Chapter 66

Again, I don't own any of these characters

The rest of the weekend was spent in one of three ways. First and foremost, they got Bailey used to walking in the walking boot. At first, she still used the crutches to keep her balance, but as time went by, she became more and more at ease without them. By Sunday night, she was able to get around on her own. The walking boot still tired her out fast, but nowhere near as much as the crutches did.

Second, they kept up with their homework and studies. Both knew the second round of exams were coming up soon. Even though Bailey had been immobile, she had dutifully kept up with her reading and homework. So, she didn't have to play catch up. And now she was actually able to walk to class. Still, they used the handicap parking pass as Bailey did get worn out from the walking boot. On trips to the grocery, Bailey actually went with Cody again.

Third, they knew they only had a month or so before the GRE and MCAT. They had worked out a schedule there too. They would study and prepare for them on Sunday and Thursday night and take practice tests on Saturdays. They didn't want to take time away from their other studies, but wanted to keep everything fresh in their minds.

The second round of exams came and went. And again, both felt great about how they did on them. To the outside observer, it may sound strange that they always felt well about their exams. But this was Cody and Bailey we're talking about and they both put in the work reading and studying. They were never unprepared for a class or an exam.

Of course, late October brought something that they had been unprepared for the previous year – Halloween. The year before, they had been home watching a film marathon of classic horror movies when their doorbell had rang. Not putting two and two together, they were both surprised when they saw kids on their front porch in costumes. After realizing they had trick or treaters, they began to try to figure out something. They didn't have any candy in the house, and the kids looked a little upset to get granola bars. Once they had left, Cody and Bailey immediately turned their front porch light off. The next morning, they were cleaning eggs off of their front door.

But this year, they were prepared. They had bought a couple bags of candy. Bailey had to convince Cody to get real candy and not the sugar free variety. So, when the first trick or treater showed up, there was candy waiting on them. By the end of the night, they still had a lot of candy left over. Since neither really wanted it, they decided to save it and give to Zack. Cody had never been real big on sweets (that he didn't make himself), and Bailey was worried about eating it all when she couldn't burn it off by running. Cody tried to tell her to have at it, but she refused.

Speaking of Zack, he had invited them up to his fraternities Halloween party that weekend. Cody left the decision up to Bailey as she knew better if she would be up for it. Bailey decided that after being home bound for almost a month, she was ready to get out. So, all they had to do was come up with costumes. Bailey was especially concerned though because she thought her walking boot would ruin any costume she could think of.

Cody just smiled at her. "What if I said I had an idea..."

Bailey just looked at him. "Yeah, what?"

Cody leaned in and whispered in Bailey's ear his idea. "What do you think?"

Bailey couldn't help but laugh. "Its creative, I'll give you that..."

"Trying to tell me to keep thinking?"

Bailey paused. "Not at all. I actually like it. Its much better than the doctor and ski accident victim I had come up with..."

That Saturday, Cody and Bailey drove up to Storrs with Max and Tapeworm who Zack had invited as well. Max and Tapeworm were dressed as two vampires, and both had great costumes. Once they arrived at the venue, they walked in and paid their cover charge. Immediately, Zack and Cassie came over to them.

Cody grinned. "Nice costume, Zack..."

Zack sighed. "Not my idea. Cassie wanted to come as Robin Hood and Maid Marion..."

Cody laughed. "Well, the tights are definitely you..."

"Hey! What are you supposed to be anyways?"

Cody smiled. "I'm Ebeneezer Scrooge..."

Bailey spoke up. "Brilliant, right?"

Cassie looked at her. "And who are you supposed to be?"

Bailey grinned. "I'm Tiny Tim..."

Zack and Cassie just looked at each other.

"Hey! You try thinking of a costume when you have a walking boot on one foot!"

Cassie nodded. "That's true. So, how is it going?"

Bailey smiled. "Better. I'm grateful I can actually walk again. When I was in the cast, I felt completely helpless. I had to rely on Cody to do almost everything for me..."

