Chapter 20

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...

Zack, Cody, Bailey, Addison, and Woody were still all standing around the suite trying to figure out where Carey could have gone. They bandied about ideas about where she could have gone, but none of them sounded very plausible. And as no one could remember seeing her in the lobby, they thought she might have gone for ice. But after ten more minutes and no sign of her, they dismissed that idea. Finally, they decided to break up into three search parties and go look for her. But just as they were about the head out, the door to the suite opened up, and in walked Carey. And from the look on her face, they could tell she wasn't exactly happy. She looked back and forth between her two sons and sighed.

"Okay, first of all, come here you two..." And with that she pulled Zack and Cody in a tight hug. "Do you two have any idea how long I dreamed of hugging both of my boys at the same time."

"We know, Mom."

Carey pulled back. "Now that that is out of the way..." She frowned. "I saw your father down in the lobby, and he looked totally surprised that I was here! I thought he knew we were coming..."

Zack and Cody looked at each other. "Ummm...well...you see..."

She looked back and forth between the two of them. "Okay...you two really do look alike. Cody?"

Cody raised his hand. "That's me, Mom..."

Carey was about to speak again but paused. "How can I be sure?"

Cody sighed. "Its me. C'est moi. Soy yo. Es ist mir. Sono io. Ut me. Det är jag. Зто я..."

Carey laughed. "Okay, its you..."

Zack turned to Cody. "What did you just say?"

Bailey smiled. "He just said 'its me' in English, French, Spanish, German, Italian, Latin, Swedish and Russian."

Carey looked over at her. "And who are you?"

Cody grinned. "That's Bailey. She's my girlfriend."

Carey whipped her head back around and looked at him. "Your what?"

He laughed. "My girlfriend. I'll explain it all to you later, Mom..."

She shook her head to clear it. "Yes, you most certainly will. Lets get back on the main topic here. I have the feeling that your father had no idea we were coming."

Cody sighed again. "Because he doesn't. He doesn't even know he had me with him for the past week. You see, Mom..." Cody went on to explain the whole story to her all the way down to the phone call he heard the day before. "So, you see, Mom...we needed you here to make sure Dad doesn't make another mistake."

Carey sighed. "I don't think I should get involved,Cody...This has nothing to do with me."

Addison finally spoke up. "But you have to, Aunt Carey!"

Carey turned to look at her. And it suddenly dawned on her who it was. "Addison?"

Addison smiled back at her. "Yeah. Its me."

Carey pulled Addison into a tight embrace. "Oh my gosh. I haven't seen you since you were a baby. You've definitely grown in to a beautiful young woman."

Woody grinned. "I'll agree with that."

Addison smiled. "Thank you...both."

Carey laughed. "How's your Mom doing?"

Addison paused. "Mom died a few years back..."

"Oh no! I am so sorry. You're Mom was a wonderful lady. I considered it an honor to call her my friend." Carey sighed. "I guess there is a lot that's happened in Seattle I don't know about now."

Cody spoke up. "And you'll have plenty of time to catch up on that later. But for now, we really need your help, Mom."

She sighed again. "Again, I don't think this has anything to do with me..."

Cody smiled. "What about the phone call I told you I overheard? Surely you don't want to see someone evil like that as our new stepmother..."

She looked at him. "And do you have proof of this phone call? If you do, just give it to your Dad..."

"Ummm...well...not exactly. I didn't record it. But we don't need it with you here."

Carey paused and just looked at Cody again. "Wait a minute here...Did you two plot to get me here in hopes of getting your father and I back together?"

Zack hemmed and hawed. "Well..."

She groaned. "Just wonderful. Boys, Kurt Martin and I have absolutely nothing in common...anymore."

Cody grinned. "I don't know about all of that...I can think of at least two things you have in common."

"Yes, you two boys, but that's it!" She sighed. "I need more coffee. I'm going to head downstairs to get some more. While I do that, I want you two to go find your father and explain to him this silly little plan you've all come up with..." And with that, Carey headed back out of the suite.

Zack turned to his brother. "Well, there goes that..."

Cody kept grinning. "Says who? As far as I'm concerned, we've only just begun...

Everyone split up again to go look for Kurt. Cody and Bailey headed down to the lobby to look for their Dad, and almost immediately spotted him.

"Dad! There you are..."

Kurt sighed but looked very distracted. "Zack, there you are. I'm supposed to be meeting Meredith here in the lobby. Would you two mind waiting here and telling her that I will be right back once I take care of something?"

Bailey smiled. "Of course we will, Mr. Martin."

"Thanks."

Kurt headed off and was looking everywhere for Carey. He knew he had seen her, and he was pretty sure he hadn't dreamed the whole thing. He headed over towards the shopping promenade to keep looking, and that's when he saw Zack again. Kurt frowned.

"Zack, I thought you were going to wait in the lobby for Meredith?"

"I was? Oh, I was. I'll head right back over there..."

"Good." Kurt was plenty distracted, but even he stopped to turn around. "Zack?"

"Yeah, Dad?"

"Were you wearing the same shirt five minutes ago?"

Zack smiled. "I sure was. Your mind must be starting to slip, Dad."

Kurt just nodded. "I'm starting to think you're right..." He shook his head. "I'll see you later."

Just as Kurt had left the area, the door to the women's room opened up, and Meredith walked out. She noticed Zack standing there and walked over to him.

"Have you seen your father?"

Zack turned to her. "You talking to me?"

She rolled her eyes. "Of course I'm talking to you, DeNiro. Have you seen your father?"

Zack smiled. "Ahhh...Meredith...I must say, you're looking very pretty today."

