Zack sputtered and flushed the toilet. He had just… regurgitated everything that
would come up. Ever since he had been seeing Annie in his mind so much he
had the compulsion to do that. Old habits die hard.
They had solved another case today, yet another criminal put behind bars. It
didn't feel as good as it used to.
Zack tried to think of what people on TV did when they had a bad day. All he
could think of was the bar from Happy Days. "Obviously my subconscious had a
need for alcohol separate from my immediate will." He muttered to himself. He
got up off the bathroom floor and got ready for the long walk to the bus stop. He
had heard of a bar in center city DC that he could try. Sure it was a gay bar but
who from work would show up there? It was called Petunia's.
As he was leaving the estate, Hodgins drove up behind him in his black BMW,
Angela in the passenger seat. "Were ya going?" Hodgins asked.
"The city." Zack replied cryptically.
"What are you going to do in the city?" Hodgins' house was just outside of down
town DC.
"Meet a friend." Zack was avoiding saying too much, for fear of letting on to the
fact that he was going to a fucking gay bar because he wanted to get drunk
alone.
"Need a ride." Angela offered for Hodgins, who seemed on her side. There was
no way out of this. Zack climbed in the backseat.
In the streets of the city Zack looked for the bar. He had no clue what the street
address was. Then he saw a rainbow sign that said "Petunia's Extremely Gay
Bar"
"Here's the place." Zack spoke up wishing he hadn't.
Hodgins scoffed, "The gay bar?"
"No." Zack said. "Big Earl's. The flower shop next to the bar." He stepped out of
the car. Once the red taillights were all the way down the road, Zack headed
towards the bar.
He crossed the dance floor and the section with tables and went up to the
counter, ordering a screwdriver.
Zack's phone chirped on his waist. "Zack Addy." He said dryly into the device.
"Where the hell are you?" Cam yelled into the phone.
"Out." Zack replied vaguely.
"Where the hell are your notes on the case?"
Zack sighed and took a drink of his spiked orange juice. "I left them on Doctor
Brennan's desk." Cam hung up at that, filling Zack with relief. But then Zack
heard an unfamiliar voice behind him, "Finally someone who's not drinking a
martini." Zack turned around to see a boy about twenty with scruffy black hair
and an amused grin. "I'm gay, but not that gay." The boy said.
Zack had to smile, too. "I'm Will." The boy took a seat next to Zack.
"Zack Addy."
"You're not here very often are you, Zack Addy?" He asked. The genius shook
his head yes. "I know the usual crowd. My band plays here, like, every other
night."
"You're in a band?" Zack asked. Conversation was not Zack's strong suit,
although the man he was flirting with didn't seem to mind. "Yeah. I play the bass.
We don't have an actual name, yet. Today we were Sodapop and Ritalin. Not my
name." Zack laughed a little.
"So what do you do?" Will inquired.
"I'm a forensic anthropologist." Zack told him, automatically feeling like a
dumbass because no one knows what the hell that is. "It's a lab job." He
explained.
Zack's phone vibrated on his hip. It was a text from Angela telling him they had
another decomposing body to give justice to. He made his unhappy little purring
noise. "You can't flash that phone in front of me and not give me your number."
Will smiled semi-suggestively. Promptly, Zack wrote his number down on a
napkin. "You don't talk much." Will pointed out.
"I've been told of my awkwardness in social situations, I tend to not talk when I
want to avoid saying the wrong and un-socially acceptable thing… Like just now."
"I thought that was kinda cute." Will said, taking the napkin out of Zack's
hand.
"I have to go." Zack told him. Will smiled, as Zack left, calling after him, "Don't
think I won't call you!"
Zack smiled, almost inwardly. But his smile faded when he saw Hodgin's
shiny car right outside of Big Earl's. He tried to make it seem like he wasn't
coming out of… Well actually coming out. There was a damn good chance he
was extremely gay, like the bar's sign suggested.
"Petunia's?" Angela said once he climbed in the car. Zack kept his head
down as they drove, the happy straight couple giving him the third degree.
Finally they wear him down, "Was he hot?" Angela asked.
"Objectively, Will was rather aesthetically pleasing." He said, quietly. Jack's
rearview mirror eyes crinkled. "Do you have Will's number?" Zack was saved by
the Jeffersonian parking lot, jumping out of the vehicle before it was even at a full
stop.
But once in the lab Cam walked up to him greeting him with, "You're blushing.
What happened?"
"Will happened." He heard Angela say quietly to Hodgins behind him. He grinned
like an idiot in agreement.