What's Cookin' in the Kitchen?

Chapter 11 - Two Women

A/N: Like always I only own the people you don't know. :)

On the way to Cheevers Thursday at 3:20pm

As Carey drove towards the school that afternoon all she could think about was the look on her son's faces when they saw her in the parking lot. She was driving up there to surprise them, they had been so good lately, and she had been working so much she hadn't been able to spend any time with them. She was going to take them out for a dinner and movie night; she had even talked Estebon into giving her the night off so she could spend it with her boys.

She had it all figured out, one could pick the movie and the other picked the restaurant. She only had one restriction and that was there would be no Zombie movies, she was sure that Zack would be ok with that.

It was three thirty when she pulled into the parking lot so she figured the boys would be walking out any minute, because it always took them a few extra minutes for Cody to get all his books in order. As she sat there waiting she wondered where they would end up for dinner, burgers and fries, or filet minion and potatoes stuffed with pesto and sun-dried tomatoes.

She got so lost in her food daydreams that she lost track of time. When she looked at her watch she noticed that it was almost four, she wondered if Zack had gotten detention and Cody was waiting for him. She waited there until four before she decided she had better go see what was taking them so long.

She walked into the building and was surprised at how busy it still was for school to have been out for a half hour already. Of course there were all kinds of clubs going on, after school that Cody used to be involved in, and sports that had always kept Zack busy. But she didn't think they were involved in anything now.

As she walked by the principal's office, she saw Principal Militich coming out and stopped her in the hallway.

"Hi Miss Militich, I don't know if you remember me or not…"

"Remember you, I couldn't forget you and Mr. Moseby if I tried." She laughed. "What can I do for you Ms. Martin?"

"Well I was wondering if you had seen my sons this afternoon, I was going to surprise them and pick them up for a dinner and movie night, but they never came out." Carey told her worriedly.

"Hmm, let me go check and see what I can find out for you. I'm sure their fine, just goofing off somewhere." She told her, as she also wondered where they could be. She knew she had seen them that morning.

"Thank you, that would be a great help." Carey said feeling a little bit better.

As Principal Militich made a few phone calls, Carey saw Nurse Candle sitting at her desk talking on the phone. She looked extremely agitated. She hoped everything was ok as she heard her shouting into the phone that she couldn't do it. Then she watched as she hung up the phone and got her bag putting two syringes in it. As she passed by Carey she couldn't help asking her about her boys.

"Hi Nurse Candle right? My name is Carey Martin. I was just wondering if you had seen my twin boys today." She started. "They never came out of the school, and I am getting worried that something might have happened to them."

"I'm sorry Ms. Martin, I don't think I can help you. I have been very busy trying to solve a problem today and haven't been able to focus on anything else, I hope you find them." She explained sadly. She had a hard time meeting Carey's eyes, and when finally did she could see they were filled with sadness. "If you will excuse me I have an urgent matter to attend to."

"Oh of course, and if you see my boys please tell them that their Mom is worried about them and to come home."

"Of course I will." She said as she rushed out the door.

"Carey." Miss Militich called from the other room. "I'm afraid that no one has seen your boys since before lunch. They said that they heard them running away from one of the teachers and that's the last they saw of them."

"R… Running from a teacher? What possible reason would Cody have to run from a teacher? Well anyway thank you Miss Militich, I will check at home, hopefully they are there waiting for me." She said as she pulled out her cell phone and dialed their suite.

Ok now she was truly worried, she had dialed home, and both twins cell phones with no luck. She couldn't understand why they would have been running away from someone, let alone a teacher. She finished walking to her car and got in behind the steering wheel, still trying to figure it out. It was starting to get late and the sun was just starting to lower itself in the sky. She couldn't see the road so she pulled down her visor to keep the brightness from blinding her. When she pulled it down an envelope dropped in her lap.

Nurse Candle was sure she was going to have a stroke any minute. She couldn't believe how much extra she was having to do, against her will. She agreed to give the drug to the students as long as she could pass it off as someone else doing the actual drugging. Now HE was asking her to put two kids to sleep; she couldn't shake the feeling that it was similar to putting an old dog out of its misery.

She just couldn't do it, she had done everything he had asked her to do and it never ended. This was crossing the line, it might not have seemed that way lately but she did have standards. She did take the oath of a physician to do no harm, and she had already crossed that line. Well, she wasn't going to go any farther, so she put just a touch of a sedative in her syringes and the rest was saline. It was just enough to knock them out into a very light sleep, and that wouldn't last very long. She just hoped it was long enough to satisfy her boss.

