I was about to post it twice before and things kept getting in the way (like epileptic dogs) which kept me from doing the final edit. Sorry for the delay. Thanks to everyone who left feedback, I really appreciate it and I hope you enjoy this chapter.

III

Chapter Two

When Jo got to the accident site she could see Zane was already there, with Zoe wrapped in a comforting embrace. Zane caught her eye and flashed her a regretful smile. Jo nodded curtly at him.

The site of the accident was Pilar's house and although the fire had been put out, parts of the wreckage were smouldering. Pilar was lying on a gurney with two paramedics and Allison still trying to resuscitate her while other emergency personnel were combing through the wreckage.

"Jo," Carter jogged over to her.

"How's Zoe?" she asked, casting a side long glance at her and Zane.

"She's fine," Carter said, his relief evident in his voice. "They've already checked her over and she just has a touch of smoke inhalation and superficial cuts and abrasions. They said it was nothing to worry about."

"What happened?"

"Not sure yet. Zoe and Pilar were outside and we haven't found Pilar's parents. Zoe thinks it might have been caused by one of Pilars fashion experiments but she's too upset to remember any specifics right now."

"If they were both outside, why is Pilar hurt?"

"Debris. She was crushed." Carters expression darkened as he was reminded how close Zoe had come to death.

Just then Zane jogged up to them and interrupted their conversation.

"Sheriff, I'd like to take Zoe home, if that's okay with you."

Jack looked like he was about to protest but Jo shook her head and he took a deep breath. Jo was right, Zoe didn't need to be here watching her best friend die. Zane wouldn't be his first choice of guardian but he had to admit that even Zane probably wouldn't take advantage of Zoe in her emotional state.

Jo looked over towards Zoe. She was sitting on the back of the ambulance, holding a blanket around her shoulders. Now that she could see Zoe's face, Jo could see her abrasions and the tear tracks that traversed her soot stained face. Without Zane standing beside her she looked so small and fragile.

"Okay. Stay with her, will you?" Jack asked Zane.

Zane nodded and turned to Jo. "Can I borrow your car?" he asked. "I came on my bike," he added when she didn't respond.

Jack handed him his keys. "Take the Jeep, I'll get a ride with Jo."

"Thanks." Zane wanted to reach out and get Jo's attention but he knew that would look odd so after a moments indecision he nodded his thanks to Carter and headed back to Zoe.

"Lupo?" Jo finally looked away from Zoe as Jack called her name.

"What? Sorry," she said, realising she hadn't heard any of the conversation and that Zane was now heading back to Zoe. "She looks so upset."

Carter nodded. "I know. Zane's taking her home."

"On his bike?"

"No, I just loaned him the Jeep," Carter frowned. "Are you okay?"

Jo shook her head, dismissing his concern. "I'm fine, probably just low blood sugar," she gestured to her outfit that clearly signalled she'd been working out before coming here.

"I can probably handle things here, if you want," he offered. He also would prefer Jo to be at home with Zoe, though he didn't want to say that,

"No, I'm fine. Pilar's Mom works for GD so I have to investigate this."

"Okay, if you're sure. I'm going to go and canvas the lookie loos, see if anyone saw anything helpful."

Jo nodded. She could see Jack's Jeep pulling away and breathed a silent sigh of relief. Working would be much easier without them present to distract her.

"Okay. I'll speak to the rescue teams, see how long before a tech team can get in there and analyse the scene."

"I got a pulse!" Allison cried. "Get her in the ambulance, we need to get her to the infirmary now!"

Jo and Carter both turned to watch as Pilar was loaded into an ambulance with Allison.

"At least that's some good news," Jo said, feeling awful that her first thought had been how this would make it easier to tell Zoe what had happened earlier with Zane, rather than pleasure that Pilar was alive.

"Let's hope it stays that way," Jack said, flashing her weary grim smile as he headed over to question the onlookers.

III

Back at the smart house Zane filled SARAH in on events while Zoe took a shower. She hadn't wanted to, it seemed that all she wanted to do was cry, but Zane knew that wallowing in self hatred wasn't good for her and keeping occupied was the best course of action.

While Zoe was showering, it seemed to Zane that SARAH was preparing every food that Zoe had ever shown a preference for, from pancakes to ice cream to chocolate milkshake and fried chicken.

"Wow," Zoe said as she entered the kitchen to see the counter lined with all her favourite foods.

