The Greatest Secret

Disclaimer: Nope, don't own iCarly

A/N: This story details what it would be like if Sam and Freddie were secretly together during the series. Read it, I'm sure you'll enjoy it.

Chapter 20 (Tension)

Jonah, Jake, and Freddie all sat at the gym doing some dumbbell curls. Jake and Jonah were looking curiously at Freddie, he had been acting strange for a while now and they had no clue why or what was going on. Jonah had a feeling it was about Carly, but Jake could only wonder if his friend had a virus or something.

"Tomorrow Carly is probably going to try talking to you about the show," Freddie said while he narrowed his eyes and stared at the ground. Jake nodded and set his dumbbell on the ground. "If it's possible, I would like for you to ask her out as soon as you can." Jake raised his eyebrow and Freddie stood up. He placed his dumbbell on the rack and moved over to the bench press, he really needed to vent the stress. "I'm getting sick and tired of these damn kisses that Carly keeps giving me. I need a set of kisses from one girl, and only one girl."

"Freddie, I can't do that," Jake replied. Freddie raised his eyebrow and lay back on the bench, Jonah walked over to the spotting position as Jake piled on the weights for Freddie. "About an hour or two after iCarly and after I got home, Stephanie called me up. She said she was sorry for the fight that we had and she wanted to get back together." Freddie gripped the bar and frowned, Jake was now dating Stephanie, and Carly's crush would go back onto him. "I'm dating her again, so I can't date Carly."

"Damn it! That's fine, we'll just have to find her another guy." Freddie's face scrunched up with anger and Jonah frowned in response. Jake was still confused, but that was understandable. Freddie slowly sat up and placed his hand on his forehead, slightly covering his eyes. "Okay guys, I think I'm going to move to the punching bag. You guys want to join me?" Jonah and Jake nodded as Freddie stood up, it would be a good way for him to blow off some steam. "How the hell can this keep happening? I want my fiancé not to be hurt, and I'm sure this hurts her incredibly." Freddie sighed and his friends followed him into another part of the gym. This place had bags all over. Freddie was ticked, so he went to the center bag, it was the heaviest of all the bags.

"Are you sure you want to try this one?" Jonah asked while raising his eyebrow. Freddie chuckled and took two gloves from the ground. He placed the gloves on his hand and smirked.

"Hell yeah, I need to get rid of some steam here. If I knock this bag off the ceiling, then oh well."

"Freddie, are you going to be okay?"

"Sure, why ask?" Jonah shrugged and Freddie got into fighting stance. He narrowed his eyes and stared at the bag as if it were his greatest enemy. He hated it, he hated the large bag and everything about it. He closed his eyes and sighed, focusing all of his problems and stresses into that one bag. Then he thought of Sam, the problems, the bag, it threatened her. It threatened her very life and sanity, and that was not of the greatest plan. Freddie didn't wish to put her in danger. He couldn't do it, it just wasn't done. Jonah and Jake both watched as Freddie tried to focus all of his energy. He slowly opened his eyes and growled lightly. "Okay guys, back up. I don't want to hurt you, so make sure you stay out of the way." It was possible to send the bag into the air, despite it weighing a large amount. Jake and Jonah both heeded Freddie's words and stepped out of the danger zone, they didn't want to get hit by the bag, or Freddie's attacks. Jonah thought this would be the perfect ventilation of stress, and Jake still had no idea what was going on.

Freddie shouted as he threw a right hook, hitting the bag dead center and causing it to move forward. The bag then flew back toward him, he skillfully dodged to the left and let the bag pass him. When it got back, he threw a left knife hand strike and hit the bag onto the side. "Damn you!" Freddie shouted as he leapt to the side and performed a side kick. "Quit interfering with us!" Freddie punched the bag two times and then hit the bag with a front kick. "Leave us at peace!" Freddie slammed his fist into the bag once more and turned his body to the side. "Quit hurting her!" Freddie placed his fist in his hand and hit the bag with his elbow.

"Freddie seems pretty uptight today," Jake said while crossing his arms. Jonah nodded in response and pushed his hands into his pockets, he knew why Freddie was upset. Freddie had told him about the nose kiss, but he also said Sam had made things better after it was over. Apparently, it was still bothering him greatly. "Is he talking about Carly? I mean, he said 'quit hurting her' and I would think he means to quit hurting Carly. Is something going on with them?"

"Yeah, Jake, yeah…that's one way to look at it." Jake frowned and moved his head back. Jonah sighed and crossed his arms. He knew Freddie was seriously angry with Carly right now, and he was sure Carly's crush on him was hurting Sam. He found it hard to agree whenever Sam said it didn't hurt her. Jonah slowly shook his head and watched as Freddie continued to beat the bag. It seemed to be the perfect stress relief for him, and fortunately Freddie wasn't abusive in any way. That meant if he ever got angry, he would never hit Carly or Sam.

