A/N: Oh, the ideas that hit you from time to time from out of the blue! A dance competition, a reunion and a broken bone don't usually inspire a story. But, in the always-wandering mind of a KTZLF'ing Zanessa fan...you just never know!

No, I don't own these characters, nor do I know them. But they've sure been an inspiration to me and will continue to be in my HSM-obsessed mind. :)

To those who read and review, thank you for feeding my addiction and fueling my obsession!

KTZLF!
adc

Scenarios: Rehab - Chapter 1

"Marry me."

The statement was short and simple, but out of the blue. The dark, but highlighted curls on the young woman's head bounced as she chuckled lightly at her friend's request.

"You're nuts, you know that?" Her dark eyes creased as she turned to look at the African-American man who was more like a brother to her than anyone else in the world.

"You said you loved me," he shrugged his shoulders and watched as her eyes relaxed and she took a breath.

"Corbin, you're not serious," Vanessa shook her head and sent him a tilted gaze. "You don't love me romantically any more than I love you that way. I mean…me and you? Ewww…well, no offense, but yeah, ewww!" Her eyes danced with the absurdity of his initial question then brightened even more when he shook his head and laughed with her.

"You mean you wouldn't even consider it?" He questioned and turned toward the brightly lit mirror in his dressing room.

Vanessa looked at pictures that were sitting in the miniature living room. The photo of this same young man, holding the hand of a younger lady, her lips pressed against his cheek, caught her attention.

"Your sister would be highly disappointed in you if I'm the woman you choose to marry," Vanessa offered.

"My sister," Corbin glanced toward Vanessa through the mirror, catching sight of the frame in her hands, "would be thrilled if I chose you and you accepted my proposal. Don't you remember her little pushes for us to date when we filmed the first musical?"

Vanessa smiled as Corbin held her gaze with his back still turned towards her. Both let the thoughts of the past make them smile and breathed deeply showing their contentment.

Corbin wiped the makeup from his face. Even his sweating on the dance floor couldn't remove the light sheen of foundation and powder that was meant to take the shine off his forehead. Having his dear friend in the audience of the hit dancing competition just made him work that much harder with his partner on stage.

After the performance he had made a beeline to Vanessa, wrapping his arms around her and picking her up for a swinging embrace. He honestly thought she wouldn't accept his invitation. She honestly thought it would be a great opportunity to see a dear friend that she had missed for far too long.

She set the picture down and wandered a little farther around the room to a photo that stemmed from the third movie that she and Corbin had filmed together. The shot of the two of them on a makeshift balcony made Vanessa shake her head.

"Why on earth is this here?" She looked toward the mirror and held up the glossy paper.

"Because it's me and my other sister," Corbin grinned at her and finally turned to throw away the wipes and cotton balls that now held his makeup.

Vanessa nodded with a roll of her eyes and looked at the other clipped pictures that were also on the small table. She recognized each and every person that was represented on paper. "I didn't realize you'd kept all these. Why do you have them here with you?" She wondered honestly.

Corbin stepped next to her and looked at the same images. "Inspiration," he breathed out easily. "I learned to work with you all and we did some amazing things in our movies. And when I think about what we accomplished it just reminds me that I can do this," he spun around and then grinned a bit shyly as Vanessa watched his expressions.

"You always were about the work ethic, weren't you," she reached up and pinched his cheek lightly. "Even playing a dumb jock you really weren't into goofing off." She crossed her arms over her chest and looked down at the various cohorts that she and Corbin both knew and loved.

"That's why you fell in love with me, wasn't it?" Corbin asked somewhat jokingly. "My work ethic kept us all on track and kept us moving to get the show done!" He raised his chin, daring her to defy his explanation.

"Riiiight," she agreed sarcastically. "That's what kept us moving and that's what made me fall in love with you." She elbowed him in the ribs and giggled when he put his arm around her and squeezed a bit too tightly before placing a light kiss into her hair.

