Chapter VII: iCarly: iT's Been a Long Time Coming, iNside of My Head
Hey Everyone, you all know I don't own Jack, so here goes:
This is where I meet the challenge of proving to everyone that yes, Freddie is the fool in this entire situation. Not because he's missing some off beat truth of the universe, or because he and Sam are destined for one another. Alas, you'll see why as the story unfolds.
He's been at this for days.
Fredward Benson was, as he had been for well over a month now, cooped up in his room after the day's classes. It was dark out, though the hour of day escaped Freddie at this particular moment. He was too close to his goal not to keep at it. He had eliminated ninety five percent of the possible places Samantha Joy Puckett could have gone, and he was so close to finding her now he could taste it. At first Kim had been worried about Freddie, and the late hours he'd been keeping during his search for his old friend.
In fact she'd been worried for his mental well being as well. His physical health had remained strong, somehow, even with the lack of sleep that he was imposing upon himself hadn't begun to take its toll. It was almost like there was something else driving him. He wasn't Kim's Freddie anymore. Or at least, not the Freddie that she had been getting to know over the last ten months or so. He was a man possessed.
She had always known that he was a good friend. She knew that he would do anything for his friends if they needed him. In fact that was one of the things that had attracted her to Freddie to begin with. This however, was something else entirely. When Freddie finished with his morning workout, he went to class, at lunch, he was in the library on the internet tracking down a new lead in his search for his missing friend. After lunch, back to class, and finally, practice. Being that Freddie was now on two of the school's sports teams his day was shot from there, until the later evening, at which time it was right back to his search, and thus, right back to his room. It was as if he had no time for their little adventures anymore.
The saddest part of the whole situation was that Kimiko was more then willing to help Freddie in any way that she could. All he had to do was ask, or just let her in. The problem was, he had barely said more then a "hey babe," or a "how was class?" to her in days. She was trying with all her might to understand what he was going through, having someone you knew your whole life suddenly disappear off the face of the Earth. Yet she couldn't help but wonder if that was the only thing distracting her boy friend. After all, the girl he was searching for was the very same Blonde Headed Demon who had broken his heart over Winter Holiday. "Oh, Freddie, what's going on inside of your head?"
Truth be told, he was asking himself that very same question. Every dead end he met in his search just gave him ten new ideas. He'd already eliminated any form of purchases using Sam's bank accounts. Or Carly's, Gibby's, Melanie's, Sam's mother's, Spencer's, or Principal Franklin's either. He'd even checked his own account to make sure Sam hadn't pulled any wire transfers from it, and they were all a no go. All he had been able to find was that she had emptied her own bank accounts to their bare minimum, as to keep them from being charged with any maintenance fees, and seemingly let them lapse. That however was two weeks before she had evaporated from the face of the planet.
He'd contacted everyone he could think of that might have a bead on Sam. Even going so far as to call her Uncle Carmine, the man who's father had "adopted" Sam's own during the years of his rough and tumble youth before being institutionalized for life upon his third strike in the state of California during an attempted robbery. He had figured that if Sam was going to be in touch with anyone it would be the one guy who could help keep everyone else off of her tail. Sad thing was, that Carmine had said he was worried about the girl, and if Carmine Puckett was honest about anything, it was Sam.
Another Time:
"Seriously Fredwich, I'm broken, I just don't see how you can really love me as much as you claim to. It would be better for you if I had really hated you all these years. That way I couldn't drag you down with me." The blonde said in an exasperated breath after he'd told her he loved her for the fourth time that afternoon. It was the day after they had admitted their feelings for each other, and Sam was doing what she always did when she cared about something.
Freddie laughed at her attempts to push him away. "You know Sam, every time you have a problem, you respond the same way."
The eyebrow over Sam's ice blue right ocular rose in an effort to express her interest in Freddie's statement.
"What's that?"
"You push it away." The brunette boy said exasperatedly, as he pulled his new girlfriend down in to his lap and wrapped her tight in his arms.
"Well obviously that isn't working…" Sam chided playfully, whispering in to Freddie's ear as she did so.
"That's what I'm afraid of." The man beneath her said in response, so quietly that she couldn't hear his words.
Finally after three weeks of searching Freddie had thought he came across what might have been a Sam sighting at a concert in Memphis. He'd tracked down an obscure cousin of Sam's Father by blood to that city, and he'd read something about a teenaged female hooligan smashing to guys faces in for getting fresh at a Cuttlefish show. However when the police were making their arrests the young woman, described as about 5'3", 120 pounds, with blue eyes, curly blonde hair, and a crazy smirk, had managed to evade them yelling something along the lines of "You'll never take me alive coppers!"
