Alright, so I'm a little disappointed in you guys. Reviews have been less than stellar lately, and I'm wondering if maybe I shouldn't just take a month or two vacation from this story...

Oh, and Stivee who gave me an annonymous review; critical reviews I can handle, but that was a waste of my time. Don't bother reviewing if you are only gonna type two words, and next time, I will report it as abuse, because it's pointless.

Zack listened as Kat told him, in her disorganised yet endearing way, what had happened in the lab with Angela. He was glad to hear that she would make a full recovery, but Kat seemed strangely disturbed by what had happened. Unless it was something that the recent accident had reminded her of…

'Zack,' she said finally. 'I got to thinking about the explosion you created in the lab, and went over all I know about it. If you knew the explosion would be three times as powerful at the boiling point, why didn't you just lower the amount of reagent accordingly?'

Out of all the questions he had been asked in the last year, no one had thought to ask Zack this particular one. It was true, that he could easily have reduced the reagent to minimize the reaction—that calculation had been done while Hodgins was still moving away.

'When I realized that I could injure myself enough for hospitalization, I saw a way to finally be beyond The Master's reach; it would be safe to tell Dr. Brennan and Booth. If I hadn't, I would still be his apprentice, and he would still be out there hurting people. So I took that opportunity, knowing the full consequences.'

He'd been staring down at his hands as he spoke. He no longer wore the gloves, but knew he'd probably want to in public; they were still a sight. The skin grafts were wrinkly, mottled-red scar tissue, and the tendons in the backs of his hands stuck out predominately. His fingers, especially the ones whose joints had fused, looked like gnarly, disjointed sticks. It was obvious, even to Zack, that people would be shocked to see them—his family had been, when they had found the courage to visit him once.

Kat seemed to sense what he was feeling, and covered his hands with her own. Kat had beautiful hands—pale, with long, elegant fingers, and perfectly oval nails. She hand the hands of a pianist, or an artist. 'I hope you don't regret doing what you did Zack, because that was a perfect example of true sacrifice for the greater good. It's better to sacrifice yourself, to save people you care about.'

He dared to look up into her eyes, and saw admiration there. 'I don't know what I did to deserve you Kat.'

'No one deserves to be shouldered with me; I'm stubborn, prone to bad judgement, poor at dealing with my emotions, and I have the saviour complex too. Add on that I keep secrets, lied to my best friend via email when you knew something was wrong, and spend all my time trying to make up for that because I have a guilty conscious the size of Texas.'

'But I,' Zack countered. 'Am emotionally immature in most areas of my life, cannot understand the vast majority of people, fail to follow the social normalities, need constant reassurance from my peer that I am good enough, tend to have a lack of success drive, and have a personality weak enough that it was taken over by a cannibalistic serial killer. Therefore, I believe you are more burdened by me, than I by you.'

He knew all of her faults, and she knew his. In the most logical sense, they were more or less evenly matched—compatible. He'd always known on a biological level that they were compatible; that was what had constantly fuelled the tension between them. But it had taken them over a decade to resolve that tension.

'What are you thinking Zack?' Kat asked, squeezing his hands gently.

'Nothing we both haven't discussed already.'

She laughed softly. 'But that's part of a long-term, meaningful relationship Zack. Talking about the same subjects thousands of times, mixed with new subjects. Just like songs have verses, that always—'

'Keep coming back to the chorus.' He finished for her. That was one analogy her could understand, even if most others were lost to him. 'Kat, was it hard to come here the first time, not knowing exactly what state to expect me in?'

'No Zack; because I knew exactly what I was expecting—people don't really change.'

'People do change over time Kat—it's only logical that situations and events—' She cut him off with a kiss.

'People don't really change, when you know them even better than you know yourself.' Kat said quietly. 'I didn't expect anything other than the man I fell in love with in the beginning, and that's what I found; I found you.'

Zack suspected she might have considered kissing him again, but their moment was interrupted by Sweets walking into the room. 'Hey guys; sorry to break this up, but Zack still has to do "therapy". So you have to go Kat; unless you want to make this a relationship-based session.'

Glancing up at the clock on the wall, Zack was confused. 'Sweets, you're ten minutes early. Why?'

'Because he's trying to wrangle this into a session in which you and I together spill all the details of our one-night before Africa, the angst that ensued, and what it's like to be "dating" a patient of McKinley.' Kat practically spat, glaring daggers at the psychologist, who made an attempt to appear casual.

'You have so little faith in my motives.'

Giving an exasperated sigh, she quickly kissed Zack goodbye, and stormed from the room.

'That wasn't the best way to approach that with Kat.' Zack said stoically. 'She is a very forward person, and if you wanted to earn her cooperation, there are much better ways to do so. Namely, not interrupting the limited amount of time we have together.'

The younger man sighed, and slumped into the chair across from him. 'I'm afraid I haven't been exactly… I pissed her off first by sticking my nose into her business as far as what she knew about your case, then the dinner fiasco, and lately…'

'You have been trying to convince her to cheat on me with you. Kat told me already.' He said in as neutral a tone as possible. It wasn't that he was angry over Sweet's obvious attraction to Kat—that was expected; Kat was beautiful—the issue was that he had no boundaries.

'Booth already called out on how low it is.' Sweets said dismally. 'And now I feel like a real pile of crap.'

'If Kat was in agreement for some sort of sexual arrangement between the two of you for my remaining time in the system, I wouldn't object. It's a natural biological desire to reproduce.' Zack said, earning a look of surprise from the younger man. 'However, she is not, and she has obviously rejected you Sweets. So I am going to suggest you apologize to Kat, and stand to gain her friendship.'

Sweets smiled. 'I figured you'd understand…'

'But, if you don't apologize, I will ask Agent Booth to go ahead and shoot you.' He continued, and took a bit of joy in seeing Sweets looking terrified.

So, if you like it, have a real oppinion to share, or want to constructively criticize my writing, go ahead and push the button. (And I'm not disabling annonymous reviews, because I know there are good people out there on the web, who just like to read ff, even if they don't write it.)