Hello everyone! I'm sorry of the gap in updates for this story, but you know how life goes and fickle muses are in wanting to sometime needing to work on other projects. Anyway, I hope you enjoy this update. Also, I need to go back and answer all the reviews you wonderful people gave me for the last chapter because I don't think I answered everyone.

Rating: T Language

Chapter 5

Apartment 316
Venice/Barry Apartments
11811 Venice Boulevard
Los Angeles, CA
Monday, September 19, 2012

Freddie finished dressing and slipped his light brown jacket on and over his shoulders as he made his way out of his room in the mid-morning. He turned to his dresser and swiped his keys and PearPhone (having switched back to his special edition blue XT from the comically oversized one his mother had given him just before graduation) to slip into his pockets then headed out of his room. He subconsciously thought the oversized phone and necessity of a large carrying case that was mistaken for a purse was a way for his mother to further attempt to feminize him and express her subconscious resentment of him for being born male.

He cut through the living room and headed for the door just as the doorbell rang. He slightly nodded at the coincidence of a visitor just he was leaving out. He opened the door to reveal the lovely pale teenager with purple highlights in her dark brunette hair. Jade looked at him with a bored expression with her arms crossed under her chest.

He returned with a questioning expression. "Jade? Hi?"

The dark brunette slid passed him and entered the apartment.

Freddie frowned and shut the door behind her. "Come on in," he sarcastically welcomed the screenwriter.

The purple streaked hair girl rolled her eyes as she turned then asked with an impatient tone, "Did Tori pass on my message?"

He raised an eyebrow and answered, "Yeah, at breakfast, but I'm kind of busy Jade."

She took a step in front of him and gave him a disinterested expression. "Don't care. I want to know everything about Sam Puckett. I do my research."

Freddie returned her expression with an annoyed frown then answered with a slightly impatient tone, "Jade, I already told Cat what she needs to do: kick Sam out. I don't know what else I can tell you, so… get out. I'm busy and you don't own my time."

Jade softly furled her brow for her eyebrows to point down to her nose as she was quite surprise at him basically talking back to her. She quickly realized that he wasn't the same easy going guy that she had met a year and a half ago.

She snorted out a breath and pulled her arms tighter to herself, undeterred from him giving her an attitude. "Can you tell me more or go into some details about her?" She softly mocked, "Is it really as bad as you said it was or are you just exaggerating?"

He took a step forward and looked her straight in the eyes. He smirked at her, but there was no friendliness to it. "I'll put it this way: one time I got so fed up with her treatment of me that I had to talk myself out of taking a butcher knife and gutting her."

The intensity in his eyes and the sheer coldness of his voice caused her to subconsciously take a step back. She retorted with less than a confident voice, "All that might mean is that you're a psycho who can't deal with anger."

Freddie softly retorted with a smirk, "This coming from the girl that I hear is obsessed with scissors, makes videos talking about the things she hates and bragged that she enjoys being angry and can't understand why others don't."

The pale teenager frowned at the shot, but grudgingly admitted, "Point."

He let out a soft chuckle at apparently winning the verbal match.

She glanced around the apartment and idly commented to possibly slip around the wall he was putting up with a change in topic, "Where's Tori?"

He blew out a breath and decided that he could spend another minute or so humoring the girl. "We just finished breakfast and she went out grocery shopping while I'm out doing my errand. We never got around it yesterday before meeting up with you."

She nodded her head then questioned, "Why are you so eager to brush me off? Why such the rush?"

He snorted out a breath and answered seeing there was no real point in not telling her, "I need to go car shopping and I'm renting for the moment. I'd like to get my own wheels as soon as possible and turn what I'm driving back in. I'm on a budget and I don't have a lot of time."

She softly smirked as a thought occurred to her then offered, "I might be able to help you with that… if you're willing to talk?"

He softly smiled and turned to his right enough to grab the door handle then opened the door. He softly replied with finality to his voice, "No thanks. I really have to go Jade."

She licked her lips and let out a soft breath. She realized that she wasn't going to bully him into telling her what she wanted to know, not after what she learned last night and she really didn't want to do such a thing to him. She asked with a calm voice, "Please Freddie. Cat's my friend and I need to know everything I can about Sam so I can look out for Cat."

