A/N: I know I have another story "There Can Be Miracles" and that one I am still working on, but this story popped into mind and I just had to write. I hope you enjoy the read!

Disclaimer: I do NOT own "The Suite Life of Zack and Cody".

Move Along – chapter five: One Voice

The paramedics arrived ten minutes later and the school nurse, Mrs. Clarke, had managed to stop Cody's nosebleed and bleeding ear. The paramedics were just getting ready to place the teenager on a stretcher when Cody began jerking violently.

"He's having a seizure," the female paramedic exclaimed going into immediate action. She placed a pillow behind Cody's head so his skull didn't crack open when it connected with the marble floor. "Are you his brother?" Sara asked Zack distractedly never looking up to notice that they were identical twins.

"Yes," the teen answered, as he watched his brother in horror.

"Help me roll your brother over onto his side. I'll need you to hold him in place but don't force anything. Got it?"

Zack nodded.

The seizure lasted eight minutes until Cody's body went limp in Zack's grasp. Tears were clouding Zack's vision. He would not cry, especially in front of the bastard who caused this… Mark Richardson.

Sara was checking Cody's vital signs and declared in alarm, "He's not breathing, and no pulse. Mick, bag him. Scot, call Boston Memorial and tell them we've got a busted aneurysm coming ETA fifteen minutes."

"Right on it," responded Scot.

As the paramedic team struggled to bring Cody back to life, Zack's physics' teacher, Mr. Jackson, led him over to Officer Mitchell who had some questions for him. His partner, Officer Wilson, was keeping vigil on the patrol car that contained Mark Richardson. As Zack attempted to answer Officer Mitchell's questions, all Zack could concentrate on, was the crucial battle the paramedics were having with his twin brother's life.

"What's your brother's name, son?"

"Charging 100, clear!"

"Huh? Oh, Cody Martin."

"Give me 50 ccs of adrenaline."

"What's your name and what's your age?"

"Zackary Martin."

"Charging 150, clear!"

"We're seventeen."

"Cody's mentally challenged?"

"We're losing him. Charge to 250 and pump another 50 ccs of adrenaline!"

"Um… yeah. He's brain damaged."

"Clear!"

"Nothing Sara…"

"Was he injured recently?"

"Uh, yeah –"

"Again 250, clear!"

"I've got a pulse!"

Sara sighed in relief. "All right Mick, continue to bag him. Scot drive quickly!"

The paramedics loaded Cody into the ambulance and they sped away. Zack looked on at the receding ambulance; frightened, worried, and full of rage.

"Is Mark being charged with aggravated assault?"

"Yes."

"As a juvenile or an adult?'

"Adult."

"Good."

"Call your parents, Zack. Have them pick you up here and go on over to Boston Memorial. I'll be there in an hour."

"Okay."

The officers left with Mark in handcuffs in the back seat and Zack swiftly pulled out his cell phone.

"Mom, it's Zack. Cody got beat up today. I couldn't stop it." Zack sputtered in haste.

"Zack, honey, calm down. Now what happened?"

"Cody's at the hospital being operated on, mom. Come get me. He's at Boston Memorial."

"We'll be there in fifteen minutes, Zack."

"Carey?"

"It's Cody. He's in surgery. Kurt, I can't go through this again."

"Let's go get Zack and head over to the hospital. I'm sure Cody's going to be just fine."

Five hours later Dr. O'Connor came out and headed over to the Martin family.

"Hi. I'm Dr. James O'Connor. I operated on Cody. According to the paramedics, Cody received a forceful blow to his cranium. The kick caused an aneurysm to burst. There was a lot of blood to remove but it was successful and the aneurysm is now tied off. There may be a leak here and there in the duration of his hospital stay, but that can be easily drained… take an hour tops. However, the blow to his head caused cerebrum damage to both hemispheres. Now Dr. Stevens informed me that Cody just about a year ago was diagnosed with brain damage, am I correct?"

"Yes, Dr. O'Connor."

"I assume he's made quite a recovery?"

"He has."

"Well I pray that none of your hard work was just drained away because in his cerebrum, both hemispheres were bruised and bleeding from the aneurysm made its way into the hemispheres. The cerebrum controls a person's speech, memory, logic, and imagination. Hopefully Cody's speech and logic are still intact, also his memory and imagination. I'd just hate to see you have to re-teach Cody everything again. As of now Cody is on life support. He's on a ventilator, which is machine breathing for him. His coma Glasgow Score is seven. That means Cody could go either way. He has no eye opening response, no verbal response but that's due to the ventilator. However on a positive note, he is withdrawing from pain. The fact that he's moving at all is a major plus."

