Scar Tissue

She remembered, when she was very little, waiting at the top of the stairs for her to tuck her in at night. Or for any other reason, she would never go searching for her, she would wait and sooner rather then later Mom would come to find her. When Gaz saw her on the stair, she would run down, contradicting the fact that she had waited up at the top for a reason. She was not used to going after someone to get what she wanted, they were supposed to come to her. It was hard to learn that life was not like that, that no one could ever step in and replace the mother she had lost.

And yet Gaz found herself sitting at the top of the stairs, waiting. It was ten o'clock. Though she was not worried, she was curious. Dib seemed so obsessed over the family thing he kept on mentioning that she was surprised he was not home yet, no note mentioning where he was. Gaz was hungry, but she did not near the phone for an order of pizza. She was near afraid of opening the fridge, for any food had barely been put or touched in that appliance, only drinks and ice. The money issue over this situation bothered her, because she never had to think about it before. It seemed an insult to her Dad to have to think of money whenever it came to anything about him. It also seemed ridiculous that all of his money went up with the lab, considering it had blown up many a time before and nothing this drastic happened all at the same time.

She heard the door open, but she was no longer a child. She stayed where she was on the staircase as two people spoke down below. She did not even bother to peek down and see who he was talking to. In fact, she did not even move, it would have been hard to tell whether she was even listening.

"-remember Dib, at eleven sharp."

"Don't worry Bill, I'll work it out. See you tomorrow."

The door shut and a heavy sigh sounded from the hall. She heard him mutter a few words; talking to himself, something he never grew out of. Heavy steps started up the stairs, which paused when he noticed her sitting there.

"Whatcha' doing Gaz?" he asked her, moving the strap on his shoulder to a more comfortable position.

"Where were you?" she ignored his question, for in all truth he did owe her an explanation first.

"I got a job," he replied. "It's just at nights, until the lab is fixed."

That grabbed all of Gaz's attention. She couldn't help but actually look straight up at Dib when he said that. "The lab?"

"The lab," Dib nodded. "Too many people had jobs there... too much of Dad's effort went into that place. I'm taking over when it's rebuilt."

"You're... taking over... real science?" Gaz could not help her confused expression.

"Yeah," he bowed his head down. "You should probably go to bed before midnight Gaz. Just a suggestion." He walked right by her, Gaz just continued to stare at the space ahead of her. Should she?

"Dib?"

He stopped at the door to his room. "Yeah Gaz?"

"Go-" she paused at her command. "Would you mind doing me a favour?" she breathed out loud.

"A favour?" he asked, but did not turn to her. "Sure, I'll do it."

"Could you go to Zim's and get my coat?"

"You're coat?" at that he turned his head to look at the back of hers. "Why is it at Zim's?"

"You said you'd do it," she ended any conversation about it with that, continuing to gaze down at the stairs ahead of her.

"I did, didn't I?" Dib muttered. "Zim's..." She heard him open his door. "I'll do it first thing tomorrow."

And the door shut, leaving Gaz sitting alone on the stairs again.

And for some reason, it did not seem to bother her that much anymore.

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He did not know why it was so hard to return it. Zim sat on the swings (after he had scared away the little kids that had first occupied the playground) staring ahead as he found himself going higher and higher. He had mended her coat, so no sign of the tear was at all possible to see. But for some reason, he found it difficult to head to the siblings' house. After hours of contemplation, Zim realized it was because it bothered him to see someone as strong as Gaz break down so easily. It was ridiculous! You would not see a soldier of the Irken Empire breaking down so easily! It confused Zim how he had started taking her so much like any of the Irken soldiers. Zim had even started to respect Dib for his will to keep going no matter what the rest of his race said.

So lost in thought, Zim did not hear or see the person getting into the swing next to him.

"Zim."

Zim's feet skidded through the bark chips as he halted the swing. Straddling the swing next to him was Dib, both hands clinging on to the chain ahead of him.

"What are you doing here Dib?" Zim frowned. "Still playing with children's toys?"

"I was looking for you," Dib narrowed his eyes. "Your robot said you weren't home, but what I was looking for wasn't there either, so I had to find you."

"And what are you looking for?" Zim asked.

"Gaz left her coat at your house, she asked me to get it back."

