Introoooducccingggg Anxiety Warings. Yeah. That and subtle implications of other mental illnesses, though its pretty much not there. Also if anyone can figure out the foreshadowing that I placed let me know ;o - As always thanks to my beautiful Beta SharpAsFlint previously known as MagentaMustang.

To Subtle Shenanigans: Doyle is always our savior lmao. Mullet God bless. But I figure he'd become really protective over Zak which comes out in this chapter slightly? Also Here is part one of anxious Zak. I hope it comes out well? I compared his anxiety to mine where one word can spitball me into a stupor which is why he kinda freaks. This is officially the start of the next arc: Bigfoot! During the next few arcs the minor characters will get brought into the spotlight though it doesn't seem like it as this is a Zak centric story. Not gonna lie i discussed a lot of the plot with Flint, and its so angsty that im considering this story a soap opera.

That being said, I will be reviewing the first like five? chapters and editing them now that im finished with the Khyung arc. So the chapter pacings will be fixed and hopefully the drama and angst wont be shoved down your throats!

The days following Ulraj's departure were hazy. He spent most of the time sleeping off the sickness or listening to his uncle's exciting global adventures. The things Doyle did were unbelievable! From anyone else, Zak would call fraudulence, but knowing how daring and bold his uncle was – he believed every single tale. His mom would sit in on a few, the same frown on her face. His dad would also sit in on a few, though when he did the stories were interrupted and any talk turned into an argument.

It was cozy, he decided.

He liked the feeling of waking up not on the run from scientists or creepy arch-enemies. A hand ruffled his messy bed head and looking up at the card game his uncle, brother, and mother were playing he grinned, he truly did love his family.

Quickly looking over the redhead's shoulder he taunted, "Doyle, Doyle, Doyle; you really think you can beat mom at Uno?"

"Can it mini-man!" The ginger grit out as he placed down a draw four.

Drew's smile quirked up as she placed down her own. Fiskerton wailed as the eight cards were handed to him. The round continued, they shed a few cards, things were actually looking up for Doyle until Fisk played a reverse.

Mom capitalized on the opportunity quicker than a shark to blood. She threw down three plus two's and beamed as she dealt her brother the cards. She now had two. Fisk murmured in concentration as he placed a yellow three.

"Uno!" His mom yelled and slapped down a nine.

"Bullshit!" Doyle yelled back as he tried to sort his cards.

Doc scrunched his nose at the foul language and wacked his brother-in-law on the shoulder, "Watch your language!" Doyle looked back with pure frustration written on his face before placing a red nine.

"Fuzzy, please tell me you can cause pain. Anything! Plus fours, twos, I'll even take a skip!" He looked hopefully at the Fiskerton Phantom. His brother only looked on with a similar face of frustration before he played a red six.

Drew rose quickly from the couch as she threw down her card, "Ha! Uno!" She laughed as she watched the blue six land neatly on top of the red six.

"Argh!" Doyle cried as he slammed his fist into the table, a crack graced the surface soon after, "I quit!"

"Really?! The table? This is why we can't nice things!" His father huffed.

His mom only laughed good-naturedly as she placed a kiss on Fisk's distraught face, "Maybe next time honey, and Doc, sweetie, you know how my family is. We just-"

"Get in the zone. Yeah, yeah, I know.." Doc sulked as he left the room, more than likely retrieving the materials to put together a new table.

Snickering into his hand Zak rose and gave his mom a high-five, "At least it wasn't the TV." Drew hummed in agreement as she started retrieving any fly-away cards, "See Doyle? I told you-you couldn't beat her."

His uncle only mustered up enough energy to swat at him.

Bending down, he began helping his mother gather the cards. Handing off the few he picked up he placed them in the box before handing it off to his mom. Placing all the cards back into their correct places she easily cut through the gloomy atmosphere with her radiant smile, "C'mon! It was just a card game." Seeing no response from the two upset boys she shrugged, "I guess Zak and I will just have to share all of the victory cookies."

