Thanks for the reviews, guys! I LOVE reading them! Thanks for sticking with this story for so long - even through all the boring parts. My bad. I was trying to figure out how to review episodes without making the story too boring and...yeah. Not sure I did a great job. I'm not even sure how much I like this story. But I did enjoy writing it and talking to my fellow iCarly people. Seriously - you guys are AWESOME!

Anyway...this is the last chapter of iProve Freddie's Love. It wasn't going to be originally, but...Well, I'll explain more at the end. Some of you may not like the ending, but...like I said, I'll explain more later.

And, you'll probably be asking yourself this soon: Melanie has been in contact with Carly over the years? I'll answer that question the following way: before Melanie went to her boarding school, I'm pretending she, Sam, and Carly were all friends. As we all know, Sam doesn't like Melanie very much, which is why she doesn't talk to her siser very often. Carly, on the other hand, seemed happy to see Melanie in iTwins. So let's just say they talk sometimes - through phone calls and texts and what not - okay? Okay!

Episodes used in this chapter: iReunite With Missy, iMust Have Locker 239, iTwins, and iKiss.

Disclaimer: I own nothing. Yay!

iWonder

3:18 AM

Melanie tried showing more clips to Sam after they broke into Carly's loft (Sam missed having Freddie around to tell her how long it took her to pick the lock. He always kept track of her records). She told Sam about Freddie giving up the School at Sea thing that time Missy came to visit ("Carly and I are always in contact with each other. She told me what Freddie did but warned me not to tell you. Something about Freddie not wanting you to know he'd done something nice for your sake."). She reminded Sam of the time she and Freddie shared a locker ("According to Carly, you two were actually getting along with each other. She even told me that you let Freddie slap your cheek. Come on, Samantha! When's the last time you let someone slap you without killing them afterwards?"). She even brought up the time she visited and ended up going on a date with Freddie.

"It was a really fun date," she stated, causing Sam to roll her eyes in annoyance. "But do you want to know why I haven't dated him since that night?"

"Because you came to your senses and realized what a nub he really is?" Sam guessed.

"Not exactly. It's because I know Freddie never wanted to ask me out in the first place."

"Of course he wanted to ask you out! Why would he have done it if he didn't want-,"

"He thought I was you."

That shut Sam up. She stared at Melanie for several long moments, her mouth opening and closing repeatedly. A small smile overtook Melanie's lips as she nodded in response to her twin's silent questions.

"He thought you were tricking him about me, remember?" she explained. "He thought that by asking me out, I would chicken out and admit I was really you pretending to be me. Did I ever tell you how that date went?"

Slowly, Sam shook her head. She remembered Melanie coming home that night with a grimace, but instead of asking what happened, she continued playing her video games. It wasn't until the next day while she was at Carly's and Freddie dropped by that she found out about the kiss.

"It was definitely the strangest date I've ever been on," Melanie began, laughing softly. "Freddie didn't try to impress me at all. Actually, he did everything he could to push me away. He wore a striped shirt because he knew you hated them. He kept trying to get me to confess I was you so we could go home. When he took my hand, he gave me the strangest look when I grinned at him. I even told him I thought he was really cute. He wanted to know how I could say that without vomiting."

Sam smirked to herself. Freddie certainly knew her well. If it had been her on the date instead of Melanie, he would have had her running in no time. A striped shirt, hand holding, and her lips telling him how cute he was? Knowing her, she really would have ran to the bathroom and puked.

"You know, he had the same devious look in his eyes you wear almost all the time when he asked me to dance," Melanie went on. "He thought there was no way I - well, you, really - would be able to stand the idea of dancing with him. He even tried to talk me out of it by reminding me it was a slow song and we'd have to dance pressed against each other."

Melanie and Freddie. Dancing together. Pressed against each other. Sam felt her hands curling into fists at the image forming in her mind. She closed her eyes, telling herself to remember it was years ago, back when she wasn't in love with Freddork herself. She still found it hard to believe that she and Melanie, as different as they were, ended up falling for the same guy.

