Summary: In "Flowers and Chocolate," Cody enlists Bailey's help to make Barbara jealous.

Disclaimer: These characters are not mine and this story was written purely for fun!

"Hey Cody? Can I ask a quick question about your friend Barbara?" Bailey Pickett asked, stopping outside the entrance to the S.S. Tipton movie theater. "Is everything all right? Because she seemed a little... cold... towards me."

Oh, here we go, Cody Martin thought with a mental groan, stopping short. His friends Barbara and Bob were visiting him and Zack from Boston, and surprised him with the news that they were together... although Cody and Barbara were still technically dating. He'd really made a mess of things when, to save face, he'd told Barbara that he had also moved on and was now dating Bailey, his crush. I wish...

Bailey was supposed to be at her cousin's farm, but when her visit had been unexpectedly cut short Cody had been forced to play along with his own story. On the bright side, Barbara seemed to be buying it. On the dark side, how was he supposed to tell Bailey that he'd lied about her just to make his ex-girlfriend jealous?

She was staring at him expectantly with her gorgeous brown eyes. Quick, Cody, think! At this point he had two options: pretend nothing was wrong, or tell Bailey the truth. As far as he could tell both options had equal potential to blow up in his face. Maybe if I tell her most of the truth? I just have to frame it right. As Zack would say: play the sympathy card.

"Well," Cody began nervously, taking her elbow and moving them over to one side of the hall. "The thing is, Barbara was my girlfriend."

Bailey's brow furrowed in a way that Cody found simply adorable. "You never told me you had a girlfriend."

"It wasn't serious." Cody assured her rapidly. "Or, well, it wasn't that serious, but anyway, when you met her this afternoon she'd just finished telling me that she's in love with Bob now... and they hooked up the very same night I left Boston."

Bailey's jaw dropped. "Oh, Cody, I'm so sorry! How dare she treat you like that! Are you okay?" She placed one hand on his elbow and one on his shoulder and squeezed comfortingly.

Cody nodded, trying to simultaneously ignore and savor the gentle pressure of her touch. "But then I said... I said it didn't bother me, because I was dating someone else too. I told her you were my new girlfriend, Bailey." he confessed, "I'm so sorry, it just slipped out of my mouth. I know I shouldn't have done it-"

"Cody, it's all right!" Bailey interrupted with a gentle smile.

Cody's eyes snapped to hers in surprise. He had expected her to be upset that he'd lied. Her sweet sympathy just made him love her even more. "It is?"

She nodded, stroking hair out of his face. "I understand. You poor thing. You don't want Barbara to know that she broke your heart!"

Hardly heartbroken, Cody forced himself to focus on the conversation rather than the attention the true object of his affection was paying him. "Uh... yeah."

"Well I'm not going to tell her, I promise." Bailey said earnestly. Suddenly a wicked smile played over her face. "In fact, if you want, we can have a little fun with her. If we pretend to be boyfriend and girlfriend, I bet we can totally make her jealous. She'll be sorry she threw you over for that Bob guy. She might even want you back!"

Cody's eyes widened. Bailey was offering to play along with his scheme; that would mean hugging her, hand-holding, sweet-talking, everything he wished for... But could he handle doing those things with Bailey knowing all the while that their relationship was a fake?

It was a risk he was willing to take. "I like the sound of that." he admitted with a small smile, hiding the way he was bursting with anticipation on the inside.

Bailey grinned brilliantly. "Okay, how's this: we've been dating for two months, we tried to restrain ourselves because of Barbara, but we just couldn't fight the feelings we had for each other. You kissed me for the first time after that school dance, on a deserted sky deck, under the stars-"

"Bailey?"

She stopped, the slightly distant look disappearing from her face. "Right. Sorry. So that's our story."

"Sounds great, but we're about to miss the start of the movie." Cody said. He couldn't deny that it did sound great. "And Bailey, thanks for helping me with this."

"Aw, Cody, you're one of my best friends." Bailey said, giggling slightly at the startled look he gave her when she grabbed his hand. "Any time you need help I'm here. Especially when you need help getting revenge on cheating, no-good, back-stabbing girlfriends! ...Ooh. Sorry." she apologized for her enthusiasm. "You're sure you're gonna be okay with this?"

Cody squeezed her hand as they entered the movie theater together. "I think I'm gonna be fine."

Cody tried and failed to smother a smirk at the expression on Zack's face when he and Bailey walked in holding hands- he looked like his eyeballs were going to pop right out of his head. Ignoring his twin's questioning looks, Cody ushered Bailey into the row beside Zack, Bob, and Barbara and settled his arm around her shoulders. He noticed Barbara frowning at them and shared a conspiratorial glance with Bailey. "Can I get you a snack before the movie starts, sweetie?" he offered.

"Great idea, honeybear." Bailey returned in a sugary voice. "How about a soda? With two straws?"

"Coming right up." Cody promised, getting up and heading for the snack bar. Zack followed, catching up with him just as he finished ordering the soda and some popcorn.

"Did you build a Bailey robot?" his brother asked accusingly.

Cody rolled his eyes. "Uh, no."

"Then what is this, honeybear?" Zack mocked, waving his hands between Cody and Bailey. "Don't tell me you finally got the stones to ask her out! Congratulations, bro! It's only taken you five mon..." he trailed off, watching Cody silently collect straws and napkins. "No... Oh no... Cody... She's pretending to be your girlfriend because she feels sorry for you, isn't she? Isn't she?"

