"You're going to tell me EVERYTHING NOW!" Dib yelled as he barged into Zim's room, Zim giving Dib a confused look that should have told the human that he was way too tired to deal with bad attitudes and vague demands, but Dib didn't even seem to notice.

"What are you talking about?" The irken asked drowsily, eyes tired and droopy from his nap.

Dib handed Zim two sheets of paper, each one with a picture of either Zim or Lix. Next to the pictures were various notes marking the similarities between each irken.

As Zim read through this he steadily got more alert until he could feel Dib's gaze on him, the human waiting expectantly.

"What is this?" He asked Dib, looking offended and defensive. "What do you WANT from me?"

"The truth Zim!" Dib yelled. "Stop lying to me! He's your son, isn't he?"

Zim flinched, like Dib was coming at him before quickly recovering.

"Why would you CARE!?" The irken asked. "First off it's none of your business and second you have a daughter! Why should you concern yourself with whether or not I'm passing MY genes along!?"

"Is he?" Dib asked, voice lowering and softening to the point where Zim had to almost strain to hear.

"No," Zim said after a moment's hesitation. He through the papers to a table. "You can leave now."

"I don't believe you." Dib said, his tone soft but not conversational. "There are too many similarities between your appearance. I already had someone else go over it as well. Nils can tell genetic similarities in looks and-...."

"You told Nils!?" Zim shouted, suddenly looking panicked.

"So he is your son?" Dib asked, trying not to look smug, but failed, crossing his arms in a show of superiority.

"Shut up!" Zim yelled, quickly opening his door to make sure that no one was outside in the hall. "Irk Dib why can't you just leave us alone!? You don't like me anymore, I get it so why should you care!?"

Dib frowned, not having expected such logic from his once lover. "I care because this is my station and you've been lying to me, and yet you want me to believe you. No Zim, that's not how it works, you're going to tell me the truth if I have to force it out of you."

"Fine!" Zim barked, clenching his fists tightly. "Lix is my son, are you happy!?"

Dib simply shook his head.

"Why does he call you by your name then? It's obvious you care for him as a son and yet he doesn't seem to hold the same familial relationship. He treats you more like some kind of pet or possession. Not in a bad way, it's obvious he cares about you but-..."

"He doesn't know." Zim said, glaring. "And you aren't going to tell him."

"Why not?" Dib asked, looking confused. "Why doesn't he know, why shouldn't he know?"

Zim groaned in aggravation, going back over to the bed and sitting down. "When he was born the Tallests discovered he had some special mutations and so they wanted to train him personally. I'm sure you've wondered why someone with my genes is so naturally tall, right?"

Dib nodded but didn't speak, sitting on the couch and giving Zim his full attention.

"Right after he was born they planned to get rid of me, but Lix wouldn't eat or sleep and kept crying, so the Tallest had to let me take care of him or he would have died. So they reinstated me into the race and let me take care of him under the condition that I not make any trouble and that included not letting him know that he was my son."

Dib frowned hard. "You aren't under the Tallests' rule now. Why can't you tell him?"

Zim gave a laugh, a loud cackle that took Dib off guard. "are you insane?" He asked the human. "And let Lix know that I've been lying to him all these years? Not to mention the fact that the Tallests have poisoned his mind in regards to me. Sure he's fine with me being his caretaker but who wants the most dangerous defect that the Empire has ever known as their parent?"

"I'm sure he wouldn't care." Dib said, not looking impressed by Zim's excuses. "He as the right to know."

Zim shook his head, standing and making his way to the door. "No, I don't think so. I'm not going to tell him and you defiantly aren't." With that he opened the door. "You can leave now."

Dib didn't look pleased but got up anyway to leave, pausing just at the door. "He'll figure it out eventually."

"Then I'll deal with it then." Zim snapped before pushing Dib out of the door. "Now stop interfering with my life and tell Nils to keep her trap shut!" With that he slammed the door closed, huffing back over to his bed and throwing himself down. When did life get so hard?

(break)

Zim was reluctant to continue with his walks around the station after that, but did so anyway, mostly to keep Lix from becoming too concerned with him. He made sure to destroy all the evidence that Dib had brought him to prove that they were related and felt safe enough to leave his room unlocked incase Lix needed anything.

He was cautious when entering the observatory, making sure first that Dib wasn't there again to ambush him before walking in and taking a seat at one of the benches feeling strangely run down.

Since their last confrontation they'd been avoiding each other, both moving in the opposite directions if ever they came across each other and making sure not to make eye contact. It was rather frustrating for Zim because he felt sure that he hadn't done anything really wrong to the human but forget to leave a note. Dib seemed to be taking it way out of proportion as usual. But then maybe things were always so big to humans? Their life spans were much shorter than an irkens. Dib was twenty-six and Zim was still in his late teens according to irken time. To Dib it must seem like time just stood still for the irkens so every moment wasted on the negative would seem so much longer to a human. Those nine years, though nothing for Zim, must have been so long to the human that the bitterness just festered.

