Episode 14

"Martin's Four"

I don't own these characters, but it would be nice if I did.

Wait...In this story, I created some of the characters, so I will actually own them.

Anyways, I do promise to keep them true to themselves.

And as to the ones I create, who they are is up to me, so...

New Haven

By nine o'clock that evening, the Mortician's Ball was in full effect once again. And like usual, a large number of Yale students were using it as an excuse to forget about their studies and regular lives for one night while they dressed up and acted like idiots. As was the norm at this party, there was a vast array of costumes ranging from the macabre to the hilarious to the scandalous. And even though their costumes were not intended to be all that gruesome, Cody and Bailey both had numerous people come up to them and tell them that their costumes were both the scariest and funniest things they had ever seen. After being there for about an hour and a half, they were beginning to think that Theo wasn't going to show up after all. However, Cody reminded her not to let their guards down as he didn't think Theo could resist the temptation of that evening's festivities. But he did smile when he suggested that they continue to act normal and actually have some fun. And as a show of that, he asked her for her hand out on the dance floor. Naturally, she took him up on his offer, and they headed out to cut a rug.

As they swayed to the music, Bailey smiled at him. "You think we'll have the time to something like this next year in Boston?"

Cody shrugged. "I don't know. I guess it will depend on what kind of workload we'll have and what kind of restraints we'll have on our time. But, I certainly hope we'll have the chance - even if it will be your turn to pick out our costumes again..."

Bailey laughed. "Well, something tells me I'll have trouble topping the ones you chose for us this year..." She paused before smiling at him. "Either way, I'm just glad Harvard is well aware that we plan on being married by the time we start there next fall. I was relieved when we got the letter in the mail from them that us being married would be guarantee us having the same schedules for our first two years."

"Tell me about it. Not getting to have you as a study partner would have absolutely sucked! I mean, after almost seven years, I like to think that we're a well oiled machine." He paused. "You know, I guess I'm so used to us studying together for everything now that I think I began to take it for granted..."

"Don't feel too bad. I know I have too, but I've come to view it as one of those things in my life that I view as a certainty. But, we should always be grateful that we have that going for us. Besides, Cody, we should also be grateful that everything is falling into place for us next year with us having our wedding planned and medical school chosen. As far as I can tell, all we have left to do is find a place near the medical school for us to live..." She teased him. "I mean, if we're going to keep studying together, we need to find us a place where we can do that..."

Cody laughed. "I get it. I can take a hint. How's this? We'll go look again at places again while we're back in Boston for Thanksgiving. And to be on the safe side, we really should try to have some place secured for us for next August before we come back to school." He leaned in and kissed her. "Then we'll have nothing left on our to do list which will lead to a hopefully stress free final semester." He paused. "Assuming tonight goes how we expect it to..."

"I sure hope you're right. With our wedding having already been planned and our honeymoon already taken care of as well, finding a place to live is the last thing major thing on our list of things to do." Bailey paused. "Well, except for registering for our wedding, but London said she would take us to do that after the first of the year..."

Cody just pulled her closer to him. "Are you sure you're still okay with us not taking our honeymoon until several weeks after our wedding?"

She smiled at him again. "Sweetie, I'm positive. It just makes the most sense to do it this way. We'll come back from Hawaii, finish working through the end of July, and then we'll go on our honeymoon right before school starts next August. Plus, that means we'll already be moved into our new place when we get back from it. And in the few weeks in between, we can take care of those other little things like getting my name legally changed to Bailey Martin, getting a new driver's license, social security and credit cards, merging our individual accounts into joint one and writing all of our thank you notes from our wedding gifts. That way, we'll be ready to focus all of our attention on orientation and the beginning of school."

He nodded. "Yeah, I guess that's true. And, that should mean we have nice tans when we show up to orientation..." He smiled. "And Bails, trust me, while I'm looking forward to our wedding in Hawaii, having some time all alone with my new wife without all of our families and friends around won't bother me in the least..."

"Me either. Plus, we'll be well rested and refreshed when we get back."

Cody laughed. "Rested and refreshed? I don't know about all of that! We may spend an inordinate amount of time in our room, but I seriously doubt we'll be resting too much..."

Bailey laughed too. "Well, I guess that's true as well. Now, I..." But before she could finish her thought, she felt someone tap her on her shoulder. Turning around, she saw Theo standing wearing his costume of scrubs covered with fake blood. And from the expression on his face, Cody and Bailey could tell he wasn't too happy about something. They just looked at each other and gave the slight nod indicating that it was now go time. Bailey plastered a fake smile on her face. "Hello, Rob...nice costume."

"Yeah, thanks. Look, Bailey, I really need to talk to you about something important. I got my second organic chemistry exam back today in class, and I got a C+ on it! I realize you advised me to make sure I was familiar with everything that could be tested on, but the things you seemed to emphasize the most were nowhere to be found on it! Do you have any idea what happened?"