The brown eyed boy studied the blue eye girl for a few moments and apparently found something in the gaze. He relented with a tired voice, "Fine… let's go. You drive, I'll talk."

The pale girl smirked, believing that she got her way.

Freddie enjoyed the ride in the nice and comfortable car. He ruefully thought on the fact that he wouldn't be able to purchase anything as nice as this vehicle, well at least for the moment as to not tip off his real financial status at the moment.

Jade bluntly brought up, "So Sam…"

He snorted out a laugh at how simply mentioning the girl's name could break the peace. He tried to answer in a careless manner, "Sam…"

"Sam… as in your friend and ex-girlfriend…"

"I told you why I got in it." He slightly frowned. "I regret bowing to peer-pressure and my desperation in wanting to be with a girl after all the times I've been shot down as if somehow I'm cursed. She was emotionally safe as a girlfriend in that I knew what I was getting into. I was a little safer physically as she avoid hitting my face." He looked out the passenger window and commented, "I did a lot of things during those three weeks that I'm not proud of."

The blue highlighted girl rolled her eyes as she responded with a slightly sarcastic remark, "A guy taking responsibility for what he did in a relationship and not putting it all on the girl?"

Freddie slightly nodded his head to the side while answering, "Sam has a laundry list of problems and faults, but I did my bad too in return—not as bad because I never hit her, but I gave her some grief I usually don't." He looked to her and finished with a hint of concern slipping into his voice, "But you sound like you're speaking from personal experience?"

Jade couldn't prevent the frown from forming on her face or get rid of it before Freddie noticed. "Never mind, we're talking about Sam."

The former tech-producer studied the girl's profile and instantly recognized that he had hit a nerve and she was trying to cover it. He had no interest in pushing on a matter that obviously was sensitive to her, so he continued, "Okay, but you're going to roll your eyes and call me a bullchizzer with what I have to tell you."

The car pulled to stop at an intersection and gave Jade the opportunity to study his expression for a few moments then answered with a serious tone, "No."

"Okay… Sam is a juvenile delinquent—and has the juvie records to prove it—who thinks she should always get her way and never suffer for it. She hates people, especially me, but recently she's been putting up what I think is an act of civility. I'm just guessing here, but I think it got to the point that even Carly couldn't or wouldn't cover for her or bail her out of anymore trouble. Maybe she just wasn't willing to pay for Sam's bail anymore; I don't know."

Jade quietly listened as she slowly accelerated at the signal of the green light.

Freddie looked back out his passenger window and continued, "You push her buttons and she will come at you like an animal. Ask Gibby, he came back on crutches when he had admitted to her that he told my mother we were dating. When we took her to the Canadian Fat Cake factory as a treat for her not getting into any kind of trouble for a whole ten days, she kneed Gibby in the stomach and dropped him to the floor because he was going to get the first taste of a freshly made cake. She will not hesitate to use violence to get her way."

"If she's so violent, why did Carly keep her around? Why did you stay around so long?"

"Because she would never touch Carly. She'd protect her because Carly was her friend and probably was the only one in this world that loved her at the time. Why did I stay? I was thirteen and in love with Carly, so when iCarly started, it was the perfect excuse to be around her, but Sam was part of the deal. At first it wasn't any big deal. She wasn't anywhere near as bad when we started. She was just annoying, but it eventually wore me down with no one caring what she did to me. I got use to it… at one point I thought it would be abnormal if Sam didn't make my life miserable."

He took a breath then continued, "Then she slowly started physically hurting me… and no one thought it was a big deal so… not much I could do about it, so I just accepted that it was a part of my life."

"So over the course of years you became her bitch?"

The brown eyed boy frowned, but was forced to admit, "Yes, I was her bitch."

The blue eyed girl deeply frowned and gripped the steering wheel so tight that if possible, her already pale knuckles became even whiter. She commented with a cold and soft voice, "So now that Carly's not here and she doesn't have you to push around, she could turn on Cat to play with and have no one to at least attempt to rein her in?"

