Episode 1

"Get a Room!"

I don't own these characters, but it would be nice if I did.

Wait...In this story, I created some of the characters, so I will actually own them.

Anyways, I do promise to keep them true to themselves.

And as to the ones I create, who they are is up to me, so...

Zack & Cody's Suite

Cody continued sitting on the couch shaking his head as his mind was still going in a million different directions. Looking down at the letter from Dr. Hyden in his hands, he read it again thoroughly to make sure his eyes hadn't been playing tricks on him the first time. And as he read it and the form letter from HMS, it could see that it really did say what he thought it had said. Despite the seemingly impossibility of it, he had indeed been accepted to Harvard Medical School and been offered the same scholarship package that Bailey had. But even seeing it in writing right in front of him, he was still having trouble grasping what had just happened and the magnitude of it. For the first time in a long time, he felt completely lost. On one hand, getting this kind of offer was something he had dreamed about for a long, long time, and he had worked hard his whole life to make it a possibility. But on the other hand, could he really let go what he had endured to get it? As confusion and uncertainty continued to totally engulf him, Bailey could see the internal struggle he was having displayed in the expression on his face.

"Cody? Honey? Tell me what you're thinking right now..."

He shook his head and actually began to laugh. "I don't think I can, Bails. That would require me to actually know what I was thinking myself. I mean, after that interview, I never thought in a million years I would be holding a letter like this in my hands. And now that I do, I guess a part of me can somewhat understand the methods to Dr. Hyden's madness, but I have to wonder if this is too little too late..."

"Well, whether or not it is is your decision to make, Sweetie."

Cody just looked over lat her. "Oh no its not! This decision is OUR decision to make. As you said, we're a team. Bailey, this effects you just as much as it does me."

She paused, smiled and nodded. "I know, but I'm not the one who had to go through the hell that you did. While I can empathize with what happened, I can never truly understand what that would have felt like. Cody, I was totally appalled at what Dr. Hyden did, and I wanted to run back in there and tell him off myself. But like you said, I can somewhat understand now why he did what he did. On some level, it does make a lot of sense. But he was right, it was very unorthodox and extremely risky. I mean...I was always taught that you can attract more flies with honey than with vinegar. Just know what ever you decide, I will support you 100%..."

He smiled at her. "I appreciate that, but in fourteen months, you're going to be my wife. I think that gives you the right to tell me what to do here..."

Bailey's eyes went wide. "Cody! I would never..."

Cody laughed again as cut her off. "I was just joking...sort of." He paused. "But am I being too...stubborn and hard headed here again? Am I letting my anger and my hurt get the best of me again? Am I letting it cloud my vision again as to what's really important?"

She stopped and slightly shuddered. "Unfortunately, we both know what its like to let our emotions get the best of us without knowing the full story, don't we?"

Cody nodded sadly. "Yeah, we do. And I know we vowed to never let anything like that happen ever again..."

"And we won't. I think it says a lot about the both of us that we are able to sit here semi calmly and talk about this without doing something stupid. I just wish we had had this kind of self restraint back in Paris..."

"You and me both, Sweetie...you and me both."

"I guess we can safely say we've learned our lesson from that then. And I think this situation has taught us a couple more."

He just looked at her curiously. "You do? What lessons would those be?"

She smiled. "We learned to always be true to ourselves no matter what. We learned that no matter what situation we find ourselves in to hold our heads up high. And we learned first hand that the old cliche about it always being the darkest before the dawn is actually true..."

Cody couldn't help but chuckle. "Yeah, I guess we did. But, we're still left with the million dollar question on the table - what do we do about this?"

Bailey paused as she considered that. "Well, I think it best that neither of us make any kind of rash decision right now. Lets give it some time and distance. Lets give us a chance to cool down and let our emotions settle. Maybe after we do that, we'll both have a better idea of what it is we really want to do?"

"I think you're right. Which means we continue on with taking the interviews that we have scheduled already." He paused and chuckled again. "Of course, you also know this means we can't tell anyone around here that we got these letters, right?"

She frowned. "Why not?"

Cody smiled. "Because I know my Mom. Consciously, she would tell us to do whatever is best for us. But subconsciously, you know she would be doing everything she could to push us into choosing Harvard. You don't think she would be over the moon having us back in Boston full time?"

