

The nicer of the Puckett twins frowned and asked with a disbelieving tone, "Yes, I so want to spend time with Pam?"

"Sam says she's getting better and trying," Carly replied with an optimistic tone.

"I'll wait 'til she gets a little better…" She dropped her tone and looked Carly straight in the eyes as she finished, "…and I need to talk to you."

The brunette put on a worried expression. The girls weren't particularly close, so Carly was concerned why she wanted to speak with her. The shift in tone was easily caught by the couple, each contemplating the significance of the dirty blonde of coming down to L.A. to talk to her.

Freddie cleared his throat then spoke up, "Well, ah, I'm sorry to cut this short, but I have to get to work." He turned and gave Jade another kiss on the cheek then walked passed them back into the house to head for the garage.

Melanie looked over the girls' shoulders and softly laughed, "He's still adorable."

Jade smirked as she looked over her own right shoulder and commented, "Yes he is..." She looked back to Melanie and finished with a soft warning in her voice, "…and he's quite mine, so don't try anything, understand?"

The 'good' twin nodded her head in understanding that Freddie was clearly off the market.

The L.A. based pale girl motioned her head inside her home and offered with a dry tone, "Since you're here, come inside. You two can talk. I have to get ready for something," Jade intentionally being vague about her movie for in essence a stranger.

The girls stepped apart so Melanie could step between them and into the foyer. Carly raised an eyebrow to Jade, questioning the chilled attitude. She obviously understood the resentment for Sam, but for a girl she didn't know, she found it odd.

Jade rolled her eyes then muttered, "I don't care for twins."

After closing the door behind them, they all headed for the kitchen, but Jade split off to head up the stairs to shower and dress with the promise of being down in a little bit to fix them a proper breakfast. Carly appreciated Jade's excuse to give her and Melanie the chance to talk even if the fellow pale girl would probably deny she did such a thing.

Carly politely asked as she and Melanie reached the kitchen island, "Have you eaten? We have some cereal to tie you over until Jade comes down."

Melanie laughed out, "Yeah I've eaten, I don't share Sam's eating habits, but even I need a good breakfast before starting my day."

Carly nodded with a bright smile then retook her seat at the kitchen island to continue on her cereal.

Melanie took Jade's seat, but ignored the half eaten cereal in front of her. She looked to Carly and with a bashful tone, "How is Sam?"

The brunette instantly knotted her brow as that was not the question she was necessarily expecting from the twin of her best friend. "What do you mean?"

She slightly tilted her head to the side and softly commented, "It's like trying to pull teeth from her to find out what's going on. You know she really doesn't like me, so she's not eager to talk to me. I know something is wrong and not just with everything you said on iCarly after New Year's."

The pale brunette softly frowned and let out a soft breath. She met Melanie's eyes and answered with a forced casual voice, "Her and Brad broke up. I guess he finally had to face what Sam had done to Freddie and how everything spun out of control from there. He couldn't reconcile how she treated him and how she treated Freddie. I think he was afraid that one day that she might turn on him."

The troublemaker's twin let out a regretful breath.

"She's trying to hide it, but… I know she's really heartbroken over it. It doesn't help that he's still our technical producer."

Melanie's mouth dropped open and she asked in shock, "Why haven't you fired him and got someone else do it?"

Carly tilted her head to the side and answered with a tired breath, "I wanted to, but she insisted that I didn't. He enjoys doing the show, even if things are kind of awkward between them, so she didn't want to alienate him or hurt him."

The blonde's eyes shot open and mouth formed an 'O' before commenting in a clearly disbelieving tone, "Wow… Samantha wanting to be noble? I guess things have changed with her."

The web-hostess regretfully commented, "Yeah, but too late it looks like."

The private school student nodded her head in agreement then asked, "Why isn't she here?"

"You just met Jade; do you really have to ask why she's not welcome to stay? Besides, Aunt Ruby wouldn't let her stay in fear she would try something out of spite no matter what consequences Sam could face."

"It's that bad?" she retorted with a sad tone.

Carly put on a regretful look and pointed out, "Jade did scar her up and broke a few ribs during their fight. Even I'm not sure if Sam has really let that go and doesn't want some kind of revenge even if her ribs are fine and her scar is gone."

"How did she get rid of a scar?"

Carly softly bit her bottom lip then answered with a hushed tone, "You'll think I'm crazy if I told you."

Melanie gave her a supportive smile and answered, "Carly, her scar being gone is crazy, why should I assume the explanation isn't crazy too?"

The brunette let out a relieved breath and answered, "Okay… if you want to know, it really started a few Christmases ago when I…"

Freddie Benson: Just got off work and my girl needs coffee to film. Guess what I'm doing? FEELING: Jetty 8)

Outside of Jet Brew

Tuesday, April 3, 2012

The time was approaching one-thirty as the tech-producer was stopping by the closest Jet Brew coffee shop before heading to meet up with everyone at Ava's house to film her scenes. He quickly entered and headed towards the counter, passing some of the seated patrons.

"Freddie?!" he heard Tori call out behind him. He turned smiled at seeing Tori come up behind him from sitting alone at a table, but he was a little surprised as he couldn't recall a time he had seen her out with her hair straight or wearing a shirt so short that it exposed most of her toned midriff, especially her bellybutton along with low, hip hugging jeans.

"Tori?" He let out a chuckle as he looked Tori up and down, trying not to let his gaze lock on to her midriff, "Interesting look."

She gave him a quick confused expression, but quickly disregarded it by laughing out, "Freddie, it's me, Shelby." The professional fighter quickly pulled him into a hug.

Freddie blinked in surprise then quickly returned the physical greeting once he was able to gather his wits. He softly laughed out, "Shelby?"

Shelby pulled away, while still holding on to his shoulders, and quickly answered with a soft laugh, "How have you been? I heard you moved to Los Angeles ..." She cleared her throat and muttered with an uncomfortable tone, "...and some other things..."

He nodded along and completed her statement with a hint of regret lacing his voice, "All of which are true, but I'm doing really good."

Shelby put on a regretful expression then looking down to the floor to try to hide a shameful expression.

Freddie let out a laugh to brighten her mood, "You still look fantastic."

She slightly bowed her head then looked to him and coyly smiled. Her voice had a teasing quality to it as she asked, "Thank you, but if I've always looked 'fantastic', how come you didn't recognize me?"

He joined her in laughter and answered, "Because I thought you were my friend Tori… a girl that could pass as your identical twin even if she thinks you two look nothing alike."

Shelby crossed her arms under her chest and laughed, "Right… be serious Freddie."

His charming smile grew bigger and he playfully retorted, "I am serious… I have photos to prove it." He knotted his brow and commented with a bit of an odd tone, "It's getting kind of weird meeting all these twins this week. Sam's twin sister Melanie stopped by this morning and yesterday I even met one of my girlfriend, Heather Fox."

"Right? Pictures? And your girlfriend looks like Heather Fox?"

Freddie reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out his phone. He pulled up some pictures and started going through some of Jade and Tori.

Her mouth dropped open and eyes nearly bugged out at seeing the photos. She finally uttered out, "Oh my God, we are twins."

He softly chuckled, "I told you so."

She joined his laughter, "I might have to ask for a DNA test."

They took another few moments to calm down then Shelby motioned to the table she was just seated and asked, "You want to have a seat? Catch up a little?"

He sucked a breath through his teeth and put on an embarrassing smile. He let out an awkward laugh then explained, "I'm kind of in a hurry. I was just stopping by to pick up coffee for Jade—she's kind of a coffee addict—and meeting her over at a friend's house. We're filming a short film this week since we're on Spring Break. She's an actress and we go to a performing arts high school."

Shelby nodded her head in disappointment.

He blew out a breath, "But… a half hour or so wouldn't hurt? Let me just text her to let her know I'll be late… I better make sure I get her two cups of coffee," he finished with a laugh.

The straight haired brunette instantly brightened with a smile then led him to the table as there was no point in ordering the coffee until he was ready to leave.

Freddie took a comfortable seat across from the professional fighter and asked with an eager tone, "So what are you doing here?"

She relaxed back in her seat and cupped her coffee that fortunately no one had touched during the pair's reunion as she answered, "I'm defending my title Thursday. When you're the champ, everyone wants to take a shot at you and I'm enjoying the city and relaxing in the meantime."

Freddie whistled, "Wow… you've held on to it for what? Two and a half years?"

She proudly answered, "That's about right."

"Ever thought about hanging it up? It's not the safest sport and pardon me for saying, but how much farther can you go? You're seventeen and you've been on the top for all that time."

She titled her head away for a moment and admitted with a small smile, "You're right and my grandmother's suggested I do, but…"

"What?"

She let out an embarrassing laugh then answered, "The money's really good from the fights and the endorsements and…" She lost her upbeat tone as she continued, "…I need the money to look after my grandmother…" Her face became somber as she finished, "She's not getting any younger."

