Zack shivered violently against the freezing cold wind. He tightened his grip on the slippery rope as the people on the boat slowly lifted his numb body upwards. It felt like at any moment, the icy water covering his hands would make him slip back into the freezing depths especially when he saw his knuckles turning white through slowly fading vision.

After what seemed like hours of swaying and shivering, Zack felt two pairs of hands latch onto his wet shoulders. Sighing happily, he finally released his death grip on the rope and allowed himself to be pulled over the side of the boat, and onto the sun soaked deck. He silently thanked every deity that he had heard of that the ship was so warm. He briefly wondered how the ship could be so warm while the water was so cold, but soon concern for his brother pushed that thought aside.

The older twin glanced over at his brother. A smile came across his face as he saw two employees rush over to him. Zack saw the employees put Cody's unconscious body on a thin white stretcher. His brother was safe, and that's what truly mattered.

All Zack wanted to do now was sleep in the warmth of the sunlight, but the people around him made this impossible. There shadows covered him and they began bombarding him with questions, not even giving him a chance to respond.

Pushing through the crowd, the man with the white suit grabbed Zack's head and pulled back his eye lid. Grabbing a pen light out of his pocket, he clicked it on and shone it in Zack's eye. Squinting against the light, the teen swatted the man's hand away. The stranger's smiling face was suddenly replace with Mr. Mosby's concerned one.

"Zack are you all right? Zack!?"

"Yeees! I'm fine!" Zack groaned wishing all of the people swarming around him would stop blocking the sunlight.

Mosby eyed the blond skeptically. "Then why don't you stand up?"

"Because it's really warm down here." Zack mumbled curling up on his side and closing his eyes. He was really tired. And the deck was really warm.

"You should probably take him to the infirmary. It only takes about 12 minutes for hypothermia to set in at a water temperature of 50 degrees, especially in someone as small as him," a deep voice instructed. Zack guessed it was the man in the white suit, so he cracked a sleepy eye open to confirm his suspicions. The man was kneeling next to Zack talking animatedly with Mosby. The manager stood up and started to yell at some more employees.

"What are you? A doctor or somthin?" Zack asked turning to look at the man. The man smiled and saluted Zack.

"Dr. Summers, at your service." The man said smiling brilliantly. Zack sighed and looked up when another face appeared above his head.

"All right Zack were going to lift you up-" Zack held up a hand, effectively cutting off the rest of the guy's sentence.

"I can stand up by myself. Thank you." He said propping himself up with his elbows. After a few seconds of silent struggle, he fell back to the ground, Zack finally gave up and allowed Dr. Summers's to help him up. The doctor grabbed Zack's outstretched hand and pulled the blond to his feet. Zack released a breath of air, almost regretting the decision to stand when black spots filtered across his vision.

"Whoa..." The blond mumbled stumbling a little.

"Are you sure you're..." Mr. Mosby's question trailed off when Zack shot him a glare.

"Yes I'm fine. Now...which ways the infirmary?"

Bailey walked down the hallway stiffly. She could

not believe how awful this day had been. A simple mistake had nearly killed her boyfriend thanks to her hotheaded brother. Ray was so lucky that Cody hadn't drowned. They were all incredibly lucky that Cody hadn't been killed.

"Bailey..." Rays deep voice called out softly from behind her. Bailey crossed her arms over her chest tightly, ignoring her older brother.

"Bailey, do we have to..." Rays voice trailed off as the duo stopped in front of a light gray door labeled, 'infirmary'. Spinning on her heel, Bailey eyed her brother angrily.

"Yes, we have to. You almost killed him Ray!" Taking a deep breath, she counted down from five, continuing in a much softer, but no less angry, voice.

"The least, and I mean the very least, thing you could do is apologize."

"But that's so..." Ray scrubbed his face tiredly, "What am I supposed to say?! Sorry for almost killing you? That's so lame!"

"It's a whole lot better than just pretending it didn't happen! Now stop acting like the victim and go apologize!" Bailey hissed, slapping her brother's arm. She really had no idea what you where supposed to say to someone after you had almost killed them but a simple sorry was better than nothing.

"What if they're both still asleep?" Ray asked nervously, snapping Bailey of her silent musings.

She cocked an unimpressed eyebrow at Ray. "Ray. I can hear them in there. You may be stupid, but I know you're not deaf," she snapped planting her hands on her hips. Ray cringed at the anger he heard in his sister's voice but didn't retaliate. Rolling her eyes Bailey stepped in front of her brother, grabbed the door handle and pushed it open.

"Hey!" Cody yelped narrowly avoiding the light blue pillow Zack had thrown at him. "You shouldn't be throwing stuff at an injured person," he reprimanded as he picked up the remote to the TV.

"Well an injured person shouldn't be watching TV. Which means you don't need the remote. Which means you have to give it to me," Zack retaliated looking for another loose object to toss at his brother.

