MOVING ON
~CODY~
BETH ISRAEL MEMORIAL HOSPITAL 11:45 PM
Cody and Bailey frantically made their way through the emergency ward. Cody had just received a phone call that he never wanted to receive ever again. The fact that his older brother was now in critical condition scared the living daylights out of him. He didn't want to imagine life without him. Sure the two of them always had their fights, but they were brothers. They always found their ways to make it up to each other.
"Cody everything is going to be OK…" Bailey said as she kissed him on the cheek.
"I sure hope your right Bails. I don't know what I would do with myself if I lost Zack." Cody sighed as the both of them sat down in two uncomfortable hospital chairs. "He's my whole world Bailey. Sure I don't show it all of the time but I love that goofball." Cody laughed.
"Family of Zack Martin?" A middle aged man stated as he walked into the emergency waiting room.
"Hi doctor I'm Cody Martin Zack's twin brother. Is he doing OK? What happened?" Cody asked anxiously.
"He was a very lucky man. A young lady had called emergency services as soon as he was stabbed. He lost a huge amount of blood on the way over here, and we are currently trying to stabilize him before we go into surgery." The doctor explained. "It turns out that the knife is really deep into his spine that we need to do emergency surgery to remove it as soon as possible. Because if not…"
"It could lead to permanent paralysis." Cody explained.
"Very good Mr. Martin." The doctor joked. "If you didn't look your age you would definitely make a great doctor." He joked around to lighten the mood.
"Well I'm a first year nursing student so close enough." Cody laughed. "Please doctor please do anything you can to save him." Cody pleaded with the doctor.
"Me and my team will definitely do our best. He's in good hands. Now if I were you I would go over and thank that young lady near the elevators. She's the one who brought him in." The doctor explained as he walked off.
"That's strange I've never seen her before." Bailey said as the both of them approached her.
"Maybe she might be from his office." Cody guessed. "Hi there. I've been told that you brought my brother here into the emergency room." Cody said as he sat beside Marci.
"If it wasn't for your brother I'm pretty sure I wouldn't be sitting here right now." Marci pointed out.
"What do you mean?" Bailey asked.
"Your brother saved me." Marci said as she turned towards Cody. "You see he had heard my screams of help from the alleyway behind GameWire International. These two men were trying to sexually assault me. And your brother fought them off then one of them stabbed him in the back." She explained. "I owe your brother my life. If he hadn't come to me when he did I might have been raped." Marci explained as fresh tears made her way into her eyes.
"Oh my gosh…" Bailey said stunned about the recent revelations from Marci. "Did those men get away?"
"They did…They ran away before the police could get to the scene. But I told them everything. I know exactly how those two look like. And if there really is good in this world those two will be getting everything that they deserve." Marci stated.
"Are you sure your OK? Maybe you should get checked out we are inside a hospital." Bailey pointed out.
"Trust me I'm OK…" Marci said.
"I just hope I can say the same thing about my brother…" Cody said worried as he looked out the window to the thunderstorm happening outside.
"Cody I came as soon as I heard." Marcus said running up to the group.
"Thank you for being here Marcus I appreciate it." Cody said giving him a hug.
"Of course I'm always here for a friend." Marcus stated. "I just can't believe this all happened. Zack getting stabbed in the back that's just wrong. Who could have done this?"
"Those people are sick in their heads. They almost tried to sexual assault Marci over here which is why Zack is in the operating room. He saved her from getting sexually assaulted." Cody explained.
"Well at least he went down fighting." Marcus said joining the other three on the sofas. "By the way I'm Marcus Little. You must be so shell shocked after what happened over the past couple of hours." Marcus said as he introduced himself to Marci.
"Shell shocked isn't even the proper word for it." Marci sighed. "Guilt mostly."
"Marci you don't need to feel guilty." Cody began.
"But your brother is lying on a operating table fighting for dear life and it's all because of me. I'm the one who put him in there." Marci sobbed.
"Marci your just the victims here. Anyone in their right minds would have done exactly what my brother did. What happened next was just an unfortunate event." Cody said as he tried to calm Marci down.
"And imagine if Zack hadn't saved you. Just thing of the despicable things that those sick minded people would have done to you." Bailey replied.
"The minute he wakes up I'll make sure to thank him a million times." Marci said.
"You will have all the time in the world to thank him when he wakes up." Cody laughed. "Aren't you two both working at GameWire International?"
"Yes but in different divisions. I'm with the IT department and I have no idea where Zack's department is. In fact I've never seen him in the office or around the cafeteria at all so I'm guessing it was either his first day on the job or he had a late interview with Mr. Vincent."
"It was his first day with the Game Development division. He was so excited for it as well. He was on his way back to his apartment and me and Cody were going to surprise him with a home made dinner." Bailey explained. "You see Cody loves to cook and Zack's favorite cuisine is Italian and Cody had been in the middle of baking a fresh lasagnia and garlic bread when the hospital called."
"Geez it's past midnight and you two are making me hungry." Marcus joked. "I'm sure Zack would have been great at his job. Back on the ship it seemed that he spent more time in the gamers lounge rather than doing his homework."
"He did the same thing back at the hotel." Cody laughed.
"He sounds like he's a great guy." Marci laughed.
"He has his moments." Cody laughed. "But then there are times where his reckless and carefree personality kicks in. That's when all the pranks and the constant flirting kick in. He'll flirt with anything wearing a skirt really. One time back at the hotel he was flirting with a transgender model and it took him a while to realize it was a dude. " Cody said dying of laughter.
"Wait why didn't Zack ever bring this up? That's hysterical!" Bailey said as she began wiping tears away from her eyes from laughing too hard.
"I think he's still scared from it even though it was seven years ago." Cody laughed.