She just smiled inwardly as she shrugged her shoulders on the outside. "I don't know what to tell you, Rob. I told you everything I remember being heavily focused on on our second exam. But, like you said, I did remind you not to rely on that to the exclusion of everything else. I mean, that's what Cody and I always do. Even with old practice tests, we never assume we'll know what a professor will choose to cover. Plus, even though you have the same professor that we did, you had to realize he would change things up every so often. I mean, if I were a professor, that's what I'd do..."

Cody nodded. "Same here. No sense in letting students get complacent. We're here for an education, not the easy way out."

Bailey agreed. "Exactly. Look, I'm sorry this exam didn't turn out that well for you. A C+ will be hard to overcome and still get an A in the class. I just hope there was a nice curve..."

Theo frowned. "Yeah, tell me about it! I'm pretty much going to have to ace the third test and the final to have any chance to get an A now. And anything lower than an A in a class as important as organic chemistry will not look good to the kind of medicals schools I'm looking to attend. So, I'm really going to need your help studying the rest of the semester. Is there anyway we can meet more than twice a week from here on?"

Bailey faked a sigh. "Actually, now that you bring it up, I need to talk to you about that very thing. Seems like you weren't the only one to get bad news regarding one of their classes today. Cody and I both got our rough drafts of our EP&E senior papers back today too. Professor Ryan didn't care for them at all and wants us both to do complete rewrites of them. If you add having to do that with finishing up our our final projects in our other classes and continuing to do our experiments for our Biology senior project, neither one of us is going to have any extra free time whatsoever. We decided we we're going to have to cut out some activities, and tutoring was the first to go. This afternoon, we spoke to Master Chun, and he completely understands our predicament. He said he'd try to find you another tutor if you still needed one. I'm really sorry for having to do this to you on such short notice, but, if it makes you feel any better, its not like I will be sitting home doing nothing. In fact, Cody and I are probably going to spend most of our Thanksgiving break trying to get everything done that we need to get done. My academics are just way too important to me not to give them my sole attention right now. So, again...sorry."

Theo felt his anger growing about that, but he knew he had to keep his cool. Sure, Bailey's reason for dropping their study sessions sounded reasonable, but it wasn't going to help him get his grade back up. And thinking about all that extra studying he was going to have to do now just made him even angrier. And while he was seething on the inside, he tried to calm himself down by remembering that by the end of the night, there was going to be a whole lot more wrong in their worlds than in his. Of course, with all the extra organic chem work he was going to have to do, he realized he preparedness for his other, less meaningful classes might suffer. But that's when he began formulating another plan that might alleviate that problem. It was so perfect, he felt like patting himself on the back. So, while he laughed on the inside, he just shrugged his shoulders.

"This sucks, but I understand. When it comes to your studies, you got to do what you got to do. I really do appreciate all of your help you've given so far." He smiled at her. "How about a dance together as a good way for us to part ways?"

Bailey shook her head, wrapped her arm around Cody's waist and smiled. "No thank you. My dance card for the evening is already full. Cody already has all the spots taken. But good luck to you the rest of your semester..." And under her breath, she mumbled. "You're going to need it..."

Theo just shrugged again and walked away. Cody and Bailey watched him walk away until they saw him disappear into the crowd. And once he was far enough away, Bailey turned back to Cody and whispered. "Okay, this is all happening just like you thought it would!"

He smiled and whispered back. "I know. But, its not over yet. He thinks he still has an ace up his sleeve, but he doesn't know we stacked the deck. And now, he's a little upset. And now that he's upset, I'll bet he gets a little sloppy. But he's not going to back down now. I can almost guarantee he will make his other move before the night is up..."

"I know, but we'll be ready for it." She stopped and laughed. "I admit, I ordinarily don't like lying to people, but that was kind of fun."

"Well, it wasn't a complete and total lie..."

"True. Our EP&E sponsor did give us back our rough drafts today with changes to make, but they were only cosmetic ones that dealt with the flow of the papers rather than the actual subject matter of them. We should be able to finish those up in a couple of hours next Friday."

He smiled. "That's if we even want to make them. Professor Ryan did say they were already worthy of A's as they were, but the changes could make us frontrunners for some departmental honors."

Bailey just looked at him. "As if we wouldn't go for those!"

Cody laughed. "I know. And we just have to do some final editing to our Food project as well, and then it will be done too. We can finish it up next Friday as well. The week after that, I say we stop Professor Brownell's office to show him what we have so far and see if he has any changes he'd like to see us make."

She leaned in and kissed him. "Good idea. And, it was true that we did stop by and talk to Master Chun again. And after we showed him the private investigator's report on Theo, he was aghast. He had no problems with me stopping tutoring Theo. In fact, after what he knows now, I wonder if he will assign him anyone new at all now..."

"I don't know. But, Trixie did seem pretty happy about having two tutors now instead of one. I'm glad she was agreeable to moving our study sessions up to our room from here on..."

Bailey laughed again. "Oh, I don't think she was the one who had a problem with that. Getting Ox to agree was the tricky part. But we finally convinced him that with me around, you'd never try any funny business..."

