Chapter 5: The Fallout

Sam and Carly spent the rest of Sunday afternoon in their typical fashion, Sam cleaning out the fridge and Carly exhaustively discussing the current boy she liked – this time it was Brad. As much as Sam loved Carly, she had learned more about Brad in the last two hours that she cared to know… and he and Carly hadn't even been on a date yet. She had a feeling Carly was going to fall hard for this kid.

But that wasn't the only reason she couldn't seem to concentrate. She was used to Carly prattling on about boys and makeup and other girly stuff and normally she was able to pay attention for most of it. But that was before yesterday. It seemed as if she'd need to categorize all of her thoughts and feelings as either B.F. (before Freddie) or A.F (after Freddie). Since their rather heated encounter on Sam's sofa, her already short attention span had taken a nose dive. She couldn't concentrate on anything. At random times throughout the day she'd get a vivid flashback and she was suddenly caught in a dreamy haze.

This morning she actually woke up with a dopey grin on her face and it took her a full minute to realize that it hadn't all been a dream. Then she'd gotten a text from Freddie…

Freddison: GM Princess… goin 2 bacon Sunday?

Sam: Don't wanna

Freddison: ur turning dwn free bacon? R u sick?

Sam: Vry funny…

Freddison: ur gonna tell her 2day right

Sam: Yep

Freddison: Good luck

Sam: Won't need it… piece of cake

Freddison: text me when ur done?

Sam: u got it… l8r

After she and Carly had talked, Sam had gone into the bathroom to check her messages away from Carly's watchful eyes. She knew Freddie had to be wondering how it went and she was not surprised to see 3 messages from him.

Freddison: How did it go

Freddison: R u still there?

Freddison: ?

She laughed at his nervousness. He really needed to have a little more faith in her.

Sam: Don't get ur undies in a bunch! She bought it… momma told ya she would

Freddison: Really?

Sam: Yep. Maybe a little 2 well…

Freddison: ?

Sam: I'll explain l8r

Freddison: When r u leaving there?

Sam: Soon…y?

Freddison: Mom's working til midnight

Sam: nuf said hotlips…c u soon. R u cooking?

Freddison: hotlips?

Sam: :p

She'd jammed her phone into her pocket and turned to leave, her mind racing with potential excuses to get her out of there and across the hall. She returned to the sofa where Carly was flipping through a magazine.

"What's all this?" Sam asked, pointing to the piles of magazines that surrounded her.

"Research." Carly said, "Prom is right around the corner...we don't have much time to prepare," she said, not even looking up from the page.

School dances weren't really Sam's thing, so it was no surprise that she'd forgotten about prom. It was also no surprise that Carly would take it this seriously. She vaguely remembered Carly bringing it up over the past few months, telling Sam they needed to find dresses and come up with dates. Sam had just figured she'd borrow a dress from Carly and go stag, if she went at all. But now her situation with Freddie made this a little trickier.

Prom was notoriously a 'couples' event. Technically, she was a couple, or part of a couple at least, but no one was supposed to know that. So getting all dressed up and walking arm and arm with Freddie into prom was out of the question, especially now that Carly thought Sam was nursing a broken heart because Freddie had rejected her. Somewhere in her head Sam had figured that they could keep this whole thing under wraps at least until summer began. They'd tell Carly right before school let out for the summer and she could spend three full months getting used to her new status as an 'us' before an entire school of idiots felt the need to poke their noses into her business.

She wasn't sure what to do now. If Carly didn't take a date it might work out. Then they could all three go together…no pressure. But if she got snuggled up to Brad and they went together it would be entirely too weird for her and Freddie to go with them. Skipping the damn thing all together was sounding better and better.

"Sam!" Carly said, "Are you even listening to me?"

"Sorry Carls." Sam said, "Did you say something?"

"I said I've got the perfect plan." Carly turned to Sam on the sofa

"Plan?" Sam questioned

"Ugh… you really weren't listening! I've got the perfect plan to get Freddie to see how wrong he is!" Her eyes twinkled mischievously as looked at Sam.

Crap. Sam knew Carly's propensity for meddling. But the look on Carly's face said she was about to go into meddling overdrive.

