A Shocking Revelation

After the library, school seemed to instantly fly by since Cody's brain was working overtime. He was trying to put together every possible connection this boy might have with the Martin family line. He obviously couldn't be their brother, could he? He and Zack would've known by now right? Nobody would've kept something like that from them would they? This was so intense.

The bell rang finally, ending school that day, and Cody rushed to the bus stop, he just had to get home. He was still in a trance, he couldn't hear the obnoxiously loud yelling from the kids on the school bus, or even hear Zack calling his name.

"Cody… Cody… Cody!" Finally Zack punches him in the arm, snapping Cody out of his trance.

"huh… wha…?"

"We're home! Get off the bus! This is our stop!"

Almost everyone was off the bus by now and Cody sat there like a bump on a log receiving a glare from the driver who had been waiting for Cody to get off the bus so she could continue her run.

"Oh… sorry." He quickly grabbed his bag and scurried down the steps almost running into Zack outside who was just standing there with his arms folded.

"What is wrong with you, and don't say nothing because you've been acting weird since last night."

Zack was irritated, but slightly more concerned.

"It's nothing…"

Zack glared at Cody.

"I know what you're gonna say, but I'd rather not talk about it right now."

"Why not, I tell you everything. Is Drew bothering you?" Zack asked.

"No. It's nothing like that…"

"Then what is it?"

'I'm not sure if I should say anything quite yet… it's a little complicated…"

"So you're saying I'm too stupid to understand… I get it… I'd think… y'know… since we're brothers an everything, we could tell each other stuff… and…"

Zack trails off his sentence and turns his head pretending to be offended.

" Oh come on…don't start playing the guilt card." Cody obviously fell for it.

Zack turns back around and smiles.

" Oh well… I'm not that worried. You'll crack by tonight. Lets go inside, I'm starved."

They both reached the Tipton and as usual Zack paid a visit to Maddie at the candy counter, but Cody raced right upstairs to the suite. Immediately he slammed the door accidentally waking up Carrie from her afternoon nap on the couch.

" Huh… what's going on… did the show start?" she said half yawning.

" No mom… it's me… Cody."

"Well quit making all that racket. I'm resting for this evening…" she dozed back to sleep.

Cody made his way into the room where he threw his bag on the bed and rustled out the photo he printed out at the library. Every time he looked at that picture, a chill ran down his spine. It was somewhat eerie seeing this person up close in this snap shot.

He looked at the walls in the room that had some of the soccer pictures where the twins had a group shot together. One of the frames seemed to have an extra space in the area where the photographer unintentionally angled the camera wrong. Cody put the crinkled up print next to one of their recent photos.

It was like the missing link. Cody had to know more.

But something was different about this kid that separated him from Cody and Zack. There was a sparkle in the eyes of the twins, a sign of happiness in their lives, while this kid in the photo, his eyes were cold, tortured, like he had no understanding of life. In this photo, he appeared to be curious of the stranger that snapped his picture, wondering if he should run, if he should stay, he seemed afraid.

Cody stared at that picture for hours. Then Zack busted into the room, with whipped cream all over his face. He seemed a little panicky.

" If anyone asks… the dessert tray was stolen by animal activists trying to abolish dairy products."

Cody hid the picture behind his back hoping Zack didn't notice.

"Hey! Did you finish our homework?" cream started dripping off Zack's face.

" No… actually I haven't even started… yet."

" Okay that's it! Something is going on with you. You spazzed out after watching TV last night, you didn't eat breakfast this morning, you were all dazed on the bus, and now you haven't even started our homework even though it's the only thing you're good at. C'mon I feel like I'm losing you, you can't wig out on me now I have grades to keep up! Talk to me!"

Cody just gave him a blank stare…

" Uhh… well…" he started.

" What's that behind your back?"

"NOTHING!… I mean… nothing really… big bro…"

If it was one thing Cody really sucked at, it was trying to convince Zack that he wasn't full of crap.

Zack was the grand master of B.S. he could read Cody like a book. The rapid blinking, the rigid smile, the constant stuttering…

the fact he was clinging onto that blankey, his never-ending, obsessive,

love affair, Cody always gave himself away.

