Tall Tales, Part 1 Once Upon A Time
Summary: Jo tells stories to an injured Zane to keep him focused while they wait for the rescue team; can he discern the difference between fact and fiction?
Disclaimer: All rights to the concept and characters of the Eureka television series belong to its creators; no tangible profit is derived from the borrowing of the characters for this fan fiction.
Author's Note: Drafted before the July '11 airing of Season 4.5, and therefore not consistent with canon.
***Eureka***Eureka***Eureka***Eureka***Eureka*** Part I
"You couldn't just collect your data from somewhere safe, could you?" Jo groused through clenched teeth as she deftly laid the groundwork for a campfire, piling hastily-gathered twigs and small brush with the assurance and ease of someone well versed in survival techniques. "Keep pressure on that wound, Zane!" she snapped as she saw from her peripheral vision that the hand he had pressed to his leg was relaxing. Satisfied with his prompt response, she returned to her tirade. "No, you had to climb a cliff to install your idiotic sensors in the most remote locations you could find! Why does everything you do have to be so bloody dangerous?" she demanded irritably as she extracted the flint from one of her belt pouches and struck the spark to ignite the flames.
"It's not like I did this deliberately, Lupo," he said defensively as the fire crackled to life, doubling the light provided by Jo's flashlight. "None of my geo-scans showed how shallow the surface was here, and there wasn't even a hint that this crevice exists! I'm pretty sure the magnetic composition of the rock messed with the scanner, like it did with -"
"Oh shut up," she crossly cut him off. "I don't care how it happened. What matters is why it happened. You came up here alone. If you hadn't mentioned to one of the techs that you were going to place those stupid sensors of yours this morning, no one would've known where to look for you when you didn't show up at the test range this afternoon. You're an avid rock climber; you know better than to scale cliffs with an extra heavy pack when you don't have a spotter or a climbing partner. And to dump your emergency gear so you'd have enough space for your lab junk was particularly stupid – it was an invitation for disaster! You could have died down here with no one the wiser! Honestly, sometimes I swear you have a death wish!" With the campfire well underway, providing both increased light and the beginnings of heat for the chilly rock formation Zane had fallen into, Jo spared a moment to send a glare his direction as she sat back on her heels and dug into her backpack for her emergency medical kit.
Annoyed that he couldn't argue – she was right that he shouldn't have tried this alone, and he should have waited until he could find someone to accompany him, regardless of the delay in getting the sensor array online – he muttered resentfully, "Even if I did have a death wish, what would you care? It'd get me out of your hair, right?"
Her head snapped back as if he'd struck her, and her body tensed so sharply that he saw her knuckles whiten on the pouch she'd extracted from her pack. Her full lips tightened and a storm of emotions flashed through her dark eyes before she rasped back in a taut tone, "Don't be such an ass, Zane. I'd much prefer having you underfoot than need to call your mother and tell her that her boy is never coming home."
His mother! He glanced down at his injured calf and his gut clenched at the realization that if Jo hadn't found him so quickly… It'd been dusk already when she'd repelled down through the chimney to his side. He'd almost been done modifying his cell phone enough to overcome the interference from the magnetic rocks of this pit, but it would've been too late for a rescue party to find him tonight. At the rate he'd been losing blood, and at this elevation without either a fire or a blanket, even if he'd survived the drop in temperature once the sun set, he might've bled out before help could reach him in the morning. His mother would've been devastated to get a call telling her such a thing. He swallowed hard and met Jo's fierce gaze. "Point taken," he admitted gruffly.
The lovely brunette held his gaze for a long moment until she was satisfied, and then set aside the medical kit and unhooked the canteen from her belt. Her voice still crackled with tension as she added, "You also shouldn't have used all your water to wash the wound." She extended the canteen to him as she glared pointedly at the discarded water bottle tossed several feet away from him.
He accepted the container as she passed it over. "You already scolded me for that," he sulkily reminded her, but she merely gave him a scathing look. Yeah, she was probably going to remind him again, too. Her canteen was still nearly full since she hadn't allowed him to drink much the last time she gave it to him, so he took several long swallows before he handed it back. "Thanks." He watched as she set it aside and reached out around her to gather more of the debris that had gathered here over the years.
She fed it into the fire, building the flame a bit higher and stronger now that the blaze was established. Only then did she unzip the bag of medical supplies. She wasn't looking at him, but, as when he'd eased off holding the bloody wad of cloth to his calf, she somehow saw his quirked brow when she extracted a pair of small sealed tubes and what appeared to be a miniature torch. "That leg of yours is still bleeding even with the compress; it needs to be cleaned, medicated and cauterized," she said flatly.
