I own nothing sourced from The Suite Life of Zack and Cody.
For Zackary Martin time seemed to stand still as he sat in the viewing room overlooking Maddie's operation, she was so fragile, so close to death, Zack didn't want to leave her, he instantly regretted not having seen her in many months. But Zack was a conflicted soul, for just down the hallway his brother, confidant, wing man and overall best buddy Cody lay undergoing a similar operation to save his own life, Zack's feelings about Cody were so numerous, consuming and confusion he didn't want to face them, focusing on Maddie allowed him to do that. Zack didn't know what to think about Cody, he had been drinking, and with Maddie in the car, he had been so irresponsible, a part of Zack hated him for it, with a fiery passion. But another part of Zack was wracked with an absolute gut wrenching guilt, he had gotten Cody hooked on the alcohol, he had brought Max to Boston, in so many ways Zack could see it was his fault that all this was happened.
"Please Maddie, please Cody, hang in there, I don't know how I can go on without you" Zack said to himself as he began to sob, he just didn't want to think about it as he watched his sweet blonde Maddie undergo the surgery. He had never really thought of Maddie as his wife, never told anyone they had eloped that one night in Las Vegas, it had just been a stupid thing, and Zack thought it was a mistake the next day and they had mostly forgotten about it, but now he felt a connection to her and didn't want to leave, it was the most painful thing in the world.
Maddie wasn't Zack's biggest worry however, there was no one he cared about more than Cody but it was just too hard to face it, to face the fact that Cody could die, Zack was angry as well that Cody had thrown his life away, after Zack had nearly died a year ago to save Cody it just felt wrong that Cody would have driven drunk and thrown his life away, it actually hurt Zack more than the fact he had driven with Maddie in the car, Zack wouldn't have been surprised if she had been drinking as well. So rather than face Cody's mangled body lying on the operating table Zack instead stayed alone in the viewing room, he was the only one there to see Maddie, he didn't know where her family was, at that moment Zack was the only family she had.
Down the hallway Carey Martin and Marion Moesby sat in near silence, the only noise being Carey's laboured breathing and light sobs as she saw her sweet, misunderstood son Cody close to death on the table, she had seen him close to death too many times.
"Oh God Marion, please tell me he's going to be alright" She begged Moesby
"Cody will be alright" he said, desperately wanting to appease her, he hated seeing her so upset. Truth be told Moesby had an ulterior motive for staying with and comforting Carey, since their kiss last year Moesby had become completely infatuated with Carey, he found her so radiantly beautiful and his day was lit up considerably when he was near her, but all she saw him as was a friend, a dear friend to help in times of need, he was eagre to help as a friend, but he also longed for more.
"Where is Zack, doesn't he care!" Carey now began getting angry at Zacks absence
"I'm sure Zack does care, I don't think either of us can comprehend how he's feeling" Moesby tried to comfort her again
"All I can see is he looks to care more about that girl than his own brother, if it wasn't for her Cody wouldn't have been drinking, wouldn't have been in New Haven, and wouldn't be close to dying now" Carey's voice was now raised and she was crying through it, she was not in a good way at all, not dealing at all well with the situation.
"Carey, you know that's not true" Moesby said, understanding her thoughts but not fully agreeing with what she was saying.
"I'll go and see Zack, I'll see I can talk to him" Moesby wanted to help Zack and he thought maybe some alone time would be good for Carey
"Thank you" She replied almost silently and sat down burying her head in her hands and began to cry again, Moesby put his hand on her back before leaving to look for Zack.
Moesby moved down the corridors high above the operating theatres which entered into the viewing rooms, each door had a small window in its door and Moesby looked through these doors hoping to find Zack. After a short walk down the hallway Moesby eventually reached the door to the room in which Zack was watching and he entered to find Zack totally distraught just sitting, having obviously been crying, but now just existing, not showing any emotion or anything, Zack was completely drained.
"How are you doing Zack?" Moesby asked as he took a seat in the row behind him,
"I don't know" Was Zack's quiet response
"Want to talk about it?" Moesby tried to entice some therapeutic talk from Zack
"I don't know what to say, I don't know what I feel, I just want them to be alright" Zack replied
"All you need is to want them to be alright and to care for them, why don't you come and see Cody?" Moesby asked
"I don't want to face him, I feel so guilty, but I also feel so angry" Zack sobbed out
"Why?" Moesby replied
"Well I got him hooked on alcohol, and…well, you know what happened with Max, I invited her to Boston, I thought it would help him to talk about London with her because she lost tapeworm, but all this has happened now, I feel so bad" Zack was openly crying now
"It's not your fault, you didn't make him get into the car drunk, its not even all Cody's fault, things happen and we just have to get over them" Moesby's words were fully of truth and wisdom
"But I still have this anger that he treated his and Maddie's lives with such disdain, how could he, after all I did to save his life" Zack said heatedly through his tears
"Anger will do you no good" Moesby spoke true wisdom again
"I know" Zack replied breathlessly
"Why don't you come and see Cody, I think your mother would like you to" Moesby moved on
"Alright, can you wait outside a moment" Zack answered positively, Moesby left and Zack went up to the glass, pressed his hand against it and uttered quietly
"I love you Maddie, please pull through" and he then left.
