A/N: Hi there. Welcome aha. I've written this in the past few hours while reading old reviews and I hope you all love it! I'm really proud of it and honestly my writing has improved so much recently. Summer starts for me at the end of May and I hope to get some more writing down during those free three months. Anyway, have a lovely day x

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All Too Well

I walked through the door with you
The air was cold
But something about it felt like home somehow

"Mum, I'm home."

There was a crash of a pan from the kitchen, followed by a squeak and a woman peeking her head out from the room. Her son, in his full glory, stood in front of him, grinning from ear to ear. He had matured well, for sure, and after being away at college since thanksgiving, he had sure changed – his hair grew a bit and his style had developed into a more college boy style. He also sported a new leather jacket with his hair all gelled back.

"Freddiekins," his mother exclaimed, wrapping her arms around him, and smothering him with kisses. "You're a few hours early! I haven't even started your welcome home meal. Lasagne, was it?" Freddie was slowly making his way towards his bedroom, inching closer and closer to the door. Marissa jumped to her feet and ran towards him, blocking the door. "Ah, Freddie. There's something I have to tell you."

"You haven't cleaned my sheets with that tic-proof stuff again, have you? You know what happened last time," Freddie frowned, cringing at the memory. "I can still feel the burning sensation."

She looked at him, not entirely sure what to say. All she knew, though, was that his surprise was waiting in the bedroom and she wasn't sure if he was ready for it. He was early, so she hadn't had enough time to think it through – but when his surprise showed up on the doorstep, she couldn't turn her away. So, she stepped out of the way and he allowed his hand to grasp the door handle with ease.

"I've been dreaming of sleeping in my bed for a long—"

And I, left my scarf there at your sister's house
And you've still got it in your drawer even now

"It's cold," Samantha Puckett complained, shivering slightly. Freddie, without another word, grabbed the scarf he'd packed from his bag and tucked it around her neck. She looked at him, surprised. They had been dating a week, and my god, was it glorious. "You always think ahead, don't you, Benson?"

"Only for you, Puckett," he remarked with a smile, which made her smile as well. She took his hand into hers as they continued their way. She asked where they were going, but he didn't give anything away with his cryptic comment of, "It's a surprise."

She rolled her eyes. "You and your surprises."

"Hey, you liked the last one," Freddie tried to reason. "Didn't you say that steak was the best thing you've ever tasted? How dare you betray ham like that." She grinned at him, allowing her arms to go around his shoulders. "Are you still cold? I knew we should've driven."

"Then let's get Carly to pick us up," Sam said. "We're not too far away from the Bushwell…wait, hang on…okay, Benson, that doesn't count as a surprise."

"Oh, it does once you see what I've done."

The two spent the evening on a fairy-light lit fire escape, and ended in Freddie's bed as the two crawled through the window at around one am. He had prepared a cute picnic for them, yes, including the steak Sam had almost been lusting over. Sam was asleep still, her blonde hair sprawled across her face and the pillow. Freddie smiled and tucked her hair behind her ear, kissing her forehead, before getting up and going into the kitchen. He splashed his face with cold water and turned around, wanting to lay back down with his girlfriend – he didn't, however, expect his mother to be standing behind him.

She was supposed to be on the morning shift.

"We need to talk, young man."

Her scarf shifted from the end of his bed to his bag that he meant to give back to her, and then sat in his drawer to that day after being mistaken for a shirt.

Oh, your sweet disposition
And my wide-eyed gaze
We're singing in the car, getting lost upstate

It had been a long night. Sam and her mother had had their usual Friday night argument after her mother had come home drunk with yet another new boyfriend. And as Marissa had practically banned Sam from their house with the excuse that she wasn't a good influence, the two settled for a long drive through Seattle.

"Autumn leaves falling down," Sam hummed quietly, her eyes closed as her forehead raised against the window. Freddie smiled over at her. "This was a good idea, Freddie." Freddie. The word almost stung his heart. She rarely said his name, only a funny nickname that may have been insulting to anyone else, but it was just her way of being affectionate. Her love language as it were.

"You're welcome," he said to her back, leaning across to turn the music down. He pulled into the Pini's drive through and voiced his order into the intercom, asking, of course, for some extra parmesan cheese. "I'm not making the same mistake twice," he said aloud. He heard her chuckle over the quiet hum of her Taylor Swift playlist. "I didn't know you liked her."

"She's alright to listen to when you want to cry."

They found a clearing on top of a hill, looking over the city. It looked pretty, less industrialised from so high up. A faint glow lingered over the city.

"That's the Bushwell, right?" Sam asked, pointing over from the passenger seat. Freddie nodded, pointing out their high school and Sam's house. They quietened down, eating their lasagne while listening to the playlist. "Anyway, where are we?" she asked after a quiet few minutes.

