A/N: Many apologies for the long wait, as well as for the short chapter. But I hope you enjoy it anyway. I've just been pretty busy, and I wasn't quite as motivated to do this chapter since there's no action in it. Nothing to keep my adrenaline going on things like this but caffeine. Lots and lots of caffeine!

Chapter 9: Guest

"Thanks again Maddie." Zack said politely.

"No problem at all." Maddie replied, handing him the cardboard box of girl's clothes. "Like I said, they don't fit me anymore. I just think it's so sweet that you two are helping Moseby take care of her for now."

"What can I say?" he said smugly. "I'm just one big bucket o' sugar."

Maddie rolled her eyes. She was used to the pick-up lines by now. "Just be sure to treat her right. And try to control yourself. She's alone with two boys while your mother is out. Poor thing must be scared to death."

"Actually, Max is staying with us to help."

"And you're sure your mom's okay with this?" Maddie asked.

"This is a special circumstance. Besides, she trusts me and Cody to act like mature, well behaved gentleman."

Maddie gave him a look of skepticism.

He sighed. "And she'd appreciate it if you checked in on us every now and again until she gets back."

"Yeah, nice try. She called me already." Maddie ruffled his blond mop of hair. "But let me know how Nicole likes the clothes. Where are Cody and Max?"

"Out. They have some kind of study date."

"Does this mean they're back together?" Maddie asked hopefully.

"I wish. They're driving me nuts."

"Sorry. Just say hi for me when they get back. I hardly ever get to see you guys anymore."

"Don't sweat it. You're busy. A job, college, and you're still helping take care of your family. You deserve a vacation."

They both laughed. "Try telling that to Moseby." Her pager went off where it was clipped to the skirt of your uniform. "Shoot. I have to go, or I'll be late for my next shift."

"See ya'." Zack waved. He watched her leave and they waved one more time when she got to the elevator. She was also one of the people who knew about what he did. But she had never mentioned it since that night. He'd tried to ask her about it once. Her answer had been simply that it didn't matter to her what sort of messed up things were going on in their life. To her they'd always be Zack and Cody, and that they could always count on her if they needed it. It was always good to have someone to talk with outside of the family about the whole witch thing. And Maddie was still one of the best friends he could ask for. But he didn't feel the need to tell her the real reason Nicole was staying here. This was just one thing he'd have to keep to himself rather than worry her needlessly. Nicole being caught in a struggle between the Tate family and Natalia, that was something they had to deal with on their own.

He shifted the box of clothes in his arms and turned around just in time to see Max, Cody, and Trevor orb in. "Hey guys. You just missed Maddie. Any luck?"

"Nope." Cody said sourly. "Nathan's officially off the radar again."

"We might be able to track him if you and me were together. Face it, with me in here, your powers are at half strength."

"No way. Someone has to stay here with Nicole. That's the priority."

"Any of you could do it. It's not like I'm the only one that can protect her."

"No, but you're the only one she'll let protect her. All I did last night was try and bring her the food I made her. But anytime any of us try to talk to her, she scratches and slaps and she bites! Zack, she actually bit me!"

Max sighed. "You woke her up and she panicked. She was having another one of those nightmares. She hasn't done that with any of us. But I'll admit that she's probably the worst sleepover guest ever. She won't talk to me at all. Doesn't she know you don't actually sleep at a sleepover?"

"Yeah, she's not that bad Cody." Trevor grinned, taking another chug of the twenty ounce cherry coke he had on him as he plopped back down onto the couch. "But I will say this. She seems to respond the best to Zack. Guess that demon gal was right. You're a real lady killer."

While normally Zack would have taken this as a compliment, he couldn't shake the feeling that it wasn't his charm that made him the only one Nicole was willing to talk to.

"So how are you getting along with your guest?" Trevor asked, looking a little more interested in his coke than in the conversation.

"Aside from the nightmares, she's pretty quiet." Max admitted. "Too quiet."

"She's just been through a lot right now." Zack said firmly. "We need to give her some space."

Cody glowered. "She's already got our room. What more space can we give her?"

"Giving her and Max our room was your idea." Zack reminded him.

Cody folded his arms. "I figured your snoring couldn't be any worse than it is in there. I was dead wrong." He looked like he was about to throw himself onto the couch until he remembered who was sitting there.

