AN: This takes place directly after iBalls; just some cute Seddie friendship.
…
Caring
"So," Sam said as her and Freddie sat at their table down at the Groovy Smoothie. "You think you'll get a ton of money for curing that weird eye disease?"
"I dunno," Freddie shrugged. "I mean that'd be nice and all, but it's not like the condition was super common; only a few people in the entire world have it."
"Eh, true," Sam nodded, sipping her smoothie. "Hey, where'd Spencer go? I thought he was going to get us curly fries!"
"He's probably in the men's room looking for somebody to replace Marty," Freddie said.
"Wow," Sam said, rolling her eyes.
"Uh-huh," Freddie nodded. He glanced at his phone. "Well, that means he's going to be busy for awhile. What do you want to do?"
"We can go back up and hang with Carly," Sam suggested. "But she'll probably try to get us to help her unpack…We're probably safer just staying down here for awhile."
"Right," Freddie agreed. "Anyway, I bet you're glad she's back."
"I mean sure," Sam said. "It did suck not having her to watch this week's America Sings with, but-"
"No, I mean you must be glad she's back for iCarly," Freddie said. "So that way you won't have to worry about me messing things up in front of the camera. Don't worry, I learned my lesson; from now I'll stay behind the tech cart where I belong."
"What? Dude, you're still on this?" Sam frowned. "You just created a technology that cures bilateral whatever! That's totally creative!"
"It also blinded about five hundred times more people," Freddie pointed out.
"Only temporarily," Sam reminded him.
"Still," Freddie sighed. "I guess I just wanted to be creative doing something…cool. Like an iCarly skit. Nobody cares about some weird eye-technology."
"Well that girl who you cured definitely did," Sam said. "You realize you just completely changed her life? She'll never have to wear those hideous glasses again!"
"Well…she did seem really happy about that," Freddie said slowly.
"Exactly," Sam said. "So who cares if you can't come up with skits for iCarly? You're creative, just in a different way than Carly and me."
"Huh…" Freddie said, letting those words sink in. "I've never really thought of it that way. Thanks, Sam. That's actually really nice of you."
"Yeah, well, don't get used to it," Sam said, giving him a small smile. "I just don't like seeing you all bummed out when I'm not the one who caused it."
"Of course," Freddie chuckled, rolling his eyes. "Man…that robot skit was pretty bad, wasn't it?"
"Pretty bad?" Sam smirked. "Dude, it was a train wreck!"
"Yeah, I watched it again last night," Freddie said. "I can't believe I actually thought those jokes were funny. They seemed hilarious when I was pulling them out of the Jokes for Wholesome Boys book my mom got me for my birthday."
"You got your jokes from a joke book?" Sam frowned. "A wholesome joke book?"
"Er, I'm kind of seeing how that wasn't my best idea," Freddie said.
"You think?" Sam said.
"Well how do you manage to come up with funny stuff every week?" Freddie asked. "Every script you make is hilarious."
"I dunno, like I said, I'm a different kind of creative than you," Sam shrugged. "The stuff just comes to me."
She thought for a moment.
"Do you really want to learn how to write quality bits for iCarly?" she said slowly.
"Yeah," Freddie replied. "Why?"
"Well…man, I'm gonna regret this…" she sighed. "But why don't you help me come up with a script for our show next week?"
"Wait, you mean you'd work with me?" Freddie said.
"Yeah, why not," Sam said, rolling her eyes. "Seems like this is something important to you, which means you're gonna be whining about it for awhile. So you in?"
"Totally!" Freddie exclaimed.
"Cool," Sam said. "Come my place tomorrow around three. I'll probably be awake by then."
"Great, I'll bring my joke book!" Freddie said.
"Oy," Sam said, shaking her head.
….
"Hey, hey!" Freddie said brightly the next afternoon as Sam let him inter her house.
"Could you not sound so chipper?" Sam yawned. "I literally just rolled out of bed. Where's the coffee you brought me?"
"I didn't know you wanted coffee," Freddie frowned.
"Dude, it's insanely early, why wouldn't I want coffee?" Sam said, rolling her eyes.
"It's almost four o'clock!" Freddie exclaimed.
"Your point?" Sam said as Freddie set his bag down on the couch. "Whatever, let's just get started. Carly wants this done by tonight so we can rehearse it."
"Right," Freddie said, pulling out a notebook. "Well I was up all night brainstorming ideas and I think I came up with a few good ones."
"Cool, let's hear them," Sam said, sitting down next to him.
"For my first idea, I'm thinking we do a bit with a mailman," Freddie said. "But instead of letters, he delivers sandwiches."
Sam stared blankly at him.
"You get it?" Freddie said. "Because nobody would expect a mailman to deliver a sandwich!"