"When we first got out on the dance floor, Freddie kept this huge space between us," Melanie continued, not noticing Sam's reaction. "I was the one who had to pull him closer, which is weird because usually the guy does that and I have to pull away after he tries getting too close. He refused to meet my eyes while we danced. After I told him I liked him, he refused to believe me. He said I - meaning you - hated him and that I - again, you - always have."

"Wow," Sam commented. "I can totally see why you had so much fun, Melanie. Listening to how much I hate Freddie all night, putting up with all his schemes to get you to admit you were really me…It must have been a blast!"

"I had a plan to convince Freddie it was really me though," Melanie countered. "I thought it was a great plan since you obviously hated Freddie and had never tried it before. So, I did the one thing I knew you would never do: I kissed him."

"Let me guess. You kissed him, bells rang, you saw fireworks, and you knew right then you were going to get your happily ever after, right?"

"Actually, something weird happened after our kiss. At first, Freddie's mouth dropped open like he couldn't believe I kissed him-,"

"That's understandable. There aren't a lot of girls who would willingly kiss him. It was probably a new experience for him."

"Maybe," Melanie agreed, "But you see, the strange thing is…My kiss didn't convince him I wasn't you like I hoped it would. Instead, he said the last thing I expected him to say. Something about swearing we - you and Freddie, I mean - would never do that again."

Sam jumped from the Shay's couch, trying to make a break for their kitchen before Melanie, who had her arms buried beneath her blanket, could stop her. Unfortunately, Melanie sat between her sister and the food. She stuck her legs out, letting them rest atop the coffee table, successfully blocking Sam from taking another step.

"Move your legs or suffer the consequences," Sam threatened.

"I'll move my legs," Melanie replied. "After you tell me what Freddie was talking about."

"How am I supposed to know what he was talking about? He's a dork who's hopelessly in love with Carly. For all I know, he had some kind of dream about kissing me and thought it was real!"

"Samantha…"

Sighing, Sam sat down again, knowing it was futile to deny the kiss. Freddie and his big stupid mouth had already blown away any chance Sam had of telling Melanie it never took place. Actually, hadn't Freddie told Melanie about the kiss before Sam accidentally told Carly? And he wasn't even under the influence of laughing gas when he brought it up. He spoke of the forbidden night before she did…

She would have to remember that the next time she saw him. Finally, she would have a reasonable excuse to beat him up. After all, they both swore to never speak of it again and he violated their treaty first.

"Load the website," Sam instructed, waiting for Melanie to pull out her cell phone. "I'll show you what Freddie meant."

Melanie typed in the iCarly web address, but instead of searching for a video, she handed her phone to Sam. Only moments passed before both sisters leaned close to each other, watching the tiny screen (Melanie really needed to buy herself a pear phone. Their screens were so much bigger). A memory Sam knew all too well began playing before her eyes...

Fredison Benson was an idiot. Sure, Sam was the one who pulled a prank on him first - she constantly pulled pranks on him and he was always smart enough to yell at her and then let things simmer until she struck again - but this time, he handcuffed her to Gibby. Gibby! She had to walk around Ridgeway half the day with Gibby Gibson following her, asking the dumbest questions and trying to discuss topics Sam didn't care about. Her classmates pointed and laughed all afternoon, whispering behind her back about her predicament. She was going to be the school-wide joke for the rest of the year.

And it was all Fredward's fault.

He should have known she would find a way to extract her revenge. If Freddie thought he could get away with something so horrible without receiving a scratch in return, he had another thing coming. It was his fault that Sam told the world he never kissed a girl. She was planning on doing something else to him, like leaving a wild tiger free in his bedroom or something similar, but after she overheard Freddie admitting he had never kissed anyone…How could she resist? He and Carly should have made sure she was gone before having their little conversation or at least spoken in a sound-proof room. They should have known better than to use the iCarly studio less than two minutes after she left them alone.

"That was Freddie," she happily told the iCarly audience, "Who, last week, handcuffed me to a nerd. So now, guess what?"