Zack shook his head. "Whatever. I'll be in there if you need me. But knock first if you want your hair to stay on your head and not on fire." No one argued with that. He hefted the box of clothes under one arm so he could open the door slowly. He wasn't surprised to find Nicole curled up like a cat, fast asleep. It was one of the few times she'd looked peaceful since she came. He crept in as quietly as he could, but she woke anyway. She got into a sitting position and eyed him warily. "Hey." He said, trying to sound nonchalant. She didn't say anything. "Umm… Maddie dropped off some clothes for you. You've got to be running out by now." She still made no move. "I'm not going to hurt you. Least you could do is stop pretending you're scared of us." She still said nothing. "You know, you could probably do a lot worse to us than we could do to you." Her eyes widened for a second, then she stared at the floor. Zack gave up and strode to the foot of the bed and placed the box on the floor. He turned to leave, moving slowly to give her a chance to change her mind. He started to wonder when he reached the door. His hand was on the knob when his patience was finally rewarded.

"Thank you." She said in her soft airy voice.

He turned around and shot her a wide smile. "There. Now was that so hard?" She didn't look at him. "Why can't you be that nice to the others. They're just trying to help."

"It's just… easier to talk to you is all."

Zack took a seat at the foot of Cody's bed so he could face her. "Why's that?"

"They're always… angry when they come near me. Especially Max."

Zack thought about that for a moment. That made sense. It seemed that they had all been on edge for awhile. "Well, I wouldn't say Max is angry so much as… frustrated. When something bothers her she has to put up the tough girl act. She just hasn't been the same since…" He cut himself off. This wasn't a topic that he should discuss with her. Not because it was painful, but because it wasn't his issue to talk about. That was between her and Cody. "But what about Sykes? He's never angry."

Nicole glowered and folded her arms. "No he's not. I just can't stand him." She admitted.

Zack laughed. He'd had a feeling Nicole wouldn't like Trevor. He was too touchy feely for her. If there was anything he knew for certain about Nicole, it was that she liked her boundaries. "Okay. So what is it about me that makes me okay?"

"I don't feel any anger from you for one." She said shyly, brushing that white streak out of her hair.

"So what do you feel?" He had been trying hard to stay calm around her. But he was surprised he was doing well enough for her not to feel anything. It seemed that there had been a seed of bitterness in him since that night by the river. But it didn't seem to bother her, so he must be a better actor than he thought.

Nicole bit her lip. "Sadness." She answered. "You use anger to deal with it, or at least you think it's anger, but really it's just sadness and… guilt." The air seemed heavy between them now and Zack suddenly didn't feel like talking. He knew she was right. He had always had problems dealing with grief, and he had always covered it with something else. He wasn't like Cody, who was practically ruled by his emotions. He always had to pretend like things didn't bother him so he could keep things light for his family's sake. The heart of the family is what Cody had called him once. Cody was the protector, the one who could get angry so his brother didn't have to, and then use that anger as his drive when push came to shove. But Zack kept things bottled up and it would explode later when he was alone. But it had taken him nearly fifteen years to figure this out about himself, and yet Nicole had seen through it in the short time she'd realized what her powers were.

"It wasn't your fault you know." She broke the silence. She looked at him for the first time and he noticed that her eyes had started to swim, but she refused to let the tears through. "No one could have known what was going to happen to Gwen."

He was surprised by her forwardness all of a sudden. "It's alright. It… kind of comes with the job. But if I hadn't…"

"No." She said firmly. "It wasn't your fault. You were both just doing what you thought you had to. If it's anyone's fault…" She bit her lip again. Zack understood in an instant.

Stupid, stupid, stupid! He berated at himself in his head. It really hadn't occurred to him that she felt guilty about what had happened to Gwen too? "It wasn't your fault either. Like I said, it just comes with the job. I'm sorry. Forget I said anything." He felt a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach seeing her cry over this. This was his pain, not hers. He'd been the one who had come up with the stupid idea to take off after Nathan alone and leave Gwen to fight two highly trained witches on her own.

She looked back down at the floor. It seemed like she couldn't hold her tears back anymore. "I wish we'd never come here. I wish I was still with Nathan. I wish I'd never met you."

Zack got up and took a seat next to her. "It wasn't your fault okay? Look if you want the whole truth, it was Nathan's fault. He's the one who distracted us so he could grab you and take off."

Nicole looked back up at him and seemed to read his mind again. "You still hate him don't you." It wasn't a question, it was a statement. "It's not him. It's them, whoever they are. He's been on the run with me for ten years to make sure they can't reach me. I don't expect you to believe me. But everything he's done has been for me. He never once thinks of himself." She was trembling now.

