Disclaimer: The iCarly name, characters and show belong to Dan Schnieder. I own nothing.
This took some work, and heavy self-editing, but only because this is a major chapter. Enjoy, or don't enjoy it, as I suspect some of you might. ;)
R&R and all that jazz. :)
iDon't Believe It.
Warm beams of sunlight briefly graced Carly's pale face, just enough to gently rouse her from her recuperative slumber. Her eyes took a while to focus, barely aware that she was in her own room. Yesterday to her, came in flashes of semiconscious memories. Throwing up in class, in the Nurse's office, getting carried up the stairs into her apartment by Freddie, the faint memory of Sam whispering 'Momma's got you now, momma's gonna take care you.' which she found as equally disturbing as it was comforting. The biggest chunk she could recall was seeing Freddie by her side, head covered by his hands, and telling him to go find Sam. After that, it was just darkness; she must've slept soundly through the night. As her senses came about, Carly lifted her head, looking down to the couches on the other side of the room. Two things surprised her: her nausea was gone, and so was Sam and Freddie. Slowly, she scanned the room, spotting Sam's mattress, lying just behind the couches, a plate of bread crumbs that must've been Sam's dinner, and one of Sam's worn out shoes.
They have to be somewhere around here…
It took all of her strength, and the blankets that she had, to get out of bed. Frailly, like an old woman wrapped in bed-sheets, she shuffled towards her bedroom door in search of her two best friends.
One floor down, her best-friends asleep in each other's arms, like newlyweds. Freddie, in the same grey shirt he wore to bed, had his slumbering head nuzzling into Sam's neck, his arm wrapped around her, their hands intertwined. Had he awakened now, he would've had a lot of trouble discerning between his dream and reality. They were almost one in the same. Gradually, he started to seep back into reality, flickering his eyes open several times, realising that he was still in bed with Sam, her purple hair tie inches from his face, tangled in her springy blonde locks. The all too familiar scent of sugar and fried chicken wafting from them. Like he was pulling back a golden curtain, he brushed aside the hair that covered her face. Expecting to see her gracefully sleeping.
"Oh." muttered Freddie, as he saw Sam's open mouth drooling all over Spencer's pillow. "She wouldn't be Sam otherwise." he smiled to himself, kissing her on the forehead.
I should probably check up on Carly. But I really don't want to leave her. He thought, looking at Sam sleepily drooling on the pillow. Eh, she won't wake up for while, I could easily sneak back in before she wakes up.
With half a heart, he detached himself from Sam, lifting the covers and gingerly letting go of her hand. Cautiously, he planted his foot onto the wood panel floors, and sneaked silently towards the door. Before opening the door, he took one last look at her. His Princess. He didn't want to take his eyes off of her, wanting to stand there and watch her sleep. But he still had to check up on Carly. Unwillingly, he opened the door, and stepped into the hallway, keeping his eyes on her perfect face for as long as he could before he shut it. Upon turning, his eyes met a chilling sight. In the dim light of the hallway, a pallid girl, whose hair fell in strands around her face, stared back at him wrapped in blankets.
"Madre dulce de dios!" he remarked. It took a few seconds before he realised who it was.
"…Carly?" asked Freddie.
"Of course it is!" she managed to bark, between sniffles and some loud coughs.
"Wha-wh-what're you doing up? You're supposed to stay in bed!" he stuttered.
Using tissues that she seemed to have stashed away in the folds of her blankets, she noisily emptied her nose.
"Well I couldn't find Sam, or you, so I had to go looking!" she sputtered. "Where is Sam anyway? Did she go home? You scared her away didn't you? What did you do!" she berated him, coughing and hacking.
"No! No! I didn't scare her, she's sl-" on cue, the door behind him opened, revealing Sam, rubbing her eyes, surrounded by a golden halo of her own frizzy hair.
"Baby, you could've told me yo-" eating her words as soon as they came out. "heh. Oh, Carly, I did not see you there." awkwardly chuckling.
Her jaw dropped, and because she was sick, she looked like a deep sea Lantern fish. Seizing the opportunity, Freddie wrapped his arm around Sam's shoulders, and looked at Carly.
"We… umm. We worked things out." he announced proudly.
"Yeah, turns out that the nub thought that I didn't love him back." declared Sam, smiling cheekily.
Carly was over-joyed, but it was hard to show it when she felt like the mould that gathered in the deep corners of your shower. All she managed to say was,
"I am so happy for you two!" she exclaimed, rasping.
The fresh couple looked at each other briefly, smiling the entire time.
"I bet you wanna hear what happened."
