Okay, a bit of scene – setting. It's a year or two (your call) since the final episode of Sam & Cat, and the girls are each living with their respective love interests, Freddie and Robbie. Sam and Freddie tried the long – distance thing for a couple months after his visit to California, then he moved there to go to UCLA and be with Sam.
They now live in Cat's Nona's apartment, for reasons that seemed to make sense to Cat at the time but which she could never adequately explain to others the way Sam explained it to her. Cat and Robbie live nearby. Carly and Gibby are in Los Angeles visiting. We begin...
Standing and talking to Sam's ex – roommate Cat and her boyfriend Robbie, who were holding hands, Carly suddenly realized that she hadn't seen their hosts in about 15 minutes. Glancing around she saw their friend Jade and her boyfriend Beck sitting on the couch, but no sign of "Seddie."
When Sam and Freddie decided to throw what Cat insisted on calling "a grown-up boy-girl dinner party" to celebrate their first time seeing Carly in person for years (and introduce her to their Los Angeles friends),, she decided to drive down with Gibb. She supposed that two or three years ago she might've felt self conscious about being in the only boy – girl pairing at a party who were not a couple. But age and travel had mellowed her and Gibby was a good, sweet friend. He'd insisted on playing DJ and was standing behind the island with his laptop picking out a wide mix of material from modern R&B/rap hybrids to 30 year – old reggae.
The door to Sam and Freddie's bedroom opened and they emerged. Even from a short distance, Carly could see a distinctly scrambled look in Freddie's eyes.
Oh, my God. As long as they've been together. At their own dinner party, for criminy's sake.
But looking closer she realized the look on Sam's face was one she couldn't remember seeing before. She looked strangely...fragile. As Freddie proceeded into the main area of the apartment Carly approached Sam and as she got closer, realized her face was tear – stained.
"Sam? What happened?"
Sam shook her head and gestured towards Freddie with her chin. He was walking up behind the island. "Take five, Gibb."
Gibby turned the music down but not off and walked over to where Cat and Robbie were standing. They and the other guests turned with interest towards Freddie, who clearly had something to say.
Did Freddie look nervous? It'd been just long enough since she'd seen him Carly wasn't sure.
"Do you still have Baggsey?" she murmured to Sam. Her friend smiled and shook her head again.
Freddie spoke quietly, but with assurance, Carly was glad to see. He'd actually come a long way.
"I'm really glad you're all here," he began, "Because I have some things to tell you. Robbie, Beck" he continued, looking at each in turn, "Since I've been in California, you guys have helped remind me what it's like to have more guy friends."
"Even Robbie?" Jade said just loud enough for Beck to hear. He gave her a stern look.
"You know I love my girls - " Freddie went on.
"We're not his girls," Carly said to Sam.
"Eh. I am." She smiled encouragingly at her boy.
Freddie bowed slightly to Carly. "Fair enough. You know how much I loved being part of the iCarly trio, the other two members of whom-"
"The on – air talent," Sam said.
" - happen to be girls. But sometimes a guy just needs a road trip or something with his boys. Which reminds me," Freddie smiled, "Beck?"
The darker man looked up as in mock confidence Freddie muttered,
"Your payment for me not to tell Jade what happened at the hotel in San Luis Obispo is late."
Robbie and Cat laughed (Robbie sounding not unlike Rex) and Beck smiled nervously at Jade, who scrunched up her face at Freddie. Her jealousy had actually cooled down a great deal the longer she and Beck stayed together and she grew more assured of his love, but it was still fun for friends to tease her about.
Fun for them.
"Gibb," Freddie said, turning to the curly-haired boy. "What can I say? You're my oldest guy friend and I can safely say there's no one like you. Except maybe Guppy."
"Who's Guppy?" Jade looked at Sam.
"His little brother."
"There's TWO of him?"
Meanwhile, Carly was starting to feel a ball of tension growing in her stomach.
What was Freddie doing? These were the sorts of things you said to say – goodbye. And Sam had been crying. She seemed cheerful now but it was still very Sam to put on a brave face and keep it up at all costs until she was one-on-one with somebody she trusted.
Was Freddie sick?
Or – or -
As he spoke, Freddie had been moving calmly through the apartment, addressing everyone directly but in an informal, relaxed fashion. Now, he reached -
"Cat,"
"Yay!"
Everyone smiled. They loved Cat.
"I want to thank you first of all for being a great friend to Sam. You'd have to know her pretty well to see it, but I bet when she came here she was really missing a best girlfriend."