She stepped closer to the camera. Freddie had known her for years. If he didn't recognize the expression on her face, he should have known she never asked him to show himself on their web shows. Whenever he did put the camera on his face, she made sure to get in the shot, reminding him who the stars were. While she took the time to come forward, Freddie, if he was smart, should have shut off his camera.

"Freddie has never kissed a girl."

The iCarly studio fell silent. No one stopped Sam from continuing with her speech. She couldn't see Carly, but the horror on Freddie's face was what made her keep talking. Her plan was working. Freddie embarrassed her by using Gibby, so now it was her turn to embarrass him by telling the world his biggest secret.

"Never," she pressed on. "Not once! I heard him say so myself, and Carly's a witness."

With a smile on her lips, Sam left the studio. She heard Carly shouting after her - "Sam. Sam! You just ruined Freddie's life!" - but she didn't care. Carly always thought she took things too far when it came to the war she and Freddie engaged in. She just didn't understand the game. Sam picked on Freddie until she got a reaction out of him, and after that reaction came (most recently through a pair of handcuffs), Sam did something to put Freddie back in his place (revealing his secret to their viewers). Carly didn't understand how pranking each other could count as a friendly relationship, but that wasn't the way Sam and Freddie saw things. Their constant bickering and fighting and pranking was their way of trying to figure out what they really were: friends or enemies. If they were forced to spend so much time together due to iCarly, obviously they couldn't be full-out enemies. On the other hand, Sam knew she and Freddie were never meant to become best friends, either.

Instead of agreeing to either label, Sam and Freddie played their little game from week to week, day to day, sometimes even hour to hour. Sam was never going to let Freddie come out on top. She would always beat him.

Although Carly accused Sam of taking things too far at least once every few days, Freddie never agreed with her. He stayed in the background, refusing to stand up to whatever Sam had done to him, knowing if he said anything, whatever she chose to do later would be ten times worse than the first thing. However, as Sam grabbed a frozen fruit pop from the Shay's freezer, she turned around to find Freddie within her personal bubble.

"Watch it, Benson, or I'll-,"

He knocked the frozen dessert from her hand before she could finish her threat.

"How could you do something like that?" His voice was actually tough enough to almost make Sam flinch. Almost. "You just told thousands of people that I've never kissed anyone before!"

"So? Why are you so upset? All I did was tell them the truth."

"You told them the truth about something they have no business knowing about! Whoever I do or don't kiss should be between me and whatever girl I may or may not be kissing, not me and the rest of the world!"

"Chillax!" Sam ordered, bending over to retrieve her fruit pop, which she stuck in her mouth. "No one's going to remember what I said by tomorrow morning anyway. Besides, if you're so worried about it, do something about it."

"What am I supposed to do?" Freddie demanded. "I can't go back in time and keep you from making your little announcement!"

"No, you can't. But you could prove me wrong and tell the kids at school I was lying."

"How do you suggest I do that?"

In unison, the two teens turned their eyes to Carly. She had been listening to their argument from the beginning, begging her two best friends to stop and act like nothing happened, as though Sam hadn't just told the world Freddie's biggest and most personal secret. She shook her head quickly when she caught up with the direction their discussion had taken.

"I'm sorry about what Sam did, but I'm not going to kiss you," she said. "You'll have to use someone else if you want to tell everyone Sam was lying."

Freddie's eyes swirled from Carly and landed on the only other female in the room. He wasn't surprised when she took the stick from between her lips (the fruit pop was already gone) and stuck it to his forehead.

"I have to get home before my mom realizes I left," she explained, heading toward the front door. "Catch you later, Carls!" She smiled evilly in Freddie's direction. "Have fun at school tomorrow, Freddish!"

Sam wanted Freddie to suffer. She knew a few people would tease him after finding out he'd never kissed anyone, but she never thought the ridicule would be bad enough to keep him from attending school. As the week wore on and the mocking didn't die at all, Sam felt her heart beginning to cave.