Cody snorted, "That's stupid. Why shouldn't I watch TV? That's not a rule anywhere."

"Well I saved your life, so I deserve the remote." Zack said smoothly, "and give me my pillow back..." he added.

Cody rolled his eyes at his brother. "Get it yourself. You're the one that threw it at me."

Zack sighed and stood up. Walking over to Cody's bed, he bent over and picked his pillow up off the ground. Dusting it off, he smiled evilly at his brother. Sensing what Zack was about to do, Cody hid the remote behind his back. Before anything had the chance to happen though, the door to the infirmary burst open, revealing an angry Bailey and her uncomfortable looking brother.

Out of the corner of his eye, Zack watched his brother shrink down into his bed and shift his gaze from the door, to a spot on the floor near Bailey's foot.

"What is he doing here?" Zack hissed ignoring the pounding in his ears as all the blood rushed to his head.

Baileys gazed flickered over to Cody. She quickly looked away and crossed her arms over her chest uncomfortably. Uncrossing them and placing them on her hips, she sighed. "He came to apologize."

As soon as the words left her mouth, she realized just how lame they really sounded. There was no way you could just apologize to someone for almost killing them. Bailey glanced up at Cody. There was a big black and purple bruise forming on the right side of his jaw. Her resolve to stay angry suddenly dissolved at the sight of her boyfriend's bruised face.

"Oh Cody..." She breathed airily pushing past Zack and sitting herself at the foot of Cody's bed. All the rage she felt before melted into concern for her boyfriend. "Are you alright?"

"I am now," he said softly as he ran his hand through her hair.

Zack glanced at Bailey and his brother, glad to see them happy, but rage soon filled his body as he switched his gaze to Ray.

"A concussion, a mild case of hypothermia, not to mention the huge bruise covering the majority of his back, and he almost drown! You almost killed my brother and you want to apologize?" Zack growled angrily. Crossing his arms defensively, he glared at Ray. "It better be a pretty damn good apology."

"Yeah well...I'm sorry for knocking you off the boat." Ray mumbled quietly. Bailey tore her gaze from her boyfriend to her brother, appalled at how lightly he was taking the situation.

"And?" She prompted crossing her arms over her chest. Ray looked at her quizzically.

"And for punching you?" He added looking at Bailey questioningly. Baileys only response was to glare.

"And for losing my temper, and not letting you explain the situation, and for almost making you drown!" Ray apologized getting louder and louder with every word until, by the end of his sentence, he was yelling. He paused abruptly and looked up towards the heavens as if expecting an angle to fly down and give him the right words. Either that, or he was thinking about the all you can eat buffet table in the room that just so happened to be above the infirmary. Bailey looked away from her brother and over at Cody who was playing with the frayed end of the powder blue blanket.

"I'm really sorry Cody. I-" Bailey paused. What the heck was she supposed to say? No one ever told her what the appropriate response to your brother almost killing your boyfriend was. Cody looked away from the blanket.

"Bailey. It's not your fault; none of this was your fault. It was just a mistake. Let's forget about it. Okay?" He said wincing at some random pain in his body. Bailey stared at him for a few tense seconds her eyes dangerously wet. Reading the unasked question in her eyes Cody reluctantly turned to Ray. Their eyes met for a few seconds before both boys looked away.

"Uh Ray..." Cody mumbled wanting to be the bigger person and forgive Ray for almost killing him and endangering Zack's life. Ray held up hand to silence whatever Cody had been planning on saying. Taking a deep breath he stood a little taller and began what Cody thought was going to be a sincere apology. Instead, what he got was a shock worse that being punched off a cruise ship.

"I'm sorry for almost killing you. But really, a hit like that shouldn't have knocked you off the boat. Pretty weak if you ask me. It's a good thing your brother had jumped in and saved your scrawny ass, cuz I sure as heck wouldn't have." Ray leaned to the right and cracked his back. "But at least you didn't die. So consider it a lesson well learned. You know that saying, what doesn't kill yah makes yah stronger. Well, you're welcome." He winked and clicked his tongue at Cody. Turning on his heel, he clasped his hands behind his back and walked out of the room. His once tense posture now completely relaxed as if he had just rid himself of some great burden. The door slammed loudly behind him, leavening the occupants in the infirmary to stare open mouthed in stunned silence.

Finally, Zack broke the quiet and began yelling loudly, "I can't BELIVE that guy!" he yelled throwing his pillow on the ground violently

"What is wrong with him?" Bailey added jumping up,

"Out of all the-"

"Most inconsiderate people-"

"I've ever meet-"

"What a JERK!" Both of them suddenly yelled at the same time. Cody grabbed his head and flopped down on the bed. Of all the things he had been expecting from Baileys brother, that was not one of them.

