This story is set in the time between the two series. Somewhere during the time when Sam and Carly were hanging out, after Carly came back from Italy and Sam apparently had left L.A. but not yet went off with the biker gang. Freddie remains unseen throughout most of it, so let's just say he's off at college somewhere or meeting the woman who becomes his first wife.
Carly is the one who had dental work done this time and is feeling the effects. Sam used the opportunity to get something off her chest. Unfortunately for her, Carly has a little better recollection than many people when they're under anesthesia.
"Hey, Sam." Carly called out to her best friend upon entering Spencer's apartment. As usual, Sam was on the couch, stretched out, staring at the TV. Several empty bottles littered the top of the coffee table and an open bag of cheese puffs was resting on the blonde's slender belly. Despite her eating everything in sight, the blonde was even slimmer than she used to be.
"What up, Shay?" Sam replied, groping around for the remote to silence the background noise. "I was getting worried."
"Glad to see you've not been knocking yourself out while I was gone today." Carly said with a bit of a snark. "I thought you were going to work on dinner while I was at the dentist."
Sam ignored the dig at her laziness and made an observation. "Did you know Lewbert quit?"
"Uh, yeah. He quit a couple of years ago according to Spencer. I think Freddie sent me a text when he did. Something about going to law school or some chiz. You're just now figuring this out? Sam! We've been back in Seattle for months. Haven't you wondered where he was?"
Sam simply shrugged. "Didn't care. It smells better in the lobby without him around anyway."
"So how was the dentist?" Sam asked, sitting up and making room beside her for the other young woman to sit.
"Very dentist-y. No cavities." Carly grinned at her friend to demonstrate and sat down. "And all sparkly white."
"You always have sparkly white teeth. After all, you were on Italian QVC."
Carly was clearly hiding something. Her silence and distant, almost worried look was telling a tale her words weren't.
"What else?" Sam asked.
"Nothing else." Carly spent the last hour and a half in a coffee shop trying to think of how to tell her friend the plans they have been making for months were going off the rails. She was failing miserably at hiding her anxiety and reached for the cheese puffs to be stopped by Sam.
"There's something else. I can tell. You're acting all 'else'. Did you meet a guy or something?" Carly's non-response made Sam question further. "OMG! You had an afternoon hookup! I was wondering why you were gone so long. Holy crap! Was he hot? Did you meet at the dentist office?"
"No. I've never had an afternoon hookup in my life. Besides, the only guy there was the dentist and I'm pretty sure he doesn't like girls." Carly scoffed. "There was no hookup. And just how does someone act 'else'?"
Sam just looked at her with serious glare.
"I need to have my wisdom teeth taken out." Carly whined.
"Aw, kid." Sam put her arm around her friend. "Is that what's wrong? It'll be OK. There's nothing to worry about. They do like, a couple dozen of these things a week. They ripped mine out when I lived in L.A. As soon as we get back from the road trip, you can go get your teeth out and eat soup and mashed potatoes for a week. A couple of months from now you'll be all healed up and those pesky old wisdom teeth will be just a memory."
"It's not just that." Carly winced. "They're doing it next week."
"Um, no. We're leaving for the road trips to end all road trips in Vin Diesel next week." Sam corrected. "I just changed his oil and put on new belts last weekend. First stop, the beef jerky museum. Did you forget? Your memory is seriously worse than Cat's"
"The dentist says that they're getting bad. They should have came out when I was still in high school. If I don't get them taken care of, I could wake up some morning and my face will be all swelled up like some kind of human chipmunk."
"Well can't they give you some pills or something to hold it off for a month or so till we get back?"
"No, there are no pills to fix wisdom teeth, Sam. And I don't think it would be a good thing if I woke up a thousand miles from home with my jaw all inflamed. Besides, as soon as we get back, my classes start. I can't go having dental surgery and then starting the fall semester."
Sam simply gave her a disappointed look and inhaled deeply through her nose.
"They told me I'll be back to normal in less than a week. And I only have to eat soft food for a little bit. So we'll just push back our trip by a few days and everything will be fine. Instead of leaving Monday, we leave Saturday."
"I guess." Sam sunk back into the couch and sighed the word 'beef jerky'. "But hey, at least you get to eat massive amounts of mashed potatoes." This was the bright side to Sam Puckett.
