Chapter 12

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

Wait...In this story, I actually created some of them, so I do own them.

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

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

Seattle, Washington

With the door to the safe now open, Addison, Bailey and Cody took a long look inside of it. They found a bundle of letters, a photo album and two cassette tapes inside. Looking at the letters, the quickly figured out that they were love letters. The three of them sat down on Kurt's bed with Cody in the middle flanked by Bailey and Addison on each side of him. And they began reading the letters. Quickly, they discovered that not only were they love letters to his Dad from his Mom, but a couple of rough drafts of letters Kurt had began but had never sent.

Addison's eyes went wide. "Look at these. There are a few of them dated from the past ten years!"

Cody nodded as he read what his father had begun to write. "Yeah. From the looks of it, he tried writing a letter to her every year but never finished or sent them. And it looks like from the past couple of ones that he knew we were now in Boston. But what's important is what he says. In every single one of them, he keeps tell her how much he misses her and still loves her..."

Bailey smiled at him. "I think these pretty much answer the questions you had, huh?"

He nodded again. "Yeah. I guess so. It seems my Dad is still very much in love with my Mom..." He smiled and let out a little laugh.

"What's so funny?"

"That kind of answers one of the questions I always had. I had wondered since my Dad was never in my life if I had been a mistake or an accident. But by reading these, I know I was conceived out of love..."

"It sure seems that way..."

By then Addison had picked up the photo album and had began flipping through it.

"Hey guys...take a look at this!"

She handed it to Cody, and all three of them began looking at all of the pictures. There were pictures of Kurt and Carey from when they were dating, from their wedding, and of them, Zack and Cody as a young family. And seeing all of these brought a big smile to Cody's face. Seeing the four of them together as a family made him wonder if it was too late for them to be that happy family once again. Bailey was smiling too, but she was smiling at the fact that even as a baby, Cody had been just that adorable. Eventually, Cody had to let out another laugh.

"I just realized I've just seen more pictures of me as a baby in the past couple of days than I have in my entire life..."

Bailey frowned. "You hadn't see many of your baby photos before?"

He shook his head. "Just a handful, but that actually makes sense now. With Zack and I being twins, odds are there weren't many pictures of us taken individually."

She nodded. "Good point."

Addison turned to them. "How about we go see what's on these two video tapes?"

Cody nodded. "Good idea..." He paused. "Do you all even have a VCR around here? With DVD players being the newest technology, I wouldn't be surprised if you didn't..."

Addison paused to think. "Actually, now that I think about it, I think there is one in the home theater..."

He just looked at her. "Home theater?"

Addison laughed. "Of course. Its down in the basement. What else did you think they would put down there...a wine cellar?"

The three of them headed down to the basement and put the first tape into the VCR. And to their surprise, it was footage of Kurt and Carey's wedding. And the ceremony and reception were equally touching and unintentionally hilarious.

Addison couldn't help but laugh. "Look at my Dad's hair! What was he thinking?"

Cody laughed too. "Hey...at least it doesn't look like he had a permed mullet and a goatee like mine did. And don't get me started on my Mom's hair. What was she thinking with those bangs?"

Bailey had to hold back from laughing too. "Well, your Mom is a very beautiful woman. And I can see where you get your blond hair now."

Cody smiled at her. "Yeah, she is...but nowadays, she's a redhead."

They continued watching the video, but the thing that stood out to Cody was the look on his parents' faces. He may only be fifteen, but he recognized the looks of two people who were deeply in love. If they were so in love then, why couldn't it be possible that they still were? Why wouldn't it be possible for them to get back together? And if they did, there would definitely be some major perks to it. As Cody sat there thinking, Bailey could almost see the gears in his mind working.

"Penny for your thoughts?"

He turned to her and smiled. "Not sure yet. Give me a little bit longer to understand them myself before I talk about them?"

She smiled back at him. "Of course."

Once that tape ended, Addison switched out tapes and they began watching the second one. And this one turned out to be footage of the day Kurt and Carey had brought Zack and Cody home from the hospital. Bailey and Addison both laughed as Cody hung his head in shame as there was detailed footage of Kurt trying to change Cody's diaper. Of course, even he had to laugh when it was Zack's turn to be changed and he went for target practice. When they were done watching it, Addison said she would go put everything back in the safe. That left Cody and Bailey alone in the home theater.

"Getting any closer to understanding your thoughts?"

He turned to her and smiled again. "Yeah, I think so. After seeing all of that, its obvious to me that my Dad still loves my Mom. And based on her behavior for as long as I can remember, I think she still loves him too. I'm thinking it may be possible for me to have my family to get back together."

She nodded. "How would you feel about that?"

He laughed. "That, I'm not sure. I mean it would be nice to have both of my parents around full time. A teenage boy should probably have his Dad in his life, don't you think?"

"I would say so."

Cody teased her. "I mean...who else is going to help me understand girls?"

Bailey laughed and playfully slapped his shoulder. "I'm not sure I like the idea of that..."

He got serious. "I can think of a consequence that I hope you would like though..."

"What's that?"

"Well, if my family got back together, we'd have to live somewhere. And from what I can see, we started off in Seattle. It could mean my Mom and I moving back out here..."

She smiled at him. "If that happened, I think I could learn to deal with it..."

He smiled back. "Me too..."

"I guess it wouldn't be such a bad thing if you were around permanently..."

"I sure hope not..."

She leaned in closer to him. "After all, I would have someone to go with me to the Pacific Science Center often..."

He leaned in closer to her. "Definitely..."

