THE SCIENCE OF SOULMATES

WEDNESDAY

Dr. Anderson stood outside of Chief Dale's office pacing nervously, waiting for him to get off the phone.

"Jeff, you can come in now," Dale called out.

"Sorry to interrupt."

"Trust me. I appreciate the interruption. Missy isn't exactly happy that I let Addison stay in the hospital wing with Zed again last night." he said, motioning for Dr. Anderson to take a seat.

"Well, it might actually be a good thing we have her here."

"….What's going on?"

Dr. Anderson took a deep breath. "I don't think anything is wrong per se."

"Jeff… This is my little girl we are talking about. Spit it out."

"I noticed an anomaly on both her neuro scan from Monday and Zed's from today and I need your permission to run further tests," he rushed out as quickly as possible in one breath.

Dale stood up quickly, sending his chair flying backward. "Is there something wrong with her?!"

"No, no, no...let me explain. I have a theory."

Dale slammed his hands on his desk. "Start talking!"

"That is a great look," Zed joked as the nurse applied various electrodes across Addison's head.

"Have you looked in a mirror?" Addison laughed.

"I make this look goooood."

"Are you saying I don't?"

Zed smiled and rolled his eyes. "You know you're gorgeous...even with wires coming out of your head."

Addison blew him a kiss.

"Alright you two," Dr. Anderson said walking into the room. "Ready to get started?"

THURSDAY

"Mom!" Addison said walking back into Zed's room with a bag of Takis from the vending machine.

"Shh…." Missy held her finger up to lips and motioned over to Zed sleeping.

"Oops...What are you doing here?"

"Dr. Anderson called me in. Your father and Zevon are on their way."

Addison walked over to Zed's bed and felt his forehead.

"Has he been running a fever again?"

Addison nodded. "Nothing too crazy, but yesterday when I came back from lunch with you and Dad he had one and last night after Bucky and Eliza visited it started again. Was he asleep when you got in?"

"Yes."

Addison giggled. "He asks me to sneak him food then falls asleep...want to see something funny?" she slowly started to open the purple bag in front of his face. Zed's eyes opened immediately, causing her and Missy to laugh.

Zed sat up. "Hi, Mayor Missy."

"Hi, Sweetie. How are you feeling?"

Addison popped a Taki into his mouth.

"Much better now. I needed something other than hospital food...Thanks, Addie."

"Anytime, Z...just don't tell Nurse Ruth."

Just then the room door opened. Addison quickly hid the bag of chips.

"It's just the dads," Missy laughed.

Addison and Zed both let out a sigh of relief.

"Do I smell Takis?" Zevon said walking over to them.

"Oh no you don't," Zed warned. "This is the first thing I've had in days that actually has any flavor...hands off my chips."

"Where's Dr. Anderson?" Dale asked, hugging his daughter and then his wife.

"Right here," Dr. Anderson said walking into the room. "Are those Takis?"

Zed popped another one in his mouth before hiding the bag. "No..." he said with a mouthful.

Dr. Anderson closed the door. "I'll make you a deal. Give me one and I won't tell Ruth..."

Zed let out an exaggerated sigh. "Fine." He held the bag out for him.

"Thank you."

"Why does he get one?" Zevon asked.

"Because he can protect me from Nurse Ruth...that woman scares me."

"Maybe if you two stopped violating hospital policies she'd be nicer," Dr. Anderson quipped.

"Not to change the subject," Missy said. "But I have a really busy afternoon, can we get to why you needed us all here?"

"Ah, yes. Sorry. So as you all know, I ran a few tests on Zed and Addison yesterday."

"And what were these for exactly?" Missy asked.

"Well, after talking with Zevon Tuesday morning, I started thinking about how Zed and Addison respond to each other. She clearly has an effect on him when he's...how do you put it Zed?"

"Full-on Zom?"

"That's it. Thank you. Anyway, it got me thinking that there might actually be something more going on. So I took another look at Addison's neuro scans from when she came in Monday and compared them to the ones we did on Zed Tuesday." He pulled up the images on his tablet and showed them. "If you notice, right here," he said pointing. "They both share a small anomaly."