Bailey had to nod. "Yeah, I think you're probably right about that..." She paused. "What about Zack and Maya though? I mean they already know that we interviewed there and how it went."

"True, but you heard what Zack said earlier. They have enough to deal with right now with their own situation. It wouldn't be fair of us to try to add our problems on to what they've already got on their plates."

"Good point. They don't need to hear about our problems too"

"Besides, we don't know. Maybe in our travels, we'll find a medical school that makes us completely forget about Harvard's offers. It'll feel like the perfect place for us and make our decision an easy one to make. All of this will hopefully become completely moot then..."

She smiled at him. "Now I know you're right. I guess instead of burning those letters we should lock them away somewhere safe. And once we do, I say we forget all about them for a while. After all, we do need to rest up for the rest of today, right? I mean, we do have interviews at Tufts tomorrow, UMASS over in Worcester on Wednesday, and then BU's medical school on Thursday. Then Thursday night, we catch our flight out to Kansas City and interview at KU on Friday..." She paused and teased him. "Thankfully, with you around, I won't need to use the one hour dry cleaner down the street..."

He laughed. "Hey, any reason I can give you to keep me around works in my book."

Bailey wrapped her arms around his neck as he instinctively wrapped his around her waist. "You know I already have all the reasons in the world to keep you around. Most importantly, I love you and want to spend the rest of my life with you...whether the next step in our adventure be here in Boston or wherever it takes us."

"Right back at you." He leaned in and kissed her. "Thank you for being so understanding about all of this, Sweetheart. When it comes to me getting letters from institutes of higher education that don't go the way I expect them to, you've been my rock. And not just in those situations - you're always my rock."

She just smiled. "Just like you're mine. And you always will be."

He just shook his head. "This is kind of ironic, don't you think?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well, we had to fight like mad to get me into Yale so we could be there together. Now, we've been offered free rides to the best medical school in the country, and we're debating whether or not we want to accept it."

"True, but both times, we were in it together no matter what. Now, we have the rest of today to do whatever we want. Any ideas on how we should spend it?"

Cody paused before grinning. "Ohhh...I might be able to think of a few."

Bailey just gave him a look. "Oh really? Hmmm...I think I'd love to hear what they are."

He leaned in and gave her a much deeper and more passionate kiss. "Well, all of them include a lot of that..."

She giggled. "I'm even more intrigued now..."

He grinned again and looked around. "And to think...we have the place all to ourselves for a little while..."

The Other Side of Town

Throughout the rest of their lunch, Maya kept up her acting job as best as she could. And she must have been pretty convincing as Zack was totally buying that she didn't think him going on the boat for the summer was going to be a big deal. But, he did know better than to keep bringing it up, so he deftly changed the subject back to how her final had gone and other subjects. After they finished eating, Zack and Maya were leaving the restaurant and trying to decide what to do for the rest of their day. And that's when Zack came up with an idea.

"Why don't we go ahead and get all of your things packed up and moved over to the Tipton? I mean, we both have today off, so it would make the most sense. That way, it will be all done, and we don't have to worry about it the rest of the week."

Maya nodded. "I think that would be a good idea. Might as well get it out of the way. And I really should have a talk with Cody and Bailey when we get to the Tipton to make sure we're all on the same page about this summer..."

"That shouldn't be a problem. They're probably unpacking as we speak." Zack paused and shook his head. "Hold on a minute, I'll be right back. I need to run back inside and get a couple of dollars in change."

She just looked at him funny. "What for?"

He laughed. "For the parking meter outside your dorm. Its Monday, so there won't be any free places to park anywhere near your dorm. Plus, I don't want to give the parking Nazis on campus a reason to ticket me."

She laughed too. "Ahh...Gotcha. Yeah, I've slowly realized they don't have souls. I was on my way to work one afternoon, and I saw one of them writing up a ticket for a car that still had three minutes left on the meter. I just walked up to it and put another quarter in it. I've never seen someone's face turn so red so fast before in my life. I mean, she was actually angry that I did that. It was a good thing I wasn't heading back into my dorm or else I think she might have followed me in to try to find out my name..."

