AN-So this request is actually a Sam&Cat request (obviously with Seddie, though). I know there are probably some people reading this that don't watch Sam & Cat so that's why I posted a high school chapter with this. Also, I don't think there's a Sam & Cat page up on here yet, otherwise I would've made this request a oneshot of its own on that page, since I sort of want to keep this story with just iCarly. So does anybody know if there is a Sam & Cat page up on Fanfiction yet? Because I actually enjoyed writing this, and I'll probably try to upload more there. In the meantime, if you guys have any other Seddie oriented Sam & Cat requests, I'll be happy to put them on here for you guys!
Anyway, in this oneshot, Freddie goes to L.A. after iGoodbye. Also, I've never written any Victorious stories, so I apologize if Cat's not in character. I really tried my best with her, and I'd love to know what you guys thought.
…..
Air
Freddie tapped his foot impatiently as he stood by Sam and what used to be Carly's lockers. One week had passed since Carly had spontaneously moved to Italy, and this was the fifth day of school that Sam had been absent. Their first day back, Freddie hadn't expected anything less; he himself had trouble dragging his feet from Bushwell Plaza to Ridgeway without making his usual stop across the hall to meet Carly and help her help Spencer put out his latest fire. But now Freddie was beginning to get a little concerned…He pulled out his phone and dialed Sam's number for what seemed like the millionth time the past few days. And also for the millionth time, he got her voicemail. Letting out a groan of frustration, Freddie began leaving his message. "Sam! Where the heck are you? You haven't been at school for a whole week! Answer your phone, will you? Come on, if you don't get back to your classes soon, you won't even graduate!" And with that he hung up and shoved his phone back into his pocket.
"Hey," Gibby said, greeting Freddie as he joined them. "Guess what Weasel learned to do last night? If I put him in a cereal box and put just a dollop of jelly on my-"
"Gib, have you heard from Sam yet?" Freddie asked, cutting him off.
"No," Gibby frowned. "She didn't come to school today either?"
"Nope," he sighed.
"Well she's probably still bummed about Carly leaving," Gibby reasoned.
"Yeah, so are we, but we're still here, aren't we?" Freddie pointed out. "I know her and Carly were practically sisters, but she can't just stay locked up in her house all day; that can't be good for her!"
"I tried locking myself in my house for a whole day," Gibby said. "But I think my cat was having a 'lady friend' over, so I ended up leaving after a couple of hours."
"I'm gonna go stop by her place after school," Freddie said, ignoring Gibby's last comment. "I'll try talking to her…hopefully that will get us somewhere. Either that or I'll get my face pounded in."
….
Freddie pounded on Sam's door for the fifth time. "Sam!" he called again. "Sam, it's me! Will you open the door?"
But there was no response, and Freddie's knuckles were beginning to get sore. So figuring he had no other choice, Freddie waded through the uncut grass and mountains of weeds to the window on the side of the house that he knew was Sam's bedroom window. He peered into the room through the dirty glass, expecting to see Sam laying on her bed, shoveling some sort of meat snack into her mouth.
But the room was empty; no Sam in sight.
Okay, he said to himself, frowning. This is weird…where else would she be if she's not here?
Maybe she went out for a snack; he did know for a fact that her mom was infamous for getting banned from grocery stores.
I guess I can just wait out on the front step for her, he thought, heading back to the front of the house. Or maybe her mom will come home and then I can ask her what's-
"Hey! Hey you!" a voice suddenly shouted, jerking Freddie out of his thoughts. He turned and saw an elderly lady, wielding a bottle of air freshener, starting towards him from the house next door. "What do you think you're doing snooping around people homes huh?"
"I'm not snooping!" Freddie said quickly. "I-I'm looking for a friend of mine who lives here. Sam Puckett, you know her?"
"Oh yeah, I know her," the lady said, lowing her air freshener.
"Listen, do you have any idea where she is right now?" Freddie asked. "Do you know if she ran out for a little bit or something?"
"I don't think she's here, I haven't seen her in a week."