That had brought a smirk to Freddie's face. If this crazy fugitive really was his quarry, the missing Samantha Joy Puckett, then that was just like her. She was always running away from her problems. Just like she would run away when Briggs caught her beating up some poor nerd at school. Or vandalizing the football team's lockers because their quarterback had called Carly a prude. Or stealing fat cakes from the student store's delivery truck, while forcing Gibby to be her lookout. Running Away was how Sam always escaped from her problems.
Yet another day in the past, much longer ago then the last:
"WHEW! I BARELY MADE IT!" Sam yelled, as she burst through the door of Carly's apartment, almost falling on her face as she doubled over to grab her knees. Her breaths were ragged and shallow as she attempted to regain her composure.
"What did you do now, delinquent?" Freddie teased, raising an eyebrow in one of his trademark lopsided smirks. His tone was chiding, but there was something there in his words that made Sam's lips perk. Was that flirtation in his voice?
"I beat up a senior," Sam said, smiling proudly as she finally caught her second wind and hopped over the back of the couch to flop by the dork's side. "Alex Beckman, the quarterback for the Varsity Team. After that the Defensive Line started chasing me down, and I bolted."
"Why do you always run from your problems Sam?" Freddie asked, looking toward the beautiful blonde at his left, and wondering why he couldn't just say what he was thinking. Why did she always run from him when he was trying to tell her how he really feels.
"Because, that's what Pucketts do, and I'm the most Puckett-ific Puckett there ever was." Sam started dying of laughter at her own joke after that. Freddie just smiled, a seemingly amused smile, that was truthfully sad and downtrodden. Sam could see right through it.
"What's eating your Galaxy Wars briefs Benson?" She asked, raising his chin to force him to look in to her eyes.
"Why did you beat up Alex, Sam?" Freddie asked, after pushing her hand away from his chin, and pretending to wipe away her germs with his sleeve. He had to keep up appearances that he hated her after all. It wouldn't do if she knew the truth, she'd kill him, or run away like she always did. That was his Sam Puckett, the girl he'd secretly been falling for these past months. She ran away, to protect herself from the world, she ran.
"Because, the jerk called you Freddork when he was talking to his friends," Sam said with a dismissive wave of her hand.
Freddie's eyes lit up with that admission, as he looked back to Sam again quizzically. "So, you do that all the time. Why'd you beat him up for it?"
"'Cause, beating you up, verbally and physically is Momma's job. It's our thing Freddie, no one else gets to do that but Me."
Freddie smiled wider, and genuinely with those words from the demon. Maybe going to Barcelona to better himself for Sam wasn't such a bad idea after all. If he got strong enough then maybe the next time she ran, he could catch her.
That's why he was having so much trouble figuring out the cause behind her entire disappearance, what was Sam running from? What had happened after he'd left to return to Spain? Had she suddenly grown a conscience after ripping his heart out and snacking on it in his face? It was all just too much for one man's thoughts to process. Freddie needed a second opinion. Frankly, because asking himself: "What's going on inside of my head?", as he tried to figure it out on his own, just wasn't doing the trick. So here he was, leaned back in his computer desk chair after another long evening of searching, and staring across the main square of the SVA campus toward Kimiko's room, hoping to the powers that be that she wasn't angry at him for being so distracted lately. He could really use some of her energy and adventurous spirit in trying to track down the wild beast that was his old friend, because whether he wanted to admit it or not, Sam and Kim were a lot more alike then one might think.
Standing up, Freddie slid his feet in to an old pair of Converses, with the laces tied just loosely enough to allow them to be slip ons, and headed for the door of his room. Turning the handle Freddie pondered the clues that he had thus far. Sam had almost certainly been in Tennessee. Carmine had no idea where she was, and his resources were extensive, and varied. She wasn't traveling in any way that could generate a paper trail that could be followed back to her personally. Her twin and Carly were both concerned for her well being, and there was one other thing.
She had been continually updating her status on Splashface and to insure everyone that she was safe. Unfortunately Sam was a lot more tech savvy then anyone (other then maybe Freddie who had built a website for her according to very exact specifications in the past) was aware of. She had managed to bounce her ISP off of various different hubs until the original location had become lost in the jumble. Too lost even for Freddie to be able to find. That left him with only one option, think like the beast.
