The Greatest Secret

Disclaimer: Nope, don't own iCarly

A/N: As you know, thoughts are in italics and speech is in regular font.

Chapter 109 (Reunion: The Pucketts' Plan)

It was early in the morning and the trip to the reunion area was going to be an hour drive. Everyone selected their cars and moved on their way. The Puckett family had a radio to talk to each other while on the drive, they felt it was necessary to keep a good contact with each other and discuss important things that had to happen while at the large family gathering.

In the blue Dodge eight seat van was Hugh, Susie, Buzz, Morris, Maggie, Garth, Annie, and Greg. Following them in a red mercury, four door car was Carl, Leon, Violet and Venus. The family was following the large van being driven by Emily. In the car with her was Robert, Freddie, Sam, Jonah, and Valerie. They weren't on radio communication with the Puckett family, it hadn't been suggested. Besides, Sam didn't exactly feel like talking to her family. It wasn't anything bad, she was just afraid that if she talked to them, they might say or do things that rub off on her and change her attitude to a bad one during the meeting.

Currently, everybody was silent and watching the car in front of them. They didn't want to lose each other on the major highways. Everyone knew where the place was and they were fortunate that it would be in a place that the group could drive to without worry about other cars. They just needed to get off the freeways. About half of the trip was freeway and the rest was country road. Maggie looked to the radio in the middle of the seats and flipped it on. Morris looked over and smiled at her.

"We can do this, right Maggie?" Maggie gave a nod and took a few rasinets from the bowl in her lap. She loved rasinets; they were so delicious and great for curbing her cravings for a cigarette. Thankfully, her smoke cravings wouldn't be too hard to avoid. The family was mostly going off of plans made by the cousins, since Annie, Greg, and Venus seemed to be the better thinkers in the group. It was just saying that they were the most normal relatives that didn't really have any problems. Garth didn't have much either, but he had been in trouble for school vandalism at one point of time. Maggie swallowed the rasinets and smiled, for once her mouth didn't taste like smoke. After all, she had brushed her teeth several times in preparation for this event.

"We'd better be able to do this." Maggie pressed the radio's talk button and made sure to leave it on so that they didn't have to press a button every time they wanted to say something. "Leon, is your radio working over there?" Leon was driving, so he really didn't want to bother paying much attention to the radio at the time. That was what Venus, Violet, and Carl were for.

"We're on," Carl's voice responded. "On and connected, how are things in your car?" Maggie smiled and leaned back in her seat. She closed her eyes and munched on another rasinets.

"Not bad at all. These rasinets are delish, Carl." Carl chuckled and gave a quick nod. He had eaten rasinets several times in his lifetime, and every time he did, he enjoyed them pretty well. In fact, he had been the one to suggest Maggie start eating them to take away from her smoke cravings.

"Well I'm glad they seem to be doing the job for you, Maggie. You know, we've all got to do our part today." The relatives all nodded and murmured their agreements. If anything went wrong, anything at all, they weren't going to be happy. "Whatever happens today, we have to cause as little drama as we can." Carl leaned back and glanced in the rearview mirror. He frowned when he spotted the white four door pickup truck behind them. The truck had been there for the last twenty minutes of the drive. "Damn, what is with them? Those girls have been following us all this time."

"Let me see," Violet said as she turned to look back. She could see a young woman, around the same age as Robert driving the car. Beside her was as slightly older woman with blonde hair going to her shoulders. Sitting in the back seat was an even older woman with grey hair. Narrowing her eyes, she recognized the oldest woman as someone she'd seen once before in the far distant past. "What…I think that's John's mother. You know, John Benson…I remember meeting her at my sister's wedding!" Susie blinked and rubbed her chin, trying to remember.

"Yeah, when Sarah married David, John showed up with Emily," Susie said as she lowered her hand. Emily had been married to John at the time Sarah was married. "They brought his mother, Victoria with them…why is she following us?"

"Maybe she's not trying to follow us and she's just been back there for the past fifteen minutes," Morris said while shrugging his shoulders. He wasn't really worrying about them at the moment. "Let's talk about what we're going to do at the reunion and how we're going to create as little stress for Sam as we can." The members of the family all nodded and began thinking about their plan.

"Well we know mom's going to eat those rasinets whenever she starts having a craving," Annie said as she reached forward and grabbed some of the candy. Maggie playfully slapped at Annie's hand as her daughter pulled back.

"Get your own!" Maggie joked. Annie chuckled and pushed a raisin into her mouth. Maggie ate some more and smiled as she closed her eyes, she really did like that plan. The small candy was definitely addicting. "Mm, so good…" Greg rested his elbow out of the open window and glanced over at his mom.

"If Dad starts getting upset over anything, we could always take him into another room and I could play some of my music to calm him down," Greg stated. Morris smiled and Maggie gave a quick nod, Greg's music always helped soothe the man. Morris needed to work on his anger issues and the best way to do that was to find ways to calm him down. "Only, what do we do when we can't simply take him into another room?" The group frowned and tried to think, that could be a tough one. They knew they didn't want Morris getting mad and starting any fights, that would embarrass the hell out of Sam for sure.

