Falling Through the Cracks
by Aimme,
with touches by My Note Book

Summary: His mask was flawless. His walls were perfectly structured. Protection and cautionary containment at its finest. Even a perfect pretend held fractures, though, and no matter how strong his glue, under the right circumstances, glue cracked and had to be gutted and filled in again.

Author's Notes: Please see the first chapter for all thorough disclaimers, warnings, and notations made by the author(s).
Again, we know this chapter is short, but this story doesn't seem keen on long, long chunks for a chapter. The way it is flowing and the natural stops are what we have to go with—if it says there is to be a chapter break, who are we, merely the authors, to argue?
Also, there is a small chunk of narrative in the chapter that is put in italics and this is to denote a flashback, but it is so short, I felt it would be a little much to put "*Flashback*" markers before and after. I hope there is no confusion, but I won't know until/unless I get feedback about it. It should be obvious what is the flashback and what is emphasis and/or the denotation of thoughts. I am not confused, but I don't mean because I am the author—when others have formatted in a similar fashion, it has not confused me. However, I can't tell how other people understand things, or if they will understand this or not... At least one can say you have been warned...
Oh, and before I forget, the underline on words in pieces of text that are in italics are to add specific emphasis to that word. So, in the flashback and in thoughts, since they are already in italics, we have added underlines to add the emphasis. Pretty simple, right? Hopefully it's not confusing...

Additionally, I (Aimme), and also on behalf of My Note Book, would like to send out a huge thank you to our anonymous reviewer, BlackKeys96 (thanks for coming back for a third time!), you're awesome for your consistency! I don't know how you keep up with our updates, but it's amazing and we are honored! You are right, Cody doesn't want to see what is right in front of him—it's too terrifying for his mind to address, and though he's an extremely rational and logical individual, his brain's on the fritz and he'd rather rationalize it with a scenario he can accept. Accepting that Zack's been cutting (whether just that time or longer) is too much for him, for his panic- and terror-stricken mind, and his (surely aching) heart. Zack's going to be feeling the effects of what he's done even more so here in a little bit... Thanks for taking the time to review, hope you enjoy this chapter, and furthermore, we are still so very much enjoying that song (I'm Not Alright by Sanctus Real)!

If there are any questions about updating, see the note at the end.

-0-

Chapter Four - This Changed Everything

-0-

"Her pain was very apparent, the torment she was in." -Adrienne Barbeau

Bailey was shell-shocked. She was shaken like timbres after a twister, weakened and threatening to topple at any moment. She simply could not believe what she was hearing, yet her heart raced and fear pounded adrenaline and ice through her veins. No blood warmed her skin, and she felt her mind freeze up.

Zack was dying.

The concept bred terror in her brain and she could hardly think. The warmth of tears threatened behind her eyes. The idea of one of them dying seemed so foreign…so wrong. He was part of the group, and more than that he was her boyfriend's brother. Zack couldn't be dying! It was too horrible a proposition; it couldn't be!

"What do you mean, Woody?" she asked him, trying to keep her voice from trembling, but three words at the end of his explanation had turned her whole world upside down permanently after Cody's roommate had run up to her and that horrendous, fear-inducing expression upon his face had jarred the moorings of her world.

Woody had rushed unheedingly by girls, staff, and even the loaded lunch table, brushing rudely past anyone in the way. "Bailey, Bailey, Bailey!" he repeated as he dashed up to her, breathing heavily and panic, horror, and devastation in his normally smiling and carefree expression.

Her breath caught. "Woody, is everything all right?" She set her smoothie down upon the bar, where she had been awaiting the appearance of her boyfriend, not her boyfriend's roommate.

"No!" he'd answered shakily. "I've got some bad news, Bailey." He was wild-eyed and hysterical. And the sheer horror in his expressive gaze was just enough to make these things scare Bailey. "I think there's something really wrong with Zack. I don't know how to say this! I think…I think Zack is dying, Bailey. Zack is dying."

The moment kept replaying over and over again in her horror-frozen, panic-ravaged, pain-stricken mind like a broken record, wrecked by the pronunciation of five syllables, eleven letters, three words that had just darkened her sunny life enough to make her wish that this was just a dream. She wanted to have her ears checked and her head given a CAT scan just so she could hear that she had misheard Woody and/or that the last minute was a hallucination.