Cody shook his head. "I guess. No offense to Trixie though, but the only funny business I'd have in mind would be after she left and I had you all to myself again..."

She leaned in and kissed him again. "I like the way you think, Honey. And of course, after next Friday, we're going to have nothing to do on Fridays from here on. Think we'll know what to do with ourselves with a day off?"

He grinned as he kissed her back. "Oh, I think we'll find something to keep us busy."

Another hour passed, and the clock was quickly approaching the witching hour. All around them, their fellow classmates kept drinking more and more and making even bigger idiots of themselves. But Cody and Bailey were content to just kept dancing with each other and enjoying their evening. That's not to say they weren't on high alert though. They knew the next time they saw Theo was probably when he would begin to next part of his plan. So, right at midnight, they noticed him walking towards them holding two cups in his hands.

"Here, I brought you guys a couple of cups of punch as a small token of my appreciation for all of your help this semester..."

Cody shook his head as he declined the cup offered to him. "Sorry, I can't. I'm on some cold medication right now, and its not a good idea for me to mix alcohol with it. I appreciate the offer though..."

Bailey took the cup extended to her and thanked Theo. She turned back to Cody and smiled. "How about we make a toast to us? This time next year, we'll be married and in medical school. May our futures be bright and full of love and joy..." She spoke a little louder. "May we always have a BONANZA of good fortune..."

And upon her uttering the word 'bonanza', part two of Cody's plan was put into motion. Bailey was about to sip her drink when she felt something wet on her back. Shrieking at how cold it was, she realized someone had spilled a cup of punch on to her from behind. Turning around, she saw a very tall person dressed as Chewbacca holding up his hands and saying 'Sorry' in a voice muffled by his mask. Bailey began berating him for being so clumsy when he just turned around and disappeared back into the crowd.

Bailey shook her head. "What a jerk! That idiot just poured his drink on my beck, and my costume is ruined now!"

Cody tried to use some of his 'paternity suits' to wipe off and pat the back of her shirt. "Here. Let me see if I can help some, Sweetie."

She sighed. "I appreciate the help, Cody Bear, but I think I'm going to have to go to the bathroom. I think I remember there being an air dryer in there. I'll be back as soon as I can get my shirt to dry." And with that, Bailey headed off into the crowd towards the bathroom.

Of course, the recent turn of events put Theo in an even fouler mood. "Well, that was rude! That guy just ran off and ruined a perfectly good toast!"

Cody shrugged. "Its no big deal. This is a party, and party fouls do tend to happen."

That didn't appease Theo as he just starting shaking his head. "Stupid Wookie..."

Cody laughed and patted him on the back. "Easy there, big fella. Don't forget what Star Wars taught us - if you make a Wookie mad, they're likely to rip your arms off. Anyways, I'm going to head over to the bathrooms myself, and I'll just wait for Bailey there. You have fun tonight."

Another hour later, Cody was pacing back and forth outside of the bathroom, and he had an extremely worried look on his face. And about that same time, Theo was heading to the men's room himself when he saw Cody.

"Are you here still waiting to get into the bathroom?"

He shook his head. "No, I'm waiting on Bailey. She's yet to come back out from drying off her shirt yet, and I'm starting to get pretty worried. I've been trying to find someone I know to go in and see if she's alright, but I haven't seen any other girls that I know yet..."

Theo paused to think. He had assumed that his plan had gone up in flames earlier, but maybe it was still alive and well after all. "I'm sure she's fine, but I'll keep an eye out for her too. Why don't you go get you something to drink, and and I'll keep a watch here for her?"

Before Cody could say anything, Bailey came stumbling out of the bathroom and threw her arms around his shoulder to steady herself. "Cody Bear...I don't feel so well."

Cody turned so he could get a good look at her. "Bails? What happened? Are you alright?"

She swallowed. "I don't know. I was drying my shirt, and I began sipping the punch that Rob gave me. Suddenly, I began feeling very nauseous..."

"You think there were strawberries in the punch? You're allergic to strawberries!"

She closed her eyes and shook her head. "I don't know, Sweetie...I just know I don't feel very good..."

He tightened his hold of her. "Come on, Bails. Lets get you over to the Emergency Room right away! I just want to make sure you're okay..."

Theo's eyes went wide when he heard that, but Bailey shook her head. "No, I just want to go home and climb in to bed. Even if it was strawberries, it will pass soon enough. Please, just take me home, Cody?"

Cody paused before finally nodding his head. "Alright. Come on, Honey. Lets get you home and into bed."

Both bid Theo a good night before making their way out of the party and back to the dorm. And once they were gone, Theo patted his chest believing he had just dodged a huge bullet. Cody taking her to the emergency room was the last thing he wanted to see happen. If the doctors had pumped her stomach...well, Theo didn't want to think about how much trouble there could have been if they had. Back at Berkeley North, Cody was helping Bailey up the steps and to the door of the dorm suite. Once he got the door open, he helped her inside before situating her on the futon. After closing the door, he walked back over and sat down next to her.