Maybe being handcuffed to Gibby for one afternoon wasn't as bad as having the world know you were still waiting for your first kiss.

"You said it right on iCarly?" Melanie asked, staring at her cell phone in awe. "You just came right out and said that Freddie has never kissed anyone?"

"You saw the video, didn't you?" Sam retorted.

"Yeah…But…How does that lead to your first kiss with Freddie? I mean, you have kissed him, haven't you? I don't see why else he would have said what he did on my date with him-,"

Without saying a word, Sam clicked on the next clip. It was the web cast she and Carly filmed exactly one week after her declaration to the world about Freddie - a web cast the two best friends filmed alone since their technical producer refused to leave his fire escape…

"You like ruined his whole life and you don't even care. You went too far this time and you can't fix it."

Those were the words going through Sam's mind as she stared into the camera, trying to put on a happy face for the people logging on to iCarly. How could she act happy? Carly was right. She really had taken things too far this time. Freddie missed a week of school, two iCarly rehearsals, and now, he wasn't even there to make fun of while filming the show. The only thing left to look at was a camera without anyone standing behind it.

As much as she hated to admit it, even if it was only to herself, Sam missed Freddie. There was no one for her to pick on when he wasn't around, no one to rattle off pointless information, no one to countdown 5, 4, 3, 2 before starting iCarly. Not only that, but Carly acted different, too. Freddie was the one who usually helped her with the iCarly stuff while Sam sat around, being lazy. Since Freddie started flaking on rehearsals, leaving Carly to do all the work, she had turned a lot more irritable than normal.

Something had to change. Maybe Carly was right and there was nothing Sam could do to fix things, but she had to try. After all, it was her fault. If anyone stood a chance of making things right again, it was her.

"On the last iCarly, I told you guys that Freddie never kissed anyone. And that was really personal and I shouldn't have said it on the show. For all you people out there who have been teasing Freddie about it, lay off because I bet a whole lot of you haven't kissed anyone either…including me."

Sam wasn't sure why she lied about her first kiss to begin with. It wasn't like she thought anyone who hadn't kissed before was some kind of geek (although apparently that was how her classmates felt considering the way they picked on Freddie). A lot of people probably saved their first kiss for when they met that special person, the one they knew they were going to spend the rest of their life with. Sam didn't exactly fall into that category. She more so hadn't kissed anyone because most of the boys at Ridgeway found her abrasive. The few boyfriends she'd had in the past…well, their relationships didn't last long enough to reach the kissing stage.

One thing Sam wasn't afraid of was other people. She could handle it if someone chose to tease her about her never having kissed anyone - she really would more than likely send that person to the hospital. Freddie wasn't nearly as tough as she was. He couldn't handle the pressure when someone pointed a laughing finger in his direction. Sam had to talk to him. She had to tell him what she said on iCarly and how she was prepared to beat up anyone who made fun of him now, so he might as well come back to school.

Feeling more nervous than she'd ever felt before, Sam made her way to the fire escape.

"Samantha?" Melanie asked, watching her sister as she leaped from the couch. "What are you doing?"

"I…left the oven on at the house."

Melanie blinked in surprise. "You're going all the way back home to turn off the oven? We weren't even baking anything!"

Sam was long past the point of listening. She had her mind set on where she needed to be and she was in a hurry to get there. Her heart drummed in her chest and she had no idea why she suddenly felt the urge to go there. All she knew was her feet were heading there whether the rest of her body wanted to tag along or not.

"Don't leave me here alone!" Melanie cried to Sam's retreating back. "What if Carly and Spencer get home?"

Her only answer was the door closing as Sam left the loft.

The reason Sam took Melanie from her bed and brought her to Bushwell was because she thought maybe being at Carly's house would be the final shove she needed to really listen to what Melanie was trying to tell her. How could she believe Freddie was in love with her while sitting around her living room or at Fried Chicken Haven? Freddie had only been in each of those places one time; his presence had left both of them a long time ago. He was always at Carly's though, or the studio, or his own loft right across the hall. Maybe if she was in one of the places he spent the most time at, one of the locations where they spent the most time together, Melanie's tales would seem more believable.

