Disclaimer – I hug my Eureka DVDs before I watch them… so that they know they're being loved, not abused. I mean… I don't own Eureka.

Author – Emcey

A/N – I feel so intimidated by Kit's "Collision". I mean… it was longer than all the previous stories combined and was awesome. I keep looking at my plot bunnies and wonder… are any of them going to turn into a fantastic story like that? I certainly hope so. :) However, this is going to be decidedly shorter than Kit's 11,000+++ word epic.

Info – AU after the dream episode from second season.

Teaser – This was the second time today that Jack had placed himself between Nathan and the possibility of death. It was the first time, however, that Nathan completely froze and wished that Jack was somewhere else, somewhere safe. Watching Jack step up to protect him again and remembering Jack's words from earlier, Nathan felt as though he was in the midst of an epiphany, as though he was about to experience some sort of paradigm shift, and he needed Jack to be there, alive and well, when it was all over.

September 4, 2010 - The editing spree visited here.

Meant To Be

Nathan heard the blaring of the alarm distantly, the sound filing away to the same part of his mind that was counting down the time he had left to fix the experiment before the room exploded. This particular experiment involved opening small subspace windows and studying the differences between normal space and subspace. A malfunction had occurred that was attempting to fix itself by destroying the lab and a great deal of the surrounding area.

Everyone else had evacuated already, but Nathan wanted to try and salvage the experiment. While he hadn't been directly in charge of the subspace window research, he had been keeping tabs on it. Until today, subspace had been proving itself to be a veritable 'goldmine' of revelations.

Unfortunately, Dr. Solaris, who had been in charge of the experiment, tended to bite off more than he could chew. Solaris had seen how well things were progressing and decided to push forward faster than his approved timetable. One of the lab assistants had died during the day's initial malfunction and Solaris had had the temerity to blame the dead woman for everything that had gone wrong. So when Nathan had watched Carter slap some handcuffs on Solaris, he'd decided against interfering. Solaris deserved a little jail time.

Allison had, however, reluctantly gone to bat for Solaris. Technically, the man hadn't done anything illegal and, as the Director of Operations at GD, it was Allie's job to keep Carter from tossing her scientists in jail without a really good reason.

Meanwhile, the malfunction had grown worse. At first, Nathan and Henry had been working on it without really worrying too much. Except it kept growing and their efforts did little, if anything, to correct the initial problem. So Henry oversaw the evacuation of that particular floor and Nathan continued trying to find a solution.

There wasn't much time left, but all Nathan needed was a few minutes. Just a few more minutes and… maybe that lab assistant wouldn't have died for nothing.

Maybe Nathan could make up for a little bit of his own mess with the dream device, which was still whirring away in Kevin's room. He couldn't even go in Kevin's room anymore without imagining the face of the dead truck driver, Fargo in the medical center of GD, Jo unable to stand, and Carter just seconds away from drowning in that tank…

"Stark! You've got to get out of here!" speaking of Carter…

"I've almost fixed it," Nathan snapped, not bothering to look at Jack.

One of Carter's hands grabbed onto Nathan's shoulder. "There isn't enough time. You'll die here if you don't go, now."

"I can still fix this, Carter," Nathan growled, still giving the console his concentration.

"Then I guess I'm staying, too," Jack drawled. His voice was a little shaky, though. For a moment, Nathan's mind wandered. Nathan knew he could make his idea work and stop the explosion… if he had five more minutes and he was suddenly overwhelmed by the realization that he only had four.

"Fine." Nathan looked away from the console. "There isn't enough time. Let's get out of here."

It took three minutes to reach the elevator and thirty seconds for them to get inside and close the doors. The explosion rocked the elevator and then locked it in place with the doors halfway above the floor and halfway below. Fortunately, this meant they could just manually open both sets of doors and climb out.

The corridor was empty, which suited Nathan just fine. He'd just failed again and didn't want anyone to see him at the moment. Bad enough, after all, that Carter was there. Why was Carter there, anyway?

"Carter?" Nathan asked, catching the Sheriff's attention. "Why did you go back for me?" He expected some trite response about doing his job, but for some reason Nathan had to hear it from Carter's lips before he could be certain.

