Early in the morning, Cody and Bailey woke up and got ready to leave. They left the hotel room at eight which had been a half an hour since they rose from the bed. Bailey took a shower and changed into some news clothes and Cody took a shower after Bailey and clothed himself in the same clothes as the day before. Bailey grabbed her bag with everything in it and walked down to the lobby with Cody. The two of them checked out of the hotel and left. They then went to a coffee shop to have some breakfast before they would go to the train station.

At the train station, Cody and Bailey got two separate tickets and waited on a bench. Bailey gave Cody his clothing items from Halloween night and gave him the shirt that she got for him. It was a jade green color with 'New Orleans' stitched in the center of the shirt and there was the word 'Jazz' stitched underneath. "New Orleans' was in golden thread while 'Jazz' was in silver thread. It was nice yet casual. Cody was surprised that Bailey got him a shirt but he graciously accepted it and then pulled out the beaded necklace from his pants pocket and handed it over to Bailey. The necklace was the one that Bailey wanted the most. It had all of the Mardi Gras colors and each bead had one color in sequence such as gold, purple, green, gold…and so forth. Bailey was very thankful for Cody getting her the beaded necklace and he just flashed her a charming smile. Bailey immediately had put on her necklace and asked Cody how it looked. He told her that she looked great with it on and she gave him a small smile. Bailey then remembered that she and Cody would have to swap contact information so she reminded Cody and somehow they got a pen and a piece of paper and tore the paper in half and shared the pen. Once they had written down their contact information, they swapped pieces of paper. After waiting for ten minutes, Bailey's train came first. She and Cody stood up together and looked at each other.

"Well, I guess this is goodbye for now."

"I guess so. Uh, have a safe trip back home, Bailey."

"Thanks. I will, Cody."

"Well, goodbye then."

"Goodbye, Cody."

Cody and Bailey hug goodbye and then they part from the embrace. Bailey walks up to the train and briefly looks back at Cody and waves goodbye to him. He waves back, sadly. Bailey gives Cody a sad smile and then boards the train. Cody watches Bailey as she walks in the train to find a spot. Once all of the passengers had boarded, the train doors close and the train starts moving. Cody stands alone with his belongings still on the bench and he sees Bailey sitting at a window seat. He stares at her until he can no longer see her or the train. He goes back to the bench and waits for another twenty minutes before he boards his train. When the time comes, Cody collects his things and gets on. He searches for a window seat and finds a vacant spot near a window that has been stained with dust and dirt from the outside. He sits down and bunches his belongings in a ball. But he takes out his shirt Bailey got for him and puts it over his current shirt. The shirt was a nice fit. Cody could tell that Bailey had paid attention to the size and dimensions of his abdominal area. The train departed the station after five minutes of waiting. For most of the trip, Cody was forlorn. He stared out his window which was halfway opaque but he didn't care. He didn't need to see what was outside; he just needed to stare at something. But he did not dare to stare out in space near a person who else he would have been accused of being a creeper and he didn't want to feel that way. For most of the train ride, Cody was silent and thinking of Bailey. She was his mate, his lover, his life partner. No matter how Cody looked at it, Bailey and he were meant to meet and fall in love. Cody sighed with an air of desolation when he thought of Bailey. When the terribly lonely and boring train ride was over, Cody collected his things, got off the train and then headed for the St. Louis airport to take him home back to Boston.

By four in the afternoon, Cody arrived in Boston. He found the nearest pay phone he could find and inserted a few quarters that he had from breaking down his expenses while travelling back home. He called the Tipton Hotel and informed Mr. Moseby that he was at Login International Airport and asked him if he could give him a lift back to the hotel. Mr. Moseby was glad to hear Cody again and agreed to bring him back to his mother and Zack but mostly to his mom, Carey. She had been worried sick about him, crying herself to sleep on weeks on end and being consoled by Zack until Kurt would drop by and take over. Mr. Moseby updated Cody on everything that happened from the time he left near the end of the summer to when they heard word of his return. Cody felt honored that Mr. Moseby cared about him and felt absolutely horrible on what pain he had made his mom go through. He knew he didn't do it on purpose but he felt responsible for all that happened to his mom. Cody thanked Mr. Moseby for the update and asked him when he would be able to him up and Mr. replied that Cody would have to wait for twenty to thirty minutes. Cody was fine with the arrangement However, before Mr. Moseby said goodbye to Cody, he did clarify that his mom would have picked him up herself but she was busy doing her job and Mr. Moseby didn't want to deprave her of her paycheck and wanted her to stay busy with other things while she waited for Cody to come home. Cody understood what Mr. Moseby meant and then said goodbye. Mr. Moseby said goodbye as well and then hung up on Cody. In the meantime, Cody walked around the airport and found a bathroom. He used the facilities and then searched for a gift shop or stand and found one. Cody knew that he would have to do so much more than give his mom a gift but he thought it was a start as way to apologize for being gone for so long.

