Against All Odds

Disclaimer: I don't own iCarly

A/N: Finally fanfiction is working again, so here is the next chapter of this story, enjoy!

Chapter 16 (Bad Case of Pride)

"Damn lawn mower!" Spencer cried out in frustration as he delivered a sharp kick to the cheap looking red mower, once more it was stalling and failing on him. He was glad Sasha was next door and couldn't see him in this panicked state behind the house. When he saw the front of the house, then the inside, he'd been righteously concerned, but that was before seeing the forest that was in the back! The grass was practically scraping his knees, there were stickers all over the place, and he'd just sacrificed one of his jeans to the life of working pants. "Socko! Socko!" He looked to the back window and waited as Socko opened it up and looked out at him.

"What? First time dealing with a lawn mower?"

"I don't need the sass…" This was so unlike him, but who could seriously blame him? He was doing all he could to keep calm, but was afraid he wasn't going to be able to hold on much longer. "How do you expect me to mow grass this thick with a cheap and shoddy mower like this? The thing can barely eat any of this stuff before breaking down." Socko leaned forward and stared at the mower thoughtfully. Spencer was getting a bit impatient and wanted to see if he could fix it, but he didn't even know what the problem was and didn't want mess anything up to the point that it was worse. "Where did you get this thing?" Socko continued to stare at the mower while rubbing his chin.

"I found it in an alley behind some of the homes near where people dump their trash bins. Seemed perfectly fine to me." He narrowed his eyes at his friend and smacked his forehead. As much as he appreciated Socko and adored his friendship, there were those occasions where he wanted to wring the idiot's neck dry. This was one of those times.

"So what you're telling me is you took a possibly broken down, cheap lawn mower from a back alley…You're aware we're trying to fix up this place as soon as possible, right? The faster the better, you know. Also, where'd Lenny go again?" After Sasha went over to the neighbor's an hour ago, Lenny said he had to do something real quick, but Spencer didn't hear what that was. "Did he say he was going to pick something up?"

"Yeah, he's actually getting some better tools right now. He should be back with his van and a better mower pretty soon. Sorry about that cheap one, Lenny practically chewed my head off when he saw I grabbed that one." Socko laughed nervously and Spencer rolled his eyes. Why was it Socko hadn't at least told him the mower was a piece of shit and Lenny went to grab one that would do the job?

"So instead of telling me this up front, you have me out here screwing around with a mower that you know isn't capable of cutting a slice of cheese?"

"Yep, just a little fun watching you get all hot under the collar." He laughed again and Spencer slowly exhaled, pushing down the innate desire to punch his best friend in the face. He grabbed the white towel on his shoulders and started wiping his face. "So just move the mower out of the way, Spence, and come inside. Have a drink or something. Where's your sister at?"

"Sam's place. She called an hour ago, said she was going to do her homework there, then do iCarly." He slapped his towel back onto his right shoulder and grabbed the handle of the mower, pulling it back from the grass. He turned his eyes to the stone pathway going towards the back alley where some trash bins were resting for the trash collector. He hummed and started pushing the mower towards the bins. When he returned to the house, he looked in the window to see Socko continuing to paint the walls. They had already removed the carpeting from the floors, ridding the home of all the stains, smells, and torn carpeting, and were going to replace it with light vanilla carpeting and were painting the walls a desert sand color. It was cheaper than wallpapers, in his opinion. "Looks good so far." Half the room was already done, they were going to put a couple of coats on. Socko looked back and nodded.

"Hey, you'll have a nice looking house by the time we're done here, that's what I said before and I'm standing by that word. Scout's Honor!"

"Spoken like a true person that was never a scout."

"Eh, all that goody-two-shoes life, it was never for me, you know that." He chuckled to himself and started walking around the house. He had to admit, he used to think his days with Socko's friendship were nearing a close. That the man was too crazy to be hanging around with, but now it seemed he was the perfect friend to have around at the moment. Where would they be right now if it wasn't for Socko? The thought scared the living hell out of him. Once inside, he made his way to the small table where his personal laptop was. He wanted to take a break and see how iCarly was doing, assuming Carly was serious about doing it still. Socko poked his head around the corner and lifted his eyebrows. "Going to watch the show?"

