AN1: There are definite differences between alternate universe (which is what the fab 5 experienced) and parallel universe. Alternate universes are considered complete science fiction by the scientific community and based on the idea you can change events in your own world. Parallel universe's have a hypothesis grounded in physics involving string theory for the possibility of their existence and are based on the idea of two separate yet often similar worlds coexisting. Since Zane is a physicist and I didn't want him to get what happened to the 5 exactly right yet, he's sticking with the physics.

AN2: Max Tegmark was a cosmologist that developed the first levels of classification for parallel universes.

Zane's apartment

Zane had left GD after overhearing Fargo and Grace's argument, he needed to think. If they wanted the containment field finished they could damn well do it themselves. "What had Grace called them, the travelers club? Holy Crap they're from a parallel universe" the scientist in him wanted to know how they'd managed to cross over to his and what single quantum event had been changed to create their world. "Max Tegmark would be beside himself if he were still alive" Zane idly thought to himself. The man in him however couldn't process everything he was feeling about it; he just knew that none of those feelings were good. Jo, no Lupo, was not his Lupo and he sure as hell wasn't her Zane. Zane brought himself up short on that thought. He couldn't go there yet, he wasn't ready to deal with that side of things. He needed to stick to the science, think logically and regain his balance.

Up to his elbows in his bio computer, Zane spent the rest of the night with his minding flying through various hypothesis' as to how the five had managed to pull it off. He also needed to find out what they were trying to accomplish coming here and more importantly what had happened to the five people they'd replaced. At one point Zane briefly considered calling in the DOD, but his deep seated distrust of authority had stopped him, besides he doubted Mansfield would listen to him any ways. He also didn't like the idea of what the DOD would do to Jo if they found out, but he wasn't willing to admit that to himself right then. Zane was on his own to figure it all out.

Jo's office

Jo sat at her desk and noticed there was no rose today, come to think of it she hadn't seen or heard from Zane since yesterday. She wasn't really worried about it she figured he had probably gotten lost in one of his projects. One of the things she admired about him was his ability to focus on something to the point of forgetting there even was a world outside of what he was doing, it was also one of the things they had in common. If Jo had known how spot on she was about what Zane was up to she'd have been very worried.

Jo glanced at her tablet making sure that everything was in place for the arrival of the ship. They weren't sure exactly when it would happen but they knew it could be any minute now. Fargo had told her this morning that the plasma generator was complete. Jo really hoped that this time they would be able to stop the virus from infecting anyone. The last time she'd almost lost Zane and Dr. Leiber had died. Jo shuddered at the memory of Zane lying in the infirmary.

Jo knew they had done all they could to prepare. Henry and Allison were ready to start making an antidote for the virus as soon as they had a sample of it, personnel were already in place at the landing site to bring the ship immediately back to Global and the instantaneum was ready to encase the ship in it once computer Kim was safely retrieved. Jo thought about heading out to the site when Allison walked into Jo's office.

"Fargo wants to see all of us"

Jo looked up and gasped "Allison you're glowing"

"Um, Thanks?"

"No, I mean turn off the lights it's not a problem Allison can lead the way glowing."

Allison blanched "Oh god, call Henry"

Jo grabbed her PDA and as she was escorting Allison back to the infirmary called Henry to tell him what was going on.

The Infirmary

"I don't know what's causing Allison to glow, it's not the same as the last time" Henry said, seeing Cater getting ready to say something Henry held up his hand and continued "I'll keep working on it Jack, don't worry we'll figure this out." Personally Henry was relieved this wasn't being caused by the same experiment. He never had learned exactly how Nathan had managed to cure Allison.

"I'm scared Henry, I've already almost lost her once since we've been here. I don't want to do that again" Jack's mind flashed back to a few months ago when he'd seen the flipped over SVU and Allison's lifeless body lying on the ground. He didn't think he could go through that a second time and survive it.

Henry tried to reassure his friend "I know and we will fix this Jack. The good thing is it doesn't seem to be affecting any of her vital systems this time, she's just glowing."

"Um how did things go with Grace yesterday?" Jack desperately wanted something to focus on other than how worried he was about Allison.

"Not too well, but not as bad as I thought. Grace really is an amazing woman." Henry replied looking tense "She's hurt that I didn't feel like I could share this with her before. It's just that talking about Kim is…"

"Difficult" Jack supplied "It probably didn't help that it looked like the rest of us were taking sides."

