(Maya P.O.V)

Bailey woke up two days after the accident. She was a little disorientated but otherwise seemed fine. Cody was ecstatic that she'd woken up and immediately called Zack and I as we were still looking after the twins and Kimberlee. With a sprained wrist, she wasn't able to use crutches for her dislocated knee, instead having to use a wheelchair but Cody helped her and it wasn't long before her wrist healed and she was able to just use a knee brace. She was given a medical certificate to say she couldn't work and she spent the majority of January at home with her kids.

By February, she was getting bored with sitting at home and asked to go back to work. The doctor was unsure but she promised that she would stop working if her knee began to bother her too much. So, a week before Valentine's Day, she arrived back at work and she began to perk up again. Her three kids weren't too happy but they would get over it.

Me on the other hand, I was still wondering if I should have left that part of the story out. I definitely felt a lot better after telling Zack most of the story and life within our house was happier. Our second son, Jaeden Paul was born in mid-January and Reed was overjoyed to finally have a little sibling to play with, although he didn't understand why Jaeden was always sleeping, no matter how many times Zack and I tried to explain that he used to sleep that much too.

Once again, Zack and Cody were busily planning Valentine's Day and I hoped that this year would have better results than last year. We were having a fairly warm winter this year and it was warm enough that a summer dress would be suitable for the evening. So I sat in the bathroom after work, putting the final touches to my make-up.

"Are you ready to go Maya? Remember we've still got to drop off Reed and Jaeden." Zack stuck his head through the door.

"Hold on a second. I'm almost done."

"Okay, I'll get the boys in the car." Carey had offered to look after the boys as well as Cody and Bailey's kids. At first, we were a little wary but she reminded us that she'd brought up Zack and Cody by herself and there was always Arwin and Esteban to help if she needed. Or even London who still lived in the penthouse. I slipped on my strappy black heels and made my way downstairs and out the front door to the car where Zack and the boys were waiting.

"Let's go." I buckled my seatbelt and we were on our way, Zack making comments about how it took so long for females to get ready to go out. I shrugged them off, instead occupying myself with checking the updates on my cell. It always seemed like I had a never ending stream of text messages that needed answering or voice mails that I had to reply to. Getting to the Tipton, Zack parked the car in the underground car park and we made our way up to the 23rd floor. The door of suite 2330 was open and we could hear Carey talking to someone. That someone turned out to be London who had come down to ask Carey's opinion on an outfit for her date that night.

"Hey London. How are you?" I greeted her.

"Maya! It's good to see you. Hi Cody." She looked over my shoulder at Zack as she hugged me.

"Really? You've known me for probably close to twenty years now and you still can't remember that I'm Zack?" He sighed and handed Jaeden to Carey. London let out a squeal.

"A baby! Aww, how cute. What's his name?"

"His name is Jaeden." Carey supplied.

"Now I wish I wasn't going on that date tonight. I could have stayed to help you look after all these kids." At that moment, Reed came running out of Zack and Cody's old bedroom followed by Kimberlee.

"Oh, are they here already?" I asked in surprise.

"Yeah. They've been here all day. Apparently Cody had something planned for during the day for Bailey so the three kids got dropped off this morning."

"Ah. Well, we need to be going now so, have fun with these terrors. Remember you can call if you need. Have fun on your date, London." Zack hugged his mom and we went back down to the car.

"Can we go home again for a second, I need to grab something." I said, Zack sighed but made his way home. He didn't bother to put the car in the garage, simply leaving it out on the road and followed me inside. I went up to the bedroom and shut the door, sighing when I was alone.

(Zack P.O.V)

After Maya shut the door in my face, I stood there for a second, confused. What had I done to cause her to be mad at me? I knocked quietly on the door.

"Maya?"

"Go away Zack." Her voice was muffled by the door.

"Not until you tell me what I did to make you mad at me." She threw the door open and if looks could kill, I would definitely have died right then.

"Don't play dumb with me. You should know." She slammed the door shut agin and I sighed. Sometimes I didn't understand women. How on earth am I supposed to know what she's thinking?

"Come on Maya! Help me out a little here."

"You suck at being romantic. You have to wait for your brother to make plans for Valentine's Day before you do anything." She yelled through the door. I groaned. I knew doing the double date thing would come back to bite me eventually, I just didn't think it would be so soon.

"I'm sorry. I thought you liked doing stuff with them." She opened the door again.

"I do. But you heard Carey. Cody planned other things for Bailey. Why can you never do that for me?"

"I didn't know you wanted me to! I'm not a mind reader, Maya. You need to tell me things like this otherwise I can't help you. Geez, you can be so stupid sometimes" I regretted my words as soon as I spoke them. Watching her face crumble like that broke my heart.

"Is that really what you think of me?" Tears fell from her eyes and I reached out to her.

