Chapter 4: London's Bridge
London led Zack up the stairs to the upper parts of the ship. He couldn't help but wonder where she was taking him. The whole trip she held onto his hand, which was perfectly fine with him.
"London where are you taking me?" Zack asked out of curiosity.
"You'll see," she said.
As they went through a doorway that took them out onto the upper deck Zack finally realized where they were.
"London that's the bridge, we're not allowed up there," Zack said.
"You're forgetting that my Dad owns the ship," London said with a smile.
They walked right up to the door to the bridge and went in. Captain Lunsford was inside and he was prepared to tell off whoever it was that had come in until he noticed London.
"Hello London, what brings you up here today?" Lunsford asked.
"I wanted to show Zack my bridge," London said.
Zack was already looking all around the room at all the dials and knobs, as well as the captain's wheel in front. There were charts on the walls and there were men sitting at the controls doing their jobs. As Zack glanced around he noticed a sign at the back of the room which hung over the controls. The sign read, "London's Bridge." Zack couldn't help but laugh when he saw it.
"It really is your bridge," Zack said to London.
"Of course it is. Isn't it nice?" London said and waited for Zack's approval.
"It's great," Zack said.
"I come up here sometimes to get away from it all. Captain Lunsford won't let me steer the ship though. He's being a meanie," London said with a cute little scowl that made Zack laugh.
It felt good to laugh again. He had spent most of the day wallowing in self pity, but it got him nowhere. Within a matter of minutes London was able to turn everything around for him.
"When Daddy had the ship built he wanted to name a room after me so I suggested the bridge," London said as she looked around the room.
"I like it. It has a nice ring to it," Zack said as he walked around and took in all the sights the room had to offer.
"I see you're feeling better now," London said.
"I'm much better, thank you London. I'm sorry if I had you worried earlier," Zack told her.
"You had us all worried. We know you were in love with her. I mean you would never shut up about it," London said with a grin.
Zack felt a little embarrassed as he realized he did obsess over Maddie through the years. He went silent for a second and London decided to walk over to him.
"I'm sorry, that was rude of me," she said.
"No, you're right, I'm sorry," Zack said and London rubbed his back reassuringly.
"It's okay all is forgiven," London said.
"Hey do you think Captain Lunsford will let us take the ship for a spin?" Zack asked excitedly, but when he turned to the Captain he was shaking his head to say no.
"Aww man! Can I at least wear the hat?" Zack asked and after a few seconds the Captain handed him his hat. "Sweet!" Zack added as he placed the hat on his head.
Zack walked over to the captain's wheel and grabbed hold of it. He tried to look dignified and powerful as he did so.
"Look alive men! We have pirates off the starboard side…or something," Zack said with a laugh. "I don't know which side that is," he added.
"Well it's neither side…there are no stars out right now. It's the middle of the day," London said while looking out the window.
Zack had to hold onto the wheel to keep from falling over laughing. London playfully slapped his arm to make him stop, but she had a smile on her face as well. Zack looked at London and felt a sudden rush of emotion that he couldn't explain. Here was this beautiful rich girl that had given up a day in the Bahamas to cheer up an old friend, and he had the sudden urge to kiss her. She must have noticed the look on his face because she said, "What? What's wrong?"
"London…there's something I want to tell you," Zack started to say, but suddenly he was cut off by a loud voice outside.
"NO!!!!!!!! NO NO NO NO NO NO," the voice carried on, but Zack couldn't see who it was.
The no's continued on in one long stream that got quieter and then louder as it approached the door until the door finally opened and Mr. Moseby was standing there.
"What is going on here!?" he cried out.
"Zack's the new captain!" London said, nearly causing Mr. Moseby to have a heart attack.
"What!?" he cried out.
"Relax Mr. Moseby, Captain Lunsford just let me wear his cap," Zack said.
"Get away from the wheel!" Mr. Moseby yelled.
Zack put his hands up in defeat and backed away.
"It's okay Mr. Moseby, the controls were locked. There was no way he could have done any harm," Captain Lunsford said.
"You obviously don't know Zack," Moseby said.
Zack laughed at what he considered a compliment and handed the Captain back his hat.
"So Mr. Moseby what are you doing back on board? I thought you were with the group on the island," Zack said.
"I came back to find London. She disappeared from the group," Moseby said, sounding a little calmer.
"I came here to cheer up Zack," London said.
Mr. Moseby's demeanor changed and the look on his face softened a little as he looked over at Zack and said, "I'm sorry Zack in all this excitement I forgot. Are you doing okay?"
"I'm a lot better now thanks to London," Zack said and put an arm around her, hoping that she wouldn't shrug it off.
She showed no signs of moving so Zack relaxed a little and left his arm in place. Moseby eyed Zack warily for a second, trying to figure out what his angle was, but before he could decide a man walked into the bridge.
"Mr. Moseby you have a phone call from Mr. Tipton. He says it's urgent," the man said.
"Is everything okay?" Moseby asked.
"He didn't tell me anything other than it was urgent," the man said.
Moseby followed him out leaving Zack with his arm still around London, who looked worried.
"I wonder what that was about," London said.
"I'm sure it's just something business related. Nothing we'd worry about," Zack said to comfort her.
London seemed to be content with that answer as she walked over to the window to look outside. Zack was a little disappointed that she had moved away from him, but he didn't want to come off too forward.
"When I was little Daddy would take me out on his yacht to different islands like these. I always loved being on the boat. He would sit me in his lap and let me steer for awhile sometimes," London said without looking away from the window.
"You've pretty much seen the world then huh?" Zack asked.
"A couple of times over," she replied.
She looked out the window for a few more minutes and then turned back to Zack and said, "You had something you wanted to tell me earlier, what was it?"
Zack wasn't prepared for her to ask that so he stammered a little bit.
"Um, it was…I, well you see I was wondering…if," Zack tried to say.
Zack was just about to spit it out when the door opened again and Mr. Moseby came into the room. Zack was about to tell him to wait a second, but the look on Moseby's face stopped him. Mr. Moseby looked stricken and had obviously been crying.
"What's wrong?" Zack asked.
"London…I think you should come with me. We need to talk," Moseby said.
"Moseby what's wrong?" London asked.
"We should go somewhere private London. Please come with me," Moseby said and led her out of the room.
As she left London looked over her shoulder at Zack with a look of worry. All Zack could do was watch with a horrible feeling in his gut. Zack left the bridge and sat down on deck to wait for London to come back. While he was waiting Cody, Bailey, and Woody came over.
"There you are Zack. How are you feeling?" Cody asked.
"I'm better, London came to cheer me up," Zack said.
"So that's where she went," Bailey exclaimed. "Where is she now?"
"Moseby took her to talk about something. I think something bad has happened. Moseby got some sort of urgent phone call from Mr. Tipton and he came back crying and asking to talk to London alone," Zack said.
Everyone exchanged worried glances and decided to sit and wait for her as well.
"I wonder what could have happened," Bailey said.
"I don't know, I just hope she's okay," Zack replied as he stared at the floor.
Zack felt like he was going to throw up at the moment. He couldn't explain why, but he felt so worried for London that it made him ill. It seemed like an hour that London was in the room talking to Moseby and it was driving Zack crazy. Finally the door opened and Mr. Moseby walked out with London clinging to his side and looking extremely distressed. Moseby hugged her and told her he would be back in a few minutes. When he left Zack hurried over to London's side.
"London, what's wrong?" he asked.
London looked up at him with a tear soaked face, trembling from head to toe, so Zack pulled her into an embrace and whispered, "What happened?"
London looked up at him and said, "It's my Mom…she's dead."