Carly and Sam's eyes met. Sam's seemed to Carly to have a twinkle in them that if she hadn't known her since they were eight she would call...merry. She hoped she was equaling it, but the question would not leave the back of her mind...
"No one takes a friend's place," Freddie went on, "but, well, my mom likes the old line about "cherish new friends but keep the old, one is silver and the other's-"
"Gold!" Cat said along with him, clearly pleased with herself for guessing the rhyme.
"Right. And, after our little misunderstanding when I first met you -"
Jade, Cat and Sam all gave very different smiles and Robbie said, "Worth the bites, Buddy!"
"-I've found you to be a good friend too. You always seem to be able to give me a smile when I need it. I don't always understand how you get me to smile, but you do."
"Thank you, Freddie. I'm glad you didn't want to fadoodle with me."
"Me too" Sam and Robbie said together.
Carly cocked her head at Sam and mouthed, "Fadoodle?"
"Long story," the other girl whispered with a dismissive wave.
"And Jade, I understand for a long time Cat didn't want you to meet Sam because she thought one or both of your lives would be at stake. Now knowing you both, I can understand that. Luckily neither of you found a Darth Vader, you found a Lando to your Han."
"I knew he'd dork it up," Sam mumbled to Carly.
"Wait, which one of us is which?" Jade asked, amused.
"Oh, I'm Lando," Sam assured her.
"Really? You think I'm more like Han?"
"No, it's just that if either of us is going to be a smooth talking b-"
"A-ha!" Freddie cut in,"I knew you liked them more than you-"
But before he could go on Carly stepped forward, no longer willing to hide her concern.
"Freddie, why are you telling all of us this?"
Most of the other faces in the room turned back towards him. They may not have shared her concern, but they were curious.
"Sorry," Freddie said, "I've been trying to build up to something."
Carly braced herself. This was it. The important thing was going to be being there for Sam and Freddie. Maybe she could-
"Sam and I are moving back to Seattle," he said.
Robbie said "Aw," but Gibby said "Alright! Seddie's coming home!"
Beck stoically smiled at Freddie, knowing he was going to miss his friend. The two of them had really hit it off, even collaborating on two or three short films that Beck wrote for himself and his Hollywood Arts friends to act in, and Freddie directed.
Meanwhile Sam had stepped closer to the person she expected to take this least well.
"Really, Sammy?" said Cat.
"Yeah, kid. I'm afraid so."
Cat's face crumpled. "I'm gonna miss you so much!"
"I'll miss you too, Cat," Sam said, wrapping her arms around the younger girl. "But we're not leaving right away, you and I will have lots of time together first and it's not like we'll never visit."
Freddie said, "If we have time, jetting somewhere..." but even Cat knew he was joking.
Sam put on her Cat voice and said "You're so mean to me" to him with fake plaintiveness.
"Come on, Sammy, cut it out," Cat said, her tears turning to laughter.
Jade had risen; she put her own arm around Cat for a squeeze; then looked at Sam.
"I'll miss you too, Puckett," she said. "There's no one I like better to have an all – night horror movie marathon with."
"Well-" said Beck.
"I mean if I want to watch the movies," she said, rolling her eyes slightly. "And you, Freddie – you leaving takes down my regular eye – candy quotient by one."
"You still have us," Rex's voice chimed in from somewhere. Carly and Gibby looked around to see who'd spoken, everyone else ignored it.
Sam turned her attention to Carly, walking over to where her two best friends were now standing next to each other. As she did so, she suddenly realized, Carly hadn't said anything since Freddie made that first big announcement.
Although she was in fit shape, Carly looked as though she had to catch her breath. Sam's face was quizzical as she asked "Carls?"
Carly suddenly hugged them both and squealed, "Don't you EVER do that to me again!"
"Okay," said Freddie over one shoulder.
"Do what?" Sam asked over the other.
Carly released them. "I thought you were sick, you idiot!" She gave him a light slap, with no real anger behind it, such as you might give to a bad dog.
"What?"
"Well, Sam was crying, and you were talking like you were writing last farewell letters."
"Oh god, Carls, I'm sorry! I'm fine. I'm completely fine." He gave her another hug and Sam joined it.
They held each other tightly.
Yes, I know in this "universe" Star Wars should be replaced with Galaxy Wars, but I needed characters everyone could recognize and besides, they broke that on the shows a couple of times, too.
Thanks for reading and I'll see you in the next chapter...