Positively Positronic

"So, uh…why exactly am I in here?"

"Oh, please." Jo glanced at her watch and went back to ignoring him.

Zane frowned. Where the hell was Carter? He and Jo had been sitting in strained silence for what seemed like endless minutes while his brain raced through permutations of the situation. There was a part of him that wanted to spill the whole story, right away, immediately, just tell Jo what had happened and deal with what came next.

But Jo was so hostile: he didn't have any idea how she'd react. And she seemed – well, this wasn't the Jo he knew. She still looked like herself, but where his Jo had always had a soft and warm side, a vulnerability about her, this Jo seemed almost bitter.

"Ah, seriously," he tried. "When am I getting out of here?"

"I don't know," she scoffed. "How long do you think it'll be before Dr. Fairchild gets his monkeys back?"

"Monkeys?"

"The ones you let go. The ones you set free?" She made mocking finger quotes around the last two words.

"Those monkeys deserved some freedom," he responded almost automatically, wracking his brain for any memories of a Dr. Fairchild. Nope, no idea who that was.

"Yeah, and you don't." She smiled at him, but there was no warmth and no humor in the look.

"Be a human, I've – got a date." Zane wasn't sure where the last words came from. What he really wanted to say was "Let me go, dammit, I've got to find Henry and Carter and find out what the hell is going on." But he needed some reason. He couldn't just tell Jo that he didn't belong in jail – not until he understood what changing the timeline was going to mean.

"Ha," Jo scoffed, and then she looked thoughtful. "You'd probably make less trouble if you had a girlfriend," she mused. "Who is it?"

"Ah –" For a minute, Zane drew a blank, then he said hastily, "That blonde chick in reproductive biology." There was a really cute PhD who'd just joined GD in the biology department. Not that he'd paid attention but – well, he wasn't blind. And if he hadn't been absolutely, totally, completely committed to the maddening Jo Lupo, he might have asked said blonde chick out. Not that he would have. Just, you know, that he might have. In some other universe. Like, maybe, this one.

Jo looked skeptical for a moment, then, with a sigh, stood and crossed to the door. Unlocking it, she said, "Go."

"Really?" Zane asked. Jo was going to let him go? To go out on a date with another woman? His Jo? "You're not gonna tase me, are you?"

"Just get out," she said. "I have better things to do than babysit you."

Zane didn't ask any more questions. He got out, while the getting was good.

"So Jo doesn't like you?" Fargo's voice was incredulous.

"Thanks, Fargo, that helps. That really helps." Zane's response was bitter.

"Sorry, that's just – you know, weird."

The two of them were walking down Main Street. Zane didn't want to be with Fargo – he would much rather have found Carter or Henry or even Alison. But beggars couldn't be choosers and in this strange new world, any face that had been back in 1947 with him was welcome.

"What have you figured out?"

"Well, Julia – my sort-of girlfriend – has never been to Eureka. She works for Google, is like a gazillionaire, and is married to an astronaut."

"Whoa. That sucks." It wasn't the same thing – Julia and Fargo had been more in the kinda, sorta, maybe stage of a relationship. But still, married to an astronaut? That kind of competition was like a geek's worst nightmare.

"Other than that, I seem to be living my same old life." Fargo shrugged.

"I wish I was. This reality blows."

"Amen."

The events of Founder's Day were happening around them. Balloons decorated the streets; people in costume were wandering by, talking cheerfully, and in the distance, it looked as if Henry might be giving a speech.

"We should find the others," suggested Zane.

"Yeah," said Fargo. "Let's split up. See if you can find Carter or Alison, and we'll meet up by the podium – looks as if Henry's down there."

Zane nodded agreement and headed away from Fargo. But at the sound of a rumble, a mechanical clatter, and then a whir, he turned around. Whoa, cool! A robot was scuttling down Main Street, six legs moving in unison while its insect-like head shifted from side to side. It was nice work, if odd: he wondered why the designer had picked the bug-like form and what the technical advantages were.

But then the robot started shooting lasers out of its eyes and the street turned to chaos and before he knew it, Tess Fontana was screaming at him.

"I have been working on that probe for ten months!"

"Um, yeah?" Zane didn't know what to say. What did that have to do with him?

