Finally! The sequel you've all been waiting for is here! Lol, sorry I guess I'm a little too excited. Anyway, Ohio was hit with a huge snow and sleet storm so of course school was canceled, leaving me with just a little too much free time. Okay enough of my yammering. The sequel!

Disclaimer: I own nothing of the Suite Life other than the officer and doctor in this chapter.

Note: Do not read if you have not read part 1, Out of the Dark and into the Light.

The Deadliest Secret

Part 2

Chapter 1

Missing No More

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"What's your name son?"

Zack blinked blankly at the kind faced, middle aged officer seated across from him in the small hospital room. His eyes clouded for a moment as if he couldn't remember.

"Zack Martin," he replied listlessly, focusing glassy eyes on the ceiling.

"I thought so," the officer mumbled to himself as he made a note on the clipboard held in his lap.

"Do you know how old you are, Zack?"

The lifeless teenager shrugged, his scrawny shoulders barely rising an inch under his hospital gown. He winced as the large bruise on his shoulder blade smarted painfully.

Officer Higgs didn't press for an answer and moved onto the next question.

"Can you tell me the name of the men who kidnapped you?"

Zack shuddered before answering.

"Faires and Howser,"

Officer Higgs nodded and hurriedly scribbled down the names.

"What did these men do to you, Zack?"

Zack eyes flicked to meet Higgs's and the officer nearly flinched at the intense coldness the boy's eyes held.

"They beat me," he said in that same empty voice but his eyes were alive with untamed anger and sadness.

"Is that how you got that scar on your cheek?" Officer Higgs indicated the thin diagonal scar that ran from cheekbone to chin. It had been the first thing he had noticed when he had introduced himself to Zack right after Dr. Riley proclaimed him stable.

Zack lifted a bandaged hand to his cheek and felt the smooth scar that had not quite yet faded. He frowned as he unconsciously rubbed at the scar, trying to ease an invisible pain. The memory of how he had received it was still vivid.

"I wouldn't sit still for them to dye my hair and I-I tried to get away but F-Faires c-cut me," Zack's voice trembled a little but his gaze was unwavering.

"The-There's another just like it only…" Zack lifted his gown to expose his ribs and sunken stomach. There, running across four ribs was another scar, just as thin as the first but longer and deeper.

"They tried to kill m-me that day b-but I fought ba-back," Zack dropped the hem of the gown and gingerly lay back against the pillows, hissing a little as his temple (beneath the layer of bandages) pulsed with agony. The pain killers must be wearing off. He glanced at the half empty IV bag that hung, suspended on a thin metal pole by his bed. The IV drip taped to his wrist was delivering the precious, much needed pain killers to his aching body. It had been a whole twenty-four hours since the car crash that had freed him from Faires and Howser, and his body was finally beginning to feel the aftermath.

He cringed as another wave of pain snaked through his skull.

Officer Higgs, seeing the teenagers discomfort, stood to fetch a nurse but he needn't have bothered for the next moment Dr. Riley herself bustled into the room, looking, if anything slightly pleased. She wordlessly changed Zack's IV and checked his bandages.

Finished, she pushed her blond ponytail over her shoulder and smiled down at her young charge, her blue eyes sparkling.

Zack mustered a small shy smile and glanced away from his doctor's pretty face. If he had been his old cocky self he probably would have flirted shamelessly with the young doctor and waggled his eyebrows enticingly, putting on charm that never failed to draw the ladies to him like honey flies. But that Zack was gone now, dead and buried, with no hope of being revived. His confidence was nonexistence. So much about him had changed.

Dr. Riley turned to include the officer, now positively beaming. She was bursting with great news that would speed Zack's recovery in an instant.

"Zack, your family is here. They're anxious to see you,"

And for the first time since Zack had ran away from home, a fuse lit up his green-blue eyes, filling his young wasted face with hope and life.

To be continued…

Kind of a sucky ending for my first chapter but I hoped you all weren't let down.

Please Review!!