The two fell silent for a minute or so, looking at the pictures and reminiscing, before Corbin pulled in a long breath and let go of her. "So," he started slowly and watched as Vanessa looked beyond him, seeming to already know what was coming next. "If my marriage proposal isn't a go," he pressed his lips together, "who do you love?"

"What?" Vanessa asked softly, hoping he would push this off as another joke.

Corbin rubbed his hands together and tried to smile at her. "Wh-who are you in love with, Ness?" he asked with genuine interest.

After a moment of silently, verbally, stumbling through her mind, Vanessa simply shook her head and realized that her friend was watching her closely without a smile on his face. His question was a double-edged sword that had nothing to do with him.

"I-" she began and yet shifted her eyes away from his. No matter what she answered, their relationship wouldn't change. But her response would likely cut into one, or both of them. "You know who I'm with," she finally mumbled with the words blurring together in a rush.

The tone, the hurried sentence, the lack of eye contact; Corbin expected them all. It was Vanessa's way of trying to avoid the subject. But it was a topic he felt she needed to address and he finally had a chance to open the envelope.

"I didn't ask who you were with, Miss Hudgens. I asked with whom you are in love." Corbin raised his eyebrows and was pleased when Vanessa's eyes met his once more – even if it did require his most proper use of the English language.

Still, she didn't answer. That led Corbin to continue his thought. "If it's the person we both are thinking of, at this very moment…" his voice trailed off wanting to gauge her response before saying anything more.

"It's not," she said quickly, but without conviction.

"Are you telling me the truth, or just trying to brush me off, here?" Corbin sat down on the coffee table and patted the seat of the cushioned chair in front of him.

Vanessa looked back and forth between his hands and eyes with a blank look on her face, eyes wide and lips sitting naturally on her lightly made up face. She tightened her arms over her chest, tucking her fingers under her triceps and trying to decide if she wanted to let the conversation move forward.

"Austin and I are…" she swallowed while trying to find the word to describe her relationship.

"I'm sure you are," Corbin interjected gently. "But you aren't in love with him."

"Yes, Corbin," Vanessa's shoulders became visibly tense as she pressed her side of the issue.

Her friend took another deep breath and patted on the seat again. "Sit down, please?" He requested and waited for the twenty-something year old woman to place her teenaged-acting body into the chair.

"Look," Corbin blinked and glanced back at the pictures on the table, then directly into Vanessa's eyes. "You and Austin… I know. You care for him and I believe he cares for you and may be in love with you. And there's a part of you that loves him – but it's somewhere in between this sibling love that you and I have going…and the way that you…love…Zac."

"But I don't…" she ran the words together earning Corbin's finger over her lips.

He pressed his own together while Vanessa shook her head in disagreement.

"Zac needs you, Nessa," Corbin looked directly into her eyes which stared back at him with far more emotion that she wanted to convey. "Whether either one of you wants to admit it or not, he needs you."

Vanessa sat still as Corbin pulled his finger away from her mouth. Her lips quivered, unable to deny what he was saying and yet wanting to express to him just how much work she had put into getting over her ex-lover throughout the past few years. Instead she just sat, trying to form some kind of sentence while looking at a man who cared deeply for both her and her ex.

Vanessa looked down at her hands that had somehow relaxed and fallen into her lap. "Have you talked to him?" She wondered aloud, taking the opportunity to turn their chopped conversation away from her suddenly breached emotional wall.

"Yes," Corbin nodded. "I've talked to him, I've seen him… Hell, Ness, I'm the one who brought him home from rehab," he laid his own hands out in front of him for her to see his openness.

"Oh," Vanessa whispered, "I thought his dad might have." She continued staring at her fingers and rubbing one of her manicured nails.

"No," Corbin leaned back on the table and then stood up, "I picked him up and took him home to San Luis. He and David were going to head to Peru for a bit for some r and r and just to try and clear his head."