"Yeah. I just hope she's going to be okay, this whole thing has hit her pretty hard."

"You know. You could always ask for help from-" Spencer choked on air and lifted his left hand up, gesturing for his friend to quiet down. He knew who Socko was referring to, and he honestly didn't want to bother with it.

"Not another word." As he clicked the iCarly icon, his mind traveled to thoughts on his own mother. Socko walked over and folded his arms over, staring at Spencer and making him feel uneasy. "What?"

"What do you have against your mother, Spence? It's not like she's a bad woman…"

"I know that." His mom wasn't like the mother that Sasha had, his mother actually did care. That was the problem. The woman was divorced from Robert, but of course, he paid the judge to grant him custody, using his wife's own wealth to bribe the courts. It was one reason Spencer hadn't wanted to be a lawyer. They were supposed to uphold the law, not take bribes, but this time around no one seemed to care. "Would have been better off if we'd been living with mom, I'm sure. Ever since Dad's gone off to the military, she calls and asks if we want to go down to Florida, but Dad's an asshole."

"Your point?" Socko sat in the chair across from Spencer and leaned his arms onto the table. Spencer closed his eyes and exhaled softly. Normally he wouldn't talk about his mother, not to anyone, but Socko was his best friend of course. He didn't know a whole lot about his mother anymore, he hadn't heard from her in a year or two. It hurt him, but he knew it wasn't the woman's fault.

"Dad found ways to keep her from calling us, like hiding our numbers and so forth. I think it was because every time we talked to her, if something was wrong, she'd call Dad and complain about how poorly he's doing. This time would definitely not be any different, and I don't need the extra drama I would get if she managed to contact him." Socko's eyebrows rose and a grin grew onto his face, much to Spencer's confusion. He didn't understand if there was something funny about the whole thing. Either way, maybe it was his pride keeping him from reaching out to his mom, but what could she do? She'd probably do nothing but call up Robert and bitch at him for abandoning his children. "If anything, she's a last resort…so what's funny?"

"Nothing's funny, I just think it'd be interesting to see that all out brawl between your mom and dad. How come I've never heard about her?"

"She's a politician of some sort in Florida, a senator. Have you ever heard of Jessica Carlson?" Socko's jaw fell and his eyes froze in shock, it was almost as if he wondered what the hell Spencer was doing here. Spencer didn't think anything of it, he knew about his mom's family, the Florida Carlsons. Apparently they were a whole line of politicians, stretching all the way back to President Lincoln's era."I don't know the whole family history or anything, but I know where they began and ended-"

"Spencer, your mother is Jessica Carlson!" He rolled his eyes and shrugged, what was the big deal? So what, his mother was a senator. She had to change her name from Shay to her maiden name because she had been so disgusted by what Robert had done to her. Her brother and father were probably more famous than she was, as far as he knew. "I mean don't get me wrong, it's great and all that you're here, but…why are you here?"

"Uh…she's just my mother, and she comes from a political family. I really don't think she'd help us. Don't you think it'd be cause for scandal?" Then again, if she was worried about a scandal, she would never have continued to contact the Shays throughout these years. "I was like sixteen the last I saw her. Dad had her move up to Seattle, you know, when they met. She ran back to Florida after the divorce, to be with family. I still get calls from Uncle Ken, but I try to keep calls short. With a dad in the military, who knows if he's listening in…he'd always get pissed if we ever talked to mom, or even our uncle."

"Ken? Ken Carlson…the congressman…their father is Travis Carlson, a retired Senator."

"Dude. It's just my mother's family. That's all."

"Just your…" Socko smacked his forehead and Spencer raised a curious eyebrow. He was starting to feel a bit uncomfortable and regretted mentioning his mother's profession or name at all. "How can you say that? You know your mom's family isn't just Florida, right? I mean, that's where they're all at now, but their great, great grandfather…your third great grandfather, Walter Carlson actually dined with President Lincoln! He fought on the Union side next to Ulysses S. Grant!" Spencer rolled his eyes and shook his head, he was hating this more and more. Surely his mom's family wasn't all that great. He knew Socko was a history buff, but damn, why did he know so much about the Florida Senators?

