Disclaimer: I don't own iCarly

Author's Note: Thanks for all the great reviews. I'm glad everyone has enjoyed it so far, I hope you like it even more after this chapter.

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Freddie walked slowly to Spencer's bed and sat down. He placed his head in his hands and his elbows on his thighs.

Sam stared at Freddie. She had never been very good at consoling people when they were upset. "What's up?" She asked and crossed the room to sit down next to him.

He was silent. Sam nudged him in the side with her arm, trying to get him to talk to her. Yet, he still sat there. Sam wasn't sure if he was too upset to talk or if he just didn't want to talk to her about his problem. She bit her lip thoughtfully.

"Come on, Fredward. Talk to me." She poked him in the side again and Freddie groaned.

"You'll just laugh at me."

Sam shook her head, "Now have I ever been known to do a thing like that?" He didn't even smile at her attempt at a joke. "Benson," she crossed her arms and looked at him, "I think we both know that I'm more stubborn than you, and I have no plans to leave you alone until you tell me why you're so bummed out."

Freddie spoke again and raised his eyes to look at her, "Yeah, well you'll have to leave for food sometime."

"Ah!" Sam exclaimed, "That's where you wrong." She then extracted a bag of chips and two Peppy Colas from her pocket. Freddie gaped at her. He had no idea where she could have been hiding such a load of food. Sam shook the bag near his face, "They're ham flavored too!" She ripped open the bag and began to chow down. After the first couple of handfuls, she threw a cocky smile Freddie's way. "So," she finally spoke again, after swallowing a mouthful of chips, "you can either sit here quietly doing that strong, silent thing you're so good at," Freddie grimaced, "or, you can take one of these Peppy Colas," she motioned towards the drinks, "and tell me what's got you so down, Morrissey." Sam giggled at her little joke, sure that Freddie probably wouldn't understand the pop culture reference.

Freddie stared at her for a moment and grabbed the can from her hand. She frowned, "I hope you know that drink comes with a price."

"I know, I know." Freddie popped the top and took a long drink. He swallowed hard and stared across the room. His eyes were unfocused when he spoke. "I'm sure you saw how Penny shook my hand today at graduation." He paused for a moment, as if waiting for her answer.

"Oh," she quipped when she realized he wanted her to affirm his thoughts. "Yeah, Carly and I thought that was kind of weird."

"Well it was. Apparently that was her way of letting me know that we were breaking up." Sam couldn't help it as her lips curved upwards on the ends. Freddie shot a glance at her and took her smile for mockery. "Yeah, go on. I knew you would laugh at me." He tipped the can of pop into his mouth again.

"No, I'm not laughing at you. It's just," Sam bit the inside of her mouth, "well, quite frankly, Penny was the worst thing that ever happened to you, besides that time you drank laundry soap, of course--"

"The laundry soap you just happened to pour into my orange juice?"

Sam grinned, remembering her practical joke. "Good times." Freddie 'humph'ed but Sam ignored him. "Come on! She was so perfect and coiffed and she had red hair for chris sake!"

"What's wrong with red hair?" Freddie interjected angrily.

"Her name was Penny. I mean don't you think that's just a wee bit too cutesy." He crossed his arms across his chest and rolled his eyes. "Look, Fredward, it's probably better than you move on anyway. You two are going to different colleges and you know how long-distance relationships tend to turn out."

"Oh that's rich. What about you and Mr. 'Hi-my-name's-Kris-but-it's-spelled-with-a-K-because-I-don't-play-by-the-rules'? He's going to be in Seattle while you'll be in Boston. That's pretty long distance if you ask me."

Sam bit her lip and turned away from Freddie. "Yeah, well, like I said. Long distance relationships tend to not work out and well mine and Kris' ended before it even left the ground."

Now it was Freddie's turn to smirk. He was thankful that Sam's back was to him. "Are you telling me you and Rebel-without-a-C-H broke up?"

"I don't think you're in any position to be making fun of people's names, Fredward." Sam turned back to look at him. "But yes, I broke up with him."

