A/N: I actually finished a chapter in less than two months! Plus, it's the longest chapter I've ever written! I'm afraid this might be a little sappy/cheesy. Hopefully it isn't to whoever reads this. Here's the fic!

Even when Mom was around, Dib didn't get along quite so well with other kids. The kids at his preschool and kindergarten classes always made fun of him because he told them that aliens and ghosts existed. They didn't believe him because he didn't have any proof of what he told them at the time.

Dib always told Mom when things like that happened at skool, and she'd comfort him and tell him that she was there for him. But when Mom died, he had no one to talk to. Dad was too busy with work while I just didn't want to listen to him. I just wanted to be left alone so I could play video games—perhaps the most intelligent decision the human race ever made was making those.

If he couldn't talk to anyone, Dib decided to just talk to himself—aloud. This got really annoying at times, especially when I was at the last level of a game I had been working to beat for a month. But, no matter what anyone would say or do to him, he would just keep talking to himself. It wasn't ALL the time; thank God, but just when he needed to think things out.

Dib was unusually perseverant. And I mean REALLY perseverant. He wouldn't give up on something until he found the answer to it or solved it or whatever. He never gave up on looking for paranormal creatures, and he found them, but he never was able to prove it to anyone, ever. The evidence he collected seemed good enough for me, but for the rest of the ignorant world, it wasn't. Maybe they'd just rather make fun of him? I don't know.

He never made any friends because of what he believed in, and sat with me at lunch every single day when we both got into elementary skool. He'd rant on and on about things I didn't care about while I'd play my Game Slave and filter out what he was saying. Sometimes I'd listen to parts of what he was saying and make a rude remark. He seemed oblivious to the point I was trying to get across. He just wouldn't understand the words "Shut up" or "I don't care."

Boys.

When Dib was in sixth grade, and I was in fifth, ZIM showed up.

ZIM is a green alien from a planet called Irk. He is supposedly sent by his leaders to conquer Earth. I really don't see how they could send him of all Irkens; he's such an idiot. If ZIM's the best the Irkens have for invading like he says he is, well, his race must be pretty stupid and unskilled.

Dib knew all about ZIM's intentions before he even got here. Dib had listened to the whole ceremony thing that proved that an alien was going to try to take over the earth by using something he ordered from Crop Circles Magazine. He got so excited that day, and I didn't even think of believing him. No one did.

It turned out Dib was right. ZIM came into Dib's class one day with a pitifully obvious disguise. For some reason, the rest of the human race was so ignorant that they couldn't tell ZIM was an alien. He had no ears, for Heaven's sake! Not to mention his deformed green skin…

Ever since then, Dib and ZIM were fighting each other and stopping each other's plans. Dib seemed like he had fun fighting the alien and ruining his plans. He was continually frustrated at how no one could see through ZIM's disguise. I would be too, I guess.

Yet Dib's social life never really improved. He never had any friends, not even one. Everyone was mean to him and treated him like dirt. I was too, but I wasn't kind to anyone. Every single day he was made fun of and mocked. In elementary skool, they would verbally hurt him, but in junior high and high skool, they were a little more violent.

The kids would slam Dib into lockers, shove him in a trash can and roll him down a hill, throw him in a dumpster, steal his glasses, or just plain beat him up. Dib would come home with bruises on his legs, arms—practically everywhere. He even got a few black eyes. I knew some of that stuff was happening and I even saw some of it, but I never showed that I cared about it. I mean, I never did anything to stop it, even though I very well could have. I have such a frightening reputation at skool that no one will even dare to insult me. I'm sure I could have defended Dib so no one would hurt him again, but did I do it? Nope.

I hate myself for that.

It was kind of weird that Dad didn't even notice Dib was having problems at skool, with all the scratches and bruises on his body. Then again, Dad doesn't notice much outside his "scientist life."

It really didn't help that Dib was so scrawny. He was the ideal person to pick on because aside from being "weird," he also wasn't strong enough to defend himself against the jocks that beat up on him. He didn't have much strength in his arms and certainly not enough to shield himself.

Why do none of the girls pick on me? Well, they sure talk about me enough. I hear them. It's kind of funny who they think I am. According to the preppy popular girls, I'm a satanic girl that was born on Halloween and was raised on eating live kittens' heads.

Yeah, right.

At least they leave me alone.

Anyway, none of the girls picked on me because a couple years ago, a snobby popular girl named Jessica made some kind of rude comment about me not having a Mom and I jumped on her and started punching her as hard as I could. I beat her up so bad that she almost had to go to the hospital. I got in big trouble for that, but hey, no one bothers me anymore.

