AN: Happy Friday and happy December! This oneshot is honestly one of my favourites and it's set in the new iCarly universe, but you don't really need to know anything about that to be able to understand it. Somehow, I managed to write this in the length of Taylor Swift's Evermore album, which is astonishing in my head as I do honestly love it and knew I had to share it. It doesn't follow off the last two, but that doesn't mean that small series is going to be over. And I plan to get done at least a New Year's oneshot this year, so look forward to that. Have a lovely weekend, my lovelies.

Lasagna

"Oh my god! It's today!"

That was the 7am wake up call the two men had to endorse one gloomy Saturday morning. Carly Shay was already clattering around in the newly renovated kitchen of her brother's apartment while trying to find the right frying pan. Even though her best friend's flight wasn't due for another few hours, she still wanted everything ready. She hadn't even seen Spencer's apartment in years, not since the summer of college sophomore year, and she hadn't met Millicent, or Harper.

Freddie groaned, clutching his head. "Carls, do you know what time it is?"

"Yes, yes, I do," the twenty-eight-year-old replied, agitated. "Sam's flight gets in in, what, four hours? I only have four hours to make her favourite foods! Why are you laying around, huh? Why don't you come and help?"

Spencer tried to calm his sister down, knowing just how excited she was for today – but at the same time, just how worried she was. "Carly, come on, at least wait until the girl gets here. You know how much Sam hates cold and soggy bacon."

Carly sighed. "Okay, I guess I could wait an hour or so to start on the bacon, but I've still got to go out and grab some of that ham she likes from the butchers. And the sausages. And while I'm that way, I'll see if there's any of the coconut cream pie – oh, and some nice bread from the bakery. God, this is going to be the welcome home party to beat all welcome home parties."

"Hey!" Freddie huffed. "I thought we threw you a great welcome home party."

"Oh, you did, but this one is going to be even better." In an excited yet stressed daze, Carly said goodbye to the guys and left the apartment, muttering something about a cake she also had to pick up.

Freddie finally stood up from the couch, stretched, and said to his best friend, "Hey, I'm going to stop back at mine and shower. Millicent's probably suffered enough of my mom's snoring."

Spencer snickered. "I can hear her from across the hall sometimes."

"Yes, my apologies about that. We got her one of those snoring machines Carly has, but she kind of thought we were kidding." He grabbed his jacket from the coffee table, unsure of how it got there. "Then I recorded her snoring, and she said we used some kind of sound altering technology on it."

"Man, your mom is—"

"What are you guys saying about Grandma B?" a tired looking Millicent said from the top of the stairs, her hair already in braids and dressed for the day.

"M-Millicent, you're awake? I thought I'd have to drag you out of bed," Freddie said, shocked. "And more to the point, why are you here?"

"Oh, right, I got fed up of the snoring and slept upstairs in Carly's old room," Millicent said with a shrug, making her way to the kitchen. She found the box of cereal, opened the fridge and began to pour herself some milk. "Isn't Sam coming today?"

Spencer got up off the other couch and made himself a bowl of cereal as well, finding a plastic spoon to eat with instead of a metal one – last time he ate with one of those, he managed to set it on fire. "Yeah, Carly's out now, getting some stuff for her."

"Ooh, is she getting that nice ham?"

"Yes, but don't expect to get any," Freddie chuckled, smiling in remembrance of the blonde and her eating habits. He was acting pretty cool about the whole thing externally, but internally, he was just how Carly was: excited but nervous. After years of not speaking to Sam and the two falling out of touch quickly after his second marriage, he always felt like there was something missing in his life. At first, he thought it was Millicent, but then decided that as much as Millicent made him happy, there was still a Sam-shaped hole in his heart.

He missed Sam Puckett.

Spencer looked at Freddie, his mouth full of the expensive cereal he hated but never got around to taking out of his online shopping basket, so it still turned up at his door every week. Even Millicent, who would eat pretty much anything, grimaced at the taste. "Is Melanie getting her from the airport?"

"I think so. When Sam said to Carly about coming home, apparently, she'd already spoken to her mom about it, but her mom's finishing selling up the house. Melanie's down from New York to help her, and she offered to pick Sam up. Sam still wants some of her stuff from the house before it's sold off."

"Well, I suggest you go freshen up then before Sam gets here and calls you a nub for having greasy hair," Spencer grinned. "Go, go."

.

