Bones: One Shots

Memories

Timeline: Set Shortly After 'A Doom In The Boom'

Summary: After finding out about Hodgins, Zack thinks back to all the time they'd spent together.

Zack had seen it on the news. The body exploding. It had reminded him of the incident during the Howard Epps case.

They'd found Caroline Epps' headless body. There was a bag on her chest. He'd gone to remove it only to hear a clicking sound.

He'd been terrified. No idea if he was going to live or die. Maybe he would've died if Booth hadn't been there. Booth had promised he'd get him out of there alive and that's exactly what he had done.

The next news report he saw detailed the capture of the killers. Two young kids. According to the report they'd been found building a pipe bomb. The same type of bomb used to make the body explode. Zack wondered what they would've done with it had the FBI not arrived when they did.

His thoughts were interrupted by someone knocking at his door. As always, before he could ask who it was, they walsed straight in. It was one of the security guards. He noticed they were holding something.

Before he asked what is was they spoke.

"A letter for you."

"From whom?" He asked.

"A Temperance Brennan."

Dr. Brennan? Why was she writing to him? Unless something bad had happened or she needed his help with something?

"May I?"

"Here." said the guard as he handed Zack the letter. He then proceeded to leave the room.

Zack knew that Dr. Brennan would only write to him if something truly awful had happened or, again, they needed his help. He didn't waste anytime getting the letter out of the envelope.

As he read it he felt his world come crashing down around him. It couldn't be true! Hodgins paralyzed?

Was it his whole body or just from the waist down? Surely if it was just from the waist down Brennan would've mentioned it?

Zak wanted, no he needed to go see his friend. His best friend. Hodgins had always been there for him when he needed him. He'd be returning the favour. That was how it worked, wasn't it?

He laid back on his bed. Would things have gone differently had he never gotten caught up in working for Gormogon?

There was a very strong possibility had he never done what he did it could be him in that hospital bed, paralyzed.

For most of the night he sat there in his room thinking back to all the memories he and Hodgins had shared, during his time in the Jeffersonian.

All the crazy experiments they'd done.

The first one that came to mind was the experiment they'd conducted during the Kirsten Reardon case.

He and Hodgins had built this dummy and thrown it off the roof of the Jeffersonian to prove that she'd died before the fall down the incinerator. Sure they'd gotten in trouble for it, but it'd helped the case.

The next one that came to mind was their miscalculated explosion.

They'd carefully, or at least thought they'd carefully done the math for an explosion to determine whether combustibles in the next room would explode. It had resulted in them being blown across the room along with shattering the glass surrounding the room.

His mind then wandered to the time he had saved both Hodgins and Dr. Brennan from certain death.

Dr. Brennan and Hodgins had been caught by 'The Gravedigger' and were in desperate need of help. They'd managed to get a text to him and the rest of team. If he hadn't decoded the text they sent, using the periodic table, they would've died.

He found himself now thinking about escaping again. To go see Hodgins and everyone else. Would it be so bad if he left again? Nobody would know. He'd be back before anyone realized he was missing.

The thing was, how was he going to get hold of a card? Last time he'd done it he had taken the magnetic strip from Sweets card. Sweets wasn't here to help him anymore. Plus all the doctors and other staff members would most definitely notice if their card was missing or not working.

Zack shook his head. Escape wasn't an option. Not anymore at least.

He read the letter again. This time it occurred to him. If Hodgins' entire body was paralyzed surely that meant they would need to find him a replacement. Find someone who was as good at their job as Hodgins was, to analyze all the particulates, bugs and what not.

Even if they did find a replacement no one would be as good as Hodgins. He was the best there was.

That thought saddened him quite a bit. Hodgins unable to do what he loved? Same as Zack, but not, at the same time.

He turned his mind to another experiment that he and Hodgins had done. It just so happened to be their last experiment.

They'd been doing it to help with the Gormogon case, but he had sabotaged it so that Gormogon could break into the lab and steal the skeleton. He'd received third degree burns along with massive tissue damage.

In the past he had believed it to be a sad memory. Now, since it was one that involved Hodgins, it seemed to be slightly happier (If that was possible).

For the rest of that night Zack thought to each and every memory he, Hodgins and the team had shared. It wasn't long before sleep took it's hold on him.

He woke up in the morning to someone, again, knocking on his door. He had just enough time to sit up before they entered. It was the security guard from last night.

"You have a visitor."

"Who?"

"Come and see for yourself."

Almost immediately he hopped off his bed and followed the guard to the dayroom.

Standing there waiting for him was none other than Booth. Zack, for once, didn't know if he was dreaming or if he was wide awake.

"B-Booth. What are you doing here?" He asked.

Before Booth answered he took a sheet of paper out of his jacket, unfolded it and handed it to Zack. "I managed to get Caroline to get me a permission slip so you could come see Hodgins."

He snatched it from his hands and looked at it in disbelief. Was this really happening? Of course it was! Why wouldn't it? "How will I ever repay you?" He looked up from the paper and straight at Booth.

"Easy. You don't have to. Ready to get going?"

"Yes!"