Disclaimer: I don't own The Suite Life of Zack and Cody or The Suite Life of Deck... which is probably a good thing, consitering how often I update...
Chapter 7: Tape 3-The Death of Cody Martin
"C'mon," she said. "Let's go get Mr. Moseby to show us the third video."
Mr. Moseby hummed quietly to himself as he stood behind the lobby desk, sorting through the day's paperwork. It was two in the afternoon on a Thursday, so there was hardly anyone around. The passengers were all engaged in the ship's various recreational activities, and the teens were still in school for another half hour or so, so he didn't have Zack causing havoc, or Bailey, Maya, Marcus, and Woody asking him to let them see the remainder of the secret videos that had destroyed the world as he knew it.
This thought, of course, whipped the smile right off the manager's face.
Mr. Moseby had acquired the first video after checking the Tipton's security cameras, and, when he came across the video shot by Drew Thomas and his cronies, he had decided to round up the rest of them, since he wasn't completely sure how Cody had died, seeing how it took place in the hospital and, not being a member of the immediate family, he was not allowed to visit. After he found out, of course, he wished he could go back to the previous state of ignorance. That was why he was so hesitant to show the teenagers the remaining tapes: he was afraid it would shatter them as it had himself, the other employees of the hotel, Carey, and, most of all, Zack.
Zack. When the tragedy had occurred, it had hit Zack harder than anyone else. That was understandable. After all, Mr. Moseby cringed at the thought of anything happening to his brothers Spencer or Dwight, and the three them didn't see eye-to-eye at all (and not just because of the height difference). Zack, on the other, hand, loved Cody with all his heart and would do anything for him, even if he didn't always make it clear. The blow, however, had knocked Zack to the ground- both figuratively and literally, Mr. Moseby remembered with a snort- and he still hadn't gotten up yet. At this point, though, it didn't seem as though the blonde teen would ever recover. He had just learned to hide it extremely well.
Mr. Moseby sighed. Everyone's lives would be so much better if Cody were still alive.
The sound of feet hurrying towards the lobby provided a welcome distraction seconds later, but when the people appeared in front of him, his spirits fell a bit.
Bailey, Maya, Woody, and Marcus ran up to his desk, all four of them still wearing their backpacks, Woody panting like he was two seconds from falling over and dying. Judging by this, he assumed that they had ran from their classroom the second school ended. And, he already knew what they were going to ask: to see the next video.
But, despite the mental complaining he had done earlier, Mr. Moseby had promised to show them the tapes when they asked. And he wasn't one to back out on promised. So, as the four teens approached his desk, Mr. Moseby silently braced himself, but didn't try to run, like he had before.
Bailey separated herself from the others and approached Mr. Moseby, reluctance clear on her face. It was obvious that she, too, thought that he was going to try to worm his way out of showing them the next video.
"Mr. Moseby?" she asked slowly.
Before she could get any further, he raised his hand to cut her off. She obeyed and shut her mouth, looking up at him.
"Let me guess," he said. "You want me to show you the next tape, don't you?"
They all nodded.
He took a deep breath, closing his eyes. In that split second, images of Cody getting hurt, his death, and Zack speaking at his funeral flashed in front of the closed lids.
Forcing the pictures away, he reopened his eyes and looked back to the kids, who were eying him with concerned expressions.
Silently, he nodded. "Alright. Follow me and I'll show you the next videos. But, I've said this before and I'll say it again; they're not pleasant."
Maya, Bailey, Marcus, and Woody nodded solemnly. With shaking hands, Mr. Moseby beckoned the other employees to manage the desk, then led the teens through the descending labyrinth of the hallways to his cabin.
Tension hung heavily in the air as the manager unlocked the door to the cabin and escorted the group inside.
Once everyone was in and seated comfortably in armchairs, Mr. Moseby approached the TV and eyed the group. He flashed back to the first two tapes, where he had given the teens (and Emma) a bit of a background speech. He was prepared to do the same thing this time, but his throat seemed to have constricted, so he just went to the Tipton DVD box and extracted the case containing the third video. Besides, the others probably knew enough by now to not need any extra information.
He inserted the disk into the player and sat down. Unlike other times, where the video started right away, this time, there was a bit of a fade-in, as if fate were building up the suspense.
Eventually, the video started, and it was immediately clear that it was different from the other videos they had seen.
Unlike the other two, where there were people and a lot of noise, the room where this video started was completely silent and empty. Well, almost.
In the center, in perfect view of the camera, there was a large bed with almost-too-white sheets. Lying on the bed was a young boy, who was about twelve years old. It was Cody Martin, but he was barely recognizable.
His blonde hair had been matted and covered with blood, and there was a long, thin scar covering a shaved part of his head. His skin was pale and covered with purple bruises, although some of them had started to fade to a calmer yellow-brown color.
