"I think that went really well!" Carly said as she slid into the passenger seat of Freddie's car.

"Absolutely," he agreed.

They had just wrapped up a meeting with a company that wanted to work with iCarly and were very happy with the outcome. Freddie turned his keys in the ignition but didn't pull out of the parking spot, instead he turned towards her, his face pulled in thought.

"What?"

"I got an email just as we were leaving, looks like the lawyer has sent us our documents already."

Carly was surprised, they had only submitted the form late the night before.

"Oh, I turned my notifications off on my phone," she tried to sound casual. "I didn't notice."

"It only just came through," he shrugged before turning to check his blind spots and putting the car in reverse.

As they drove back to The Bushwell Plaza they sat in silence. They had known each other too long to become concerned with needing to keep conversation flowing all the time but Carly couldn't help but feel as though their silence was strained, awkward. Her hand repeatedly moved to rest over where the ring was sitting on it's chain but every time she caught herself she would pull away quickly.

She couldn't actually be upset about the annulment could she?

No, absolutely not. Their marriage meant nothing and it made sense that they were both taking actions to turn it into nothing, to scrub it from their joint history.

"You alright?" Freddie asked, glancing at her out of the corner of his eye as he kept his gaze fixed on the road. "You look a little…" he didn't finish the sentence, he didn't need to. Clearly he had caught the worry on her face.

"No no, I'm fine!" Carly said, sounding just a little too cheery.

"Right," Freddie nodded but didn't say anything else.

"We'll be fine," he encouraged minutes later as he swung into his parking space at the apartment.

They walked side by side through the foyer and into the elevator, the silence from their drive making way to light chatter, going over plans for the shoot they had scheduled that afternoon. They reached Spencer's apartment and Carly turned her key in the door. After the lock gave way she held the door open for Freddie to enter.

"I'll meet you up in the studio in a moment," she said, nodding her head down the corridor. "I left my laptop at my place."

"No worries," he turned and jogged towards the stairs.

Carly closed the door behind her and meandered towards her own apartment. Her mind once again spinning with thoughts of Freddie, marriage and annulment. She couldn't remember the last time she had spent so much time fixating on her best friend. She was beginning to feel unsettled by his constant residence in her brain. The last time she had dedicated this much thought to him she had been in high school and navigating her way through a short lived crush on him.

But that was ten years ago now and they had evolved past that… Her drunken self really had a lot to answer for! Marrying her best friend and turning an easy relationship into a complex web was an impressive skill.

She didn't have long to dive into unsettling thoughts though as her apartment was only feet away.

She thought she had left her laptop on the desk in the shared lounge room so wandered over to it, opening drawers and shuffling piles of paper but it quickly became evident it wasn't at her desk after all, It was nowhere to be seen. Apparently even her memories were suffering from this new stress in her life.

She turned and headed towards her bedroom where she found Harper standing over the suitcase she had been too lazy to unpack yet. The suitcase was open with some of its contents had been thrown to the side. Harper hadn't yet noticed Carly's appearance as she was preoccupied reading a slip of paper.

Carly gulped, there was only one possible document that Harper could be reading so intently.

"Watcha got there?" Carly said lightly.

Harper's eyes shot up to Carly's and grew wide for only a moment before she fell into her usual casual demeanor.

"The shoes I lent you…" she gestured towards the open suitcase and the pair of pumps Carly had borrowed for their weekend in Vegas. Carly scolded herself, not returning the shoes had led to this.

"And something much more interesting." Harper continued, holding the paper out so that Carly could clearly see the words which legally bound Freddie and her as husband and wife. Carly snatched the marriage certificate from Harper's hands and instinctively held it behind her back. She felt like a small child again, caught by her father after doing something she shouldn't.

"Please, hiding it won't make it disappear." Harper rolled her eyes at Carly's childish behavior. "Is it real?"

Carly just stared at Harper, unsure of how to respond.

"Oh my god," Harper's mouth fell open in shock. "This is where you disappeared to! You slept with Freddie!"

