The Greatest Secret

Disclaimer: Nope, don't own iCarly

A/N: IMPORTANT: So I am finally rewriting this to the ending that I originally intended, the path veered off incorrectly after chapter 130, "Valerie's Offer", as you can see the author note that is in place. Most likely, the false ending chapters 131-147 will be blanked out, as they are reminders of a shadier past. You'll see in author notes at the end of certain previous chapters in the 120's where I mention a girlfriend. That would be my ex, the one that in a sense, caused Greatest Secret to veer off and become something that I loathed...Now, I'm going to make what was supposed to be my greatest story, truly my greatest story. Please enjoy the correct, appropriate path. I remember some details of the original plan, so that's a positive.

Chapter 131 (A New Surprise)

The next morning, Jonah awoke to the smell of Valerie's special cinnamon rolls, he sat up in bed and stretched his arms out. He heard some chattering outside the bedroom and glanced at the clock in surprise, what was he doing waking up at high noon? He left the bed and hurried to get dressed. He did not want to miss any of Valerie's cooking. Once dressed, he ran into the bathroom and groomed himself. He typically took showers at night and took one last night, so he didn't have to worry about that.

Soon he rushed out of the bedroom and saw Valerie sitting on the couch with Aaron in her arms and Sam sitting next to her. Freddie was seated in the brown recliner to the left of the couch. He lifted his head up and waved over Jonah. The cinnamon rolls were on a tray on the coffee table. "Hey man, you're just in time!" Valerie looked over and smiled brightly.

"Jonah, I didn't want to wake you, but I was starting to think I'd have to go in and get you out of bed."

"Well, it's a damn good thing I got up then." He picked up a plate that was on the table, set a cinnamon roll on it, then sat down on the other end of the couch. "I'd hate to miss these. You never cease to amaze me with your cooking."

"Well good, hopefully everyone else I'm going to be cooking for will think so too." Jonah lifted his eyebrows up as Valerie grinned sheepishly. "We need to talk, Jonah. You'll never guess who I ran into yesterday."

"Who?"

"My idol on the food channel. Miss Rachael Ray!" Jonah's eyes widened and his lips curled into a smile as Valerie cheered happily. She paused for a moment and looked from her husband to her baby. "She offered to make me her apprentice, I could learn a lot about cooking from her." He paused for a minute as Valerie moved the blue blanket across her baby's chest and gazed into its eyes. His heart jumped and he slowly stretched his back. This was good news, but at the same time, what did it mean? "I'd probably even make my family proud of me, because I can make some really good Italian food and I am Italian. The only thing I'm not sure about is…leaving you two behind."

"It is a great opportunity, Val. You're always saying how much you want to become a big time chef, well this is how you do it." He knew she'd be reluctant, and it made sense. He didn't want her to go off and leave him alone, but this was her dream and he wasn't about to stop her. "You know I'd take care of Aaron, and I'm sure that we'd be able to see each other every now and then, wouldn't we?"

Sam cleared her throat and Jonah glanced over at her. She took another cinnamon roll and spoke calmly. "We were just talking about that. Valerie says Miss Ray is more than willing to give her a week off every other month so she can see her husband and baby."

"Well that is good news."

"It may be," Valerie bowed her head and stared at her feet, she was overcome with confusion. On one hand she wanted to go and her closest friends were rooting for her, along with her family, but on the other hand, she didn't want to leave anyone behind. "I'm scared. What'll happen? What will I see? What will I miss?" He reached over and took Valerie's hand, gazing softly into her eyes.

"I don't think anyone here wants you to go, but I know we all recognize this as something that could be a great benefit to your dreams. Whatever you decide, you know Sam, Freddie, and I will be the first ones to back you up." She smiled softly and nodded her head.

"Yeah, I know. I still have some thinking to do. She gave me her number, so I have all week to make a decision."

"Good, so you don't have to make it right away, give it some time to think."

"I will. Thank you." She looked at Sam and waited as her friend got up from the middle cushion, then she scooted over to the middle and put her head on Jonah's shoulder. "I love you, honey."

"I love you too."

"Aw, Freddie are we like that?" Sam asked with a smile. He laughed as she sat in his lap.

"We're always like that. Anyway, how's life with Uncle Morris and Aunt Maggie?"

