To Which Our Future Holds (A ZaDr Story)

Chapter 13

Dib munched on a piece of toast his mind wandering. He had finished up his paperwork from yesterday, despite Lizzy telling him to take the day off, and now found himself left with nothing to do."I wonder what Zim is doing. Maybe his tallest gave him a new mission" Dib thought out loud to himself as he took another bite of toast. "Maybe after all this time he managed to take over some other planet, and has forgotten all about Earth." With the last bite of toast another thought slipped into Dib's head "Does Zim ever look in a mirror and remember where he got his scars?" Dib shook his head as the thought turned his cheeks a bright red. Turning and glaring at the wall Dib cursed. "I need to get out of this house."
Dib picked up his phone and dialed his sister's number, it rang a few times before an annoyed Gaz picked up the phone. "What do you want? I'm at work" Dib smiled and gave her a cheefull hello "Hey Gaz I'm coming to pick you up for lunch, I'll see you in a bit." Gaz groaned on the other end "I don't want to go to lunch with you." Dib smirked "Well too bad, I'm coming to pick you up anyways" he stated before the line cut off "She's in a good mood" Dib mused before putting his phone in his pocket and grabbing the keys.

"I hope you understand that I only agreed to this because you're paying." Gaz stated as both she and Dib got out of the car. "I am not here to listen to you rant about your stupid guy troubles." Dib looked at his sister defensively "I'm not here to rant about guy troubles" Gaz turned and looked at her brother arms folded. Despite being siblings Gaz and Dib didn't look all that alike. Gaz had sleek eyes with thick eyelashes her irises a darker brown. Her hair, cut to her shoulders, was a dull purple color instead of jet black, with bangs she brushed to the side. And unlike both her father and her brother, Gaz was not ridiculously taller than all of her peers.
Gaz narrowed her eyes "Come on Dib, I know what today is. If you're not here to rant then you're here to cry, and if your not here to cry, then you're in denial." Giving a skeptical glance to her brother she asked him "So Dib tell me. What is it this time?" Having been caught like a little kid, Dib bit his lip as they entered the little mom and pop restaurant. Gaz let out a soft sigh shutting her eyes as they walked in "That's what I thought."

Dib and Gaz where seated in a little booth by the window. The restaurant was a small dressed up kind if place, reminding Gaz of a cliché first high-school date. Her brother sat across from her stirring a straw throgh his drink makeing the icecubes clink across the sides in an almost rithmick fashion. Bored of both the silence and her brother Gaz leaned on the table he eyes narrowed "You know, I just don't get you Dib. You have a beautiful wife and an adorable son, and yet here you are." She said, gesturing to Dib who miserabley just leaned his head on one of his hands, still stirring the icecubes.
"I know I say this every year, but I think you need to hear it again. It has been thirteen years Dib, Don't you think that means something?"
Dib sat up in his chair and slammed his hand on the table "I know Gaz!" He yelled before sinking back in his seat. "You think I don't know how long it's been... you think I don't stay up every night counting down the minutes as if it was the very night it happened. And you think I don't hate myself knowing that I do it."

Gaz just stared at her brother in shock, this was honestly the most he had talked about Zim's disappearance in a long time. Dib stoped stiring his drink and just slid it away trying to brush off the tears that had accumulated upon his cheeks. "You don't have to tell me. I know I'm a mizzerable husband and a horrible father, but I just can't forget Zim no matter how hard I try." Dib looked down at the table, his hands fidgeting in front of him "It's just... I'm not afraid of the fact that he hates me, or that he doesn't want to come back. Gaz I'm so scared that something happened to him... I'm afraid that I wake up every day never knowing. I'm worried that he could be d-dead, o-or worse."

Gaz looked off to the side away from her brother, uncomfortable with how much of a crier he was. "You make things so much more difficult than they have to be Dib. Why don't you go spend the day with your wife?" Gaz turned back to her brother who had calmed down a bit.
"Listen Dib, I've tried to be a supportive sister about all of this, but I think I've just been too lenient with you. Enough is enough Dib." Shaking her head Gaz continued "I really thought that you would have gotten over this already, so I'm going to say this, Not as your sister but as Lizzy's friend."
Looking directly at her brother with a gaze that could shatter stone she layed it out to him. "Stop hiding behind this and go talk to her. She deserves to know what's going on!" Dib just stared at the table making Gaz lean back "She needs you too Dib."

Abruptly standing up from the table, clearly annoyed with her brothers incompetence, Gaz grabbed her jacket and started to leave "Well thanks for buying me lunch I guess, but I'm heading back to work now, and I'm taking the car." glancing back to her brother Gaz stoped "Just think about what I said. I mean it" She said before turning and walking out, leaving her brother alone to his thoughts.

Dib sat at the table by himself for a while just mulling over what Gaz had said. "This day just keeps getting worse and worse" he said before paying for the meal and walking outside. "Curse it for being such a beautiful day" Dib thought as he looked up at the bright blue sky, the world seeming to be so alive around him. "If the universe had known. It would have made it rain." turning his thoughts back to his conversation with Gaz he decided to start walking home, greatfull he didn't live far. "I don't know what I was expecting from Gaz" he thought "She always has been brutally honest. And of course being lizzys close friend she'd want the best for her" with almost a laugh Dib mused "In fact knowing Gaz she'd probably file the divorce papers for her." Mentally hitting himself Dib snarled "What am I thinking?"
Suddenly finding himself mad at Zim for no particular reason Dib began to rant "Man if that stupid pest where here I'd chain him to an autopsy table and make him watch as I harvested his organs!" wich unbeknownst to him he was saying out loud, causing several passerbys to give him strange looks.

Dib stoped as his phone buzzed in his pocket. Confused at why Lizzy would be calling him during work hours he picked up the phone. "Hey sweetheart whats up?" He said with a smile, before the news on the other end made his skin go pale, and the world stop spinning around him.

"Lizzy..... " was all he could mutter before hanging up the phone and bolting down the street.

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