I'm Right Here by Rose Haze

Disclaimer: I do not own The Suite Life of Zack and Cody

Author's Note: I'm so happy that nobody (at least nobody who reviewed) thought that the last chapter was boring! The individual responses to my wonderful, wonderful reviewers are at the end of the chapter!

This chapter is dedicated to littlerascalash as a thank you for the extremely encouraging

and thoughtful e-mails she sent me. Thank you so much!

There is no such thing as "fun for the whole family" –Jerry Seinfeld

Chapter Four

The Wait Continues

Outside the sun was setting. The sky was the color of a dark robin's egg. The clouds were lined with pink and purple hues. It was windy and a little cold. The trees swayed in the breeze.

In the hospital parking lot, the shadows of the cars leaned against the gritty pavement. In an empty parking space near the entrance of the emergency room, Zack Martin was pacing back and forth.

He felt relieved to be away from everyone in the waiting room. Now that he was alone there was nobody staring at him like they were waiting for him to break down and cry. There was nobody bothering him, asking if he was okay every two seconds. And best of all, his mother wasn't there crying her eyes out. Zack shoved his fists into his pockets and continued to pace. He was furious with his mother. She was the parent and Zack was the child—not the other way around. She was the one who was supposed to think positively and assure Zack that everything was going to be okay.

"Zack?" called Carey. She was standing a few feet behind him with a look of concern on her face.

"What do you want?" he asked angrily.

"I want to talk to you," she said, "you are worried about Cody and so am I."

"You think he's going to die!" Zack exploded, "He's laying there in a coma and all you can think about is how much his funeral will cost!"

"Zack!" Carey cried, "How can you say that? You know I care about Cody and that I'm scared for him just like you are."

Zack didn't say anything. He just starred at the ground. Carey took a few tentative steps towards him, "I know what I said, Zack, and maybe I shouldn't have said it in front of you. But…but…Zack, you need to be prepared for what could happen if—if Cody doesn't pull through."

"Don't say that," Zack said sharply.

"Zack…"

"Cody's going to be fine!" he shouted, "He's going to wake up and nothing will be wrong with him and then we can go home and everything will be back to normal and then we can pretend that this never happened."

Carey sighed, "Let's go back inside. It's getting dark."

"I'm staying out here for awhile."

"No you're not."

"I don't want to sit with all those people."

"Zack, 'all those people' have been helping us through all this."

"No they haven't! They've been staring at me and asking me questions—"

"—and being there for us when we need them. You should be thankful that we have friends like that! Now let's go inside."

Zack followed her without arguing. He decided that he would ignore Mrs. King and the others if they bothered him again. But if his mom started crying again, he was out of there.

When they got inside, Zack returned to his chair in the waiting room. Carey, on the other hand, went to use the phone. When Carey followed Zack outside earlier, Mrs. King called the Tipton Hotel and told Mr. Moseby what happened to Cody, and that Carey wouldn't be able to make her show that night. But there was another phone call that had to be made, and Carey was going to be making it herself.

She walked slowly to the public phone in the waiting room, than numbly dialed the number that she knew by heart.

After a few rings, the person on the other side of the receiver answered, "Hello?"

The voice was a woman's.

"Um, hi," Carey said, caught off guard, "can I speak to Kurt, please?"

"Yeah, hold on," the lady replied. Seconds later she heard the voice that she expected to hear when she first called.

"Hello?"

"Kurt? It's me...Carey."

Kurt took a long, deep breath, "is everything okay?"

"No, it's not," Carey replied, "It's Cody. He's in the hospital."

"What happened?"

"He was hit by a car. He fractured his skull and now he's in surgery. He's in a coma and... it doesn't look good."

There was silence on the other end.

"Kurt?" asked Carey, "are you alright?"

"Yeah," he replied, "yeah, what hospital are you at?"

"St. Lucia's"

"Where is that?"
"Vonderahe Avenue. It's off the second exit on Kennedy Highway."

"I'll be there as soon as possible," Kurt said. He hung up.

Carey starred at the receiver with a mix of shock and disbelief. Aside from a few visits and phone calls, and a check every six months, Kurt was not a part of Carey and the twins' lives. She knew Kurt would be worried and upset once he heard about Cody, but she didn't think that he would come all the way to Boston. She shrugged and hung up the phone, than returned to her seat next to Zack in the waiting room.

"You're father is coming," she told him. There was not a hint of emotion in her voice.

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As the day progressed into night, everyone was talking less and less. By the time eight thirty rolled around, the group was completely silent. Zack was glad that the others were leaving him alone, but he realized that he missed the noise. The only sounds he heard now were the nonexistent ones of the voices in his head. Once again his mother's words repeated in an endless cycle of echoes. Only this time he wasn't hearing 'what happens after the operation.' He was hearing: 'You need to be prepared for what happens if Cody doesn't pull through.' Zack shook his head, trying to erase that sentence from his memory.

