Okay, first off, thank you all so much for your feedback! I do agree with the sentiments that Cody (despite his time in season 3) is a pretty underdeveloped character. Also, that commenter 'Gucci Mane LaFlare' is not wrong. Noah and a lot of the other contestants are probably too freaked out to talk to Sierra directly and that a lot of them would kind of see Cody as her 'creeper keeper' to make her stop following them around when her 'creepy stalker' mode takes her over a bit too much. Lol. That and I just wanted to give Cody more character depth in this fanfic. Anyway, this chapter picks back up with Noah and Emma calling Cody. Hope you all enjoy!

(Noah's POV)

Okay, I know on some level this seems stupid and insane… but we have been doing nothing but talk in circles with Cody since Emma and I explained what was going on.

"Noah, look dude, I'm sorry but what do you want me to do? What makes you think she'll even listen to me about anything?" Cody defended immediately.

"Look, your creeptastic girlfriend is scaring the crap out of my girlfriend. And you're the only one she'll even remotely listen to at all. Can't you just tell her to butt out and leave us alone instead of adding us to her online stalker collage?" I practically spouted, still pissed and freaked out about this whole situation.

"Dude, she's not my girlfriend! And you do realize we're talking about the same girl that still after almost 4 years steals my gitch out of my underwear drawer in my apartment after countless times of me explaining to her to stop, right? Do you know what it's like not knowing if you'll have enough underwear for the week?!" He backtracked, sounding like he was totally trying to say anything to avoid it.

Which normally I wouldn't fault him for since I usually wouldn't care and would probably do the same thing to avoid confronting anything involving little miss stalkerlicious, but 'this'… yeah, 'this' is personal.

That and whatever is going on between Cody and Sierra still confuses me to completion.

And that's putting it lightly.

And I even led that on out loud as I said through a sigh, pinching the bridge of my nose out of stress and just feeling done with this whole situation, "Look man, I don't really care what she is to you, considering I still can't understand anything about you and her to begin with or why you even still hang around her at all despite all the creepy and weirdass things she still does to you. Or do you not want me to bring up the fact that she also sneaks into your bedroom in your apartment at night while you're sleeping?"

Cody was dead silent as I heard him say, sounding very conflicted and standoffish, "Look, it's… it's kinda... complicated."

I could feel my face contort in weirded out confusion, still wondering how he even puts up with her. Hey, now that I know exactly how complicated this stuff is with girls, I kinda get it.

But at the same time, out of all the painfully weird and awkward things Emma and I have done around each other… We have never stolen each other's stuff or broken into each other's places in the middle of the night.

Just kinda throwing that out there.

I was trying to figure out what to say, and I could tell Emma was even more confused than me since she's just staring at me silently in freaked out confusion.

Eventually I sighed as I continued, "Okay, whatever look, that's not the point. The point is you at least know how to deal with her and the nutsy La-La Land that is her thought process. Cody, can you just do me a solid and help us out here?"

It was quiet until I heard him let out a sigh before finally saying, "You said you guys are in Toronto too, right?"

Emma and I exchanged weirded out and confused looks before I somehow got out, trying to figure out where he was going with it, "Uh… yes. Emma goes to Law School here, remember? We're at her apartment right now."

He let out a nervous laugh before saying awkwardly, "Heh, oh yeah. Sorry. Look, I have an exam soon. But I'll meet you guys at the diner across the street from the student union when I'm done at 4, okay? Gotta go."

He hung up.

Emma and I just slowly looked at each other, both looking extremely confused still about whatever the hell was going to happen. Well… this should be fun.

1 hour later

We were getting close to the student union.

Luckily Emma knew exactly where to go since she said she'd pick up take out from the place we were going to before. Also, I have no idea how I didn't think about the fact Cody and Emma went to the same school.

It was almost like Emma was reading mind as I heard her ask, "Honestly, I had no idea Cody went here? Sure, it's a big campus and there's over 60,000 students but still. What's he studying?"

I shrugged and replied, "Mechanical engineering still, I think? After season 3, Cody just kind of went into university life and never really looked back. Honestly, I don't think I've even seen Cody in person in like 2 years. One time he let Owen and I crash in his apartment for the night, but otherwise I haven't really seen him since. Mostly the only way we 'stay in touch' is when we're gaming online."

