AN-So this chapter is a sequel to chapter 558, where Sam and Freddie both attend one another's wedding, realizing too late that each was the other's 'one who got away'. They are then reunited a few years later at Carly's wedding, only to realize that they are now both divorced, single-parents, and in the end, Freddie winds up asking Sam out on a date. Hope you enjoy!
…..
"Hate this…Hate this…Why did I buy this?"
Sam threw dress after dress from her closet onto her bed, trying to find something she could wear tonight.
"Alright, well there's no time to go shopping," Sam sighed. "So I'm just gonna have to make something in here work…"
Normally, she'd call Carly in a situation like this, but currently her best friend was away on her honeymoon, and Sam didn't want to disturb her.
"There has to be something," she moaned.
Tonight was going to be a big night for many reasons. For one, it was the first time she'd be going on a date since her divorce had become official last year. And two, well, this wasn't just a date with any old guy. This was a date with Freddie Benson. She hadn't seen him in years until yesterday when they ran into each other at Carly's wedding. In fact, she had been trying to not even think about him since she attended his own wedding so many years earlier, because the thought of Freddie having his own perfect life with his wife was sometimes too much for her to even bear. But, as luck would have it, Freddie's marriage seemed to be as successful as her own, and they were both now divorced, single-parents trying their chances at love once more.
"I'm hungry."
Sam turned around to see her three-year old daughter standing in her doorway, her thumb in her mouth.
Sam couldn't help but smile. She knew she should probably work on breaking that habit, but Eliza always looked so sweet and innocent when she did it.
"I'll get you a snack in a second," Sam told her, scooping her up in her arms. "And remember, you get pizza tonight during your play date with Megan. You excited?"
"Uh-huh!" Eliza nodded excitedly. "I'm gonna show her my toys and we're gonna play Dinosaur and we're going to watch movies and eat popcorn-"
"Sounds super fun," Sam chuckled.
"Are you and Megan's daddy gonna play with us?" Eliza asked.
"Actually, sweetie, Megan's daddy and I are, um, going to go out to hang out for a little," Sam told her.
"Oh, okay," Eliza said simply, and Sam was pleased when the child didn't ask any further questions.
"Hey, what color dress do you think I should wear?" Sam asked, stepping back over to her closet, her daughter still in her arms.
"I like rainbow!" Eliza said.
"Well, wouldn't you know it, I'm all out of rainbow colored dresses," Sam grinned. "What's your second choice?"
"Blue's pretty," Eliza shrugged.
"Blue, huh?" Sam said thoughtfully, reaching into her closet for one of the few remaining garments still hanging. "I guess this could work…Alright, good work, kid. Now I just need to figure out the shoes…"
"But I'm hungry!" Eliza moaned.
"Okay, okay," Sam said, reaching into the drawer of her nightstand and pulling out a half-eaten bag of chips. "Have some of these."
Eliza obliged, taking the bag as Sam let her down. "Thanks, mommy!"
"Don't finish them!" she called after the child as she ran out of the room.
Sam sunk down onto her bed, glancing at the clock. It was four now…in just two hours Freddie would arrive with Megan and then they'd be off on their date.
Sam let out a soft sigh. Hopefully this wouldn't wind up being a mistake. After all, it had been years since the two of them had hung out, let alone been in a situation where they'd go on a date. What if Freddie was completely different now? What if he though she had changed?
Maybe I should cancel, Sam thought to herself. Maybe-Maybe this is all too soon. I mean…we just reconnected yesterday.
She reached for her phone, ready to call Freddie up and make up some lame excuse to get out of tonight, but as she was just about to pull up his number, a familiar voice echoed through her thoughts: I know it's scary for you to put your feelings out there…but you never know what might happen…
Sam slowly set down her phone. Maybe she shouldn't be afraid of putting herself out there. After all, if she backed out now, she could risk losing something that may have been amazing.
"Guess I'm doing this," Sam whispered. "Guess this is really happening."
…
"How can I have no ties?" Freddie groaned, frustrated, as he rifled through the many unpacked boxes that littered his bedroom floor.
He had moved back to Seattle with Megan just a few days ago, and he had been so busy that he hadn't even started to unpack.