"You jackass! I kicked you off my design team but this kind of revenge is pathetic even for you. Tiny's power cell was hardened, there was no way it would short out." Tess was yelling, her cheeks flushed, and Zane took a couple steps backwards. What the hell?

"Are you kidding, Tess?" he asked, as Carter hurried over to them.

"Tess? Tess? That's Dr. Fontana to you, you juvenile, twisted, piece of –"

Zane looked at Carter in disbelief, as Carter shook his head and said "Go, just go."

Zane went. But as he did, he couldn't help thinking that this new universe? It really sucked.

It sucked all the more when he made it to GD. His lab? Gone. His office? Not his. His team of employees? As far as he could tell, they were all on other projects. He had no idea what he was supposed to be doing, but whatever it was, it wasn't what he'd been used to.

And Jo was walking around GD in a power suit and heels. Whatever the hell she was up to, it wasn't being Carter's deputy.

When she saw him, she glared.

Oh, yeah, this universe? He did not want to be here.

But the positronic lightning? Now that was cool.

"I'm guessing this is it," said Carter. Zane, Henry, Carter and Fargo were in Section 5, following a suspicion of where the positronic lightning might be being created. Zane rolled his eyes at Fargo's password, but as the door slid open and they stepped inside, he had to concede that he'd be psyched, too.

"Nice work," he shouted over the noise, grinning at Fargo. He went to offer him a high five and then remembered – this was Fargo. He dropped his hand.

Back in Fargo's office, when Tess stormed in, he kept his mouth shut. He had no idea why Tess hated him, but he didn't want to draw her attention. Or maybe, he thought, watching her scream at Fargo, the Tess in this universe was just a bitch? He almost felt sorry for Carter.

A sparkle and crack of lightning interrupted her tirade.

"Containment's failing," Zane reported.

"We have to work fast," Henry said urgently.

"We could purge it into the bedrock," Zane suggested.

"We could use a particle drill to sink the ground wire," Henry agreed, "but we still have to tap the dump coil."

"I'll go," Carter volunteered.

"You'll be vaporized," Tess still sounded angry.

A couple more minutes of conversation – ideas flying by – and as always, Carter came up with a simple solution. Andy would draw the lightning, covered in some Compton shielding, while moving along the east pylons: Carter and Zane would dash across the lab. Directly under the capacitor sphere, Carter would use a cross-bow to shoot the dump-coil, while Zane used the drill; they'd drop the titanium wire, and it should purge the charge.

At least that was the plan until Jo showed up. They were at the lab, almost ready to go, Carter and Zane in their flame-proof suits, all the equipment at hand.

"What the hell is going on here?" she snapped. "I'm head of security for GD: I expect to be consulted on operations of this magnitude."

Fargo and Carter exchanged glances. Zane kept his head down. It hurt just to see her. It was like that time when Julia pretended to be Jo: a different person had taken over Jo's body. A bitchy, hostile person this time. He'd almost rather she was kissing Fargo.

"Uh, yeah, sorry, Jo. We were in a hurry," Fargo mumbled.

"Unacceptable." She looked at the crossbow, and scowled. "And for a job where there's shooting to be done? This is my job and you know it." She turned to the security guard behind her. "Get a flame-resistant suit for me, size small, and make it speedy."

Turning back to the group of men, she glared impartially at all of them, before focusing on Carter. "I don't want to keep having this argument, Carter. I'm not your deputy anymore. I'm not your assistant. And you don't get to make this type of decision in my facility."

Without waiting for a response, she turned to Fargo, "And what were you thinking?" She was angry, but Zane could hear a trace of hurt in her voice.

"I – uh – it's – um –" Fargo struggled to find words, turning a desperate glance on Carter before looking at Zane. Zane shrugged. She was right, really. She'd been an army ranger: physically, she was the toughest and best-trained of all of them. This should be her job.

The guard was back with the flame-resistant suit, standing behind Jo. Zane gestured at him to let Jo know that he was there, and then said to her, "Hurry it up. We need to get this done."

She looked momentarily confused, and said, "Donovan? What are you doing here?"

"Drill guy," he responded, holding up the drill to demonstrate. "And we need to get moving."

Carter looked like he wanted to argue. Fargo looked horrified. Henry was frowning, but Jo nodded, turned to the guard, grabbed the suit and scrambled into it, zipping it up over her clothes.