"Oh they're the greatest!" Freddie smiled as the others looked their way. They were happy to hear that Sam's family was doing so well lately, surely her mother would be proud of them. "You'd be surprised, Uncle Morris isn't having any difficulty keeping anger issues under wraps. Also, Aunt Maggie hasn't lit up a single cigarette the entire time I've been there. My cousins have also been coming over a lot just to hang out and relax, even Uncle Buzz has been over."

"How's he doing? I think you said he was trying to seek therapy as of last week?"

"Two weeks ago, he's been seeing a therapist about the whole kleptomania issue. He's been able to not get so nervous, and in turn, not feel like swiping random things." Freddie's eyebrows rose as a smile graced his lips, he almost wanted mention having told her that her family was making a turnaround.

"Seems they're really trying to show you they care," Valerie said with a smile. "They're making all these changes for you."

"I know, and I couldn't be happier about it. Now what about you, Freddie? How's life with Carly in the house?" He chuckled nervously and let out a heavy sigh. It was nice to have her around, but it was difficult for him to sneak around with Sam and Carly not find out that she was his bride to be. Their biggest problem right now wasn't that Carly would intentionally tell Tyrone that her two best friends were together, but that she might be so overly excited, as she often was, and end up telling him without meaning any harm.

"She's confused about everything going on right now, I think. I mean, she just found out her brother is actually her half brother, that mom's got a bigger importance in her life than she ever thought possible, and her birth mother is basically a bitch."

"I think it'd be safe to assume that Marissa's actually her birth mother, just for the sake of making those assumptions." The others nodded their agreements and had a moment of silence just for the sake of not having anything to add to the conversation. Their minds were on Valerie's job offer and how to tell Carly certain things that were her life. How could they tell her that her two best friends were together? Would she hate them for it? Would she get pissed off about it? It might be best to not tell her, but they knew that just wouldn't be right.

After a few minutes, they heard the doorbell ring. Valerie raised her eyebrow and looked towards the window viewing the door, Carly was there. "What's she doing here? Guys, it's Carly." Freddie cursed and Sam quickly flew off his lap. Should they hide? They weren't positive. Valerie stood from the couch and handed Jonah the baby. "Jonah, you and Freddie can take Aaron into the baby play room, spend some time with your son. Carly knows Sam and I are close, so she won't be surprised if Sam's here."

"Got it." Freddie was happy with that, he hadn't been able to spend much time with Aaron. After all, Jonah and Valerie had asked Sam and Freddie to be Aaron's godparents. So he was the godfather, and yes, he did have fun teasing Valerie with the fact that her grandfather had been a part of the Italian Mafia during the late forties and throughout the fifties. He followed Jonah to the play room while Sam grabbed the cinnamon rolls and Valerie ran for the door. She opened it and smiled at Carly

"Hey girl, what's going on?"

"Not much, can I come in?"

"Sure, come on in." Carly nodded appreciatively and walked inside, immediately catching the scent of cinnamon rolls. She looked to the plate in Sam's hands and her mouth began watering. Sam chuckled and Valerie laughed briskly. "You can have one if you like, we made them fresh this morning." Sam walked over to her friend and watched as she took a roll from the plate.

"Thank you. I got a little bored, my soon to be step brother isn't home, so I can't nag him about anything." Sam laughed as Carly took a bite of the wondrous roll. She mumbled something, then swallowed. "Wow, these are really good!"

"Thanks. Anyway, were you wanting to talk with Freddie? He came over a little bit ago to hang out with Jonah, they're with the baby right now."

"No that's okay, I was just wanting to visit you for a bit. I don't know why, really."

"Did you want to talk about anything?" Carly shrugged and moved over to the couch with the girls. "Is everything okay at home?"

"Yeah, I'm just a little nervous, with Dad getting married to…I call her mom now, you know."

"That's good, there's nothing wrong with that." Carly smiled and nodded as she leaned back and closed her eyes.

"Well, I know that when they marry, Dad's going to be the one to choose a husband for me and I'm not sure he's that experienced."

Sam walked over to Carly and rubbed her shoulder gently in an attempt to comfort her. "Hey Carls, I'm pretty sure Mrs. Benson is experienced enough, if she and her family aren't able to help your dad out there, then I'm sure all hope is lost for him."