He nodded along and answered in an equally somber tone, "It's not my place to tell you what you should do other than what you think is best for your family."

"Thanks," she answered with a grateful tone.

Freddie picked back up with a livelier tone, "So… how's life been treating you other than professionally I mean?"

She cracked a smile nearly identical to Tori's as she answered, "Oh, I've been doing fine. I'm just trying to get my schooling done, but other than that, nothing much, octagon and the books."

Freddie furled his brow and gave her a look of disbelief. He asked with a slightly raised pitch in his voice, "Really? So as a beautiful, talented, strong young lady, you haven't snagged some lucky fellow? You don't have someone to share the happiness? I find that kind of hard to believe."

She softly laughed out, "You're flirting techniques have gotten better."

Freddie forced to keep the grin on his face as he was going to assume that she didn't mean anything by it, but he was going to have to correct the record, "I'm not sure how you can make that judgment call yet since I haven't flirted with you, but I will admit at the time that I did flirt with you that I was quite awkward, but I cannot be the first guy that flirted with you... and creeping you out... but I'm betting I haven't been the last, so…" His voice dropped to one of concern, "…why haven't you got someone if everything else is going alright?"

She gave him a shameful expression from a moment then gave him a playful smile as she responded with a hushed tone, "No you weren't... but as creepy as I might have found it then… I have to say you were the most genuine and I haven't run into guys since then that's had that quality. I heard about your accident a few years ago, the one with the truck. I don't know how much more genuine you can get than that."

Freddie straightened up in his chair and answered with a charming tone, "If you're using me as a standard then I'm the one that should be flattered."

She cracked a smile and continued, "Speaking of being attached, I heard you were—I mean before you mentioned it. Jade you said?"

He nodded along and smirked. "Yes, I'm very happily attached. Her name is Jade and she's a wonderful girl that I love very much."

The Tori twin nodded her head and took a quick sip of her coffee. She hesitantly looked back up to meet his eyes and delicately whispered, "So can I assume that what I heard is true? You're living with her?"

Freddie grinned while replying, "I'm renting a room from her mother, so technically I'm not living with her; we're just under the same roof."

Shelby raised an eyebrow and softly laughed out, "Splitting hairs Freddie?"

Freddie softly laughed, "For me, the distinction is important." He took a soft breath and put on a serious expression as he finished his point, "We don't share a room... we don't share a bed which most people assume when they hear the phrase 'living together'." The straight haired brunette's eyes shot open at that admission.

The professional fighter gave him a regretful expression. She took a calming breath then whispered, "Freddie, I'm sorry."

He let out a soft laugh, "It's okay, I'm not offended."

"No, I mean about how it came to that." Freddie's smile left his face while she continued, "I heard about everything, about Carly's confession. If I knew what Sam was doing, I... would have done something."

Freddie rested his forearms on the table and answered, "It didn't start to get really bad until after we met and you were off living your life, so... you can't feel guilty about anything."

"I should have kept in touch with you guys." She dropped her tone further as she looked to her coffee, "I wish I would have kept in touch with all of you, maybe I…"

He softly smiled as he tried to reassure her, "It works both ways Shelby. I'm not sure how much you wanted to keep in touch with me, but I'm surprised that Carly and Sam didn't."

The Tori look-alike didn't look convinced at his explanation, so Freddie tried a different tactic since she wasn't going to let him let her off the hook. "If you need forgiveness... I forgive you."

She looked up to him in utter shock.

He gave her a tender smile. "It's took me a long time to work through all the anger and hate... and to be honest, there's plenty of people that I still hold some resentment for, but I remembered that forgiveness is better than just hanging on to everything else." He softly laughed and looked to the table as he idly commented, "Besides, Sam has superhuman strength. It wouldn't have been as easy as you may think."

Shelby laughed at the concept.

Freddie grinned, but his tone was completely serious, "I'm not joking Shelby; she has superhuman strength and is quite dangerous. Do not underestimate her... I don't... I have too many injuries from her to ignore... like the last one that nearly pulled my arm out of my socket and gave me a near concussion thaaat spurred Jade into begging me to stay in L.A. than going back to Seattle. I was in a sling for about a week afterwards and as Jade puts it: I'm built like a tank, so that tells you how strong Sam is if she can hurt me."

She lost her smile as she looked into his eyes and saw that he wasn't joking. She had learned a long time ago to read people by their eyes and she had no doubts that he believed it. She blew out a nervous breath then asked on a happier note, "Since you're here and said you're on break, do you want to see my fight on Thursday?"

He could hear the soft eagerness in her voice of her wanting him to say yes. He warmly smiled as he answered, "I would love to and I think there are a few others that might like to see it—if you could swing a couple of more tickets?"

"Who?"

Freddie gave her a knowing smile. "Other than Jade… Carly's down here visiting for Spring Break and she might want to see you."

Shelby's brow shot up while asking, "Carly's here?"

"Yep," he answered with a boyish grin. "We've buried the hatchet so to speak and we're good."

"But I assume Sam's not here?"

"Nope, still up in Seattle."

The professional fighter laughed out, "Well then, I guess we're having a little reunion anyway?"

"I guess so, but before you leave to whatever your next fight might be, you have to meet Tori, just so I can show her that you two look alike. She will deny it up and down that you two look alike."

She happily agreed, "She can come to the fight too with whoever else she wants to bring with her. I need to see her in person."

Freddie chuckled, "Oh, this should be fun."

Cohen Residence

Hollywood, CA

Dusty and Mary approached the front door at the moderate sized home just after two in the afternoon. The Southern tapped the doorbell and the cousins patiently waited for the door to open. A small smiled played on Mary's face as she was mildly content at Dusty going to spend some more time with Ava.

It opened a few seconds later and revealed the shorter brunette girl. She immediately smiled up at Dusty and whispered, "Hi handsome."

Dusty knotted his brow and slowly answered willing to play along, "Hello beautiful?"

The girl beamed him a smile then took him by the left arm and led him inside.

Mary couldn't resist putting on a grin as she followed the pair inside.

He looked over one more time then stated with a calm, conversational tone as a smile played on his lips, "So you're Eva?"

She let go of his arm, blew out a breath and rolled her eyes in defeat. She playfully asked while meeting his eyes, "Yeah. How did you know?"

He smirked and softly laughed out, "I kind of have a sixth sense about these things and… you're far too straight forward then what I've seen of your sister and I'd highly doubt she would do such a thing while she was still with Van Cleef."

Mary frowned in disappointment at being fooled by a twin.

The Seattle twin snorted out as she looked away, "She needs to dump that loser."

Dusty put on a slight frowned as he bit his tongue to refrain from commenting.

The other Cohen twin stepped out of kitchen and she blew out an exacerbated breath at seeing her sister with the cousins. She commented with a slightly annoyed voice, "I see you've met my sister?"

"Yes we did." He looked to Eva and asked, "I guess you're on break too?"

"Yes I am." She looked to her twin and stated, "I wanted to come down and visit my sister."

Ava commented with a dry tone, "Oh lucky me."

Eva crossed her arms under her chest then stuck her tongue out at her sister. Ava returned the gesture.

Dusty softly chuckled, "Oh sibling rivalry, it's so… Biblical."

The Angeleno twin snorted out, "Nay, I only want to kill her half the time."

Eva mocked in return, "I love you too big sis."

The cousins share a quick laugh at seeing the twins' antics.

The doorbell rang again and Ava decided to answer it instead of continuing her bickering with her younger sibling. She let out a relieved breath at seeing Jade and Cat on the other side and quickly ushered them inside with a friendly greeting.

The pair immediately stopped when they saw Eva. The pale girl looked between the Cohen sisters for a moment then muttered, "Twins."

Ava rolled her eyes as she commented, "My same reaction." She directed the girls to Eva and introduced, "Yes, my twin sister, Eva. Eva, Jade and Cat."

The redhead put on a smile and waved as she returned the greeting with a high pitched voice, "Hi."

Eva acknowledged the pair then eagerly asked, "So Freddie is going to be here?"

Ava looked to her sister and stated in no uncertain terms, "Don't make a pass at him. He turned you down last time, he's not going to take a second look, especially now."

The identical twin huffed out a breath, "Carly was too busy being all over him last time."

Jade looked on concern at the pair, but Ava quickly explained, "After Freddie's accident, she was one of the girls that threw herself at him."

The younger twin snapped out, "Oh everyone went after our resident hero! He jumped in front of a truck to save Carly. Who wouldn't want a guy like that?"

"Apparently Carly," Jade uttered in a curt tone.

Eva looked to Jade and answered in a dismissive tone, "From what I've seen going to school with her for the last five years, her smarts have always been overestimated and she's gotten by with that sweet girl act."

Dusty let out a whistle at the burn and looked away while 'Little Red' frowned at the insult towards her partner in cupcake crime. Despite being on better terms with Carly, Jade couldn't deny such an assessment of the web-hostess.

Ava rolled her eyes then looked at the pale teenager. "So where's Carly?"

