Chapter 25: The New Couple

Disclaimer: If I owned iCarly, at least once a season a mosh pit at a cloghopping festival would be featured, so there you go.

Day 14

1

Marissa Benson opened the door quietly, so that she wouldn't wake her Freddie-bear. Growing boys needed their sleep, after all. One look at the scene in front of her made her wish she had thrown the door open, perhaps torn it off its hinges, so that she hadn't had to see this scene.

Her son was on the couch with that girl, his arms wrapped around her. Marissa felt the sudden urge to grab the industrial-sized bottle of anti-bacterial soap and douse the two teenagers with it. Only the thought of the conversation with her son the previous day prevented her, allowing her enough time to fully take in the scene.

Both teenagers were clad in the same clothes they had worn when she had left, except that they had both removed their shoes. The TV was on, and the menu screen for the first Galaxy Wars movie was on. They could have fallen asleep watching the movie.

She moved around the apartment with a stealth that would have surprised and impressed Sam. It would not have surprised Freddie, who had become all too used to his mother's snooping. She noted the rinsed dishes in the sink and the empty bacon wrapper in the trash. Knowing the Puckett girl, Freddie had not had any of the bacon. Not that she was upset at that; bacon wasn't good for you. She looked at the girl in her son's arms. She had no idea how Sam didn't weigh at least twice as much as she did.

There was a textbook and several pieces of notebook paper on the table. She noted that some of the papers had Freddie's handwriting, while some had handwriting that must have been Sam's. She picked up one and looked at it. The girl could write full sentences, something Marissa had doubted, at least before last night, when her son had almost burned her with his eyes for suggesting that Sam was not intelligent. From what Marissa could remember of her high school English days, Sam Puckett seemed to be answering correctly, although the girl punctuated each answer with a "dork", "dweeb", or "doofus". The last answer was followed by "nerd", and then "I love you".

Next to the textbook was a receipt from Canyon Bridge Bungee Jumping. Marissa felt faint. Why were those iCarly girls constantly trying to get her boy killed?

She went to the front of the couch and looked at the two on the couch. Freddie had one arm out in front of his face, and Sam's head was on it, while his other arm was wrapped around the girl's waist. How Marissa wanted to remove that arm. She looked at Sam Puckett, who had a faint smile on her face and seemed to possess an innocence in her sleep Marissa Benson had never seen from the girl before.

She thought about the conversation she and Freddie had the day before. She had dreaded the day that conversation would come, although she knew it would. She never thought Sam Puckett would be what spurred it, though. She could still ground him and refuse to let him see the girl. Would he follow through on the threats he had made? She thought he would. She knew Sam often called him a Mama's boy, and Marissa actually felt proud about that. But she also knew there was a strength in her son that few people saw, as he only displayed it when he felt it was truly necessary. He had displayed it the day before.

She left the apartment as quietly as she entered. She took the elevator down to the lobby. She ignored Lewbert's staring and used her cell phone to call the apartment.

"Hello?" He had picked up after the fourth ring, meaning he had likely had some trouble extracting the girl from his arms. He also sounded cautious.

"Freddie. I'm on my way home. I wondered if maybe you'd like me to pick up some donuts and chocolate milk." Donuts and chocolate milk had been a favorite Sunday treat for them, back before she began to worry too much about his lack of leg hair or about the fact he might never grow taller. They had done it less and less frequently over the years, although she did know he had a stash of food somewhere in the house. She had been unable to pinpoint the location, but she would. She always had before.

"Are you sure, Mom?" There were so many unasked questions in that one question.

"Of course, Freddie. You're almost...you are a man, and I guess I'll have to get used to it."

"Thanks, Mom. Mom...you don't mind if Sam joins us, do you?" Clever. Marissa closed her eyes. She was going to have to trust her son and hope he didn't mess his life up.

"No problem, Freddie. Why don't you go over to Carly's and get her. I'm not sure how she would feel about being in our apartment in her pajamas, though." Hopefully, her son took the hint, so she wouldn't have to raise the questions she had. In some ways, she was almost afraid of the answers.

"Okay, Mom. I love you." Before he hung up, Marissa could almost swear she heard a "Mama's boy" very faintly.

Sam Puckett better not break her son's heart. If she did, that girl would discover what tough really was.

2

"Sam, what are you doing here?"

