Episode 25, Part III

"Bucking the Odds"

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...

Cody and Bailey's Living Room, 50 Years Later

Cody just sat back in his favorite easy chair and smiled as all of his numerous grandchildren seemed to be deep in thought as they reflected on everything he had just told them. When all of his children had asked him to keep his grandchildren entertained, he had been a little hesitant about it at first. It wasn't that he didn't love spending time with them, but with the sheer number of them combined with the fact that he was now seventy-one years old, he had legitimate concerns about whether or not he could keep up with all of them. Add that to the fact that it was a scorcher outside, and he was looking at trying to entertain over two dozen rambunctious kids without getting heat stroke. Fortunately, his older grandchildren had helped him out, and when the younger ones asked him to tell them a story, he knew just the one to keep them occupied. So, several hours later, he had told them about his life from the moment he and Zack had moved into the Tipton up until his wedding day to Bailey. And even though it was now fifty years later, it was still the best story he had ever heard.

And this hadn't been the first time he had told it, but it was the first time he had told it to all of his grandchildren. Cody was grateful for a new audience as all of his children had said they were tired of hearing it thirty years ago. So, he was glad a new generation got to hear it and hopefully learn from it. And as he watched the faces of his grandchildren, he noticed all of them seemed to light up at the same time. He just grinned thinking they had finally digested everything and realized how wonderful it truly was. But about a minute later, he noticed his oldest granddaughter, Roni, was saying something. Unfortunately, he couldn't quite make out what she was saying.

"What did you just say, Roni?"

Cody saw her lips moving, but again, he couldn't hear anything she was saying. Shaking his head, he sighed and reached for his hearing aid. "You would think in the past fifty years they could have developed a better hearing aid than this. Maybe I should have gone into biotechnologies..." After trying to adjust it, he slipped it back into his ear and turned his attention back to his oldest granddaughter. "Now, try that one more time, Sweetheart..."

But once again, he saw her lips moving but couldn't hear her.

"I'm sorry, Roni. I think this thing is on the fritz..."

"NO, SHE WAS HELPING ME HAVE SOME FUN WITH YOU, CODY BEAR!"

Cody was so startled, he nearly jumped out his chair. He began patting his chest over where his heart was and turned to see his wife smiling and laughing at him.

"Got you again!"

He shook his head. "I swear, Bails...I think you enjoy trying to give me a heart attack! Remember, I'm seventy-one years old!"

Bailey kept laughing. "Oh please. You went to the doctor last week for your yearly physical, and he said you had the heart of someone half your age! And you should! I mean, I know how well you've taken care of yourself over the years..."

"Still..."

"Uh huh. And you know I only tease you like that because its so much fun..."

Cody paused and grinned. "And I only do this because its so much fun!" And even though he wasn't quite as fast as he used to be, he grabbed Bailey and pulled her on to his lap. Once he did, she shrieked while all of their grandchildren laughed. And they laughed even harder when he began tickling her.

"Cody! Stop that! I'm seventy-one too! My bones are more brittle than they used to be!"

He laughed. "Now its my turn to say 'Oh please!'. You had your physical last week too, and your doctor said you were as healthy as a horse. Plus, you've been taking calcium supplements ever since we covered osteoporosis in medical school..."

"Okay, okay...You've made your point." She paused as she realized something. "Where is everyone else? They didn't really leave you all alone with all of our grand kids, did they?"

One of their youngest grandsons, Nick, spoke up. "They sure did, Grandma. They needed to keep Grandpa busy while they..." But before he could continue, his older sister covered his face with her hand to shut him up. She turned and grinned at her grandparents. "They all had errands to run, Grandma..."

Cody and Bailey looked at each other and smiled. She leaned in and whispered. "Are they really trying to throw us a surprise 50th anniversary party while expecting us not to find out about it?"

He whispered back. "Yeah, but they've worked so hard on it, so we have to play along..."

She sighed. "Oh, I will. I just hope it goes better than all of those Mother's Days where they tried to surprise me with breakfast in bed. Why didn't you volunteer to do the cooking for those?"

He grinned. "Hey, they insisted they do it themselves..."

Bailey shook her head. "It still blows my mind that one of our kids now has his own cooking show on the Food Network. After all of those...exotic meals, I never would have saw that coming. I thought they had all gotten their cooking skills from me..."

"Hey, I eventually taught all of them..."

"That is true..." She shrugged. "Oh well, what were all of you doing before I interrupted?"

Cody grinned at her. "Oh...our grandchildren all wanted me to tell them a story, so I did. I just happened to tell them my all time favorite one."

"The story of us?"

"Uh huh."

Bailey grinned back at him. "That's my all time favorite story too..." She paused and leaned in to whisper to him. "You didn't tell them everything, did you? You know...you did leave out certain things like everything that happened in Virginia, right? Their parents would kill you if you didn't..."

Cody laughed. "Of course I didn't tell them everything. I kept everything rated PG and left out a few things out that they didn't need to know about."

She sighed in relief. "Good...We had to give our kids the talk about the birds and the bees, and I wouldn't want to deprive them of the chance to do the same with theirs."

Bailey was about to say something else when their oldest grandson, Tommy, spoke up. "So, Grandma, where were you earlier?"

She turned and smiled at him. "Oh, I had an old friend of your Grandpa's and mine ask me to do a house call this morning."

"Was everything okay, Grandma?"

