Wow, sorry this took so long. Apparently my muse went on vacation without me. Hopefully I will be wrapping this up soon.
"Hey Jo. You wanted to see me?" Tommy said poking his head her office. He prayed that this was not just another attempt to try and get information out of him. Since the incident at Café Diem a week ago, his mom, his dad, Doug, Zane and a ton of others had been trying to get him to talk about what had happened between him and Emma. Jenna had said things were just as bad for her and for Emma.
Not that he had spoken to Emma since the day of her arrival.
Jo looked up at him and smiled. "Good you're here. I need your help with a security matter. We unfortunately have to redact one of our scientists today. Stolen technology and I need you to help escort him out of his lab and make sure he doesn't cause any trouble."
She had stood and rounded her desk, heading out the door. Tommy breathed a sigh of relief following her.
"I'm just glad you didn't haul me in here to interrogate me."
Jo snorted and smirked up at him. "Feeling guilty about keeping secrets?"
Tommy squirmed under her intense stare. How anyone ever lied to her he would never understand. Right now he felt like blurting out the whole thing. Just confessing and getting everything out in the open. How had Jenna and Emma both kept their mouth shut for so long? And would Neil be able to hide the secret if anyone else found out he knew too?
"Relax" Jo said noting the fear on his face. "That is a discussion for another time. And just so you know eventually the truth always comes out. I've learned that the hard way."
The pair rode the elevator to section four in silence. Tommy was afraid if either one spoke right now the entire story of what had happened that fateful weekend a year ago would spill out. Just when he felt like the dam was about to burst the elevator doors mercifully opened.
Striding out Jo broke the silence "This way." She called as she turned a corner. "Dr. DeSteffano was working in the acoustics lab."
They rounded another corner and Tommy ran into something, no someone, barely able to keep himself from falling over.
"Watch where you're going Deputy Carter." He recognized her voice immediately.
"Sorry Dr. Donovan. Just in a hurry to do my job." Apparently Emma had been with her dad because he was standing behind her.
Emma glared daggers at him. "And it's your job to not look where you're going?"
He knew that he shouldn't let her get to him like this but there was something about her that always pushed him over the edge. And made him say stupid, hurtful things when he was mad, like what came out of his mouth next. "At least some of us have a job and didn't spend the last year of our life running from their problems."
You could have heard a pin drop in that hallway and he saw the hurt flash in her eyes. Then she reacted. "How dare you?" She screamed and jumped towards him. Zane pulled her back at the last minute.
"If the show fits princess." Tommy spat back. Sure he'd screwed up that day but he wasn't the one who ran away.
Stepping between the two of them Jo raised her voice "Children Stop! I'm sure whatever happened between the two of you is fascinating. Trust me I am more then willing to hear all about it. Just not right now. Can we please get to work?"
"Fine" Emma said pulling free of her dad and heading down the hall.
"Sorry." Tommy muttered as he hung his head and followed Emma down the hall.
A smile tugged at Jo's lips. "Were we this bad?" She asked her husband.
"Worse, sometimes " Zane replied laughter dancing in his eyes. "Come on we can't let them kill each other."
Both Tommy and Emma were waiting quietly by the door, trying to ignore the others presence when the older couple arrived.
Jo pressed her thumb on the security pad and the door opened.
"All right Dr. DeSteffano's scheduled shift starts in half an hour. Emma, Zane I need you two to start shutting down his projects for storage and Tommy gaurd the door. When he gets in bring him to my office and we can start the redaction process. I need to start rounding up lab techs." Jo strod back out into the hallway.
Zane was starting to shut down the main computer and Emma was messing with a small machine on the middle table. As Tommy stood by the door he couldn't help but admire her concentration on the project at hand. Her eyes were narrowed in concentration, nose crinkled and her teeth sunk into her bottom lip.
"Hey," She said looking up at Tommy. "It's our old science fair project. The harmonic wave oscilator. Wow I can't believe this is the tech that DeSteffano stole. I mean at the time it was pretty cutting edge but that was 7 years ago."
"Hey don't knock that thing." Tommy cast her a big grin. "We won a car with that project. Man I miss that car." He moved closer to examine the machine Emma was fiddling with, he was so close their shoulders were touching.
"Well you guys would still have it if you two, Tanner and Jenna hadn't decided to take off on a road trip to California without telling anyone." Zane piped in from the other side of the room.
"Totally worth the month's grounding too" Emma her eyes still locked on the machine.
"This relay looks wrong." Tommy said leaning over to touch the offending part. When he did the machine errupted in giant sparks and he flew backwards into the wall. The room going dark around him.
An hour later Emma was standing sandwiched between her parents in the infirmary. Jack and Jenna were both there too waiting to hear how Tommy was doing. Zoe and Allison were both working on him now. He had been hit with a pretty large jolt of electricity.
Dr DeSteffano had obviously been tipped off that he was being redacted and had boobie trapped his machine. Stupid man, Emma thought, it's not like she wouldn't have given him permission to use it. There wasn't any need for anyone to get hurt.
Her fingers idly played with the chain around her neck, stopping short of actually pulling it out of her shirt. He'd been wearing a similar one when the accident occured. She had found it when checking his vitals. Which now meant that his mom and sister had found it. Soon everyone would know what had happened between them.
Allison stepped out from behind the curtain. "He's going to be fine." Relief filled her face. "Just needs some rest. He's sleeping now but I'll probably discharge him tonight."
Emma stepped forward. "Can I see him?"
Allison gave her a watery smile. "Sure baby, just don't wake him up."
"I won't" Emma side stepped her and ducked behind the curtain. Her heart pounding in her chest as she saw Tommy sleeping in the bed, monitors beeping all around him.
On the other side of the barrier Allison turned to her friends and husband. "I'm pretty sure I fugured out what happened between those two."
"What was it?" Jo asked softly.
Instead of responding Allison opened her hand and let a gold chain dangle from her fingers. The chain itself wasn't remarkable but the thick gold ring it was threaded through was a completly different story.