Author's Note: Okay, first of all, thank you all so much for the amazing feedback! =D

So here it is, chapter 21! =)

Disclaimer: Do you know that amazing feeling you get when you finally get something you've been wishing for for the past three years, like owning iCarly? No? Me neither.

Enjoy! ;)


Chapter 21: Stuck

Inside the elevator, everything was silent. Even though Sam and Freddie had finally somewhat gotten away from Spencer, they didn't comment anything about his strange behavior when the two metal doors were closed. They simply shared a confused look before looking away and letting the silence take over completely.

They stayed like that for a long moment, Sam with her arms crossed over her chest, staring ahead at the doors with her back resting against the elevator wall right behind her, while Freddie had his hands stuffed in his pockets and his eyes focused on the floor right in front of his feet.

And they'd have remained in those very positions for the rest of the elevator ride to the eighth floor if something hadn't happened along the way.

There was a loud noise, and the elevator stopped abruptly, causing both of them to lose their balance for a moment. The main lights went off suddenly, leaving them with only the emergency light trying to fight its way through the darkness that had suddenly threatened to take over the place, but that didn't make the situation much better, since the elevator was still extremely poorly lit.

It took them both a few seconds to finally react to what had just happened.

"What happened?" Sam asked, finally looking up at Freddie after having avoided doing so for the past few minutes.

"I don't know, the power must be out or something…" Freddie trailed off, but as he thought about it for a brief moment, he remembered something important. "Oh, man" He said out loud without even thinking about it, which, of course, made Sam curious.

"What?" She asked, staring at him expectantly.

"Lewbert was going to check if there was something wrong with the hallway elevator, but I think he might have mistakenly shut down the power of all of them instead of only one" Freddie said, sounding like he was freaking out. He didn't want Sam to know that he was suddenly panicking on the inside, but he was failing miserably at hiding it.

"Oh, man! Why does Lewbert have to be so stupid?" Sam exclaimed angrily, and due to years of experience, Freddie knew that was the kind of situation in which Sam usually felt the urge to take her anger out on something or someone, and as he was the only person around, he was obviously going to be the target.

Suddenly fearful for his own safety because of that last thought, Freddie backed away from her slowly, an action that didn't pass unnoticed by the blonde girl.

"Don't worry, Diphead, I'm not killing you right now" She said, rolling her eyes at him like she thought the assumption he had made was pretty stupid.

"Good" He breathed out, clearly relieved, causing Sam to chuckle lightly and shake her head at him.

"Don't be such a nub" She warned teasingly, causing him to chuckled as well. "Do you think it will take Lewbert long to realize he shut down the power of the wrong elevator so he can turn the power back on?" Sam asked after a brief moment of silence.

"I don't know. Well, we don't even know if that's really why the elevator stopped" Freddie answer, shrugging lightl, and then one idea suddenly popped into his head. "Wait a sec, I know how we can find out if it was really Lewbert" He said, and then got his phone out of his pocket before starting to dial a number into it.

"What are you doing?" Sam asked, trying to read the number he was dialing.

"Calling Carly. Maybe she knows what happened, and even if she doesn't, she might be able to find out for us. And also, she's probably wondering where we are, since we were supposed to meet her in the iCarly studio about ten minutes ago" He explained, and Sam wondered why she hadn't thought of that before.

"Put it on speaker!" She said when he pressed call, and he quickly did what he was told.

And after three long rings, Carly finally picked up the call.

"Hello?" They both heard Carly's sleepy voice coming from the other side of the line.

"Carly?" Freddie spoke into the phone, and there was a brief silent moment before Carly finally spoke again.

"Freddie?" Her voice sounded pretty weird and hesitant, but they both shrugged it off.

"Yeah, it's me" He replied, and Sam then decided to speak up.

"And me" She added quickly, before Carly could speak again.

"Uh… What's wrong? I thought you guys were coming over right after school" She said nervously.

"Yeah, we were, but on our way up the elevator simply stopped, like the power was down or something" Sam explained.

"Really?" Carly didn't sound much surprised.

"Yeah, and Lewbert was going to check one of the elevators, the one in the hallway, so it might be his fault, but we don't know for sure" Sam replied, ignoring her friend's weird behavior.

"Oh, really? Well, Spencer had gone down to the lobby to tell him that the hallway elevator wasn't working, so that must be it" They could hear Carly's footsteps in the background, meaning that she was pacing around as she spoke.

"But we're not in the hallway elevator, we're in the one that opens inside the apartments, so that means Lewbert might have shut down the power of the wrong elevator" Freddie explained.

"Well, that does sound like something Lewbert would do..." Carly trailed off.

"Yeah, it does, but that's not the point. Would you go down to the lobby to see if it's really his fault that the power is out, and tell him to turn it back on, like, right now?" Sam asked.

"Yeah, sure, I'll... I'll do that" Once again, Carly's voice sounded pretty weird, but Sam and Freddie had no time to think about that, because Carly suddenly spoke again. "Oh, look, Spencer is here! So, is Lewbert already checking the elevator? Sam and Freddie said he might have shut down the power of the wrong elevator, and I was going downstairs to talk to him right now, but now that you're here, what's going on down there?" There was something in Carly's voice that made Freddie frown. He had a feeling there was something weird going on, but he couldn't tell exactly what it was.

"Oh, yeah, uh... Lewbert actually shut down the power of all the elevators, and he's already checking the one that's not working, so he can't turn the power back on, and that might take a while..." They both heard Spencer's answer, which could only mean that Carly had also put the call on speaker.

"So you're basically saying that you have no idea when we'll be able to get out of here?" Sam asked, clearly annoyed.

