iCarly: iMeet the Relatives, Chapter 9: Friends

….

I don't own iCarly. I should be so lucky.

.

Chapter 9: Friends

"But she's okay?" This had to be the tenth time Carly had asked about Maggie.

"Yes, she's fine. I just spoke with Uncle Jemiah. They're taking her back to our home dimension for renewal. That'll fix everything." But his face looked worried.

"Grif? What's wrong?"

"Oh, it's nothing…no, I take that back. It's not nothing. Sometimes the renewal process causes angels to forget some things, is all."

"Forget some things? What do you mean?" Carly's voice rose a notch.

"I mean, some recent memories could be lost. It's very rare, though. I guess the best analogy I can think of is reinstalling computer software. Unless you've saved all your files, there's the possibility of losing some. Of course, this is way more complicated. But don't worry. The ones in charge of this process know what they're doing. Aunt Maggie couldn't be in better hands." He paused, visibly changing the course of his thoughts. "I just can't figure out what it was that caused all this. It would take some powerful force to injure one of us. I mean, even atomic bombs couldn't do that."

"I thought you said it was a piece of this 'Darkness'?"

"That's just a theory of mine. If the Darkness is a living thing, then it stands to reason it would need, I don't know, sustenance? Food? Or…something more complex. So it sends out….what? Feeder units? Mind, I'm just making all this up as I go…"

"And your guesses are similar to ours, Angel Gryphon," said a voice from the area in front of the door. Carly gasped as she saw an incredibly lovely blond woman, appearing to be not much older than herself, materialize out of the blue-white electric tornado she'd come to associate with angel transportation. "But as of yet, there is no data to say either one way or another."

"Oh, yes. Ah, Carly. This is Adriel, one of my colleagues in the Host of the Dominion. Adriel, this is Carly Shay."

The woman looked at Carly, and the latter was suddenly acutely conscious of every single imperfection she had or ever imagined she had. "Uh, how, how do you do?"

"Quite well, thank you. And yourself?" This woman was much more intimidating than Maggie had been. Carly felt like a bug under a microscope.

"I'm sorry for the suddenness of this, Carly. Adriel? I appreciate your accepting Maggie's work while she's away, but these mortals are not used to such sudden comings and goings. Perhaps a little warning next time?"

The woman, the angel, switched her attention back to Grif. "I shall try to remember that. But what I am here to tell you is of great and immediate importance, and could not wait. There is indication of demonic activity in this area."

"Demonic? Demons?" Grif gasped. That worried Carly all the more.

"Yes. Demons. How many, or where, that we do not know, of course, due to their own nature. But you should be on the lookout for them. You know demons; when and where you least expect it, that is when they strike."

Grif groaned. "As if the Darkness wasn't bad enough… Alright, Adriel. I appreciate the head's-up. Will you be—what am I saying, I know you'll be in touch."

"Indeed I shall." And with that, she disappeared into another electric tornado.

Carly turned back to Grif. "Demons? Are they agents of the Darkness?"

"No, they're a separate order of being. They collect souls. Here, on Earth, that means the souls of humans. They're…. they can be formidable foes." He stopped again, then turned to her. "Enough catastrophe for one day. What do you say we just get out of the place for a while…take in a movie, maybe go to a coffee shop or something. I know of one not far from here…"

….

Sam very quietly and poignantly continued weeping, all without making a sound. Devlin waited patiently throughout the whole thing, his hand resting lightly on her wrist, as if lending her his strength…or taking away her pain. Or both.

After about forty-five minutes, she got herself under control again. "You can't understand. I practically have no relationship with my mother…I thought I did, one time, but I was wrong…Carly and her crew have become my family. And now…now things are gonna change. I know it."

"Sam. It's true that I can't understand exactly what you're going through. But I can, quite literally, feel your pain. Those aren't just words for me. But I can tell you something, from my own experience: it's perfectly okay to not like or want change. But just keep in mind, you've not lost anything. Nothing's happened yet. And it may not. But even if it does, you and Carly will still be friends, right? You may not live in the same city anymore, but you'll always share a bond. And that bond will be the same. In this day and age of the internet, you may actually see more of her than you ever have."

"No…you don't understand. Yeah, she moves. Okay. I can't—rationally—object to that. I got that. I was being selfish, I know. I'm a selfish person. I wanted my friend to stay here with me, for things to not change. And, and things are gonna change. I just have to, to accept it." She reached up and brushed the tears out of her eyes.