"I didn't sleep with Freddie," Carly whispered, turning to glance at the apartment behind her to make sure they were alone.

Harper only stared at Carly, fluttering her eyelashes at her and clearly communicating that she didn't believe a word of what she had said.

"No, we didn't!" Carly insisted "I mean we did, but we didn't! Well yes… but not like that."

"Then like what?" Harper asked. She was still staring directly at Carly, as though she was attempting to drill deep into her mind.

"Like we slept in the same bed."

"On your wedding night? Boring! I didn't realize you were both so vanilla!"

"Harper!" Carly hissed, unimpressed by her friend turning the moment into a joke.

Harper sighed but didn't make another teasing jab. Instead she reached out towards Carly, turning the other woman on the spot so that she could snatch the marriage certificate from behind her back.

Carly attempted to struggle but Harper was too quick and the paper was once again being waved in her face.

"What are you doing about it?"

Carly groaned. Her shoulders slumped and she exaggeratedly dragged her feet across the space from her door to her bed. Clumsily she perched herself on the edge of it and glanced up at Harper.

"We're getting an annulment," she said.

"Uh uh," Harper stated, sitting down beside her roommate. "You don't seem very happy about that."

Carly glared at Harper, her eyebrows raising in confusion. "Would you be happy about this situation?"

"That's not what I mean and you know it."

Carly scoffed. "What do you mean then?"

"You seem…" Harper waited, choosing her next words carefully, "disappointed."

"What?" Carly said, her voice rising. "I am not disappointed."

Harper said nothing, but she stared at Carly who felt as though she was being met with judgment.

"I'm not disappointed," she said again, forcing her voice to sound as calm as possible this time.

"I think you protest too much," Harper shrugged.

"I mean, sure, I'm embarrassed and worried and maybe a little disappointed in myself for getting into this situation, but I'm not disappointed about that!"

"You keep telling yourself that," Harper responded, scrunching her nose up as she spoke. "But in all seriousness, don't worry, you'll both be fine!"

Harper rose and strode out of the room, only to poke her head back in a moment later and grin at Carly. "I can't wait to tell Spencer!"

"You will not!" Carly yelled as she grabbed a cushion and threw it in Harper's direction only for it to miss and fall at her feet.

"Cute," Harper drawled. "Nice try."

She disappeared without another comment.

Carly groaned and walked towards the cushion. She picked it up but instead of placing it back on her bed she hugged it to herself.

A tiny voice in the back of her mind told her that Harper was right, there was a part of her that was maybe, just the smallest bit, disappointed. She pushed the thought down quickly, telling herself she was just nervous about the entire situation.

Carly and Freddie had quickly signed and scanned all their relevant documents and emailed them back to the lawyer handling their annulment with little discussion about the matter. They had also finished all of their scheduled filming for the day, gotten a head start on another project and Carly had spent a significant chunk of time responding to comments and emails while Freddie had focused on the newest app he was developing but both were now sick of work and in need of some time to unwind.

Closing her laptop Carly gave out a loud sigh in order to get Freddie's attention. When he looked up at her with a questioning glance she stood.

"I can't do any more work today, my head might explode."

Freddie chuckled and closed his own laptop. Tucking the computer under his arm he walked towards the door and held it open by standing halfway in the entrance. He looked at Carly expectantly.

"Let's raid Spencer's fridge," Freddie suggested.

Carly grinned at him but rolled her eyes. "The only thing we'll find in there are last week's leftovers."

"There's probably soda in the fridge too," he suggested.

"True." Carly rose and walked towards him. She turned to squeeze through the door, her back pressed up against the door frame in an attempt to put as much space as possible between Freddie and her.

As she travelled down the stairs to Spencer's living room Freddie trailed closely behind her. Carly had never been so incredibly aware of his presence before. She stopped at the bottom of the stairs, watching Spencer and Harper argue over a rule in the game of pool they were playing, and he stopped on the step immediately behind her.

