AN-For the purpose of this fic, Gibby's restaurant still exists. I don't know what happened to it on the show, but it was never mentioned again, so I'm assuming it shut down.
Submarine
"Gibby, did you even read the book?" Freddie frowned, looking over the book report he was proofreading for his friend.
"Yeah," Gibby nodded. "It was a good read. A real page turner."
"Right," Freddie sighed, sipping his smoothie. "Then why did you refer to One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest as a birdwatcher's dream novel?"
"Because it talks about cuckoos and nests," Gibby shrugged.
"They never mention cuckoos or nests!" Freddie exclaimed.
"Looks like someone didn't read the book carefully enough," Gibby said, raising an eyebrow at Freddie.
"But you-fine," Freddie conceded, handing Gibby's report back to him. He pulled out his phone. "Hey, do you still want to try and catch that movie?"
"Nah, I need to get home to my cat," Gibby said. He started to get up, but then seemed to have a thought, and sat back down. "Hey, can I ask you a question?"
"Sure," Freddie nodded. "What's up?"
"Well you know that saying? That girls are mean to guys they like?" Gibby asked. "Do you think that's true?"
"Well in some cases, yeah," Freddie agreed. "Why?"
"Just wondering," Gibby said quickly, getting to his feet. "Alright, now I really need to run. My cat hates it when I'm late and he has to reschedule. See you, dude!"
"Later," Freddie said, rolling his eyes. He finished off the last of his smoothie. He didn't think he'd ever fully understand Gibby.
…
"Hey, Gib," Carly smiled the next day after school as her and Sam climbed down to the basement, where Gibby was wiping down the counter of his restaurant.
"Oh hey you guys," Gibby said.
"Any hot meat sandwiches left?" Sam asked.
"I think there's one left from the batch you made for our lunch crowd in the fridge," Gibby said.
"Sweet!" Sam grinned, hurrying over to the refrigerator.
"So you're coming over tonight to go over tomorrow's iCarly, right?" Carly asked.
"I get to wear my eye patch, right?" Gibby questioned.
"If you insist on being an astronaut with an eye patch, then sure," Carly sighed.
"Awesome!"
"Hey, why are your socks in fridge?" Sam asked, holding up a pair of navy blue dress socks.
"Because I have this weird wart on the bottom of my foot," Gibby explained. "And I was thinking if I could freeze it off, then-"
"Gross! I don't want to hear about your weird foot issues!" Sam snapped, hurling Gibby's socks over to him.
"Well, I'm gonna get going," Carly said. "You coming, Sam?"
"Nah, I'm going to make some red pepper lemonade for tomorrow," Sam said.
"I still don't understand why you guys will drink that but you'll never have any of my special lemonade," Carly frowned. "Hey, if you want, I could swing by here tomorrow morning before class and make a batch for your lunch menu."
"Um, that's okay Carls," Sam said quickly. "I'll see you tonight."
"Yeah, yeah," Carly said, rolling her eyes as she started back up stairs.
"So hey, I was talking to some kids in detention yesterday, and I think I came up with a cool new idea to make us even more money with this place," Sam told Gibby as she began to mix the lemonade.
"We're gonna put in a karaoke system and let me sing soothing songs to our customers while they eat?" Gibby asked excitedly.
"That would hurl us into bankruptcy," Sam said coldly. "No, see in detention, they never let you bring in any snacks or anything, so halfway through, everyone's always starving. So what I was thinking was that we make like, a secret delivery service so we can sneak food to kids in there without the teacher seeing. I could distract the teacher or something, and then you could run in and give the kid his food. We'd charge them double, obviously."
"Nice," Gibby grinned. "But can I be the distraction? My mom tells me I'm pretty good at that."
"Sure, whatever," Sam shrugged. She finished mixing the lemonade. "Hey, I'm gonna run back up to my locker real quick and get some new salt shakers I 'picked up'. I'll be back in a minute."
"Hey, wait, can I ask you something first?" Gibby said quickly.
"What's up?" Sam shrugged.