Cody received his order and stabbed the straws into the soda lid, not dignifying his brother with a response. Returning to Bailey, he sat down just as the opening credits began to flicker across the screen and wrapped his arm around her shoulders once more. He could feel Barbara sneaking peeks at him... Apparently Bailey could too because she smiled sweetly at him and fed him a kernel of popcorn.

Peering across the row at Barbara, he saw her fold her arms and look away.

"Good night, Bob. Barbara." Bailey smiled, wrapping her arms around Cody from behind and leaning into him as the two couples went their separate ways outside the restaurant. After the movie they'd decided on dinner and dancing in one of the ship's restaurants. Zack had opted out, seemingly because he couldn't choose one girl from the half-dozen he'd picked up pretending to be "sensitive" at that awful chick flick. But it was difficult for Cody to think about Zack when Bailey's body was pressed against his... "Walk me back to my cabin?" she said coyly into his ear.

Cody swallowed audibly. "Anything for you, Bails." After Barbara and Bob left (with a dirty parting glance from Barbara), Bailey released him and his breathing began to return to normal.

"We totally fooled them both." Bailey crowed. She held her hand up for a high five. "I guess we make a good fake couple."

Cody slapped her hand half-heartedly. "Yeah..." The combination of feeling like his wish had been granted and at the same time knowing it was all an act left him with a bittersweet taste in his mouth. Maybe he should have lied earlier instead of enlisting Bailey's help with Barbara... After all, wasn't not telling Bailey about his feelings for her a lie in itself? They started to walk together down the hall. "Thanks again Bailey. I won't walk you to your room if you don't want me to." he offered up awkwardly, feeling strange about continuing the charade when no one else was around.

"But what if they come back?" Bailey reasoned. "Besides, we have to make a plan for tomorrow."

"We do?"

"Well sure," Bailey said as she and Cody stepped out into the cool night breeze of the sky deck. "I mean, Barbara is clearly getting jealous already, but did you see the suspicious looks she's been giving us all night? She can probably tell that we've mostly just been copying the way she and Bob are acting." She rested her arms on the railing and paused, staring out into the darkness. Then she turned to Cody and snorted, "I don't blame her for being jealous though. Bob seems like a nice guy and all, but he's got nothing on you."

Cody froze. "Wha... what do you mean?" He attempted and failed to ask it as a casual question.

Bailey shrugged. "I just mean you're a lot more attractive than poor Bob. Plus," she teased, elbowing him gently in the side. "You're a really good dancer!"

Cody smiled, secretly pleased that his 'International Date Line' moves had been put to use at last. "Thanks."

But Bailey continued as if she hadn't heard him. "Seriously, a girl would have to be crazy to dump you for him. Or to dump you at all, really. If Barbara can't see what a sweet guy you are..."

"Bailey..." Cody began, stunned. Was it him, or was she actually saying she thought he was attractive? Of course, she probably wouldn't think he was so sweet if she knew he was truly in love with her and not Barbara at all.

She turned and put her hands on his shoulders. "Trust me, Cody, she's not good enough for you. Someday you'll find someone who is, I promise."

Cody fought to keep himself from trembling under her touch. Bailey was much too good for him.

Then she pulled back and clapped her hands together, suddenly businesslike. "But until then, or at least until Barbara leaves, you've just got me."

Just this morning he'd been afraid to look Barbara in the eye, and now he found himself wishing she would never leave, just so he could continue conspiring- and cuddling- with the girl in front of him. He cleared his throat. "Right. So until then... what kind of plans were you talking about?"

Bailey folded her arms in front of her. "Well, I was thinking, maybe, we should kiss." She must have seen Cody's face going white as a sheet, because she hurriedly added, "I mean, nothing major, of course we don't have to if you don't want to, I just, of course you don't want to, I'm sorry-"

"Bailey." he cut off her babbling by putting a finger over her lips. Then, in an uncharacteristically smooth move, he slid his hand over to cup her cheek and covered her mouth with his. Recognizing on some level that he might be in the middle of his only chance to do this, he kissed her with every ounce of longing he felt for her, moving his lips slowly over hers, trying to remember every miraculous millisecond of this. The kiss seemed to last a lifetime. When they finally pulled apart Cody noticed that this time it was her face that was pale. Realizing how much of his true feelings he'd just revealed, he hurried to cover them up. "You, uh, you mean, like that?" he stammered.

Bailey slowly reached up to touch her own lips, looking completely shell-shocked. "Uhm..."

Cody felt blood rushing to his face and rubbed the back of his neck. He'd obviously pushed his luck too far this time. "Bailey, I'm so sorry, I just... It was just..."

"Practice?" Bailey supplied faintly.

"Sure. Yeah." Cody agreed quickly, shoving his hands into his pockets. "I should have asked first-"

"I suggested it." Bailey countered. "It's okay."

"It was okay?"

Bailey began to back away from him. "Yeah, it was totally okay, I mean, if Barbara saw that she would have no doubt that you and I... I mean that... we... were... Well good night Cody. See you in the morning!" she turned and practically ran towards the girls' cabins.

Cody watched her go, his heart beating about a thousand times a minute. Everything felt new and unreal. Sagging against the railing, he glanced around the deserted sky deck, tilted his head toward the star-filled sky, and smiled.

A/N: Part two coming soon!