"I saw-I saw Cody pulling Zack through the halls, and Cody had some b-blood on his hands and Zack-Zack-that is, he had b- he had b-blood -a lot more blood- on his hands, too, and on part of his arm," Woody attempted to explain with an obvious and hindering tremor to his words, but he was shaken and his voice was choked up. "A big stain -probably blood too!- on the front of his shirt, Bailey, and he looked so deathly pale and-and-and—oh, it was awful! He seemed so weak and so tired and so barely there."

"Woody," Bailey stood up, trying to collect herself. "I…I'm sure he's going to be okay," she said, trying to keep the doubt out of her voice, trying to convince herself of this as well, trying to rationalize it all away in her mind with an explanation she could accept.

"I don't know, Bailey! Cody had a towel pressed to Zack's arm and he looked so upset, scared even. I even heard Cody say something about 'dying' and 'why' and Zack barely mumbled something about being sorry. Bailey, I'm really scared about Zack." He sniffed as tears began leaking down his face. "What scares me most, Bailey, is that they…" his voice dropped to a whisper, "they were headed for the…in…infirmary."

Bailey felt what little bit of her own blood she had had left in her face flee, but she doubted she was as pale as the vision Woody had seen. She had to keep her head, but she couldn't breed denial, and truth be told straight, she was scared and she felt terror and devastation eating away at her insides.

"Okay, okay," she said, trying to calm down and figure this out. "Okay, Woody, look." She held her hands out soothingly. "I-I will, that is…" she breathed deep, because she felt tears burning in her eyes and a knot of pain searing in her throat. She tried to soothe her own crazy emotions. "I'm going to the infirmary. I want to-well, that is, I-I need…I'm going to the infirmary, okay? Are you coming?"

Woody shook his head. "No, I…I should tell London," and before she could say anything, he took off.

Bailey wondered if he was rushing off to a convenient place to break down, though she supposed London needed to know as well. Was Zack dying? That would change everything.

Hands trembling as she left the Sky Deck, Bailey pulled out her cellphone and speed-dialled Cody, trying to breathe and calm herself down and get herself together. The phone, however, rang and rang, and then went to voicemail. She pulled the phone away from her ear and stared at it for a moment as if it had betrayed her, panic eating away at her heart. Closing her cellphone, she quickened her pace, a choking, burning, terrified pain twisting inside of her.

"Bails, don't worry," she said aloud, trying to soothe herself. "I'm sure everything's alright. If something's wrong with Zack, then…well, Woody said Cody's with Zack, and I'm sure he'll be fine." She was trying to convince herself, but she was having no luck; the knot that had been growing in her stomach since she saw the look on Woody's face only got bigger.

What if Zack really is dying? Her mind questioned.

He would have told us, she rationed.

Knowing Zack? No, he would not; he would have said nothing like he always does, because you just know that when it comes to things like this, he never does. The doubt in her heart grew.

Zack would have told Cody! And Cody would have told us…

And what if Zack didn't tell Cody?

She paused, stopped at that. What if he hadn't told his twin and Cody only just now found out himself about this? What if Zack had something serious, like leukaemia, and Cody only knew now because he had found his brother bleeding? A really bad case? Most people die from that. What if Zack were the next casualty?

A single tear fell down Bailey's face. "Oh, no," she said out loud, and with that pronouncement lingering in the air, she took off running down the halls towards the infirmary.

Oh sweet corn on the cob, this changed everything. Zack was dying.

"Now it seems to me that love of some kind is the only possible explanation of the extraordinary amount of suffering that there is in the world." -Oscar Wilde

-0-

Author's Note: Oh no! -ducks and runs very, very fast for cover- Mercy! -peeks out cautiously- Updates are weekly, and chapter five will be up next Wednesday evening. What do you suppose is going to happen? What about our favourite brothers? What about Bailey? What about London, Woody, Mr. Moseby (is that spelling correct?)? Is any of this relevant? Are any of these questions appropriate or relevant, too? What will become of our favourite twins? What does Bailey know, whether concretely or in suspicion? Everybody is on the fritz, and I think it's contagious...Do you suppose that can effect boats, too? Why am I asking these questions? Let's hear from our readers! We welcome any thoughts you feel worth sharing or you feel like taking the time to, but by no means feel like they won't be appreciated!

Thank you all for reading and we continue to look forward to this journey taken with all of you!