"Hey," Zane turned to her. "How are you feeling?"

Zoe shrugged. She was dressed in her night things and dressing gown, her damp hair brushed back from her face.

"I was sorry to hear about your friend," SARAH said. "I prepared a selection of your favourite foods for you. I understand they can be comforting in times of emotional distress."

"Thanks, SARAH," she said without feeling.

Zane stood up and took her in his arms, holding her tightly. At least her tears seemed to have stopped. When he released her she tried to smile but failed dismally.

"It's not your fault, you know that, right?"

Zoe nodded. "I know, but after everything I said about her..."

"There's no such thing as fate so you couldn't have been tempting it."

"I still feel like a total bitch."

"I know," Zane smiled kindly. "Come on, you've had a big shock, you need to eat something."

Zoe grimaced at the thought.

"How about milkshake then?"

"Okay, fine."

"So, what do you want to do?" Zane asked as he handed her the shake. He didn't trust her to drink it if left to her own devices.

"Curl up and die."

"Um, let's call that plan B. What's your second choice?"

"Get eaten alive by snakes."

"O-kay. Will you settle for a movie marathon?"

Zoe smiled slightly and shrugged. "I guess."

They went through to the living room and settled on the sofa; Zoe curled into him much like Jo had earlier.

Zane selected an old Fred Astaire movie and as he'd hoped, after a while she began to drift off to sleep. When he was sure she was out, he carefully detached himself from her and fetched a blanket from her room to drape over her.

III

When Jo arrived back at the smart house she found Zoe asleep and Zane sitting on the coffee table, watching over her.

He smiled as she entered. Jo cocked her head towards the door and Zane frowned, thinking he was being dismissed. He didn't argue though, simply grabbed his coat and left. He was surprised when Jo followed him outside.

"I don't want SARAH to overhear us," she finally explained directing him towards the trees.

"That's good to know. I thought you were throwing me out," Zane smiled with relief and opened his arms to her. After a moments hesitation she stepped into them and held him tightly.

"How are you?" he asked.

"Confused. How's Zoe?"

"She's devastated. Earlier tonight she was telling me how they were growing apart and now this has happened..."

Jo leaned back and looked up at him. "Oh no, she must feel awful."

"Yeah, pretty much."

"Well, I might have some good news. They were able to revive Pilar and her parents are badly hurt but alive."

"We have to tell her," Zane started back towards the house but Jo grabbed his arm to stop him.

"Not yet. Zoe's sleeping which is the best thing for her right now. Plus Allison said it was touch and go. I don't want to get her hopes up just to crush them again."

"Okay," Zane nodded. "But we have to tell her when she wakes up."

"Agreed."

They were both at a loss for words and slightly uncomfortable with each other.

"So should I take off?" he asked. "I don't expect Carter wants me spending the night with his daughter," he quipped.

Jo didn't find that remotely amusing but she tried to cover her ire.

"No, stay. I just stopped in to see how she was doing. I've got investigators crawling all over the site and reports from the fire department and Carter to read and file, not to mention a pile of witness statements from people who don't seem to have witnessed anything useful."

"You need some rest," he told her. She already looked tired and her workout clothes and wild hair were doing nothing to dispel that impression.

"I'll grab a nap at the office."

"Can't you work from here?" he asked. "I could help you with the science."

Jo opened her mouth to reply then rethought the sentiment. "Probably not the best idea."

"Right," he agreed, albeit somewhat reluctantly. They both headed back to the house and Jo paused by her car.

"Call Carter if she wakes up. He needs to ask her some questions."

"Will do." He waited until Jo had driven off before returning to the bunker. Thankfully Zoe was still sleeping soundly and hadn't noticed their absence. Deciding he might as well get some rest while he could, he curled up at the other end of the sofa and tried to sleep.

His sleep was fitful though and after a while gave up even trying. He knew why he couldn't sleep, because he was worried about hurting both Zoe and Jo, but he didn't understand his feelings.

Zane wouldn't have called himself a player but he had dated multiple girls in the past. It didn't bother him then and he didn't like the fact that it was bothering him now.

Of course he was smart enough to know why this was different, because unlike the other girls, he genuinely cared for both Zoe and Jo, though in different ways.

A few months ago he would have revelled in the chance to play with Lupo's emotions, to string her along and find out how far he could push her before she pushed back. Now though? For the hundredth time he wondered what had caused the change in her.

