Disclaimer: see chapter 1
A/N: ok, so anything written below is purely in fun and jest. Just so you all know that I, myself, spent two years living in a sorority house and I also find myself with a slight girl crush on Kendall, especially when she is putting people in their place!

Zach barely glanced up at Elizabeth as she strolled into his office and plopped down in one of his visitors' chairs, kicking her feet up on his desk.

"It's late" he growled out to her, never taking his eyes off the report in front of him.

Elizabeth smiled at him, knowing that he was paying no attention to her, but she was about to change that. "I didn't know you were back or I would have invited you to join us for dinner." That got that the expected reaction – Zach looked up at her. "Us?"

Elizabeth just shook her head. "That ex-wife, fiancée of yours sure is a firecracker." Zach groaned and dropped his head on the desk. Elizabeth just laughed and continued on. "She's mouthy, sassy, demanding and can bring the bitch better than anyone I've ever met – and that's saying a lot considering I lived in the sorority house for two years. I think I may have a little girl crush on her."

Zach shot his head up and glared at Elizabeth, who chose to ignore him. "You know what I like most about her?" Zach sighed and got out of his chair, pacing around his office. "Can we PLEASE not talk about Kendall?" he pleaded with her.

"No. What I like most about her is how much she loves you." Elizabeth looked over her shoulder as Zach froze mid pace, staring at her. Elizabeth shrugged her shoulders, staring at him as he sank down on the couch, burying his head in his hands.

"She said she was done with me."

Elizabeth walked over and sat down next to him. "She lied. She was pissed, which she has ever right to be. By the way, brother, next time you want to do something so supremely stupid, call me first so I can talk you out of it!"

He looked up at her. "I can't drag her into this life, this chaos I've got going on right now. It isn't fair to her to…"

"Blah, blah, blah… Cambias curse… blah, blah, and blah" Elizabeth mocked at him, waving her hands around. "Do you love her?"

"More than anything."

"Then you make it work."

"How?"

Elizabeth smiled at him. "Well, that's why I'm here." Her cryptic words made Zach nervous. "I need a drink" he said, pushing himself off the couch. Elizabeth grabbed his arm, stopping him. "No, Zach, you need some sleep." Elizabeth didn't even give him a chance to answer, pulling him through his office and toward the suite.

Elizabeth strolled into the Cambias offices, determined to drag Zach out of the office for an hour for lunch. He barely slept the night before and was up and gone before dawn, leaving her a note about how he would be late and would talk to her later. She, in return, left him a message with his secretary informing him that she would be at his office at 11:45 sharp to drag him to lunch and 'no' was not an acceptable answer. She introduced herself to Zach's secretary, who said he was running behind, but would be out in about 10 minutes, ready to go to lunch. Elizabeth laughed as the secretary regaled her with the tale of fighting with Zach about lunch this morning. Elizabeth immediately liked this woman.

She was flipping through a magazine when the outer doors flew open and a man walked in, followed by a team of suits. Elizabeth just stared as he stormed up to Zach's secretary.

"Mr. Lavery, you can't just storm in here like this. The judge has warned you about this behavior." Elizabeth just smiled – 'the infamous Ryan Lavery' she thought to herself. Elizabeth watched Ryan berate Zach's secretary until Zach threw open the doors and stormed toward Ryan.

"Lavery, I don't think I saw you on my appointment log today."

"Stuff it Zach. I'm here for the quarterly reports. The judge said that…" Elizabeth watched these men fight about something that she knew wasn't important to Zach, something that she felt Ryan just wanted because Zach had it.

"Even your father wanted me in charge, Slater!"

Zach got in Ryan's face. "Try to take this from me, Lavery and you will feel the Cambias wrath tenfold!" In that moment, Elizabeth became scared for Zach. She saw that look in his eyes – it was the same look she received from his father all those years ago and seeing it from Zach made her blood run cold.

Zach shoved Ryan toward the door. "Come back again and I'll finish what I started on the courthouse rooftop!" Ryan left grudgingly and Zach stalked back to the office, not looking at Elizabeth, not looking at her as he passed. He slammed the door and she could only stare at the ground. She knew she had to save him again, like she did all those years ago, but she was going to need some help in saving Zach from the hell he was creating for himself. She dug her cell phone out of her purse and found a quiet corner. She scrolled through her address book till she found the number she needed.

"Hey, it's Elizabeth… You'll never guess…. Yeah, I had to come, Edie called and told me what was going on… yeah, and it's bad, really bad and this Ryan guy… yeah, just like you said he would be. He and Zach just got into it right in the middle of the office and the look in Zach's eyes, well, it scared the crap out of me… I need your help and I know you don't want to come back, but I wouldn't be asking if… ok, are you sure… ok, no, don't come all the way to town. Take the bus to Llanview and I'll pick you up from there. When do you think that… really, wow, I didn't realize you were that close. Ok, just call me when you know what time the bus is dropping you off and I'll be there. Thanks." She snapped her phone shut and glanced up, seeing a meek and broken Zach staring at her, ready to get out of the office for an hour.

TBC…