"I slept here, don't you remember?"

"Sam, you never slept here." Carly watched as Sam went through her drawer in Carly's dresser. Sam spent so much time there that Carly just kept the drawer for her. Sam pulled out a pair of pajamas with Boogie Bear on them and began to put them on.

"Sam! Were you with Freddie all night?"

Sam turned around and smiled. "I think you're a little too innocent for this, Carls."

"Did you sleep with him?"

"Well, I was in his arms all night."

"Sam!"

"Relax, we fell asleep watching his nerdy Galaxy Wars movie. Prude."

"Sam, you've seen that movie two dozen times."

Sam laughed and held a shushing finger to her mouth.

"Did anything else happen last night?"

Sam thought about it. "Well, he did say he wanted to marry me, and I asked him to impregnate me. Bye, Carls." She left Carly's bedroom.

"Sam!" But all she got was laughter.

3

"Well, that was weird."

"What?"

"Your mom being all nice. It actually seemed like she almost meant it, too." Freddie smiled at her.

"Maybe she's coming around," he said, although he wasn't quite sure he believed that himself. There was a look in his mother's eyes.

They were in the studio at Carly's, relaxing in their bean bags. Their hands were linked together.

"You guys are decent, right?" Carly asked from outside the studio. Sam rolled her eyes, and Freddie smirked. Sam had told him about the conversation she had with Carly earlier.

"Just a second, Carly. Let me put my bra on," Sam said. She heard Carly gasp and saw Freddie turn his face so she couldn't see it.

"She's kidding, Carly," Freddie said. Sam tapped him lightly on the arm.

"Party pooper," she said.

Carly came in and relaxed when she saw they were fully clothed. Sam had told her she was joking before, but Carly still didn't seem to believe her.

"Are you spending the night, Sam? Or are you going to stay with your boyfriend again?"

"Well, Pam has a new boy toy, so, yeah, I'll probably stay over. And Freddie can just come over here after his mom goes to sleep. It will give us more privacy."

"Sam!"

"Face it, Sam. She's too easy. Is it even any fun?" Freddie asked.

Sam shook her head. "No, not really. I guess I'll have to go back to torturing you." She smiled at her boyfriend.

"I should have kept my mouth shut," he mumbled.

4

Carly had been feeling like a third wheel around Sam and Freddie, so she had used that as an excuse to ask Gibby to come over, although she was able to admit to herself that she was just looking for any excuse. She never would have thought that she could be with someone like Gibby. The boys she usually dated were tall and athletic, with Hollywood faces. Gibby definitely didn't have a Hollywood face, and he wasn't athletic. But he was strong, and while she wouldn't call him handsome, he did have a cute face. She knew if she told him that it might upset him, but the truth was he was becoming more attractive to her the more she really got to know him, while with her other boyfriends, the longer she knew them the more their attractiveness wasn't enough for her to justify being with them.

She went downstairs to greet him, giving him a light kiss and holding his hand as they walked upstairs, but once she got to the studio, she let his hand go. She was afraid of what Sam might say. Sam was her best friend, but subtlety and graciousness were not natural to her. She looked at Gibby's face, and he didn't seem to show that he was upset. She should have said something to him when they were downstairs, but she didn't think of it too late.

5

"Sam, you have to do something," Freddie whispered.

"Why do I have to do something?" she asked, in the same tone.

"Because you're the one who's freaking Carly out." The two of them looked at their friend, who looked at Gibby's hand for probably the twentieth time in the last fifteen minutes. She and Gibby were talking about something inconsequential, and Gibby would every once in a while move infinitesimally closer to Carly. He might be right next to her, given three or four days.

"New couples," Sam said, smirking.

"Yeah, I'm glad we're not like that," Freddie agreed, ignoring the fact that Sam was practically in his lap.

"Are you really going to make me do this?" she asked.

"No, but you should probably do it for Carly," he said. She shook her head. Of all the wonderful things about Freddie Benson, one bad thing was he knew just what to say to push her. She got up.

"Come on, Gibson," she said, grabbing him by the shirt and pulling him out of the studio.

Freddie heard him ask, "are you going to break my thumbs?"

"I'm weighing my options," he heard Sam say.

"What's she doing, Freddie?" Carly asked.

"Fixing things," he said, softly, giving her a weak smile.