"I wouldn't be surprised if she would have. I heard from a guy in one of my classes that his grades were withheld last semester because he had two unpaid parking tickets. That's why I'm glad I take the subway everyday. But that reminds me though - I need to call Esteban to make sure he has a parking sticker for the Tipton garage ready for us to pick up when we get back there."

Once they got to Maya's dorm, they quickly packed up all of her things in a little under an hour. Loading up Zack's car took another half hour, and once they were done, it was off to pick up Maya's car. Thirty more minutes later, they both pulled into the Tipton parking garage. While Zack began unloading all of her things onto a luggage cart, Maya ran upstairs to get the parking sticker. Thirty minutes later, they were pushing the cart off of the elevator on to the 23rd floor. And when they opened the door to the suite, they heard what sounded like a very intense make out session coming from the other side of the couch. And when they heard the door open, Cody and Bailey immediate sat up and looked behind them to see Zack and Maya just giving them a look.

"Get a room, you two!"

Realizing they had been busted, Bailey blushed slightly, but Cody just shook his head and sighed. "Not again! First Kirby, now you two. I can't wait till we have our own dorm room next year!" He looked at his brother and smirked. "But as for us getting a room, what do you think this is?"

Zack laughed. "You know what I meant. And nice lipstick smudges their, Broseph. And if I may say, I think you've definitely found your color..."

Cody rolled his eyes. "Gee...thanks."

Zack turned to Maya and whispered. "I should warn you - in case you need them, I have ear plugs in the top drawer of my nightstand. I'm not saying you're definitely going to have to use them, but I've used them before just so I didn't accidentally hear something I don't want to hear..."

Maya couldn't help herself and began cracking up laughing. "I'll keep that in mind..."

Bailey just looked back and forth between them. "What's so funny?"

"Oh, nothing. I was just telling Maya she might want to knock from now on before she comes in..."

Bailey blushed again. "Zack!"

He laughed again. "Hey, don't do the crime if you can't take the ridicule later! Besides, you shouldn't be embarrassed about this. I mean - you have agreed to marry him after all..."

"Still!"

Maya figured it would be a good time to change the subject. "Are you two sure you don't mind me staying here this summer? With Zack gone, you two ordinarily would have the place to yourselves, and something like this wouldn't happen..."

Cody shook his head and sighed. "No, we don't mind at all. We just thought we were going to have a little more time alone together than we actually did..."

"Well, if it helps, I can give you guys my schedule so you'll know when you will..."

"Don't worry about it. In fact, we actually think you'll be easier to live with than Zack..." He smirked at his brother. "I can almost guarantee you'll be a lot neater and won't put empty milk cartons back in the refrigerator..."

Maya smiled. "You don't have to worry about that from me. And I really do appreciate this. For some reason, BU chose this summer as the perfect time to repaint and put in new carpeting in my dorm. I'm not sure why though. Its a college dorm, so it'll be a mess again within a month of people moving back in."

Bailey smiled back. "We know all about that. This time tomorrow, they'll be tearing apart our old dorm rooms too..."

Zack just shook his head. "I can believe how much you guys lucked out by that. I wish I had some relative who suddenly became a billionaire who wanted to show me some charity and give me a bunch of money..."

Cody grinned. "Well, since if you had a relative like that, they'd be my relative too, so, I wouldn't have a problem with that in the least..."

"All I know is that you can expect us to make another trip to Yale sometime next year to check out your new digs..."

Bailey laughed. "Are you thinking of coming back for the big Halloween party?"

Zack just glared at her. "No thank you!"

Cody teased him. "Awww. Afraid you won't remember the party again or that you'd get sick on the drive back home?"

Zack glared at him. "Easy there, Codester..."

"Or what? Remember, you still need me to make a couple of lists for you before you ship out..."

Zack just shook his head and began grumbling. "Whatever..."

Bailey turned to Cody. "Speaking of our new dorm, remind me to take the floor plans with us when we fly out on Friday. I want to look at it and see if my plan will actually work."

Cody nodded. "Good call..."

Maya spoke up. "What kind of plan do you have?"

Briefly, Bailey explained it to her, and Zack kept shaking his head. "Unbelievable..." He paused. "Oh yeah, I noticed you both got envelopes from Harvard's Medical School in the mail today? What were those all about?"

Cody and Bailey just looked at each other. "Oh, those? Harvard just sent us thank you notes for us coming in to interview. But, we immediately just ripped them up..."

