Alright. Only a few published stories and we already have a spin off to somebody else's story.

This is a spin off chapter to Rissy Nicole's "Parade of Indignities", since for various reasons she couldn't update this month I wrote this; it takes place somewhere between chapters 19 & 20 when Zim's further into recovering from surgery. Enjoy everyone (^.^)

There was palpable tension in the air as Skoodge made his way through the streets of Elixus, you could feel it everywhere you went. With circumstances being what they were and a war with Meecrob looming, everyone was even more on edge than normal, and Irkens weren't the calmest species to begin with.

Because of this, Skoodge was careful to take the less crowded side roads whenever possible, and to hold his grocery bags close to his chest when he couldn't, to keep them from touching anyone else. True being Irken himself helped, and he was short enough that he could duck down to avoid being spotted easily, but still, why risk a fight when he didn't have to? Some days it felt like he was the only member of his species who believed that.

A few minutes later the familiar entrance to his house came into view and soon he was inside and putting his groceries away. At some point in the process Gir had made off one of his purchases; and it had to have been Gir as nobody else was both able to make it to the kitchen on foot and safely eat the cup of pudding that had suddenly vanished, oh well. Skoodge shrugged as he silently cut a healthy sized slice of cake and went to check on his patient.

With all the uncertainty in his life at the moment, Skoodge found a strange sort of comfort in the familiarity of looking after Zim, at least now that he was feeling more like himself. Zim had never been a good judge of his own limitations, not when he they first met as smeets and not now if his attempts to rush his recovery were any indication. Thus over the years Skoodge had spent many an evening treating the various injuries and ailments Zim had inadvertently inflicted on himself.

Since his re-encoding, Skoodge had been praised for his uncommonly good bedside manner without anyone knowing it was the result of regularly dealing with a chronically uncooperative patient.

When he reached the medbay Zim was propped up on his usual mound of pillows, which he had taken to shaping little walls into, looking put out that he had to be there at all. It reminded Skoodge of the time Zim went without sleeping for several days and passed out while piloting a giant robot.

Either way he certainly looked a lot better, granted that wasn't saying much, considering the state he had arrived in. What Zim had experienced was basically the equivalent to having his PAK removed then it being reattached at the last moment but in very, very slow motion. When he got here he probably only had a day or two left at the most, by this point he definitely wouldn't be sullenly waiting for a slice of cake. Part of Skoodge wondered if opening his old PAK would result in a flood of good luck charms from across the cosmos pouring out.

"Hello Zim" Skoodge greeted "I've got your cake!"

"Finally" Zim said, slightly miffed "What took so long? You left to get it an hour ago!"

"Sorry, I wasn't expecting you to want another piece, so I had to get one, I needed to go shopping anyway" Skoodge said with an apologetic smile "It's just as well you waited a little, you only really started eating properly again the other day, and you don't have the best record with these things"

"You're lying" Zim said defensively "My record in everything is flawless"

It wasn't his usual volume, but Skoodge felt an odd sort of reassurance hearing him argue back.

The first day or so after Zim's surgery had been a difficult time for everyone. In his travels Skoodge had seen dementia patients a few times and it wasn't too different from how Zim had looked the first day, blankly staring at everyone with a sad, lost sort of frustration as he tried to recognise things he felt he should, but wasn't able to place. Even Gir had seemed worried seeing him in such a state.

In all fairness, it had been a high risk procedure, especially since this would normally have happened at a much earlier stage and been handled by somebody more experienced, it wouldn't have been too unexpected for something to have gone wrong. It wasn't until later when he'd accidentally said something that Zim would normally deny, and unexpectedly, he had that Skoodge felt better about things. It hadn't been as loud or certain as it would normally be, but it was the first indication that Zim was still himself. That even without access to his memories, his essence was still there and knew to argue against anything that didn't align with his self image, he just needed a little time.

"You left your dirty clothes on the floor" Zim added with a note of irritation, pointing to the coat Skoodge had set down beside Zim's cot.

"It's a fresh one" Skoodge sighed "It was supposed to keep you from bruising your knees on the floor. It looks like it did its' job, just not the way I planned" he said with a wry smile "Really Zim, I know they're just bruises, but you need to be more careful for the next little while. Your body's exhausted from everything that happened, and your new PAK can only do so much while it and your body are getting used to each other"

Zim crossed his arms and huffed like a petulant smeet "I don't want to get used to it I want my old one back!" His eyes went wide and his antennae flicked up as he inadvertently triggered the return of another memory; this wasn't the first time he'd said and done the exact same things.