Another Day, another dollar spent on therapy:
"I just don't get why you beat on me so much Puckett!" Freddie spat one particular afternoon.
"Somebody's got to do it," Sam responded flatly, raising the left side of her mouth in a half smirk.
"That's not a real answer Samantha!" Freddie almost screamed, his voice having raised quite a bit, only wavering on the last word as he realized what he had called Sam. She was going to attack him again.
In response she pounced, knocking him back on to the couch in Carly's living room with a resounding thud. "First off, don't ever raise your voice at me!"
Sam ordered exasperatedly her self. "Second, I mean that someone has to toughen you up because sitting around pining over Carly all day long isn't going to do it. Neither is being coddled by your mother. You're Sixteen Freddie, a man… sort of. You need to learn to act like one."
Finally finished with her tirade, Sam got up off of his lap and brushed her self, shaking her head back and forth disappointedly.
"Why would you do it though Sam? You hate me right? You make it a point to say so almost every day. Why do you care if I toughen up or not? Or how manly I am?" That was the question burning the brightest in Freddie's mind, the one part her understood least of this puzzle that was Sam Puckett.
"Try to think like the beast Freddie, then maybe you'll finally get a clue and catch on!" Sam said, before almost jumping to her feet, and storming out of Carly's apartment door with a slam.
At that moment Carly came walking downstairs, jibber jabbering on her phone with someone or another, eyebrow raised at Freddie, who was sitting dumbfounded on her couch, holding his head in his hands. What was getting him so down lately? Didn't he and Sam fight everyday, why did it seem like it was so much rougher on him all of a sudden.
That's when a crash from Spencer's room, and the smoke detector distracted Carly.
"WHAT NOW?"
So it was that he came to stand outside the girl's dorm building, lightly throwing pebbles toward his girlfriend's window sill, hoping that Kimiko wasn't yet asleep. He'd be lying if he tried to say that he hadn't realized how similar Sam and Kim's attitudes were, toward well, nearly everything. They both loved food, dancing (though they'd kill anyone who repeated that), fighting, cats (particularly mangy ones), violent video games, Girly Cow, and taking the lead. The things that set them apart were how they went about those things they didn't enjoy, while Sam was prone to lash out violently, Kim, more then likely do to her upbringing in the more stringent Japanese culture, was duty bound to suffer through them.
That, and Kim was much more honest with her feelings. Preferring to face anything that concerned her head on with her fists or wits, then run away from her problems. That was what Freddie was hoping would help him out in his current predicament. That drive to succeed, coupled with the previously listed similarities to Sam would hopefully assist Freddie in finally tracking down the elusive Blonde.
"Here goes nothing…" Freddie said, as he finally saw the light flick on in Kim's window.
That was three days ago, and Kim was finally able to rest at ease. She had her Freddie back, at least, a part of him. He was still driven to find his old friend and coworker, and he was still adamant that he was the only one who could do it, but he had asked her to help. He had needed her assistance in his search, and that had proved that he hadn't yet forgotten about her. That had shown her that she was still in Freddie's thoughts, and that was enough for now.
She would worry about the time spent without so much as a full conversation after they had found his friend. She wasn't sure if it was duty, or honor, or fear for this Sam girl's safety that drove Freddie to find her, but if that was what he wanted, then she would help. He had said that he needed a freer spirit's point of view, and that Kimiko was quite possibly the only person he knew that might have a spirit as free as Sam's. From their earliest days as friends, before the Winter Break that Freddie still hadn't told her much about, other then the fact that his heart had been broken, she knew much of this Samantha Joy Puckett.
She knew she was a fighter. She knew she was wild. She knew she was carefree. Quite frankly she sounded like just the kind of girl that Kim would love to get to know, if not for the fact that during said Winter Break she was rather certain that the Blonde had been the one who broke Freddie's heart. That alone had made her actually despise the blue eyed co-host of iCarly, every time they watched the show before her disappearance, Kim would shoot daggers from her eyes at the girl's digital image. She couldn't imagine why someone would want to hurt a kind, gentle, brave, handsome man like Freddie Benson.