Instead, Jack shrugged. "I went back because I knew that was where I was meant to be."

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" Nathan grumbled.

"Look, what do you want me to say, Stark? It's not in my job description to save scientists from their inability to acknowledge their own limitations," Jack sounded angrier than Nathan could ever recall hearing Carter before. "My job is to protect the people of this town, but if some moron chooses to stay behind and die then that's that. It's not my duty to risk my life on the off chance I can get that idiot to see sense. The only problem was this time you were the moron too caught up in trying to fix the disaster to realize that there wasn't any time to do it in. Nothing is ever simple when you're involved."

In college, Nathan had once hit someone for calling him a moron. Hearing the word applied to him by Jack, though… Jack was right. Nathan had been stupid and initially overestimated the time he had left. He'd been too caught up in saving the science to consider saving himself. Instead of angering him, Jack's words made Nathan feel ashamed.

And what did it say about him that the only person who felt the need to save Nathan Stark was Jack Carter?

But then Henry was running down the hall towards them, Allison and Fargo on Henry's heels, and there was no time to contemplate what it was that made Jack go back for him… or what it was about that Jack that had made Nathan listen.

Nathan wound up at Café Diem alone for dinner that evening. There was still a great deal of paperwork to go over and Allison was left with the decision of reassigning the subspace project and having it start over or scrapping it altogether. She was taking Nathan's advice and firing Dr. Solaris, though.

Solaris was probably in the midst of watching a redaction team clear out his home. After trying to pin the blame for screwing up the experiment on the dead lab assistant – Nathan had learned the woman's name was Jane Doughtry – being redacted wasn't really the worst thing that could have been done to Solaris. Personally, Nathan had wanted Carter to arrest the man for attempting to falsify his report and reckless endangerment, but Allison had refused to go for it.

"Dr. Stark?"

Startled, Nathan looked up to see the angry face of Dr. Solaris glowering down on him. "Solaris?" Nathan purposefully left off his title. Solaris was definitely not in his good books right now.

"I've been redacted."

"So I've heard," Nathan drawled, his eyes narrowing. Just what did Solaris want with him, anyway?

"I've been redacted on your recommendation."

Oh… so that was what Solaris' problem was; Solaris was clearly a brain dead moron. "Dr. Blake was going to redact you regardless. You blamed your mistakes on Dr. Doughtry, Solaris. So, yes, I recommended you for redaction only to learn that there was already a redaction team on the way to your house. You're being redacted because you made yourself into a liability."

"No!" Solaris shook his head. "I'm one of the most brilliant scientists in this town! Just because you were incompetent enough to nearly destroy Section Five with that thing kept down there doesn't mean that everyone else is so stupid…" Solaris backed off, his mouth clamping shut in surprise.

Nathan hadn't even realized he was standing up until he was towering over Solaris, his hands clenched angrily. He opened his mouth to speak only to be cut off by the calm, soothing voice of Jack Carter.

"Solaris, the redaction team needs you to inspect your house for any missed belongings and then check into the Bed and Breakfast. Apparently not everything is going as smoothly as usual since Beverly isn't here." Jack waited for a few moments until Solaris had taken a few steps back and was clearly leaving before adding in an unusually frigid tone, "also, the events you just referenced involving Section Five and Kim Anderson's death, are classified. Revealing that information would break your confidentiality contract, which, if I remember correctly, is an offense punishable with time in a high-security prison. I'm sure you'd hate to be redacted and arrested all in the same day. So why don't you keep your mouth shut from now on?"

Solaris' eyes watched hatefully as he looked between the two and then he stormed out of Café Diem.

Lightly setting his hand against Nathan's arm, Jack gave the scientist a concerned look. "Are you alright?"

Letting out a sigh, Nathan slumped back into his chair and shook his head negatively. "Not really. Look, I… I appreciate your stepping in there and getting me out of that lab, earlier."

A small smile appeared on Jack's face, lighting him up in a way that Nathan had noticed before but not really paid all that much attention to. Watching him now, though, Nathan found the expression to be rather captivating. "You're welcome, Stark," he drawled. "I don't really know what's going on with Kevin," he added in a quieter voice meant only for Nathan to hear, "but I do know that something's wrong with him and its putting a lot of stress on you right now. While I may not be good for helping with the science aspect, if you need someone to talk to or vent at… don't hesitate, okay?"