"Yeah, we thought it was like pouring salt into the wounds after what that professor did to me..."

Zack nodded. "Yeah, that really wasn't very cool..." He turned to Maya. "Come on, lets get you settled in here."

Cody looked up. "By the way, Zack, when do you ship out exactly?"

"Three weeks from yesterday. I have to work the next two weeks, and then Moseby is giving me the week before I leave off to get done everything I need to get done."

Maya sighed. "And unfortunately, the week he has off is the week I start summer school. Talk about lousy timing."

Bailey was about to say something when her cell phone began vibrating. When she checked it, she saw she had a text message from London. "On my way back to the hotel. Be up at my penthouse in ten minutes!"

She sighed. "Great. Looks like London was serious about us starting to plan things as soon as we got back." She shrugged. "At least she's starting to write out words properly in her texts now..."

Zack smirked at them. "Awww...poor babies. Have to listen to London help you plan your luau reception."

Cody perked up and turned to Bailey. "Luau...that's not a half bad idea..."

Bailey nodded. "You're right - it isn't. But I'm thinking more for the rehearsal dinner though. We need to have a place for people to dance at the reception. And after we danced on the beach on New Year's Eve in Miami, I think we should avoid that at all costs. We don't want one of our relatives to accidentally fall and hurt themselves..."

Cody cringed as he pictured that happening in his mind. "Yeah, good call."

London's Penthouse

Exactly ten minutes after they had received their summons from London, Cody and Bailey were standing outside of her penthouse and knocked on the door. And immediately, London opened it up and pulled both of them inside almost causing them to trip and fall. They looked at her in surprise, but she just shook her head at them.

"You're late!"

Cody just gave her an incredulous look. "But you said be here in ten minutes, and that was exactly ten minutes ago..."

London rolled her eyes. "Do you two realize we only have fourteen months before this wedding of yours is supposed to take place? We've got a long way to go and not a lot of time to get there! We need to get to work ASAP!"

Bailey just shook her head in disbelief. "London, we understand that, but we've only been back in Boston for a few hours now. We haven't even finished unpacking our things yet..."

"You can do that later. Now, do you at least have the guest lists I asked you guys for the last time I saw you two?"

Cody looked away. "Ummm...well...sort of."

London gave him a dirty look. "Sort of? What does that mean exactly?"

"Well, my Dad emailed me his list, but we haven't seen Mom yet since we've been home to get hers. And we were planning on getting the list from Bailey's family when we went to Kettlecorn this weekend."

London just looked back and forth between them and began shaking her head. "You guys are killing me here!" She took a deep breath to calm herself. "Okay, from now on, I'm putting you guys on a schedule and giving you strict deadlines. Its the summer, so I think you guys can handle that. Now, here's the way things are going to go for the next little while. To start with, the wedding coordinator from the Grand Hawaiian will be in town the the first week of June. We ARE going to be meeting with her over dinner, understand me?"

Cody and Bailey just nodded. "Yes, London..."

"Good. She will know more about what we have to work with out there and what will be our best bets. And, I've spoken with Chef Paulo, and he would like to do your wedding cake and coordinate the food at the reception for you as a wedding gift to you both."

Bailey nodded again. "Of course. We'd be honored."

"Glad that's taken care of..." London smirked at them. "Now, can I trust you two to schedule an appointment to meet with him or do I need to do that for you?"

Cody sighed. "We'll do it..."

"Good boy. Now, moving on, I need you guys to start thinking about your wedding parties. Namely, how big do you want them to be and who you want to be in them."

Bailey turned to Cody. "Yeah, I guess that's something we should have already been thinking about..." She turned back to London. "I promise we'll start thinking about it as soon as possible."

"Yes, you will. Finally, the last thing we need to discuss is setting up an appointment for you to meet with Arturo. Once I told him that you were getting married, he insisted on designing what you're going to wear."

Cody turned to Bailey. "I guess that's all you. So, whenever works for you..."

London just gave him another look. "Hardly! You need to be there too, Brain Boy! You two are planning on getting married on the beach. Newsflash! Tuxedos don't work for beach weddings!"

Cody frowned. "They don't?" He paused to consider that. "Yeah, I guess they wouldn't. I really hadn't considered that before..."