That, she pondered as she stood behind Freddie watching him run the search for male adolescents adopted in Seattle, Washington over the last thirty years in to his lap top, was she and Sam's only irreconcilable difference. She thought the world of Fredward Allan Benson. While apparently Samantha Joy Puckett did not. "BINGO!""What is it Freddie-kun?" Kim said, wrapping her arms around her boyfriend's shoulders and leaning down upon them to get a better look over him and toward the screen. There on a list in front of the two now sat the highlighted name of Samantha's father. "Robert Henry Scott, was released from juvenile detention officer's custody to that of one Anthony Marcus Puckett, who would adopt the young man legally on March 2nd of the same year, in 1987, at the age of 15. Apparently the young Mr. Puckett, then still Scott, had run away from home in Tree Hill North Carolina seven months prior, with help from one Carmine Puckett, 17, son of Anthony, and had lead the police on a state to state man hunt performing various thefts the entire way. Upon reaching Seattle both Carmine and Robert were captured by local police, and turned in to custody of the Juvenile Detention Center of King County. After his parents had refused to accept him back in to their home upon his subsequent release, young Mr. Scott was made a ward of the state, who placed him in the custody of Mr. Anthony Puckett as a foster child until his eventual adoption, three weeks later."
"So, there you have it Freddie. The one place that someone who doesn't talk about the past might go to hide, the one place she's never told anyone about. Maybe you should call her mom and see if any of Sam's family still lives in this Tree Hill? No?" Kim suggested, after reading the excerpt about Sam's father aloud from the page. "That's what I would do if I had to run from something. I'd go to a place that I knew no one would ever come looking for me. Though that would be kind of hard, because between you and Ryo, I think you both know about all my special places."
Back in Seattle, during Winter Break…
"Freddie, you remember how you wanted to know why I run?" Sam asked, as she half slumbered peacefully, clutched to his chest with her head nuzzling him every few seconds.
"Yeah Sammy, I remember." He said, rubbing circles on her back with his hands as he held her tightly, reveling in the time alone they were getting to spend together tonight. Tomorrow was his last night home, so there would be no such time.
"I run so I can't be hurt. I run so that no one gets to take away a part of me when they leave." Sam said, clutching him tighter as she whispered those words.
"I'd never hurt you Sam, and I know I'm leaving tomorrow night, but its only for a few months then I'll be back for Spring Break before you know it." Freddie said, smiling at the contented sigh he got in return.
Little did he know however that Sam had already decided to run. Sam Puckett ran because she was insecure. She wasn't just afraid of being left, she was afraid of someone staying. She was afraid of being loved too much. If she let Freddie be that someone, she'd hate him for it, he'd make her weak, and reliant, and those were two things Pucketts just weren't allowed to be.
Freddie was standing talking to Carly on his Cell Phone a couple hours later, after his first morning period. He was sure to check and make sure the hour was decent in Seattle before making the call, and here he was, telling his friend what he assumed was the truth of Sam's disappearance. For all intents and purposes it seemed as though she had headed to Tennessee at least, and from there the only possible safe place for her to go would have been North Carolina. She knew no one else in the easterly United States, at least no one whom she would be safe with. Freddie wasn't even sure if she was safe with her family in North Carolina, and that scared him more then he cared to think.
Another When, Another Where:
"Why Sam, why do you always have to go running off on your own like that?" They're fourteen, Sam saw the boy she liked, Eric Brooks hooking an arm around Carly's waist during the Dance, and lean in to kiss her. She had bolted, and even though every fiber of Freddie's being told him to stand there and ignore it, he just couldn't. Whether he wanted to admit it or not he had a strange sort of affection for the blonde headed demon. It was like their constant jabs and jives at each other were just a part of their friendship. At least that was how he looked at it, he knew she hated him though.
Walking around the corner, he found her curled up with her knees up to her own chest sitting at the base of her locker, crying in to her own knees. "Eric was supposed to have been my date, but then today he told me he'd found someone better an…"
Sam sobbed, shocking Freddie that she had opened up to him so easily. His fingers curled in to a tight fist as he heard her explanation of what happened. He had figured it was something like that, but he was still angry. Sam might have been abrasive, and mean, and loud, but she was still a person, and no one deserved to have their heart trampled on like that. "Hey now!"
Freddie said, kneeling in front of Sam, and gently lifting her chin with his left hand, hoping she wouldn't snap at him with those meat mangling jaws of hers. "The big jerk isn't worth it Sam. The guy can't dance anyway…"
Freddie said, trying to comfort his sometime friend, usually frienemy somehow. She looked up at him with those bright ocean blue eyes of hers clouded, and filled with tears, and he raised a brow. "Now how about we go ruin his night completely by telling Carly what he did to you, and how you were supposed to be his date first?"
