Chapter 22:

As the next couple of days slowly pass Zack gets only worse. This troubles Carey and worries Cody, but they keep it concealed inside. They don't want to upset him any more. Instead they continue on with their ordinary schedules as if nothing were wrong.

Carey called Maddie to baby-sit the boys on Thursday evening. She accepted and arrived at 6.

Carey gave her the basic instructions and left them alone in the suite. Maddie walks past Cody sitting on the couch and though he looks perfectly normal and content, she can see the hurt in his eyes. She opens the door to their room and the light coming from the living room floods in. The small room was cramped and messy. There was a strong scent of sick people as well. Zack lay on his bed, in the midst of it all. She stepped over the mess and crouched down so they were at eye level. Zack opens his eyes painfully.

"Maddie?" He asks her. His vision is blurred and he saw two of her. He blinked in an attempt to bring everything into focus. She reached up and patted his hand in sympathy. He glanced down at it and then looked up at her. The pain he was feeling evident in his eyes.

"Hey…you feel any better?" He shook his head slightly. He didn't feel like talking. "Okay." She says, disappointed. She'd been hoping he would've, "I'm gunna go start dinner. Holler if you need anything." And she was gone from the room.

No sooner had she left the room when nausea engulfed Zack. He leaned over and began to throw up into the bucket that had been placed by his bed. He called Maddie's name, but she didn't come in. He sat up and opened his mouth to call her again but instead threw up all over his bare knees. He clutched his aching head to keep from collapsing on the floor. Hot tears fell down his flushed face. He swallowed eleven times before he could scream Maddie's name through choked sobs. She was there within three seconds, Cody right behind her.

"Oh gosh…" He hears her mutter under her breath. She sits down and begins to rub his back in comfort.

"Cody, water please." She tells him. He runs out. Cody comes back a few minutes later with a glass of cold water. Zack drank it only to throw it back up. Maddie looked up at Cody and then back to Zack. Zack could feel her steady gaze on him but he couldn't lift his head to look back at her.

"Cody…do you know if your mom took her cell phone with her?" Cody nods. "Go call her, please." He was out of the room in a flash.

Carey arrived on the scene shortly. She knelt in front of Zack and gently rubbed his shoulder.

"Zack, we need to take you to the hospital."

"No." He managed to moan and sobbed harder. Cody stared at his mother, on the verge of tears himself. Maddie just sat in pure disbelief and concern. Carey squeezed his shoulder sympathetically and then left the room.

Zack's nausea soon subsided and he could feel his eyes drooping. "No…I can't fall asleep…No…I have to stay awake." But he could feel himself nodding off. He was aware of Maddie's arms around him and then he fell asleep, completely worn out.

Zack was awakened a little while later by the sound of people conversing. He opened his eyes slowly to find his mother and Cody talking. Carey stopped talking abruptly when she noticed he was awake and Cody turned back to his homework.

"Hey.." She says softly.

"Where are we?" He asks her hoping he's wrong.

"At the hospital…we have to wait here." She replies, brushing the hair out of his eyes.

"No." He says meekly, shaking his head. Carey tightens her grip around him and kisses the top of his head as they wait.

Ten minutes later a nurse comes out for a half-asleep Zack. She tells Carey to stay there and that they'll call her back when they're ready for her. Carey nods as the nurse pushes the wheelchair away.

Only then does Cody look up, with tear-filled eyes. He jumps from his chair, scattering books and papers all over the floor, and runs. Carey runs after him.

"Cody!" He hears her shout. And then someone's holding him. It's Maddie. He struggles to break away from her grasp.

"Let me go!" He screams at her. She doesn't give in. He kicks at her legs and bites her arms. He doesn't notice Raine and Rebecca standing off to the side, crying.

"ZACK!" He screams now.

"Cody…?" Zack whispers, two halls away. He turns to see the nurse, with her stark white uniform and thin-lipped expression. He leans around her.

"Cody?" He repeats, though louder and fully spoken, but the nurse turns around a corner and Cody's voice fades away.

Maddie's grip loosens around Cody and he takes advantage of this. He rips her hands away and tears down the hall.

"Hey, kid! No running!" A nurse shouts at him. He ignores her.

He reaches Zack's room moments later. He throws himself against his brother, sobbing. Zack's head reels from his brother's weight, but he hugs him back and doesn't push away until he feels a familiar wave of nausea.

Cody begins to cough then, not nearly as awful as Zack but enough to leave his throat burning and cause the nurse to stare.

"Do you feel alright?" She asks.

"I'm f-fine." He stammers as the fit passes. The truth, though, was that he'd been coughing for about a week. And it'd been tough. His coughing had gotten worse throughout the week. He knew he should've told someone, but he hadn't. He was scared to.

Carey runs in just then and spins Cody around.

"Don't you ever do that again!" She yells at him. His face crumples up in tears. She hugs him close.

"I'm sorry." She tells the nurse and steers Cody out of the room while giving Zack a small wave.

Outside, in the hall, Carey holds Cody while he cries into her shirt.

"He'll be ok….We'll all be ok." She whispers into his ear. A couple of minutes later they head back to the waiting area. Barely two feet away Cody breaks into another small coughing fit. Carey checks him for a fever, sore throat, anything she can think of. She doesn't want her baby to catch the same thing Zack has. But the fit passes soon and they continue down the hall with Carey feeling partially relieved, partially worried.

Half way back they run into Zack's doctor, Dr. Jamison. Dr. Jamison is a sharp man with beady eyes and a square jaw. Cody shudders.

"Why hello, Carey. Hello Cody. I was just on my way to see Zack.

"Oh…hey if you aren't in TOO much of a hurry, would you mind checking Cody out? He was coughing pretty hard earlier." Cody stares at her in horror.

"I'd be glad to." He smiles at Cody and a shiver runs down his spine. The doctor quickly checks him out and diagnoses him.

"He's fine, just a chest cold. Give him about a week and he'll be back to normal." He smiles again and heads off. Carey gives Cody a stern look that says: "We'll talk about this later," and wraps her arm around him. They return to the others.

Cody's trapped in a sort of cough-induced haze. He barely notices the others staring at him. Carey buys him a bottle of water. He drinks half of it and then rests his head in her lap. The last thing he remembered before he fell asleep was the sound of Rebecca's pen tapping and the turning page of Maddie's book.

Long chapter lol. Review kindly and...quickly lol!

Fig