The Face with Two Skeletons

By: Tropicwhale

Disclaimer: Hehehe I wish.....but they're not.

Author Talk: Two.

Chapter Ten

Booth was enjoying a weekend game on television at Zack's apartment with Zack's basketball team that was, one by one, slowly getting cleaned while the squint himself took a nap. Booth wondered when his life got so weird. He assumed that it happened right after he was assigned Bones and the rest of her squint squad. The weird thing was the fact he was hanging out with a bunch of guys on a Saturday afternoon watching a game with a beer in hand. It was completely normal! But it involved Zack so it couldn't be normal and the paradox was making Booth's head hurt. Booth supposed that the weirdest part of the whole experience was Zack's friends. Othello was an English professor focused on Shakespeare. Keg was an EMT. Wineskin was a zookeeper. Bailout was a chemical biology major. Robby was a police officer and Zerbrowski was a public defense lawyer. They were all so…normal…mostly. Booth watched as Bailout bounced out of the shower and went straight for the DVD collection. Immediately, Keg and Wineskin jumped over the couch and spun the blond away from the rack. "Oh, no you don't." Keg said.

"We're not watching 'Star Trek' again." Wineskin said as he blocked Bailout from getting to the CD rack as Keg started picking out a DVD. In the meantime, Othello had stolen the remote from Robby, who was talking with Booth and Zerbrowski about the increase in robberies lately, and had turn the television to PBS, which was showing a special on a local staging of Romeo and Juliet. Keg and the other boys raced back over to the sofa and startled to wrestle the remote from Othello's grasp. Othello retaliated by shoving the remote control down the front of his pants. Keg, Wineskin, Bailout and Booth groaned at the dirty tactic. The English professor waggled his eyebrows and settled into the cushions to watch his special. Booth didn't have any time to process events before Zerbrowski furrowed his eyebrows and pounced on the black man, scrambling for the remote that was now nestled in Othello's naughty place. The older man shouted and scrambled to keep away from his deranged teammate. Bailout in the meantime had snuck back to the DVD collection and grabbed what Booth could only assume was a Star Trek movie. Wineskin saw him on his return sneak and tackled him and screamed for Keg to put the movie in. Keg reached for the DVD he had put down on the coffee table just as Robby it seemed decided to get in on the fun. The team captain, quick as lightening, grabbed the case and tossed it like a Frisbee across the room. Keg yelped and scrambled for the DVD ask Robby sipped at the beer that Booth had handed him when he had gotten out of the shower. Robby looked over at Booth's bemused expression and winked.

"It's easier than trying to stop them." He said in defense of his actions. Booth chuckled and watched as Zerbrowski straightened, triumphantly, on the couch over an exhausted Othello with open pants, holding the remote like a torch.

"AH-HA!!"

"That's just so wrong looking." Robby said casually. Zerbrowski half-turned to probably say something smart-ass which was all the opening Othello needed. The older man grabbed Zerbrowski behind the knees which caused him to a) let go of the remote and b) fall backwards to hit the coffee table and make it collapse under the force of his fall. Booth winced, understanding quite suddenly Zack reluctance in letting these men into his home. Robby winced as well but because his injured foot was resting on the coffee table when it broke and the sudden movement jarred the injury. Keg charged the entertainment unit and ended up being tripped by Bailout's flailing legs as Wineskin sat on him. Bailout grabbed Keg's movie and tossed it to a Othello that was trying avoid a very remote-intent Zerbrowski and ended up laying down in a way that covered the DVD and the remote. Robby carefully crossed his leg so that his ankle was out of the way of the now two fights going on in front of him then took a sip of his beer. Othello must have hit a button or two because the PBS special changed to a Lifetime movie starring some woman Booth didn't recognize but looked very sad and beaten up and apparently living in a bayou. All the men in the room groaned and Robby dug the remote out from under the struggling Othello and Zerbrowski to change the channel to a soccer game. Booth was agreeable to the change as were the rest of the boys. Othello and Zerbrowski stopped fighting and sat compatibly next to each other and Keg stood to go into the kitchen while Wineskin and Bailout started to collect the broken pieces of the coffee table. Keg came back into the living room with a tool box and the three younger members of the Copperheads fixed the table while everyone watched the game.

