15

A soaring wind flushed over St. James Street as Maddie landed near the loading dock and rushed back to her job. Shaking several impacted copper-jacketed bullets from her clothing, she tossed the bent semi-automatic rifle into the dumpster and hurriedly pulled out her uniform from the back lockers where she had hid it. She dashed through the back way of the kitchen buttoning up her shirt, adjusting her hair and returned to the lobby as Corrie and Mary-Margaret looked for her around the candy-counter.

"Hey, guys…" Maddie slowed to a light jaunt.

"Strange thing, Maddie…" Mary-Margaret tilted her head suspiciously. "That blonde girl in the Supergirl costume was just seen over in Watertown busting up a meth lab, and you wasn't here."

"You wasn't here!" Corrie added.

"Kind of makes me think." Mary-Margaret beamed knowingly at her.

"Well," Maddie returned behind the counter. "She couldn't be me because I was too busy web-slinging from here against the traffic after dumping Lex Luthor in the harbor!"

"So you admit it! You…" Corrie reacted confused. "Wait… that's not right…."

"Maddie…" Mary-Margaret implored her. "Please… you can tell us anything… we're been your best friends since the third grade!" She and Corrie reached out to her. "We can keep any secret you tell us…"

"Guys, trust me…" Maddie leaned forward. "There is no way that that girl could possibly be…"

"Maddie!!!" Alex Russo came rushing into the Tipton.

"Who's that?" Corrie asked out loud.

"She's a friend of mine."

"She doesn't go to our school…" Mary-Margaret looked at this new girl. Alex Russo stopped short to avoid running into Arwin, veered around Esteban and pushed between Corrie and Mary-Margaret before Maddie at the candy counter.

"Maddie, I'm so sorry, but something really bad happened!" She was crying hysterically.

"What happened?"

"My father talked to your father." Alex confessed as Corrie and Mary-Margaret listened. "He accidentally revealed your powers to him, and your father turned around and sold you out to the tabloids!"

"I knew it!" Corrie squealed out loud.

"What?!!!" Maddie looked up to the entryway as several reporters started pushing their way into the Tipton lobby. Boston news reporter Nancy Puckett was back again covering and reporting the news. She pushed herself between Mary-Margaret and Corrie and extended a microphone into Maddie's face.

"Maddie, Sara Puckett, Boston news…" She tried to get a statement. "Can you tell us how you got your powers?"

"How strong are you exactly?" Someone else asked.

"Are you from this planet?"

"Are you the same blonde girl who's been appearing around Detroit?"

"Oh my god…" Mary-Margaret made the understatement of the year. Maddie gasped unprepared and petrified by this sudden attention. Things were going from bad to really bad to worse as the news spread. The story was breaking on the news. TV News studios were racing to scoop each other. The news media tossed Maddie's friends out of the way to meet her. Alex jumped from out of the way to keep from getting crushed.

"That girl's not me!!!" Maddie screamed scared for her life. Cameras were taking photos of her from every direction. Flashes of light went off around her. Moseby tried to bust up the terrifying attack with no success. A photographer stood on the Tipton sofa for a photo. Maddie tried to shield her face with a magazine.

"Maddie, how fast can you fly?"

"How often do bullets bounce off you?"

"Are you going to do anything for the Middle East?"

"Who are you endorsing for president?"

"What?!" Maddie couldn't answer all these questions. They were coming too fast. She was really starting to hate her father. How could she know he'd do something like this to her?

"Oh my god…" Alex started backing into the corner crying her eyes out. "I did this. This is my fault!" Maddie wasn't getting any peace. She was trapped inside the candy counter getting photographed and harassed by questions. Her only way to get out was to drop to her feet and crawl out on her hands and knees around the potted plant next to her. When she got to her feet, another photographer headed her off, and another news reporter started poking another microphone at her.

"Maddie, how fast can you fly?"

"Can we get a picture of you in your costume?"

"Are your powers from the sun or are they nuclear?"

"I did this." From an empty corner of the lobby, Alex peeked out at the sudden media circus happening before her. She now realized that Maddie would never get any peace again. It could have been her. "I'm so sorry, Maddie! I should never have told my father about you." She was talking to herself as she cried her eyes out. "I should never have tried to make you my friend… It's just that… I wanted someone to talk magic with…" Her heart started breaking. Her chest started fighting for air as she tried to breath. She looked around to see if anyone was watching her.

"Now I'm here, now I'm there," In secret, she started incanting through her grief to flee the scene. "Take me from this place and back to Waverly Place." She made her escape rather than risk being discovered herself.