"It's a possibility, because once she cut back from hurting me as much—she never stopped—while we together, she turned on Gibby. That's the reason he actually told my mother: to force us to break up so Sam could turn her wrath back on me and away from him." He snorted out in disgust, "Some friend I had there."

Jade gritted her teeth for a moment then spoke with a surprisingly calm voice, "It looks like Sam and I are going to have to come to an understanding."

"Be careful with her. I'm not kidding with what I said at dinner last night: she has superhuman strength."

"Really?"

"She can easily beat me in arm wrestling and throw me over her shoulder and carry me."

She passed him a quick glance and raised her pierced eyebrow. She saw the look in his eyes then answered with mild disbelief, "You're not kidding?"

"Nope."

She turned her attention back to the road and answered, "Doesn't matter, fighting is not usually my first option. I just have ways to make people be very sorry for a long time."

The former tech-producer nodded his head then looked at the front windshield. He flicked his brow up and let out a soft laugh, "On the other hand, Sam could always look at Cat as a replacement for Carly and wouldn't physically hurt her… she'd actually be pretty safe with Sam willing to break anyone that would hurt her."

Jade wasn't sure how to take that possibility for a moment. Of course it would easily relieve her worry over Cat's safety, but then it raised the possibility that Sam would replace her as Cat's friend (Tori had already done that enough over the years to Jade's personal, but never voiced displeasure). She idly asked, "What about hurting her in a non-physically way?"

"That's out of childishness, not malice like when she sabotaged Carly's chances with this guy named Adam during our last WebiCon. She's not one to think things out."

Just as she pulled the vehicle to their destination, Jade commented with a firm tone, "Either way, Sam and I are going to have a talk and she's going to see things my way."

Junky Car Salvage Yard
Beverlywood, CA

Jade hated to ask her father for anything, but she figured under the circumstances warranted it. Fortunately she didn't have to actually ask her father for this favor and simply go to his boss.

Since Mister West was such a business professional and did everything foster that projected persona, it could be quite surprising that his boss looked anything but that way. Apparently going back to his blue collar background before becoming a successful businessman owning and running a small conglomerate, the man in his early sixties had a scruffy appearance with his beard and wearing a worn out baseball cap on his head.

Also apparently that background gave him the excuse to personally lead a pair through the yard instead of having any number of underlings do it.

Mister Singer smiled as he led the pair through the yard to a potential vehicle. They stopped in front of the vehicle that had seen better days. It was a nineteen sixty nine Dodge Charger and on the outside, it wasn't much of a vehicle. The body paint was a faded black with various spots where the paint had chipped away and thus leaving spots for rust to form. The driver's side door had been replaced at some point as it was a dark blue that stood up against the faded body. It was also missing two hubcaps from what Freddie could see from the angle he was viewing. However, as bad as it looked cosmetically, the body looked to be in fine shape at first glance.

He laughed, "I know she's not much to look at, but she runs fine and doesn't have any body damage."

Freddie cautiously asked as he walked around the vehicle, "It really runs?"

"She runs… not the best, but she's in your price range and will get you from point A to point B," he explained with a motion of his hand to the vehicle. "It really is all cosmetic. She has absolutely no structural problems and once you put in some love and care into her, she'll shine up real nice for you."

Jade offered, "Beck's good with cars. I'm sure he'll help you out."

He cracked a soft smile. "Obligating your boyfriend to do something?"

She gave him a coy expression. "I can be very persuasive."

Freddie snorted out a laugh, "I bet you are."

He shook his head. "It may be cheap, but how much would I have to put into at the end of the day."

"Only parts—when you can find them—if you and her boyfriend can do the work."

He glanced back at the pale teenager and she gave him a slight smirk. He looked back to the scruffy gentleman and with less than an enthusiastic voice, "So what kind of price am I looking at?"

Nozu

About time they had worked out the deal and crossed all the T's and dotted all the I's, it was about lunch time, so Jade decided to take the muscular teenager to one of, if not her favorite restaurant. Whether she was just being nice for the company or just didn't want to appear to be rude with blowing him off to go eat was an open debate.

