AN: Hope yall's days are going well! How's the reboot for you, if you're seen it? It's not out where I am but hopefully I can see it soon and I look forward to it aha so here's some Seddie to keep me going while I'm waiting - it's set just after the tuna fish jump as I've always been curious what happened after x

Surprise

The blood in her body raced at a record speed back to the source: her beating heart. As she stood there in the doorway to hers and Cat's apartment, the box of fried chicken now on the floor, her mouth agape, she struggled to fathom what was happening. Freddie Benson, in her apartment, at half four in the afternoon, holding a bouquet of flowers. Except, he was talking to Cat.

"Freddie Benson, would you like a glass of my special lemonade?"

Sam raised her eyebrows.

"Oh, no, uh, I'm just waiting for Sam to get back. Speaking of which, is she coming home soon—"

"Who?"

"Sam, you know, your roommate?"

"Ohhh, Sammmm." Cat nodded her head. "I thought you said Spam."

Sam cleared her throat, finally feeling like she was back in the room. "Benson," she managed to get out. "What are you doing here, you nub?"

"I was in the neighborhood—"

"You live over a thousand miles away."

Freddie scratched the back of his neck nervously. "Would you believe me if I said my aunt lived down the street?"

"The only middle-aged woman on the street lives with four cats," Sam frowned. "And your mother has an allergy to cats, so I doubt she'd be stopping by there to help her apply her foot cream." Freddie tried not to chuckle, trying to keep up the pretense. He had missed her humour. She looked at Cat. "Cat, time to go."

"But—" Cat huffed and crossed her arms over her chest, evidently upset. "I wanted to make lemonade for Freddie Benson!"

"And I want to push Fredward down the stairs."

"Sam!"

"Sorry, I thought we were listing things we wanted to do."

Freddie rolled his eyes, her comments no longer getting to him as much as they did when he was younger. Cat came over to him, getting on her tippy toes to whisper in his ear, out of Sam's earshot, "She's only mean because she likes you." Freddie whispered back a jokey "I know" and the two watched as Cat grabbed her oversized bag and left the apartment.

"You spilt your chicken," Freddie told her.

Sam scoffed. "I know that. It was your fault."

"I didn't do anything!" Freddie huffed. "I mean, except drive for nineteen hours through a storm and two traffic jams just to see you." He held up the bouquet. "I bought you these. Roses with no thorns. As you like them."

Sam had to admit, he was quite sweet. Especially driving all that way just for her. It wasn't his fault that she wasn't home when he had turned up. "Why are you really here?" She walked around him and made her way to the fridge to grab a root beer – surprisingly, she offered him one. He shook his head and gave her a polite "no thank you." Once she'd got poured some water in a vase with the flowers, she headed back to the sofa and looked back at him after taking a sip. "So, why are you here?"

He shrugged his shoulders, taking a seat beside her on the sofa. "Because I—Hang on, isn't this the furniture from That's a Drag?" Sam nodded and told him that it was too long of a story. So, he just sighed and continued what he was saying before. "I just, I don't know, really. Just got in the car and drove. Then before I knew it, I was in Portland. Stopped at a flower shop once I saw the Hollywood sign and used Moodle Maps to find the rest of my way."

"I thought I'd never see you again after the tuna fish incident," Sam admitted. "Was thinking of travelling up to Seattle for Thanksgiving but I don't really have much to be thankful for there. Carly's gone, you're living with Crazy, Spencer has a new girlfriend. What is there for me, other than a house with no water or heating?"

"Seattle can get pretty cold," Freddie agreed. "But you know, you're always welcome to stay with me. If it makes you feel any better, I can tell you that my mother is getting better. She no longer makes me sign a shampoo contract or gives me tic baths. I did catch her weighing her food the other day, but I think that's normal behaviour for her." Sam laughed to herself. She'd never forget the stories Carly had told her about Mrs. B's behaviour the night she had stayed with them – the early morning fire drill story had to be her favourite. Freddie reassured her, though, that the fire drill was now at lunchtime instead. "College starts for me in September."

She sat up straight, more on her knees. "Oh, yeah, forgot about that. Definitely missed the applications there, aha. Where did you apply to?"

"Caltech and MIT," he told her. "Got accepted to both. Anyway, I thought you finished school online? We discussed it after the tuna fish incident, but I've gotta say, I was so dosed up on pain meds, I can't remember much from the few weeks after. I do remember, however, my mother driving down to LA and pulling me back to her arms and we didn't get a chance to say goodbye. I couldn't leave stuff like that, so I guess that's why I'm here. We never got to have that dinner, you know, Puckett."

