I'm Right Here by Rose Haze

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

Author's Note This chapter was particularly exhausting to write because I do not speak doctor, so I had to fake it. The 'medical jargon' (how intelligent do I sound?) is brought to you by Grey's Anatomy, The Discovery Health Channel, and a bunch of tapes of the older episodes of ER. The information is brought to you by the websites that I googled:) On to chapter 15…

Chapter 15

Just Breathe

The miracle is this - the more we share, the more we have. --Leonard Nimoy

Carey, Kurt, Samantha, and Zack took the elevator downstairs to meet with Dr. Harrison and Dr. Burke. They just finished taking Cody's latest x-rays and now it was time to see if he was making any improvements or if anything was getting worse.

The four of them settled down in the x-ray room. A few minutes later, the two doctors walked in carrying their stuffed portfolios.

"Good morning," said Dr. Burke, "Are you guys doing okay?"

They made their way through small talk, and then got down to business.

"Well we have some good news and some bad news," Dr. Harrison said. He pulled one of the scans out of his portfolio, "The swelling of his brain is starting to go down. We are not going to have to extract a portion of his skull. That's the good news."

Zack shifted in his seat. His stomach hurt. Why couldn't the doctors just tell him that everything would be okay? Stifling a sigh, he braced himself for the bad news and tried not to faint… again.

"We ran some tests to check his responsiveness to different stimuli, but there have not been many changes. To be honest, he is getting worse."

"How is he getting worse?" Carey asked, "I thought your job was to make him better!"

"We are doing everything we can to save your son," Dr. Burke said sincerely, "In certain aspects of his condition he has improved vastly. His injuries are healing, and as we speak he is being taken off the respirator. But unfortunately, he is not doing so well in other areas."

"He is still almost completely unresponsive," said Dr. Harrison, "When he first came in he responded to touch, but he does not do that anymore. He is not responding to noise anymore either. In fact, the only time there seems to be any advanced brain activity at all is when the four of you are with him. Particularly," he paused and looked at Zack, "When his brother is close by."

Everyone looked at Zack for a second.

"What does this all mean for Cody?" asked Kurt.

Dr. Harrison sighed sadly, "It means that the odds of him coming out of the coma without severe brain damage are very low."

"You—you mean the memory loss you were telling us about and… well, stuff like that, right?" Carey stammered.

"We're afraid not," said Dr. Burke, "It is more serious than that. If Cody emerges from the coma there is a chance that he will be in a persistent vegetative state. To put it bluntly, he will not be able to walk or talk or even feed himself. It will be as if he never came out in the first place. He will be confined to a bed, and in need of constant medical care for the rest of his life."

---

Zack absentmindedly stirred his bowl of vegetable soup. He watched the potato chunks float next to the broccoli. All of the vegetables blended together, creating an aroma that wafted up to his nose. The food smelled delicious. Tapeworm's mother, Mrs. Lloyd, brought vegetable soup and bread rolls to the hospital at noon. Even though the meal she cooked smelled good, Zack was not hungry.

He could not stop thinking about what the doctors said about Cody. The thought that he might never talk to Cody again was unbearable.

"You should eat," said Carey, who was sitting next to him, "You have been looking sort of weak. You really need to build your strength back up."

He shoved a spoonful of soup into his mouth. He swallowed and felt it slide down his throat. He felt sick and the food was making it worse. He took a few more bites to please his mother, then got out of his chair.

"I'm going upstairs," he announced.

He walked out of the hospital cafeteria. The cafeteria was very big—bigger than the cafeteria at his school. But Zack noticed that unlike at his school, most of the people in the hospital looked very sick. And some of them were seriously injured. After spending two and a half days in the hospital, Zack was getting used to shocking images. At first, seeing people in wheelchairs, and seeing people with missing limbs and people who were bald, or were unnaturally skinny sort of scared him. But now it was normal. It was just another part of his life… and depending on Cody's outcome; Zack could be seeing such things everyday for the rest of his life.