The Martins nodded.

"Can we go see him?"

"Yes. Room 3056. It's private."

The Martin family headed to Cody's hospital room.

Carey walked right over to her son's side and took his hand in hers. "Hey sweetie, mommy's here," she said, running her fingers through his hair. "You can't go downhill, baby. It's Christmas time, you need to get better."

"Yeah Cody, three days until Christmas. You have to wake up, buddy. Christmas won't be the same without you."

"Cody, this should make you feel better – The police arrested Mark. I also gave him a knuckle sandwich, you would be proud."

Cody continued to lie there completely still; the only noise was the ventilator, which was forcing air into Cody's lungs.

"I can't do this," Carey whispered strenuously, running out of the room.

"Zack, stay with Cody. I have to go talk to your mom. Everything will be fine; she'll come around. This is hard on all of us."

Zack nodded and turned his attention back to his brother. Meanwhile Kurt caught up to Carey who had collapsed on a chair in the waiting room.

"Carey?" Kurt started warily.

"I can't do this. I can't see him like this. It was hard enough the first time." Carey choked back her sobs. "Then he was getting better, you know? And now because of one selfish, ignorant kid – Cody back's to square one." This time Carey allowed her tears to fall, "And now Dr. O'Connor basically told us Cody's either going to die or recover. No certainty that Cody will survive. Three days until Christmas and we may lose our son anytime before, on, or after Christmas. I can't take this, Kurt."

Carey collapsed into Kurt's welcoming embrace and cried; Kurt rubbed her hair to soothe her.

"Carey, I know the doctor's prognosis was fifty/fifty. But Cody's proved to us the inner strength he has. He made it through his coma the first time and overcame a challenging brain injury to where he was almost completely recovered. Yes, he's had a setback – But don't you think Cody's going to do everything in his power to fight and wake up? He's not the kind of kid to give up and let death win."

"He's so weak, Kurt. Did you see him?"

"Yes I saw him. You've got to get past his appearance, Carey. You've got to allow your mind to see the son we love and realize there's hope. Have faith."

"You're right, Kurt. I know that. But I can't…"

"You can't what?" Kurt's voice cracked in emotion.

"I can almost feel his pain – That's why I can't get past his appearance," Carey confessed in a whisper.

"I'm not a mother. And I've read up on how mothers feel their children's pain. But you can't let yourself get swallowed up. You've got to be strong for Cody. We must show strength and faith for Zack's sake. I know he's been pretty tough with everything that's happened in this past year, but he's bound to cave in one of these days – If we show him that we have faith and strength, then hopefully Zack won't go into the abyss of guilt."

"I'll try. I really will."

"That's all I'm asking for. Now c'mon, let's get a coffee from the café then go to the bathroom to freshen up, and then we'll head back to Cody's room. I left Zack with him because I felt they needed some private time together."

"All right."

"So anyway Cody, that's what I got mom and dad for Christmas. Though you waking up would be the gift of a lifetime for us all. Cody, I should've felt the pain you felt when Mark began beating up on you. I don't understand why I didn't. Then I was too slow to stop him from kicking you. If I'd been quicker, then you wouldn't be in a coma again. You'd just be badly bruised but nothing too serious. I can't apologize enough. I feel I've let you down again. And that kills me. I am so sorry."

Zack put a gentle hand on Cody's hair to fluff it down and felt Cody flinch away from his hand. Zack immediately pulled his hand back.

"Oh God, did I just hurt you, Cody?" Zack's voice cracked in fear.

Zack's breathing became irregular.

"Buddy, I didn't mean to hurt you."

Cody squeezed his eyes shut and his face scrunched up painfully.

"What did I do to you?" Zack whispered in horror as his brother began tensing up in agony.

Suddenly, like Cody previously had done at school, his body began to jerk involuntarily. His arms and legs spazed outward and blood seeped from his mouth. Cody had bitten his tongue. Zack quickly turned his brother over onto his side and tightened the arm railings on the sides of the bed to make sure Cody could fall out of bed.

"Somebody get in here now! My brother's having a seizure!"