"Um…okay, don't take this the wrong way, but that's not exactly…funny," Sam said.
"What? But it's a mailman delivering sandwiches," Freddie said.
"I heard you the first time, nub," Sam said. "But there's just nothing funny about it."
"Oh," Freddie said, slightly disappointed.
"But hey, we can still work with that," Sam said quickly. "The mailman idea isn't bad, you know. We just need to come up with a different angle."
"A different angle?" Freddie repeated.
"Yeah," Sam nodded. "How about instead of sandwiches he delivered…oh! Slaps!"
"Slaps?"
"Uh-huh," Sam nodded. "He could be a mailman who went around slapping people who deserved it! Kids love watching slaps!"
"They do, don't they," Freddie said thoughtfully. "Maybe we can convince Spencer to dress up as the mailman and Gibby can play the guy who's having the slap delivered to him."
"Perfect! Gibby's totally slappable," Sam nodded. "Well what are you waiting for? Start writing this stuff down!"
"Okay!" Freddie said, grabbing a pen. "Hey, maybe we can name the mailman Slappy or something?"
"Slappy?" Sam repeated.
"Um, never mind," Freddie said quickly. "I was just-"
"No, that's not…horrible," Sam said.
"Really?" Freddie said, somewhat surprised. "You-You mean I just contributed something to an iCarly skit? Something creative?"
"Easy there, Fredpus, you came up with a name for a mailman," Sam smirked. "But yeah, I guess you did contribute some creativity. Now come on; we did five minutes of work, which means it's time for our first break."
….
"Hey, there you guys are," Carly said later that evening as Sam and Freddie entered the iCarly studio. "Where have you been? Our meeting was supposed to start twenty minutes ago."
"Sorry," Freddie said. "Sam and I grabbed dinner at El Guapo Taco and we lost track of time."
"You two grabbed dinner?" Carly said, giving them a strange look. "Together?"
"We were hungry," Sam shrugged, plopping down in an empty beanbag chair. "But we brought you back some chips."
"Where are they?" Carly frowned, looking at her best friend's empty hands.
"Um…well it was a long walk over," Sam said lamely.
"Whatever," Carly said, rolling her eyes. "But did you finish coming up with a new bit for this week's show? We need to go over it so we can figure out what props we need to get."
"Yup, here it is," Sam said, pulling a notebook out of her bag.
"Slappy the Mailman…interesting," Carly said, looking down at the paper. "Hey, this is really funny! Our viewers will love it. Nice work, Sam."
"Actually," Sam said, looking over at Freddie. "I can't take all the credit. I had some help."
"Help?" Carly repeated. "You don't work cooperatively with anybody! Who helped you?"
Freddie raised his hand. "That would be me."
"You?" Carly said, somewhat shocked. "You helped write this?"
"He did," Sam nodded, giving Freddie a small smile.
"But this is…good," Carly said.
"Thanks," Freddie scoffed.
"I mean…well, it's just…I saw your robot bit you came up with last week," Carly said. "And, um, no offense or anything, but it wasn't exactly-"
"I know it sucked," Freddie chuckled. "But Sam helped me come up with some good stuff. Besides, she did most of it."
"Nah, it was fifty-fifty," Sam said. "You came up with that idea about the mailbag, after all."
"I was only building off of your idea about the stamps," Freddie pointed out.
"Look Benson, just face it," Sam said. "You had a creative breakthrough today."
"A creative breakthrough…" Freddie repeated thoughtfully. "Wow, never thought I'd hear those words."
"Well, good job both of you," Carly said. "This is going to be hilarious to film. Oh, you know what? Spencer already has a mailman costume in his closet, so we won't have to worry about finding him one."
"Why does he have a mailman costume in his closet?" Sam frowned.
"I didn't really want to ask," Carly said. "Let me just run downstairs and tell him he needs to wear it when we rehearse tomorrow. Can you two write down any other props we need?"
"He can," Sam said, tossing the notebook to Freddie.
"Sure," Freddie said, rolling his eyes.
"Well I'm not about to do more work," Sam pointed out, leaning back in her seat. "That script took three whole hours to make. Mama's off the clock now."
"Eh, it's fine, I don't mind," Freddie said. "Besides, I owe you for helping me out. Thanks a lot for letting me work with you today, Sam. It means a lot that I'll finally get to contribute something other than boring tech knowledge to iCarly."
"Yeah, well…anything to get you to stop complaining," Sam shrugged, but she flashed him her signature smirk.
"I guess," Freddie chuckled. "But seriously…thanks for caring."
Sam looked up at him. "What was that?"
"Thanks for caring," Freddie repeated. "I mean you didn't have to do any of this, you know."
Sam looked down at her lap, still smiling. "You're welcome," she said softly.