Skoodge knew which one it was, he remembered it too, it was when Zim was an older smeet: three-quarters grown, about the same stage Dib Human was now, and had been deemed old enough to switch from the jumpsuits smeets wore to the adults' three piece uniform. Like countless other smeets before and after, he bitterly complained that the waistband was scratchy against the sensitive skin. Skoodge had assured him he'd eventually get used to it (and held back on pointing out that at least his didn't pinch), but Zim didn't want to get used to it.

In the end, he'd taken advantage of his smaller size to steal a younger smeet's spare change of clothes to wear in private….at least until the outfit's owner had found out and made fun of him for it (what was the smeet's name again? Lard, or something like that). Naturally, this resulted in a fist fight and both parties covered in a respectable number of bruises.

This time however there was no going back or easing into it, Zim couldn't use his old PAK anymore and that was that.

Back in the present, Skoodge once again offered the pastry to Zim who momentarily inspected it as he took the plate "Don't think I don't know what you're up to, Skoodge"

"Up to?" Skoodge asked, genuinely having no idea what he meant.

"Slorbees pudding, caramel mooshminkie, sweetberry cake. You're giving me things you know I like" Zim said with a far more accusatory tone than the situation warranted.

"I thought you wanted the cake. Besides, you need to eat, especially now" Skoodge said, a brief, impish smile danced across his face "If you don't want it, I'll take it"

"That won't be necessary" Zim interrupted, holding the plate closer to himself. He quickly took a forkful of the cake and popped it in his mouth, his features melted into a blissful smile as he enjoyed the taste "There. I've used the fork, now you can't touch my cake!"

It was very much a Zim-specific brand of logic, and Skoodge had to hold himself back from chuckling and getting his friend riled up: some things never changed. "Whatever you say, Zim" he said, leaving the tiny Irken to enjoy his cake in peace.

Finally left alone, Zim let himself lay back and sink into the nest of pillows and blankets that had been set up for him. He picked up the remote and flicked through the channels, noting with a small amount of annoyance that the news stations seemed to be blocked; Skoodge had never been the political type, but going so far as to block the stations seemed out of character. Maybe it was a medic thing, the stations were blocked to keep people from seeing something they wanted to be part of and rushing their recovery. That made sense.

"Ooh! This is a good one!"

Zim turned to the source of the voice and saw Gir seated next to him, holding a cup of pudding so he and his master could have snack time together; really both of them were getting to enjoy a rare treat, Gir usually had to eat the human pudding as Zim's rations were strictly off limits. Now that they were back in Irken controlled space, the little robot was free to enjoy the typically forbidden sweet.

Glancing at the television showed him they were on the interplanetary arts channel, typical. Still it wasn't the worst thing Gir had put on, not by any means, and at least the station was still Irken owned. Currently it was airing a musical play about an Irken (played by a Nnoying actor, due to their similar appearances) who had two personalities downloaded into his PAK: one was perfectly fine, but the other was so horribly defective that he accidentally wiped out half his squadron.

Can you imagine your programming being so flawed you could do that and not even notice? He'd sure hate to be that guy.

Either way, it didn't matter what was on; the singing was tolerable, and more importantly he had his cake to enjoy.

Elsewhere, Skoodge was seated at his home computer deep in thought.

As he made his way from Zim's room to the computer he had overheard Dib listening to the video again and it brought up….feelings; Zim wasn't the only one Skoodge had known since smeethood, and who hadn't changed much since that time.

He knew that he wasn't really supposed to acknowledge the time before the tallests were the the tallests, let alone back when they were smeets, but it was hard not to when they had been a regular fixture of his own smeethood. Red & Purple had obviously been the two tallest smeets in their year, while Zim & Skoodge had been the shortest; normally the two pairs would never have interacted with each other if it weren't for Zim regularly seeking them out.

It wasn't so much a matter of Skoodge 'knowing his place' as knowing trouble when he saw it, and he knew that inviting himself to spend time with smeets so much taller than himself was just asking for it. Doubly so after they actually had caught him alone and picked on him. Granted some would say that Zim didn't treat him particularly well either, at least going from the number of plans he concocted that used Skoodge as a diversion. But in Zim's case it came from a strange brand of respect; he only started doing so after figuring out how resilient and capable Skoodge was (traits Skoodge had only very recently begun to see in himself)

On the other hand, Zim had always been stature blind and regularly inserted himself into Red and Purple's activities. Any other smeet would have gotten shoved aside for his efforts, but Zim was never that easy to deal with, he was like a tiny bag of explosives that didn't discriminate in who would feel his wrath if he were mishandled. But trying to subtly push him away never worked as whatever excuse they gave, he would just find a solution to and then praise his own problem solving skills.