"A-A week?" Freddie frowned.
"Yes…the last time I saw her was late one night last week when I was putting my cat out…she was leaving on some motorcycle and I haven't seen her since," the lady said.
"Well what-what about her mom?" Freddie asked.
"Pam Puckett?" the lady scoffed. "Please, she's probably off in Vegas getting hitched for the ninth time this year."
"Right…" Freddie said weakly. "T-Thanks."
Where was Sam? Freddie thought miserably as he walked away from the house. Not even her neighbor had seen her in a week? He really hoped she hasn't done anything stupid…
…..
"Wait, wait, wait," Spencer said later that evening. "No one's seen her for a week? And I'm just hearing about this?"
Freddie sighed. He felt somewhat guilty that since Carly left, he really hadn't made it a point to come over to the Shay's apartment anymore. But right now, he really needed to talk to someone.
"I-I figured that she was just really depressed about Carly," Freddie said. "I didn't know she had gone AWOL!"
"I'm calling the cops," Spencer said, pulling his phone out of his pocket.
"Hold on," Freddie said quickly. "Carly!"
"What do you mean?" Spencer asked.
"I mean, different continents or not, Carly's still her best friend," Freddie said. "Carly would know what Sam's doing. We got to talk to her!"
"On it," Spencer said, quickly pulling up a chat window on the computer on the counter. He quickly typed in Carly's username and in a few seconds a very tired looking Carly appeared on the screen.
"You guys, not that I'm not happy to see you all," she yawned. "But it's sort of three in the morning here."
"This is important, Carls," Freddie said urgently.
"What's wrong?" Carly asked, waking up. "Is everyone alright?"
"Er…that's sort of what we wanted to ask you," Freddie said. "Have-Have you heard from Sam?"
"Sam?" Carly frowned. "Of course. I talked to her yesterday. We web chatted."
"And she was safe?" Spencer asked.
"I-I assume so," Carly said, confused. "You guys are starting to freak me out…what's going on? Why isn't Sam there with you guys?"
"Because Sam's not here," Freddie told her. "I think-I think she might have left Seattle."
"What?" Carly exclaimed. "That-That's ridiculous! I told you guys, I talked to her yesterday."
"Did she say where she was?"
"Well…no, but that's because…I just thought-Why do you think she left Seattle?"
"Because," Freddie replied. "She hasn't been at school for a whole week-"
"Wait…" Carly said slowly. "I asked her how school was going. She told me it was going fine. She said that she filled Mr. Howard's desk drawer with worker ants and that the cafeteria went back to serving two percent milk instead of whole."
"Carly…she-that was a lie," Freddie said. "No one around here has seen her since you left. I went by her house today and her neighbor said the night that you left for Italy, she saw Sam getting on her motorcycle, ride off, and she never came back."
"But why would she lie to me?" Carly asked, slightly hurt.
"She-She probably didn't want to worry you," Spencer said.
"Well I'm worried now!" Carly exclaimed. "I'm calling her right now!"
Spencer and Freddie saw her grab her Pearphone and quickly dial Sam's number. After a moment she threw it down. "No answer!"
"Wait a minute!" Freddie said. "Ah! I'm so stupid!"
"What, what?" Carly asked anxiously.
"I can track Sam's phone like I did when she was in that mental hospital!" Freddie said, quickly pulling up the site he could use to find Sam's location. "I need Sam's password, Carly!"
"Okay, but it's gross, remember," Carly said. "It's…zit pus. One word."
"Ew," Spencer cringed.
"Okay," Freddie said, typing in the password. "It's tracking!"
"Where is she?" Carly asked.
"Hold on, it's loading…" Freddie said. "Okay! Sam is in…L.A?"
"L.A?" Spencer repeated. "What's she doing in L.A? Does she have family down there or something?"
"No, she doesn't know anyone there," Carly said. "What-What could she possibly be doing there?"