"Bails, are you alright?"

She looked over at him and and grinned. "I feel perfectly fine! You know, after all the acting we've done tonight, I seriously think we should have considered minors in theater!"

He laughed. "I don't think so. After my last foray into it, I've decided to give it up for good."

"Well, the script you wrote for tonight totally makes up for the flop that was your last one. And Cody, you were exactly right about what he was going to try tonight. Everything happened just the way you had predicted it would..."

"Well, it wasn't too hard to figure out. All we had to do is follow his blueprint from Princeton. I guess he figured no one here knew about it so he was safe to repeat it."

At the moment, they both heard a knock at their door, and Cody got up to see who it was. After checking the peephole and making sure it wasn't Theo again, he opened the door. And into their room walked Chewbacca and an Ewok. Once inside and the door locked again, both removed their masks and revealed themselves to be Tapeworm and Gertie.

Cody grinned. "Excellent work you two! Everything went exactly according to plan!"

"Good." Tapeworm grinned. "I have to admit, coming back here to change costumes mid party was kind of strange, but no one there had any idea who we were..." He turned to Gertie and winked at her. "And you? I used to always think Return of the Jedi was ruined by the Ewoks, but after seeing you dressed as one, I may have to reconsider my stance on that..."

Cody turned to Gertie himself. "Do you have it?"

She grinned, and pulled a plastic cup of her pouch that had been sealed with a lid to keep all of its contents inside. "I have it right here! And I also have the continuous footage I took on my phone of Theo from the time he got the cups, of him adding his secret ingredient into them both, of him giving one to Bailey, and of me following Bailey to the bathroom where we sealed it. I even have footage of Bailey removing the tape from her fingers to explain why her fingerprints aren't on it too. I've got it all!"

Cody grinned too. "Excellent! We'll have to drop it off at the campus police station first thing in the morning..." He turned back to Tapeworm. "Shall we see how your little invention is working?"

In Berkeley South

Back in his own dorm room in Berkeley South, Theo was once again pacing back and forth while on his cell phone.

"No, it didn't work out like I had planned tonight! I'm here talking to you, aren't I?"

He sighed. "Everything that could go wrong, did go wrong. She was just about to drink it when some idiot spilled a drink on her. After that, she immediately headed to the bathroom to dry it out. She did end up drinking it while she was in the bathroom, but nerd boy was waiting for her outside of it the entire time. I never got the chance to even have a second alone with her! And when he went and mentioned the words 'emergency room', I almost soiled myself!"

Theo shook his head. "I don't know where I'm going to go from here. She also dropped me from tutoring due to her own schoolwork, so I'm going to have to buckle down on this organic chemistry BS. I'll be studying nonstop for it and nothing else for the next few weeks. But, in the meantime, I do have a little something I'm going to let them do for me to help me out. They're in another class of mine that has a big group project. Right now, I don't have time to do one myself, so I'm going to stop by the professor's office on Monday and tell him I'm part of their group." He laughed. "I'll just let those two nerds do all the work and get me an easy 'A' in there without doing anything..."

He shook his head. "Nah, if I do this right, they'll never know what I did. But right now, I need to go flush the rest of the Rohypnol you sent me. I didn't use all of it when I laced their drinks, and I'll be damned if I have any of it laying around if nerd boy changes his mind about taking her to the emergency room. But, I will be needing you to send me some of that other stuff. Get it too much before Thanksgiving break. We'll make so much money on people freaking out about the semester ending that it will be ridiculous..."

"Good. I'll talk to you later..."

Cody's and Bailey's Dorm Room

Back in Cody and Bailey's room, everyone was sitting around Tapeworm's laptop as they all just listened to everything Theo had just said. Once he had hung up his cell phone, they heard a door slam shut, and Tapeworm clicked a button and grinned.

"There you go. All recorded, and I'm going to send you a copy of the audio file right now."

Cody nodded. "Thanks, Man..." He turned to Bailey. "Seems like Theo just never quite learns, does he?"

Bailey smiled at him. "No, but that will only make his downfall even sweeter..." She began laughing. "I still can't believe you thought to attach a listening device to him. I know you were a spy once before, but you really took it to a whole another level this time. I mean, if you didn't have an aversion to harsh cotton fibers, you could be looking at a career with the CIA, Sweetie..."

He laughed too. "I guess Zack was right. I could be a spy if I wanted to." He then grinned. "But I wouldn't want to be away from you if I had to go on a mission..."

Bailey grinned right back at him. "You wouldn't have to because I'd be right there with you! All of this spy business has been completely exhilarating! Not only do we have proof of him committing several crimes, we also have proof of him planning several more as well as committing academic fraud. We definitely need to stop by and see Professor Brownell in the next few weeks. And after what else we heard, I think we should advise the campus police to wait until just before Thanksgiving so they can catch him red handed with that other stuff he was talking about..."

"Good idea. And with the pull you have with them after busting Kyle, I think they'll listen."