Freddie threw a right punch followed by a left, then he did a front kick with his right leg. Next he hit the bag with a right back fist, followed by a left punch. He was performing a number of punches and kicks, it was like he was jumping right out of a kung fu movie where the bag was a supremely evil villain. Jonah tilted his head and raised his eyebrow, it seemed that if Freddie continued, he might break the bag. Of course, Freddie soon ended as well, tired from all the hitting. He wiped his face with a towel and turned around.

"All right, are you good?" Jonah asked while adding a smirk to his face. "You got all that stress worked out? No more problems or worries?" Freddie looked over at Jonah and nodded his head.

"Yeah, it's good," Freddie responded. He pulled the gloves off and exhaled slowly. "So, do either of you want to try for the bag?" Jonah looked at the punching bag and shrugged, it was tempting, but he didn't feel a need to punch it yet.

"Nah, I think I'm good for now. I'm just going to go home and get some rest, how about you?"

"Yeah, some well deserved rest and relaxation. See you guys later." Freddie waved his hand in the air and walked off, Jonah sighed and pulled his cell phone from his pocket.

-NEW SCENE-

Sam sat in her room with Valerie, they were talking about random things, but mostly about the guys. Sam confided to Valerie that it didn't hurt her much at all when Carly kissed Freddie's nose. Though it would have hurt more if she had kissed his lips, and by some miracle, she didn't do that.

She was afraid that her friendship with Carly would suffer because of this. It seemed like it already had been suffering, and Carly didn't even know it. More and more Sam felt like not going near her, and more she felt a pain in her chest when she did get around her, especially if Freddie was in the same room. She knew it shouldn't bother her since Freddie didn't like Carly as more than a friend. Of course, she was worried that Freddie may be losing his liking for Carly as a friend at all, especially since he was having to deal with everything.

She also knew that Freddie was afraid of losing her, as impossible as it was. Not only would she never leave him, desire to leave him, or even hate him, she was bound to him by his culture and her love for him. She wanted to make him happy, she wanted to love him, and she hated seeing him upset. She didn't think she could bear seeing him get hurt the way he was whenever he was around Carly. She didn't like when she saw him looking ready to vomit after the nose kiss, it broke her. Not only that, but the fear of losing Carly's friendship because of the whole arranged marriage was gutting.

"What do you think I can do to make him feel better?" Sam asked as she lay back on her bed and looked up toward the ceiling. "I think he's still bothered by what happened, and it doesn't bother me anymore, is that wrong?" Valerie slowly shook her head, she didn't see anything wrong with it at all.

"No, but he's a guy, he's afraid you won't love him anymore if you see Carly kiss him. I think that's a natural thing with guys. They want their girlfriend to love them, and if they screw up, they're afraid." Sam meshed her eyebrows together as a worried look came on her face.

"Okay, so how do I go about showing him that I love him and nothing Carly, or he ever does will ever change that?"

"Just be there for him and remind him that you love him. Just do those special things for him that show he's in your heart."

"It's six o'clock, what can I do for him at this hour of night?" Just then, Sam's cell phone rang. She answered it and heard Jonah's voice. As Jonah spoke, she looked like she was sadder than before. She hung up and looked at Valerie. "Jonah says Freddie got mad and started beating up the punching bag."

"Heh, well there's a stress relief." Sam laughed lightly and nodded her head.

"Yeah, I have to do something that will lift his spirits." Valerie hummed and tapped her chin, trying to think of things that she did with Jonah when he was stressed out.

"Maybe a romantic dinner, perhaps you can serenade him for a change, or maybe even giving him a nice message." Sam chuckled and sat up in the bed.

"Me, serenade Freddie? I'm not a good singer at all!" Valerie laughed in response, it normally wouldn't matter.

"He's your boyfriend, your lover, your fiancé…he's not going to care how you sound. You could be the worst singer on earth, and to him it's going to sound like a Siren's melody. Also, I've heard you sing, girl. You're a damn good singer! We should start our own band like the boys are doing!" Sam raised her eyebrow and Valerie blinked, she wasn't supposed to say that. Valerie chuckled nervously and rubbed the back of her neck. "The boys are starting up a band. Freddie would play the lead guitar, since Jake gave him guitar lessons. Jake does the bass and Jonah does the drums. Really, Freddie wanted to surprise you."

"Oh, so I wasn't supposed to know about that."

"Not really." Sam chuckled and shrugged her shoulders.

"That's fine by me. When they do get it all set up, I'll definitely be surprised, if not anxious to hear them." Sam stood up from the bed and stretched, she remembered Ms. Benson helping to bake some cookies with her, they should be done by now. "Let's get the cookies out of the oven, Freddie's going to love them!"

"Cookies, a very good stress relief if you know how to serve them right!" Sam thought about how she might serve the cookies to Freddie when he got home, she blushed at the thought. Valerie raised her eyebrow when she saw her friend blush, so she placed her hand on Sam's back and led her out of the room. "Come on, let's get those cookies." The girls walked into the kitchen and Sam grabbed an oven mitt. She opened the oven and smiled softly.

"They look perfect. Do you think Freddie will like them?"