"I don't know," Freddie sighed. "Anyway, Carls, I'm sorry to wake you up like this. But now that we at least know where Sam is and that she's safe, you should probably get back to sleep. We'll try and figure everything out over here."
"You keep me posted on everything," Carly said firmly.
"Night kid," Spencer said, closing the window.
"So now what do we do?" Freddie asked. "Sam just all of the sudden decided to move to California without even telling anyone? Why?"
"Maybe…Maybe Carly leaving affected her more than we realized," Spencer suggested.
"But still," Freddie said softly. "She didn't even say goodbye?"
Spencer patted his shoulder. "Hey…did that tracker thing give you an exact location for Sam?"
"Yeah, she's at some apartment complex," Freddie mumbled. "Why?"
"Well…I think you should go see her," Spencer said.
"W-What?"
"Go see her," Spencer repeated. "Look…if you don't, you're just going to keep wondering what happened. So will I. And Carly. But mostly you…because, well…you know."
"You know?"
"You know," Spencer said again, giving him a knowing smile. "Come on, Freddie, I don't practically house two teens for six years and not know when there's something going on between them."
"I-You-Well how am I even supposed to get to L.A?" Freddie asked. "I don't have a car!"
"Socko's sister's boyfriend can hook you up with a bus ticket," Spencer said, pulling out his phone. He quickly dialed and number. "Hey Socks, I-No, no I told you, the doctor told me to stop putting those there! Anyway, I need a favor from Buster…yeah, can he hook a friend of mine up with a two-way ticket to L.A? He can? Great! Thanks! See you, buddy."
"So…I'm all set then?" Freddie asked.
"Yup, I'll drive you to the bus station," Spencer said. "Oh wait! Your mom!"
"Don't worry about it, she left this morning to help her sister, Susan, with some fungus infection," Freddie said quickly. "Now come on!"
….
"Okay, here you are kid…" the bus driver said to Freddie as he pulled up in front of an apartment complex; the apartment complex where he had tracked Sam's phone to. "So I'm picking you up here tomorrow afternoon at two, got it?"
"Yeah, thanks," Freddie said, stepping out onto the pavement.
The bus driver gave him a short nod, took another bite of the melon he had been eating, and then drove off.
"Okay, Sam," Freddie mumbled as he began walking through the complex, which, he had to admit, was very nice, until he reached the door where it had showed Sam's phone to be in earlier; apartment 22.
He knocked at once, just as he heard a crash from inside. Yup…Sam Puckett was definitely nearby.
A moment later the door opened, but to his surprise, it wasn't Sam that was standing in front of him. It was a short girl with bright red hair who looked vaguely familiar to Freddie, though he couldn't quite recall where he might've seen her before.
"Um, hi," he said. "I-I-"
"Hey! You're that kid from iCarly!" the girl said.
"Oh, yeah," Freddie nodded.
The girl giggled. "You're geeky."
"Thanks…" Freddie frowned. "Look, I-I'm looking for Sam Puckett. Is she in here? I traced her phone to this apartment and-"
"No!" the girl suddenly screamed. "You aren't allowed in here! Sam said I'm not allowed to let Freddie from iCarly in here ever!"
"So Sam is here then?" Freddie said. "Just-Just let me see her and-"
"No, Sam will be mad at me," the girl said. She picked up a pad of paper from the table by the door. "See? She made me a list of what I'm supposed to ever to in case Freddie Benson, the tech nerd from iCarly, ever comes to this door."
"She made a list?"
"Yeah, and then I made a list of my favorite types of laundry detergents," the girl nodded, smiling brightly at him. "And I took it to my Nona over at Elderly Acres, but then she asked me if I had been sniffing any more Beiber hair and then went to go play paintball with her new boyfriend with a chicken leg tattoo."
"Oh..kay," Freddie said, slightly taken aback. "Anyway…I really need to see Sam, so if you could just-"
"No! I have to listen to the list!" she cried loudly. "See? It says 'First, don't tell him about this list'…oh."
"But I need to-"
"'Second'," the girl continued. "'Slam the door in his face'."