She smiled at Tommy. "Yeah, the little girl had fallen down and scraped her knee. But she'll be just fine after I washed it out, put some Neosporin on it and then bandaged it up the wound. Of course, after that, London made me check out her other grandchildren while I was there..."

Cody shook his head and sighed. "Doesn't London know that you've been semiretired for 10 years now and fully retired for 5?"

Bailey smiled. "I think she does, but when it comes to the well being of her grandchildren, she only trusts me to do it. Besides, you know as well as I do that all of our friends have asked me to be the pediatrician for their children and their grandchildren. I've always been humbled and honored by that..."

"I know, but couldn't you have taken our youngest daughter with you and try to ease London into accepting her as the new pediatrician for them?"

She laughed. "Hey, I've been trying that since she graduated from medical school about ten years ago..."

He was about to say something when they heard someone clear their throat. Turning, they saw their grandchildren smiling at them. "So, Grandma, since you're here now, you can help Grandpa finish his story. What happened after you two got married?"

Bailey smiled again. "Well, after our wedding, we had a wonderful time on our honeymoon before we came back here to Boston to begin medical school over at Harvard."

"And then what?"

Cody answered. "Four years later, we graduated."

"And that's when Grandma became a doctor for kids?"

Bailey nodded. "Yeah, I did. I accepted a residency over at the Children's Hospital of Boston. Two years later, I accepted a full time position at the Tipton Clininc."

Their oldest granddaughter, Roni paused as she thought of something. "How come you didn't become a real doctor like Grandma did, Grandpa?"

He smiled. "I did, Honey. In fact, you could say I was twice the doctor your Grandma was."

Bailey rolled her eyes. "Oh please!"

Cody laughed. "Well, its technically true! Not only do I have an MD like you do, I also have a PhD as well..."

Their oldest grandson Tommy grinned. "Yeah, because you started doing research on all of those cool diseases, right Grandpa?"

"I sure did, Tommy. For a long time, I wondered what my chosen field of specialty would be. And despite your Grandma's and our friend Maddie's attempts to get me to go into obstetrics, I declined. But our first year of medical school, I really enjoyed our class in microbiology. So, with your Grandma's blessing and encouragement, I applied for and was accepted into Harvard and MIT's joint program where I got my MD and a PhD in virology. So, just like I said when I was about your age, I did get a degree from MIT too..."

Bailey shook her head. "And for the past forty-four years, you've kept reminding me of that fact."

He tickled her again. "Hey, I was just trying to prove I was a good catch for you. How many people do you know that have two bachelor degrees from Yale, an MD from Harvard and a PhD from MIT?"

"Yeah, yeah..."

"I encouraged you to go for a PhD with me."

She smiled. "I know you did, but I rather be treating patients than spending my days looking through a microscope..." She paused and whispered to him. "Though, I'll never complain about how doing that made your right hand so strong..."

He laughed. "Behave yourself..."

Roni spoke up again. "So, when did you start teaching at Harvard then, Grandpa?"

Cody paused to think again. "Let me see. I believe I was thirty one when I accepted their offer. For the longest time, I was the youngest person on their faculty..." He paused and teased his wife again. "And that would have still been true if I could have convinced your Grandma into joining me there. Harvard offered her too, but she turned them down."

"Why did you do that, Grandma?"

Bailey smiled again. "Like I said, I felt I would be more useful if I stayed on the front lines and actually got to treat children. Of course, it didn't hurt that at the same time Harvard offered me that position, the Tipton Clinic also offered to make me the chief of pediatrics in waiting. And five years later, the current chief retired, and I was there to take over. I like to think that under my watch that we were able to make a difference in people's lives."

Cody shook his head. "Don't listen to her, kids. Your Grandma is being way too modest again. Under her tutelage, the Tipton Clinic pediatrics department became the best one in the country. When it came time for them to expand, they even named the new pediatrics ward there after her..."

She wrapped her arm around her husband. "Now your Grandpa is being the modest one. They named the new ward after the both of us. After all, neither one of us would have gotten those once in a lifetime offers if we hadn't made our joint discovery a couple of years before..."

Roni spoke up again. "Do you mean when you two found a cure for the common cold?"

Bailey smiled at her. "Yeah, that's exactly what I was talking about. And I must say, if it wasn't for your mother, it would never have even been on our radars."

"What do you mean, Grandma?"

"Well, your mother, Dani, was our first child. And when she was about six months old, she got this nasty cold that she just couldn't seem to shake. Naturally, we were worried about her, and we tried all of the normal treatments for it. Unfortunately, none of them seemed to work. So, your Grandpa and I even took her to some specialists, but they all said it was just a nagging cold that would go away eventually..."

Cody spoke up. "And when we told this to your Great Grammy Eunice, she told us to try some old homemade remedy that had been in her family for a long time. Well, it completely blew us away when Dani's cold was history within 48 hours of us trying it."

Bailey laughed. "And knowing your Grandpa and I, we began looking into it trying to figure out how that had happened. Trust us, finding time to do that while we had a six month old and another one growing in my belly..."

Their granddaughter, Kaylee, interrupted her. "Was that with my Mommy?"

Bailey smiled at her. "Sure was. Anyways, to simply things, we discovered that two of the ingredients in the homemade cure had these proteins that one would block the cold virus from finding anything to feed off of while the other would attack the virus itself."