He nodded slowly, recognizing the necessity. "You learn all this in the Rangers?" he asked. She glanced up with a lofted brow, and he elaborated, "Climbing, repelling, campfires, emergency first aid?"
Jo returned her gaze to the fire as she shrugged. "The Rangers fine-tuned the skills, but I learned from my brothers."
"Right; they're all military, too, aren't they?"
She rolled her eyes. "As if you didn't hack my file," she said flatly.
"Who, me?" he shot back, grinning broadly, then added more somberly, a bit hesitantly, "Seriously, though; military like you, right?"
She focused sharply on him. "You can't remember?" The first thing she'd noticed when she'd repelled far enough down for her torchlight to make Zane clearly visible at the bottom of the fissure was that his gaze was unfocused as he fumbled with his cell phone. Along with the gash in his calf and the general bruises and abrasions from falling thirty-some feet from the surface, he had several scalp lacerations and was sporting a hefty lump along the hairline over his left eyebrow. He'd startled to attention when she dropped the last eight feet to land in front of him, but his alertness was sporadic. She'd seen him blink and shake his head a couple times already, either attempting to retain or to regain mental clarity. "Zane?" she prompted, since he hadn't answered her.
He schooled his expression and met her hazel gaze, trying not to allow his own concern to show as he admitted reluctantly, "I'm a little fuzzy. But I'm pretty sure that's what I remember seeing." He was all too aware that he'd been drifting in and out before Jo showed up, and he'd hoped it was the shock of the fall, that his mental fog would clear up as time passed. But it wasn't getting any better. He didn't think mere shock could account for his mind wandering like this; it must be a concussion… maybe something worse. His fall into the hidden crevice had been pretty nasty, and by the areas of his head that hurt to touch he knew he'd cracked his head more than once.
It scared the daylights out of him. It was troublesome enough to know there was a temporary problem; even the slim possibility that his brain might be permanently affected was not good, not good at all.
Jo was undoubtedly right; this time he'd crossed the line. Placing his sensors had involved a fair amount of serious physical effort, between the hiking from location to location, the climbing, the actual labor of securing each sensor in its optimum site – and then there'd been the shocking tumble when the ground broke away beneath his feet, bouncing off the protruding jagged rocks as he fell into the unexpected crevice, the jarring landing in this pit, losing consciousness more than once in the hours since… This was bad. He hadn't thought twice about leaving behind "emergency" gear to accommodate his project equipment, or about bringing only a single water bottle. After all, there were plenty of streams he could use to refill the bottle – not that he'd bothered, too focused on his project to waste time when he'd thought he'd be done and back to GD in plenty of time – something he had no intention of telling Lupo. She'd probably tase him if he admitted that he'd had barely any water in his bottle before he fell down here, hardly enough to do more than rinse his bloody leg, definitely not enough to cleanse it properly let alone to slake his thirst.
If he'd waited until one of the lab assistants could join him instead of impatiently setting off on his own, if there'd been someone else with him, he'd never have left without the proper supplies, or ignored the safety guidelines. With backup along, at least he wouldn't have been trapped down here for this long, and the damage might have been minimized. Zane's stomach tightened as he noted the furrow in her brow; wondering if it was already worse than he realized, he kept his tone light as he asked, "Have I passed out since you dropped in?"
Fully aware of the priority Zane placed on avoiding anything that messed with his mind, Jo had a pretty good idea how much his current fuzziness must bother him. But she had no intention of easing his fears. Instead she said flatly, "You're fading in and out. Serves you right. Maybe you'll think twice next time before you jump headlong into something foolhardy without thinking through the ramifications."
Stung, he jeered, "Like you aren't an adrenalin junkie, too!"
Jo met his irate gaze with a quirked brow. "Yes, I enjoy invigorating activities, and sometimes there's an associated danger. But I don't behave recklessly or impulsively. For instance, I didn't come after you alone today, and I didn't leave behind the gear I might need once I found you. Since there were no notes about the order you intended to follow in installing your toys over this twenty mile radius, my team is spread out to check every one of the sites you'd marked on your project plans. It was just the luck of the draw that I was the one that came to this site – and it was sheer chance that I stumbled across the cave-in on the surface. As soon as I saw you down here, I called in these coordinates – before I repelled down. Since the terrain here is too rough for them to reach us safely tonight, the rescue team will be here with first light. Completely by the book."