When Cody had gotten Carey a gift and was ready to be picked up, he waited ten minutes before Mr. Moseby came by. Cody met Mr. Moseby outside and they talked for a little bit on the drive back to the Tipton Hotel. As soon as Cody got through the lobby doors, Maddie ran up to him and gave him a big bear hug. She hugged him so hard that his lungs almost collapsed. Cody begged Maddie to put him down and she did. Then London waltzed over and gave Cody a genuine hug although not as passionate as Maddie's. All the sudden Arwin and Esteban came by and were extremely happy and extremely surprised to see Cody. They hugged him and asked what he had been doing and Cody tried his best to explain everything that happened to him and where he was without giving away any personal details. Everyone including Mr. Moseby listened in on Cody's tale. They were skeptical at first of his story but the farther he went along and how he mentioned about New Orleans and Zack then they surely began to believe him. Everyone thought: leave it to Zack to ruin his brother's life without meaning to. Once Cody was done telling his story, he then went up to his family's suite and knocked on the door. Zack opened the door and broke into tears and groveled at Cody's feet. Cody didn't know what to say about Zack's sudden actions. All he knew that it was just plain weird how Zack quickly made a salty stream of tears around his worn shoes. Cody yanked Zack up from the backside of his shirt and lightly slapped him on the cheek.

"Zack! Get a grip on yourself."

Zack wiped away the running snot from his nose and heaved.

"I'm sorry. It's just that I'm so glad to know that you're alive, bro! I missed you so much. I even tried harder with my school work as a way to remember you as a person."

"Oh, that's good, Zack! Is mom happy with your grades?"

"Yeah but she cared about where you were this whole time. I was too and dad has been visiting more often than before."

"I know. I heard from Mr. Moseby."

Zack began to cry again.

"It's just so good to see you, Cody! I am so, so, so, so sorry that I royally screwed up your life. I promise from this day on until we die, I won't put you down or screw up your life and I'll totally be supportive of whatever you do."

"Thanks, man. That really means a lot to me. But you didn't screw up my life that badly."

"What do you mean?"

"Uh, never mind. The point is that I'm back home in one piece and that we start being a whole family again."

"Oh, that sounds great, Cody."

Zack then lungs at Cody and brings him in for tight and loving embrace. Cody would hug Zack back but his hands were occupied. Zack didn't mind though. He was just happy to have his brother back in his life. Zack released Cody after a minute or so and then led him back to their old room and showed Cody that he had preserved his space of the bedroom proving to him that he didn't touch any of his stuff while he was gone and occasionally used an aerosol-free air freshener to make Cody's space smell good. Cody placed his things on his bed and then gave Zack a warm brotherly hug.

"Thanks, man."

"It was the least I could once you left."

"But I still appreciate the gesture."

"You're welcome, bro."

Cody then briefly talked to Zack about what happened to him and Zack believed every word Cody said. After some time, Zack looked down and saw the 'New Orleans' shirt that Cody was wearing.

"Yo, Cody, is that a new shirt?"

Cody briefly looked down at the shirt Bailey got him and then looked back up at Zack.

"Yeah."

"Where did you get it?"

"Actually, I didn't get it. Bailey did."

"Bailey? Who's Bailey?"
"Bailey is a girl that I met while I was away. She helped me get back to New Orleans and lift the curse that was meant for you because you pissed off a Voodoo shopkeeper back when we turned sixteen."

"Oh, yeah….I remember that. I can't blame the shopkeeper for confusing us. But sucks for you for being stuck as a werewolf. Was it cool at all being a lone wolf on an adventure?"