Even now, nothing had changed, besides Zim interpreting his history of not being drop kicked as far away as Irkenly possible by Red & Purple as meaning that he had a special bond with them. That was how he'd gotten sent to Earth in the first place, despite being the two most powerful Irkens alive, Red & Purple were still scared to set Zim off.

Skoodge knew better than most that Red & Purple were still the same jerks they had always been, but now they had more power behind them; the only real change was that they had graduated from picking him up and throwing him to shooting him into planets. Similarly, they had gone from quietly mocking Zim behind his back to doing so in front of a crowd. And subtlety still flew right over Zim's head; the only way to make him realise you didn't like him was to physically attack him, now it seemed that Red & Purple had finally found a way to do so that they assumed couldn't possibly backfire. Evidently they had forgotten to factor in Zim's ability to consistently beat the odds.

Still, it was going to be an ugly time when Zim found out what happened; Dib was planning to show him the video when he was better and Skoodge certainly didn't envy him that.

Zim was sulking, he hated this.

He hated being bedridden, he hated not being in control, and he hated how acquainted he was becoming with his long-buried primitive instincts as his not fully established connection to his new PAK forced him to rely more on his organic brain, as evidenced by the little nest he had made in his cot. A squishy wall of pillows and blankets couldn't protect him from any real threat, he knew that, yet somehow arranging them like this took the edge off the anxiety he felt.

Most of all he hated it when somebody else was right and he was….less right; Skoodge had guessed correctly about the cake.

Yes, another piece probably would have been too much right away; his spooch had likely shrunk slightly in the time he hadn't been eating. There! He admitted it! Are you happy world!? Zim's body shell is only 99.9% invulnerable, was putting it through the proverbial wringer like this to make that point really necessary?

And while he was at it, fine the strain his mind and body had been under combined with the relief of giving it what it needed was making him feel groggy, and yes the bedding was soft and comfortable and made him feel secure, but that didn't mean he had to like it.

….Well, alright, he had to admit he was enjoying the desserts; he'd missed having access to real food while he was on Earth….and it was nice that the steps taken to ensure his comfort included minimising things that typically grated on him. And despite his complaints about not being in a real hospital, deep down he acknowledged that having a personal medic with an intimate knowledge of his tastes and personal history was considerably better than the level of care he would have gotten at one.

But still, it was annoying that his body was being so needy and he had no choice but to give in to its' demands for food and rest.

He turned over on his side, as if everything bothering him was physically there and he could ignore them by turning his back to them, and was greeted by Gir smiling innocently at him "Sleepy time?"

Zim wordlessly wrapped his arms around Gir and pulled him close; his new PAK's thermal regulator hadn't come online yet, and with no 'natural insulation' to speak of on his frame, the consistent warmth that Gir radiated was welcome.

And that was all there was to that! Not that Gir was the only one behaving the way he expected them to, and certainly not an overwhelming cocktail of everything he'd heard and experienced since waking up from surgery. He was Zim! He didn't need any comforting, if he had just been left on Earth he would have been fine; he was always fine in the end. And as soon as his new PAK was set up he could recover and go home, and get back to conquering, and-

"Shh, it's sleepy time, master" Gir whispered, returning the hug and patting the side of Zim's head. Zim didn't bother to protest, for once he had neither the spare energy nor the inclination to argue and settled for grumbling in irritation as he settled back in. At the far end of the room the Nnoying actor was singing about his character's struggle to decide whether to try and remove the defective personality or give in its' nudges to run away and live outside the empire with a small group that supported him as he was.

Again, he'd hate to be that guy.

When Skoodge went back to check, Zim was asleep with Gir cuddled next to him and his dirty plate on the side table. He'd go pick it up later, for now it was more important to let Zim sleep, and Skoodge had plenty of other things to attend to.

And there we have it. I have to admit it was a little strange noticing a slight similarity between the end of this story and the end of the latest chapter of my own story since they were written about 2 months apart. But the idea for this came from part of Skoodge's reaction to hearing what happened in chapter 18 feeling like it tied into his own time growing up with Zim, Red, & Purple, along with some of the ideas brought up by chapter 21. Thank you for reading (^.^)