London sighed. "I swear...if it weren't for me, you two would probably end up getting married at city hall or in Vegas!"

"We really do appreciate all of your help, London. I guess there is just a lot of things like that that hadn't occurred to us yet."

She rubbed her eyes. "Okay, I understand that. I mean...its not like you two have any experience putting on a wedding before." She paused as she remembered something. "Except for Esteban's!" She paused again to calm herself down. "But Cody did end up getting way too stressed out over it." London shook her head. "Anyways, lets look at it this way. You both have your homework assignments. Maybe phrasing it that way will actually motivate you both to get everything I've asked for done. Now, I'll see you both in a week or so. And when I tell you two its time to meet then, don't be late!"

Bailey just nodded. "We won't, and we promise we'll work on everything you've mentioned."

"You better!"

Once they left London's suite, they stood outside in the hallway waiting for the elevator to arrive. And while they did, Cody turned to Bailey and laughed.

"I now understand why Moseby said London planning his wedding would have caused him to lose his hair if he had any..."

She couldn't help herself and laughed too. "I think I can too..." She paused. "But, she is making us think of things we hadn't before, so that's a good thing. And its not like she's asking us to do anything all that difficult..."

"Yet..." He smiled at her. "You know, its still not too late for us to elope..."

"Cody!"

"I'm just kidding, Sweetie." He smiled at her again. "You know I will do everything in my power to give you the wedding of your dreams..."

She smiled back at him. "I know you will. And I think if we can get through this summer, everything will be taken care of, and we won't have to worry about it after that..."

"I sure hope so..." He chuckled. "Because I've seen what I look like bald, and its not a pretty sight..."

Zack and Cody's Suite

After getting Maya settled into the suite, she and Zack were a little worn out. After all, both had been up early that morning - Zack thanks to Moseby and Maya so she could cram one last time for her final that afternoon. So, once they had finished getting her unpacked, they both sunk back into the couch so they could catch their breaths and take it easy for a little bit. And as they did, Zack looked over at her.

"I forgot to ask earlier. Did you ever get your summer school schedule to fit your work schedule?"

Maya nodded. "Actually, its going to work our perfectly. I already told you I'll be in class from 9:00-10:30 every morning, but my lab will be on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 11:00-2:30. I thought that might be a problem at work, but it turns out it won't be. And on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons, I'm actually going to get to do real physical therapy work at the fit&rec center. The head physical therapist wants to borrow me and have me help out on those days from whenever I can get there until 7:30 those nights."

"So, you'll actually be getting to do what your studying for?"

She nodded. "Yeah. And on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, I'll still be teaching swim lessons as usual from 11:00 until 6:30. So, I'll still be getting in close to 30 hours a week. And if I do a good job with the physical therapy part, they may want to move me over to it full time come this fall."

"Well, congratulations then, Babe! You've earned it. I guess we'll both be doing new kinds of work this summer..."

Maya could only nod. "Yeah, I guess we will..."

Zack just looked over at her before shaking his head. "Okay, what is it?"

That caught her off guard. "What's what?"

"You said earlier you could tell when something was bothering me. Well, that works two ways, Babe. I can tell something is bothering you too. So, are you going to tell me what it is or not?"

"Zack..."

"Look, I remember Cody telling me that in every relationship, you have to have honest and open communication. And, I think he's actually right. So, tell me. What's up?"

Maya closed her eyes and sighed. "You remember how I tried to make you going on the ship this summer not that big of a deal?"

"Yeah..."

"Well, I really want to believe that, but I keep having these nagging thoughts pop into my head. I know you and Moseby have both told me everything will be alright..."

Zack cut her off. "Moseby? What are you talking about?"

Briefly, Maya recounted her finding Moseby waiting outside of her final and the conversation he had. "Don't blame him though. He was trying to make things easier on everyone..."

He just sat there for a minute thinking. "Okay, but what are these nagging thoughts you're having? Tell me about them..."

She turned to face him. "Well, I hate myself for thinking about it, but I can't help but remember what happened when you went to the Gemini Project when I wasn't around. I guess part of me is afraid that with me not around you everyday, that..."

He cut her off again. "You're not saying what I think you're saying are you? Because if you're worried about me looking at other women while I'm away, then don't. Because you have absolutely nothing to worry about!"

