Miles From Where You Are, a bones fanfic

Title: Miles From Where You Are

Author: Nia'sHiddenPuzzlePiece

Summary: Jack/Zack friendship fic, or unrealized romantic feelings fic, take your pick. Inspired by the song "Set Fire to the Third Bar" by Snow Patrol.

Rating: PG

Inspired by the song "Set Fire to the Third Bar" by Snow Patrol. I have no idea what hospital Zack was taken to so I picked one.

Bones is not owned by me. Simple as that. "Set Fire to the Third Bar" is also not owned by me. Technically I also do not own the title of my story as it is from the lyrics. I also do not own the song "It Gets Lonely" (I picked it mainly because of the video of Eric singing it- it's amazing). I'm just a poor college student.

Zack was bored and wished that he had a visitor today to give him a reason to use his voice. He had no one to talk to during the time that he wasn't in therapy sessions with Dr. Sweets or when Angela or Jack visited him. He was sure that if he didn't have these visits he would have forgotten how to speak.

The one sane patient in a mass of the insane. He was tired of how the staff seemed to be afraid of him. He couldn't get mad at them for it though because it made sense for them to be afraid of the logic ruled "killer" apprentice to a cannibalistic murderer.

Just because I did not kill the Lobbyist in person does not mean that I would not have. The Master's logic was irrefutable. I would have done it.

Zack used to have that thought often when he was first admitted to the Northern Virginia Mental Health Institute. Now it just seemed like a broken record in his mind, the thought would spring unbidden to his mind. He briefly wondered what his friends would say if they knew he still referred to "Gormogon" as "Master" in his head. Not as though he could help it... he never knew the man's name and for those months he really was Zack's "master".

A noise outside his cell alerted Zack to the presence of an institute employee. It was time for him to move to another room with the other patients and try to occupy himself just enough to keep him from actually going insane. He got up and followed a girl who looked as though she could be not much older than him. She kept glancing over at him and Zack assumed that it was because she was afraid of him just like everyone else.

Once in the room Zack sat down in a chair near a barred window, just like he always did. With a sigh he pulled his knees up and rested his arms on them, looking up at the gray, rainy sky. Just like everyday he remembered times before coming to the loony bin. Today his memories were focused on his best friend.

He had been working in the Jeffersonian for several months now. He had just missed the last bus to his apartment and was standing outside the door with a blank look on his face as he contemplated calling a taxi, trying to find someone still in the building who would be willing to drive him, or just falling asleep in the medico-legal lab when Dr. Hodgins walked out the door.

"Hey, Brennen's intern, Zack, right?" Zack looked at the curly haired doctor.

"Yes. Do you need me for something?" Zack was confused, he had never really spoken to the entomologist.

"No, but it's three in the morning, what are you still doing here? Not to mention you've been standing there for at least 20 minutes."

"I was helping Dr. Brennen, she fell asleep while doing a cranial reconstruction. I did not think that the angle at which she fell asleep would be comfortable when she woke up. It made me miss the bus."

"The bus? Why didn't you just drive?"

"I don't know how."

As Zack expected, Dr. Hodgins laughed. "Are you serious? You can't drive?"

"If you knew what I knew about the structural design of cars you would not want to drive either."

"How much could you know about the structural design of cars?"

The entomologist looked interested but Zack knew he was not a good judge of facial expressions. His parents would have to explain to him when his brothers and sisters were tired of listening to Zack explain things. Apparently his siblings did not enjoy learning outside of a school setting, or in a school setting for that matter, which never made any sense to Zack.

"I'm working on my doctorate in engineering as well as forensic anthropology."

"Wow, nice." Dr. Hodgins whistled. "Well Zack would you like me to drive you to your place?"

What was Jack doing now? As far as Zack knew he was still single so he wouldn't be on a date. He felt sorry for Jack. He came so close to marrying Angela and both times it didn't work out. His friend was really hurt and it had to happen so close to everyone finding out Zack was the apprentice. Zack could not imagine how everyone felt.

"You live in this neighborhood?" Zack heard the underlying tone of 'why would any intelligent person willingly live here?' and felt proud of himself for noticing it.

"Well I don't have a lot of money to spend on things such as food and shelter." Zack shrugged and was about to open the car door when Dr. Hodgins spoke.

"I can not, in good consciousness, let you keep living here. What if Dr. B lost her best intern in some gang related shooting outside his... apart- no... shack of a home?"