Carly returned from the shops and began to prepare everything for her friend's arrival. Though it wasn't much of a party, she still gathered around some of Sam's closest friends, minus Gibby who was busy with work in San Francisco and couldn't make it back in time, to welcome her back. From Carly's understanding, though Sam hadn't fully committed to staying in Seattle and returning home permanently, she had in fact sold hers and Cat's apartment in California, and the two girls had mutually decided to end the babysitting service so that Cat could live out her acting dreams and Sam could join a biker gang. Flashforward a year later, Sam was returning for her mom to finish selling up the family home and for a family wedding – one of her cousins was getting married before going back to jail – and she had actually quit the biker gang just in time to come home. Really, Sam had no idea where her life was going to take her next and didn't have any plans for the future.

"Guys! I just got a text from Melanie; they're on their way up!"

An excited haze travelled through the apartment, brushing past the people gathered. Millicent looked up from her phone just in time for the door to open. Then all at once, Sam was greeted by Carly rushing towards her, almost knocking her off her feet as her bags dropped to the floor. She laughed, patting her friend on the back, and Melanie tried to help prey the girl off Sam, giving her some breathing room.

"Hey, Carls," Sam laughed gently.

Freddie took a minute. He was standing a respectable distance away, eyes wide and dazed, as he watched her movements. Between the shaking Carly off, her hair was blowing in the slight breeze. It wasn't long until Spencer grabbed her too, offering her a brotherly hug, and then one to Melanie who he also hadn't seen in a couple of years. Every time Melanie stopped by, Freddie's breath would hitch and he'd remind himself that the woman before him was not Sam Puckett. Despite not physically seeing Sam for years, he'd be lying if he said he wasn't guilty of looking at her Splashface page every so often to see how she was doing.

The woman before him, though, this time, was Sam Puckett. Those same eyes pierced right through to his soul, as she turned to look at him, smiling from ear to ear one of those genuine smiles he'd only ever seen once or twice before. Her arms remained the slightest bit open, mouth agape as she licked her lips for a second.

"Well? Have you not got a hug for me?" she asked, humor in her tone.

He made his way over to her and took her by surprise, wrapping his arms around her tightly and lifting her off the ground. She yelped but secured her arms around him, eyes gently closing and grip remaining just as tight. Over time, he put her feet back down on the floor but didn't want to let her go, feeling her chin rest on his shoulder.

"I missed you," he said.

"I missed you too," she smiled.

Then, at all once, it came back. All the feelings. All the emotion. All the love. It came back. Almost like it had never left.

"Hang on, I smell ham," was Sam's excuse to let go. To walk away. To find some way of controlling her feelings. If she didn't do anything soon, she was worried she was going to kiss him. So, he watched her walk away and find the buffet table, where to her delight she found the food Carly had practically been slaving over for hours. With a slice of ham in one hand and a chicken leg in the other, she somehow found her way back to Freddie and this time his daughter.

"Millicent, this is Sam. Sam, this is Millicent, my daughter," Freddie introduced.

Sam smiled at the young girl – something that Freddie was not at all used to. It was going to take him a while to get used to this new kid-loving side of Sam. It was still hard to believe that she babysat children for as long as she did. "Your dad's a bit of a nub, you know."

Millicent responded with a laugh. "You're telling me." There was a pause between them. "Well…this isn't awkward. I'm gonna go annoy Harper." Said girl was taking advantage of the gathering of people to plug hers and her girlfriend's new fashion brand to a wider audience than Carly and her usual friends.

"So, uh, how've you been?" Freddie asked, also feeling the awkward tension looming over them.

"I've been good. Can't believe my mom's finally selling that house," Sam scoffed. "Like I get that the neighbourhood is kind of, you know, shit, but Mel and I grew up in that house."

"Yeah, Carly said about that. Have you got any plans to stay in Seattle after this or?"

Sam shrugged. "Not sure. Carly's offered me her couch for a few nights, and then I think I'm just going to jump back on my bike. Find another town somewhere." She took a seat on the edge of the couch. "What about you then? Still living in your mom's apartment?" she teased.

"Actually, I'm moving out next week," Freddie told her. "Spencer helped me find this cool three bedroom apartment a few blocks from here – and the rent won't be a problem when my new app launches."

"New app, huh? You still working on Mood Face?"

"Ah, no. That was on my old laptop that, uh, got set on fire a couple of years ago." Freddie rubbed the back of his neck, not having thought about that for a long time. Mood Face certainly would've made him a lot of money – why hadn't he thought of that years ago when he first saw single figures in his bank account? "There was a, um, incident with some tweezers and the stove. Anyway, moving on. I've developed a pet sitting app for people who need therapy animals called Kevin."

