Paternal Bonds

Disclaimer: I don't own iCarly. I keep it simple.

A/N: Thoughts in "Italics" and regular speech in "Regular font." Only applied if in quotes.

A/N: By the way, everybody is 26 in this story, except Spencer who would be older. I doubt he'll be mentioned much. Please read this regardless of their age. It will all make sense, I promise. They have to be this old in the story.

Chapter 18 (Just Chatting)

The group sat in a hotel room, the hotel itself was all the way in Florida, no chance of anyone looking for them there, if anybody was looking for them. Chances were Hector probably wanted them found, and fast. Sam lay on the bed and sighed, it definitely was more comfortable than a hard and cold floor. "So, you've been searching for me for ten years?" Sam asked while rolling on her back. "Both you and Carly?"

"Carly has as well, yes," Freddie said as he sat on the bed next to Sam, he ran his hand through Sam's hair and smiled.

"They kept saying Carly was so shallow." Carly crossed her arms and narrowed her eyes.

"I'm not shallow…Oh and Freddie, I saw the critiques on my movie." Freddie raised his eyebrow and Carly's eyes stayed narrow. "A C! You gave my movie a C."

"It was actually a C," Freddie said quietly. Sam giggled and shook her head.

"So, you became a real actress," Sam said with a smile.

"Yes, a famous director sent us, as in you and me a note requesting we become actors." Carly sighed and closed her eyes. "You left before I could ever tell you about it."

"Good you took the offer on your part."

"Yeah, but it didn't feel the same, I had wanted you there with me."

"Well, I think I would have turned it down."

"Oh…well it still would have been better if I had been able to tell you." Sam nodded and shrugged her shoulders, she looked over to Mrs. Briggs and blinked.

"I'm still surprised to see Mrs. Briggs coming to my rescue."

"Well she's my bodyguard, I would have forced her to come even if she didn't want to." Carly grinned and Mrs. Briggs let out a chuckle.

"I'm getting older, I felt a desire to see one of my students again," Mrs. Briggs said with a smile. "I'm personally glad that I came, I go where I am needed and I was needed."

"Everyone here was needed for something," Jonah said with a smile. "Valerie gave us the inside reports, since she was already on the inside."

"Jonah's the one that told us who it was," Freddie said quietly. "Carly and I didn't believe him at first when he said Hector, so naturally I was just suspicious and didn't believe it was him until my dear editor paid a visit. He also spotted a drawing of Angie's, I couldn't let him figure out that Angie was safe though."

"And she is safe now?" Sam asked with a small smile.

"I suspect that when I told Tina to make sure Angie was safe, this was while being held up in the cell, Tina, Robert and Angie probably moved over to the safe-house. There's a small house like place behind my mansion, it has this secret area that allows people to go underground. The place under the ground is huge, it's like a whole other house, composed of everything you'd find in a home."

"So if they're in there and Hector decided to visit, he wouldn't find them?"

"That is correct." Sam smiled softly and closed her eyes, so was so happy to know that her daughter was truly protected. "My chauffer is also like a bodyguard, he's guarding the mansion from any shady characters. He wouldn't let Hector near the mansion while I'm away, that's a strict rule, when I'm not in the house, keep a close eye on all people. Tina and Robert are smart enough to tell him that Hector is a man that should immediately be removed from the compound."

"If he helped you get to where you became, couldn't he just as easily destroy you?"

"That won't happen," Henry said with a smirk. "My son here made ninety percent of his wealth and all himself. Hector is merely a tool that got him where he was today, and we all know what happens when a tool gets old or the owner doesn't have any more use for it."

"It gets tossed aside," Della said with a chuckle. "Hector Puckett is an old tool that Freddie doesn't have any use for whatsoever."

"Anyway, let's not talk about that man right now," Amy said with a sigh. "Let's talk how great it is that my daughter is back!"

"I never thought so many people could care," Sam said with a frown. "I always thought nobody was ever searching for me."

"On the contrary, everyone searched hard for you," Jake said with his arms crossed. "The trouble was, you never were able to stay in one place."

"How could we not try to find you?" Jonah asked with his arms crossed. "Even knowing the danger of the situation, we couldn't just leave you to be hurt even more. It took longer than we wanted, but we still managed to get you out of that hellhole."

"I personally have no regrets at all," Spencer said with a smirk. "The only thing is I won't be able to put those three men behind bars. Of course, death for Jeremy, Gibby and Nevel was only deserving for them."

"Suppose it was a good thing to leave the weapons in the mansion to be blown up?" Carly asked while tapping her chin. Freddie nodded, it was best to dispose of them, he didn't want to keep the guns.

"We only went in there for two things and we needed to leave only with those two people," Freddie stated. "We won that battle, and we had no use for those weapons. Also, Carly's been in way too many action roles."

"Yeah, why are those the only films you ever rate as more than maybe a B?"

"Possibly because your other roles are horrible."

"Romance is not a horrible thing. Drama is good, even some of the tragedies are good."

"No, the tragedies are tragedies." Freddie smirked and Carly blinked once, she then narrowed her eyes.

"You're saying my tragedies are that bad?"

"Yes."

"Freddie Benson, I will totally hurt you!"

"Sorry, you can't touch me." Freddie grinned and Carly frowned.

"No, but as an actress, I can blackmail you!"

"Really, and how is that?"

"You have a maid, right?" Freddie raised his eyebrow and sighed.

"A maid that is engaged to my butler, yes. One, I know you would never blackmail me and two, don't try pulling the cliché maid thing on me."

"What's cliché about it?"

"It's done in every movie! It's done in your movies. Seriously, how many movies have you starred in where your boyfriend was having an affair with a maid. How many movies were you in where you were the maid?"

