A/N: Thanks for all the reviews! Last chapter up tomorrow; can you believe it? This chapter is short, and nothing really happens. It's more a transition into tomorrow's installment, where, yes, Tapeworm, Patrick, and Maddie will all make appearances.It'll be out tomorrow, if all goes well!

Disclaimer: I do own The Suite Life of Zack and Cody.

Dedicated to: CRIMSON HAZE for leaving incredibly uplifiting reviews and for giving me the confidence I needed to keep writing. This flashback is for you, and I hope you find it satisfying. And to Suspension for giving me tons of input when it came to this story and Four Minutes; you have no idea how much you helped this story along.

Enjoy!

Life's but a span, or a tale, or a word, That in a trice, or suddaine, is rehearsed.

-Anonymous

THREE HOURS PREVIOUSLY

Kurt was getting angry. Someone had hurt his son, and this idiot of a receptionist would not tell him anything! He stood before her, hands clenched in iron fists at his sides, hair disheveled, jeans wrinkled, sweatshirt crooked. He'd left the house as soon as Carey told him that 911 had called and driven the twenty minutes to the hospital right outside of Hartford.

He'd been in the empty waiting room for forty five minutes and heard nothing. Carey was on her way. That much he knew. But as of yet neither of them had any idea where either of their boys were, and it was driving him insane!

He swore loudly. "It's your JOB to know what's going on back there!" he howled furiously. "WHY won't you tell me what's going on?"

"Sir," said the receptionist, looking at him condescendingly. "You need to calm down. When the doctors are ready, they will come out and talk to you. Until then, all you can do is wait. I'm sorry."

Kurt kicked the bottom of the deck angrily. "I love my son, lady," he said, voice in the fake calm of the eye of the storm. "And if he dies and I wasn't there-," his voice broke, and he turned sharply away, hands gripping his brown hair.

If Zack died…The last thing they'd said to each other were the angry words of a senseless fight. Why hadn't he apologized? Why had he made it seem like he didn't want Zack with him anymore? Why! He loved that kid more than anyone else, save his other son. The short nine months Zack had lived with him had been the best Kurt had had in a long, long time.

And now he'd gone and screwed it up…

It was his fault Zack was dying; maybe dead. His fault he'd run away in the first place. His fault that Cody, innocent, sensitive, gentle Cody could be hurt right now, too. All his fault…

"Mr. Martin?" The receptionist sounded concerned. "Do you need any-."

"I'm fine," Kurt answered shortly, walking away stiffly and sitting down in one of the far plastic chairs. He ran a hand over his tired face and closed his eyes, trying to ignore grisly images his imagination took for a spin.

The door opened. Kurt looked up, expecting to see a doctor. Instead he saw a boy, sixteen, but looking younger now; more frail, move across the waiting room. "Dad," he whispered. Kurt stood up and held out his arms and his son ran into the embrace, tightly returning it.

"Oh, Cody," Kurt murmured into the teenager's hair. "I was so worried…" He held the boy out arm's length. "Are you hurt?" he asked sternly.

Cody's eyes shimmered. "No," he said, voice choked. "But Zack is," he sniffed and wiped a hand under his nose. "I don't know-what to do-," his voice hitched as he tried to hold back sobs, shoulders shaking.

Kurt swallowed thickly and led his son over to the chairs he'd sat in. "Tell me what happened," he said quietly; hand on his son's shoulder reassuringly.

Cody explained the story, stopping periodically to sniff or wipe his eyes. Kurt closed his eyes in pain when he got to the part about Zack being stabbed and tried to stop his hands from shaking.

"…and when we got here they took him-him into the operating room and they told me to go wait out with you, and I don't know-I don't know-," Cody buried his face in his hands and hunched forward.

"It's going to be okay, Cody," Kurt said, draping an arm around the boy's shoulders and pulling him close. "It's going to be okay."

Cody seemed to lack the energy to cry anymore and he sighed deeply. "It's been awhile, dad,"

"Too long, Codester," Kurt agreed, tightening his grip. "Heard things have been hard for you in Boston…"

Cody nodded slightly. "A little,"

Kurt let a tear he hadn't meant to shed fall into the boy's blonde hair. "Things are gonna get better now, okay? For all of us. I promise."

Cody made no reply."Where's mom?" he asked finally.

Kurt sighed. "She's on her way. She'll be here in a few hours."

"Can we call her?"
Kurt smiled tearfully and sniffed loudly. "I don't have a cell phone," he said, laughing slightly despite the circumstances.

Cody bit his lip and reached into his pocket. "I do," he said, taking it out. "Can I call her?" Kurt nodded, and Cody walked away to get better reception (and also, thought Kurt, to get away from the father who's never been there for him).

Kurt massaged his temples and looked at his watch. It had stopped, frozen, at nine fifteen the night before.

TWO WEEKS LATER

"Do you need anything?"

"No, I'm good."

"You sure?"

"Yeah. Really. I'm good. Thanks, though."

Cody nodded and left the room, plopping down on the couch and cracking open The Grapes of Wrath. He deeply disliked reading this book, but unlike his brother who lay in bed in the next room, he did what was assigned to him.

It had been a day since they'd gotten home from the hospital, Zack protesting that he could have left weeks ago. A thick bandage still covered his wrist (which had been badly sprained), and one red scratch refused to fade from his upper left cheek, and though the wound in his abdomen was healing nicely, a wrap still guarded it from infection and Zack still used a crutch to help walk.

Zack himself was back to the old Zack Cody had missed. The Zack who'd laughed and joked and played his guitar without a care in the world. The Zack who pulled a C-average and wore his grades with a mischievous sort of pride while standing up to anyone who gave his Cody a hard time.

He was in their room now, strumming cords on his favorite black guitar, found courtesy of Maddie, Tapeworm, and Zack's new friend Nick, who, upon visiting him in the hospital, learned of its kidnapping and how devastated Zack was to lose it. By searching pawn shops and music stores everywhere in Hartford they finally found it and brought it back to its loyal owner.

The hardest part of the whole ordeal was when it came time for Zack to say goodbye to his father. Kurt had stayed as long as he could, before he had to get back to his work and until he knew that Zack would make a full recovery. Carey and him had worked out a deal; once a month Zack and Cody would spend a weekend in Connecticut with their father, reconnecting, spending time together, and occasionally playing a little guitar. Or at least Zack would. Cody claimed he had inflexible fingers, and that he lacked the ear to hear music. Zack called him fearful of new things.

And so now, as Carey was out getting groceries (having delayed leaving her sons as long as possible), Cody sat on the couch of their suite, wondering what he'd done to be the luckiest kid in the world.

And then remembering that he'd done nothing but wait out the storm.

To Be Continued

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