Final Countdown (Chapter 3)

The usual disclaimer: Don't own Eureka. If I did, I wouldn't have cancelled it (looking at you, SyFy).

Three days after being found at the BCE site, Zane was ready for release from the GD infirmary. The hyperbaric treatment he'd received had eliminated the life-threatening gases which had built up in his bloodstream during his brief, unprecedented passage through space. The concussion which resulted from the sudden change in pressure on reentering the atmosphere above Eureka was mild, leaving him with just a lingering headache. With the exception of his right wrist, whose several broken bones would require rehabilitation, the fractures of his leg and ribs he suffered on impact were clean ones. They would heal within weeks.

He was extraordinarily lucky to be alive, and knew it.

Zane's condition was not the only cause for gratitude. Working around the clock, the Astraeus team devised a way to operate the FTL for the short time they hoped would be sufficient to bring the ship home. Based on Henry's experience with jerryrigging the BCE to capture Zane and Fargo on their earlier, unauthorized trip to space, the ground crew was able to send a signal to the on-board navigation array that Zane had rescued. Seconds later, with considerably less drama than the situation actually warranted, Astraeus was sitting on the BCE's landing pad.

The journey to Titan was over, having ended several million miles away from its goal. Years of bureaucratic review and commission reports awaited, after which the mission would be quietly filed away as an ill-fated expenditure of taxpayer money. To GD scientists, however, the mission would yield a treasure trove of data for years to come, failure sometimes being far more informative than success.

EUREKA EUREKA EUREKA EUREKA

Jo straightened the covers over Zane, eyes sweeping the bed and nightstands set up in the guest room of her newly completed house to confirm that he had everything he needed at hand. Her gaze stopped on his face. He grinned broadly, eyebrows raised.

"Jo Lupo, playing Florence Nightengale. Who'd believe it?" His expression became suggestive. "Nurse Lupo. I think I like that."

Jo rolled her eyes. "Don't get used to this, Asterisk. When your 15 minutes of hero fame is up, you're out of here." Despite her snarky tone, Jo's smile was kind. She gently ran a hand along the cast surrounding Zane's broken left leg. "When you can walk again, that is."

She sat gingerly next to him on the bed. In truth, Zane's mobility was going to be limited for some time. In addition to the broken leg, the extensive damage to his right wrist meant he had only his left for support. Even with that, his cracked ribs made movement difficult. Had Jo not stepped up to care for him, he would have been looking at an extended hospital stay, not an attractive option.

"Seriously, Jo, thank you. This," he moved his head to indicate his body "would have been pretty miserable to get through stuck in a hospital bed. One in a hospital, anyway." He patted the bed, one Jo had arranged to have moved from the GD infirmary to her house for Zane to recover in.

"My pleasure," Jo said softly. She grasped Zane's uninjured hand and they sat in silence for a few moments. Jo leaned forward to press a kiss on his lips, then pulled back. Zane scanned her face wishing, not for the first time, that he could hear her thoughts. "Jo?" he asked uncertainly as she looked steadily into his eyes. Seeming to reach a decision, Jo stretched out next to Zane on the bed. Shifting her body to keep her weight off of his, she braced her hands along either side of his torso.

"Shhh," she said, capturing his lips again. He responded with enthusiasm, but his expression when they broke the kiss was regretful. "I don't think I can, um, rise to this occasion, Jo. I'm sorry—you have no idea how sorry—but my body just isn't going to cooperate now." He grinned. "The mind is really willing though…maybe a raincheck?"

Jo smiled back, shaking her head. "You don't need to do anything." She raised a hand to stroke his cheek, then lowered her mouth to his neck, lightly kissing down it. He drew in a sharp breath, rolling his head to give her better access. For a time, she alternated between his mouth and neck until his breathing grew heavier. "Zane?" she asked, concerned that he might not yet be in good enough condition for even this level of activity.

"I'm fine. More than fine." His voice was slightly strained, eyes dark and fixed on Jo's face. She smiled, then pushed her body toward the end of the bed, pulling the covers with her. Zane's eyes widened, then closed tightly as her lips traced the angle of his hip. "Jo-" he said in a strangled tone. She briefly raised her head. "I said, quiet." "Yes, ma'am," he gasped before his body jerked then stiffened as Jo's mouth found its target. She ran a hand up his side, forestalling further movement that could put pressure on his injured leg.

