AN: Hello everyone and welcome to the next chapter of this story. SirRay, little is known about Mr Vega as he doesn't get much screen time to say one way or the other about how he is or will be treated.

Friday morning was a rather frosty affair. Freddie and I had an early breakfast before our guests got up. I drove him into the city to work and returned home just as his mom got up: she was unaware of the sleeping arrangements, Carly and Sam were not and Sam, once she'd surfaced, made several veiled references that made her feelings abundantly clear: I really didn't care that she was very annoyed, I just looked evenly at her while she shot her snide comments; until Marissa was out of earshot, at which point I leaned across the table and told her

"He's with me: deal with it" which shut her up, particularly with Carly urging her to drop it.

Freddie's mom returned and I asked brightly

"So, what do you guys want to do today while Freddie's at work?" They had no real ideas so I just took them downtown to The Citadel Factory Outlet mall. Unsurprisingly, it being Black Friday, they were busy. We quickly ditched Marissa when she went to browse a couple of stores, the lure of the Food Court proved too much for Sam which left Carly and I together. She proved to be extremely pleasant company, especially when she suddenly declared

"I'm thrilled for you both!" before enveloping me in a hug. "Freddie is such a great guy. I wish, and I told him this before, that I could have thought of him as more than a friend, but I never did. I told him that I knew there was a great girl waiting for him out there somewhere and I'm so, so glad it's you Tori. You two make such a cute and awesome couple."

"Thanks Carly" I said, warmly and sincerely, "he really is great and has been so good to me."

"Yeah and don't worry about Sam; she'll mellow eventually" she continued doubtfully. I shrugged.

"I really don't care: as I said last night she had her chance and blew it, I'm not going to make the same mistake." The last comment drew a warm, albeit slightly wry, smile from Carly.

"Make sure you don't."

The two of us spent a cheerful half-hour or so together just trawling the stores until Sam texted Carly and came to find us. She was still icy, I was still ambivalent; I genuinely could not care less that she has a problem with Freddie and me being a couple. Carly made conversation between us as we continued to walk around the mall. Eventually we caught up with Marissa, now laden with bags. It was approaching lunchtime so the four of us hit the Food Court (amazingly Sam was ready for another meal already) and afterwards I took them to Hollywood Arts to see my school. The building itself was, of course, mostly shut for Thanksgiving but I was able to show off the campus, look in a few windows to see the classrooms, show them the Asphalt café and regale them with some of the stories from my career here to date. We stayed on campus until Freddie's shift ended, collected him and went back home, where he and I made a start on dinner – reheated left-over turkey, some potatoes and vegetables – while we listened to Freddie's tales of his hectic day at work.

"We didn't stop all day" he noted "management will be happy but we were all exhausted by the end of the day. It was fun in a way though, that kind of day really brings a team together; in a strange way we all enjoyed it."

Due to Freddie's fatigue we settled for a quiet night in, making plans to have a night out tomorrow before they headed home on the Sunday. So we simply watched a little TV and talked for a while before Freddie, pleading exhaustion, headed to my room. Under his mother's watchful eye I stayed a few minutes longer before deciding to turn in, bidding my guests goodnight.

"I thought you'd never show up" Freddie joked as I slipped into my room.

"I'm here now" I said, climbing on top of my bed and into his arms.

Saturday morning saw me wake up the best way I know how – in Freddie's arms. His eyes were shut so I assumed he was still asleep, but I couldn't resist leaning in to give him a peck on the lips. A smile began to grow on his face so I went in for a repeat. His eyes slowly opened as I pulled back, his smile broadened and he leaned in to plant a slow, luxurious kiss on my own.

"Good morning" I said when he eventually freed my lips.

"Hey" he returned. I leaned in for another soft kiss.

"Much as this is a great way to spend the morning" he began after we pulled apart, "we're meeting your friends in a couple of hours and we need to have breakfast and get ready."

"I know" I grumbled.

Freddie groaned, wriggled out of bed, grabbed some clothes and headed for a shower. I slipped on a robe, grabbed some underwear, jeans and a T-shirt and snuck into my parents' en-suite to take my own shower (figuring if I joined Freddie in mine then we'd definitely be late meeting the HA gang).

I returned to my room dressed and ready for the day to find Freddie laid on my bed reading. He was dressed in one of his shirts on over a white undershirt and dark blue jeans. As I stepped into the room he looked up from his magazine at me.

"Ready?" he asked, climbing off the bed and closing the distance between us.

"Yep" I confirmed, seizing his hand and we headed down to the kitchen.

Entering the living area we saw that Marissa was already up and sat at the table. She quickly hid an expression of shock at seeing us surface together, replacing it with one that screamed disapproval. She turned her back on us and walked to the coffee maker, looking over her shoulder to us offering us a drink. I decided it safest to accept without further comment. Marissa poured two cups and set them down on the table where we were sat. Her expression now was more impassive, a hint of a forced smile trying to break through. Before any words could be exchanged, however, Carly bounced into the room followed by a groggy and reluctant Sam.

"Morning girls" Freddie greeted them with a smile. I smiled at them and raised my coffee cup in greeting.

"Hey everyone" said Carly brightly. Sam simply grunted. Marissa, seemingly reluctantly, rose again and poured two more cups of coffee for the new arrivals. "Mmm" Carly continued, taking her first sip of the brew, "much better than the stuff Spencer gives me on a morning."