"No, no!" Freddie said. "Please! I-"
But it was too late. Giggling, the redheaded girl shut the door right in his face.
Feeling defeated, Freddie slowly slid down against the wall next to the door. But just then, he heard a voice…A voice he hadn't heard in a whole week.
"Quit it, will you? I bought you guys all the stupid bubbles in the store, so stop playing with my hair already!"
"But we want to make you a princess!" a young girls voice said.
"Yeah! A princess!" another young girl said.
"Unless you invent a country named Meatland, where all the trees are made of ham and it rains bacon grease, then I'm not being any princess," Sam said firmly, turning the corner towards her apartment door. She was carrying a large bag in one hand and a baby in the other, and two girls who didn't look much older than seven were trailing behind her.
Freddie jumped up, hardly daring to believe his eyes. "Sam?"
Sam nearly tripped as she caught sight of Freddie. Her eyes widened and she looked as if she had just been slapped. "You-what-what are you doing here?"
"What am I doing here?" Freddie said, crossing his arms. "What are you doing here?"
"Ohhhh," one of the girls said, pulling at Sam's arm, grinning. "Is he your boyfriend Sam?"
"He can be your prince!" the other girl said.
"And who are they?" Freddie asked, pointing at the three kids.
"I'm…babysitting them," Sam mumbled.
"Babysitting?" Freddie repeated. "As in willingly looking after children?"
"Wow, good to know you know the definition of the word," Sam said, rolling her eyes. "You still haven't answered my question…what are you doing here?"
"Looking for you!" he exclaimed. "And you never answered me either! Why the heck are you in L.A?"
Just then the door opened and the red headed girl walked out.
"Sam! I thought I heard you! I-" she looked over at Freddie a let out a small squeal. "I told you!" she hissed. "The list told you to leave!"
"You told him about that?" Sam said. "Cat!"
"I'm sorry! I'm not good with lists okay!" the girl, whose name was apparently Cat, said, clutching her head.
"Hey Cat?" one of the girls asked. "Can you tell Sam to let us make her a princess?"
"Or," Sam said quickly, handing the baby to Cat. "You and Kelly can go inside and make Cat a princess. Yeah, doesn't that sound fun?"
"Oh! I wanna be a princess!" Cat smiled happily. "One time me and my brother were playing castle, and I wanted to be the princess, but he wanted to be the princess too, and then he bit me and my parents had to put special medicine on my cut because they said my brother was 'infected'."
Freddie gave her a strange look, but Sam just rolled her eyes. "Awesome…just take them inside, will you?"
"Kay kay," she said brightly, leading the girls into the house.
Sam turned back to Freddie.
"I'm still waiting for an answer," Freddie said staring at her. "Why'd you leave?"
Sam shrugged. "Why should I have stayed? Without Carly and doing iCarly…what else did I really have in Seattle? So after Carly left, I got on my motorcycle and just…rode. And then I wound up in L.A, bought a breakfast burrito, almost got crushed by a garbage truck, hijacked a limo and here I am."
"What do you mean you didn't have anything in Seattle?" Freddie asked. "You had Spencer and Gibby and-and me."
"Yeah…I know," Sam sighed. "It's just…things were going to be different. I don't like change…"
"So you go and make the biggest change ever by moving here?"
"Well at least here I can completely start over," Sam said. "If I stayed in Seattle it would be you and Gib hanging out all the time while Spencer would probably start finding actual adult friends since he wouldn't be taking care of Carly anymore. That would just leave me…"
"Sam, that's not true!" Freddie said. "Do you have any idea how worried we've been about you? Spencer was ready to call the cops when he found out you were gone!"
"Look, I never said I didn't miss Seattle," Sam said. "I do. I miss Spencer and Gibby and even you occasionally. Last night my laptop was acting all wonky so I actually had to pay a dude to fix it instead of forcing you to just do it."
Freddie couldn't help but show a small smile.
"But anyway," Sam continued. "I'm not leaving. I'm staying here."