She could feel the heat of his body radiating off her back, slowly climbing its way up her spine.

"You gonna keep moving?" He whispered in her ear and she jumped, startled.

She moved to the side, no longer blocking his way and allowing him to pass, but she stayed put. They needed this annulment finalized soon, The stress was doing weird things to her thoughts.

Waiting to hear back from the lawyers was torture. They had been informed that theirs should be a simple case and that it should go before a judge by the end of the week but the days were dragging by at a snail's pace.

Everytime they caught up their situation was sitting in the back of Carly's mind, poking her on the shoulder, reminding her that Freddie was her husband.

She was going insane.

Her stress and anxiety over the situation were causing her to second guess everything. If Freddie so much as glanced at her from across the room she was acutely aware of his gaze. If he sat down beside her she could feel his presence vibrating across her skin. They needed to hear back from their lawyer soon or she might actually die from waiting.

At least Harper had kept the information to herself and hadn't spread any rumours. Carly didn't need her brother pretending to be wounded that he wasn't at her wedding. And Freddie didn't need his daughter finding out, that would be sure to to complicate things.

It was now Friday morning and they were still married.

Carly had progressively become more uneasy throughout the week which was how she found herself sitting at a table in Skybucks with her leg shaking continuously and Harper shooting daggers at her.

"Would you stop that?" Harper growled, "It's like you've got a shake weight down there or something."

"Sorry," Carly muttered as she froze. Her eyes strayed over to where Freddie was waiting in line to place their orders and she quickly diverted her gaze, glancing back at Harper and trying to look innocent. "Maybe I should give the caffeine a miss?" She suggested.

"Or maybe you should stop pretending you're not checking your husband out…"

"I'm not!" Carly scoffed.

She wasn't. Checking Freddie out? The thought sounded bizarre to her. Freddie, geeky, techy, childhood friend Freddie, nope. And he wouldn't even be her husband by the end of the day, she was fairly certain of that. This whole misadventure could finally be put behind them.

"You need to stop stressing!" Harper said, moving on from teasing her friend.

Carly watched as Freddie reached the front of the line and started talking to the server, the poor woman was making a fool of herself, blatantly flirting with him as he placed his order. Couldn't she tell that he was here with two other women? How ridiculous.

"I just need that damn lawyer to tell us the annulment went through," she hissed.

Freddie turned away after paying and noticed Carly and Harper staring at him, he grinned and gave them two thumbs up, indicating he had seamlessly ordered for them.

Carly turned back to Harper.

"Seriously, why is it taking so long? They told us the end of the week, it's Friday!"

Harper rolled her eyes but spoke soothingly. "It'll all be fine, just be patient."

Harper quickly moved the conversation onto a new topic, hoping to distract Carly.

As Freddie came to join them, balancing their drinks in his hands, Harper was describing a new design idea she had for a client she had recently started working with.

"Sounds… interesting?" Freddie offered as he placed the drinks in front of them and took a seat.

As he took the first sip of his own drink his phone started ringing and he quickly placed the drink on the table and fished it out of his pocket. Carly watched as he glanced at the number on the screen and answered the phone.

"Freddie Benson speaking" he said, falling into a professional tone of voice with ease.

Carly watched as his eyebrows rose in response to the person on the other end of the line and he turned to her, locking eyes.

"Right, of course" Freddie said, providing no clue as to why he was staring at her as he spoke.

"I understand," he said after a moment's pause to listen to the person on the other end of the line. "Can I ask why?"

His eyebrows furrowed and his glance dropped to the table as he listened intently to the other person.

"And is there anything we can do?"

Carly's heartbeat was starting to race and she turned to look at Harper who was watching Freddie with a smirk of interest plastered onto her face, she was taking much more joy in this moment then Carly was.

"Well, thank you." Freddie said, wrapping up the call and placing his phone down on the table in front of him.

Harper and Carly both looked at him expectantly.

"That was…" He paused, looking at Carly for permission to speak in front of Harper.

She nodded.

"That was the guys handling our annulment."