Breakfast was a little less frosty today, though neither Sam nor Marissa looked too happy. Carly, meanwhile, was positively beaming at us throughout. Several times Freddie looked over at her smile and this widened his own grin.

Once we'd finished our meal we set out to meet my friends at the local Jet Brew. The Seattle girls complained that we should go to Skybucks instead but I explained that Jade prefers this franchise – and we all know better than to argue with Jade about her coffee.

"This may be disloyal of me to a Seattle company" Freddie piped up, "but I prefer Jet Brew too now" which earned him howls of derision from the others.

On reaching the café we placed our orders and collected them. As we set up camp at one of the larger tables Beck and Jade showed up. Beck said a quick hi before heading to the counter, Jade took a seat giving a cool but cordial greeting to Carly and Sam and a slightly warmer one for Marissa. As Beck returned with their drinks and took a seat next to his girlfriend, André, Cat and Robbie (with Rex, of course) arrived and joined the group. They were more effusive with their greetings to our visitors than Jade had been, taking genuine interest in how they were. Carly talked openly to them, Sam was rather more guarded and continued to cast her eye towards Freddie and me while the conversation progressed (something not lost on Jade, who also shot me glances whenever she caught Sam looking at us).

Having drained our coffees we talked some more, Freddie and I tried our best to keep his mom in the conversation and make sure she didn't feel left out among our discussions. She was a little curt, likely still remembering the scene from this morning, but seemed appreciative of our efforts.

On leaving Jet Brew we travelled around LA for the morning, seeing some of the sights of the city; starting with a DUCK tour: great fun and something that, as a native, I wouldn't necessarily have thought of doing. Out of that we came up with a handful of other locations people wanted to see: the famous Hollywood sign, Bradbury building, Bunker Hill park. As Marissa didn't want to go to Bunker Hill, but Carly and Sam did, Beck offered to take her (with Freddie and Jade tagging along) to the Public Library and we met up later with them in the Fashion District before going our separate ways. Freddie, Carly, Sam, Marissa and I went home, had the last of the Thanksgiving turkey before making plans for the evening. We decided to take the girls to Karaoke Dokie (Marissa decided to stay home but Sam was eager to see the scene of Freddie's 'triumph', Carly was eager to sing and I signed Freddie and I up for a duet of "Hate Me, Love Me". Carly wowed the crowd with a rendition of "Shakespeare", not too surprising really; Freddie told me that she had originally sung it at a wedding before the song's writer had had it professionally produced, recorded and released. Meanwhile Sam was busily eating her way through a couple of plates of Buffalo nuggets – and still glowering whenever she looked at Freddie and me, particularly during our song. It's probably wrong of me but her attitude just makes me want to give Freddie even more PDAs than usual – more frequent AND more affectionate. Looking at the two girls the contrast between Sam being all frowny and Carly being all gooey could scarcely be greater. We listened to a few more people sing, shared a little more food, then headed home in good time to make sure the girls could pack and be ready for their flight back to Seattle in the morning.

That night in bed I was cuddling my brown-eyed boy, enjoying the after-glow, when I decided that Sam's attitude had to be broached: so long as Freddie could call Seattle home and so long as he and Carly (or for that matter Carly and I) were friends, Sam would be in the picture and, as fun as watching her reaction was, it could make life difficult going forward.

"What's going on with Sam?" I asked him. "Does she still love you? Why else would she react the way she does to seeing you and me together?"

"I don't think you ever know what's really going through her head" he said slowly before sniggering "other than 'I want food' of course." He pulled me closer, kissed my forehead then continued, while trailing his right hand over my midriff absent-mindedly, "You know the argument over me deciding to come here." I nodded as he continued talking "After graduation we talked, cleared the air a little, though looking back she came as close as she ever will to admitting – to me or herself – that she was hasty in breaking up with me. And, looking at her other boyfriends over the years I've known her, maybe you touched a nerve with what you said on the show: she's never done better. Perhaps she sees what we have and thinks it should be her, not you; maybe regretting the choices she made that led to it being you and not her."

"So in another universe you're laid next to her at this moment?" I asked with a hint of fear about what he may be getting at. He sighed.

"I don't know Tori. I feel more for you than I ever did for Sam, so would we ever have got this far? I can't answer that. If we'd never broken up would I have applied to and gone to UCLA? I can't say that either." He looked at me, saw the fear on my face and stared deep into my eyes before continuing "All I can say is that I love you Tori Vega and I wouldn't change a thing if it meant going to another of those universes where I'm not with you right here and right now" before kissing me with a passion and an intensity that I've scarcely felt from him before.

"I love you Freddie Benson" I responded, "more than words can say."

He smirked.

"So let's say it without words."

I smiled in acquiescence as he shifted his weight and rolled me onto my back.

We woke early on the Sunday, ate a final breakfast with the Seattle girls and made our way through the light Sunday morning traffic to Los Angeles Airport, parked the car and got our guests to check-in.

Their flight was called, boarding was beginning so we said our farewells, Carly giving both of us a huge hug, Sam a rather less enthusiastic one and Marissa somewhere between the two for me. She hugged and kissed her son then, with the girls out of earshot and heading through the departure gate (likely hoping to land seats somewhere they could be apart from Mrs Benson); she looked my boyfriend in the eye and asked him

"Fredward, where did you sleep this weekend?"

Freddie took a deep breath.