Disclaimer: Believe you me, these characters are not mine because I hardly recognize these characters anymore. It's really kind of sad!
A/N: OK, so I am bolstered by today's (3/28/06) Z/K interaction and what seems to be the start of our lovely Zach emerging from his EthanFunk! Yes, Kendall is preggo. Yes, Ryan is still in the stratosphere, but I'm not really including him unless I have to. Thanks to TV MegaSite for the transcripts. This story is going to involve a lot of flashback type of things. I have been less than inspired recently, but found inspiration after I made a little fan vid for our girl Kendall! Enjoy!

The slamming of the door caught her attention. She glanced up from her magazine to see him flipping through his mail. She could do nothing but stare. As hard as she tried, she found herself still drawn to him after all this time. As much as she wanted to pretend that she wanted Ryan as her buffer, nothing was further from the truth. That was the one and only reason she sent him home weeks ago, telling him that he needed to not be around 24/7.

It was in these moments, in this time when she watched him without him knowing, that she found the memories flooding back to her…

She knew it was lame, but she was so angry and pissed about the risk he was taking for yet another Santos that she couldn't help herself. But, now that he was here, seeing through her lie, through her very lame story, she found herself more concerned for him than anything else, and it was starting to irritate the fire out of her.

"Now, I'm not going to leave you if you're frightened, but there's something very important I have to take care of."

"Does her name start with Julia?" She cursed herself inside of head for spitting that out.

"Let's get you to the casino. You'll be safe there, and I will deal with this later."

"I'd like you to steer clear of Wildwind and Miss Walking Target Julia Santos. Because of her, I almost lost my life today. What? Zach, this is not funny. I have a bad feeling about this."

"No, I know, but, you know, you're beginning to sound like –"

"No. Don't say it." Jackass.

"Like a wife.

"I told you not to say it."

"It's true, it's –"

"You know what, I don't have to be a real wife to be concerned about you getting yourself killed."

"You're right. But the sooner I go deal with Julia, the sooner I'll be done with it, so let's get you to the casino, and I'll meet up with you later. Come on."

"Well, can you at least walk me to my car?" What the hell was she doing, being so needy, not wanting him to walk away from her…

"Can I ask you something?"

"Sure."

"How did this guy get in here in the first place?"

Son of a…"He pretended to be the meter reader."

"Meter reader? For the outside meter?"

Shit, shit, shit! "What the hell do I know about meters?"

"You know what I think? I think you made up this whole story just to keep me here."

"Are you crazy?"

"You'll tell me about it later, right?"

"Wow. Guess the honeymoon's over, huh?"

She smiled, remembering just how desperate she had been to get him away from Julia and the whole Dragon mess. Looking back, she knew that it was then, when he was embroiled in the Dragon mess that she started to realize that the marriage had morphed into something else, at least of her. If only she could go back – she'd do some many things differently, but hindsight is always 20/20.

She watched him pull off his tie and run his fingers through his hair, staring off into space. It was in moments like this that she wanted to run across the courtyard and throw her arms around him, to beg him to forget the last few months, to come back to her, to be with her, to make them who they were before the Mardi Gras Ball. On nights like this, when she finally found her courage, she always hesitated one moment too long, like tonight, and she could only watch helplessly as he turned off the lights and headed for bed, leaving her watching nothing but a darkened window.

TBC…