"I guess I really am worse than Buzz in that sense," Morris stated while frowning. "Damn it…" He tried to think of what worked, but it was hard to do since not much really got to him. He once started a fight with someone over a football game, someone said they didn't like his team and he got upset. Things just went worse after that. Maggie smiled softly and placed her hand on Morris, he looked over and smiled.

"Don't say that, I don't think either of you are bad at all. You just have some trouble sometimes, but we'll think of something." Morris sighed and glanced ahead, Maggie always did have a calming effect on him. "I'll be with you the entire time, so if someone says anything, I can think of a way to distract your attention. Do you think that'll work?" Morris thought for a moment and nodded, it was probably the best thing they could do for him. Maggie nodded and looked back. "So it's agreed, I'll stay with Morris."

"Everyone should stay with someone," Garth said with a thoughtful glance. He knew that no one should be left alone, or the worse members of the family might be tempted to mess up. "Team effort requires teams…"

"Right…so let's think of our set ups."

"Well you two can stick together, I don't think there would be a problem. As for me, I'll stay with dad. If he gets nervous and starts wanting to take things, I can keep him at bay." Buzz chuckled nervously and rubbed the back of his head. Garth was actually pretty good at making sure he didn't swipe anything.

"Can you handle that job by yourself?" Annie asked with concern. She wasn't sure if Garth could keep Buzz from taking things or not. Of course, she had seen him stop Buzz before, he was pretty harsh when needed, so it was possible that he could handle it on his own. Garth gave a nod and Annie turned her attention to her parents. "Mom, Dad, do you think you need someone with you? Perhaps Greg, just in case…"

"No, I think it'll be fine," Morris replied with full confidence. With Maggie by his side and the strong desire for everything to go perfect for Sam sitting with him, he was positive he wouldn't let his problems get in the way.

"Okay. Greg and I can then handle other things…Besides, Greg has to practice his music." Annie rubbed her chin and looked over at Garth, he needed to practice as well. "Garth, what about you? Will you be able to find time to practice your singing?"

"Yeah, I'll manage," Garth answered. He figured he could pull his dad aside if he had to. "So, we have Aunt Maggie and Uncle Morris together…Dad's with me and you two are together…"

"I'll stick with Carl," Leon said as he shifted his eyes to the rearview mirror. They had moved off of the freeway and started into the country roads, there was only thirty minutes left before they arrived at their destination. The women in the truck was still following them. "Who the hell are those people? Surely they're not going to the reunion…they're not part of the Davidson family or with us…" He shrugged and shifted his eyes back to the road. "I think Carl will be fine on his own, but I'll stay with him. I actually enjoy hearing the stories he's got to tell."

"Oh yeah, I'm planning to tell them some fascinating tales," Carl said with a quick smile. "Here's hoping there are some military men and women there!"

"I'm sure there is, Grandpa," Morris replied. They had a feeling there were probably a lot of military people in the family. Carl would fit right in. "So, Leon's with granddad…Who else?"

"I'll hang out with them," Violet said with a quick smile. She really enjoyed hearing the war stories he had. Not only that, Carl was a treasure trove of experience. Even without the war stories, he had a lot to give in the way of experiences. "Mom, Dad, what are you two going to do?"

"Well if I know Hugh, he'll slip into another room and fall asleep," Susie said while narrowing her eyes slightly. Hugh rolled his eyes and crossed his arms, she really did nag him a lot about that.

"I won't sleep, how about that?" Hugh retorted. Susie sighed and shook her head disbelievingly. She knew him too well. He slept, and was way too lazy for his own good.

"You look like you're starting to fall asleep now," Morris stated while glancing into the rearview mirror. Venus smirked evilly and Morris raised his eyebrows. "She's got an evil smirk on her face..."

"I've got just the thing!" Venus called out. Hugh knew without having to see her, it was the same look she loved to give him. Even in the other car, he could feel her evil grin.

"Why do you scare me every time you look at me like that?"

"Because she's planning something, Dad," Violet answered with a slight snicker. Hugh sighed and closed his eyes.

"Every time you close your eyes for more than five seconds…I'll do something like this!" Venus moved her hands in front of the radio and clapped loudly. Hugh jumped up and his eyes flew open.

"Damn it!" Everyone else laughed as Hugh grumbled and crossed his arms over. It seemed clear who would be pairing up with him. "Great, I got my nagging wife and loud granddaughter…" He rolled his eyes while the others snickered.

"You know you love us, Grandpa!" Venus smiled sweetly at her grandfather. Hugh couldn't help but to smile in response, he did love his family. "So, our teams are all chosen."

"Yes, everyone sticks together," Annie said with a quick nod. She was more of the plan maker in the family. Everyone basically listened to what she had to say, since she was often right most of the time. The moment of truth had come, today the Pucketts planned to shine for the youngest member of the Puckett clan. Nothing could go wrong with their plan.

Yeah, I had to bump this chapter down because I needed to add in a last minute chapter