Freddie said with a mischievous grin. Sam raised a brow to that herself, which Freddie responded to with a shrug of both his shoulders. "We both know she'll snap, and go crazy on the guy. Then we can all act goofy and Random Dance, just like when we do iCarly, what do you say?"
Sam smiles up at Freddie as she accepts his offered hand and help up to her feet. "Fred-lumps, why do you always come to the rescue, even though I usually treat you like shit?"
"Because, Sam-my, you're always running away from your problems, and I want you to know that at least when you're with Carly and I, you don't have to. You're safe with us Sam. You're with friends."
Carly had taken the news in stride, and seemed to be relieved when Melanie had voiced from the background that they had an Uncle in Tree Hill, and two older cousins. The Uncle was actually a second cousin themselves, sharing the same grandfather as their own Dad, and once sharing the same last name, long before their Father had become a Puckett through adoption. Apparently, at least according to what Melanie had said, Sam would be with their cousin if she was visiting anyone in Tree Hill, as she couldn't stand their Uncle Dan, though Mel didn't blame her, and wouldn't elaborate on why.
"Well what are we going to do about this?" Freddie asked exasperatedly, really wishing there was something he could do to make everything better.
"School's out for us tomorrow Freddie, Gib', Mel' and I are borrowing Sock-O's RV and going after Sam. We should reach N.C. in about a weeks time, if we stop to rest at night, and when we get there we'll go straight to Tree Hill. Mel says she can still remember where her cousin Lucas' house is, so we'll go there and look for her. Just pray for her Freddie, that's all you can do. Call you with an update soon," Carly said, not knowing what else to tell the boy, as she hung up.
She knew this was harder on him then he wanted to let off. Just like she'd known that he and Sam had feelings for each other long before they admitted it. Just like she had shot Freddie down for years before, and again after the whole Taco Truck incident, because she knew Freddie and Sam were meant for each other. Just like she'd turned down Freddie and Gibby's idea of taking a flight to Spain for the Summer to hang with Freddie and his new girl because she knew they wouldn't last. She knew Freddie still loved Sam, and that was the real reason he had decided to help track her down. He wasn't just worried about his friend. The love of his life was out there missing somewhere, and he was being torn apart inside because there was nothing he could do to fix it. She'd made it very clear she didn't want him to. Though Carly knew that was the biggest load of crock Sam had ever spit out too. She'd read the fan mail to Freddie from "Liquid Chicken" and "Special Ham" on iCarly these last few months. She was no idiot. She knew they were Sam. Now it was time to get the two to both sit down and face things. Either they were going to fix their relationship, and get back together, or she was going to stick them both on her Dad's Submarine locked in a box in the cargo bay when he came home for a month's leave at their graduation. Freddie had promised she and Gibby he'd be back for that at the very least, so she had two years. Though with a couple that took four times that long to admit they had feelings for each other to begin with, she was sure she would need it.
Freddie himself was falling apart on the inside, as he sat watching a movie in the common room three days later, curled up with Kimiko on the couch. He was feeling almost guilty about this whole situation, because he knew that Sam was running from something, and all he could think back to as a catalyst, was their break up. That and the fact that he hadn't answered her calls in months. In fact, he'd made it a point to let Kimiko talk on his voice mail just to rub it in Sam's face that he was moving on. Was he really? He thought, as he looked down at the comfortable girl wrapped up in his arms, who lay napping after the movie they had just watch.
She had come to his window that night, after the party, after everything that happened upstairs in the studio at Carly's, and she'd actually asked him if she could come in. He had looked at her with the most pain and contempt he had ever held in his eyes and told her to get lost. Actually he'd said…
"GO TO HELL PUCKETT!" Slamming the window in her face, he turned back toward his bed, before walking toward it and falling back in to his tears. He couldn't believe the gall of this girl, coming to his window like that asking to talk after she'd ripped his heart out like that, and in front of a stranger no less. He could taste blood in his mouth from where he'd bit his cheek to keep from calling her a slut, or a whore just now. Or some other choice word you were never supposed to call a woman. He was angry, beyond all belief, but sadly, he couldn't call Sam any of those words.
Especially when he didn't mean them. Regardless of whether this past few days had all been a game to her or not, for Freddie, they were the most amazing moments of his life. Which sadly, had just come to a very abrupt and painful end. Without another look toward the large window, he lay down in bed, still fully clothed, and fell in to a restless sleep.
