Chapter Text
When Zack first moves to the city, he lives in a one room apartment in a bad part of town and takes the bus in to work. It's dark when he leaves in the morning, it's dark when he gets back. There are three break-ins when he's not at home and, one morning while he's walking to the bus stop, some guy mugs him for the twenty-five dollars in cash and a credit card with a five hundred dollar limit that he has in his wallet.
Later that day, when he's sitting in the lab analyzing some bone fragments for Dr. Brennan, Hodgins comes up next to him and bends down so their heads are at the same height. "Okay, man, give it up."
Zack doesn't look up from his work. "Give what up?"
"What happened to your eye? You get in a bar fight or something?"
There is a contusion developing under Zack's left eye, and it's definitely a little swollen. Distractedly, he says, "I was mugged on the way to work this morning. I don't know why he hit me. I gave him my wallet willingly."
"Wait... This morning?"
"Yes."
"Zack. Why are you at work right now?"
Zack finally looks up, squinting to adjust normal vision after staring into a magnifying glass for so long. "I'm fully capable of working with a black eye."
"That's so incredibly not the point."
"Okay. What is the point."
Hodgins stares at him for a moment, then glances around before lowering his voice, "Look. I have an extra room."
"You're asking me to move in with you?"
"Not... Look, I live in a big place. We wouldn't even have to see each other if we didn't want to. I have a room over the garage that has access to a separate bathroom, kitchen, everything."
"You... have a room over your garage with a kitchen?" Zack pauses, then, "You have more than one kitchen?"
"Are you going to accept the offer or not?"
"I can't afford rent at a place like that."
"Are you kidding me right now?"
Zack furrows his brow at him. "No?"
Hodgins rolls his eyes. "I don't need rent. Landlords are scum anyway. I need you to live somewhere where you don't get mugged. Most of the time we get here and leave at the same time... I could give you a ride most days."
"Why are you doing this for me?"
Hodgins shrugs, standing upright again. "If you get killed, Dr. Brennan would have to get a new assistant. I just got used to you. I'm not in the mood of getting used to a whole different person. Imagine if he was even worse than you." He exaggerates a shudder, and as he walks away, he says, "Tell me when you have your things packed."
"Dr. Brennan is going to Guatemala," Zack says.
He's lived in the room over Hodgin's garage for a few months now. Hodgins just tells people they're roommates, and Zack doesn't say anything. In the mornings, when Hodgins gives him a ride to the Jeffersonian, Zack usually gets some extra sleep in the passenger seat--sitting upright because the seatbelt wouldn't function properly if he reclined.
He can't sleep this morning, though.
"Yeah, I know," Hodgins says. "Even if I didn't, you've mentioned it about five times in the last couple days."
"What do you think she expects me to do while she's gone?"
Hodgins glances at him. "Why do you--"
"Please keep your eyes on the road."
"Y'know, driving with you is like driving with an old woman." He sighs. "Why do you think Brennan expects you to do something specific while she's gone? She probably hasn't even thought about it."
"No..." Zack says, squinting through the windshield, trying not to think about the movement of the car. "No, she expects something. She always expects something."
"She probably expects you to work on your dissertation."
"Once I finish my dissertation, she'll have to get a new assistant."
Hodgins doesn't say anything. He reaches for the radio and turns on NPR.
Zack scrunches his nose. "You're trying to make me fall asleep."
"I'll settle for drowning you out with the soothing sounds of Morning Edition."
"I hate the news." Zack leans back against the headrest.
"Well, it's my car, so..."
"She probably wants me to research something new... some new technique, or--" Zack murmurs.
Hodgins sighs loudly and turns up the radio.
Angela drags Dr. Brennan and the rest of them out for dinner together before she leaves for Guatemala. Dr. Brennan keeps saying she doesn't see the purpose; she won't be gone for that long. Angela just keeps assuring her, "There's a purpose, sweetie." Zack isn't sure what she means by that, and Dr. Brennan doesn't seem to be either.
They all sit and talk for a long time after they've all finished their dinners. One by one, they all leave until it's just Zack and Hodgins, finishing up their last drinks.
"Did you get the answer you wanted?" Hodgins asks. Zack just looks at him blankly, so he adds, "All you did tonight was try to grill Dr. Brennan for information to figure out what she wants you to do while she's gone."
Zack frowns down at his drink. "I didn't say anything about that."
"You're not subtle. You kept asking her about studies and new research. Admit it, you were trying to figure out what she thought sounded the most interesting, so you could try to know more about it than she does when she gets back."