Cody continued. "So, once we discovered that, I took my findings to my boss at the Tipton Clinic. You see, I was working there too in the sub basement where they did all of their research. Anyways, a long story short, he told me to go talk to Wilfred Tipton and see what he thought. Fifteen minutes after I showed up at his office, he threw me out the door and told me to get to work on it. Mr. Tipton was seeing dollar signs, so he even said he would finance my research on it. And in our spare time, your grandmother and I continued to work on it as a team. She would review the findings I had and would make suggestions on how to improve upon it. Two years later, we got FDA approval to begin doing testing on human subjects. The rest, as they say, is history..."

"Wow..."

Tommy laughed. "So, that's why you guys are so loaded right now, right?"

Bailey nodded. "Well, it did bring with it a rather large windfall that was split between us and Mr. Tipton. We even got pats on the back from him as he said he always knew him investing in our educations would eventually pay off. And even though he only gave us a third of the all the profits it generated, we ended up making more money off of it than we could even begin to think of spending in ten lifetimes."

"So, all of you have your future educations paid for, so I want you all to go to school where ever you want to go." Cody paused. "Though, there is a new Martin wing of Berkeley College at Yale if any of you decide you want to matriculate there..."

Tommy grinned. "It must be nice to have all that money. I'm going to be rich like that myself someday and buy anything I want!"

Cody turned to Bailey and whispered. "I know they are just fourteen, but are we sure its a good idea for him to be dating London's oldest granddaughter?"

She laughed. "We'll worry about that later..." She turned back to their grandchildren. "So, once it became a huge success, we knew we would be able to take care of our family for the rest of their lives. With money no longer an issue, we could have as big of a family as we wanted."

Roni spoke up again. "Yeah, about that. In grandpa's story, he said you both wanted six kids. But we all know that you two ended up having seven. What happened there?"

Cody laughed. "Easy. We defied the odds once again..."

"What do you mean?"

Bailey smiled. "Well, our plan was to have six. We got lucky that your Grandpa graduating with his PhD coincided with me finishing my two year residency at the Children's Hospital. So, we decided then we were ready to start our family. And almost a year to the day of his graduation, we welcomed our first child to the world, your mother, Danielle Veronica Martin. We both liked the name Danielle, and Veronica was the first name of my Grammy. So, we gave it to your Mommy, and she passed it on to you..."

"Cool! So that's where my name came from!"

Cody smiled. "Exactly. Your great great Grammy was one special lady. And you, Sweetheart, remind me of her more and more each day." He paused. "Though, I still wonder if we cursed Dani or if we somehow knew what her future held for her..."

"What do you mean, Grandpa?"

"Well, her initials were DVM, and she became a veterinarian. Like the medical degrees we have are called a MD, the degree for a veterinarian is a DVM - Doctor of Veterinary Medicine. So, again, we either influenced her future career by naming her what we did or we somehow knew she was going to be a vet."

Bailey shook her head. "Ignore your Grandpa. Sometimes, he tends to over think things. Anyways, a little over a year after she was born, we welcomed our second child..."

Kaylee spoke up again. "My Mom..."

"Right. Eleanor Miriam Martin. We both liked the named Eleanor for some reason, and we gave her the name Miriam after your Grandpa's grandmother. And she has turned out to be an awful lot like her namesake. She's now one of the nation's foremost interior decorators, and people swear by her taste..."

Cody mumbled. "Except she absolutely adored her Grandpa Kurt..." He shook his head. "Speaking of Grandpas though, I still remember the look on Clyde's face when he told me I now had two daughters. It was like he was more giddy about that than the fact that he had a new granddaughter..."

Bailey laughed. "Well, it turned out he was right about a lot things he warned us about. Anyways, we waited two more years before we welcomed our third child to our family, our first son..."

Tommy grinned. "My Dad!"

"That's him. Of course, when it came time to name him, we realized we had unknowingly created a pattern. You see, my first name is Bailey, and your Grandpa's first name is Cody. Well, I'm two months older than your grandfather. Without realizing it, by age in our family, we then had a name starting with B, one with C, one with D and one with E. So, we thought it was a cute pattern and went with it. So, that's why your Dad's name is Franklin Zachary Martin. Franklin because it started with F, and we both were big fans of Benjamin Franklin and FDR who we both thought were two of the greatest men in American history. And his middle name was Zachary after your great uncle Zack."

Cody laughed. "And the faces when we announced we had a boy couldn't have been more different. My brother was humbled we named our child after him, and my father-in-law seemed almost disappointed that we had a son..."

"Well, we had one, and he went 0 for 10 in having any of his own. But he quickly got over it, and he and little Frankie quickly became big buddies."

"Yeah, they did. And Frank was this close to being the first Martin in our branch of the family to be born in Scandinavia since Knut and Olaf were wrongfully banished from Martinsgrab..."

That caught Tommy's attention. "He was?"

Bailey nodded. "Oh yeah. We had to go to Oslo, Norway to receive a very prestigious award, but at that time, I was over eight months pregnant with your Daddy. Well, even though I couldn't fly then, nothing was going to stop me from being there. So, Wilfred Tipton put us on one of the S.S. Tiptons, and we sailed over there on it. Two days after we got back, my water broke."

Cody wiped his brow. "Yeah, we really lucked out there. And Frank took after me, and he is a gourmet chef in his own right. He owns four restaurants now, one here in Boston, one in New York, one in Miami...and one in Kettlecorn."