It wasn't that he didn't like the new Jo, he did, very much, he just didn't understand why she had changed. If there was one thing Zane loved, it was a good puzzle but this one was starting to wear a little thin now.

He gathered that they used to date and quite possibly had been engaged, what he didn't understand was how or why that was possible. Why didn't he remember it? Lupo was permanently on his case about something and a week without busting him for some minor infraction was a wasted week in her book. So what was so different about this other Zane that had made her, after three years, finally start to trust him?

And who was this other Zane? Was he imaginary? Probably not because the ring was real. Was he from an alternate dimension? To the best of his knowledge that was still unproven and impossible. Had it all been a dream or some kind of virtual reality experience? That was most logical but again, it still didn't explain how she'd gotten the ring.

Whatever way he looked at it, he had no answers, just a lot of questions that Jo didn't seem to want to answer and a lot of feelings he didn't understand. Zane wasn't a big fan of feelings and there was a reason he behaved like an ass most of the time, because it made people keep their distance from him. Zane had always been an outsider, even since he could remember. At school he was the teachers pet and hated by his classmates for it. When he tried to downplay his intelligence, his teachers and his Mom were upset with him. Eventually he'd been home schooled by a series of private tutors, which just made him seem like a bigger freak to the neighbourhood children.

When he'd been accepted to MIT he'd been thrilled. The people there weren't kids, they were adults, they were cool. And he's been right, they were cool, which unfortunately meant that they didn't want to hang around with a thirteen year old kid who would cramp their style and show them up in the brains department. It was around that time that Zane's current attitude really began to develop. The professors didn't care what he did outside of their lessons, they didn't care if he even listened to their lectures, hell, they didn't even care if he failed their class.

Although he was not ready for it emotionally, Zane had been given a lot of freedom, though thankfully he loved learning and his studies never faltered. Not to mention that most of their assignments were literally child's play to him. When dealing with his fellow students though, he began using humour and put downs as armour, pushing them away and making fun of them before they could do the same to him.

When he'd been brought to Eureka, he realised he liked it here. This was somewhere that had the money and resources to turn some of his ideas into a reality. What he had neither needed nor wanted was friends or community. The realisation that, despite his best efforts, he now had two friends was an unwelcome one but at the same time, part of him liked being here right now. Looking after Zoe... it felt good. He wondered if this was how big brothers felt; that was role he might enjoy.

As for Jo, now that was much more frightening. He felt as though it might be possible to have a real connection with her but that would require trusting her, something that he hadn't done since he was 16, when Sally Browning had used him to help her get a good grade, then dumped him in the cafeteria in front of all her friends. Since then he'd always been the one doing the using, the one who could walk away and never look back. Hell, he had some girlfriends who's names he couldn't even remember!

But it didn't make him happy. The only time he really felt happy was the two weeks a year that he spent visiting his Mom. She hadn't been around as much as she would have liked when he was growing up but when she was at home, he was always her main priority and he had no doubt about how much she loved him. With her he didn't have to pretend to be something he wasn't. She loved him, criminal convictions and all.

He realised that he wanted Jo to feel that way about him too. He would be taking a big risk though and he wondered if he was brave enough to take that leap.

Idly he began surfing through the television channels until he found an action movie which he left playing quietly. It kept his mind occupied and his thoughts from drifting too much. Eventually the action and explosions lulled him into a peaceful sleep.

III

Jo wasn't an idiot by any stretch of the imagination, but she did find the technical data she was required to read hard going sometimes. Most of the scientists could put their reports into layman's terms but Derek Jacobson either couldn't or wouldn't and it was his preliminary chemical analysis she was reading now.

She put the data pad down and leaned back in her chair. She needed some sleep, this would be easier once she was rested but she knew she'd never sleep at the moment. Her mind would be full of questions and recriminations. Already she was beginning to think she'd made a huge mistake with Zane and was just opening herself up to more heartache.

Since she was getting nowhere with the report she decided to stop into the infirmary both to check on the family and to see if Allison could translate some of the report for her. Allison was a whiz at putting complex ideas into simple terms.

When she got there she was surprised to find Carter there too. She had expected him to be at home asleep by now, it was nearly 3am.

"Hey, Jo. I thought you'd gone home."

"Back at ya," she said. "The preliminary report from the tech team came back, I wanted to look it over before calling it a night."

