This is my first try writing Zach/Annie. I’m writing them as practice for writing them in a longer fic in the future.

This story starts on the day of Angie and Jesse’s wedding and this scene is set before any violence took place.

Can’t Go On

“Hey,” Zach asked, his voice so low it could barely be heard, as he stood behind her at the wedding, “why don’t you let me take you home?”

She didn’t turn around right away, instead she kept staring at the image of her husband and his ex- fiancée walking off together. Ryan and Kendall...if it wasn’t that former lover she was coming in second place to, it was the one after her, Greenlee. But there was no doubt about it, Annie’s last name might be Lavery but she was not, and probably never would be, Ryan’s first choice.

Zach murmured, while he touched her shoulder, “Come on now...I’ll give you a lift.”

Slowly Annie turned to face him. “How do you do it? How do you let your wife walk off with her ex...after saying they have stuff they just have to talk about...to figure out!...alone...and you stay cool as a cauliflower over it.”

He smiled and chuckled. “Cucumber.”

“What?” Annie searched his eyes and then chuckled a little too. “What does a cucumber have to do with this? Is that the key to not caring who your spouse is more emotionally attached to than you?”

“No. I don’t know what the key to that is. Trust, I guess. What I meant...what you said...the saying is cool as a cucumber, not a cauliflower.”

She smiled slightly. “Oh.”

“Come on,” he nodded his head to the side “lets get out of here. The party’s definitely over for us.”

Annie walked next to Zach as they headed outside to the parking lot. “When is this going to end with Ryan and Kendall and for that matter with Ryan and Greenlee? I can’t take much more. He gets his memory back more and more each day but he still feels more for them than me...its killing me...its making me someone I don’t even like...so how can he like me again? How can he love me again? I’m losing him twice over...what we had and what we could have...I’m letting my daughter’s father slip through my hands and I can’t do a damn thing about it! Because I can’t go back in time and be the one who he loved before he ever knew Kendall, and before he left her from Greenlee and set up this sick triangle that never seems to end. AAHHHHHHHHHHH!”

Zach stopped walking and looked at Annie. “Feel better now?”

“Little bit.”

“Good.”

They started walking again. Annie asked “Seriously though why aren’t you more upset? Your wife is off with another man right now and earlier tonight Greenlee was yelling about Kendall and Aidan...sleeping together...I’m sorry about that, by the way.”

He shrugged it off, not showing his pain over all of it. “You don’t got nothing to be sorry about.”

“Tell me, Zach, how do you let this not get to you?”

“It gets to me. I burned down a cabin.” He shrugged again.

“And that made you feel better?”

“Better yes. Over it all...no. But, hey, I knew what I got into when I married Kendall. I knew all about the...unique thing...that is known as triad of Kendall, Ryan, Greenlee. Family, Friends, Enemies...in love...in hate...in war...they are with and against each other every day of their life but, even if they are thousands of miles apart, they are still together. I can’t change that. But I love my wife and when she’s done with them...when the screaming has all been done and the tears all cried and the madness settled down... she’ll come home to me, like she always does.”

“Will you be waiting for you when she does?”

They had made it to the car and Zach unlocked it.

“Tonight, yeah...don’t know about tomorrow yet...I’ll let tomorrow figure itself out.”

Looking over the top of the Mercedes, Annie softly spoke “Can I ask you something?”

“Ask me anything. We’re family, right?”

“That’s what they tell me.”

He just stared at her until she spoke again “Do you think I can win Ryan back? If I fight dirty...if I scratch and claw and beat back Kendall and Greenlee...do you think I could make him really mine again?”

“You got to ask yourself...if you got to do all that...if he won’t even stick around long enough to make sure you get home safe...do you still want him?”

(Who's gonna tell you when
it's too late?

Who's gonna tell you things
aren't so great?

You can't go on
thinking nothing's wrong.

Who's gonna drive you home tonight ?) ( The Cars)

Annie’s lips quivered and she ducked her head down, as she climbed into the car, leaving the question answered.

Zach drove for a while and then said “Sorry about that. I’m not telling you to give up on him...all I really want, you know, is our family to go back to being okay...cook outs for the kid’s birthdays, hockey games that you girls don’t really want to be at but you cheer anyway- for the wrong team sometimes but its cute- and Emma to have her Dad home...for you to have your husband and me my wife...the one who doesn’t keep secrets from me and risk our life together over them...over Greenlee and Ryan...but you know what...” He let out a deep breath. “There was always a Greenlee and Ryan and there will always be a Greenlee and Ryan...and that’s fine...I care about them both.”

“But don’t you ever feel like...don’t you feel like...Kendall could lose you and still be okay, but if she loses them...the world comes to an end? Cause I feel that way about Ryan.”

