AN-This oneshot is a continuation of chapter 539, where Freddie lets Sam keep his old sweatshirt after they break up. Enjoy!
….
Dispose
"Hey, do I smell chicken soup?" Freddie asked as he came into the Shay's apartment.
"Yup, I just made a pot," Carly nodded.
"How come?"
"It's for Sam when she comes over in a little for iCarly," Carly replied. "She's been feeling really sick all day."
"Sam's sick?" Freddie frowned, concerned. Even if him and Sam weren't a couple anymore, he still cared about her, after all.
"Yeah, she has a pretty bad cold," Carly said. "She thinks she got it playing out in the mud the other day. I told her she shouldn't, but does she listen to me? Nooo."
"Well is she alright to do the show?" Freddie asked.
"She says she'll try," Carly said. "But Gibby's going to be on standby to jump in for her if he needs to. Hopefully she'll be fine, though. I really don't want to have to do the idiot farm girl bit with him. I always worry about how much of 'acting' he's really doing during those."
"Well I'm gonna go upstairs and start setting up," Freddie said. "When Sam gets here, tell her I have a ton of medicine across the hall if she needs it."
"I will," Carly smiled.
As Freddie hurried upstairs, Spencer retreated out of his room. "Hey, who's making soup? I'm starved."
"It's not for you," Carly told her brother.
"Aw!" Spencer moaned. "Why do you always make soup and never share with me?"
"It's for Sam, she's sick," Carly explained. "So keep your paws off her food or you know she'll sneeze all over you like last time."
"Gross," Spencer cringed, stepping into the kitchen. "Well…fine then! If you're not going to make me soup, I'll just make it for myself! Now…how do I make soup?"
"You get a can and heat it up," Carly said, rolling her eyes. "It's not rocket science."
Just then the front door opened up and Sam dragged her feet in, wearing old sweatpants and a baggy old sweatshirt.
But not just any old sweatshirt.
The second her best friend entered her apartment, Carly recognized that the sweatshirt was one of Freddie's old ones.
"Hey," Sam coughed, closing the front door behind her.
"Hi," Carly said quickly, choosing not to mention her best friend's attire. "So are you feeling any better?"
"Not really," Sam mumbled. "My head's pounding and my throat hurts and my nose is all clogged."
"Well I made you soup," Carly said. "And Freddie has medicine across the hall he said you could take. Maybe between all that you'll feel a little better."
"Thanks," Sam sniffed as Carly handed her a bowl of the soup. "I'll go ask Fredwad for the medicine then. He upstairs?"
"Yeah," Carly nodded. "You should lie down up there too until the show starts."
"Don't have to tell me twice," Sam replied.
She trudged upstairs, leaving the Shay siblings alone in the kitchen.
"Aw," Carly said softly. "Did you see what Sam was wearing, Spence?"
"Um…I generally don't concern myself with the fashion choices of teenage girls," Spencer frowned.
"That was Freddie's sweatshirt she was wearing!" Carly whispered. "She must've kept it after they broke up!"
"No way!" Spencer gasped. "What do you think that means?"
"I don't know," Carly said. "But it has to mean something, doesn't it?"
"Think Freddie will notice?" Spencer asked.
"Probably, it is his sweater," Carly said. "But I don't know if he'll actually say anything."
"Should you say something?"
"No," Carly sighed. "I don't think so. I don't want to bring it up if she doesn't want to talk about it. Especially if she's sick."
"Alright, well, if you get any deets, let me know," Spencer said. "You know how I feel about being left out of the loop!"
"I will," Carly chuckled. "Don't-"
Suddenly there was a loud popping noise from the stove, and the pot that Spencer had placed their burst into flames.
"Oh my God!" Carly yelled as Spencer raced to get the fire extinguisher. "What did you do?"
"You told me to heat up the can of soup!" Spencer defended. "So I did!"
"You have to take the soup out of the can, first!" Carly exclaimed.
"Well that was never made clear!" Spencer snapped, putting out the flames. "Now was it?"
…..
"You sure you're alright to do the show, Sam?" Freddie asked later that evening kneeling down next to the blonde, who was currently spread out on one of the beanbag chairs.
