Disclaimer: I don't own Eureka, or any of the characters. I am not making money from this story.
His grandmother's ring. What the hell was Jo Lupo doing with his grandmother's ring? He held it in his hands, and there was no mistaking it. It had been his grandmother's wedding ring when she got hitched in the 40s, and she used to let him play with it when the parents abandoned him at her house during summers. She always promised Zane that he could give it to his own bride, should he ever want to settle down. It the time it seemed like such a foreign and far-off question. So how did Jo seem to have it when he had not even thought of the ring in a decade?
And what had she said about romanticizing their relationship? That was almost as confusing. Sure, he'd been laying it on thick since they had met, teasing and hitting on her, but how could he resist? Ever since he had seen her through those cell bars, her ass and her tough as nails attitude had literally begged him to be appreciated. Well, in the case of the latter, tested. Yeah getting zapped as much as he did was painful, but totally worth it when he managed to ruffle her feathers. Well, tonight her feathers were definitely ruffled, but not in a good way.
Carter had just spent an hour interrogating him about some project from a while back, but truthfully he could barely concentrate. Zane was not sure who was setting him up, but they had been snooping around his files, and he had been able to trace them. This "Accounting Department" was far too interested in not only GD's new historian, but him, Chief Fargo, and even Dr. Blake. It had been the only thing on his mind when he entered Jo's office, and now it was one of only many mysteries.
He waited until he thought Cater felt he'd questioned him enough. No offense to the guy, he is probably great at what he does, but compared to Jo, he was a Care Bear in the interrogation department. "Hey Sheriff, what's up with Jo? I mean, is she okay? She's been acting weird. Like... death in the family? Illness? Still grieving for her house?"
Carter had already opened up his phone to call someone, probably his new lady friend Dr. Blake, so his answer was distracted. "Yeah, I mean, no. There was this energy feedback memory loop thing with hallucinations. I'm sure she's fine." He turned his back and started walking out of the office, leaving Zane - of course - still behind bars.
"Aren't you going to let me out first?" he called after the retreating figure.
No answer. Just like his question. Well... maybe he had gotten an answer. Carter was no genius, or even a PhD., but he was good with analogies. Hmm. Jo was experiencing hallucinations. That almost made sense. He felt as if he had walked in on the middle of a conversation already started. Maybe that was it? In one of her hallucinations, she had a conversation with another one of him... who had made her sad? He almost felt a little guilty about it, as if his hallucinated self's actions were his fault. But then... how did Jo get his grandmother's ring?
Jo was startled by the sight of Carter standing in his - their - S.A.R.A.H.'s - kitchen, dressed only in boxers. "Jo!" he yelped, jumping so he was standing right behind the kitchen island and not quite as noticeably undressed. Except for the fact that he was hiding behind the kitchen island. "I, uh, was just getting ice. For, uh, water."
"Whatever, Carter, as long as I don't have to hear it." She was tired. She had just spent about half an hour kicking herself for being so stupid as to confess everything to the wrong Zane, and the next hour reading through the files he had given her, trying to make sense of them. But in the end, it was clear that he thought he was being set up. Rather prescient, considering he had been arrested by Carter moments after giving it to her.
She now threw the curled manila file on the black granite in between them. "Zane was in my office trying to give me this when you arrested him. Proof that someone has been hacking in to GD, stealing files, and investigating some of ... well, us. Not us," she clarified, making a motion between them, "but enough that they might know something. Anyway, it all seems to be there."
"Zane? Yeah, I figured he was being set up. It didn't seem like him, and I spent an hour with him trying to interrogate more out of him."
Jo snorted, but was able to keep from laughing too loudly. Compared to her own preferred tactics, Carter was a Care Bear.
"Well, I'm not going back to the station now," Carter said, looking upwards with an absent smile on his face that really told Jo more than she needed to.
"Do the paperwork tomorrow," Jo said as she turned to go up the stairs.
"Yeah. I was thinking more about letting Zane out, but he should be fine overnight, right?"
"Zane's still locked up?" she asked in surprise.
"Yeah," Carter replied defensively.
"Never mind. I'll head back."
"Jo, you don't have to do that," Carter sighed. "It's late, and its my fault he's still in there."
"No, it's okay. I'd just be awake for a while anyway." Jo lifted her eyes meaningfully to the ceiling. "Remember what I said, Carter. I don't want to hear a single thing when I get back."
She turned her back on the blushing Sheriff and threw open the door. She was embarrassed about her earlier conversation with Zane, and more so at the thought of facing him again so soon, which in turn was making her angry. But angry was good. Angry was much better than hurt.
The woman at the center of his current mystery walked into the station. At first he wondered if he had finally lost it and was hallucinating now too, but at the hard click of her heels and firm line of her clenched jaw, he knew this was all Jo.