Carey almost drove off the road when a white envelope flew in front of her eyes. She waited until she stopped at the light to pick it up, as she looked it over 'Open In Case of Emergency' written on the front of it in Cody's handwriting. Well, since she couldn't find them she figured this was a perfect time to open it. She pulled into the Tipton parking garage and then carefully opened the envelope.

Mom,

I hope you don't have to read this letter, but if you do, we first want to tell you that we love you. Don't ever forget that.

We also need to tell you why you are reading this. Zack and I have been looking into the massive sickout at our school for about 5 days now. More than three fourths of the kids are out sick including Bob, Max, Barb, Tapeworm, and even Mark. We thought that there was some really bad disease going around, but the more we thought about it the more we connected the cafeteria to it. We weren't getting sick because I made our lunches. The final straw was when Max got sick; it was like she just disappeared off the face of the earth last Friday. We tried to call her and nothing, so we tried the rest of our friends and couldn't get any info on any of them either. The hospital wasn't any help. There was something wrong, so we went snooping. Well, we found out what happened, and are now trying to figure out how to make them well again.

We are so sorry we didn't tell you sooner what we were doing, but we honestly thought it would be nothing more than food poisoning. Then when we found out what was really going on we were afraid to tell you, because we didn't want you to be used against us or us against you.

Mom, all this involves that drug guy, Devon Skylar. We left a flash drive in your glove box and it has all the information that you will need to go to the police and bust this thing wide open. The fact that you are reading this now means that they have figured out that we are on to them and we are either in hiding or they have us. I hope that it is the former of those two things. But please take this to the police and tell them it was taken from Nurse Candle's hard drive. Please don't tell anyone else, and watch your back.

We love you Mom and hope to see you really soon,

Zack and Cody

As she read this she could feel the emotions rising to the surface, after all she had just talked to that woman. She needed to be smart, however, she couldn't just go off and confront her. First she needed more time off, so she headed in to show Estebon so that he would hopefully give her time to find her boys. She held her emotions in check all the way into the hotel until she passed by the candy counter.

"Hi Carey, how are you doing today?" Millicent asked. "Aren't Zack and Cody with you? I thought you went to pick them up."

That did it; she froze, staring at the candy counter girl while trying to blink back the tears, but couldn't hold it in any longer and started sobbing right there in the middle of the lobby.

Millicent was shocked, ever since she had gotten to know Carey she had never seen her break down like that. She needed to find out what was wrong; she couldn't stand to see her friend in pain like that.

As they sat there on the sofa in the lobby, Carey tried to keep the secret, but having a willing ear and a comforting arm around her shoulder, she just let it all pour out and before she knew it she had told Millicent everything.

"Oh my, Carey I am so sorry. But you know my brother is a detective on the police force, let me call him for you." Millicent offered hugging her close. "His name is Stone."

"Thank you Millicent." She said sniffing through her tears. "You have grown up a lot since you started working here. I remember the shy young lady that you used to be, afraid of your own shadow. I really like this new stronger version of you better." Carey added complimenting the girl as she pulled away from the hug.

"Thank you Carey, I think you and your boys helped me come out of my shell a lot. You are all so friendly, and no matter how bad my day was the twins smile would always make my day brighter." The candy girl said a little shyly. "I can't do much but be here for you, but I will help you all I can to find them again, and I know my brother will too."

"Ok then, please call your brother." The mother of two said. "I need to find Estebon, have you seen him?"

"Nope not for a while now." She answered as she dialed the phone. "Maybe he's in talking to Chef Paulo."

Carey did indeed find Estebon in the restaurant and they sat down at a table in the back while she explained to him why she possibly needed more days off. He was extremely understanding of the whole situation, as she knew he would be.

"Of course Carey you take all the time you need and know that I weell be here if you need anything at all. Deed you call Kurt yet?" He asked her.

"No not yet, I would like to know for sure that they are missing before I call him off his tour. I haven't even looked at this flash drive yet."

"Carey. There you are, I called my brother and he is on his way. Don't worry we will find them before you know it." Millicent reassured her.

At that moment Nurse Candle was just finishing administering the sedative to the twins. It was a very hard task to complete; first because she didn't want to do it, and second because both boys had to be held down by Tiny to make them be still so she wouldn't break the needle in their arm. They fought so hard she knew that the grip Tiny had on their arms was only going to leave more bruises on their fair skin.