The plan didn't work. Sam didn't believe Freddie was in love with her or that he would ever return the feelings she was stupid enough to reveal during the lock-in. Everything Melanie pointed out to her were acts of friendship. Little things that proved how much the relationship between herself and Freddie had grown over the years, not examples of why Freddie would suddenly decide he was in love with her.

Freddie Benson was not in love with Sam Puckett.

…Or was he?

By the time Sam reached her destination, she was breathless. She leaned against the windowpane, trying to get air moving through her lungs again. She didn't notice the window was already open.

She was back at the fire escape. It held so many memories for her - it was where she apologized to Freddie for all the bad things she did to him, where the two of them discussed first kisses, where they both agreed to share their first kiss as long as they went right back to hating each other afterwards and never told anyone their secret.

She could still remember the night of that kiss, although if it was because the kiss was with Freddie or simply because it was the first time she ever kissed anyone, she couldn't be sure. Sometimes, late at night when she sat alone in her room and couldn't fall asleep, she could close her eyes and remember the feeling of Freddie's lips against hers, the way they moved together perfectly and the spark she felt during those eight seconds. Was that the night she fell in love? How was she supposed to know? It was kind of hard to figure out what your heart was trying to tell you when you ordered it to shut up, to forget the kiss ever happened, that you really hated the guy who owned your lips' virginity.

Thinking she was alone, Sam prepared to open the window, allowing her body access to the outside world. However, when she went to open the glass, she nearly fell onto the fire escape. Holy chiz…Who left windows open for people to fall through like that?

Finally, she noticed a blue chair.

Freddie didn't stand up when he turned around to meet Sam's gaze; he didn't have to. Instead, he motioned with his hand for her to come forward.

Sam had no idea what was about to happen. Freddie was still supposed to be at the lock-in with Brad. He was supposed to be finishing up the project or telling Carly all about how stupid Sam had acted or…something. By no means was he supposed to be sitting on the fire escape, waiting for his blonde haired demon.

"What's up?" he asked.

He had a habit of talking too much when it came to his techy stuff and never enough when his feelings were on the line. Not that Sam minded his lack of conversation. She was never good at expressing her feelings through words, either.

"Nothing," she replied.

She sat with her back against the windowpane. He stayed in his chair. It felt so much like the night of their first kiss, only now, so much more was on the line than a simple kiss between two friends. Sam had admitted she was in love with the nub less than four hours ago. The ball was in his court now. Would he return the feelings, deny them, or pretend nothing happened like they did after kissing before?

Freddie finally stood up. He walked across the fire escape, leading Sam to believe he was going to sit on the staircase just like he'd done before. Instead, he joined her on the windowpane.

"We need to talk."

Talk about cliff-hangers! I'm sorry, I wasn't going to end the story like that! Actually, I was planning on having this whole back story with Freddie and Carly at the lock-in and...

Well, anyway...I realized that was kind of stupid. Why? Because none of us have any idea where iOMG part 2 is going to begin. Is Freddie going to return Sam's feelings? I don't know. Is Sam going to pretend nothing happened? I don't know. Are they going to go out to eat at some fancy (purple) place and talk about their feelings? I don't know (although my money's on that one due to one of the videos Dan posted on his youtube channel).

My point? The goal of this story wasn't to prove Seddie is going to happen. I just wanted to prove to you guys - and myself - that we have hope for Seddie. I don't know if all the things Melanie pointed out was Freddie falling in love or not. I don't know if Freddie really does hate Sam. All I know is there are a LOT of moments on the show between Sam and Freddie that seem to prove they are falling for each other. And that was the goal of this story: to bring out some of these points.

With that being said, I'm going to let Dan decides what happens between our characters instead of trying to take over for my own thoughts and ideas. Thanks so much for reading!

However, if you guys would like to know what I had planned for the ending of this story, I would think about writing some kind of short sequel...

Review and let me know what you thought of the end?