Author's Note: Yep, I know, you all hate me for not updating for so long XP Well, I hope this pretty long chapter makes up for the long wait =P

Disclaimer: Do you guys really think that if I owned iCarly, I'd make it less than 10 seasons long? Well, trust me, I wouldn't.

And for the slow ones, I don't own iCarly! XP

Enjoy! ;)


Chapter 22: Awkwardness & Fat Cakes

Normal POV

Sam tried to keep her thoughts away from the brunette boy sitting just a few inches away from her, since the elevator wasn't that big, but she didn't succeed at all. For a single moment, only a few seconds, she was sure that she'd screw up everything she had been building up for almost a whole year, and she couldn't forgive herself for that.

She had been working hard to hide her feelings for Freddie from absolutely everyone, and she almost revealed them to Freddie himself, who was precisely the person who couldn't know about them the most. She couldn't let him know about what she felt for him, because she knew what would happen, and she knew that it was completely inevitable.

Freddie loves Carly, she kept telling herself, trying to convince the stubborn part of her brain that kept building up false hope inside her that maybe someday Freddie might feel something for her too, but she just couldn't entirely convince herself that if he ever found about her secret, she'd be rejected.

But there was something that still got her thinking. When she almost kissed him, it seemed like he'd let her. The way he was looking at her and the fact that he didn't move away awkwardly the moment they both realized how close they were; it all made her think that if she kissed him right then and there, he'd kiss her back.

Sam shook her head lightly and opened her eyes briefly just to check if Freddie hadn't seen the movement. Noticing that he wasn't looking at her, she closed her eyes once again. There was no way he'd kiss her again, no way. Sam was sure that the kiss they had shared several months ago didn't mean anything for him, since it had only happened to get that whole first kiss thing over with.

But… What if she was wrong? Could he… Could he feel the same way about her?

No, Sam, he doesn't! Now stop daydreaming, this is not a fairytale! Sam told herself angrily, but she still couldn't get Freddie out of her mind, and the fact that he was only a few inches away from her wasn't helping at all.

Freddie wasn't in a much different situation than Sam's. He was also trying to understand what had happened a few minutes earlier, and just like Sam, he couldn't find any coherent explanation for it. He could have sworn that Sam was about to kiss him, but when she moved away from him, it almost seemed like he had just imagined it.

But that wasn't the only thing in his mind; he was also trying to understand something that had been bugging him for the last three days.

Sam had been acting pretty weird lately. She had been avoiding both him and Carly for some unknown reason, and he could tell that she was hiding something from them, but he didn't know what. He had done his best to try to figure it out, but he failed miserably every single time he tried.

Freddie decided to drop those thoughts for a moment, because he knew that the more he thought about them, the less sense they made. He then focused his mind on trying to find a way to get out of that elevator, because he knew Sam was freaking out on the inside, even though she didn't let it show much, and he didn't like her feeling like that.

He had to admit that their current situation wasn't so bad in his eyes. Of course, the part of being stuck inside an elevator that had no power and not knowing how long he'd be in there seemed pretty bad, but considering that he wasn't alone in the elevator and that Sam was the one that was there with him made it all not seem that bad after all.

Some people might think that Sam was the worst company in the world, but Freddie disagreed with that completely, even though when he first met her, he had a similar opinion to that one. Of course, Sam could be aggressive, abusive and rude when she wanted to, but Freddie was one of the few people who knew that under all that, there was another side of her. A softer, calmer, and – yeah, he dared to say it – vulnerable side of her, even though he didn't have the chance to see it very often.

And in fact, he really enjoyed her company, even with all the beatings and insults. And talking about those, he had recently noticed that they weren't happening very often anymore, maybe because he and Sam had grown closer during the years, and now they could even be called close friends.

But even with all the bickering, he knew he wouldn't have it any other way. He loved her just the way she was.

They were both silent for a long time, each one of them secretly hoping that the other would break the silence, but neither one of them wanted to do it themselves. It wasn't because the situation was awkward, because honestly, it wasn't. They both wanted to talk to each other, they just didn't want to be the one to speak up first.

The situation remained like that for a few minutes, which seemed to drag on for hours, until the silence was finally broken; not by one of them, but by Sam's stomach growling loudly, which caused Sam to mentally slap herself for not eating something before she left Ridgeway.

"You hungry?" Freddie asked, even though the answer was pretty obvious.

"Well, yeah. I haven't eaten anything for over two hours now." Sam complained, trying to remember if she didn't have anything she could eat in her bag, but she instantly remembered that she had already eaten all the fat cakes that had been in there. She had made a mental note to renew her fat cake stock that morning, but she ended up forgetting to do it, and now she had nothing to eat.

Dammit! How could I have forgotten to put- She was about to keep cursing herself for a few minutes, but she stopped abruptly when she realized that Freddie had gotten up from the floor and had kneeled down right next to his backpack, before starting to look for something in there.

"What are you…?" She didn't finish that, because instead, she decided to just wait and see what Freddie was about to do.

A few seconds later, Freddie finally spoke again.