Sighing Zim got up, tired of thinking about such things and made his way back to his room. Upon entering he found it trashed. Things were thrown everywhere, clothes, papers, the contents of various drawers which included the very few personal items he had (irkens didn't particularly need many.)

Zim proceeded into the room cautiously, not panicking, but not taking things so nonchalantly either. He couldn't see anyone, but someone was obviously there because he heard scuffling.

The only place anyone could be hiding, however, was the bathroom and so he went to the door and slowly opened it up. Whoever was in there freaked out, however, letting out a shout and punching Dib in the gut before he could even see who it was. It wasn't a hard or particularly well placed punch but pain ripped through Zim's abdomen, allowing his attacker (there might have been more than one by the sound of their retreat but he was in too much pain to tell) to escape through the still open front door.

Zim groaned as he fell to the floor, unable to move through the pain. He was left to lie there and hope that someone would come along and wonder why his front door was open.

In the end it was Lix who found him, but he was unable to carry Zim properly so he quickly ran out into the hall to call for help. He was ignored by almost every human that passed, none of them carrying that Zim was hurt or needed help.

Just as Lix was about to run inside and carry Zim to the medical bay himself Hollin ran up, asking, "What's wrong, what happened?"

Lix looked distressed as he explained how he found Zim.

"I'll go get my Daddy!" Hollin said quickly, looking just as concerned. She cared for these irkens very much and couldn't understand why no one wanted to help! "He's really strong, so he'll be able to help!" And with that she ran off.

Lix thanked her quickly before going back in to make sure Zim wasn't dying or anything.

Lix liked Hollin. She was sweet and very energetic. Even though she talked a lot that was mostly a good thing as he was more of an observer and so preferred listening to actually holding a conversation. The only one he ever talked to at length was Zim, but that's because Zim was his teacher, his caretaker, Zim needed to know what was going on with him. Only now he needed to know what was going on with Zim.

"Don't worry, Hollin went to go get her father." Lix said, keeping a hand on Zim's shoulder as the other lay on the ground, holding his stomach. "What happened?"

"I don't know," Zim answered through grit teeth. "Room was trashed and... someone hit me... dunno why it hurts so badly."

Dib came quickly, looking more like he was concentrating, rather than concerned. "What happened?" He asked as he went to pick Zim up. Lix explained and he nodded, holding Zim carefully and carrying him to the med bay.

Nils rolled her eyes as Zim was brought into the bay and laid gently on a table. "Ok, what now?"

Dib didn't look entirely sure as he said, "Zim was punched and is now in serious pain."

"Punched?" Nils asked, narrowing an eye and lifted up Zim's shirt before scoffing. "He's not even bruised, are you sure Zim doesn't just have that Munch-whatever?"

Dib shook his head, "Zim may enjoy having all the attention but he doesn't have Munchausen's."

Nils didn't look sure and almost refused to look into it any further until she caught site of Lix, who was looking more than upset with Hollin gently rubbing his back just below his pak. She groaned.

"Alright," She said, looking to Dib. "Get me the scanner, we'll have a look."

Dib did as he was told before leaving, saying he was sure Zim would be fine and to just keep him posted. Hollin stayed though to give moral support.

Nils ran a few scans before determining that Zim had ruptured something and declaring, "We'll have to run a probe to have a better look."

By that time Karen had come back to inform her daughter that it was lunch time, but she refused to leave.

"But Zimmy ruptured something!" She said, looking awful and upset along with Lix. "I have to stay to make sure he's ok!"

Nils walked up and said quickly, more for the children's benefit than anything, "Zimmy will be fine, you should both go get something to eat." And with that she handed Karen a piece of paper, saying, "Give this to Dib, he wanted to be kept posted. Something in Zim's spooch ruptured and we're having him swallow a probe to see the full extent of the damage, from just this scan it's hard to tell."

Karen nodded and ushered the children from the mad bay.

"What's going on?" Dib asked lazily when Karen got back, looking quizzically at the irken child for a moment before deciding that he didn't really care if Karen decided to play baby sitter while Zim was incapacitated.

"Something ruptured." Karen said, handing Dib the scan. "They're looking into it further."

Dib looked at the scan, not really sure what he was looking at before focusing more clearly. "Wait a sec..." He mumbled before getting up and pulling his coat back on. "Watch the kids, I'll be right back!"

Karen rolled her eyes as Dib darted from the room before looking down at her daughter and her daughter's irken friend. "I wish your daddy would make up his mind about whether he cared or not."

"Me too!" Hollin said, but more to agree with her mother than in real understanding of the situation.