She paused and shook her head again. "Theo must really have thought we were idiots. Its like I said our freshmen years, I'd never accept an open drink from someone I don't know. You never know what could be inside of it..."

Cody nodded. "I know. And you'll never know how much restraint it took me tonight not to kick his butt right then and there. For everything he's tried to do to us, I want to do something very, very bad to him. I guess this is how Zack was feeling when he heard about that hockey player at BU..."

"I know, and we will make sure something very bad happens to him, Cody. But I'm fine, and by the time we're done with him, he'll wish he never met us..."

Boston

The following day brought with it the official change from October to November. But in Boston, the change in calendar didn't change anything. While Zack still spent his mornings working and afternoons in school, he constantly kept in contact with London to see if there was any word on Trevor. But for the first two weeks in November, there wasn't any. So, Zack and Maya did everything they could to keep Maddie's spirits as high as possible until there was. On Mondays through Thursdays, Zack would head up to the penthouse and actually walk to work with Maddie, and a couple of nights a week, they would invite her to join them for dinner. Carey did this as well so London would have some free time to spend with Todd. On the Friday two weeks before Thanksgiving, Zack once again stopped by London's penthouse after having lunch with Maya to see if there had been any progress made. And once she let him inside, he looked at her.

"Any word today, London?"

She paused. "Maybe. There might be, but I'm not sure yet..."

The fact that there was change completely caught Zack's attention. "What does that mean exactly?"

"Well, one of Daddy's guys told me that he had heard a rumor of an American journalist that was following around a bunch of Navy Seals over there. Well, since those guys like to keep everything about themselves so hush hush, he hasn't been able to verify if its true yet. And if its true, there's still no guarantee that its Trevor. But, he said he was going to investigate it personally and see what he can find out."

Zack sighed. "Well, at least we now finally have a possible lead. And if he was hanging out with Seals, that would certainly explain why its been so difficult to find him. I was starting to think Trevor was going to be as impossible to locate as Bin Laden was..."

London sighed too. "All I know is that I really hope this is him. Maddie's been wearing me out, and I'm not even the pregnant one! And if its him, he better come home soon! Because in a few weeks, Maddie's twisted my arm and gotten me to volunteer to do something that I would rather not do..."

"What's that?"

London groaned. "Be her coach at Lamaze classes! Maddie is my friend and all, but sitting around doing breathing exercises twice a week is not my idea of fun!"

"But I thought you loved to do that yoga stuff. Isn't that kind of similar?"

She just glared at him. "Not helping!"

He stepped back. "Okay, well, then for your sake as well as Maddie's, I hope this lead works out. And when I walk to work with her every morning, I can tell she feels like she has the weight of the world on her shoulders..."

"We're doing everything we can, Zack. We just have to hope we're due for some good luck. Anyways, lets change the subject to something more positive, okay?" She paused. "Speaking of classes, how is your semester going anyways? You haven't got senioritis and begun slacking off, have you?"

Zack shrugged. "Nah, I'm still keeping up with everything pretty easily. Of course, it doesn't hurt that I have a pretty light semester. So, I should still do alright. I will admit that already having been accepted to grad school, I don't have the same motivation that I once did..."

London nodded. "That's right. I heard that you'd been accepted to BU's graduate school. Congratulations on that. I'm proud of you." She paused. "Are you sure that's what you want to do though? I mean, do you want to stay at BU?"

"Yeah. I mean, after three years, I've gotten to know my way around campus like I knew my way around the boat. Plus, Maya will still be there, so I love that part too. And, to be honest, BU, with some help from you, was willing to take a chance on me when I seriously doubt any other school around here would have..."

London shook her head and laughed. "Tell me about it. Zack, you totally exceeded everyone's expectations with what you've done there. I told Moseby once that BU was a little leery of taking you at first, but when it came time for grad school, they were going to be nervous about whether or not they would be able to hold on to you. I told you I was proud of you, but you should be very proud of yourself..."

Zack smiled. "Thanks, London. I owe you all the credit in the world for giving me the kick in the butt to go for it..." He paused and laughed. "Of course, now that I've shown I can do it, is there a chance we may see you around campus next year?"

She just gave him a look. "Yeah, I don't think so. I may grown up a lot lately, but I still have no desire to go to school ever again. Besides, do you think I'd be lucky enough to get teachers like Tut would would put up with my crap?"

"You know, she wasn't really as bad as we said she was..."

"No, she wasn't..." London began laughing again. "But you know, its kind of too bad if you think about it. I was actually rooting for you to somehow get into Harvard. I think it would be hilarious for you, Cody and Bailey to be going to the same school again..."

He laughed too. "Yeah, considering the two paths we took to get through high school and college, that would have been pretty crazy. And while I still haven't heard back from them yet, I'm assuming they took my application and put it through their shredder and lined a bird cage with it. And if they did, that wouldn't bother me in the least. I'm happy at BU. I have absolutely no problem staying there and continuing to have lunch with Maya everyday."