"Come on…they have to be somewhere!" Freddie moaned.
"Daddy?"
Freddie spun around to see his three-year old daughter, Megan standing at his doorway.
"How much longer until I get to play with Eliza?" Megan asked.
"Um, about another hour, Meg," Freddie told her. "Hey, have you seen daddy's ties anywhere?"
Megan shook her head.
"Fantastic," Freddie sighed.
"Why do you want a tie?" Megan asked.
"Um, well…" Freddie said. "Honey…while you and Eliza play together, me and Eliza's mommy are going to, um, go catch up ourselves."
"What does catch up mean?"
"It means…we're going to talk and eat and have a good time…hopefully," Freddie told her, picking her up.
"Oh," Megan replied. "That's fun."
"Yup, that's right," Freddie said, chuckling at her childlike innocence. "And I'm sure you and Eliza are going to have fun too."
"Yeah, because we're best friends!" Megan nodded happily. "Can I bring my Princess Polly doll to show her?"
"Sure," Freddie replied, giving her a quick kiss on top of her dark head. "Go get it."
As Freddie watched his daughter hurry out of his bedroom, he slumped down against the wall. He couldn't believe in a matter of hours, he'd be on a date with Sam. He had never thought this would happen again. Last he had heard, Sam was married, after all, and until two years ago, so had he.
I don't even remember the last time I was on a date, Freddie thought to himself, looking at his reflection in the mirror and running his fingers through his hair. Not since Darleen, at least. And before her it's not like I was going out every weekend. The only other girl I've ever gone out with is…Sam.
Freddie pondered this sudden realization for a moment.
At least this is familiar territory…I know Sam! At least…I knew Sam…
He let out a heavy breath as it suddenly dawned on him just how much had changed since his last date with Sam. They weren't teenagers anymore. They were real, actual adults who had been divorced and had children and jobs. No longer were their biggest problems trying to figure out a skit to perform on the next iCarly or whether to go to the Groovy Smoothie before or after dinner.
What if things aren't the same as they used to be between us? Freddie thought. It's-It's been years since we've really talked. Can we really just pick up where we left?
He sat down at the edge of his bed. The way he saw it, he had two options. One, he could call up Sam and tell her he was sick and that he couldn't make their date, preventing what could be one giant mistake. Or…or he could hold onto the possibility that him and Sam would fall into place with each other as easily as they once had, and secure the start of something incredible.
Freddie bit the corner of his lip, deep in thought.
I've played it safe for the past decade, Freddie told himself. And look where that's got me in the romance department. Maybe it's time for a change…
….
"Alright, Eliza, new rule," Sam said firmly as she scrubbed the red paint from her daughter's face, trying to avoid getting any residue on her blue dress. "The only time you're using your paints is when mommy's out here watching you, got it? This is the third mess like this I've had to deal with the week."
She looked over her shoulder at her small kitchen table, which was currently smeared with every color paint imaginable.
Guess I can always throw a tablecloth or something over that, Sam reasoned. It's not like we use it often anyway.
"Can I use it in the bathtub?" Eliza asked.
"Elizabeth Renee Puckett, what did I just say?" Sam said firmly, rolling her eyes. "No! You are forbidden from using your paints tonight, got it?"
"What does forbidden mean, mommy?"
"It means you're not allowed."
"Why am I forbidden?"
"Because you always make a mess," Sam said.
"But I like making messes."
"Okay," Sam said, not being able to help the smile that crept onto her face. "Well when you start cleaning up your own messes, we'll talk."
Just then there was a knock at the door.
"Megan's here!" Eliza gasped, jumping down from the counter top she was sitting on and sprinting to the door.
The child threw the door open the second she reached it, revealing Freddie and Megan standing at the doorway.
"Hi Megan!" Eliza grinned.
"Hi, Eliza!" Megan replied happily. "We get to play together all night!"
"I know!" Eliza nodded. "Wanna come see my room? It's green, because green's my favorite color. Except sometimes I like red and orange too."
"I like pink!" Megan said.