Wires protruded from his mouth, chest, and arm, snaking across the room to hook up to a ventilator, heart rate monitor, and IV. He was completely motionless; the slow beeping of the monitor providing the only assurance that the small boy on the bed was indeed alive.
Next to the bed, a wooden chair had been pulled up. Zack was sitting in it, his head resting on Cody's bed, and their fingers entwined. Soft snores escaped his lips.
For a few seconds, the only sounds were Zack's snoring and the beep of the heart rate monitor. In a moment, however, that all changed.
Suddenly, the steady beeping slowed a bit, then turned into a long, blaring noise.
From his side, Mr. Moseby heard five simultaneous gasps, and he wearily looked away from the screen.
Maya, Bailey, and Emma all looked thoroughly horrified, like they couldn't quite believe what they were watching. Mr. Moseby expected that. It was why he had been so hesitant to show them this video; he knew they'd never be able to un-see it. But, he remembered with a mental sigh, they weren't even at the bad part yet.
As if on cue, another gasp sounded through the room, this one from the TV. On the video, Zack had been woken up, and was standing completely frozen next to Cody's bed.
He stared at his brother's lifeless body for a few seconds, then his body started trembling so badly that he reminded Mr. Moseby of a leaf on a windy day.
After a minute, he lunged towards the bed, as if coming out of a trance. "Cody! Cody!" he shouted, shaking the body lying on the bed. As expected, nothing happened, but this just made Zack more desperate. He climbed onto the bed next to Cody and shook harder, his voice arching up into panic.
Mr. Moseby slowly blinked his eyes, resisting the urge to leap up and shut off the TV. He wished he'd never agreed to show kids the videos in the first place, because if it was this traumatic for him after years, he didn't want to imagine how bad it would be for them.
In slow, jerky motions, the manager tore his eyes from the screen to see the others' reactions. But, although he didn't expect for them to be anywhere close to happy, he was still taken aback by what he saw.
Predictably, Marcus and Woody seemed the least traumatized. Their faces were pale and their eyes were wide, but other than that, they didn't seem too affected by the video.
The girls, however, were a different story.
Since she was an adult, Emma was better at concealing her emotions. But, she was also shaking, only slightly less extremely than the way Zack had been moments ago. Her eyes also kept darting all over the room, trying to concentrate on something other than the video.
Maya was sitting with her legs drawn up on the chair, like she had when she saw Zack find Cody in the alley on the previous video. She also kept fiddling with her hands, also trying to avoid staring at the screen, although she kept sneaking glances at it, unable to fully tear herself away.
Bailey, however, was the worst. She was sitting in a similar position to her brunette friend, but the hunch of her shoulders made her look smaller and more defeated then Maya had. She also had buried her head in her hands, but when she peeked through them, Mr. Moseby didn't miss the mistiness in her eyes.
As he looked once more around the room, a new determinedness took hold and he reached forward and snatched the remote, quickly pressing the 'pause' button. He then turned back to the others, but was greeted by five confused and slightly angry faces. The manager took a deep breath before turning to face them.
He opened his mouth to talk, but Woody spoke first.
"Mr. Moseby? Why'd you turn off the movie?" he asked, as ignorant as ever. Mr. Moseby internally sighed, but was silently glad that, so far, the tapes didn't have any noticeable effect on him.
"I've changed my mind," he said in response. "I'm not going to put you through the rest of the videos."
To his surprise, though, Maya and Bailey immediately started protesting. He would have thought that, of all of them, they would least object to his choice. Nevertheless, he shook his head repeatedly in response to their shouting, until Bailey composed herself, taking a deep breath and looking him in the eye.
"Mr. Moseby," she said. "I know that you don't want us to see this for our sake, but we want to see it. Please. Zack needs someone other than London who can be there for him."
Once again, Mr. Moseby was surprised, but he found that he couldn't argue with the blonde girl. Instead, he simply nodded.
"Are you sure?" he asked, just to make sure.
They all nodded. With a sigh, he nodded back, then sat down in his armchair, pressing the 'play' button on the remote.
Back onscreen, Zack was still sitting on Cody's bed. He shook his shoulder once more, then the door burst open.
Zack staggered off the bed in shock as three doctors burst into the room, along with Carey and Kurt Martin. The doctors raced over to Cody and Carey and Kurt rushed to Zack, the three of them watching as the doctors pressed the defibrillator to Cody's chest, trying to revive him.
Partly so he didn't have to watch and partly because he was concerned, Mr. Moseby turned to check on Bailey and Maya. They were still pale, but kept staring at the screen, as if trying to prove to Mr. Moseby that they could handle watching the video. Slightly reassured, the manager turned back to the screen.
The doctors pressed the defibrillator to Cody's chest once again, yelling "Clear!" Everyone turned towards the heart rate monitor, which was still in a flat line.
"No, Cody," Carey said in a small whisper, pulling Zack closer to her. He buried his head in her chest, but peeked out one eye to watch his brother.