Just then Allison joined them.

"Please take him home, Jo. He wont go on his own and he needs to get some rest."

Jo smiled. "Am I allowed to use force?"

Allison pretended to consider it. "Okay, as long as there are no broken bones."

"If you help me translate this, you've got a deal," she handed Allison the data pad. It hadn't escaped Jo's notice that Allison seemed much happier these days. And it wasn't just her relationship with Carter, though that had surely helped. It seemed that without the responsibility of running GD on her shoulders, she felt more free to be herself. She laughed easily and joked readily these days. Once upon a time Jo's quip would have just earned her a dirty look but now it lead to banter.

"Well, the levels of hydrogen found are high, oxygen levels are also above average, I'm guessing that's what caused the explosion."

"Rocket fuel," Jo said.

"Basically. Most of the other gas readings look normal," she said distractedly as she read through the report. "Wait, carbon trioxide?"

"What's that?" Jo asked, wondering if it was like carbon dioxide.

"It's a molecules made up of one carbon and three oxygen atoms but it's unstable and very rare."

"What causes it?"

"There are a couple of processed that make it, A coronal discharge can fuse oxygen with CO2 or dissolving ozone in liquid CO2 or mixing ozone with dry ice."

"Any idea why someone would want to do that?"

"None," Allison handed the pad back to Jo. "But that reaction is probably what caused the excess oxygen. We might have more idea after the solid samples have been tested."

"Yeah, Henry said he'd take a look at those for us tomorrow," Carter added. "For now the scene has been secured."

"Okay," Jo accepted she'd need to be patient. As much as she might want to lose herself in work, work just wasn't cooperating. "How's the family?"

"Good. John has a broken leg and smoke inhalation but he'll be fine. Jenny had some broken ribs and some internal bleeding but she's stable. Both have a few third degree burns but there should be minimal scaring with treatment."

"And Pilar?"

"Stable for now. She was hit by part of the chimney as it fell so she had a lot of internal damage as well as smoke inhalation and lots of abrasions. She also has third degree burns on her chest and back. We've operated and repaired her punctured lungs, stopped the internal bleeding and we're stimulating her immune system to speed up recovery but she's not out of the woods yet. I'll stay with her until morning when Doctor Olivetti will relieve me. I'm cautious but hopeful she'll make a full recovery with time."

Jo nodded, relieved that she would be okay.

"Okay, well we'll leave you to it," she said.

"I guess we'd better head home," Jack said. "I want to check on Zoe."

"You go, I want to read through the statements you took earlier."

"Jo, it's late. You need sleep."

Jo considered arguing but finally she nodded, she did feel exhausted so maybe he was right.

When they arrived home, Jack was pleased to see Zoe sleeping soundly at one end of the sofa and Zane sleeping just as soundly at the other end. Personally he might have carried Zoe to the bedroom, but he didn't really like the idea of Zane manhandling his daughter and so approved of his choice to simply cover her in a blanket.

"Should we wake him?" he whispered softly to Jo.

Jo looked at the sleeping Zane. He looked so peaceful and relaxed, so much more like her Zane now that his arrogant persona was buried in slumber and she couldn't bare to wake him.

"Let him sleep. It was nice of him to look after Zoe."

Carter scoffed but when she glared he relented. "Sorry. It's just... It's a Dad thing."

Jo smiled indulgently. "Well why don't you get some sleep and when you wake up, maybe he'll be gone."

"Deal," Jack smiled, liking that idea. He headed off to his room and after one final glance at the sleeping Zane, Jo made her way to the bathroom. She had a lot to shower away. A workout, soot... and a passionate love making session with Zane.

As the water flowed over her body she remembered the times that Zane had joined her in the shower. How he would lather her up, then rinse her down, all the while teasing her before finally he would push her up against the wall and enter her.

He had loved washing her hair as well. Her house used to have a huge bathtub that they could both fit in and he'd often climb in with her, lather up her hair and massage her scalp until she was so relaxed, she almost felt boneless. Since returning to this timeline, Jo had never achieved that same level of peace and calm on her own.

She missed Zane so much that sometimes it hurt. Tonight especially, she felt almost raw with pain. Opening herself up to this Zane had been a mistake, she could see that now and she knew that no matter how hard it might be, she needed to end it before she got hurt even more.

She closed her eyes and put her head under the water, letting her tears silently flow away with the water.