AN- I got this request before iGoodbye, and originally, it was supposed to be about an iCarly reunion where Carly had actually gone to Yakima with her grandfather. But after iGoodbye, I figured it would be more relevant to do the reunion with Carly coming back after Italy. Hope you like it!
…..
Havoc
"Carly! Hey, Carly! I'm over here! Carly!"
"Spencer, I see you!" Carly laughed, running over to her brother at the airport and giving him a big hug.
"Good, just making sure," Spencer said, returning the hug. "Nice to see you again, kid."
"You too," Carly smiled as the siblings pulled apart. "Man…I can't believe I'm back in Seattle. Its been what, two years almost?"
"Just about," Spencer nodded.
After Carly had gone to Italy with her dad, she had fallen in love with the country. Even though she did miss Spencer and her old school, and of course, her friends, she loved Italy, and therefore decided to stay and finish up her last year of high school there. She did return to the U.S. for college, however she decided to head to New York, where she had been accepted into a design school for aspiring clothing designers. Spencer, missing his little sister terribly, had visited Carly a few times, both in Italy and in New York, but he hadn't had Carly back, staying in his loft, since she had left with their dad that night.
"Well has the place changed since I left?" Carly asked as Spencer grabbed her bag from baggage claim. "Is the Groovy Smoothie still there? Is Lewbert still the doorman? What about-"
"Calm down, Carls," Spencer said. "You'll get to see everything; I mean, your winter break's almost a month long, right?"
"Yeah," Carly nodded. "Tomorrow I'll go explore Seattle and see how everything is. But tonight, it's just going to be the five of us. Me, you, Sam, Freddie and Gibby. Wow…I can't believe I haven't seen them since I left. I can't wait to see how they've all been!"
Sam, Freddie, and Gibby, had finished their senior year right at Ridgeway, but after that, they had gone their separate ways. Freddie had been accepted into MIT, his dream college, and left to start taking summer classes about a month after graduation. Gibby had stayed in Washington, but had moved out of Seattle. He had renovated an old recreation center and was now running some sort of an afterschool program for kids. Sam had decided that she needed a change of scenery as well. Right after graduation, she had packed up her bags and drove her new motorcycle that Spencer had given her all the way to L.A.
Carly had tried as hard as she could to keep in touch with her friends the past two years. And the one year while they were all still in high school, she did very well at it. Sure, it was a bit difficult to arrange web chats and phone calls with the huge time difference in play, but she made it a point to talk to everyone at least once a week. But then once they all went off in different directions it became harder. She tried to keep talking with everyone once a week, but soon she accepted the fact that living so far apart with such different schedules meant that she could really only talk to her friends a couple times a month. Even her phone calls with Sam became scarce, and the girls only video chatted on birthdays and major holidays.
But, after much planning on her part, Carly had finally managed to work around everyone's schedules and pick a time when everyone was available to have a reunion get together. The others had gotten in a few days before, and now that she was back, Carly was more than excited to see how her friends had been.
"I have the spaghetti tacos all made," Spencer said. "And I have special honey glazed ham, for Sam, and I have a bunch of sculptures to show everyone!"
"Sounds fun," Carly smiled. "I can't wait."
….
"Wow, Spence, I can't believe that in the two years I've been gone, you haven't redecorated this place even a little," Carly said as Spencer opened the door to the apartment.
"What are you talking about?" Spencer frowned. "I got new hardwood floors in here! See, they're two shades darker than before."
"Ah, yes," Carly laughed. "How could I have missed that?"
"Spencer, my mom wants to know if she could borrow your-Carly?"
Carly turned around and saw Freddie standing in the doorway.
"Freddie!" she exclaimed, running over to give him a hug. "I was just about to go across the hall and see you! I've missed you so much!"
"Yeah, I've missed you too, Carly," Freddie grinned. "But I thought your plane was getting in for another three hours?"
"Nah, it got in way ahead of schedule," Carly explained. "So, how's MIT been? You teching up the whole place?"
"Well I did boost the Internet speed in my dorm by 19 percent," Freddie said proudly.
"Aw, you're a super nerd even in a big college full of nerds," Carly said. "Hey, since you're here I should text Gibby and Sam and tell them to just come over now."
"Gibby's on his way over here, actually," Freddie told her. "Him and I were going to watch the Celebrities Underwater Christmas special while we waited for you to get here."
"Cool, is Sam on her way too then?" Carly asked.
"Um, no," Freddie said. "I-I actually haven't talked to her since I got home…Or since she left for L.A."
"What?" Carly frowned. "Why not?"