Then Jack was walking off and Nathan sat there feeling stunned. No one had noticed how things had been weighing on him lately. At least, that's what he'd thought.

Jack had been there for Nathan during those hours after Callister died, letting Nathan be angry and grieve without judging him for caring so much about an artificially created intelligence. Nathan had wanted to pursue the possibility of friendship afterwards, but stressful situations kept building up and he pushed Jack away instead. It was one thing after another and now Kevin might be dying.

God… the idea of losing his only remaining son scared the hell out of Nathan. Yet here was Jack offering the same thing he gave so freely the last time Nathan had needed someone to be there for him. A sort of warm feeling kindled in Nathan's chest as he glanced over to where Jack was sitting and having dinner with Zoe.

Then the sound of gunshots split the night. There were two at first, followed by a third after a few agonizing seconds had passed. Jack had already left his seat, running for the doors to the café. Everyone else was panicking, though Nathan found himself following after Jack.

It was already dark outside and one of the streetlamps had burned out, which made it hard to see. Jack advised the outdoor diners to go inside, which they did without complaint. His cell phone began to ring and Nathan watched as the Sheriff moved to answer it while simultaneously drawing his own gun.

"Freeze right there, Sheriff Carter," Solaris snapped, hurrying into the light. He had his gun trained on Jack and a sneer on his face. "You both think you're so special. The prodigy scientist," the gun gestured to Nathan, alerting Jack to his presence outside for the first time since running out of the café, "and the first non-military Sheriff in Eureka. But you're nothing… both of you are nothing compared to me. And when you're gone, no one will miss you… stop moving!"

Jack halted in between Nathan and Solaris. This was the second time today that Jack had placed himself between Nathan and the possibility of death. It was the first time, however, that Nathan completely froze and wished that Jack was somewhere else, somewhere safe. Watching Jack step up to protect him again and remembering Jack's words from earlier, Nathan felt as though he was in the midst of an epiphany, as though he was about to experience some sort of paradigm shift, and he needed Jack to be there, alive and well, when it was all over.

In the corridor, in the moments after the explosion, Jack had told Nathan that he'd felt as though the lab was where he was meant to be. He'd felt that saving Nathan was what he was meant to do.

Now, watching as Solaris pointed a gun at Jack, Nathan knew that this could not be the end. Without meaning to, Nathan had let Jack through his boundaries and into his life and found that the imaginative man grounded him when he needed to concentrate and distracted him when he needed an escape. Jack wasn't just meant to save Nathan from danger; Jack was meant to save Nathan from himself. With Jack around, Nathan strove to do better than he already did, to achieve things he'd once thought impossible. Except he'd always thought he did that to spite Jack.

It wasn't true, though. Nathan strove to be a better person because of Jack.

Of course, having a life-altering epiphany while there was a madman waving a gun around was probably not the greatest timing ever. Especially considering that the epiphany was making him tune out the madman's ravings.

"Get out of my way, Sheriff," Solaris snarled. "You're a small-brained twit, so I can forgive your words earlier, but if you don't get out of my way I will shoot you."

Jack also had his gun out and kept it trained steadily on Solaris. His hands never wavered, unlike Solaris whose hands were shaking badly. "I can't do that, Solaris," Jack responded calmly. "You need to put the gun down, Solaris, and surrender peacefully."

"Sorry, Sheriff," Solaris smirked cruelly and then parroted, "I can't do that."

The air split with the sound of two gunshots and then Solaris dropped to the ground like a lead weight. For a moment, Jack stood there with his gun lowered and stared.

Then Jack dropped to his knees, the gun slipping from his hands.

"Jack!" Nathan almost didn't recognize his own voice as he surged forward and caught Jack before the Sheriff crumpled to the ground completely. Putting his hand over the wound on Jack's left shoulder, Nathan began applying pressure and tried not to worry about things like arteries or veins or the heart being nicked by the bullet. For now, the important thing was to keep Jack from bleeding out before the ambulance to GD arrived.