Sam hurried into the room, instantly locking eyes with Freddie. "Um, hey," she said. "Glad, um, you found the place. I usually don't give good directions."
"I grew up in Seattle," Freddie reminded her. "It's not exactly like this is a foreign land."
"Right," Sam nodded.
Freddie cleared this throat. "You-You look…you look beautiful."
Sam blushed. It had been years since anybody had called her that.
"Thanks. I just, um, threw this on."
"I thought you looked for it all day," Eliza said.
"Yes, thank you, sweetie," Sam said quickly.
Freddie chuckled. "So, Eliza? Is there a reason your hands are red?"
"I painted!" Eliza said proudly.
"Yeah, she painted all right," Sam said. "We're going to need a new table because of it."
"Oh, I know that struggle," Freddie said. "Megan here had a little painting adventure a few weeks ago too. I had just got new cushions from the Pottery Barrel and, well, let's just say I probably should've thought more about buying white couch cushions with a toddler in the house."
"I'm not a toddler!" Megan pouted.
"Course you're not," Sam nodded. "You're a young adolescent. That's what Eliza likes to call herself."
"It's because I'm mashure, right?" Eliza said.
"You bet you are," Sam nodded, rustling her daughter's blonde hair.
She turned back to Freddie. "Um, so we can leave in a little bit. We just have to wait until Spencer gets here."
"Spencer's babysitting?" Freddie asked. "Wow, that's great. I barely got a chance to see him at the wedding yesterday. He was too busy trying to put out that ice sculpture he set on fire."
"Yeah, well, he's great with kids, plus he works for free," Sam shrugged. "Eliza loves having him babysit her."
"Uncle Spencer is funny," Eliza nodded. She took Megan's hand. "Come on, Megan. Let's go start playing!"
"Okay!" Megan nodded excitedly, running after the blonde child.
"They act like they've been best friends for years," Freddie said, amused as the girls ran off.
"Yeah…kids are easy to get along with," Sam said. She looked down at her shoes. "Um, you look good too, by the way."
"Thanks," Freddie replied. "So, um, for tonight…I-I honestly didn't really get a chance to plan anything. By the time Megan and I got back from Carly's wedding yesterday, it was already past midnight and-"
"It's fine," Sam said quickly. "I-I was sort of hoping we could keep this low-key tonight anyway. You know me, I've never been one for big, crazy dates."
"Great," Freddie smiled. "Well then, maybe-maybe we could just do the usual dinner and a movie?"
"Sounds perfect," Sam said. "I haven't been to a restaurant that I don't have to do actual work at in years. And the last movie I saw was before Eliza was born."
"Yeah, this whole parenting thing doesn't leave much room for ourselves, does it?" Freddie grinned.
"Tell me about it," Sam laughed just as there was a knock at the door. "Oh! That must be Spencer."
Sure enough, as she stepped over to answer the door, Spencer Shay entered the home.
"Hey, Spence," Sam greeted him. "Thanks for coming over and-"
"Oh my God!" the man yelled, throwing his arms around Sam and Freddie and pulling them into a hug. "Look at this! It's Sam and Freddie back together again!"
"And there goes my spleen," Freddie winced.
"Freddie!" Spencer cried as he released the two. "How have you been? I was so happy to hear you were moving back to Seattle! And you have a daughter? Look at all this new information!"
"Good to see you too, Spencer," Freddie chuckled. "Hey, we'll have to hang out some time and catch up. You still into Galaxy Wars?"
"Pfft, does Nug Nug still drink only fluids enriched with Selenium and Phosphate crystals?"
"Okay…before you two geeks start drooling," Sam said, shaking her head. "We should head out, Freddie. We'll be back in a few hours, Spencer."
"Have fun, you two," Spencer said. "And I want deets when you get back!"
"I see he hasn't changed at all," Freddie commented as him and Sam stepped outside.
"Nope, he's just as childish and goofy as ever," Sam said. "Anyway, what are you in the mood for? For dinner, I mean."
"I dunno," Freddie said. "You're the one who owns her own restaurant. I'll trust your taste in food."
"Fair enough," Sam smirked. "Well, there's actually this cool barbecue place that just opened up that I've heard good things about, and I could go for some ribs."
