AN- This oneshot takes place during irestaurant.

..

Research

You'd have thought after six months, six long, grueling months, he would've finally gotten over it. That he'd have been able to accept that he had made a mistake and move on.

But he couldn't.

Every day since that day in the elevator, where he had let end perhaps the greatest chapter in his life, he had been kicking himself for not turning to Sam as she turned to head home when their phones beeped midnight, ending their last make-out session and telling her to stay. For sitting there silently as she mumbled a goodbye before climbing back into the apartment from the fire escape where they had gone to live out the last moments of their relationship.

Why didn't he stop her? He had wanted to, with every waking fiber of his body. But he didn't, and he had been living with that regret every day since.

There had to be a way to fix it, Freddie thought miserably, watching the blonde-headed girl dance around with Carly as he filmed them for the web show.

I want her back. That thought kept bouncing around in his skull. But would Sam even want to get back together with him? Well, they did say that maybe they'd try the relationship again some day, when he became more abnormal and she became more normal, but truth be told, Freddie didn't want Sam to become more normal. She wouldn't be Sam then. And then, of course, assuming that he did manage to find the courage to approach Sam about this, what would he even say? Just a casual, "So you want to get back together?" No. He knew that wouldn't cut it. It had to be something special to even give him a chance…but what?

"Hey, did I miss my part with the meat sauce yet?" Gibby asked, tapping his shoulder as the girls continued to dance.

"Um, no, that's not for a few minutes," Freddie told him, snapping out of his thoughts. "Why don't you-" He stopped and stared at him. Gibby. Gibby had some…gift with girls that neither him nor Spencer could understand. It was a crazy thought, but maybe he could help him.

"Hey, guys, why don't we take a break?" Freddie called to the girls.

"But I thought you wanted to get this bit edited today," Carly pointed out.

"Eh, there's always tomorrow," Freddie shrugged. "Hey Gib, could I talk to you out here for a minute?"

Not giving the boy a chance to respond, Freddie pulled Gibby out into the hallway.

"Ow!" Gibby said indignantly as Freddie shut the door behind them. "My arm was already sore from my archery lesson!"

"Sorry," he said quickly. "Look, I need some…advice."

"Did that rash come back?"

"No! It's just, well, it's a girl problem." Freddie explained.

"Oh, I see," Gibby nodded. "What kind of girl problem? Is one following you? Trying to sell you a monkey?"

"Um, it's actually a more…romantic problem," Freddie frowned. "If I tell you something right now, I need you to swear to me it will never leave your lips."

"Sure," he said.

"You need to swear it on the Stone of Algia," Freddie said seriously.

Gibby's eyes widened. "Dude, I'm not sure I'm comfortable with that."

"It's really important," Freddie told him.

"I…okay," Gibby sighed. "Wow, this must be some serious chiz."

"Yeah, it is," Freddie nodded. "You see, the thing is…I want to get back together with Sam."

"Puckett?"

"No Gibby, the other Sam I dated," Freddie said, rolling his eyes. "Yes her!"

"But I thought she dumped you and broke your nerdy little heart."

"I just let her say that's what happened," Freddie told him. "The truth is it was mutual."

"Well that was stupid of you," Gibby said.

"Yeah, I know," Freddie sighed. "So do you think you could help me? I mean, you seem to understand the workings of the female mind pretty well."

"It's a gift," Gibby said happily. "Okay, so if you want to get back together with Sam, you need to do something crazy. Chicks love that; the crazier the better. How do you feel about Japanese fireworks?"

"I can't do anything illegal, Gib," Freddie said. "I'll wind up in prison and then I'll have to wait years to get her back."

"Fine, but you're making this difficult," Gibby said. He thought for a moment. "Okay, I got it. You go on iCarly…"

"Uh-huh," Freddie nodded. "And?"

"You sing her a love song."

"A love song? Gibby! I can't do that! I can't sing!"

"That has nothing to do with it," Gibby told him. "I told you, it has to be crazy. Did you listen to a word I said?"

"But I've never written a love song before," Freddie said.

"It's not algebra! Just through some words together that rhyme!" Gibby exclaimed.

"Well…I guess that might work," Freddie said slowly.

That night, Freddie stayed up into the night, researching famous love poems on the Internet; he wanted to make sure his love song didn't turn out to be a total pile of garbage. Now while Freddie always got A's in his English classes, he knew he was nowhere near skilled enough to pull of something of Shakespeare's level.

I just have to make her like it, Freddie told himself. So I'll just make sure I talk about things she likes in it. Oh, and I obviously have to put in there how beautiful I think she is…but then where do I talk about her kisses? And then how am I supposed to find a rhythm to sing all of this to on iCarly?

