Cody's POV

The first steps are always the hardest. I touched my bare feet to the soft yellow carpet and slowly let all my weight fall on my legs. At first, I was greeted with a pain so immense; I can't even begin to describe how much I wanted to get back in the bed. But I had to think about Zack. And Mom. And Tanya. I had to walk for Tanya. With the people I loved in my mind, and Tanya standing next to me, I put one shaky leg in front of the other, gritting my teeth to hold back the pain. After a few wobbly steps, I collapsed…into Tanya's arms. I was breathing hard by then, and shaking. But I knew if I was going to heal it was going to have work towards it.

"Listen," Tanya said. "It's not safe for them to know that you're awake. At least not Andrew. And we can't let Lola find out either, so you're going to have to stay here. I'll bring you food and dressing for your wounds, and the bathroom is right through this room. This is my room by the way, that's my bed. I don't care if you stay in it though; you need it much more then me. I'll just sleep on the floor like I have for the last few days. We'll practice walking everyday when I'm sure no one can see it, but otherwise you'll stay in bed with your eyes shut. Don't 'wake up' in front of them." Tanya helped me to the bed again, then left with a promise to return with food and fresh dressings.

I shut my eyes tight and my mind began to drift into thought. And I couldn't help thinking about Tanya. I had only known her less then an hour and I was already in love with her strong will and caring personality. But what about Max? The one I had liked so long…but there was nothing there. I couldn't feel a single spark. Not like when I spoke with Tanya. Does love change this much? Had it even been love?

"Ok Cody, I got something for you." Tanya stepped in the room, her arms full of various things. She dropped it all on the floor beside the bed and began to sort it out. "First, here something for us to eat. I snatched some things from the cabinets." She placed a few food items in front of me, which I ate hungrily. While I ate she pulled the covers off me. "Take off your shirt and roll up your pants," she commanded. I took off the shirt obediently and began to roll up my pants legs.

"It really hurts," I whispered.

"Oh my God," she said quietly. "Cody, tell exactly what happened that day. Don't leave out ANYTHING." So I told her. I told her how I was sitting in the room and how Andrew had said I didn't deserve to live. I told her how drunk he was and how he had nearly pulled the hair out of my head. She gasped when I described everything he had done. I tried to describe the pain, but I couldn't.

"Knives. Fire water rippling through my body." Those were the kinds of words I used. She felt around my stomach, and poked various places of my body asking if it hurt. A few did, and when she touched a certain place on my arm I almost screamed. She asked me to move my left arm at that joint, and I couldn't. "I remember him crushing it under his foot I had heard cracking."

"Did he do anything else other than beat you up?" Tanya's eyes looked strained as she asked this question slowly and carefully.

"No."

"Then you're lucky." I saw her look off like she was recalling something terrible. It was that same look she had made before when we first met. After a few minutes, she continued. "Ok, you have a broken or sprained arm. You have some really bad damage done to your face. Your ear is…eww, like coming off. Let me see your nose." She reached out a hand to touch my nose and I jerked back in pain. "I think you have a broken nose too. That's all the major damage. You have tons of bruises and cuts that will eventually heal. Also, your ankle is twisted. I could tell by the way you were walking…or couldn't walk. That's why we're gonna have to work for you to walk."

I finished the last few bites of the half of peanut butter sandwich and Doritos bag. I washed it all down with a beer she had brought 'for celebration of your wake up, and not enough to get drunk." Then she started to treat my wounds.

Tanya took an old rag dipped in warm water and began cleaning the blood on my tender skin. "Hold still!" She gently wiped the blood off of me, and I could see her cringing. I'm sure this was not something she was enjoying. When she put the rag down finally, I saw it practically soaked in red liquid. A few crusted pieces of blood lay near me where she had scraped them off. Then she got out the antiseptic.

"Oh God no, that stuff hurts real bad!" I drew my arm away as she brought the rag near it.

"Too bad. It will get infected otherwise." She gestured for me to bring my arm back, which I did reluctantly.

I wanted to scream because of the immense burning. It was like she was rubbing my tender skin with fire.

It took long enough for her too finish, but she finally did. I breathed a sigh of relief as she got out the bandages. No more antiseptic!

She wrapped the foot and arm with old strips of cloth that looked like they had been a pillowcase or something. Then she put my arm in a homemade sling from the same material. "There. How's that?"

"I can't say it feels any better." I replied, still trying to recover from the stinging antiseptic.

"You will. In time."

"Ok, whatever. But I'm really tiered right now Tanya. Can I just go to sleep?" I didn't wait for her to answer as I put my head down on the flat pillow. I closed my eyes, and let a deep sleep overcome me.

Max's POV

I stayed on the phone with Zack for hours. We cried together until my Mom finally came home from God knows where. All I know is that she was drunk...really drunk. I told Zack I had to hang up, but wanted to see him the next day. We made a meeting place and I hung up. It was strange; I had never heard Zack cry. Never. But when you loose half of yourself…your brother, the one you've never been away from more then a few weeks, and know he may not come back, it gives you reason to cry. I was crying too.

I missed Cody. There had always been a special place in my heart I saved for Cody. Cody…Zack's nerdy brother. The one who always had something to cry about. The one who I had been crushing on…but why? I scooped into that realm of feelings now, and discovered…nothing. I didn't feel anything for him…except a kind of protective love. Like I was superior to him and knew it, and wanted to make sure he didn't' die. And I felt for Zack. I didn't want him to be this hurt. Now when I thought about Zack…my heart would sort of do a jump then land in a river of different emotions. It was all so weird, how fast my emotions could change from one twin to the next.

What was wrong with me?

Ok, so it wasn't my best chapter. I'm having a big of writer's block on the middle piece. I know the end, just not how to make it happen lol. And I decided to put some of Max in there because some people were confused by her change of feelings. There you go! Enjoy, and please review! Oh, and thank everyone else for your amazing reviews last time!