After awhile Othello stood and went into the kitchen to get everyone a fresh beer and the phone and what looked like a pizza menu. "Alright. I don't know about you young'uns but I'm hungry."

"I'm hungry too." Bailout chirped.

"You're always hungry." Zerbrowski said and threw a pillow at Bailout's head. Bailout ducked and stuck his tongue out at the older man.

"Yeah, you'd eat someone's shoe if we didn't feed you regularly." Wineskin added as he screwed a leg back into the top of the table.

"HEY!! THAT WAS ONCE!!! AND I NEVER HAD SAKE BEFORE!!" Bailout shouted and immediately was hushed by all the guys except for Booth.

"Shut up you dolt!" Keg said sternly. "You'll wake up Zaddy and you know how stressed he's been lately."

"Stressed? How can you tell? About what?" Booth asked.

"We don't know about what." Zerbrowski said.

"But it's sort of obvious." Wineskin said.

"Zaddy is kinda easy to read when you know what to look for." Robby explained to Booth.

"He has bags under his eyes and he's listless a lot." Bailout said.

"He starts to talk more-" Othello cut himself off and started making a chopping motion with his hand through the air. "Robotically."

"He's been missing games too." Wineskin said.

"He's pulled back from all of us." Zerbrowski finished.

"In short we're really worried about him." Robby added, glancing over at Booth with a serious look.

"Do you have any idea what it could be about?" Booth asked.

"We were honestly hoping you could tell us." Zerbrowski made eye contact with Booth and for Booth there was a moment where two guys who hated each other's guts understood each other perfectly.

"Is there something weird going on at work?" Othello asked.

"I…I don't really talk with Zack at work. You could ask Hodgins, Zack's landlord. They're like best friends-or best work friends, I guess. Besides, most of what we do is with corpses that are badly decomposed. He'd have to be inhuman not to get affected some of the time…I do."

"Zack doesn't look at the world like most people." Othello said. "He can compartmentalize. We watch zombie movies and he doesn't even blink."

"Zombies are nothing like corpses." Booth said, automatically. "The real thing is a lot scarier."

"I don't know. Having juicy, still decomposing corpses trying to eat me? Freaky." Keg said.

"Thank you for those nightmares, Keg, eyuch" Bailout said, throwing a screw at his teammate. The others laughed at him.

"So…meatlovers pizza anyone?" Othello asked. Robby reached over Zerbrowski and ripped the menu away from the laughing black man.

"You have a weird sense of humor, Othello." He said, looking through the pamphlet.

"I can't help it. Shakespeare rots brains….now there's a zombie for you…the Bard can't die." Robby reached over and grabbed the cordless phone as well.

"That's more of a vampire isn't it?" Wineskin asked.

"Nah, vampires have wills of their own…and Shakespeare is beyond any copyright laws so people can manipulate him and his works for whatever purposes they deem necessary. He's a zombie."

"You spend too much time in that office of yours, my friend." Zerbrowski said. Othello shrugged.

"I'm passionate."

"At least you come out of your office willingly. I had to drag Zack out last night."

"Ah, the passion of old men can't possibly contend with that of youth. I'd be more worried if it was easy to pull him out." Zerbrowski did a spit-take of beer all over the three men sitting out on the floor. Keg, Wineskin, and Bailout started to make sounds of disgust as Othello looked at the man next to him and raised an eyebrow. "Well," he said. "We know where James' brain is." Zerbrowski shot a dirty look at Othello even as he continued to cough.