"Yeah, but... Well, Lewbert is just checking the elevator. That can't take too long" Carly tried to make her friends feel better, but that didn't work quite well.

"Well, uh... Thanks, anyway. Keep us informed, alright?" Freddie said, and after hearing Carly's quick 'Okay. Bye' in response, he hung up.

After that, Sam turned her attention to the two big metal doors of the elevator, trying to figure out a way to get out of that place as soon as possible. She hated to be trapped in small spaces, since it reminded her of what juvie was like way too much.

Freddie knew the look on her face. He had already seen that exact same look several times before, usually when Sam was trying to come up with some way - that was, most of the time, reckless or illegal, usually both - to solve a bad situation, and that fact made Freddie start worrying about both his and her safety.

"Uh… Sam?" He spoke up a bit hesitantly.

"What?" She asked, but she sounded like she wasn't paying attention to him at all, which was probably exactly what was happening. She was clearly lost in thought, which, in Freddie's mind, was definitely not a good sign.

"What are you thinking about?" He asked after a brief pause, and she finally torn her eyes away from the two metal doors, focusing them on Freddie's face.

"Trying to figure out a way to get us out of here, what else?" She said it, shrugging her shoulders. "And you know, that's something you should be doing as well" She added after a few seconds, and then took two steps forward, so now she could touch the two closed doors, which was exactly what she did next. She kept trying to find a way to separate them forcefully, which would allow the two of them to get out of the elevator, but she couldn't find a way to do that just using her hands.

"Sam, you know there's no way you're going to be able to open those doors, right?" Freddie said in a warning tone, but Sam ignored him as she kept trying to separate the two doors, but deep, deep inside, she knew he was right. But, of course, being as stubborn as she was, she ignored that thought and kept trying to get the doors open.

Freddie sighed when he realized that she wouldn't give up that easily. She was Sam after all, so he shouldn't have expected any less. When she got an idea inside that crazy mind of hers, it was practically impossible to make her change her mind.

But Freddie wouldn't give up either. He knew that whatever she was planning to do would be both pointless, since there was no way she'd get those doors open, and dangerous. He was about to tell her that, only with different words, when she suddenly snapped her fingers, as if she had just had some kind of brilliant idea, before turning around and walking towards her backpack, which she had left in one of the corners of the elevator when they both realized they were stuck.

Freddie watched curiously as she knelt down next to her backpack and started searching through it for something.

"Uh… What are you doing now?" He asked, afraid of what the answer would be. Sam was known for carrying some weird things with her, which usually could cause serious body harm to someone.

"Just looking for something that might get us out of here" She replied simply, not even bothering to look up at him or to stop her search for a moment to answer him.

"But what is it?" He insisted, wanting her to tell him what she had in mind, but she remained in silence for a long moment.

"Found it!" She exclaimed happily all of a sudden, and then stood back up, finally allowing Freddie to have a clear view of what she was holding in her hands. And when he realized what it was, he immediately decided to intervene.

"Sam, don't even think about it!" Freddie exclaimed as he grabbed her wrist in an effort to stop her from approaching the doors holding a small hatchet.

"What's your problem, Benson?" She shot angrily at him, but surprisingly she didn't try to break her arm free from his grasp, and even more surprisingly, he could hear a hint of nervousness in her voice.

"Sam, you're not hitting those doors with that hatchet" He said firmly, and she rolled her eyes at his worry.

"You want me to do it with the hammer?" She asked, raising an eyebrow at him.

Freddie sighed. "No, I meant that you're not hitting those doors with any kind of weird tools you carry around in your bag"

"But what about the-" She started, but Freddie simply gave her an exasperated look, which made her sigh in defeat. "I'm just trying to get us out of here!" She shot bitterly, taking a threatening step closer to him.

It was only in that moment that they both realized how the distance that there had once been between the two of them had suddenly become really small, but they didn't move. Instead, they got lost into each other's eyes for a long silent moment.

Sam could feel Freddie's hot breath tickling her face lightly, and she knew hers was doing the same to him. For a moment, she wondered what his reaction would be if she simply leaned in and kissed him right then and there, and if he would, by any chances, kiss her back…

Sam suddenly snapped back to reality and quickly pulled her arm free from Freddie's grasp, and he didn't even make any effort to stop her.

"Okay, okay, you win" She gave in, not feeling like arguing with him at all after the moment they had just shared, and after putting the small hatchet back inside her backpack, she sat down in the corner next to her bag, resting her back against the cold metal wall and sighing silently as she closed her eyes, resting the back of her head against the wall as well.

Freddie's eyes remained glued to her for a long moment. He couldn't help but stare at her for a few seconds, just like he had caught himself doing several times over the past few months. After shaking his head vigorously as he tried to clear up his thoughts after what had just happened, but with no success, he did the same as her, but he sat down in the opposite corner, allowing her to have some space, and giving himself some as well.

After a few seconds, he dared to sneak another glance in her direction, thankful for the fact that since she had her eyes closed, that action remained unnoticed by the blonde girl. He guessed she was somehow trying to fall asleep, which didn't surprise him even the slightest bit, and he couldn't help but smile at how cute she looked when she was sleeping, or, in that case, trying to fall asleep.

But in that moment, he had absolutely no idea how that whole elevator situation would change his current relationship with her forever.


Author's Note: This chapter was pretty fun to write XP

So, what will happen next? Will Carly succeed? And hadn't Spencer gone for a walk in the park with Fluffy? What is he doing home then? So many questions to be answered... Hehe ;D

Thank you so much for reading! =)

And don't forget to review! Bob is still a fat chinchilla ;D

xxiCarlyFanxx