"Well I tried to," Freddie said. "But, well, Carly when you left for Italy…I think Sam was really affected by it."
"What do you mean?"
"I mean, she was so much less…Samish," Freddie said. "She wasn't loud and disruptive at school, for one thing. She sort of just showed up, pretended to listen in class and that was it."
"She didn't try to glue Mr. Howard's butt to his seat or put holes in Mrs. Briggs tires?" Carly asked.
"Nope."
"Oh my God," Carly said. "But-She seemed fine whenever I talked to her."
"Because she knew that if you figured out upset she was, you'd feel guilty," Freddie said.
"Well…why didn't she hang out with you and Gibby?" Carly asked.
"We tried to get her to," Freddie told her. "And she did…sometimes. But not nearly as often as she did when you were here. The last time Gibby and I talked to her was the night after our graduation, when we were at the Groovy Smoothie. She told us that she was leaving for L.A. the next morning. I tried to talk her out of it, but she said that I was leaving soon, so what difference did it make if she stayed in Seattle. I even went to her house the next morning to try and get her to stay one last time, but she had already left."
"You guys didn't text or web chat or anything?" Carly frowned.
"Well, she did text me when she got to L.A., since I had filled up her inbox asking her if she was okay," Freddie said. "And I sent her chat requests, but she never answered them…and then one day about a month ago she did actually send me a chat request, but I was in class. When I got back to my dorm, she was already offline."
"Wow…well, at least she agreed to come tonight," Carly said. "Maybe you can talk to her then and figure out what's been going on. We were all such good friends; being in different states or countries or whatever should affect that."
"Carly!" Gibby suddenly exclaimed, looking into the apartment through the open door. "Carly! You're back!"
"Yeah, I am, Gib," Carly smiled. "Hey, I'm gonna text Sam and tell her to head over now. And why don't you start telling me about that rec center you work for now?"
"Well you remember that pet weasel I got from the guy at the head shop?" Gibby asked.
"Yeah," Carly nodded.
"Well I made him my business partner!"
"Hold on," Carly frowned. "You made a weasel your business partner? Is that even legal?"
"Why? Are you going to turn me into the fuzz?" Gibby asked.
"Um, no."
"Good," Gibby said.
"Aw, Gib," Carly laughed. "You haven't changed at all." Her phone beeped and she looked down at the screen. "Okay, Sam said she'll be here in half-an-hour. So why don't I order the pizzas for us, and Spencer can get out the other food. Pepperoni good for you, Freddie?"
"Yeah," Freddie nodded.
"Anchovies for me," Gibby said.
"Gross," Carly cringed. "I don't know how you can eat those salty little fish…Let's see, I'll get a veggie special for me, and the meat slam for Sam."
"Aw man, I should've brought my weasel," Gibby moaned. "He loves the vegie special!"
….
Once the pizzas arrived, Carly, Freddie, Gibby and Spencer sat themselves around the coffee table as they began to eat.
"And then I found out that the mole was actually just some leftover brownie," Spencer said, taking a bite of his pizza.
"How could you not notice a piece of brownie stuck to you for three days?" Carly asked.
"I'm not observant, okay!"
"But still," Carly said. "I'd think something like that-"
Suddenly, the front door opened and Sam walked in.
"Sam!" Carly exclaimed, jumping up and running over to her best friend. "I'm so happy to see you! I can't believe its been two years!"
"Um, Carls," Sam gasped as Carly squeezed her. "Kind of about to suffocate here."
"Sorry," Carly said, releasing her. "But I haven't seen you in two years; I had a lot of hugs stored up!"
"Yeah, I bet you do," Sam laughed. "Hey, is that meat slam pizza?"
"Of course, it's your favorite!" Carly said.
"Oh sweet!" Sam said, grabbing a slice. "No pizza place in L.A. makes this kind. I've been going insane without it!"
"Hey, I paid for it!" Spencer said. "Don't I get a hug?"
"Yeah, yeah," Sam smiled, giving the man a hug. "How you been, Spencer? Still a man-child sculptor?"
"You know it!" Spencer replied. "How's your motorcycle holding up?"
"Oh, it's awesome," Sam told him. "Hasn't failed me yet."
She turned to Gibby. "What's up, Gib? Hey, is that weasel hair on your shirt?"
"Huh? Oh, yeah," Gibby nodded, giving Sam a hug. "I was brushing the little guy's fur before I came over."
Freddie stood up and walked over to Sam. "Um, hey," he said awkwardly.
"'Sup?" Sam replied.
The two looked at each other for a moment. Were they supposed to hug?