"Still no pulse!" one of the doctors yelled. "Clear!"
Everyone both onscreen and off seemed to hold their breath and the doctors pressed down on Cody with the defibrillator.
For a second, nothing happened, then the heart rate monitor peaked before starting to go up and down like normal.
Mr. Moseby heard everyone in the room- including Marcus and Woody- let out a sigh of relief along with the people onscreen. The doctors on the video watched Cody for a few seconds. Then, Zack started walking towards his bed, extending his hand, but before he made connection with his twin, the heart rate monitor once again went flat.
Although he was expecting it, Mr. Moseby himself felt a mixture of shock and despair drop in his stomach. The others seemed to share his feeling. He heard five gasps, like before, and saw that not only Bailey, but Maya and Emma as well were close to tears.
Almost fearfully, he turned back to the screen. Zack stood motionless for a second, his hand hovering over Cody's, before trying to jump towards him. The doctors, however, seemed to sense his intentions, and one of them quickly restrained him, while the other two once again set up the defibrillator.
Zack seemed less willing to go quietly this time, though, and he kept struggling to get to Cody, even after both his parents restrained him at the same time. Mr. Moseby felt his heart crack a bit as he took in the young boy's desperate, frantic expression. He shouldn't have to witness something this bad at a mere twelve years old.
"I'm not getting a heart beat!" one of the doctors yelled. "I think we're losing him!"
There was a small whimper, and Mr. Moseby turned to the side, watching Bailey as she struggled against the tears falling down her face. Looking around, he saw that Maya and Emma weren't far behind, and started contemplating shutting off the TV for good, but decided against it, seeing that there were only a few minutes left on the tape.
He faced the screen in time to see the doctors slowly remove the defibrillator from Cody's chest. When he saw this, Zack broke free of his mother and father and glared up at the doctors.
"What are you doing?!" he shouted wildly. "What about Cody?! The line's still flat!"
Mr. Moseby heard gasps from Bailey, Maya, and Emma at this point. He could sympathize. He remembered how bad he'd felt when he heard, but to be finding out this way…
"I'm sorry, Mr. Martin," one of the doctors said to Zack. "But your brother is officially brain-dead. There's nothing we can do."
This had the opposite of the desired effect on Zack. He started shouting even more frantically. "Yes you can! Cody's not dead! He can't be! Now fix him!"
One of the other doctors, a woman, shook her head sadly at the remaining Martin twin, "I'm sorry, Zack. He's gone."
Her gentle tone rendered Zack speechless, and he simply fell back into Carey's arms. He buried his face into her shoulder as the first doctor turned to the third.
"Time of death," he said, checking his watch. "Fifteen thirty-seven."
The third doctor nodded and wrote it down on a clipboard as Zack finally succumbed to tears, sobbing as though it was who he dying, although, Mr. Moseby supposed, in a way it was.
The screen faded to the default menu, but Mr. Moseby sat there, shell-shocked, for a few minutes before getting up and pressing the power button. He suspected that the only reason he was able to break out of the numbness in the first place was that it was not the first time he had seen the video.
Hesitantly, he turned to face the others, and was unsurprised to see that his five companions looked the same way he imagined he had a minute ago.
The six of them sat (or, in his case, stood) in silence for a little while before Maya piped up in a small little voice, "You were right."
Slightly startled by the sound of her soft voice, he turned and said "Hm?"
"You were right," she responded, her voice slightly stronger. "That wasn't pleasant."
He responded with a dry, humorless chuckle.
They were silent for a few more minutes before Mr. Moseby asked "So are you sure you want me to show you the other three videos?"
Emma focused her beautiful eyes on him. "There are three more?" she asked.
He nodded. "They're all fairly short. I can show them to you right now, if you want."
The others exchanged looks, before Bailey turned back to him. "Sure. Are- are they that bad?"
He winced in memory. "The first and second aren't much better, but the third is actually happy."
The group perked up a bit at this. "I'd love some happiness right now," Marcus said solemnly.
A small smile escaped the manager's lips, but it quickly vanished. He thought of Zack. Before, he had been such a happy kid, but after Cody's death, he had turned almost into a whole other person. As he put the third video back into its box, Mr. Moseby wished that he could turn back the hands of time and erase the whole experience. He didn't care that it made him a wiser person. He just wanted Zack and Cody- the annoying twins who caused havoc in his pristine hotel- back.
I know you guys are probably getting sick of it, but I'm really sorry for my extreme irregularity at updating. I only realized how long it had been when both owlhero and Phelpsgirlxxx PM'ed me to remind me how long it had been since I updated, so thanks so much, guys. You're awesome. Anyway, I hope that this chapter isn't too horrible. Please review and let me know what you think!
Also, Chapter Seven in dedicated to DarkkEagle for being my one hundredth reviewer! Thanks so much to everyone who reviewed! I had no idea how popular this story would be!
Thanks to everyone who reviewed Chapter 6!
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