Notes: WARNING! Violence, torture, abuse, more Zack acting weird. They're not mine (Except for Wilson, he's mine to do with as I please!), I just enjoy abusing them.

After everything else, apprehending Darrell Thomas was rather anti-climactic. They knocked, he opened the door. They arrested him. The idiot hadn't thought they would be on to him yet, thought he had nothing to fear. He was a smart-ass and a pain in the butt, and when they got to the car, Booth had to shove him in. The large man just grinned. "What are you charging me with?"

"Well, let's see…" said Booth, pretending to think. "We'll start with unlawful entry, trespassing, and then move up to kidnapping and murder. Anything else, guys?" He looked to Wilson and Zack.

"I'd have to say smelling that bad is at least a misdemeanor," said Wilson. Their suspect was at least six-foot-four, weighing over three hundred pounds, and smelled like he hadn't had a bath in a week.

"Gotta agree with you there," said Booth.

"You can't scare me!" the slime ball proclaimed. "You ain't got nothin' on me! And you never read me my rights!"

Booth grinned, forcing the humor into his voice. "That's okay. 'Cause we're not arresting you."

That slapped a little of the confidence off Thomas's face. "But you handcuffed me and everything! You can't do that without arresting me!"

"Sure we can!" said Wilson in the same forced-amused tone. "I bet you tied Marti Dalton up when you took her, right?"

Thomas was just stupid enough to fall for it. "But that was kidnapping! You're the law!"

"Not today, we're not!" said Booth, all the fake humor gone from his voice.

"Turn in over here," said Wilson, pointing to a secluded driveway almost covered over by overgrown trees.

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"What is this place?" Zack asked, the first words he had said since they met their suspect.

"Abandoned hospital," said Wilson. "No one has been around here in ever. Perfect place to be alone with our new friend." He helped Booth drag Thomas out of the back seat and to his feet. Unfortunately, their captive had inferred what was going on, and was less than cooperative. Booth and Wilson had to drag him inside with Zack trying to get his feet but mostly just getting kicked.

Wilson led them through a broken door of the decrepit old brick building and into what had once been a trauma room. They forced their captive into the chair. He was frantic now, fighting them actively. It took another set of handcuffs and a set of restraints they found in a drawer to secure him.

Once they were sure he wasn't going anywhere, the three kidnappers went out into the hallway to discuss strategy. "Well, what now?" asked Wilson.

"What, you don't have a plan?" asked Booth. "You brought us here, I thought you had a plan!"

"I had a location! I thought you had a plan!"

Booth ran his fingers through his hair. "Okay, we threaten him, smack him around a little, and see if he'll tell us where he took Casey." Wilson nodded, and Booth turned to Zack. "Zack, if you can't deal with this, wait out here."

"I'll be okay," he said flatly.

Booth looked at him. "Casey would not approve of this. We're not going to be the good guys here. We've already committed enough felonies to land us all in jail until we're too old to care."

"But it's the best idea we have to save Casey?"

"Yeah."

Zack actually looked in Booth's eyes, and it was enough to rattle Booth a little. Zack never looked him in the eye. Plus, the look he saw there was so out of place for the young scientist. Anger. Not like when he ignored him, or when he insulted him. Real, true anger, the kind he hadn't thought Zack capable of. "Then let's go!" he said.

Reassured, he led them back in. "Okay, Darrell. Here's the deal. You tell us where you took the girl, we take you home, Hell, I'll even buy you a pizza for dinner. If you don't tell us, this is going to get unpleasant. You don't want that, do you?"

Thomas looked at them like they had lost their minds. "I ain't telling you nothin'! Untie me! Let me go and I won't press any charges."

Booth looked at Wilson, who shrugged. Booth returned the shrug, then stepped up to Thomas and backhanded him hard enough to slam the back of his head into the chair. Stunned, he looked up at his captor as blood leaked from his busted nose. He turned and wiped the blood from his face on his shoulder, then looked defiantly back at Booth. "What, you gonna beat me up? What do you think that crazy bitch will do to me if I tell you? She'll stab me in my sleep, or pull a Loraina Bobbitt. I think I'll take my chances with you!"

Booth pulled out his gun. "Okay, you want to play that way?" he put the gun to the guy's chest. "Tell us or I pull the trigger!"

The man looked at him defiantly, and waited. Booth started to sweat. Finally, Zack spoke up. "Booth, you can't do it like that!"

Booth turned around to glare at him. "I told you if you couldn't handle it-"

Zack practically growled at him. "I didn't say I couldn't handle it, I said you were doing it wrong! He knows you won't kill him that easily and he's calling your bluff! He may not be a Rhodes scholar but he's not that stupid!"

Booth turned and offered him the pistol. "You can do better?"

Zack ignored the gun. "I'm sure I can." He walked calmly to dig through the cabinets, and came back to them holding two glass medicine vials and two syringes and pulled up a chair beside their prisoner. Unlike Booth, his face was completely unreadable, stone set, and he calmly drew up a full syringe of each, then looked at Thomas. In a very conversational voice, he addressed him. "Have you every heard of neurolic acid?" It was obvious that an answer was expected, so the captive shook his head. "I didn't think so," said Zack in his best 'I'm-a-genius-but-I'll-try-to-put-it-on-your-level' tone, holding the first syringe over the man's thigh. With only a second's pause to make sure he was paying attention, then jammed it into the muscle.