"Girl, he'll like whatever you give him. Now if that's perfection, and they do look like they are, he's going to love them more than he could ever love them. That's saying something, since I'm sure he'd love everything." Sam grinned and pulled the cookies from the oven. Valerie sniffed and sighed. "Oh yeah, those smell great. Let Freddie have first bite of those delicious round things filled with chocolate." Sam giggled and Valerie gave a smirk while leaning against the counter.

"Well, I did learn to cook from Emily."

"I love cooking. I'm going to be a famous chef one day, just wait and see! I'm going to be cooking meals for the president!"

"I don't doubt that." Valerie took a plate out and set it on the counter while Sam set the tray on a cooking board. Sam began to carefully take the cookies and position them on the tray. "He'll love these, I just know he will. Anyway, when he gets here, I'm going to go ahead and give him a nice massage."

"Hey, he might give you one in return!"

"Ooh yeah, pleasure for two." Valerie laughed lightly and patted Sam's back.

"You're going to do all right, that's for sure. So, where is Ms. Benson anyway?"

"She's at work right now. She'll be back later."

"Ah." Valerie placed her elbow on the counter and rested her hand on her cheek. "Sam, I'm sure you and Freddie…Have you been tempted to have sex?" Sam frowned and stared at the cookies.

"Well, we are going to be married, but we're trying to abstain. Yes, we've been tempted into it, but we've never done it."

"I'm glad. Jonah and I almost fell to the temptation last night, it got really heated."

"Wow, I'm glad that you guys didn't have sex, it would be too early to do that."

"I know…but it was kind of a scary deal for both of us." Sam's eyebrows rose and Valerie looked straight ahead. "We stopped what we were doing and just sat there, feeling awkward. We weren't even sure what to say." Sam turned around and gave Valerie a strong hug. Valerie closed her eyes and smiled. "Thanks, that's what I needed."

"If it makes you feel any better, Freddie and I are tempted almost every time we go into our bedrooms. We make an effort to not kiss when in a bedroom or on the bed, and if we do kiss while there, we don't start making out."

"Those are some good foundations to have."

"Yep, they work for us. Emily knows that we've been tempted to, and she tries to help us abstain in many ways as she can." Sam smiled and chuckled at a memory. "I remember one time, she threatened to buy some actual tick lotion and bathe us both in it if we had sex." Valerie laughed and Sam snickered. "I don't know how serious she was, but she had the most serious face that I've ever seen!" The girls looked over as the door opened and Freddie entered.

"Hey, how's it going?" Freddie asked while smiling at them. Sam smiled and motioned for him to walk over, so he obliged. "What's going on?" Valerie smiled and watched as Sam moved behind him and started to give him a soft massage. "Ah, you know, you've got a great touch, I'll give you that."

"I made some cookies for you, would you like to try one? They're fresh out of the oven."

"Sure, I'd love to try a cookie." Sam smiled and kept one hand on his back as she reached over and took a cookie off the plate. She slowly brought the cookie to his mouth and let him take a bite of it. He closed his eyes and chewed it, finally swallowing it. "Mm, that has got to be one of the best cookies I have ever had." Sam smiled and placed another cookie in her mouth, she leaned forward and Freddie opened his mouth up for her to push half of the cookie in. Sam then pressed her lips to his and pulled back, swallowing her half of the cookie. "Sam, are you trying to seduce me or something?" Freddie smirked and Sam wrapped her arms around him, resting her head on his chest.

"I love you forever." Freddie smiled and sniffed in the air.

"I smell lavender and peach perfume…"

"I remembered that you loved it." Freddie smiled and placed his hands on Sam's hips.

"You're right, I do love it. Not only that, but I love you more than life itself. You know, I can't say I'm used to having you try to romance me, but I'm loving it greatly." Sam smiled and Freddie gently kissed her lips. She moved her hands back and placed her palms on the counter as he gently pushed her against it, pressing his hands on the counter. He moved his lips down and started kissing her neck, causing her to tilt her head back and let out a soft moan. Valerie lifted her eyes up and sighed, she figured she probably should leave pretty soon.

"I think I'm just going to let you two have some privacy," Valerie said as she slowly walked toward the door. She looked back and saw Freddie still kissing Sam. "Hey, don't get too far, it's getting a little too hot in here!" Freddie and Sam both stopped kissing and realized what was going on.

"Uh…" Freddie looked down and saw that the very tips of his fingers were inside of Sam's jeans. "Crap!" Valerie sighed and slowly shook her head as her two friends pulled apart and stared away very awkwardly.

"Hey, don't worry about it. These things happen, and they will continue. You just need to know when to stop yourselves." Sam and Freddie both laughed nervously and Valerie gave a small sigh. "Would it feel any better if I stayed around and we all watched a movie or something?"

"Yes!" The couple said in quick agreement. They really needed to get over the awkward moment. Valerie laughed lightly and shook her head as Sam and Freddie walked over to the couch.

I hope you liked that chapter, be prepared for something huge next chapter. It is the appearance of none other than Tyrone. This man is going to be very important to the story, and I'm sure you'll find he's more the real villain, NOT Carly. So to all you Carly fans out there, I will say that Carly is a TRUE FRIEND in this story, but being brainwashed by a certain man.