"Why?"

"Because he said that Puckettes didn't go to college. He said they either go to Vegas or prison." Sam looked to the ground and lowered her voice, "I'm gonna go to college."

Freddie nudged her, "Yeah, we all know you're going to go to college and you'll be some famous lawyer or doctor, and then he's going to be sorry," Sam smiled at him, "but if you're not into delayed gratification we can go beat him up."

Sam laughed, "You and Gibby are the only two people I beat up anymore." As if on cue Gibby ran past the room with no shirt on and started banging on the bathroom door, he groaned and hit it harder. He turned and saw Freddie and Sam sitting on Spencer's bed staring at him.

"Is there another bathroom?" He asked, talking fast as he shifted his weight from foot to foot.

"That way." Sam said pointing up, Gibby ran back down the hallway and took the stairs two at a time.

"Thanks for looping me in with that guy." Freddie said, a smile on his face. He stood up and held his hand out to help Sam up, "Let's not waste graduation night moping about two nobodies."

Sam took his hand and stood up, "We can mope tomorrow when Carly leaves." She sighed thinking of how she wouldn't see Carly for nearly three months, "Let's go have some fun." She realized she'd been holding his hand, she let go and laughed nervously. "I need some ham."

"You just had ham chips," Freddie said as they made their way towards the door.

"There's a big difference between ham and ham chips, believe me." Sam said, leaving Spencer's room, Freddie following close behind.

"Whatever you say Sam." He said, smiling at the back of her head. Penny still hung in the back of his mind, and he knew in the morning it would be worse than now, but he was going to have fun tonight and not think of 'sleeps-with-many Penny'. He laughed quietly to himself as he finally thought of the name Sam had dubbed Penny the first time she met her. He had never used it before, but now he would be able to use it as much as he wanted, and he did love rhyming nicknames.

Sam stopped and looked at him, "What are you laughing about back there?" She asked, turning her head to look at him.

"Oh you know…. stuff." he said, pushing her on the back, "Now get moving." Sam tried her hardest not to move, but Freddie went through a growth spurt two years ago, and she couldn't stop him any more. He pushed her lightly out into the Shay's living room, she turned and frowned at him.

Carly saw the two and ran over to them, "You guys have to meet my par—what were you doing in Spencer's bedroom?" She pointed to the direction they came from.

"Planning how we're going to kidnap you at the airport," Sam said with a smile, "and eating ham chips."

Freddie's mom looked at him as Sam said chips, in a matter of seconds Mrs. Benson was next to them. "You mean my Freddie was eating trans fats?" She said, concerned with her son's bad eating habits, "You should be ashamed of your self Freddie."

Freddie groaned, "Mom" he sighed, "I'm not a little boy anymore."

"Freddie, you will always be my little boy," she said seriously, "and tonight you're getting a tick bath."

"What?" he groaned, his mouth stayed open, "I don't have any ticks."

"That's just what a person with Tick Fever would say." She said pointing at him, "You're getting two tick baths tonight." She nodded and walked away to continue her conversation with Ted Franklin.

"So, you're staying here tonight?" Carly asked, not looking away from Mrs. Benson.
"Definitely," Freddie said watching his mom.

"You too, Sam?" Carly asked looking at Sam, who had started munching on the remaining ham chips.

"Seriously Carls, you have to ask?" Sam said, not taking her attention off the chips in her hand, "I can't believe they think that these are anything like ham." She took another handful as she complained.

"So why are you still eating them?" Freddie asked, turning his attention to Sam.

"I can't put them down Gibby's pants." She said shrugging, "and I'm not gonna waste anything that has ham in the name."

"What if it was called anti-ham?" Carly joked, "or hardly ham?"

"I'd at least have to try it," Sam responded with a smile.

"Of course you would." Freddie said, as Sam crumpled up the now empty bag of chips. He nonchalantly tossed it on the floor. She walked towards the food in the kitchen, Freddie following her.