"You had left this over at my apartment, so I decided to leave it here, you know, just in case there was ever some kind of emergency." He explained as he got something out of his bag, causing Sam's eyes to bright up when she realized what he was holding out for her to grab, which was exactly what she did without even thinking twice.

Sam quickly tore the plastic that wrapped the fat cake up and was the only thing that separated her from the delicious snack she was holding firmly in her hands. Freddie watched as she attacked the poor pink thing hungrily and without a single drop of hesitation, smiling to himself as he did so.

After a few bites, though, Sam paused for a moment and looked up at him.

"You don't want some?" She offered, her mouth full, and Freddie shook his head, surprised that she had actually been willing to share her food with him. That had never happened before.

"No thanks. I'm good." He said, and she shrugged, before going back to devouring the fat cake, which didn't take over two minutes. Sam then turned to Freddie once again, after wiping her mouth him the back of her hand.

"Uh… Thank you." She said, a bit awkwardly, and Freddie couldn't help but smile at her.

"No prob." He replied, making her smile in response.

Their eyes were glued to each other's for a long moment, neither one of them wanting to move their gave away, until Sam finally made herself look down as she rested her back against the elevator wall once again, and Freddie decided to do the same, but now, he was sitting right next to her.

Now that her stomach was partially full, Sam suddenly started to feel sleepy. Her eyelids were growing heavier and heavier at each moment, until she couldn't bear to keep her eyes open anymore, and she soon found herself letting her head fall to the side and rest on something soft. She didn't even have time to realize what it was though, since she soon drifted off to sleep.


Freddie unexpectedly felt something resting on his right shoulder and quickly looked down to his side. He was surprised when he realized that Sam had fallen asleep and had let her head rest on his shoulder, but the shock quickly wore off, and he smiled as he moved a lock of her golden hair that had been covering her face to carefully tuck it behind her ear.

He then leaned in and kissed the top of her head softly, being careful not to wake her up. She stirred a bit in her sleep, but much to his relief, she remained asleep.

Growing a bit more secure, he moved his left hand up to her hair and started playing with it affectively, glad that Sam wasn't a light sleeper, or else he was sure he'd be dead by now.

Freddie sighed soundlessly and contently. If he could stop time, he'd sure do it in that moment, but as he couldn't, he simply enjoyed it while it lasted. Unfortunately, it didn't last long, because just a few minutes later, his phone rang.

Freddie cursed himself for not having put it on vibrate as he watched Sam's eyes pop open. She looked around confusedly before moving away from him quickly as soon as she realized the position she and Freddie had been in. Freddie avoided making eye contact with her as he reached for his backpack and got his phone out. He took a quick look at the screen, reading the caller ID.

Carly.

"Hey Carly." He spoke into the phone, but this time, Sam didn't seem really interested in hearing the conversation. He put it on speaker anyway though.

"Hey Freddie. Uh... how are things going over there?" Carly asked hesitantly, but she sounded pretty curious about it. Weird.

"Uh..." Freddie glanced over at Sam really briefly, meeting her eyes for less than a second, and then went on, trying not to stutter as he spoke. "Everything is fine here... uh... so, what's up? Is there anything new?"

"Yeah, I... I went downstairs to talk to Lewbert myself, and there's already a dude there working on the elevator that's not working, but he said that he can't turn the power back on until he's done." Carly explained, sounding a bit nervous.

"And how long is that going to take?"

"Well, he said it would take two more hours for the elevator to be fixed..."

"Two hours?" Freddie asked just to make sure that he had heard it right.

"Yeah," Carly replied, and Freddie sighed quietly to himself.

"Well, thanks anyway for keeping us informed, Carls." Freddie thanked her.

"No prob," She replied. "I'll call you if there's anything new."

"Okay, thanks again." He said, before hanging up.

Sam had been trying to avoid making eye contact with Freddie while he talked on the phone with Carly, staring down at her hands, which here folded over her lap, hoping that he hadn't noticed how deep she was blushing, but now that he was done talking to their best friend, she knew she couldn't avoid it any longer.

"Well, it seems we're gonna have to wait in here for two more hours." Freddie said, and Sam finally made herself look up at him.

"Yeah, seems like it." She said simply, pretending to be calm and that nothing had happened.

The moment could seriously not have been more awkward, since they were both trying not to bring up what had happened before Freddie's phone rang, but at the same time it was the only thing in their minds, and they could tell that the other was also thinking about it.

Sam felt the need to at least try to break the tension in the room, so she started to search her brain for something she could say, but she met with no success. She thought about it for a few minutes, but then gave up, thinking that maybe a conversation would only make the situation even more awkward than it already was.

Even though Sam didn't know it, Freddie was trying to do the exact same thing she was doing - trying to think of something he could say to ease the tension between them, but just like Sam, he found none. But once again, there was something else in his mind.

The way Carly spoke on the phone both times they had talked intrigued him deeply, and he couldn't hel but wonder if she was hiding something from them.

Carly had never been a good liar. It was unbelievably easy to tell when she was lying because she'd get pretty nervous and anxious as she spoke, and that was exactly how her voice sounded over the phone. But could that really mean something…?

That was when it hit him. It actually meant everything.