"Are you busy this Saturday night?"
"Nah, I'm meeting with my mom's parole officer in the afternoon, but then I've got nothing," Sam replied.
"Well do you wanna come over to my place? Maybe order some pizza and watch a movie? My mom can make her famous strawberries and cream."
"Um, okay," Sam said. "But we never hang out at your place. What's wrong with Carly's?"
"Nothing," Gibby said. "But I was thinking it could just be me and you."
"Me and you?" Sam repeated.
"Yeah," Gibby nodded. "You know, like a date."
"A-A date?" Sam stuttered, her eyes widening.
"Uh-huh," Gibby said. "So you in?"
"Um…let-let me get back to you on that," Sam said quickly, turning towards the stairs and running up them.
….
"Oh man, would you look at that?" Spencer said longingly, looking at the T.V. screen. "I want it!"
"Want what?" Freddie asked, looking over from the kitchen table, where him and Carly were working on their homework.
"This submarine!" Spencer said. "Look at it! It has a periscope and everything!"
"What would you do with a submarine?" Carly chuckled.
"Um, I would explore the ocean depths," Spencer replied. "Duh!"
"You said you would explore the ocean with that boat you got too," Freddie pointed out.
"Yeah, and you wound up selling it to a suspicious looking pirate for five hundred bucks," Carly nodded.
"Why do you think he was suspicious?" Spencer asked.
"Because he was wearing a fake beard and said he needed the boat because he had to 'take care of someone'!"
Just then the door slammed open and Sam rushed in.
"Oh, hey Sam," Carly said. "I thought you were helping Gibby in the restaurant."
"Sam? Willingly help out?" Freddie scoffed. "Please, she probably just ate all the leftovers and left."
"Shut it, Benson," Sam snapped. She turned to Carly. "Carly? A word?"
"Yeah, just hold on for a minute," Carly said. "I only have two more math problems left and-"
"Now!" Sam said, grabbing her best friends wrist and pulling her over to the stairs.
"What?" Carly frowned. "What's going on?"
"After you left the restaurant," Sam told her, lowering her voice. "Gibby…asked me something."
"What? Did he want you to give him his bike back?" Carly asked. "Because I told you he'd notice it was gone and-"
"No!" Sam hissed. "He-He asked me to come over to his house Saturday night…Just me."
"Really?" Carly said. "Well that's sort of weird, I guess, but I don't-"
"He said it would be a date," Sam added.
"What?!"
"Shh!"
"He-He asked you out on a date?" Carly whispered. "Well what did you say?"
"Um…well, I-I panicked, okay?" Sam sighed. "I told him I'd get back to him, and then I came over here."
"Sam! You can't just ditch him like that," Carly said.
"Well I didn't know what to say," Sam moaned. "I mean I know I'm sort of vicious, but I'm not heartless! I didn't want to just turn the kid down right away!"
"So you're saying you don't want to go on a date with Gibby then?" Carly asked.
"Of course not! It's Gibby!"
"Okay, well, you'll just have to let him down easy then," Carly said. "I mean, Gibby's a tough kid…sort of. I'm sure he'll understand. I'll help you figure out what to say in a little bit, okay?"
"Okay, thanks," Sam nodded.
"So," Freddie said as the girls returned to the table. "Are you going to explain your little freak out there? Or am I just going to never know?"
"Mind your own business, Fredgrub," Sam said, grabbing the bowl of grapes that sat on the table.
"Gibby asked Sam out!" Carly blurted.
"Carly!" Sam exclaimed. "You couldn't even last five seconds?"
"I'm sorry, but it's big news, and you know I can't keep big news bottled up!" Carly defended.
"Wait…" Freddie said slowly, looking quite shocked. "Gibby actually asked you out? Like on a date?"
"Yeah," Sam mumbled.
"Why?"
Sam frowned. "What's that supposed to mean?"
"Just that you're so…you," Freddie chuckled, popping a grape into his mouth.
"Freddie," Carly said, giving him a look.