"Uh, guys, let's stop talking about that," Sam said quietly. Freddie and Carly realized how they were sounding to Sam, so they instantly stopped. "Carly, don't bring things like that up, please."

"I'm sorry," Carly said cautiously. "I didn't mean to make it sound like anything at all. Freddie has never dated Tina."

"I should know," Jake said with a laugh. "I'm the guy's best friend who's been trying to get him to go out with some girl and he never did. He definitely never found Tina the slightest bit attractive."

"Guys, I think we can stop talking about my maid," Freddie said with narrow eyes. "It's a bit disrespectful for her and it's making Sam feel a bit uncomfortable I believe."

"So, Jake is your best friend now?" Sam asked with a raised eyebrow and making an effort to change the subject. She was really hoping to meet Tina, she had heard so much about her and thought that she was a nice lady who she could be friends with.

"Yeah, we've been best friends since you left," Jake stated with a nod.

"Yeah, once Carly moved to Hollywood, there was nobody left to do anything with," Freddie said with a small shrug. "So I started hanging out with Jake, it's pretty good that I did, he's a good person to know."

"Gee, thanks for that."

"Of course the dude is more perverted than any other person I know."

"Thanks for that." Jake's voice had sarcasm in it and his eyes were narrowed. "Hey, you'll be thanking my perverted ways one day!" Freddie rubbed his chin and looked at Sam, he then smiled softly and looked back at Jake.

"You're right, Jake, thank you. You and your stupid friend that owned that site, thank you for being so perverted that you are quick to check every video when it first appeared on that site. Also, thank you that you didn't watch the video for more than a few seconds." Sam blinked, clueless as to whatever they were talking about at the moment. Jake smirked and crossed his arms.

"How could I watch it? It would have been both sick and wrong." Sam narrowed her eyes and remembered the phone conversation and how they mentioned a video, she also remembered the incident several months ago that one of the people filmed, she narrowed her eyes and sighed.

"I'm not sure exactly what you are talking about," Sam stated. "But please, stop talking…now." Sam crossed her arms and sighed. "I'm not above giving an atomic wedgie to both of you." Freddie and Jake looked at Sam and then chuckled.

"By the way, I noticed a stab wound on Jeremy's back," Jonah said with a smirk. "Did one of you girls do that?" Valerie laughed lightly and Sam raised her hand in the air.

"Another moment I'm thankful that Valerie brought me that food and gave me that knife," Sam said with a grin. "But I still want to know, if you were on their side Valerie, what would have been your reason?"

"I said I had my own reasons, but that was just a way of saying that I didn't have any reasons," Valerie said with a sigh. "There was nothing you ever did to me, I couldn't have hated you if I tried. Even back in school when you lied about joining my webcast and you won Freddie back over, I knew I deserved what I got in the end. I would have tried to be your friend, but I had always thought that you'd hate me and never want to talk to me, I didn't stand a chance of being your friend."

"That's actually the same way I felt about Freddie over there," Jonah said with a chuckle. "The guy beat me up!"

"Wait, I never knew he did that," Sam said while bringing her hand to her mouth and smiling brightly. Jonah narrowed his eyes and huffed as he crossed his arms.

"Yeah, well he did."

"Yeah, who would have guessed, he works out," Jake said with a chuckle.

"I go to the gym regularly," Freddie said with a shrug.

"Yeah but the first punching bag you ever used…"

"Don't go there."

"Me!" Jonah exclaimed. "I was the first stinking punching bag."

"Not comfortable with it now that I think about it," Sam said while rubbing her chin.

"Yeah, but at the time, I did deserve it," Jonah said with a sigh. "Though it was not long after the wedgie bounce incident." Jonah's eyes narrowed and he shook his head.

"I have a question, did my leaving really make iCarly end?" Freddie and Carly looked at each other and sighed.

"Actually there was no way to continue it without you," Carly said quietly. "It just wasn't possible. Besides, we were getting to old for it and I had moved to Hollywood to be an actor."

"What really ended it was Carly leaving," Freddie stated.

"Yeah, but I make sure to still associate myself with him and what does he do? He rates all my movies as a blasted C!" Everyone in the room laughed and Carly sighed. "When he'll rate a move A, I will never know." Freddie smirked and closed his eyes.

"Carly, I think I'll let you know something."

"What?"

"I rate your performance here as an A+."

"Huh?"

"Well sure it's not a movie but real life, reality is always deserving of a good grade. Every single one of you guys did an A+ worthy job in getting Sam out of that building. I mean it, your rescue of my group, how each of you worked together and how everyone set their minds on one common goal and not their own selfish actions and saved Sam and Valerie. It's all A+ worthy."

"Uh…thanks." The room grew silent and everyone looked at Freddie and Sam, each with a small smile on their faces.

"I'm thankful for each of you, I couldn't be more proud of you guys.

"Aw, what are you, the group father?" Henry asked with a light chuckle.

"No, more like the group leader," Amy said with a smirk.

"Okay, now you guys are embarrassing me," Freddie said with narrow eyes. "Anyway, let's all take a rest before leaving, check out the hotel and some of the sights around here if you want. We should probably leave in about two or three hours. That will give us all plenty of time to just kick back and relax."

"Yeah, let's do that," Jonah said as he wrapped his arm around Valerie's waist. "I could use a swim, what about you, Val?"

"Maybe…" Valerie smirked and kissed Jonah's cheek. "Anyway, let's give Freddie and Sam some time to talk about old times on their own."

"Yeah, we may watch some television," Sam said with a shrug. "I don't feel like leaving this bed for a while." Sam gave a contented sigh and everyone in the room nodded, with that, everyone but Freddie parted from the room to go their separate ways, they would meet back in the room a couple hours later.

The first moment of relaxation for everyone in a while, but man they have to be tired! You'll note that none of them went to sleep.