The first thing Hodgins noticed was that Zach still didn't have his shirt on. That was bad. Casey didn't need to see the mess his back was right now, but it was too late. Booth led the way, with Casey beside him, an arm protectively around her shoulders. Zach heard footsteps, and looked up. Registering who the visitors were, his mouth fell slack for a moment, then he realized what Hodgins already knew and scrambled to pull the t-shirt over his head. It caused him considerable pain, but he couldn't let her see the damage that had been done. Then he stood up. "Casey?"

She pulled away from Booth and ran to him. Carefully, she put her hands on his shoulders. "Are you okay?"

"I was just about to ask you the same thing," he said, so relieved to see her. "But how? Booth?"

The FBI agent shrugged. "Professional courtesy."

"But you hate…squints," Zach said, Booth's word for them feeling strange to say.

"Not the point, Zach."

He shrugged, for the first time not really caring about the how or why. He put his arms around her and pulled her close. She carefully laid her head on his shoulder. The rest of the crew watched, warmed, and Booth nudged Brennan. He nodded toward the door, and she followed. They waved goodbye to Hodgins and Angela, and left.

Booth settled himself into the drivers seat, and was more comfortable now that Brennan was riding shotgun again. "What a night!" he said, flopping his head back against the headrest.

"Yeah," agreed Brennan. "Thankfully, it turned out ok."

"You call this okay?" Booth asked incredulously. "Casey had a hostage, Zach probably won't be able to walk when he wakes up, I could technically lose my badge over what I just did. Man, you have the weirdest grad students!"

Brennan grinned. "It was very interesting. Casey's behavior was slightly unexpected."

Booth shook his head. "How much did you have to drink?" She started to answer. "Never mind, I don't want to know." He put the SUV in gear and headed down the driveway. "Why can't we ever just have a nice, peaceful night out?"

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Zach held Casey for a long time. He was so relieved to know that she was safe! As bad as his back and head hurt, nothing had hurt as bad as knowing that she was going to jail for trying to protect him. Just the thought of her in there, trapped, cold, and alone felt like a punch to the gut. Finally, she pulled back and looked up at him. She was smiling, and it was enough to bring a smile to his face. "You're really okay? Don't lie to me," she said.

"A little sore," he replied.

"Turn around," she said. "I want to see your back."

A look of fear crossed his face, and she misread it. "I won't touch it, I just want to see how bad it is."

"How about we don't?" asked Zach. "You don't really want to see. Lets sit down." He led her to the couch.

She sat down, but wouldn't let it go. "Please, Zach. I need to see how bad it is."

If she only knew how defenseless he was against her… He turned his back to her. "You'll have to pull my shirt up. Moving my arms backward hurts."

Casey tentatively raised his shirt to his shoulders, and gasped at the sight. Only an hour after the fight, the bruising was extensive. Four distinctly darker streaks indicated where the leg of the barstool hit. These were webbed with lighter bruises from the rungs between the legs. All in all, everything from the bottom of his shoulder blades to the waist of his jeans was covered. She sucked in a breath, and Zach pulled away. "I knew you didn't need to see that!" His shirt feel half-way back down, and he had to try to pull it back down. He froze as the pain reaching back caused hit him hard.

Casey noticed, and quickly adjusted his shirt. "I'm sorry. I should have just let it go. I just…needed to see. Because if I didn't-"

Zach understood. "If you didn't, your imagination would fill in the details and probably make it much worse than it actually is and make you worry even more."

She nodded. "Yeah. Left to my imagination, you'd be paralyzed by morning." She looked away from him. "I'm so sorry."

"For what?" he asked, honestly confused. "You probably saved my life. I just have this innate ability to get into trouble. I don't understand why, but things have a tendancy to go very wrong whenever I'm involved. I'm the one who should have apologized. If I had waited until the next song, or even accepted your invitation in the first place then that guy would never felt that I was a threat to his image and wouldn't have…" he swallowed, "wouldn't have hit you."

She shook her head. "It's my fault. And you got hurt."

"I thought you were going to jail," he said. "And that worried me. I've worked on several bodies that come out of jails, and I know they're supposed to be safe, but I also know that they're not, and if something bad happened to you because of me, I'd…I'd probably lose my mind."

He paused for so long, Casey thought he was finished. "Zach, I want you to know-"

He started at the same time, "I need to tell you-" he stopped. "You go first."

She smiled a sad smile. "Zach, you're the best friend I've ever had. I want you to know that, and how much it means to me. I've been alone for a long time, it feels good for someone to care about me. I know they all care but…You're different. And that means the world to me. Whatever you feel like you did wrong tonight, nobody's going to hurt you and get away with it. You try to protect me, but I'm going to try to protect you too. Now, what were you going to say?"

Zach wasn't at all sure now. For all his lack of social knowledge, he had seen enough TV to know that the feelings she had just expressed were not on the level of his. Now was definitely not the time. "Uh, just that I feel the same about you. You're my best friend too." Content that she was safe and he was comfortable, she leaned against his chest, and was soon asleep.

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Hodgins and Angela sat at the kitchen table, drinking coffee. "Man," he muttered. "He was so close to telling her. Now he may never tell her!"

"I just don't understand men!" Angela replied. "All he had to do was say that his feelings for her are stronger than that! She was receptive, I just don't think she knew how to say more than she did."

"It's not that easy!" Hodgins insisted. "Once you're their best friend, you have a responsibility not to screw that up. And if they don't feel the same way, telling them you love them definitely counts as screwing it up! That's part of the reason Booth won't tell Brennan how he feels!"

Angela contemplated that for a moment. "Yeah, we know that. But Does Zach know that? He's kinda clueless, you know."

Hodgins laughed. "Boy, do I ever know!"

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Zach looked down at the sleeping girl and ignored the pain moving his arm caused long enough to put his arm around her. She didn't stir, so he shifted a little, trying to get more comfortable. He replayed her earlier statements. Her best friend. That wasn't exactly what he wanted, but maybe he could live with that. It meant so much to her, she almost seemed awed by that. He could understand, he hadn't had many friends either. Had never had a close friend until he joined this team. He remembered what she had told them that first day at the diner. She had one close friend in Iraq and one that had died there. He couldn't imagine that. Hodgins and Dr. Brennan had almost died in that car when they were buried, and he knew how he felt thinking they were dead when the timer ran out, but thinking it was one thing. Knowing, and going to the funeral and seeing a casket and a gravestone was something totally different.

He knew he was something special to her now. Did he dare risk a sure place in her life for a chance at being more? What if he scared her, and she didn't want anything to do with him? No, he had to keep his feeling to himself for now. Maybe her feelings would change, or something. For now, he thought he could deal with this best friend thing. Maybe he could actually be good at it. And maybe he could even convince his heart…