Carly perked up, waiting to hear the rest of what he knew.

"The judge didn't approve it."

"What?" Carly yelled.

The other customers turned to look at the sudden interruption and the server, the one who had been unabashedly flirting with Freddie earlier, gave her a dirty look.

"What?" She repeated in a quieter voice, ignoring the disapproving glances being shot her way.

"Why?"

Freddie shrugged and slumped slightly in his chair, his hand reaching out and fidgeting with his phone.

"Something about being unable to prove that we wouldn't have gotten married under different circumstances," he said.

Harper let out a gurgled laugh, which she tried to disguise by sipping on her drink. They both shot her a look which caused her to shrug at them and glance down at her hands, pretending she couldn't hear every word they were saying.

"What do you mean?" Carly asked "how could a judge possibly decide that, they don't even know us!"

"Turns out we're very google-able people. Apparently our iCarly content convinced him otherwise?"

"So what now?"

"The only other out is divorce." Freddie stated matter of factly, his mouth pulling into a tight line.

Carly's stomach felt as though it was falling, rattling down a steep cliff. Her heart was turning and twisting and the wave of guilt she had felt earlier that week washed over her all over again. This was what Freddie had wanted to avoid. She had stuffed everything up.

"I'm so sorry," she whispered as she wrapped her hands around her paper cup for the first time.

"Hey," he called, reaching out to take one of her hands in his. "It's not your fault."

She glanced up at him and offered a small smile. If she had to divorce anyone at least she could be thankful it was her best friend and not an angry ex-lover. She let her thumb trace the lines of his knuckles for a moment before Harper interrupted them.

"Congrats to the happy couple!" She winked as she rose her coffee to the air in a toast and brought it to her lips.

Her smirk suggested she was much too amused by their situation. Carly pulled her hand away from Freddie's, as though it had been burnt on a hot surface, and raised her own drink in a sarcastic toast.

"Yay us!"

"You alright?" Freddie asked that evening as they both sat on Carly's couch watching the TV. He was staring at her out of the corner of his eye, watching to see if she gave any indication as to what was going on in her mind.

"You've been pretty quiet ever since that phone call" he added.

Carly glanced over at him and shrugged, the bowl of popcorn balanced precariously on her knee swayed and threatened to topple at her movement but she rested a hand against it, keeping it steady.

"I'm fine, why wouldn't I be?"

"How long have we known each other? Pretending doesn't work on me Carly."

Carly let out a resigned breath and moved the popcorn bowl from her lap to the floor by their feet so that it wouldn't risk falling again.

"This is all just really…" She searched her mind for a word to adequately describe their situation but failed to find one. "Weird."

Freddie chuckled. "Tell me about it."

They sat in silence, glancing at each other with uncertainty.

"Alright," Freddie said, reaching for the remote and flicking the television off. "We have to talk about this."

He reached out and pulled at Carly's arm until she was facing him.

"You swore you wouldn't go through another divorce." Carly announced, her eyes drilling into him. "I feel like this is all my fault."

"This will be different though," Freddie said. "At least there won't be any heartbreak this time."

Carly's mind stopped for a moment at his words, the reference to heartbreak was jarring.

"But that doesn't change that you don't want a divorce."

"What else can we do though?" He asked.

Carly pouted at him. "We stay married." she suggested, a slight drawl in her voice highlighting her intended sarcasm.

The words hung in the air between them for just a moment before they both laughed.

"Hah! What a weird thought." Freddie said.

"Right?" Carly asked, agreeing with him, but her face fell slightly as she spoke.

"We're friends," Freddie reminded her. "Friends don't get married."

They looked at each other, amused smiles playing on their lips. After a moment Freddie leant forward pulling her into a hug.

"Don't worry, I'll speak to my divorce lawyer. I'm sure it'll be hassle free" he said into her shoulder.

Right, because Freddie had his own divorce lawyer, because that was a thing he had needed in the past. The guilt crept right back up on her all over again. She was never going to feel right about this situation until it was over.