Eva asked with a slightly higher pitch voice, "Carly's here too?"

Cat eagerly nodded as she answered, "Yeah, she's here visiting too."

She looked to her sister and commented, "If I knew that, we might be able to've saved some money on airfare together."

Ava softly shook her head then asked Jade, "So where is she? I didn't think you were going to exclude her from this."

"I'm not. She's still at my house. Melanie showed up and they're hanging out."

Dusty knotted his brow and asked, "Melanie?"

Jade crossed her arms under her chest and forced a fake smile as she answered, "Sam's twin sister."

The former webmaster asked in shock, "She's here? She's real?"

The green streaked hair girl gave a nod, "Yes. She needed to talk to Carly. I don't know what about, so I thought it was best to leave them alone and let them have the day."

The only male among them shook his head and muttered, "Twins? More twins? Okay, as much as I can appreciate double the beauty, does anyone find that this is getting a little ridiculous?"

Eva smirked and passed a quick glance to her sister at the assumption that Dusty thought she was beautiful. Ava rolled her eyes, barely tolerating her sister.

Jade let out an ironic laugh, "You want to hear ridiculous? I got a text from Freddie saying he'd be running a little late as he ran into Shelby Marx at Jet Brew. He wanted to take some time to catch up with her."

The younger twin asked, "Shelby Marx? The girl that Carly fought a few years ago on Pay-Per-View for charity? Her posters were plastered all over the school before the fight."

Dusty picked up, "And the one that looks just like Vega number two?"

"Yep, the same one. I'm betting he wants her to meet Tori to finally put an end to this thing about her thinking they don't look alike."

Dusty threw up his hands and commented, "Okay, this week is just turning into bad writing."

Jade smirked as she responded, "Then let's get back to some good writing. While we wait, could I get some help bringing in the costumes, makeup and camera equipment?"

He cracked a smile and answered, "Of course my lady, time to be the benevolent sexist."

A few minutes later, after Dusty had brought all the equipment inside, the black Charger pulled up into the driveway.

Dusty opened his arms open wide and laughed out as Freddie got out of the Charger, "Now you show up, after I've done all the heavy lifting."

The tech-producer laughed out as leaned back into his car and pulled up two large coffee cups then shut the door with the side of his hip, "I got hung up."

"I heard, enjoying the company of some Vega look alike?"

The pair started back to the front door as Freddie answered, "I couldn't just ditch out on her. I hadn't seen her in years and she wanted to catch up."

"Right… I think you just wanted to kill some time so I had to do all the heavy lifting."

Freddie laughed as they reached the door and Dusty opened the door for him.

Eva was there to warmly smile at them and happily greeted Freddie, "Hi Freddie."

Freddie took a moment to look between the sisters then awkwardly asked, "Eva?"

She snorted out a laugh, "We went to school together for years; you shouldn't be that surprised to see me."

He politely responded, "I don't remember us ever hanging out, just passing in the hallway. That's why I didn't find it odd when I met your sister during the summer workshop, only that she looked vaguely familiar, but it is nice to see you."

Dusty leaned over and whispered, "And apparently throwing herself at you after the taco truck."

Eva slightly frowned to the Southern teenager.

The lean teenager raised a hand and commented, "I didn't mean anything by it. You saw a good guy and you went for him. I don't see what the big deal is over the matter."

The explanation seemed to placate the Seattle based twin with a half-hearted smile.

Dusty continued before any further awkward conversation could develop, "I think the girls are still getting ready, so we have a chance to look over your cameras recording sync up. I think I have everything ready to go."

---

In Ava's room, Jade was looking at herself in a full length mirror as Cat was zipping up the back of the wedding dress. The redhead had just finished the makeup and Mary was sitting on the bed just passing the time. Once Cat finished zipping her up, the pale girl wiggled and adjusted herself to get comfortable in the dress.

She looked to Cat and gently asked, "Could you give me a minute? I want to talk to Mary."

Cat knotted her brow and gave a cute pout as she looked to her friend then looked to the cousin of her ex-boyfriend. She looked back to Jade and let out a breath then started on her way to respect her friend's request.

The Texan and redhead spared a quick glance to one another as Cat exited the bedroom.

Jade idly commented, "I don't think Cat likes you."

Mary gently countered, "The feeling's mutual."

The costume wearing teenager crossed her arms under her chest and raised an eyebrow.

The younger teenager gave her a slightly indignant expression as she softly answered, "What? I don't like that she couldn't be honest with him."

"He's the one that carried the torch."

Mary slightly frowned as she answered, "Don't expect him to apologize for wanting to help her or caring about her."

"No, I wouldn't expect that he would. I don't think his pride would let him."

"Honor, not pride."

Jade pursed her lips then let it go as the point wasn't worth arguing, "Still, it seems a little irrational. He doesn't resent her, so why should you be bothered by it?"

"Couldn't I ask you the same thing in regards to Carly and Freddie?"

Jade immediately frowned at the girl, but didn't get to retort as the Texan continued, "I love him and I'm fifteen, I don't have to be rational about this. She hurt him whether she meant to or not and I'm mad about it."

Jade rolled her eyes and shook her head at hearing the blatant admission that she didn't care if she sounded like an immature teenager. She could at least give credit to the girl for admitting it.

The younger teenager frowned and narrowed her eyes on the actress, misinterpreting to what Jade was actually reacting. She retorted with a low voice, "If you make one kissing cousin joke, I'm going to rip those colored hair extensions right out from your scalp as soon as you put them back in."

Jade resisted the urge to whistle at the country girl's spunk, but did retort to perhaps regain the edge in the conversation, "A little defensive?"

"How would you feel if someone made a 'joke' about how you could be inappropriate with your stepbrother?"

The pale clenched her jaw tightly and harshly stared at the Texan. Mary calmly returned the gaze until Jade snorted out a breath in irritation then admitted, "I see your point."

The young brunette shook her head then quickly asked, "So you wanted to talk to me?"

Jade didn't see any point in wasting any more time either. She answered with a calm and deliberate voice, "Yeah, I wanted to tell you that you're wrong. Dusty is our friend, but if it looks like we just call him when we need him then that's just the way it looks. We've called and he's come to help. If he ever needs our help and calls, we'll be there, because that's what friends do."

Mary took a deep breath and locked eyes with the blue eyed girl to try her best in determining if the girl was telling her the truth. She studied for a few more moments, but just couldn't determine either way, so she went the safe route in her mind with a guarded tone, "I guess we'll see one day."

Jade answered in a solemn tone, "I guess we will."

The girls mutually nodded at the apparent resolution to their disagreement then Mary commented with a motion to the door, "Okay, I guess it's time for your scene."

"Yeah, but…"

"What?"

"There's one more thing I wanted to ask you." Jade took a quick breath and broke eye contact with her for a moment the cautiously asked, "What did Dusty tell you about the clown? What really happened, not the fairy tale story he told Ian?"

Mary visibly stiffened and her breath caught from the question. She took a few scant seconds to clear her throat then timidly answered, "What do you think happened?"

The made up girl paused in answering as she thought about how to answer that question. She calmly retorted, "I really shouldn't ask that question, should I?"

The Texan looked to the floor and whispered, "If you're really his friend then no, just accept the fact he was there and grateful that your brother remembers it as a fun day while it's a scary one for you that you'll never forget." She nervously shrugged a shoulder, "Remember, it's just a story."

Jade wore a hesitant expression as she looked at the younger girl then gave her a supportive smile as she replied, "Yeah, just a story."

The younger brunette gave her a grateful smile.

---

The pair headed downstairs and immediately met up with the rest with Jade immediately focusing on Freddie. She let a small smile play on her face then gave Freddie a quick peak on the cheek (which left a visible dark red lipstick impression) then asked, "Enjoy your catch up?"

"Yes, it was… enlightening?" he answered, still processing the conversation and what to make of it.

Jade softly knotted her eyebrows and raised a corner of her mouth to question him.

He slightly nodded his head to the side and answered, "I'll tell you later, but… she invited us to her championship fight on Thursday night."

She hesitantly asked, "Okay, are we going?"

He gave her a near puppy dog expression as he answered with raising the two cups of coffee, "I said yes hoping you'd come with me?"

Jade smiled and rolled her eyes before answering, "Of course." She took one of the cups and took a quick sip then looked to the rest of them and called out, "Alright, we have a scene to shoot!"

---

About three hours later, Jade was in Ava's room finishing changing back into her casual clothes that she had worn over while Freddie was resting his back against the wall next to the partially opened door.

Jade was finishing pulling the Penny-Tee over her head and pulling any of her hair caught in her shirt collar as she called out, "So you're okay with that… with what we filmed?"

Freddie rolled his eyes and softly retorted around the doorframe, "Are you happy with it?"

She brushed her hair out of her face and straightened it as much as could be done with just her fingers as she stepped out of the room and answered with him with a slightly bashful expression, "Yeah."