"She did?" Zim tried unconvincingly to pretend not to know what Dib was talking about. "Oh, yes, she did. Well, it's still there, I'll go get it for you if she wants it back so badly. But if she really wanted it, why'd she leave it, huh?"

"What was she doing at your house Zim?" Dib did not seem to care much about Zim's speculation. Zim opened his mouth to tell Dib about their deal, but found that he didn't want to.

"I tricked her into coming to try and see whether or not she could help with my newest diabolical plan! But you'll never know!" Zim stood up on the seat of the black rubber, pointing at the Dib's obvious defeat.

"You... Right," Dib just looked at him strangely. Zim snorted and sat back down on the swing.

"This stupid planet is cold," Zim grumbled, feeling the winter chill come over him again.

"Maybe you should wear something else for once," Dib commented, turning in the swing to face the opposite direction then Zim. "Or at least a sweater."

"A sweater?" Zim scoffed. "Like Zim will stoop to using primitive techniques of your people!"

"It seems to work well for us," Dib shrugged, kicking at the ground, causing his swing to start... uh, swinging. Zim felt the strange craving for something sweet, like the substance that now came out of his faucet. It almost seemed a shame to destroy the planet and rid the universe of the secrets of the hot chocolate.

"Would you mind working at a hot chocolate factory?" Zim asked Dib. Dib turned to look at Zim and rose an eyebrow.

"Now that's a stupid question," he smirked. Then he seemed shocked as his left hand came up and felt his face, seeming surprised at the sudden smile.

In fact, that was the first time that Zim could recall him smiling from anything he had said. And the first time at all since... since when?

"Is that a yes?" he asked the human. Dib stayed quiet for a while, facing away from him.

"Of course not, I have more important things to do then that. And there are no hot chocolate factories on earth Zim."

"There will be when Zim rules!" Zim declared, putting his arms in the air for victory. His Tallest would be pleased with the hot chocolate. He hopped off the swing and turned towards Dib. "Now, doesn't your sister want her coat back?"

Dib's eyes raised to study Zim. "Yeah, yeah she does."

Zim and Dib walked side by side down the sidewalk (maybe that's why they called it a sidewalk). Dib stayed silent, his face morose again, as if berating himself for smiling. Zim would have beaten Dib up about it, but lately he hadn't felt like doing that. After that scene at the funeral Zim felt as if the relationship between them had changed. And it didn't seem to be revolving around their fight anymore. To be honest, Zim had not been able to focus on his plans of world conquest recently. But as Zim was normally far from honest around people, it was far from noticeable.

Zim opened the door, ignoring the hole in the ceiling from where Gir had most likely disappeared. Dib stopped at the doorway, though Zim could see the inner struggle very clearly within his rival. He wanted to go in and study anything that Zim had out, but for some reason had told himself not to. Zim frowned as he went into the kitchen and took the coat off of the table. He stood there for a moment, feeling the fabric through his fingers.

Why was he being so docile? Why was he being so... nice?

"Here," Zim handed it over, and Dib took both the coat and the blue mug in surprise.

"What is this?" as Dib looked over the mug and it's brown depths in suspicion. "Hot chocolate?"

Zim wrapped his own fingers around his yellow mug and did not respond. "Drink up earth monkey, you aren't taking that mug with you."

Dib inhaled some of the steam as if to test it. "It's not poisoned or something, is it?"

"Ungrateful worm-baby," Zim scowled. "Mine came from the same source, and I'm not poisoning myself."

"Oh," Dib's mouth shaped a small o and he stared back at the drink. Finally, probably hearing the growl coming up from Zim's throat, he sipped at it. "It's... good."

"What did you expect from Zim?" Zim asked him. "Now do you reconsider my offer of working for me?"

"Of course not Zim, you'd have to take over earth first," Dib's mouth was not smile yet, just near, but his eyes were already there.

"You wait for it," Zim grinned at the playful banter.

"I am," Dib nodded, handing over the empty mug.

"I am making great progress Dib," Zim warned him. "You're light manner on the subject you will rue one day."

"You kidding Zim?" Dib rose an eyebrow. "I'm the only one who takes this far too seriously and you still can't manage a simple world conquest. One against one is fair, but I thought you were supposed to be advanced. I'm beating you."