"So what? You think I'm just completely repulsive to guys?" Sam asked.
"He didn't mean that," Carly said quickly. "Right Freddie?"
"Yeah, I just mean that Gibby actually knows you," Freddie nodded.
"Oh no," Carly mumbled.
"Knows me?" Sam repeated.
"Yeah, he knows how demanding, loud, crazy, and abnormal you can be," Freddie shrugged. "And he saw what happened when I went out with you last year. Why that kid would want to go-"
"Stop talking!" Carly hissed, kicking him under the table.
"Oh, so the only guys who could possibly be interested in me are the ones who don't know me, is that it?" Sam said hotly. "And then once they do get to know me, they should just dump me?"
"No, Sam, don't think-" Carly began, but Sam had already gotten to her feet, and was storming towards the door.
"Where are you going?" Carly asked.
"Back to the restaurant," Sam snapped. "To tell Gibby I'd be delighted to go on a date with him this Saturday."
"But I thought-" Carly started, but Sam had already slammed the door shut.
Carly turned to Freddie, glaring at him. "Dude! What was that?"
"What was what?" Freddie asked innocently.
"You were a total jerk to her!"
"What? No I wasn't," Freddie said.
"You basically told her that she was a horrible choice for any guy to date!" Carly snapped. She looked over at Spencer. "Spencer! Don't you think Freddie was totally out of line?"
"Huh?" Spencer asked, looking up from the T.V. "What happened?"
"Did you just miss everything that happened?" Carly frowned.
"I was watching my submarine!"
"Well Gibby asked Sam out," Carly told him. "And when he found out, Freddie here says 'why would Gibby want to date you?' to her!"
"Whoa!" Spencer said. "Not cool!"
"I was just giving my opinion," Freddie said.
"No! You were just being a jerk!" Carly snapped.
"Oh come on, Sam says stuff like that to me all the time," Freddie pointed out. "Remember that one girl who came up to me at school last week and thought that I looked hot? She said that there had to be something wrong with her!"
"But you know she was just giving you a hard time," Carly said. "She didn't actually mean to imply that you were unattractive to girls."
"Yes she did!"
"No, she didn't," Carly said firmly. "I know Sam."
"Oh, so it's okay for her to say those things to me? But when I say them, I get put on trial?" Freddie said angrily, pushing his chair back.
"You know Sam's sensitive about anything to do with dating," Carly said. "At least you should know that."
"I'm out of here," Freddie said, rolling his eyes.
He sped out of the Shay's apartment, fuming into his own apartment.
"Stupid Gibby," he mumbled, throwing his backpack down on his bed forcefully.
What was Gibby doing, asking out Sam like that? Since when did he like her? But then again, who cared when he started to like her! It didn't matter to him! He just hoped Gibby had enough money saved to keep up Sam's enormous appetite, and wouldn't care about having to go see the goriest movie in the dang theatre and then, just as he was starting to get past his squeamishness about all the blood and actually getting pretty interested in the movie, not even getting to see the end because Sam would insist on making out!
Well, actually, that last one wasn't that bad…not bad at all. In fact, it was the thing he would look forward to most about going to the movies with Sam, and now whenever he would go to the movies, he'd feel strangely bored during the film.
But still! Gibby didn't know what he was getting himself into, staring to date-
"Oh who am I kidding," Freddie mumbled, laying back on his bed. He wasn't mad right now because he thought Sam was going to destroy Gibby…He was upset because right now it looked like Gibby was getting what he wanted more than anything.
"What kind of friend goes out with a friend's ex anyway?" Freddie muttered. "That's rule number one in the guy handbook!"
"Is it?"
Freddie bolted up and saw Carly standing at his doorway.
"When'd you get here?" he frowned.
"A few minutes ago," Carly said, sitting down next to him on his bed. "I was going to yell at you some more for what you said to Sam, but I think you're making yourself suffer nicely on your own."
"Well it's not right!" Freddie exclaimed. "You don't date a friend's ex! Even Gibby should know that! What if Sam decided to ask out one of your ex-boyfriends?"