Zack stared at Dr. Hodgins without blinking. "Well where do you suggest that I live then? It would have to be cheap."

"I have room over my garage. You could live there."

Zack looked away from the window as he heard another patient run around making 'vroom vroom' noises while holding his arms straight out from his sides. Zack resisted the urge to explain to the man that airplanes do not make 'vroom vroom' noises. There was no correcting the behavior of the insane. Zack felt his spirits sink after thinking that. Other people thought that he was insane, which then means that they would never believe that his mindset as the assistant to a cannibal was corrected.

"What are you doing?"

"I'm going to teach you to drive."

"No! No you are not."

Jack raised an eyebrow at him. "I could have you evicted from my property whenever I feel like it."

Zack's eyes widened. "But it's not safe."

"And you're safer being driven in a car by someone else?"

"For the most part yes. As much as cars are not structurally sound they have become the major mode of transportation in our society and so I can not avoid them. However I will not drive one. I believe I would be too distracted with worrying about the other drivers, plus I like looking at the scenery which is something I can not do while driving."

Jack pulled him toward his least expensive car (which was still expensive) and tried to place him in the driver's seat. He failed. Years of being bullied and shoved into places he did not wish to be in gave him the skill to avoid the driver's seat.

His friend did not kick him out. Zack had no idea why because Jack seemed so serious and then there was the issue of how Zack avoided getting into the car. Zack smiled slightly as a new memory surfaced of him and Jack preforming an experiment with a pig frozen in liquid nitrogen and a wood chipper. They got into so much trouble doing it behind Goodman's back but it had been worth it.

He enjoyed doing crazy experiments, believing the feeling he got to be similar to the feeling his brothers and sisters got as children, running around pretending to be knights and princesses. Zack had tried to join them but always felt foolish a few minutes in so he would sit and read.

Zack tried to hug himself a bit in his current position and winced as the movement caused his gloved hands to rub against his legs. He really missed Jack, more so than Cam or Angela, more than Booth who still ignored him as much as possible so they could bond, and more so even than Dr. Temperance Brennen, his former teacher and mentor who he used to have a hopeless crush on.

Jack was the one that gave him a great place to live, who loved doing experiments with him, who gave him advice on women even when Jack was getting tired of having to explain things to him. Jack would at times cancel a date with Angela if he noticed that Zack was acting too distant and emotionally shut off for it to be healthy- not that most people considered Zack's normal emotional state and social life to be healthy.

However once Zack got back from Iraq, Jack's concern stopped. Jack was busy trying to find Angela's husband so she could divorce him and then marry Jack. Zack knew it was important to Jack but couldn't help but feel unwanted, which led him to follow the Master- Gormogon.

Jack was there for Zack after the explosion and for the surgery, practically refusing to leave Zack alone. Zack was pleased to have his friend's attention for more than a few minutes again; well as pleased as he could be while trying to ignore the pain in his hands.

"-Love is a many splendored thing" Zack finished singing and was surprised to find several members of the Jeffersonian standing around the door and clapping for him while Jack looked at him in awe. Zack was pleased with the reaction, he had not sung for anyone outside of his family since he left choir and he was glad to have conformation from someone besides his mother that he still had his talent.

Later on that day, Jack came up to Zack's apartment and asked him to sing again. Zack gladly did so, this time singing a song called It Gets Lonely, a song he had recently been practicing and one that held meaning for him. Afterwards Jack ordered pizza for the two of them and let Zack pick a DVD to watch. Zack chose Stargate: Atlantis and once it was over the two had a conversation contemplating how every off-world civilization that the team encountered was able to speak perfect American or Canadian English. Zack went to bed smiling that night.

Most of Zack's happiest memories involved Jack, which made sense to him because Jack was Zack's first and only best friend.

Jack Hodgins was alone. It was Valentine's Day and he had nothing to do. Just last year he spent it with Angela by the pond on his property. They had a romantic meal and candles and a tent. Angela had loved the surprise. The year before that he and Angela went away to some bed and breakfast in Vermont that Angela wanted to go to. He was not used to doing nothing on Valentine's Day.

He had no idea what to do for the day, this day of evil for all the single people in the world. 'Ha ha, look at all the people who have found love while you are alone.' At least it was raining, it would ruin the plans of all those couples who wanted to be outside in the sunshine. This thought brought Jack a small vindictive piece of comfort.

