Grasping the Logic--a Vignette

This is just another little PitH story...inspired by the camera's focus on Booth and his expression after Zack states he's expendable. I completely agree with Booth here, btw.

I don't own them. X-posted on FF.net.

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Booth kept a firm grip on his emotions as they headed for the hospital--for Bones’ sake. He hadn’t missed the look in her eyes when she said that Zack (of all people) was the killer.

She was devastated--but he was furious and growing more so by the minute. Not that he didn’t rage during normal cases, or that the Gormogon ones didn’t really push his buttons, but this time-- He felt completely overwhelmed, swamped, drowned. He didn’t want to even think about what she must be feeling, considering the shock and betrayal he felt; whatever it was, she had said less than ten words since they walked out of the Jeffersonian.

“The apprentice is expendable. I’m expendable.”

Angry as he was, something twisted inside him when Zack said that in the same way he would identify a bone. Simple, unarguable fact. No questions, no doubt. Truth.

No one is--or should be--expendable, he thought as Bones moved closer to the bed. No one should ever think they are. The anger shifted a little. This guy--“the Master”--he knew mind games, and he was an expert. And Zack, for all his brilliance, was easy prey. Gormogon, whoever he was, whatever his name really was, he was a dead man for screwing with Booth’s team.

“I’ve always been proud of you, Zack,” Brennan said as Booth brought his attention back to the scene in front of him. “I’ve never met anyone more rational or intelligent.

“But there’s a flaw in your logic.”

Zack tried to protest, but she simply kept talking. Booth kept quiet; he knew his usual methods weren’t going to work, and there was a look in Zack’s eyes that told him the kid wasn’t scared of him anymore--that he was too far gone for such mundane fears. Which was frightening in and of itself. He couldn’t think of a time when he couldn’t at least intimidate Zack.

“Assumption number one: secret societies exist.”

“Accepted. Hodgins has been explaining this to me for years.”

“Assumption number two: the human experience is adversely affected by secret societies.”

“Accepted.”

“Assumption number three: attacking and killing members of secret societies will have an ameliorating effect on the human experience.”

“Accepted.”

Booth listened, ready to pounce. But then the last statement sunk in. Unnoticed by either anthropologist, Booth’s frown changed. Zack genuinely believed that what he had done was for the greater good of all.

“All of your assumptions are built upon a first principle, Zack. To wit: the historical human experience, as a whole, is more important than a single person’s life.”

“Yes.”

“Yet, you risked it all so you wouldn't hurt Hodgins.”

There was a long pause as Brennan leaned even closer, resting her forehead against Zack’s. Booth only hoped she had gotten through to him. But then, if she couldn’t, who could?

“There's--” his voice caught. “You are correct. There is an inconsistency in my reasoning.”

“Bones, I need a name,” Booth said urgently; she had gotten in and now he needed to finish it.

“We know.”

As he watched them, he realized all over again that he’d spent too much time with the Squints--the whole damn mess actually made sense in some crooked way, not that he would ever admit it out loud. The poor kid so badly wanted to be like Bones, wanted to make a positive difference in the world. It was like he told Bones back when Zack first returned from Iraq: Zack was a man and wanted to do a man’s work. Unfortunately for him, for all of them, his ideas of what a man’s work should be had gotten…warped.

The realization made him a little gentler than he might have otherwise been. “Zack, I need to know who this guy is. I need to go get him. Now.”

Zack swallowed hard and began to talk. “I don't know his name. I've never known his name, but I've been to his house…”

Brennan didn’t even ask to go with him; she stayed in the room, next to Zack, dry-eyed, waiting for the lawyers, her hand firmly locked to his. Booth didn’t like it, but he understood. And he found, despite all the times he had wished she would keep out of the way, when she didn’t fight him, it was just…wrong. Just like the entire situation. He grit his teeth and got out of the SUV at the house on Savoy Crescent, weapon heavy in his hand.

I always kind of wondered why Zack got involved with Gormogon, how he'd gotten snagged. I just accepted that "The Master" had somehow tripped him up in logic. I never came up with anything noble like what you've mentioned here,

The poor kid so badly wanted to be like Bones, wanted to make a positive difference in the world.

And this part,

The realization made him a little gentler than he might have otherwise been. “Zack, I need to know who this guy is. I need to go get him. Now.”

the way that Booth says that line always did seem uncharacteristic to me. I never did really wrap it up in my own mind; this way kinda settles that for me.

Thanks Dawn!

I don't know if that was the "Master's" first approach or just how Zack perceived it--I wish they had had time to get more into Gormogon's background and how Zack got involved. Damn strike, rushing them. 'Tany rate, I have a feeling the man could read people as well or better than Booth, and if his initial feeling-out wasn't productive, he would have found his way to this.

And as for Booth, well, watch his face closely as Brennan talks to Zack (it's not really an interrogation)--he has a couple subtle facial shifts. Like he now understands something? I mean, I know Zack's part of the team, one of his people, and all that, but that doesn't explain everything--like you say, that was rather mild for the circumstances. A little thought gave me this.