Special Guest Appearance by Mark Harmon as Colonel William "Dorf" Dorfman

Chapter 3

Ridgeway High School

September 2011

Carly was glad the last period of the day being study hall for her and she wouldn't have to deal with anyone. She found an out of the way table near the corner of the large room and pulled out one of her textbooks. She opened it up and began rereading the chapter that had been covered in class, but the brunette found it hard to concentrate on what she was reading.

This was supposed to be a great day for her, but she felt it had turned into a disaster. Other than a select few, most of the student body didn't believe it was real between her and Freddie. Between the class changes she would get a brief meeting with Freddie to exchange a hand squeeze or smile, but then she could feel the eyes on her from passing students and sometimes heard their whispers: he finally wore her down, she's giving him a pity date, she'll just tire of him again or she just doesn't want anyone else to have him.

Lunch had given her a reprieve where she could share lunch with her best friend and now boyfriend. She knew she was too quiet at lunch and that Freddie had picked up on it immediately, but she really didn't know what to say to him. She held on to Freddie's hand under the table during the entire lunch and he did give her the occasional squeeze to let her know he was there and cared.

She was so deep in thought she didn't notice the brown haired boy walk beside her. "Hey," Freddie whispered in a warm tone.

Carly looked up to see Freddie holding a bottled water as a makeshift vase for a purple daisy. He sat it down just behind the opened textbook in front of her then took a neighboring chair to sit down beside her.

Carly immediately took the plastic bottle in her hand to take a closer look at the flower. She looked at him perplexed. "Where did you get this?"

"I have a friend of a friend in the horticulture class spared me one of their flowers. I thought you could use it to brighten your day."

Carly nodded then looked back at the daisy. It was a very lovely flower that looked like it could be one of their best grown ones and not just one they would discard anyway. She realized that he must have gone out of his way to get this just to make her feel better. His simple gesture to her brought a small smile to her face and she realized how lucky she was to have him at this moment.

"What's wrong?" he asked quietly bring her back to reality.

For a moment she remained silent hoping he would drop the matter, but she could feel his eyes on her. "They don't think it's real."

"So?" was his response in the softest of whispers.

She turned sharply and gave him a hurt look. "So? They don't think I care about your or—" she shut her mouth quickly and looked down at her lap.

Freddie scooted his chair closer to Carly so he was just a few inches from her. "Carly, I don't care what they think. I've never cared what they have thought. The only one's opinion that mattered to me was yours."

"Their opinion never shaped yours? Never made you question?"

"My love for you?" Freddie shook his head. "Never."

"Not even now about how I feel about you?"

Freddie grinned. "Never."

"Promise?" she asked in a hesitant voice.

Freddie wrapped his left hand around hers holding the water bottle and leaned in for a soft kiss to her cheek. He then met her eyes as she gave him a small smile and replied, "Promise."

The next thing they heard was the screeching voice of Ms. Briggs, "What do you think you two are doing?"

Shay Loft/Apartment

Shay tilted his head to the side as he watched Spencer try to push the Metalbot to the freight elevator. The expressions on Spencer's face as he strained himself to get the sculpture to move just a few inches at a time were becoming quite comical.

Spencer finally stopped and let out a tired breath as he wiped his forehead. He looked to Shay and asked, "Are you going to give me a hand?"

Shay snorted out a breath. "I'm not going to hurt myself moving that. It's too heavy for the two of us. We just need to disassemble it and put it back together at the SAM."

"We can't do that before school's out unless you want me to call Sam's mom to pick them up?"

"Ask Pam to drive them? You're kidding right? I wouldn't trust that woman with my dog if I had one." Shay shook his head, "We'll just take it apart and take it to the museum. I'll stay and get started putting it together while you go pick them up and bring them back here. Once you're done with that, you can come back to the museum to help me."

Before Spencer could respond, there was a knock at the door. Shay shook his head, "I got it." He headed for the door and opened it to reveal the last person he really wanted to see. "Dad?" he asked half-heartedly in surprise.

"Steven," Granddad Shay spoke warmly before enveloping his son in a hug.

Shay grimaced as he hesitantly patted his father's back. "Dad, how are you?" he asked dryly and rolling his eyes for having to hug the old man.

Granddad pulled back and clasped each shoulder of the Colonel. "I'm doing just fine. You?"

Shay nodded. "I'm doing alright. I think everything is going good."

"That's good to hear," the older man answered then turned his attention to Spencer.

"Spencer," he acknowledged his grandson.

"Hey Granddad," Spencer replied with a smile and a wave.

Spencer's phone rang from inside his jean pocket. "Excuse me," Spencer spoke as he reached into his pocket to grab his cell phone. He turned and headed for the kitchen to have the phone conversation.

Shay looked to his father with a hesitant smile. "So what's with the visit?"

Granddad grinned. "Isn't it obvious, I wanted to see my son? It's been a few years."

Shay grinned half heartedly and shrugged. "Well I'm here?"

"I can see that. Why didn't you tell me you were home for a visit? Why did I have to find out by watching iCarly?"

Shay shrugged his shoulders. "I was catching up with Spencer and Carly and then something came up."

"What's that?"

"Something," Shay replied cryptically.

Granddad gave him a disappointed look and nodded his head.

Shay didn't give a care about the look and didn't hide the lack of concern from his face.