Thomas fought mightily, but had to let out a small cry as Zack injected the burning liquid into his leg. Fire tore through his entire lower body as he squirmed around in the chair. Zack continued in the same frightening monotone. "It's what they give to patients with degenerative brain diseases and certain cancers. If they're terminal, with no hope of recovery and are in enough pain, this kills the nerves. Unfortunately, it's very painful in its self. But people who are in enough pain don't care, just as long as it promises an end to the pain." He was staring at the man who kidnapped his girlfriend like he was a specimen in the lab, one who's reaction he wanted to study and play with. "But when it's given to perfectly healthy people, they describe the pain as unbearable. Pain can be such a subjective thing. To someone who is dying of cancer, what I just gave you would be a miracle. I'm sure you would call it something else, wouldn't you?"

It was written all over Thomas's face. The fire in his leg was flaring out from the injection site, spreading like wildfire. "Hurt's doesn't it?" Zack said again, sounding almost sympathetic. "Well, let me give you a ray of hope. This will end within an hour one way of another. One way is for me to let this run it's course. In that case, you will die within an hour."

"Die?!" Thomas exclaimed. "I thought you said this was medicine!"

"Well, yeah," said Zack. He held up the syringe. "Two point five milliliters is the absolute maximum dose, and even that can be fatal in ten percent of patients. That risk doesn't bother most terminal patients. Bothers you though, doesn't it? Oh, and I gave you over ten milliliters. You will die a slow and painful death. First you will lose control of your legs. Now, if I give you this," he said, holding up the other syringe, "no harm, no foul. If you get it in the first seven minutes after you get that. That gives you-" he glanced at his watch. "three minutes before permanent damage occurs. So, in that three minutes, anything you want to tell us?" Thomas's eyes were as wide as saucers. Zack almost nonchalantly turned to Booth. "In three minutes, he'll never be able to walk again. Six minutes and he…well, he won't have much use for the ladies. And for that matter, won't want to use the bathroom in front of anyone. Fifteen minutes, and the bathroom thing won't be an issue, he'll have to have a catheter for the rest of his life. Thirty and he'll start vomiting uncontrollably, but it won't really matter, because he'll be unconscious in twenty. Forty-five and he'll start-"

Booth was shocked. This wasn't Zack! Zack was a sweet, innocent kid! Now he was torturing someone? What the hell?! Then it hit him. Zack wasn't the same anymore. Casey had made him into a man, and if this is what it took to rescue his girl, then so be it. He couldn't say he wouldn't do the same for Bones. And was sure that Hodgins would for Angela. It was part of being a man, the whole alpha male thing Bones was always talking about. His thoughts were interrupted by the sound of their captive breaking.

"Okay! Okay, I'll tell you! Give me the antidote!"

Zack leaned in real close. "Tell me first."

He rattled off an address. He was starting to get very sleepy, and it frightened him. Zack stood up and turned to go. "Wait! What about me?"

Zack held up the syringe and pressed the plunger down, spraying the liquid all over the man's shirt. "I lied. It's too late for you." He nonchalantly turned to the two agents. "Come on! We have to go get Casey."

Booth ran up and put a hand on his shoulder, slowing him down. "Zack, what happened back there?"

Zack looked at him innocently. "I found out where Casey was."

Booth was still a little shocked. "But did you have to kill him to do it? I mean, Casey's not going to be happy with me if I've let you slip over to the dark side or something."

Zack smiled, a real smile this time. "Booth, don't pretend to be a geek. It doesn't work for you. Have you ever pulled a muscle in your back?"

That seemed to come out of left field, so it took Booth a second to answer. "Uh…yeah, I guess."

Zack continued. "You know that shot they give you, the muscle relaxer that hurts so bad when they inject it? It's called Robaxin. Burns like fire. I didn't kill him, just gave him enough Robaxin to convince him of what I was saying. His leg felt like it was on fire, I made up all that neurolic acid stuff to scare him into telling us where she was. He'll wake up a little sore, but otherwise just fine."

Booth couldn't help but grin. Damn, this kid was smart. And it was hard to convince himself to stop calling him that. "I've heard jokes about it, but this is the first time I've ever seen someone tortured by being talked to death! Smart, Brain-boy!"

Zack blushed. "Come on! Let's go, we have to save Casey!"

The three of them raced for the car, Booth driving, and Wilson trying to navigate them toward the rural community that held the address they were given.

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Casey rolled over onto her side, trying to keep the blood from flooding her throat and choking her. She was finally untied, but the beating she had just taken had assured she wouldn't be able to put up much of a fight. She found it ironic that she had fallen through a floor two stories up and broken only one bone, but ten minutes with her mother and her hands tied behind her back, and she had at least three, depending on whether or not her ribs were actively broken or just cracked. She knew her ankle was broken, and probably her nose. She couldn't get the bleeding to stop. She wondered if Booth was looking for her. She hoped not. Booth should be protecting Zack. If he showed up here, he would be hurt. Or worse. She couldn't live with that. Time to face the facts: she was here to die, and if she could take the bitch that gave birth to her with her, she could die happy.