AN- So this chapter is a sequel to chapter 534, where Sam and Freddie buy each other Christmas presents after they've broken up, but chicken out of giving them to one another at the last minute. Hope you enjoy!

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Scratch

"I can't believe Spencer accidently threw his Pottery Barrel gift card away," Carly said, shaking her head later on that Christmas day as her and Freddie stepped into the large, gray room where all of the trash chutes in the building led to.

"I can't believe he's making us look for it through all this trash," Freddie cringed, staring at the large dumpster sized bin in the middle of the room. "Why can't he do this?"

"He claims he's too busy making the Christmas dinner," Carly sighed. "But you know how afraid of trash chutes he is. He hasn't set foot near one since Chuck tried to shove him down one before he got sent to military school."
"Well we should've at least waited until Sam got back from visiting her uncle in prison," Freddie said. "She's gone dumpster diving before; we could use someone who doesn't care about the millions of germs in here. I mean this place is a breeding ground for bacteria and-oh my God, I'm mother!"

"It was bound to happen," Carly chuckled. "Now lets just find Spencer's gift card and get out of here. Right now it doesn't look too bad in there; it's mostly wrapping paper."
"Let's hope it stays that way," Freddie mumbled.

The two walked over to the bin and began carefully rifling through the garbage.

"Ugh, someone threw a half-eaten chili dog in here!" Carly frowned. "Gross! Thank God I got those fancy new bubble baths this morning; I'm going to need a good bath after this."

"This is useless!" Freddie said. "We're never going to find a tiny little gift card in this huge thing!"

"Well let's keep looking for at least a few more minutes," Carly said. "And then we can go back up and tell Spencer that he's going to have to-"

"Hey!" Freddie suddenly said. "Look at this!"
He pulled out a large, wrapped package. "Someone threw away an unopened present."

"Wow, that's even worse than Spencer throwing away his gift card," Carly said. "See if there's a name on it. We should try and return it; I'd hate to have someone not get a gift I sent them."

"Huh…" Freddie frowned. "That-That's weird."
"What is?"
"It-It says this gift is for me."
"For you?" Carly repeated. "From who?"
"From Sam…" Freddie replied softly.

"But I don't get it," Carly said, confused. "Why would Sam throw her gift for you away?"

"I-I don't know," Freddie mumbled.

"And I thought she already gave you your Christmas present," Carly continued. "Didn't you open it upstairs a few hours ago with everybody else?"
"Um, no, I-I didn't," Freddie answered. "Sam and I-We didn't actually get each other anything this year. At least I thought we didn't."

"Well, maybe you should see what she got you," Carly suggest. "Go ahead. Open it."

Freddie carefully tore off the paper and instantly, his mouth dropped. "Oh my God…" he said softly, pulling out a pair of brand new rollerblades.

"Rollerblades?" Carly said. "Do you even know how to skate?"

"She-She remembered," Freddie whispered, ignoring Carly's comment.

"Huh? What did she remember?" Carly asked, confused.

"Back-Back when the two of us were dating," Freddie said, still staring down at the skates in awe. "I told her how badly I wanted to learn how to rollerblade…That was months ago, though. I can't believe she-Oh no. Carly! Tell me your trash hasn't been thrown down here yet!"

"No, it's still in the trash can in the kitchen," Carly replied. "But what do you want to-"

But Freddie had already bolted out of the room, his skates in hand.

"Hey! You can't just leave me here to rifle through this trash alone!" Carly called after him.

Freddie raced back up to the eighth floor, gasping for breath as he burst back into the Shay's apartment.

"Oh hey!" Spencer said, looking up from the ham he was preparing. "Did you guys have any luck finding my gift card? I have my eye on a new set of bath towels and that could really-"

But Freddie didn't reply as he flung himself down by the trash can and quickly began digging through it, paying no attention to the coffee grounds, bacon fat and other trash that was getting all over him.

"Dude, what are you doing?" Spencer frowned.