"Besides his rambunctious ways he still sounds like a pretty cool dude." Marci said still laughing from Cody's story.
"Once you get to know the real Zack you'll see how loyal he is to his friends. He's one of those friends who's always there when you need him. I still remember the whole scheme he tried to pull to save my family's farm back home in Kettlecorn."
"We almost lost the farm because of him and Woody." Cody laughed.
For the next couple of hours the group had began to share stories with Marci about their many adventures out in the open seas as well as other intriguing stories about Zack. The more Marci got to hear about him, the more she wanted to get to know him in person. He seemed like a great guy. The group was all engaged in sharing stories that they didn't realize that Zack's doctor had walked through the emergency room doors with a troublesome look in his eyes.
"Mr. Martin?" Dr. Williams said as he approached the group.
"Doctor how's my brother did he make it out of surgery OK?" Cody asked desperately.
"The surgery was successful however we ran into an unfortunate complication. He has lost a lot of blood during the procedure so he did need a blood transfusion. However the knife had damaged one of his central nerves. We managed to repair it however in order to do that…"
"You needed to put him under a medical induced coma." Cody sighed.
"Exactly." Dr. Williams said sadly.
"Do you know how long he's going to be in a coma for?" Cody asked.
"Well Mr. Martin as you should probably already know patients who go into a state of coma wake up when they do. These are very delicate cases and most patients do recover from it." Dr. Williams stated doing his best to be hopeful. "But it is up to Zack's body. He will wake up when he does. The good news is he is still responsive and his heartbeat is steady."
"When can we head in to see him?" Bailey asked.
"Well I just finished surgery so in a couple more hours he should be transported into his private room. I will be sure to come and get you once we have Mr. Martin settled." Dr Williams stated as he walked away.
And in that very moment Cody felt his whole world come to a screeching stop. Like a car going really fast down a highway and needing to break all of a sudden due to traffic. His twin brother was in a coma and he couldn't do anything about it.
"Cody are you all right?" Marcus asked.
That was the last thing that Cody heard before he fainted. The other three immediately ran towards Cody who was now passed out cold on the cold floor. Marci immediately ran towards the nursing station to alert them of the situation.
"Cody you need to be OK you just need to be…" Bailey begged.
"Bailey he was in shock I'm sure he's going to be fine." Marcus said as he wrapped an arm around her for comfort.
At this point a bunch of nurses had rushed over to the scene and immediately put Cody in a wheelchair and wheeled him towards one of the empty hospital beds in the emergency wing. Bailey was walking right behind the nurses and as they brought Cody into one of the beds she noticed that Carrie was standing there with her jaw literally on the floor.
"Oh my god my poor baby!" Carrie said worriedly. "What happened?"
"Mrs. Martin it seems that Cody had passed out from shock." Bailey explained giving Carrie a hug.
"Shock from what?" Carrie asked wondering.
"I think you need to sit down for this. We don't need two Martins fainting." Bailey said sadly.
"Bailey is something the matter? You seem kind of off." Carrie said worriedly.
"You see Carrie, we just heard some horrible news about Zack's condition." Bailey began explaining.
"Zack got out of surgery?" Carrie asked shocked. "Where is he?"
"The nurses are working on transferring up to recovery right now. We could see him in a couple of hours. Anyways back to my original point. There was a complication during surgery. It seems that the knife that Zack was stabbed with severely injured one of his nerves in his spine that's connected to the central nervous system. The doctors were able to repair it, however they needed to put him under a medically induced coma to heal."
"So you mean to say that he's in a coma right now?" Carrie asked heartbroken.
"I'm really sorry this happened Carrie…But we have to be positive Zack is one of the strongest people I know. He's going to wake up and everything will be back to normal." Bailey reassured her.
"For both of my babies sakes I hope your right…I can't lose my two babies…" Carrie said sadly.
"Your not Mrs. Martin I'm sure Cody and Zack will be back to normal before we know it…" Marcus explained.
"Bails?" Cody said weakly from the hospital bed.
"Sweetie thank god your OK…" Bailey said walking towards Cody.
"What happened?" Cody asked confused. "Why am I…" Cody's eyes widened. It had all officially come rushing back to him now. He had remembered everything. Why he was in the hospital, why he was lying on the hospital bed…And most importantly what had happened to Zack. "Oh my god…Where's Zack?" Cody said frantically. "I need to see him."
"Sweetie he hasn't been moved to a private room yet…" Carrie explained.
"Mom I have no idea what I'm going to do without him…He can't be in a coma…" Cody sobbed.
"Sweetie everything is going to be OK. He's your brother you know he doesn't give up on a fight. He's going to do everything he possibly can so he can find his way back to all of us." Bailey said as she began to embrace Cody.
"I just need to see him to make sure he's ok Bails…" Cody sighed as he calmed down.
"He should be in a private room soon. You can see him then."
Sure enough about two hours later Cody had entered Zack's private room. He saw Zack lying there helplessly hooked up to a breathing tube and several other machines that were keeping him alive. Cody shivered as he began walking towards his twin brother.
"Hey Zack…It's me…" Cody whispered. "I know you can't possibly hear me right now but I'm right here. And I promise…I won't leave your side until you wake up…You may not have always been there for me. But I promise I will always be there for you…Because no matter how many times we end up wanting to choke each other to death your still my brother and I love you." Cody sighed as he felt a steady stream of tears make their way down his face. "Look your going to wake up and everything is going to be back to normal again. Just like before. Your going to end up teasing me again and I'm going to end up torturing you with all of my knowledge." Cody laughed. "But I know one thing for sure. Once you wake up I am never going to take you for granted ever again." Cody promised. And that was going to be a promise he was going to keep.