Sam raised her eyebrows, surprised. "Wow, Benson, really branching out here, aren't you? You'll be a businessman before you know it. Gamazon CEO, look out." Sam Puckett complimenting Freddie Benson? Was the world coming to an end? It was true that people did grow and change, but Sam becoming nice, well, that was something he was going to have to get used to. "I've got to go and be sociable unfortunately, but let's grab breakfast together before I leave. Is that small diner from our first date still open? Mama's been thinking about their egg muffins since twelfth grade."

Freddie smiled at this. "I think so. Then I guess it's a date—well, uh, not a date, but a, uh—"

Sam kissed his cheek, cutting off his blundering mess of a sentence. He stood, stunned, and she had wished somebody had caught a picture of that moment as his cheeks were redder than tomatoes and he looked almost as sunburnt as he did the time that he'd fallen asleep at the beach – god, Marissa had gone insane.

"Sam?" She turned around. "I missed you. Is that okay to say?"

"You've already told me that."

"I know—I just wanted to remind you."

"See you later." As an afterthought, she quickly added, "Nub."

As she walked away in the direction of where Carly was, talking with a group of people she hadn't seen since high school, Freddie watched her as Carly greeted her and offered her another glass of champagne. Champagne was always a drink that was only acceptable when you had something to celebrate, and Sam Puckett was worth celebrating. Millicent approached her dad and nudged him in the side, grinning while feasting on an oversized ham burger.

"You're in love," she teased.

"Am not!" Freddie quickly insisted.

"You may be able to fool Carly and Grandma B, but you're in love with this woman." Millicent gestured towards Sam, who was throwing her head back with laughter. Freddie followed his daughter's gaze; Carly put an arm around Sam's shoulders, grinning. "Just don't mess it up this time. But know if she breaks your heart, I will—will—uh, I don't know yet, but I'll think of something."

"With all due respect, Millicent, Sam has the best weapon of all," he told her. "Now, it's called a butter sock and I've had it used on me, and you do not want that. Stay on her good side." He placed his hands on her shoulders and gently pushed her towards Melanie. "Let's go and talk to your aunt—I mean, Melanie. Yes, yes, that's what I said. Melanie." Rolling her eyes, Millicent knew better. It seemed she hadn't been the only one imagining the two of them having a bigger family and her having a stepmom.

That night, with Sam settled in Carly and Harper's apartment on the couch, and Freddie down the hall at his mom's with packing boxes and numerous rolls of packing tape around him, he laid awake on his bed. A second later, his phone lit up on the nightstand, so he grabbed it and squinted at the light. After swiping open the screen and revealing the homescreen he had selected of his daughter trying the new frozen yogurt place for the first time, he realised he had a message from Sam. All this time, and she'd kept the same number – yet he'd never messaged. In fairness, neither had she.

Is tomorrow good for breakfast? I'm starved and Carly literally only has gluten-free food over here. (11:03pm)

Same old Sam, it seemed. He just hoped that she didn't figure out that it was Millicent who stole the leftover ham from Spencer's fridge.

Yeah, sure. I could pick you up from Carly's at, say, eight? Unless you plan to sleep till noon like you used to. (11:04pm)

Sam's reply came a minute later.

Sounds good, Benson. See you then ;) (11:05pm)

Then:

Btw you type like a grandpa. (11:05pm)

After that exchange, Freddie tried to sleep, but how could he? Sam Puckett was in the same building as him; he had just spoken to her; she had kissed his cheek that day. How could any man sleep after encountering her? Usually, this was because she'd assaulted them and they were still scared for their life, but in this case, Freddie was still, to put it simply, smitten for the woman. That day, he had felt everything come back – and he had a feeling she'd felt it, too.

So, he texted her back.

Actually, if you're up for it, I've got some leftover lasagna. Nothing special, but I made it for mine and Millicent's dinner and well, not trying to flex, but I'm quite a good cook. (11:12pm)

Like expected, he got a reply a minute later.

Is your crazy mom home? (11:13pm)

He laughed.

Nope, and Millicent's asleep or watching Carly's Tetflix again – either way, the kitchen's empty. I can get it heated up for you? (11:14pm)

And then:

No, don't worry. I'll be there in a sec (11:14pm)

Freddie smiled, threw back the covers, and threw on a pair of sweatpants. Then right on cue, he heard the door open. He would've wondered how she'd gotten in if she were anyone else, but he seemed to remember the little bobby pin she fitted into every hair style and seemed to use whenever she felt like it. And he was right; Sam was standing in the kitchen already by the time he made it out of his room.

She smiled at him, licking her lips.

"So…where's this lasagna then?"