Hey guys, thank you soooo much to everyone who reviewed my last chapter. I actually wasn't expecting to get to 55, so you have no idea how thankful I am.
I won't keep yaz waiting anymore, so here's chapter 14. Please don't forget to review. Enjoy :)
Cody sat alone in the waiting room of the hospital and stared blankly at the wall opposite him. He'd lost track of the amount of time that had past since he left Zack's room, but it had to have been at least 10 or 15 minutes by now, he thought.
Cody could almost swear that Zack's whole face had lit up when he saw him, but after being witness to how happy his brother had been to see their parents, Cody soon thought twice and decided to leave. He shook his head and directed his vision to the floor. Things had to get better sooner or later, surely.
"Cody?"
Cody instantly shot his head up at the sound of his name. Standing over him was Maddie, who wore a concerned look on her face.
"Zack said he wants to talk to you." She went on straight away, "Alone."
Without uttering a single word, Cody simply stood up and began walking towards his brother's room.
"How are things between you two?" Maddie called out at the last minute.
Turning back around Cody shrugged his shoulders, "Ask me again when I come back out."
Before giving her the chance to respond, Cody turned his back to Maddie and resumed his walk to Zack's room. He saw his parents talking to a doctor just as he reached the end of his journey, so, hoping that he wouldn't be noticed, he quickly slipped past the door and stepped inside the room.
"Three things," Zack immediately spoke without even letting Cody close the door properly, "sit here," he continued, gesturing to the chair beside his bed, "listen to me, and don't talk."
Cody nodded his head in reply and shut the door gently, then, without arguing, did what Zack had asked.
An urge of slight nervousness swept over Cody as he fixed his gaze on Zack. Their last conversation wasn't exactly what Cody hoped would be their first encounter after everything that had happened, and now as Zack sat up in his bed seemingly hesitating, Cody could only wonder what was to come next.
After what seemed like an eternity, Zack finally sorted his thoughts out in his head and licked his lips.
"Cody, Phil… isn't very well. His son's just passed away."
"Well that doesn't give him an excuse for -"
"I said shut up." Zack barked, countering Cody's interruption. He watched as Cody withdrew and sank back into his seat before he slowly opened his mouth to speak again.
"Apart from the fact that I was extremely stupid for walking the streets in the middle of the night, the only reason that Phil took me was because I look like his dead son." Zack paused as he gave Cody time to comprehend what he had said, "Cody, if he knew that I had a twin brother who looks just as much like his son as I do, I was afraid that he was going to come after you too."
Zack beamed as he spied a slow forming smile spread across Cody's face.
"That's why I didn't tell him about you." Zack continued with a grin, "Not because you're not important to me, because I was trying to protect you."
There was a sudden standstill in conversation as Cody let realisation set in. Then, for the first time in a long time, Cody felt genuine happiness as he turned his attention back to his brother and spoke precisely as he was thinking, "You don't hate me."
"Of course I don't." Zack said in reassurance, "And none of this is your fault either."
Just as quickly as Cody's bliss had appeared, he felt it disperse as a sharp feeling of guilt over took his happiness.
"Yes it is." He said, "Everything. It's just like you said - all I had to do was catch the ball."
"No, it's not like that at all, Cody." Zack encouraged, desperately trying to get his comfort across, "Mum told me that it was your test for our DNA that led the police to Phil. If anything, you helped save me."
"No, don't say that." Cody instantly retorted.
"Why not?" Zack asked, confused, "You're the reason I'm here and ok now."
With his eyes clapped shut, Cody shook his head as he found himself in another vicious battle, this time with his conscience. He knew that something about that initial night didn't feel right, but yet he did nothing to help. Even in the later hours of the whole occurrence, Cody shut himself out from the world and refused to lend a hand in the search for his brother. As far as he was concerned, Cody did nothing to help, and ultimately, didn't deserve Zack back.
"Because," Cody finally snapped, "I didn't care that you were gone, ok?!"
An eerie silence abruptly suffocated all the air in the room, as both boys sat in stillness and let this last comment linger throughout the small space.