"Yes!"
"Yeah well, momma can't do that on an empty stomach." looking up at Freddie, she requested, "Freddifer, would you mind cooking your lady and her sick best friend some bacon?"
"I would love to." landing a kiss on her lips.
"Mmm. Nothing better than kissing and bacon in the morning!" Sam rejoiced, leading them both into the kitchen.
There they explained to Carly what happened late last night, taking turns to tell the story. A soft crackle drifted from the frying pan as Freddie cooked the two girls some breakfast. Carly acted like a detective, interrogating and coaxing every drop of information out of the two of them.
"Wait, so both of you thought that the other one was over them?" Carly said, trying to make sense of them.
"I guess so, yeah." admitted Freddie, holding a pan full of cooked bacon. One by one, he slid them off of the pan, straight onto Sam's plate. Her eyes lit up like Christmas lights, sparkling as she watched every individual piece falling in front of her. She wasted no time. With great gusto, she grabbed her fork and stabbed the pile of bacon maliciously. Cramming as much as she could into her mouth.
"Don't you wish she loved you as much as she loved bacon?" joked Carly as Freddie put a meagre two pieces on her plate compared to Sam's stack, which was already half-gone.
"Yeah, but, what can you do? It's Sam." shrugged Freddie.
By the time Carly had finished her breakfast, Sam had already demolished her own. Dumping her plate in the sink, she took a seat next to Freddie, who was just about to finish his own breakfast of only eggs. Admittedly, Sam was disappointed.
"Where'd your bacon go?" she complained.
"They went…here!" poking her in her stomach.
"Oh, yeah… They were good pieces of bacon." acting like she was at a funeral, wiping away a pretend tear.
Sam was relieved she didn't have to hide what she felt anymore, being able to call Freddie hers made her want to jump and dance. On an impulse, she started to play with the back of Freddie's hair, feeling how fluffy it was under her fingers.
God he has nice hair.
He shot her a sideways smile, before eating his last piece of scrambled egg.
"Benson, how on earth do you get your hair so soft."
"I don't know," pausing to take a sip of his orange juice. "must be some kind of conditioner my mom makes me use." he answered.
"Mmm, one thing your crazy mom got right besides you." smiled Sam, tugging gently at his silky hair.
"So now, you're deciding to go all sweet on me?" complained Freddie, obviously not serious about it.
"mmm. Maybe. I mean, I could do this…" punching him forcefully.
Freddie cried lightly with pain as clutched his shoulder.
"and then I could do this…" leaning in to kiss him passionately. No matter how many times they kissed like this, neither of them would ever get sick of it. Endorphins rushed through their bodies, tingling their extremities. When the moment came where she leant away, Sam left Freddie in a dreamlike state; his eyes droopy, his lips open, wanting more.
"Don't take this the wrong way guys, but I think I need to puke." announced Carly, running as fast as she could to the bathroom. "Sam! Come hold my hair back!" she grumbled loudly.
Reluctantly, Sam got up and ran after Carly, leaving Freddie to put his dishes in the sink, and clean by himself. A certain serenity washed over Freddie whenever he did chores, letting him think clearer. No guesses as to what he was thinking right now. Or who.
Carly being sick was one of the best things that could've happened to me. …wow that was kind of morbid. Eh, I couldn't care less. Sam and I are together, and nothing will stop me from loving her. He thought, grinning to himself.
Retches and groans erupted from the bathroom. Freddie could hear Sam affirming her disgust, and Carly's spluttering. For a moment, he thanked God that he didn't have to deal with it, and headed to the couch after slotting the final plate onto the drying rack. Just when he was about to turn on the TV, a melodic voice sought him out.
"Freddie!" called Sam. "Freddie! Help me get Carly up to her bed!"
With the speed of a bullet, he leapt to Sam's aid. When he got to the bathroom, he saw the disastrous state that Carly was in. Thankfully, the floor was clean of vomit, but he caught the stiffening rank of bile and bacon assaulting his nose from the toilet bowl. Carly was doubled over on the floor, her hair floating lifelessly around her groaning head. The blanket she had wrapped around her, fell limply to the floor, carrying a fresh stain.
"Hand me that hair-tie Benson!" ordered Sam, holding her hand out desperately.
Snatching the hair-tie from the shelf, he threw it to her and she caught it, fumbling it at first, but recovering it mid-air on the last second. Hastily, she drew all of Carly's dark brunette hair back, wrapping the hair tie around it as she did. In all of this commotion, Freddie could only think one thing.
"God, she's hot." he whispered to himself.
