A/N - Ok, now that the background chapters are done, now we're into the present, well the present within the story anyway. The updates will come a little slower now, but they will be coming. This story has been something that has been burning away for a little while.. Sometimes you see real life in someone else's story... ;-)

Enjoy..

Zay and Maya arranged to meet Midtown at a bar called HB Burger down on West 43rd St.

Somewhere casual suggested Maya. Eat, have a few beers, talk. You know?

So there they were, dodging a late shower that arrived in the evening as Zay opened the door for Maya as they both entered, searching the bar for a hostess. A bright smiling brunette woman in her early twenties approached them and showed them over to a soft leathered booth.

"What'll it be for you tonight?", asked the waitress as she pushed buttons on her PDA.

Zay looked at Maya, using his hand to point to her to pick first. Maya smiled and bowed her head slightly in recognition as she scanned the drinks menu, putting it down and looking at their hostess.

"I'll go the Apricot Ale please," she smiled as Zay considered his options.

"And for you sir?" Zay quickly checked his choice one more time before speaking.

"The Cornhusker sounds good for me. Pints." He replied waiting for the obligatory teasing from his dinner companion. Maya smiled, but she let him off.

"No problems at all. I'll bring your drinks back and then take your meal order?" checked the hostess.

"That will be lovely Amelia." Replied Maya, noticing her name tag.

Amelia smiled at the use of her name before she went to fill the orders, Zay watching her walk off.

"Wow Zay, did you actually look ?!" said Maya in a low voice. Zay turned his head before centering his eyes on her.

"Yes Maya… Just because I'm not ready doesn't mean I'm not appreciative of an appealing woman." Maya held her hands up in surrender, knowing that she wasn't going to stir him too much. Zay had only just recently become more like his normal self after the passing of Charissa. That in itself was a feat in human emotion. Maya couldn't imagine half of what her friend went through, just putting herself in his shoes during his really bad nights was nearly too much to bare.

Amelia returned with their drinks and they both placed their meal orders before Amelia left them alone. Zay raised his glass, proposing a toast.

"To life…" Maya grinned and chimed her beer glass against Zay's, echoing his words.

"To life…" as they both drew down on their drinks.

"That's pretty good," said Maya appreciatively.

Zay murmured in agreeance.

"How is work?"

Maya sighed before she answered, moving her leather jacket and getting comfortable.

"It's been a tough week. But it means I now have a few days off, and I also checked my roster I'm not starting for another two days after that so I nearly have a week off which will be good. You?"

Zay nodded.

"Well it's work, but," he said with a laugh as he looked around the bar checking the surroundings and dodging the confidential parts of his job, before centring back on Maya. "it's been rewarding too. The right people are starting to notice what I do so hopefully it will pave the way to the prosecutor's office."

"That's awesome !" exclaimed Maya, her enthusiasm evident. Zay smiled before he became serious.

"But we aren't here for collective updates on work that we already know about my friend."

Zay was a lawyer for a reason.

"So, what brings us together this dreary evening Miss Hunter; sorry Doctor Hunter?" he smiled as he took another mouthful of his drink. Maya flipped him the bird good naturedly before taking a mouthful of ale herself; seeking the Dutch courage from the alcoholic drink. She blew out her breath before she spoke, leaning forward against their table.

"I've been thinking..."

Zay laughed.

"I thought that was an earthquake I heard…but I've been wrong before..."

Maya slapped her hand on the table, half seriously half not.

"Zay, I'm being serious here!"

Zay laughed a little chuckle before he turned serious.

"Sorry Maya. Please continue."

She fixed him with a stare reminiscent of middle school before she continued.

"I've been thinking a lot…." She stopped to look at Zay and half expected more mockery. None came forth.

"…about him." she croaked, her voice catching. Zay looked at Maya again, a more serious look of concern surfacing, all teasing and banter leaving his thoughts. He leaned forward also, mimicking Maya's posture, before fixing her with an earnest but caring stare.

"I've been wondering when this would finally start to happen."

Maya looked at him, shocked. How is it that two men in her life within the space of one day had her emotions and angst pegged so easily.

Zay tapped lightly Maya's right hand that was wrapped around her beer.

"Maya you never stopped loving him, never stopped having those feelings for him. I can't believe that you think that you had, or that you would be able to get him out of your mind." He looked at the receding foam in his glass, waiting for Maya to expand on her statement, which she didn't so he continued, starting to prod.

"What has brought all of this to the surface now?"

Maya looked at the condensation on her glass with such fascination, hoping she didn't really hear the question. She looked up, Zay gaze still on her.

"You know I thought I had done such a fantastic job pushing it all down, you know? Not trying to think about it, then something popped up in the Times about a new discovery in battery storage or something. It caught my attention at work in an ICU room; where there was this teenager..." She stopped to gather her thoughts as Amelia arrived with their meals; a chicken Caesar salad for Maya, a NY steak club for Zay. Zay smiled looking at the size of Maya's salad. It was not small, bigger than Zay's meal easily. She took her fork and stabbed a piece of browned chicken and leafy lettuce before continuing.