Before the two nurses came running into the room, Cody had managed to choke up the tube in his throat that was connecting him to the ventilator and he began to choke. The nurses removed the tube and wires from Cody's reach and could do nothing until his seizure was over. The seizure lasted five minutes. The nurses quickly re-intubated Cody and reconnected him to the ventilator. Fortunately his pulse remained steady. Zack let out the breath he'd unconsciously held in and sighed in relief. Cody was still alive. But Zack backed away in horror – He'd almost killed his brother simply by touching him. He ran from the room in terror.

Carey and Kurt arrived back in Cody's room unaware of the incident that had just occurred.

"Mr. and Mrs. Martin, Cody gave us quite a scare ten minutes ago. He'd another seizure. Lasted for five minutes and he managed to pull his breathing tube out of his mouth. Luckily by the time he was reconnected to the ventilator his pulse returned stable within a few seconds. No true harm was done to Cody, but I think your other son got the shock of his life. He ran from the room like lightning."

"Do you know where he went, Dr. O'Connor?" Carey asked urgently, concern lacing her voice.

"He was headed towards the teen waiting room."

"I'll go speak to him," Kurt said. "You stay here with Cody."

Carey nodded and headed to her son's bedside. Carey took a cloth and lightly damped Cody's forehead to remove the sweat.

"Honey, I wish you would deicide to stay healthy. I don't know how much more of this I can stand. I hate seeing you in this position. You were doing so well and now we're starting all over again. I know it's not your fault. It's Mark's. He's being punished for what he did to you, and there's not one ounce of me that feels guilt or shame for having him convicted for three years. He could've killed you today if it hadn't been for Zack hearing you and stopping him from hurting you even more. Honey, you've got to wake up for me. I love you so much, sweetheart." Carey said, planting a kiss on Cody's lifeless hand.

Mid-day had turned into late night, and Kurt found himself sitting beside his son, Zack, who continued to play pool and ignore his father completely.

"Are you going to tell me what happened?"

"Cody had a seizure."

"You saw him have a seizure at school. What makes this one different?"

"I caused it."

"You couldn't have caused it. He's sick, remember? Seizures are bound to happen."

"I touched him. And he had a seizure." Zack put down the pool sticks, "I almost killed my own brother."

"Zack, you know you didn't cause Cody to have a seizure. He was probably beginning to have one before you even touched him. Even if Cody had died, you wouldn't have killed your brother. The seizure would have." Kurt wrapped a protective arm around Zack's shoulders and held him close. "Let's go see Cody."

"I can't… I won't… I don't wanna see him."

"Well you're going to. He's fine now. He looks the same as he did before he had the seizure."

Zack shook his head, tears filling his eyes.

"Come here, Zacko," Kurt said as he hugged his son close, rubbing Zack's hair comfortingly. He hated seeing his son going through this kind of pain.

Zack gasped and unleashed the tears and sobs that he had held in. Zack cried for ten minutes before he backed out of the embrace and wiped his bloodshot eyes.

Kurt took his son's shoulders gently and firmly told him; "We're going to Cody's room now. Mom and I are going to step outside for five minutes and you're going to find peace with your brother. Understand?"

"Yes dad."

As they reached Cody's room, Kurt asked Carey to step out, and Zack entered. He cautiously went over to Cody's bed.

"I didn't mean to cause you to have a seizure. Dad says it wasn't my fault. I know he's right, but I HATE this Cody! God you're acting like you're the weakest person in the world. It's like you ENJOY causing dad, mom, and me this pain. Is that the truth? Are you ENJOYING this?" screamed Zack in anger and hurt.

"Maybe we should go in," suggested Carey.

"No, he's letting his anger out. That's good," replied Kurt.

Zack began to cry again, "Oh God, Cody, I didn't mean that. I know you're not doing this on purpose. You're not asking for all of this to happen. Forgive me, Cody. God, please forgive me. You need to hang on buddy. You need to wake up. You need to wake up just on time for Christmas, okay? I love you, Cody." Zack finished, gently resting his head on his arms that were rested on the railing of Cody's hospital bed.

I'm trying Zack, I really am. I just don't know how much more of this I can take... Don't cry, bro. I love you.

A/N: Well, what did you think? Let me know in your review! The sixth chapter is almost complete so that should be out VERY soon! Expect Chapter 6 Wednesday or Thursday! Will review all who review me. Please REVIEW! Thanks, - -Stacey- -