Zane opened his eyes. He'd been dreaming about Jo, but he could never really remember his dreams. Dreams weren't something a man of science, well, his kind of science, should focus on. Well, other than dreams of being a Nobel Laureate.
He rolled out of bed and stretched. Ow. Full bladder. He shuffled into the bathroom and relieved himself. After flushing, he stepped over to the sink and looked at himself in the mirror. Funny, I don't look any different. Why do I feel so off? He flashed his signature smile, but his reflection showed him how forced it was. Shaking his head, he turned on the faucet and began the morning routine. Face washed, teeth brushed, hair combed… He looked at himself in the mirror again, then opened the top drawer and pulled out his electric razor.
As he walked back into the bedroom, his phone rang. He looked at the display. Zoe. He let it go to voicemail. It was only 8:30; she couldn't expect him to talk now. He opened the closet and looked over his t-shirts. He grabbed the first blue one and pulled it over his head. He looked over at the stack of jeans. Folded on top were the only pair of Bermudas he'd kept when he'd decided that people needed to take him seriously and that he was going to work on being hot enough to melt any woman in his path. Almost any woman. Jo's face flashed before him. He shook his head and pulled on a pair of jeans. He slipped his grandmother's ring into the pocket.
He sat down in front of his computer, but he didn't turn it on. I don't want to go to work today. I'm not ready to see her again. I have to figure out what to do next. He sat still for a minute, then flipped open his cell and called Parrish's voicemail. "Hey, boss. I need to take a personal day." Thank god for GD policy. The most important minds in the world couldn't be allowed to overheat, so time off was plentiful and no questions asked.
He picked up his backpack, took out the laptop, and replaced it with some books from the shelf. His fingers paused at a photo album. He packed that, too. Should he bring the cell? He didn't really want to talk to anyone. But this was Eureka and you never know what kind of crazy experiment would come smashing through your living room wall. He pocketed the phone. Swinging the pack across his shoulders, he snagged his helmet and took off.
He stopped at Café Diem to grab food for the day and took off down the winding forest roads. It felt good to see all the trees whizzing by. No sirens chasing him so he could take his time. But he wanted to put some distance between himself and Eureka so he put on a burst of speed. One of the best things about riding his bike was that it forced him to be in the moment. He needed that now.
An hour later, he was walking up the steps of his other house. GD paid him a ridiculous amount of money, and there were only so many gadgets a guy could buy before he got bored. So he found out who owned the cabin he'd vacationed in as a kid and bought it. He hadn't had the time to set everything up, but right now, that was a good thing. Zane walked through the house, pulling off drop cloths and opening windows. Then he plopped down on the couch and opened up Vince's package. The pancakes were still steaming. He rolled one up around a sausage, dipped it in maple syrup, and stuffed his face. He didn't indulge often these days; he'd worked hard to achieve the physique that turned heads. But, god, this was amazing comfort food.
He finished eating and poured himself a cup of coffee. He sat back and looked around. This place was full of good memories. He could picture his mom and grandmother over in the kitchen, bickering over how much sugar to put in the iced tea. He'd climbed half of the trees out there and spent countless hours swimming in the lake. That was the last summer that he'd been a kid. After that, he was a scientist.
Zane opened up his backpack and pulled out the photo album. He ran his fingers over the embossing. The gold was flaking off. He really should scan these into his computer. He jumped when his cell rang again. Zoe again. He turned the ringer off and flipped open the photo album. He smiled.
When Zane was 4, he'd found his father's old stash in a box up in the attic. He was mesmerized at the pictures and his mom found him hours later, covered in dust, still flipping pages. She'd sat down laughing at the sight. "Oh, Zane, you're just like your father. Let me read some of these to you." And that's when he'd discovered Superman. Zane loved Superman. He had black hair and blue eyes, just like Zane. He begged his mother for a costume. Money was tight, so she bought some iron on patches and made him a costume out of an old blue shirt of his dad's and a red blanket. Zane wore that costume as much as his mom would let him. The shirt billowed as much as the cape did, but he didn't care. He would run around and pretend to fly, saving imaginary cities and fighting bad guys. He didn't much care for Clark Kent, but what kid really liked to be the normal guy? He wanted to fly, and that led to figuring out that science might let him fly one day.