Even though the only reason I was able to get Cody into my alliance group was because our lead raid organizer said she was leaving because she had to take a break, even though she never came back online, I got Cody to join us since I remembered him saying when back on the island that he was really into Dragon Assassin and Kosmic Kaos.

And had to hand it to the guy, but Cody doesn't mess around online.

The guy knows how to organize raids and helped me practically take over the group now ever since I brought him in and impressed all the other guys. And Cody always helped me out by stepping into my role as lead coordinator when I was off doing shows after we graduated high school… I shook my head, trying to ignore thinking about that right now.

I looked down at our still joined hands since we walked out of her apartment.

Look, when it comes to girls and 'feelings'… I'll freely admit to myself that I still suck at reading into it. But even I'm not that much of an idiot to see how freaked out Emma still is about what's going on. Also the fact that she's squeezing my hand so hard that I feel like my hand is being cut off from circulation was also a pretty clear sign she's definitely freaked out.

I don't know?

I know I was gone and there was no way for me to know this was going on, but… ugh, man, I have no idea? My stomach and chest just feel tense.

Is this… 'guilt'?

Seriously, I don't know what it is about her, but she has literally made me 'feel things' that I had no idea what they were. Like, I'm really into this girl (if not being completely in love with her to the point that it makes me sick) and I care about things that have to do with her and I feel guilty about stuff when I wasn't around the past couple months to help her when she was freaked out.

Even though on one hand I totally hate feeling stuff like this, on the other… she's worth it.

I looked over and saw her smiling slightly at me, even though I could tell she was still freaked out. But I smiled back at her and squeezed her hand, not knowing what else to do, and felt a little bit more like I did something right as she smiled a little more at me and gave my hand a slight squeeze back.

We kept smiling at each other as we walked into the diner.

Oh yeah… she's definitely worth it.

(Emma's POV)

Okay, not going to lie… I'm still freaked out.

Ever since Noah left to go do the new season, I always felt like I was constantly looking over my shoulder and feeling like I was close to crawling out of my skin.

And it's not like the fact that we found out Sierra was the one following me around and even just us general since our first official date, yeah still creeped out.

But, at least having Noah around has made me feel a little better.

I don't know if its just the 'safety in numbers' logic, but… I also just genuinely feel better having him around right now. That and the fact we're finally getting somewhere with this and it's not just me staying in my apartment and feeling like I'm losing my mind due to paranoia also helps.

We sat down and not even 2 minutes later we saw Cody walk in. Even though at first I had to really make sure it was Cody.

Not that he looked completely different, but he definitely looked somewhat different.

Sure its stupid to assume he's going to look the exact same as he did on TV, especially considering even season 3 took place almost 4 years ago at this point and all of us are in our twenties now, but Cody definitely looked slightly different. He was still very thin and he still looked a bit boyish in the face, but he was definitely taller by a couple inches and wearing a hoodie, had some slight definition around his jaw line complete with a bit of patchy stubble, and grew out his hair by an inch or two from how I remembered it on the show.

Either way, he was definitely still Cody… just looking like a 'fully embracing university student life' version of Cody.

He looked around until he smiled, showing he still had a slight gap in his teeth, and waved at us as he walked over to the booth both of us were sitting at.

Cody finally got over to us and threw his backpack in the booth as he said, clapping hands with Noah before both of them shook once, "Hey dude, how's it going? Nice beard, puts what I got going on to shame."

He laughed slightly as he rubbed the sparse stubble on his chin.

I looked over at Noah, totally forgetting about the fact that he still had a very short beard grown out still.

Again, I know I'm still freaked out and even though when we're kissing I still prefer him clean shaven, but… ugh, I still stand by that he looks hot with a beard.

Then I saw Cody look over at me and smiled as he said, holding out a hand to me, "Hey, you must be Emma. Cody, nice to finally meet you."

Eventually I shook his hand as I said, not knowing what else to say other than 'keeping up pleasantries', "Nice to meet you too."

Finally Noah cut in, definitely seeming like he was just going right for the elephant in the room, "Look, man, no offense, but can we skip the small talk chit-chat here and just get right to why exactly you asked us to meet you here?"