Zack let out a wicked smile.

" You know mom's on her way out the door for the rest of the evening right…"

" Yeah… so."

"Just think about it… all rules go out the door with her too. And I told you that you would crack by tonight right?"

Cody didn't follow.

" I have no doubt in my mind that I can speed up that process. What do you think little brother?"

Then Cody's eyes got really big once he heard his brother crack his knuckles. He knew how crazy Zack got when they were alone in the house before Maddie came over to baby-sit. He was capable of ANYTHING.

Zack's wicked smile became a wicked grin showing all of his teeth. He salivated over the thoughts of creative violence.

" Speak now… or you can always wish you did before it was too late."

Cody finally took a deep breath. " Alright… fine. I thought I should've done more research before I told you but… last night I saw something on TV that was really freaky."

" So what else is new?" Zack laughed.

" I'm serious."

Cody stared into Zack's eyes, he wasn't kidding.

" Was it bad?"

" I'm not exactly sure yet…"

Cody took the piece of paper from behind his back, folded it in half, and put it close to his chest.

" Remember when I asked you last night if you've ever seen something so freaky, you weren't so sure if it was real?"

" Yeah. So what did you see?" Zack was interested now.

" I downloaded this picture today at the library during lunch. It was one of the children they found on the documentary I watched last night."

Cody slowly handed Zack the piece of paper, feeling reluctant that he show it to him. After all, he him self had a hard time being able to handle what he saw.

Zack was thinking what could possibly be so scary about a photo that was shown on TV. But when he opened that piece of paper, his whole world stopped. He looked at Cody with wide eyes and then he stared back down at the picture.

It seemed like forever before Zack could even take his eyes off of it. His eyes stared in disbelief. His concentration broke when Carrie yelled from the living room.

" Boys! I'm leaving. Do all your homework and be good." The door slammed shut.

Zack finally snapped back to reality. Staring intensely at the photograph he was finally able to speak.

"Holy crap!"

Cody just gave Zack a stare, knowing that he understood exactly what he was thinking.

Zack put his hand on his forehead and brushed back the hair from his face.

"Holy crap!"

He began pacing around the room frantically. He stopped only for a second and then stood at the picture again.

"Holy cr…."

" I know! You made your point the first two times. This is a very delicate subject right now so we can't freak out about this yet."

" Not freak out? What are you talking about? Are we looking at the same picture here? It's a perfect time to freak out! It's obvious we've been cloned!"

" Cloned? Is that the best thing you can come up with?"

" Well how else can this person exist? It's obvious someone cloned our DNA before we got to the delivery room. They drugged mom and forced her to sign government papers."

Cody just tilted his head to the side and stared at his brother in disbelief.

" Oh my god you're a dumb ass…"

With a swift punch to the gut, Cody doubled over. If he was going to get hit, he at least wanted to feel like he deserved it.

" Wait till mom sees this, she's gonna freak." Zack squealed with excitement.

" Do you really think we should show her?"

"Why wouldn't we? If anybody knows anything about this person in the picture, mom would. After all, she signed the government papers."

There was a slam to the door outside of the boys' room. They ran out to see Carrie standing there seemingly frustrated.

" Back so soon mom?" Cody said.

"They cancelled the show tonight because some crazy photographer tried to get a snapshot of an NBA Star and his family. He caused a lot of chaos and chased away most of the audience."

" So Maddie isn't coming over?" Zack said, looking disappointed.

"Fraid not… so what have you boys been up to?"

Zack just smiled.

" Investigating an unsolved mystery."

"Zack!" Cody elbowed him in the side.

" And what kind of mystery would this be?" Carrie said folding her arms.

" It's nothing mom… Zack's just playing around… right Zack?"

"What are you scared of Cody, mom's gonna find out anyway."

"Find out what?"

" The TV show Cody watched yesterday had a picture of a bunch of kids at the end of the documentary."

" Yeah so."

Zack holds up the photograph to Carrie.

" This was one of the kids, doesn't he look like he could be related to us."

