Internet

"Dude, will you stop with the pacing?" Sam moaned as Freddie kept walking in front of the T.V. "I'm trying to watch a show, here!"

"Oh, well it's so nice that my girlfriend can enjoy herself when I'm about to meet my death!" Freddie snapped.

"Oh come on, don't be dramatic," Sam said, rolling her eyes.

"Sam," Carly sighed from the kitchen, where she was pouring herself some iced tea. "What did we say about being respectful of your boyfriend's feelings?"

"Well he's being a Drama Queen!" Sam defended. "Even you have to admit that!"

"Well how am I supposed to act when I have hours left to live?" Freddie exclaimed.

"Baby, for the millionth time, you're going to be fine," Sam said. "You're not having brain surgery or anything."

"Doctors are going to be going through my head and putting tubes in my ear!" Freddie cried.

"Well then maybe you should stop getting ear infections," Sam shrugged.

"You see this?" Freddie said, turning to Carly.

"Well Freddie, maybe you are being a little…paranoid," Carly said slowly.

"Ha! She sides with me!" Sam said triumphantly.

"I still say being supportive is something that you need to work on," Carly said. "But, um, Freddie…it is a routine procedure."

"It's surgery!" Freddie pointed out. "Why am I the only one who seems to understand this? Huh?"

"Because you're the only one who's psycho," Sam said, getting to her feet to give him a peck on the lips. "Come on, Fredbear, it's not that big of a deal. Little kids have this done to them all the time! They get tiny tubes shoved up their ears, and then they stop getting ear infections. Easy. You're not even conscious during it!"

"Seriously, Freddie, you're going to be fine," Carly said, patting his shoulder. "And we'll be right there waiting for you when you get out of surgery."

"Well, there is this MMA fight that's on around two-" Sam began.

"We'll be there," Carly repeated firmly. "No matter what violent television show is on!"

Just then the Shay's apartment door burst open and Marissa Benson stormed in.

"Freddie! There you are!" she said. "What do you think you're doing over here? You have an extremely dangerous surgery tomorrow! We need to get you well rested and pumped with antibiotics to even give you a fighting chance on that operating table! Oh, I can't believe my poor baby's going to be cut into."

"Mrs. Benson, Freddie and you don't have anything to worry about," Carly said. "The doctors at the hospital have done this procedure a million times and-"

"Quiet, Sassy Skirt!" Marissa snapped.

"Wow, aren't you on the jank," Sam mumbled.

"Excuse me, but at least I'm not the one who caused my Freddikin's condition!" Marissa said, glaring at Sam.

"How did I cause him to have ten thousand ear infections?" Sam frowned.

"Because you refuse to let me sanitize you before you enter our home!" Marissa said, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

Sam opened her mouth to respond, but Carly quickly elbowed her in the ribs before she could do so.

"Come on," Marissa said, grabbing Freddie's wrist.

"See, this is concern!" Freddie called over his shoulder as he was dragged out by his mother.

"Then date her!" Sam smirked.

"You know, we can't really blame Freddie too much for his weird fear of hospitals," Carly said as they door closed again. "I mean, he did grow up with Mrs. Benson…"

"Eh, he'll get over it," Sam said.

"Sam," Carly said seriously. "Freddie is your boyfriend. Don't you think you should be just a tiny bit more understanding. He's obviously freaked out."

"Ugh, why is everyone on my case about this?" Sam moaned. "You want me to buy him a smoothie or something for after his stupid surgery? Fine!"

"I just think that it would be, you know, nice, if Freddie thought that you were concerned about him during his surgery," Carly shrugged. "I know it's not a big deal or anything, but I think he'd really appreciate it."

"I'm concerned about how paranoid he is," Sam mumbled, rolling his eyes.

….

"Hey, look!" Spencer said, running back into the hospital waiting room, where, Sam, Carly, and Mrs. Benson were sitting, waiting for Freddie's surgery to be done. He held up two Jell-O cups. "They just left these unattended in the cafeteria! I have six stuffed in my pockets!"

"Why?" Carly frowned. "We have that stuff at home."

"But this is hospital brand," Spencer pointed out. "It's different!"

"How?" Carly asked, amused.

"It's…cleaner?" Spencer said lamely.

"Will you two please stop discussing sugary foods?" Marissa snapped, gripping her handbag tightly.

"Um, Mrs. Benson, you okay there?" Spencer asked.

"No, I'm not okay, dummy!" she retorted. "My precious baby boy is being tampered with!"

"Did she just call me a dummy?" Spencer frowned.

"Oh, all this stress is making my rash come back," Marissa sighed, getting to her feet. "I'll be back after I apply a few precautionary layers of ointment to it."

"Wow, she's a basket case!" Spencer said as Mrs. Benson hurried off to the restrooms.

