Disclaimer: I don't own iCarly.
Author's Note: This is going a little slow, I know. It will pick up pace soon, though.
Flashback
Sam pushed Freddie over, and he fell onto the small pebbles on the play ground.
"Sam!" He complained, flapping his shirt s the pebbles can come out.
"They're rocks. They won't hurt you." Sam rolled her eyes.
"I could've swallowed one and died!" He defended himself.
"Don't be such a baby!"
The two eight year olds were playing a game of tag during recess. Freddie suggested it, but he now regretted it.
"You're it." She poked him hard in the chest, and smirked in a way that, to Freddie, looked like an evil shark's.
"I don't think we should play this anymore, someone's going to get hurt. And by someone, I mean me."
"I won't push you anymore! Not intentionally, anyways."
"Fine. Last time!" He warned, but Sam didn't find it very threatening.
Sam dashed away from Freddie quickly, and he started to chase after her.
Sam was very quick on her feet; running up ladders, jumping down from ledges, and swinging quickly from the monkey bars.
She ran towards the slide, and attempted to hop over it. Freddie was not far behind her, having to take short cuts to get to her, and watched as Sam almost made it over the slide; but tripped and landed hard on her stomach.
Freddie quickly picked up speed, waiting for Sam to hop back up and keep running, but she didn't.
She layed on the ground, gasping.
"Sam?" Freddie asked, worry sweeping over him as he ran up to Sam lying on the ground.
He heard her breathing a lot louder.
He knelt down, "Sam! Stop playing with me! It's not funny!" He wanted to be angry, but was too busy being scared.
She coughed weakly, and her hand was against her chest. Her breathing was quick and gasping for air.
Freddie got up, "I'm getting help, Sam! St- just, stay there!"
Freddie thought stupidly where she would go, or why he even said that, but he ran up to a lunch monitor, and they called for a nurse on their monitor.
Suddenly everyone seemed to be inching towards Sam, but some were too scared to find out what was going on.
Carly ran up to me, and I ran up to Sam.
"Freddie, what happened? She's okay, right?" Carly was already in tears, and moved forward next to Sam.
Soon enough, a nurse came out with a wheelchair, and mostly had to carry Sam onto it. Sam's eyes were squinting closed, and when she opened them, she looked at me and Carly just watching her with sad eyes.
She wasn't crying, and she looked around to look at everyone quickly. She hated attention, and she didn't ever like when people thought she wasn't tough.
Her breathing was still quick, but it slowed down. Carly was still in tears, and I was still in a little shock.
Freddie was sitting on the Shay's computer table, checking the iCarly website, and wondering what's going to happen in the next few months.
"Want any pretzels… grapes…. Mustard…. Or cheese? That's all we got." Spencer asked, browsing through the fridge.
"Pretzels sound good…" Freddie said, absent mindedly, "Hey, where's Carly…"
"Probably the library… or a club at the school… I'm not sure she hasn't been getting home until 6 lately."
"Why?" Freddie knew why though.
Spencer didn't answer, and Sam opened the door, a little frustrated.
"What's up?" Freddie asked cautiously.
"Everyone knows!" Said spat, and then coughed.
"Everyone knows….?" Freddie asked, standing up.
"About me! I bet Carly told everyone!"
Spencer walked on over, "I know she's not… conversing with you at the moment, but look, I don't think Carly would do anyth-"
"Actually," Freddie cleared his throat, nervously, "It was Carly."
"You knew about this?" Sam breathed, and seemed to be short on breath. Freddie noticed, and wondered if she had to run all the way upstairs.
"I'll tell the story… we were in study hall, and Carly sat down next to me and said, 'Hey' after a minute or two. A few minutes later she asked, 'So how are you and Sam doing?', which, kind of caught me off guard. I asked her why, and she said, 'Oh, I don't know, I was just wondering since you guys broke up, but she's carrying your baby and all.'" Freddie paused, and he noticed Sam's face was a little sweaty, and paler than usual, "I thought at first she was trying to spill a secret; like, maybe she didn't think I knew about it and was trying to get you in trouble… but that wasn't it…"
Sam brushed her hair behind her ears, and then coughed a few times.
"Sam, you look sick." He told her, gesturing to the couch, "Just… rest."
She shook her head, but coughed multiple times after that.
"Sam, you are pale and sweaty, not to mention coughing your lungs up- sit." He demanded.
"I'm not sick, it's just one of these dumb pregnancy side effect things. I was reading this book-" She looked up to see if Freddie would make some snide comment about her reading an actual book, but when he didn't, she continued, "And it said during pregnancy, you can have some breathing shortenings… it's normal. Plus, I've just had a long day, so…"
Freddie hasn't seen Sam all day because he went on a field trip with his computer class, and got home at about 1. He seemed to be gone the one day he should've been in school for Sam. Nothing bad happened until today, apparently, and he wanted to know what really happened today. Whatever it was though, he knew Sam handled it- she seemed upset, but not as upset as any other person would be.
"Are you sure you are okay? You really do look pale."
"I'm fine! Will you just continue!" She snapped, grumpily.
"Okay, so I found out a few seconds later that Carly didn't say it the reason that I thought. She said it so people could hear her- which I was stupid not to realize." Freddie ended there.
Sam frowned, and stared at the ground. She coughed again, and after that everything happened too fast.
"Sam, it's okay- it's okay." Freddie was comforting her as she sucked in quick wisps of air.
Freddie kept thinking back to the incident in elementary school and how he was so scared. It hasn't changed much.
Sam didn't carry around her inhaler anymore. She only had an asthma attack once.
Sam's face was pale and sweaty, and her lips even looked blue- unless Freddie was seeing things.
She couldn't even talk- but the area around her eyes were wet from tears. Sam wasn't one to cry- but sometimes the tears come out on their own.
She was barely getting the air in, and she was panicking. She wanted to say something, but was hyperventilating.
Spencer was watching the road, careful not to get distracted, and what happened after that wasn't his fault.
His hands sweaty on the wheel, gripping tight as he hit the gas on the green light, Spencer suddenly slammed on the breaks as an old Toyota blew the red light and headed right for them.
Shock.
Shock was what was happening to Freddie just as the truck was headed for them- he couldn't do anything; he was frozen.