"Do you still eat them for sport?" Freddie asked.
"Duh," Sam laughed. "Why would I stop eating something so delicious? That would be like you giving up computers…I mean you haven't given up computers have you?"
"Now that's just crazy," Freddie replied.
The two took Freddie's car to the restaurant, arriving about ten minutes later at the small, causal looking establishment. Once they were seated at the table, though, a silence suddenly fell over the two, for it was the first time that the fact they were on an actual date was made evident.
"Um, this-this chicken sounds good," Freddie said lamely, looking down at his menu.
"Yeah…yeah, it does," Sam nodded simply.
Both looked down at their lap. What had happened? Just moments before they had been laughing and talking to each other as if they were back in high school again. Now they seemed unable to even string together a conversation.
After several more moments of silence, Freddie finally opened his mouth. "So, um…the weather seems…nice."
Sam sighed as she looked up at him. "Are we really going to sit here and talk about the weather?"
"Well, um-"
"Look," Sam said. "We were doing fine before we got here and sat down and, well, made this date official…maybe-maybe we should just kind of forget the fact that we're on a date for right now. I mean…we did just kind of meet up for the first time in, what, close to ten years? Maybe…maybe we need to just take some time to really reconnect before we, you know, do this whole dating thing."
Freddie thought for a moment. "You know…I think I'm actually starting to see a little bit of change in you…because that actually made sense."
"Hey, I have my moments," Sam smirked.
"Okay, so-so we won't call this a date anymore," Freddie said. "This will be just two good friends catching up after a decade. A very eventful, crazy decade, that is."
"Cheers to that," Sam said, raising her glass. "Marriages, kids, divorces…we've really done it all, haven't we."
"That we have," Freddie laughed, raising his glass as well.
So all through dinner, it was suddenly as though the clock had gone back, and Sam and Freddie were two seventeen-year olds once more. Once their waiter brought them out their deserts, both were red in the face from laughter.
"So Megan really tried to erase the cut on her knee with an eraser?" Sam grinned, taking a bite of her chocolate cake.
"Uh-huh," Freddie chuckled. "See, I had told her that you use the eraser on a pencil to get rid of things that you don't like, and, well, she took that very literally. She tried to erase her cut, the broccoli I made her that night at dinner, one of the itchy sweaters her mom had given her for Christmas…"
At the mention of his ex-wife, Sam and Freddie both quickly adverted their gaze from one another.
"Hey, um, could I ask you something?" Freddie said to Sam.
"What?"
"How has Eliza dealt with your divorce? I mean…Darleen and I split up when Megan was one, so-so she hasn't really known anything but this," Freddie said. "But sometimes I still feel like she wishes she had a family like everybody else, with her parents married and living together."
Sam shrugged.
"Sorry," Freddie said quickly. "I-I didn't mean…It's just, I-I'm not friends with anybody else whose been through a divorce. Well, I mean, I guess there's always my mom, but I'd really prefer not to-"
"No, it's fine," Sam said at once. "It's just, well, I mean, Eliza really hasn't known anything else but this either. Jack and I separated before I even knew I was pregnant with her. He's come around only a couple of times, once right after she was born and then on her second birthday, but sometimes she still asks why she never sees him."
"Oh…" Freddie said. "Sorry, I-"
"Eh, it's no big loss," Sam shrugged. "Honestly, he's not really father material if you know what I mean. Still, I wonder sometimes if-if Eliza will grow up always missing him. I-I know that I sometimes hated growing up with only one parent, even though I knew my dad was a loser."
"I know what you mean," Freddie sighed. "After my parents went through their divorce, I promised myself that when I grew up and had kids, I would never put them through all that. But, well, here we are."
"Yup," Sam said heavily. "Hey, do-do you ever think that maybe-maybe if you would've just done something different that your marriage wouldn't have, you know-"
"Failed?" Freddie finished for her.
"Yeah," Sam said. "Failed."