"Good plan," Vanessa mumbled as she thought about their friend, the man she had fallen in love with a decade before, the same man who had fallen into a world of drugs before seeking help to try and climb back into his own, true, life. The same man that Corbin accused her of still loving; an accusation she couldn't sit there and deny with any true meaning.

Corbin opened his small refrigerator and grabbed two bottled waters. He loosened the caps on both and handed one to Vanessa. She offered a soft 'thank you' but then just held the bottle in her hands and stared at the top.

To ease her tension only slightly, Corbin stood behind her. "He needed the rehab, Ness. The coke is out of his system, his head is clear again, he's thinking straight. But he needs to know that he didn't go through all this crap for nothing."

Vanessa thought for a moment. "What?" She said more strongly. "Of course he didn't go through it for nothing, Corbs. He needed to get cleaned up for his own health and his own career."

"He needed to get cleaned up for you." Corbin cut in. "You know, since your breakup he went down hill. He turned to drinking, he turned to women he didn't even know and then he turned to drugs."

"Not. My. Fault." Vanessa stood up with eyes beginning to burn and turned quickly to look at Corbin. "I will not take the blame for him choosing this route. He was starting down that road a few months before we broke up, Corbin. You know that and I know that. Had we stayed together I may be in that same boat right now," she shook her head.

"Ness," Corbin stepped between her and the dressing room door to make sure she didn't escape. "You're right. It's not your fault. I'm not standing here trying to blame you. No way. It started before you guys split. And I know that was a mutual split, but then he spiraled. You found Austin and he found a bottle and white powder. I'm not saying it's your fault and neither will Zac. What I'm saying is that I think you two still love each other and I believe that while Z-Man was in rehab he was hanging onto a hope that maybe this would help you see that he needs you."

Corbin wiped a hand over his face. Vanessa pressed her lips together and twisted her head back and forth. "I get what you're saying, Corbin, but I can't handle that. We've each had to make choices for our lives. I can't help it that I found Austin. Call it fate, or whatever but…" She stopped and took a short breath just to ponder her next thought. I just…I can't handle it. And if he's put you up to talking to me…I just…"

"You gave him something, Ness. You gave him confidence and strength and helped him believe in himself. He's a good actor. We both know that, don't we? When you two split you might think he held onto that strength and ego – if you want to call it that. But when you went away, so did his confidence. He lost you and he lost himself. He needs that confidence again, now, Nessa." Corbin reached for her hand but stopped short of taking it, instead looking directly into her eyes to hold her focus. "He didn't put me up to this. I didn't aim for us to have this conversation here. But, look, he's still my friend and I'm just trying to tell you what I think he needs right now… and I think it's you."

Corbin's shoulders sagged. The thought of his friends apart had broken his heart. The people they had grown to be, apart, were practically two strangers. And yet he knew, who they could be, together, was a strong force of love that couldn't be broken.

"I love you both. You know that, don't you?" He watched Vanessa blink back tears that were fighting to form. She nodded at him slowly, unsure. "I'm sorry. You think I've ambushed you and I have. I didn't mean to. I just… I've watched him fall V. No finger pointing or blame games, I just watched him fall. He lost who he was because he lost you. And I'm scared that he's not truly going to find himself again unless…" Corbin let the thought linger in the air instead of finishing it.

"You do…still love him, don't you?" Corbin stepped closer to Vanessa and reached out with his thumb to wipe a tear from her cheek bone.

Vanessa closed her eyes, allowing his touch, remembering a similar one that Zac had offered her many times. The moment just made her more confused and unable to answer him with the truth or a lie.

"I don't know him now, Corbs. It makes a difference, you know? Just seeing him would be like starting from scratch. I don't know that I could put my heart through it all over again. I can't take the chance of him falling again and taking me with him. He's not my Zac anymore. The man I fell in love with may still be inside of him but I wouldn't even know how to start looking for him." She blinked and let a tear drip from the corner of her eye.