"I don't really even like mashed potatoes, Sam." Carly argued.
The following Wednesday, Carly was off to the dental surgery place to get her teeth extracted. Since Spencer was busy setting up an art display, Sam had been goaded into going along and being Carly's designated driver for the anesthesia induced, post-surgery journey home.
"I'm glad they were able to schedule this for noon, Carls. Seems like every time my mom has something medical done they want her in there at the crack of dawn. I don't want people working on me that aren't awake yet. Seriously, why does every doctor in the world want to do all their work before 11 in the morning?"
"Probably so they can play golf at the 'club' in the afternoon." Carly snickered back saying the word club in a posh, snooty way. "I'm glad too because I don't want you to be driving anywhere before you're awake either."
"Mama ain't a morning person." Sam said with a shrug.
After checking in, filling out tons of paperwork and going over what she should expect the next few days as well as what to do the hours immediately following her discharge, Carly was escorted to the prep room while Sam settled into the waiting room and entertained herself with a game on her phone.
A short while later, a tall dark skinned nurse came to get Sam. "Miss Puckett. Your friend is out of surgery and in a recovery area. You can come and sit with her if you'd like."
"Wow, that was fast. That doc really knows his stuff." Sam replied and jumped up. "Lead the way."
She entered the recovery room to find Carly lying down on the vinyl covered cot along the wall. The room was mostly dark with no windows and looked eerily similar to the room the school nurse would put kids in who got sick during class and were waiting for a parent to pick them up, or where girls were told to lie down when they had cramps.
Carly was out of it and only groaned or mumbled a bit, her mouth stuffed full of cotton to absorb blood from her tooth holes. Sam took a seat along the opposite wall and once again pulled out her phone, snapped a picture of the drugged brunette and sent it to both Freddie and Spencer.
After about ten minutes, Carly began to stir a bit more and tried to raise her head, the effects of the anesthesia wearing off slowly. Through blurry eyes she spotted her friend. "Aaaammmmmm!" She called and dropped her head onto the pillow again.
"Hey, Kid. Welcome back to the world of the living." Sam smirked. "Don't try to get up. Just lay still."
"Gnnh!" Carly mumbled and drifted back off to sleep.
The nurse came to check on Carly and change the cotton dressings. She then left Sam to watch over her and make sure she didn't try to stand or choke on the cotton..
"Ayy, Aaam." Carly mumbled, through the cotton after rousing again. "Damn, id you ge talwer?"
Sam moved to sit on the edge of her friend's cot to keep her still. "Don't think so. But my boobs grew again. How ya feeling, girl?"
"Mmhhhhh." Carly groaned and slowly pulled the lump of cotton from her mouth with her left hand. "Yuck. Ike I kished a sheee. Ow, it urts oo alk."
"As long as it wasn't a goat you kissed." Sam snickered and looked at the wad of cotton in Carly's hand. "Looks like you need a new tampon, though. Gross."
"Ampon." Carly now snickered at the topic and then gasped. "Oo you ave one? I shink my period shtarted." She stared at the bloody wad in her hand.
Sam held a trash can up so she could dispose of the cotton.
"Hey Carls. Remember that time I was at the dentist and they knocked me out with that funny gas. And then I confessed to kissing Fredlumps?"
Carly rolled her eyes as best she could in her state and groaned again, saying no more.
"So, anything you maybe want to confess?" Sam asked, hoping her friend would come clean. "Like that girls' weekend trip you were on the other year with the chicks from your sorority? I heard there were some pictures."
The dark haired girl remained silent, having fallen back asleep.
"No? Well, how about of I go first then you can go? Remember how I told you Freddie came to L.A. the other year and fell into the tank full of tuna fish?"
Carly snored slightly. This would give Sam an opportunity to get something off her chest that she had been meaning to tell her, hopefully without Carly remembering any of it. Then it would be on to sorority stories one the brunette was a little more lively.
She continued. "And then I told you how after he got out of the hospital, we went out and had some fun."
Another snore from Carly, but she mumbled a little afterward with a giggle. "Whee!"
"Are you even listening? God, and people say I'm a bad listener. Anyway, after we went out and had some fun, we kinda had some fun back at my place if you get my drift."