"If you're hungry, Cat said there's some chicken on the floor over there," Sam grinned. Freddie rolled his eyes and moved closer to her, resting his feet on the coffee table stand. "Are you alright, nub? You must be tired. That's a long way."

"You're telling me. How you did it on a motorbike, I do not know," Freddie smiled, subtly complimenting her. She shrugged her shoulders and got up from another root beer, but she got out the leftover pizza from last night and a few bottles of soda. "I've been saving up my eight dollars a month for the past few years, and I think I've got myself enough money now to take you out to a fancy restaurant. That's if you'd like that, of course."

Sam smiled to herself but didn't let him see it, turning her head away. She grabbed two glasses and took everything to the table, composing herself. "Sure, Benson. Could be fun." He grinned and said that he looked forward to it. "So, you randomly decided to come here?"

"I mean…Cat invited me…maybe…probably…yeah, she did."

Sam raised her eyebrows. "And here I was thinking you wanted to see me."

Freddie shrugged it off, deciding to change the subject. "I missed graduation by the way."

She frowned, putting down her piece of pizza in shock. "Pardon?"

"I got Cat's call about you having been ran over by a sports utility vehicle," Freddie said with a small laugh. Thinking about it now, he really did feel gullible. He remembered clearing his throat when he saw Sam's name flash up on her phone screen and the excitement coursing through his veins. "I got on a flight the next day, and then I got hurt. The day before graduation. I was laid up in my hospital bed when I got emailed my diploma."

Sam looked at him, struggling to believe his words. "You gave up graduation…for me? Because you thought I got hurt? You dropped everything? For me?" He chuckled, scratching his head with a nod. "I bet you were valedictorian as well, weren't you?" He didn't respond. "Oh my chiz! Why the heck did you give that up for me?"

"Because it's you, Sam. I meant what I said in that elevator."

"That was almost a year ago, Freddie."

"So you're saying you don't think the same thing anymore?"

Sam sighed. "You know when you called me that afternoon Carly left, and you asked if I wanted to get back together. And I said "do you" and you didn't reply. I thought we were over then and there was no chance of us ever getting back together. You haven't become any less…normal and I haven't become any more normal. Is it really worth risking our friendship again?"

"We discussed it a second ago, but I feel the need to remind you that I gave up valedictorian for you." She laughed gently and so did Freddie, his hand placed on her thigh. "I just, I think it's time to try again. I just have a feeling."

"I think you're weird," Sam told him bluntly. "Just think about it. You're going to college in September and I'm going to stay in California, running a babysitting service out of my apartment. It isn't practical. You could end up in—in—wherever MIT is, and I'll be here in Venice. We could have thousands of miles between us."

"But what if I went to Caltech? It's a fifty-minute drive, and I could stay over on weekends. I've been saving up for years and been working in the Pear Store throughout the summer; we could get a small apartment somewhere during my second or third year. Wouldn't it be so amazing, Sam? Our own place. Please just think about it. I don't need an answer now. We have ages to make our minds up."

"I can think quicker over chicken," Sam hinted, and Freddie rolled his eyes playfully. The two ordered two large chicken meals from the takeout place down the street, and Freddie popped out to get it, returning with the large paper bag several minutes later. Sam had prepared the coffee table ready with two freshly poured glasses of lemonade, and she had already put his duffle bag in her room, throwing it carelessly on her mess of a bed. She wasn't sure what he had planned but if he had really hopped into his car like he said, then he didn't have a plan and a hotel to stay in – Freddie loved to be simultaneous, when the situation actually required many months of planning. Who else would drive over a thousand miles without a plan?

Oh, wait. Sam did. That's how she ended up in LA.

Freddie sat back down and grabbed the TV remote. "Celebrities Underwater?"

"Yes," Sam agreed immediately, unpacking the takeout. She found a packet of some complimentary onion rings and smothered them in her new "for all foods" sauce she had finally perfected over the last few weeks. Freddie managed to steal one in the meanwhile, to which she glared at him as he took the final bite. With a chuckle, he excused himself to the toilet, but he didn't do the usual and instead stood at the sink, staring at himself. He was in California with Sam Puckett. My god, he had no idea how he got there.

"Freddie, your sheets are freshly sprayed!" Mrs. Benson called to him from his bedroom. He just hummed in response. "And there's some tofu in the fridge if you get hungry. I also made some of those gluten-free cookies you like and—" The increase in volume that his broken headphones intentionally did, almost relieving him, cut her off and he sighed. Did he really need new headphones when they did him favours?