"Absolutely no idea."

Sam laughed, looking over at him. He was just grinning at her, finding his phone from the glovebox so he could Moogle Map their location and find somewhere that was still open. "There's probably a shit movie playing somewhere," Sam told him. "Let's go there."

"Okay, yes," Freddie agreed without debate, setting the Moogle Maps up on his phone, which he gave Sam to hold. He reversed out of the clearing and drove through the tree covered roads, the streetlights lighting up the way as well as the headlights. "Let me know where to go, okay?"

He was sweet, special, something else. She wasn't sure how she was so lucky to have him. She watched with a wide-eyed gaze as he drove, the lights shadowing and making his face glow.

Autumn leaves falling down like pieces into place

The streets were autumnal with the fallen leaves and bare trees and as they drove, more leaves were falling. Sam opened her window, putting up with the cold breeze on her face for long enough to grab a falling leave, smiling at the orange colour. Freddie looked over briefly, before looking back at the road.

"You're cute."

She rolled the window back up, reaching behind her into the backseat to grab a blanket. "That's you."

"I wish I was as cute as you."

And I can picture it after all these days

And I know it's long gone and that magic's not here no more
And I might be okay but I'm not fine at all

The tears couldn't be helped. They had broken up after two years. It was over. And neither of them could accept it. It was mutual, well, as mutual as it could be. By the next day, they were back to being normal and acting like nothing more than Carly's friends, forgetting the Wattpad type love they used to have.

'Cause there we are again on that little town street
You almost ran the red 'cause you were lookin' over at me
Wind in my hair, I was there
I remember it all too well

Another day was in the warm summer of that year – a month before the breakup. Freddie had hired a convertible car for their road trip across the country. There was a touring day for MIT, and as Freddie was starting there in September, he and Sam agreed to go there. Melanie was staying in the city, so that was their accommodation sorted for their short visit there. Sam also intended to go apartment searching for somewhere for her and Freddie – she was planning to surprise him by moving to Boston with him so they could start their lives together. It was a shame that that was destined not to happen.

They were driving through a small street not too far away from Melanie's place. Even though they had been travelling for two days now, the exhaustion was controllable, and they were bursting out laughing to something said by a radio presenter. Sam had forgotten what it was like to be so free as they drove down the street, her blonde locks blowing in the wind.

"You look happy."

"We're almost there, so yes, I am."

"I still don't think she's a real person."

"Oh, so I've made up a sister and we're going to be staying in a random stranger's apartment. Cool, cool. Unless you think I have a secret apartment in New York." She looked at him, raising an eyebrow. He sighed.

"Okay, now I sound like the insane one."

She grinned. "Yay, let's go." She reached over to turn the radio up, singing at the top of her lungs. Freddie had always loved her singing voice, but as soon as he mentioned anything, she'd get insecure and tell him he's a nub.

Photo album on the counter
Your cheeks were turning red
You used to be a little kid with glasses in a twin-sized bed
And your mother's telling stories 'bout you on the tee-ball team
You told me 'bout your past thinking your future was me

"I'm so glad you could make it." Freddie's mother faked a smile.

Marissa didn't like the blonde girl; in her opinion, it was a relationship that wasn't meant to last. However, she still scrolled through the photo albums and enjoyed embarrassing her son. Sam's favourite picture so far had to be the one of him in a pair of fake glasses, holding a book in a room full of Galaxy Wars posters. What a dork, she thought with a grin.

"Go back, go back," Sam said quickly. Marissa glared at her, before doing it and laying her hand beneath the picture of her six-year-old son eating a large cone of ice cream. "When was this?"

"Freddie was on the tee-ball team back in elementary school," Marissa explained. "He had won the game that day, so his father took him out for an ice cream." She closed her eyes at the mention of his father. Sam automatically detected the mood in the room changing, and as much as she wanted to press for more, as this was the first and only time that she had ever heard any mention of Freddie's dad, she didn't press and instead changed the subject, asking about another photo. Freddie, from the lounge, looked over at the two of them. His mother didn't seem to be hating his girlfriend, but the way they were sitting away from each other and being cautious not to reach for the book at the same time told him that his psychology lessons had helped a lot – they didn't like each other. At all.

His people-hating mother and his people-hating girlfriend. Oh, yes, they had a lot to bond over.

And I know it's long gone and there was nothing else I could do
And I forget about you long enough to forget why I needed to

"I'll help you forget about him," Sam's roommate grinned, already hurrying to find a dress from her wardrobe. "We've just got to get you out there again, girl! Let's find you a hottie downtown."

"There's no point," Sam sighed, throwing herself back onto the bed. "I've tried and tried. He's all I think about."

"And he dumped you. Get over it."

