HADRIEL BACK DATED

[kingoftheloonybin]

WHO: Zack Addy & Dr. Temperance Brennan
WHERE: New House
WHEN: Backdated to July 6th
WARNINGS: Sads…etc.

---

[Zack knows exactly how they got from point A to point B but the progression continues to baffle him. There are many social cues and tendencies that he didn't understand and this situation dropped him into one of them. He is aware that he was renting a room from Doctor Brennan, similar to the way he had with Hodgins but it also felt different. It's been awhile since he's been outside of the mental institute for any long period and he isn't sure what he thinks of it.

Something about the situation doesn't feel right.

With help, Zack finds new clothes. He isn't that meticulous and he's comfortable with others picking out his attire. He is now wearing jeans and a t-shirt in lieu of the gray jump suit from the mental institution.

It's been a handful of days since he started to live with Doctor Brennan and he room was already starting to look like a mini-lab. He didn't close the door unless he was changing, feeling more comfortable to have the airflow through the small space. Zack rarely left his room when he was in the house, except during meals. At mealtime, he'd sit at the kitchen table and eat. This morning he had just finished his food when Doctor Brennan stepped through the door.]

Morning. I made coffee.

[He points to a small tin pot that has the thick smells of black coffee. Zack is eager as ever to seek approval by his teacher, even now.]

Comments

[notimpervious]

[It is difficult to stick to a schedule when you have no responsibilities aside from searching for food in the shops and learning about the produce available from the orchard. Brennan wants to complete these basic survival tasks and establish that they will in fact be well fed for as long as they are here before venturing out to really interact with the strangers here. Yes, Zack and Sweets would probably be fine without her, but are not without her. She, meanwhile, is without her daughter, and it is an adjustment to suddenly find herself with no one depending on her for everything.

Normally she is an early riser, but things here have been anything but normal.

Perhaps the best thing about this improbable situation is getting to see Zack every day. She has missed him so much these past years. He is still as bright as he ever was, and today he is up before her. It's a comfort, to have someone else with her in this alien apartment, someone she knows, someone she trusts, someone she can speak frankly to and not be afraid of misunderstandings. She had almost forgotten what that was like, but now she doesn't have to try and remember. It's her new everyday life.]

Thank you. [She goes and pours herself some coffee, content with taking it black. It reminds her of Booth and provides a completely false sense of connection with him across whatever boundaries these mysterious aliens, "gods" have put between them.

Smiling, she joins Zack.] And good morning, if it is a good thing that we still find ourselves here another day.

[She sips from her mug and thinks that this feeling is strange, wanting both to be home with her family and to be here sharing this moment with Zack.]

[kingoftheloonybin]

[Zack has memorized Brennan's habits from working with her so often in the lab. He's sure that they would have changed over the years but there are things that he noticed stayed the same. Coffee, is one of those things.

At her comment Zack shrugs, unsure what to say. He has nothing to say that would offer Doctor Brennan any comfort and he's been told on countless occasions when to shut up. Doctor Brennan, however is different from Angela and Hodgins. She's one of the few people that can phrasing anything in a way that he understands. Sweets doesn't do a great job at it, despite their sessions prior to arriving to this strange cave like dwelling.]

You miss home?

[He asks though it comes out a little bit like a statement. Zack isn't good at reading people, so any observation he has is usually phrased as a question to see if he got it right.

It's probably a good thing that Brennan is here and willing to go through great lengths to take care of Zack. Yes, he can survive on his own but he can't thrive alone. He's never been able to do that which is why the Jeffersonian is the only place that he really belongs.]

[notimpervious]

[This is good coffee. Zack always did know how she took it in the mornings, whether Brennan had come into the lab from home or stayed there overnight. The smell and the taste give her a false sense of normal, making this situation all the more two-sided. The happiness at getting to spend so much time with Zack, the sadness at being away from home.

At his question, in that familiar tone, she looks at him and nods.]

I miss my family. I miss the lab and everyone in it. I miss Booth and Christine and my dad.

[It strikes her then that in all the madness of coming here, she has forgotten to tell Zack some rather important details.]

Christine is my daughter. Mine and Booth's. [She can't help the little smile on her face.] We have a house together.

[kingoftheloonybin]

[Zack doesn't have the two sided feelings that Brennan did. There is an awkwardness thanks to the things that he's keeping from her but that isn't to far removed from his usual awkwardness. Either way, he is happy to be able to see Doctor Brennan again. It's only soured knowing that she'd rather be at home with her family.

A family that he isn't part of that family anymore.

There is a stunned moment of silence before Zack spoke.] So Angela was right? [That's interesting. Maybe he should have taken more advice from her about girls.]

That sounds great. What is Christine like?

[Zack is used to the idea of a big family and he can't help but think that Doctor Brennan would make a good mother. There are times that they feel like family though it had taken Zack time to figure out the feeling since Doctor Brennan isn't related to him.]

[notimpervious]

[If only she were good at reading people, like Booth and Sweets, she could figure out what Zack is thinking and tell him he will always be part of her family. She may have a team of highly competent interns to work with now, but Zack is irreplaceable as both a colleague and a friend. But Brennan is Brennan, and so she deals in what she can see, and she cannot see the subtleties in his expression or hear the nuances in his words. She is still, after all these years, a brick wall in that regard.]

Yes, she was. [Angela has always been smarter than anyone else Brennan knows on the subject of human social interaction.] She was not smug about it either. [That might have been in some part due to the fact that Vincent had been murdered the day before, but even so, she'd seemed more happy than proud of herself for being right.] She is a very good friend.