Outside the glass, tears of remorse filling her own eyes, Sam knelt down to the ground outside the window, and sat the custom made Boken she had made for Freddie below his window sill. Wrapped up inside the cloth was a letter explaining everything she'd done tonight, and why she had done it. Because he was right, she always ran from her problems. She was a demon, and a monster, and the worthless rotten human being everyone thought she was. All he had ever asked of her was that she love him, and she had with all her heart, but she couldn't stand that feeling. She knew herself so well that she was afraid of breaking his trust, hurting him, tarnishing the purity of his heart. She didn't think she deserved his love, and so she had made sure it wasn't hers to have anymore.
She hoped he would find the Boken one day, maybe when he was moving out of his Mom's apartment and going off to college, he'd come outside to the balcony again. He'd find it there and the letter, and he'd know that she never meant to hurt him, she didn't want to hurt the person who loved her most in the world, and that was shy she had to make him hate her. Because all Sam Puckett knew how to do was hurt people. And run away before they could hurt her back.
What Sam didn't know was that three days later, having been confused by the entire situation between her son, and the girl who had pulled the wool over her eyes for those past months acting as though she actually cared about Freddie, Marissa Benson had stepped out on to her son's Fire Escape balcony. There she had found the Boken, and not thinking to unwrap it and inspect it for any thing out of the ordinary, she put it inside on Freddie's bed.
Having come in to Freddie's room today to straighten it up a bit, and put the new more grown up sheets he had sent her from Barcelona on his bed, Marissa looked at the cloth wrapped wooden sword. Smiling, she picked it up, no slouch with a bladed weapon herself, she marveled at the craftsmanship of the Japanese style practice sword, its perfectly balanced weight, and the fine curvature.
Cautiously unwrapping the blade, her attention was soon stolen by the note that fell from within the cloth wrapping, toward the ground at her feet. Kneeling to pick up the small weathered piece of paper, Marissa's heart paused, a hand clutching her chest as tears rose to her eyes while she read the note. She had been wrong about Sam all these months, and so had her Freddie. They had been dead wrong.
Dear Freddie,
That's right, Freddie. No mean nicknames, and no jokes.
I am sorry for what I did to you.
I just want you to know that it was all a lie.
Well, not all of it.
When I said I liked you on Christmas Eve, that was true.
Everything I said between that night and New Years Eve had been, and when I told you that you didn't deserve me, I meant it.
You deserve better then me.
You deserve someone who's smart, kind, funny, intelligent (because we both know that smarts and intelligence are two different things) and gorgeous. Everything that you are to me.
You deserve someone who isn't a screw up, and is worth your time. In other words, the exact opposite of a girl like me.
I'm sorry if I had to make you hate me so you could move on, but it had to be done. I couldn't stand the thought of you caring about me still. You had to think I was the worth person in the world before you left, so you wouldn't feel guilty if someone better came along.
I wish you the best, and oh, just incase you didn't realize it yet, when you said you loved me the day before Carly's party, I know I kind of froze, but its because I didn't think you could care that much about me. I hoped you did, but at the same time, I wasn't ready for it.
Its too bad that I didn't realize it until after the idiot move I pulled in the studio, but I just wasn't ready to admit my feelings back.
I love you too.
~Yours Forever, even though I'm sure you'll never want me again,
Princess Puckett
PS: The Inscription on the Sword says "Momma's Boy" on it, so I guess you can tell people Marissa bought it for you.
With that Marissa Benson clutched the note tightly to her chest in tears, and ran down the hall to grab her keys. Soon she was in her car running through stop signs, and every other un-Marissa like thing to do, in an attempt to reach the post office before closing time. She had to send this package off to Freddie tonight, she just had to.
A few days later:
Kimiko came barreling in to Freddie's room at SVA, having pushed through three boys to reach said dorm room. One of the aforementioned gentleman was lying on his back, staring up at the ceiling wondering what hit him, as the last thing he could remember was stepping in front of Imagawa Kimiko and saying "No girls allowed in the dorm."
He had ended up on his back in a flash. "FREDDIE!"
Kimiko called, slamming her fist, which was gripping a half wrapped Boken tightly, against the door of his room repeatedly. "Freddie, open up!"
