A/N: This is a Eureka/Roswell cross and I'm playing fast and loose with the timelines. It's definitely AU for Eureka after Stark's death, as well as an alternate future for our two Roswellians. Also, I am not a scientist, just remember that this is fiction, and that Liz and Alex might have had more than human technology on their side ;).
Back From Oz
Sheriff Jack Carter stalked through GD, grumbling to himself under his breath as he brushed futilely at the fading drops of spilled coffee on his uniform shirt. Of course the disturbingly new friendly head of the corporation, one Eva Thorne, had to call him on his upgraded cell phone just when he poured his first cup of the day, startling the living daylights out of him since he hadn't yet figured out how to change the obscenely loud standard ringtone. And he was sure that the oh-so-important meeting would consist of yet more redactions he had to hand out – the six months since Allison had left had been a nightmare, and he'd half considered leaving Eureka to escape the memories, or at least staging a coup to get rid of the Thorne in their side, pun intended.
Stalking into the redhead's office and feeling the familiar pang at not seeing Allison in the room, he ignored the presence of two scientists he didn't know, and barely reacted to Stark's usual friendly glare. The handsome man opened his mouth to speak, probably to deliver some insult about the state of the Sheriff's uniform compared to his impeccable attire, and Jack cut him off with a raised hand, then felt his jaw go slack. Stark?!
A strangled croak emerged from his suddenly burning throat, followed by the slightly more coherent, but definitely hysterical statement; "You're dead."
"Really, Carter, and yet I feel so very much alive," the man drawled, voice dripping with amused disdain, although there was an unsettled glint in his brilliant green eyes that made Carter bite back his instinctive retort.
"He is indeed alive, if not quite the same as before," Miss Thorne purred, her smile disturbing Jack more than ever.
"I watched you dissolve into specks of light," Jack managed to say with some degree of decorum, surprised by the urge he felt to touch the other man, to reassure himself that this wasn't some dream, and that one of the two people he'd lost six months ago, one he'd missed a hell of a lot more than he'd expected, really had returned.
Stark grimaced. "I fortunately have no memory of that event, but I am sure you did everything you could."
Jack blinked, not sure how to take that statement, and felt a flicker of relief when the two scientists he'd been ignoring stepped forward, both radiating barely suppressed excitement. The woman, pretty, petite, and dark-haired with a name tag declaring her to be one Dr. Elizabeth Parker, grinned at him. "You see Sheriff Carter, this isn't precisely Nathan Stark, at least not the exact same Nathan Stark you've always known. Dr. Stark's genetic material was on file in our cloning lab, and he was one of the employees chosen to use an experimental device of ours," she gestured between herself and the man standing next to her, tall and lanky with sparkling blue eyes, "to routinely back up his entire mind, not just his memory, but the essence of who he was."
Jack blinked again.
The male scientist, one Dr. Alex Whitman, spoke up next, his whole body practically vibrating with enthusiasm. "After the accident, it took us a while to figure out how to get him off of our device and into the freshly cloned body – we couldn't exactly plug his brain into a computer like on the Matrix after all," he stated with a laugh, making Jack smile uncertainly as he glanced at Stark, who was Stark, no matter how he'd come to be here; Jack would know that look anywhere – part stoic disregard, part calculation, and part gentle mockery, the remnants of what had once been a decidedly less friendly antagonism.
"In essence, we had to rebuild his brain layer by layer, with the cellular imprints of every single detail stored in our device," Dr. Parker picked up the narrative again, giving Jack a very strange mental picture and making the unsettled look in Nathan's eyes deepen. "And there was still no guarantee that it would work, that the result would be Dr. Stark, and not just a very convincing simulacrum. But luck, or maybe something else, was on our side, and here he is," she finished proudly, waving her hand at the tall, brooding scientist before linking her arm through Dr. Whitman's, both of them still grinning widely.
Jack and Nathan stared at each other for a moment, and the Sheriff could practically feel the unease radiating off of the other man, the doubt that Jack, or anyone, would really consider him the same man they had lost. Finally, Jack smiled, and clapped the other man on the shoulder. "It's good to have you back, Nathan."
Waving jauntily at Eva Thorne, who still looked far too smug for her own good, something he'd have to discuss with Stark later, once the other man had settled back into being alive, he turned to leave, humming 'If I only had a brain' under his breath and laughing softly when he heard Stark growl. Oh yes, it was good to have him back.