Seconds later, his mother was waving a feathered duster in his face, making him sneeze. "Freddiekins, you should really—"

"Okay, that's it!" he finally snapped, standing up. He ditched the headphones on the sofa, marched over to the door and grabbed his jacket. His keys and wallet were conveniently in the pocket already and he felt his phone pressing into his side in his jeans pocket. "I'm going out—"

"But—ugh, fine! Be home for dinner."

"I'm eighteen years old. Leave me alone."

And with that, he slammed the door on his way out. Staring at the door across the hallway, he wondered if it was worth checking in on Spencer after he'd heard he had won a contest for one of his sculptures. He just hoped the unfortunate man would have a break now and finally get paid what he was worth for his sculptures. Then before he could realise what he was doing, the conversation he had with a ditzy redhead came back into his head, fogging everything else out – she had invited him out to California, saying Sam wanted to see him. Whether that was true, he did not know but he didn't care as he got in his car, stopped at the first gas station he saw, and was on his way through Seattle. Once he got to Portland, he switched the Moogle Maps on his phone on and didn't stop driving until he saw the Hollywood sign.

"Damn, you grew some, Benson," Sam teased when Freddie replayed the story to her. He scoffed and rolled his eyes playfully with a grin, helping her with the sheet. "But why me? Why did you come to me?"

"I haven't slept in twenty-four hours," he told her. "Can we have this discussion in the morning?"

She gave him a look, throwing the pillows on the pullout bed that she had for that one-time Jade stayed over a few months ago. "You were practically committing to marrying me earlier," she reminded him. "Yet you won't answer me this simple question."

"Because you feel like home, okay?"

Silence.

He sat down.

"And I've regretted our breakup ever since that night in that elevator. There's a reason couples go their own ways after a breakup – they don't, uh, you know, in an empty apartment and go their separate ways an hour and a half after breaking up and saying, 'I love you.'"

She dropped down beside him on the bed, not sure of what to say.

Freddie sighed. "I've said a lot, I know. I'm sorry. You probably just want to sleep."

"Ah, yes, at half nine at night. I've always been tired this early." He gave her a look, so Sam laughed and moved so she was sitting right beside him, resting herself on his chest. "You're not that insane, you know."

"I didn't say I was—"

"And I get why you want to be with me," she continued, ignoring him. "I mean," she flicked her hair mockingly, "I'm kinda irresistible. I just, I don't think it's time yet, Freddie." His name. "And of course, I appreciate the giving up valedictorian and well, missing your graduation, and you being eaten by tuna fish, oh, and the, well, everything else. I don't want to hurt you again."

"In case you haven't realised, Sam. I'm a big boy now." He flexed his muscles to her. "Go on, touch them." She couldn't help but laugh at him. "And I bet you could push me off the bed and I wouldn't feel it."

She went to shove him but decided not to with a small smile. He loved her. It was written all over his face. "Okay, you've convinced me that maybe, just maybe that we could work." His eyes lit up. "But first, I think you should call your mother."

He frowned. "Why?"

"Because before we know it, your face is going to be on milk cartons as a missing person if you don't at least let her know you're alive."

"Okay, fine."

Once he'd had a very forced conversation with his mother, who at first demanded he'd come home at once, but he managed to convince her (with his amazing convincing skills) that he would be fine, and he was now eighteen years old so he was allowed to stay in a house with two girls. She eventually called off her protective mother act and told him to be safe and hung up the phone. He returned to the lounge, where Sam had got herself very comfortable in his makeshift bed and was almost asleep, but at the sound of his footsteps, she sat up and smiled, before laying herself back on him.

"You're not moving, are you?"

"Nope."

He kissed her forehead. "We'll talk tomorrow. Goodnight, Sam."

"Night night."

Then when Freddie was almost asleep, he heard a small voice. "I don't want to push you down the stairs," she murmured to him, her blonde hair sprawled over his chest. He smiled. "Insults and being mean…they're my mechanism."

"I know," he told her quietly. "Now, go to sleep, Sammy."

Two hours later, after a close encounter with a shovel, a car and some feet fish that Trina was trying to force upon them, Cat returned to the apartment with Jade in tow. Cat pointed at the two and started squealing, grinning from ear to ear. "Look!" Cat gasped. "Look how cute."

"Gross," Jade grimaced. Cat rolled her eyes and grabbed the goth's arm, pulling her out the room, not wanting to interrupt the two from their slumber.

"I'm the best at surprises," Cat bragged.

"Shush, and go to sleep, Cat."

"'Kay, 'kay."