"No. I'm sorry. I didn't mean it like that." She pushed me away and shut the door, locking it behind her. I could hear her crying on the other side and I honestly felt like crying myself. How could I have let myself say that to her?

"Maya, please. I didn't mean to. I-" The door opened again and she stood there, changed out of her dress. She had on a pair of jeans and a jacket with her boots and was carrying a suitcase. She pushed past me, tears still flowing down her face. "Maya-"

"Don't." Was all she said before she disappeared down the stairs. I followed her down and found her in the kitchen, putting a box of leftovers into the suitcase.

"Please Maya." I could feel the tears in my own eyes.

"I love you Zack, and I know you love me, so just let me go." She whispered before she went into the garage, climbing into her car and disappearing down the road. I stood staring after her for ages, not sure what to do. It wasn't until I felt my phone vibrate in my pocket that I moved again.

"Hello?"

"Zack, where are you? We've been waiting for nearly an hour and the people here are getting mad that we're not ordering." Cody asked me, I could hear quiet chatter in the background.

"I'm at home."

"What? Why? Did you forget we're supposed to be meeting up?"

"No."

"Then what are you doing?"

"She left."

"Who left?"

"She left." He sighed and the chatter in the background quietened as he left the room.

"You said that. Tell me who you're talking about."

"Maya."

"What do you mean? Is she coming separately?"

"What's going on?" I heard Bailey ask, her voice slightly muted.

"He keeps saying Maya left but I have no idea what he's talking about." Cody explained.

"We had a fight." I said.

"Oh. She really left." He was silent for a while.

"I don't know what to do."

"Stay where you are. We'll come to you. Try calling her." Bailey was asking him questions but he hung up before I heard what he said. Taking Cody's advice I tried calling her.

"Hi, you've reached Maya Martin. I'm not available at the moment but leave a message and I'll get back to you as soon as possible. Bye." The cheery message did not sound the way she had before she'd left and it only made me cry more than I already was. I made my way inside and flopped down on the couch, just waiting. When the doorbell rang, I sniffed and wiped the tears from my eyes. Opening the door, I was immediately knocked backwards a little as Bailey threw herself at me.

"I never thought I'd be the one coming to your rescue after a girl left you." Cody said as he appeared behind his wife. Bailey finally let go of me and stood back with Cody. After a few more sniffs, I stood aside, almost on auto pilot. We went into the kitchen and Bailey steered me to sit at the kitchen counter. From there, she moved around the kitchen making something while Cody leant across the bench to look at me.

"Zack, tell me what happened."

"I- I don't even know. One second we were dropping off Reed and Jaeden and the next, she's throwing this massive fit and running away."

"Okay. Did she say why she was mad?" Bailey handed me a cup of herbal tea. "Drink. It'll calm you down."

"She was upset that I hadn't planned other things for today like you had for Bailey. Mom mentioned that your three kids had been at the Tipton all day."

"Right, so that's all that she's upset about?" Cody looked confused. I sighed.

"No. When she said that, I said something along the lines of her being stupid. I know it was a dumb thing to say, what with her just recovering from the whole depression thing but it kind of just slipped out. I apologized as soon as I'd said it but she didn't listen."

"Oh Zack." Bailey hugged me again as the tears started falling fresh. Cody shook his head and I knew he had no idea where to go from there.

"I never thought she'd leave me. I mean, we've had our arguments in the past, and this one wasn't even that bad." I said, hugging her back. "I just don't know what to do now."

(Maya P.O.V.)

I drove for hours, not paying attention to where I was going. I just drove, trying to get as far away from the house as possible. I couldn't believe Zack had said that. He'd been so supportive through the entire last year. I fought the tears not to fall, not wanting to crash my little car on the way. Eventually, I began to feel tired enough to need to stop and sleep so I pulled into a little motel on the outskirts of whatever city I was in.

Parking my car, I trudged into the reception and booked myself a room, not bothering to find out where I was. Once in the room, I fell down onto the bed and pressed buttons on the TV remote until it turned on to a news channel. I didn't recognize the newsreader, meaning I was nowhere near home. Realizing how far from home I was, I needed to cry even more and I suddenly just let them fall, crying myself into a fitful sleep in this strange city, so far from everything I knew and loved.

Preview: At the end of a week, Maya has not contacted Zack and he is getting worried. Cody and Bailey do all they can to help him but still have their own lives to deal with. We find out where exactly Maya has ended up.

A/N: Again, thank you all for the reviews. I know this chapter wasn't very long but there was still a lot in it. And Phoebe-lovers - don't worry, she'll make an appearance before too long.

Also, I'm coming up to a very busy term with school so I may not be updating as much as I have been. But I'll still be writing as much as possible and posting chapters when I can. By the end of this year, I will be done with school forever (YAY!) and I'll be free to post more often.