She glared at him. "You can drop the Jekyll and Hyde routine. I'm not buying it. And I didn't buy your oh so sincere act yesterday. I'm on to you, little boy!"

Zack kept smiling. "What ever do you mean?"

Meredith shook her head. "Whatever. If you do see your father, tell him that I'm looking for him."

Kurt was stilling looking around and had looked around the entire hotel, but still, he had seen no sign of Carey anywhere. The last place he looked was the pool area. Heading out there, he looked around, and then he saw her. Across the way, he saw Carey walk out on the other side of the pool. And Kurt couldn't help himself – he smiled. But then it dawned on him to wonder why she was there. So, he decided to find out. He tried to make his way over towards her, but every step of the way, it seemed like someone or something was getting in his way. Literally, he ran into a towel boy and almost fell over. Fortunately, he caught his balance.

"Dad! Are you okay?"

Kurt looked over and saw Cody, Bailey and Addison sitting around a table.

"Yeah...fine. Be right back."

He turned to continue going after Carey but ran into a waiter this time. Unfortunately, he wasn't able to catch himself this time, and he fell into the pool. When he resurfaced, he noticed everyone was looking at him – including a smiling Carey. Making his way over to the edge of the pool, he climbed out and walked over to where Carey was standing.

Carey just smiled at him. "Hello, Kurt."

Kurt smiled back. "Hello, Carey..."

"Well...gosh...there you are...all wet."

Kurt wiped the wet hair from his eyes. "Is there something going on here that I should know about? I mean...I'm completely surprised to see you here, but you don't seem surprised at all to see me..." He paused. "I mean...I haven't seen you in almost fifteen years. And then you're here...on today of all days."

Carey paused, but before she could say anything, Cody joined them.

"Dad...I can explain why she's here."

Kurt turned to him in surprise. "Wait a minute! Zack, you know who this is?"

"Actually, I do..." He paused. "And actually, I'm not Zack..."

Zack joined them at that moment too. "Actually, I'm Zack..."

Kurt's eyes went wide as he looked back and forth between his two sons. "Both of them?" He looked at Cody. "Cody?" He then looked at Zack. "Zack?"

Cody nodded. "I'm guessing you and Mom kind of think alike. You both sent us to camps at the University of Texas. One thing lead to another, and we discovered that we were brothers..."

Carey turned to Kurt. "They switched places on us..."

Kurt turned back to look at Cody. "Wait a minute...I've had Cody with me since he got back from camp?"

Cody nodded. "Yeah. I wanted to get to know my Dad, and Zack wanted to get to know his Mom." He paused again. "Are you mad?"

Kurt shook his head and smiled. "No, not at all...Come here." He pulled Cody into a tight hug. When he pulled back, he just looked at Cody. "I can't believe its really you. Last time I saw you, you were spitting up strained squash and showing your displeasure for it."

Cody laughed. "Well, I'm still not a big fan of squash..."

Carey nodded. "Its true. He does all of the cooking now for us and squash has never been on the menu..."

Kurt paused. "The cake?"

Cody nodded. "Yeah, I made it. Zack had to make one, so it was easier to just show him how..."

He paused again. "And you were actually cheering for the Red Sox, weren't you?"

Cody smiled. "Guilty again."

Kurt turned to Zack. "And you've been in Boston this whole time?"

Zack nodded. "Yeah. I wanted to know, Mom." He smiled. "And she's great, Dad. I don't know how you ever let her go."

Cody nodded too. "Just like I wanted to know you, Dad. I was looking at being a fifteen year old boy on the precipice of becoming a man without having his father around to guide him!"

Kurt just looked at Cody again and began laughing. "Okay, this makes so much sense now. No wonder you and Bailey were getting along much better. Was that an act too?"

Cody blushed. "No, not at all. I really really like her."

Carey finally spoke up again. "Boys, why don't you give your Dad and I few minutes alone. There are a few things he and I really need to talk about."

Zack grinned. "Fine. Take your time."

And with that, Zack and Cody headed off.

Kurt grabbed a towel and began drying himself off. But as he was doing that, he couldn't help but laugh again.

"Okay, seeing the two of them together..." He turned to Carey. "Seeing you again..." He smiled. "I must say, this is ranking up there with the craziest days of my life."

Carey smiled too. "Tell me about..."

He paused and just looked at Carey. It might have been fifteen years later, but she was just as beautiful as he remembered. And her smile...it has always caused him to go weak in the knees. "Carey...you haven't changed a bit..."

She just looked at him. Fifteen years later, and he was still as handsome as ever. Standing in front of him again, she could definitely tell where their boys got their good looks. And when he smiled at her, she felt those same shivers go down the back of her spine. "I could say the same thing about you, Kurt..."

Kurt was about to say something else when they were interrupted again.

"There you are, Kurt!"

Both turned and saw Meredith standing there. She noticed Carey and smiled. "Oh, do you two know each other? Did you do a concert together or something? I was just telling Carey earlier that she should think about recording her own album..."

Kurt paused and laughed. "Actually, performing together is one thing we have never done before together..."

Meredith frowned. "So, how do you two know each other?"

"Mer, you're going to think this is funny. I mean, I can't believe how small of a world this is..."

She paused. "How small?"

At that moment, Cody came up to one side of her. "Hello, Meredith..."

She just looked at him. "Hello..."

Zack came up on the other side of her. "Hello, Meredith..."

She just looked at him too. "Hello..."

Then it dawned on her that she was seeing double, and she began jumping around freaking out.

Kurt rubbed the back of his neck. "Did I ever mention that Zack was a twin?"

To be Continued...