Carrie's mouth just dropped open. Zack had to put the piece of paper in Carrie's hand. She seemed shocked, unbelievably shocked.

"Freaky isn't it?" Zack said, laughing it off, but then he realized that Carrie looked just a little too shocked.

"Mom?"

Carrie looked up at her boys, and then she changed her expression so she would look less surprised.

"Well… it does look like you guys. But I don't think the doctors miscounted you two chowder heads when you were born. They would have made sure to get rid of all evidence of you ever being at that hospital."

The twins just smiled. They felt a little relieved that their mom could tell her kids apart from this look-alike.

" So you don't think he's related to us?" Cody asked.

" Not a chance. I can still tell the difference between my kids and this stranger. Believe me, he's not related to us in any way." Carrie said laughing it off.

" You see Cody, I don't know what you were afraid of. And you spent all this time worrying about nothing."

"Maybe you're right." Cody said, seeming a little disappointed. He had wasted an entire day on this picture.

" Of course I'm right, now go hit those books, I gotta get at least a B on this homework assignment." Zack demanded.

"And what does Cody have to do with your grade?"

"Uhh… nothing mommy, he's helping me study. Gotta go."

Before Zack was exposed, he left before any other questions could be asked. The rest of the evening was pretty much uneventful; there was dinner, a little bit of television, Cody complaining about dust bunnies, and then silence. Everyone had gone to sleep, everyone except Cody. He was still thinking about that picture.

After about a couple hours of tossing and turning, Cody got up from his bed to get a glass of water. As he headed towards the kitchen, he could hear sniffling and mumbling.

He peaked around the corner to see Carrie in the kitchen talking on the phone. She sounded like she was crying. Not wanting to be seen, he hid around the corner to listen to the conversation.

"I don't know Kurt, I just don't know how much longer I can keep up this charade. We've been lying to the boys since day one; they're going to find out sooner or later. I think that we should tell them together."

Cody's eyes were getting big with anticipation.

"I know it's hard to bring up the past, but, what's done is done Kurt, we can't erase our mistakes. We owe it to Zack, we owe it to Cody, we owe it to… him."

Him? Who's him? Cody thought. What could his mom possibly be talking about? But then he felt a hand grab his shoulder and he let out a girlie scream that caused Carrie to jump out of her seat.

It was Zack.

Apparently he couldn't sleep either, and he ran into Cody on his way to the bathroom.

" Dude, what is wrong with you." Zack said half sleepily.

Carrie immediately hung up the phone and stood in front of the twins.

" And what are you two doing up so late." She was folding her arms.

"I got up to go to the bathroom and Cody was standing here hugging the wall. I grab his shoulder and he screams."

Carrie looks at Cody.

"I heard you talking to dad, about us."

Carrie's face changed to panic.

" Mom, who's… him?" Cody asked.

Carrie wanted to make up a million excuses just then but she realized that this couldn't wait another day, another moment. As scary as this was going to be for her, she realized that with or without Kurt, she would have to expose the twins to one of the most earth shattering revelations they probably would ever experience in their entire lives.

"Boys… you might want to sit down at the table. I have something to tell you."

Carrie was shaking. The boys knew that whatever she was going to say was going to be deep. She usually wasn't like this unless they were about to pack up and move the night before rent was due.

They made their way to the table and tried to be as comfortable as possible before bracing themselves for the news.

"I suppose you're wondering why I was up this late talking to your father. Believe me I didn't ever want this day to come up, but I knew that one day, you would have to know the truth."

" Is something wrong mom?" Cody asked. The boys couldn't handle the suspense.

And then finally as if to lift a giant weight off of her chest, Carrie just went ahead and let it roll off of her tongue.

"Boys… thirteen years ago… I didn't give birth to twins…"

Zack and Cody immediately looked at each other and then looked at their mom.

" Boys, I gave birth to triplets."

There was utter silence… it hit like an atomic bomb exploding on impact. And then finally as if to let up the intensity, a voice broke the barrier.

" What!" Zack exclaimed. Cody's heart was beating a million times a second.

"I gave birth to triplets, and the boy you saw in the photograph is your brother."


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