Both hopped up pretty quickly though one was obviously sorer than the other, "just a card game my mullet."

"What was that?"

"Nothing, Drew."

Fiskerton had quickly monopolized the tray, tutting at each member of his family to take a seat as he distributed them evenly. Not wanting to ruin his fun everyone waited until he picked up his first to start eating.

A single bite was taken before the alarms blared.

Everyone shared brief glances of annoyance as they all, with the exception of Fisk, put down the sweets. Not a moment later Doc's face lit up a holo-screen. A scowl twisted up his face as he looked down at them, "Mission. We've got a Bigfoot sighting. Can you believe it, Bigfoot of all things to waste our time on."

"Woah, hold up there professor, I swear I just heard the name Bigfoot come out of your mouth," Doyle commented rather awestruck.

"Yes, you heard me right. It's embarrassing to be called for this–"

"Embarrassing? It's Bigfoot! The world's most famous cryptid!"

"Bigfoot is not real! He's just some hoax that spread around the internet for far too long!"

"Take it back! He's totally real. I'll prove it to you." Doyle interjected before pressing the button to end the projection. Turning back to the others in the room his eyes were lit with a competitive fire, "well, we've got an ape to find."

"I'm going to enjoy rubbing this in your face," Doc admitted as they trekked through the muck leading up to the dense forest.

"You wish!" The younger man spat as he led the expedition further. Stopping right at the tree line he slung the backpack off his shoulders and rummaged through it. Pulling out two flashlights he tossed one to his nephew and kept the other in his hand.

"Alright, why are you carrying that? What do you even have in there, it's huge!" Zak asked as he peered around his uncle's shoulder.

"Probably his pride." Doc snarked as he adjusted the headlamp strapped around his head.

"Doc!" Drew scolded as she clicked on her own flashlight.

"No, he's right. My pride and joy," Doyle proclaimed as he lifted out a heavy looking camera, "all we need to capture Bigfoot. Bait, traps, night vision camera, tracker darts; I got it all. I like to be prepared."

"Well… at least someone's taking this seriously." His sister laughed, "Come on sweetie, it might be fun. Besides if evil yeti's are a thing, who are we to say there's no Bigfoot?"

"Don't tell me you're on his side now!"

"It's not about sides. It's about putting the people's minds at ease… and possibly finding Bigfoot."

"Ugh!" Zak moaned, "Don't start, it's like one of your science versus mystic debates again, and we know how that ends. We don't need to make up a Fact v. Fiction competition too."

"Sorry." Both of his parents apologized and focused on the task at hand. Navigating a forest at night was no joke. Much to his embarrassment, he had to be lifted over several fallen trees. Not to mention Fisk had not-so-secretly saved him from a few nasty trips as well. He knew he was short for his age but this was getting ridiculous. Walking another two and a half miles to the heart of the forest Doyle finally let them take a break. The excitement he held was almost enough to forget the mud caked to his shoes.

Almost.

"Alright! I put out three cameras on the way, I'll set up four around the perimeter, and then we can each take a few and go for a couple hundred yards." Doyle began unpacking several tiny night vision cameras.

Fisk took six and fled to the tops of the trees as he was the aptest for the job. He and his mother fanned out the west flank, his dad took the east, and Doyle took north. By the time they all met back up, Zak had mud coated to the hems of his pants of which he smelled of to ward off the mosquitos that clung to his skin.

"I'm officially done with camping." He felt the need to add his two cents as he slapped the eighth insect off his neck. From the corner of his eye, he saw his dad wince sympathetically as he swatted away a few insects of his own. Even his mother who was normally avoided by the bugs had her fair share of irritated bite marks.

"What next oh captain, my captain." Drew joked as they looked to Doyle who was the leader for this mission. He smirked cockily and sat on one of the overturned branches as he pulled out a small laptop, crowding around him revealed that he had all the cameras footage on the screen.

"Now, my ever faithful crew," he chimed along to the joke, "We wait and see which part of the forest is the most active, which part is the most secluded, and most importantly which part is the prime animal graveyard. We find a trail of bones – we find our gorilla."