The girl called, this time much more gently, and having lowered the weapon hand toward the ground. Just then her boyfriend opened the door of his room, being one of the few boys in the dorms to opt to stay on campus during Summer break, Freddie was still in his boxers, looking as though he was blinking sleep out of his eyes.
Kimiko blanched, and turned away, mumbling something about pants to her boyfriend. Freddie looked down, raising an eyebrow as he did so, until his eyes caught site of the reason behind her comment.
Running back to his dresser, Freddie pulled out a pair of pants, and shimmied in to them, before running back to the door of his room, to find a very distraught Kim waiting for him. "What's the problem babe?"
He asked, stepping out of the room as he pulled a t-shirt on over his head. The plain white v-neck showed off his pectorals almost as much as he had been when he was shirtless, and Kim was finding it very difficult to focus.
"I uh, I'm sorry, but I just had to open it…" Kimiko said, handing the wooden sword to Freddie as he stepped out in to the Dorm hall and closed the door to his room. The brunette boy looked down toward the Kanji carved in to the blade and read the Japanese word for Momma first, sticking out from the paper that wrapped the object.
"What the? Where did you get this?" Freddie asked, looking up toward Kimiko's own quizzical expression as she held a piece of paper out in his direction. "What's that?"
Freddie asked, as he took the paper from his girlfriend, smiling as he looked down to the piece of paper, reaching out to accept it. Kimiko whimpered as he took it, which caused him to look up in to her eyes. "What's the matter Kim? Are you okay?"
The young man asked, his voice showing quite a bit of concern as he reached out for his girlfriend's arm. In response, Kim pulled back and just pointed down to the note. "I'm not the one you should be worried about Freddie, she is…"
Kim said, before bolting away from him, and knocking down another two boys as she exited the male's dorm.
Freddie looked down at the paper in his hand with a fearful look upon his face. Whatever was written on this paper had apparently involved a girl, and himself, and upset Kimiko dearly. Did he really want to read it? No probably not, did he need to however? Yes, if he was ever going to live a normal life again, Freddie was going to have to read this paper, and get a little perspective.
"Dear Freddie…"
After having finished the letter from his former girlfriend, Freddie sat down, holding his head in his hands on the bench in the middle of the common square of the Academy. He had a decision to make.
There were three choices in front of Freddie at the moment.
On one hand he had Kimiko. The energetic, athletic, intelligent, beautiful girl he'd spent the past six months with day in and day out. She had made him happy these past months, and protected him from the darkness that had stolen over his heart after Sam's treachery.
Then there was Sam herself. All of the pain, all the anger, everything that had built up inside of him thanks to her these past six months had been for not. Because in the end he couldn't be angry with her. He had always known she ran from her problems, and lied bold faced to anyone who tried to call her on it. She'd never been one to talk about things, or deal with painful experiences, always preferring to ignore them.
He'd known that, and yet he hadn't seen through her ploy on New Years, proving that he didn't know her as well as a boyfriend should have. Even as well as a friend should have.
He could tell Kimiko that things with Sam were over, and that he just wanted to work on their relationship now that he'd found her. Or he could go running home, and try to help Carly and the others track Sam down, and tell her that he was sorry, sorry for having been so much of an Idiot and actually letting her run away from their relationship like he did.
Or, he could take the cowards way out, and leave both girls to their fates, preferring to just get on with his life, and his education, and forget about teenage romantic angst completely.
No matter what Freddie chose however, he knew one thing for certain…
…He was a damned fool for having let Sam run. He was a fool for having fell for her entire act. Above all else he was a fool for not demanding a reason when it had all happened.
"Fredward Alan Benson, you, are an idiot!"
A/N: Hope you guys liked it. I know that things are going to get a little rough in the next couple chapters, and I hope you all bear with me. Sorry if Freddie's realization was a bit anti climatic, but I hope you guys get it. It was a building thing for Freddie throughout the chapter, if you read, beginning to end, he's been having the flashbacks all along.
Next Chapter: We follow Sam from Seattle, to Tree Hill. From her meeting with Dan Scott, to the door of her cousin Lucas' home, and in the process we get a deeper look in to Sam's mind. We see why her father hated his Scott heritage so much, and we see the only real relationship he managed to keep with that side of his family in some flashbacks to her and Keith together in Sam's early childhood. We also witness the fallout between Sam and Carly and the others once they catch up to her in Tree Hill, all coming to a head in iCarly: iT's Been A Long Time Coming; Chapter VIII, "I'M on the Run!"