She paused before smiling. "You know, when Maye came back into your life, I admit that I never thought you two would ever get back together. Now, I'm glad to see that I was wrong. Since you two have been reunited, I've never seen you happier, Zack."

"Thanks, London. I am pretty happy. If if I may return the compliment, I don't know if I've ever seen you happier than when you're with Todd."

"I know. I guess we finally understand why Cody and Bailey always seemed like nothing bothered them when they were together on the boat."

Zack laughed. "Yeah, but it was still fun to make fun of them..."

"I know, but in eight more months, they'll be married."

"True, but you never know. How long after them will it be your turn or mine and Maya's turn?"

She shook her head. "Great. Moseby said he wanted to return the favor and plan mine. But, I guess he does know a few things about love. After all, he was the one who was constantly keeping Maya updated with what was going on with everyone here while she was in Africa..."

That caught Zack by surprise. "That was him? Maya and I thought it might have been you..."

London shook her head. "Nope. Wasn't me."

"Wow..." Zack paused. "Well, I'm glad things are going well for him and Tut...and Cody and Bailey...and you and Todd...and me and Maya. With all of us so happy, it might make for an interesting five year reunion..." He laughed. "...in less that two years. Maybe your Dad will let us have it on the boat?"

"I don't see why not. I'm co-owner of it too!"

"Well, I'm also glad that you and your Dad seem to have a better relationship nowadays. And you're beginning a new one with your mother that seems to be going well too. You know what, London? I'd say we're all pretty lucky..."

She smiled. "Yeah, I guess we are. And like you said, I'm lucky I have Todd too. He's been really supportive of me helping out Maddie so much."

Zack grinned. "I can just see it now...in several years, there will be the great Tipton-St. Mark merger. Two of the largest hotel chains in the country joining forces to eradicate the competition!"

London laughed. "Maybe so. I just hope we can still afford you then."

"That's one thing you won't have to worry about. Its like I told you about BU. London, you took a chance on me when not very many other people would have. If not for you, I wouldn't be where I am right now. So, you have my loyalty as long as you'll have me."

She reached over and hugged him. "I'll make sure to remember that. Friends like you don't grow on trees..." She paused. "...but they are born in pairs. Anyways, the only thing I ask is that you give me time to get your brother married off before I have to begin planning yours..."

That evening, when Maya got home from work, she walked in to the suite and found Zack sitting on the couch with a big smile on his face.

"Well, well...Looks like you're in a good mood."

"Oh, I am...I found out something very interesting today. Seems like you and I owe Moseby a big one..."

New Haven

Those next two weeks after Halloween flew by in New Haven as well, and they were busy ones for Cody and Bailey. Like they had said they would do, they finished up the final drafts of their EP&E senior papers after making all the changes that Dr. Ryan suggested. And once they were done to both of their satisfaction, they went ahead and turned them in early so they wouldn't have to worry about them any more. And with the free time they now had on Fridays, they finished up their psychology of food group project, burned a rough draft of it to a disk and went to see Professor Brownell, the class's professor to show it to him. Of course, they waited two weeks to make sure Theo had time to talk to him first. Naturally, Professor Brownell loved what they had done, but he did ask them why only their two names were on it and not the third member of their group. Cody and Bailey gave another brilliant acting performance as they feigned surprise and ignorance at his question. They simply just told him that it had always been just the two of them and that they were the only two that had done any work on it. Although confused, their professor just shrugged and told them their project was already worthy of an A.

So, with those two projects now officially out of the way, Cody and Bailey had their other two classes to focus their attention on until Thanksgiving break. They continued working on their group project for their computers and the law class and had a rough draft of it done as well by Wednesday of the week before their break. They scheduled a meeting with their professor the following afternoon to show it to him, so that left them with only their Biology senior project to worry about. And there wasn't much to worry about there to begin with. All of their experiments were going well and were already giving them some interesting results. Based on those, they devised a few more to try. Of course, they did tell themselves that once they left for Christmas break, they would cut themselves off from doing any further ones. By their calculations, they would have everything concluded around Valentine's Day the next semester, and that would leave them the rest of the spring semester to write up their findings and prepare their presentations.

Of course, Cody and Bailey did have other things they had to do during those weeks. Like they had said, they made a visit to to the campus police station on the Saturday following the Mortician's Ball. And to say the detective they spoke to was interested in all the evidence they had accumulated would be an understatement. Naturally, he did remember Cody and Bailey from the year before and told them that he would be happy when they finally graduated. As he laughed, the good detective told them that it seemed like trouble was following them around. But, he did agree that it would be prudent to hold off on bringing in Theo until the other delivery he spoke of happened. However, the detective told them to stay away from him as much as possible until they did arrest him. And that was just fine with Cody and Bailey. So, they avoided him in the dining hall and always showed up right before it started and left immediately once their psychology of food class was over

However, the Thursday before Thanksgiving break was going to be different. That morning, they got a phone call that it was now d-day as the delivery had been made the night before. So, they just smiled as the realized how perfect the timing of that was. They, for the first time in a few weeks, actually arrived to their class early that morning, and as luck would have it, they almost immediately ran into Theo once they got there. And from the look on his face, something seemed to be bothering him.