Before Corbin could put his arms around her, Vanessa turned away and smudged at the wet spot under her eyelid. "A part of my heart will always love him. I know that, he knows that. You know it, even Austin knows that. It's something I'll live with and a time of my life that I don't ever want to forget. But he's a different person now and so am I. We can't go back. And without going back I don't know if moving forward is even possible."

Vanessa glanced into the mirror and noted her friend's look of disappointment. She turned and stepped toward Corbin, his face showing the hurt, almost as though she was rejecting him instead of Zac. She wrapped her arms around his waist and allowed him to wrap his around her shoulders. Vanessa easily rested her head against his chest and heard his heartbeat echoing into his throat in the stillness.

"What would you have done if I had said 'yes' to your proposal?" Vanessa thought back to the way this heart-to-heart had begun.

Corbin laughed half-heartedly through his nose. "Probably would've asked you if you were high." He leaned his nose down into her hair and breathed in deeply. "And then I would've called Zac and asked him to be my best man!"

Vanessa looked up into his only-partial smile. After another moment her expression matched his before she nestled her head against his pectoral muscle a second time. A few seconds later the young man could feel his friend's heartbeat speed up before her words were spoken. "Yes, Corbin, I do still love him. But if he needs me, I need to hear that…from him."

RehabChapter1

"She still loves you. She said it and I heard it with my own ears." Corbin held the phone against his ear with his shoulder as he threw his workout clothes into a duffel bag.

"And she's disappointed with me and doesn't know who I am anymore and the drug stuff scares the shit out of her. Yeah, thanks for grilling her, man." The sarcastic voice held a distinct disappointment factor.

"Look, I admit, it scares the shit out of me, too, and I'm still here. Do you realize that my stomach hit the floor when you called me and told me what you were doing, where you'd been, getting help? I'm still kicking myself that you fell so far off my radar…it won't happen again, Z-man." Corbin stood up straight and grasped the phone with his fingertips as he waited for some kind of response.

"I appreciate that, Corbs, man, I really do. But I know it's my own screw-up. It's not your fault or her fault or anyone's but my own. It's my life – it always has been. No one forced me to get high, I just wanted to. Hey, it's good experience to fall back on when I play a druggie in a movie, right?" Zac stated his thought matter-of-factly to his old friend. He only halfway expected a chuckle from Corbin, which he didn't receive.

"I'm not laughing at that, Z-man," Corbin's tone was almost fatherly over the air waves.

"I have to laugh at it, Corbin. I have to make jokes about it because if I don't then the rehab hell is gonna build right back up. I've done the d.t.'s, I've sweat it out and I've practically beat my head against the wall to get back to where I am. If I can't look at it as real-life movie experiences or laugh about it then what do I gain from it?" The crop-topped young man looked out the window of his bedroom and shook his head. "Huh, what?" he asked the rhetorical question.

On the other end, Corbin sighed. "We both know what you hope to gain but you aren't willing to say it out loud. Did you tell your counselors the real reason behind the great Zac-drug-cleanup? Do they know you started hitting the bottom when you let go of the person you loved most?"

"It had nothing to do with…"

"Bull. Crap." Corbin interrupted. "Can you just man up for a minute? Put away Party Zac and Bachelor Zac and Hookup Zac. Let's just go back to the guy who fell in love as a teenager… the one who had stars in his eyes but was bound and determined to start his own production company because he believed that 'the little guy' deserves at least a shot in the dark."

"The love thing has nothing to do with anything. And that little guy got his shot, took it and hit the target dead on." Zac raised his voice and then let a breath escape through his nose. "The problem is, once your shot hit's the mark, it's done."

"Again, bull crap," Corbin gritted his teeth as he listened to his friend. "You don't believe that any more than I do. What you and V did together… Zac you two are amazing together. And NRW is on its way up because of both of you – mainly you. It's got your backbone and has your name written all over it."