Bailey laughed. "Hey, that place is making a killing! People come from all over to eat there, and its boosted Kettlecorn's economy. Frank is a local hero around there, and everyone there watches his new cooking show whenever it comes on."

"I think its good that he has a show now. I remember helping him out when he got his first restaurant off the ground here in Boston. Ordinarily, Frank is the most even tempered person in the world, but when someone would screw up, you should have seen the look on his face when he glared at them..."

Tommy laughed. "He tries the same with me when I get in trouble now, but my Mommy told me Dad was all bark and no bite."

Bailey shook her head. "Anyways, two years later, we bucked the odds for the first time when we had our twin boys, Geoffrey Clyde and Harrison Kurt. And like your Grandpa and your Great Uncle, they were identical twins who ended up being nothing alike. We named Geoff after one of our favorite authors, Geoffrey Chaucer and my Daddy, and we name Harry after..." She sighed. "...Harrison Ford and Cody's Dad."

Cody laughed. "Oh come on! The man brought both Han Solo and Indiana Jones to life! Besides, we did name him properly too. Harry is now a professor of archaeology at Yale. Which is kind of ironic since the last Indiana Jones movie used Yale to substitute for the university Indy taught at!"

She kept shaking her head. "Whatever. But while both we bright students, Geoff decided to focus his career on sports..."

"Well, fortunately for him, he got my love of hockey and your actual athletic abilities. He actually got a cup of coffee with the Bruins before he decided to retire. Now, he's a higher up in their front office."

"That's true. And Zack takes advantage of the free tickets as often as he can."

Roni spoke up again. "That's all nice and everything, but none of that explains how you two ended up with seven kids instead of six."

Bailey smiled. "I was just about to get there. The twins left us with five kids, and we knew one more would make our family complete. And when I got pregnant the sixth time, we both agreed that would be our last one. Well, we bucked the odds once again. The odds of us having two straight sets of twins are astronomical, but we did. But our final set of twins were a fraternal set of girls. That's why one of them, Isabella Caroline, has dark hair, and the other one, Josephine Eunice, has blond hair."

"And like the first set of twins had the middle names of their grandfathers, this set got their middle names from their grandmothers. Our baby girls really took after us. Izzy is a medical researcher like I was, and Josie is a pediatrician like your Grandma..."

Their grand kids all nodded before Roni spoke up again. "So, that was it? No more kids?"

Cody laughed. "Yeah. After the last set of twins, your Grandma made me get a..."

Bailey cut him off. "Yeah, that was the last ones for us. While we wanted six, we always heard seven was a lucky number."

"Which was just fine with us. I now have two baby girls instead of just one."

She shook her head. "Sweetie, they'll both be 35 this year. They're not babies anymore."

"They'll always be my little girls."

Bailey couldn't help but laugh. "Even though you two are as different as night and day, you sound just like Daddy did when he talked about his girls..."

He gave her a look. "Well, who do you think taught me everything I needed to know about having daughters?"

"That's true I guess..."

Tommy spoke up again. "So, tell us what happened to Uncle Zack and Aunt Maya..."

"Well, Zack did actually graduate with his MBA from Harvard. And unlike he had feared, he didn't graduate dead last in his class. Actually, he graduated in the top half of it. Yeah, he was the last person on the list who could say that, but its true nonetheless. Anyways, he kept working at London Inns, and when Moseby finally retired, he took over as CEO of the company. And when Mr. Tipton and Mr. St. Mark both finally passed, all three hotel chains - London Inns, Tipton Hotels and St. Mark Hotels - were merged under the same corporate umbrella, and Zack was named CEO of that as well. In fact, he just finally retired himself a couple of months ago. May 31st was his official last day as CEO. London and Todd's oldest son officially became the new CEO on June 1, but Zack had taken him under his wing for the past ten years and prepared him to take over much like Moseby had done for him."

"And Maya did graduate with her bachelors and doctorate in physical therapy. With backing from her parents, she set up her own physical therapy center here in Boston that became very successful. Since then, it has expanded to several other cities here in the Northeast as well as in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Dallas and Miami. Maya's father's connections helped filter some pro athletes towards her, and like he had always told her, if you do a good job, word of it will spread fast. So, she did, and it did. She's now retired as well as one of their daughters now runs the company."

Cody laughed. "Though, her face was priceless about twenty years ago as she almost had a total meltdown. Maya had personally helped rehab the Red Sox then first basemen, and helped him come back from his injury well ahead of schedule. And he was able to return to the Sox by the end of the year and ended up hitting the home run in the ALCS that knocked her beloved Yankees out of the playoffs..."

"Speaking of getting hurt, did Uncle Zack have to get hurt himself before he proposed to Aunt Maya?"

Bailey laughed this time. "Well, sort of. The winter before they graduated, we had all gone back down to visit with your Great Grandpa Kurt and Great Gram Marie, and your uncle was planning on proposing on New Year's Eve at midnight. Well, that afternoon, he cut his foot on a seashell in the sand and had to go get stitches. So, he was on crutches, and your Grandpa and I had to fight to laugh at that because we knew what he was planning on doing. Naturally, Maya said yes, and then proceeded to tease him unmercifully about him finally getting hurt before he proposed."

Cody smiled. "Yeah, the look on his face when the doctor fitted him for crutches was priceless..." He paused. "But not quite as good as when his and Maya's fifth child was finally a boy. He pulled a play out of my playbook and ran out of the hospital and shouted for the world to hear 'Its a boy! Its finally a boy!" He turned to Bailey. "I keep telling you – Zack having four daughters was karma!"