Zoe appeared suddenly and knelt beside Nathan. "Daddy?" she whispered hoarsely.

Jack reached out and held her hand while Nathan watched numbly. "Don't worry…" Jack managed to say. "I've been hurt worse before." Unfortunately, knowing that Jack probably had been hurt worse before didn't make anything better. Then Jack's blue eyes, dulled by pain, met Nathan's and he said in a voice growing in strength, "I'm not exactly like everyone else. I've got dextrocardia."

"What's that?" Zoe's voice was hitting higher pitches than usual.

"It means that his heart is on the right side of the chest instead of the left side like everyone else's," Nathan filled in with relief. He was pretty certain the bullet hole was too high to have punctured a lung. "It means that your father will be fine."

Glancing over at Solaris' prone form, Nathan had no illusions that Jack's shot had done anything other than kill the man. After all the deaths lately, Nathan was surprised to find that Solaris' death inspired nothing more than relief. Solaris couldn't hurt anyone else anymore.

Feeling someone grasp his free hand, Nathan looked away from Solaris to see that Jack had linked their hands together. Not knowing what else to do, Nathan squeezed his hand lightly and waited as the sirens that were coming into being in the distance quickly moved closer.

Zoe walked out of Jack's room while Nathan watched, feeling oddly jealous. He wanted nothing more than to walk into that room and talk to Jack and tell him… well, Nathan wasn't sure what he'd say, just that he wanted to tell Carter just how he felt. Except Nathan was fairly certain that Jack wasn't going to want to see him and, since Nathan wasn't Jack's doctor at the moment, he had no excuse to walk in there and talk to him anyway.

Surveying the room, Zoe's eyes alighted on Nathan and she smiled before making her way across the hall to where he stood. "My dad wants to talk to you," she announced brightly. "So stop sulking or brooding or whatever you want to call it and go see him."

"I'm not sulking," Nathan grumbled. When Zoe's face lit up with a grin, he felt rather pleased.

"Fine, brooding. Just get going already."

Rolling his eyes, Nathan walked away from her and into Jack's room. He heard the door snick closed behind him and then it hit him. He was completely alone with Jack for the first time since that ill-timed epiphany. Swallowing nervously, Nathan seated himself beside Jack's bed, looked into the blue eyes that were watching him, and said, "Zoe told me that you wanted to talk."

"I just… I was wondering why you followed me out of Café Diem."

"Oh…" Nathan swallowed. The truth was that he had no idea why he did it, just that it happened. "Because…" Nathan wet his lips, absently noting the way Jack's eyes followed the motion. "It felt like I was meant to," he responded finally, unconsciously echoing Jack's words from earlier that day. "I shouldn't have, though. If I hadn't been there, Solaris wouldn't have shot you."

"No, he was going to shoot me regardless. Seeing you there made him want to shoot you first, that's all. You're smarter than he was and he hated you for that. You could've saved that subspace project if there'd been a little more time and that's something he could never have done. But I still insulted him in front of everyone inside of Café Diem and tried to arrest him twice in a matter of hours. There was no way he could have not wanted to shoot me." Jack paused and then reached out to grab Nathan's hand the way he had before. "Besides, if you hadn't been there to apply pressure to the gunshot wound, I might have bled out before reaching GD."

Nathan had forgotten the fact that Jack might have bled out. Thinking of it now sent a cold chill through his body. "Jack…" Nathan had to stop and get his voice under control. "I think I get it now."

"Get what?"

"Why you came back for me in the lab when there was barely enough time for us to get out before everything exploded."

"Alright," Jack looked amused. "Why did I do it?"

Giving himself time for just one more nervous movement (Nathan licked his lips, which Jack was definitely watching very closely), Nathan leaned over and captured Jack's mouth with his own. It started as a tentative kiss because he didn't want to hurt Jack and he wasn't 100 percent certain Jack would kiss back. But the pressure he felt against his lips in return, as well as the tongue that snaked out to part Nathan's lips and deepen the kiss told Nathan all he needed to know.

Right here, right now, this was where they were meant to be.

A/N – Aww… I may have gotten Jack shot, but he get to make out with Nathan afterwards, so I'm sure he'll forgive me.