"So, um," Sam said, clearing her throat. "Good to see you, nub." She patted him on the shoulder before turning back to Carly. "So how's New York, Carly?"
"Well, I never actually get to see the city," Carly said. "I'm really busy with design school. But it's a lot of fun. One of my classes is taught by Marcela DeLorento!"
"Who's she?" Sam asked.
"Only the most successful handbag designer in the world!" Carly said. "It's so cool just to have her evaluate my work. It's like having DaVinci look at your paintings!"
Freddie tried to pretend to listen to Carly along with the others. But the truth was he was barely listening to a word she said. Why had Sam hugged everyone else but him? On one hand, he could understand it. After all, how was one supposed to greet their ex-boyfriend after two years? But then again, weren't him and Sam more than just exes? Weren't they still friends?
"So what about you, Sam?" Carly asked, bringing Freddie out of his thoughts. "What are you doing in L.A.?"
"Oh, um, you know," Sam said. "I…started my own business."
"You have your own business?" Freddie said.
"Well, my roommate and I started it," Sam said. "Hey, you guys actually know her!"
"We do?" Carly frowned.
"Yeah, you remember when we went to Kenen Thompson's house party to see if that guy you were dating was cheating on you?"
"Yeah," Carly nodded.
"Well do you remember one of the girls we met there? The tiny one with the red hair who couldn't talk because she had vocals nobs or something?"
"Oh yeah," Gibby said. "I remember her. She was really hot."
"Her name was Cat, right?" Carly asked.
"Yeah," Sam said. "Anyway, we met up in L.A. when we were both trying to buy the same apartment and figured it would be cheaper to just become roommates and share the place."
"Cool," Carly said. "So what's this business you guys have?"
"Um…it's-it's," Sam started. "Okay fine. It's a babysitting business."
"A babysitting service?" Freddie frowned. "You mean you willingly work with small, needy children?" That didn't seem like the Sam he remembered. He thought back to the time she had forced about a dozen elementary students to do hard-labor making penny tees for her.
"It's actually not that bad," Sam admitted. "Sure, I have to deal with a bunch of snot-nosed kids wreaking havoc in my apartment, but you see this keychain?" she pointed to a small lanyard keychain on her bag.
"Yeah, did one of the kids make it for you?" Carly asked.
"Uh-huh, right before he puked on my shoes," Sam nodded.
"That's sweet," Carly smiled. "And a little gross."
"Hey, I thought you guys were going to watch old iCarly clips," Spencer said. "I hooked up my laptop to the T.V. with some fancy cable so you could watch on a bigger screen."
"Oh, yeah," Carly said.
"Awesome, I love watching old iCarly clips," Sam said.
"Yeah, that show was a lot of fun," Gibby said.
"Let me just turn on my laptop," Spencer said. "And then we can-uh-oh."
"Why uh-oh?" Freddie asked.
"It looks like my charger broke, and my laptop's on like, ten percent battery," Spencer told him.
"Well, don't you have an extra charger lying around, Freddie?" Carly asked. "You have all sorts of computer things."
"Yeah, for Pear products," Freddie said. "This is a Moshibo laptop."
"You know what, I think I have an extra charger in our storage unit," Spencer said. "I'll go get it."
"Are you sure you can go by yourself?" Carly asked. "I haven't forgotten what happened last time you went down there two years ago. You know, with the folding chairs…"
"Er, maybe you should come with me," Spencer said, cringing a bit. "Just to be on the safe side."
"Okay, I'll be right back," Carly said, heading towards the door with her brother. "And then we can relive the best of our teen years!"
"Hey, you think they still have that fancy liquid soap in their bathroom?" Gibby asked as Carly and Spencer left the apartment.
"You're still obsessed with liquid soap?" Sam frowned, rolling her eyes.
"Um, yeah!" Gibby said, getting to his feet. "Man, I hope they haven't switched to bar soap like the rest of America…" he hurried into the bathroom, leaving Sam and Freddie on their own. Freddie glanced over at Sam, who seemed to have noticed the tension that suddenly filled the room, for she was nervously fiddling with the strap of one of her boots.
"So," she said after a moment of silence. "How's the college life, Benson?"
"Um, pretty good, I guess," Freddie said. "Made a few new friends, took some cool classes."
"Oh, that's…nice," Sam nodded.
"So a babysitting business?" Freddie said. "You know, I would've never pictured you doing something like that."