Zack paused. "That sounds exactly like when Cody broke his leg, and I had to do everything for him..."

Cody smirked. "Don't you mean when you broke my leg when you landed on me?"

"Dude...Something had to break my fall..."

"Yeah...me."

"Hey...Who was the one who had to get you something whenever you wanted it?"

"Because Mom made you..."

Zack just shook his head. "That was the worst summer of my life..."

Cassie just rolled her eyes and laughed. "Something tells me Cody's summer was worse..."

Cody grinned. "Well...Maybe a little...Having Zack at my beck and call was rather fun..."

The Halloween party was a lot of fun. Bailey wasn't sure she should be up dancing, but Cody convinced her that few slow songs would be alright. Since UCONN had a zero tolerance policy, alcohol was not officially permitted. But, there were several people who made numerous trips out to their cars. About 11:00, Bailey found herself getting tired, but she didn't want to put a damper on the evening. But, she couldn't slip one yawn past Cody.

"Getting tired?"

"A little bit..."

Cody nodded. "Alright, well, I'll go find Max and Tapeworm..."

"Cody, don't...its okay..."

"Bails, its 11:00 which means it it will be after midnight when we get home. The doctor said you need to keep getting your rest..."

Bailey sighed. "I know, I just don't want to be the party pooper..."

Cody smiled. "Its okay. They both knew we might want to leave early anyways..."

Cody did gather Max and Tapeworm up, and Zack, Cassie, Addison and Woody all walked them out.

"Thanks for coming up guys. Hope you had fun."

Bailey smiled. "We did. I wish we could stay longer..."

Cassie smiled back. "No worries...I know that thing has to wear you out..."

Zack grinned. "That wasn't very nice calling Cody a 'thing'..."

Cassie gave him a look before turning back to her cousin. "Are we going to meet again the Sunday before Thanksgiving to head back again?"

Bailey shook her head. "Actually, we were planning on heading back to Boston on Saturday morning. We have the GRE and MCAT on Wednesday. We wanted to have all Saturday afternoon, Sunday, Monday and Tuesday to do our last minute studying..."

Cassie nodded. "That makes sense. I'll have to check the football schedule to see if we have a home game on Saturday or not..."

Like Cody had said, it was after midnight by the time they got home. Since Bailey was tired, she went on to bed, but Cody had to take care of a suddenly awake Porkers. After that, Cody seemed to catch a second wind, and he went into the home office so he wouldn't wake Bailey. They had a group project for American Economic History due right before Thanksgiving, so he thought he would knock out some research for it while he was awake.

Before long, Cody was finding more and more of the information he needed and didn't realize it was getting close to three in the morning. He was so focused he was in a zone. Even Porkers snoring in his bed five feet away wasn't distracting him. But one word did.

"Cody?"

Cody looked up and saw a very tired Bailey. "What are you doing up, Sweetie?"

"I was about to ask you the same thing..."

Cody shrugged. "I caught a second wind, so I figured I'd be productive...I've got a lot of information for our project..."

Bailey smiled. "That's nice. But its time for bed..."

Cody smiled back. "Okay...I was just trying to get as much done so we would have more time for test preparation..."

"I know...and I appreciate it. But I need you there lying next to me or I can't sleep..."

Cody grinned. "Right behind you then..."

To be Continued...

Author's Note: Okay, I have to admit, I know exactly what Bailey's going through as it wasn't long ago that I had a severe high ankle sprain. The treatments are the same I'm told, and I guy verify first hand that walking boots suck. Anyways, I was told I would have been better off with a broken bone, so I went easy on Bailey.

On a side note, I'm planning on letting the readers have a say in the story again. This time, I'm going to let you the readers of my story choose where Cody and Bailey go to grad school. The three options I'm looking at are Penn in Philadelphia, PA; Colgate in Ithaca, NY; and Tufts in Boston, MA. If you are wondering why I didn't consider Yale or Harvard, neither has a vet school. As I mentioned, Tufts is the only vet school in New England. So, send me PMs if you want to vote as I want to keep the final result a secret until I announce it.