With out knowing how it happened, Jack found himself outside of a door. He was completely drenched; not one area of clothing on his body left dry. After a few moments he realized that the door belonged to the apartment above his garage. He hadn't been there since Zack's confession. Once he realized where he was he just sank to the floor and leaned against the door, listening to the gently pouring rain. Allowing the sound of the rain to wash over him along with memories of Zack that he had tried desperately to hold back for months.

Jack was intrigued by the new intern of Brennen's. The kid looked younger than his 23 years, he talked more like Brennen and a text book and less like a typical college grad student. He seemed to be brilliant but kind of awkward at work. It was 3 am before the shaggy haired boy left the lab, none of the other interns ever stayed that long. The only reason that Jack himself was still at work was because he had put off working on some silt profiles until the possible last minute. Twenty minutes later Jack felt as though now would be a good time to leave work and as he exited the building he saw the intern standing out in the cold with a confused expression on his face.

"Hey, Brennen's intern, Zack right?"

The intern looked at Jack with his big brown eyes, it was slightly unnerving to the older man. "Yes. Do you need me for something?"

"No, but it's three in the morning, what are you still doing here? Not to mention you've been standing there for at least twenty minutes."

What self respecting person would travel by bus this late at night?

"The bus? Why didn't you just drive?"

He missed Zack, his best friend. He wanted nothing more than to get Zack out of the loony bin and keep him home- and the Jeffersonian. He just wanted to keep Zack safe, try to make up for being blind to his pain and downward spiral after Iraq. He also knew Zack would be happier if he could work- although Zack would never again have full use of his hands, he "mentally was still exceptional" to use his own words. Zack had proved this in helping to solve the Jared Addison murder.

Zack looked terrified, at least Jack knew that look on his friend's face to be one of terror. "What are you doing?"

"I'm going to teach you to drive."

Zack's eyes widened more and Jack was torn between feeling sorry for the younger man and being amused. "No! No you are not."

Jack felt one of his eyebrows raise. Zack was being adamant about this. It was unexpected. "I could have you evicted from my property whenever I feel like it," he joked. As Zack's eyes became even wider Jack realized that Zack did not understand the tone.

"But it's not safe."

"And you're safer being in a car driven by someone else?"

Jack decided to pull Zack to the car regardless of the protests from the taller man. Zack never made it into the car. All Jack knew was that one second the young assistant was standing upright, well as upright as anyone trying to pull themselves out of a strong grip could be, and then the next the kid was on the ground and Jack was falling face forward. Jack managed to right himself before he face planted into his car. The sound of Zack's apartment door shutting caused the shorter man to look up.

"Zack!"

The door opened a little bit and Jack could see Zack's face. His face looked like it was trying to show confusion and guilt at the same time but had no idea how his features needed to be arranged.

"I'm sorry, Hodgins. I will find a new place to live as soon as possible. I did not mean to do that to you."

Zack reverted to calling Jack by his last name, something he only did at work now. Jack smiled reassuringly at his friend. "Don't worry about it. I'm not mad at all."

"You aren't?" Zack's normally monotone voice was laced with confusion.

"No, I'm not. I'm actually impressed. Where did you learn to do that?"

"I learned to avoid being shoved into places I did not want to be after years of being bullied before realizing that they would never expect me to react in the manner that I just did to you."

Jack smiled slightly at the memory. He was proud of Zack for standing up for himself. Jack's thoughts drifted back to when Zack punched him in the face because he told Zack that he lacked passion in his work in both engineering and forensic anthropology. He had been proud of Zack then as well that he didn't even mind the bruise on his face.

Jack missed competing with Zack for the title of King of the Lab. It was no where near as fun without Zack, which was saying something because Jack would always smile while saying it. The others in the lab did not realize his main reason for saying those four words. Mainly he uttered the phrase to cling to the past, as though if he said it enough times Zack would just appear. He always imagined his friend standing alongside him, intently studying some bone, hands completely healed, the entire Gormogon case a horrid figment of his imagination.

It never happened. Instead Jack would see Clark Edison trying desperately to remain professional while Cam and Angela discussed things that most normal people would think should never be discussed over a decomposing corpse. Or Daisy Wick trying to remain calm and simultaneously impress her idol. Colin Fisher being his normal depressive self, he really wasn't a bad guy to be around as long as he wasn't talking about the pointlessness of life. Other weeks it would be Vincent Nigel-Murray spouting off random facts that had nothing to do with the case, or the other two interns doing what ever task was assigned to them by their mentor.

Jack hugged his knees to his chest and whispered "I will try to get you back, buddy. I promise you will be where you belong."