Working



Freddie turns off his car and pulls the keys out of the ignition. He drops them into his pocket—beside the small velvet box that he tries not to think about—and begins to open the door.

He pauses though, gaze draw to the smiley face with mustache drawn on the corner of the window. It is dark blue and done in Sharpie by none other than Sam, who had snatched the marker from Carly and had spent the whole day drawing on every available surface. Including Freddie's forehead, which had made him quite angry and had taken forever to get off. He had spent hours in the bathroom, all because he understandably didn't want to walk around with "NUB" on his forehead for all to see.

Sam had found it all very hilarious, until Freddie had gotten here elbow with a pink Sharpie of his own. The resulting Sharpie fight had causalities of two outfits, a dinner plate with too much graffiti on it because it had been improperly used as an impromptu shield, a torn bunny slipper, a snapped toothbrush, and a thoroughly drawn on couch that had had to be replaced.

Then Freddie abruptly cuts off his thoughts and jumps out of the car, slamming the door shut with a little more force than necessary. When had all of his thoughts begun to center around Sam? She is important to him, but Freddie doesn't need to think about her all the time. He loves her, but she…Freddie stops thinking. He enters the building and nods to the guard, who waves back. Freddie enters the elevator and allows himself to think: at least Sam's never been here. Sam is allergic to work, whether her own or someone else's. And she is bored by Freddie's "geek city" job.

Finally the elevator pauses on his floor, the highest, and Freddie steps out. He barges into the offices of his company, looking around.

Most of the offices are already dark, but there are a few at the end light up brightly. He can hear the sound of voices and light laughter. Freddie heads over there. He passes by his own office, which is dark. He pauses, spotting the picture of Sam, Carly, and Spencer on his desk. Barely visible in the bottom right hand corner is the photographer's finger. Freddie smiles; he had taken that picture last year, the day they finally got to meet Socko. It had been a momentous occasion, one Freddie had been determined to document. They had also done an iCarly piece on it. Socko had vehemently refused to be in the picture, saying something about tourists and a dancing lemur.

As Freddie arrives in the doorway of one of the offices in use, he instantly sees his partner and fellow co-owner of their company: Neville. The boy had calmed down after several therapy sessions when they had been younger. Neville had apparently realized he had not wanted to destroy iCarly; he had wanted to join it. After explaining this many times to a skeptical Freddie and Carly, and an angry Sam, they had allowed him to help out a few times.

He and Freddie had bonded somewhat over technology, and that is where it all originated. Well-matched in the basics, they had discovered that Neville is truly gifted at computer programming, while Freddie is the one with the head for business. Together with their skills at all things computers, they have created their expanding company; which Freddie and Neville have named "Fred-ville".

Neville is sitting at his desk, head in his hands, muttering to himself. There is a standard company computer at the desk, and Neville has his personal work laptop in front of him. There are also official looking document, one of which Neville is reading.

Neville had given up on his fixation on Carly soon after Freddie, many years ago. Neville is now seriously dating an Asian woman from a rival company. She is to inherit the company from her father in a few years. Despite this obstacle, Neville and she have managed to keep steadily dating. Her knowledge of computers falls more along the lines of hard drives and business, but she keeps up with Neville. Freddie thinks they are a very good match.

Lars, the employee who called Freddie, is seated on the ground of the large office, three laptops spread around him. He is biting his thumbnail worriedly, staring avidly at the screen of a laptop. Freddie stands in the doorway and watches as a seemingly random series of numbers and letters spills across the laptop Lars is watching. Lars is a nice guy, if somewhat scatterbrained and prone to panic. He is a graphic design wizard and has handled all Fred-ville websites.

Standing in the corner, talking quietly into his phone, is none other than Shane. He is the CFO—Chief Financial Officer—of their company. He is happily married with two children, to an Australian woman who broke three major rugby records in her career; before a shattered collarbone benched her permanently. Freddie met her at a company Christmas party two years ago. Her handshake had given him bruises. Shane's wife is determined, strong, and coaches an all-star rugby team in a city an hour away, where their family lives.

These three are the core of the company, along with Freddie. He and Neville are the CEOs. It pays well, better now that Fred-ville is really kicking off, but Freddie hates having to deal with some of their investors. He loves creating now gadgets and applications for computers though. There are good and bad aspects to his job, and Freddie wouldn't have it any other way. If his job had been easy he wouldn't feel challenged.

"Alright guys," Freddie says, walking inside the office. He leaves the door open. There isn't anyone else in the office to close the door on anyway. "What seems to be the problem?"

All three start talking at once.

"These legal documents—" Neville groans, rubbing his temples to ward off a headache.

Lars raises his voice to be heard, "—code isn't behaving—"

"—the advertising agency—" Shane says darkly.

"—I need your help," all three men finish at the same time. They blink in surprise and look at each other.

Freddie laughs. He can't help it.

The four of them help the others out constantly. Their company would have crashed and burned long ago if they hadn't. Fred-ville is a giant project. Freddie has devoted as much time as Sam allows him to making Fred-ville grow. Everything is kicking off and the "easy years", as Shane joking calls them, are coming soon. They are hiring more people and things will be easier and less hectic in a few years. Freddie looks forward to it. But for now, he enjoys these late night projects.

Freddie claps his hands and grins determinedly.

"Let's get started, then," he announces, and they all three immediately start clambering for his help. Freddie is the go-to guy, good at helping solve other people's problems (but not his own, a distant part of his mind whispers, Sam's face and the ring appearing in his mind, and he shoves it away).

As he goes over to a frantic looking Lars, Freddie idly wonders if he should text or leave Sam a message to tell her where he is, just in case she arrives home earlier than him. But then the code seemingly disappears from Lars' laptop and Freddie is caught up by work. Sam probably won't care anyway, he tells himself, and almost believes it.

There are sixes dancing a mamba energetically around Lars' laptop screen, a four gone rogue, a duo of eights that are intent on fighting with some twos, and a ten that is determined to steal the spotlight; Freddie has his work cut out for him.