No words from Carly, just a snicker.
"Like some special fun. More intense than the fun stuff that I only ever did with him when we went out in high school. And maybe a couple of times after we split up."
"Meatball Golf!" Carly suddenly shouted, throwing her arms in the air, proving she understood part of the conversation. The brunette now opened her eyes and giggled again. "Ow, it hurtshh." She grabbed at her face. "It hurtshh shoo baad."
"Um, yeah. Meatball golf is fun but this was the kind of fun that involves a little less clothing."
Carly inhaled sharply which sounded like an old, fat man's snore and sat up slightly before flopping back onto the pillow.
Sam looked around to make sure no one else was within ear shot before continuing. "We, uh, did it."
"Woooooo." Carly taunted without lifting her head agian, slightly drooling and still slurring her words. "Aaaam and Fre-eee, itting in a tee . . . k, i, shh, shh . . . " She still sounded out of it, way out.
"It wasn't like that." Sam huffed. "We just had some fun. Honestly, it was something we both needed and, well, after I accidentally told him he was the only boy I ever loved and saved him from the killer tuna, it stirred up some feelings for me. Like, deep feelings. Very wet feelings. I mean, he dropped everything and flew to L.A. when he thought I had been hurt for crissake. Even though it was all a complete pack of bs, so I know he had some feelings too. And it's not like we didn't do it before. I was just so pissed when he went out with Cat. She was kind of a skank when it came to flirting with guys anyway. I know they didn't do anything but I guess it was kind of like reclaiming what was mine. The point is, we both had some pretty strong feelings and we both needed some closure to our relationship. So we, um, you know . . ."
"iid you kiiiiissssshhh?" Carly gasped and again sat up, this time without falling back down, propping on her elbows.
"Of course we kissed. And lots of other stuff, too." Sam smirked, remembering it well. "Believe me, I kissed more than his lips and so did he."
"Annnnnn" Carly's eyes were wide.
"And what?"
"Wa it goog?" Carly mumbled. "Ish he a goog kisher?"
"Uh, yeah. Pretty good." Sam replied with a smirk. "Best I ever had to be honest."
"Oooooooo!" Carly called and tried to high five Sam but missed and fell back onto the bed.
With her conscience cleared and the confession made, Sam was happy when the nurse came in to check on Carly and to declare that the dark haired young lady would be able to go home shortly. Sam was instructed to pull the car around to the side door of the clinic and wait until they brought her friend out in a wheelchair.
A short while later, Carly was safely buckled in the passenger seat of the very well used Volkswagen and Sam pulled out of the parking lot on the way back to Bushwell, driving more carefully than she ever had before. Nothing was said in regards to their conversation, only slight discussions on various soft foods that Sam and Spencer were set to prepare for the now extremely sore young lady and their respective favorite flavors of Jello.
As the dark haired girl slowly came out of her anesthesia induced state and her friend drove, she began to have flashbacks to the previous conversation. She said nothing about it, only studying Sam, who was paying full attention to the road in front of their car. Once they arrived in the parking garage of Bushwell, and Sam asked how she was feeling, Carly was deemed lucid enough to walk to the apartment. With Sam supporting her, the girls made their way to apartment 8-C. Carly was placed on the couch and Sam sat next to her while they waited for Spencer to get back and make them something to eat.
Carly side eyed Sam while she tried to find something on the TV for them to watch. She couldn't help but think of Sam and Freddie together, not necessarily as a couple but 'together' in a physical sense.
"Why are you looking at me like that?" Sam questioned with a bit of a snicker.
"Noshing." Carly answered and looked away. Her speech was slow but returning to normal and she still has a terrible lisp. She simply sounded like she was drunk. "I jush thing I need shome of the pain pillsh."
Sam got up to get Carly her pills and a drink and caught her friend studying her again as she walked toward the kitchen.
"You are seriously staring at me. What's the matter, my hair all messy or something?" Sam again inquired, trying to look at her reflection in the back door glass.
"No." Carly protested but soon continued. "Jus wondering wha's taking sho long with the pillsh, it'sh really shtarting to urt."
"Alright, alright. Here ya big baby." Sam handed her two pills and sat a glass of water down on the coffee table. "You know, I ate corn on the cob a couple of hours after the root canal that time."
