Generation

"We've been in this dumb store for four hours," Emma moaned. "How much longer can this take?"

"Ashton's just being…selective," Clarissa pointed out. "This is her wedding dress, after all. She can't just pick a dress out right away!"

"She's been at this for two months now!" Emma said. "If she doesn't pick a dang dress soon she's going to have to push back the wedding date which means we're going to have to deal with sending out new invitations and all that other junk."

Just then Sam walked out from the dressing area.

"Oh, is she ready?" Clarissa asked as Sam collapsed into the seat next to Emma. "Is she in the gown?"

"She was," Sam said, rolling her eyes. "But she decided she hated the neckline, so she's not even going to bother showing it off. She's changing out of it right now."

"Mom, make her hurry up," Emma said.

"How am I supposed to do that?" Sam scoffed.
"Threaten to ground her or something, I dunno!" Emma said.

"Em, she's twenty-seven years old," Sam said. "I lost my grounding abilities a long time ago. Look…you have an easy out; you're pregnant and you've got a four-year old waiting for you."

"I know, but unfortunately due to that dumb sister bond, I'd feel all guilty if I ditched," Emma sighed. "Believe me, I'd have been out of here long ago if it wasn't for that."

"This is hopeless!" Ashton announced, coming out to join the others, dressed back in her jeans. "I'm never going to find my wedding dress! None of the dresses here are what I'm looking for!"

"Well that's okay, we can try another dress shop," Sam said. "There's probably a few left in Seattle that we haven't hit already…maybe."

"Um, not that I'm not having the time of my life here, but can I get an ETA on when we'll be done?" Emma asked.

"Let's just go home for today," Ashton sighed. "We can try again tomorrow. Even though I won't have any better luck."

…..

"Grandpa, why can't I eat a whole bag of gummy worms?" Savannah asked as Freddie slid a plate of spaghetti in front of her.

"Because gummy worms aren't healthy, sweetie," Freddie said.

"Why?" Savannah asked.

"Well, they're filled with lots of chemicals, dyes, and preservatives," Freddie explained. "Unlike fruits and vegetables and whole grains, which are filled with vitamins and minerals that will help you to grow up big and strong."

"If I'm okay with staying small, can I eat gummy worms?" Savannah asked.

"Um…well, see, it-it doesn't exactly work that way," Freddie said.

"How come?" Savannah frowned.

"Um…oh you know what? I did my time as the responsible parent," Freddie sighed, reaching into the cabinet and handing his granddaughter a bag of gummy worms. "Here you go, honey. Enjoy."

"Yay! Thank you, grandpa! You're the best," Savannah beamed.

"I am?" Gibby said, coming into the kitchen through the Benson's back door. "Cool!"

"Dude, she was talking about me," Freddie said, rolling his eyes.

"Oh," Gibby frowned.

"You're the best too, grandpa Gibby," Savannah said sweetly.

"Aw, isn't she the sweetest, Gib?" Freddie said, sitting down and pulling the four-year old onto his lap.

"Yeah," Gibby said, ruffling the little girl's blonde hair. "Man...isn't it cool that we're co-grandpas together?"

"I thought we agreed we'd stop saying that," Freddie hissed as the back door opened again and Sam and the twins walked in.

"Grandma!" Savannah cheered, jumping off of Freddie's lap and running over to Sam, who scooped her up at once.

"Hi, sweetheart," Sam smiled. "What are you up to?"

"Grandpa let me eat gummy worms for dinner?" Savannah said happily.

"Um…which grandpa?" Emma frowned, glaring at Freddie and Gibby.

"Grandpa Benson!" Savannah answered cheerfully.

"Nice," Sam smiled approvingly at her husband.

"Dad!" Emma moaned. "She's gonna be all hyper now!"

"No worries, I'll handle putting her to bed," Freddie promised. "I've had plenty of experience putting rambunctious children to sleep with you, Em."

"Ha, ha," Emma said, rolling her eyes as she sat down and began eating Savannah's discarded spaghetti.

"So, Ashton, did you find your wedding dress?" Freddie asked his other daughter.

"No," Ashton said heavily. "Nothing I tried on looked even remotely good on me."

"Come on, there were a few that looked great!" Sam said.