"Well I don't think it would bother me too much," Carly said. "That is…unless I still had feelings for him." She glanced over at Freddie, who was looking down at his lap.
"Oh, Freddie," Carly said gently.
"Just…don't, okay?" Freddie sighed. He got up and sat down by his window, looking out at the fire escape. "Why would she even agree to go out with him?"
"Well she wasn't going to," Carly told him.
"Huh?"
"Yeah, when she told me, she was all ready to turn him down," Carly nodded. "But then after your little…episode, I guess she changed her mind."
"Are you serious?"
"She probably wants to prove you wrong about what you said about her," Carly said.
Freddie cursed himself in his head.
"Look," Carly said. "You should talk to Gibby about this-"
"Oh I am going to!"
"Calmly," Carly said. "Just-Just tell him that you may still have feelings for Sam, and that it's a little unnerving for you to watch him, your best friend, dating her."
"I'm not going to tell him that!" Freddie scoffed. "I'm going to go over there right now and-and hitting him! Yeah, I went there!"
"Gibby would destroy you in a fight," Carly sighed.
"Why does everyone keep saying that?"
"Freddie, Gibby-Gibby technically didn't do anything wrong," Carly reasoned. "Yes, I know it's frowned upon to go after your friend's ex, but you need to remember its been over a year since you and Sam dated. Gibby had every right to ask her out if he started to like her."
"He most certainly did not!"
"Yes, he did," Carly said firmly. "But I understand how hard this is for you. And if you want my opinion, I think Sam dating Gibby is just as weird as you do. But I don't think any relationship they have is going to go very far. I don't think you have to worry. So if you don't think you can talk to Gibby nicely, than maybe you should just wait and see if the two of them will de-couple on their own."
Freddie sighed. "You really think they won't last?"
"Sam's not going out with him for the right reasons right now," Carly said. "And I'll talk to her about that later. But no, I don't exactly think they have the right chemistry to be boyfriend and girlfriend."
"Okay," Freddie conceded. "Hopefully you're right…maybe their date on Saturday will be a total flop."
….
"Unbelievable!" Spencer said angrily, hanging up his phone Saturday night.
"What is?" Carly asked, looking up from her Pearpad.
"Dad won't try and get me one of the old submarines from his military base!"
"Um…I'm sorry?"
"So am I!" Spencer exclaimed, starting towards his room.
"What are you doing?" Carly called after him.
"Canceling my order for a submarine t-shirt!"
Carly rolled her eyes, amused at her older brother.
Just then the front door opened and Sam walked in.
"Hey," she sighed, throwing her jacket on the floor.
"Hey," Carly said as her best friend sat down next to her. "So how was it?"
"Let's see…awkward? Weird? Unnatural?" Sam said, falling back in her seat.
"You mean you didn't fall madly in love with Gibby?" Carly chuckled.
"It's not funny, Shay," Sam mumbled.
"Well what happened?"
"Nothing 'happened'," Sam explained. "We watched a movie, ate some pizza…it would've been fine I guess if we were just hanging out, but the fact that we were on a date made it seem so…icky."
"Well are you surprised?" Carly pointed out. "I mean, it's Gibby. He's a sweet guy and all, but I don't know how he's so successful with girls."
"Me neither," Sam nodded.
"So," Carly grinned. "Did he kiss you goodnight?"
Sam gave her a look.
"Oh come on! I spent my entire Saturday night playing Sugar Slam! I need details!"
"He tried," Sam said. "But I did that thing where I turned my head at the exact right second and he only got my cheek…which I need to remember to sterilize later."
"Well then you need to tell Gibby that you two should stay just friends…or whatever you were before," Carly said. "It's not fair to keep leading Gibby on like this if you don't really like him."
"I know," Sam said. "I'll call him later tonight and-"
But then the front door opened again, and Freddie walked in.
"Oh, you're here," he said, trying to sound nonchalant, but Carly knew he had probably been staring out his peephole, watching for Sam to come over.
