Prologue
"I love you, Zack."
Those four words haunted him more than he would like to admit. He didn't understand. When Hodgins professed his love to Angela, he made it look effortless. Why couldn't he, Zack, do the same?
He did love her. It had taken him 9 months, 4 days, 2 hours, and 44 minutes and 72 mandated sessions with Dr. Sweets to gather and analyze all the evidence and come to a conclusion, but he had finally done it. And his conclusion was yes, he did love her.
He knew this when she confessed her love for him 12 days, 8 hours, and 23 minutes ago. But she had ran.
She ran away from him before giving him a chance to respond. The idea of a big romantic grand gesture he had discussed with Hodgins and the fairy tale explosive kiss Angela had told him about-he hadn't had a chance to experience either of them and he had desperately wanted to try them out.
He had tried to talk to her numerous times over the last twelve days, but never managed to get past his initial greeting-something Cam and Angela had told him was important-before she managed to slip away again.
He wanted her to know. He wanted her to know he could love someone, and that she was the one he loved. He missed her. Missing someone was a feeling he had become intimately familiar with during his time at McKinley Psychiatric Hospital. He missed Hodgins, Angela, Dr. Brennan, Cam, and even Booth. They had all been to see him since his incarceration, but catching murderers left little free time for day trips up to the asylum.
Right now, his only thoughts were of Charli. He wanted to hold her. While physical affection was still far from his favorite thing, he had become exponentially more comfortable with it since meeting his lady love. He wanted to know she was ok. He had several questions including whether she still harbored the same affection for him she did twelve days ago, but his primary concern was her happiness.
He wanted to tell her everything would be okay, despite his lack of tangible evidence for that. That no matter what happened, what she said, or how she felt about him he just wanted to be a part of her life. The last twelve days without her had been an absolute hell for him, and he never wanted to be without her again.
Zack was brought out of his reverie by someone sitting down opposite him and looked up to see the object of his affection.
"Charli," he squealed in a somewhat feminine manner that most certainly would have made Hodgins cackle. "You're here."
"Zack, I…I owe you an explanation. Can we talk?"
The young anthropologist eagerly nodded his agreement.
"I love you, Charli," he had been ready to confess his love for almost two weeks and the pressure to let the words out was getting to him. Paralyzed with the fear she may run away from him again, he decided time was of the essence and hurried to get the words out as soon as possible. Charli rewarded his confession with one of those smiles that made Zack's heart beat double time.
"I love you too, Zack," she said and his heart soared. "But I owe you an explanation and for you to understand, I need to finally tell you why I was committed."