"Leave me alone!" Maddie inched her way along the wall as the reporters stayed on her. She tried to run, but people were watching and pointing at her. One of them took her photo on a camera phone. She looked around for a place to hide.

"Hey, she's my friend!" London started swinging her purse at the reporters. "Back! Back all of you! Leave her alone!"

"Maddie!" Moseby grabbed Maddie by the arm and started pulling her through the crowd after draping his jacket over her head. "Mr. Tipton heard what happened! He's sending his helicopter for you!"

"Just get me out of here!" Maddie cried hysterically, but someone pulled the jacket over her head trying to get a picture. Things were getting out of control. Among the reporters, people were asking for help. One woman had not seen her sister in years, a man had lost his home in a fire, a diplomat mentioned his country was suffering a drought, another guy wanted to manage her crime fighting career, Bob was present just trying to get an autograph… Boston's WBTS news station was suddenly broadcasting the scene around the world. The news broadcast about the girl with the superpowers was bouncing off the satellite in orbit to people across the country and beyond….

Helen Chapel and her husband Joe Hackett watched the TV coverage from the terminal of a Nantucket airfield…

Harvey and Sabrina Kinkle in Salem, Massachusetts stopped what they were doing to turn up the volume on their TV…

The TAPS team in Norwich, Rhode Island shared surprised looks about the incident…

Samantha Stephens and her adult daughters, Tabitha and Amanda Stephens, stood watching the broadcast in Newport, Connecticut…

Dr. Gregory House in Princeton, New Jersey made a snide comment about the veracity of the accounts…

Willie Loomis stopped looking for his car keys in Collinsport, Maine as the footage interrupted his ball game, and from there it reached beyond New England…

Melinda Gordon in Grandview, Pennsylvania… Ted Mosby and his best friends watched from the booth of their favorite Manhattan tavern… Judge Harry T. Stone and his wife, Christine, in a Manhattan restaurant… Temperance Brennan in Washington D.C… female DJ Pamela Moran was describing what was happening on TV over the radio in Georgia… Cate Hennessy and her daughter Kerry in Detroit, Michigan… Sam and Dean Winchester in a Fargo, North Dakota hotel room…

Even people who had met and known Maddie were stunned by the story, Phil Diffy and Keely Teslow watched speechlessly in Pickford, Illinois… Jim and Cheryl Belushi of Chicago… three time divorced heiress Jackie Burkhart in Point Place, Wisconsin… detective Grace Hanadarko in Oklahoma City… Troy Bolton and his girlfriend Gabrielle Montez of Albuquerque, New Mexico…

"Hey, does she look like…"

"No…"

It just kept getting worse the further the story spread. Nick Stokes and Warrick Brown in Las Vegas, Nevada stood watching with cups of coffee in their hands. In Seattle, Dr. Izzie Shepard tried to tear Dr. Derek Shepard from watching the footage… Piper and Paige Halliwell exchanged concerned looks as the story broke in San Francisco… In nearby Ashbury, Raven Baxter covered her mouth unable to look away. She knew Maddie from her visit to Boston and could not believe that Maddie could do all the things they were reporting. Down in Hollywood, Dr. J. D. Dorian and surgeon Chris Turk were rating Maddie on a scale of hotness. Over in Malibu, Miley Stewart and Lily Truscott watched the live footage and commented on the difficulty of having a secret identity. South of them in Pasadena, Sheldon Cooper and Leonard Hofstader began arguing and debating the power of Maddie's flight ability against air friction and her drag co-efficient. When they couldn't come to a conclusion, they tried to call the Tipton to ask Maddie over long distance, but the Tipton phone just rang and rang and rang… Police cars had to squeal to the Tipton to try to control the riot. Corrie got knocked to the floor in the deluge and Arwin had to pull her to safety. Carey pulled Zack aside from the fracas.

"Where's your brother?!" She asked him hysterically.

"I don't know!" Zack tried to scream over the noise of voices and questions going at once. Maddie was having a stress attack as the media exploded around her. Lance pulled Mary-Margaret away from getting hurt as bystanders tried to meet Maddie and others tried to thank her for saving their lives. London was knocked to the floor as Esteban tried to get Maddie to the elevators. Her hair askew, her uniform pulled off her shoulder to reveal a trace of her costume, Maddie screamed for help as Moseby continued pulling her toward the elevators.

"Leave me alone!!!" Maddie gestured for the sofa in the lobby to block them from following her. With it, the lobby chairs flew up into the air to create an additional barricade. Reporters snapped photos of the flying furniture. Cody turned round and watched the spectacle as Maddie was jerked into the elevators. Photographers dived for cover, and Cody himself was knocked to his feet in the melee. His laptop shattered on the hardwood floor, and his shoulder struck the deserted candy counter hard. His head lolled to one side as he reached to catch his fall.