He pushed off the wall and smiled while answering, "Then I'm good."

She arced her left eyebrow (missing her piercing from filming the scene) and softly questioned, "Are you sure?"

"I can't say that it wasn't a tough scene to shoot, but you were fantastic and if you thought the scene was necessary, I'm not going to second guess you."

She took a step forward and wrapped her arms around the back of his neck. "I appreciate it. I really do."

"You're welcome."

She smirked then pulled him into a deep kiss.

West Residence

About forty-five minutes later, Jade and Freddie entered the kitchen door from the garage carrying the protective bag for the wedding dress and the various pieces of equipment.

Carly and Melanie were seated at the kitchen island eating a small snack as Mrs. West was preparing for an early dinner. The Seattle brunette happily called out, "So how'd filming going?"

Freddie laughed out as he sat his camera case down on the floor next to the door, "I think it went great."

Jade quickly followed up, "Yes, it was bloody and violent, just how I like my horror movies—without it going all splatterpunk."

The web-hostess asked, "Will I get to laugh from the film?"

"Hopefully," Jade answered with a wicked grin.

Mrs. West called out as she opened the stove and slide in a metal pan to cook (which Jade couldn't tell what she put in the stove), "Well I'm getting dinner ready and it shouldn't take that long, so go ahead and put your stuff up and we'll all meet in the dining room."

The dirty blonde hesitantly asked, "Ah, Freddie? Could we talk before dinner? Privately?"

Freddie passed quick glances to Jade and Carly, who each gave curious expression with Jade leaning more to concern, then answered with a polite nod, "Sure. I guess the front porch is private enough. Just let me get something to drink and I'll meet you out there."

Melanie nodded then got up from her stool and headed to the front door.

A minute or so later, Freddie stepped out onto the porch and handed her a Joke-a-Coke then took a seat next to on the front porch swing. They pair started sipping on their respective drinks as they looked out on the street and watched the randomly passing car.

The dirty blonde finally spoke up with a soft tone, "I'm sorry for what Sam did to you."

He shook his head and had to put real effort to suppress a look of disgust to form on his face. He snorted out a quick breath then looked to her to answer, "Don't apologize for your sister. It's just another thing to add to the heap of her not taking responsibility for her actions right on top of the blind eye taken by everyone when not making some excuse for her. If she is ever truly sorry, let her apologize, don't do that for her."

"Maybe I'm apologizing for myself. I'm sorry. I didn't know."

Freddie snorted out and shook his head, "Why is it the ones that didn't know and couldn't do anything about what happened are the ones that genuinely the sorriest?"

The dirty blonde shrugged a shoulder and answered, "I don't know. Maybe to really be sorry, they have to admit they were at fault too because they can't take comfort in the ignorance."

"Have you taken comfort in it?"

Melanie shook her head as she answered, "No."

Freddie looked away and took another sip from his drink. He watched as another random car passed down the road. Melanie whispered out with a near pitiful tone, "Carly told me that Sam lost Brad."

The former iCarly tech-producer flicked an eyebrow up and asked before taking a sip from his drink, "Maybe she'll finally learn that her actions have consequences?"

The nicer twin narrowed her eyes and retorted, "That's pretty coldhearted."

He pulled the bottle from his lips and answered, "By pointing out the truth? That pointing out that she does bad stuff might actually for a change lead back to her instead of weaseling out of it every single time? Sorry if I can't weep for her."

She hesitantly asked, "So you want her to suffer?"

He rolled his eyes and flippantly commented, "That would assume I care that much. I let all that mess with Sam go a while ago. I'm simply indifferent to her. If she's miserable or if she's happy, either way, I don't care. I'm far too busy living my own life and caring about my real friends."

She frowned as she retorted with a disapproving tone, "Now that's cold hearted."

Freddie chuckled then commented before taking another sip, "Wow, another Puckett sitting in judgment of me. Maybe you'll forgive me if I don't give a damn?"

Melanie took a sip from her drink then sadly uttered, "I'm sorry that my sister made you that way."

Freddie softly smirked as he eyed the 'good' twin as he calmly answered, "Your sister doesn't make me do anything anymore. If I love her or hate her or am simply indifferent to her then that's on me and no one else. I'm responsible for my own feelings."

The blonde looked away to the road and the pair sat in silence just enjoying their respective sodas.

Freddie finally commented after minutes of sitting in silence, "It was still nice to finally meet you."

She snorted out a soft laugh, "It's finally nice to be known as me instead of a practical joke of my sister."

West Residence

Wednesday, April 4, 2012

Mrs. West was in a hurry to make it out the door to get to a business meeting first thing this morning. Everyone else may have been on break, but she still had to make a living. She was throwing on her women's blazer jacket when she heard the doorbell ring.

She was about to shout for one of the teenagers to answer it, but realized that they were busy upstairs. She rolled her eyes and dashed to the door as she buttoned her jacket. She opened the door and sucked in a breath at seeing the model standing on the other side.

Heather, wearing a blue spring dress, gently asked with a hesitant smile, "Mrs. West?"

The pale beauty let out a soft laugh as she gathered her wits, "Yes."

"Hello, I'm Heather Fox."

"Okay, this is still a little disconcerting, but it's nice to meet you."

The model politely nodded her head. "Thank you ma'am."

The matriarch motioned the girl inside and apologetically explained, "Sorry, but I'm on my way out to work."

As Mrs. West shut the door behind her, Heather answered with a smile, "Oh, it's alright. I don't want to be an intrusion. I'm just happy Jade invited me to have a role in her film."

Mrs. West nodded with a soft smile then asked, "Would you like something while you wait? Some coffee?"

The dark brunette politely shook her head and answered, "Oh no thank you. I don't drink coffee all that much."

The West Matriarch paused for a moment as she tried to rectify that statement with the image of her daughter in front of her. She quickly gathered her thoughts then commented, "I'm sure she's happy to have you."

"I am too. I'm trying to expand into acting and I'm glad someone's giving me a chance."

Mrs. West continued to smile as she thought of how her daughter had given Ava the same opportunity. "Well I wish you all the success… unless you're competing with my daughter for a role then I hope you'll forgive me for wanting her to get it over you."

The model let out a laugh as she answered, "Of course."

The matriarch politely continued, "I'm actually familiar with you. I'm a VP at an advertising agency and I know one division has been eager to try to get you onboard for a new ad run."

"Really?" Heather asked with evident curiosity in her voice. "Which agency?"

"Schneider Advertising."

Heather's face lit up and let out a laugh, "They've been making me some good offers…"

"They've been offering you peanuts and it's embarrassing. I think they expect you to be stupid simply for being a teenager."

Heather raised an eyebrow at her bluntness. She took a few moments to gather her thoughts then answered, "So you think I should turn them down?"

Mrs. West diplomatically answered, "As an employee, I would say you should take the deal, but as someone being honest with the situation, they need to be offering you substantially more for what they're planning."

She cleared her throat and answered, "I'll ah… keep that in mind."

"You should do that," she answered with a reassuring tone.

Jade smiled down and questioned with a knowing smile from the top of the stairs, capturing their attention, "So how's my living twin doing?"

---

Tawny looked into her vanity's mirror in her room, but instead of seeing herself in the filthy and blood splattered wedding dress, she saw herself as she was just before her wedding: a sweet, nice and down to earth girl.

The 'living' Tawny whispered, "You don't have to do this. You don't have to hurt our friends."

The revenant snapped back with sheer rage in her eyes, "I have to! They'll steal him from me!"

The reflection bowed her head and whispered, "I know it's not fair that we didn't get the chance to be happy, but I had my chance at life, let him go. Let him be happy."

The wedding dress wearing young woman shook her head. "No, he can't be happy without me."

"Now I'm just being selfish. It's not love, it's just possessiveness. I have no right to do that to him. Let him morn me then move on and be happy. Not like this. Don't haunt him."

Tawny pulled her silver scissors out and screamed enraged at her sweet reflection. She stabbed at her reflection, but instead of plunging the blades into the other girl's chest, the tips punched the mirror and sent a spider web crack throughout the entire mirror.

Hollywood Arts High School

Wednesday, April 4, 2012

After filming at home with her visible twin, Jade, Freddie and Carly went out to pick up Cat for lunch then headed back to Hollywood Arts. Freddie wanted to take a few minutes to an hour to shoot a few more establishing shots of and inside the school to give him the piece of mind of have all the footage he needed during editing process and Jade wasn't going to argue if he felt it was needed for her film.

They were pretty routine shots for the tech-producer while the girls just enjoyed each other's company chatting about any number of things (much to Jade's surprise) except she and Carly seemed to notice that Cat had been a little off most of the time, more so than usual. Jade opted to be the one to talk to the redhead as Freddie filmed as Carly had arranged to be picked up soon by Beck before leaving the school for the pair to catch a movie. Jade had apparently accepted the Beck/Carly friendship without question and he didn't feel the need to justify it which in all honest Jade realized was probably the healthiest attitude to take in the situation.