"Yeah, well, Cat and I didn't plan on it," Sam shrugged. "But the lady across the hall from us had to run out one day so we agreed to watch her daughter for a couple hours, and well, she told her friends who all had kids and they wanted us to watch their kids for them too. And since neither of us had a job and we needed money, we figured…why not?"
"Oh, that's…nice," Freddie said lamely. He looked at Sam, and suddenly, trying to maintain this civil conversation was the last thing on his mind.
"Why'd you completely block me out, Sam?"
Sam frowned. "What are you talking about?"
"What am I talking about? Ever since Carly left for Italy that night, it's like you've had these walls up between you and me, and I want to know why."
"I haven't had any walls up," Sam said defensively.
"Come on, Sam, you know that once Carly left, we barely spent time together," Freddie said. "Sure, you came to the Groovy Smoothie once in a while with me and Gib, and we talked some at school, but that was it. And now I don't even hear from you! You realize this is the first time we've had any contact in a year!"
"I tried video chatting you," Sam mumbled. "Once. And you ignored it."
"I didn't ignore it, Sam, I was in class!" Freddie said. "And right after I got out, and went right back to my dorm and tried to chat back with you, but you had already gone back offline. And what about the dozens of times I've tried video chatting you? Or all the times I call you? Or the times I text you?"
Sam didn't respond.
"Look," Freddie said, calming down a bit. "I get that after Carly left, you were upset. I mean, she was your best friend, and in one night, she went from being always at your side to halfway around the world. Anyone would've been upset. But still, you didn't have to shut me out. I thought you and I were friends, and friends don't stop being friends just because another friends moves away."
Sam shrugged. "I didn't think you would care that much."
"What? That you stopped talking to me?" Freddie frowned. "Why wouldn't I care?"
"You know," Sam sighed. "Because…I mean…oh come on. You know I basically made high school miserable and painful for you. I put earthworms in your locker, I glued your sneakers to the floor in gym; heck I even hacked your computer and changed your essay about Napoleon Bonaparte to an essay on Napoleon Dynamite!"
"That was you?" Freddie said.
"You see?" Sam said. "Let's face it. The only reason we hung out was because we were either filming bits for iCarly or we were hanging out with Carly herself."
"That's not true," Freddie said at once. "What about that month when we-"
"Dated?" Sam said, finishing his sentence for him. "Well…okay, sure. But we also broke up, remember? And we broke up because of all that chiz I do."
"That wasn't the reason," Freddie said.
"Fine, it was because I was too 'abnormal'," Sam said, rolling her eyes. "Same difference."
"You really thought," Freddie said softly. "That after all our years of knowing each other, after everything we've been through, after we dated, that I didn't care about you? That even without Carly around, I still would consider you an important person in my life?"
Sam looked at him. "After we broke up…how many times did you say that I didn't care about you?"
"What?"
"Eight," Sam said. "Once when we were trapped in crazy Nora's house, once when I dropped one of your cameras, once right after you got fired at the Pear store, once-"
"Okay, okay," Freddie said. "You-you actually remember all those times?"
Sam nodded. "And I figured," she said. "That since you thought I felt that way about you…that probably meant you felt that way about me."
Freddie took a deep breath. "Oh."
"Whatever," Sam said quickly. "It's not like anyone could really blame you. I mean, like I said; I did do a lot of things to you."
"Sam?" Freddie said. "You remember that night on the fire escape? When you came and found me after you told the entire Internet that you hadn't kissed anyone?"
"Sure," Sam nodded.
"Well, you remember what I told you?" Freddie asked. "I told you that I didn't want you to stop messing with me. That it would be to weird if you didn't make my life miserable. All those times you would prank me…I didn't really mind, Sam. Sure, I'd get a little angry for a second, but in the end…you never actually made my life miserable."
"Yeah, well…Carly kept me from doing a lot of things," Sam said, showing a small smile, and at that moment, Freddie realized just how much he had missed seeing it on her face everyday.
"Well, either way," Freddie chuckled. "I-I'm sorry I ever said you didn't care about me. I didn't realize how much it hurt you when I did."
"Eh, it's fine," Sam shrugged.
Freddie smiled. "So…when I call you or video chat you, you'll actually respond now?"
"We'll see," Sam said. "If I can make time in my busy schedule."
"Oh, right, I forgot," Freddie laughed. "You're running your own business."
Sam rolled her eyes as she grabbed another slice of pizza.
"Oh, and Sam?" Freddie said, watching her chew.
"What?" Sam asked, her mouth full of food.
"I do still care about you," Freddie said. "Always have, always will."
Sam looked away, but Freddie could see her cheeks reddening. "I care about you too," she mumbled. "Always have, always will."