"Hey, contrary to popular belief my floor is not the garbage can." Carly said, holding the chip bag in her hand, as she caught up to Sam and Freddie. She tossed it into the large garbage can that sat in the kitchen.

"Oh sorry," Sam said as she cut off a chunk of ham, she had mastered the art of cutting ham around the bone, "I must have missed."

"Yeah, by twenty feet." Carly said rolling her eyes, she stole the piece of ham out of Sam's hand, "This can be your payment."

"Hey…" Sam said looking at Carly, she laughed, "Fine, you can have that piece." Sam started cutting her next piece when Carly pulled on her arm.

"Come on, you two need to meet my parents." Carly said as she pulled on both Sam's and Freddie's shirts.

"You're parents are here?" Freddie asked as she scanned the room for Mr. and Mrs. Shay, two people he had never met but knew had to be completely wonderful. Carly nodded and finally pulled Sam away from the ham that she had so desperately wanted.

"I'll meet them, but you owe me a ham," Sam said to Carly as they walked towards the center of the crowd.

"Sam, I introduced you to ham," Carly said looking at her, "we're even."

"Well, yeah I guess you did," Sam said as they neared Spencer and two adults that had to be Carly's parents. Carly cleared her throat loudly and Spencer turned around, he moved so the three could join the circle.

"Mom, Dad, these are my two best friends. Samantha Puckett and Freddie Benson." Carly said, pointing to each as she said their names.

"Why did you use my full name and not Fredward's." she said emphasizing the word Fredward as she complained.
"Maybe cause your name is the only girly thing about you," Freddie said looking at Sam.

"Don't make me hurt you Benson." She said as she looked at him, he smirked.

"Point proven." He said, The Shay's watched this exchange together and mumbled silently as it happened. It was quick and consisted of three questions: Do they hate each other? So they're dating? What, can't you tell they're in love?

Carly was for once happy Sam and Freddie were fighting, because if they had heard her parents there would be a major catastrophe. She remembered the last time someone thought they were dating, that lead to her meeting the two people she hated: Sleep-with-many Penny and Katastrophe Kris.

"Well, we're heard a lot about you to, and we knew that we couldn't leave without meeting the other two-thirds of the iCarly team." Mrs. Shay said, shaking both Sam's and Freddie's hand.

Right now iCarly was streaming their last official show as the threesome they had always been. It was a thirty-minute show that was memories from the last five years with commentary from the three of them. It was sad to think that the original iCarly was over, but it couldn't last forever, but iCarly 2.0 would be announced at the end of the show, so it wasn't all bad.

"When are you guys leaving?" Freddie asked once he'd shaken Mr. Shay's hand.

"Tomorrow when Carly leaves," Spencer said, answering the question, he looked sad but only for a second.

"I'm glad that I finally got to meet you," Sam said, "I've know Carly since second grade and I kind of assumed you guys were just invisible or something."

"Pretty close," Mr. Shay said, Sam laughed assuming that he was playing along with the joke. She stopped when she noticed he wasn't smiling.

The door to the Shay's apartment opened quickly and closed, Sam saw a bright yellow jacket and blonde curly hair that was cut somewhere between a mullet and a pixy cut. The woman was looking around the crowd and Sam stood there staring.

"Mom?" She asked, not loud enough for the blonde woman to hear, but the people around her could. Spencer, Carly, and Freddie turned to look at the woman that had just entered the apartment, they stared as Sam broke away from the group and made her way towards the woman.

"Mom?" she repeated again, now louder and closer to the woman. She smiled at Sam.

"Hey Sam," She said walking up to her, they awkwardly hugged each other, "I can't stay for long, but I wanted to bring you this." She handed Sam a small blue envelope that felt thick.

"Well, thanks for the envelope and for stopping by," Sam said looking at her mom.

"I'll see you soon Sam." Her mother said as she back towards the door, "I love you." She opened the door and closed it before Sam could respond.

"I love you too," Sam muttered under her breath before turned her back to the door

Freddie had left the Shay's when they started sharing stories, and was standing near Sam when she turned around. He had heard most of the conversation, but didn't want Sam to know that he had heard. It seemed to have been a personal moment between them, but he wasn't quite sure.

