Disclaimer: I don't own iCarly.

Author's Note: This chapter begins immediately after the last one ended. :D It isn't set from any one character's perspective, and it kind of switches back and forth, but I hope it's okay. :) Thanks for reading!

Chapter Six: iCall It Quits

Carly slapped a hand over her mouth, her eyes wide.

Freddie's jaw dropped, "What?"

"Nothing, I—"

"Carly."

"She loves you." Carly sighed, admitting defeat. She'd been caught. There was no use hiding it now.

"How do you know that?" He asked, skeptically. Something about the idea of Sam loving him was terrifying, and strange, and wonderful. And he really didn't know when that had become something he felt. He shook his head. He just couldn't like her. Not Sam. He couldn't. It was impossible.

"I…" Carly hesitated. She couldn't tell him that Sam had told her. Sam would be furious. More than furious… Humiliated. And Carly couldn't do that to her best friend. "I just know!"

"You can't 'just know' something like that!" Freddie said, his shoulders dropping in what might have been disappointment.

"Yes, I can!"

"Did she tell you?"

"She didn't have to!"

Freddie took that as a no. Why did he wish Sam had said something to Carly, anyway? Why did he suddenly sort of like the idea of being with Sam? Why did he think that, maybe, he could love her? Maybe they were perfect-

Woah, wait, what? He frowned.

"Carly, look, I don't know what gave you the idea that—"

"Sam loves you, Freddie!" Carly insisted, desperately.

Freddie got to his feet. "That's why she yelled at me, said she never wanted to be around me, and has made my life miserable for years? If she loves me, she has a funny way of showing it!"

"She's Sam! She has a funny way of showing everything she feels!"

Freddie shook his head, "I can't, Carly. I can't have this conversation. I'm really sorry, I know you're just trying to help." He hurried toward the door, "I'll see you later, okay?"

"But Freddie!"

"Bye." He waved, and was gone.

Carly sighed, slumping in her seat with a frown on her face.

0000

The beginning of the week was horrible. There were several occasions when both Sam and Freddie ended up in her house and she was forced to choose who could stay, because they refused to be in a room together for longer than a minute. She kept trying to get them to talk to each other but nothing worked, and she was starting to get worried. The two had never had any fight like this before.

Towards the end of the week, though, some semblance of order had finally been established. Sam and Freddie would alternate days in which they got to hang out with Carly. Freddie would have her one day, and the next Sam would. Carly hated this plan, but it was the only one both of them would agree to. As far as iCarly went, rehearsals ceased to exist. Instead, Carly and Sam would get together and plan the show one day, Carly would inform Freddie of their ideas the next day and find out what was possible as far as special effects and tech stuff were concerned. Freddie and Sam agreed that on the day of iCarly, they would tolerate each other long enough to run through the show once and then go live, and then whoever's day that was got to spend the rest of the evening with Carly.

The first iCarly under this new plan was awkward, and not very funny, but did show marked improvement from the week before because Freddie and Sam were actually too furious at each other to even yell. It was quiet before they started filming, and even when they did, Carly could sense Sam's lack of enthusiasm, and she wasn't feeling particularly chipper either.

The next day, Carly knew she wasn't the only one who thought things hadn't gone well. She read the comments on the website, and the majority came from disappointed fans, who were wondering about the lack of good (or appropriately ridiculous) humor in the episode, or noticing Freddie's icy silence from behind the camera.

Monday was Sam's day to be Carly's friend that week, and they met at their lockers before lunch. "What's got you all grumpy?" Sam asked, her voice sickeningly calm, considering the situation. She'd approached Carly with a comfortable, "Hey, Shay!" to which Carly had responded, "Don't 'Hey, Shay' me!"

"What's got me all grumpy?" She asked, testily. All the stress was really wearing at her nerves. "Maybe, what's got me all grumpy, is that my two best friends can't be in the same room as each other long enough to film a good episode of iCarly, which, by the way, I'm practically planning by myself these days!"

"I helped!"

"If by 'helped' you mean ate things out of my fridge while I came up with ideas because you were too upset about Freddie! And? And! I got on the website this morning and apparently all our fans have figured out something's wrong. So maybe what's 'got me all grumpy' Sam, is you and Freddie!"

Sam took a deep breath. "You know, if Benson wants to apologize to me, he can just feel free." Sam said, rolling her eyes.

"Or you could apologize to him!"

"No way."

"But you love him!"

Sam snorted, lowered her voice, and pulled Carly to a corner to talk in with more privacy. "I don't love him! I liked him for a little bit and now I can't stand him. What's so hard to believe about that, huh? And I'm not apologizing."

"But he was just trying to help you." Carly pleaded, wanting Sam to understand that Freddie cared.

"Well, if he really wants to help me, he has a funny way of showing it, doesn't he?"

00000

Three weeks had now passed, and Carly had given up hope. She was stressed and tired and miserable, all because of the fight between Freddie and Sam, and they were both too angry to realize how much pressure their ridiculous argument had put on her.

By now she was planning every iCarly episode on her own, and her friends had gotten into at least four huge shouting matches when their assigned 'Carly Days' got confused.

One night she was spending the evening studying with Freddie, who was trying desperately to help her so she wouldn't fail any of her classes. Lately school had taken a back seat to all the other drama in her life, and she had fallen badly behind. Spencer had practically forced Carly to take the time to ask Freddie to help her with homework, and as Spencer didn't act the adult very often, Carly thought she had better listen to him.

But then Sam burst into the room and tossed a pillow and bag to the floor, "Out, Benson, I need Carly tonight."

Freddie got to his feet, "No, it's my night to hang out with Carly. You know that." He replied, relatively calmly, all things considered.