A short walk later and Zack and Moesby stood at the door to Cody's operation, Zack wasn't sure if he could handle going inside, but he took a deep breath, plucked up his courage and entered. Zack's reaction was one of horror and devastating sadness he saw his sweet brother, his best friend lying sprawled out on a table, under lights, tubes into what seemed like every orifice and with the arms to a man inside his abdominal cavity. Zack broke into a great wailing cry of "No, Cody" when he saw him, Moesby grabbed him around the shoulders and comforted him as Zack fell to his knees sobbing, he had never felt such pain in his life. All his feelings of anger toward Cody were instantly removed in that moment, now he just wanted his brother to be alright, but his guilt was multiplied by a magnitude.
"Cody is strong honey, he'll be alright" Carey comforted her son as she now realised just how he did care, it was all alright.
Carey, Moesby and Zack sat watching the surgery and it progressed to its successful end, Cody was stitched up and the doctors seemed satisfied that he was stable for the moment, he was moved out of the theatre and Carey, Moesby and Zack were left to wait for a doctor to tell them just what was happening. Their wait was not long, soon after the doctor who had spoken to them before arrived in the viewing room to inform them of what was happening
"The surgery went as well as we could have hoped, Cody is still fragile and very critical, but his internal bleeding has been stopped, his kidneys are damaged and he will be on dialysis for a while at least while we wait to see if we need to proceed with a transplant or not" the news was a relief, but a mixed thing since Cody was not out of the woods
"When can we see him?" Carey asked
"He's being moved up to ICU now, it will take us a few minutes to connect and dialysis and ventilators and the other tubes and cables, but about half an hour you can go in, he won't be conscious for a fair while though" Replied the doctor.
"OK, thank you" Carey replied and the doctor motioned for them to leave the room to where a nurse was waiting to take them up to the ICU.
"Doctor, can I ask you something about Maddie?" Zack said
"Well, I don't know too much about her case but I'll try" he replied
"Do you know if she had been drinking?" Zack said
"I think so, I'm sorry to say, blood tests for the both of them will confirm though" the answer cut through Zack, but it also alleviated some of the anger toward Cody which was creeping back into Zack.
Upstairs the three were shown to the modern ICU waiting room, outside two large glass automatic doors into the large ICU central area around which the patient rooms were arranged. Not long after arriving at the waiting room a nurse came out and introduced her self and led them into Cody's room, the reaction was just again shock and disbelief. Cody looked lifeless, a ventilator breathing for him and a dialysis filtering his blood, huge machines, lots of tubes and wires keeping him alive, it was horrible, Moesby felt sick, Zack and Carey wept again, holding each other close it was going to be a hard time until they were sure Cody would be awake.
"Mr. Martin" The nurse began looking at Zack
"The doctors have said that since Cody may need a transplant we would like to do a blood test on you to confirm you a match, being identical twins you should be" Zack agreed and left the room to have some blood take, glad to be out of there for a moment.
"Do you know if Madeline Fitzpatrick is still in surgery?" He asked the nurse
"We're getting ready for her now, they've said they are close to being finished, I'll have a doctor come and speak to you when we know more" Zack thanked the nurse and returned to Cody's bedside, finding Moesby and Carey sitting on one side with Carey holding his hand, Zack sat opposite them and held Cody's other hand. The three just sat in silence watching Cody hoping for some sign of life, for anything to happen, but nothing came, Cody just looked like he was sleeping, save for lying on the bed with only a sheet overing his legs and waste and having bandages across his midsection- he wasn't in a normal hospital gown. After a while of watching Cody however a doctor arrived at the beside wearing a grey expression, but with kind eyes
"Mr. Martin? Could you come with me please, its about Madeline" he said not giving away much about the situation, Zack went to a meeting room off the ICU and sat down with the doctor, hoping the news was good.
Well there we go guys, finally another chapter- I'm so sorry I've been so busy working the past 2 weeks and then my laptop died after 90% of this chapter was written so I had to start again, it's really been a comedy of errors getting this chapter done but it's done now and I'm anticipating returning to normal chapter update rates. Hope you enjoyed this chapter and are continuing to enjoy the story.