"I dunno," Freddie said thoughtfully. "I guess sometimes I do think that maybe if I could've just stuck it out, it all would've worked out fine. If I could've gotten used to Darleen putting her job before everything or the fact that her idea of fun was debating the latest political issues, or her controlling nature, maybe that would've been the best thing for Megan. But then I realize…the one thing I couldn't force myself to do was love Darleen. And without love, our marriage was doomed from the start. And then I realize, yeah, maybe raising Megan between two parents living on opposite sides of the country isn't ideal, but neither would raising her in a house where her parents don't speak to each other."
"That's true," Sam agreed. "You know…it's nice finally having someone to talk about this with that actually understands. When I was going through the actual divorce, Carly tried to be as supportive as she could, and-and she was great, but she just never really got what I was going through."
"Yeah, this is nice," Freddie nodded. "I forgot how easy it is to talk to you. I've missed this."
Sam smiled. "I've missed it too. Glad you're back, Benson."
"So am I, Puckett," Freddie grinned.
…
"I still don't get the point of that movie," Sam said later that evening as her and Freddie walked up her front steps. "Was the waiter the good guy or the bad guy?"
"No clue," Freddie chuckled. "But I don't think knowing would've made that movie anymore bearable."
"Probably not; it was awful," Sam agreed. "Hey, you remember back in high school how we'd used to take one day a month to go the movies and see the one that-"
"-Had the lamest sounding title?" Freddie said. "Of course I do."
"Good times," Sam smiled as they reached the front door. She looked down at her phone. "Well, it's past midnight. Hopefully Spencer managed to get the girls to sleep by now, because I'm about to pass out myself."
"Same, I'm exhausted," Freddie yawned.
"Well, um, tonight was a lot of fun," Sam said. "Even though we decided not to make it a date…It was still nice hanging out with your nubby butt again.
Freddie rolled his eyes. "I haven't been called a nub in nearly ten years."
"Did you miss it?"
"Strangely…I did," Freddie grinned. For a moment, the two were silent. And then Freddie slowly leaned down and placed a small kiss on her lips.
"Sorry," he said, quickly pulling away from her. "Sorry, I-I know this wasn't a date or anything but-"
Sam but him off by reconnecting their lips once more.
"It's cool," she smiled when the separated again. "Last time I checked you didn't have to be on a official date to do that."
"Fair point," Freddie laughed. "Well, um, anyway, maybe-maybe we can do this again sometime?"
"Sure," Sam nodded. "I mean our daughters are best friends, apparently. They're gonna wanna see each other again too."
"Oh I'm sure Megan will be begging to see Eliza again the second we leave," Freddie said.
"Well…wanna get brunch tomorrow then?" Sam asked. "I know a place that makes the best French toast."
"Sounds good to me," Freddie said. "But…wait, is this going to be a date or…"
"How about we just see how it goes?" Sam told him. "And not worry about labeling it."
"Deal," Freddie agreed.
Sam pulled her keys out of her purse and opened the front door.
"Hey," Spencer whispered, looking up from his Pearpad. "How was it? Did you guys have fun?"
"Yup," Sam replied. "More fun than I've had in years."
She looked over at the couch, where Eliza and Megan were both passed out, curled up under a blanket together.
"How were the girls?" Freddie asked.
"They were fine," Spencer assured them. "They tired themselves out about an hour ago."
"Alright, well, thanks again for babysitting," Sam told him. "We'll see you later. Once Carly gets back from her honeymoon, we should all hang out now that the gang's all back."
"Yeah, that's a great idea," Freddie nodded.
"Yeah, we can all go to Petrozini's!" Spencer said excitedly. "My ban from there just lifted."
"Why did-"
"You don't want to know," Sam said quickly as Spencer headed out of the house. She turned back to the couch, smiling at the two sleeping girls.
"Guess we better head home," Freddie said, reaching down and gently scooping Megan into his arms without waking her. Sam did the same with Eliza, carefully stroking her hair.
"Meet here at ten for that brunch?" Sam said.
"Ten?" Freddie repeated. "Wow…who knew you could get up that early."
"When you have a daughter who likes to be up before the sun every day, you lose the privilege of sleeping in," Sam chuckled. "So ten?"
"We'll see you then," Freddie nodded. "Night, Sam."
"Night, nub," Sam said, shifting Eliza in her arms.