"Carls, you don't need to do that. Really. I'm okay. I don't need to 'seek revenge' on Freddie. Let's just drop it." She said, hoping that, for once, Carly would listen when someone told her to butt out.

"Of course we need to do something! You're in love with the guy and he's being a boob!" Carly said.

No such luck.

"I'm not in love!" Sam said defensively. She wasn't in love, was she?

"Okay…you're not in love." Carly said, her word full of sarcasm, "But since when are you not up for a good old revenge plan? Who are you, and what have you done with Sam?" she laughed.

"Nothing!" Sam said, "I just…I just don't want to give him the satisfaction of knowing he hurt me, that's all". God she hoped that sounded more believable to Carly than it had to her.

"Trust me Sam! It's going to be fine. When we get done with Freddie, he won't know what hit him!" She said.

"I thought the nub was your friend? Why would you want to stick it to him? I mean, he turned me down, not you." Sam replied.

"I'm not sticking it to him… exactly." Carly said, "I'm just helping him see the error of his ways" she said. 'And making sure the two of you end up together' she thought to herself.

When Carly set her mind to something she was like a runaway freight train, just as destructive but harder to stop. This situation was going south…fast!

"Listen Carly," Sam said, "I'd love to sit here and help you with your evil plots -you know how much I love evil plots – but there is a ham at my house that is calling my name." she said, standing from the sofa. Carly followed her to the door.

"Tomorrow we begin Phase One of 'Operation Make Him Pay'. I'll text you the details.

'I'm in for a whole batch of 'I told you so' from Freddie,' Sam thought to herself.

"Alright Shay." Sam said, "Mañana." She walked to the elevator, waving at Carly as she shut the door. She took the elevator all the way to the lobby, just in case. From the lobby she texted Freddie to let him know to unlock his door; she didn't want to risk discovery while waiting for him to answer it. She waited a full minute before taking the stairs to the 8th floor, creeping quickly and quietly past the Shays' door before opening Freddie's.

"Hey Fre…" Her greeting was interrupted as she was backed into the wall, Freddie's body holding her there as his lips met hers. Instinctively she reached up to thread her hands through his hair, matching the intensity of his kiss enthusiastically. She wondered if this would ever get old. If she'd ever get used to the way kissing him left her heart racing and her body hot.

Freddie placed one hand on the wall beside them, effectively barring her exit – as if she'd have been considering it. His other arm went around her waist, his hand travelling slowly from the small of her back to the top of the jeans hugging her hips. His mouth left hers and began to trail down her neck.

"So… I guess you missed me," she said, her breath hitching as he nibbled at the hollow of her neck. She was pleasantly surprised at this reversal in positions – Freddie, who normally took directions, was setting the pace and while she wasn't exactly sure where he was leading them, she was a willing follower.

"Yeah." He paused, laughing softly in her ear, "A little bit."

He pulled away from her and grabbed her hand, leading her to the sofa. He sat on the end while Sam sprawled out, feet on the arm rest, head in his lap. He stared down at her and couldn't help but smile. God he was crazy about this girl.

"Why are staring at me like the village idiot?" Sam laughed

"No reason. Aren't I allowed to look at my girlfriend?" He smiled

"Less lookin' and more kissin', Benson." With that she pulled his face down to meet hers and gave him a kiss that was the stuff of a teen boy's dreams… very special dreams. It almost scared him, the way he felt when they were together like this. It was like heat in his veins, a slow fog filling his mind making him oblivious to anything that wasn't her. He couldn't get enough. But that's not the part that scared him most. It was the way he felt when they weren't like this. The way he felt the need to be near her, how his hands ached to touch her. The way his heart skipped a beat when he heard her voice. The way she could look at him and make him forget that there was anyone else in the room. These were all new feelings for him. And they were overwhelming.

He hadn't realized that he'd stopped kissing her at some point and now was hovering inches from her face, tracing the line of her jaw with his thumb. She really was beautiful. She was smiling at him, no doubt getting ready to make a remark – again – about how girly he was being.

"Tell me what you're thinking." she said.

"I'm thinking lots of things."

"Yeah, some more obvious than others." she laughed, squeezing his thigh, "But seriously, what are you thinking about?"

