Disclaimer: I do not own Total Drama Island, and I am not making any money off of this story.

Well, I had intended to work on new chapters for my other two stories first. But with all the support I got from my last chapter, I just had to get to work on this. It might seem strange, but I feel like I'm getting sentimental about these stories of mine.

Oh, and on a different note, what do you think this pairing should be officially called? Kobold called it Codourty, but I prefer Courdy. Which do you prefer? The way I see it, I started the pairing so I should give it a name. Just a little something I would like you all to think about, now on with the show.

Chapter Four: Taking Strength from a Sunrise

Courtney went to her room immediately after she finished speaking with Cody and changed into her nightclothes. She had hoped staying at the resort would give her a chance to relax and enjoy herself a little. But now, she was just as stressed as she had been before she had arrived.

Misery seemed to have a way of finding people wherever they went, especially when Chris Maclean was nearby.

No! As much as she would like to blame him, and she did. Chris really had nothing to do with her current depression. She only had herself to blame for that.

These thoughts tortured her while she tossed and turned in her temporary bed. But no matter how she positioned herself. No matter how hard she tried to clear her mind. She simply could not find a way to fall asleep. Finally, the CIT opened her eyes and gave up on clearing her mind. A quick glance at the alarm clock next to her bed made her groan. It was already past two thirty in the morning.

With a sigh, Courtney decided that she might as well try and clear her mind outside, and went to put on her robe. Quietly opening her door, so she would not accidentally wake up someone else, Courtney decided to head for the dock.

Cody wasn't having much success getting to sleep either. He had managed to nod off twice already. But each time he would wake up a few minutes later in a cold sweat, his mind refused to stop going so he could get a little rest.

Turning to lay on his left side, Cody looked out the window. The way his room was position gave him a rather nice view of the moon. And there was something about the floating sphere that he found comforting. He could understand why girls seemed to find the sight romantic.

Sitting up the young man got up and walked over to the window. Maybe watching the full moon for a while would help him get to sleep.

He placed his elbows against the windowsill and leaned against it. He let his thoughts drift back to what had happened earlier that day...or was it yesterday? He really wasn't sure how late it had been when he and Courtney had finished the movie.

Courtney, he knew that her issues with Harold were just the tip of the proverbial iceberg. Courtney had a lot of things that she kept to herself. It was in her nature, she wasn't someone who liked to rely on other people.

Cody respected this, but he still wished she would talk to him. After all, no one could bear the weight of the world by themselves. Not that it would stop Courtney from trying. But most people who had done so in the past ended up crushed by that weight.

It was funny really, Courtney had confided in him more when they had been friends than she did now that they were a couple. Why was that? Did she think he would dump her for venting to him? It was a silly thought to him. An important part of any relationship was trust, and opening up to your partner. Relationships were built on trust.

And even though he would never say it, it was that lack of trust that had ultimately ended her relationship with Duncan. The punk had a soft side, however well hidden, but he wasn't the natural comforting type. And he was more likely to feed Courtney's anger or wait for it to abate than comfort her. What Courtney needed was someone to help her work through, not stress her out further.

Cody had tried prying a few times but his girlfriend was very evasive. She would either give him half answers or change the subject entirely. If he wanted answers he was going to have to be direct.

But how far was it appropriate to push?

He honestly wasn't sure. Getting to reveal one thing that was bothering her might get her to open up about other things though. And if he pushed too far, she would be sure to let him know.

Dropping his gaze from the moon for a moment, Cody saw a figure moving through the moonlight and a few scattered lights outside.

Well, now's as good a time as ever. Cody thought to himself, reaching for his clothes.

Courtney was back under the stars.

But the CIT had elected to sit on a bench a few feet away from the dock. Rather than take a seat on the cold hard wood of the dock.

The dock of shame, it brought back so many memories. She had seen so many people walk it and been forced down it herself. They weren't particularly pleasant memories, but she doubted she would ever forget them.

She was still aware enough of her surroundings to hear someone walking up to her. And when the figure got close enough for her to identify, she wasn't really sure what to feel.

Cody looked at his girlfriend quietly for a moment, trying to figure out how best to approach the situation.

"May I sit down?"

Courtney smiled slightly at the courtesy behind the question. Most people seemed to lose their basic manners at their age, and moved to one side of the bench. Cody sat down, mentally going through ways to approach the subject and different possible responses. Courtney was a little confused by his out of character nervousness.

"Courtney." He looked at her to make sure he had her full attention.

"Yeah."

"What's bothering you?"

"Nothing."

"Yes there is, wait listen to me." He said when she opened her mouth to object. "Something has been bothering you since just after we started dating? I just want to know what it is, I want to help you!"

Courtney took that in quietly and the frustration she was feeling dissipate at his pleading tone. Once it did, she couldn't bring herself to answer the question and silently stared at the ground.

"Courtney." The tech geek prodded.

"It's complicated." The brunette confessed.

"I don't mind."

"You don't understand."

"Please, don't you trust me?"

"No! I mean I do! Wait," Courtney said this trying to figure out what to say, and how to say it, without upsetting the boy next to her. She usually didn't care what people thought of when she told them the truth, they could deal with is. But Cody was important to her, and she didn't want to upset him with her petty problems.

So she told him that. And to her surprise, he actually laughed.

"Courtney, I doubt whatever is bothering you is 'petty'. And even if it is, I don't mind. I want to help you, be there for you, like I was before. When we were friends here a few months ago you would tell me what was bothering you. But now that were dating your pushing me away."

