Against All Odds

Disclaimer: I don't own iCarly

A/N:

Chapter 28 (Bad Deal, Good Deal)

The next morning, Carly got an urgent phone call from Freddie, telling her to meet up at the Groovy Smoothie. After convincing Spencer to let her borrow the car, she managed to arrive at the shop with no trouble. The message she'd received sounded very frantic and racy, which in turn, made her a bit frantic. She hoped it wasn't anything serious, yet the feeling of ensuing danger was unshakeable.

Upon entrance to the shop, she saw Freddie and Gibby sitting at the usual table. Freddie's face was long and hard while Gibby appeared to be trying his hand at comfort. A failed attempt from the looks of it. "What's going on?" Carly asked once she arrived next to them. They glanced up at her with pitiful smiles. Those smiles stabbed her like a hot iron, giving away the gravity of what Freddie's message could have been about. "This isn't going to be bad news, is it? Please no more bad news. I can't handle more bad news." Gibby pulled out the chair beside them and Carly slowly sat down. Freddie turned his eyes from her and stared down at his smoothie cup in front of him, he couldn't make eye contact with her.

"Mom's pissed," Freddie said plainly. Carly's eyebrows rose and her growing fear crashed in her chest. There was only one way this conversation was capable of leading. "Sam's mom is talking to her, and I think she's calming down, but after last night's iCarly…mom put her foot down, I can't do the show anymore." The world crashed and the customers around them seemed to walk very slowly as the anxiety inside her rocketed through her veins. Freddie unable to do iCarly? Marissa put a stop to it? What the hell was the woman thinking? Not to demean Marissa in any way, of course.

"What?" Freddie closed his eyes as Carly crashed her palms on the table and stood just a bit. First Sam, and now Freddie? That was it, iCarly was over. "What do you mean your mother isn't allowing you to do the show anymore?"

"She was upset enough when we told her about Sam being pregnant, and then the whole thing at the bar...even though there wasn't anything we did wrong, she still thinks…" He paused and flicked his eyes to her for a split second, as though debating his next words. "She thinks Spencer's a bad influence."

A slap to the face would have been less painful. Bad influence? Spencer wasn't a bad influence, and neither was she! She swallowed her anger, but the bile still made its attempt to rise up. Freddie had to bow out because his mother thought Spencer was responsible for the things that were happening? Was that it? "Why? Because Sam's pregnant and Spencer rented out a bar for the night? You can just tell her that Spencer is a god person and she doesn't have any business even bothering with him."

"I know, I tried to talk to her, but she was adamant about me quitting iCarly. It was either I quit iCarly, or she wouldn't help me with Sam and her child." Another hard blow to the gut. Carly put her hand to her stomach and groaned as her head fell to the table. Of course he would choose Sam, she wouldn't ask him to choose iCarly over that. They knew how important Marissa's help with that baby would be, she was the one with the money in this relationship. "I'm sorry Carly, I hate that it's come to this too, but there's nothing I can do…" She heard his phone buzz, that cruel buzzing noise, alerting him of a text message. She felt the energy shift as Freddie rose from his seat. "That's Sam, she says her mom and my mother want to see me, I have to go. We'll talk about this later, Carly?"

"Whatever…" She brushed her hand through the air and felt the painful stinging of tears in her eyes. After a minute, Gibby put his gentle hand to her back, trying to massage some comfort in. Her shoulders rose with a hiccup and she managed to pull her head up. "Why? Why is all this happening? Ever since Dad dropkicked us, everything's been going wrong."

"I know. It's difficult Carly, but you have to hang in there. Things will get better."

"They only seem to be getting worse!" Her voice snapped out at Gibby, jarring him. She didn't mean to snap at him, but she couldn't help being worn out by all that was happening. "I'm sorry, I'm not trying to be cruel or anything, I just…I wish things would work out for once!" She folded her arms on the table and rested her forehead upon then. She was strongly considering telling Spencer to just pack up and move to Florida. At least there, they could be happy, right? "It would be better if Spencer moved us all to Florida and we could have mom, Grandpa, Uncle Ken…we could all be happy. Here, we don't have money, Spencer's unable to find a job, and I am losing my best friends!"

"You haven't lost them. Life is treating them just as shitty as it's treating you. Keep that in mind." He lowered his voice and spoke with a softness that soothed her angry heart. She smiled softly and moved her eyes up to his. "I know you're scared, and you have every reason to be. Ms. Benson will come around, granted she's never going to let Freddie do iCarly now, but she's not forbidding him from hanging out with you. Nor is Ms. Puckett forbidding Sam from spending time with you. In the very least, isn't that what is important? To know that no matter what, you still have your friends. Say you were to move to Florida, even if you didn't and they went to college in Texas, you're still able to chat with them online, on the phone, wherever you are."

