Again, I own nothing sourced from The Suite Life Of Zack and Cody
Maddie looked down at her watch, 5pm, almost 48 hours after the explosion that had claimed her best friend's life. Maddie Fitzpatrick and Marion Moesby had just arrived at the Tipton hotel in central Boston, the hotel seemed so different than the last time Maddie had been there, usually the lobby of the Tipton was the centre of activity, often a place of chaos, but overall it was usually a happy place, but today was different. Maddie could sense a mood of overall depression in the usually happy place, there was no Zack and Cody causing chaos, there was no cheerful Esteban, Esteban was there, but he was a shadow of his former self, glumly greeting guests and taking their bags, he saw Maddie and gave her a weak smile. Moesby walked beside Maddie, it was obvious to anyone seeing him that he was greatly effected by being inside the hotel, even though he had been there before since London had died, Maddie hadn't seen just how much of an effect it had on him. Moesby looked so depressed, he wasn't crying, but he wore a pained expression on his face, it was hard for any of his friends to see him in this tortured state.
This was the first time Maddie had been back at the Tipton since London had died in her arms, it was a harrowing experience, and everywhere she looked it brought back memories, happy memories which brought nothing but pain. Maddie looked over at the now vacant candy counter and began to cry, it just brought back all the memories of every experience she and London had shared by that counter, all the fun they had had, even if mostly London's stupidity had been an annoyance for her, it had still been fun, more fun than if she had have just been working at any rate. Being inside the Tipton hotel just brought pain to Maddie, and even more pain to Moesby, but this was just the lobby, Maddie knew once she got up to London's suite the pain would be even worse, she just had to bite the bullet, this was something that had to be done.
Maddie and Moesby walked silently together toward the elevator, the sombre mood of the staff heavy in the air, Maddie reached out and grabbed Moesby's hand, he squeezed it tightly, Maddie sense his pain, and he sensed hers, it made them both feel better, to know that someone else was feeling the same horrible things.
Maddie's upset feelings rose with the elevator as they approached the penthouse, the room London was oh so proud of, with all her possessions inside, Maddie didn't know how she was going to react to seeing all of London's things again, and all her many pictures of herself, they would hurt the most.
"I don't know if I can do this Mr. Moesby" Maddie said as they approached London's penthouse door.
"I don't know either Maddie, but don't you think its best we go through London's things rather than some total stranger" Moesby replied, obviously pained with the idea of going in, but believing deeply in his words to Maddie. This was to be the first time Moesby had entered London's suite since her death, earlier that day he and Mr. Tipton had been going through the legal situation with his Attorneys in his office, and they had not gone up to the suite, however it was believed London's will was kept in the suite's safe, so it was important that it was retrieved.
"Where is Mr. Tipton today?" Maddie asked
"He has gone to see his ex wife, London's mother, and bring her back here, they have some things to sort out together as you might expect, they should be here sometime late tonight" Moesby replied. Maddie had never met London's mother, she couldn't imagine how she would be feeling, even if she didn't have a particularly big part in London's life.
"So what do we need to do in here?" Maddie asked as Moesby was about to unlock the door
"Well London's will needs to be retrieved from her safe, along with anything else important in there, and we should box up any sensitive or precious items and take them out, movers can have sticky fingers" Moesby replied, Maddie nodded and Moesby opened the door.
The feeling was more intense than Maddie could ever have imagined, upon opening the door she was immediately greeted by what London affectionately called 'Marble-me' the bust which Zack and Cody had busted, and in addition to the bust of London there was a huge variety of portraits, the images of the happy smiling London broken Maddie's heart, she instantly broke down in tears, it was just too painful. The bust and paintings had a similar effect on Moesby; all the images of London brought flooding into his mind the memories of his darling London, how happy she had been, how all that happiness had been ripped out of his life, how London had been so senselessly killed, no, murdered, by cold blooded evil individuals. Moesby also broke into tears
"It doesn't make sense, why ruin all this happiness, why take her away from us!" Moesby yelled, punching the wall as he did, his sadness was now mutating into a white hot rage
"I don't know" Maddie wept, Moesby embraced her in a hug and after a moment of embrace they each took a deep breath and got down to the business they were there for.
"Do you know where they safe is Mr. Moesby?" Maddie asked, wiping the tears from her eyes, trying to either focus her gaze intently on Mr. Moesby's face or on the floor, Maddie preferred the floor, Moesby's sad face made her feel just as bad, but it was still better than seeing all the paintings, pictures and busts on London.
"In the bedroom, behind the jewellery display" Moesby replied and he and Maddie went through into London's room.
London's huge bed sat in the middle of the room, surrounded by Mirrors, paintings, clothes, jewellery and other miscellaneous items of the rich.
"Over here" Moesby said, pointing to another marble bust of London, Moesby shed a tear as he placed his hand on the cold statuette of his sweet London, lost to the world. Moesby pushed the bust back and it hinged away at the neck, as this happened Maddie heard a noise and looked over to see the jewellery cabinet slide to the side, into a wall, and reveal on the wall a large safe door, about the size of an a bar fridge. On the door of the safe was a keypad.
"Do you know the combination Moesby?" Maddie asked, she hadn't even known the safe existed, let alone its combination, but she was not surprised in the least at the combination when Moesby entered it. 5-6-6-3-6-6, the numbers corresponding of course to the letters L-O-N-D-O-N, it was so London to have such a conceded safe combination, even if it was not particularly secure.
Moesby swung the safe door open to revel several items, there were the usual important documents like London's passport, it gave Maddie a pang of jealously to see all the stamps from all the many locations London had visited, but it then made her sad to realise she had a lifetime to travel, whereas London's life's travels were all done. Moesby found what they were looking for, a plain looking yellow envelope, sealed with the message, "To be opened upon the death of London", inside this envelope there was a DVD marked "London's video Will". Also in the envelope was several letters, each marked with a name, Zack, Cody, Maddie, Moesby, Carey, Daddy, Mommy and another document which outlined how London wanted her funeral to be done and other similar matters, it was something which Maddie was eagre to read, she was certain that her, Zack and Cody would make a funeral exactly to London's wishes, no matter how ridiculous. Also in the safe were several pieces of what Maddie assumed were extremely valuable pieces, or extremely special pieces, of jewellery, why else would these ones in particular be in the safe. Finally the safe contained large sums of cash, certainly into the tens of thousands, in fact, Maddie caught a glimpse of the first, and probably only, thousand dollar bill she would ever see.
Moesby called Esteban to bring up the Hotel's safe available safe deposit boxes, and then ordered Arwin to prepare the hotel vault in the basement. Maddie and Moesby then began the agonising task of sorting through London's many valuables, it was a task which would take them several hours to complete, and they bunked down for the task, it was hard, but they didn't want anyone else doing it.
OK, well there was are, chapter 34, I hope your all still enjoying it, I'm noticing a bit of a drop off in reviews, so I've decided to move the story along a bit quicker than I otherwise would have, because I'm worried I've bored people too much, I hope its not the case, but I am getting closer to an ending now, but its by no means the penultimate chapter or anything, put it this way, I don't expect to break 50 chapters with this particular story. Anyway, I hope your still enjoying reading as much as I'm enjoying writing, keep reading and reviewing!
Also, guys, can i just say WOOOOO 100 reviews! even if they have dropped off a bit over the last few days, also we're almost at 3000 reads! this is way more than i expected when i started this, all i can say is i'm humbled by the response, absolutely humbled.