Set sometime between Zane getting his pardon and the Astraeus launch. Jo/Zane.
Disclaimer: I do not own Eureka or the characters, etc.
The sun has reached its peak and is beginning its descent. Jo leans back, allowing the warmth to soak her bare shoulders and arms. Tilting her chin upwards, she closes her eyes and imagines that she's not sitting by a lake but on a beach somewhere. A place where she doesn't have to worry about being called in to work on her day off because of an experiment gone wrong that could wipe out the entire coast.
Jo opens her eyes as a shadow falls over her.
"I'm not interrupting your sunbathing, am I Lupo?" He doesn't wait for her response before he sits down, pushes up his plaid sleeves, and rests his forearms on his knees.
He kind of is, but she knows that he'll just get a kick out of it if she says so. She mirrors him instead, forearms on her knees, eyes focused on her clenched hands. "No."
"You know where the first place that I'm going to go is? I mean when I get back from Titan."
Right. He's free to leave Eureka. "Where?"
"Colorado."
She had already known that, though. She and the old Zane had been planning a trip.
"What about you?"
She looks over at him. "What about me?"
He laughs. "Oh come on Lupo. If you ever decided to take a vacation, where would you go?"
At the moment? "Hawaii." She would sit on a beach and drink rum out of a coconut and not think about how Twilight Zone her life has become.
She becomes uncomfortably aware that his gaze is focused on her. This had never happened with old Zane. This kind of easy, we're going to sit by a lake and just talk, kind of thing. She misses the old Zane. But the more that she talks to this Zane, the more time that they spend together, the more that she realizes what had been lacking in her previous relationship.
When she was training for the Rangers she had gotten her ass handed to her. She could remember lying on the ground thinking about how much she just wanted it to end but knowing that she had to get up even though her body was screaming against it. She had fought through her pain and was the stronger for it. She would rather go through that again than go through losing Zane a second time.
And this Zane. This Zane was already planning on leaving.
She pushes herself to her feet and tugs down the hem of her tank top. "I'm going to go."
Zane rubs his stubbled chin, thinking. "I said something, didn't I," he states. This Zane is slightly more perceptive about those kinds of things than her Zane had been.
"I-I have to get back to GD."
"On your day off?"
Right. "I left something in my office; I need to pick it up." Suddenly something crosses her mind and she considers letting it go, but she's curious. "How did you find me, anyways?"
Zane extends his arms out behind him and his feet in front. He wiggles them and it reminds her of a little kid. "Someone's cocky, who says I was looking for you? Maybe I just wanted a little peace and quiet. Or maybe I'm meeting someone else."
She feels herself bristling and Zane grins up at her. "Kidding, Lupo. I traced your phone."
"You what? That's invasion of pri-"
"Relax! I asked Fargo where you were headed after you left Café Diem."
"Why."
Zane's expression changes. "Honestly, I don't really know."
She can see straight through him. She's been trained to spot lies and he isn't exactly doing a good job at concealing it. She doesn't press it but the silence is enough to make him continue.
"You know you drive me crazy, but you're probably the only person in this town that I actually want to willingly spend my free time with."
Other Zane had never said anything like that to her. Jo feels tears beginning to form and she hastily turns. "I'll see you later."
It wasn't anything that he did, it was just him. It was Zane. She's afraid to admit it, but if this Zane had asked her to marry her...she probably wouldn't have hesitated.
He nods. "See you around JoJo."