The Greatest Secret

Disclaimer: Nope, don't own iCarly

A/N: By the way, if you're an older reader or a new reader, chapters 90-94 marks Mitch's first appearance. Yes, he went with Freddie in that arc, simply due to the fact that I, as the author, felt it was more appropriate for that episode to center Freddie, for this story. Some things that happened in those chapters will be discussed as happening in this mini arc with Mitch.

Chapter 176 (Back Home)

Melanie opened her eyes and moaned as she stretched her arms out. The first thing she noticed was it was far too soft and smooth to be grass. Her eyes flew open and she found herself lying in her bed with the covers pulled up. "What the?" Her voice was groggy and vision blurry, so she rubbed her eyes and slowly sat up, yawning as the sunlight hit her. "Were am I?" Her eyes adjusted and she found herself in the guest bedroom of her grandparents' home. She gasped and threw off her covers. "Oh my god, am I back? How'd I get here? Was it a dream?"

"Nope, not a dream, it was all real." Mitch's voice pulled her back and caught her somewhat off guard. She turned her head and chuckled, Mitch was floating in the air with a bucketful of spicy barbeque wings. "You're petite, but damn, to me you're just a bit too heavy." She growled and glared sternly at him, causing him to reel back and smile apologetically. "I'm just saying, I had to get you under the covers there. You're fine though, back home and in your 'comfort zone'. Sorry for pulling you out like that…" He lifted a wing and bit into it, sighing happily as he swallowed down the precious meat. "Oh god that's good! Anyway, I think I've learned my lesson too, I'll leave people alone on the holidays."

"I don't mind the hanging out, but don't just jump in and do the thing you do, throwing everyone to god knows where…" He chuckled nervously as she rose from the bed, making sure she was careful where she stepped. She didn't want to lose balance or anything. Once she regained footing, she left the room and saw Morris, Buzz, and Sam setting up the pool table. When her eyes fell onto Morris, her heart practically skipped a beat, she could hardly contain her enthusiasm. Sam glanced over at her and smiled.

"Hey Mel! I was fixing to come in, did we wake you?"

"No…No, not at all." She ran to Morris and wrapped her arms around him. "I love you Uncle Morris!" He raised his eyebrows and smiled, returning her hug.

"You too."

"I missed you."

"Was it really that long of a nap?" He chuckled as she let go and ran over to Buzz, hugging him back.

"Uncle Buzz, you're not a shoplifter!" Sam put her hand to her mouth and chuckled as Buzz raised up his eyebrow. Sam leaned against her pool stick and watched in amusement as Melanie started bouncing about joyously. Melanie ran over to Sam and hugged her tight. "Sam…"

"Melanie." Sam closed her eyes and lifted her eyebrows up, chuckling softly as she recalled Freddie's experience last year. His descriptions seemed so real that she actually believed him. "Did you happen to have a visit by a Christmas angel named Mitch, by any chance?" She chuckled nervously as Sam opened her eyes and smiled almost teasingly. "Did he happen to take you back somewhere?"

"Yes he did, and he taught me something important about family. I think we should talk about that later though, let's play pool!" Morris and Buzz chalked their sticks up and laughed at the whole thing going on. Sam grabbed a pool stick from the rack and tossed it over to Melanie.

"Good luck. You know our Uncle's are going to mop the floor with us, right?"

"Maybe, but you know what?" She looked to the two Uncles and smiled as she imagined a small, glowing aura around them. Seeing them was like seeing heaven, even though it really hadn't been all that long, it still felt like it had been forever since she'd seen them. "At least they're here. Even though Mom and Dad aren't here anymore…" The men looked over with sad smiles. Morris set the cue ball on the table while Buzz put the triangle on the chair behind him. "Even though they're not with us, our Uncles are. Our Aunts are with us, we have our cousins with us, and most of all we have each other. I miss mom, I miss Dad, I do wish I had more of a chance to know them, but after those home movies…I feel like I do know them. Still, I don't want to miss out on everything I have now by worrying about what I didn't have."

"You do have a right to miss mom and dad, Mel. Remember that."

"I know, but you understand me, don't you?" Sam was to shoot first, so she moved to the other side of the table and with a heavy sigh, she lined up her shot.

"Yeah Mel, I know what you mean. I'm happy that you see that, too." She smiled at her twin and hit the cue ball. A smirk of satisfaction graced her face as the three, one, and six balls went into the left corner pocket. Morris and Buzz lifted their eyebrows as Sam turned her gaze to them. "Looks like Mel and I are solids. Enjoy the stripes, my dearest Uncles." She did a mock curtsey, causing Melanie to laugh. "Hey look at me, I'm a comedian!"

"Uncle Morris, Uncle Buzz, you're going down!" Morris arched his eyebrow up and Buzz scoffed. He pat his brother on the shoulder and watched as Sam walked to the other side of the pool table.

"We're not worried. Morris here is a champ at pool! He's competed in tournaments when he was much younger." Sam hit the cue ball and stood up as it bounced off a ball and sent that ball spinning into a wall.

"Damn!"

Morris laughed and stepped to the cue ball. "Step aside and watch the master at work." He aimed his stick and positioned it, narrowing his eyes with determination on the balls in front of him. His hand was steady and his aim deadly. Once he hit the ball, he sank the ten, fifteen, and twelve balls. "Uh huh. That's right, who's the master now?"