"…This teenager... Total geek personified. Smart as a whip, wanted to be an astronaut. He was reading the article and was completely off on a tangent about its capabilities and how it was a thousand times better than what we have currently…it reminded me so much of him Zay…" Maya stopped to take the fork full of food and compose herself.

Zay began eating his meal, saying one sentence before allowing her to continue to vent.

"The article was about him, wasn't it?"

Maya's eyes went wide open,

"YES! How did you know?"

Zay nodded as he swallowed.

"I read it too. Saw it at the office as well."

Maya didn't miss a beat.

"What did you think?"

Zay smiled as he reached for his glass.

"I nearly high fived the ADA walking past in pride. You?"

Maya's smile faded.

"My heart stopped and I nearly broke down and cried..." she said quietly.

"We talked so many times about what he wanted to achieve. This was one of those things. He said that how he felt about me…about us…" She stopped again as she felt the emotions pour over her in waves.

"…it was what drove him to want to discover, to make the world a better place. For us…"

Zay considered his words again before he continued. The emotion that cascaded from his friend was raw. The catalyst of the news article may have been only fairly recent but the pain and angst that propelled it had been building over a fair few years.

"Maya, you need to sought this out. I can't speak for him but I know that what you both had was pretty well the real deal. I know because those feelings, those wave of pride, of seeing your loved one reach for their dreams…it was exactly what I had with Charissa, except for the genius Brainiac part." He added to try to bring a smile to Maya's face.

It didn't succeed. Maya reached into her handbag, finding a tissue so catch the forming tears. He noticed that both of their drinks were empty, so he signalled to Amelia for another round, which she nodded without approaching.

She looked at him, a look of hopelessness spread across her face.

"How Zay? We stopped talking, we stopped making the effort and life got in the way. He even said that he didn't have the time to give to me that I deserved the last time we saw each other."

Zay nodded in understanding. He had read the article, using it to fill in the pieces of the puzzle that he had heard from Riley and Lucas when they spoke and when be bumped into Smackle a year earlier. To say that Farkle was burning the candle at both ends would have be an understatement. The article spoke endlessly of his personal drive in his current project, wanting to ensure that the storage device would be used to its maximum benefit and not be bogged down in government, bureaucratic meddling and procrastination; hence the joint venture with Tesla who was continually becoming the 'go-to' company with power storage and self-generation over the last fifteen years. Zay was pretty sure there were other reasons behind that drive as well. Some having to do with his own demons and coming from under the shadow of his father, and truth be told Zay wouldn't have been surprised also if it was to deal with the heartache he caused to the petite blonde in front of him and what she caused to him.

"The way you two parted wasn't pretty I'll give you that." Zay admitted as their drinks arrived. Maya placed her fork down and leaned back, a glint of a tear forming.

"I know. I was horrible to him. I was hurt and devastated. I lashed out. I wanted it all and I couldn't have it, so I wanted to smash it…I was sooo stupid!" As she wiped the corner of her eye. Zay caught her eye, so he knew that she was looking at him.

"I know Maya. I know. You were younger back then too, as was he. Sometimes we don't have the emotional maturity or juice to handle things the right way. Just remember he had a role in all of this too." he said with genuine concern. It took Maya a fair while to recover from that fateful night. To say she was being self-destructive would've been an understatement. She came very close to losing her spot at NYU in her final year. It took the combined efforts of her mum, Shaun, Zay and a lot of poking and out and out harassment from Riley and Lucas over in California to get her back again on track.

He saw Maya reach for her phone, pushing a button to activate the home screen and she sat and just looked at the smartphone. Zay couldn't see the angle but he had a fair idea what was there. He finished his club, wiping his mouth.

"Show me Maya.."

Maya looked at him she took another drink from her ale, and meekly turned the screen around. Zay knew it would be that picture. She cherished it more than most things she owned.

"You know he's going to be in Nevada on Monday for some press conference thing." She said softly, returning her gaze to the phone. Zay nodded as he replied.

"I know. I think Riley is going to be there."

Maya looked up at him.

"Lucas rang me the other day and we talked. He mentioned that she was heading down there to cover it for her TV station."

Zay was starting to get frustrated. His woman in front of him was not a dummy by any stretch of the imagination. She was whip smart and loaded with sass. Yet when it came to this one boy, no this one man and the place he occupied in her heart, she turned to a lost lamb that didn't know what to do or where to turn. It was time to act.

"Maya!" he said, catching her attention. She looked at him hesitantly.

"Go to him. It's as simple as that. You can either sit, stew and wonder or go grab it by the horns and see what happens. You might find out that he feels the same way."

"He also may not," she quick-fired replied, her reflexes to protect firing as she drained her drink.

"I seriously doubt it," Zay replied in kind, taking a mouthful of beer, daring her to continue. She glared but didn't say a word.

"Get on the web, book a flight. Make it happen."