Of course, ZIM and Dib fought, but never as violently as the kids at skool. Their fighting was more verbal than physical. Actually, ZIM was the closest to a friend Dib ever had, even though they hated each other.

Sadly, Dib began to dwell on how much he wasn't needed. I noticed a change in his personality all of a sudden when he was fifteen. He didn't talk as much—which was a scary thing, because he always talks—, he didn't bother me at all, and he wasn't obsessing over seeing ZIM on an autopsy table.

I sensed something was wrong, but I didn't really think about it that much. It's not like I didn't care, but my mind was on other things.

I must have inherited oblivion from Dad.

How could I not have seen this coming?! What was wrong with me?! I should've recognized the symptoms, but, no! I HAD to not notice.

One day, after me and Dib had come home from skool, Dib had gone to his room right away, while I stayed and played video games downstairs. I played for an hour or two, until I began to wonder where the heck Dib was. He never stayed in his room that long... He usually came downstairs for something.

"Hey! Dib! Get down here!" I yelled, snappily.

No response.

"Hello! Dib!" I called, but he still didn't answer. "You better come down here or I'll—"

I admit it, I was concerned. I knew something was wrong.

I raced upstairs and burst open Dib's room door. What I saw next almost made me collapse with shock.

My brother was sprawled out on the floor, unconscious, with pill bottles all around him.

Dib tried to kill himself!

I started crying, wondering how he could do this to me, and why he did it. I quickly grabbed the phone, called 9-1-1 and told the operator that my brother had tried to kill himself with pills, and the ambulance was here right away.

Thankfully, he was still alive by the time they got him to the hospital. I went with him, but of course, I couldn't stay in the room. I waited outside the hospital room impatiently. I heard footsteps coming from down the hall and, assuming it was a nurse, I tried to keep my face down.

But it wasn't a nurse.

It was my dad.

And he was worried.

Dad saw me, and immediately burst into tears.

My dad was crying.

I had never seen him cry before. It was disturbing. I looked up at him, then down at my feet again. Then, he hugged me.

Dad hasn't hugged me since—since forever, practically.

I didn't feel like hugging him back. I was angry at him. I realized how much he helped my life become a nightmare. Of course he didn't know it, but still. Tears of anger flowed down my face.

Dad let go of me and said, "I'm sorry, honey."

I snapped. "Sorry? SORRY?! Do you think SORRY makes it any better?! My life has been so horrible because of YOU! Mom killed herself because she thought YOU didn't love her, because YOU hardly ever talked to her! She loved YOU! But YOU acted like YOU didn't care! That's why she's dead now! Dib tried to kill himself because no one supported him! YOU could have, but, NO, YOU didn't care!"

Dad looked nervous and hurt. "I…um…Gaz…"

I didn't care. "I hate you," I whispered harshly as I gave him the darkest, coldest look I could.

Dad left to the bathroom. I was so full of hurt and anger, that I lashed out on my dad and I didn't even care. I hurt his feelings, but I didn't care. He deserved it.

God, I felt so screwed up.

When Dad came back, a nurse came out and whispered something to him so I wouldn't hear, but I heard all right.

"I don't think he's going to make it, Professor," the nurse said sadly. "His body absorbed too much of the medication. He's conscious now, so if you or your daughter would like to see him, now is the time."

My brother was going to die.

"I want to see him," I said, as I stood up and went inside Dib's room.

In a mix of tubes and other medical things, was my brother. Dib looked so horrible. He was more pale than usual and he looked extremely exhausted.

He saw me, and apologized. "I'm…I'm sorry, Gaz," he began hoarsely.

I interrupted him in the kindest voice I could. "No, don't tell me that." I went up next to him and smiled.

Then I turned more serious, but not harsh. "Why did you do it?"

Dib looked kind of uncomfortable. "Because I couldn't handle being beat up everyday. I hated the-the fact that everyone hated me and wanted me to die. I had nothing to live for," he said softly. He looked so ill…

"What about ZIM? What about me?" I asked, hoping I wouldn't upset him.

Dib paused and took a deep breath. "ZIM isn't going anywhere," he assured me. "You—I didn't think you cared."

So, part of this was MY fault. Great.

"What's ZIM going to do without you around? He can't do anything if you're not there to stop him. Remember when you dropped your paranormal investigating to be a scientist like Dad? Without you to stop him he had no motivation," I reminded him. "And I—I've always cared about you. I just have a weird way of showing it." He started to laugh a little.

"Well, he won't be taking over Earth now, will he?" Dib said. "I'm sorry… I didn't think you really understood me."

"Dib, if anyone could understand you, it would be me," I guaranteed him. "I was the one listening to you twenty-four seven!"

"You listened?"

"Of course I did!" I exclaimed. "I mean, what else could I have done? I didn't catch everything, but most of your ranting I heard."