-------------

Kurt Martin stood in the entrance of the waiting room. The ER receptionist had just pointed out to him where his son and ex-wife were sitting. Not that he needed her to. They looked exactly the way he remembered them. The only significant difference was that there was only one blonde boy sitting there instead of two.

He stepped through the doorway and headed toward them. His girlfriend, Samantha, was at his side. It was Samantha who drove them to Boston. He was shaking too much to be able to handle the steering wheel for the two hour drive.

"Carey?" he asked timidly once he and Samantha were in front of them.

Everybody looked up. Kurt noticed that Zack tensed when he saw him.

"Hello Kurt," she said icily, "Zack, say hello to your father."

Zack grunted an incoherent greeting.

"How are you, Zack?" Kurt asked.

"Fantastic," Zack answered, "how about you?"

Kurt was taken aback by his son's sarcasm, but he chose to ignore it. He turned back to Carey, "How is he?" he asked.

"I think he just told you."

"I'm talking about Cody, Carey," he said impatiently.

"Oh, Cody's fantastic too," Zack said, "Except that he's in a coma, and the doctors might take a part of his skull out of his head. Oh, and he might be paralyzed and he probably won't know who we are. He won't even know how to talk. But other than that, he's great."

Kurt and Samantha starred at him in shock.

"And that's the optimistic version," said Zack, "it's a good thing I answered you. If it were Mom she'd just tell you that Cody's going to die."

"Stop that, Zack," Carey said calmly.

"Okay then," Samantha said, speaking up for the first time, "not to make this any more awkward than it already is, but I'm Samantha, Kurt's girlfriend."

Zack cast a sideways glance at his mother. She smiled submissively, "Well, Samantha, you really picked a winner."

"God-damnit, Carey, can you please not make this about us for once? Cody is in a coma—"

"Don't tell me about Cody!" Carey snapped, standing up, "You don't know anything about him or Zack!"

Zack looked up when he heard his name. He had been starring at the floor—which was also what Mrs. King and the rest of them had been doing. He was used to his parents fighting, but it had been a long time since the last time that they caused such a big scene in a public place.

"You say that like you didn't have anything to do with that!" Kurt fired back.

"Oh, please, you could have visited anytime you wanted."

"And I'm sure that you would have made sure that we had a wonderful time together!"

Dr. Harrison entered the now noisy waiting room and cleared his throat loudly.

Carey and Kurt stopped fighting instantly and looked at him.

Zack stood up and wrung his hands. This could be it. Dr. Harrison could be seconds away from giving them the news that could change their lives forever...

"The surgery was a success."

Kurt let out a huge sigh of relief. Carey clasped her hands over her mouth and her eyes filled with tears. A smile spread across Zack's face and he sank back into his chair.

Dr. Harrison continued, "the fracture is sealed and they managed to get the swelling down somewhat. Right now Cody is completely unresponsive, but the anesthesia hasn't quite worn off yet, so that has something to do with that. He's in critical condition, so I can only take members of his immediate family to see him."

Zack stood up again. He was ready to see his brother.

...to be continued…

Thank you:

My Heart Beats Only For You: Sorry I didn't thank you in my last chapter—I posted it before I saw your review! Anyway, yes, researching is not a fun thing to do, lol.

Littlerascalash: First of all, thank you sooo much for the e-mail! That seriously made my day, and I appreciated everything you said in both the e-mails and the review. Thanks!

Kaoticjellybean: Thank you so much for reviewing! Yes, cute!boy!torture is oddly adorable. I am quite a fan of it myself, lol!

Britt199: Of course that's okay with me! I've been reading your story and I love it:) I noticed some similarities, but I never thought that you were stealing my idea. It was really nice of you to ask though, so thanks for that. And thanks for the kind words in your review!

Snowfrog5152: I like torturing Zack :evil grin: I'm glad you're liking my story!

Cleopatrafan: Drama and tragedy are kind of my thing:) Thank you so much for the review

I-luv-Ashley-Tisdale: Thank you so much for the very loooong review, lol. I loved reading it! And yes, Carey calling Kurt will be important to my story (as you can kind of see in this chapter). I'm glad that you think that the doctors sounded authentic. And I love your stories! Especially The Perfect Storm! I'm so glad that you told me about it. Thanks again for the great review!

COLE DYLAN LOVER: Thanks, I'm glad you like this!

BekllOBella: Thank you for reviewing each chapter. You're right about the headache, nice job catching that. That was really nice of you to take the time to write out four separate reviews. Thanks!

Benlego13: Thanks for the review. It's good to know that what I've been writing makes sense to someone who has experienced a coma first hand. And I'm happy that everything worked out for you.

ARandomKid: Keep reading! And thanks for the review!

Optimisticgirl94: I love making Zack emotional, so I'm glad you liked that. There will be much more of that in the rest of the chapters!

Keep reading and reviewing. And everyone have a great weekend!