A/N; OMIGOSH! SPOILER: [Duncan and Zoey think Mal might be the real personality!]. I got so excited about this I wrote this drabble about how Zoey feels now.

Summary: [SPOILERS]. Zoey is devastated on the conclusion and her and Duncan have come to and breaks down. She has a late night visitor to comfort her in her realization that the perfect guy just doesn't exist. Could be considered Zuncan shipping but not totally.

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Late Night Realizations

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It all made sense suddenly to Zoey, while lying in bed and trying to sleep. Mal. He was in juvie and nobody knew squat about it. Mike wasn't in juvie. When did Mike finally appear on the scene? Was all of last season a lie? Zoey sighed. Well, not a lie. Not entirely. Mike was real, but he just may not have been the real one. It was complicated.

Her bottom lip began to tremble. This was not how she imagined her first love turning out. She always thought it would be normal. Not: Boy meets girl. Boy falls in love with girl. Boy turns out just to be a personality among many in the body of an evil thug.

And with that she cried, real tears and she just couldn't stop. The tears kept flowing and she was sniffling and it wasn't supposed to turn out like this.

She froze when she heard a knock at the door to the cabin. Was it him? Mal? Had he come to hurt her like he did to Izzy? Was he even capable of that?

"Zoey?"

Zoey knew that voice and it most definitely was not Mal.

"Duncan?"

She got up from the bed and went to let him in with a small sniffle before she opened the door.

"Hey, I..." He had been outside, party unable to sleep and partly too afraid not that he wanted to admit that. Mal was crazy and dangerous and Duncan would have been stupid to fall asleep around him. So he went for a walk and he was just sitting outside when he heard Zoey's sobs.

Zoey was the only teammate he had left that wasn't potentially a homicidal maniac so he felt close to her because of that. And yeah, maybe he was a little bit of a softie because he didn't like the idea of her spending all night crying just because she was dating said homicidal maniac.

Duncan tried to explain himself again. "I heard you crying. Are you okay?"

Zoey nodded, then bit her lip and shook her head, tears brimming again. She flung herself into his arms and cried against his chest.

Duncan just stood there awkwardly. She was still another dude's girlfriend and he was weird with girls crying. That was the best thing about dating Gwen, the fact that she rarely cried, at least not around him. She was too strong for that crap. Not that Zoey wasn't strong, she was pretty kick ass in the prior challenges but she wasn't Gwen either.

"I just... when I thought that I had found the perfect guy," she was hiccuping and taking a long time to speak between being nestled into the fabric of his skull t-shirt. "And Mike was perfect and sure he had a little interesting personalities, so what? I just," she breathed deeply. "I just thought it was going to be for the long haul. I thought we'd gotten over the worst. He was controlling it more, and without Anne Maria around Vito hadn't been a problem..." she started sobbing again.

Duncan rubbed her back awkwardly. It felt weird to be standing in the doorway like this, consoling a crying girl. If the cameras were catching this then his rep. as a bad boy was pretty much shattered. Who was he kidding? His rep. as a bad boy was already shattered after that stupid bird made him cry. Aw, he couldn't stay mad at that bird...

"Look, I'm hardly one to be giving romantic advice," Duncan said sheepishly. It was true. Courtney admitted she never cared that much for him and Gwen dumped him (though he still didn't get what all that was about). "But maybe we're wrong." Though he doubted it. "And I'm sure you're not the first person to fall in love with a psychopath." Wow, really consoling.

Zoey kept crying. Duncan mentally cursed himself for making it worse. Zoey finally pulled back away from him and wiped at her eyes.

"It's not that. It's just I had put Mike up on this pedestal you know, like he was the perfect guy." Zoey tried to smile but it didn't quite work. "And even though he had the personalities I still thought he was quirky, unique. I thought he was the perfect guy for me," she explained. "And I had waited so long to find the perfect guy for me." She hadn't thought he existed until she met Mike. "Now, I'm realizing if Mike isn't that perfect guy... that there is no perfect guy. He doesn't exist." Her words were dripping with bitterness and she kept sniffling.

Duncan put his hands in his pockets and swayed on his feet. "That's not true." At least he thought. "I mean, come on, people can be mistaken all the time. Look at me and Courtney." He had been mistaken one too many times about Courtney.

"That's true," Zoey replied finally managing that small smile she'd tried earlier. "I mean anyone could see that you were a bad couple from season one. I'm just surprised you tried to make it work for so long."

Duncan grimaced. That stung a little. He never thought Courtney and he were a bad couple, just a little mismatched. But he wasn't going to defend it, he was trying to comfort her and he desperately didn't want her to start crying again. "See, it can happen to anybody. And you're not the first person to fall in love with somebody's alternate personality either, I'm sure."

"I must have been crazy right? To think that Mike was the real one all along? He was my boyfriend and it turns out I didn't know him at all," her voice was soft, contemplative and Duncan was surprised she wasn't crying again. Zoey really was a tough chick. He admired her.

"Hey, he's fooled a lot of people," Duncan told her and then something struck him. "Do you think Chris knows?"

Zoey rolled her eyes. "I wouldn't be surprised."

"Yeah, where that sadistic bastard is concerned..."

Zoey shrugged her shoulders, letting them slump down, looking tired and defeated.

"So are you okay?" Duncan asked her gently, looking her over.

She nodded. "What about you? You look kind of terrible."

"Yeah, I can't sleep with that psychopath in the room. It's okay. I'll just find a nice place outside to rest my head. It's not that I haven't slept outside enough before."

"Oh... okay." Zoey felt a little bit guilty. After all it was her boyfriend that was making him have to do this.

"Look, we'll get Mal voted off soon. I promise," Duncan told her, looking completely serious about it.

"I know," Zoey said. "I just want you to stay safe."

"You don't need to worry about me, ol' Duncy can take care of himself." Duncan pointed to himself and then faltered. Ol' Duncy? Why the heck was wrong with him?! That sounded the opposite of badass!

"Okay. Thanks Duncan."

Duncan nodded, feeling like he'd done his duty. "Anytime Zo."

Zoey closed the door as he left and heaved a sigh. Things were going to get a whole lot more interesting from now on. She wondered how long she could keep Mike, or "Mal" in the dark about how much she knew. She didn't have the courage to break up with him, but hopefully when she was safe and this was all over.

What she hadn't noticed however, was the figure out behind the trees watching the entire exchange between Zoey and Duncan, rubbing his hands together as he planned the downfall of them both.

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Mal is out to get them. Poor Zoey. She really has bad taste in men. Almost as bad as Courtney. ;)