"Yeah, if our audience doesn't mind me looking like butt," Sam coughed. "Besides, that medicine you gave me is finally starting to kick in."
"Good," Freddie smiled. "Oh, and if it's any consolation…you don't look like butt."
Before Sam could respond, though, the studio door opened and Carly came in.
"Alright, Gibby's downstairs watching the show there," Carly said. "Sam, if you want him to take your place for tonight, just say 'watermelon' and he'll run up."
"Okay," Sam nodded.
"We tried to cut as much stuff out of the show tonight as we could," Carly continued. "It's lucky we had so many clips filmed in advance. We'll show all of those, do the idiot farm girl bit, play a quick round of What's that Odor and then we're done and you can get back to resting up."
"Here," Freddie said, extending a hand to help her up.
"Are you guys ready?" Carly asked.
"I guess," Sam said, taking her remote from the tech cart. She rolled up the sleeves of Freddie's sweatshirt. Carly quickly looked away.
"Alright," Freddie said, picking up his camera. "In five, four, three, two…"
"I'm Carly!" Carly said energetically, jumping in front of the camera.
"And I'm Sam," Sam echoed with as much energy as she could muster. "And this is iCarly! Even if I've got a nose filled with mucus…."
"Yes, that's right, Sam's kind of sick," Carly smiled at the camera. "But have no fear, the show will continue! First on iCarly, we're going to show you all a fun little clip that Spencer, Gibby and I shot called The Family of Tuna Fanatics!"
"We used real tunas!" Sam said.
"Yeah…no we didn't!"
"Well we should've," Sam said. "Now play the clip, Fredalupe!"
"Playing the clip," Freddie said, pressing a few buttons on his laptop and setting his camera down. "So, how you holding up, Sam?"
"Well the room stopped spinning, so I'm gonna take that as a good sign," Sam said. "But I'm passing out the second this show is done."
"Well remember, you do have Gibby as an option," Carly reminded her.
"Eh, the fans don't deserve that kind of torture," Sam said. "I'll be fine."
"Hey," Freddie said, glancing at his computer. "We're getting a whole bunch of chat requests."
"We are?" Carly frowned.
"Uh-huh," Freddie nodded. "If you want, I can have us take them once the tuna clip is over."
"Well…that actually probably would be easier on Sam," Carly reasoned. "We can do the chats instead of the farm girl bit and just do that next show when she's feeling better. That work for you, Sam?"
"If I can sit while we do the chats, sure," Sam nodded.
"Alright, well the clip's done in fifteen seconds," Freddie said, picking up his camera again. "So get ready."
Once the clip ended, Freddie aimed the camera back at Sam and Carly.
"Alright, hopefully you all enjoyed that tuna bit, because let me tell you, disposing of all those half-used cans of tuna was not fun!" Carly said to the audience.
"And now, since you guys are blowing up our chat requests, we're going to take the next part of our show to answer questions from you guys," Sam said.
"Yup," Carly smiled. "So Freddie, let's hear from our first viewer!"
"Here we go," Freddie said, pressing a few keys, causing the television to swing out and a moment later a teenager girl appeared on the screen. "Here's Crispy131
"Hi Carly, hi Sam!" the girl waved.
"'Sup?" Sam nodded.
"Hey," Carly replied happily. "How goes it? Do you have something you want to ask all of us?"
"Yeah, I do," the girl nodded. "I had a question for Sam and Freddie."
"Okay, well shoot," Carly said.
"Well, I thought the two of them had broken up a few weeks ago," the girl commented. "Right?"
Sam frowned. "Yeah…so?"
"What's that have to do with anything?" Freddie asked, almost defensively.
"Well did you guys get back together?" the girl asked.
"Huh? No," Sam said quickly.
"Why would you think we got back together?" Freddie frowned.
"Only because Sam's wearing your sweatshirt, duh," the girl grinned. "Everybody totally saw you wearing it last year, and now Sam's wearing it? That's pretty datey behavior if you ask-"
"Okay, next question!" Carly said quickly, hurrying over past a stunned looking Sam and Freddie to the tech cart and clicking on the next chat request.