"Alright, so we're getting one pepperoni, one cheese and one everything on it as well as a order of cheese bread and Cinnasticks. Everyone pony up ten bucks….even you, federal officer man." Robby said and Booth reached for his wallet.

"No garlic bread?" Bailout asked plaintively. "Or broccoli pizza?"

"NO!" his teammates yelled. Booth smirked and sipped his beer.

Later, when the pizza had come and the boys were busy being hyper and slightly destructive Booth took an opportunity to check in on Zack. He slipped over to the open end of Zack's bedroom and peaked in. Zack was fast asleep on his side with one arm under his pillow and the other under the covers clutching them to his chest like a woman would when she wanted to be modest. His shoulders were bare and it was obvious to Booth that Zack hadn't bothered with dressing before taking his nap. Booth took a sip of his third beer and was startled with someone laid their hand on his shoulder. He nearly shouted but years of sniper training stopped him. He turned to see Robby. The basketball player took a few limping steps closer to Booth and leaned on the dresser for support. "He's a good guy, Booth." Booth looked over at the other man and realized something very important about Robby."

"You're Army." Robby nodded.

"I was a Sergeant before my tours ended. Was in Desert Storm and everything."

"And now you're a cop."

"Yup. Look at my boys here like I looked at my squad back in the day. Zaddy's the one I worry about the most. He's too smart for his own good. It's going to get him in trouble someday….I don't know…maybe it already has."

"Did you know he went to Iraq?"

"Yeah. I told him not to…not just because he's a great forward and strategist but he's like my little brother."

"He wanted to look out for his sister and to do something good for his country."

"Have you met his sister?" Robby asked. "That young woman can take care of herself. Zaddy went for a whole different reason. I know Zack. He was trying to impress someone." Robby looked at the sleeping kid. "Wish I knew who it was so I can punch them in the face." Booth looked at him warily. "It wasn't until he came back that Zaddy started to withdraw from the basketball team. He barely speaks anymore and if someone doesn't come and automatically pick him up he doesn't call to get picked up….you know that he's afraid of learning how to drive, right?"

"Something about physics and structural stability." Booth shrugged it off to continue his Zack-watch. Robby snorted softly and took a sip of beer.

"Is that what he told you?"

"That's what-yeah…what, are you saying that Zack lied?" Robby smirked at Booth's incredulity.

"No. Zaddy's incapable of lying. But he is capable of omitting or turning facts to suit whatever it is that he wants to the point he forgets his own motives. I'm sure he's convinced himself that the reason he doesn't drive or ride a bike is because of physics and structural stability." Booth looked over at Robby. Robby swallowed the rest of his beer and stared at the man in the purple bed.

"You wanna know how Zaddy came to join the Potomac Copperheads?"

"Sure."

"Keg and I pulled him from one hell of a wreak when he first came to D.C. Zack was riding his bike across the street and a SUV ran a red light. He was in a coma for four weeks that summer. His family came out from Michigan and everything but they couldn't stay long…that big of a family….while we were hunting down the rat bastard that was driving the SUV I sort of got close to the family and his mom asked me to watch out for him. I did and when it came time for his physical therapy to be upped I asked if he wanted to join the Copperheads. He didn't want to, said he wasn't any good at team sports, but I convinced him. Those guys out there….with the exception of Bailout they all know about Zack's accident. They all helped with his recovery. We would defend him with our lives." Booth was on edge from Robby's tone of voice. It was a soldier talking about his brother-in-arms. This man would kill for Zack…die for Zack if it came down to it. "Listen, you'd have to be half blind and living under a rock to miss Zack's crush on you and, homoerotic in nature or not, you're starting to crush on him. You hurt him-you break that kid's heart and I swear to God I'll break you. Get it?" Robby was in Booth's face but Booth wasn't about to call him on it.

"Yeah. I got it loud and clear."

"Good. Lets' leave Zaddy to his rest." Booth nodded and helped Robby limp back to the party.