Zach stopped at a red light. He reached out and touched her hand, patting it. “Hey now...you matter, okay? You matter to this family...you matter to me.”

She leaned toward him, drawn to his kind words like a moth to a flame.

In that moment, all Annie could think was that Zach was saying to her all the things Ryan should. He was being her rock- when Ryan should be. He was being the man she needed to take care of her- he was holding her up, when Ryan was letting her fall down.

(Who's gonna pick you up
when you fall?

Who's gonna hang it up
when you call?

Who's gonna pay attention
to your dreams?

Who's gonna plug their ears
when you scream?

You can't go on
thinking nothing's wrong.

Who's gonna drive you home tonight ?)

XXXXXXXXXXXX

Zach followed her into the Penthouse. The gown she wore highlighted the fact she was a undeniable beauty. Still her features were creased with a sadness that twisted his heart at the sight of it.

Annie Lavery- a broken hearted fallen angel. Zach had wanted so much more for her, for all of them really, than to end up like this.

He couldn’t help but feel bad for her, mad at her husband for putting her in this situation, and depressed for himself...cause if Annie lost her hold on Ryan...that meant the end of this whole saga would not be simple. It would not be their family going back to the days when Annie and Ryan and Emma were a strong little unit that could not be broken. When they were all happy and loyal to each other...when no one was confused about where they belonged.

They said good- bye to the sitter and then Zach asked Annie “You gonna be okay now?”

Before she could answer, Emma started screaming upstairs. They ran up there and found that she had a nightmare. Annie held her while Zach said “Hey, there, pretty girl...there are no monsters here...just family...Just people who love you. And when you have that around you...you can’t be hurt by anything. Believe me?”

Emma nodded, and then buried her face on her mother’s shoulder. Annie whispered “Its okay, baby. Shh...time to go back to sleep.”

“Sing to me, mama.”

Annie’s eyes got wide with embarrassment as she looked at Zach. “Not tonight, baby. How about a story instead?”

“Sing, please, mama.”

Zach said “Yeah, mama, sing for us.”

Annie smiled. Softly she sang “This little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine. This little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine. This little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine, let it shine, let it shine, let it shine.”

When Emma had drifted back to sleep, Annie and Zach went back downstairs. She said “Thanks for helping me with her.”

“You did it all.”

“Ryan used to help me calm her fears...make her feel safe...but not so much anymore.” Annie ran her hands through her hair, and suddenly she started to shake and shiver, breaking apart right before Zach’s eyes, as if it was all hitting her full force right now. Tears filled her eyes.

She tried to play it off and held her chin up, turning away from him, but he reached out and pulled her into a hug, and murmured “Hey...come here...its okay.”

Zach knew he could not fix this for her. Hell, he might not even be able to fix this for himself. But one thing that would never change was the fact that Annie was his family...Annie and Emma both...he brought them into his heart and he would not abandon them, even if everyone else in their lives did. Even if Annie and Emma were last on the list for Kendall, Greenlee, and Ryan...they were not for Zach.

Cause he knew all too well what it was like to wonder if you were essential or disposable to them. He loved Kendall and he would hold on as long as he could...but he wouldn’t tell her to stop loving Ryan and Greenlee...it would be useless to try.

There might not be a way to save his marriage or for Annie to save hers...but they were family all the same. Forever.

He would not run from her during the hard times.

Zach stroked her hair, as her shuddering body, wracked with sobs, pressed close to his. “Aw, Annie...just cry it all out...cry it all out...”

“You... shouldn’t have to... be the one to hold... me. It should...be him...It should be...” Her words were low and breathless, all broken. “I can’t go on... like this... anymore. I’m leaving him...don’t hate me, Zach. I tried...I tried...I can’t keep this family together...not anymore.”

He looked deep in her eyes. “You can never lose this family...this is your family, Annie. And it always will be. You do what you have to...we’ll be here for you.”

“We?” she asked, raising an eyebrow.

They both knew that the rest of their crowd could kick her to the curb on Monday and forget her name by Tuesday and be enjoying cocktails around the pool on Wednesday, in hate...in love...in war...together...and it would be like she had never known them at all. Cause they didn’t need her to keep the triangle strong.

Zach told Annie “I will always be here for you, okay? You got my word.”

“Thank you...thanks...I need somebody I can still believe in.”

He nodded and hugged her again. Finally...he was the one someone just could not do without. Every man on earth needed to be that to one woman. It should have been his wife...but he hadn’t been here before she met Ryan and Greenlee...so Zach would never be the one Kendall could not survive without, but he could still be that for the woman he held that night- his friend and his family Annie.

He would not let her shatter unnoticed.

(Who's gonna hold you down
when you shake?

Who's gonna come around
when you break?)

THE END