"Just…look at the second chance you're getting here, Zac. You kicked the drugs. Don't let them pull you back in. You were smart enough to realize they were kicking your butt. You got help. No backsliding here. There are too many of us in your corner, pushing for you to get another shot. Vanessa's one of them, if you'll let her. You gotta take this second shot. I'm telling you where you need to aim. If you still love her then it's time to stop feeling sorry for yourself and let her know that."

"Very smooth, C.B.," Zac deadpanned as he let his friend's words roll around in his mind.

"What d'ya mean?" Corbin fired back hesitantly.

"Let her know that maybe our breakup wasn't the best choice I've made? Let her know that seeing her with another man pissed me off so much that I lost control and went looking for a way out – any way out - of reality for a while?" Zac huffed with a defeated kind of chuckle. "Let her know that I'm not sure who I've slept with and yet I'm 99 percent sure I've compared every one of them to her?" He let another breath escape. "And then tell her that I still love her and want her back in my life?"

Corbin waited until Zac finished his last sentence and then gave one simple response, "Yeah."

"I can't, Corbin," Zac spoke softly with an attempt to be firm.

"I disagree," the fatherly tone was clear once more. "You need her, Zac. Find a way to see her and tell her that. Just like asking her out on a date the first time, Dude. You have to do it, I can't. She needs to hear it from you."

"You make it sound like it should be so easy," Zac shook his head and looked down toward his naked toes gripping the plush carpet of his home. "I'm not the jackass teenager with a crush on a beautiful young actress anymore."

"No, you're right, you aren't. You're a grown man with a lot of life experience under your belt now. Good choices, bad choices, decisions that you've had to make…you've come through them and now you're on the other side." Corbin zipped up the gym bag and sat it on his bedside table before scratching his five o'clock shadow and thinking about the feelings that must have been overwhelming his friend, his brother.

"So you aren't that kid anymore," Corbin spoke gently into the phone. "Who are you?"

"I'm a drug addict who's trying to get his life back on track," Zac confessed as his rehabilitation had encouraged him to do.

"And you've got family and friends surrounding you who want to help you. But you actually have to take some of the advice that we give you." Corbin chuckled as he heard a playful "Pssshhh" from the opposite end of the line.

"Who is the one person that you believe can help you? Who was on your mind when the d.t.'s hit and you were grasping for any reason at all to keep going?" Corbin dared to ask questions that Zac needed to remember and face the answers.

They both knew the name that sat in Zac's mind. Her face had been the one he saw when he was ready to chuck it all and go back to the dealer for another hit.

"I don't want to pull her down, Corbin. That was part of the problem to begin with. I got drunk, or got a little high and she knew it was wrong. I knew it was wrong, but I didn't listen to what she was saying. I was on my own and doing my own thing. I thought she'd just roll with it but we got to a point that she'd had enough. She…she said we needed to make a choice and that one time…that one time in years, our choices didn't mesh. She was ready to look for someone who…I don't know," Zac sighed sadly. "I think I realize now that it was an ultimatum more than a choice for her. If I said that I was willing to try seeing other people, then she would give up her attempts to pull me back in."

Corbin's breath was a little heavy in Zac's ear. "Do you think she would've kept fighting? If you hadn't given her the okay to see other guys, or whatever, would she have kept pushing you to clean up your act?" He wished he could see Zac's face as he thought about the woman he had let go.

"I don't know. She had already reached a breaking point, apparently. What actually scares me, Corbs, is that…if she had stuck by me…I may have pulled her right under along with me."

"Is that what still scares you?" Corbin asked as he glanced out the window and then toward his living room.

"I don't know anymore. It scares me to think about life without her…but I don't know that a life with her is even a possibility."

Zac thought about the young woman they were discussing. He had learned to live without her, with the drugs as a crutch. Now that crutch was gone. But was he healed enough to do without them and the woman he still dreamed of each night. Or could he find a way back into her heart to save his life.

Rehab Chapter 1