It was wrong but it also so right. She needed someone to understand her, somebody like him. He wasn't going to be her teacher for very much longer. She was an enigma, a code to be broken. She was Josie Trent and he, her teacher. Josie/Z set post-Conclusions, but on the premise that Conclusion was actually set a few months before graduation.
A/N Strange Days used to me my favourite TV show when I was a kid, I used to watch it religiously before I went to sleep. I recently found old episodes on YouTube and fell immediately back in love with it. However, it wasn't until I finally rewatched Conclusions, did I realise how much I loved the Josie/Z pairing! I don't know how many people even read these fics, but I'm writing for myself and whoever turns up to read this.
Disclaimer: Not mine, otherwise there would have been a few more series'.
The first time she was very drunk. He didn't want to know how she found so much alcohol; she'd only been back a mere few hours. He didn't want to know how long or how much she'd been drinking; but the empty bottles on the table gave at least part of the answer.
It was lucky that Noel Zachary hadn't been sleeping, but rather tossing and turning, his mind too active in trying to sort out everything that had gone on in this school since his arrival. It was lucky that it was he who had decided to go to the Teachers Lounge to find a book and had heard movement from the science lab, and not Principle Durst. It was luck, or was it fate, that brought Josie and Z together that evening. The moonlight shone in great beams across the lab, producing enough natural light for Z to see who it was that was standing precariously on a table drinking copeus amounts of vodka. "Josie." He spoke her name and Josie jolted, whipping her head around in fright and dropping the nearly empty vodka bottle onto the floor, simultaneously. "Shit." Z rushed towards her, careful not to tred on the broken glass, unfortunately Josie in her drunken state was not quite as concerned and tried to leap off of the table straight into the pool of broken glass. Z grabbed her waist and pushed her back against the table, leading to her landing on her butt with a thump. Professor Zachary groaned. They'd made so much noise in a matter of seconds that people were bound to have woken up and come prowling. "Oww that hurt." Josie slurred her words. "Sit there." Z commandeered, still shocked by the state of his student. "But I don't want to." She laughed, still slurring the words. "God Josie how much did you drink?" "Not enough.." "How long have you been here?"
"I dunno. I can't sleep. I think of him and there and how alone I felt…" She tailed off incoherently and started sniffing as tears dripped from her lashes. It was then that the pieces of the puzzle started to slot together. Zachary dropped the empty bottles he had attempted to shough in the back of his store cupboard and retrieve the brook to pick up the glass. Instead he made his way back over to the petite redhead, who sobbing away on one of the science tables. As soon as he got near enough to touch Josie grabbed hold of his shirt and buried her head in it. He wrapped his arms around her, as he had done hours before when she had returned through the worm hole back into their time stream. She cried harder and Z winced, it was no wonder Durst hadn't come barging into the room yet. "Ssh Josie. Ssh. You're not in trouble." Yet.. He thought, if Durst found them, that would be it for both of them. The power of the alcohol had finally overcome her and her walls had finally come tumbling down. She was home, the mystery was solved and yet Josie Trent felt even more alone than before. "Josie." He unwrapped his arms from around her and stepped back slightly. She looked up at him still snuffling. "Listen to me. This is important. I don't care what you've done, I'm not angry." She looked at him in shock. "But. If Principle Durst finds us you most certainly will be, so I need you to go stand in the corner so if she comes in she won't see you. After I've cleared up this mess we can talk but only then. Do you understand?" Josie nodded and bit her lip hard, trying not to cry. Professor Zachary took this as a yes and in one swift motion picked the petite girl up and moved her to the other side of the room, out of sight of the doorway and away from the glass. Sure enough, Durst arrived mere seconds afterwards. Z turned to the door to see the boisterous woman with her hairnet looking panicked. Upon seeing it was only Zachary in the room she calmed a bit.
"Is everything okay Professor Zachary, I heard a crash."
"Sorry that was me, I couldn't sleep so I came here-"
"Is that Alcohol?" Durst cut him off and her eyes went wide. "No." Z said quickly. "It's ethenol, or rather it was. It's for tomorrow's experiment. Or was." He added. "Hmm. I don't appreciate students or faculty walking the halls at night Professor Zachary, given the circumstances I understand, but please next time don't make such a commotion otherwise we'll have half the school thinking there's some sort of party going on." Durst responded and waited until Noel had nodded in agreement and given his apology before leaving the room.
Professor Zachary let out a breath he didn't realise he'd been holding. He had no idea how Josie had managed to keep so silent during the altercation. He quickly swept up the glass and disposed of it in the trash; there was nothing he could do about the smell until the morning. He turned back to Josie who was still standing in her drunken state in the corner. "Oh Josie, what are we going to do with you?" He thought quickly about what they could do, she couldn't really go back to her dorm in this state, Corinne wouldn't understand and he didn't fancy explaining at this hour. However, he couldn't leave her alone, somebody needed to stay with her. He ruled out the teachers lounge and the common area, if Durst made another reappearance she'd be busted, and so would he, the situation and position would not look favourably. He settled on taking her back to his room in the Faculty wing. Most faculty lived off campus with their own families, but given that Zachary couldn't afford a mortgage on his teacher's salary (even if it was Private School) and didn't have a girlfriend or a family, it made sense to stay at Blake Holsey at a subsidied rate. His room was larger than the students' and was thankfully right at the end of the school, away from prying eyes. Looking back on it, he still doesn't know how he managed to move Josie from the Science Lab to his room; it was a mixture of half carrying and half stumbling. She was light enough that he could carry her without too much effort and a lot less noise, on the downside if anybody were to open their doors he'd be fired on the spot. Carrying students did seem to be a punishable offence, both in school and in the eyes of the law.
Relief washed over his face when a nearly passed out Josie managed to crawl onto his bed. His mind was spinning with the situation, she really shouldn't be here, not in his room and especially not on his bed. However, he understand, or rather he couldn't and that's what pained him the most. Josie Trent had gone through more than most and now that it was all over she could finally let all of her emotions show. It dawned on him that in the years he'd been teaching her, the only other time he had seen her cry was the afternoon prior. Oh she had a lot of tears to catch up on.
She threw up all over his shirt and he didn't care that it was his favourite college shirt. He was just happy that she was getting better. She hadn't been wearing shoes in the science lab, but luckily she had been wearing pyjamas. She looked so sweet and innocent when she eventually slept, curled up in her froggy pyjamas underneath his bed sheets. It took hours however until that moment, she cried and she cried, in her drunken state, moistening Z's new shirt he'd put on having disposed of the last. He wrapped his arms around her as they laid on his bed, he was comforting her in a way that Josie Trent had never been comforted. It wasn't sexual and it wasn't romantic. Not just yet. But it was the comfort a real father gives his daughter. It was how Josie's mother, had she not been too busy with work her entire life, should have held her, but hadn't. It was how Avenir, should have held her, had he not been too consumed with selfishness and power. But it didn't matter who had failed her in that moment, because Z had saved her from the darkness.