She laughed again. "It had to be. But, I'm glad it did because we have four beautiful nieces - Allison Julia, Natalie Caroline, Rachel Antonia, and Marianne Bailey. Their middle names came from their grandmothers, their grandfather, and...me."

"Sweetie, as honored as you were, nothing will top the look on Moseby's face when Zack announced he named his youngest daughter after him. He was completely blown away."

"That's true. And when they finally had a son, Zack returned the favor and named him Jackson Cody. Cody after you, and Jackson was as close to Zack, Jr. as Maya would let him name their only son."

"Well, Maya had to enunciate when she yelled so she could differentiate between Zack and Jack. Anyways, Maya runs that family with an iron fist. When your Great Uncle Zack began getting a gut again, she immediately put him on a diet again. And even before his hair began thinning, she made him begin using Rogaine every day. I'm sure Zack's thankful now since he still has a full head of hair..."

"I'm just glad she was able to change the vision London had of the future. Thanks to her, the worst thing we ever found in our couch cushions lately have been our grand kids' toys and pacifiers..."

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

Roni spoke up again. "So, what all happened to all of your friends from when you guys were younger?"

Bailey paused. "Well, let's see. I guess I'll start with Woody and Addison. They did move to Hershey, Pennsylvania, and they were the second couple among us to get married about a year and a half after we did. The were married right after Christmas back in Addison's hometown in Michigan. After that, their lives were going pretty normal until they hit a rather large Powerball jackpot..."

Tommy laughed. "Did they actually check their numbers unlike that one idiot Grampa was telling us about earlier?"

Bailey laughed. "Oh yeah, you could definitely say they did. In fact, Woody was actually working one of the cameras when the drawing took place. He had one eye in the camera and one eye on their ticket. And when he saw that they had won, he went kind of crazy and turned the camera on to himself. He was jumping up and down about winning and made quite the spectacle of himself...before he quit right there on the spot."

Cody sighed. "I warned him about doing that..."

"Can you blame him for what he did? Anyways, they then had enough money so they never had to work ever again, so they didn't. And with nothing tying them down to central Pennsylvania anymore, they actually decided to move here to Boston to be closer to all of us. While their kids were young, they both were full time parents. But when they got older and began school, things got interesting. Addison took a position as a health teacher in the same school Emma Moseby was principal at. Having their winnings, she didn't have to worry about her teacher's salary being enough to live on any longer. And Woody? Well, he finally got to live out his life long dream and became a hot dog vendor on the streets of Boston. It was your Uncle Zack going to his cart every day that got him in trouble..."

Cody paused. "Though, I have to give Woody credit. When Steve needed an operation, Woodchuck was the bigger man and stepped up to the plate and paid for it. After that, no one would ever let Steve give him a hard time ever again. If he tried, Woody's siblings would give him a guilt trip about how he had saved Steve's life..."

Bailey gave him a look. "Even Willa too?"

He shrugged. "I would assume so...if she ever stopped attacking a plate of ribs like a pack of wolves or scratching the athlete's foot on her feet." He shuddered. "Almost fifty-five years later, and that still makes me nauseous to think about."

"I'll take your word on that. Moving on, next would be Marcus and Melanie. They got married the same summer as your Uncle Zack and Aunt Maya about a month earlier. Marcus continued writing shows for Broadway and eventually won several Tony Awards..." She paused. "Though, I still wonder about some of the casting choices he made for his play about all of us on the boat. The girl he picked to play me had never done anything professional beforehand, but she's had a nice career since. And I think he picked the twins to play you and Zack just because they had been in an Adam Sandler movie..." She shrugged. "Anyways, Marcus never did go on the Surreal Life as his career was rejuvenated. And while he was doing that, Melanie got a job from a very surprising source – Maya's father. She became an agent herself until she retired about five years ago. And she represented more than just athletes as she also had entertainers as clients that she met through Marcus."

Cody nodded. "Which brings us to Tapeworm and Gertie. They got married the summer after they both got their masters degrees. Tapeworm was going to stay in school and get his doctorate, but he was offered a position with the Department of Defense in Washington..." He paused. "It must have been an offer he couldn't turn down as he accepted it. We aren't quite for sure what he did for the government exactly as it was all very top secret. Anyways, when he accepted that, they moved to southern Maryland just outside of DC. That was fine with Gertie as they were only an hour away from where she grew up, and she joined an architecture firm there. She had hoped being so close, she could convert him to being a Ravens fan, but it didn't work out. But, about five years later, her career got a huge shot in the arm. London asked her to make a pitch for the new Tipton resort on the Las Vegas Strip, and she loved Gertie's ideas. Just like that, she was hired away to become the new Tipton/St. Mark/London Inns corporate architect. And that worked out perfectly for Gertie as she could now work from home, so they began having their family then too."

"Yeah, it did." Bailey paused. "Then there is your Great Aunt Amy. When she got up here to Harvard, she still had no idea what she wanted to major in, so she took classes to see what interested her. Turns out she took to sociology and psychology like a duck to water. Eventually, she got PhDs in both, and is now a best selling author. Amy continues writing books about the relationships between men and women..."

Cody laughed. "Yeah, never saw that one coming..."

Bailey shrugged. "Well, I think she did a lot of her own research with her relationship with your Great Uncle Adam..." She laughed. "Which if you think about them, its kind of ironic."