He hesitated, but he couldn't stop himself from putting an arm around her. "It's okay. You're safe now. And Nathan…" it pained him to say this "I'm sure Nathan's fine. He's got a demon in him right? I'm sure he pulled out of that." But he wouldn't have if I had just had the chance… he let that thought trail off, his mind drifting to that crimson potion he had in his sock drawer. It was the only one he had left. The one he had tried to use on the bridge had chipped and by the time he'd noticed, the vial was empty. And the other one… he still didn't know what had happened to that one. He'd probably lost it in the explosion.

"It doesn't matter what you say, those feelings are still there." Nicole sobbed.

He sighed. He just couldn't hide anything from her. "Okay look, I'm willing to level with you here, and admit that Nathan's not such a bad guy. But he's gone about this all wrong. He really should be looking for help. Trying to keep you away from people like the Tates all on his own is insane. He should be trying to get in contact with your whitelighter, or the elders, or some other good witches. Then maybe things wouldn't have turned out this bad. And using that demon whatever to get stronger is something I'm not even dumb enough to do."

She didn't seem to have an argument for that.

He let out a long slow breath. "Tell you what. If we find him, we'll bring him back here and get in touch with the Elders. If they say it's okay, I'm sure they can set you up somewhere where you'll both be safe and not have anyone coming after you anymore. Maybe you can even go back to Magic School."

"I'm never going back to that place." She growled.

"Just a suggestion."

"But… I would like that other part." They were quiet again for awhile, and though he felt a little guilty (this wasn't common for him) it felt good to let her cry on his shoulder. When she had calmed down some, she felt up to talking again. "You know… I never felt that anger whenever Nathan was around. I think he tried hard to keep calm around me. I think it was like what you said. He kind of balanced out the bad. But he's not here right now. And yet, right now at least, I feel fine."

A smile tugged at the corners of Zack's lips. "What are you trying to say?"

"Thanks for being my balancer."

--Back in the Living Room--

"You two are horrible." Trevor muttered, craning his neck around so he could catch Cody and Max pressing their ears to the door of the bedroom.

"I don't know what you're talking about." Max sniped, barely taking her attention away from her eavesdropping.

"Move over." Cody tried to wedge himself between Max and the door.

"Wait your turn." Max shoved him back.

"Really, you two ought to be ashamed of yourself." Trevor said half-heartedly.

Having no luck getting past Max, Cody looked back at Sykes. "You can't tell me you're not the least bit curious what's going on in there. He's been in there for at least ten minutes."

"I'm intensely curious." Trevor said flatly. "I'm an inquisitive guy. But unlike you two, I have a little more class than that." He lifted his bottle of cherry coke to his lips yet again and Cody watched in disgust as he chugged the remaining half in one gulp before setting it back down to let out a belch that reverberated off the walls.

"Oh sick." Max pulled away to glare at him.

He paid them no mind and lifted the empty bottle eye-level with himself. "Shoot. All empty."

"Good." Cody whispered.

"Never fear." Trevor reached into the front pocket of his hoodie and pulled out a brand new twenty ounce bottle. He unscrewed the cap and went right back to guzzling his caffeine.

"You know, with the amount of caffeine and corrosive sugar you've consumed, it's a wonder your skeleton hasn't eroded away yet." Cody shook his head.

Max seemed to share his feelings. "How many of those can you fit in that pocket anyway? It doesn't look that big."

Trevor grinned back at her. "Little trick I picked up from Maggs when I went to see her at Magic School. It's enchanted."

Cody and Max groaned in unison.

The door to the bedroom opened and Zack stepped through. "Finally." Cody said with relief. "Ready? I think Max is okay to stay with Nicole for awhile. You're right, I could use you to help me track Nathan."

Zack seemed to waver on indecision. "Oh… about that… I think I should stay here. Like you said, Nicole's the priority right?"

Cody and Max exchanged glances then looked back at him. The others could swear they heard Sykes chuckle. "Then I'm staying here too." Max informed him.

"Huh?"

"You know the rules Zack." Cody said at once. "We're not allowed to be alone with girls in the apartment."

"But Max is a girl." He reminded them.

"Yeah," Trevor agreed, "but I'm still pretty sure she could take you. Besides, I need to pick up my car from the shop anyway."

"It's only been three days." Cody said with shock, wondering how that kind of damage could be repaired so quickly.

Trevor's look as he got up from the couch was blank. "I've got a guy."