Unable to raise his hips or otherwise move much in response to the rhythm Jo was setting, Zane gripped the bed sheet with his one free hand. Eventually, despite her command for silence, he was unable to stifle a groan, which was followed by a hoarse cry as he lost control. Breathing hard, Jo stroked his side as she rolled back against the bed, eyes closed. She had intended to focus only on Zane, but the intensity of his reaction had tipped her over the edge as well. She relaxed bonelessly, listening to his breath slow as he recovered too.

Reaching down, Zane wound his fingers through her hair. She slid up, resting her head on his chest until he began to speak. "JoJo. I need you to know…" he took a deep breath then continued. "When the FTL failed, I didn't think much beyond getting to the nav pod. One second we were in flight, the next we were on the floor. I was next to the nav access port and saw that the pod had broken loose." Jo nodded. She knew what had happened on Astraeus, but was anxious to know what had been going through Zane's head when he'd left the ship.

"All I thought at first was, we're not getting back. I couldn't just let that happen." He shook his head, appearing almost confused. "I wasn't even thinking, not really. What went through my head…your face, Jo. I saw your face, and couldn't accept that it would just be a memory." He paused, then gave a bark of laughter that was entirely without humor. "Like I still am for you, whether or not I ever made it back here." Jo stiffened, raising her head. She put a hand to his lips, stilling them.

"Zane, I'm sorry. I should have told you before you left. Letting you go without knowing was the most stupid thing I've ever done. When Grace said they'd lost you, all I could think was that you'd died not knowing…" She raised her head until they were eye to eye. Tears were filling her eyes, something he couldn't remember ever having seen. "I love you, Zane. Not your memory—his memory—but you. I have for a while, but didn't want to admit it…I was so caught up in worrying that I'd lose you again that I nearly lost you for good."

Jo paused, gathering her thoughts. Zane's expression held surprise, but his gaze was steady. "I didn't want you to feel like you had to care for me—what happened in the other timeline isn't your problem. Making me happy in this one isn't your responsibility. You have your own life now, your freedom…if you stay here," she said, echoing Zane's earlier words following news of his pardon. "If we're together at all, it has to be because you want to be. Not because you think that some kind of fate mandates that we have now what we had then."

A tear rolled down Jo's face, which Zane slowly wiped away before dropping his hand back to the bed. Jo rested her head against his chest. Neither spoke for a few moments.

She blew out a sigh and started to sit up. "Anyway, I should-." Zane jerked. She glanced up, concerned, but the pain on his face didn't have a physical source.

"Jo. I…before you all jumped time, I didn't feel like I had any real connection to this town. I was here because I had to be, that's all. Better than prison, but it wasn't home. So I bided my time, and spent it looking for fun wherever I could find it. With whoever I could find it." Jo flinched. Zane was looking toward the wall as if the past was being replayed on it. "Sometimes that meant screwing with you—the other you—because it always got a reaction. And that was better than being ignored. I hate being ignored." At this, Jo snorted.

"You really didn't like me then. Not at all. I was just a pain in your ass—until I wasn't. Suddenly you were looking at me like I wasn't just this worthless jerk you'd been saddled with by the DoD. I didn't know what to do with that—at first, I thought you'd just found another way to mess with me, especially when you said you'd marry me." Zane shook his head once. "I walked around for days, thinking I'd be hauled off to prison again at any minute, that saying that was your weird way of putting me off guard. Really, Jo—from my perspective? That didn't make any sense."

Jo nodded, having long imagined how that bizarre that scene had appeared to Zane. "Then, even after Fargo clued me in about the time travel, even after you knew he'd clued me in, I didn't know how to reach you. Didn't really know if I wanted to—I couldn't believe that, every time you looked at me, you saw this guy you'd loved. And hated me for not being that guy." Jo raised her head to protest, but Zane continued.

"OK, maybe you didn't hate me then, not anymore, but you sure as hell didn't seem like you wanted me around much. Except in bed…which was great, incredible really, until it started to seem like another way for you to keep your distance. Which was sort of fine with me at first, I'll admit, and maybe that makes me an asshole. But at some point just having sex didn't feel like enough, no matter how good it was." He shook his head. "I didn't know how to change that and it didn't seem like you wanted more anyway—hell, you said you didn't even want to keep sleeping together. So we were stuck—friends with occasional benefits, and nowhere else to go."