Zane glowered at her and growled, "Okay, so this time you played it straight. But I've seen you charge straight into danger plenty of times in the last couple years, Lupo, without the least thought of waiting for back up. If you weren't ten kinds of lucky, you'd have been dead or seriously injured a dozen times over."
She blinked, startled into stillness for a brief moment, before she shifted position so she could reach his leg. He eyed her suspiciously, waiting for either a defense of her "meet the problem head on" mentality, an argument that those were exactly the kind of situations she'd been trained to handle, or a denial that she'd disregarded safety protocols – all of which he'd heard her spout off before when she'd been taken to task by Director Fargo or Sheriff Carter for some deed of daring-do. But instead of defending herself, she let his statements pass without retort and focused her attention on his injury.
Puzzled at her uncharacteristic silence, he suddenly remembered that this was the new and improved version of Josefina Lupo. He frowned, trying to recall whether there'd been any instances of Lupo's insanely dangerous heroics in response to one of GD's emergency situations since Founder's Day. He couldn't be positive, since his memory was currently playing hide and seek with him. But now that the topic had come to mind, he didn't think there'd been any recent daredevil reactions from the Enforcer – which meant this was another change he should add to his list. What had his latest theory been about Lupo and the others who'd subtly and not-so-subtly altered in the last few months? Alternate universe? Parallel universe? Wormholes? Changed timeline? And there was something niggling at the back of his mind, something important… Something he couldn't recall at the moment but that he was almost positive leant weight to one of his hypotheses…
He clenched his jaw as he realized the status of his various speculations was yet another item that he couldn't recall with any clarity. He cursed internally at this sign that his brain was misfiring, and then cursed aloud as a searing pain jerked his attention back to Lupo and his leg. She'd moved his hand and the compress, grounded his leg via a knee resting solidly on his ankle, and squeezed a stream of the cleansing agent from one end to the other of the open six inch gash on the inside of his calf. It hurt like the devil as the gel fizzed into action. Teeth gritted, he said, "You'd think GD could come up with an analgesic to temper that!"
Jo glanced up sympathetically. "I asked Allison about it once; she said they deliberately didn't add a numbing agent because pain is an injury factor that needs to be monitored. But this second salve will help a little," she held up the other tube. "This one has regenerative agents. We just have to wait about ninety seconds for the cleanser to finish."
He frowned at her, perplexed, as she refocused on monitoring his injury. One thing he had no trouble remembering was the way Lupo used to sneer at him and tell him to "Man up, Donovan!" during occasions when either his lab mishaps or the security team take-downs had caused an injury. The empathy she was currently displaying was yet another reminder that this Lupo was different. It nagged at him that he couldn't quite pull all the details together into something that added up to either common sense or scientific sense.
As soon as the first gel finished sizzling away whatever germs had occupied the wound, Jo uncapped the next tube and applied a second stream of gelatinous material. As she'd predicted, this one was cool and soothing. He heaved a sigh of relief, which prompted a half smile from the woman leaning over him. The respite from pain ended all too soon, though. He watched her switch on the pencil-sized med-laser.
"This is going to sting, but not as much as the sanitizer," she told him matter-of-factly, but her dark eyes still held more concern than he'd witnessed in the entire first two years he'd known her.
As much for her sake as his, Zane summoned a smirk and quipped, "I should've known you'd find a way to tase me before this day ended,", but it was a half-hearted attempt at best, and it actually caused her concern to deepen. He wished he could read her mind as her eyes searched his face once more, her expression unreadable, before she focused on his leg again. He braced himself as she carefully pressed his torn skin back together over the medication and began to fuse it with the laser, bit by bit, slow and steady, until the entire six inches of skin was cauterized. He managed not to jerk away, but only just barely. Each time she moved to the next segment, the whole process was repeated; by the time Jo finished he was panting and shaking with the effort of holding still.
She shifted her knee off his ankle, set aside the tool and, without a word, offered him the water again.
He noticed that there was a tremor in the hand extending the canteen, and was taken aback to see that beads of sweat had formed on her face. As he gulped the refreshing liquid he saw that her hands, steady while she was treating him with the high tech gadget, were trembling now that she was almost finished. She gave no sign of knowing that he watched closely while she first opened antiseptic wipes and cleaned away the blood from his skin and then extracted a knife from her belt to trim down a self-adhering bandage, which she pressed gently over the newly-sealed skin before she finally sat back on her heels again and let out a tremulous breath. "There. I think that should suffice until we can get you down to Allison." She straightened the torn, bloodied denim into place over the sterile gauze and shifted away from him.