"I guess…" He was right, iCarly could end, but their friendship would never end. It was more stressful trying to keep the show alive than it was to just simply let it end. She didn't want to end it though, she wanted to keep it on. "You know, if we had some money…we could probably manage to buy a good ring for Spencer and Sasha."

"What about the money your grandpa gave you?"

"Well we already got the car, for one thing, but that money is off limits to anything that isn't bills. You know how much a ring could cost?" At least one thousand dollars, and that was not money that they wanted to pull out of the money Travis gave to them. "It sucks how we're so low on money. I don't want to sound selfish, but I think I liked it better when Spencer was taking Dad's money."

"Yeah, but you realize he was wrong to do that, right?" She nodded and moved her forearms up to hold the sides of her head. She agreed Spencer shouldn't have left college to begin with, he shouldn't have lied to their dad. Maybe it was for the best, considering how much of an asshole the man really was. "I know you're scared, but Carly, things really have an odd way of working out, and they will. You won't be in poverty forever, I don't think your mom will let you."

"If she even tries to come here, Dad will find out. If that happens, I don't know what he'd do to her, or to us…" So what would happen if they went to her? He couldn't do anything then, could he?

"Why does he even care? Would he care now? I mean, he pretty much disowned you two."

"He cares because, from what Uncle Ken told Spencer, and Spencer told me, mom wanted custody of us. He wasn't going to let her 'win', he wasn't going to let that happen, and he did whatever it took to make sure he got custody. He's an abusive, control freak, and even now, he probably wouldn't let Mom try and take us in."

"So let's set the record straight, then?" She stared at him, confused by his statement. Set the record straight? What the hell did that mean? He breathed in and pushed his hands along the table. His lip curved into a smirk and his eyes grew devious. "This was all before your mom and Uncle were strong in politics, right? If your dad fought dirty, why couldn't they do that now?"

"Mom and her family don't believe in dirty politics." Though, for all she knew, that could very well be changing. After all, it seemed more now than ever, her mom was willing to throw down with their dad. She and Uncle Ken, along with Travis, could easily ruin Mr. Shay if given the chance, and the right lawyer. Maybe that wasn't their plan, maybe they just wanted Spencer to bring his family to them where they could all be happy. She leaned back in her chair and slowly rubbed her temples, breathing out her exasperation. "I need to think, Gibby. So, can I just be alone for a bit?"

"Yeah, but if you want to talk, you know my number."

"Thanks." She waited for him to leave, then opened her eyes to the front counter. T-Bo was watching her, a frown painted on his face. He was wiping down the front counter, stopping only when customers started walking up to him. She often wondered how difficult it was for him, he had so few employees. Hell, she never saw anyone but T-Bo working, really. Sometimes people came in to work the register, but most days it was just him.

"So, I hear you're having money issues." The familiar voice burned her eardrums. She quickly turned to see Nevel standing behind her, his hands behind his back. Beside him were his two thugs that she remembered from when he sold her webshow back for the cost of a kiss. Alfonso and Raul. What did they want? "I saw last night's iCarly, and it moved me to tears Shay…"

"Really now?"

"Yes, and I'm preparing to pay good money to help your brother buy that woman a ring." Nevel put his hand to his chest and breathed in deeply, feigning an emotional sigh. Was she to believe he'd give her any money? Then again, Nevel's family did have a lot of money. Nothing quite like her family, but close enough. After all, he was a boy genius.

"What's the catch?"

"Catch? Why there's no catch…but I would have to buy something." She froze under his cold smirk, she knew exactly what this was! An attempt to buy iCarly, or at least that's what it sounded like. "I can give you a couple grand, if you'll let me buy your webshow."

"You would buy a dying webshow?" She scoffed and turned back around in her chair, brushing him off with a hand. "Freddie and Sam can't even do iCarly anymore. It's dead, kaput-"

"And you would sooner let iCarly rot and be forgotten than to let it live on, even if it is in the hands of someone you don't care for?" She bit her lip and narrowed her eyes. The memory of iCarly, the thought of it living on, it meant everything to her. Maybe, just maybe, if he treated it like his own webshow, which he actually did do a good job of hosting, then it could live on. "I could make sure the memory of iCarly lives on, and I am a man of my words, Carly Shay."

"Why do you care? You ruined us!" She turned back around and rose from her seat as Nevel pulled a familiar URL transfer document from his sweater vest. She took a shaky breath of air and eyed that paper with growing anxiety. This was all his fault. Everything was his fault. "Why would you even bother?"

"I am not as horrible as you might think, and your little group did teach me to be compassionate…if you remember?" That was correct, when he'd done something so terrible, they tried to help him up. When he was in the gutters, they fixed the problem. "Consider this a reprieve, a consolation, I'm helping you, not hindering you."

