AN: As always thank you to all who have read, and especially to those who have reviewed. SirRay, yes Mr Vega is a cop, he has said so a few times on the show (twice during Freak the Freak Out and also in The Birthweek Song and the extended version of the pilot).

The Slap Mobile

Tori Vega: Getting ready to meet the boyfriend's mom

Mood: Thankful

Thanksgiving morning saw Tori and I heading to the airport early. Trina and her parents were catching a morning flight for their trip to see family, we'd then have an hour or so to wait before the inbound flight from Seattle arrived bringing mom, Carly and Sam to my new home. My nerves were evident to Tori as we waited for the flight – it would after all be the first time I'd seen Carly and Sam in person since I left after graduation, since I found out about their critical video of me. We had papered over the cracks in our relationship since then through e-mails and video-chats but this weekend could well make or break anything that we might have in the future.

Finally the announcement was made that the flight inbound from Seattle had landed and we made our way to the waiting area just outside security and the baggage claim area. A few people walked by before my eyes were drawn to the group of three walking towards us. Carly dropped her bags and ran towards us, a massive smile lighting up her face; she leapt into my arms for a huge hug and a kiss on the cheek.

"I missed you" she whispered softly.

I handed her off to Tori and she smiled nervously at my girlfriend before hearing the "usual"

"C'mon, give Tori a squeeze" and stepping in for a hug.

Sam walked up to me, a slight scowl on her face from having to pick up Carly's bags after she abandoned them to say hello to me. She set them down and I smiled before pulling her into a slightly awkward hug before she shared a similarly tense one with Tori, her body language suggesting she didn't want to be around my girl. Finally I turned to mom, bringing up the rear, and gave her a huge hug and kiss, rolling my eyes slightly as she began gushing about how much she'd missed "her baby" over the last few months. Her attention then turned to the tall brunette at my side.

"Mom," I began, "I know you guys met briefly when I moved down here to begin with, but this Tori, my girlfriend." Mom nodded, she knew after all, I had told her during one of our many phone conversations over the months that I had been here, but it was still a different scenario, introducing them in their new capacity as girlfriend and boyfriend's mother, particularly as they'd had little to no interaction during the short period mom had been here over the summer.

Tori greeted her cordially, welcoming her back to Los Angeles, while mom smiled and said a civil hello.

We took our guests to Tori's house to relieve them of their luggage, pointing out the UCLA campus as we passed nearby. On reaching the Vegas' place we showed mom to the guest room and Carly and Sam to Trina's, which they'd be sharing: I didn't ask Tori if she'd cleared it with Trina and she didn't tell me; plausible deniability is a wonderful thing. The guests headed to the rooms while Tori put the turkey in the oven and I began other preparations for our Thanksgiving dinner. Once everyone had unpacked we sat together as a group in the living room and enjoyed a glass of Tori's pink lemonade (which drew comparisons with Carly's Special Lemonade) before we headed out for a spot of sight-seeing.

"So," Carly piped up as we headed for UCLA, our first stop on the 'tour', "will we be seeing any of the Hollywood Arts guys this weekend?"

"Saturday" Tori told her. "They're busy with family stuff today, Freddie's at work all day tomorrow, so we're going to get together and all hang on Saturday."

"Cool, it'll be good to see André, Cat and the others again."

Arriving at UCLA we found the campus to be all but deserted. We showed our visitors my dorm and some of my favourite haunts – Cooperage, the Terrence Food Court and Kerckhoff, though most of the places were shut for the holiday. I called in at work, my colleagues were thrilled to meet Carly and Sam, many of them having grown up with iCarly, some even seemed a little star-struck (as they had when I first started there). We concluded our little tour before moving on to Rustic Canyon Park for a view of some of the impressive scenery just outside the city, along with some of the impressive – and expensive – architecture springing up in this area of my new home.

After a pleasant few hours we returned to Tori's mid-afternoon for dinner and began making final preparations for the show this evening.

"I'm Carly!"

"And I'm Sam!"

"And this" the girls declared together, "is a very special Thanksgiving episode of iCarly!" Sam sounded the old remote and the familiar canned cheering filled the Vegas' living room.

I was behind the camera with Tori at my side; mom was sat in the kitchen area trying to keep out of the way.

"And for this special" Carly told the viewers, "we have a super special guest. Back with us, the original…"

"… And the best…" interjected Sam, slightly to my surprise. She really WAS on her best behaviour tonight.

"… Tech Producer EVER" finished Carly.

"FREDDIE BENSON!" the girls roared in unison.

"Get out here, Fredward" Sam told me, pressing the cheer button again. I handed the camera to Tori and reunited the original iCarly gang in front of the camera, stood in the middle as both girls threw an arm around my waist. I did likewise to them.

"Hello people of earth and beyond." I supplied the old greeting, much to Carly's amusement.

Sam pressed the remote again, silencing the cheers and music. She and Carly both took deep, steadying breaths.

"Those of you who saw iCarly after Freddie left the show" Carly began, "will probably remember that some things were said, by Sam and me, that really shouldn't have been. We blamed Freddie for the demise of the show – and that really wasn't fair. We threw some awful insults at him…"

"One of mama's favourite hobbies" Sam leaned in and interjected, earning a reproachful look from Carly. "Kinda kidding" she muttered. I smiled in spite of myself.