"So your mom has a nice…. haircut." He said to Sam, who was walking towards the food table.

"It got cut in a bar somewhere in Mexico." Sam said without glancing back at Freddie, "She just kept it like that so it doesn't happen again."

"Oh well that's nice I guess." Freddie said to her, "Why did she come here?"

"Graduation present." Sam shrugged as she started re-cutting the ham that she had left to meet the Shay's.
"Oh wait." Freddie said, he made his way across the room back to the door and left the Shay's place. Sam watched him as she left a confused look on her face., she went back to cutting around the bone in the ham. She heard the door open for the third time, she looked to see Freddie walking back into the room, holding something wrapped in green wrapping paper. She watched him as he came over to her.

"What's that?" Sam asked as she ate the first piece of real ham she'd had all day.

"Oh nothing." Freddie smirked; Sam eyed the gift in his hand.

"Benson, you'd better tell me what it is." Sam said, Freddie glanced at the knife Sam was holding to cut her hand. Sam sighed, "I'm not gonna stab you, I promise." Sam said as she put the knife on the table.

"Well I got you a gift," he said, he held out the present, "Well I actually stole you a gift."

Sam took the green gift and smiled, "Fredde Benson stole something for me?" she asked, imitating one of the girls who had liked Freddie over the years.

He frowned, "I could always take it back," he said reaching for the gift, Sam pulled it away from him.

"I don't think so," She said. She turned it over in her hands, and shook it, it made no sound, "Where did you steal it from?"

"I stole it from my mom." He said, shivering at the thought of his mom finding out he took it.

"Whoa, big spender," Sam joked, she started to tear off the wrapping paper, "What could your mom have that I would want?" Freddie just smiled as she ripped off the paper that covered the back of the gift. Sam stared at the back of the picture frame, and ripped the rest off as she turned it over. "A picture of the three of us?" She stared at Freddie, "Wow, I don't have any of these." She rolled her eye, but he was still smiling.
"There's an extra picture in the back," He said winking at her. She looked at him and shook her head.

"Never wink again." She moved the small metal pieces that kept the back on the picture, she looked up at Freddie before she took it off, "If this is some weird ass picture I'm not going to be happy."

Freddie took a step back before answering, "It's not weird." He said with a smile on his face, "You've talked about wanting it before."

Sam took a deep breath and was about to take the back off when Mrs. Benson walked over to them, "Hello Samantha," she said with a smile. Sam quickly slid the metal pieces back in place.

"Hi Mrs. Benson," Sam said with a smile, "You look lovely tonight." Freddie reached silently behind his mother as Sam tried not to laugh.

"Well thank you Samantha," she turned to Freddie, "I'm going home, and I have to read up on the college you are going to. I need to get you your vaccines too." Freddie groaned as his mother kissed his forehead and walked towards the door.

"Close call," said Sam, "I think I'll just look at this later."

"Yeah, that might be a good idea." Freddie said. He sat the picture down on the Shay's counter near Carly's computer. He looked over to Carly to see her parents kissing her; they must be going to sleep too. Most of the people had started to clear out, it was nearing eleven and many had to work the next day.

Gibby had finally put his shirt on, and was heading towards Sam and Freddie. His eyes were droopy and he looked like he was going to fall asleep.

"Hey guys, I'll see you later." Gibby said to Freddie and Sam, "I'm really gonna miss you two." He leaned to hug them but stumbled a little and stood back up.

"Are you going to make it home okay Gibby?" Sam asked as he walked to the elevator.

"I only live two floors down, I'll be fine." He stepped into the elevator and waved as the doors closed. Freddie and Sam looked around the house that was almost empty except for the people that Carly was showing to the door.

Spencer stood in the middle of the living room looking around the house as if he had completed an amazing feat. "Look, no trash in the living room." He smiled and pumped his fist in the air.

"Spencer just stop." Sam said as she walked up to him, he frowned.

"I'm going to bed," He sighed and started off towards his room.