Freddie hesitantly ate on the food. He knew about Carly's love for sushi, but couldn't understand her appreciation of eating raw food. He knew his mother would have a fit for eating something not brought to a proper temperate to kill any germs other than raw fruits and vegetables.

He commented between poking of his food, "I appreciate the help with the car. I really didn't want to have to dip too far into my savings."

The dark brunette paused for a moment in seeing his genuine appreciation then shrugged a shoulder while looking at her food to idly comment, "It's cool. You told me what I wanted to know, so I helped you get a running car for a good deal."

Freddie cracked a soft smile at seeing how she was trying to just act like it wasn't a big deal, but years with Sam honed the ability to see through such an act. However, he chose not to comment and let her have her way.

"Speaking of savings, how are you going to UCLA? I know it's not cheap for me and I live here, so your out-of-state tuition must be killer."

He snorted out in disgust, "You're right. I'm paying double what you're paying, but I got a free ride from the Pear Company paying for it."

"How did you do that? You win some scholarship or something?"

"Something—it's part of a licensing agreement I have with them."

Jade softly knotted her brow as she asked, "Over what?"

"I invented a way to film and display three-D over non-three-D displays and without the need of three-D glasses. It has some bugs to work out so it doesn't mess up people's vision and they're going to try to do that… on the bright side, the screw up fixed my mother's therapist's daughter's eyes. Giving sight to the blind… it took a while to realize how profound that was."

She looked on him in surprise as even she was impressed with such an accomplishment. Her jaw slacked for a moment before uttering, "Wow… that's impressive."

He cracked a soft smile and nodded his head as he answered, "Thanks."

The pair turned back to their respective meals and ate in comfortable silence.

Freddie spoke up a few minutes later, "What's going on between you and Tori? What's the deal between you two? Really?"

Jade finished sipping a spoonful of soup then looked to him with slightly pursed her lips.

He raised an eyebrow and teased, "I've noticed during my visit last year and yesterday afternoon while we hung out before going to Cat's that there's a bit of tension between you two. You seem to tolerate her… like Sam did with me in the early years, but you're far better at it."

She remained silent as she studied his face.

He tried again, "I told you what you wanted to know."

She did not soften with her expression as she responded with a flat voice, "And I got you a great deal on a car; we're even."

He raised an eyebrow and softly challenged, "Oh… so it's going to be like that?"

She snorted out an irritated breath while softly rolling her eyes. "Look, I'm not one of Tori's cheerleaders, but I can be still be civil."

"I didn't say anything about cheerleading just that I noticed that for friends, there can be some real tension between you."

"We're not friends… we're kinda friends."

A dawn of realization appeared on his face. "So she's your frenemy?"

"I wouldn't necessarily go that far,"

"Okay… then why just kinda?" Before she could answer, an explanation came to mind. "Don't tell me it's as silly as jealousy? What do you have to be jealous about with Tori? This isn't about the PMAs is it?"

She softly snapped, "I'm not jealous of Tori."

"Then what is it?"

She took several calming breaths as gave him a cold stare.

He raised a hand and calmly verbally took a step back, "Fine, if you don't want to talk about it, you don't have to."

She rolled her eyes and answered, not willing to let him just speculate, "It's just annoying how people make sure that everything goes her way and everyone just loves her on the spot."

Freddie snorted out a laugh, "Kind of sounds like how life goes for Sam though she doesn't deserve it, but… you're going to blame Tori for what other people do? That's kind of childish…"

She snapped her head to look at him and whispered, "Watch it."

"Or what?" he countered with a curt tone and an equally challenging stare.

They maintained the potential staring contest until Freddie spoke up, "I'm just saying if you're going to get upset over it, get mad at the people responsible, not Tori." He blew out a breath and turned his gaze down to his food. "I've been overlooked plenty of times, but I didn't blame Carly or Sam for it… okay, I was annoyed that they wouldn't support and really acknowledge my importance in the show, but I was not jealous of their popularity."

"You're just advocating that because you think Tori's hot," she retorted from Sam's revelation at dinner.