Carly took the pills, winced at the feeling of the liquid in her mouth and sat the glass down, after barely a swallow. "Yuck. All I tashte ish blood." Within a a few moments she was back to side eyeing Sam.
Of course the blonde had to be a smart ass and taunt about this. "Look Carly, I've been under anesthesia before. I know when you're half in, half out, it can bring out what's inside that's been repressed for years. Sort of loosen up inhibitions and all but I'm totally straight, so don't go getting any ideas about making a move or anything. I hear that new barista down at Skybucks swings both ways if you're really interested in trying it with a chick."
"Sham!" Carly scolded with wide eyes.
"What am I supposed to think? You're staring at me again. Like I eye up a 10 piece bucket of chicken. You know, you never did tell me about you and your college friends on that weekend getaway. Melanie told me about the kind of chiz that went on at her boarding school."
"I wash not shtaring." The brunette begged off ignoring the inquiry about her sorority experience, her speech getting clearer. "It'sh jusht that while I wash out of it I short of remember you telling me about you and Freddie and how you two . . . " Carly trailed off.
"How we two what?" Sam asked with a slight gulp. 'Shit! She remembers something.' Sam thought to herself.
"You two might have been more than friendsh."
Sam used this wording as an excuse to de-escalate the conversation and shift words around. "Yeah. We dated in high school remember? He was my first kiss and all. I'm not proud of it. I'd really like to forget that part of my life."
"No, not jusht that. Not that long ago. Like you two, did shtuff."
"Shtuff?" Sam was now nervous, but tried to deflect by making fun of Carly's speech. "Like what shtuff? Meatball golf?"
"Not jusht that. I could shwear you told me that you and Freddie had . . . " Carly was cut off by Spencer slinging the door open an bursting in.
"Holy crap, you guys!" He shouted and ran toward the girls. "You remember that sculpture of the white house?"
"The one you made out of marshmallows?" Sam asked. "Cause if anyone told you I ate . . ."
"That's the one." He said with excitement. "Wait, you ate my marshmallows?"
Sam just looked away as he continued. "Anyway. It caught on fire."
"Aw, Shpencher." Carly said with pity. "I'm shorry."
"Don't be." He exclaimed. "That fire is gonna make me the most famous, most sought after, richest artist in the northwest. Why are you talking weird? You sound like a cartoon duck."
The girls just looked puzzled, Sam motioned for him to elaborate.
"An art critic saw it, and she wrote a piece on it and featured it on her blog. How it symbolizes the melt down of our government and the burning of the principles that this country once stood for."
Again, the girls both looked like deer in headlights.
"My phone's been ringing non-stop. I have an interview with three different political bloggers and journalists tomorrow and I've been invited to meet the head guy at the art museum next week." Spencer told them with excitement before his phone rang again. "Holy crap, this is a D.C. area code. I've gotta get this." He ran off toward his bedroom. "Maybe it's the president!"
"I just hope it's not the FBI." Sam smirked.
"Wow. That was something." Carly sighed. "He didn't even ask how my teef feel."
Sam was now trying to think of anything to help keep Carly from continuing their conversation from before the interruption. "I guess he's too busy to make me anything to eat. I'm gonna go hit Chicken Hut. You want anything?" Sam jumped up.
"Yeah, a bucket of extra shpicy. Wait, I can't eat chicken I just had four teef ripped out of my head. I need shoup." Carly whined sarcastically and grabbed Sam's arm. "And sit down. We weren't done talking about you and Freddie."
Sam, of course, went back to her old standby of feigning hatred of the young man. "Oh, come on! Do we have to talk about the nub all the time. I just consider myself lucky I haven't had to put up with him lately. Thank God for that summer internship."
"You mean, like you put up wiff him when you were in bed?"
"What kind of whacky gas did they give you anyway, Shay? You're imagining chiz." Sam scoffed, still trying to play it off, but Carly was having none of it.
"Samantha Puckett, don't try to make it sound like I'm crazy or I was juss drugged up, I was sober enough to remember what you said. I might not have been totally with it, but what you said is permanently etched in my brain. In fact, I'm having a hard time not trying to picture it."
