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 71 (Shane)

A few calm months had passed for everyone, Carly's birthday rolled on by and everyone had a good party then. Freddie's birthday rolled on by, and they had yet another pleasant visit from Tyrone. It was now the middle of March, Sam's fifteenth birthday would be in April. She couldn't wait, she felt that this would be a great year.

She had also been pleasantly surprised when she discovered that she wouldn't be pregnant after having made love with Freddie. It really wasn't a pleasant surprise, but one that was good considering no one was ready for a baby. Carly still wanted to date Freddie, and he wouldn't ever tell her if his mom actually chose a bride for him or not. It was for her own good, but he wouldn't be saying that to her. He wanted no harm or threat of harm to come to Sam. There should be no trouble looming over their heads.

Currently, Sam and Freddie were watching a movie together. It was a beautiful movie, at least to Sam. Freddie agreed to sit and watch a sappy chick flick with her if she agreed to watch an action movie with him. Sam wasn't normally one for sappy chick flicks, but this particular one, she was drawn to. Freddie had a bowl of popcorn in his lap and Sam's head was resting on his shoulder, it seemed to be a cute little scene for anyone that looked at them during this moment. Freddie took a piece of popcorn from the bowl and brought it to Sam's lips, he smiled and Sam took the popcorn into her mouth.

"Freddie, I've been thinking," Sam said when she swallowed her food. Freddie looked over and saw Sam staring blankly at the television. She'd been wondering about Carly, lately. She'd been thinking about how they could get Carly to date someone. A recent friend of Freddie's was someone named Shane Johnson, Sam wondered if Carly would be interested in him. "Do you think we could get Carly interested in that friend of yours coming onto iCarly? Shane?" Freddie laughed and shook his head, he didn't think that would be happening anytime soon.

"This is Carly you're talking about. The girl who still likes me."

"Well maybe…maybe we could give her some competition!" Freddie arched his eyebrow and Sam rubbed the back of her neck nervously. She knew Carly had a thing about competing with people when it came to things like other guys. She remembered even that Carly once said if Freddie ever had a bride selected, she'd do her best to compete and try to win Freddie's heart. So if Sam pretended to be into Shane, then maybe Carly would take this sign of competition and try to get Shane first.

"What kind of competition?" Freddie wasn't exactly fond of Sam pretending to like some other guy. Though, it would go well for throwing people off track. It was really hard for him when she pretended to date Jonah, and that was all role play. This with Shane wouldn't be role play, who knew how hard it would be for him. "You don't mean where you pretend to like Shane if Carly likes Shane, do you?" Sam nodded her head and Freddie gave a brief sigh. "Sam, you know how I get when another guy is involved like that…"

"True, but it's not like he's going to like me or anything. Besides, if he does, I can always end it there." Freddie's mind still wasn't eased, but he would go ahead and just see how things worked out. He gave a deep breath and looked seriously into Sam's eyes.

"Okay, but if things get too far, you're going to have to stop pretending to like Shane." Sam nodded her head in agreement, she would definitely stop if she or Freddie felt like things were going a little too far and too fast. She knew Freddie would probably get insanely jealous, so she wouldn't do too much with Shane.

The only other issue Freddie had with Shane was that he wasn't exactly Shane's friend. Shane was more or less Freddie's rival, typically competing with him in class, the AV club and other things. So it would definitely be tough for Freddie to have to deal with Sam pretending to like Shane, but he'd just have to suck it up. Besides, Sam was all his, so he really had nothing to worry about at all. What was the worst Shane could do, anyway? Kiss Sam. Freddie laughed slightly at that and Sam raised her eyebrow, wondering what he was thinking about.

"Is there something on your mind?" Freddie draped his arm around Sam and smiled as he shook his head.

"No, nothing's on my mind at all, Sam. Let's finish watching the movie, then we can go shoot iCarly with Carly and all." Sam nodded and rested her head on Freddie's shoulder once more.

-NEW SCENE-

The next day, Freddie found Sam and Carly next to their lockers. The show had been interesting the day before, both girls seemed really interested in Shane. If Freddie didn't already know Sam, he would have thought she were actually interested in the guy. She definitely would have made a good actress.

"Hey, have either of you guys seen Shane?" Freddie asked while walking over to the girls. Carly's eyes brightened and she quickly became interested.

"No, why, is he coming by?" Carly asked with a quick voice. Freddie leaned back slightly and chuckled nervously.

"Whoa, calm down, I was just wondering if you saw him. I need to give him back his flash drive." Both girls instantly grabbed at it, asking to be allowed to take Shane the flash drive. If Shane saw this, he would have loved it. Since Freddie wasn't getting so much attention. He quickly backed up and held his hand up. "It's okay! I'll handle it." He walked off and slowly sighed. "Crazies…"

Sam watched as he left and looked toward the cup in her hand, she knew Freddie was actually miffed over the whole thing. She could tell there was already that hint of jealousy. Sam was starting to have second thoughts about the whole thing, she didn't want Freddie to start feeling really bad or anything. Sam turned to Carly and smiled lightly. "So…you kind of like Shane, right?"

"Yeah," Carly replied as if it was completely obvious. Carly quickly pulled her to the side and grinned. "Do you think it'd be crazy if I asked him out?"