He expected her to start yelling, throwing things, anything, but instead she simply moved to the door and unlocked it. Stepping back, she crossed her arms over her chest and looked away towards the door. If he needed any more proof that she was not okay, this was it.
"Jo, what's going on?"
She looked at him briefly, and sighed. "I gave the evidence you gave me to Sheriff Carter and he says you can go free."
"Yeah, I figured that much out, Jo. I meant with you. What's going on with you?"
"I don't know what you're talking about," she lied.
"Carter said you were having hallucinations. But I'm not convinced that's all that's wrong."
"Whatever, Zane. Not your problem. You're free now, so go on."
"God you're frustrating!" he said, sitting back down on the cell bench. "I'm just trying to help."
"I am no longer your concern!"
No longer? "Listen, maybe you're right," he tried calmly, "Maybe you got me and I'm just lying about being concerned. I'm not, but I can see you don't believe me." She kept her face turned, so he could not see her expression clearly, but he could almost see hurt. Jo? Hurting?
He went on. "But you know what is my concern? This." He held up his grandmother's ring, and when she turned at his movement, he watched her face carefully. She looked briefly pained, but like magic her face smoothed over again as any emotion she had she pushed below her surface. He could see her throat moving, as if she was swallowing it down.
"I don't have any answers."
"You do have answers, but they aren't for me, are they? Is that how it is? I thought you were starting to trust me, Lupo. What happened?"
"I do trust you, Zane," she muttered to the floor, "but it's not only my secret to tell."
"Carter already told me. You were having hallucinations. I get it. I walked in at a bad time. But that's not all, is it?"
"Right. Hallucinations. That's all of it Zane. Now will you let it go?"
"No. See, I know there's more than just that. First off, Carter said it was memory induced hallucinations. And the way you've been acting means you've been seeing a different Zane than any one you could have memory of. And this ring, Jo? The one you threw at me when you told me we were over? It belonged to my grandmother. Belongs to my grandmother. I called her up - and hers is still on her finger.
"I'm not dumb, Jo. I'm starting to put the pieces together, little by little. And it's adding up to look like either you're not the Jo I really know, or I'm not the Zane you really know."
He definitely had her attention now. Her eyes were wide, but more importantly she was silent. That was a bad sign, no matter which Jo was in front of him. He took the time to test out a theory. "Correct me if I'm wrong... but I don't think you're the only one who is experiencing this... disorientation problem."
Crap. Somehow he knew. Hold it together Lupo, she told herself. Okay, she had to breathe. And think. She ached to tell him, well, tell the old Zane. He could have helped, could have comforted her. This Zane had only laughed at her. Well, and helped a couple of times. And had brought her that magazine. Maybe... maybe he could be a little like her Zane after all.
But this still was not her secret alone. There were other people involved. Of course... Henry had told Grace. Instead of working for a way to solve the problem they had gone all lovey-dovey.
This Zane Donovan could help... or turn them all in to be quarantined. Was he more dangerous knowing only this little bit, or with the responsibility of the truth? Decision still not made up, she moved to her former desk, and leaned her hip against the edge. Arms still crossed over her chest, as if she could make the hurt there stop for a moment, she raised her head and looked at him.
"Okay, Zane. Here's the deal. I'll tell you, but I swear to God I won't hesitate to kill you if this gets out to anyone, got it?"
"Yes Ma'am," he snapped with a smile, saluting her. Her mouth twitched, but a sinking feeling in her stomach told her she might not enjoy the question and answer portion of this conversation.
He had just watched her physically argue with herself over his plea for an explanation. The whole time he was unsure of what her final decision was going to be, but when she agreed there was a huge weight lifting off his chest. He rubbed at his chest as he cautiously left the cell and pulled over Carter's chair. He twirled it around so the back of the chair faced Jo, and sat.
She looked worried. Tired. A thought occurred to him. "How's your chest? From the surgery?"
"Fine," she said, though touching it consciously.
When she did not elaborate, he decided to just plunge on ahead. "So... what's going on?"
"You're right in some ways - I'm not the Jo you used to know. And you're *definitely* not the Zane I used to know," she started. A little too emphatically. He briefly wondered what her Zane was like to make her 'definitely' so pointed, but then again maybe he already knew.
"So... doppelgangers? Multiple universes?"
"Time worm-hole," she said softly.
Zane snapped his fingers, grinning. "Of course. Alternate reality." When she did not respond to his grin, he realized he was absolutely right.
"That's some serious stuff, Jo. I thought I was the delinquent here. You can get in serious trouble for changing time lines."
"I know!" she exploded. "But we decided the best thing was to keep quiet! For us and for Eureka."
"Us? Who all is involved, Jo?"
"I... I don't want to bring them into this. If someone is going to get in trouble, might as well only be one of us, right?" She sighed.
Zane did not like the idea of Jo taking all of the blame, no matter how many times she had let him do just that before.