He slightly leaned towards her to meet her eyes and countered, "You're hot too, so how does that explanation work?"

She frowned with a slight knotting of her brow then countered to hang on to her point, "Which one of us do you think is prettier?" She suddenly recalled the question the tween girl had asked Beck months ago at the pet emergency room she had found him and Tori after tracking them down most of the night on their 'opposite date'. Beck fumble dodged the question whether than having to answer it, something that she had never admitted bothering her. If Freddie answered Tori or refused to answer then it would demolish his retort and prove her right.

Freddie slightly frowned then answered without hesitation, "Assuming you didn't mean between us, which I think you're far better looking than I am, but Tori then I choose C: All the Above."

The pale girl knotted her brow tighter in annoyance as it looked like his was dodging her question, but he turned and started poking at his food again as he continued in a tone that suggested he was mildly annoyed with her question, "How do you compare the beauty of a red rose to that of a gazania…" He paused then looked back to meet her bluish/green eyes and finished with a whisper, "…to a white lily?"

Jade bit her tongue as the metaphor for each of them, Cat, Tori and her, didn't go over her head and he just stared back and held his gaze with her.

"You can't… they're all beautiful," he answered his own question with the same hushed tone then turned back to try to finish his meal.

She looked down at her soup and took several soft breaths before she slid the bowl of soup slightly to him as an offering. She gave him a coy smile and commented, "It's good soup."

He raised a corner of his mouth to her then motioned for a waiter so he could ask for a spoon.

Venice/Barry Apartments
11811 Venice Boulevard
Los Angeles, CA

Tori pulled her car into the parking spot after grocery shopping and swinging back home to check on the house and picking up a few more things while she was there, such as her Wii. She'd hope to get in some game time in between classes, homework and hopefully getting serious with her album. She also hoped that Freddie would enjoy some gaming for the short time they shared the apartment.

She opened the backseat door and started pulling out a few plastic bags out of the backseat when she heard the sound of a muscle car. She pulled out of the back and looked over her shoulder, subconsciously expecting Beck's GTO. She was quite surprised as she saw a beat up Charger pull into the parking spot a few slots down with Jade's car driving around to park in the visitor's parking.

Freddie turned off the ignition then exited the car. He smiled to a surprised looking Tori then laughed out as he approached her, "Hey."

"Hey," she answered with a hesitant tone. She motioned to the Charger and questioned, "What is that?"

He glanced over his shoulder then looked to her and answered with a soft laugh, "That is my car. What turned into going car shopping turned into us going car shopping."

"Oh?" the brunette hesitantly questioned.

Freddie took several bags from Tori then answered, "Jade really wanted to talk about Sam and I really needed to go car shopping, so…"

Jade picked up as she walked up behind Freddie, "So we both got what we wanted."

Tori did everything she could to suppress a frown from the ambiguous statement.

The pale girl continued to smile and commented, "I'll get Beck to look over it this weekend. See if he can really make it roar."

He gave a slight nod of his head and thankfully responded, "I appreciate it."

Tori grabbed one more grocery bag then offered it to Jade, hoping she would take it.

Jade looked to her as if seriously questioning she take a bag, but after a moment of facial pleading, she took the bag.

Tori smiled and turned back to the backseat and grabbed a duffel bag that continued her Wii and games. As she pulled the shoulder strap over her shoulder and started leading the way to the apartment. The trio quickly cut through the apartment lobby and up the stairs. Since her hands were the most free, Tori opened the door for them and was the first to enter.

Tori sat the duffel bag on the couch as Freddie sat the paper bags on the small dinning room table and the kitchen counter. The brunette looked to Freddie and asked, "Where did you get it?"

The blue streaked hair girl finished setting the bag on the table and answered, "We got it from the salvage yard that my dad's boss owns."

"Where you got that car for us to smash up, but instead it was Festus'?"

Jade spat out in disgust, "Yeah… I should have taken that golf club and broke his legs for the Yerba thing."

Tori stopped in her tracks just before they entered the building and snapped around to admonish her, "Jade!"

Freddie walked back to the girls and asked with a concerned tone, "Yerba? That 'vacation' you went on?"

