Disclaimer: I don't own iCarly.

It took me a while, but I'm working on this whole "self-editing" thing. I know that not many people read what I write, but if you do happen to read my work, and on the off-handed chance that you actually found it worthwhile, leave a comment or something! It helps in ways you can't imagine, honestly. :L

Anyway, read, enjoy, and review. :)

iNeed An Explanation.

"Brian, you're not telling me something." Carly confronted him.

It took a while to calm her down from knowing that Melanie knew where Sam and Freddie had gone, and imagining what she'd be doing to tear them apart. But even after 30 minutes of reassuring her it'll be fine, and reasoning that the long drive down to Angel Lake might make Melanie rethink it, Carly's unyielding mind drifted straight to the next issue that plagued her.

"Just tell me what it is Brian! I thought you could trust me." pressured Carly.

Anything else. If it was anything else, i'd tell her in a heartbeat. Brian thought.

How was he going bring himself to say it? He doesn't even know if it was worth it. Just because he felt uncomfortable around her today, does it mean he'll keep feeling uncomfortable? There was something between them, he was sure of it. But today, with all of the little moments they had, it was too reminiscent of times that he spent with Katie. It wasn't like him to keep this in, but it put their relationship at risk, so he had to.

"It's uh… nothing." he plainly lied, looking down at the floorboards of her room.

The couch cushions squeaked as she moved closer to him, it was apparent that she wasn't convinced. How could she be? Neither was he.

"You can tell me anything Brian, you know that."

It was that, that one line, said by that one girl that finally coaxed him to say it.

"When I was with you today, I just kept thinking about Katie. Okay? That's it." he blurted.

A look of brief confusion appeared on Carly's face. Looking for some sort of explanation she stared back at his soft features. In those hazel eyes, there was nothing but absolute sincerity.

"Wow, uh- okay."

"I mean, I didn't want to think about her." pushing his fringe to the side of his forehead "Maybe all of this… was so fast. Like after both of our break-ups." he surmised.

"Fast? We're not exactly dating…"

"But it feels like we are! You can't say it hasn't felt that way for you too." he reasoned.

"…Well yeah." she admitted.

"and you can't say that you haven't thought of Brad at all have you?" both feeling slightly angry at Brian's mention of her ex.

"Of course I have." she uttered.

A tiny moment of silence passed between them.

"The break-up hurt didn't it?" wondered Brian, regretting it instantly.

"Of course it hurt! I thought me and him had a connection! I could always tell what was on his mind, and he was really easy to be around y'know?" she elaborated. "I feel like that around you too, and it gives me the chills when I can tell what you're thinking, cause I used to do that with Brad!"

"Well, it's cause you're smart. I mean, you could probably tell from the little things that I do, that I'm feeling anxious or something." he said, adjusting his fringe again.

"When you do that, you're nervous." she plainly noted.

"See! I wa-"

"and when you're gaming or when you're working with the networking on the show, you put your hoodie up." gesturing at the hood on his back.

He was utterly surprised. Not even he was aware of that. It showed how much attention Carly paid to even the tiniest of details.

"You're kind of creeped out by it aren't you?" she asked him, afraid that she truly did.

"No! Actually, Carly… it's one of the things I kinda like about you. Smart girls are really attractive." he sheepishly said.

"Thanks. You're not so bad either." she complimented in return, slapping him lightly on his knee.

His stomach began to flitter when she said that to him. He waited a moment for some feeling of uncomfortableness to override it, ruining yet another moment with Carly.

…It's not coming. Thank God, I actually thought I was moving on too quickly.

As much as he'd tried to avoid looking into her eyes, in fear of the fluttering wings in his stomach growing worse, nothing could stop him from peering into her intelligent dark brown eyes.

"You know something?" Brian asked as he gazed unblinkingly into her eyes.

"What?"

"You're the only girl I've met who has eyes that are as moving as yours." he confessed.

To anyone else, this would've felt odd. Odd that so soon after they'd admitted that their past relationships were hindering their relationship, that they could be this close and this intimate without any unwanted memories. The beauty of their relationship was that the instant they had conceded any troubles to each other, the burden of those troubles were taken off of their shoulders and destroyed.

I should kiss him.

I should kiss her.

Their eyes were still constantly locked in with each other as they leaned in, closing the distance between each other. Their lips began to tingle with the prospect of the kiss that their bodies pined for, but their minds forbade. Until the sound of crashing footsteps came from the staircase and grew louder as Spencer appeared flustered at Carly's door frame. He was only slightly perplexed as he saw what they were no doubt about to do, but there was something grave that required their attention.

"You two! Get together later! Sam and Freddie are in hospital!" he loudly declared.

The moment Freddie opened his eyes, he knew there was something wrong. Inexplicably, he was standing seamlessly in a long hotel corridor, with warm yellow lights streaking a path down the hall. A ghost of a pain hit him; first in his neck, and then again in his ribs. He clutched his side, and looked down to see that he was wearing red polo shirt, and a pair of striped boxers.

What's going on?