"Cody!" His mother was screaming for him.

Cody started opening his eyes. How long had he been out? He was lying in his bed upstairs in his suite, his blankets pulled up to his shoulders. His mother checked his head and caressed his cheek lovingly. She checked his fever through his thermometer.

"Good news, honey…" Carey beamed over her boy. "Your fever broke. You start eating real food now." Her son started looking around the bedroom. His mouth was dry, his head a bit heavy. What was going on here?

"How's Maddie?" He asked with a sore throat. His mother handed him a cup of cold water that he drank a few sips from.

"Maddie's just fine." Carey stroked her son's face. "When she stayed with you last night, she said you were calling her in your sleep. You kept telling her to not fly so high… whatever that means."

"Hey," Zack appeared at the door. "How's Corky the Carcass…" He started laughing at his demeaning nickname for his brother.

"I had this crazy dream about Maddie…" Cody started talking; his voice feeling better. "I dreamt she got all these powers and was flying around in a red cape and little red skirt."

"That's funny…" Zack made a face. "That's been my dream too!"

"Well," Carrie reached up and pulled a photo off the wall. "Maddie's modeling career as the Super-Blonde spokesgirl is probably the cause of all of it." Cody looked at the photo. The costume was similar, but not identical. The skirt was longer, the colors much more vibrant, her cape much different… His dream had been like a movie he had lived through.

"Honey, you keep getting better and I'll bring you some soup from Chef Paollo." Carey stroked her son's head, and turned to carry out the extra cups from his nightstand. Zack ambled to and fro on his feet looking at his brother and missing him. He was not so much fun when he wasn't around.

"And don't ever let me catch you dreaming about Maddie again." He pretended to warn him, then smirked and jovially punched his brother in the arm. He grabbed up his skateboard and started turning out of the room.

"Start getting better, buddy." Zack raced out after a cursory good-bye to his mother. Opening and swinging the door to the suite behind him, he raced to the elevator and took it down to the lobby. When the doors opened, things were all right with the world. Lance tried talking Moseby into building underground channels under the hotel from the pool into the river. Esteban was the hardest working employee in the hotel. London glided in with Ivana on her arm and eight men carrying her shopping bags. Arwin shocked himself while changing a light. Patrick sashayed his way toward Moseby for a favor. Irene twirled her hair as she talked on the phone, and Norman helped the guests into the lobby. Maddie herself leaned across her candy counter to share gossip with Corrie and Mary-Margaret. She looked up and noticed Zack heading out to go skateboarding.

"Hey, Zack!" She called him over. "How's Cody? Is he feeling better?"

"How would I know?" Zack expressed little concern for his brother. "He is awake though...Oh, he had a dream about you." Zack laughed about it to her in front of her friends. "He dreamt you had super-powers and flew through Boston in a cape." He started giggling. Corrie and Mary-Margaret even smirked a bit.

"Okay…" Maddie did not look amused. "I want you guys to give me back those Super-Blonde photos!" She referred to her short-lived modeling career. Zack just rolled his eyes and checked at the time. It was rolling a bit past five o'clock, and Mia Moseby was coming in for her shift at the candy counter.

"Hey, string bean…" Mia looked her over. "My turn for minimum wage!"

"Yeah…" Maddie collected her purse and book.

"Maddie…" Mary-Margaret walked her over to clock out. "We're heading over to the book store. Meet you there?"

"Right behind you…" Maddie turned in her timecard. Moseby was talking on the phone as she turned it in, but he acknowledged her with a gesture. Before him, Maddie beamed ear-to-ear to him and turned round Arwin on his ladder, stepped back as Esteban carried more suitcases and shined toward Norman as he opened the doors for him. Outside the lobby, Maddie's feet skipped down the front steps as a figure moved out to meet her. Maddie turned casually to meet up with Corrie and Mary-Margaret. A hand reached to catch Maddie from leaving…

"Maddie…"

The blonde candy counter girl turned to look behind her.

"Thanks, Alex…"

"Don't mention it…." The raven-haired teen sorceress looked up the bottom exterior step of the Tipton. "But you've got to be much more careful. I may never be able to that again." A police siren sounded in the city. Maddie looked over her right shoulder and realized it was coming from Cambridge Street.

"I've got to go to work." Maddie rushed away from the front of the Tipton. Handing her purse to Alex, she reached to the front of her hotel uniform and pulled it open to her real work clothes underneath….

END