"No. I had stay in hiding most of the time."

"Oh…Well, back to Bailey…"

Then Zack crossed his arms, tilted his head to the side and fashioned a smug look on his face. Cody looked at Zack like he was crazy.

"What Zack?"

"So, Bailey's a girl…"

Cody didn't like where this was going.

"Yeah, so?"

"So, what's she like? Where is she from?"

"She has nine sisters, lives with her three youngest sisters, her parents and grandmother. She's beautiful, smart, kind and trustworthy. She has long, silky brown hair with stunning brown eyes. She's from Kettlecorn, Kansas."

"Wow. She sounds interesting."

"She is wonderful. But she's mine."

"Whoa, dude. Possessive much?"

"Well, I'm just saying that you can't have her if you wanted her. You might meet her someday."

"Are you sure I would want to know what see what she looks like? You and I do have different taste in girls."

"Our tastes may be different but I assure you, any guy would be attracted to her."

"If you say so, dude."

"Bailey is beautiful both inside and outside and that is fact and not an opinion."

"Whatever, Cody. Mom's going to be up in an hour so whatever business you have to do, do it now.

Cody rolled his eyes as Zack. "Whatever."

Cody settles back into the family suite and Zack goes on to play a video game. Cody finds his computer and looks at Cheever's High website. While he and Zack wait for their mom to get back, Cody makes plans to transfer back into school so he can graduate from high school and go to college. When Carey gets back to the family suite, she is shocked and filled with absolute euphoria to see her younger son at the table on his computer. It's as if everything before was one long nightmare and it had finally ended. Carey yelped in happiness and cried tears of joy as she ran over to Cody and hugged him. Cody realized that his mom was hugging him and so he stood up. But Carey had never let go of Cody even when he was standing up. The two of them hugged and held each other and told each other how much they missed the other one for ten minutes. Once the ten minutes had passed, Carey finally had let go of Cody. She told him everything from start to finish and then made dinner. Cody helped her prepare the food. When dinner was ready all three of them caught up with each other's lives and Carey asked about Cody's shirt and talked about Bailey. Carey suddenly was extremely interested on whom Bailey was and Cody told her and Zack what Bailey was like and she helped him get cured but he opted out the details of the times when they cavorted in sexual activity. After dinner, Carey made the unexpected announcement of how she and Kurt had planned on getting remarried. Both Zack and Cody were in complete shock. Carey sat Cody and Zack down on the couch and explained how her and their father had reconnected and fell in love again but in totally different way and after all that said and done, Cody and Zack accepted the fact that their parents were getting remarried.

Afterwards, Cody gave Carey her gift and then made arrangements with her to get him back in school so he could graduate from high and go off to college. He also washed the dishes and had put everything away as part of his apology for being away from home for so long, but Carey was just grateful to have him back. She was also endorsing in the thought on where things would go for Cody with Bailey. She thought that she would like to meet the farm girl someday. By eleven at night, Cody and Zack went to bed. Carey said goodnight to them and kissed them on the foreheads and then closed the door. Carey smiled to herself as she got ready for bed. Her Cody was back home where he belonged and he had found a very special girl named Bailey Pickett. Once Carey was in her pajamas, she turned out the light and scuttled to the sofa that she had already made as a bed. Then she got underneath the sheets and fell asleep.

Back in Kettlecorn, Bailey was in her bed thinking of Cody. She stroked the top of her toy bunny's head as hope seeped into her heart. The intelligent farm girl closed her eyes and imagined a world where she and Cody were together either in a rose garden or a tropical island. They would be completely alone and Cody would keep her in his arms late at night. Bailey happily sighed and then opened her eyes again. She looked around her room and knew that she would be spending many nights yearning for Cody's touch again in the near future. Bailey knew that when she desired to have him by her side that she would feel especially lonely those nights. Bailey laid down, reached up and turned off the light. She brought the covers to her chest and stared out her window constantly thinking of her once was werewolf. As the darkness engulfed the Kansas sky, time took a toll on Bailey's body and mind. She yawned and closed her eyes to be greeted to a pleasant alternate life that had been produced by her psyche. Even though Bailey didn't know it, one chapter closed on both hers and Cody's lives. A new one waited to be revealed beyond the horizon.

To Be Continued…