"Fine," he said, just to move things along. "So you and some unidentified number of others, who I can probably guess at anyway, are from a different time?"
"Not exactly. We were accidentally sent back in time. Maybe pulled back in time, I don't know, and when we made it back home, a lot had changed. Not everything, but little things. The statue in the main square, some of our jobs, that sort of thing."
"Okay, we'll come back to the science of that in a minute, but the ring, Jo?"
"You gave it to me," she said, and this time it was clear she was holding back tears. Jo never cried. This was wrong. Not his Jo, he kept reminding himself.
"We were... engaged?"
"We would have been, had I not hesitated when you asked. Then I was thrown back in time, and when I went to find you again..." she shrugged, but he could see the hurt.
Zane thought back. "I laughed at you. Jo... I'm sorry."
She shrugged again, but he could tell it still stung. What else had he done to hurt her since? "You weren't my Zane. I found that out quickly."
"The hallucinations?"
"Not my Zane either, but I guess an idealized version."
"A romanticized version?" he asked, repeating back to her the works she had flung at him earlier.
"Yeah, so there you go. Now you know."
"No, now I have more questions. Specifically, how?"
"I think I'm going to need reinforcements after all," Jo muttered.
Henry had managed to tell Grace, and Grace was another scientist. Maybe they would be better at explaining all of the science and physics behind the bridge device.
She brought Zane to their house, and was more than a little embarrassed when he showed up at the door in a striped nightshirt.
"Henry? We have a situation." Zane had been standing behind her and she shifted so Henry could see him. His eyebrows rose.
"Oh."
Soon they were all seated in Henry's living room, both Henry and Grace in matching monogrammed bathrobes. Zane was starting to ask Henry some real technical questions, and Jo went to help Grace in the kitchen make hot cocoa. It was not that she really wanted the drink (if she did it would be a bit stronger than cocoa) but she needed to get away from Zane and his eyes.
He was definitely watching her out of the corner of his eye - all on the way there, all while she was explaining to Henry what had happened. It was unnerving, and she needed a break.
"So, you and Zane?" Grace asked softly, motioning with her head towards the other room.
"Me and the old Zane. It's been... hard. Adjusting. You know, to life without him."
Grace reached over and put a hand around Jo's arm. "I know, Jo. I know."
Zane and Henry talked for a while before Grace kicked them out so the couple could go back to bed. Zane's hands were in his jean pockets, and Jo unconsciously hung back so she could watch him saunter ahead of her. Of course he looked back and caught her staring.
"Ah, sorry," she mumbled quickly, looking away.
Instead of laughing or mocking her like she was expecting, he just smiled and held out his arms. "No, it's okay. I can turn a little, if you want to get a good look from all sides. You know, see how I'm different."
She chuckled once, hanging her head and shaking it. "No, it's okay. Sorry. I..." she got to the driver's side door and unlocked it. She opened her door and so did Zane, but he leaned across the roof before she got in, stopping her.
"Can you tell me one thing?"
"I can try," she agreed cautiously.
"What was it? What was it that the other Zane did that got you? How was he so lucky, and I wasn't? I must have asked you out half a dozen times."
She had no answer for him, so she just shrugged and shook her head. She had loved his charm and his brilliance, his determination not to give up and how sometimes she did not feel as if she always had to be tough in front of him.
She missed that. She missed not always having to be tough. Jo could feel herself becoming more like the old Jo, the Jo from this universe. Without someone like him getting her to relax and let go, she was probably going to revert back to the old Jo. Maybe she needed to, to survive.
"Why do I feel so guilty?" Zane mused out loud.
"What?" Jo asked absently, concentrating on the dark road ahead of them as she drove him back to his car at GD.
"Guilty. I feel guilty for not being this great guy from your universe. All that stuff about knowing there was a better me inside, something more... the whole time you were really talking about someone else."
"Not really. I believe that deep down you're the same person, just... no one ever gave you the chance to be him."
"Right. And now I feel this obligation."
"Listen, I don't care. Be whoever you want to be. The other Zane is gone. The Bridge Device is broken, and there's no way to undo what we did. I need to just let it go."
What the hell, he thought. Might as well give trying the whole knight-in-shining-armor a shot. "I'll help." he announced.
"Say that again?" she asked pointedly.
"I am going to help. Help get you back."
"Why would you do that? You'd cease to exist if we went back and put things the way they were, if we even could."
"Maybe so. But then at least I'd get to have you. Well, the other me would get to. Seems like I went to an awful lot of trouble to get you to love me, Jo Lupo, and if I know myself, I'd be pissed if something as silly as a little time travel went and ruined that."
He could see her lips pressing tighter together, and it looked as if she was holding back tears. Again. For more times in one night than he could ever remember. He would help her, even if only to keep her from feeling hopeless.