Shilloh was surprised to see Zach standing outside her apartment at nine forty-five am, looking for all the world as if he were about to take a make-or-break-your-futre test, and he was trying to hide how terrified he was.

She was so amused by the image he made that she wasn't able to decide exactly what she wanted to ask him- why he was outside her apartment, why he looked so nervous, why his hair looked combed.

"I told Angela we were early, that you were expecting her to be here at ten and as such you would be upset if she sent me to get you earlier. I think she was more concerned with getting me out of the car so she could have a private conversation with whoever called her, though; and so I apologize if us being early has caused you to feel rushed," Zach said at fast pace, subtly shifting his weight to rest on his right leg.

So he was upset because he thought he'd infringed upon some sort of social tableau and she'd be upset with him for it. Because he was fifteen minutes early.

Shaking her head at him, she opened her door wide enough to let him in and said, "Don't worry about it Zach, I kind of figured Angela would be too excited to stick to an actual schedule. And, well, it's Angela, I haven't known her very long but she doesn't strike me as the type that watches the clock." She smiled up at him, and when it became apparent that he wasn't going to come in, she said, "well, come on in Zach, I still have to finish drying my hair, and there's no point in you waiting for me outside."

Zach shuffled past her and went to sit on the couch, and she was immensely glad that she had cleaned her apartment that morning so there was no evidence of her sleeping in her living room.

She watched him for a second, wondering what she should do; she'd never been a good hostess- there'd never really been a need for her to be- and she didn't know if this scenario really counted as being a hostess, anyway.

"Would you like something to drink, Zach?" She asked, dragging his attention away from her growing wall of sketches.

"No, thank you," and then he shifted to get more comfortable on her ugly red couch, and returned his attention to the wall in front of him.

Ok, so clearly she would never throw spectacular dinner parties, and she was wasting time worrying over this when she still had to finish getting ready.

She was almost done drying her hair when she remembered that she was supposed to be surprised by Zach being there, and felt a bit ridiculous over how long it had taken her to realize that he didn't belong. Granted, she'd almost been able to forget he was even there he was so quiet.

"Hey Zach, why are you coming with us?" She asked as she changed shirts, hoping he could hear her through the closed door of the bathroom.

"I need new pants and Hodgins refused to drive me, Angela offered to take me yesterday but failed to mention that I would be the- third wheel?- in your pre-made plans," she could hear the question in his voice, the almost-hope that he had used a saying correctly, and tried not to laugh, knowing it would make him think she was laughing at him in an entirely wrong way.

She decided not to tell him he'd used it correctly, figuring that if it wasn't mentioned then he would feel as if she hadn't even noticed that he was worried he would have gotten it wrong.

"I'm sorry you have to tag along with two women who are doing some pretty extensive clothes shopping; I really don't think you'll be having much fun today," she looked towards him as she entered her living room, her light purple blouse on today. It was going to be nice to have other clothing options.

"Did you draw all of these?" He asked, disregarding her previous statement.

She was surprised by the intense amount of focus he was studying her sketches with; it looked similar to how he had when reconstructing Mary's skull, and it made her feel very self-conscious.

"Yeah. As you can see, there's not much else to do in my apartment yet, so I've got to entertain myself somehow," she replied, stepping up next to him and looking at her sketches as well.

They really weren't anything spectacular, just quick doodles of people from her work- a caricature of Bob microwaving a whole fish, Cherryl holding a mouse up to her face questioningly. There was a disturbingly vast amount of sketches of Maria in different styles, most unfinished but still somehow showing a whole aspect of Maria's personality.

The ones that had seemed to catch Zach's attention though were the ones of the Forensic Anthropology workers.

"Is that how you really see Hodgins?" He asked, pointing to a drawing of the curly-haired entomologist that showed him wrestling with a life-sized pincer bug of some kind.

"Kind of, yeah," she shrugged her shoulders, watching as he grabbed for the sketch of him.

"Angela was correct in telling me to comb my hair, if this is how messy it normally looks."

Shilloh couldn't help it this time, and her laughter was loud, she was also afraid that it bordered on obnoxious, but she couldn't stop despite her best efforts. It was getting hard for her to breathe she was laughing so hard, and she was worried that she'd get a stitch in her side soon.

Poor Zach was staring at her, sketch in hand, completely lost as to what was so funny, but a small smile on his face none-the-less.

"I'm sorry Zach, really," she gasped, leaning against the wall for support, "your hair's fine, don't listen to Angela. My sketches take out some of the most distinguishing features of a person and enhance them; very much like a caricature but on a much smaller scale. Did she really make you comb your hair?" She asked, finally calm enough to push herself away from the wall and look towards Zach without wanting to laugh again.

Zach simply nodded, still smiling lightly, and looked back down at the sketch in his hands, "this is quite good- they all are," he looked back up at her and made to put the drawing back on the wall.

"Keep it- it's of you, might as well have it, right? Anyway, I'm ready to go finally, best not let Angela think she can just kick you out of the car because she wants to have a private chat, yeah? Let's go bother her some," Shilloh said, picking up her bag and keys as she walked out the front door, pausing to wait for Zach to leave before her.

"Bother her?" Zach asked.

"Yes. She just shooed you out of the car, to take a cell phone call? She owes me some answers."

"I believe the reason she wanted me to leave is because the phone call was private, why would she feel, now that it is over, that she can talk about it?"

"Oh Zach, I have so much to teach you," Shilloh smiled up at him, then waved at Angela as they reached the car.