"Sam, come on, you can't do that," Freddie said. "What about your mom?"
"She knows I'm here," Sam shrugged. "I called her the second night I was here, told her I had a place to live, had a way to make money…she's totally cool with it."
"Well what about school?" Freddie reasoned. "You need to come back to Ridgeway and graduate at least."
"I will graduate, I'm doing my classes online now," Sam said.
"But-there's no way you can support yourself by just babysitting!" Freddie argued. "You can't possibly be paying for this place, plus paying for food, utilities and all that other stuff!"
"Cat's Nona already paid this place off, so we don't have to pay rent," Sam said. "And the people around here are loaded. You know how much Cat and I are getting paid to watch those three kids in there? A hundred bucks. And that's just for today. We babysit them twice a week. Plus we have a bunch more kids we watch, so we can afford food and all that. I mean, come on, you don't really think I'd let myself starve, do you?"
"But-But you can't be a babysitter," Freddie said.
"Why not?"
"Because you're terrible with children!" he exclaimed. "Don't you remember when we were making those Penny T's? You scarred those poor kids for life!"
Sam raised an eyebrow. "Oh really? Follow me, Freddison." She opened the door led Freddie into the apartment, where the two girls were braiding Cat's hair into about six different parts.
"Look at me!" Cat said happily. "I'm a princess! I'm-" she gasped. "Sam! Don't look behind you, but Freddie is t-h-e-r-e."
"Yeah, I know," Sam said. "Since a certain someone can't follow a list of instructions!"
"I hope she doesn't mean me," she whispered to the baby sitting on her lap.
"Anyway," Sam said, turning the two girls. "Kelly, Kaylee? If you had to rate me as a babysitter on a scale from one to ten, ten being the best, what would you give me?"
"A gazillion!" Kelly exclaimed.
"A gazillion times gazillion!" Kaylee said. "You're the best babysitter ever!"
"See?" Sam said smugly to Freddie. "I'm the best. So now that that's cleared up…bye! Thanks for stopping by!"
"Wait, Sam!" Cat said. "You can't just throw him out on the streets. Geeks can't survive on the street!"
"The nub's probably got a hotel or something," Sam shrugged.
"Er…no, I don't actually," Freddie said, realizing it just as he said it.
"You came to L.A. and didn't even get a room?" Sam frowned. "Dude! How stupid can you get?"
"I'm sorry, when I was rushing to L.A. spur of the moment, I was a little too preoccupied about getting you back home!" Freddie snapped.
"Why doesn't he stay with us?" Cat suggested.
"Because I don't even have a real bed, I sleep on the couch!" Sam said. "Where the heck would he even sleep?"
"My Nona has camp beds in our storage unit," Cat replied. "He could use one of those."
"Fine, whatever," Sam conceded.
"Thank you," Freddie said.
The two little girls whispered something to each other and began to snicker.
"What?" Sam asked.
"Kelly thinks he's cute," Kaylee said.
Sam looked at Freddie. "Well Kelly must have something wrong with her eyes then."
….
Later that evening, while Cat was off dropping the kids off, Sam was making herself a bowl of ice cream. Freddie was sitting on the couch, watching her.
"So…" he said slowly. "You-You really aren't coming back to Seattle?"
Sam shrugged. "I dunno…someday, maybe. But right now, I think I'm doing better here."
"Yeah, well," Freddie sighed. "I guess there's no arguing there. You have a job, you're still in school, this place is a lot nicer than your old house…no offense. It's just not really Seattle without you, though."
Sam gave a small smile. "I really did mean it when I said I missed everyone…and hey, California's not quite as far away as Italy…I can visit you all. Or you can come down here."
"Definitely," Freddie nodded. But he was still trying to wrap his mind around the fact that in twelve hours he would be heading back to Seattle without Sam. It made him feel…empty. But he didn't really think there was too much he could do. Sam seemed happy here.
"So you like living here with that Cat girl?" Freddie asked.
