The Coin's Other Side

Disclaimer: Do I own iCarly? No, no I do not. Will I attempt to own it? No, no I will not. Will I write a fan-fiction on it? Yes, yes I will.

A/N:

Chapter 37 (Meeting Carly)

The hardest thing for her to do, the equivalent of going into the belly of the beast, but she had to be strong. As long as they didn't put her on the webshow, she would be just fine. She spent the majority of the car ride talking to Sam, who had yet to tell Carly what was going on. The closer they got to the apartment, the more nervous and anxious Valerie was.

Freddie was indeed a comfort.

She kept telling herself not to worry, that Carly would probably accept her. If Sam did, and Gibby apparently didn't care when he discovered her, then Carly would accept her. In the back of her mind, she kept fighting the thoughts that she was simply lying to herself. She was horrified of Carly potentially shoving her out the door and yelling at Freddie for being so crazy and stupid to be anywhere near her. Sam kept reassuring her this wasn't the case, Freddie was doing the same, but it seemed that nothing could curb the anxiety and nausea within her.

Standing at the apartment door, she wasn't sure how long she'd been there for, but Freddie's voice was slowly bringing her to the reality of her situation. Had she done this prematurely? Her family had been a little concerned, but willing to trust her, and her instincts drove her to take a risk and do this, but what if she wasn't really ready? "I can take you home if you really don't want to be here?" Freddie suggested this in the most sincere way, but she couldn't do that. She couldn't make him drive all the way out here only to cop out and run off. No. He wouldn't do that to her, would he?

"Well that may be debatable…" No, if he wanted to do that he would have done it by now. What did he see in her? Why hadn't he? She was just a nobody, to him and to everyone else. Wasn't she? "No, I'll go inside, I'm just nervous that's all." He reached over to squeeze her hand, sending a spine tingling sensation through her arm and body. Her heart skipped a beat when she met his eyes and her lips curved upwards as confidence swirled within her heart. "Yeah, I'll be just fine. Thank you, Freddie…"

"You know I'm here for you, and so is Sam. Trust me, Carly won't be a problem. She'll love you!"

"I don't know about that." She chuckled nervously and slowly shook her head. "I'm still of the delusion that she's going to hate me, let me live that until I'm wrong." He raised an eyebrow at her and she slowly shrugged her arms. "That way I don't get my hopes up, I guess. I'd hate to go in there thinking she'd just be all accepting, nice and genuine, then have her practically shove me out of her window."

"That's a tad morbid for even Carly." He tapped his chin and glanced at the door. "Or perhaps I should say, morbid for even Sam." She got a chuckle at that, mostly considering it was amusing to think of Sam potentially shoving anyone out of a high rise apartment window. "But still, if you don't want to go inside, I can turn right around and take you back home if you like."

"I'll be fine, thank you for your concern…" He nodded and slowly opened the door, stepping in first. Valerie followed after him and scanned the room. Gibby was seated on the couch with Spencer, who did a double take when he saw her. She felt a tad out of place, but she could adjust. Sam was standing at the kitchen counter with a glass of water. She smiled and waved, a calming sight for her to see. Already, she was beginning to feel comforted. Carly had her back turned and was digging in the refrigerator for something. She breathed in sharply and held her breath as Freddie announced their arrival.

Carly stepped out of the refrigerator, holding a plastic bag filled with cold pizza. When she turned around and saw Valerie, she gasped and started to drop the bag, but caught it. Sam did a little movement as if she were kicking Carly. "Freddie?" Carly began, slowly walking around the counter. She set the bag down on the surface and Sam began to plate the slices to toss in the microwave. "This is the girl you've been with? Valerie? This is the friend Sam met? And you never told me?" She felt her heart beginning to sink down, but did her best to keep her head up. Carly was unreadable. Was she pissed because Freddie didn't tell her who he was hanging out with? Was she pissed because he didn't say it was Valerie? Did she hate her without question? What was the girl thinking?

Valerie slowly looked towards the open door, contemplating with a heavy heart the concept of an escape plan. She'd never mapped out an escape plan, that's what happened before. She wasn't able to escape. Sam rounded the corner hastily and put her hand to Carly's shoulder, "Carly, Carly! Let's sit down and talk, all right? I think we owe that much, besides, she's a good person."

"I'm not worried about her." Her heart began to raise up just a smidge. Freddie led her over to the couch, where Spencer and Gibby stood up for her. She started to say they didn't have to do that, but Sam immediately hopped on the couch and pulled her down with her. Freddie sat on the other side of her. Gibby moved to the stool near their counter, and Spencer walked to the microwave as Carly moved in front of the couch. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "Okay, I'm not going to judge, I'm not going to spaz, because I know that wouldn't be right of me…" Valerie bowed her head, her chest ached with the still growing anxiety. "But Freddie, why wouldn't you tell me who you were hanging out with?"

"Didn't know how you'd react." His answer was straight and to the point, no beating around the bush. "Especially because it's Valerie."

"Right…" Carly lowered her arms and sucked in some air. "I know things have been wild lately, and I know things get shitty whenever we jump to conclusions so I'm not going to do that…"

"She's my tutor too," Sam added. "I was a little surprised when I found out she was with Freddie, but…it's okay. We were wrong, Carly." Carly raised an eyebrow at her and gave her a skeptical look, questioning what it was they were wrong about. "All those years ago? We were wrong to tear them apart…That was our bad, our fault." Valerie felt a tad awkward being defended in such a manner, but she was happy that Sam had her back. "Let's give them some time to explain, okay?"