TWO WEEKS LATER

Zack plopped a lime green bendy straw into the pineapple smoothie his current customer had ordered. His gaze flicked towards Cody nervously. Even though it had been a week since the accident, Zack could still see the fading purple bruises lightly coloring his twins jaw, and that was only a fraction of the damage done to his body. There was a large fading purple and yellow bruise covering the entire upper half of Cody's back as well as his left side.

Sighing tiredly, Zack pushed the smoothie at his costumer. She smiled and thanked him, batting her eyelashes flirtatiously. Zack ignored the girl; instead, he focused his attention on the figure that was walking under the arch in the stairs. His fists clenched tightly as he watched Ray strut onto the deck. A small grin came across the older twin's face.

Cody continued folding fluffy white towels oblivious to his girlfriend's brother or Zack's plan.

The older twin glanced up at Woody who was standing up at the top of the stairs with an ominous looking bucket in his hands. Zack gave him thumbs up and craned his neck to see if the skateboard he had left on the deck was still in place. He smiled smugly when he saw it was sitting undisturbed right in front of the hot tub.

Ray stepped out from under the stairs, heading for the smoothie bar. Before he took another step though, Woody tipped his bucket upside down spilling its red, watery, slimy contents directly onto Ray's head. He yelled loudly in surprise and jumped forward landing on the skateboard, which shot forward with the teen on it. Ray pin wheeled his arms blindly, trying desperately to maintain balance while simultaneously wiping at his eyes. The skateboard slammed into the side of the hot tub throwing him forward. Yelling loudly, Ray landed face first into the warm water. All passengers on the deck stared in surprise. Suddenly Ray's head broke the surface of the water. Gasping loudly the bumpkin looked around in shock.

"Who left that skateboard there?!" He spluttered spitting water out of his mouth.

"Mommy why is that boy blue? And why is his hair red?" A little blond girl close to the hot tube whispered loudly, tugging at her mother's long white shirt.

Rays head snapped towards the little girl, "Wha-what?" he mumbled glancing down at his hands. Rays eyes widened in surprise at the sight of his dark blue hands. Reaching up and grabbing a lock of his hair Ray pulled it down in front of his face and gasped when he saw that it was indeed red. Zack laughed and turned around satisfied with his handiwork. He opened his mouth to ask for his next customers order when he realized with a jolt of surprise that his next customer was Mr. Mosby. Raising his hands in defense Zack took a step backwards guiltily.

"Zaaack." Mosby said drawing out the A.

"M-Mr. Mosby! I can- I mean, it's not-" Mosby raised his hand to silence the frazzled blond.

"What do you think you're doing? There are empty smoothie cups all over the place!" The ship manager sighed sweeping a hand behind him.

"I'm not paying you to stand around and flirt with pretty girls." Zack stared at Mr. Mosby in complete shock. For once in his life he was unable to come up with some sort of witty comeback. Mosby's gaze wandered over to Ray who was spinning around wildly in the hot tub as if he was looking for something. Giving a final loud yell Ray climbed out of the water and stomped back towards the elevator. Spotting the skateboard he had tripped on Ray glared at it and kicked it violently which caused him to lose his balance, slip, and fall to the ground with a loud bang. Sitting up he looked around the dock in embarrassment, his face most likely brilliantly red under the dark blue dye.

Before he could stand up though, Woody leaned over the railing once again and dumped a second bucket on the ridiculously buff teen. Ray let out a loud shriek as mayonnaise coated his red hair and blue face. Laughing hard Zack dropped the washcloth he had been cleaning with on to the ground, completely forgetting about Mr. Mosby who then glared at him.

"I'm serious, clean up the smoothie cups." He mumbled before walking away. Zack wiped a tear away from his eye just as his brother walked up to him.

"Are you the one that's been dumping buckets of stuff on Ray all week?" Cody asked setting his newly folded towels down. Zack took a deep breath.

"Yeah, I'm also the one that's been throwing his shoes in the pool, stealing his food, coating his cloths in itching powder and haunting his room with a conveniently placed walky talky." Zack confessed happily, picking up a rag and tossing it in the air cheerily.

"Hey Woody. Nice work." Zack laughed greeting his chubby friend. Woody mock saluted Zack and set the two buckets down on the table top,

"All in a day's work!" He said placing his hands on his hips, feeling accomplished.

"Now." Zack said stepping back and reaching under the counter. "Are you ready for the next prank?" He asked holding up a box of saran wrap and a jar of guacamole and what could only be described as a miniature version of the international space station. Woody smiled widely showing off his braces, holding up a clenched hand the two fists bumped and rushed off towards the elevator.

"Wait, you're going to play even more pranks on him without my help?" Cody asked raising an eyebrow at his brother.

"Of course not, let's go!"

And thats the end of my story! Here I would normally go on about how awful it was, but thanks to my FANTASTIC Beta, I can honetly say that I think it turned out pretty good. So thank you, My fantastic beta!

Thanks to all of you that read! :)