Freddie cursed himself in his mind for not having realized something so obvious before, even if it was right in front of his face. Why Carly wanted them to meet her in the studio right after school; why Spencer had been acting so weird in the lobby; why Spencer had only let him get inside the elevator after Sam had arrived; why Carly had sounded so nervous while talking to him on the phone. All the pieces seemed to be getting in place right in front of his eyes, just like some kind of huge puzzle, and when it was done, everything suddenly made sense.

The elevator didn't stop because Lewbert shut the power of all the elevators down, since there was actually no reason for him to do that. Freddie knew that the each elevator had a separate lever, so there was no way Lewbert would shut the power of all elevators down if he only needed to do it for one.

That all could only mean one thing: the power of the elevator they were in wasn't shut down by mistake; it was just too much of a coincidence. And all that could only have been caused by one person: Carly.

It made perfect sense. Carly was known for always making up crazy plans to get what she wanted, and that description fit perfectly on the situation he and Sam currently found themselves in.

Carly knew how Freddie felt about Sam, and she probably, in her little fairytale-like mind, thought that Sam could possibly feel the same way about him, so she came up with a plan in an effort to get them together.

So all this 'getting stuck inside the elevator together' thing was only part of one of Carly's plans; a plan that, Freddie thought, wouldn't work. He was sure that Sam didn't feel the same way about him, there was just no way she did, so how could that plan work? That plan couldn't make Sam magically fall in love with him, so what was the point of all that?

Freddie sent a quick glance toward Sam, who fortunately wasn't looking in his direction when he did it, before moving his gaze to the elevator floor right in front of him, before begining to try to think of a way to entertain himself for the next two hours.


Sam had finally managed to calm herself down, but the problem now was another one.

She was bored.

She hated to be bored. She got bored pretty often; usually at school or whenever Carly traveled, but this was different. She couldn't simply start writing songs on her notebook like she usually did at school or start singing randomly to herself like she did when she was alone at home.

Nope, that didn't seem like a good idea.

Sam swore mentally for forgetting to charge her PearPod the night before and started playing with a lock of her hair as she tried to entertain herself, but that got boring after less than a minute. She started to search her brain for something else to do, but she found nothing. She groaned lowly in frustration, but it ended up coming out loud enough for Freddie to hear it and look over at her confusedly.

Realizing that, Sam quickly explained herself. "I'm bored."

"Well, we're on the same boat on that one." He replied with a hint of a smile, and then became silent again, which wasn't really the answer Sam wanted to hear. She was secretly hoping that he'd at least start a conversation after she said that, but instead, he chose not to, which annoyed her deeply.

"I'm still bored." She said, a bit louder this time, and Freddie chuckled at her.

"What do you want me to do?" He asked, sounding amused.

"I don't know. Something not boring?" She said it like it was absolutely obvious.

"And do you have any suggestion on what that could be? Because, well, there's nothing to do in here anyway." He said, and Sam rolled her eyes at him, but she couldn't deny the truth in his words. Sighing, she closed her eyes and rested the back of her head against the wall right behind her.

After that little exchange, they both went back to staring at a random spot on one of the elevator walls, trying to make time go by faster, but both of them were failing miserably at it.


Carly took a deep breath.

One hour had passed a lot faster than she had thought it would. When the alarm she had set to ring went off, she felt as if barely a few minutes had gone by, but she soon managed to make herself get up from the couch and grab the disposable phone Spencer had gotten from Socko that morning, ready to put the second part of her plan in motion.

She hadn't been supposed to call Freddie again just a few minutes ago, but she just couldn't control herself. In the original plan, she had indeed been supposed to call him twice, but as Spencer had walked inside the living room because he had forgotten Fluffy's favorite frisbee in the exact moment he did, she ended up telling Sam and Freddie everything they were supposed to know in the first phone call she made. But as she needed to know how things were going, or at least if they were both still alive in that elevator, and there was no other way to do it, she ended up having to come up with something else to tell them so she could make a second phone call.

But even though she knew that they were both okay, she had no idea if something had happened between her two best friends inside that elevator, and that made her grow extremely anxious.

Trying to ignore that line of thought, she quickly opened up the text message she had written several hours earlier on the disposable phone.

She couldn't have sent Sam the text from the phone of someone whose number was in Sam's contact list, so that eliminated herself, Spencer and Gibby, and she honestly couldn't think of anyone else who could help her with that. But when she told Spencer about that little complication in her plan, he told her he'd handle it. And two hours later, Spencer showed up with the phone, saying that he had gotten it from Socko, who apparently owed him a favor.

After hesitating for a brief moment, she finally made herself press send. She then sighed, sitting back down on the couch, suddenly feeling even more anxious than before, because she knew that now everything depended completely on Sam and Freddie; her part of the plan was done.

The only thing she could do now was wait.


Author's Note: Okay, that was like, the longest chapter of this story XP I hope you liked it! =)

Thank you so much for reading! =)

And guess what? Bob is fatter than ever! (Seriously, he looks like a bunny now XD) So let's all keep reviewing, or else he might become the world's fattest chinchilla in just a few weeks! ;P

xxiCarlyFanxx