"Yeah, I really liked that first one you tried on today," Emma nodded.

"It was too poofy," Ashton said. "You know, at this point I might as well just wear a potato sack up at the alter."

"So we don't have to go dress shopping anymore?" Emma asked hopefully.

"Ashton, you'll find your dress," Sam said encouragingly, ignoring Emma's comment.

"No, I won't," Ashton said, slumping down in her seat.

"Ash, now I mean this in the most supportive way possible, but isn't it possible that you're being like, I dunno, unreasonably picky?" Emma said. "I mean I know it's your wedding dress and all, but come on…"

"Emma, don't you remember how you felt when you finally found your dress?" Sam said before Ashton could respond. "It was an unbelievable feeling, wasn't it? You just looked at yourself in the mirror and you just knew that this was the dress you were going to get married in."

Emma sighed. "Yeah…yeah it was a pretty great feeling, I guess. I want you to have that too, Ashton. Sorry for complaining; it's the pregnancy hormones."

"Thanks," Ashton smiled. "And I guess dress shopping when you're pregnant isn't exactly the funnest."

"Eh, it's no worse than spending the day with Quincy at the pottery museum near our place in Oregon," Emma shrugged.

"You guys have a pottery museum near you in Oregon?" Gibby gasped. "Oh man, I'm totally going to stay with you guys one weekend so I can check that out!"

"Oh…yay," Emma said lamely, biting her tongue.

"I love having the kids stay with us when they're in town," Freddie said happily later that evening once him and Sam had finished reading Savannah a bedtime story. "I miss having a house full of them. Too bad Tyler and Jason aren't here too."

"Well at least they'll be here in a couple of months for Ashton's wedding," Sam shrugged. "If she ever finds that dress, that is. Even Carly didn't take this long to find hers. Maybe next weekend I'll drive down to California and meet Ashton and see if we can find anything there."

"She'll find something eventually," Freddie said.

"Hope so," Sam yawned. "Where is everybody?"

"Emma and Quincy went out for dinner with Gibby and Tasha, remember?" Freddie said.

"Oh yeah, poor Emma," Sam said.

"I think Ashton's downstairs," Freddie said. "She was talking to Pete over web chat."

"Oh," Sam said. "Well I'll see if she's done; maybe a mother-daughter movie night will make her feel better."

"That's gotta be the cheesiest thing you've ever said," Freddie grinned.

"You think I won't give you a wedgie just because we're grandparents now?" Sam snapped. "I'd watch it, Fredbutt."

Sam headed downstairs where Ashton was sitting on the sofa, flipping through a photo album.

"I thought you were talking with Pete," Sam said, sitting down next to her.

"I was, but he has a meeting early tomorrow morning," Ashton said. "That's why he didn't come up this weekend, remember? But he said to say hi to you and everybody else."

"Well we say hi back," Sam smiled. "What are you looking at?"

"I found this in the cabinet under the T.V.," Ashton said. "It's a bunch of pictures from when you and dad were younger."

"Oh yeah, that's where this went," Sam said. "When I was pregnant with Tyler, I was on bed rest my last two months, so grandma Benson tortured me by-I mean…she helped me put together a gazillion photo albums. I think these are all pictures from before any of you guys were born."

"Yeah, I saw your prom picture with daddy," Ashton smiled. "You guys looked really cute. Oh, and is this one from your graduation?"

"Yup," Sam nodded. "And this one is from the trip your dad and I took to the Grand Canyon…our first trip together."

"I want to make an album like this with me and Pete," Ashton said, flipping through the pages. "This is so nice."

"Yeah, I guess it was one of your grandma's less annoying suggestions," Sam agreed.

"Oh!" Ashton gasped. "These are your wedding pictures! Look at you guys!"

"Aw, look how full your dad's hair used to be," Sam chuckled. "Man…I was so young looking there…"

"You're still young looking mom," Ashton said.

"And you may have just moved into the favorite child position," Sam chuckled.

"Wow…look at your dress mom," Ashton said longingly. "It's beautiful."

"Yeah," Sam sighed nostalgically. "It took me awhile to find my dress too, you know?"

"Really?" Ashton said. "As long as me?"