"How are you feeling, Bailey? Last time I saw you, you were sicker than a dog..."

She plastered a fake smile on her face. "Oh, I don't think I've ever felt better. Thank you for asking though..." She paused. "But, if I may say, you don't look so good, Rob. You look positively exhausted..."

Theo sighed. "I am. I've been cramming all week for my third organic chemistry test tomorrow. I really could have used your help."

Bailey held her tongue. "Well, Cody and I have been busy too. Its just been one thing after another these past few weeks..."

At that moment, the professor's teaching assistant entered the room and set up a box on the podium for everyone to put their group projects in.

She smiled. "Excuse us..." She turned to Cody. "Come on, Sweetie. Lets go turn in our project while we're thinking about it."

So, they did, and soon after, Professor Brownell entered the lecture hall and everyone began taking their seats. As was their habit, Cody and Bailey took their usual seats in the front row in the center of the room. Soon after, the professor began his lecture for the day, and for the next hour, everyone took notes on what he was saying. But about ten o'clock, he concluded his lecture fifteen minutes early, and his teaching assistant brought over the list of people who had turned in projects and the list of people who hadn't yet.

"Well, ladies and gentlemen, if you've already turned in your project, then I'll see you after the Thanksgiving break. If you haven't, then turn it in now. Class dismissed..." At that mention, the class began dispersing, and Theo grabbed his backpack and was about to head on to his next class. But he noticed Professor Brownell walking towards him.

"Mr. Cavanaugh, I noticed your name on the list of people who hadn't turned in their project yet. Are you going to turn yours in?"

That caught Theo off guard. "Ummm...Mine should be in there, Sir. It was turned in by my partners."

"Well, none of the projects has your name on it. My TA spent the class period making the lists for me, and according to it, you haven't turned in one yet."

Theo spoke in a low voice in case anyone was listening. "Professor, I was in a group with Bailey Pickett and Cody Martin. They must have forgotten to put my name on it."

Professor Brownell laughed. "That's a good one! Miss Pickett and Mr. Martin came to see me at my office personally to discuss their project about a week ago. They told me that they were the only ones in their group and only ones who did the work on what they turned in..."

Theo swallowed. "I was never told about any meeting, Sir. They're probably just trying to play a little joke on me right now. I bet that's it..."

The professor just looked at him. "Possibly. Alright, if you actually worked with them, can you tell me what their topic was?"

He gulped and began sweating profusely. "Ummm...no, sir, I can't. They never actually called me to work on it. They were going to do me a favor since I've been so busy with my organic chemistry class..."

"So, you never did any work on it and expect me to give you the same grade I would give them? I don't think so! And why would they have agreed to add your name to it? I mentioned your name to them in my meeting with them, and they said they had never heard of you..."

Upon hearing that, Theo was getting a really bad feeling in the pit of his stomach. Why had they done that?

Professor Brownell continued. "Sounds to me like you were trying to piggy back off of them and earn a grade you didn't deserve. And for that, I should turn you into the honor board and let them investigate this whole thing. But since its the holidays, I'll feeling a little generous..."

He sighed in relief. "Thank you, Sir. I promise you I will do a solo project and have it to you first thing the Monday after Thanksgiving break."

"I don't think so. If you read the syllabus, for every day its late, your grade on it will be reduced by five percentage points. So, even if you somehow did a perfect project in the next 24 hours, the best you could get is a 95%. By the Monday you mentioned, the best you could do would be a..." He paused to do the math. "... 45% on a perfect project..."

Theo's eyes went wide again. "But Professor Brownell! There is no way I can get one done tonight! I have an organic chemistry exam in the morning that I've been busting my hump for! I bombed my last test in there and need to do well on this one to bring my grade up..."

Professor Brownell shrugged. "I'm sorry. That's not my problem. You should have managed your time more wisely then, Mr. Cavanaugh. I won't bend the rules for you when everyone else has followed them. I'll be expecting that project...at your earliest convenience." And with that, he slung his bag over his shoulder, picked up the box of projects and left the class room.

Theo just stood there watching him leave and hung his head. It certainly looked like he was going to have a long night ahead of him. So, he picked up his backpack, and turned around to leave when he saw Cody and Bailey standing there smirking at him.

"Hope you have fun tonight..."

Cody laughed. "As I recall, the third organic test is a real bear. Now, which one will you be doing tonight? The project or studying for your test? Don't have time to do both, so which one will it be...Theo?"

Theo just looked at them momentarily before it finally dawned on him. "Wait a minute...you know who I am then!"

Bailey laughed. "Of course we do. You really shouldn't have sent those flowers. Cody already thought he knew you from somewhere, and when you did that, it caused him to ask Mr. Chun about you. Well, lets just say we were both surprised by what he said. And Cody was pretty sure you'd try something underhanded, so thanks to a report we got on your activities at Princeton, we've been a few steps ahead of you the whole time..." She stopped laughing and glared at him. "Though, trying to latch on to our project in here seems really desperate...but not as much as what you tried Halloween..."