"Oh."

Silence.

I grabbed his hand. "Dib, I love you. I know this is kind of awkward since no one's said this to you before. I really don't want you to go…" I found it hard to not make him feel bad. I've never really been nice to anyone before, so I found this quite hard.

"I-I-love you too."

I couldn't help but cry. Gosh, here I was, being unnaturally nice to my dying brother, and in tears.

I noticed it was getting harder and harder for Dib to breathe and talk, so I decided to end our conversation and let him be.

"Say hi to Mom for me, okay?" I said as I stood up.

"I will." Dib smiled weakly.

As I headed to the door, a bunch of doctors and nurses rushed in. "Bye," I whispered, knowing he couldn't hear me.

I exited the room in tears and glanced at my Dad. I stood waiting outside until the same nurse came out and told us Dib passed away.

My brother was dead.

I started crying once again, this time practically hysterically. I wouldn't let anyone touch me or try to comfort me. I just wanted to be alone and cry, so I ran to the bathroom.

I felt angry again. I was angry at Mom, Dad, and Dib. Why did they do this to me?! Why did Mom think that we were better off without her? Why did Dad think that we were okay with him working full-time and never being able to see us? But there was no "us" anymore. Just me. Why did Dib have to kill himself like that? Why did they have to leave me all alone?

The next few days were really hard for me. I skipped skool to calm myself down. I spent a lot of time in Dib's room, looking at his stuff. At least part of him was still there.

Even my Game Slave didn't seem to entertain me. I felt so helpless and alone. I felt no one could ease the pain I was feeling. The only thing people did for me was make my pain worse.

And just as I had expected, Dad returned to work. He started to work MORE than usual! What a jerk.

One of those days, someone rang the doorbell. I hesitantly got up to answer it.

It was ZIM.

"Look, ZIM," I said. "I really don't have time for your—"

"Where is the Dib?" he interrupted. "Not that I'm concerned, but he hasn't been spying on my base as usual. What's he up to? Is he planning something?"

I guess the news hadn't made its way to him yet. "He's not up to anything, and he'll never ever be," I reported, but ZIM didn't seem to understand.

"He's using you, isn't he?!" ZIM pointed his finger at me, and I smacked it away.

"No, ZIM, he isn't."

ZIM looked really confused. I decided to just tell him the straight out truth.

"He's dead."

"Eh?" ZIM scratched his head. "Dead? How?" I know he was trying to act like he didn't care, but there was something inside him that looked disappointed.

"He killed himself a few days ago. I found him in his room too late for the doctors to do anything about it. Happy now?!" I slammed the door.

"See, Dib? People DID care about you. You just couldn't see…" I spoke aloud to a no-longer-existing Dib. The house was way too quiet and lonely without him.

Dib's absence bugged me mostly at night. I would try and try to go to sleep, but scenes of my mother's suicide and Dib's attempt replayed in my head over and over again, and it kept me from falling asleep. The few times I did get to sleep, haunting nightmares about Dib and Mom filled my dreams.

When I finally was able to return to skool, everyone was talking about Dib. This made me extremely uncomfortable. Some felt really bad, while others acted like they didn't care. Some even seemed glad he was gone. (This made me thoroughly ticked off)

At lunch, I had to sit by myself. I didn't feel like eating much, so I played my Game Slave—or at least tried to. While I was playing, a girl that I recognized was in Dib's grade came up to me. I think her name was Gretchen or something. She had magenta-ish hair and used to have a gigantic overbite. The braces she had awhile ago made her teeth better, but not perfect.

"I'm sorry about your brother," she said sympathetically, but I didn't respond. I didn't even want to be having this conversation. If she made me cry in skool, I was going to hurt her.

"He was a really nice guy. I barely talked to him, but I noticed that he was never mean to anybody, with the exception of ZIM, and all."

Yeah, and her point was…?

"The truth is," she paused, and I didn't dare look up to face her. How I wished she'd go away!

"I liked Dib. I like liked him. I've liked him ever since elementary skool." I paused my game, but I still didn't acknowledge her presence. I noticed she was feeling a little nervous about talking to

"I am very upset that he died. I really regretted never telling him how I felt about him. I cried a lot the day I found out he committed suicide," she explained, as I winced. I became furious at what she was saying.

But she continued. "Once again, I'm very sorry and I hope everything will be okay."

Once again, I let my temper get the best of me. "Well, maybe everything would be 'okay' if you had just told Dib that you cared about him!" I nearly yelled. "That's why he killed himself, you know, because he felt no one cared about him!" I stomped off and left this Gretchen girl. When I looked back I saw tears welling up in her eyes.

And for the first time in my life, I think my conscience worked on time.