"LIES!" Zim denied. "Out of the house, Dib-stink! You will not discover any plans today!"

"Sure I won't Zim," Dib nodded, a smile again coming on to his face. "In fact, I've already found out what you are doing. By tomorrow, the plan will be absolutely useless."

"No!" Zim gasped. Could it be true? Was it possible that Dib had already discovered what he had planned?

"Yep," Dib turned and went down the front steps, where Gir was outside. He squealed and waved frantically at Zim and Dib before he turned, ran up into a tree, past the branches and into the sky. "See you later Zim!" Dib ducked under the laser of a lawn gnome and started to go to his house.

"The Dib is more trickier then I thought!" Zim exclaimed, leaning against the closed door behind him. Then he paused.

"But I don't have a plan..."

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Gaz found herself cleaning. It was not a chore that she ever considered doing, but it took her mind off of things, made her concentrate. She actually liked it, for some reason. The thought of that sort of disgusted her, but she finally just ignored that and continued. She started in her room, where there really was not much to do, considering she was pretty neat to begin with. A bit of dusting led to the rearranging of other things. Every once in a while, she would come across an object that would stir up memories of her father, but she pushed them to the back of her mind and the shelf and continued again.

She stopped in front of her father's room. Had anything been moved in there? Had Dib done anything to the place they had both been forbidden? She did not even graze the doorknob. She had never gone in there when he was alive, it would be frightening now that he was dead.

After that she decided to clean the kitchen. It was not as if she would rather do something else. It was not as if she had something that she absolutely had to do. So, Gaz started with the refrigerator, which really was not as bad as she had thought it was. She did have to dispose of half of it's contents. The counters were next, then the sink and the floors, not going in any particular order. Then the cupboards. She found a bag of bread. Dad's toast bread. She left the kitchen then and went back upstairs.

She stopped in front of Dib's room, pushing the door slightly with a finger, causing it to swing open. She had never really gone into Dib's room, unless she had needed something from Dib and even then she usually waited until he was downstairs to talk to him. It had been a while since she had looked at his room and now curiosity overcame her, her mind needing something to fill it's void.

It was not as messy as it once was, with the books and papers and pictures scattering every empty corner. Pictures of Zim were no longer plastered over the walls, the alien equipment no longer strewn across the bed. In fact, there was only small references to his obsession, a few posters on paranormal, but the amount any person interested would have, not the amount for a fanatic. She tread the floor carefully, for once feeling as if she was entering forbidden territory that had never been the case before. Furrowing her eyebrows in irritation over her behavior, she slid open the closet door, to find the large amount of file cabinets that used to be next to his computer desk stacked on top of each other neatly. She opened one of the drawers to find many of the pictures of Zim nearly without his disguise all filed away neatly. He was hiding it, as if for an inspection.

The realization struck Gaz quickly, causing her to close both doors and leave the room. So, he had meant what he said about the two of them. Why did that strike her as strange?

The living room needed cleaning. Dusting was a big necessity, Gaz was curious on how neither Dib or she had gotten sick from the amount of dust that dwelt there, especially around the television. She pulled out the gaming consoles, which is where she stopped and did not begin again.

Dad had bought her that. Games teach people hand-eye coordination and make children into better human beings. She had not played it for a week now. She hadn't played any of it for what seemed like a lifetime. A lifetime since he had died. A lifetime it seemed since she had dreams. The feeling of playing the games came back into her, but she couldn't.

I just... don't want to.

Gaz dusted it off and pushed it back underneath the television.

A sound came from the door as Dib came in. Gaz sat back and looked back at him.

"Gaz, here's your coat," Dib said, tossing it over to her. Gaz caught her coat, looking over for any strange alien devices, though Dib most likely would have done that before bringing it back home.

"...thanks Dib," she replied, coming off as if she really didn't care on accident. She came across a small part of the coat that had strange stitching. That was not how it was supposed to be. She wondered what exactly had happened to it. She told herself it was Zim... who knows what happened to it. She threw it around her shoulders anyway, the smell of the lemon scented spray cleaner overcoming her. Gaz decided that sooner or later it would go away, whether she wanted it to or not.

But the scar tissue would always remain.

I like this chapter, but it probably is just because it has Zim and Dib talking again. I think they are funny.

And Gir can run into the sky. That has to be my favourite part.