Cody sat stiffly with his teeth clamped hard down on his tongue, hardly believing the sentence that had just left his mouth.
"You… what?" Zack eventually said, daring to break the quiet.
Cody sighed and collapsed his head in his hands, but near enough immediately elevated it back up, feeling that Zack deserved an indisputable looking explanation.
"I was happy that you were gone - at first." He swiftly reiterated, "I wasn't doing anything to help. But I was really, really wrong."
Seeming unmoved, Zack exchanged his empty glare from the streaky window of his room and redirected it back at Cody, "Well why would you even think like that in the first place?"
"Because of everything we said to each other." Cody answered instantly and in confidence, "All the yelling and the arguing - I just thought you'd be happier without me."
There came another halt as Cody unhappily relived the many moments in the past two or so days in which his worst thought had crossed his mind.
"And that you hated me."
Zack's face suddenly softened as he caught a glimpse of the expressionless look that lay across Cody's.
There was certainly no doubt that Cody had been wrong with the way he was thinking and feeling towards his brother, but after hearing him out, it seemed to occur to Zack that at the end of the day it might've been what he said to Cody that primarily caused him to live through such a twist of emotions.
"I understand if you're angry with me, Zack." Cody said, snapping Zack from his trance, "But please don't be upset. I'm so sorry."
Zack nodded his head and slowly allowed his new thoughts to over take the initial irritation that he had felt towards Cody's revelation.
"Me too."
Shooting Zack a confused glance without delay, Cody remained mute until he finally found his voice box and was able to speak, "What?"
"It's not your fault that you were feeling like that," Zack said, "it was mine. Neither of us really handled this whole thing in the best way, did we?"
Cody shook his head in response, "So, we're ok?"
"Dude," Zack started in reply, laughing, "how can I stay mad at you when you told me the truth like that? That takes guts."
Cody countered the laughter as Zack's words echoed through his mind.
Guts. That was the one thing that Cody had been sincerely lacking in the last few fearful hours of Zack's kidnapping. He remembered how helpless he had felt once the discovery was made that Phil had escaped with Zack. The screeching stop that Cody's heart had come to was like a bullet through his head, and it only worsened as soon as he heard the frightening commotion down the phone the previous night when Phil had called the Martin's suite.
Cody impulsively discontinued his memories as he realised that fresh tears were gracing his eyes.
"I was terrified."
Zack glanced up at the sound of Cody's whisper and noticed a single tear roll down the side of his cheek.
"When I found out that he had left and taken you with him, I was so scared."
Zack felt his heart rip at the seams as Cody began crying at a faster and steadier pace.
"You were scared?" Zack asked, fighting to hold back his own emotions, "I was the one being held captive by a sadistic psycho - one wrong slip of the tongue costing me my life or the most important thing in my world."
Wiping his tears away, only to have them be replaced with new ones, Cody dwelled on Zack's latest announcement and tried to decipher what he meant.
Eventually giving in, Cody raised an eyebrow, "What's more important than your life?"
Zack smiled at the naïve question that came from his brother. Cody was definitely a little slow at catching on, which was strange as that role was usually filled by Zack, but that and many other of Cody's little quirks were the precise reason behind the fact that Zack knew exactly what to say.
"Yours."
Cody choked out a sob after Zack's remarkable confession, despite the immense happiness that had exploded inside him, and beamed at his brother as Zack stretched his arms out towards him.
"Ah, to hell with the pain," Zack said, "come here bro."
Without a second of thought, Cody threw himself into Zack's arms and burst into more tears on his shoulder. After the long 48 hours without Zack, and the extreme worry that something unspeakable had happened to him, Cody finally found himself - and his thoughts - at ease with Zack safe in his grip.
"I can't go through that again, Zack." Cody barely spoke, "I can't lose you."
The seams that had previously unstitched Zack's heart dissipated into nothing as Cody's words sliced through his brain.
"You won't," he urged as he tightened the grasp he had around his little brother, "you won't."
"I love you." Cody instantly responded, just as Zack lost the fight with a lone tear that escaped his eyes.
"I love you too." He assured Cody, "More than anyone. You know I do."