"Ah dad, granddad, I just got a call from the school," Spencer interrupted the father/son staring contest while holding up his cell phone. The pair looked to Spencer both annoyed at being interrupted. "Carly and Freddie are in the Principal's office and they said I should come down."

"Why?" Shay asked in concern.

Spencer was hesitant in answering, "They just said it involved inappropriate conduct."

Shay sighed in annoyance.

"Well doesn't this sound familiar?" Granddad asked pointedly to Shay.

"Yes it does, but I'm going to take my child's side instead of assuming she did something wrong. Does that sound familiar to you old man?"

Granddad Shay looked annoyed at his son and Shay stared back just as coldly.

May 1980

The look on Principal Russ' face showed that he was quite upset at the situation as he stared at Steven as the two of them sat in Russ' office. The teenager stared right back at the Principal as he closed his fists then relaxed them to prevent his fingers from stiffening.

"I thought you had just gotten lazy and became a loser over the last year. I didn't think you'd pull something like this: you never struck me as some white knight," Russ commented dismissively.

Steven chuckled, "Well, I could have charged in on my motorcycle, but that would have been a little cliché."

Russ stood up from behind his desk and pointed his finger at Steven. "Stop being a smartass. You're already in enough trouble."

Steven laughed louder and replied with a grin, "Do I look like I care?"

Mr. Russ frowned deeply. "We had to call an ambulance for Evan you snot nose punk!"

"So? Evan's been looking for a real fight for a long time. I just gave him what he wanted instead of him settling with picking a fight with a girl who wouldn't hurt anyone."

"That wasn't your place," he snapped.

Steven sat up in the chair. "Whose place is it when you don't get off your ass and do anything about him or his buddies?"

Russ didn't answer as there was a knock on the principal's office door then Greg Shay was led into the office by the school secretary.

"Mister Shay," Russ greeted the other gentleman as he walked around his desk.

"Principal Russ," Greg replied shaking an offered hand. He then immediately looked to his son as Steven stood up. Greg Shay grabbed his son's chin and turned his head to see his left eye socket starting to form yellow spots under the skin. "Steven Shay, what did you do?"

Steven turned his head to meet his father's eyes. "I kicked someone's ass."

His father gave him a stern look. "This isn't funny Steven."

Steven snorted out and held back a laugh. "I didn't say it was."

"Why did you get involved?"

Steven shrugged his shoulders and looked to the floor. "I don't know, I guess he just pissed me off."

Greg pursed his lips in annoyance from the response.

Just then a well built gentleman in his late fifties wearing a tailored made business suit with an unusually patterned and colorful tie entered the office. He had a stern, somewhat worn face with salt and pepper hair.

"Mister Dorfman," the principal began, but was pointedly ignored as the man in his late fifties approached Steven with a look in his eye ready to kill the young man.

"Are you the little punk that hit my little girl?"

Steven stared back just as coldly. "No, sir. I'm the one that beat the shit out of the guy who did. If you hurry you can catch up with the ambulance to tell him how you feel, but if you would, tell him I'm keeping his teeth."

The gentleman blinked at the response and turned to look at the Mr. Russ. "Is what he said true?"

"Yes sir. Mister Evan Davis is currently on the way or is already at the hospital. Mister Shay injured Mister Davis quite severely. He knocked several teeth out and broke Mister Davis' nose. The young man may have suffered a broken rib."

He then looked back to Steven and noticed the yellow discoloration forming around the left eye socket. William Dorfman looked down to Steven's hands clenching and unclenching. He grabbed one of the hands and examined it, immediately noticing the scrapped knuckles while Steven looked at him with a raised eyebrow.

Dorfman dropped the hand and looked back up and saw the discoloration around Steven's left eye. He locked his eyes back onto Steven's eyes. "Why are you here?"

Steven answered hesitantly with a perplex look at the older gentleman, "I suspect they are going to suspend me or just expel me."

With a cold stare, Dorfman looked to Mr. Russ. "Is that true?"

"Yes sir, as I explained, Mister Shay here—"

Dorfman gave the principal a stern look as he asked, "Are you stupid?"

"What?" Russ asked a little taken back by the question.

"It was a simple question. Are you stupid or not? You want to do something to him? He's the one that was protecting my daughter," Dorfman pointed to Steven. "Where were you or any other teacher? What are you going to that little bastard that hurt my little girl?"

Russ cleared his throat and began, "We haven't heard his side off the story—"

Mister Dorfman exploded in anger, "His side? I don't care about his side! You better expel his ass right now or I'm going to go your boss and have your ass out of here before the end of the day. Don't you think I can't or won't do it."

Russ swallowed nervously. "Yes sir, I will take care of it. For Mr. Shay I think we can work something out."

Dorfman took a step forward. "No, you're not going to do anything to him. Do I make myself clear?"

"Yes sir."

"Good," Dorfman answered curtly then looked to Steven. He gave the young man a nod that Steven immediately returned then headed out of the office presumably to take his daughter home.

Greg turned to look at his son and whispered, "You're lucky he just saved your butt mister."

"Well I saved his daughter's, so I guess it makes us even. Too bad I didn't have my dad stand up for me like that," Steven replied with a snark at the end.

Greg blinked at the insult.

Steven ran his left hand through his hair. "Well, I guess I'll see you at home pops." Steven the walked past him and headed for his last class of the day.