Zane thoughtfully stared at her as she gathered the remnant of the medical supplies and repacked them into the pouch, deftly sliding it back into its place in her backpack before she wiped her wrist across her moist brow and rolled her tensed shoulders to ease the strain caused by her tight self-control as she'd worked over him. "Hungry?" she asked, finally looking up. Catching the intensity of his gaze, she froze. "What?"
"I don't suppose you'd care to answer a few questions about why looking after my leg just now seemed like it hurt you almost as much as it hurt me?"
She stared at him for moment, and he thought she was blushing – of all things! – although it was difficult to tell for certain in the flickering firelight. Then she swallowed and, without breaking his gaze, she repeated flatly, "Hungry?"
Nope. She wasn't going to answer any questions. Same old same old. At least he remembered that much. He waited a beat, long enough so she'd know he was going to ask again at some point, and then nodded. "Yeah. I'm hungry."
Jo reached into her pack again and extracted the container of rations, wondering anew how she'd gotten herself into this. When she'd organized the search pattern, she'd chosen the furthest location as her designated search area; it seemed logical that he'd tackle this one first and work his way back toward GD since he'd planned to be at the test range this afternoon. Instead, according to the com call-ins from her team, she now knew that Zane had planted almost all the other beacons before climbing up here. Why he'd done it this way was beyond her, and there was no way she could ask, since he was far too good at putting two and two together; he was bound to realize she'd tried to avoid him by choosing the location she'd expected him to visit first. Honestly, with the way her luck had been running these last few months, she should've known not to trust her instinct on this. Now she was stuck with him until her crew could get here tomorrow to haul him to safety.
Not that she couldn't rig a pulley system to lift him from this crevice to the surface, now that she knew the extent of his injuries and had done the triage… but given the wind and the exposed terrain up there – and the fact that a tent was the one thing she hadn't packed – he'd be better off down here where the stony walls of the pit could reflect the light and heat back onto them. There was plenty of debris to keep the fire going all night, and if they ran shy she could always climb out long enough to forage for more firewood.
The biggest problem she could foresee was that she'd have no respite from conversing with him. Before she'd realized he probably had a concussion, she'd hoped that after applying first aid she could just tell him to get some rest and pretend to fall asleep herself in order to avoid interaction. But since he had a head injury, she'd have to wake him frequently to make sure he was still coherent – not a pleasant prospect, considering how irritable the other Zane had been at being awakened at odd intervals. Maybe it would be simpler to keep him awake. He'd be less resistant to answering her, and she needed him to be willing to respond so she could properly evaluate his condition.
Her stomach clenched and she had to fight back sudden panic at the thought that he might become unresponsive; the implications were far too frightening. Yeah, not allowing him to sleep was the only way to go. It would minimize the risk of him slipping away. She'd have to keep him as alert as possible, keep that incredibly brilliant brain of his as active as possible… and at the same time hope he was off his game enough that she could avoid the conversation she knew he wanted to have with her. Jo once again cursed the hallucinations that had prompted her to toss that incriminating ring at him. Talking to Zane all night was going to be like making her way through a minefield, fraught with perils at every step.
"Is there any other choice available than military k-rations?"
She blinked and realized she'd given him her preferred protein instead of one of the packages he was more likely to favor. "That's jerky, not k-rations," she corrected. "But yeah, I have a few pouches of trail mix." She tossed him three bags, noting approvingly that he caught them without any problem; motor coordination was intact. That was good.
Zane passed her the unlabeled foil pack he'd partially opened. "You really eat that stuff?"
She shrugged. "It's nourishment, and it's easy to carry." She bit off a piece and tucked the rest into her upper vest pocket, absently chewing at her mouthful to soften it up while she studied her companion. His color looked good, and he wasn't having any problem keeping down the water he'd consumed, or scarfing down the trail mix. But despite the warmth emanating from the campfire he was still shivering. His jacket wasn't heavy enough for this elevation, especially considering the blood he'd lost.