"You were being you. Everybody's a little selfish. And I've got news for you: if not wanting your friends to move away is selfish, then the entire human race is selfish.

"But you've still got her friendship. And, whether or not you accept it, I, too, am your friend. If you'll have me as one, I mean." He took her hand in his.

She smiled weakly. She'd forgotten how much crying took it out of a person. "Thanks, Dev. I…you're a good guy." She returned his grip on her hand. I'm lucky to have a friend like you.

….

He saw her back to her and her mother's apartment. "Sam, promise me you won't just go 'round and 'round with this. Even if the very worst happens, something can always be done about it. I'm not saying it'll make things all better, that's for fairy tales. But there are usually half a hundred different ways disasters, personal and otherwise, can be…lessened. Ameliorated. Human beings are notoriously poor predictors of the future anyway." He smiled an impish smile. "After all, that's what makes Las Vegas such a booming industry."

She sighed. He was right, of course. How did he get to be right so much? "I…I know. I…what I'm afraid of may never take place. I guess I'm just trying to get myself ready for the worst.

"And the bad part is, I can't ever tell Carly that what's really eating me up is the very thing that she's been waiting for all these years. Her father, finally coming home. And, yeah, maybe he'll take the whole crew and move somewhere else. It's selfish of me to think, 'what about me?' But, dammit, that's what I'm thinking. And I can't get away from that."

"You don't need to 'get away' from it. Accept it. It's part of who you are, the good and the bad. And there's nothing wrong with wanting the best for yourself, now, is there? Isn't that the nature of all living things?"

"Yeah….I dunno. I'm…confused, I guess." She put her hands up to her face. The rain hadn't slacked up, and they'd taken a return bus back to the apartment complex. Such was the liquid roar of the rain, they had to speak up in order to be heard as they walked. Somewhere in the back of her mind, Sam wondered where Dev lived. She knew she hadn't seen him around here.

He saw her to the door of the building. She started to say something, something on the order of "well, see ya," or something like that, when he turned to her. "Sam?"

She turned to face him, and he drew her into an embrace, a close, almost intimate encirclement, and just held her there…and she let him.

She found she liked this. She liked this a lot.

All the fear, the anger, the hurt, the anxiety…all that just seemed to fade there in his embrace. It was almost like…like emptying a bucket. All the hurt and bad feelings just seemed to drain into him, somehow. But that's…that's not possible.

Is it?

But oh if it is…

They separated, and he held her back, his hands on her shoulders, gazing intently into his eyes. He really did have lovely eyes, she thought. Is he…about to kiss me?

I kinda wish he would.

Instead he drew her in, one last time, and planted a light kiss on her forehead. "Get some rest, Sam. The universe will reset itself tomorrow morning."

Sam felt her eyes watering in a way that had nothing to do with allergies. She was halfway glad he hadn't tried for an actual kiss….and halfway disappointed that he hadn't. Maybe more than halfway. "Thanks, Dev. You…this has really helped me. I'll, I'll talk to you later, then?"

"Of course." He gave her a card with his cell number on it. She took a look at it: Devlin Bendarian, WorldCorp Financing and Banking Exchange. Down at the bottom were phone, cell, and fax numbers, and an email address: bendariandevlin . WorldCorp. hel.

"Whoa. Seriously, Dev? This is you? You work for-?*"

"Oh, I'm still a lowly intern. But that won't last much longer. I'll be moving up soon. After all," his eyes twinkled in the rainy gloom, his face in shadow from the streetlight, "I'm an ambitious devil."

"Uh, okay. And thanks again!" She turned and went on into the building.

She didn't see the way his eyes followed her. But it probably would have made no difference if she had.

There had been something strange about the whole evening. She couldn't quite put her finger on it. It wasn't that Devlin seemed to be able to read her like a book, or that his presence seemed oddly comforting, somehow. No, this was something else….

Wait. Downstairs, when he'd embraced her, drawing her head against his chest…he hadn't been wet. Even though the rain was saturating everything, no matter how you dressed, it still seeped or blew in.

Except on him. He'd been bone dry. And… Strange.

Was it her imagination, or had he seemed….just a trifle warmer than she'd considered completely normal?

To be continued…