A Suite and Magical Life

Chapter 10: There is no forgiveness without love and no love without forgiveness

January 14-15, 2008

The Dreamscape

Alex Russo didn't know what was happening, except that it was unbelievably scary. She had never seen something so scary in her life, but the combination of all her worst and deepest fears into one big and tumultuous nightmare scared her witless. She tried desperately to wake up but found herself unable to do so. It was then that she realized that there must be magic involved.

It started off with Alex as a toddler, being overlooked for a new-born Max and later a rapidly growing Justin. It then showed her struggle with school, her bad grades, her many shenanigans, which were really just cries for attention and the resultant scoldings and comparisons to Justin followed by the day her status as "Daddy's little princess" (her Quinceanera) finally ended and her struggles to gain any positive attention from her parents after that approaching event.

It continued with Alex being alone, after she had refused to talk to Zack ever again after he lost his temper with her. It showed her being bullied by Gigi and her gang, losing Harper to her brother's friend group, failing to get into college after barely passing high school and ending up as a struggling artist, living friendless after being disowned by her parents and being alone.

It all converged on the day she ran into Zack again, now a very famous and successful defense attorney. In this nightmare, he had gotten married to Maddie Fitzpatrick and had a brood of kids. Just this vision made her despair and feel helpless as if she was destined to be a lonely failure in life. Seeing this nightmare, she just couldn't hold back the torrent of tears that had piled up.

Then, the nightmare suddenly changed. It was about Zack. It showed Cody always being showered with love as the younger child, and later as the golden child. Alex saw how Zack was sidelined and isolated within his own family and how that had been subtly ignored by all.

Alex also saw the messy aftermath of the Martins' divorce and the further isolation it had caused, along with how Zack had reached out to Hannah Montana and her friends. The guilt hit Alex like a tsunami; Hannah Montana really was just a friend, and Alex had not been there for Zack. If only she had focused a bit more on her friend and a bit less on herself, she would not be losing him, she realized. Remembering how she had treated Zack, Alex just cried even harder.

The nightmare continued, with Alex seeing herself end her friendship with Zack and plunge him into isolation again. This led him to adopt the better habits of his brother Cody, becoming a top student and with the two going to Harvard and becoming famous criminal defense lawyers and starting a law firm: Fitzpatrick, Martin, Martin and Pickett, with Maddie Fitzpatrick and Bailey Pickett. The firm eventually became wildly successful, making all of them massively wealthy.

The nightmare then showed Zack marrying Maddie Fitzpatrick and starting a family, eventually reconnecting with the Russos after many years, determinedly searching for Alex and ending up at her grave. The nightmare ended up with Zack crying hysterically over a picture of him and Alex before he moved to Boston and wondering where it all went wrong and where he lost her.

The Dreamscape now changed to the Martins' old home in New York City, just neighboring the Russo family home on Waverly Place. Particularly, Alex found herself sitting in the Martin twins' old bedroom, and nostalgia hit her hard. She was also flooded by broken images and memories.

Alex buried her face in her hands as her crying intensified rapidly. She had problems, but she didn't realize that Zack had it worse than she did. She had pushed him away. He was not coming back. She would never see him again. She pulled her legs close to her head and began to cry. 

"Oh, Zack!" she whimpered in between sobs. "I wish you were her right now, so I could tell you how sorry I am. But I can't, because I let my ego control you. I really don't want to lose you."