He just kept looking at them in shock. "Wait a minute! My second organic test! You told me the wrong things to study for on purpose so I would fail!"

She shook her head. "No, I didn't. If you'll remember, I encouraged you to study everything but just happened to mention what was tested heavily on my exam..." She shrugged. "Not my fault that the same things weren't covered..."

"Well, I hope you two are happy! I'll never get into a good medical school now! Thanks to you two, I'm going to bomb at least one class this semester!"

Cody laughed this time. "Getting into a medical school will be the least of your worries for a long, long time. You see, we also know exactly what you had planned on Halloween. Bailey never drank the cup you gave her. She passed it on to a friend of ours, and we took it to the campus police the next day..."

Bailey continued. "And I guess you know what they found, huh? I mean, you put it in there after all..."

He looked back and forth between them before scowling. "Good luck proving I had anything to do with it!"

Bailey smiled. "Oh, we don't need luck. We have video of you spiking the drink plus video of it never leaving our custody after you gave it to me. Plus, we have an audio clip of you admitting to doing it as well as you planning on trying to commit academic fraud in this class."

Cody grinned too. "Don't worry. We aren't going to report you to the honor board either though. Not because of the holidays, but I think Yale will kick you out for your other misdeeds..."

Theo just kept glaring at them and he snapped once he realized he was now in serious trouble. "You two won't get away with this! I'll kill you both!"

And with that, he began running at Cody and Bailey in an attempt to attack them. But both held their ground and Bailey greeted him with a swift kick to his knee. There wasn't a crunching sound, but Theo double over. And not knowing what came over him in the moment, Cody reached back before delivering a right uppercut to Theo's chin. Immediately, Theo went down to the ground, and he was in a complete daze. If they had been in a ring, he would have been down for the count, and Cody would have been awarded a KO. Instead, he took the opportunity to kneel down and whisper in Theo's ear.

"If you ever come near Bailey again, I will kill you. Simple as that. She is my life, and I will do whatever I have to do to protect her. So, you've been forewarned. And don't think I don't know ways of killing you that won't be traced back to me. You understand what I'm saying?"

Theo was still in a stupor as he looked up at Cody. Of course, that's when Cody noticed something and grinned.

"You should consider yourself lucky that you aren't dead right now. But I don't think you'll like what's about to happen to you next..."

Theo had no idea what Cody meant by that, but a few seconds later, he did. Before he knew it, he was being jerked back up to his feet. And, looking to both sides of him, he saw uniformed campus police officers.

"You must not be very bright after all, Mr. Cavanaugh. We just added terroristic threatening and assault to the long list of charges against you..." The officer laughed. "And in case you didn't realize it yet, you are under arrest. You have the right to remain silent, but if you speak, what you say may be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to an attorney. If you can't afford one, one will be provided to you." He pulled out a pair of handcuffs and cuffed Theo.

The appearance by the police didn't make any sense to Theo right then, and he had no idea what was happening. But Cody and Bailey just smirked at him. "I don't think you'll like your new living quarters as much as the ones you have in Berkeley. Something tells me the windows will have bars, and the food won't nearly be as good. But don't worry, once the authorities here in New Haven are done with you, I'm pretty sure the ones down at Princeton will probably want a piece of you too. I mean, that was part of your agreement there, wasn't it? If you kept your nose clean, they wouldn't press further charges against you if you just went away. Well, you haven't, so the deal is off..."

The campus police officer spoke up. "Oh, we won't even get first crack at him - the feds will. We saw the delivery made to his dorm room last night, and after getting a warrant, we searched Mr. Cavanaugh's dorm room this morning as soon as we saw him leave to come to class. We didn't find any rohypnol, but we found large quantities of several different illegal narcotics. And I mean large enough that we have reason to believe he was planning on distributing and selling and just not using. The feds will get him for at least possession, distribution and racketeering charges. I don't think you two will have to worry about seeing him ever again. I honestly doubt he'll ever see the light of day again after everyone is done with him..."

Hearing all of that helped clear the fog from Theo's mind, and he was now livid. "Don't you know who I am? Who my parents are? I'll beat this with ease!"

"I guess we'll just have to see about that, won't we?" The officers began marching Theo out. "But for now, your butt is mine!"

As he was lead out, Cody couldn't help himself. "And Theo? Watch out for your cornhole!"

Cody and Bailey grabbed their backpacks too so they could head on to their next class. And as they did, Cody couldn't help but to shake his right hand.

"Okay, that kind of hurt..."

Bailey grinned and lifted his hand up so she could kiss it. "Better now?"

Cody grinned back at her. "Much..."

"Good. Because, Sweetie...trust me on this. While you may have just knocked him out, I know you're a lover and not a fighter."

To be Continued...

AN: Was I the only one who thought they heard a very loud 'Dang it!' when Miami won the NBA title on Thursday night and LeBron James got his first ring? Poor Woody...