"Yeah, Cat's cool," Sam nodded. "It is sort of weird though, sometimes."
"How?"
"Well, you know how when I would hang out with Carly, she'd be the responsible one who made sure I didn't do stupid things?" Sam asked. "Well with Cat…I'm the one keeping her from doing stupid things."
"Shut up," Freddie laughed. "I can't believe that."
"It's true," Sam smirked.
"Sam!" Cat said, walking back into the apartment right on cue. "Sam! Sam! Sam! Guess what? After I dropped the kids back off, I was walking back here, and I saw this man, and he sneezed and dropped his gum, and I looked down at it and it was shaped like a heart! See!" she pulled out a small wad of gum from her pocket. "Isn't it pretty?"
"Okay, point taken," Freddie said, cringing.
"Just throw that out!" Sam said. "I think there's a tooth in it…And I'm hungry."
"We could get our free cheeseburgers from Inside-Out-Burger," Cat said.
"Free cheeseburgers?" Freddie repeated.
"We saved a sweaty dude," Sam explained quickly. She pulled out the keys to her motorcycle and tossed them to the redhead. "Here, go get us some. And be careful with my bike! And don't put anymore stupid unicorn stickers on it!"
Freddie walked over and sat down at the counter with Sam. "So is Cat the only person you've met here so far?"
"There's a dude named Dice that lives in the complex," Sam replied. "He's pretty cool."
"Oh…" Freddie said. A guy? There's even another guy here? Well that's just perfect! "So is he like, you know, into the same things you are?" Freddie asked, trying to keep things casual. "You hang out with him a lot?"
"He's over here almost every day," Sam shrugged. "And I guess he likes some of the same things as me…but I mean he's twelve, so…"
"He's twelve?" Freddie repeated, relief flooding his body. "Thank God-I mean…cool."
Sam rolled her eyes as she continued to eat her ice cream.
Suddenly, after that scare, Freddie couldn't take it anymore. "So does this mean…does this mean that we're like, officially over?"
Sam gave him a weird look. "I thought we just said we'd keep in touch."
"I know, but that's not what I meant," Freddie said bravely. "I mean…are we done. You know, in a couple sense?"
Sam chuckled. "Um…wasn't that done and over almost two years ago in an elevator?"
"But we said we'd try again…" Freddie said, looking down at his lap. "Didn't we?"
"Well…yeah, we did," Sam said slowly. "But…that was two years ago."
"So you never wanted to give it another try?"
"Who said I didn't?" Sam said softly.
"What?" Freddie frowned.
"Freddie," Sam sighed. "You wanna know one of the main reasons I just left for L.A. out of the blue the night Carly left without even telling anyone?"
"Um…because your best friend just left?"
"That wasn't the whole reason," Sam said. "I-I saw you two."
"Two what?" Freddie asked.
"I saw you and Carly, okay?" Sam exclaimed. "Kissing. In the studio. Spencer had told me you were up there, and I thought you were alone putting away your camera stuff like you had said you would do, and-and I wanted talk to you, so I went up there and…there you were."
"She kissed me!" Freddie said quickly.
"You don't need to defend yourself," Sam mumbled. "You didn't do anything wrong…I mean, you have been in love with Carly since you were like, eleven, right?"
"That kiss, Sam," Freddie said. "It wasn't a real kiss. Carly and I-it was just sort of like a goodbye thing. Carly means a lot to me, because she's been like a sister to me almost my whole life, and we both care for each other…but that kiss was not romantic. It was two friends saying goodbye. That's all she meant it to be, and that's all I took it as. And anyway…yeah, I loved Carly when I was a kid, but that doesn't mean I'm still in love with her. I'm not."
"Oh," Sam said lamely.
There was a silence between the two.
"So," Freddie said, clearing his throat. "What-What did you want to talk to me about?"
"What?"
"You said that you were coming up to the studio that night to talk to me," he said. "What did you want to say?"
"It doesn't matter now," Sam shrugged.
"Sam…come on," Freddie said. "Please?"
