Against All Odds
Disclaimer: I don't own iCarly
A/N:
Chapter 4 (Don't anger old enemies)
Carly let Blake walk around in the studio as Freddie started up the camera, they were going to do iCarly now. She was wondering where Spencer was, since it had been a while, but it was fine by her. She, Sam and Freddie had already set up the baby's crib, as well as put up the other baby supplies that Spencer and Sasha dropped off before running off to the arcade to settle some kind of bet.
She felt something tug on her pants and looked down with a smile as Blake peered up at her. "Aw, what's up Blake? Do you want to see Auntie Carly's show? You know your mom and dad will be home soon, right? We're going to introduce you to the show." Gibby was in the car chairs positioned in the back, his arms were crossed and his eyebrows up.
"I don't know, Carly. Don't you think it would be a better idea to ask Sasha first?" She shrugged and lifted Blake off the ground. She hugged him close and grinned as Gibby tilted his head to the right. "So does this mean we don't use Spencer for the baby clips anymore?" She flattened her gaze and quickly turned around, she didn't want to do anything that might endanger little Blake's digestion system.
"We can if he feels up to it, I don't want Blake doing those things. Spencer can handle stuff like that, Baby Blake can't." Blake looked up curiously and turned his attention to Sam, who was standing next to Carly with the blue remote in her hand. He laughed and pulled the remote from her, surprising her. Once Blake tried to put the remote in his mouth, Sam started reaching.
"No Blake, that's not to be eaten!" Carly gasped and quickly turned away, placing her hand on the blue remote. Blake started to pout.
"No, no Blake, it's okay…" She met his eyes with a gentle kindness and sat down on the ground, placing him in her lap. He moved his finger to his mouth as Carly held the blue remote in front of him. "This is not a toy, Blake. It could be harmful if you were to put it in your mouth." She had a feeling he probably would understand, but even if he didn't, he'd have to understand that she was telling him it was wrong. She thought it would be better to be calm rather than scold him.
"Who knew you'd be so great with kids, Carls…" Carl looked up to Sam with a smile and shrugged. A pleasant feeling washed over her as she hugged Blake and rocked him.
"You shouldn't yell at a baby, they won't understand. Besides, Sasha already said he was scared of most people. Which I don't understand…" She placed her hands on Blake's sides and stood him up, smiling into his eyes. "He likes me and Spencer. Don't you Blake-y?" She cooed and made baby sounds as she rubbed her nose with his. Blake laughed gleefully and Carly grinned. "See, you wuv your Auntie Carly, don't you?"
Blake laughed and Carly let him go to run around. "I wuv Auntie." She gasped with pride and placed her hand to her still beating heart as Blake hopped off her legs and started to run towards Gibby. Gibby raised his eyebrow and looked down at the kid. "Gib-by."
"Yeah that's my name, kiddo. Are you a fan?" He watched with amusement as Blake climbed into the car. "What do you think your grandpa's going to say when he sees you, Blake?" He knew that Carly's dad watched iCarly now. Spencer got quite the talking to whenever he appeared on iCarly, due to his father thinking that he was being too 'silly' for a lawyer and asking how he was handling all his responsibilities. This is what worried Gibby just a bit, but he wouldn't say anything since Carly seemed to think nothing would come of it. "I think he'll be in for a shock. I know we were."
Carly looked back to Gibby and gasped when she saw Blake in the car seats, her heart pulsed and she rushed over. It was too dangerous for him to be in there, he was small and he might hit his head on the top! "Blake, it's too dangerous for you in there. I don't want you getting hurt." Blake turned to Carly and lifted his arms up.
"Auntie."
"That's right." Carly smiled and lifted Blake out from the car chairs. Gibby sighed and raised his eyebrow.
"I wouldn't have let him get hurt."
"I know, but you can't ever be too careful with a little baby. I told Spencer and Sasha I would watch him, so I fully plan on doing that." She walked over to Sam and smiled at Blake, she wanted to try to get him to ease up to Sam and Freddie. He already had been doing that so far, so it wasn't a total hopeless case. "Blake, do you want your Aunt Sammy to hold you?"
"Yay!" Blake through his hands into the air and Sam gasped at him, smiling and holding out her arms.
"Oh my gosh, it's a baby." Sam laughed happily as Blake but his arms around her neck and she wrapped her arms safely around him. Freddie glanced up and chuckled as he eyed her.
"You know Sam, I think that paints a perfect picture of what you'd be like with your own children. You'd probably make a great mother."
"I don't know Freddie, I'd be worried about turning into my mother." He paused for a minute and shook his head.