However, between Freddie wrapping up filming and Beck picking up Carly, Cat had slipped away from them. The couple soon split up and started searching the school for their redheaded friend. After searching the usual hiding places one could have at the school, they met up in the Black Box Theater.

The couple looked to one another and neither bothered to ask if the other had seen their redheaded friend. As each silently tried to figure out what to do next in order to find their friend, Jade noticed some motion in the corner of her eye. She quickly looked up at the catwalk and saw the ends of Cat's feet as she climbed up a ladder to the third floor. Jade curiously commented, "She's going up that ladder."

Jade grabbed him by the hand and she pulled him along to head for the left side exit of the auditorium and up the back stairs to reach the catwalk. She let go of his hand as she reached the leader then started up it with him quickly following.

They quickly reached the third story catwalk and Freddie immediately and gently took her by the upper arms then pulled her back to press her shoulder blades against his chest to steady her in order to satisfy his own subconscious fear of the pair being this high above the theater.

Her eyes shot open and she took in a sharp breath, being caught off guard by his near manhandling of her and a further surprised that it kind of turned her on being in his strong hands again in more than just their usual soft cuddling. She whispered, "Freddie, Freddie?"

He answered with a curious tone, "Yeah?"

She quietly answered with a borderline menacing tone, "If you don't take your hands off me in the next two seconds, I can't guarantee I won't turn around and ravage you."

Freddie smirked as he playfully counted, "One, two," then let her go and kissed her on the cheek, instantly bringing a closed mouth smile to her face. She turned to the small door as he idly asked, "You think she's in there?"

She glanced over her left shoulder to ask, "Let's find out?" She turned back to the door and opened it while leaning down to step through the truncated door. She just crossed the threshold with Freddie pressed close to her back to peer inside when she stopped in surprise to see Cat sitting on a cot. "Cat?"

Cat pulled the cord to the light bulb hanging over her head and the little room went dark.

Jade softly snapped, "Turn it back on."

The redhead complied with the request/demand and pulled the cord again.

The couple entered the room with Freddie taking a seat next to her on the cot while Jade took a seat on the stool in front of her. Jade gently asked, "What are you doing here?"

Cat hugged Mister Purples in her lap and softly took a breath before answering in a quite voice, "This is just my little sanctuary I sometimes use when I need to get away from it all."

Jade rested her hands on her knees and softly asked, "Are you going to talk to me?"

Cat looked up at her blue eyed friend then glanced to Freddie in realizing that the pale girl was taking the private opportunity asking the question again. He was giving her a supportive smile. The redhead blew out a tired breath then whispered, "You get to change, why can't I? Since you broke up with Beck and got with Freddie, you haven't been as mean to me or anyone else… even Tori."

Jade looked to her friend with a slightly embarrassed expression and answered, "I have… I guess I'm growing up, but… you're regressing to a child." The dark brunette took a soft breath then continued in a tender tone, "I learned from losing Beck that I had to change or I would lose more than the man I loved. As much grief as I gave everyone, you're still my friends, but Cat, this isn't healthy what you're doing and we've ignored it for too long. So why? Why the change?"

The redhead looked back and forth between the couple and saw the supportive and somewhat hopeless expression on Jade. Cat idly started patting the stuffed giraffe in her lap then whispered, "It's safer—it keeps me safe."

Freddie gently asked, "How does it keep you safe?"

"You know how my brother could be pretty weird at times? You know, before he got better?"

Jade nodded along and spared a quick glance to Freddie.

She pulled the stuffed toy tighter to her as she continued but with each word she spoke, her eyes became moister and voice thicker, "We'll it could get bad at times… really bad. He would do weirder and weirder things and had fits at times. He'd shout out all over the house and we couldn't do anything to help me. We had to dose his favorite ice cream with things to make him go to sleep at the times it got really bad."

She clenched her eyes shut and placed her fists over her ears. She shouted, "You don't know how many times I had to hide under my bed when my brother would start having fits and shouts and when my dad said that I should just stop talking!" She heaved a cry and let the tears start flowing. She pulled her fists away from her ears and covered her face. She muttered into her hands, "I just wanted it to stop and if I pretended the world was as happy and cheerful as I wanted then it wouldn't be so bad! I could get through another day."

She felt a pair of strong arms wrap around her. She instinctively turned and started crying into Freddie's shirt. The tech-producer gently rocked with her as she let out years of pain and frustration with her life.

Jade softly bit her bottom lip to stop herself from crying at seeing her distraught friend.

Freddie continued to rock with her and gently whispered her encouragement and reassurances that everything was okay. He finally stated after her tears started subsiding and calming her breath, "He's better now. You don't have to hide anymore. You can be whoever you want to be now and we'll still love and accept you."

The redhead sniffled and wiped her eyes with her thumbs. She looked up to Freddie and gave him a thankful smile then turned it towards Jade.

Freddie gently asked, "Do you want me to tell you how it happened?"

She looked to him with a confused expression and uttered in her still childlike tone, "It was a Christmas Miracle."

"Yes it was, but… would you like to know the truth?"

Cat sensed that Freddie was about to tell her something quite profound, so she straightened up in sitting and hugged her stuff toy. She nodded in the affirmative that she wanted him to tell her his story.

Freddie licked his lips then answered with a hushed tone, "Okay… it all started on Christmas Eve after the church service I attended. Everyone was exiting, ready to go and spend the rest of the evening with their families, but I stayed behind for a moment of so just to reflect on how everything had changed for me this year. I wasn't alone as I thought. There was this redheaded young woman…" Freddie gently played with the end of Cat's hair for a moment as he clarified, "…nearly the same color as yours, but she wasn't really a woman."

Little Red's brow instantly furled as she asked, "Then what was she?"

Freddie gave her a warm smile and gently answered, "She was an angel of the Lord… and that's where we really begin this story."

West Residence

Thursday, April 5, 2012

The time was late morning and the couple was still in their night clothes as they looked up at the ceiling, just snuggling and relaxing and completely content. She had slipped into his bed earlier in the morning, even before sunrise.

A smile played on Jade's lips as her hand rested on his chest, "We don't do this enough."

Freddie kissed her forehead and smirked, "What?"

"Do you remember the last time you slept in?"

The muscular teenager let out a soft laugh, "Other than Christmas Break? No, I can't remember. I'm busy; I have to work. I have to bring home the bacon for my girl."

She let out a laugh almost, almost akin to a giggle then hopefully asked, "I know, but maybe you can skip a Sunday with André sometimes?"

He brushed his fingers through her hair and answered, "If you want me to."

She lifted her head off of his shoulder and looked down at him with a near predatorily smile. "Oh, I defiantly want you to." She leaned down and quickly captured his lips to share some affection for a few minutes before they really had to get up at least at a decent hour before noon.

Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena
3939 S Figueroa St
Los Angeles, CA 90037
Thursday, April 5, 2012

Jade and Freddie held hands with laced fingers as they led the quintet of Carly, Tori and André through the arena. The songsmith idly commented, "I've seen a few MMA fights, but never a female one."

Freddie grinned as he looked over his shoulder and commented, "Then you're in for a treat. Shelby's quite good."

"Yeah, especially since it'll be like watching Tori fighting," he laughed out his reply.

The Los Angeles brunette snapped her attention to her musician friend and frowned at him.

He quickly lost his good natured demeanor and looked away thoroughly chided.

Jade laughed at the response as they reached their seats in the closest row to the octagon.

Carly laughed out as she sat between Jade and Tori, "It's good to be on this side of the fence this time."

The tech-producer laughed out as he leaned passed Jade, "Are you sure you wouldn't want a rematch with her? It was great for charity."

"Absolutely not!" the Seattle girl shouted out in fear drawing laughter from the rest.

Shelby was making her way to the ring with her manager Rod and trainer Juan when the fighter caught sight of Carly and Freddie. She quickly walked over to take a moment to see them.

"Carly?" the fighter grinned then pulled the fellow brunette into a hug.

"Hey," the fellow brunette laughed in return as she was pulled to her feet.

Shelby let her go and quickly continued, "I'm glad you could make it. It's so good to see you."

The slightly shorter brunette nodded her head and let out a soft laugh, "Thanks. It's good to see you too. It's been too long."

The fighter's smile slightly faded as she answered, "Yeah, too long."

Freddie spoke up and motioned to Jade on his left, "Shelby, this is my girlfriend Jade."

Jade politely greeted the fighter, "Hi."

Shelby laughed out, "So you're the lucky girl?"

Carly clenched her jaw tightly to try to suppress any sort of visible reaction to the question.

The green streaked girl smirked as she answered, "Yes, I am the lucky girl."

The Vega twin lifted a corner of her mouth and understood the message loud and clear from the pale girl: 'he's mine, so hands off'.

"Hi, I'm André," André happily called out.