"What does that mean?" Missy asked.

"Well, I wasn't sure yet, so that's why I ran a few other tests." He pulled up a side by side video of their brain wave test. "This was taken yesterday. They were across the room when we initially started, then seated next to each other, and then in separate rooms." They all watched as their brain activity synced up and then varied.

"That was interesting..." Zed said slightly confused.

"I thought so as well. Which is why I also ran blood tests...Chief, Mayor, do you know what Addison's blood type is?"

"O negative, just like me," Missy stated.

"Zevon?"

"Z negative."

Dr. Anderson took a breath and pulled up another image on his tablet. "They aren't anymore."

"What do you mean?" Dale asked as Missy grabbed his arm.

"They both have something I've never seen before. It's a hybrid of the two types. We're calling it OZ negative."

"What does that mean? Is she...is she turning?"

"Really Mom?!"

"Stable Zombies don't produce the required venom needed to turn a human. You know that." Dale said, trying to keep his wife calm.

"Well, then what does all this mean?"

Dr. Anderson looked to Zevon who was already smiling. "You were right."

"Of course I was."

Addison smiled up to Zed. "I knew it."

Zed leaned down and rested his forehead against hers. "Gar gar giza."

"Will someone please tell me what's going on?" Missy said on the verge of tears.

"It means that the old Zombie stories that say when you find your 'other half' or 'soulmate' you 'change', are based in fact. Their biology has changed."

"What?" Missy asked confused

"To put it simply," Zevon said, wiping a tear from his eye, "Zed will never hurt Addison, and Addison will always keep him in control. They're each other's perfect match. They will always love each other in a way that no one else can or will."

Missy wiped her own tears away. "Well, why didn't you just say all that from the beginning?"

Everyone looked at her with a confused expression.

"What? All I'm saying was that you could have led with that versus scaring me half to death. Everyone knows that they're crazy about each other."

They all let out a relieved laugh.

"Jeff...this discovery...it could completely change the way we deal with Z-Bands and now Z-Rings. Is there a way to streamline the testing?"

Dr. Anderson thought for a moment. "We could probably reduce it to just the blood test. But, are there any other Zombie/Human couples that we could ask to volunteer?

Zed and Addison looked at each other while Zevon, Dale, and Missy started to laugh.

"I feel like I'm missing something..." Dr. Anderson said cautiously.

"Yeah...we know some people," Zed smiled.

"Oh, Kitty is going to love this," Missy said with a smirk.

FRIDAY

"I just want to get out of here," Zed said as he collapsed onto the hospital bed.

"You're getting a lot of your strength back, and you haven't had any fever since yesterday. I'm sure they'll discharge you soon." Addison said sitting on the edge of the bed, trying to comfort him.

Zed rolled his eyes. "I can't even walk to the nurse's station and back without needing a nap."

"Well then take a nap. What else are you going to do?"

Zed grabbed her hand and pulled her close. "I can think of a few things I'd like to do right now." He wrapped his hand around the back of her head and kissed her.

Addison moaned into his mouth, deepening their kiss. He tightened his hold on her and rolled them so that she was on top of him.

"Wait..." Addison said suddenly pulling back. "You're supposed to be resting..."

His fingers snuck underneath her shirt and splayed out across her back, pulling her back down to him. "I really, really, miss this," he whispered placing light kisses along her neck.

"What if someone walks in?"

"I'm not due for anything for another hour..."

Addison smiled and sat up enough to get her shirt over her head. Her hand went to his hair as she leaned back down to kiss him. "I've missed this too." Her lips moved up his jaw, slowly nipping along the edge until she reached his ear, and bit down.

Suddenly alarms started sounding from the various monitors. The door swung wide open as Nurse Ruth ran into the room. When she saw Addison jumping out of the bed, trying to get her shirt on she stopped and rolled her eyes. "May I remind you that this is a hospital?" she said tersely, walking over to the machines and turning off the alarms, before quickly turning around and walking back out.

Addison blushed furiously. "Well, that was exciting."