"How so, Grandma?"

"Well, Amy always told me that she wanted to find her own guy like your Grampa here, but I didn't know she was so serious about that. You see, Adam was born in Seattle and came to Boston to go to school."

Cody frowned. "Hey, there is nothing wrong with that! I liked Adam from the very beginning! He's a real good guy..."

"I'm not saying he isn't. But think about it, Sweetie. Born in Seattle. Moved to Boston. Became a doctor. Who does that sound like to you?"

Cody paused to consider that before he grinned. "Well, maybe its just you two Pickett girls that guys like me are drawn to? I mean, no offense to my other brothers-in-law, but it was nice to have another guy in the family who was more like me..."

Bailey laughed again. "Yeah, Daddy mentioned that as soon as he met Adam for the first time. Of course, by then, you had already blazed the trail of being different, and that made things a lot easier for him."

"Maybe." He turned back to their grandchildren. "I guess next up would be London and Todd. They too got married..." He paused. "...and had their first child seven months later..."

"Which London says came premature..."

Cody just looked at her. "Sweetie, you're a pediatrician. Premature babies don't come out weighing over nine pounds..."

Bailey smiled. "I know, but that's her story, and she's sticking to it. Anyways, from there, London became a super Mom. Her kids became her permanent pet projects. She became the president of their PTA and totally revitalized it."

"You can say that again. Bake sales will never be the same again. And then she got Arturo to design a line for a fundraising fashion show. It was then I realized how much trouble I was in..."

"What do you mean?"

He smiled. "Bails, you were still the most beautiful woman I had ever seen. But in a tie for second close behind you were our daughters Dani and Ellie. I realized then I was in store for a lot of sleepless nights once they became teenagers."

She gave him a quick peck on the lips. "And you handled all of that as well as I could have hoped. Anyways, I guess after not having close relationships with either of her parents, London didn't want that to happen with her own kids."

"True, and they are all very close now. Todd continued being a dentist till about ten years ago himself, but its not like he ever needed the money from it to live off of. Now with their kids all grown and out on their own, he and London constantly travel around the world – when they aren't busy babysitting one of their grandchildren..."

Bailey nodded. "Which I guess just leaves us with Maddie and Trevor. They even one upped us and had eight kids of their own. Trevor eventually became editor in chief of the Boston Globe while Maddie was the VP of marketing for London Inns..."

Cody just shook his head and laughed. "And the ironic part is that while Maddie did get a little more conservative as she got older, Trevor grew a little more liberal. Now, they practically agree with each other on everything. Both are now middle of the road now which was passed on to all of their children. My goddaughter Zoey is now the Congressman in our district." He paused and laughed again. "I just wonder if any of our kids remember their first babysitter is now in Congress."

Tommy spoke up. "With so many kids, did you guys ever have a nanny?"

Bailey shook her head. "Nope. Well, not really. When your Great Grandma Carey retired from the Tipton, we hired her to watch our kids during the day. She refused to let us pay her at first, but we insisted."

"Plus, once I took a professorship at the Harvard Medical School, I then had the summers off to be around to watch them too." He grinned. "The one added perk of your Grandma's and my discovery was that I wasn't put under the pressures of publication or perish. So, while the kids were out of school for the summer, so was I..."

Bailey sighed. "That was the only reason I almost reconsidered accepting a professorship of my own."

"Cool story, Grandpa and Grandma." Roni paused. "You think me and my friends will all stay as close as you guys did?"

"I sure hope so, Sweetheart. Good friends are hard to find. When you are lucky enough to find them, hold on to them for as long as you can."

Bailey spoke up. "Okay, you guys. Enough story time for now. Why don't you all go get cleaned up while I talk to your Grampa..."

Grumbling, the kids all got up and began leaving the room. Before he left though, Tommy paused and turned back to look at his grandparents.

"Did you two have any more wild and crazy adventures in medical school and afterwards?"

Cody smiled. "We sure did, but those will be the story for another day."

Once Tommy shrugged and walked off, Cody turned to Bailey.

"Okay, you told them you needed to talk to me. What about?"

"First, does anyone know about our other plans for today?"

"Only Roni and that's because she agreed to come over and feed our cats while we're away..."

"Yeah, that makes sense. Speaking of our cats, where are they?"

Cody laughed. "Probably under our bed hiding. When they saw our horde of grandchildren coming, they both darted off so fast, it wasn't even funny. I think they've learned how the kids like to pet them way too hard and yank on their tails..."

"Hopefully, they grow out of that..."

"They will. Now, what did you need to talk to me about?"

She grinned. "About this..." She leaned in and gave him a passionate kiss. "I've been wanting to do that again since this morning..."

He grinned back. "Well, by all means...do that as many more times as you want..."

Bailey giggled. "I'm just glad your mustache doesn't tickle me any more..."

"Hey! I did offer to shave it off for you..."

"I know, but I have to admit that I do like the look of it on you..."

Cody just gave her a look. "More than the monocle, huh?"

"Well, I can't help it! You looked like a combination of the Monopoly guy and Mr. Howell from Gilligan's Island..."

He smiled. "Well, I have no problem wearing glasses now because you do too." He paused. "I just kind of wish you wore them earlier..."

She gave him a funny look. "Why do you say that?"

"Bails, I can't explain it, but they look just so sexy on you..." And with that, he began kissing her neck.

"Cody!"