Inappropriate, sure, but it didn't change the fact that he couldn't see Sam in an unattractive light. Age must've made her mature somehow, because she wore a genuine look of concern, like a worried mother looking upon their sick child.
"Help me get her up." beseeched Sam.
Freddie did one better, picking her light frame in both his arms, carefully side-stepping out of the bathroom into the hallway, and hoisting her up to the stairs. Impressed at his display of strength, Sam stood in the doorway, admiring the bulk of his arms as he carried Carly up the stairs.
"Oh man, that's hot." tilting her head sideways to get a glimpse of his behind.
After she washed her hands, Sam plonked down onto the couch, completely exhausted. Closing her eyes, she limply dropped her head back and just let herself relax. The past couple of months were hard on her, her mom leaving, all the shit with Freddie… she hadn't the time to just sit and let it all go. Gradually, she began to hear everything, the Seattle wind howling outside, the tiny pitter-patter of rain against the window pane. The sunshine must've been gone. It didn't matter, because familiar footsteps began to tap their way down the stairs.
"You were amazing in there." said a warm, comforting voice.
Strong, firm hands grasped her burdened shoulders, gently massaging them. The moment they touched her, she knew it was Freddie. How could she not know, no matter where they were on her body, his hands made her feel… calm, relaxed, happy. Everything that was good in the world, Sam felt when Freddie laid his hands on her.
"That feels so good." Sam said, almost moaning. "Is she in bed?" she asked.
"Yeah, sleeping. Passed out as soon as her head hit the pillow." added Freddie.
Sam opened her eyes and saw Freddie's gentle face fondly looking down at her.
"Close your eyes. I've got ya now." comforted Freddie.
The moment she shut her eyes, she felt the tender embrace of his lips on hers. Both of his hands relieved of their duty, and reassigned to caressing her smooth face.
"FREDWARD BENSON!" shrieked a painfully familiar voice.
"Mom! What are yo-" Freddie yelped, standing fully erect.
"What am I doing here? Carly's sick, you didn't think I'd leave you two to take care of her!" she fumed, waving her disgusting crocodile skin handbag in the air. "Look at you, your best friend is sick and you're just leaving her to die, and locking lips with this… DEVIL CHILD!"
An untapped rage rose in Freddie. All of the tick baths, anti-bacterial underwear and lack of scissors, he could deal with. But no one talked smack about Sam like that.
"You take that back right now." he barked, pointing a threatening finger at her.
There was a moment of suspenseful silence that followed that. Sam found it slightly flattering that Freddie defended her, even against his mom, but she knew this was not going to end well. For the first time in the presence of a conflict, she was frozen. What could she do? Anything she did now might hurt Freddie some how, if she lashed out at Mrs. Benson, she might punish Freddie. All of her thoughts halted when Mrs. Benson snapped out of her stunned daze, digging deep into her handbag and pulling out a sinister looking device. It had two metal prongs sticking out the bottom of it, but on the top, there was a short antenna. The whole thing looked like a cross between a taser and a remote.
"You've left me no choice Freddie." she lamented, her thumb poised on a red button.
"Mom. What're yo-" she pressed it, and he crumpled to the ground in convulsive shakes.
"NO! FREDDIE! WHA-" Sam wailed.
There wasn't anything that stopped her from beating the shit out of her now. Freddie was already hurt, and Sam wasn't going to let that go unscathed. With a shout of fury, Sam leapt with both of her arms outstretched, prepared to break Mrs. Benson's face. Just before Sam could could grab her, Mrs. Benson raised the odd device at Sam, pointing at her neck. The cold prongs of metal made contact with her skin, sending volts of electricity pulsing through her body. With a thud, Sam's limp body crashed into the ground, her face inches away from Mrs. Benson's shoes. Nothing useful in her body responded to her, only her eyes, but her hair fell in a curtain around her face, allowing almost no vision. She desperately wanted nothing more than to get up and tear her face off for doing what she did to Freddie.
"I knew that upgrading that microchip would come in handy." Mrs. Benson boasted. "I just knew the moment Freddie started developing those muscles that he'd try to act out against me." she orated. "And you, little Samantha Puckett." addressing her paralysed body. "If you really care about Carly, you'll give her this." placing a bottle of pills in front of her nose. "As for my son," she said, her tone quivering. "You're not going to be able to corrupt him with your horrid ways ever again. Good. Bye." she declared, before sticking the taser into her neck one last time, sending her into an unconscious slumber.
So, if you want to rage, then do it in the reviews. Thanks for reading, I'll try to get the next chapter up reaaaal soon!