After what was more than enough time, though the twins may not have thought so, they reluctantly parted. While Cody dropped his arms back to his side, Zack kept his hands firmly glued to his brother's shoulders and then stared him directly in the eye. He smiled, but then quickly swapped his expression for one of total sincerity.
"I promise I'll never say I hate you again."
Cody sighed in relief as he felt a giant weight lift from his shoulders. What Phil had done definitely hadn't been an easy encounter to overcome, and as much as Cody was certain that Zack was feeling completely exhausted too, he was just happy and content to finally have the old Zack back. And the promise that came with him was a great added bonus.
Before another word could be spoken between them, Zack and Cody both focused their attention to the door as it slowly creaked open. They hastily wiped their eyes as Carey and Zack's doctor then entered the room.
"Hi Zack, I'm doctor Ennis," the middle-aged looking man announced upon entering the room, "how are you feeling?"
Zack shot a gaze at Cody, who had now taken a few steps away from the bed, then shrugged his shoulders. He knew that it was just routine, but after being in and out of surgery, that was possibly the most ridiculous question he had ever heard.
"Ok, I guess."
"Alright, well your surgery results have just come back," Ennis recommenced, "so right now, you, your mum and I are going to go and check out them and your x-rays just to make sure you don't need any additional surgery."
Accompanying the doctor and his disclosure of what was to come next was a nurse, who then entered the room with a wheel chair, which suddenly increased Zack's apprehension.
"Additional surgery?" He asked worriedly.
"Oh, don't worry, baby," Carey spoke supportively, "it's nothing to panic about."
"Your mum's right, Zack," doctor Ennis started as he helped Zack sit up on the edge of the bed, "Honestly, judging by what I've already seen, you should be alright for school on Monday. You might be a little sore, but you've got the whole weekend to rest up."
"I thought by rib was cracked, though?" Zack asked in confusion.
"It is, but not completely in half." Ennis explained, "Trust me, you'd be in a lot more pain if that were the case. No, your injury only reaches about a quarter of the way through your bone marrow – it'll heal of its own accord in no time. We only need to check your results to make sure we haven't missed anything."
Zack nodded his head. It wasn't like him to let his angst get the better of him, but the thought of going back under the knife scared him to no ends.
"So are you ready now?"
Zack gawked back up at Ennis once his train of thought had been derailed, "Can Cody come?" He asked hopefully.
Ennis frowned then flashed a sympathetic smile, "Sorry, I'm afraid not. Only parents or caregivers."
The disappointment in Zack's eyes was extremely evident, before his vision was then hidden from everyone and directed at the floor. Sure, he may have come this far without Cody by his side, but Zack wasn't definite how much longer he could keep it up. It was then that he felt the warm sense of another hand on his. Impulsively looking up, he found himself on the receiving end of a comforting smile from Cody.
"Hey," Cody began, "you'll be ok. You've been through worse than this."
Zack returned the smile that Cody was shooting at him in total console.
"And I'll be right in the next room waiting for you when you come back, ok?"
Completely forgetting about the tormenting feelings that had moments ago been eating him up inside, Zack nodded his head assertively then turned back to face his mum and doctor.
"Alright." He said, "I'm ready now."
Ennis then helped Zack off the side of the bed and into the wheel chair, as did Cody, who didn't loosen the grip he held to his brother's hand.
"We'll be right back, sweetie." Carey said to Cody, kissing the top of his head.
Everyone then walked – and rolled – out into the corridor, and while Cody headed back towards the waiting room, Zack, Carey and Ennis all started in the opposite direction on their way to the x-ray room.
As the wheels of the chair squeaked alone the shrill, tiled floor, Zack and Cody held a devoted glance with one another and did not break it until Zack was around the corner and out of sight.
There we go, another one down. I got alot of reviews in the last chapter of people worrying about the fact that Cody had left and Phil had got away - sorry it was so anti-climatic, but trust me, there is a reason I made Phil get away.
Anyways, please don't forget to review. There's only one more chapter to go, and I'll update when we reach 60 reviews. Please and thank you - you guys are awesome :)
Reneyyyyy x.