Zed threw his head back into his pillow and laughed. "I told you those teeth drive me crazy..."

"Okay, so lesson learned...We're keeping it PG-13 until you get out of here."

"Stupid monitors..." he grumbled before yawning loudly.

Addison shook her head and got back into the bed, snuggling into his side. "Sleep."

"If you insist."

"Please tell me you guys are decent?" Eliza joked as she walked into the room with her hands over her eyes.

"Shhhhh….."

Eliza opened her eyes to find Addison hushing her from the small couch against the wall. Zed was sound asleep.

"Sorry."

"It's fine. He's been out for a few hours," she said closing one of her textbooks. "I've been catching up on schoolwork for the last two."

"Well, Bree should be up any second with today's workload. Her and Bonz stopped to chit chat with Gus."

"Great...more work."

"So,"

Eliza said as she sat down on the couch next to Addison. "As much as I love spending time in containment, want to tell me why you two insisted I come by?"

"I think we should wait until Zed's awake and Bree and Bonzo are up here."

Eliza huffed. "ZED!"

"I'm up!" he said quickly sitting up. He took a second to look around before groaning and falling back to his pillow. Bree and Bonzo walked in just as Zed let out a string of Zombie curses. Bonzo quickly covered Brees' ears.

"Did I mention he's a little grumpy today?" Addison giggled.

"Garuz zah gan," Bonzo smiled.

"So...now that Zed is awake and Bree and Bonzo are here..." Eliza said gesturing around the room.

Addison stood up from the couch and walked over to the bed. "Should we tell them?"

Zed hit the button on the bed to put it in an upright position. "You two might want to sit down," he said to Bree and Bonzo.

"Sounds serious...wait a second...LET ME SEE YOUR HAND!" Bree exclaimed running across the room and grabbing Addison's left hand.

Addison giggled as Bree flipped her hand over a few times. "We're not engaged."

"If you two tell me you eloped I swear..."

"We didn't elope either!" Addison laughed. "When we get married, I promise you will be there."

"Well then what's this all about then?" Bree said putting her hand on her hip and tapping her foot.

Zed smiled and shook his head. "Bree...sit."

She walked over and grabbed a chair next to Bonzo. "Start talking."

"Bonzo, have you ever shared any of the old Zombie stories with Bree?" Zed asked.

"Za. Graiz zon?"

"The one about finding your other half?"

"Za."

"What if I said that there was some truth to the old tale? That when you find your other half you do truly change."

"What are you talking about, Zed? Everyone knows that they're just stories made up to tell kids at bedtime."

"You sure about that, E?"

"I mean, yeah...Why?"

"Remember back in December when I got this?" he said holding up his Z-Ring.

"Kind of hard to forget. And thanks for flipping me off," she said returning the gesture.

Zed rolled his eyes and smiled. "Remember how I told you that I stayed more or less in control the entire time?"

"Yeah…."

"We think we know why."

"And this has what to do with that stupid old story?"

Addison smiled and held Zed's hand. "Everything."

Eliza gave them a look. "Care to explain."

"It's all true," Zed said smiling over to Addison. "You literally go through a biological change when you meet your soulmate."

"How?" Bree asked quietly.

"Dr. Anderson noticed it first on our MRI's. Then we sat through brainwave monitoring. And then finally...a blood test."

"Zagzplag..."

"Okay, so I've always had O negative blood, and Zed's always been Z negative. But when they tested our blood the other day, we're both now OZ negative."

Bree, Bonzo, and Eliza all gasped.

"Yeah, and when they compared our MRI's we both have the same unexplained anomaly. And our brain waves synced up."

"You guys are kidding, right?"

"Eliza, I promise you, we are 100% serious."

"So one simple little blood test could keep me from having to go through Z-Band hell?"

"Yeah."

"Where's the doctor?"

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Shout out to Grace who gave me the idea to further explore the soulmate side of things (and actually provide plot before Thursdays update).

DWTS….GO VOTE FOR #TEAMWITLO! They were AMAZING last night! I can't wait to see what they do tonight!