Bang and Burn 2: Compromised {Dreamnotfound}

Chapter 8

Zak sat at his desk, staring out the window. The setting sun gave the city a colorful, golden glow, but it seemed duller. Everything seemed duller. He glanced at the paperwork sitting in front of him and sighed, his head already beginning to ache just thinking about filling out the countless pages. The stacks of papers placed at his desk never ended. When he agreed to run Forte with Darryl, he never thought that this would be the lifestyle he'd have to adapt to. His friends were all out, searching for Dylan, but he couldn't join them. It was days like this that he wished he was still just another tech guy who could be out with a team. But no. Instead, he was stuck here.

Doing paperwork.

Darryl knocked on the door, then let himself in. He stopped when he saw Zak staring out of the window. "You thinking again?"

"Yep."

Darryl sat on Zak's desk, making sure not to abstract his view of the city. "What are you thinking about this time?"

"Same as last time," Zak replied. "Dylan. The baby. Everything."

Darryl reached behind him and grabbed Zak's hand. "Dylan is going to be okay, Zak. He's tough. He's smart. He knows how to get out of bad situations."

"What if he's dead, Darryl?"

Zak's words hit Darryl hard. He'd been doing everything he could to stay optimistic, but part of him wondered the same thing. What if Dylan died? What if his body was found in a ditch somewhere? So many thoughts swirled around in his head while he did everything he could to ignore them. "Well, instead of dwelling on that, would you like to hear the latest update with Avielle?"

"Sure," Zak groaned. Avielle was a lovely young woman, there was no doubt about that, but the last thing Zak needed was to hear about the woman the two were adopting a baby from. She was nineteen and terrified of becoming a mother. While Zak didn't have all of the details, he could tell that the pregnancy was the result of something traumatic that Zak had no desire to ask about. Darryl had signed Zak and himself up for this adoption website where people could find children to adopt. Not a week later, they were contacted by Avi, who was pregnant and wanted to find her child a good home. Everything happened so fast. One second, Zak was filling out his damn paperwork. The next, Darryl was on the phone with him, crying tears of joy because they were going to become fathers. Zak didn't have it in him to tell him he didn't want to be a father and he's in too deep to bring it up now.

"She heard the baby's heartbeat today!" Darryl pulled out his phone to play Zak a video. While there was nothing to see, he could hear the steady thumping of its heartbeat. "Isn't that amazing?!"

Zak faked a smile and nodded. "It's just a heartbeat, Darryl."

Darryl laid down on the desk, holding his phone to his chest. "We're going to be parents, Zak. This is what I've always dreamed of doing. We are having a baby!" Zak clenched his jaw as he continued staring outside the window. Thankfully, Darryl was too happy to notice his lack of excitement. "We should go out tonight. We need to celebrate!"

"That's not necessary, Darryl."

"Well, I think it is, and my opinion is the only one that matters." Darryl slid off of the desk and scooted the papers off to the side. "Come on, Zak! We haven't gone out since Avielle picked us!"

Zak shuffled the papers back to the middle of the desk. "I have paperwork to do."

Darryl put his hands on top of the papers, keeping Zak from filling them out. "I'll let you pick the place this time! We can go to that one Brazillian grill you've always wanted to try."

Zak stared at the floor. "I don't want to go out. I'm not feeling it."

Darryl placed his hand under Zak's chin and moved his head so they were facing each other. "What's wrong?"