"Um…" Sam did actually wonder how Carly would take Sam liking the same guy she liked. After all, there was Freddie. Judging by Carly's reaction, she could probably determine how Carly would act whenever Sam told her that she was with Freddie. She hoped it would be a good reaction, so she decided to go ahead and test it by pretending to like Shane. "No, it's just…"

"What? You think I'd seem too pushy, desperate?" Sam frowned and pulled the corner of her lips back slightly. Carly still didn't see how Sam was acting as though she liked Shane.

"No…"

"Well tell me what you're thinking!" Sam bit her lip, but not for Carly or for Shane, but for Freddie. She still felt necessary to go through with this.

"It's just that I was thinking about asking him out." Carly's face fell and Sam made note of the quick eye shift, it didn't seem like Carly was thinking about the possibility of letting Sam have a guy that she liked, so maybe it wouldn't be good to ever tell her about Freddie.

"Oh. Well…" Carly moved toward her locker, obviously she wanted to be the one to win over Sam. Though in a way, she felt maybe if she dated Shane, it'd help her move from Freddie. This was despite the fact that she still had a major crush on him. "I think the best way to solve this is to honor the girl code." So far Carly's actions were not impressing Sam, she could see right through how Carly was acting. She had to do a lot of acting toward Carly, herself. So she knew how to feign being nice whenever Carly spoke of Freddie.

"So whoever saw him first gets to date him, right?" That would totally work if it was Freddie, but then she had a feeling Carly would still try to compete.

"Right." Both girls closed their lockers, then said at the same time that they were going to ask Shane out. This would be interesting, since Sam had a feeling that she and Carly both saw Shane at the same time. Sam also figured that Freddie was probably not going to be happy with this.

After they got home, Carly and Sam had Freddie run the part where they saw Shane, he clearly didn't enjoy it. Sam frowned and looked sadly at him as he slumped against the laptop. He was hurting inside, and Sam felt really guilty for doing this. She was going to make it up to him, though. She could promise him that, whether it was verbally or only mentally. As Freddie played the video, both girls thought they had seen Shane first. Freddie rolled his eyes and the girls asked him to play a frame by frame.

"Alright, here goes," Freddie said as he played the frame by frame of the video. It seemed that both girls saw him at exactly the same time. "There, a dead tie. So I guess neither of you can go out with Shane, oh too bad! Bye!" Sam watched sadly as Freddie left the room, he seriously was starting to feel quite sick. Sam sighed and turned toward Carly, she seriously had no idea where else to go with this.

"So what are we going to do?"

"Well…" Carly moved toward Sam and smiled slightly. "Who says we can't both go out with him?" She was thinking of a plan, but Sam found it to be an odd idea.

"Wouldn't the two of us going out with the same guy be kind of dangerous?"

"No." Carly laughed slightly and continued on. "It's not like we're talking about marrying the guy." Sam raised her eyebrow and frowned, they very well could be if they were talking about Freddie. Sam had to wonder, was she actually comparing this whole situation to what might happen if she told Carly about Freddie? It sure seemed like it. Sam smiled awkwardly and crossed her arms.

"Okay…and you know why this is going to work?" It was a true question, and if it were Freddie, it was one that Sam would want to see Carly's response to.

"Only because we're best friends!" Carly started walking toward the door and Sam raised her eyebrows. Was that really the case? If this were Freddie they were talking about, would their being best friends keep something from going wrong?

"Uh-huh…and we're never going to let some guy wreck that, right?" It was a very honest question, because Sam really had to know if their friendship could withstand something so serious. If she told Carly about her relationship with Freddie, would their friendship keep something really bad from happening?

"Not in this lifetime."

"No way?"

"We're going to be super mature about this." There was just something in Carly's words that didn't seem all that sincere to her. It was like Carly wanted to win Shane more than handling things maturely. So, if this happened, what would it be like with Freddie? Sam nodded and Carly smiled. "I'm going to call Shane right now and ask him out!" Naturally this wouldn't have affected her, but because Freddie was on her mind, she had Shane and Freddie confused, so she took the defensive.

"Not without your cell phone, you're not!" Sam took Carly's cell phone and ran out the door. She took the SIM card from the phone and chuckled as she reentered the room. "Heh, I was just kidding."

"I know." Carly took the cell phone and glanced quickly at it. Her eyes shifted up and she let out a small sigh. "Give me back my SIM card." Sam chuckled nervously and handed the card back to Carly. It seemed maybe it was going to be harder than she thought to trust Carly. This saddened her deeply, she hoped Freddie would be feeling well enough to give her some comfort really soon.

"Hey um, Carly…I have to get going…"

"Are you going to try to ask Shane out?!" Sam bit her lip and lifted her eyes skyward, she really wasn't going to be doing any of that. Rather, she was going to try to find Freddie and hope that he could comfort her and that she could remind him that none of this thing going on with Shane was serious to her. Shane wouldn't overshadow Freddie in her life.

"No, I'm not going to." Carly eyed Sam suspiciously and crossed her arms, unsure of what to think. Sam basically ignored the stare and left the apartment altogether, she only cared about talking to Freddie right then.

Looks like things are getting interesting between Carly and Sam. Believe me when I say this, though. Nothing will be so intense as when we get past chapter 100 and into the Family Reunion chapters! There are a LOT of secrets and surprises to go around in those!