[How to describe Christine qualitatively, without resorting to the erroneous and highly biased conclusion that she is "perfect"? No one is perfect. There lies the beauty of each individual.] She is about five months old. Her hair is blond. She likes apples and brief bouts of spacial disorientation. And dancing phalanges.

[It sounds ridiculous like that, maybe, but it makes Brennan smile. It also sends a sort of stinging ache through her chest.] I miss her very much, but I do not wish she were here. I wish-- I would prefer if we were all home. I would like for you to meet her. I believe she would like you.

[kingoftheloonybin]

[Angela was one of the people that Zack liked going to for advice. She'd always make time for him and while he didn't always like her answers, she always had one. There were very few pretty normal girls who would give Zack a fraction of their time. He saw it as pity at times and other times as kindness but he was thankful all the same.

The Jeffersonian, Doctor Brennan, Angela, Hodgins and even Booth to an extent: those were the members of the family that he had created. The thing that Zack knows about family is that they'll love him, no matter what.] She is. [He found himself agreeing before rising to rinse his bowl and grab himself a cup of coffee too.

Zack feels his smile grow when Doctor Brennan describes her daughter. She sounds fantastic and very much like a child. Zack has a lot of siblings and while his family doesn't understand him, he's used to being around regular kids.] So she has yet to understand object permanence?

[Object permanence is usually learned around 8 months however Zack doesn't know that much about young children. His IQ had only shown itself after the first grade, before that he'd been like other kids.]

[notimpervious]

[Brennan could talk forever about this small person who has only been in her life for a few months. How just the thought of her made it easy to pick up and move three states down, made her path so much clearer over those three months. Any job where an employer was willing to pay her in cash was a good job, be it cooking at a diner or mopping floors at hair salons after close. All the renown in the world was meaningless when being recognized would only end in severing the bond between Brennan and Christine.

Thank god that's all over, or at least, it will be when she comes home from this place. Zack will be there too. She will make the time to see him, bring Christine to meet him. Assuming, of course, that their captors allow her to keep her memories of this place. If they can reach through time and space to abduct people, then surely they know how to alter people's brains.]

That's right. But I'm sure she will soon. She's my daughter, after all. [Also Booth's, but... he's decidedly more average on the hard intelligence part.] She is also too young to know what it means to be brave, but-- that's the only way I can describe how she was when we were on the run.

[...has she told Zack that part yet? Sometimes she feels as if everyone knows it.]

[kingoftheloonybin]

[There are many things about this world that Zack has yet to consider. He's been going through options, scenarios and situations methodically and has yet to consider the fact that their mental state could be altered thanks to those who are here. He'll begin to reconsider this angel towards the end of the month, after assuming another life and identity while in this strange new world.

Time, Zack has noticed, is a tricky thing. He's tried to keep up with everything that Doctor Brennan and Sweets has told him though there are years for him to fill in. If he wasn't for his eidetic memory, he would have been thoroughly confused by this point.

He blew on the steam curling up from his coffee cup and then took a small, measured sip. It's bitter but it wakes him up and gives him a small taste of home. Not where he had been before he was brought to this place but the Jeffersonian Institute.]

Why were you on the run? [Nope. Zack has no idea what had happened then. He hadn't been there for Christine's birth or anything after that.

His brow knotted with worry as he studies his old teacher. Zack likes to think he can read Doctor Brennan in some capacity but as he looks at her now he decidedly can't. That means he has to ask about it.]

[notimpervious]

[Well, he is in for quite the story, though she will keep it as brief as possible. There is a lot to it, but the less she has to think about Pelant, the better.

She sets her mug on the table and purses her lips, taking a deep breath to start with.]

There is this hacker turned serial killer who is... fixated on us -- on me and Booth and the team at the lab. [On her more than the others, it would seem, but if she has to talk with anyone about that, she would rather it be Booth. Irrational though it may be, Brennan likes how he promises to fight for her, to protect her and Christine, never once showing hesitation. She is capable of doing that herself, but to know he is always ready to be at her side is a great comfort.] His name is Christopher Pelant.

He sends us puzzles made of his victims. Once, he carved code into bones, and when we imaged them, the code took down our systems. [That is as close to magic as Brennan has ever seen. She may hate Pelant, but his skill with computers is awe-inspiring.] We always solve them, and I believe that's why he persists in targeting us. Booth and Sweets say that he treats it like a game.

[A sick, twisted one that went too far four months ago.

She has been looking at Zack for most of this so far, but now her gaze goes unfocused even though she tries her best to stare at anything at all in the kitchen. It's hard not to picture all those motels and back roads and stolen cars, though, even here with alien furniture and appliances to keep her attention.]

Three months before I woke up here, he framed me for the murder of a friend. He manipulated security footage, time stamps, evidence... Caroline had no option but to get a warrant for my arrest. Booth wanted us to stay in the system to fight Pelant, but my father insisted that Pelant had too much control over the system. The possibility that I would never see Christine again was-- too real, too immediate.

So after her christening, I-- Booth went to get the car, and I stood in front of the church with Christine until my dad dropped off a car for us, and I took Christine and drove away.

[She hates that memory. She hates Pelant for separating her and her daughter from Booth and all their friends. She hates that Pelant is still out there, biding his time under a new name until he is ready to strike again. There is no doubt in her mind that he will.]

It took three months, but we were able to prove that he'd doctored the evidence. The charges against me were dropped. I came back, but he got away anyway. He'll be back, [she says, and shuts her eyes until a wave of anger passes.] But for now, we've won.

[Except now she's here.

She takes a sip of coffee, the taste and smell bringing her fully back to the present, and meets Zack's gaze again as she sets down her mug.]

At least here, I have you and Dr. Sweets for company. That is... very comforting.