A/N – Last chapter! This is has been so much fun to write and I just wanted to thank everyone who reviewed. There were so many from the start and all the way until the end, which I honestly wasn't unexpecting. You people are great! Thanks so much!

No one ever went to Sam's apartment, or at least it was a rare thing to do. It was such a seldom event that when it did happen, it always just seemed unnatural. The Puckett apartment could be described as 'someone that couldn't make up their mind'. It was an odd metaphor for an apartment, but it made sense – it was made up of rooms that were so jam packed and chaotic with stuff that one was a afraid to breathe in case the moving air were to knock a pile of something over, as well as rooms that were so empty that it seemed like a voice could echo off the wall for several minutes before it finally faded.

Sam's room was one of the messy rooms, no surprise, of course. She had spent the rest of the day in her room, so bothered by the earlier conversation with Freddie that she had actually decided to start cleaning it in hopes of a distraction. After trying to organize the top of her desk, she began to wonder if this task would even be possible without having to move some of her junk out onto the balcony outside her room. Nibbling on the inside of her lower lip, she let out a sigh and spun around, falling back onto her bed. Sam only lay on her bed for a second before catching sight of something that wasn't supposed to be there, and sat up immediately.

Her heart skipped a beat once, but that was the extent of her excitement or uneasiness. Feeling surprisingly relaxed, she spoke slowly, dragging on her words in her usual bored tone, "He-e-e-e-ey Freddie."

Freddie gave her a small wave, stepping on a number of objects on the floor as he entered her room. "What's up?" he asked. He too seemed amazingly calm.

"Not much," she replied, "just giving up on cleaning my room. I would ask you what you're up to but it would seem that you've been breaking into my house." Sam gave him a playful, knowing look. "Now what did you say when I broke into your apartment, that it was morally wrong or something?"

"The door to your apartment was unlocked," Freddie told her with a shrug. "The door wasn't locked to begin with, so my record is still clean."

They smiled at each other, funny, lopsided, closed-lip smiles. It would have seemed more normal for Sam and Freddie to be shy with each other, jumping with discomfort under their skin after finally admitting that they liked each other and then not doing anything about it, but they weren't. Perhaps it had to do with the fact that they had done more together and been through more together than most friends had, and for the time being it just seemed as if nothing could be uncomfortable between them.

"Look, I'm just going to get this off my chest so we never have to bring it up again," Sam suddenly said with a frown. "The only reason I was flirting with Anders was because I was trying to convince myself that I didn't like you. It was just some stupid plan I had come up with."

Freddie nodded once without a word, not questioning Sam whatsoever. He didn't want Anders to be their topic of choice.

"So," Sam continued, "what are you doing here? Not that I don't enjoy your… presence or whatever," she added lamely.

"Oh, right," Freddie said. "I just wanted to see how you were doing."

An uncontrollable smile spread across Sam's face. Raising her eyebrows, she leaned back on her hands and answered easily, "Well I just told someone I liked him and then he told me the same thing, but nothing happened afterwards. Pretty much, I don't know if he meant it or not." Sam grinned at him teasingly.

"He meant it," Freddie responded quickly, taking the matter just a little more seriously, as usual. "I think he just didn't act on it because he wasn't sure what you wanted."

Sam shook her finger at him in a scolding manner. "Lame answer," she told him, "because of course I didn't want anything else from him. I wasn't expecting him to change his personality and become someone else all of a sudden. I just wanted you!"

For a moment, Sam froze, caught off guard by her final words which had veered from their story. She smacked her lips closed, but was amazed at how easy it was to admit that she did want Freddie and how right it felt. Her eyes dropped to the floor and scanned the few feet between the two of them. Much too far, she decided as she rose to her feet. Sam approached Freddie, and as she stopped in front of him she could tell he didn't know what to expect. With her infamous, wicked smile, she linked her fingers with Freddie's and led him out onto her clutter-free balcony.

Without a word, Sam walked to the edge of the balcony and sat down, slipping her legs through the wide-set bars so that they hung over the ledge, over the city. She then gripped onto the bars with her hands and peered down, not meeting Freddie's eye as he sat down next to her. There was a moment before Freddie asked nervously, "Hey Sam? What… what exactly are we?"

Sam gripped the bars tighter with anticipating, smiling to herself. "Well Freddie," she told him, "not that I subscribe to labels or anything, but haven't you ever heard the term dating, or maybe boyfriend girlfriend?" She finally turned to look at him and whispered with excitement, "It sounds weird, doesn't it?"

"I like it," Freddie grinned just before Sam released the bars and leaned into him. It was just a kiss she planted onto his lips – a simple, smiling kiss without even the use of tongue - but it was hard and passionate and more real than anything else they had done in the past. Sam pulled back first, pulling her legs up to her chest and pressing her body against Freddie's as he wrapped an arm around her hips. And then, they just sat there, completely content with their silence as they stared at everything that was so far away from them.

Why did we never do this before? Sam asked herself as she rested her head against Freddie's shoulder. Whenever they had sneaked off together – although apparently not so sneakily since Carly had known the whole time – it had all been so aggressive and rough between them. The whole tussling of hair, sliding up and down of hands, and unzipping of zippers suddenly seemed so serious and almost laughable to Sam. Not that I regret it, Sam added to her thoughts quickly, because she really had enjoyed all of it with Freddie. As a thought suddenly struck her, a mischievous smile spread slowly across her lips.

"Hey, Freddie?"

"Yeah?"

"You know the front door to my apartment that you technically didn't break into?" she asked him

Freddie smiled in confusion, but answered anyways, "Yeah…"

She bit her lower lip for a moment, containing her bliss. Then, in a soft voice foretelling their future plans and secrets, Sam whispered to Freddie, "Well just in case you wanted to know, that door is always unlocked."

-

x0

Vintage88