"No big deal, Melanie and I got this."

"Watch and learn." Morris leaned over one of the balls and hit the cue into it, slicing the fourteen ball into the side pocket. Melanie was beginning to sweat, they hoped to beat them, but they might have bitten off more than they could chew. Morris aimed again and hit the thirteen ball, but it stopped just on the edge of the right corner pocket. "Damn! Well, that's the breaks. Melanie, you're up!"

"Okay, let's do this." She walked up to the pool table and started aiming at cue ball. Her eyes drifted to the nearest solids they had, the four ball. It was closest to the hole. She hung her tongue out the corner of her mouth and struck the ball, knocking it into the pocket. "Yes! Next!" She moved to the next ball and struck the five into the pocket, squealing for joy. Morris grumbled and Buzz slowly shook his head. Next came the seven ball, in which Melanie really wanted to sink. She hit the ball and it bounced off the wall, shooting down the other side, accidently sinking the thirteen ball. The Uncles cheered and high fived as Melanie let out a defeated groan.

"It's my turn now," Buzz commented with pleasure. Sam pat Melanie's shoulder and watched with despair as Buzz swept the pool table with the cue ball. He successfully knocked the nine ball and the eleven ball in the pockets, leaving only the fourteen ball and eight ball. "I hope you girls are starting to sweat. Impressive though, you do know a bit about the game as it is." Sam and Melanie had the two and seven balls left now. They watched Buzz study the table, the cue was on one side and the target ball was on the opposite side against the wall. There was no way he could hit it.

Sighing, he bent over and shot the cue, hitting it against the wall and sending it into a pocket. The girls laughed and Sam grabbed the cue. "Thanks Uncle Buzz!" He groaned as she set the ball down in front of the seven, it was practically in the hole, which made her job a whole lot easier. Once she hit it in, she did a small cheer and aimed the ball for the two, which was all the way on the other side of the table. "Okay, time for the next one. I hope you guys are ready for this. We're about to take you out."

"Good luck with that."

"Okay." Sam smirked and hit the cue ball, knocking the two ball into it's pocket. "Next up, the eight ball!" The Uncles watched as she took a shot for the eight ball, but missed entirely.

"That's it. Morris, take it away!"

"Gladly." The girls watched in desperation as Morris took out the final stripes. Now it was just the eight ball, the girls were biting their nails and watching the sweat drip as their uncle hovered over the final ball. It seemed he was going for an impossible shot. The eight was where the cue normally started, he was going to try to hook it in the corner pocket by a zig-zag motion. When he hit the ball, it struck the wall, crossed to the other wall, and crossed over once more, slowing it's pace as it reached the corner pocket. In the last second, it almost completely stopped, but just rolled over the edge. The girls laughed and everyone cheered on a good game.

They played pool for about an hour longer, learning and enjoying the game to it's fullest. The girls won a couple rounds and the uncles won a few rounds, but what was really important for them was being able to be there with each other. The games ended when supper was ready.

It was there at the dinner table that Melanie made an odd suggestion. Everyone already knew what Melanie had gone through, some weren't too sure if she was dreaming or not, but Sam actually believed her. Others found her tale amusing. "I think tomorrow we should take a trip back to Seattle and talk to Aunt Lucy."

"What?" The others slowly set their silverware down and stared at her with baffled expressions. No one could believe that she would suggest such a thing!

"Everyone deserves family for Christmas. Look, Aunt Lucy just…she was misunderstood and alone, she just wanted to know she wasn't alone. She didn't do anything wrong."

"She took you away," Sam reminded her.

"Yeah, but what if she felt bad about it? I mean, what if...what if it was fear of what could happen that kept her from coming out? What if she just had someone to talk to? That's why, I think it would be best for us to actually talk to her. You remember how she pretended to be insane? Well, knowing her, does it seem far off for her to believe she'd have to be insane in order to take her little sister's child?"

"Probably…"

"It wasn't like she was intentionally being cruel, was it? She could go to prison for the rest of her life, and that's exactly where she's been for the last several years, isn't it? Imprisoned in her mind? She needs her family. She must be afraid that all of you hate her." Violet sighed and grabbed her fork, forking her meat and chewing on it. She swallowed and took a sip of her water.

"It's kind of hard to hate your sister, no matter what she did. I also knew Travis was an asshole anyway, I don't blame her for that…"

"So…why don't we do something about it? Hell, maybe we could convince Mrs. Benson to bring her here. She hasn't had her trials yet…do you think we should condemn her for not wanting to be alone? For being envious?" The others exchanged murmurs and glances. Brian and Violet did want to at least talk to her, find out what was going on these days. Hugh and Susan definitely wanted to see their daughter. The others all agreed and waited for a moment. Susan set her silverware down and exhaled.

"Okay, we'll think a little more on it and tomorrow, we'll ask Marissa to see if she can't bring Lucy down here to talk. Maybe if we figure something out, we can talk to Marissa…" Melanie smiled and nodded her head, it seemed fair enough. Sam chuckled softly and started digging into her food. What wonders tomorrow might bring.

Awesome pool game, and Mitch has also learned his valuable lesson. Looks like the biggest lesson of all, though, was family, and cheers for Mel XD.