The Tori twin gave him a flirtatious smile to the songsmith and quickly offered her gloved hand for a shake. "Hi, it's nice to meet you." He happily took her hand then Shelby turned her attention to Tori.

The fighter looked on in shock as Rod and Juan joined her in her disbelief at seeing the resemblance.

"See, we look nothing alike," Tori desperately told them while pointing to the professional fighter.

Shelby swallowed then looked Tori straight in the eyes and muttered, "Tori?"

"Yes?"

"I want a DNA test after all this is done."

Freddie snorted out a laugh was threatening to let out a full, hearty laugh, but Tori snapped her head around and glared at his muscular friend.

He turned his face away and tried to force a calm expression on his face even though he wanted to burst out laughing.

Tori's annoyed expression didn't stop Jade from cracking a smile and commented, "Maybe you two are long lost twins?"

The Hollywood Arts student of the pair retorted, "Like you and Heather?"

"Who knows? But I doubt my mom would forget having twins or give her up."

Shelby laughed out at seeing the banter as it relieved her momentary tension at seeing her 'twin', "Well I have to go; championship fight and all. See you after the fight."

Freddie laughed out, "Right, good luck."

Carly half-joked, "Try not to break the other girl's jaw."

Shelby snorted out a laugh, "I can't make that promise."

Rod raised a finger and asked, "Tori is it? How would feel about a…"

---

As the teenager fighter started down the aisle and entering the octagon, the crowed started chanting, "Shelby! Shelby! Shelby!"

The ring announcer called out as the referee pointed to Shelby, "Defending her CFC Championship title, Shelby Marx!"

Shelby threw up her clenched, gloved fists and the crowd roared in approval.

The ref turned to announce Shelby's opponent, a redheaded taller girl that looked like she was pushing the limit on the maximum weight for their fighting division.

The opponents quickly turned to one another and the referee threw out a hand, signaling the start of the fight.

The taller girl wasted no time in charging Shelby, apparently hoping to just overwhelm her with the weight and height advantage. She threw out a jab directed squarely at the center of Shelby's face, but the smaller girl ducked and threw a punch and connected with her mid-section then connected with her left hand to the side of her face.

She stumbled away and shook her head, but Shelby didn't give her a chance to recover as she threw a few swings at her head, driving the other girl to the cage fence. The taller girl was able to protect most of her head and once her back hit the cage, she was able to use it to push off and shove Shelby away.

The redhead took a wide swing with her right to the left side of Shelby's head. It was a hard hit, but fortunately the slimmer girl had her left forearm up to protect her head. However, the strike sent her palm into just above her temple and her down to one knee.

Freddie sucked in a sharp breath through is clenched teeth at seeing such a strike while Carly covered her eyes, not bearing to see Shelby getting hurt.

However, before her opponent could swing a second time, the Tori twin drove her right shoulder into the other girl's abdomen, locked her hands under the back of the girl's thighs and pulled up. The other girl immediately lost her footing as her legs were literally pulled out from under her and she fell on her back.

Shelby scrambled up to straddle the other girl's abdomen then started swinging blows at her face. The taller girl raised her arms to protect her face from Shelby's punches and forearms.

Jade's mouth formed an 'O' at seeing Shelby's relentless punishment against the other girl and her mind recalled Dusty's tale of how brutal he was at fighting his old nemesis at Northridge during his sophomore year.

Shelby's opponent was able to roll to her side, but that didn't help protect her from Shelby's strikes. Only seconds later, she had to tap out and the referee was on Shelby in an instant to pull her away before she could do anymore damage to the other girl.

The crowd instantly was up on their feet cheering. Freddie and Carly in particular were on their feet, whooping and cheering.

The referee held Shelby by the wrist and the still CFC champion threw her other arm up and shouted in joy.

The brunette quickly exited the octagon and met up with the two-thirds of the original iCarly crew. Carly pulled Shelby in a tight hug then pulled away to reach up and gently touched the side of Shelby's face. "Are you alright?"

Shelby let out a dismissive laugh, "Yeah, a little ice and makeup and I'll be fine."

"At least it's not throbbing," Carly let out a soft laugh.

Freddie rolled his eyes as he recalled the iCarly crew's trip to Japan when they competed with the iWeb Awards and their competition Kyoko and Yuki lured them out into the middle of nowhere in an attempt to prevent them from competing and resulted with him getting hit in the eye in the process. The tech-producer laughed out, "Well, that was before I got my magically durability. Let them try that now and they'll probably hurt themselves."

His comment caught the fighter's attention and turned to Freddie and pulled him into a quick hug.

Shelby quickly pulled away and cheerfully announced to the others, "We're going to celebrate tomorrow night. Bring all your friends. It's my treat. Where's the best place to go?"

Jade spoke up with a knowing grin, "I have the perfect place."

The others gave her curious expressions while Shelby's smile brightened.

Cohen Residence

Good Friday

Friday, April 6, 2012

When Shelby meant that she was giving an open invitation to Carly and Freddie's friends, she apparently meant it. So as the others heading off to the dinner, Dusty was standing in the Cohen living room waiting for Ava to come down so he could drive her to the celebratory dinner. Apparently Mister Cohen wanted to spend the evening with his other daughter, so they were out and only traded quick pleasantries before leaving (without going into details as to why he was there to pick up his daughter instead of the 'strange boy'). The Southern teenager tried to ignore the slight disappointment Eva wore on her face that he was going out with her sister for the night.

He didn't have to wait long however as he heard the soft footsteps coming from the staircase. He smiled up at the lovely brunette as she slowly made her way down the stairs holding a small, black clutch in one hand and the railing with the other.

She wore an A-Line black dress with a high scoop neck and silver decorative jewelry across her neckline, extending as several strings over her bare shoulders down to her mid-upper arm. A black belt hanging low on her hips separated the dress from the skirt with the hem of the dress stopping an inch or so above her mid-thigh. She wore her brunette hair down with ringlets with some above her ears pulled back with a clip to flow behind her.

She looked down at herself and bashfully commented while brushing her hair behind her ears, "It was my prom dress. I really don't have anything else fancy to wear."

He smiled warmly to her and whispered, "You look beautiful Ava."

She looked up at him and gave him a soft smile. "Thank you." She started assessing how he looked for the evening. He didn't look as if he was dressed any fancier than normal with his hooded leather jacket, blue jeans and Nike sneakers, other than wearing a white dress shirt out of his waist and a loosely hanging tie around his unbutton collar.

"You think they're going to let you in that way?"

He shrugged a shoulder and smirked while answering in a charming voice, "I'll just turn on my father's charm and I'll be fine, unless…"

"Unless what?"

He gave her a slightly embarrassed expression and answered with a somewhat timid voice, "I won't embarrass you being so underdressed while taking you? An escort shouldn't outshine the escorted, but neither should he distract from her."

She walked over to him and looped an arm through his then smiled up to him. "How can I be embarrassed being escorted by such a handsome guy?"

He bowed his head and chuckled, "Now you're just flattering me."

"Is it working?"

He hesitated in answering as he thought on the deeper meaning behind her words. He answered with a soft tone, "You don't have to."

She softly chuckled, "You're not answering my question."

He just grinned in return.

She snorted out a laugh, "Fine, be that way." She turned and started leading him to the front door. "Where's Mary? Is she in the car?"

He answered with a light tone, "She said she wasn't feeling well—which I knew she was completely lying—with the idea of us going alone together, but I called up Freddie and asked him to pick her up. I am not letting her miss out on a fancy dinner."

She lifted a corner of her mouth and coyly question, "Is your cousin trying to play matchmaker?"

"My cousin is a hopeless romantic… I think because she's a product of one."

Just as they reached the door, she asked, "So what does that make you with your… unique circumstances?"

He raised a teasing eyebrow. "A man who's not like either of his parents in that regard."

She politely nodded then allowed him to lead her out.

Maestro's

Los Angeles, CA

Good Friday

Friday, April 6, 2012

Freddie couldn't keep the smile off of his face as he opened the door for his lovely girlfriend, the famous web-celebrity and the Texan as they entered the fancy restaurant. Jade was dressed in her black dress she had worn when she hung out with Cat in dog sitting on the night of the earthquake, but ditched the black leggings and boots, for bare legs and black high heels. She finished her outfit with her black leather jacket to keep her arms warm until they settled inside.

Mary wore a pink and white striped sleeveless dress with a slanted hem that hung loosely around her legs. Apparently she had gone last minute shopping and picked up something nice on her cousin's insistence.

Carly wore a black Katharine Kidd Sleeveless Panel Dress (which consisted of a bateau neckline and A-Line body) with the hem falling to her upper thigh and at her fingertips with blush suede caryssa platform pumps.

Freddie wore a simple dark blazer, dark blue dress shirt and black slacks. He quickly offered his arm to Jade and lead them further inside to immediately be greeted by the by grey haired maître d'hôtel that usually catered to the group after ping-pong championships and during Valentine's for the couple. They were immediately handed off to a lovely blonde attendant to escort them to the table Shelby had reserved for them.