Cody looked Courtney straight in the eye, trying to show the rest of his heartfelt plea without words. By the time he had finished Courtney was beginning to feel guilty, she hadn't meant to push him out.

"Cody," Courtney began softly, "I haven't been trying to push you away. It's just that seeing everyone here brings up so many memories. And a lot of them are unpleasant, it's like being here reminds me of how I failed back on the island."

Cody blinked, that had not been the answer he had been expecting.

"Failed? You didn't fail. Sure you didn't win, but were never technically voted off. That's more than anyone but Owen can claim."

Courtney only shook her head.

"No, that isn't what I mean. I failed a lot back on the island."

Courtney felt her eyes begin to water and wanted to stop, but she couldn't. She wanted to finally get this off her chest.

"The challenges, I failed at pretty much all of them. As a leader, the best anyone on the team did was fourth place. What does that say about me? I couldn't win the challenges myself; I couldn't lead us to victory. And then I blew it royally during season two."

"But none of that means you're a failure!"

"Yes it does." She screamed at the boy in front of her, not even noticing the tears streaming down her face again. "I didn't jump the first day, I couldn't face my fear during the phobia challenge. I dropped out of boot camp because I couldn't stop laughing. Don't even get me started on how often I lost my temper."

Courtney was half expecting her boyfriend to walk away after verbal barrage, and half expecting him to yell back at her. A few other possibilities flashed through her mind, based off of Cody's habits and character.

But she never expected him to start laughing at her.

She couldn't believe it; her boyfriend was standing right in front of her chuckling under his breath. Her old emotions quickly gave way to fury. How dare he laugh at her!

"Courtney," he spoke up before she could verbally tear his head off. "One of us is a loser but it isn't you."

Anger gave way to confusion. What was he talking about?

"You think you failed, I did a lot more so than you. Which one of us got mauled by a bear? Which one of us got rejected by the person they liked on national television? Who got voted off because he was useless? Who got mocked and teased for what happened on the island, until he decided to switch schools to get away from it? It wasn't you Court, it was me. I'm the loser here"

Cody's voice started out light hearted but quickly grew somber with a deeper scornful undertone. He dropped his eyes to the ground; he didn't want the girl in front of her to know how much these memories hurt him. He tried to cover it up and act like nothing bothered him. But deep inside, he was dealing with years of rejection and ridicule. He tried to cover it up with humor, with the hope that tomorrow would be better.

But tomorrow never came, everyday was the same miserable present.

Courtney watched her boyfriend quietly and felt a growing guilt deep in the pit of her stomach. She knew that Cody was teased back at his old school, but she never imagined it was this bad. Cody listened to her problems, she never thought about the ones he might have been having.

"Cody," she started softly, "I'm sorry, I didn't know. I never thought."

"I didn't want you to," he said, his voice shaking and speaking so quietly she had to strain to hear him. "You have your own problems, I can deal with mine."

Courtney didn't say anything; she just raised her hands and cupped her boyfriends face. She wasn't surprised to feel how moist it was.

Without a word she stepped forward and embraced her boyfriend. The problems she had come out here to deal with now seemed so petty and far away. Right now her attention was on what was important. The boy that was slowly getting her robe wet with tears, the boy that was shaking so hard he couldn't even hug her back.

The couple stood there in the crisp night air. One taking comfort in the other, just not in the way they expected.

After a while Courtney managed to guide Cody to the bench so they could sit down. Not releasing him even once, as she whispered assurances that it would be okay. So together they sat there, unaware of anything around them but each other.

But time waits for no man. And before they knew it the horizon began turning pink, an indication of the suns inevitable appearance.

Courtney watched it with a soft smile, her right hand idly stroking the hair of the boy with his head in her lap. After a while Cody had fallen asleep, so instead of waking him Courtney laid him out across the bench, his head resting in her lap.

She hadn't gotten any sleep that night. But for some reason she wasn't tired, or cranky like she usually was when she was woken up early for some reason.

As a matter of fact, she felt more at peace then she could recall in recent memory.

She was torn out of her thoughts when Cody began to stir, the light having grown bright enough to wake him from his fitful summer.

After a minute his eyes opened, taking in the scene in front of him. And the girl whose lap he was resting in.

Quickly rising to get out of the compromising position, and doing it quickly enough to make himself lightheaded. Courtney caught him before he could fall off the bench.

"I'm sorry," the young man got out, clearly embarrassed. "I shouldn't have fallen asleep like that."

The young woman only shook her head, brushing off his concerns and his apology.

Together they sat there holding each other. Taking in the sun as it slowly rose over the ocean, painting the sky and sea a variety of colors.

"It's beautiful." Courtney said, looking out past the dock.

"Yes, you are," Cody replied.

"That was corny."

"I meant every word."

The couple said nothing else, eventually they would have to go and face the world. But that could wait a little longer.

Right now they took strength from each other, and the promise of a new day that the sunset gave them.

Wow, that was a lot more angst than I ever saw myself writing. But here is my take on what happene. Cody has a lot of inner pain from being picked on. Pain he deals with by acting like a goof and a ladies man. Courtney suppresses her pain till it boils over into anger, but puts it aside to help the people important to her.

And next chapter, Courtney and Duncan see each other for the first time since the breakup. How does Cody take it, and what is Beth thinking? And how much of this will Chris show on television? Keep reading to find out. And please, leave a review to tell me what you think and critique where appropriate.