He grinned again. "What? I told you I was going to find you utterly desirable when we were old and gray. Well, I wasn't lying..."

"I know." She smiled. "You have any idea how good it feels to know that you've never stopped chasing me around?"

"You know how good it feels that you still let me catch you? I admit, when you were pregnant, it was much easier to corner you and get you in my clutches..."

Bailey laughed. "I remember. For a seven year period, I was pregnant more than I wasn't. I knew from Momma that it wouldn't be so bad, but I'll never forget what London told me..."

"What's that?"

"Well, when I first met her and told her I had nine sisters, she told me that my Mom needed a new hobby. Well, when I got pregnant the fifth time with our second set of twins, she told me the exact same thing..."

Cody laughed. "Well, that is and will always be my favorite hobby. I don't plan on ever giving it up!"

"Me either..."

Bailey leaned in and kissed him again. And it was getting a little hot and heavy when they both heard someone else clear their throat. Both turned to see their oldest daughter standing there with her arms crossed and just shaking her head at them.

"Hey...Dani."

She sighed. "Do you two ever give it a break? I swear, I saw that enough growing up!"

Cody grinned. "I said it on our wedding day, and I'll say it again now. I'll never apologize for making out with my wonderful wife ever..." He winked at his daughter. "Besides, and no offense to you or your sisters or my granddaughters, but your mother is still the most beautiful woman in the world to me..."

Dani just shrugged. "I guess that's a good thing. I just hope my husband looks at me the same way you look at Momma when we're your ages..."

"He better if he knows what's good for him!"

Bailey laughed. "I'm sure he will, Sweetheart."

"Well, if I can get you two to disembark from each other long enough, all of us kids want to take you two...out for a lunch to celebrate your 50th wedding anniversary."

Cody shrugged. "I guess we can do that. That shouldn't interfere with our plans for later..."

Dani frowned. "Plans for later? What plans for later?"

Cody ignored his daughter and smiled at his bride. "Shall we then, Sweetie?"

She smiled back. "We shall. We can resume what we were doing later when we're all alone..."

Dani rolled her eyes. "Momma! I would really rather not know things like that!"

The Boston Tipton

About an hour later, everyone was gathered in one of the large ballrooms at the Tipton Hotel. When they had walked in, Cody and Bailey had feigned being caught off guard when everyone shouted out 'SURPRISE!'. Once that was out of the way, they found themselves standing in a welcoming line as their guests lined up to wish them congratulations on their milestone. And when most of their guests has passed by and made their way over to the buffet table, Cody felt someone slap him on the back.

"Hey Nerd! You seen Cody?"

Cody turned, saw his brother and sighed. "What do you want, Zack?"

Zack paused. "I forget..." He paused again before grinning. "Nah, I just wanted to congratulate you two on fifty years together..."

"Well, thank you..."

He began laughing. "I mean...Bailey, how did you manage to put up being married to this guy for fifty years?"

Bailey decided to tease her brother-in-law right back. "Probably the same way Maya has put up with you for almost 47 years..."

Maya laughed. "She's got you there, Zack..."

Zack rolled his eyes. "Yeah, yeah. I'm just glad I'm actually an uncle. Though, I do miss watching you two drive around that big extended van to haul around all of your kids. That was pretty hilarious..."

"Well, most vehicles don't hold nine passengers especially with several of them in car seats." Cody smirked at brother then. "But, it couldn't have been funnier than seeing Allie go off on you when she had discovered you had dragged me along to help you spy on her first ever date..."

Maya sighed. "I thought she was going to kill you two..."

Bailey laughed. "I just wish it hadn't given Cody the idea to do the same thing with our daughters. Who do you think he dragged along on those secret missions?"

Cody just looked at her. "I didn't see you laughing when you made me do the same thing when it was our sons' first dates..."

"Yeah, well...that was different. I wanted to make sure they were behaving as gentlemen around girls like their we had taught them to."

Maya laughed this time. "Well, anyways, its good to have you guys back in Boston again full time."

Zack smirked at his brother and sister-in-law. "Yeah, it must be so rough to move to St. Maarten a couple days after Christmas every year and then move back up here at the beginning of May..."

Cody smiled. "Hey, its just like Dad told us. A lot of people from up here move down south during the winter. We just happened to choose St. Maarten because we could by a beach front property a lot cheaper than we could in Miami. Besides, I don't seem to remember you complaining when you guys would come down to visit us there."

"Yeah, like I was going to turn down a free place to stay in the Caribbean!"

"Zack, you were the CEO of a company with several resorts down there. You always had a free place to stay down there..."

"What's your point?" He shook his head. "I still don't see why you two two just sell your house here and move down there full time..."

Bailey shook her head vigorously. "No way! Never happen! I love having Thanksgiving and Christmas morning in our house surrounded by all of our kids and grand kids. I'll never give that up! Besides, ten bedroom houses aren't that easy to sell..."

"More like a mansion. I like to call it Stately Martin Manor..."

Cody sighed. "Well, since Bailey and I always had to share a bedroom growing up with one of our siblings, we wanted all of our kids to have their own bedrooms. One for each of them, a master one for us and two guest rooms down in the basement makes ten bedrooms."

Bailey continued. "And add that into the fact that our house is an original Gertie Gaines Wiznewsky design, we'd never get anywhere close to what its really worth even if we were inclined to sell it..."

Zack shook his head again. "Yeah, but its just you two and Cody's minions from hell living there right now..."

