Sorry for the long wait, but I just started school again and my writing time has been cut in fifths. But keep in mind that every time I post I've been writing more of the story (I like to keep about three chapters ahead in order to motivate myself). Thanks again to the people who reviewed, read, alerted, favorited, and everything else! Without you I wouldn't continue.

Chapter 05 – Weeks 4 and 5

Week 4

It was negative. He had held her hand the entire two-minute wait and they had stared at the stupid plastic thing that she had peed on (ew), holding each other's hands, and found out together that this really wasn't happening to them.

Then they hugged; they hugged like they used to, months ago, as if they were scared the other one was going to disappear at any moment.

And then Freddie kissed her, and she let him. Hell, she even kissed him back. She didn't even know exactly why they were kissing – whether it was out of relief, or loss of some potential future, or out of realization that this was it. The end.

He pulled away from the kiss first, but didn't let go of his grip on her. He even buried his face into her neck, placing little kisses wherever his lips met her skin.

And then he took a step back and let go of her all-together. He closed his eyes and let out a sigh, then opened them. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have done that."

She nodded, not really caring that he had done it at all, but some rational, tired part of her forced her to respond. "It's okay, I think it was called for in the moment… as long as it doesn't become a habit, you know…"

Freddie nodded, and then shoved his hands into his jean pockets looking adorable and kissable, but so very off-limits. Sam grabbed the stupid test, shoved it back into the box it came from and put it into her purse. The last thing they needed was his crazy mom to find that anywhere in this place.

"Thanks for doing that with me. I think a lot of guys wouldn't have. I guess having a geeky nub as an ex has its perks, right?" She gave him a good-natured punch on the arm, trying to relax herself and him after that intense moment-thing they had just shared.

"Yeah, I guess. And having a bossy, mildly-abusive ex had it's perks too, sort of," he said with a laugh.

"We were obviously perfect for one another," Sam said sarcastically as she walked towards his apartment door, preparing to leave.

"Yeah, we were," he said seriously, sadly, all playfulness lost in his voice. Sam turned to him and their eyes met. She looked away quickly and headed for the door, not wanting to fully see how sad he was, all thanks to her.

"See ya tomorrow, Fredweird," she said as happily as she could, pretending like she hadn't noticed his expression at all.

Carly basically had a fit when Sam told her what had happened. She hadn't been planning on tell her at all, but having an ex-boyfriend live across the hall with thin walls apparently made secrets impossible. Rather than let Carly sing "kissin' in a tree" more times than Sam could count, she decided to just tell her the truth about why she had been at Freddie's the day before when Carly brought it up.

"You two… did that and you didn't find it important enough to tell me?" She sounded shocked and a little hurt, but that didn't stop her from asking the twenty questions that popped into her head.

"Why didn't you tell me? How was it? What was it like? Why would you break up with him after that? Was it bad? Did he do something mean? How did you guys even have this… false alarm anyways? We're you guys careful about it? Does anyone else know? Did you tell someone before me? You better not have!" Sam waved her hands in front of Carly, trying to stop her crazy questions.

"Whooooa, sista! Hold your horses, okay? I only remember, like, three of the questions you asked! And of course I didn't tell anyone! You weren't even supposed to find out, but since you have crazy 'Spidey-Senses' that tell you when I'm at Freddie's its apparently impossible to not tell you things. Yeah we were careful, it's just I've been sick lately and Freddie said it was possible so we figured I'd check to make sure. And he didn't do anything wrong, I just felt like it was time to break up because I was tired of fighting all of the time."

Carly stared at her for a moment, her eyebrows raised in disbelief. "So-so that happens… and you dump him?" she asked slowly, in total disbelief.

"Eh, yeah. I think we did it on accident. I mean, not like we didn't want to… but everything had been going so bad and we were trying to make it work. But… I mean… sex doesn't just fix things. It just made everything more confusing and worse and I just needed to end it." Sam rushed out all of the words, not really wanting to talk about this. She wasn't really a 'feelings' type of girl, but she knew Carly wouldn't drop this one without some explanation.

"Oh," was all Carly said in response.

"Now that that conversation is over, how about some ham? Your fridge better be fully stocked for mama!" Sam stood up, making it clear that this conversation was over. Carly looked a bit put-off, but she followed Sam to the kitchen anyways, going along with the whole 'this didn't just happen' façade that Sam had fully adopted.

"Don't tell anyone, okay?" Sam looked back at Carly seriously, deciding to just get that out of the way.

"No, no way, I won't." Carly nodded dutifully, her tone equally as serious.

"Good, cause if you did I'd have to replace my daily Gibby-torture time and turn it into Carly-torture… which could get a little awkward since we're best friends and all."

"Psshh, you like me too much to torture me, I know it." Carly rushed up to Sam, pinched her cheek lightly, and patted her head before running forward to avoid any repercussions that signs of cuteness may have induced.

"Hey!" Sam jumped forward, racing after her down the stairs. Even as she chased Carly with not-so-nice intentions, she was glad that things were getting back to normal.

Week 5

A week later and she had a cold. This would happen to her. She gets over the flu, only to have to deal with congestion and a cough. She had gotten about six days of healthiness before this new cold had started, and she wanted nothing more than to go back to that six days of bliss.

