Disclaimer: I don't own The Suite Life of Zack and Cody or The Suite Life on Deck. Well... not yet anyway...

Chapter 6: Photos

Slam! Bailey forcibly shut the door, then turned and collapsed onto her bed, burying her face into her soft, fluffy pillow. She had just gotten back from a long day of school, and was not looking forward to a night of studying.

At the mention of studying, Bailey guiltily looked up at Maya and Marcus, who were taking their books out of their backpacks. Ms. Tutweiller was giving them a calculus test the next day, and she had offered to help her two friends review.

With a sigh, she dragged herself out of bed and wearily got out her books. Normally, she would be excited by the prospect of homework, but now, it was the last thing on her mind.

Ever since they watched the second video a few days ago, that had been the only thing Bailey could focus on. She couldn't shake the gruesome images of Drew beating up Cody and, even worse, Zack's reaction to finding his brother almost dead.

She remembered how, before Mr. Moseby finally caved and showed them the second video, Bailey had been imagining horrible scenes of terrible things happening to Cody, which had nearly changed her mind about seeing the rest of the tapes. What she actually saw was worse than anything she had imagined, though, and Mr. Moseby said that the rest of the videos were even more dreadful. She still wasn't exactly sure how that was possible.

However, this time, the prospect of something worse certainly scared her, but she wasn't about to let it ward her off, like it nearly had last time.

The reason for this was, although it was saddening to know that their friend had faced such an extreme tragedy (even though she still wasn't completely certain about what it was), Bailey felt fortunate to see a different side of him. It made her more appreciative of the things that he did, even the ones that irritated her.

Even though he could act arrogant and insensitive, Bailey knew that Zack was a caring person by his relationship with Maya. But, it seemed that her friend wasn't the person that Zack cared for the most.

In the first video, Zack had teased Cody about being a geek, but it had been obvious to Bailey that the two of them had a deep bond. Her theory was further proved by how badly Zack had reacted to Cody's injury. The two brothers were clearly the best of friends, which was presumably encouraged by the fact that they were the same age and spent a lot of time together, which came with the territory of being twins. Bailey winced. That made her feel even guiltier then she had before for saying that Zack knew nothing about being a twin. She wished that she could apologize to him, but it would mean revealing that they had seen the tapes and knew about Cody, which Mr. Moseby had strictly forbid. Also, she assumed that being reminded of what happened would make him feel worse than he had during the twin unit.

Suddenly, Maya cleared her throat, pulling Bailey from her thoughts.

She looked up at the brunette girl, who smiled softly in return, obviously guessing what she was thinking about.

"C'mon," she said after a second. "We should get started on homework."

Bailey nodded and stood up, pushing all thoughts of the Martin twins from her mind as she, Maya, and Marcus started on the seemingly-endless calculus review worksheet.

X=1-10. Bailey scribbled the answer to another problem, her vigor towards doing homework restored, when she suddenly heard a sigh.

Looking to the left, she saw that Marcus had shut his calculus book and was resting his head on it, close to falling asleep.

Bailey rolled her eyes, then turned to the former pop star and yelled "Marcus!", causing his head to snap up, which he hit against the shelf above London's desk.

Rubbing his head, Marcus glared up from the floor at Bailey and Maya, who had burst out laughing.

"I think we should take a break," he said after the girls had calmed down.

Bailey opened her mouth to protest- they needed to finish their homework sometime- but when she saw Marcus rubbing the bump on his head, she sighed and said "Fine."

Instantly, Marcus and Maya stood up, proceeding to collapse onto London's bed. After a second, Bailey followed, sitting down on hers.

Sighing out of frustration for the delay, she looked to the right, her eyes falling upon London's bedside table.

On it, there was a thick, tannish book. Curious, she reached forward and picked it up. The pages were blank and glossy; it was a photo album.

She turned the album over and looked at the front cover. It was titled London, Maddie, Zack, and Cody- 2005.

Excited, Bailey looked up at her friends, who were staring at her curiously.

"What is it?" Maya asked, gesturing to the album.

Bailey flipped the album over and showed them the cover.

After reading it, Marcus raised an eyebrow. "Zack and Cody at the Tipton? That was like five years ago."

These words caused something to click in Bailey's mind. Five years… Cody had died five years ago. If the album was from that time, maybe it had pictures displaying what had happened. Bailey voiced her theory.

Marcus and Maya exchanged looks, then Maya turned back to her.

"Only one way to find out," she said, yanking the photo album out of Bailey's hand.

Bailey stood up and moved over to sit on Maya's right, who then proceeded to open up the album. The three of them looked, the girls occasionally cooing over cute pictures- like one where Zack and Cody were both in tears clinging to each other- until they reached a startling section.