Zane looked at his almost 5 year old self grinning back up at him. One of his front teeth was missing and the shirt was covered in grass stains, but he remembered thinking that he looked just like Superman. He turned the pages, looking at himself pretending to fly, trying to pick up his mom, knocked out cold on the floor, and wearing nothing but Superman Underoos. Farther on was older Zane, still in the cape, but curled up on the couch with a physics textbook. His mom must have bought a bunch of those iron on patches, he thought, looking at how different the shirt in that picture was. That was after Dad left. He looked at pictures of birthdays and Christmases, seeing himself get older on every page. When he was around 11, the Superman costume stopped showing up. And there was his high school graduation. He was only 13. He got by back then by being the class clown and running fast. Else there would have been a ton more wedgies and black eyes. Here he was leaving for MIT.
He closed the album and lay back on the couch. So many times he'd said that MIT was the happiest time of his life, but that was a lie by omission. He was never happier than he was when pretending to be his hero. When did that stop? If he thought about it, he'd been acting more like a villain. Or like Batman, which was almost as bad, he grinned. But he still favored blue shirts.
Maybe that's why Jo got under his skin so badly. If anyone stood for Truth, Justice, and The American Way, it was her. Jo. He closed his eyes and thought about the way she felt in his arms, the way she tasted, how she responded. There was something there between them, it wasn't just her. He'd wanted Jo Lupo the first time he laid eyes on her, but she had nothing but contempt for him. So he sneered back at her and did everything he could to make her squirm. When she became the security chief at GD, it became easier but no less fun to challenge her authority. He still wanted her, but he knew he'd never get her. And then 2 months ago everything had changed. She saved his ass without one snide comment and started giving him the benefit of the doubt. Jo Hardass Lupo was showing a softer side. And he was pretty damn sure that the Jo Lupo who had laughed in his face when he'd asked her for a date a couple of years ago was not the same Jo Lupo who had looked up at him with terrified eyes after she'd kissed him back yesterday.
He wished he had someone to talk to about this. Oh, yeah, that's what friends were for. But Zane Donovan didn't make friends. He had acquaintances and women he'd slept with a few times, but friends tied you down and expected too much from you. He'd been friendlier with Zoe than anyone else in this town, but he couldn't talk to her about this. He got up and walked to the window. For the first time in years, he was lonely. I'm not supposed to be lonely – I'm supposed to be a lone wolf! I amuse myself and nobody gets past the surface. It's better that way. A little voice whispered, so why are you so unhappy?
Zane sat back down and opened the album back to the first picture. He reached into his pocket and pulled out the ring, laying it next to the album. Maybe I don't want to be a lone wolf anymore. He pulled one of the books out of the backpack and opened it to the picture he'd hidden in the back. Carter, Zoe, Henry, Grace, and Jo were sitting together at a table at Café Diem. The picture had been taken right before he had come to town. He'd swiped it off the wall when he was first pursuing her. They were laughing. Jo was sitting in the middle, leaning forward, eyes closed, and grinning hugely. He looked at her for a minute, and then looked at the whole group. Friends, he thought. Huh.
He picked up the ring again, not looking at it, just holding it. I don't know where this is going to take me, but I know what I want, and what I don't want. He looked at younger Zoe ruefully. And that's going to make things more difficult. He looked at Jo. I have to earn her trust. I need to hear the whole story, and she has to trust me before she'll tell me anything. He put the group picture in the album on top of SuperZane. But even I don't trust me.
He sat quietly for a few minutes, then picked up the phone and dialed it. "Hey, Mom? Hey. How are things? Listen, I was wondering, do you still have my cape?"