"It's got to be in here," Freddie said desperately. "It's got to be-Yes!"

He pulled out the silver necklace from the midst of trash, quickly wiping a smear of jelly from the charm.

"What is that?" Spencer asked.

"My-My Christmas present to Sam," Freddie explained breathlessly.

"Um…so why doesn't she have it?" Spencer frowned. "Why is it in the trash?"
"Because," Freddie said. "I-I thought she-"

"Alright, Spencer, I looked, but I couldn't find your gift card," Carly announced, coming back into the apartment.

"What? But I need it!" Spencer moaned.
"Well then you should've taken better care of it!" Carly snapped. She turned to Freddie. "Um…what are you doing? Didn't you get enough trash downstairs?"

"I had to find-" Freddie started, but was cut off as the Shay's door opened again and Sam came in.

"Okay, what's going on in here?" she demanded. "I could smell something disgusting in here the second I got to the floor. What happened? Did-"

She stopped talking as she spotted the rollerblades sitting by Freddie's side. Her eyes widened. "Where-Where did you get those?" she asked.

"They were in the trash," Carly answered before Freddie could. "Did you accidently throw them away or something?"

"I-I just-" Sam sputtered lamely, caught completely off guard.

"They're perfect," Freddie said softly.

"What?" Sam frowned.
"The rollerblades," Freddie told her. "They're-They're exactly what I wanted."
"Oh," Sam mumbled, looking down at her feet. "Yeah, well, um, I-I remembered you told me-"

"Yeah," Freddie nodded. "I know. Thank you, Sam. I-I really love them."

"Um, Spencer? Let's-Let's see if your gift card wound up in your room," Carly said, wanting to give her two friends a few moments alone.

"Why would it be there?" Spencer asked, clearly not catching on. "I haven't been in my room all-"

"Oh come on!" Carly said, grabbing her brother's wrist and dragging him off.

"Um, I-I have something for you too," Freddie mumbled, looking down at the necklace in his hand. Wishing it wasn't so dirty, he slowly handed it to her. "Here. I-Um, accidently threw it away too."

Sam took the necklace and turned it over in her hand, seeing the engraving on the back.

"August 13th," she breathed. "That-That's the day we-"

"Yeah," Freddie nodded. "I know."

The two were silent for a moment.

"Look, um, to be completely honest here," Freddie said, clearing his throat. "I-I actually had that necklace ordered to give you for Christmas months ago. Back when we were dating. I knew it was probably a little weird for me to give it to you now, but I-I just really wanted to. But, um, I-I wound up chickening out at the last minute. Kind of pathetic, huh?"

Sam looked up at him. "Yeah, it really is…only, well, I sort of did the exact same thing."

Freddie frowned. "You-You mean with my rollerblades?"

"Uh-huh," Sam sighed. "Back when we were dating, I-I was really excited about getting you a really great Christmas gift, so I wound up ordering you those rollerblades super early. But I thought you'd still like them now, even though we're not together anymore. But, well…I-I chickened out too. I guess I thought exes weren't supposed to do things like that anymore."

"Right," Freddie said heavily. He looked down at his skates.

"I really love this necklace though," Sam said, pulling her hair back and putting it on, despite the fact that it had been festering in the trash for hours.

"Good. I'm glad," Freddie sad, giving her a small smile. "And I really do love these skates. Of course my mom's probably going to freak out when she sees them. She'll be worried about me scratching up my whole body."
"Just an added bonus," Sam grinned. She cleared her throat awkwardly. "Well…I should probably go call my sister…she gets all pissy if I don't call her on these huge holidays."
"Oh, um, okay," Freddie nodded.

Sam turned to head up the stairs.

"Wait, Sam?" Freddie called after her.

"Yeah?"

"Um, ex or not," Freddie said. "You know I-I'll always care about you, right? No matter what the ex-protocol is."
Sam's cheeks reddened. "Right back at you, Benson."