"They're not minions from hell. They are cats, Marie and Pierre, and just because they don't like you is no reason to bad talk them." Cody just grinned. "Besides, they did love scratching up the magazine with your picture on the cover. Congratulations again on your first appearance on the cover of Resorts & Great Hotels magazine, Zack."

Zack just looked at him. "Go ahead and rub it in..."

"Would I ever do that? Just because it has a smaller circulation than that archaeology one I used to..."

Zack cut him off. "Of course you would rub it in! Just because you two got lucky and made your little discovery, you two got that stupid award and were on every magazine cover around here for a while..."

Bailey laughed. "Zack, that stupid award was the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine. It was a pretty big deal..."

Zack sighed. "Well, at least you two only got the one you shared. Back in high school, I thought you two might have gotten more individually. Still, you two shouldn't have..."

Before he could continue, he was cut off my a loud yet feeble voice. "What are you two arguing about now?"

The four of them turned and saw a very old Carey rolling up towards them in her Rascal. She just shook her head at them.

"I swear, you're both 71, and you still act like you are both still 11 sometimes..."

Both of them sighed. "Sorry, Mom..."

About that time, Carey found herself surrounded by an entire horde of young children, preteens and teenagers. And when she saw them all, her eyes went wide as she began smiling.

"There you all are!"

"Great Grammy Hawkhauser! We've missed you!"

Carey began hugging them all too. "I missed you all as well! You all know I can never get enough of all of my great grandchildren!"

Zack whispered to Cody. "This coming from the same woman who went into a funk when she found out she was going to be a grandmother for the first time..."

"Tell me about it..."

Soon enough though, the surprise anniversary party was in full effect and it began to resemble their wedding reception a little bit. Yes, there was a cake, and once again, Cody and Bailey cut it together. But this time, they didn't shove it into each other's face. And there were no formal toasts or first dances. Rather, the highlight of it was when Cody and Bailey addressed their guests towards the end of the party.

Bailey smiled. "Thank you all for coming today to help us celebrate. Fifty years ago today, Cody and I got married in Hawaii. And while there are no palm trees outside, I think its as warm today as it was then..."

Cody smiled. "And my bride is just as beautiful to me as she was that day too. Just like then, I still can't resist her."

She laughed. "I feel the exact same way about my husband. In fact, our oldest daughter Dani reminded us earlier today that our shows of affections for each other were constantly a source of embarrassment to our children growing up. Well, Dani...Ellie...Frank...Geoff...Harry...Izzy...Josie...we still won't apologize for that. We both hope all of you are still as much in love with your spouses as your father and I are when you've been married for fifty years..."

"But we want to thank you all for throwing us this surprise anniversary party. We really do appreciate you doing that for us. And if the powers that be are willing, I hope we can buck the odds again and be here again in fifty more years to celebrate our hundredth anniversary."

Bailey laughed again. "That would be something, wouldn't it?"

Cody laughed too. "Sweetie, if we are, there will be someone from Guinness Book of World Records here with us..."

She kept laughing. "Very true, but I can still hope we are because I want fifty more like these past fifty. But, I would be lying if I said these past fifty years were the best of my life..."

Everyone kind of gasped when she said that, but Bailey kept smiling. "...because I would then be ignoring the seven years before then, and I would never do that. Apart from a few stupid, stubborn months, I couldn't have asked for a better 57 years than the past 57 years of my life. But maybe we were right when we said those were good for us in the long run. Because since then, Cody and I have have always maintained our focus and never took our relationship for granted. We've never forgotten that we were a team or what was most important to us – each other and our family." She turned to Cody. "I know I say this every year on this date, but I'm so lucky to have you."

He smiled. "And I'm so lucky to have you too..." He leaned in and kissed her.

As they did, their guest began clapping for them until Cody and Bailey finally pulled apart. And when they did, Cody smiled again.

"Unfortunately, we'd both like to stay and continue to celebrate with all of you, but we have to get going. We have a plane to catch in a couple of hours..."

And with that, they made their exit as they shook hands with everyone as they did. Of course, when they got to the door, Zack and Maya were there waiting on them.

"A plane to catch? You two going somewhere?"

Bailey grinned. "Yeah, we are. We're catching a plane and heading back to Hawaii. It was an anniversary surprise from Cody. We plan to be there before midnight local time so we can renew our vows again at the very same spot we gave them fifty years ago. And then on Monday, we're meeting up with the S.S. Tipton VI and going on a three week second honeymoon..."

Cody grinned too. "We even reserved the honeymoon suite at both the Tipton Grand Hawaiian and on the boat. Besides, we're retired, so its not like we have anything else better to do..."

Zack just looked at them. "Well...Maya and I are both retired and having nothing better to do either. That all sounds like a lot of fun. Mind if we come along too?"

Bailey and Cody just looked at each other and began laughing. "Yes, we do mind. We may be going on a 50th anniversary cruise, but this time, its just going to be just the two of us!"

The End

AN: Sorry this took so long to get posted. I was planning on doing it on Sunday afternoon, but I was offered a free ticket to go see The Dark Knight Rises. And much like Heath Ledger did with the Joker, Anne Hathaway pleasantly surprised me with her performance as Selena Kyle. Anyways, I've left this open for a sequel, and I may eventually get around to doing one. I'm not sure what my next project will be or when I will have the time to really get into one. But, I will be back with more stories some day.