She gave them both a sympathetic look as she finished up. She wanted to tell them that they wouldn't be asleep long or possibly not at all, but she had to be careful what she said to them in front of Devon, Stu, and Tiny. She didn't want a bruise like Cody's.

"Mr. Skylar, I need to take them into the other room and examine them, it looks like they have had some extremely rough treatment." She told him hoping that he bought her explanation. "They shouldn't be any trouble for me now."

"Ok, Tiny take them into the other room and stand guard outside the door, but keep it open." He told his monster, then to Jeanine. "If you have any trouble at all he will be there."

She shook her head. "Ok." She then followed Tiny as he ushered the two boys into the room. She stood there while she waited for him to leave; when he did she started towards the twins. She was at first taken back by the looks they were giving her. "Ok, I understand how you feel, believe me. I feel the same way about myself, but you two need to listen to me. This might be the only time I get to talk to you."

"Why should we listen to you, you are part of the reason we are here?" Zack spat at her.

"Ok that's true, but you would have been happily at home now if you hadn't started being nosey… but that's neither here nor there. Listen I need to tell you something before they decide I am taking too long, you might not get as sleepy as you think. Here let me check those bruises while I explain." She reached up to Zack's cheek and he flinched away. "I'm sorry Zack, I know you two didn't deserve this."

"No, we didn't we were just trying to help our friends." He told her.

"I know that, but you just caused more trouble for everyone."

"We didn't mean to, we thought at first it was just food poisoning, then we found out more." Cody explained.

"I see, Cody does your throat hurt, or is it just your neck where he grabbed you?"

"Just my neck, I think."

"Ok, let me check it for you. Anyway, I wanted to tell you that I diluted your sedative." She whispered to them. "You won't sleep very long if you sleep at all, but you need to pretend to get very sleepy really soon, ok? I don't want him to make me give you another."

She then pressed on Cody's neck making him gasp in pain. "Sorry. Ok listen, we teachers made our choice and we are stuck with it, but you two are here against your will. I just wanted to give you boys a fighting chance, I'm sorry I can't do more. I don't know what he is planning on doing with the two of you, but you need to at least be able to try to get away."

"Nurse Candle? Are you done in there?" Devon shouted.

"Ok boys time to act as sleepy as you can. I have to go or he will get suspicious. Oh, and I saw your mother as I was coming here, she is very worried about you. Good luck, I hope you will be with her soon, and I am truly sorry you are mixed up in this." She told them as she turned to leave.

"Yes sir, everything is fine. They are about to fall asleep." She said, as she walked out of the room the boys both laid down together and pretended to go to sleep grasping each other's hands for support. They could hear talking outside the room, so they listened hoping that they would be able to learn something about why this was all happening.

"Ms. Martin?"

"Yes, that's me."

"Yes Ma'am, I am Detective Stone Parker, Millicent's brother, this is Detective Stephen Chesterly my partner. I am here to help you find your boys, can you show me the letter you received and the flash drive?" The detective asked.

Carey handed over everything that her boys left in her car. She watched as they plugged the flash into a laptop they brought with them. As they looked over the files on the drive they both got very concerned looks on their faces, which did nothing for her fragile state of mind.

"Well, does that help? Can you find my boys?" She asked nervously as Millicent held her hand for moral support.

"Ma'am… Carey, you might want to call your husband. This could be very serious, he should know what's going on." The detective explained to her.

"You think something bad has happened to them?" She asked as she started to shake.

"Eet's alright Carey I weell call Kurt for you if you want me too." Estebon offered.

"No Estebon, I need to be the one to call him." She said sounding a little stronger as she steeled herself for the phone call. "I appreciate the thought though." She then smiled a small smile at how great her friends were being for her.

"Hello."

"Hello Kurt?" Carey asked even though she would always recognize his voice.

"Yes, Carey? What's wrong is one of the boys sick?"

"No they aren't sick. Kurt honey, you might want to sit down."

"Carey just tell me, what is it?"

"Ok, I'm sorry. The boys are missing, Kurt. They decided to play spy and they are either kidnapped or in hiding. They left me a note just in case that they were taken… Oh Kurt… I am so worried." She sobbed into the phone.

"I'll be there as soon as I can, hold on Carey. We will find them." He told her as he started packing a bag before he even hung up the phone. He called the airport as he was walking out the door to book the first flight to Boston. He jumped on his motorcycle and headed for the airport, not even telling his band he was leaving. He could call them later.

He was going to find his sons.