"Sick again?" Carly asked as Sam sniffed for the thousandth time that were sitting in the iCarly studio, trying to come up with ideas for the next show.

"I am officially allergic to school. I should probably stop going so often," Sam said with a convincing nod.

"Don't you skip at least one class a day as it is?"

"Obviously one isn't enough," Sam shrugged, already planning her new skipping class schedule.

"Spencer got a new girlfriend, ya know," Carly said suddenly, changing the subject.

"Who's the lucky lad-ay?" Sam wiggled her eyebrow suggestively, giving Carly her attention.

"I don't know her name but you know what she did last night?" Sam didn't even get the chance to guess before Carly started up her rant again, "She pulled me into the bathroom and asked me what Spencer's favorite color was. Do you want to know why she needed that bit of information for? I'll tell you! She wanted to know what color she should paint the walls of their house when they move in together. That's what she said, seriously, that she was going to pre-decorate their house!"

Sam listened, amused, as Carly continued the rant about Spencer's new crazy girlfriend. Crazy wasn't even a thorough enough word to describe her, in Sam's opinion. And if Sam knew anything, it was crazy.

It took about ten minutes of ranting for Carly to express all of her feelings for the batty girl dating cool-bro Spencer. Sometimes he chose the weirdest chicks, Sam had to agree with Carly on that. At least she knew how to choose them not-so-crazy. Freddie may have been a nub, but he was at least a nice, semi-normal, sane nub…

Actually, he had been a pretty great nub while they were dating. Other than his worried pestering (a trait he undoubtedly got from his mother), he had been pretty… ugh. Why was she even thinking about this? Freddie The Nub didn't need to be thought about in this way anymore. They were over, they were no longer anything but friends, they were-

"Sammmmm…" Carly's hand was waving up and down in front of her eyes, and Sam shook her head to clear her thoughts.

"Where'd you go? Daydreaming about a certain nubby-neighbor of mine?" Sam glared at her friend and wondered silently how Carly had known.

"Unless your neighbor is actually a pig named Abner that is about to be cooked in the oven, then no."

"Mmmhhmm…" Carly nodded in a sarcastic agreement and Sam could only roll her eyes.

"So, want to go see how long it take for a towel to disintegrate in the oven?"

"Sure," Carly shrugged her shoulder and Sam jumped up at the chance to partake in more pyrotechnics at the Shay's – a common escapade as of late.

"But we've gotta be careful, the fire department told us they weren't going to be coming anymore this month, we reached our monthly quota last week when Spencer decided to try to sculpt different types of cheese by melting it with a blow torch."

"That must have smelled nasttyy," Sam scrunched her face at the thought and Carly laughed and nodded, giving an affirmative for the assumption. The two friends walked out of the iCarly studio and towards the kitchen with equal excitement.

Sam had made it about halfway down the stairs before she began to feel lightheaded, as if she had stood up too quickly. Her eyesight became clouded momentarily and she blinked her eyes a few times with no avail. She gripped the railing of the stairs tightly and stopped moving, pretty sure that if she was going to take another step she may actually fall.

"Sam, you okay?" Carly said from a few steps below.

"I think I'm going to be sick," Sam admitted miserably, and Carly skipped up two stairs in order to take her arm and help her as fast as humanly possible to the bathroom. Most of the work was done by Carly, Sam had to admit, and she tried to remind herself to compliment Carly on her guns (which Sam didn't know existed until now).

Carly held Sam's hair as she threw up into the toilet bowl, despite Sam's obvious discomfort with Carly's presence. She had tried to ward her off with a wave of her hand, but Carly only responded with a high-five, annoying Sam to no end and making Carly giggle, despite the disgusting situation.

It was about two minutes before Sam caught her breath and sat up, her strength returning to her.

"I thought my flu was gone!" she said miserably. "I'm sorry, Carls, that was gross and I really hope you don't get sick."

"Yeah it was gross…" Carly made a face and offered Sam a hair-band.

"Thanks." Sam grabbed the black rubber band and pulled her hair back and away from her face.

"Maybe you should go to the doctor's office," Carly suggested nonchalantly, and Sam's face fell into a frown.

"I hate that place." And they both knew it. Carly had heard enough stories about Sam attacking doctors over the years – all highly amusing after the fact, but pretty scary for the doctors at the time they were happening.

"You've been sick for, like, three weeks. It's about time you got a flu shot," Carly teased in a sing-songy voice. The word 'shot' was never to be spoken in front of Sam. Ever.

"If I wasn't feeling so gross and you hadn't just held back my hair you'd be supporting a serious wedgie or black eye right about now. Mama don't like needles."

"Well good thing I'm such an amazing best friend and you owe me one."

"Yeah, yeah; once again saving me from distress. I think I actually owe you three now." Sam stood up slowly and went to the sink to rinse out her mouth. She was so used to this by now it was difficult to be fazed by the sudden lack of strength these nauseating experiences were causing.

"So, anyways, how about that stove and towel," Sam said quickly, walking out of the bathroom easily, as if nothing had even happened.

Carly watched as Sam retreated to the kitchen, frowning slightly, but didn't say anything as she followed behind.