AN-Hey, I already wrote a separate oneshot about what happened after the finale called iGoodbye Aftermath, but I got another request, so I figured I would just do another version of it!

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Termination

"So then Weasel just ate the whole apple, just like that!" Gibby said to Freddie as the two walked into Ridgeway. It was the Monday after Carly had abruptly left for Italy with her father; their first day of school without their brunette best friend. It felt weird to Freddie, and he wondered how long it would take before he got used to not having Carly living across the hall from him anymore.

"I wish I could've brought Weasel to school with me," Gibby sighed as the boys reached Gibby's locker.

"Don't you think you should've thought of a better name than Weasel for that thing?" Freddie asked.

"Weasel's a good name!" Gibby defended. "And for your information, Weasel's not a thing. Weasel's a he. See I found out yesterday when I was trying to give him a bath-"

"Okay, okay, don't want to hear that," Freddie said quickly. He leaned against the rows of lockers as Gibby opened his own. Suddenly he spotted Sam walking through the school's front door. She had her headphones in and was heading quickly towards her locker.

Freddie hadn't seen or heard from Sam since they had said goodbye to Carly. He knew that this whole thing had really hit her hard; her and Carly were closer than most sisters were. He was actually a bit surprised to see her here today; Sam was never a fan of Mondays, and usually only came to school on them because Carly would use her 'Carly Charm' on her.

"Hey, I'm gonna go talk to Sam," Freddie said to Gibby.

"'Kay," Gibby replied.

Swinging his backpack over his shoulder, Freddie meandered over to the blonde, who was shoving a book into her locker.

"Hey, how you holding up?" Freddie asked Sam.

Sam frowned as she turned to look at him. "What? What do you mean how am I holding up?"

"You know, I figured since this is your first day of school without Carly, you'd be a little down," Freddie reasoned. "It's weird, isn't it?"

"Yeah, I guess," Sam shrugged, turning back to her locker.

"So have you gotten a chance to talk to Carly since she got into Italy?" Freddie continued.

"I've just texted her," Sam replied simply. "We're supposed to webchat sometime this week; once we figure out the time difference."

"Ah, well let me know when you do that; I want to say hey to her too," Freddie said. "Anyway, you wanna go the Smoothie after school today? T-Bo was telling me this morning that-"

"Can't," Sam said, closing her locker.

"Fine, I'll buy your smoothie," Freddie said, rolling his eyes. "But you know, one of these days you should-"

"Dude, I'm not not going just because I don't want to spend money," Sam said. "I just…can't."

"Why not?" Freddie asked.

"Because maybe I'm busy," Sam said sharply, slamming her locker shut.

"Sam," Freddie sighed. "I know you're upset and all-"

"I'm not upset," Sam said.

"Carly is your best friend, it's completely natural to-"

"I'm gonna be late for class," Sam said.

"What?" Freddie frowned. "You've never cared about-" But Sam was already heading down the hallway.

…..

"You know, I'm thinking of getting a cat," Spencer said, handing Freddie a plate of spaghetti tacos.

"A cat?" Freddie repeated.

"Yeah, you know, a nice orangeish one," Spencer nodded.

"Okay…any reason why?" Freddie asked.

"Because it's so lonely here all by myself!" Spencer pointed out. "If I get a cat at least I'll have those shanagins to entertain myself with!"

"Alright then," Freddie said, taking a bite of his taco.

"Didn't Sam say she got Frothy from a really cheap breeder here in Seattle?" Spencer asked. "Call her and tell her to come over here so she can give me the deats!"

Freddie sighed and set his snack down. "Sam's sort of, well, she's been avoiding me since Carly left."

"Really?" Spencer frowned. "Why?"

"I don't know why!" Freddie said, getting to his feet, pacing. "But all this week, she won't hang out with me, she barely talks to me, she doesn't insult me…it's weird!"

"Well her and Carly were super close," Spencer reasoned. "This must be hard for her."

"Yeah, it's hard for me too, Carly was my friend too," Freddie said. "But you'd think she'd at least want to hang out with a friend during all this."

"Maybe there's something else going on then," Spencer suggested.

"Like what?" Freddie asked.

"I don't know," Spencer shrugged. "Why don't you go over there and ask her?"

"Yeah…" Freddie said thoughtfully. "Okay…I can do that. I'll see you later, Spence."

"Remember to ask about the cat breeder!" Spencer called after Freddie as he left the apartment.

….

Freddie walked up Sam's driveway. He had taken the bus here, and was still cringing at the fact that he had been sitting on someone's used gum for the past twenty minutes. He rang the doorbell and waited for Sam to answer.

It took Sam nearly three minutes before she finally opened the door.

"I thought you were the pizza guy," she said, disappointment evident in her voice.

"Hi to you too," Freddie said. "Can I come in?"

Sam didn't reply, but stepped back so he could come into the house.

"Your mom home?" Freddie asked.

"No, she's getting her stomached tucked…again," Sam said.

"Ah," Freddie nodded. "So what have you been up to?"

"Nothing," Sam mumbled.

"Sam," Freddie sighed. "What's been going on with you? Ever since Carly left it's like you just want to be by yourself. Have you ever thought that being around Spencer, Gibby, and I, your other friends, might help you feel better about Carly moving to another continent? We're upset about it too, but maybe-"

"Of course you're upset," Sam scoffed.

Freddie frowned, confused. "Huh?"

