A/N-Thanks for reading :)

Previously…Zane is spending more and more time in GD, struggling to make the deadline. His computer is sabotaged, and in the course of fixing it he discovers a secret passage that leads him to Jo's office. She is…less than pleased to find him there, especially when she finds out he was on the phone with Zoe.

"Good morning, Fargo," Zoe said brightly as she passed him in the rotunda early Monday morning.

He stopped and spun, chasing after her quickly moving form.

"Zoe! What are you doing here?"

"I want to go over Thurgood's Deception again." She had liked Thurgood; everybody had. He was a good scientist and a better teacher, and oftentimes that was what counted most. But the moniker had been quickly adopted, and everybody was using it, including Zoe.

"I thought you'd already been through it all last week?"

"Well, I was thinking about it this weekend, and I thought of some other possibilities for applications. We talked about its use for medicine, and he was already using it for studying fossils, but I think it could have a lot of possibilities for ecological conservation and restoration." This was, of course, a total lie, with the benefit of being true. A team from an environmental studies lab was already looking into the uses of the perm, but Zoe had no intention of going and helping them. She just needed an excuse to be in GD.

"Oh, alrighty then."

"Great, thanks," she said, and turned to leave.

"Hey, Zoe!" She looked back at him. "We've still gotta have that Idol night!"

"We do," she agreed. Right now, however, she was more interested in her current mission.

She took the elevator down to Section Two, glancing over her shoulder to make sure Fargo wasn't following her. In the clear, she made her way towards Jo's office. She might not be able to hack into GD records on her own, but she could certainly snoop around a desk. She happened to know that Jo would not be in her office that morning—a military test was happening on-site on the far side of town.

She tapped in a manual access code to get through the door. The string of numbers wasn't difficult to work out—it was a string of birthdays mixed with deployment dates of her family members, and Zoe knew it from sharing computer passwords with Jo.

She rounded the corner into the main office and jogged down the steps, listening for the door to close behind her. When she looked up, she was greeted by a surprising sight.

Zane was seated in Jo's chair, behind the desk, fast asleep. His hair looked like he'd run his hands through it repeatedly.

"Zane?" She walked over to him and poked his shoulder. He twitched away from her finger, but didn't wake up. "Zane."

She moved her hand to his shoulder and shook.

He jerked away from her this time, sitting bolt upright but eyes still half-closed with sleep. "Lupo, I can explain—" His voice was slurred, but he shook himself and looked at her clearly. "Oh, Zoe," he said in a much clearer voice. A little gravely, if you asked her. Had she ever mentioned that he was attractive? "You're not Lupo. This is her office, right? What are you doing here?"

"Same thing as you, probably. Looking for information."

"Oh. Right. What's her oldest brother's name?"

That was a little bit left field. "Rico. Why?"

"I came in here to—well, it's kind of a long story. But after I got out of here last night, I got to thinking about how she said I'd left finger prints down there."

"Which could be misconstrued as sabotage by you," Zoe nodded along. He'd told her all of this on the phone last night.

"Right. So, well, I came back after I knew she'd be gone. I came in this morning—I say this morning, I mean two o'clock—to see what she'd written in her report. Because the old Jo would have had me accused and shipped off before you can say 'Bob's your uncle.' But new Jo, do you know what she wrote? 'Inconclusive evidence,' and not one mention of the possibility that it might be my fault. I'm mentioned only in that it was my computer and that I'm the one who repaired it."

Zoe was still agreeing. Before, Jo would have done anything to get rid of Zane. He would have been the prime and only suspect. Zoe needed to know what was different and why things had changed.

"So, anyway, I thought, while I was here, why not have a look around, see if I can't find something to help me hack into the security cameras."

"Won't she be suspicious when she sees you in here on the tapes?"

"I've fed it a loop. Oh, you'd be surprised how much easier it is to put something into the security feeds than it is to get it out."

"And?"

"Well, I'm pretty sure 'Rico' is the answer to this last security question, and then I'm in. I couldn't remember their names."

"So, you're in?"

"Almost…" he looked between Jo's computer and his laptop a few times, typing in something on his own computer, and finishing with a flourish. "Yes! That was way more work than when I first got here. I—" He looked at the video on his laptop that now showed himself and Zoe in Jo's office. "Is that the time? Oh, I'm so late—I'm sorry. I'll talk to you later?"

Zoe nodded, oddly disappointed.

"I'll let you know if I see anything on this." He patted his laptop and began rearranging the desk so that Jo wouldn't know he'd been there. "See you later."

"See you."

Zoe knew it wasn't his fault that Fargo had given him this enormous project on an impossible deadline, but she couldn't help wishing that she could spend more time with him. She would only be in town for a little over a week, and he was going to be spending most of that here in GD.

When she'd needed a physics tutor, Zane had been there for her. His unequalled knowledge of physics concepts made him qualified, but he himself… He had a way of explaining things that made them make sense. His enthusiasm for the topics made her more interested in them. He knew, and she wanted to know more. He was a good tutor, and she'd found herself quickly falling. Nevermind the boys in her dorms. They had nothing a Eureka's resident bad-boy genius. (And not that she'd be telling her father this anytime soon, but the bad-boy part of it didn't hurt).

Her summer program was over, but the new semester would begin in two weeks. She wanted to be able to spend time with her (hopefully, soon-to-be) boyfriend. True, they could holoskype, but it wasn't the same as being there in person. The holoskype system limited you to wherever you had it installed, and, being semi-top-secret Eureka technology, it had to stay in her dorm room.

Maybe he could fly out and visit her sometime. But, no. That would violate his parole, wouldn't it? He was stuck in Eureka, and it sucked. She'd be back for Thanksgiving, and Christmas, but those were months and months away. How could she make a new relationship work long distance?

The person she'd always gone to for advice, her best friend, her older sister, was refusing to talk about it. Her other friends—ones she'd made at Tesla—were no help because they had zero experience. Pilar liked to pretend she knew things, but life in Eureka was pretty sheltered. And her new friends at Harvard—they were no help because she couldn't explain to them that "The Guy" was a felon, but on parole because he was a genius and a top secret military research and development company needed him.

That left her father, who, even if she was comfortable discussing this kind of thing with, had been strangely reticent. Zoe thought he was trying to stay out of it—if he turned a blind eye, she'd work out her problems on her own. But then, a few times, he'd shown regret at her decisions. He didn't directly tell her not to date him; he probably knew that would only make her pursue the relationship more. But he certainly didn't approve.

At first she'd thought it was because of who it was. Zane was a felon, and not the most stand-up guy in town. But he'd said…Her father had said that he thought Zane was okay. So it seemed it was just the relationship he didn't like.

What was she supposed to do about that?

Prove it. She'd prove it to him, to Zane, to herself, to everybody else, that this relationship could be something real. They had a connection—she'd felt it. She just had to make everybody else see it, too.

A/N-*Hides in corner* I promise you, I'm not shipping Zane and Zoe. We'll get there, eventually. In the meantime, it's going to get worse before it gets better.

Zane baffles me. We love him, but he's such a jerk. I think we, like Jo, have left-over feelings from the old timeline and forgive him his (new) faults because we remember what he used to be like, and hope he'll eventually get back to that state (I think he does, even if he is different). That said, I know the last chapter sucked. It was rushed and worded badly, and most of the plot advancing elements were convoluted and confusing. I'm pretty sure it should be improving, though, from here on out. Plans are laid, and I know what's coming :)

Again, thanks for reading! I really appreciate all reviews, but I'd love it if anybody could give me some tips on improving.

P.S. That means review, please!