Zach chuckled. “Right, forgot who I was talking to,” he didn’t think Maddie would hold that against him. Sure, it was really just a joke, but now he knew she would actually do it, though he didn’t think it would come down to that. Or maybe he wouldn’t let it come to that, someone could actually get injured, and he kind of thought that someone would probably be DJ, if only because Maddie was determined and had use of both her hands again.
Surprise crossed his features when DJ answered them fairly quickly; he had expected to stand outside the cell for longer than that. A smirk appeared on his features though when he acknowledged the Pipsqueak nickname, for some reason Zach was going to take that as a good sign. “Would you rather I call you Dill?” He shot back, his tone teasing. “Because that’s your other choice.”
All right, so he seemed better than he had been in the past few months. But the reclusiveness was still concerning, so even if he seemed all right, Zach had no intentions of leaving - even if DJ wasn't acting particularly welcoming.
Shifting to lean against the frame of the door, Zach gave DJ a look that clearly said. ‘Really?’. “Now you let us in,” he answered honestly, “Or we force our way in and I let Munchkin here hogtie you,” it was mostly an empty threat, mostly.