"That doesn't seem like a very successful method." Doc disagreed as he stood and let his single eye roam the dense forest around them.

"Your mouth is an unsuccessful method." He snapped back.

"What? That's not even a good come back." Doc argued.

"Doc… let Doyle lead this. Besides if we don't have any conclusive evidence in 72 hours we can try it your way." Drew, ever the faithful peacemaker, said.

"I'm good for whatever gets us out of the forest sooner." Zak grumbled as Fisk slapped another mosquito off his brother, "Can we have a fire, please?"

"No can do mini-man." Doyle said ignoring Zak's upset cry, "The smoke will call attention to our base of operations."

"It's, probably, just an animal that migrated to the wrong place Doyle! Not a park ranger!" Zak almost sobbed as he heard the buzzing of an insect's wing cut close to his ear. His mom took pity on him after she had her laugh and thoroughly sprayed him down with more Off.

The pesticide was a horrible gamble. It kept the bugs off for maybe an hour, sure, but it also irritated his sensitive nose horribly. It smelt like someone shoved mustard mixed with onions up his nose. So he sat down on the closest log and wiped away the tears that fell from his eyes. They were in for a crappy night; Zak could feel it.

"No more complaining? Good! Now, we set up watch." Doyle eagerly cheered despite two sets of eyes glaring down at him.

.

"3 A.M. log, nothing."

"You don't have to report every hour Doyle." Zak groaned as he rolled over in his sleeping bag. He found it hard to sleep with an obsessive uncle whispering to a camera every thirty minutes.

"I do. These situations take care and consideration. I can't miss a thing." He protested.

"I've gone along with my parents on cryptid discovering missions since I was six. None of this was ever necessary. You're just making more work for yourself." Though it came out slightly rude his uncle deserved the scolding for keeping him up so late.

"...Your no fun at three a.m. Zak-man." The older man pouted. "Think of it like this, this? This is a dream come true for me. Hunting down Bigfoot was on my bucket list for the longest. Besides, it's the journey, not the destination."

Oh. Zak didn't think of it that way. It was easy to forget Doyle's less than amazing childhood when he joked around as much as he did.

"That's true I guess… What's next?" He hoped Doyle would catch onto his subtle apology.

His uncle grinned, his smile was bright and stretched across half of his face, making Zak lose any remaining aggravation over his loss of sleep. His uncle stood up and stretched his legs out, "I'm glad you asked! Now we go look for clues."

Standing up next to him and slipping on his shoes he grabbed his own backpack, which was equipped with the essentials for camping, "Clues?"

"Yeah," Doyle led them away from the camp and deeper into the forest, "ya' know like, fur, scratches, animal carcasses…" That last one was kind of morbid but if what the internet said was true Bigfoot attacked over animals for food so…

Still, decomposing things, in general, were gross. Not to mention he didn't exactly enjoy seeing dead bodies. He grimaced as the thought of corpses and therefore Abbey crossed his mind. Her funeral had long since passed but he still wondered about it from time to time. It was like an itch, an absolutely unbearable one, he felt like he should know what happened but he didn't and it made his lungs ache.

His throat swelled just thinking of his old babysitter. He should have tried harder if there was a cryptid there, he learned in the underground that he could sense cryptids no matter how far away, he didn't try to help. He took it all in and acted like a victim.

His eyes stung as he his chest began to heave, and heave, and heave.

What had happened to Abbey?

His stomach churned.

He knew the answer, he had to have known the answer but it wasn't coming to him and –

He screamed in pure panic as gravity left him. His nails dug into the wet soil as he struggled to pick his face up out of the dirt. He tripped. How ridiculous. Great. Spitting the dirt out of his mouth he turned to the slight wheezing sound.

Doyle. Laughing. At him.

"Zak! Whoo! Oh man, that was hilarious. Did you have a nice trip?" Seeing his nephew's apprehensive and distraught face his laughter stopped.