"Fine," Sam sighed. "I was just-I was just going to ask you about what you said to me on the phone earlier that day…about why you asked me all of the sudden if I wanted to get back together."
Freddie blinked. "Why I asked?"
"Yeah, you asked," Sam said. "And then you changed the subject…"
Freddie took a deep breath. "I already told you, Sam…I had always thought we agreed that we'd give us another shot someday."
Sam stared at him. "So you were serious then? You-You were really asking?"
Freddie nodded, and he could feel his cheeks flushing. "I had actually been wanting to ask you that for awhile…but things had been pretty hectic. We had to make that impromptu trip to Vegas to bail your mom out of jail, you lost your laptop…when you called, I had been sort of thinking about when I would possibly get a chance, so I-I just asked. But then when I realized how stupid I sounded, I chickened out."
Sam didn't reply.
Figuring her had nothing left to lose, Freddie opened his mouth again. "So…now that you know I actually meant what I said then…you-you want to tell me what your answer would've been?"
Sam took a deep breath. "It-It would've been yes."
Freddie jerked his head up. "Yes?"
Sam nodded. "I always thought we'd give each other another chance too, someday," she admitted. "But…you know, all that time passed and nothing had happened…"
"Sam, you should've talked to me!" Freddie exclaimed. "You know how clueless I am with those things!"
"Me? I almost had a nervous breakdown the first time we went out from trying to figure out what to do!" Sam retorted. "Besides, aren't you the guy?"
"So I had to make the first move?"
"I did it last time!"
"And it worked, didn't it?"
"I wound up in a mental hospital!"
Freddie was about to argue back, but then, suddenly, he began to laugh.
"What?" Sam frowned.
"We're both being ridiculous here," Freddie smiled. "Arguing about who should've made the first move…"
"Seems like a pretty typical fight for us," Sam said, smirking.
Freddie moved a bit closer to her. "So…now that we've established that we both want to get back together…what do we do?"
Sam's smile disappeared. "I'm still not going back to Seattle. I-I do still like you," she added quickly. "But-But I just can't leave now. I can't leave Cat alone; we have about ten kids a week we babysit for."
Freddie nodded. "Yeah…I know."
Sam sighed. "I wish-I wish we could've had this big revelation sooner…then I wouldn't be in L.A. while you're in Seattle."
"Yeah, same," Freddie said. "But, you know what? It's stupid for us to just ignore what just happened…"
"So then what?" Sam asked. "Are you going to move to L.A.?"
"As much as I would probably enjoy that," Freddie chuckled. "I think my mom would literally come down here and carry me home."
"Yeah, probably," Sam nodded. "She is psychotic. Well then what else is there? Long-distance?"
"It could work," Freddie said. "I mean…apparently Spencer's able to hook me up with free bus tickets."
"We have the Internet," Sam added thoughtfully.
"You have your motorcycle," Freddie said.
"Yeah…" Sam nodded. "This could work…"
"So…" Freddie said. "Did-Did we just get back together?"
"Feels like it," Sam grinned.
"And it was a mutual decision, right?" Freddie asked.
"Yeah," Sam nodded. "But I'm still telling people that you came back to me begging."
Freddie chuckled. "Fair enough."
The two looked down at their hands, which were nearly touching on top of the counter.
"I love you," Freddie said, looking right into her blue eyes. He saw her cheeks redden.
"I love you too," Sam whispered.
The new couple stared at each other for a moment, soaking the other in, before Sam finally began to lean and kissed Freddie, which he happily responded to.
But just then they heard the front door open and they quickly pulled away.
"Cheeseburgers for everyone!" Cat said, jumping into the apartment, holding a large bag over her head.
"Um, hey Cat?" Sam said. "Can you turn around?"
"Oh, I love turning!" Cat said cheerfully as she turned around so that her back was facing Sam and Freddie. "When can I turn back around again? Sam? Sam! You can't leave me like this!"
But Sam was already preoccupied again as her and Freddie quickly entered another lip lock.