"Yeah," Jade whispered out in disgust.

Tori curiously asked, "How did you know?"

"Carly found out from Cat. They kept in touch apparently. Love of red velvet cupcakes I think." He laughed out, "That's how she found out about their dictatorship. Carly even commented in one broadcast to tell him to chill." Freddie snorted out, "You heard he got killed right? They say it was the rebels but then there were stories that it was US Special Forces… and Carly's dad was called away at the exact same time at his birthday to take care of a problem in another country. All very hushed, hushed."

Jade let out a dark laugh, "Good riddance."

Tori knotted her brow. "Jade? A little heartless."

Jade crossed her arms under her chest and frowned before verbally lashing out, "Tori, we were lucky to get out of there without the prison guards raping us. I'm glad he's dead and I hope Colonel Steven and the rest sent as many of those guards as they could to Hell on their way out."

Freddie's mouth became a thin line and his eyes shot open.

"Hey, I was in there the longest and in hindsight, it wasn't that bad in there."

The pale girl gave her a cold stare and whispered out with a colder tone, "The male guards let you strip down and change in private into that prison garb? They didn't do that for me, Cat and your sister. I remember one leering at me…" She crossed her arms under her chest and subconsciously let out a shiver as she recalled the memory.

Tori looked down shamefully as she had been given privacy for the two dimwitted guards that she exclusively dealt with during the ordeal.

Freddie instinctively wanted to comfort the blue streaked hair girl, so without thinking, he reached up and cradled an elbow.

She looked up to meet a supportive smile and tried to suppress a bashful response.

Tori suddenly felt like she was the odd one out until Jade spoke up with a false sense of urgency, "Well, I need to get going. I have another errand to run this afternoon."

Jade turned and started her way out of the apartment, but Freddie called out before she made it to the door, "Jade?"

She stopped and looked over her shoulder, "Yeah?"

Freddie nodded his head and gave her a bashful smile. "Thanks, I really appreciate today."

Jade let a playful smile on her face and answered, "You're welcome."

"We'll see you in class," Tori offered.

She gave a partial smile then left, pulling the door behind her shut.

Tori was subconsciously grateful that she was standing behind Freddie and that he couldn't see her frown. He turned and smiled to the lovely brunette while commented, "Let me help you put stuff away."

The pair went on about storing the various groceries in the cabinets, refrigerator and freezer. Tori was reaching to put something at a top cabinet as she curiously asked, "So what did Jade want? I doubt it was to just take you out car shopping,"

He placed a jug of milk in the refrigerator and answered, "No, she really did just want to know everything she could about Sam. She's trying to hide it, but she's really concerned about Cat after last night. I don't think I made her feel any better after our talk."

Tori softly bit her bottom lip then looked to him to whisper, "So you talked Jade?"

His mouth became a thin expression with his brow barely knotting at seeing the apparent hurt on Tori's face. He licked his lips as he realized what she meant. He cautiously answered, "I told her what she needed to know about Sam, not the… not all the baggage that I have from it. She said something about 'she does her research'."

Tori couldn't explain it, but she suddenly felt relieved with his answer then rolled her eyes as she recalled the dark brunette's statement when trying to prevent her from playing in Steamboat Suzy and doing her 'research' on her.

Freddie noticed the visible relief from the brunette as she turned her attention to put the cold food in the refrigerator. He delicately asked, "I'm going to ask a dumb question, so…"

The lovely girl turned and gave him a curious expression while questioning, "So?"

"Would it bother you if I talked to somebody about that who wasn't you?"

Tori quickly shook her head and looked away from him.

He softly nodded his head. "So the answer is yes."

The brunette snapped her head up and gave him a forced perplexed expression.

He gave her an apologetic expression as he continued, "I'm sorry, I'm not really use to someone really caring about my problems… it's… really going into unknown territory."

Now the slender brunette really did appear confused. "Okay, but I don't understand. Carly and Sam, well at least Carly was your friend, so how are you not use to it?"

He bowed his head and let out a chuckle, but it wasn't a humorous one, "I thought you were friends and I thought I could, but the last time I tried to be honest with Carly—other than tell her how I felt about her for years—it didn't work out so well."