"What about all that food?" Carly pointed to the food that was still sitting out in the kitchen. He was too tired to clean it up, so he groaned loudly.

"Don't worry I'll get rid of it." Sam said, she waved to Spencer to signal him to leave. He did with no argument. Sam plopped down on the couch and Freddie followed her lead.

"I'm going to bed," Carly said rubbing her eyes with the back of her hand, "Sam do you want to sleep in my room?"

"Yeah, yeah. I'll come up there later maybe." Sam said, Carly yawned and didn't argue. Sam was obviously not tired, but Carly was about to pass out. She hit the elevator door as Freddie reached for the remote.

"MMA is on." he said to Sam who was putting her mom's letter on the table.
"Awesome," Sam said settling back into the couch.

The doors opened and Carly got on, after punching in the code she was taken up to her room. If it wasn't locked to anyone who didn't know the code Carly would have hated the elevator being in her room, but right now she loved it.

An hour into the MMA fight Freddie had fallen asleep, as was curled up on close to the arm of the chair. Sam had been eating since the fight started, and it was almost all gone. She got up one last time to grab a peppy cola before she went up to Carly's room to sleep. She stopped when she noticed the blue envelope that her mom had given her still sitting unopened on the table. She sat back down and picked it up, her mom had never given her a letter before.

She sighed and ripped the letter open, she pulled out the paper that was folded up and looked at it. She unfolded it and looked at the sloppy writing that belonged to her mom.

Sam,

I know that I haven't always been there for you, and that a lot of people think that I am a bad mom. You might think that I am too, and I can't blame you for that. I know I've spent most of your life in places that weren't home and you spent more time at the Shay's than you did in your own bedroom.

I never wanted you to grow up with a mom that was sub-standard, but that's sadly what I gave you. I don't mean to be such a bad parent, but that's what I have been. I was going to try and make it up to you this summer, but I can't. I can't make up for the years that I have failed you so, I am leaving for a while. I am staying with aunt Rita in Texas. You can come and find me if you want.

I have put a debit card in the envelope; it is linked to your college account. I may have spent a lot of time in Vegas, but I gave you all my winnings. Sorry I am not the mom you or I want me to be.

I love you,
Mom

Sam put the letter back on the table, her mom was right she hadn't been a good mother. She settled back on to the sofa and looked at the TV. She didn't mean to but she started to cry, she hadn't cried in a while and she promptly stopped when Freddie started moving. She went back to watching the MMA fight and before she knew it she was fast asleep.

Early in the morning Freddie woke up, Sam was laying on him. He moved as slowly as he could, trying to slide off the couch with out waking her up. He stood up and stretched, peering into the kitchen he noticed the clock about the over read 2:48. He sighed and looked at Sam who was quietly snoring. Penny used to sound like that when she would be asleep.

"Don't think about Penny." He said to himself, because no one else was there. He sat down in a chair, Carly was leaving and he hadn't told her about Penny yet. He didn't think that Sam had told Carly about Kris either. He couldn't tell her now so he would have to wait three months to say anything.

Freddie rubbed the back of his neck, but then noticed the letter lying on the table. He picked it up and looked at Sam before starting to read it. He had to read it at least three times to fully understand what Sam's mom was doing. She was leaving Sam alone all summer, with no Carly and no Kris. He shuttered at the thought of Kris, he hated that guy.

He put the letter back where it was and watched as Sam moved around. He smiled at least he would have one person to spend the summer with. If Sam really wanted she could probably stay at his house, his mother had grown fond enough of her.

Sam suddenly sat up and opened her eyes, "Is Carly gone yet?" she asked looking at Freddie.

"No, it's only three." Freddie said, staring at Sam, "Why?"

"I'm going." Sam said grabbing the letter and envelope.

"Home?" Freddie asked, he almost said Texas but remembered he wasn't supposed to know about that.

"No, Europe." She said with a smile, "and you're coming with me."

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Authors note: Tell us what you liked and what you didn't, and if it was OOC or not. Thanks.