"Yeah, well, mom and I had a little argument and now I need a place to sleep. Do you have a place to sleep? Because I'm pretty sure you do." She folded her arms.

Freddie debated whether or not he should argue, and was just about to give in and leave when Carly let out a noise of frustration.

"Are you two ever going to be friends again because I—I just can't!" She threw her arms up, "Do you realize how stressed I've been trying to balance separate friendships with both of you while trying to organize iCarly? You know, it'd be really great if you two could just get over your issues and apologize to each other, but if not, I need to know right now!"

There was a long, strained silence. Sam could feel her heart pounding in her chest as she watched Freddie from across the room. This was the test. The moment to see if he really cared. The moment to find out if he really did want her out of his life forever. She held her breath, too angry, too hurt, and too scared to apologize herself. She desperately hoped he would. And with each second that passed she felt more and more sick.

Freddie wanted to apologize. He wanted to be friends again and take away the strain that had been there for three weeks. He missed her teasing, and he missed seeing her smile, he missed laughing with her and even her laughter at his expense. He missed her. But he wasn't twelve anymore. He wasn't willing to get down on his knees and beg for her, or any other girl, for that matter. He was tired of pleading, tired of begging. For once, he wanted someone to come to him. He wanted someone to think he was worth the loss of pride it would take just to say 'I'm sorry,' and if she couldn't do that, then so be it.

When the silence stretched on for a good three minutes, and no one had said a word, Freddie decided to go ahead and put Carly out of her misery. He gave his head a slight shake.

Sam felt like her heart had been dropped and then stomped on.

"I'll just go home." Freddie said, shrugging. "It's getting late, anyway, my mom will want me."

He was halfway across the room before Carly spoke, and stopped him.

"If you two can't work things out—" Carly said, in a strangled voice, "Then—Then let's just end the show. I can't keep planning it only to have you two glare at each other the whole time. It's not fun anymore, for us or for the fans. Let's just quit it."

There was another short silence in the room.

"Fine." Sam said finally, blinking the moment her eyes started to sting.

"Alright, then." Freddie said, his hands shaking at his sides. He crossed the rest of the room and was out the door in a second.

Sam looked at Carly who pointed at the stairs instantly, "Go upstairs and don't come down! I'll meet you up there in a minute." Her voice was firm, but she was obviously upset.

This was one time when Sam was more than happy to obey. She walked slowly across the room and then ran as soon as she reached the stairs.

Sometime during the conversation, Spencer had entered the room. He stared at Carly with wide eyes. "Carly…?"

She burst into tears and flung her arms around her brother.

"There there…. It's okay…." He said awkwardly, stroking her hair. He couldn't help but feel frustrated at Sam and Freddie for what they were doing to Carly.

"It's…It's….Over…" She cried, hugging Spencer tightly.

"They'll work it out and then you can start the show again…" He responded, reasonably.

"But they won't!" She said, wiping at tears that continued to stream from her eyes. "Because—Because they're both so—so selfish…" She sobbed.

"It'll be okay, Carly…" Spencer told his sister, holding her close.

00000

Freddie had been standing outside the door, letting what had just happened sink in. He'd heard Carly and Spencer's conversation, and he did feel terrible. He was upset about ending the show just like Carly was. He would miss it, of course he would, but it did seem like the smart choice. Why should they keep doing something that was only making all of them miserable? With him and Sam not speaking to each other it was pretty much impossible to film a good show, so what was the point?

And yeah, maybe he should have been willing to apologize to Sam. But he didn't want to be the 'friend' she dragged along just for Carly's sake. He wanted to matter. And obviously, he didn't, since she wasn't even willing to apologize to him. He didn't want to hang out with her knowing that he was just tolerated. It wasn't fair to him.

So maybe he was being selfish, but there wasn't a good alternative. Until Sam apologized, there was nothing he could do.

In the meantime… He needed to move on with his life. He could make other friends. He could meet other girls.

Whatever insanity he had been feeling in the past couple weeks, Sam was not the girl for him.

And he would keep on telling himself that, even if he had to do it about a hundred times a day.

00000

Sam collapsed at the top of the stairs as soon as she escaped Carly's sight. She hurt on so many levels, and she rested her head against the wall, too sad to even cry. She clenched her fists together as tightly as she could, as if that would somehow make her feel better. She closed her eyes. It hurt that Freddie so obviously didn't care about her, when for years she'd held onto the hope that someday they might have something. It hurt that now they had to end the show that was seriously important to all of them. And, as if the rest wasn't enough, it hurt to hear that she had pretty much ruined her best friend's life.

But what could she do? If Freddie hated her, then fine. She wouldn't change to please him. She couldn't do that. Sure, maybe she should be a nicer person, maybe she shouldn't beat people up or insult people all the time. But if that was the case, she would change because she thought it was the right thing to do. She wouldn't change herself into a little sweetheart, Carly-Number-Two, just so that Freddie could handle being in the same room as her.

It was just so…Awful and weird that after all this time it had come down to this.

But whatever, she thought, It's time to get on with my life.

Author's Note: I'm really sorry for the late update. That was a hard chapter to write, I hope it was okay. I kind of wonder if I rushed it, but changing it would take a long time and I wanted to let you guys read it…

If you are all thinking 'Ah! Bad Sam and Freddie! Just apologize to each other!' I guarantee I'm right there with you! :)

Also, I've read a lot of 'Sam and Freddie fight' fics, because, let's face it, there are a lot out there. (Because Sam and Freddie fight a lot, heh.) That being said, if there are any striking similarities between this story and others it was completely unintentional, I apologize, and please point it out to me so I can fix it. 3

You're all wonderful. Thanks for reading.

God Bless. :D