By the end of the week, though, he had found that he had actually made pretty good progress in this endeavor. He had written two verses and he had put together a nice audio mix to play in the background while he sang it. He just needed a strong ending verse and he would have it.

He leaned against his locker, trying to act casual as he chatted with Carly, but still racking his brain for the right lyric.

I need something powerful…something direct, yet sort of heartfelt…

He absentmindedly followed Carly, still deep in his thoughts.

I want you to be mine again…I can't live without you…No, those are all stupid. I need something better…

"Is it too late for you to love me?" Yes, that's perfect! I can put that right before-Oh crab, I said that out loud, didn't I?

"What?" Carly frowned.

"Nothing," he said quickly.

"Did-Did you just say-"

"No." Oh no, Carly's not going to drop this. Okay, just keep acting natural. Maybe she'll think she misheard me or something…Oh thank God, here's Sam. Hopefully she'll distract Carly.

Sam led them all down to the basement, saying something about Gibby and a basement, but all Freddie could focus on was finishing his love song as soon as possible so he could sing it on iCarly before Carly got a chance to tell Sam what he had just let slip.

While Gibby was talking about his dream of opening his own restaurant, Freddie looked around. It was actually a nice place…real secluded, especially with that concrete ceiling. If Gibby actually did follow through with this dream, and his own plan of winning Sam back with that song of his worked, then this might be a great place for them to go on their first date. It would just be them, and maybe he could even convince Gibby to cook some Italian food for them, just like Sam liked. He could bring in some candles and some nice music, maybe even a-

"Will you tell this boy he can't open a restaurant in our school?" Carly said to Freddie.

Well, maybe it was a little far fetched, Freddie told himself. "Gib," he began. "You can't-"

Oh, what the hay. Gibby's right. I have to do something completely crazy to get Sam back, and I sure as heck would have to take her on a crazy first date if the plan worked. So why not take her to a one-of-a-kind school basement restaurant? She seems to really like the idea.

"Would there be lasagna?" he asked.

"Heck yeah there would," Gibby nodded.

Carly rolled her eyes. Freddie knew she was skeptical about the idea, but hey, she wasn't the one trying to win Sam back. After Carly headed upstairs, basically saying that they were crazy for believing in this idea, Freddie knew he would have to talk to her about that slip up earlier. It would only be a matter of hours, minutes, actually, for this was the digital age, before Carly told Sam what he had said. Maybe if he could talk to her, tell her he was thinking of some movie he had seen last night and remembering a particular scene…yes, maybe that would work…

"All right, I'm gonna follow Carly up," he said to Sam as Gibby went back to the kitchen to inspect it further.

"Hey," Sam said as he was grabbing her bag.

He turned to her.

"You got a new little crush on her?"

What? What the-Why would she-No! No! Not her! Freddie thought frantically to himself. Oh man, why would Sam think that? Okay, Benson, you've got to play this off. She can't think you still have a crush on Carly, otherwise she'll never take you back!

"What? Pfft, no!" Oh God, that did not sound convincing at all…I've got to bail before I make this any worse.

"Well go."

"Bye."

He ran up the steps, spotting Carly buying a can of Wahoo Punch from the vending machine.

"Um, hey, Carly," Freddie said, hurrying over to her.

"I thought you were going to help Gibby plan his little restaurant dream," Carly said, popping the cap to her beverage and taking a swig of it.

"Later," he said. "Um, listen, about what I said earlier…it's not what it sounds like."

"You mean the whole 'Is it too late for you to love me' thing?" Carly asked. "Because, look, Freddie, you're a great guy, but you're kind of like my brother, and dating you again would be sort of-"

"Yeah, I got that totally," Freddie nodded. "It was just thinking of some chick flick I saw on T.V. last night. I was just…trying to remember the last line. It was really bothering me, and that line clicked in my head and I just said it out loud."

"Oh, you must have seen Dear Joe!" Carly said. "I think the last line of his last letter went something like that."

"Yeah, sure," Freddie said quickly. "Hey, um, you and Sam haven't found anything to go between our new Super Bra clip and the thing where Sam and Gibby throw syrup onto that old lady for this week's iCarly, have you?"

"No, why?"

"I was wondering if I could maybe do something on the show."

"What?" she frowned.

"Um, I was hoping I could keep it a secret."

"It's not another robot thing is it?" she asked. "Because I saw that Fredbot thing while I was with my granddad and it was-"

"No, no robots," Freddie told her. "It's just…something I really have to do."

"Well, okay," Carly nodded.