Cody bit his lip and looked off to the side, looking the epitome of conflicted and uncomfortable, "Uh… well..."

"Can I get you kids something?" We looked over to see this older and stern looking waitress, looking like she was just 'politely' giving us the hint that we needed to 'order something or leave'.

So, all just ended up ordering something to split.

Mainly because we just wanted the waitress to leave us alone… and also because there is no way I felt even remotely hungry right now because of how twisted up my stomach feels right now.

Once the waitress walked away, both Noah and I kept looking at Cody. And he was doing everything he possibly could to avoid looking at us as he rubbed the back of his neck.

Finally Noah spoke up as he said, sounding like he was kind of losing patience, "So, seriously, what gives?"

Cody finally looked back at us as retorted, looking like he was confused and at an end, "Look, I just still don't get what you think I can do? Yeah, Sierra will listen to me, but that doesn't mean she actually 'listens to me'. Again, my underwear."

Noah leaned into the table too, looking like he was getting even more frustrated but also trying to keep it down to not make a scene, "Dude, again, no offense… but I don't care if you are currently wearing underwear she weaved for you out of reeds or going commando right now. She's been following Emma around and freaking her out since before I even left."

"Hey, I'm really sorry guys, but I don't think she's…" Cody started until finally I couldn't take it anymore as I cut in, "Okay, time out here."

Noah and Cody immediately looked over at me.

It was silent as the waitress came back with the order before she walked away again. I took a deep breath and scrunched my eyes for a second, trying to get my thoughts together.

Finally I looked at Cody and said, "Look… I get why you think that just you talking to her won't work. But, I can't deal with this right now! I am already losing my mind over keeping up my perfect GPA in law school and I am not about to keep up this constant paranoia for the next 2 and a half years. And I am especially not dealing with this if there is something we can do to somehow stop it. So… where is she?"

Cody quirked up an eyebrow in confusion at me before responding in patchy confusion, "Uh, probably her apartment? Well, at least she's there when she isn't around or in my place."

"Then I want to go." I said, sounding nothing but dead serious.

"Huh?" Cody stuttered as Noah questioned simultaneously in slight shock, "You what now?"

I continued to give them a serious look as I further elaborated, "We're all going to her apartment to talk to her. I don't care what we have to say or do… this has to stop."

Looks like Emma, and for VERY good reason, has had enough and is looking to confront the source of her paranoia in the form of Sierra. Though obvious, next chapter will pick up on Cody, Emma, and Noah going to find and confront Sierra because honestly with what I have planned… that's going to 'need' its own chapter. Stay tuned! Trust me. 0_0 Lol. Anyway, I also you liked my take on a slightly aged up college student Cody. I know everyone and their grandmother has this head canon of Cody, but I could seriously not see him as being anything else but a still geeky college guy majoring in engineering. After all he did build Gwen's face with no blue prints out of the parts for the Viking boat very quickly and is known for being a pretty tech-savvy guy. But, despite maturing slightly in his university years as a young adult… he's still true to his slightly socially awkward, boyish geek persona. Haha. XD Honestly, on TDI… I didn't really like Cody too much. I used to think he was a bit too uncomfortably persistent with his crush on Gwen and the fact that he kept Gwen's bra… yeah, I just thought he was a perv. And then Sierra took everything Cody did and cranked up to 11 with Sierra and somehow made me like Cody a lot more as a result and feel VERY bad for the guy. Look, no matter what, no one deserves to be treated like Sierra with Cody. The girl literally would take and USE his tooth brushes, steal his underwear, and she DRUGGED HIM with that tea. However, like Cody, I too have a very complicated perception of Sierra. Mainly that when you set her creepy qualities aside and look at her non-fangirl crazed personality, she is shown to be a strong competitor and fiercely loyal and supportive person to whoever she cares about. While I will get more into Sierra and Cody's dynamic in my fanfic, I will say for now that I do think Cody and Sierra would be close in a way after the show and in particular for Cody… their whole 'thing' of whatever it is would be kind of complicated for numerous reasons. Anyway, I'll leave it at that for now. Hope you all enjoyed the chapter and constructive feedback is always appreciated.

Thanks for reading and stay classy!

Dexter1995