(break)

"Nils!" Dib yelled and he ran into the med bay, Nils humming in acknowledgment as she stared at a screen, showing what the camera in Zim's gut was seeing. "Nils, the scan." He handed it back to her. "Isn't that rupture in the same area as that weird mass we saw before Zim left?" He asked.

This pulled Nils attention away from the scan and Zim's antennae perked up. The irken seemed much calmer with painkillers in his system.

Nils looked at the scan before nodding. "That's exactly where it was." She said, looking up at Zim.

"Zim knows what that REALLY was." Dib said, frowning at the irken. "What was it Zim?"

Zim shook his head. "I told you, I can't tell you."

"Damn it Zim!" Nils yelled. "Tell us so we can help you, unless you WANT to die!"

Zim cringed looking back and forth between the two.

"You have no empire to escape to this time Zim." Dib said, glaring. "You exhausted that option when you escaped with their precious mutant. Not to mention they want you dead anyway. We're the only ones that can help you but you HAVE to tell us what that thing was!"

Zim hesitated. He knew Dib was right, and it wasn't like he was in any condition to escape anyway. Finally, and reluctantly, he said, "It was Lix."

Both Dib and Nils looked confused and looked to each other for the answer, but neither knew so they turned back to Zim. "What?"

Zim groaned in exasperation, putting his hands over his face so he wouldn't have to face Dib as he said quickly, "It was an egg pouch! I'd seen one before when I was a scientist on Vort, trying to figure out why our race couldn't reproduce. The experiment failed. But I still remembered when it looked like and I had to leave because I knew that I couldn't trust Nils with discretion and I just wanted it to go away! I didn't want a smeet because you didn't want a smeet and I didn't want things to be more complicated that it had to be! So I had to go get rid of it which is why I left without telling you because I didn't think I would be gone so long!"

He paused, waiting for some kind of reaction but when none came verbally he looked up to see Dib's shocked face.

"So..." The human finally said. "You're not Lix's father, you're his mother?"

Zim nodded.

"And that would mean that I'm his...." But Dib couldn't go on so Zim finished for him. "His father, yes, that's you."

Dib had to sit down and looked all around as though everything was suddenly new now that he had a son. "That means that... we're parents... and Lix is our child and...."

"Dib," Nils said warningly, looking concerned. "Don't overdo it, you're in shock."

She then looked between the two of them before backing up out of the room. "I'm gonna go prep the OR."

Zim sighed and Dib stared at him, stunned.

"We have to tell Lix." Dib said to which Zim rapidly shook his head.

"No, we can't!"

Dib shook his head as well, saying, "We have to, I'm going to be a part of his life, a father, he has to know."

"No!" Zim pleaded. "He'll hate me! We can't tell him!"

"That's not up to you." Dib said with a glare. "I'm his father I have a say!"

"You didn't raise him!" Zim yelled back, glaring as well.

"And whose fault is that!?" Dib asked pointedly, making Zim flinch back.

"I'm sorry," Zim said finally, looking away. "I'm sorry about that but you kept going on about how you didn't want kids and how they would just get in the way!"

"That's because I wanted to stay with you!" Dib yelled, standing. "I thought that if I had a kid then that would mean losing you because you need so much ATTENTION!"

Zim gave Dib an insulted look. "I would have been fine! I wouldn't have cared!"

"That's not how it seemed to me!" Dib yelled. "You're so high maintenance that I figured having to share my attention with someone else would have been horrible for you!"

Zim shook his head. "It would have been but I would have gotten over it because at least we would have been together!"

The two just glared at each other for a moment before Dib plopped back down on the bed nest to Zim's. "All that time apart," He muttered. "All because we don't have the ability to communicate well."

Zim moved his glare down to him lap. "No, it's because I'm an idiot." He said. "The only reason I even ended up in the empire is because I didn't think enough to make sure the ship was ok before I left and the only reason I left so quickly was because I thought you would reject me if you found out and I was so tired of rejection."

Dib moved off the bed once more in order to sit on the bed next to Zim. "Is that the truth this time? Cause I'm really getting tired of you lying to me."

"That's the truth." Zim said with a nod. "There's really no way to hide it anymore."

Dib sighed and scooted closer to Zim, saying, "I'm not mad. I'm just glad you didn't go running to the empire or anything. I'm glad everyone was wrong about you."

"Why?" Zim asked, not looking pleased but leaning against the human anyway. "Because now we're stuck together because we have a kid?"

"No," Dib said, looking at Zim was an amused look. "It's because I like you too much."

Zim looked up at Dib, surprised a moment before his face turned completely serious. "I don't think you like me enough."

Dib laughed and gave Zim a kiss on the head, whispering into the alien's antennae, "I missed you."

Zim smiled and leaned more against the human. "I missed you too."