A/N: I love all the Bones characters, but Zack is my favorite and I think he deserves some more love. My idea of that involves a lot of angst, but also plenty of fluff. I won't promise regular updates, but I'll write whenever inspiration strikes. Right now it's pretty strong since I'm watching Bones again at the moment. I apologize ahead of time if anyone seems OOC. I'll try to capture their personalities as best I can.
This takes place sometime in season 2, before Zack gets his doctorate, because he looked so adorable with his shaggy hair. I don't own any of the characters. If I did, Zack wouldn't have been written out of the show, especially not in such a dumb way. Though I am glad to have been given some kind of closure in the end.
Anyway, I hope you enjoy!
Early one morning in September, a fisherman on Lake Michigan had made a grisly discovery when he drew in his net. Nestled within hundreds of flopping bodies of fish was a skeleton. The flesh had been meticulously cleaned from the bones by the residents of the Great Lake, most trace evidence washed away by time spent in the watery grave except for a few scraps of mildewed clothing clinging stubbornly to the remains.
It wasn't much, but for Dr. Temperance "Bones" Brennan and her team at the Jeffersonian it was a gold mine. Anytime she had a nearly complete skeleton like this made her ecstatic. She was crouched by the body that had been laid out on a tarp on the shore with her assistant Zack Addy by her side, while her partner Detective Seeley Booth was finishing up talking with the fisherman who had discovered the corpse along with the local officers on the scene.
"My dad would take my brothers and I out on this lake some summers when I was younger. I never did enjoy fishing, but I found sailing pleasurable enough." Zack commented while he examined the bones, not expecting a response. Not when his mentor was 'in the zone' as Hodgins put it.
"So what have we got Bones?" Booth asked, strolling over to them and ignoring Zack as usual.
"I told you not to call me that. The victim was female, mid to late teens. What else Zack?" Brennan asked, knowing the answer but using any opportunity she could as a teaching moment.
A cursory glance of the pelvic bones and the sites of bone growth told him she was, of course, correct. "She was Caucasian, approximately 1.676 meters tall." the youngest squint replied.
Brennan nodded. "I concur." she agreed, Booth arching an eyebrow. "What is that in English?" he wondered. "Five feet, six inches." Brennan answered, standing and brushing off her pants. "We need to get this body to the Jeffersonian for a full analysis. These clothing scraps need to be looked at as well." she ordered.
"You heard the lady. Let's load this up and ship her out." Booth called to the Forensics Techs roaming around.
They moved to comply, but the loading of the body into a truck was interrupted when a sudden screeching of tires on dew soaked grass shattered the quiet morning air. A gray sedan came barreling out of a nearby parking lot, a window rolling down a hair as it swerved around in an arch away from them.
"GET DOWN!" Booth shouted, tackling Dr. Brennan to the ground. Everyone took cover as best they could, officers drawing their own weapons but having little time to use them as a gun peeked out from the car and shots exploded clumps of grass and mud around them for what seemed like forever, but was in reality a mere few seconds before the car was speeding away, a couple of shots taken by the officers as a few jumped in their cars to go after the fleeing suspects.
When the ringing in their ears finally stopped and a deathly hush fell on the scene, Booth cautiously looked up and pulled away from Brennan, who looked a bit disgruntled but grateful at the same time. "Everyone okay?" Booth called, everyone offering tentative confirmation.
"Yeah I believe so." Bones said, trying to keep her otherwise calm voice from quivering with the shock that always came with such a close call, even if she'd been through it before. It looked like the shooters hadn't been aiming to kill anyone, or had just been bad shots.
Then a small voice piped up that made her heart drop to her stomach, metaphorically speaking.
"Dr. Brennan... I think I've been shot..." Zack said weakly.
She slowly turned her head to look at her brilliant assistant, clutching his abdomen on the left side with a pained grimace. Crimson liquid was soaking through his clothes to pool under his pale, shaky hands and through his interlaced fingers. There was shock and some fear in his normally stoic brown eyes, now wide and almost pleading.
Booth leaped into action, commanding Brennan to support Zack's head and shoulders, shouting for someone to call an ambulance while putting pressure on the wound. "Slow, steady breaths Zack. I've seen worse, trust me." he said in an attempt to reassure the young scientist, though his voice was strained a bit with concern.
"Stay with us Zack..." Brennan said softly, out of her element now, brain struggling to process this situation, but knowing she had to remain collected for Zack's sake.
A cough shook Zack's slender frame, a trickle of blood coming out between his lips, attempting a sad, shaky smile. "I'm sorry... I don't know if I can..." he murmured, eyelids fluttering as the world spun around him and everything slowly faded to black.
It's late as I write this, so it's probably not my best work. I'm just getting started though. It's only a setup for the real story I want to tell, and I have trouble with that sometimes. I'm not completely into it yet. Read, review if you want, but no flames please.