"There really isn't any guy in my life, though. I mean, unless you count Gibby, but really…Gibby?" That was unlikely to happen, Sam was pretty sure he wasn't someone that Marissa would be looking at. "Then again, it's been a year or two, maybe more, since we've seen him. I mean, ever since iCarly ended. You know, sometimes I wish we could have brought iCarly back…I mean, I know with the whole thing about the stalker and everything, but I still miss those days."

"Yeah, iCarly was fun back then. Times are constantly changing though, like Valerie's apprenticeship offer from a highly renowned, celebrity chef." Carly gasped and Valerie's cheeks began to turn red, she hadn't wanted to say that right away. Carly turned to her and grinned.

"Oh my god, that is great! Are you going to go?"

"I don't know just yet. I still need some time, I have until the end of the week to make that decision, since that's when Miss Ray's going to her next location."

"Any idea where her next location is?"

"I think she's going to visit some highly regarded and known restaurant in Italy." That was right up her alley and she wanted so badly to go. "I'm just nervous. I know Jonah will take great care of the baby, but I'm going to miss them so badly." Carly nodded her head and gently tapped her chin in thought, what could she say to bring some kind of comfort to her?

"Well, look at it this way. The apprenticeship would last what, one or two years?" Valerie scrunched her face slightly, trying to think about how long Rachael had told her the apprenticeship might last. She could be working for her for two years, learning everything possible in that amount of time. It would be the equivalent, no, greater still than college.

"At most, two years."

"Okay. So you go for that long, come home and you're able to own any restaurant, or even start a restaurant yourself, and bring in lots of money. Maybe you'd even have your own spot on the food channel. Or, you could not take the opportunity, go through four years of college with a husband and a baby…which would likely add to the pressure of college, and hopefully somehow make a name for yourself by starting from the bottom." Sam raised her eyebrow and Valerie winced. When someone put it like that, then the choice seemed rather obvious. "I think it also depends on how much you want to learn, how long you want to spend learning, and how long you want to make a name for yourself."

"Yeah, I agree. I'm just going to talk to my family about it first. I'm really seriously leaning towards the apprenticeship." Sam was about to say something when her cell phone went off, she checked it and saw Violet calling her.

"Hold on guys…" She quickly answered the phone and heard her Aunt's upset voice. "Aunt Violet? What's going on?"

"Something terrible…I don't know if you or Marissa ever knew this, but Sam. You have a twin sister."

"I know, didn't she die at birth?"

"That's what we thought, what your mother thought, but…" Sam's eyebrows rose as her body began to go cold. What could Aunt Violet be so worried about? Her mother said a doctor came in on the day of birth and told her that the twin had not survived and she'd be unable to see her baby. "

"Okay…So…"

"You remember your mom, or maybe even Marissa, telling you about one of our siblings who vanished just before you were born?"

"Yeah, Aunt Lucy…Mom always assumed she'd passed on."

"Well she's alive. We've recently found her. I think you and Marissa, maybe even Freddie, need to come over so we can talk. Sam…your twin sister never died, she was abducted." The words battered her and knocked her back onto the couch. Carly and Valerie looked at her with concern as she slowly hung up the phone. Her eyes were wide and her lips were parted in shock. For sixteen years, Lucy had managed to keep her twin sister hidden? Was that it? Carly stepped forward and placed her hand on Sam's shoulder.

"Sam? Are you okay?"

IMPORTANT: So it's happening, GS is being continued. Also, I've found a way to bring Melanie into GS! Uh huh, that's right. The baby thought to have "died" at birth, but the doctor didn't let Sarah Puckett see her child...In other words, Melanie exists in the GS world. I had to bring her in for this reason: Just because I had iCarly in the 90's and before the Twins episode ever came into fruition (Obviously before I ever saw the episode), sure that means some events (such as crazy Nora) never will happen in this story because iCarly didn't exist...however events that did take place, that iCarly obviously didn't influence (such as Sam having a twin sister) obviously should have happened. So this is another little arc of GS.

Also, I hope you've enjoyed this chapter. This chapter is what should have happened two years ago. By that, I'm referring to the part with Valerie discussing with her friends about the apprenticeship. As for Aunt Violet calling Sam up about the twin, might not have happened as the Twins episode never came while I was working on GS. Now, I hope you'll all be able to get back with this, for those of you who are new readers, you're golden. For those of you who are old readers, you may want to read a few prior chapters to regain a sense of what's going on, but not every chapters, just some KEY parts. For me to regain a sense of what was going on, I read basically chapters 100-129, that was it.