---

When Zack entered Cody's room, Dr. Harrison was in there with another doctor. Zack recognized the other guy; he was the one who told him and the others that Cody was out of surgery the night before.

"Hello, Zack," said Dr. Harrison, "You have met Dr. Roth, correct?"

"Yeah," Zack replied, "What's going on? Is something wrong with my brother?"
"Actually, we are about to unhook the respirator to see if he can breathe on his own," he explained, "I just sent his nurse, Chelsea, down to the lunch room to get you and your family. You must have walked right past each other without even realizing it."
Carey, Kurt, and Samantha arrived a few minutes later with Chelsea. They settled into their designated places around Cody's bed. Zack and Carey were on one side and Samantha and Kurt were on the other.

"There are wires suctioned to Cody's chest," Dr. Roth told them, "They are connected to a beeper. If Cody stops breathing at any time for fifteen seconds, the beeper will go off and somebody will rush in to reconnect Cody to the respirator. They may also have to administer CPR." He looked at the group, "Is everyone ready?"
Zack stared at Cody's face. He could hear Dr. Roth unplugging the respirator. He lifted the mask from this mouth and they waited.

For a few seconds, nothing happened. Cody remained completely still. No oxygen was getting to his lungs, which meant that it wasn't getting to his brain.

'Please breathe, Cody,' Zack prayed silently. He gave Cody's hand a squeeze.

At once, Cody inhaled deeply. Then he let out a jagged sigh. It continued this way for awhile, until his breathing evened out.

"This is a good sign," said Dr. Harrison. A hint of a smile was playing on his lips, "I know that the news that we gave you this morning was discouraging, but don't lose hope. It's still possible for Cody to pull though."

Zack was not listening to a word that Dr. Harrison was saying. He could not tear his eyes away from Cody's face. It was the first time he was seeing Cody's entire face for almost three days. He knew that the mask had been taken off a few times so the nurses could keep Cody's teeth and the inside of his mouth clean, but Zack was never in the room when that happened. But now he was really seeing him. There was a thin tube above Cody's lips that had extensions in his nostrils to help him breath clearly. But besides that, he looked just like he was sleeping—after being beaten up in a fight or something.

For a little while it was just the five of them, but at one o'clock Nurse Robin came back just as she said she would.

She smiled when she walked in, "I didn't know that they took him off the respirator."

Carey returned the smile, "Yeah, they did it just a little while ago."

"Well he looks great," said Robin, "this is the healthiest looking that I've seen him."

Kurt stood up, "Samantha and I are going to go out for awhile," he told them, "To see something other than the hospital, "Do you two want to come with us?"

"Actually, I have to make a lot of phone calls," Carey told him, "But Zack, you can go."

"No thanks," said Zack, "I am going to stay here with Cody."

"Why don't you go with them, Zack," said Carey, "You haven't left the hospital in almost three days. And Robin is going to need some space right now."

"Oh, I really don't mind if he stays," Robin said to her, "He's no trouble."

Carey shrugged. She wanted Zack to take some time away from the hospital, but he obviously didn't want to leave.

"Well, I'll be back up here in about an hour," she said, picking up her purse from the chair. She walked out the door. Samantha and Kurt did the same thing after saying goodbye to Zack and Robin.

When they were gone, Robin pulled the sheets down from Cody's bed.

Zack shuddered. His brother was laying there with nothing but his hospital gown on. He looked so vulnerable and exposed.

She looked at Zack, "Since you're here, would you mind holding his head in place?"

"Yeah," Zack replied, standing up, "Yeah, I can do that."

H was happy that he had a chance to actually help Cody with something, instead of just sitting beside his bed and trying as hard as he could not to cry.

"Thanks," said Robin, "Here's what you do: Just stand here and put you hands on the sides of his head. Just keep them there; you don't actually have to hold on to him. This prevents his head from lulling from side to side."

Zack did what she told him to do, and watched her as she exercised Cody's arms and legs.