"I said I wasn't jumping to conclusions, Sam. So yeah, I'm ready to hear what, once again, I'm the lastperson to hear." The girl crossed her arms and stared at Freddie. "So I know you two dated, obviously we know that. I know we told you two to stop seeing each other because we thought things were going badly with iCarly. So…what's the deal here?"

"I'll explain," Valerie bravely opened herself up and rose to her feet. She was tired of feeling so anxious and talking really seemed to help as she was focused on something, whatever it was. "Around that time, I didn't have many friends and wasn't very confident. I dated Freddie, and went about trying to make friends with you two in the wrong way. Things happened, my older sister chewed me out for forever because of it…" Carly frowned as Valerie closed her eyes, remembering those sore feelings of Freddie saying goodbye. "I…I really had feelings for Freddie back then. True feelings." Carly's eyes began to bug out and she looked about ready to flip, perhaps she felt guilty? "He loved my family then too, was always close to them and was doing everything he could to spend time with them and be there for them."

"Oh my god…"

"That's what attracted me to him. He cared about my family. I know Momma's always said that a man who cares about your family has one foot in the door to the heart. That was what attracted me to him the first time." It was more like a double strike too, because the phrase was A man that cares about family has one foot in the door to the heart, wow him with food and he's in for good.

"So you're telling me…" Carly brushed her fingers across her forehead and clenched her eyes shut. Valerie took a step back, worried that Carly was on the verge of exploding. "Freddie fought us because-"

"He knew better than you did," Gibby chortled. Valerie looked over at him and Carly winced. "He knew where his heart was at the time, but he lacked the backbone to keep up the fight, something like that."

Carly muttered and bowed her head, her cheeks were reddening. "We kept pressuring him and forcing him..." Valerie didn't mean to make Carly feel bad, she really didn't want to do that. She bounced on her heels and moaned inwardly, irritated that she might have done something wrong. Carly turned around and walked towards the counter, slamming her fist down on the table. "Goddamn it." Everyone was startled by the sudden outburst, and for a minute, nobody moved. Carly slowly pushed her hand through her hair and exhaled sharply. "Valerie you should have just said something…"

"That's…what Vanessa told me…"

"I'm sorry Valerie, I really am. We never meant to hurt you or your family. And Freddie?" He raised an eyebrow as Carly walked over to him and smacked him upside the head. "Why did you stop fighting us?!" Freddie shouted out and rubbed his head while Valerie stifled a laugh. She covered her mouth and lifted her eyebrows as he groaned.

"There's really not an excuse," Freddie replied. "I was just a pushover who didn't want to lose two good friends at the time." Carly scoffed and Sam shook her head, both probably didn't think they were such good friends at the time. Yet, they were good friends, they were great friends, and Freddie deserved them in their life. "I never wanted to lose Valerie though, so…telling her goodbye was just painful…" He closed his eyes and Carly smacked him again. Valerie reached out her hand to tell Carly not to do that, but in the very back of her mind, she was almost happy to see him being scolded for what he did to her family. Though, she really wasn't happy.

"And if we did this now, Freddie?"

"No." Valerie gasped and held her breath, clutching her chest as she looked over to him. Her heart paused as he stared past Carly and narrowed his eyes. "I'm sorry Carly, but if it happened now…I know you two are too good to do that, but if you did, I would stay with Valerie and her family this time. They need me, or no, I need them. They make me better…I care about them more than anything and nothing anyone says or does would ever make me leave them." Carly leaned back and Valerie slowly lowered her arms. She took a small step towards Freddie, yearning to cuddle up beside him. Her heart was racing and her body felt warm for the first time in a very long time. She felt alive, like he really cared about her and wasn't just being fickle about it. Tears started to well up in her eyes and she immediately turned away to prevent anyone from seeing them

Carly looked over at her with a smile and tapped her shoulder. "Valerie?"

"What?"

"Are you okay?"

"I'm fine!"

"Valerie?"

"What!" She spun around and everyone was gazing at her, all with friendly and accepting eyes. This was more than she could handle, or, close to it. Her lip tucked beneath her teeth and her eyes locked with Carly's. "Sorry…what is it?" Carly hummed for a second, playing coy before stretching out her hand.

"Oh…I want to start over. Just completely, let's get to know each other the proper way, this time?" Valerie smiled and wiped her eyes.

"Okay."

"I'm Carly, do you want to see our webshow?"

"Sure, but I'd rather not be on it…"

"Fair enough. Besides, we're trying a new thing with it, we're getting rid of the private nonsense if we can. It's not people's business to know everything about our lives."

"All right, that sounds cool…" She let Carly hug her, then watched as the girls and Gibby moved upstairs. Freddie smiled proudly at her, making her heart flutter once more. "Freddie…did you mean that? What you said?"

"Every single word." He stood up and moved beside her, giving her a gentle hug. "I meant everything. I wouldn't give up on you or your family for the world, Valerie." There it was again, the skipping of her heart came like the skipping of a record. Her body was filled with a familiar old song. Maybe she was feeling this love thing again, but could she allow herself to go there? Did she dare? Maybe she could take a risk.

Well what are your thoughts?