"Nah, I don't see it." Sam blushed and rocked Blake side by side, humming a soft lullaby. Carly hurried to grab her bottle of water on the stool in the center of the studio. The show would be starting soon and she had absolutely no idea what to say. She had a feeling the others might be worried about her dad, but what could he do to them? He was going to find out about Spencer's child anyway, so why not just introduce the child to him. She knew he was often hard on Spencer, but he couldn't possibly be hard on the guy this time around, could he? Thinking on a parent's reaction, she thought of Freddie's mom and chuckled before taking a sip of her water.
"Hey Freddie, what was your mom's reaction when you went looking for some extra diapers and stuff?" Freddie looked up at her and became extremely pale.
"She asked me how long I've really been dating Sam for, then started to lecture me on having sex." Carly practically spit the water back up, laughing tremendously at the situation. Freddie narrowed his eyes and tapped his fingers on the table. "Hey, be careful, I could turn this camera on at exactly the wrong minute you know. I'm sure you don't want to be embarrassed."
"Hey, no blackmailing your friend."
"Wasn't blackmail, 'twas a promise." Carly chuckled as Freddie glanced to the computer screen and back. "Okay iCarly's starting, get ready." Carly jumped for joy and Sam quickly moved beside her, bouncing Blake in her arms. "Okay, in five, four, three, two-" He clicked the camera on and Carly started out her greeting.
"Hi, I'm Carly! Future pioneer!"
"And I'm Sam! This is not my baby!" Carly laughed and Freddie slowly shook his head, smiling at the two. Blake eyed the camera while twirling his index finger in his hair. "So don't worry Mom, I haven't done anything wrong."
"Yet." Carly joked and Sam cracked up laughing. "And in case Freddie's mom is watching, don't worry! Freddie's not a father yet! Though who knows, he could be one day." Freddie cringed visibly and the entire apartment seemed to echo with a long, droning, scream. Freddie tilted his head and chuckled nervously.
"Thanks Carly, my mom's worst nightmare, me growing up." He turned the camera to himself and closed his eyes, wagging his eyebrows once. "I'm more responsible than that, by the way." Carly hummed lightly and lifted her hand up.
"Uh Freddie, you might not want to use that word right now."
"Huh? Why?" She didn't want her dad hearing 'responsible' then hearing Spencer had a baby two years ago, all in one sitting.
"Some people may just blow a gasket."
"Ah. I got it." He turned the camera back around as Gibby walked over to the group. He side stepped in between the two girls and pointed his thumb to himself.
"Gibbeh." The girls grinned and Carly jumped towards the camera.
"So a whole bunch of news for you iCarly fans! This marks one of the first anniversary of when we met that Nevel Papperman!" Sam clicked the blue remote and a 'boo' sound echoed throughout the room. Blake looked up and laughed giddily. Carly ran her hand through her hair and gushed. "Aw, he takes after his family! No one likes Nevel anymore, do they Blake-y?"
"Nebel no like."
"Exactly. You tell it like it is!" Carly turned her attention back to the camera and smirked. "iCarly's still going strong, too. You hear that Nevel? My little nephew doesn't like you all that much either." Gibby smacked his forehead and Blake soon copied him. Carly looked over as Blake continued to smack himself in the head, thinking fast she moved in and placed her hand in between his hand and forehead. Blake stopped and looked up at her with innocent eyes.
"Auntie?"
"Now now, you don't want to hurt yourself. You shouldn't smack yourself like that, because you might get hurt. Okay?"
"Okay. Wuv Auntie."
"Aw, I wuv you too!" Carly took Blake into her arms and grinned as she held him close. She was no longer thinking about iCarly or about anyone else, her entire world was focused on the toddler in her arms. She started making baby sounds, causing him to laugh. Sam, Freddie, and Gibby eyed each other with slight smiles and glanced up as the projector screen started rolling down. Sam's brow furrowed and she quickly looked to Freddie.
"Are you doing that?"
He frowned and hurried to the controls. "No I'm not, what's going on?" Suddenly a light turned on and Nevel appeared on the screen.
"iCarly!" Carly gasped and looked up at him, the others frowned and moved a bit closer. Nevel placed his hand to his chest and gasped. "Surprised to see me? I thought you might be." Carly stepped forward, holding Blake at her side and watching Nevel closely.
"What do you want, Nevel?"
"Nothing. I just want to talk. I don't remember seeing a toddler in your place recently, who's kid is it?"
"Spencer's…" Nevel's eyebrows rose and he eyed the kid for a moment. Carly winced inwardly and closed her eyes, she really hadn't wanted to let that slip like this.
"Spencer had a kid? He's not even married, much less, he doesn't even have a girlfriend! I'm shocked! But then again, he never really was all that responsible." Carly narrowed her eyes as Nevel grinned and leaned back in his chair.
"What are you doing, Nevel?"
"Oh just dishing out a bit of…Revenge!" He smacked his hands on the counter and leaned towards the camera, smirking dangerously.