"I know you two kissed before she left," Sam said. It wasn't an accusation. Sam didn't say this angrily. She simply stated it. Yet those words still hit Freddie hard.

"You-You know?" Freddie asked.

"Carly mentioned it when I texted her the night she got into Italy," Sam replied. "So you're back into that, huh?"
Again, she said this so casually that Freddie was taken aback.

"Back into what?"

"Back into chasing Carly," Sam said, suddenly becoming very interested in staring at her shoes.

"Chasing Carly?" Freddie repeated. "I-No! I mean, yeah, we kissed, but that didn't mean anything. It was more of a, you know, a goodbye-to-a-good-friend kiss. Neither of us felt anything romantic from it, I mean, I didn't."

"Carly didn't either," Sam said. "I just thought that you…never mind."

"Um, okay," Freddie said, still a bit confused about the conversation. "Anyway, like I was saying-"

"So why'd you ask it?" Sam asked suddenly.

"Asked what?" Freddie asked, his brain beginning to hurt from the many sudden turns this conversation was taking.

"You know," Sam mumbled. "When I called that day to tell you about Spencer not taking Carly to the dance…"

Freddie didn't need any clarification on that. "You mean why I asked you if you wanted to get back together?"

Sam nodded.

"Um," Freddie said, shifting uncomfortably. "I-I don't really know. It was just sort of a spur-of-the-moment thought."

"So you don't want to get back together then?" Sam asked softly. She wasn't looking at him, and was focusing her attention to the ground.

"I, well, I-I haven't-" Freddie stammered.

"No, I-I figured you didn't really want to," Sam said quickly, snapping her head up, and for a wild second, Freddie could've sworn her blue eyes looked a tad watery. "I figured it was just some crazy thought you had…I've got to go, um, get changed now for, um church, so just-just let yourself out and…yeah."

"Sam-" Freddie started, but before he could say anything further, Sam had run towards the stairs and hurried up them.

Freddie stood motionless for a moment, before finally unsticking his feet and running up the stairs after Sam.

"Sam," he said, reaching her door and jiggling the knob. "Sam, open up! I just want to talk to you!"

"I told you; I have to go to church!" Sam called from her room.

"You do not!" Freddie said. "Look, I don't know what's going on here, Sam, but I'm trying to help you! Shutting everyone out like this isn't how you should be handling this! Just because Carly left doesn't mean our friendship just terminated! So I'll just sit out here until you realize that!"

Sam's door swung open. "Why do you have to be so dang irritating about this?" she snapped, and Freddie saw that her cheeks looked slightly tearstained. "Why can't you just leave me alone and go do some stupid tech chiz on your computer or whatever it is that stupid nubs like you do?"

"Because I'm worried about you!" Freddie exclaimed.

Sam rolled her eyes. "Yeah, okay. Is that some spur-of-the-moment thought to?"

"What?" Freddie frowned.

"Never mind," Sam said, and she turned to head back into her room.

"Sam," Freddie said softly, something finally hitting him. "Are you upset about Carly leaving or about what I said over the phone?"

Sam stopped, her back to him.

"Sam," he said again.

"Can you just leave?" she said loudly.

"No, not until you talk!" Freddie said firmly.

"Dude-"

"Just talk, and then I promise, I'll-"

"Both, okay!" Sam snapped. "There, you happy? Now can you leave me alone?"

"So you're upset that I asked if you wanted to get back together?" Freddie asked. He didn't know why, but he felt slightly disappointed by the fact that this had apparently annoyed her so much.

"No," Sam said, still with her back towards him. "That you said you didn't mean it…"

Freddie blinked. "You-You mean downstairs?"

"Yeah," Sam nodded. "You said you didn't mean it when you asked-"

"I didn't say I didn't mean it," Freddie said quickly.

"Fine, you said you didn't know why you said it; same thing," Sam said, rolling her eyes.

"Well, yeah, I don't know why I choose that exact second when you called me to just say it out of the blue like that, sure," Freddie said. "But that doesn't mean I didn't mean it."

Sam turned a little, so that she was now facing him a bit. "Oh."

"Yeah," Freddie said awkwardly, putting his hands in his pockets.

The two were silent for a few moments.

"So," Freddie finally said. "You know…you never did answer the question."

Sam smirked. "If I remember right, I think I asked you the question right after, and you didn't answer either."

"Yeah, but I asked first, so you should answer me first," Freddie said.

"That's not how this works, Benson," Sam said, crossing her arms. "You answer me first because we play by my rules."

Freddie knew that no matter how long he argued this point with Sam, he'd never win. So it looked like he had only one option left…

"Fine," Freddie said, taking a deep breath. "I-yes. I mean…we did say we'd try us again someday, didn't we?"

"Well, sure," Sam shrugged. "But didn't we also say we'd wait until you became more abnormal and I became more normal?"

"Do you really think that's ever going to happen?" Freddie asked.

Sam smiled. "Probably not."

"So…what do you say then?" Freddie asked. "Wanna, you know, get back together?"

Sam stared at him for a moment, apparently in deep contemplation. "On one condition."

"What?" Freddie asked.

"We get to say that you're the one who to get back together and I felt generous and went with it," Sam said.

Freddie chuckled. "You're gonna make that the official story whether I agree to it or not, so sure."

"Smart," Sam laughed.

The two stood there in silence again.

"So we're back together again then," Freddie said.

"Yup," Sam said. The two looked at each other. "Well," Sam said. "Lean."

Freddie grinned and leaned down and kissed her.