Apparently they were the first to arrive, but soon the others followed as Freddie was pulling out the seats for his the girls.

A few minutes later, André arrived with Cat, who was dressed in a pink spaghetti strap dress with a sweetheart neckline. Tori soon followed as Beck had offered to pick her up. She wore the blue dress she had been able to keep from her stunt work on the movie 'Catch Me, Kiss Me'. The others quickly took their seats as they were seated counterclockwise around the table starting from the center of the side of the table towards the stage: an empty space reserved for Shelby, Carly, Freddie, Jade (these three with their back to the glass doors), Mary, André, Cat (facing the stage), Beck and Tori (their backs to the entrance).

Just as the appetizers were being served to the group, Shelby arrived and she immediately started turning heads as she was escorted by maître d'hôtel to the pushed together tables. She wore a royal blue sleeveless sweetheart neckline dress, more like top as her outfit was split as a matching top and a near hip hugging matching skirt to allow her to show her toned abdomen and bellybutton.

The grey haired main led her to the seat next Carly where the former 'opponents' shared quick greetings, while the others who had not seen Shelby at the fight looked on in surprise. Beck's eyes shot open and jaw slightly slacked at seeing the fighter. His eyes focused enough take a quick glanced over the attractive girl (especially over her exposed midsection) then went into a near fit to clear his throat in an apparent effort to cover himself from his reaction.

Freddie suppressed a smile while Jade rolled her eyes at her ex's reaction.

Tori looked down at herself and suddenly felt underdressed in comparison to who others saw as her twin even if she still wouldn't consciously admit she favored.

Shelby apparently wasn't fooled and smiled to the long haired actor and easily greeted him, "Hello."

Beck quickly got over his brief shock of seeing Tori's 'twin' and slipped into his usual easy going persona then answered in his usually smooth tone that usually worked on the ladies, "Hi."

Apparently it was effective on the professional fighter as well as she slightly bowed her head and a soft blushed formed on his face.

Freddie got up from his seat and happily welcomed their hostess, "Hello Shelby, allow me to make a few more introductions." He started with Cat then went about making the introductions, "These are our friends, Cat and Beck and this is Mary, she's another friend who's running late's cousin visiting over the break."

The redhead happily waved from her seat while Mary gave her a polite nod and smile.

While everyone's attention was on Shelby as Freddie pulled out her seat cattycorner to Carly, Tori hesitantly passed a soft comment to the long haired actor as she focused her outward attention to the food on her plate, "Real smooth."

Beck leaned over and whispered into the younger Vega sister's ear, "Sorry, I was just a little shocked at seeing you like that."

She turned her head and looked to him with narrowed eyes as she retorted in a hushed tone, "Seeing me? She doesn't—"

He interrupted her with a gentle tone, "Tori, I don't know why you can't see the resemblance, but I do and I just saw you… in something quite unique, so pardon me if I was a little…" He licked his lips and let out an awkward laugh, "…taken aback? It goes without saying, you're beautiful Tori."

The brunette's jaw slightly slacked as she looked on, taken aback by his heartfelt words.

As the group started back on their appetizers, Mary looked around and asked in concern, "Where's Robbie and Rex?"

Freddie quickly answered, "It's the first night of Passover."

She answered with a roll of her eyes and sighed in embarrassment for not remembering such an important matter, "That's right."

Shelby curiously asked Carly and Freddie, "So everyone isn't here?"

"No," Mary quickly answered for the pair.

The tech-producer softly smiled and answered, "Ava and Dusty are running late, but we can go ahead and start ordering."

Beck questioned with a guarded tone, "So Sinjin isn't bringing her?"

Freddie cracked a soft smile, "Apparently not."

Mary didn't bother to hide a smile on her face while Beck looked on in mild curiosity and Cat ate another appetizer to hide her frown.

Satisfied with Freddie's answer, Shelby motioned back to the maître d'hôtel and he quickly sent over a waitress to take their orders.

Over the next minute or so the group ordered their meals and as she finished up, Carly noticed to her left a young man sitting alone at one of the small square tables meant for two.

The brunette slightly leaned forward and over Shelby's right shoulder to see if she could see a profile of the young man. She sucked in a sharp breath as recognized him then asked in disbelief, "Caleb?"

The young brown haired man dressed in a nice tuxedo turned in his seat, but didn't look too surprised to see her as he immediately put on a bright smile and answered the web-hostess, "Hello Carly."

Freddie knotted his brow as he curiously asked, "Carly?

Carly passed a quick glance to her former tech-producer and answered, "Oh, this is Caleb. Gibby and I met at Troubled Waters hospital."

Freddie picked up with a false laugh, "When Sam checked herself in when she thought the idea of liking me was a sign of mental illness?" He looked to the self-proclaimed time traveler and asked with a slightly impatient voice, "What are you doing here?"

The others at the table put on various expressions of embarrassment about the situation while Jade put on an annoyed expression.

"Oh, just having a good meal before I go back."

Jade challenged, "To the hospital?"

Caleb got up from his seat and took the empty one next to Shelby. The fighter gave him a guarded expression while he lifted a corner of his mouth and narrowed his eyes in a playfully manner and as he answered, "No, back to twenty seventy-seven."

André asked with a perplexed expression, "Twenty seventy-seven?"

Carly quickly explained, "Caleb thinks he's from the year two thousand seventy-seven and that Justin Beiber will become president."

The young man confidently countered, "He is the president in my time and you're still vice-president."

The group exchanged confused and concerned expressions among themselves.

"He's Canadian; he can't be president," Carly retorted as if Caleb really was from the future.

Caleb raised an eyebrow and softly challenged, "Do you really think he's the first person to serve as president with questionable natural born citizenship?"

André instantly frowned at the older guy, Mary softly laughed and the others looked to each other again to check to see if the others had heard him correctly.

Caleb laughed as he looked to the rest of them, "Chester A. Arthur? He became president after Garfield's assassination. He was rumored to have been born in Canada with only one American parent." He let out a louder laugh at seeing the teenagers' awkward reactions as they assumed he was going to say another name.

He let his smile fade while turning his attention to the tech-producer and uttered with a mildly irritated voice, "I see you're still compounding the problem."

Freddie knotted his brow and asked, "What problem?"

"Staying here with her," he answered with a motion of his to the green streaked hair girl.

Jade immediately frowned at their unwanted intruder as he continued, "You really did mess things up by leaving didn't you? All you had to do was date Sam for three weeks and everything would have went back to normal, but now… who knows what kind of future I could be going back to. Carly may not even have become Vice President and you the second gentleman… what about your children? You could still have kids, but they won't be born at the right time or as the right ones. You've totally butterfly effected my future."

Jade clenched her jaw tightly at the implication he was making that Freddie and Carly would be married in the future. She was quickly having enough of his fun and games at her expense.

Freddie leaned back in his chair and commented, "I don't care if you're real or just insane. I already have a future child I'm keeping in mind."

His comment brought curious expression from Shelby, Carly and Beck.

The pair stared at one another for a few moments before Caleb finally spoke with an annoyed tone, "Well, I'm sure the timeline will work itself out to get everything back on track. It always does."

Freddie narrowed his gaze and sharply retorted, "No, it won't work out the way you want it to work out. Contrary to what you or anyone else thinks, I'm not a toy to be played with."

Caleb gave him a sympathetic smile. "Freddie… you can't fight Fate. She always wins in the ends. Always."

Freddie clenched his jaw tightly and outright glared at the man.

Jade knotted her brow as she looked at the man she assumed was mentally disturbed, but her anger gave way to apprehension as his words made her feel as she was missing something significant with his statement, that he was talking about more than some abstract concept when invoking fate. She subconsciously slipped her right hand away from her plate and palmed over her abdomen. She narrowed her eyes as she desperately tried to find the memory that was triggering such a reaction, but it seemed nowhere to be found. However, she may not have been able to catch what she felt was an elusive and fleeting memory, but contemplating on his words invoked a familiar emotion albeit a far stronger one than she was use to feeling.

The green streaked hair girl looked up with an angry expression and whispered with a chilling tone that caught everyone's attention, "Not unless I kill her first."

Caleb let out a nervous chuckle to try to cover the chill that went down his spine from her words, tone and deadly look she was directing at him, "Y-y-you can't kill Fate."

"I'll find a way," she hissed out in a venomous tone.

The man claiming to be from the future swallowed down in fear as he looked at the pale teenager. The other teenagers at the table felt the need to recoil in fear from their friend.

Freddie spoke in a stern voice leaving no doubt that if Caleb knew what was good for him, he'd leave, "Caleb, it's time for you to go."

The young man cleared his throat then got up from his seat. He awkwardly answered, "I think you're right. I've lost my appetite. I guess it's best that I head back. No sense in putting off finding out if I have a home left or not." He turned and headed for the exit, but stopped midway and looked over his shoulder. "Jade?"