6

Sam brought Gibby downstairs. Spencer took one look at her and went into his bedroom. He had collected most of the hair the duct tape had torn off, but he didn't think that patch right below the elbow would ever be the same again.

"Gibby, you need to man up."

"What?"

"You got a girlfriend up there, and you won't even hold her hand."

"But...she's not holding my hand. I mean, we were before, but she let go when we...you know, because of..."

"Because of me?" He nodded. "If you think the fact that you're not holding her hand is going to stop me from making fun of you, you're wrong. So you might as well hold her hand and get something out of it, because I have a boyfriend and I probably have to be nice to him some of the time, so you're going to have to take up the slack. Stuff rolls downhill, you know. Got it?"

"Yeah," he said, a little dazed.

"And, Gibby. If you hurt her, I'll break your thumbs every month for a year."

7

Freddie wasn't sure how to take it. Gibby came in, looking a little sick, but almost immediately he took Carly's hand in his. Carly looked up and smiled at him, then glanced at Sam to see if she would say something. Sam didn't, having settled back to using Freddie as a chair.

"Did you guys have a good talk?" Carly ventured.

"Yeah, I told the Gibster he needed to disinfect to get rid of all the cooties," Sam said.

"Sam!" Carly and Freddie said.

"It's okay," Gibby said. "I told her I got a shot two years ago at the free clinic."

Freddie heard a quiet chuckle come from his girlfriend's lips, and he bent down and kissed her own the forehead.

8

Later, Sam and Freddie were on the fire escape. Freddie sat on one of the steps, and Sam leaned back and used him as a pillow. It was a position she had made part of their routine rather easily, and Freddie had no complaints. Right now, Sam seemed particularly quiet.

"What's up, Sam?"

"Nothing."

"Sam?"

"Okay...jeez, you're really pushing the boyfriend privilege, aren't you?" He smiled against her hair and rubbed her neck gently with his thumb. She craned her neck to allow him better access. "I'm nervous about tomorrow. You know, with the whole prank thing. And the test. I've never really went into a test concerned about how I did."

"You'll do fine, Sammy. You studied."

She turned to face him. "Sammy? Really? You think you can call me that."

"Boyfriend privilege," he said. "Besides, I have a long way to go to catch up with your nicknames."

She turned back around and smirked. She actually kind of liked the nickname, at least coming from him. Not that she was going to let him know that. She tapped his hand on her neck. "Nobody told you to stop rubbing, peasant."

He grinned. He knew that she liked the nickname, but was refusing to let him know. "And there's no way anybody could beat you on pranks."

"True," she said. "No one person, but all of them combined. I don't know."

"Well, what's done is done. There's no reason to worry about it until tomorrow."

"What? Are you going to give me something to take my mind off it?"

He did.

A/N: Okay, the next chapter reveals who won the prank war. Plus more surprises and goodies. This story hasn't always been easy for me, since I'm pretty much writing it day-to-day without any sort of an outline, but it's been fun, and I appreciate everybody who's stuck alongside me with it.

Thank you for reviews from: UnderxGravity, cynthiarox99, Julefor, Geekquality, fireman35, MissSeddie, Sam's Tiger Ate Freddie, Penny Tee13, EmilyHelene, PurpleJerk, clarksonfan, kiyokoseddie, iCarlya, SeddierFTW, and afanoffanfic.

Julefor: Being around Sam has toughened Freddie up, that's for sure. Hmm...when? Maybe in the next chapter, or the one after that. We'll see.

Sam's Tiger Ate Freddie: And if Dan and co. were consistent in their portrayal of Gibby, I probably wouldn't have made that comment, but since they're not, I felt free to spin him my own way. Hee. Spinning Gibby. That would make a great new segment.

EmilyHelene: Tintinnabulation is the sound of bells ringing. If people discover the word, it's usually because of Edgar Allan Poe's "The Bells", in which the word "bells" is repeated about 5 gazillion times.

PurpleJerk: No, Sam doesn't want to be a mother...at least not right now, as far as we know. She was just getting Freddie back for the marriage comment he made.

kiyokoseddie: Yes, the pranking king (or queen) will be crowned next chapter. The competition was among everybody in the Detention Posse, but everybody except Sam decided to help Rodney, because they figured only by their collected efforts could they defeat her.