She dug into her pack again and withdrew a four-by-six inch compressed bundle that, when opened, proved to be GD's latest microfiber ground sheet and blanket. She'd already identified a relatively level spot that would receive steady warmth from the fire through the night. She carefully brushed clear the twigs, loose rocks and leaves, separating the twigs and leaves for the fire, and then spread the ground sheet. Then she twisted toward Zane. "Hey, what do you say we move you over here, away from all that bloody ground."
Unfortunately, his gaze had gone a bit unfocused again and he didn't appear to hear her; he just slumped there trembling and staring blankly into the small fire. Frowning, Jo crossed to his side, knelt beside him and tugged at his arm; he blinked groggily, still not seeming aware of his surroundings… but at least he responded as she physically prodded him.
He was eerily compliant, following her lead when she helped him up and supported him as he stumbled the eight feet around the fire to his new location. There wasn't a lot of head room, barely enough for Jo to stand at her full height, but since he had to lean heavily on her, she managed to maneuver him without smacking his head into the rocky 'ceiling' where the chimney widened at its bottom. Given his unsteady gait, she was also thankful they crossed the small distance without him tripping on the uneven 'floor'. She eased him down on the ground sheet and paused to watch him in concern as he sat exactly where she'd positioned him, once again staring absently at the fire, still shivering.
Okay, this was becoming seriously worrisome. "Zane. ZANE!" she repeated when he didn't react. It took a third time calling his name, combined with a sharp push on his shoulder before he snapped into focus.
He blinked and stared up at her, surprised to find her looking down at him. "What?"
"You zoned out on me again."
Blast! That wasn't good. His brow furrowed and he sat up straighter, finally taking in his changed position. Troubled that he didn't remember moving, he compressed his lips and met her concerned gaze. "Sorry, JoJo."
A smile curved her lips upward a little and her expression softened. "S'okay. Just don't make a habit of it. Eat the rest of your trail mix, Zane." She motioned to the third pack that was still clutched in his hand, and waited until he ripped it open before she leaned down, gathered up the blanket, draped it over his shoulders and fastened the Velcro strap to keep it in place. She tucked it around him before she stepped over his extended legs and sat down between him and her pack. Retrieving her jerky and taking another bite, she waited until she could chew it before she said, "I think you may have a concussion."
He nodded, with the slow movement of a man whose head was aching. He should be more concerned about that, but somehow it wasn't as troublesome now that Jo was here looking out for him. No, wait – shouldn't he be more worried instead of less worried that he wasn't in top shape for dealing with the Enforcer? Yeah, he ought to be braced for trouble, but his brain wasn't cooperating. Okay, that proved it; there was definitely something wrong with his thought processes. He could only hope it was nothing more than a concussion. "Yeah, I think you're right."
Another faint smile crossed her lips. "Don't worry, I won't rub it in." At his blank look, she added patiently, "About being right, I mean. I won't rub it in."
He stared at her a moment, blinking as it sunk in that her lovely lips were turned upward a tad; she was actually teasing him. He smiled back. "Thanks."
"So… standard procedure for concussions is to make sure the patient stays alert. The easiest way to check your responsiveness is to have you answer questions."
"No argument there," he agreed, but stiffened as he wondered whether she was going to try to use his sluggishness to interrogate him about something she thought he'd done wrong. He couldn't remember anything recent, though… not that meant anything, considering his condition. He cursed internally, wishing desperately that everything wasn't so cloudy. He scowled at the crackling flames, scolding himself for letting his thoughts drift again. Lupo was too good at her job, too wily to pass up a situation where he wasn't at the top of his game; she'd find something to use against him if he wasn't careful. What could she be angling for here?
Aware of his suspicion and its most likely cause, she ignored the knot that formed in her stomach at yet another bit of evidence confirming their enmity in this timeline. There was nothing she could do about the past; all she could do was move forward. Besides, he was right that she had an ulterior motive for what she was about to suggest… but it wasn't something that might hurt him. If this worked, she could kill two birds with one stone; tend to Zane and, if she was lucky, provide some necessary Intel for her friends. She chose her words carefully in an effort to pique his interest without hinting at any subtext. "Good. So, I have an idea, something to help you focus, and at the same time, to test whether you're lucid." She passed him her canteen again as he finished chewing and swallowed his latest mouthful of peanuts and granola. "You up for a challenge, Donovan?"
He uncapped the canteen and took a sip. It was potentially hazardous in his current state of mind, but he was always interested in a challenge from his favorite nemesis. "What do you have in mind, Lupo?"
"I'll tell you stories. You have to tell me whether they're real, or just tall tales." Would he go for it?