The only thing that gave him any clue as to what was going on, was what he was wearing. It was what he wore at the cabin at Angel Lake, with Sam.

Sam!

A cool wave of beautiful images came at him. Renting the cabin with her, waking up the next morning with Sam's golden locks of hair sprawled out on his chest. The breakfast they had together, and how she radiated beauty in Freddie's simple blue dress shirt. Then came the second wave, sneaking behind the first, grotty and unpleasant; Melanie showing up at the door, with two police officers, claiming that Sam stole her money. He remembered going along with the cops to prove that they were innocent, and then seeing his letter to Sam for the first time since he gave it back to Carly. But the next part hit him like the taxi that drove them into the highway barrier. There was that painful crash, and everything after that may as well never existed to him. He needed to find Sam more than ever now. If the two of them had been in an accident, then he had to make sure that she was alive and well. Something told him, however, that he wouldn't be finding her in this eerie hotel hallway. Disregarding his intuition, he tried to call out to her, but alas, nothing came out of his mouth but a mysterious silence. It made no sense.

Remaining still, he relaxed himself, and listened for anything that could help him determine what on earth was going on. He gathered from the humming of the lights, that he had lost his voice and not his hearing. But he'd worry about that later, he had to find Sam. So, he began to run full pelt down the hallway, ignoring the pain in his ribs and neck, making as much noise as he could with his lack of speech. As he furiously knocked against doors, slammed on the walls, and stomped down the hallway, he noticed that he wasn't getting anywhere. The same door numbers kept flashing past, and the end of the hallway was no closer than it was before.

414… 415… 416… 414 again!

Nothing here made sense to him. Why was he in a hotel anyway? The maroon carpet should've been the sterile floor of a hospital, and he should be lying in bed, recovering from the accident. Admitting its pointlessness, he slowly stopped running, till he came to a stop next to a polished brown door, with a golden 417 adorned on it. Seeing as there was no other reasonable choice, he reached towards the doorknob, hoping it would give way to his hand. A small weight was lifted off of his heart as it turned, revealing a dark empty room. The only thing that Freddie could see, was the window to a balcony, and through it, a folding chair, with a boy in it with his feet propped up onto the railing. From where he stood, he could see no face, only the back of his head, and the unnatural feeling that radiated with the sight of him. There was something familiar about the boy. Did he know him? Were they far off acquaintances? He made Freddie feel bitterly nostalgic, an emotion that only came with the presence of an old friend. Just as Freddie was about to cross the threshold into the dark of the room, the blonde locks he'd been so set on finding emerged out of a far corner of the room, heading straight for the window sill. She paused for a second, before placing a hand on the glass and knocking on it. The boy on the balcony turned around revealing his face.

Wh-what? Th-that's…

It was Freddie, but much, much younger. The sleeves of his striped polo weren't filled out like they would've been had it been him now, and the look on his face when he saw the younger form of Sam wasn't the same look he would've given her now. Although, if Freddie could remember, his inner feelings would be the same. This was a memory, and it was one he'd never want to forget. The night when Sam apologised for what she said live on air about Freddie's lack of a first kiss. The night when she offered him a meatball, and said sorry about all the trouble she'd caused him. And the night, when they'd both come to their senses, and shared their first kiss. Even though he knew how this was going to end, Freddie leant against the door frame and watched one of the best memories he'd have, play out in front of him. He could faintly hear their conversation, but he didn't need to. Everything here was vividly etched into his mind, like the lines of a movie that he's watched repeatedly. Sam's hands flew up in the air, and he recalled her disbelief at the amount of pressure people put on their first kiss, and how stupid she thought it all was. The mellow tunes of "Running Away" floated through the window, reinforcing Sam's dulcet voice even more melody. From the doorway, Freddie could hear her crying out for younger-him to say what was on his mind.

"Y'know… we could… ah forget it." he heard himself say.

"What?" the younger Sam demanded.

"Nah, it's stupid."

"No, say it!"

A faint unsettled feeling erupted in Freddie's chest, and he recalled how much courage it took him to even think what his younger self was about to say.

"I was just thinking…"

"That we should kiss?"

He could even see the enormous gulp that he took before he asked her if she was going to break his arm, and as he looked on, he shared the same feelings that his younger self was feeling. Relief that she wasn't going to break anything, surprised at the fact that she wanted to kiss him, and anxious because he was about to. The next scene played out gradually in front of his eyes, Sam shifted across the window sill, showing only the back of her head from where he was standing. Freddie watched as his younger self was gestured in to lean in and kiss her… then things started going wrong.

He blinked, and all of a sudden he was where his younger self stood, poised to kiss her. He blinked again, and Sam's younger form collapsed backwards, caught in the strong arms of Freddie. Then a another blink, and he was staring at the face of Sam as he knew her now. Her gentle face void of all signs of consciousness, eyes softly shut. Everything around him careened into incomprehensible blurs, until he was left in the middle of a black nothingness, with his beloved girlfriend unconscious in his arms, and the steady beeping of an EKG ringing in his ears.

And then he blinked, and it all disappeared.

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