Disclaimer: I do not own any of these characters nor the Eureka universe.
For the first time in a week Jo went looking for Zane. She ran into his lab, oblivious to the surprised scientists who were bowled over by her entrance.
Seeing her coming at him, he immediately lifted his hands. "I didn't do it. I don't care what anyone says, it was not my fault."
She got up really close to him, and he noticed with displeasure all of his colleagues had edged their way out of the room so he was now alone with the crazy woman. Who smelled nice.
"I need the ring," she barked.
He blinked. Maybe he was not in trouble after all. A smile drifted on to his face. "You blow up at me, hurl jewelry in my face, and then avoid me for a week, Lupo. I'm getting mixed signals."
He was unprepared for her grip on the front of his favorite T-shirt and the impact of his back on the wall. Although really he should have been able to predict the second after the first.
"Listen to me carefully, Donovan. I know you found out, blackmailed Fargo into telling you the situation, and you managed to help create a Bridge Receiver. So don't play games with me."
"Fine, fine, no games." He had wanted to talk to her, approach her about what Fargo had told him about their relationship in the alternate timeline, but it had never been a good time. There had been one crisis after another and it had seemed so trivial.
Slowly she let him go and took a step away from the wall. He stepped forward into her, so they were as close as when she had been threatening him. "But, no," he said softly.
Her eyes grew wide and she took a step back uncertainly. "What do you mean, 'No'?"
"What I mean is that I know you're heading back, in," he looked at his watch, "less than an hour. But I'm keeping the ring."
"Why? I need that ring, Zane. It belongs in the other timeline, it's the only one there and when I get back I need to have it."
"Why, so you can go back to *him*? The other Zane?"
"Yes! The one who loves me!"
"You never gave me a chance, Jo!" They were both shouting now, and once again shock registered on her face. "Yeah, that's right. I like you Jo, and I could have loved you I bet, but you - not the old you and not even the new you, ever gave me a chance to find out."
"So... you're keeping it for spite? Really, Zane?"
"Not for spite, Jo, hope. What do you think is going to happen once you all leave? Once you "fix" your time line. To us, there is nothing to fix. When you change it, we I disappear, this whole Eureka disappear? Or will we go on, the old Jo returning, and I'll have to forget about this crisis like I do the rest, for sanity?"
"I... I don't know, Zane."
"I'm keeping the ring, Jo, if only to remind myself, either in the last minutes of my existence or in the case the hard-ass version of you comes back, that you loved me - some version of me - enough to want to marry me."
There it was. All of him. His selfishness, his loneliness, his fears of dying. All out there for this amazon of a woman who somehow once upon a time loved him, to grind beneath her heel. Maybe he should have found her earlier and made her face him, but he had been too confused, then angry, and then guilt-ridden, to bring it up. And now it was too late.
She kissed him. It was hard and desperate and he was unprepared for the strength of her emotions as once again his back was against the wall. It was better than everything he'd imagined kissing Jo Lupo would be, but worse because he knew it was likely the last time he would get to.
Her phone went off and she reluctantly pulled away, her eyes searching his. He did not know what for, but he hoped she found what she was looking for. She pulled out her cell and answered it, eyes still locked with his.
"Lupo. ... I'm on my way."
She hung up, and turned back. "I'm... I'm so sorry Zane."
"I know Jo Jo," he said as she pulled further away. He hated that she was leaving him behind. Perversely he was glad it was so hard for her. Finally she turned and jogged out of the lab.
The room grew colder once she left. He moved back to his lab chair, and sat in it heavily. He pulled the ring out of his pocket - he had kept with him since she threw it at him - and held on to it while he waited for the end of the world.