…..

At last, the day Freddie had been waiting for arrived.

"I'm gonna do it," he told Gibby softly while they were in the studio, getting ready for the show.

"Do what?" Gibby frowned.

"Sing my love song to Sam," Freddie told him. "Remember, you said it would be a good way to show her that I want her back as my girlfriend?"

"Oh yeah, I actually saw that in a movie, you know," he said. "The girl ended up laughing at the guy and wound up with his brother."

"Dude! Why'd you tell me to do it then!" Freddie hissed.

"Relax, it's not like you have a brother or anything," Gibby told him.

Freddie groaned. Well, it was too late to back out now. He would just have to hope for the best.

Freddie barely paid attention throughout the web show. When the clip of Super Bra tying up Spencer for trying to rob a produce store and helping Sam and Carly win their hopscotch championship ended, Carly turned to the camera.

"Alright, and now our favorite tech producer, Freddie, will take the floor," she said.

"We have no idea what he's doing," Sam said. "So we apologize in advance."

Carly took the camera from Freddie and Sam tossed him her remote.

"Um, hello," Freddie said nervously to the camera. "Er, I-I know you usually don't see too much of me on this side of the camera, but, um, well, there's something important I have to do."

Carly and Sam exchanged confused looks but said nothing.

"As I'm sure you've all heard by now," Freddie said, taking a folded sheet of paper out of his pocket. "Sam and I broke up about six months ago. And well, there's been something I've wanted to say to her ever since, but I've never really been able to tell her. So, um, I'm-I'm going to sing it to her."

He quickly pressed a button on Sam's remote and the studio filled with music. Carly gasped, a grin spreading over her face, and Sam had an unreadable expression on hers. Hands trembling, Freddie unfolded the paper and began to sing, to the best of his ability, which unfortunately was not very good.

"When we were together,

it made everything better.

But when we fell apart,

It broke my heart."

"Oh my God!" Carly squealed, looking over at Sam from behind the camera. "Do you realize what's happening here?"

Sam didn't say anything, she just continued to stare at Freddie.

"Still staring at you, Sam,

the way you look at ham.

I've missed you for so long,

Which is why I wrote this song."

"Sam!" Carly whispered. "He wants to get back together with you! He's serenading you with a love song!"

"Yeah, I've realized that," Sam whispered back.

"So, do something!" Carly hissed back to her. "Don't just stand here for the love of salami!"

"I need to know desperately,

Is it too late for you to love me?

I want to-"

"Um, yeah, stop the music," Sam said, stepping out from behind the camera.

Freddie quickly pressed the button on Sam's remote and the music faded out. He looked at her, so many feelings rushing through him. What was she going to do? Was she going to laugh at him in front of everyone? Was she going to make fun of the song? What was she doing?

The two stared at each other for several minutes, Carly and Gibby not making a noise as they watched the scene intently.

And then, the corners of Sam's lips turned up into a small smile, and she stepped closer to him.

"Only you," she said in a voice so that only he could hear her. "Would sit there and write some cheesy love song and sing it live in front of millions of viewers. Did you fall out of some lovesick romance drama?"

Freddie swallowed nervously. Here it comes, he thought anxiously. She's going to laugh in my face.

"If I had seen any other guy do that," Sam continued softly. "I would've thrown something at him and called him a loser. But," she stepped even closer to him, so that there was barely any space between them. "You actually managed to pull that off, Fredward."

Freddie opened his mouth. "So-So does that mean…do you want to…"

Sam grinned and pressed her lips to his.

Behind them, Carly let out a high-pitched girly scream, dropping the camera as she began to clap happily.

"Well," Sam said once her and Freddie pulled away. "I guess since you still kiss pretty well, I can deal with having you around as my boyfriend again."

Freddie laughed. "So, did you like the song?"

"Just don't go giving up your tech jobs to try and land a record deal," Sam told him. "But I've got to say, the song wasn't half bad."

"You guys, this is so great!" Carly exclaimed, running over to the couple and jumping up and down, looking as though Christmas had come in July. "I feel like the happiest girl in the world right now!"

"But no one sang a love song to you," Gibby pointed out.

"Yes, thank you, Gibby," Carly snapped. She turned back to her best friends. "Freddie, that was the sweetest thing I've ever seen in my life! Can I please buy the rights to this story so I can make it a huge movie? All of the love stories out there now seem so lame! Oh, and I'm sorry I dropped your camera."

"It's fine," Freddie shrugged.

"You spent three hours polishing that thing last week," Sam said.

"Yeah, well," Freddie grinned. "I've got more important things in my life now."