(Hurricane's Note: This chapter was written entirely by Tiger002)

Chapter 17: Farewell

Zack's PoV

I stare at my brother for a second, not sure if I heard him right.

"Zack," he says softly, looking down, obviously not wanting to face me. I can see his mouth quivering, a mix of rage and sadness barely kept in control.

My eyes soon gaze upwards and I take a quick glance past him to see Maddie disappearing behind the elevator doors, the hurt clearly broadcasting across her face. Part of me wants to run after her, but the other part is glad to see her go. I mean, I loved her, and that night, it was everything I wanted, the greatest feeling in the world. And then, I was just tossed aside like one of London's outfits. After all those years, I thought I meant something to her, maybe not what I wanted to be, but there was at least something between us. Even after all this, I at least want to talk to her.

Seeing she's gone, I turn back to the door, opening it and am going to go back inside but I'm stopped by Cody's hand on my shoulder. "I didn't want you to have to hear that." His voice was a mix of regret at a small hint of rage.

"I know."

I turn to look Cody in the eye, his expression conveying way more than he can put into words. He knows that I still wanted to talk to her, one last time before we left, and yet, I know why he did what he did. If anyone ever hurt my little brother like that, I'd kill them.

After brushing my brother's hand off my shoulder, I go back into the suite and head back toward my bed. I start packing again, putting stuff in my suitcase, not really caring if stuff is going where it's supposed to. I can sort that out later or when I get on the ship. I just don't feel like doing that now.

"I just didn't want her to hurt you again," Cody says from the doorway.

"It's okay." I look up at him, not really wanting to talk about this now, but I can tell that my silence is hurting him. "I thought that maybe things could still work out between us," By this point, I had put down whatever clothes I was packing as was just staring at the ceiling.

"You really loved her, didn't you," Cody says as he takes a seat beside me.

"I still do." I can feel tears building in my eyes, at the thought of never seeing Maddie again. "I can't believe I'm so stupid."

"You aren't stupid," he quickly retorts.

"How am I not? I'm in love with the person who just used me like that." I get up and start walking across the room, feeling uncomfortably closed in by my bed.

"It takes time to get over feelings like that. I know it did for me."

Wait; who's he talking about? "Who?"

"Maddie. You weren't the only one to have a crush on her."

"Why didn't you ever tell me?"

"I knew I never stood a chance with someone three years older than me, and after I found out how you felt, I thought it was better just to keep it a secret. I guess being twins, we had the same thoughts about her. She's even been in my dreams more than I'd like to admit." A blush spreads across his face and his voice softened for the last sentence giving me a good indication of what those dreams entailed.

I look way from my brother, trying to process this information. I can't believe it, all these years of hitting on Maddie, trying to win her over, I would have never thought my brother felt the same way from a distance.

"It's over now though," he says.

He's right. We're about to go around the world on the SS Tipton. I can't just forget everything that happened, but this is the start of something new. "We better get back to packing,"

"What do you mean? I'm already done."

"I hate you." Stupid overly organized brother.

"Love you too."

He then goes over to open my suitcase and lifts out something that I think at one time was a chocolate bar. That or a bowl of ice cream. I'm not really sure which one, but now it looks like a Christmas tree complete with lights, ornaments, and tinsel. "I don't think you need this any more," he says looking like he's about to puke.

"You might be right." I contemplate taking a bite of it to see if I can figure out what it was, but he throws it away before I get the chance.

After liberally applying hand sanitizer, he then walks back to my suite case and starts folding and organizing what I've already put in there. "You don't have to help me."

"I know," he says with a smile.

"Thanks." Having him help me pack will definitely make things easier.

About an hour passes and I learn that there is carpet under my side of the room and that it is nice red color. Who knew? Most of my clothes are packed, organized by color and size, and somehow with Cody's magic folding powers, they all are able to fit in the suitcase. After deciding that all this cleaning is a bit much, I take a break and stare out the window of our room glancing down at the people below. A certain blond stands out to me, despite being so far away. She holds her hand against her stomach and walks down the street and out of my sights for the last time. "Farewell my love," I whisper.

Cody walks beside me and sees the same person fading into the crowd. "You okay?"

I start to just give him a 'yeah', but I can't honestly say I am. With everything that's happened, I'd say I'm far from okay…but that doesn't matter now. "I will be."

"Come on, you've only got a few more things to pack."

I can't believe how fast this has gone with Cody's help. "Thanks," I say, and then add, "For everything."

"That's what brothers are for."

I really do have a great brother, someone to play video games with, someone to help me clean, and someone who helped me through this whole Maddie incident.

It hardly takes any time at all for us to finish packing and cleaning everything. Our suitcases are filled to the brim with everything we'll need (and in Cody's case, probably a lot of things we won't). All that's left to pack is the play station.

"One last game of Ultimate Alliance?" he offers.

"I call Deadpool."

"You always do," he teases and we are once again engaged in the world of make believe.

(Note from Hurricane: I want to thank Tiger and Cetrix for the work they did on this story. You guys deserve most of the credit for this one. Also, thanks to the readers who stuck with this one for the last nearly two years. Hope it was worth the wait.)