Sam sighed, there was no use in denying it further. Sure, Carly might not have been totally with it, but she obviously remembered exactly what she was told. Why couldn't she be like most people and not remember a damn thing when she was under anesthesia. Then again, Carly remembered most everything when she was drunk, so why not this?
However, the blonde couldn't help but taunt a little. "You're trying to picture me and Frednubs doing the nasty? Wow, aren't you just a little closet freak? I knew those drugs would loosen you up. You wishing you could have watched or something? Maybe joined us?"
The brunette raised an eyebrow in question thinking Sam was somehow trying to propose a threesome. Before she could say anything, Sam broke and decided to come clean.
"Fine. You want a confession? Here goes, Freddie and I, we did have sex." Sam blurted out.
Carly gasped. Not only was this a shocking reveal but she actually broke Sam's will to resist. "And?"
"Why does there have to be an 'and'?" Sam shrugged. "It was simple, we did the deed, if you remember so much about our conversation, you should remember I told you all there was to tell already. We made the beast with two backs after he got chewed up by the killer tuna fish. He stayed with me for a few days in L.A., we hung out, did it a couple more times and then he came back to Seattle for college. Like I said many times over the last week, thank God for his internship, so I don't have to look at his face."
"Did you guys talk about, you know, you. Where you stand with each other. Like if you're a couple or anything? Does he ever call you?"
"Je-zuz, Carls!" Sam huffed. "Why are you trying to make this out to be more than it is? We did the humpty dance, we're not dating, we're not nothing. Hell, it was a couple of years ago, before he even started college. I'm sure he's moved on and found some other desperate, half-blind girl to hump on. Although, I've gotta admit if it was to happen again, I wouldn't have any objections. Cause, let me let you for a nerd, that boy . . . "
"Sam!" Carly scolded, cutting her off. "I do not need to know this."
"What? All I'm saying is, that boy knows what he's doing. I mean, he might be a nub but mama likey." The blonde wiggled her eyebrows.
"How much likey?" Carly asked.
"Many times that week likey." Sam smirked. "And several times a day. Complete with eyes rolling back in my head and white knuckles gripping the sheets each time. Like I said, he knows what he's doing. I guess that's what happens when a guy watches porn online all the time, it's like an instructional video or something, I dunno?"
"I'm pretty sure Freddie isn't the type to watch porn online." Carly argued.
"Don't kid yourself, Carls. He knew exactly what he was doing like he had professional instruction and I'm pretty sure he isn't a trained gynecologist. The first time we did it, back in high school, he told me it was his first time too. And judging by home quick it was, I have no reason to doubt him on that part. Although for a guy with a hair trigger, it's really pretty easy to re-set him. I think our record was five in one night. Or was it six?"
"My God, Sam. How's that even possible? I mean, how could you even walk after that. The most I ever did was three. Er, I mean . . . " Carly stopped mid sentence and turned bright red.
"Eh, the body is a complex machine." Sam shrugged. "Now can I please go get my fried chicken before I starve to death? And when I get back I want to hear about what went on in your college dorm room."
Carly allowed Sam to leave her side long enough to appease her stomach. "As long as you bring me back some pudding. And no promises on my sorority sisters."
As soon as the blonde got out into the hallway, she sent Freddie a text 'Hey, just so you know. I told Carly we did it.' They did message each other regularly.
He immediately responded. 'Good plan. To tell her when she was under anesthesia. She was still under, right?'
She responded 'wellllll . . . "
Meanwhile, Carly took advantage of the opportunity to make a phone call.
Freddie answered on the third ring, his heart still beating fast from Sam's text. He always got flustered when she called him. "Hey Carls. How you feeling after the dentist?"
"Sore, but the pain meds are kicking in finally. Sam just went out to get me some pudding."
"Good. Good. Glad to hear it. Thanks for calling. I was thinking of you but I hated to disturb you in case you were still out of it. Or sleepy or something." He tried to sound normal but he knew he was about to be interrogated.
"Freddie, I need to ask you something." She began. "When were you going to tell me you and Sam hooked up?"
'Oh, shit." Freddie thought to himself.
Feel free to decide for yourself how the Carly/Freddie conversation went. This was just something short-ish that popped into my mind after I saw the dentist episode for abut the twenty-sixth time the other day.