"Well what else did you expect?" Carly sighed. "I'm just surprised she hasn't tried to use her status as a nurse here to try and run back to the operating room, right Sam. Sam?"

She turned to look at her best friend, who was silently sitting in her chair, fiddling with her thumbs.

"Yo, Puckett?" Carly said, gently shaking her shoulder. "You with us?"

"Huh, oh, yeah," Sam nodded.

"You okay?" Spencer asked.

"Yeah," Sam mumbled.

"Sam…" Carly said knowingly.

"It's just," Sam sighed. "I was looking around on the Internet a little last night, about this little surgery thing Freddie's having, and I sort of saw some things…"

"What things?" Carly questioned.

"Well like how about 98 percent of people who get this done are perfectly fine but then there are like two percent who have to stay in the hospital after because of infections or something," Sam said. "What if…what if Freddie's part of that two percent? And he had to get anesthesia too. What if something went wrong with that and he just doesn't wake up? Or what if the doctor messes something up? Or what if they find something else wrong with him while they're in there? Or what if-"

"Whoa, whoa, Sam, calm down!" Carly said to the now anxious blonde. "None of that is going to happen."

"What if it does?" Sam demanded. "Then what? Huh? Didn't they say this was only supposed to take three hours? Its been three hours, fourteen minutes and thirty-eight seconds already! Something must be wrong, otherwise they wouldn't be taking so long, right?"

"Sam, nothing's wrong," Carly assured her. "Look, I know how much you love Freddie, and how much you would hate it if something happened, but it's like you've been saying this whole time; this procedure's totally safe and-"

"Oh what do I know!" Sam snapped. "Am I a doctor? No! So if I want to freak out about this, then I'm going to-"

"Is this Fredward Benson's party?" a young nurse asked, approaching the group.

"Yeah, is he okay?" Sam replied at once, jumping to her feet.

"He just woke up and has been asking for someone named Sam," the nurse nodded. "So if you three are ready, I can-"

But Sam was already running past her towards the hallway where the hospital rooms were. She searched until she found the door with her boyfriend's name on it and then burst in.

"Sam!" Freddie said from his hospital bed. "Hey, I'm glad you-"

But Sam had already rushed over to the bed and thrown her arms around him and pressed her lips to his passionately.

"Hey to you too," Freddie grinned when the couple pulled apart.

"How are you feeling?" Sam asked.

"I feel fine, Sam," Freddie told her. "I think you were right about me overreacting earlier. This really was no big deal."

"Well do you feel dizzy at all?" Sam asked. "Hungry? Thirsty? Does anything hurt? Did the doctors look like they had a clue what they were doing? Did-"

"Jeez, Sam, I think you nearly took out a nurse's cart running back here," Spencer commented as him and Carly finally reached the room.

"Seriously," Carly said, clutching her side as she caught her breath. "You feel okay, Freddie?"

"Perfect," Freddie smiled as Sam hopped up onto the bed next to him. He wrapped his arms around her.

"You sure?" Sam asked.

"Positive," Freddie nodded. "And what happened to this being a tiny little surgery? You're sure freaking out a lot."

"Just enjoy it while it lasts," Sam said, giving him another quick kiss.

Suddenly, though, the hospital room door slammed open and Mrs. Benson came running in.

"Why did no one come tell me that my Freddie was finally awake?" she exclaimed, hurrying over to the bed and flinging her arms around her son, pushing Sam out of the way in the process.

"Mom! Mom! Can't breathe!" Freddie gasped.

"Don't you worry, I'm going to double up on my germ annihilation in the apartment," Marissa said. She turned to look at Sam, who was getting to her feet. "This is what a boy needs, Samantha. Someone who cares about him. Someone who doesn't brush off a horrible, horrible surgery!"

Sam opened her mouth to respond, but Spencer beat her to it.

"Mrs. Benson," he frowned. "Sam cares about Freddie a lot. You should've seen her when you left for the bathroom a few minutes ago; she was so scared for Freddie; I've never seen her like that before. She loves him so much, and she was sitting in that waiting room trying to hold herself together even though this was such a small surgery."

"You were really that worried?" Freddie asked softly.

Sam gave a small shrug. "Maybe a little…"

"Yeah, Mrs. Benson, I really don't think it's fair of you to say that Sam doesn't care about Freddie like that," Carly agreed. "And I know you and her don't really see eye to eye on well, anything, but this is the one thing you have in common with each other: caring about Freddie. So don't you think you should use that and try to grow closer to each other?"

Sam and Mrs. Benson stared at each other for a moment, and then, slowly, Mrs. Benson moved a tiny bit on the bed to make room for Sam to sit as well.

Sam gave a small nod and sat down next to her and Freddie took her hand.