Another girl appeared on the screen in place of Crispy131.
"Alright, hey there, um…BubblesBananza," Carly said, hoping to get the subject changed as soon as possible. "So…what-what's on your mind."
"Well I was just calling in because I had the same question as the other girl," the girl said. "Why is Sam wearing Freddie's sweatshirt if they're not together? Isn't that against the law or something?"
"Okay!" Carly said loudly, closing the chat window. "New rule! Nobody's allowed to comment on anybody's apparel! Now, let's-"
"You know what?" Sam mumbled, her face flushed red. "I-I am too sick for this."
"What? Sam, are you-" Carly started, but the blonde had already thrust the blue remote into her hands and rushed out of the studio.
"Sam," Freddie sighed, setting his camera down and hurrying after her.
"Um…" Carly said, clearly not prepared for this sudden abandonment. "So-So how's everybody?"
….
Meanwhile, Sam hurried down into the living room, wanting to get as far away from everybody as possible. That had been humiliating! She had just gotten called out in front of the entire web for still wearing her ex-boyfriend's old sweatshirt! It made her seem like some desperate freak!
Truth be told, she hadn't even remembered she was wearing it when she left the house earlier to come over to do the show. She had put it on before she went to bed the previous night (as she always did), and when she woke up feeling sick, she had simply kept it on because, well, she felt so comfortable in it. She couldn't believe she hadn't thought to take it off before she came over, though. Why hadn't Carly said anything to her; she had to have recognized that the sweatshirt was Freddie's! And Freddie himself had obviously noticed, even if he hadn't said anything…
And now he probably regrets letting me keep this stupid thing, Sam though to herself as she reached the Shay's living room. He must think I'm some giant loser who just drools over this every day and-
"Hey, am I supposed to go up there?" Gibby asked from his seat at the kitchen counter, where the web show was pulled up on the computer. "No one said watermelon!"
"Shut up!" Sam snapped.
"Sam!" Freddie said, hurrying down the stairs after her. "Wait, don't-"
Sam quickly spun around and bolted for the door.
"Wait? So what about my watermelon cue?" Gibby called after her and Freddie raced out of the apartment behind her.
"Sam!" Freddie said, rushing to catch up with her.
Luckily, with her cold, Sam didn't get to far. By the time she reached the lobby, Freddie was already at her side.
"What?" Sam finally snapped, stopping to catch her breath.
"I-I-Why'd you run off?"
"Look, just-just take your stupid sweatshirt back, okay?" Sam snapped, pulling the garment off herself, leaving her just in an old t-shirt. "I don't want it anymore."
Freddie frowned. "Is this about what those people were saying on iCarly? Come on Sam, they're crazy! Who cares what they think?"
"They have a point!" Sam said. "I-What kind of a chick wears her ex-boyfriend's old sweatshirt after they've broken up? It's weird, okay?"
"But…I-I thought you liked this sweatshirt," Freddie said slowly. "You used to always say how soft and comfortable it was."
Sam shrugged. "I-I'll buy another sweatshirt," she mumbled sadly. "Look…you know it's weird too, I know you do. So-So just take it back and-and save it for your next girlfriend. I don't need it anymore."
Freddie sighed. "Sam…remember what I told you the night we broke up?"
Sam didn't reply.
"I told you I loved you," Freddie answered for her. "And-And I meant that one hundred percent. Whether it's romantically or-or as a friend, I'll always care about you and do anything for you. So-So you don't have to think of keeping this old sweatshirt as anything more than-than keeping something that a friend who cares about you gave you if you want."
Sam slowly looked up at him. "I-I do really like that sweatshirt…your mom's fabric softener really did a good job on it, after all."
"So you want to keep it?" Freddie asked knowingly.
Sam nodded, taking it back from him. "Yeah…thanks."
"Anytime," Freddie said. He held out his arms and pulled her into a hug.
"Dude, I'm sick," Sam chuckled. "You're going to catch whatever I have."
"Eh, I'll take the risk," Freddie shrugged.
