Alone

Summary: Kurt and Carey have remarried. But, two months after the marriage, Kurt starts to abuse his older son. Not Cody, not Carey -- Zack. And only Maddie will listen to him. Zack x Maddie

Disclaimer: I don't own the Suite Life of Zack and Cody. I wish that I did, however. That'd be plain out awesome.


-- Zack's POV --

"Please stay out all night..." I muttered to myself, thinking about Kurt Martin. The person that I was ashamed to have as a father. The person I was scared to have as a father. Aren't kids supposed to be proud of their fathers? Aren't they supposed to be happy and joyous when their father comes home after work? Cody is. Cody's both of those -- proud, happy about his father. But he doesn't know the true Kurt Martin. I was the only one that did.

Just a second after that, Kurt Martin came bursting through the door. I mentally cursed at myself as he angrily came up to me and slapped me in the face. "You son of a bitch! You told that candy counter girl about me -- about us -- about this!"

"If I'm a son of a bitch, then that makes you an actual bitch," I retorted, my head coming back into place after the slap turned it to the side. I was tired of living in fear of my father. I was tired of taking all this crap from him. I wanted it all to just STOP!

"Shut up, boy! You should've never told that stupid, good-for-nothing candy counter girl, anyway!" He kneed me in the stomach, and as I was double over he punched me in the face, sending me into the coffee table. I hit it with my back and cried out with pain.

"Her name... Is Maddie... And she isn't stupid..." I mumbled angrily at my father. He replied to me, too, so he must've heard. But I didn't care about what he did to me. Maddie knew. Maddie cared. Maddie understood.

"I don't care what her freakin' name is, boy!" he screamed, advancing on me and picking me up by my neck, my pressure points near my ears. My eyes were shut and I was so close to being unconcious. Then he dropped me. It hurt, but not as much as being thrown. Then I saw him taking a vase, and next thing I knew, he had hit me in the arm with it. Pieces of glass stuck in my arm, not deep enough to infect it or anything but enough to make me bleed. Then he took out a gun.

"Please no..." I whispered, but it was too quiet for anyone to hear. He cocked the gun, aiming it right for my other gun. And he shot. I screamed in great pain, and I felt my life trying to leave me as he began to hurt me, kill me, with his own two hands. He was telling the truth. He would kill me.

Have you ever been that close to death? Where all the energy left inside you is fighting, trying to stay away from that hole of death, but the hole is so powerful that it seems to be beating you. And the more energy you use, the more you lose. And the more that you lose, the more powerful the hole becomes and it is so far ahead that you have nothing to hold onto. And the strength that you do have can't just be used trying to stay away from that hole, you have to remember to keep breathing and sometimes you have to remind your heart to keep beating, and then you have to battle that hole. And as you focus on breathing and your heart beat you lose some energy and that just goes to the hole, forcing you to get weaker and come closer to it, closer to death. There's barely anything you can do, unless someone comes and helps you away from that evil, life-sucking, energy-taking hole.

My dad had left, seeing me dying, knowing that his job was done. And a few seconds afterwards, Maddie had rushed into the room. I wasn't sure it was her at first, my eyes were shut and my breathing was slowly starting to stop, and I was starting to give into that hole, starting to stop fighting for my life. Then I heard her voice and remembered what I needed to keep fighting for. Her voice was faint, like a memory, but it worked all the same. There was Cody and Mom. I had to stay alive, for their safety. And then there was revenge. I had to get revenge on Kurt, that so-called father of mine. And Maddie. I needed Maddie.

My eyes slowly opened, and my breathing got faster. I could see the worried look on Maddie's face as she grabbed her cell phone from her pocket and dialed 911, telling them that I was badly injured. Then she slowly took out the bullet, wrapping my arm in a bandage and then taking all the shards of glass from my arm, applying band-aids one by one as she took out the glass shards. I moved my leg slightly, not wanting to stay still; a small bit of pain shot through it, but I moved it some more and after a while there was no more pain. Maddie hugged me tightly.

"What.. was that for...?" I asked weakly, trying to force a smile, but failing. I looked at her slightly happier face, awaiting my reply. Okay, so I didn't really need a reply, but I loved the sound of her voice.

"It was for you still being alive, and for you not being paralyzed," Maddie replied, her voice happy and hopeful as she hugged me, a lot tighter this time, and I audibly -- and visibly, I'm guessing -- winced in pain. "Oh, I'm so sorry," she said suddenly, realizing my pain. A few seconds later, the ambulance was at the house. They looked me over, made sure I was okay.

Then they said to Maddie, "You're right, he is badly injured; but all we can really do is make sure he's taken care of properly. Do you know much about medical care?"

"Um, yes," Maddie replied. "I studied some medical things in highschool. I know how to treat gun wounds, broken bones, and a few other things like that, as well as some of the diseases like the flu and all."

"Good enough," one of them said. "He's not paralyzed, and that's a good sign; but he's probably kind of injured in the legs, so make sure he takes it kind of easy for a while. He'll have a concussion for a while, just make sure he stays up all night; and his wounds, all I can tell you is to treat them for a while until they get better. And put some ice on those bruises."

Maddie nodded, and I fell back to the ground and started to breathe heavily again. I wanted to sleep, but I couldn't. Oh, how badly I wanted to sleep!

I wouldn't have even considered sleeping if I had known what Kurt was planning to do to Maddie.


A/N: So, what do you think? R&R, please!