"Except Titan," Jo said. "Yeah," he answered. "Except Titan. Where you didn't want to be."

"I told you why I didn't want to do that," Jo said. "And for us, being together there wouldn't have been any different than being together here—if we didn't work in Eureka, six months in space with 18 other people probably wouldn't have changed that. And if we did work, six months apart would be nothing. But then…" her voice dropped to a whisper. "You left and I didn't tell you. When I watched Astraeus leave with you on board, I realized it didn'tmatter if you felt the same way or not. I didn't tell the other you how I felt before it was too late, and I made the same mistake again." She squeezed her eyes shut against her rising emotion.

"Josephina." Jo opened her eyes. A corner of Zane's lips twitched up. "Looks like we're at least consistent—I guess some things always stay the same. You're stubborn, I'm arrogant." Jo let out a short laugh. "That's why I love you. And why I didn't tell you that before."

His tone became tinged with sarcasm. "What a great team we make." Jo searched Zane's face, watching as his smiled faded. "Zane?"

"I'm sorry, Jo. If I had died up there, it's my fault you wouldn't have known that you hadn't lost us, not really." He was quiet for a few moments. "So where do we go from here?"

"You love me." Jo said it as a statement, but the question was obvious. Zane nodded then smiled again. "Yeah, did I not make that clear?"

"And I love you," Jo said. Zane nodded. "Apparently so."

Jo looked at Zane for several long moments without expression. His smile faltered. "Jo? Do you have…a problem with this?"

She continued to look at him. Lying in bed, covered in casts and bruises, Zane looked as vulnerable as she'd ever seen him during this timeline. She watched as he straightened as much as he could, eyebrows lowering as he visibly tried to cover his reaction to her stare with nonchalance.

"That. Right there. That is what I have a problem with. When you do it, when I do it. Hiding what we're thinking." Jo stood, arms crossed. "I've been here-" she gestured around the room, but Zane understood her to be referring to his timeline. "For more than a year. And this is the first time we've really talked about us at this level. That is insane," she ground out. "Henry and Grace's relationship survived the time change because they talk to each other. Like grownups. But us…no communication is why we didn't work before. And it's why we won't work again if it doesn't change."

"So you want us to talk," Zane said flatly. Jo nodded. Several seconds passed before he spoke again, this time with a hint of humor. "OK, I can do that."

Startled, Jo said, "What?"

Zane grinned. "If you wanted to talk, JoJo, you only had to ask."

"This isn't a joke, Zane." She stepped back from the bed until Zane reached for her arm, wincing in pain.

"I know, Jo. I understand what you mean—I've seen Henry and Grace too. Not saying we'll ever be like them, but I get it. We have to be clearer with each other to make this work. I'll try to hold up my end." Zane extended his hand to Jo, who considered it, then shook it. Eyes shining, she answered "Me too."

A few beats passed before Zane suddenly yanked her onto the bed. He slipped his other hand—the one with the cast—around her neck, pulling her down for a kiss. "Zane—stop! You're going to hurt yourself." Jo objected. "Yeah, but so worth it," he answered against her mouth. "Besides, if I'm in pain, you'll just have to…administer some relief again."

Gasping in mock outrage, Jo grabbed a nearby throw pillow and swung it at his head, careful not to actually connect. "You…you…," she sputtered before a brilliant smile lit up her face. Zane raised his good hand against the onslaught. "Hey, you know better than to hit an unarmed man," he laughed.

Jo shook her head. "As long as your mouth works, you're never fully disarmed." Zane raised his eyebrows. "So you can stop talking…" Jo kissed him lightly, then rested her forehead against his. "For now." She curled her body around him. But they did talk, about many things and nothing at all, until they both drifted off to sleep.

-END-

A/N: Gah…I wrote T and M versions of this chapter, and waffled wildly over which one to post. This was the result—a bit on the edge between the two, so let me know if you think I picked the wrong rating.

Oh, and by the way. In the hope of having my annoyance at Eureka's cancellation take up less space in my head, I deciding feeling like I was doing something about it would help, however futile that effort may be. If you feel the same, take a look at saveeurekacandycampaign_.com (take the spaces out).

Thanks for reading!