Carly Shay switched back on her microphone, "Welcome back, and now that Gibby is pudding-free-"

"Well, almost. I think there's still some in my belly button." Gibby interrupted, sticking his finger into his belly button.

"Thank you, Gibby, for that completely unnecessary clarification. But now it's that time in the show where we chat with YOU the listeners," Carly pressed the first button on her console, activating the classic "Random Chatting!" sound effect.

"Gibby, who do we have on line one?" she asked.

"We have Adam from right here in Seattle," Gibby replied, connecting the call.

"Hey Adam, welcome to the show," Carly said cheerfully.

"Thanks, Carly, I'm gonna just cut to the chase, I don't know if you remember me but we actually went out once; well almost. Kinda. Basically, I went to Webicon for you, and then I got beat up by all your fans." Adam said plainly.

"Oh my God! Adam? I thought you moved like, forever ago." Carly exclaimed, momentarily forgetting she was on a live podcast.

"Yeah, I actually did. I started getting death threats and stuff so I had to transfer schools and move away for a while. But I'm back! And uhhh, well, I wanted to know if you wanted to retry that date. If you're still single I mean." Adam said smoothly.

Carly was shocked, Adam was always 'the one that got away' in her mind. But it was so long ago that she wasn't sure if she had possibly blown the whole situation out of proportion.

"I don't know what to say," she said, attempting (and failing) to hide her excitement.

"You could say no." Gibby chimed in.

"Gibby!" Carly snapped, "Sure Adam, I'd like that." She said, sheepishly.

"Great. Email me your number and I'll give you a call." Adam said, grinning through his words.

Melanie sat in the hospital room reading a book. It was her favorite, Charlotte's Web. She had read it too many times to count. Charlotte's Web was a classic, obviously, but that isn't why she loved it so much. Melanie looked up from her book to her mother and sister, both fast asleep. She smiled to herself, recalling the first time she ever read the novel, the real reason she fell in love with this particular book. She was only eleven then, her mother had just gotten liposuction, and Sam was sick with the flu. Melanie's teacher said that Charlotte's Web was her very favorite book and loaned her a copy. That night, after Sam had her Nyquil and Pam had her pain medication and they were both drowsy. Melanie sat down on the barstool the Puckett family kept in the living room.

"My teacher said this book always made her feel better. Can I read it to you?" she had asked shyly, fully expecting a witty comeback from her sister or a groan from her mother. But to her surprise and delight, she got neither.

"Sure kiddo, go ahead." her mother said groggily. Sam grunted and shrugged in agreement. Melanie recalled opening the book excitedly, she had been practicing reading aloud at school a lot and was quite proud of her popcorn reading skills. As Melanie read to the only family she had ever known, she remembered feeling like every happy TV family she'd ever seen.

The Pucketts almost never spent time together, even back then, and when they did they always fought. Well, mostly Sam and their mother. Melanie was always very quiet and not a fan of confrontation, which was good because the other Puckett women loved confrontation. But despite everything, Melanie couldn't imagine life without them. And after she heard her mother was in an accident Melanie promised herself that she wouldn't take a second she had with her family for granted. She hadn't told anyone yet, but Melanie was going to move back to Seattle, her mother could have died and Melanie couldn't bear the idea of losing her mother, especially losing her while she was a hundred miles away. Melanie could only hope Sam felt the same way.

Freddie had left the hospital shortly after his conversation with Sam. He would have stayed longer but he figured Sam and Melanie would want to spend some time alone with their mom. It felt weird seeing Sam again, and yet, in a way, it also felt comfortable. Like she had never left. Freddie was torn from his thoughts when his phone began to ring. He paired it to his earpiece and answered. "Go for Freddie."

"Go for Freddie? You sound like a lawyer or something," Carly mocked from the other side of the call.

"Yeah, yeah, so what's up?" Freddie replied rolling his eyes.

"Just finished up my show, wanted to make sure you still planned to be on next week," she replied, all business.

"I do, Brad is working on a basic demonstration as we speak," Freddie responded with pride.

"Cool, it's gonna be good to see you again. It's been a while," Carly said, taken aback as she tried to remember the last time they saw each other.

"Speaking of, did Sam call you?" Freddie asked, now just making conversation.

"Sam? No. Why?" Carly asked, clearly caught off guard.

"Yeah, she's in town. Because of her mom?" Freddie responded, trying to help her out.

"What happened to Sam's mom?" this was all news to Carly.

"Oh, never mind." Freddie winced and hung up. "Real smooth Benson. That wasn't awkward at all," he thought aloud.

*Click*

"He hung up on me," Carly said to herself, slightly agitated.

If Sam was in town why wouldn't she have called? Surely Sam knew she was back from Italy. Although, now that Carly thought about it she wasn't sure when the last time the two girls had spoken to one another was. But this was an opportunity Carly couldn't miss. Freddie was already supposed to be on her next video podcast and Sam was in town? They could finally do a reunion episode of iCarly! She had to make this happen. Carly quickly dialed Sam's awoke to her ringtone. Sam sat up and looked around, her mother still lying motionless in her hospital bed, and Melanie was curled up in another chair across the room holding a book against her chest. Sam couldn't see the cover but knew exactly which book her twin sister had brought. Sam picked up her phone Carly Shay was the name illuminated on her pearphone. Carly was calling her? Sam hadn't heard anything from her old friend in years, she didn't think Carly cared anymore. Sam quickly answered the call.

"Hey Carls, what goes on?" Sam said, trying to curb her excitement.

"Hey, Sam! It's been a while. Listen, I don't know if you've heard but Gibby and I turned iCarly into a video podcast and it would be super cool if you could come by and do an episode with the three of us. For old times' sake. The fans of my show would love it," Carly said, cutting to the chase to avoid any awkwardness.

That hurt. Carly didn't care at all, she just wanted Sam to boost her podcast numbers.

"Maybe. I'm pretty busy spending time with my severely injured mother," Sam said, bitterly.

"Oh my God, that's right, Freddie told me something happened to your mom. I'm sorry. What happened?" Carly said, embarrassed by her lack of empathy.

"Oh, Freddie told you? At least you still talk to one of us I guess. She was in a car accident," Sam replied begrudgingly.

"I'm so sorry. Freddie just told me something happened to her, I didn't know," Carly was devastated, the first time she had heard from Sam in years and all she could think about was her show.

"It's fine. Sorry Carls, I'm just trying to take everything in still. I can do an episode of your show, just not yet. I got stuff to do," replied the blonde.

"Don't worry about it. Just take care of your mom. We'll talk soon okay?" Carly said sympathetically.

"Okay. And I'm sorry about being a skunkbag before," Sam apologized.

"You're not a skunkbag Sam. You're just going through a lot right now," said Carly hanging up.

Now that sounded more like the Carly Shay that Sam once knew.