"What?" she snapped out, completely out of patience with the man.

"Watch out for falling batteries."

Her brow instantly knotted in complete confusion as he turned and headed out of the restaurant. Freddie looked just as confused at such an absurd statement.

Caleb turned his head back to look forward, but frozen in place as Dusty and Ava stood in front of him with him blocking their approach to the table. If the man claiming to be from the future wasn't afraid enough from his encounter with Jade, he surely was now when he lost almost all the color in his face.

Dusty gave him a guarded expression as he commented, "You look like you've seen a ghost."

"No, it's just… it's just—" He cleared his throat to try to settle down his fear as he finished answering, "—never mind."

Dusty knotted his brow as he slightly turned to watch the young man briskly walk passed him and towards the exit. He passed a quick glance to the brunette, but she gave him a lost expression and a shrug of her shoulders. He shook his head then led her to the table where the rest took a few moments to try to process the ramblings, but for Jade as she was trying to calm the cold rage she felt in her heart.

Cat idly commented as she glanced to all of them, "He's strange."

Carly quickly nodded in agreement as she tried to push his words about her and Freddie being married and having children in the future to the back of her mind.

Dusty bowed his head and politely greeted their host, "Miss Marx."

She politely returned the nod then Ava spoke up, "Hello, I'm Ava."

"Hi Ava, I'm Shelby."

The shorter brunette snorted out a laugh and shook her head before looking to Dusty and whispering, "Twins."

Dusty pulled the seat out for Ava and she brushed under her skirt to have a seat with Dusty following with having the neighboring seat so he was between her and Shelby (thus leaving an empty seat to Tori's right and cattycorner left to Ava). The Southern teenager smiled as he commented with ease, "Sorry we are fashionably late, but… we had to be fashionable."

Freddie answered, "Actually you're doing pretty good, we just ordered." He motioned for one of the waiters to walk over so he could add Ava and Dusty's order.

A minute or so later, their orders were taken and drinks poured (and after several attempts by Dusty to explain the concept of what he meant by 'sweet tea' to the waiter).

The Carolinian took a sip from his tea then commented to Shelby, "I saw highlight's of your fight Miss Vega, but I'm curious. Why didn't she bump you then tried to roll you onto your back then just turning under you? She looked like she had the weight advantage on you."

"She was just at the limit of the class." The professional fighter frowned as she finished with a low tone, "I think she was a few pounds over, but it would have looked bad if I really pushed the issue, but you're right. I'm surprised she messed up on something so basic. I guess she must have panicked and was surprised that I could have been that aggressive in return." She shrugged a bare shoulder then continued with a confident smile, "But then it would have really gone into a ground game and I had the advantage."

Dusty nodded along to the possible explanation then Shelby took a quick sip of her water then asked, "So do you keep up with the sport?"

He chuckled for a second or two then answered with an almost cavalier tone, "I keep up with that stuff for ah... more practical reasons."

Shelby raised a questioning eyebrow with Beck was happy to answer in a casual tone, "He has to know it so he can hurt people."

Dusty politely smiled to Shelby and casually answered, "Yes well… unlike my classmate here who's had a pretty charmed life from what I know, some of us have had to treat some of high school as a… 'Trial by Fire'. You are either on the top or you're someone's… well I'll let you fill in the word, but that's not as paramount anymore since going to Hollywood Arts. It's nice not having to worry anymore about being jumped simply for my race."

Beck tried to hide a sour frown behind his glass as he took another sip from his drink.

The rest of the dinner consisted of Freddie and Carly catching up with things that happened after the girl's exhibition fight, but before all the things the led up to Freddie deciding to move to Los Angeles. The conversation shifted on to their separate going ons of their lives since the move, sprinkled in with Shelby and Dusty trading tips from their respective experiences in fights, even if some of them she couldn't legally use in the octagon.

Freddie noticed the smile on Shelby's face that regardless of how outlandish some the stories were, she seemed to enjoy the normalcy of it all like he had noticed from Heather, but didn't mention it. He suppressed a smirk at seeing that she did pass the occasional flirtatious remark his way, but saved most of it for Beck. The tech-producer however noticed the passing disapproving expressions on Tori's face as the pair would banter. He saw from the corner of his eye that Jade would just look on in amusement, but couldn't tell if it was from the amusement of Beck flirting with the look alike or the hidden annoyance on Tori's face, but he guessed the latter.

The dinner soon wind down and the group of teenagers started giving their thanks to Shelby for the dinner, making their farewells and heading. As Cat was heading out with André, she frowned at seeing Ava and Dusty leave the restaurant together after the Southern teenager briefly spoke with his cousin.

Shelby gently and playfully reminded Tori before she could leave with Beck that she wanted that DNA test which the Los Angeles teenager reluctantly agreed to talk to her parents about it.

Freddie and Carly stepped aside with Shelby before departing as Jade and Mary let the trio have their privacy before leaving. Carly reassured the professional fighter, "We'll keep in touch."

She smiled and nodded gratefully.

Freddie picked up with a bright smile, "Right and don't be a stranger. It's not hard to get up with me; I'm not hiding."

Shelby pulled the pair into a group hug and whispered to both, "It was good to see you."

She pulled away and smiled to the former brief couple just as the maître d'hôtel walked up behind the blue dressed teenager and informed her in a hushed tone that her ride had arrived. She looked back to the pair and finished with a bright smile, "Well, I have to get going. We'll talk soon."

The grey haired older gentleman then led the champion fighter towards the door and to her waiting ride.

Freddie idly commented as she watched Shelby depart, "So, when are you going to have that rematch with her?"

Carly turned her head and gave him a slight pout at such a suggestion.

He softly laughed and reached around her back with an arm to escort her to the others so they could retire for the night.

Cohen Residence

About twenty minutes or so after leaving the restaurant, the cherry red Mustang pulled up into the Cohen driveway and Dusty escorted the lovely brunette to her door. She stopped and turned to the taller teenager. "Thanks for the ride," she thanked with a soft smile.

He politely nodded and gave a boyish grin as he answered, "You're welcome."

Her smile grew bigger then she lifted up her chin so she could place a soft kiss on his cheek. She placed the kiss far enough down his cheek where the corner of her lips brushed the corner of his lips. She smiled at him then commented, "Goodnight," then turned and headed inside.

One would expect that he'd react with a smile and be elated and encouraged by her gesture, but Dusty furled his brow and slightly frowned as he looked at the door before turning and heading back to his car.

---

The night was nearly pitched black as Ava ran out the back of her house. Tawny, still in her filthy and blood splattered dress, charged after her friend in life. The shorter girl tripped off the back porch onto the green lawn then started scrambling back on her feet, but Tawny jumped onto her back. The girls rolled around a few times on the grass until Tawny was able to get on top and grabbed Ava by the throat with her left hand.

She raised the pair scissors up over her head with the other hand, ready to plunge the silver blades down into her friend's chest.

"Tawny!"

The undead woman stopped before she could bring the scissors at hearing the voice of her husband.

Her pause gave him the moment to wrap an arm around her abdomen and grabbed the wrist of the scissors swinging hand. He pulled hard backwards, struggling with the enraged undead woman. She screamed for him to let her go, but he held on tightly to pull her away from Ava. The pair fell backwards and with her husband gripping her scissors filled hand, the silver scissors plunged just under her sternum.

Tawny's mouth opened and closed and looked up at the sky in complete disbelief.

He cradled his undead wife as she stared up at him, tears started running down her pale cheeks and her life slipped away once more. She tried to speak, but no words would exit her mouth.

He started crying and brushed his hand over his cheek as whispered to her, "It's okay, it's okay. I love you and I'll see you again."

She reached up and cupped his cheek as tears started rolling down between her nose and cheeks. Her hand dropped away from his face and her eyes truly went dead. He pulled her close and cried into the crook of her neck.

Ava looked on as she cried along with them as everything went to black.

---

The credits started rolling and Freddie relaxed back in his seat in his room on Holy Saturday afternoon as he looked at the computer screen and the final edit of the film. He rested his fist over his mouth and took several slow breaths through his nose. "I just watched Jade die again."

Dusty rested his shoulder against the outer doorframe within the room and answered with a solemn tone, "True and by your hands, but this time it was because the story demanded it and not out of some petty action by an ex-boyfriend. It was a good lesson about how we deal with death is at least as important as how we deal with life. It is true tragedy: having to go on while the one you love isn't here."

Freddie regretfully nodded along with that sentiment then commented with a solemn tone, "I just hope that won't happen for a very, very long time."

---

Author's Note: Wow, I crammed in a lot in that chapter with hopefully a lot of call back for the iCarly side of this story. The next chapter will be a special Easter chapter just in time (coincidentally) for Easter with April Fools Blank on the first of April then that Friday is one I hope you all will enjoy: Tori & Jade Go Platinum Part 1.

Special Guest Star Jennette McCurdy as Melanie Puckett

Special Guest Appearance by Jim Parsons as Caleb