There was a pause.

"I didn't mean to sound harsh. I just don't want you to feel like there's something wrong with you. It's hard to get over someone, especially if you had a big connection to them."

The night they broke up, the night she saw him kissing someone else, she took off on her motorbike and wasn't sure where she'd end up. All she knew was that hopefully, it would be somewhere better than where she was originally.

And she ended up in California.

'Cause there we are again in the middle of the night
We're dancing 'round the kitchen in the refrigerator light
Down the stairs, I was there
I remember it all too well, yeah

"Come here." Freddie pulled her to his chest in the middle of the kitchen. She whined, trying to reach for the milk from the fridge.

"I'm busy," she complained childishly, wanting to make herself some cereal. Marissa was working the night shift, and after the two had promised not to spend the night together, they found themselves doing exactly that. "My cereal will get soggy."

However, Freddie didn't listen, taking one hand into his while her hands went to his neck. They swayed back and forth.

"You expect us to dance without music?"

"Isn't it romantic?" Freddie asked softly. "Dancing in the fridge light at two am."

"Cutie," Sam said, a smile creeping onto her lips. "And yes, yes, it is."

Needless to say, the cereal became very soggy.

And maybe we got lost in translation
Maybe I asked for too much
But maybe this thing was a masterpiece 'til you tore it all up
Running scared, I was there
I remember it all too well

"I think we should break up."

Her world came crashing down.

"Yes, me too." She didn't agree. She was lying.

His heart broke. She wasn't going to fight of him.

And he wasn't going to fight for her, clearly.

"Were these two years for nothing?" Sam asked quietly.

"I guess so."

"I guess so too."

And you call me up again just to break me like a promise

So casually cruel in the name of being honest
I'm a crumpled up piece of paper lying here
'Cause I remember it all, all, all
Too well

She was drunk one night and found her phone that her roommate Clarissa had had to hide in her underwear drawer – her roommate had only been gone for two minutes while she paid the delivery man. She returned with a meat feast pizza in her hands to find Sam sprawled out over her bed, slurring over her words to somebody.

Considering what she was saying, however, it was clear she was talking to her perfect ex-boyfriend.

"And then you left. You kissed her and left," Sam slurred. "You never cared. You've always loved her. You—" Clarissa grabbed the phone, ignoring Sam's whines, and left the room to apologise to him. When she returned, Sam was asleep, thank god.

Freddie called back in the morning to check she was okay, despite her words cutting him like a knife. Sam couldn't apologise enough for what had happened – in all honesty she didn't have much memory of it either.

Time won't fly, it's like I'm paralyzed by it
I'd like to be my old self again
But I'm still trying to find it

As she pulled her jeans on, Sam double-checked she had packed her passport. She was not driving again. Clarissa promised to look after her motorbike till she returned – she didn't intend for her trip to be longer than a few days. She just had some business to take care of in Seattle. The most expensive business, she must add, as the plane ticket was one hundred and fifty-eight dollars a single way.

"Will you be okay?" her roommate asked. "I can come with you."

"I'll be okay," Sam promised. "Just something I have to take care of."

"Well, call me when you land."

The caringness reminded her so much of Carly, who was living it up in Italy.

But she couldn't think about her. She was about to get on a plane. To see Freddie.

After plaid shirt days and nights when you made me your own
Now you mail back my things and I walk home alone

But you keep my old scarf from that very first week
'Cause it reminds you of innocence
And it smells like me
You can't get rid of it
'Cause you remember it all too well, yeah

He still had a drawer of her stuff, like she still had a bag of his stuff tucked under her bed back in her house in Seattle. She had stolen his shirt after their first aid, and she couldn't sleep without it because of the smell of reassurance and comfort – she wondered if he felt the same sometimes and hugged her scarf for the reminder too.

Or was she the only one struggling?

'Cause there we are again when I loved you so
Back before you lost the one real thing you've ever known
It was rare, I was there, I remember it all too well

Wind in my hair, you were there, you remember it all
Down the stairs, you were there, you remember it all

The plane journey was long. She remembered when Marissa had called her and told her that Freddie was coming home soon. However, the reason Marissa had called wasn't entirely specified. Why was it so important that Sam was there?

Sam was practically desperate to get there. Marissa met her at the airport, letting her into Freddie's room to freshen up in the bathroom while she made her meal. Though, the noise of the front door opening while she ran a bath threw her off. So, she turned off the tap and left the bathroom, hearing the muffled voice of her ex-boyfriend and his mother.

Being in his room brought back memories. She wondered where her scarf was.

There was a lot of unspoken words between them that needed to be said.

Then, the door opened.

"Hi."

He looked back at her, eyes wide. "Hi."

"I'm sorry!"

It was rare, I was there, I remember it all too well