"Hey, seriously Zak are you okay? I didn't mean to laugh, it just kind of- yeah." The ginger struggled for an answer as he raised a helping hand to the younger boy in front of him. Seeing no response still, Doyle groaned. His eyes sharpened as they took in his nephews' shaky hands and rough breathing.

Kneeling down he observed Zak's flickering eyes. Something obviously had him on edge, he didn't know what but–

Aw, shit.

"Hey, Zak, shhh… Just look at me mini-man. You're fine? See?" His nephew's eyes narrowed in on him but continued to shift nervously to the side, "Can you count with me? Don't look at me like that, just can you count with me? Please? I'm not good with numbers you know," He joked trying to calm the younger boy down a little.

"One." He waited but got no response.

"Zak, one."

"One." Zak answered after a rough period of trying to catch his breath.

"Two." He continued.

"Two." Zak mimicked.

"Three."

Zak didn't respond instead his breathing caught again and he let out a nasty hiccup and the tears welling in his eyes fell down his cheeks.

"Zak. Listen to me. Three," he stressed, becoming more worried about his nephew's condition.

"Three."

"Breathe in for me. Good, good, um, four." Doyle stammered out as they slowly but surely made their way to ten. Repeating the process just to be sure, he rubbed the back of his nephew's hand as he pulled him up to stand albeit shakily.

"You okay Zak?"

"Uh, yeah, I think. I mean, I'm good." His nephew's shoulders hunched and Doyle felt like crap. His amazing, too-mature, smart nephew was beating himself up over an attack that he couldn't control. Well, he wasn't going to let that fly, no way in hell.

"Mind telling me what happened? You don't have to, I won't push you. But I'd like to help you sort through all that jumble in your big brain. Trust me, I've been there and… none of this is helping but I'm here." He was rambling and he knew it. He just didn't like to see the boy who practically saved him from the hell hole he crawled himself in to go through something as unfair as anxiety.

He knew what it was like to have your brain turned against you and frankly it was an unpleasant experience he didn't wish onto anyone else.

"Abbey." His footing wobbled. That was a wildcard.

"Abbey?" He questioned softly, he wasn't ready for that bandage to be removed, either.

"It's stupid. I just, I don't like to see or think about dead things? Yeah, that sounds really childish like that. But, I carried Abbey's body back to the airship and I don't know why I just connected the dead animal to Abbey. I don't want to always think of Abbey compared to a rotting corpse but I… I don't know where i'm going with this. It was so much clearer in my head and it overwhelmed me, I think?" Looks like he wasn't the only one who couldn't find his words. God, he could feel the wound opening. Looks like Doc's patch job wasn't going to last long.

"It's not stupid. You can't control shit like that." He winced at his language, cursing, at a kid who just had an anxiety attack. Smart one Doyle. "Ugh, I mean, the last time you saw Abbey wasn't under good circumstances. You saw her, dead, you saw her dead." He winced again at his stutter, "That was your first time seeing a corpse, and it didn't help that you knew her, that sort of thing doesn't ever go away. I won't lie to you. You won't get over it. You won't move on but… You learn to cope. And I'll be here for you until you do." Doyle could feel the anger and bitterness bite at his chest. He wasn't angry at Zak, he was angry at himself.

But because his nephew was so kind and amazing and honestly the best thing that ever happened to him; he smiled and awkwardly intertwined his smaller fingers with his larger ones, "That goes both ways, Doyle. If you need to vent, I'm here for you too."

"Thank you, Zak." Relief washed down his throat and soothed the hurt that built in his chest.

"We can talk about this later, at home, but we have a sasquatch to catch." He cleared the subject off both of their plates.

"About that… look what I tripped over." Zak's voice was strained but smug and Doyle's eyes fell to the floor. He wondered how Zak could spot that with such ease before he pinched himself, cryptid sight, it came in handy. Especially when it found a clue in the middle of a dark forest.

"Oh. Oh yeah baby, that's evidence right there." Clicking on his flashlight he cheered at the tracks that littered the ground. His footprints mingled with Zak's, but under those sat a large handprint.

Jackpot.