"I know, and the logical, reasonable side of me knows that too. But the insecure, irrational part of me is afraid...I mean, I've heard all about the area code rule and the other things the Guyble says..."

Zack just looked at her in surprise. "You've heard of the Guyble?"

"Of course I have. Its not that much different from the Girble."

He laughed. "That's twice I've heard of its existence. But you should know something. I've completely ignored everything the Guyble has said for a couple of years now. In fact, I've done some things that it strictly prohibits..."

"You have? Like what?"

"You remember when I went shopping for you before spring break and what I bought you?"

Maya nodded. "Yeah..."

Zack smiled. "Well, it said if your girl ever asked you to do that, that you should run for the hills. But, I didn't. Maya, I've grown up a lot in the past few years. I'm more mature. And I am strictly a one woman kind of guy now. The area code rule means nothing to me anymore. I am firmly and completely committed to you. You have absolutely nothing to worry about, but if there is something I can do to convince you of that, I'm all ears..." He paused. "You want me to get your name tattooed on my arm to show everyone where my heart lies?"

She just looked at him and couldn't help but smile. "No, you don't have to do that. Just offering is enough to convince me that I was being silly..."

"I'm glad because I really don't like needles. Besides, I'll be around Esteban and Francesca all summer. They wouldn't tolerate me doing anything stupid..."

"Yeah, that's true." She shook her head and sighed again. "I'm sorry for being so crazy and unreasonable..."

"Well..." He teased her. "...you're a female, so you couldn't help it."

Maya's eyes went wide. "Zack Martin!"

He began laughing. "I'm just kidding!"

"You better be!"

"I am, I was just trying to get a rise out of you. So, are we okay?"

She nodded. "Yeah, we're okay..." She paused and smiled. "Just remember though, you better be a good boy because I am a green belt now..."

"I know you are..." Zack paused as he thought of something else. "Maya, I want you to do me a favor though."

"What's that?"

"If anyone causes you any problems while I'm gone like that Bruno guy tried to, please don't try to handle it all by yourself. I'll be back the week of the 4th to help out, and in the meantime, you'll have Cody and Bailey around to help too. Those two have had their share of dealing with idiots, and we all know Bailey knows how to hogtie someone..."

Maya smiled again. "Zack, I'll be fine. If anyone messes with me, they'll be in for a rude awakening." She leaned in and kissed him. "But thank you for being worried about me..."

"Of course I'm going to worry about you while I'll be far away and not be able to do anything to help."

"You'll have no reason to. Every night, I'll be back here before eight o'clock, so I won't have to ride the subway after dark by myself..."

"True..." He paused. "Still, it might not be a bad idea to get you one of those key chain mace thingies that Cody gave Bailey..."

"If that will make you feel better, then fine."

"It will..." He smiled again. "Now, you need to make me a list of souvenirs I can try to find you whenever I actually get to get off the boat in ports..."

"You don't have to buy me anything..."

"I know, but I want to. You're my lady, and I want to spoil you rotten." He paused. "But I'll forewarn you, don't expect me to eat exotic animal parts just to get you something you really want. I did that once in Morocco to help Cody out, and I still get queasy thinking about it."

She laughed. "Awww...my poor baby. Was it really that bad?"

Zack shuddered thinking about it. "Uh huh. Maybe I should pack my bucket with me?"

"Maybe so. But think of the bright side. You probably won't have to pack very much else. I assume they are going to be providing you a uniform to wear everyday, right?"

Zack paused again. "You know, I hadn't even thought of that yet. I would hope so because my work clothes are designed for Boston. I don't think they would work to well in a tropical climate. I just hope I don't have to dress like how Moseby used to have to..."

Maya shuddered that time. "Gee...thanks. Now all I can see are the knee socks..."

He laughed. "I know the feeling. But I'll ask Moseby tomorrow and find out..." He grinned. "But until then, there is something else I want to think about instead..."

"Yeah? What's that?"

He leaned and kissed her. "This..."

She giggled. "Sounds good to me..."

"So, we're definitely good then, right?"

Maya grinned and leaned in and kissed him again. "What does that tell you?"

"Works for me!"

As they began kissing again, the door to the suite swung open. And when it did, Cody and Bailey just shook their heads and laughed.

"Get a room, you two!"

To be Continued...