"It's worth a try," Zack says miserably.
"Lost cause, my friend. Totally a lost cause."
"She didn't even seem very interested in anything I brought up... 'n Angela kept interrupting me and giving me that look people give me, like..." He tries to mimic the look; wide eyes, tight lips, slightly threatening.
Hodgins stares at him for a moment, then starts to laugh. "Oh my god, you're actually drunk, aren't you?"
"What? No. I just had... um..."
"Kind of a lot. You usually stop after one. Here." Hodgins gets a pen out of his pocket and begins to move it back and forth in front of Zack's face.
Zack follows the pen with his eyes instinctively at first, then glares past the pen at Hodgins. "Are you trying to perform a Horizontal Gaze Nystagmus test on me?"
"You are totally drunk. Although I admit, it's pretty impressive you can still talk like that when you're drunk."
"It's 'cause I'm not drunk. Intoxication impedes rational thought, and I... I don' like it."
"Whatever you say. C'mon. Let's get you home."
Hodgins slides out from the booth and holds out a hand to help Zack up. Zack ignores it at first, but when he starts to get to his feet, he finds himself grasping Hodgins' forearm to keep himself steady.
"Very sober," Hodgins says, grinning as he guides him out to the car. He opens the passenger side door for him. "After you."
Zack glares at him vaguely, but slumps down into the car. He's still fiddling with his seatbelt when Hodgins gets into his side of the car and starts the ignition. It finally clicks into place while Hodgins is pulling out of the restaurant parking lot. Zack leans against the window. The glass is cool against his forehead. He's almost drifted into a light sleep when he hears Hodgins chuckling.
"What're you laughing at?" Zack asks without opening his eyes.
"I'm laughing at you, you idiot. So upset about Dr. Brennan leaving you for a little while that you get drunk at dinner."
Zack lifts his head to argue, but it's a mistake. He immediately leans his head against the window again.
"Do not throw up in my car," Hodgins says sharply.
"'m not going to throw up," Zack mutters, even though he's not sure that's true.
"Here..." He turns on the radio on low volume. He can barely hear the voices of some NPR book review. "Get a little sleep until we get home."
Zack wants to tell him he doesn't need sleep, but he just closes his eyes.
When he opens them again, Hodgins is bending over him, shaking his shoulder. Zack looks around blearily. It takes him a moment to realize they're in Hodgins' garage.
"Good morning," Hodgins says smirking.
"It's not morning."
"Wow, I guess intoxication didn't impede your rational thought afterall. You going to let me help you to your room?"
Zack is quiet for a moment. He remembers the broken neck and pelvis of a skeleton he examined when he was first training under Dr. Brennan. That person had died because they took a fall on a staircase, probably intoxicated.
"Yes," he says.
"Not even going to argue with me anymore? You must be out of it."
"Just being rational," Zack says.
Hodgins helps him to his feet, helps him up the stairs, pushes open the bedroom door for him. Zack shrugs off the button-up shirt he's wearing over his t-shirt, but that's it before he collapses onto his mattress.
"You planning to sleep in your jeans?" Hodgins asks.
Zack just grunts and pushes his face into his pillow. He hears Hodgins walk away, then return. He drops Zack's wastebasket next to the bed.
"Just in case," he says.
"'m not going to throw up." The pillow muffles Zack's voice, so he turns his head. "I didn't mean to drink that much. I just lost track."
"I know. I won't tell anybody. You held up pretty well until everyone else was gone anyway."
"Mmm," is all Zack's able to manage.
"Let me tell you something before you pass out," Hodgins says. He reaches over Zack to pull the blanket over him. "Stop trying so hard to impress Dr. Brennan. Just do what you do. That's enough."
Zack peers up at Hodgins from his pillow. Hodgins is looking down at him with a half-smile on his face and Zack notices, for the first time, that his eyes are very, very blue. He's not sure why that seems to matter. He's not sure why he's got a warm feeling blooming in his chest. Maybe his rational thought is more impaired than he realized.
"You're just saying that 'cause..." Zack lets the sentence drifts off. He doesn't know how to finish it.
Hodgins laughs, shaking his head. "Goodnight, Zack."
"Wait," Zack says.
"Yeah?"
"You really don't want Dr. Brennan to get a different assistant?" he asks. "'Cause you said that before I moved in."
"Yeah, I remember."
"So..."
"Go to sleep, Zack," Hodgins says.
Zack closes his eyes. He can hear Hodgins flip the light off and softly shut the door. When he sleeps, he dreams of blue.