Six months and a billion miles.
And now the Astraeus mission crew were finally coming home.
The anticipation had Jo's pulse going as if she was finishing an eight-mile run. The team on Titan had been working around the clock. Everyone thought the mission was a rousing success, but she'd barely spoken to Zane for weeks and she'd missed him. God, how she had missed him. She couldn't wait to see him, to talk to him, to touch him. To tell him how she felt.
The crowds were lined up behind protective barriers at a safe distance as the BCE shimmied and lit up with a brilliant white flare. And then there it was – the ship, successfully returned from Titan.
Jo joined in the cheers, the exultation, and then the happy rush of people hurrying to greet their friends and loved ones. Grace was the first to disembark; Henry the first to sweep her off her feet and into a tight clasp, burying his face in her neck to hide the emotion. Then Fargo, then Holly, then Parrish, then the next scientist, then the next. One at a time, they were leaving the ship, swept into the sea of people, and Jo craned to see above the crowd. Where was Zane?
Then, finally, there he was, coming down the gangplank. Jo waved at him, but he didn't see her. His head was turned to the side, and he was talking, smiling at the blonde woman next to him. Who was she? Oh, right, Paula something. A neural engineer.
Finally he looked around and saw her and waved, and Jo felt her heart leap in response as she waved back. But – was he looking over her head? Waving at someone behind her? Jo looked over her shoulder and saw Andy, waving back as well, a small box in his hand. Zane pushed through the crowd toward them.
As he reached her, Jo opened her arms and Zane grinned at her, hugging her enthusiastically. "Hey, Jo," he said, just as she said, "Welcome home!"
And then there was a silence.
Jo felt like her heart was beating so fast it would pound its way out of her chest, as she said, "Six months is a long time."
"Yeah, it is," he agreed quickly. "Especially – you know, being on Titan. Really intense experience. So amazing – you can't imagine what it's like to see a sunset over Saturn, it was just so incredible."
Jo paused. That wasn't what she'd expected him to say. "You asked – before you left – in Café Diem. . ."
"When you said you really didn't know how you felt? Yeah, I've got to thank you for that. Your honesty…well, it helped me a lot. Knowing that you weren't waiting, I mean. Actually, I've got a lot to thank you for, Jo. The pardon, your honesty, and you made me realize – made me see –," He looked around them, as if checking for anyone listening and seeing that everyone was busy, stepped a little closer to her, and lowered his voice. "Knowing about you and the other me made me realize that life could be different. My life. That love, real love, and marriage and kids and – oh, hey, Andy," Zane broke off as the deputy reached them.
"Welcome home, Mr. Donovan," the robot deputy said cheerfully. "I picked up that package as you requested."
"Thank you so much, Andy," Zane said, taking the box that Andy handed him. He glanced back over his shoulder and then turned back to Jo. "And thank you, too, Jo. We'll catch up later, but I've got something I've been waiting weeks to do."
Waiting weeks to do? Hadn't he been waiting weeks to come home? What was he doing? Jo watched as he disappeared back the way he'd come, the shock making her feel as if time was suddenly passing in slow-motion. She took a few steps forward, wanting to follow him, to talk to him, to find out what he meant, but Andy grabbed her sleeve, stopping her.
"You probably don't want to do that, Ms. Lupo," he said gently.
She looked at him. "I don't understand."
Andy smiled at her sympathetically. "I believe it's a common phenomenon," he said. "Men and women in close quarters, sharing an extraordinary experience, death never more than a minor mistake away. I suspect that statistically, the relationship has a high probability of ending badly, but perhaps not. As fellow scientists, they should be quite compatible."
"What –," Jo started but before she could get the words out, before she could even figure out what the words were that she wanted to say, the scene on the gangplank had her frozen.
Zane was dropping to one knee in front of the blonde woman. She was smiling at him – not just smiling, beaming, Jo realized, with a sick feeling in her stomach – as around them, the other Astraeus crew members smiled and laughed and hugged one another. And then the blonde was nodding and Zane was taking her hand, and Jo's eyes flew to Fargo.
He was looking at her, and he shrugged, a little sadly, before Holly leaned into him and made some comment that caused him to look down at her and smile as he responded.
Jo looked back at Zane just in time to see him sliding the ring onto the blonde woman's finger.
Just in time to realize that she'd let him go, and he'd gone.
That she'd made him realize that true love was possible, and he'd found it with someone else.
And that while she'd been thinking about her feelings, she'd forgotten to think about his.
A/N: If it makes you feel better, you can pretend that this was just a dream and that Jo's alarm goes off and she wakes up now with plenty of time to see Zane before he heads off to Titan. That was where I intended to end it when I started writing, but it felt too dishonest. I did, however, put that loophole in there with Andy's statistical probabilities - maybe Jo can catch him again on the rebound!