"Yeah, is that a crime?" Sam spat.
"No," Freddie shrugged, sitting down. "So…you have a nice time on your date with Gibby? Did you eat his entire kitchen?"
"Um, Freddie?" Carly frowned. "What are you-"
"As a matter of fact, Gibby and I had a great time!" Sam snapped.
"Well maybe one of you did," Freddie mumbled.
Carly glared at him. What was this boy doing?
"You know what? I don't need to listen you run your fat mouth," Sam said, getting up. "I'm going to go call Gibby right now and tell him what an awesome time I had with him. He actually knows how to give a girl a good date!"
Carly waited until Sam disappeared upstairs before she swatted Freddie's shoulder. "What the heck, dude! You were back to being a total sleaze to her again!"
"I know," Freddie moaned. "I just couldn't help it! She looked all dolled up from her date, and it was the only thing I could think to do."
"Well if you keep this up, you're only going to drive her closer to Gibby," Carly warned.
"Gibby…" Freddie growled, clenching his fists. He got up and headed to the door.
"Where are you going?" Carly asked.
"To Gibby's!" Freddie replied moodily. He slammed the door shut after him.
"Well," Carly said to herself. "This is going to get fighty…"
…
Freddie stomped up the front steps of the Gibson's house, still fuming. He pounded on the front door, his body fueled by anger.
"Oh, hey man," Gibby said brightly, opening the door. "I didn't know you were stopping by. Want some-"
"How could you do this to me? Huh?" Freddie exclaimed. "We're supposed to be bros! Bros don't do this to bros!"
"Whoa, easy there," Gibby said. "What'd I do? Wait. Is this the forty bucks I took from your locker?"
"No! Wait, what? Never mind!" Freddie snapped. "That wasn't what I was talking about! I mean you and Sam!"
"Oh, Sam," Gibby grinned. "Man, her and I just finished up one of the best dates in history. She's a real hot chick, you know."
"Of course I know! I dated her!" Freddie yelled. "She's my ex-girlfriend, which makes he off limits to you!"
"Why?" Gibby asked simply.
"Why? Why? Because it-it's a rule! That's why!"
"Dude, you haven't dated Sam in over a year," Gibby shrugged.
"That's irrelevant!" Freddie mumbled. "Since-Since when do you even like her?"
"I don't know, I guess it was us working together at my restaurant that really did it," Gibby reasoned. "Good food can really bring two people together."
"Well…you can't date Sam anymore," Freddie said boldly, crossing his arms over his chest.
Gibby raised an eyebrow. "Um, I think that's up to her."
"You stop seeing her," Freddie said. "Or…I'll beat you up."
Gibby laughed. He laughed so hard that he had to grab the back of his catch to steady himself.
"It's not funny!" Freddie cried, annoyed. "I-Oh forget it!"
He turned and stomped out of the house.
…
Sam sighed as she headed down to the basement of Ridgeway Monday morning. She had to break it off with Gibby. As much as she would love to keep a guy around to try and prove Freddie wrong about her datibilty, she knew it wasn't fair to Gibby. Besides, this whole thing was starting to freak her out.
"Hey!" Gibby said brightly, looking up from the meatballs he was brewing. "I missed you yesterday, I thought we were gonna look at my baby pictures together with my mom."
"Yeah…I was sick," Sam lied lamely. "Um, listen Gib. We need to talk."
"About the price of our garlic bread basket, right?" Gibby nodded.
"No, not-not exactly," Sam said. "So, um, you're sort of-I guess-"
"Sam!" Freddie suddenly exclaimed, running downstairs. He looked over at Gibby and narrowed his eyes.
"Gibby," he said coldly.
"Hey, what's up, dude?" Gibby smiled, clearly not sensing the hostility in the other boy's voice.
"We need to talk," Freddie said, ignoring Gibby.
"Freddie!" called Carly, rushing down to join the other three. "Freddie, you can't just do this to-"
"Sam, you can't be with Gibby," Freddie said, cutting Carly off.