He sighed and sat back on the sofa. Sam raised her head from his lap and turned to sit Indian style beside him.

Truth be told, he really was thinking about a lot of things. And he wasn't sure if Sam was ready to hear them right now. He noticed that just referring to her as his 'girlfriend' made her tense up. What would she say if told her everything he was feeling? As he saw it, he had two options: tell the unvarnished truth, or tell a slightly less candid version of the truth.

"I'm thinking that your hair smells like vanilla. And that I can smell bacon on your fingertips." He grabbed her hand, kissing her fingertips before threading their hands together. "I'm thinking that it's so cute the way you blush when I kiss you." Not exactly a lie-he was thinking those things. And here went nothing: "And I'm thinking that…I love you."

Over the course of his years spent as the best friend of two girls, he'd been forced to watch his fair share of chick flicks. More than once he'd heard them talk about 'time standing still'. It had always made him mad. It was a scientific impossibility. Time could not literally stand still. Carly and Sam would always shush him when he tried to bring that fact to their attention, telling him that he just didn't understand. Now he knew they'd been right. He hadn't understood then, but he got it now. The thirty seconds following his declaration to Sam seemed not even to pass. The only sound he heard was the thudding of his racing heart. The only movement, his eyes as they searched Sam's for a reaction. She sat, silent and unmoving.

He wished she'd say something. Do something. He suddenly realized this is how she must have felt at the lock-in. He started to wonder if she'd even heard him.

Sam reached into the front pocket of her jeans and pulled out her phone. Okay. That was not the reaction he'd expected.

"Sam?" He leaned toward her, trying to get her to look at him. It didn't work. "Sam, did you hear me? Did you hear what I just said?"

Sam paused, still no expression on her face, before beginning to text on her phone.

This was definitely not the reaction he'd expected. Tears, hugs, kisses. 'I love you too Freddie's'. That would have been nice. Punches, cursing, slamming doors. That would have been awful, but at least it would have been something. But he'd declared his love and she'd…started texting someone? That was just rude…even for Sam.

She finished texting, stood from the sofa and stated walking toward the door.

"Sam!" Freddie said, "Wait a minute! Where the hell do you think you're going?"

Sam kept walking, her eyes on her phone, ignoring or unhearing he wasn't sure. When she reached the door she took a final glance at her phone, pressed a button and opened the door.

"Sam!" He said

Her blond head peaked back in, this time a small smile played on her lips.

"Check your phone hotlips." With that she shut his door quietly, probably for fear of the Shays hearing her.

Freddie's phone began to vibrate in his pocket. He pulled it out and saw a message from Sam. He laughed out loud when he read it. This girl was going to be the death of him for sure.

Sam: Me too…

It was official. He was in love with Samantha Joy Puckett. And she loved him too.

A/N:

YAY! Seddie goodness! But don't get too used to it…the road to true love is paved with troubles…or something like that.

So…big news!

The final season of iCarly begins on October 6th. For those of us in this fandom it's a bit of a sad day, but I've come up with a way to make it a little less so. Are you ready? Here's the deets!

On October 5th there will be a mass posting on this site by some of your favorite iCarly fan fiction authors. It's a chance to get the writers writing again and the readers reading again. After something of a drought in the fandom the collective muses of a great group of authors have been jump started and the result will be a big ole pile of brand new stories and chapters for you to read!

Are you excited? You should be!

So stay tuned! Until October 5th you'll see several authors listing details about the mass posting in their Author's notes.

If you're a fan fiction author and you'd like to take part my answer to you is…Heck Yes! The more the merrier! Just drop me or pigwiz a PM to request details and we'll get you all set up. The only real requirement is that the post be either the beginning of a new story or a new chapter of an old story – no reposts. Stories should be posted by 6pm EST on 10/5. I, and several other authors, will have a full list of participating authors and story titles on our profile pages starting 10/5 and in the author's note of our 10/5 posting.

And if you're a fan fiction reader get ready to be bum rushed with more iCarly fan fiction than you've seen in a long time!

On 10/6 iCarly begins its final march, but on 10/5 the iCarly goodness is just beginning! Why? Because this is fan fiction…and the story ain't over until we say it is!