She slid her hand under Cody's calve and placed her other hand on top of his thigh. She bent his knee back and then straightened his leg in a forty-five degree angle. She did this over and over again for about ten minutes. After that, she did the same thing to his other leg.

Cody winced when Robin bent his knee back.

"Stop," Zack said when he saw Cody's face, "You're hurting him"

Robin looked up and smiled softly, "Dr. Roth told me that he was not responding

to pain. I'll have to tell him about this once I'm finished.

She was careful to be more gentle so that she did not hurt Cody.

When Robin finished stretching Cody's legs she moved to his arms.

"Do you want me to teach you how to do this?" Robin asked Zack.

"Yeah," Zack answered eagerly, "Why do you have to do that stuff to him anyways?"

"We have to stretch his arms and legs for him so his joints don't tighten up." Robin explained, "It might hurt a little at first, but it is important."
She picked up Cody's arm and did pretty much the same thing that she did with his legs. She bent his elbow and moved his arm back and forward, "It's really easy," she said to Zack, "You need to be gentle, but at the same time you have to make sure that his muscles get the stretch that they need. Do you want to stretch his other arm for him?"

Zack nodded. Robin held Cody's head and Zack picked up his arm.

Holding his arm gave Zack a weird feeling. It was nothing but dead weight. Zack stared at his brother, his eyes growing wide.

'He's not there," Zack realized, feeling sick to his stomach, 'Whatever it was that made him Cody... it's gone. It's like he's dead already. Oh, God, Cody...—"

"Are you okay?"

Zack snapped out of his trance and looked up. Tears stung his eyes, "Fine. I'm fine…it's just… never mind.""

A blush crept across his cheeks. He tried not to think about it.

'It's okay;' he told himself 'Cody is in there. He has to be. Where else would he be?'

He shook his head and concentrated on doing what Robin showed him. After a minute of stretching, Cody's eyebrows knitted together and he moaned softly.

Zack froze. A single tear slid down his cheek as he reveled in the sound of Cody's voice.

After that he tried to be gentler. He did not want anyone—including himself—to hurt Cody.

"I have to turn him onto his side now," Robin said after Zack was finished, "That's so he does not get bedsores. Do you want me to show you how to do that too?"

Zack nodded and wiped away the tear. He wanted to be able to help Cody in anyway that he could.

Robin placed a small sponge-like pillow next to Cody's head, and carefully rolled him onto his side.

"You're really good at all this," Robin told Zack after he helped her turn Cody back to his original position, "Have you ever considered becoming a doctor when you grow up?"

Zack shook his head, "No. Cody's the smart one," he said.

She smiled at him for what seemed like the millionth time, "Well it's good that you're learning to help with the exercises. Your parents both said that they wanted to learn how to do them too."
Zack frowned, "I have a question. Why do we need to learn how to do the exercises when you and the other nurses do them for him everyday?"

"Well, we will do the stretches for him once every other day, which is all that is needed to keep the joints from getting stiff. But exercise is good for everyone—that includes coma patients. A lot of times the family members and good friends like to do the exercises for them for some extra help. And sometimes they take over and us nurses don't have to do it for them anymore."

"Do you think Cody's going to live?" Zack asked suddenly.

Robin looked surprised, "Um, the doctors are doing everything that they can."

"I know," Zack interrupted, 'But you work with a lot of coma patients, right? Do most of them who are like Cody live or die?"

"It is different with every individual person," she said, obviously avoiding answering the extremely blunt question, "the important thing is to make sure that you keep a positive attitude around Cody. Let him know that you love him and that you want him to wake up. And do not forget that miracles can happen."

To Be Continued

A/N Oh my goodness, I can't believe that this is halfway over! Thanks to everyone who has been reading it, especially those of you who have been reading all the way back in September. I just started writing my next fan fiction story which is called Blood in the Bathroom. I am having so much fun writing it that part of me wants to stop posting this and just start posting my new one, but that won't happen—I put way too much time and work into this story to just stop, and I love everyone who reviewed, so yeah. I guess that's all I have to say. Please review : )

Up Next: Chapter 16 The Love of Family…