Sorry it's been so long. I haven't forgotten about this story, I promise! Enjoy. :)


All he knew was that his head hurt. Things were dark and blurry and it felt like he was swimming in thick water.

"Zack?" A voice was calling his name. It sounded so far away. " Zack? Can you open your eyes for me?"

There was sharp pain in his chest and he heard more voices.

"Responds to pain stimulus."

"Blood pressure is 90 over 70."

"Activated charcoal administered."

Zack opened his eyes and immediately shut them again. The lights were blinding. He tried opening them again, trying to focus. He looked up at three people hovering over him and realized they were doctors. Where was he? What happened? He tried to remember but everything was foggy.

"Zack, do you know where you're at?" One of the doctors was speaking to him. Zack looked at him and shook his head.

"You're in the hospital. You took an overdose of pills." The same doctor was talking to him. He was wearing green scrubs and had dark hair. He didn't look to old but not to young either. He seemed concerned. "The pills dropped your blood pressure and we're giving you medication to stabilize it. We also gave you something called charcoal to absorb the medication that is still in your stomach. Your throat may feel sore. We had to put a tube in to help you breath for a while and to give you the charcoal. Do you understand what I'm saying?"

Zack tried to comprehend what he was being told. It started to come back to him in pieces. He remembered breaking the mirror, the stitches and collecting all the pill bottles. He started to panic, finally grasping that he was in a hospital and his plan didn't work. He shifted his eyes down and saw he was in a hospital gown and had an IV in his arm. Then it hit him. He was in short sleeves. They had to have seen his arm. He began to panic even more. He couldn't believe it didn't work. He felt guilty, embarrassed, sad and angry all at the same time. What would his dad say? He was going to be in so much trouble. The next thing that came to his mind was to run. Zack tried sitting up and reached for the IV in his arm. He felt hands on his shoulders pushing him back.

"Zack, you need to lie back down." It was that doctor again.

"I'm fine." Zack said. It hurt his throat to talk and his words came out raspy. "Really. I can go."

"You're not going anywhere right now. You need to calm down and let us help you."

"I don't need any help." Zack told him, trying to sit up again.

"Look, if you keep trying to get up, we're going to have to restrain you. How about I put the bed up so you can sit up but you have to leave the IV alone and stay still."

Zack wanted to be anywhere but where he was. He nodded his head and the doctor nodded to what he assumed where other doctors or nurses and they raised the stretcher so he could sit up.

"When can I go?" He asked the doctor who was writing something on a clipboard now. The doctor looked at him.

"Zack, attempting suicide is very serious. You may be in the hospital for a while." The doctor grabbed a stool that was situated in a corner of the room and pulled it next to the stretcher and sat down. He was sitting at about eye level with him. "You could still have complications from the overdose. You're being admitted so we can make sure that doesn't happen. You're also going to need to talk to one of our psychiatrists here about what happened and the other injuries we found."

Zack stared at the ceiling. Now all he felt was scared. He didn't want to talk to anyone. He just wanted to go home. He felt like screaming or crying, he wasn't sure which.

"I will be right back. I need to let your father know you're awake." The doctor stood up and turned to leave.

"Wait!" The doctor turned around. "My dad is here? You can't tell him. He can't know." Zack was starting to panic again. His father was going to kill him. He knew it.

"Zack, I ha—" Zack cut him off.

"No! You don't understand. He is going to be really mad." Zack was trying hard not to cry now. "He's was already angry at me today and can't I just go or something? Make something up?"

The doctor walked back over to him.

"I have to tell him. You're a minor. I know you're scared but it's going to be okay." Zack just shook his head jamming his palms into his eyes to wipe away the tears.

"No, it won't."


Kelly, Jessie and Slater were sitting in the waiting room with Zack's father. They had been waiting there for almost two hours with no update. They just sat in silence and watched as Mr. Morris paced around the room, nervously running his hands through his hair.

Kelly looked over at Slater. He was sitting in a chair leaning forward with his elbows on his knees and his head in his hands. He looked up.

"Do you think he's okay?" She asked. Slater sighed.

"I don't know. I just…I've never seen anything like that. How did we not know?" They looked at each other for a moment then saw a doctor enter the waiting room. They watched him walk over to Mr. Morris.

"Mr. Morris?" He asked. He nodded. "I'm Doctor Wright. I treated Zack. Should we sit down?"

"Yes. Is Zack okay? What happened?" They walked over to where the other three sat and Mr. Morris sat down while Doctor Wright grabbed a chair, making a small semicircle. He looked at Kelly, Jessie and Slater.

"You're Zack's friends?" He asked. They nodded.

"We…we found him." Jessie said quietly. He nodded.

"They can be here. Please, how is my son? Is he okay?" Mr. Morris asked, his voice wavering a little.

"Well, the good news is that Zack is awake and is stable. We had some trouble keeping his blood pressure up and we did have to put a tube in to help him breathe for a while."

"Thank God." Mr. Morris said. "Can I see him?"

"Yes but before I take you back I have some questions."

"Okay, what questions?"

"Has Zack seemed depressed or not himself lately? We found some wounds that are suggestive of self-injury." Mr. Morris frowned.

"What do you mean wounds? He broke a mirror today and had to get stitches. Is that what you mean?" Mr. Morris looked to Kelly, Slater and Jessie.

"Zack has seemed so sad lately. He doesn't eat. He has been sleeping a lot." Kelly said. Slater nodded then spoke.

"We were at the Max this morning and I asked him what was wrong and he just started crying. "

"Is it on his arm?" Jessie asked, looking at the doctor. "The wound? Slater, remember you grabbed his arm when he tried to leave and he winced?" Mr. Morris looked back and forth between the doctor and his son's friends. Was his son depressed? He started to think back on the last few months and a sinking feeling settled into the pit of his stomach. He couldn't really remember spending much time with his family in that time. He thought about the decline in Zack's grades, about how every time he was home Zack was in his room alone and about the mirror. Zack had looked dazed when he walked into his room. It had to be coincidence, a teenager being a teenager. All he wanted to do was to see his son. Mr. Morris looked at Doctor Wright.

"Can you please take me to Zack?" Doctor Wright nodded and stood up.

"Yes. Please come with me." Mr. Morris followed him through a set of double doors and down a brightly lit hallway. It felt like he was walking in slow motion. What was he going to say? What would Zack say? But more importantly, what were they going to do?

The two men stopped in front of curtained off area. Mr. Morris watched as the doctor pulled the curtain back and he saw Zack. He inhaled sharply at the sight. His son looked small on the stretcher and he noticed the dark circles under his eyes. He seemed pale and then he saw what the doctor had been talking about. It was covered with a bandage but he could see the red swollen skin beyond the edges of the gauze. He watched Zack open his eyes. He could see the fear on Zack's face when he realized he was standing there. He also saw another emotion for the first time. Sadness.

"Dad, I…I'm…" Zack started to say. Mr. Morris cut him off, walking toward him.

"Zack…" He paused a moment not sure how to continue. He could see Zack was shaking. He did the next thing that came to mind. He put his arms around Zack and sat on the side of the stretcher next to him. He felt Zack tense up but then relax. "I love you, son. I didn't know. I didn't realize."

"Dad." It was one word but when he said it he sounded like the small child he remembered playing baseball with and tucking into bed at night. He wrapped him arms tighter around him.

"Shh, it'll be okay. We're going to figure this out."

They sat like that for a long time.