"You won't tarnish the site?"

"No Carly, I will not. I will hire someone to keep up the shenanigans and will be their manager. You have my word, I will keep iCarly the way it always has been." He handed the document over and she carefully took it in her hands. As she eyed the document, she couldn't help but to think she wasn't in the right frame of mind. "I'll give you five grand for it."

"Five thousand?" That was a lot, and it would at least add to the bank. She couldn't help but to have a sense of déjà vu, though not for herself. Sasha came to her mind, but she instantly brushed away the thought. "O-Okay, I'll sign it over…"

"Great." He smiled as she leaned over the table and started to sign her signature on the line. "You have my word Carly, I will take care of your precious webshow." She closed her eyes, her body was trembling, it was as if she were signing her whole life away. When she opened her eyes, she saw five thousand dollars in cash sitting in front of her, all Benjamin's. Nevel took the document from her and stuffed it away in his vest. "Very good then. Have fun with the money, it's been a pleasure doing business with you. Keep the money as long as iCarly is still successful…" His last sentence was uttered in a whisper. Carly lifted her head sharply and looked back as Nevel and his henchmen started walking away. She felt a cold wind brush against her neck and quickly turned her gaze to the money.

Closing her eyes once more, she took the money and pocketed it. What would the others say about this? On a better day, she probably wouldn't have handed iCarly to Nevel. If he could make it live on, then she was at least happy for that. She looked over at the front counter and saw T-Bo handing the final customer a smoothie. Once the customer walked off, he looked at her and motioned, with a smile, for her to come over.

She hastened her step and stood before him, studying him closely. What did he want? "What's going on?"

"I wanted to talk to you sooner, but I got swamped with customers just now. I heard about what's been going on lately…how are you holding up?" A friend. He could always be counted on, at least, to make her feel better.

"I've seen better days." She chuckled softly and let her eyes fall to the register. "Spencer's still searching for a job, Sasha's having a hard time with everything, and I just…I'm worried about my future, to be honest. I was hoping to be able to go to college, but I don't know how we'll even pay for it."

"You need some help getting on your feet, that's the problem?" She moved her finger along the edge of the counter, a momentary distraction from the conversation. Her heart was slowly being torn apart by all the stress.

"Sam's pregnant, neither she or Freddie can do iCarly anymore, I just handed it over to our biggest enemy so I could have money, Dad's kicked us out, we could go homeless really quickly…I don't know what to do." She fought the urge to burst out in tears, but as she'd been doing that all day, it was becoming harder to do. Her eyes were already glazed over and she felt more like spilling her guts to T-Bo than she'd ever felt.

T-Bo rubbed his chin and nodded to her rant. "Uh huh. Well, how about this? I was looking for a new cashier. Do you know anything about running a register?" She gasped and quickly looked up to him, her mouth open like a fish and her eyes as wide as the moon. Was he offering her a job? "At least until you guys get on your feet, maybe you could run the register for me?" She knew it was a minimum wage job, maybe just a bit more. She wasn't sure where minimum wage was, but she knew T-Bo paid his employees eight dollars an hour. It wasn't much, but it was work.

"Y-You're offering me a job?"

"Yes. If you can't work the register, I can teach you. It isn't hard to learn. I'd also have you cleaning up the floor for me, and occasionally hand out those bagels and donuts." So in a sense, she'd be learning everything. However, it was still a damn good deal. At least she'd have a job to bring in to the family for. Seems like this was the way the economy worked, no one could get a job unless they knew someone. She knew T-Bo, and he needed someone to hire, this was not a deal she wanted to turn down.

Though with this news, she was beginning to regret the deal she just made with Nevel. Had she waited just a few minutes, T-Bo would have been here with his own offer! She closed her eyes and groaned softly, mentally beating herself over making that deal. She couldn't possibly revoke it now, Nevel would never hand it back to her. She'd just have to trust him, somehow.

"If only you'd come just a few seconds ago, T-Bo…" He frowned and gave her a look of concern. She exhaled softly and smiled at him. "But yeah, I'd love a job. When can I start?" He grabbed the white rag beside the register and started wiping it down once more, there were drops of pink and red smoothie scattered from one of the prior customer's manhandling their cup. He grinned and pat her shoulder with his free hand.

"You go home, get some rest, and be here tomorrow morning at eight. I open the doors at nine, so that gives an hour to teach you what I can. We'll work on your schedule and everything else from there."

"Okay. Thanks!" She turned around and quickly moved towards the front doors. She couldn't wait to tell the others the news! Though, first, she somehow had to tell them about Nevel.

Carly gets hired by T-Bo, but ends up making a very bad choice, which doesn't seem bad at the moment, but somehow I have a feeling it's going to become a problem.