"Um…not quite as long," Sam admitted. "But I'm serious, Ash, when you finally find your dress and try it on for the first time…it's an amazing feeling. And that's coming from me; a girl who absolutely hates dresses."

"If I find my dress," Ashton corrected.

"I told you, you'll find it," Sam said.

"Maybe…" Ashton sighed. "Hey, do you still have your wedding dress, mom?"

"Yeah, it's in the attic," Sam nodded. "Carly took it some place and they did a bunch of things so that it would stay preserved. Do you want to go see it?"

"Can we?" Ashton asked excitedly.

"Sure," Sam said, getting to her feet. "Come on."

The two women headed up to the attic, which was filled with several boxes.

"I need to make your dad come clean up here one day," Sam commented, looking around at the mess. "Ah-ha! There it is!"

She picked up a large white box. "I don't want to open it up here in all this dust; let's go back to your room and I'll show you."

"Okay," Ashton agreed.

So they headed down to the room Emma and Ashton used to share and set the box down on the bed. Sam gently took the lid off and slowly lifted her white wedding dress out of the box.

"Wow…I haven't looked at this in years," Sam said softly, smiling as she remembered walking down the aisle in that dress so many years ago.

"It's even more beautiful than in the pictures," Ashton said as Sam handed her the dress for her to look at. "Hey this would probably fit me…"

"Well you've tried on about a hundred dresses today, what's one more?" Sam grinned. "Go ahead and see how it looks if you want."

"Oh, okay!" Ashton grinned.

Sam helped her into the gown, zipping up the back and adjusting the straps for her daughter.

"Take a look," Sam said.

Ashton stepped over to the full-length mirror by the door and stared at her reflection.

"I can't believe it's been thirty-two years since I wore that," Sam said, shaking her head. "Time flies…God, what's happening to me? When did I become so cheesy? Is this menopause or-"

"Oh my God…" Ashton said softly, covering her mouth with her hands.

"What?" Sam frowned. "Was their a spider in it? Because the attic is full of them. But don't tell your dad; I'll never get him to clean it if he finds out there's-"

"No, mom, this-I look-this is the feeling!" Ashton said, her eyes widening. "This dress is-is exactly what I imagined my wedding dress would feel like!"

"Wait, really?" Sam said.

Ashton nodded. "I-I think-I think this is the dress I-I'm meant to get married in."

"You mean…you want to wear my dress?" Sam asked.

"I-Do you think that'd be okay?" Ashton asked anxiously. "I don't have to. I mean I can always-"

"No honey, I-I think that's a great idea," Sam said softly, her voice cracking. "You really want to get married in my dress?"

Ashton smiled. "I really do, mom. So-So can I?"

"I-Of course you can!" Sam nodded. "Ashton, I-I'd love that."

She stepped over and wrapped her arms around her daughter, pulling her into an embrace.

"Thanks, mom," Ashton said, hugging her back.

"We should probably bring this dress into a shop still," Sam said, wiping her eyes as she pulled away. "We need to get it fitted for you. And the hem of the train is starting to tare, so we'll need to fix that. We'll bring it in first thing tomorrow."

"Okay," Ashton agreed. "Emma will be glad we don't have to shop anymore, at least."

"That's true," Sam chuckled.

Ashton looked back to look at her reflection.

"You look beautiful, Ash," Sam said, wiping a tear from her cheek. "Really beautiful."

...

AN:

Hey everybody, I know it has been a really long time since I posted. So I've had these oneshots going for over 7 years now, and I kept them going for so long because I really enjoyed writing them. I loved iCarly and the Seddie relationship, so writing so many difference scenarios centered around Sam and Freddie's relationship was not only a great stress reliever, but it was fun. Over the past several months, however, I have grown away from iCarly and the Seddie relationship, and I just can't get into writing oneshots like I used to anymore. With that being said, I am officially going to be ending this series of oneshots. I have a few more oneshots that I have had written and saved for months that I will post, but I will not be writing any new ones. I am very sorry if I never got a chance to publish any requests that you made. Thank you so much to everybody who has read and reviewed these oneshots over the past 7 years; you guys are the reason that I kept this series up for so long. As I said, I will post the remaining chapters that I have over the next few days. Again, thank you guys for everything!