"And so you insult my brother? Besides, it's none of your business how he got the kid…" Nevel chuckled and looked at his fingernails, gently shaking his head.
"I'm guessing he knocked up some girl and decided to run away from that like he did the law school, always fleeing from his responsibilities. Am I right?" Carly gasped and cupped her mouth. The others stared with wide eyes and immediately began trying to turn Nevel off, but it was to no avail.
"You take that back!"
"Oh that's right, he's been telling Mr. Shay he's still there. Oops, my bad." Nevel placed his fingers to his lips and bat his eyes innocently. "Looks like I spilled the beans there. Oh don't worry, I'm sure Spencer's doing something right with his life, besides sculpting that worthless junk that no one buys anymore."
"No, you listen here-" She set Blake down and looked into his eyes. "Blake, go play around a little, okay? Your Aunt Carly has to talk to this guy." Blake understood and ran over to the side of the room where some toy shapes were. He sat down and picked them up, trying to put them in the matching holes. Carly adored this innocence. She smiled brightly for a second, then cleared her throat and turned to Nevel.
"So which woman's the one Spencer screwed? Two, no, three, considering the age of that kid. There would have been nine months…" He tapped his chin and his face became sadistic. He clasped his hands together and grinned evilly at the screen. "Ah, that would be around the time that gamer chick came over, huh?" Carly bit her lip and turned around, she was close to tears. These words were hurting her and she was almost certain Nevel was going to put them in a whole bunch of trouble. "The kid is two, am I right?"
"Y-Yes…"
"So. Aside from dropping out of law school, acting rather immaturely and silly on your little webshow, as I'm sure he's done that a million times, nearly destroying your apartment several times thanks to his little 'inventions' as you call them." Carly's stomach clenched as she watched Nevel do his air quotes and rant on. She was doing her best to remain calm, not wanting to say or do anything bad with Blake in the room. "Lied to his father, pretty much lied to his grandfather too. You don't think I wouldn't have found out about Gibby and Spencer running through the museum, trying to put a sculpture in that hadn't even been allowed? It was all over the news, hell, it was the reason people stopped buying his artwork! They started thinking he was desperate!"
"You stop talking about my brother like that! I don't know what you're doing, but-"
"Why it's simple Carly. I'm going to either have your little webshow shut down or I'm going to own it. If it takes pissing off your brother enough to make him want to shut down iCarly, so be it." She growled and clenched her teeth tight.
"It's not Spencer I'm all that worried about…but I suppose it doesn't matter now. Spencer's not done anything wrong-" Nevel leaned forward, smirking triumphantly.
"Tell me, how did the baby fall back into Spencer's hands? Did the mother find him?"
"Not your business. You have no right to reveal all of his secrets on iCarly you know!" She looked back to her friends, all of them were doing everything in their power to turn off Nevel. "Why isn't he going away?"
"Oh don't worry Carly, I put a little hack in, there's no way to turn me off. Oh, and yes, I plan on ruining iCarly, and I plan on ruining you Carly Shay!"
"There's nothing you can do to me!"
"Oh ho, we'll see about that. I hope your brother's able to get a real job."
"Is that a threat? Are you threatening me?"
"I wouldn't call it that. More like, warning." Nevel started laughing evilly until Gibby decided to take a risk. iCarly would be ending a bit earlier than intended. He grabbed the power cord and quickly pulled the plug from the wall. With that, Nevel vanished. Carly began to shiver as fear and unease settled in. What was Nevel's purpose? What did he know? What could happen?
"Carly…" She felt Sam's hand on her shoulder and quickly shrugged it off. Sam pulled her hand back as Carly looked at her apologetically.
"Guys, could you give me a minute?" Her friends slowly nodded and left the room. She placed her hand onto her stomach, it was churning and twisting inside of her. It felt like it was ripping into shreds. She dropped to her knees and closed her eyes. Why was it Nevel always scared the hell out of her? She felt a small tug at her shirt and looked over to see Blake eyeing her with an sweet and concerned expression.
"Auntie Carly? Hurt?"
"No…I'm okay Blake." She breathed out and smiled as she sat down. Blake crawled into her lap and hugged her shoulders.
"No cry Auntie. No cry." She sniffed and wiped her eyes, then hugged her Nephew. She wouldn't cry, though on the inside, she was screaming. She'd just let everything about her brother spill out. She prayed her father wasn't watching tonight's show. If so, they could be in a bit of trouble. What was the worst their dad could do, though?
"Blake, who could possibly resist your adorableness?" She snuggled him close and smiled happily. Who knew, cuddling a baby really did make the soul feel more at ease.
Well, this could be a turning point in the chapter, Carly accidentally pissed off Nevel and Nevel bit back :o.