The pictures clearly descripted the aftermath of Drew's attack on Cody.

The first one was a picture of Zack crying over Cody's body in the alley- Bailey guessed that it had been a screenshot taken by the camera Drew had used. She had seen that one before, so it was unpleasant but not too shocking.

The same could not be said for the second picture, however. It displayed Cody lying on a hospital bed. His face was pale and scarred, but the bruises Bailey had seen when Drew attacked him were less apparent. He'd clearly been in the hospital for a while.

The final picture, though, was the worse.

At first glance, it didn't look like much. Truth be told, the main focus was the Tipton's lobby. But, in the center of it all, one of the twins- after a second, Bailey identified him as Zack- was lying on the floor. His legs were drawn up to his chest, and his head was tucked into his neck. He was lying on his side, tears streaming down his face. Several people surrounded him, and Bailey identified Mr. Moseby, Carey, London, and Maddie amongst the sea. They all looked only slightly less devastated then Zack.

When Maya moved to turn the page, Bailey's hand shot out, keeping the picture down.

Her friends turned and eyed her curiously.

"What's wrong?" Marcus asked.

Bailey swallowed nervously. "That- that picture," she said. "Don't you see what it is?"

They both shook their heads.

Bailey took a deep breath. The last picture definitely seemed strange to her, but at first, she wasn't quite sure why.

At first glance, she had merely though it had been placed in the wrong section, since the backdrop of the Tipton seemed much calmer then the hospital or the dingy alley where Cody had been attacked.

But, when she looked closer at the images of her friends, she realized the intense pain in their eyes. It would be obvious to anyone that something bad had happened, but Bailey knew that Marcus and Maya didn't know exactly what.

Her eyes scanned the picture, confirming her thought one last time before speaking. "Guys," she said.

The two of them were already looking at her, so Maya prompted- a bit impatiently- "What?"

Bailey took a deep breath. "Look. Cody's not in the picture."

Both of them simultaneously turned and looked at the picture, finding that Bailey was right.

"So?" Marcus then asked hesitantly, seeming a bit abashed that he was missing her point.

Bailey turned to look at him. "So," she said. "The last few pictures were of Cody seriously hurt. This one shows Zack crying, and Cody's not there." She abruptly stopped speaking, not willing to voice what she was trying to say.

Her words seemed to be enough, though, because both Marcus and Maya's eyed widened in realization.

"C-Cody's dead in this picture, isn't he?" Maya asked in a whisper.

Bailey slowly nodded, trying to keep herself from thinking about how he could have died.

Maya, however, seemed to disagree, because she yanked the photo album out of Bailey's hand, and started flipping through the pages, stopping every now and then to look at a picture.

Marcus seemed to not be on the same page as the two of them were, though, because he asked "What are you doing?"

"Trying to find a picture of how Cody died."

Bailey shook her head, not wanting to see a picture of a hurt, lifeless Cody. "No," she said.

Maya stopped going through the book and turned to face Bailey. "Why?" she asked.

The blonde took a deep breath. "I don't want to see it."

In response, Maya sighed. It seemed to Bailey that she knew that this was coming.

"Look, Bailey," she said. "I know you're scared. I am too. But, aren't you curious? Don't you want to know what happened to Cody and find out why Zack is the way he is?"

When Maya stopped speaking, Bailey was shocked. It seemed almost like Maya had gotten inside her head and seen her thoughts, then used them against her. After all, how else could she know that she had just thought about how proud she was to have this new insight on their friend? Either way, though, Bailey found that she was unable to argue with Maya.

She sighed, then looked up at her friends.

"All right," she said. "We'll find out how Cody died."

Maya and Marcus smiled in victory, but their eyes were still sad due to the solemnness of the subject at hand. Maya pulled the photo album back towards her, but Bailey grabbed onto it, preventing the brunette girl from re-opening the book.

Maya opened her mouth to protest, but Bailey cut her off.

"We're not doing it like this, though," she said.

This time, she allowed Marcus to ask "What do you mean?"

Bailey stood up, replacing the album on London's bedside table. She then turned to the other two.

"C'mon," she said. "Let's go get Mr. Moseby to show us the third video."

Erm, hi? Please don't kill me for the extreme lateness of this chapter; I didn't even realize that it had been three months. I only started writing when several people asked me if I was going to continue, so thanks, guys. Anyway, I was going to have this chapter up yeaterday, but then a generator caught on fire and we lost power for the night. But it's all fixed now, so enjoy chapter 6! I hope it's not too awful.

Also, I've posted the first chapter of The Alternate Divorce Solution, so be sure to check that out if you haven't already!

Thanks to everyone who reviewed Chapter 5!

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