Sam crossed her arms. "Why? Because I'm such a horrible girlfriend? Because all I want to do is have guys buy me food? Because I'm not all fluffy and girly? Because I-"
"Because I still love you!" Freddie blurted out.
Sam closed her mouth, staring at him in complete astonishment.
"I-I didn't mean any of those things I said about you before," Freddie sighed. "Any guy would want to date you. You're beautiful, you're amazing, you-you're just everything. I guess I just-knowing you were starting to date another guy, even if it was Gibby, just made me snap and say a lot of things that weren't true. And these past few days have been killing me, because I want to be with you."
"I-I-" Sam stammered.
Freddie turned to Gibby. "I'm sorry. This is completely inappropriate of me to be doing this to you. Carly tried to stop me, but-I'm crazy about Sam, Gib. But, if-if you two are really happy together, I-I guess I can just-"
"Oh just kiss her already!" Gibby said, wiping the corner of his eyes with his collar. "This is all just too beautiful!"
"Wait," Sam said, looking over at Gibby. "So you're saying-"
"We're done, be with Freddie," Gibby said. He grabbed Carly's jacket that she was holding in her hands and blew his nose on it. "Oh man, I'm blubbering up more than when Jake broke up with Courtney on The Mistress!"
Sam looked back up at Freddie. "You-You were really jealous of me and Gibby?"
"I'd be jealous of you and anyone," Freddie told her.
Sam gave him a small smile. "The only reason I was with him was to try and get you to stop thinking of me as some monster girlfriend. Because when you said all those things, it made me think that-that you would never want to get back together with me."
"I never thought you were a monster girlfriend," Freddie said earnestly. "And-And like I said, I'm sorry I said those things. But when you're so fueled by jealousy, I guess you don't really have to much of a filter, and things just-"
Sam cut off his speech by standing on her toes and gently pressing her lips to his.
"Aw," Carly smiled.
When the two broke apart, they turned back to their friends.
"So, um…we're gonna go now," Sam said.
"Here, take this love Danish I made," Gibby said, shoving a large pastry into Freddie's arms.
"Er, thanks," Gibby said.
"Hey," Carly said, looking at the pastry. "Why's there-"
"Go on, get out of here you crazy kids," Gibby urged the new couple.
Carly waited until Sam and Freddie were gone, and then she turned to Gibby. "Um, Gib? You just happened to have that pastry lying around, right?"
"Yeah, it's an extra one I ordered for the desert menu today," Gibby nodded.
"Right," Carly said. "So why did it have an S and an F written in frosting on it?"
"Oh all right," Gibby said, beaming proudly. "You caught me, Carly."
"Caught you doing what, exactly?" Carly frowned.
"I," Gibby said. "Successfully recoupled that couple."
"What?" Carly frowned. "Wait a minute! Are you telling me-You planned this whole thing?"
"That's right," Gibby grinned.
"So-So you never wanted to date Sam?"
"No," Gibby told her. "But I knew if Freddie thought I did, he'd get all jealous and finally become dude enough to pull himself together and get back with Sam on his own."
"So-So you-but how-" Carly stammered. "That's-That's brilliant. I don't believe this…I was out meddled by Gibby!"
"Feels good, doesn't it?" Gibby said. "Beat you to it!"
"Well, you better make sure you at least let Sam and Freddie in on your little plan," Carly mumbled. "Because Freddie was ready to kill you for dating Freddie."
"Eh, I'll tell them later," Freddie shrugged. "Besides, everyone knows I could take Freddie in a fight."
"Yes, we all know that," Carly said, still bitter about the fact the she couldn't take credit for getting her two best friends back together. "Hey! I just thought of something? How did you know Sam would agree to go out with you? Huh? If she had said no, your whole little plot would've gone up in flames. Now, see a carefully formulated plan, something I would've come up with, would've taken care of any problems like that."
"It wasn't a problem," Gibby shrugged. "What girl would reject Gibby?"
"Um…yeah, okay," Carly said, rolling her eyes.