"I have a question…why care? I mean, you shouldn't know so much about them…" Socko narrowed his eyes and stared at his friend as though he had another head.

"Dude. High School. Remember? We had to do a history project on someone noteworthy and I didn't want to do the usual cliché options. You went with your dad and told me to do a project on one of those Carlsons, I think it was Walter…Did I think anything of it at the time? No. I looked into them then and discovered they were a political family in Florida, and guess what, now I know you're related to them. This isn't something you keep from your best friend, man."

"Yes. It is. If you don't want them going off on a tangent about how famous a part of your family is. Mom's a senator, so what. So what if one of her ancestors was some political guy that fought in the Union side of the civil war and dined with President Lincoln. So what? They're not perfect, they're just my family."

"And yet, you refuse to go to them for help? That's a nasty case of pride."

"I can do this without help, I'm done relying on my family members, okay?" He smacked his hand on the table and Socko jerked back in shock. He didn't mean to sound harsh, he didn't want to, but he was feeling too much of that irritation inside him. "My own father just kicked me to the curb, my grandfather has proven himself an asshole time and time again, all because I depended on them. You just got through telling me all about my own mother's family, so apparently they're some big well known political family. Well you know what? Tell me about any politician that would want to help me? Even if I'm her son. I'm a son that had a child outside of marriage, lost everything, quit school, lied to my father-"

"She's still your mother, Spencer." He froze, Socko's words hit him like a sack of bricks. The air grew dense and cold around him and he found it difficult to breathe under his friend's cold glare. He'd never seen Socko looking so intense. "You also said it yourself, you still get calls from your Uncle, her brother. Even if she's unable to call you, he can still get through to you. That tells me they care about you. So don't feed me the political bullshit, she's still your mother." He watched his friend slowly rise up from the table, continuing to hold onto Spencer's gaze. "If you're too afraid to ask them for help, fine, it's up to you, but I think you should think before throwing a whole side of your family under the bus just based off of their status. As your friend, I'm suggesting you not let pride destroy the one side of your family tree that might still give a shit. Now, I'm going to finish painting the master bedroom, enjoy iCarly and come help out whenever you're done."

"Okay…" He watched Socko walk away, a pain struck his chest and constricted his heart. For a moment, he thought he was having a heart attack. He frowned and looked guiltily at his feet. He knew Socko meant well, and he understood why he was so defensive of Spencer's mother and her family. It wasn't because she was political, Socko wasn't one to really care about that stuff. In reality, the reason they were still friends even today, they weren't so different. The choices Socko had made in his life, the lifestyle he'd grown up in, it cost him so much growing up. He'd lost his family due to his choices, he'd even gone so far as to shy away from whatever remaining family that he had. To that respect, Sock was truly on his own now, even the relatives that cared about him had given up on him.

He turned his eyes to the computer screen and tensed his body. He didn't want to think about all these problems right now, but he honestly couldn't help it. Too much was going on, too much preventing him from relaxing. Maybe he could call his uncle, ask him for advice regarding loan sharks, but then that would send a thought out that something was wrong. It wasn't that he didn't want his mother's help, he just didn't want to ask her for help. He didn't want to rely on anyone else, he wanted to figure things out himself, he wanted to make things better on his own. No more depending on his family, whether or not they'd actually help.

But then, there was a difference between simple advice and help, wasn't there? He moved his eyes to his phone that had been sitting next to his computer. He pressed his lips together and slowly shook his head. During all this hell, he actually heard from Uncle Ken. Ken was his mother's older brother, a very pleasant, but stern man. He wanted to know what was going on, that he'd seen the recent iCarly. To this degree, Spencer had to tell him that things were okay, he was figuring things out. Maybe it wasn't so truthful, but he thought he was getting the hang of it.

His sister's voice rang in his head and he quickly returned his gaze to the screen, smiling softly when he saw Sam and Carly on the screen. At least in this moment, he could have some time to go without worrying. At least, that's what he hoped.

Hope you enjoyed the chapter