"So we – both of us" Carly continued, "want to take this opportunity to apologise publically to Freddie for everything that we said. We were angry, we were upset, but mostly – we were wrong" she finished.

"Sorry Freddo" Sam supplied. I smiled and nodded my head.

"Thanks girls" I said quietly and gave both a small squeeze.

"Ok, now that the serious stuff is out of the way" Sam said, breaking the slightly awkward atmosphere and slipping out of my arm, "because this is a special show we have a special section tonight." She pressed the cheer button again. I cast nervous glances to Tori, who returned it, and to Carly, who gave me a supportive smile and a gentle squeeze. "You've all seen the video gone viral of our very own Freddie singing karaoke" oh no

"And if you haven't, here it is" added Carly. "Playback" and Sam pressed the appropriate button on the remote. The live feed cut out and a video began on the laptop, streaming on the iCarly site, of my performance at Karaoke Dokie. The girls left me squirming for a few seconds before switching back to the live feed. Tori pointed the camera at us again.

"So here it is" said Sam and pressed yet another button on the remote. Immediately the jingle started

"Hey, hey, hey, hey, what was Freddie thinking?"

"Great question – so what were you thinking when you did that Freddie?" asked Carly with a tone of playful curiosity.

"My friends paid me seventy bucks" I told them simply.

Sam looked from me to the camera before leaning in to it and saying seriously,

"I hear you."

I tried to suppress a sigh of relief and shot Tori, still behind the camera, something of a grin – if that was Sam's big idea that she was keeping under wraps then it could have been a lot worse.

"Ok" said Carly, smiling broadly at the camera, "there's one more person to introduce on this special show. An old friend of iCarly, LA native and our host for the evening: Tori Vega!"

Again Sam pressed the cheer button, though I thought I could detect the faintest hint of reluctance as she did so. Tori set the camera down on my tripod and bounced over to join us, planting a gentle kiss on my lips and wrapping me in her arms while she turned to the camera.

"As you can see" Carly continued, "Tori is Freddie's girlfriend…"

"Way to upset both the Creddie AND Seddie fanbases there girl" Sam observed dryly.

"Well, neither of them is going to get their 'ship' now" she declared, perhaps a little too forcefully and definitely casting a meaningful look at Sam.

"Which brings us to our next new section" Sam continued, unperturbed but not quite managing to convey a truly playful voice. "What is Tori thinking?" She was smiling but the smile seemed to stop short of her eyes. Tori narrowed her own eyes slightly and looked at the blonde, tightening her grip on me slightly as she did. She half-smiled and told Sam

"I'm thinking that I'm dating the most amazing guy on the planet," she began, "and I'm thinking that you two are idiots because you both let him go." Then she turned to the camera with more of a smile and concluded "You asked, I answered." Her voice was light but there was an undertone that left no doubt as to how serious her answer was – and that our relationship was no joking matter to her.

There were a few seconds of rather awkward silence as the co-hosts exchanged glances; Sam determined to look anywhere but at Tori and I. I smiled slightly as I remembered the warning I'd given Andy some weeks earlier – Piss Tori Vega off at your peril.

"Ok" said Carly, forcing a smile and finally breaking the suddenly tense and uncomfortable atmosphere, "on with our next segment."

Despite the slightly frosty atmosphere the show continued without too much overt animosity coming through. A bout of Random Dancing broke out (mom declined to join in – probably for the best though it would have been very funny) and the show wrapped up with Tori singing Make It Shine, giving the audience a glimpse of her extraordinary talent. Carly signed off the show, wished the viewers a happy Thanksgiving and said that we hoped to be back with another couple of shows over Christmas.

"And we are CLEAR" I declared before setting the camera down and high-fiving with Carly and Sam. "Great show you guys" I told them before giving my girl a kiss. "You were amazing" I told her. She gave me an embarrassed grin.

"You really were, Tori" Carly backed me up enthusiastically, "you're voice is fantastic."

"Thanks Carly" she replied. Sam, meanwhile, had made her way to the kitchen and was bemoaning a lack of ham in the Vegas' fridge (seriosuly Sam, we had a big dinner an hour or so ago!). It was clear that she had nothing to say to Tori. Meanwhile Tori produced more pink lemonade and we retired to the living room couch, mom joining us now, and the five of us spent the rest of the evening in front of the TV talking about everything and nothing, the girls clearly unwilling to discuss the elephant in the room, though Tori continued to earn us filthy glances from Sam – and some rather reproachful looks from my mom – with plenty of kissing, cuddling and flirting while we were sat there. Carly was reprising her role as peace-maker, occasionally whispering to Sam when her gaze began to narrow too much.

Eventually, shortly after 11 p.m., my mom decided to call it a night. Carly decided this was a good opportunity to remove Sam from the equations and the two girls headed off to Trina's room so we decided to call it a night as well, further blackening Sam's features as Tori took my hand and we made our way clearly to the same bedroom. Any comment, though, was curtailed by Carly wishing us "goodnight", which we returned, before dragging Sam quickly away.

Tori pulled me quickly into her room, quickly closed and locked the door before moving in for a long, luxurious and passionate kiss.

"Finally" she groaned, leaning back against the door, a gleam of lust and desire in her eyes. "It's been too long babe."

I could only agree as I stepped back into her embrace and returned my lips to hers.