Disclaimer: see chapter 1
A/N: As requested...

She waved goodbye to her mother and closed her car door, staring at the steering wheel. The last thing she could stomach right now was going back to Fusion, having to listen to Babe babble on and on about things she had no idea about. Kendall threw the car into drive and headed out. She was lost in thought, driving through town. Before she knew it, she was heading to the city limits, but she just kept going. She did her best to put all thoughts out of her head, and she was fine until she felt the craving for Rocky Road ice cream sneak up on her, unexpectedly.

"This marriage is not what I expected."

"Well, what, so you're going to blame it on me?"

"No. It's me, my fault. My feelings for you have changed. I like you. I like you more. When we first agreed to this, I thought you were a bit of a ditz."

"You thought I was a ditz?" What the hell…

"Yeah. And first impressions die hard."

"Ok -- well, you want to know what I thought of you? I thought that you were all Zach all the time. Whatever you want, whatever you need, screw everybody else."

"I hope I lived up to your expectations."

"I am so onto you. It took me a while, but I finally got it. That whole "master of the dark side" bit? You're a fraud. You actually have something called a heart. And it does more than pump blood. Only when you reach out to people, you end up rubbing them the wrong way. So, I mean, you might have gone crazy on Greenlee and me, but you did it because you were thinking about me."

"I won't let it happen again."

"See? Why -- would you stop? Why do you that? This is exactly what I'm talking about. The good Zach comes out, and then you shut him right back up in that cave. Why do you do that? I mean, what is the big deal about caring for somebody? You -- I swear to God, I could just kill you."

"Thank you for the compliment."

"Ahem. Um -- I'm sorry for throwing the champagne."

"This will do, if you still feel like a toast."

"Did you really mean what you said? I mean, are you really ok with me carrying Greenlee's baby?"

"I'm ok with it."

Zach raised his glass, smiling that wickedly handsome smile of his at her.

"To you and your courage. Your devotion to Greenlee is something that goes beyond anything I've ever witnessed. I'm in awe."

"This is sweet for you to understand all this. Especially when you hated the idea."

"I want to help you any way I can."

"Really? So -- oh, if I had a craving for fried pickles in the middle of the night, and I want you to run out and buy them for me, will you?"

"I will."

"And if I'm heaving them up the next morning, will you hold back my hair?"

"I will."

"When I'm bigger than a house, will you tell me that I'm beautiful?"

"I will. Because that's never going to change. However, no matter how pretty your belly is now or how pretty it's going to be, I'm not going to talk to it. I'm not going to play Austrian music to it, and I'm not going to show it flash cards."

"That's a deal breaker. I want a divorce."

"No, you don't."

She laughed, thinking about how she threw that around a lot back then, knowing in the back of her mind that that was the last thing she wanted.

That had to be her favorite memory by far, remembering how supportive he had been that day, how he had endeared himself more to her by promising to stand beside her, and how all of that had been shot to hell with the flick of Marty's fingers at the Mardi Gras ball. Yes, she was mad, but she missed him more and more every day. Not seeing him was hurting her more than seeing him.

"Screw it" she said, turning her car around, heading in the direction of the casino, not wanting to wait one more minute before finally talking to him about everything.

TBC…