"Jo, you don't have to do this," Carter protested, as she moved to take the crossbow from him.

"It's my job, Carter," she responded. "My responsibility. My right." She glanced at Zane and again a brief look of confusion passed over her face, before she nodded at him and said to Andy, "We're a go."

Carter, Fargo, and Henry backed out the room, the door closing behind them, as Andy said, "Yippee-ki-ya" and headed off into the lightning. When he was halfway across the room Zane said, grinning at her, "Let's do this." She didn't grin back, just frowned at him as they headed across the lab and into the lightning storm.

Zane worked the drill, while Jo shot the dump coil. Carter was counting down the time from outside the room. "Thirty seconds, Jo," he reported, voice worried.

"Dropping the ground coil," Zane shouted at her. "Bedrock in 200 meters. That's going to take 30 seconds."

Jo had the wire dangling from the dump coil: she was pulling it toward Zane. "Got it," Zane shouted. He yanked the wire from the drill end and rushed to her side, stretching his length of the titanium alloy as far as it would reach. Together, they pushed the connecting pieces until it clicked into place, then, as Carter's voice shouted, "Hurry, you're almost out of time," jumped across the room and away from the pounding lightning.

They landed side-by-side and watched as the chaotic lightning stabilized into one last intense bolt that shot down the wire and into the ground. Zane's grin, as he watched the lightning hit, felt as if it would split his face.

"Woo-hoo, that was fun," he said, turning toward Jo. He could feel the energy surging, the high from the danger and the electricity still sizzling in his veins.

She was watching him, not the lightning, and she looked almost puzzled. "Only you would think so," she said, but the words didn't hold any reproof, just thoughtfulness.

He wanted to reach for her. So badly. He wanted to slide his hands into her gorgeous hair and take her mouth with his and pull her next to him until he could feel every inch of her body pressed against his, and for a split second, as his eyes dropped to her full lips, he could have done it. But then she shook her head a little and scrambled to her feet.

"I still don't get how you got involved in this, Donovan."

"Right place, right time," he said as he rolled over and looked up at her.

She was frowning slightly, looking serious, as she said, "Well, nice work," almost as if the words pained her, and put a hand out.

"That wasn't so bad, was it?" he drawled, taking her hand, and letting her pull him to his feet. Just the feel of her small fingers on his made him happier then he'd been all day.

"Which, the lightning or saying 'nice work' to you?" Jo dropped his hand the moment he was on his feet, and even though Zane wanted to hold on to it, wanted to pull her to him, he let her go. The sarcasm in her voice made it clear that the moment was over.

Later that night, not by coincidence, the six of them gathered at Café Diem.

"So," Henry started, "The bridge device is dead. And the energy field has decayed beyond repair."

There was silence, until Carter broke it by saying, "So this is home then. For all of us."

"Well, what do you know," Grant murmured. Zane could barely bring himself to look at him. He was pretty sure he hated the guy. He'd never really hated anyone before, but Grant had destroyed his life.

"So how do we tell everyone what happened to us?" Carter asked.

"We don't," Henry's answer was quick.

"We have to," Zane protested. "This place is insane." The argument raged for several minutes until Alison ended the debate by revealing the military protocol that would send them all to solitary confinement or see them killed if the truth came out.

"We can't tell anyone," Henry had the final word.

Zane grimaced with frustration. "Well, you at least have to get me my lab back, Fargo." If his love life was destroyed, he wanted his work life to go back to normal.

"No," Henry insisted. "Not yet. We can't make changes until we understand what we're dealing with."

"You've got to be kidding me," Zane's voice rose, almost inadvertently, and then he dropped it to a fervent whisper as the others looked around nervously. "This world sucks. I can't live like this." All the rest of them had lives that had improved: Alison's son, Fargo's job, Carter and Henry's romantic situations.

"Any changes now could give us away," Alison agreed with Henry, but her voice was sympathetic. "Just live with it for a while, Zane."

"You can handle it, sport." Maybe Grant meant his words to be bracing, but to Zane the patronizing bullshit was the last straw. The man had screwed up his life in so many ways. He hated him, with a passion he wasn't sure he'd ever felt before.