"What do you mean?"

He softly shook his head then answered, "It was just before we met and since Sam let it out, I guess it doesn't hurt to tell you… I told Carly I thought you were—are—pretty—hot actually, I thought you're hot—when Sam first found a picture of you and Steven and you know what Carly did when I was honest?"

Tori had a sinking feeling in her stomach that she didn't want to know the answer…

"She slugged an orange at me then celebrated when I fell out of the stool."

…and she was right.

"It was a wakeup call for me; I realized that Carly was not someone to confine one's feelings to. I couldn't truly be honest with Carly without risk of being hurt and if I can't be honest with her, who can I be honest with? So I keep everything to myself."

Tori bowed her head and softly bit her bottom lip as she was really getting a true eye-opener with the girls she thought she knew and realized why he didn't really want to talk about last night: he was afraid she might hurt him.

She took several breaths then asked, hoping to turn the conversation away from those feelings he didn't want to share, "So, ah… you really do find me hot?"

He looked up and saw her playful eyes. They were warm and kind and directed at him and couldn't help but bring a soft smile to his face. He whispered, "I find you beautiful… like a gazania."

She bashfully looked away and whispered, "Thank you."

They stood there for a few moments in a surprisingly comfortable silence then Freddie suggested, "Let me put the rest of the groceries up."

"Thanks, because I have a surprise that I want to set up," she answered while she walked back to the couch and opened her duffel bag.

He walked around the kitchen counter and asked, "What's that?"

The brunette pulled out her Wii and laughed, "So how good a gamer are you?"

He laughed for a few moments then answered, "I'll finish putting up the groceries while you hook it up and then we'll see."

She laughed in return, happy for a new challenge.

The time was early evening as Tori sat on the couch watching television. She had showered and changed into a loose t-shirt and her dark Hollywood Arts sweatpants and put on her glasses. Freddie had practically worn her out… on the Wii sports games they had practically played all afternoon. She noticed that he particularly liked the swordplay in the second game and gave her a short fencing lesson from his extensive background on the subject. She immediately realized that she found something she enjoyed sharing with the former tech-producer.

She was so involved in watching her show that Freddie asking as he walked around the couch caught her by surprise, "What are we watching?"

She looked at him and saw that he had showered and changed into sleep wear with his form fitting t-shirt and loose pajama pants, "Oh, ah… Celebrities Underwater."

Freddie plopped down next to Tori (despite having plenty of room to sit on the other end of the short couch) and laughed, "I love this show."

Tori gave him a surprised and joyful look at finding someone that actually enjoyed watching the show. She eagerly asked, "You do?" She softly rolled her eyes as she commented, "I tried watching it with Jade one time, but she doesn't like it because no one ever drowns."

He let out an ironic laugh, "David Schwimmer almost did drown in one episode."

"I remember that one."

"Wait a minute," he laughed out while quickly jumping up from his seat and around the couch.

"Okay?" she questioned with a cute knotting of her brow.

She looked over her shoulder and behind the cattycorner of the couch to the kitchen to see what he was doing, but her view was blocked by the height of the kitchen counter. A moment later she heard the microwave start then the familiar sound of popcorn kernels popping.

A minute or so later, Freddie walked back around the couch with a bowl full of popcorn while Tori pulled her feet under her to sit cross-legged on the couch. He retook his seat cross-legged, but scooted closer to the point of their knees bumping and straddling a bowl of popcorn on their thighs. He smiled to her while she slightly bowed her head to hide her bashful smile.

He pointed out, "I noticed that you bought some popcorn while putting away the food."

She let out a soft giggle then the pair looked to the television, enjoyed the popcorn and enjoyed the rest of the night in each other's company while watching their shared favorite show.

Author's Note: I hope you enjoyed this chapter: had some good friendship Jedi and working on Teddie... and appearance of an old friend from the late sixties. I'd like to thank PD31 for the flower suggestion to represent Tori. Hopefully now the story will really start picking up plot-wise and I can start picking this back up on a weekly basis. Thanks again for reading.