She leaned in even closer and looked into his eyes. "And it would be nice to have some around I could study with and do homework with and other things with..."

He leaned in even closer, looked into her eyes too and whispered. "What kind of other things?"

She whispered back. "Things like this..." Both leaned in and were millimeters away from kissing when a noise shattered the silence in the room. Cody groaned when he realized it was his cell phone ringing.

"I am so sorry..."

Bailey grinned. "Find out who it is and get rid of them..."

Cody grinned back. "Consider it done!" He pulled his cell phone out of his pocket, and seeing the display, he saw it was Zack calling. He opened his phone.

"Zack...this better be good!"

Boston, Massachusetts

Woody was still backing away from Zack as part of him still thought he might be an alien. But calmly, Zack pulled his cell phone out of his pocket. He found Cody's number, hit dial and hit the speaker phone button. After a few rings, Cody finally answered.

"Zack...this better be good!"

Zack rolled his eyes. "Oh, I think it is. My situation here is a little more important that whatever you're doing right now..."

"I seriously doubt that!"

Zack couldn't be sure, but he thought he heard someone giggle in the background. But he had other things to worry about right then and there. "Look. You're boy Woody caught me not knowing who some guy named Deron or Feran or something like that..."

"You mean Ferran Adria. He's the head chef at El Bulli. So, what happened?"

Zack sighed. "I don't even want to know how you know that. Point is...he caught me, so I had to explain what happened and that I was your twin brother."

"Is he there right now?"

"Yeah, he's here, but he thinks I might be an alien..."

Cody laughed. "That doesn't surprise me. Woody? Can you hear me?"

Woody nodded. "I can hear you...whoever you are! Are you from the mothership?"

"Woodchuck, its me Cody. What Zack just told you is the truth. He is my twin brother. I just learned it myself about ten days ago..."

Woody wasn't completely sold yet. "How do I know you aren't just trying to get me lower my guard before you send your minion here to suck out my brains?"

Zack just glared at Woody. "Why would I be his minion?"

Cody ignored him and answered. "Because its really me, Buddy. Ask me anything that only the two of us would know?"

Woody paused to think. "Why did my Mom ground me last year and what was my punishment?"

"That's an easy one. She grounded you because you refused to give your step-dad Steve a father's day card. And she grounded you by throwing away your favorite pair of underwear...though, in retrospect, I'm glad you did. You really did need to look into having more than one pair."

Woody just stared at the phone. "Oh my gosh! You really are Cody!"

"That's what I've been trying to tell you, Woody. Look, Zack and I are each trying to get to know the other parent that we never knew. Can you help us out with this? Can you keep what you just learned to yourself and not tell anyone...especially my Mom?"

"I guess so..."

"I appreciate that, Buddy. And can you keep an eye on Zack and make sure he doesn't do anything that I wouldn't do?"

Woody paused and looked at Zack. "Well..."

Zack whispered at him. "Tell him anything and you can say goodbye to getting a date with one of Maya's friends!"

"Hurtful!"

"What was that Woody?"

Woody sighed. "Nothing...Cody, you owe be big time for this..."

"I know. And I'll find someway to make it up to you, I promise."

"So, how are things going in Seattle?"

"Things are going great here. I'm having a blast. Tell you what. To make it up to you, I'll bake one of my specialties for you..."

Zack interrupted Woody. "Speaking of which...That Mr. Moseby guy wants 'Cody' to make one of those for his mother's birthday. He's supposed to pick it up on Saturday morning. Can you make one and Fed Ex it out to me?"

"No can do. It would never survive being shipped without collapsing. You'll have to make one yourself."

Zack rolled his eyes. "In case you didn't know, I don't bake!"

Cody sighed. "Alright...we'll I'll send you a copy of all the ingredients you'll need. And before you even think about it, you CAN'T skimp on any of the ingredients. I'll get them here too and we can use webcams so I can take you through it step by step."

Zack nodded. "Alright. We'll do it Friday night then while Mom is performing."

"No can do on that either. Dad's taking me to a Mariners game that night. He's been in the studio since I've been here, and this my chance to really get to know him."

"Okay...we'll do it Friday morning then."

"No can do then either. I have to take two tests for your summer school, remember? I should be done by early afternoon here which would be late afternoon there. That's the only time I have to do it."

Zack sighed. "Fine. I'll be here."

"By the way...While I have you on the phone, there is something else we need to talk about. We found Dad's secret stash here earlier. There were love letters from both Mom and Dad, a picture album and two videos..."

Zack frowned. "Where did you find those?"

"In Dad's wall safe..."

"I didn't know he had a wall safe..."

"Right now, that doesn't matter. What does matter is that I'm almost positive that Dad is still in love with Mom. And I think she still is in love with him too. Instead of switching to try to get even with them, maybe we were supposed to meet so we would bring them back together?"

Zack paused. "I don't know."

"Maybe its time we revealed to them who we really are? If so, we might get our family back together..." Cody paused. "And no offense, Woody...but, I don't think I would mind moving to Seattle right now..."

Zack stopped to think again. While the plan seemed alright, Zack still had something to do before they could be one big happy family in Seattle.

"Cody, I think Mom is coming back in, I have to go!" Quickly, Zack hung up the phone.

Woody just looked at him funny. "What are you talking about? Your Mom is still down at rehearsal. I didn't hear anything..."

Zack sighed. "I just needed time to think."

"You don't want your family back together?"

"Oh, I do...But I want some more time with Maya first..."

To be Continued...