January 20, 2010.

Freddie went home around five after babysitting. His mother sat on the couch, knitting something.

"Hello, Fredward," she greeted.

"Hi, Mom." The boy headed for the fridge.

"Oh, Freddie, dear, you'll spoil your appetite. I was just about to start dinner."

He turned on his heel, left the unnaturally tidy kitchen and sat beside Mrs. Benson on the couch. "What're you making?"

"Lettuce wraps with fat- and sodium-free tofu bacon." She focused on her knitting, bright pink yarn weaving into rows Freddie never understood.

"Yummy," he replied, not paying much attention.

The room fell silent, except for the Mozart Mrs. Benson always liked to have playing. Freddie bit his tongue and leaned his head against the back of the couch to stare at the ceiling. Daydreams began playing in his mind's eye; those simple, reality based creations of the imagination he loved to escape to.

"So where were you?" Mrs. Benson's question startled Freddie out of his daydreams.

"Huh?"

"I came home, and you weren't here." She set her knitting down. "And your note didn't make any sense."

"I didn't leave a note," he admitted quietly.

"Exactly; Freddie, I understand that you are growing up and don't need to tell me everything, but I really would appreciate it if you left me a note or something so I know where you are."

"Mom, you could've called me."

"Well, I don't want to seem overbearing, dear." Too late.

Freddie sighed. "Carly came over looking for you to babysit while she went to school and Spencer went to do something art-related. I told her you weren't here, so I went over and watched Hope. I didn't think it would be that big of a deal."

"And it's not," Mrs. Benson reassured her son. "I just want you to know that you still have to check in with me every now and then, okay?"

Freddie nodded. "Sure, Mom."

Mrs. Benson smiled and patted Freddie on the knee before standing up. "Well, I'm glad that's settled. I'm going to start dinner."

"And we both go dooooowwwn together, and we'd stay there foreevvveerr, just try to get upppp…" Sam sang, loudly, to Carly's PearPod.

"Dude, Sam!" Carly whispered harshly. "Hope just fell asleep."

Sam pursed her lips. "My bad. You know," she said, tossing herself onto Carly's bed, "I heard somewhere that babies like loud noises 'cause the mother's womb is super noisy or something." She flipped through a magazine.

"Yeah, but I don't think Hope's accustomed to Mayday Parade."

"True dat. How do you think she feels about Pinkly Smooth?"

"What? I don't even know what that is."

"Never mind. So how was school today?"

Carly continued folding the laundry sitting in front of her. "Alright, I guess. This one girl, Olivia, came up to me about the webshow."

Sam scoffed. "Again? God, didn't these people watch the final one that explained everything?"

"Well, I don't know. Do you think we really explained what was going on?"

The blonde closed the magazine she was looking through. "I think so. Should we watch it again, just to see?"

"Can't hurt. Besides, I'm getting tired of all those fans asking. Does that happen to you and Freddie at Ridgeway?"

"I don't know about Freddie," Sam said, clicking through Carly's laptop, "but I get it at least once a day; it's usually outside of school, though, like at the mall or something. There, got it."

The old iCarly site was still up; Carly, Sam, and Freddie decided it should stay up until Hope was six months old, just in case their thousands of fans wanted to relive the show. The website seemed dusty, like a book that had been sitting, untouched, on a shelf for ages.

Carly looked over Sam's shoulder at the laptop screen. "Click it, then."

August 15, 2009

"I feel bad," Carly admitted. "Like we're just letting the show die, you know?"

Sam shrugged. "We can't keep doing the show when you have a baby. Babies are a lot of work."

"Yeah," Freddie agreed. "I think it's best we stop iCarly. Even if we do continue, it might be sporadic. No one wants to watch a webshow that only airs new webisodes every three weeks or something."

Carly nodded. "I guess you're right."

Freddie stood up from the beanbag he had been sitting in. "You guys ready?"

Sam jumped up from her beanbag and Carly stood from her chair.

"In five…four…three…two…"

Sam clicked the "play" button, and the video began.

"Hello, fans of iCarly," Carly said, somewhat sadly, into the camera. "I'm Carly."

Carly's blonde counterpart pointed to herself. "And this is Sam."

"I know all of you are probably expecting another totally off-the wall show," Carly started.

"But we've got something we need to tell you guys," Sam finished. "This is it. Our last show. Well, technically, this is more like our farewell than our last show."

Carly nodded. "We at iCarly are going through some seriously personal problems and we think it'll be best if we discontinue the show."

"But," Sam added, "that doesn't mean it'll be gone forever. We'll be keeping the site up until March, if any of you want to relive the glory that was – and is – iCarly."

Sam pressed "pause." "Is that really all we told them?"

"I mean, I guess so." Carly squinted at the Sam on the screen, and then pointed at her. "Are you wearing my necklace?"

"Uh, probably. That doesn't matter. What does matter is the fact that we were so…vague when we told out fans why we had to stop the show. We didn't even show you from the waist down."

Carly bit her upper lip. "Yeah, but it would've been a little hard to explain how I suddenly ballooned to 160 pounds, especially since little kids watch the show and wouldn't understand."

Sam sighed and leaned back against the wall. "Maybe in two months we can unveil to the world your baby and really explain everything."

Carly sighed this time. "I think that's a good idea."

"Cool. Let's go downstairs; I'm starving and I want to play with Hope. I shall show her the joys of bacon and other pork products."

A/N: Like a year since the last update, huh?

My apologies...I got caught up in reality.

Thank you to everyone who reviewed and stuff during my unnaturally long hiatus. =)