"No and I'm sorry I put all of you that position. I should have dealt with this sooner."

Jack put his hand on Henry's shoulder "We're your friends Henry and we knew that you would work this out. You will, you and Grace you'll work it out, just give her some time."

Jack's PDA went off glancing at he said "It's from Fargo. The ship's here, he and Jo are already moving it back to Global. I should meet them."

Jack walked over to Allison and told her what was happening. Giving her a quick kiss he said "I love you" then headed out to Section 5.

Allison glanced up at Henry "We really need to find a way to stop this. We can't keep reliving our lives over again and its getting dangerous. Sooner or later someone is going to get hurt."

"I know. Fargo and I have a theory but we don't have a way to test it. If we can't test it first..." Henry trailed off then continued "I just don't see how we can stop it until we do." Part of Henry wanted to follow Jack the other part of him didn't want to go through it all again.

Outside Zane's Apartment

"Isn't Donovan supposed to be at work? Now is not the time for the man to decide to slack off" Marcus thought to himself. He needed one more thing before he put his plan to kill Jo in motion and that was a clean set of Donovan's prints. Well two things really he needed Jo to agree to another date. But first the prints, it was going to take him a while to make latex copies to wear. Marcus sat in his car and waited, he really didn't want to have to give up his opportunity to frame the other man "After all it had been so much fun the last time." The ship was here which meant he was out of time. He needed to get this over with so that he could get the hell out of this place and join Beverly. "Finally" he thought as he saw Donovan leave the building and head towards his motorcycle. Marcus waited until he saw Zane turn the corner then he got out of his car and headed inside.

Zane on his way to Global

Zane now had several theories as how they had managed to move between the two universes and the scientist in him wanted to talk to Henry about to see which if any were correct. But he knew that he couldn't do that, none of them could be trusted. They'd callously come here taking over the lives of five of Eureka's most prominent citizens, apparently not even caring how it would affect the children of those people. Zoe at least was safely away at Harvard but Kevin and Jenna, Zane wondered if Kevin suspected that the woman living with him was not his mother. What had they done with the people they'd replaced? Had they sent them over to their own world? Zane couldn't see how you could keep five people hidden away for months on end. He needed to figure out what the band of five was up to and stop them. Shocked he realized he was feeling very protective of the people in this town he called his home.

He'd really been trying to avoid it but his thoughts eventually turned to Jo. He had a lot of feelings about what she had done but the two taking the lead were anger and betrayal. Evidentially she was engaged to the other him and had decided to use Zane as a replacement or place holder while she was here. "Why" he wondered "Had something gone wrong and now they were stuck here? If so, was Jo using him to recapture her life?" Zane bitterly wondered if those times he'd held her in his arms and kissed her if she had been thinking about the other Zane, the one she loved. The Lupo he knew had been a piece of work sometimes but she'd never been that sick and twisted Zane thought.

Zane tried to push his thoughts of Jo away. He needed to concentrate on figuring out why they were here. It was why he was headed back to Global now, to keep an eye on them, gather some facts and then figure out what to do.

Section 5 Lab 14

The ship had been unloaded into the bay and Jack, Fargo and Jo were standing together watching it.

"Ok what now?" Jack asked

"We wait for it to open its doors and send Kim out" Fargo replied

"Seems somehow anticlimactic to me" Jack said, Jo snorted her agreement with that. "I thought it was called the Columbia?"

"It is" Fargo supplied.

"No" Jo joined in "look its says Kim"

They heard the lab door open up and turned to see Zane walking in. "No bio computers" Fargo yelled "it's too dangerous." Zane held up his hands and started backing out, noticing a lab tech in the hallway he handed his computer over and told them to take it to his lab. "What the hell is suddenly so dangerous about a bio computer" Zane wondered.

Jo smiled up at Zane but he didn't return the sentiment. "Something is wrong" Jo thought, Zane's eyes just looked flat and devoid of all emotion. It didn't help that he appeared to be looking at her like she was one of his experiments. Jo wanted to go over and ask him about it but she heard the noise suddenly coming from the ship indicating Kim was about to arrive. Jo turned back and with Fargo and Jack began advancing towards the now descending bay door. Zane watched the three of them very closely.

The fog cleared and Zane noticed that they all wore three very different expressions. "One thing was clear whatever it was they hadn't been expecting it" Zane thought. Carter looked horrified, Jo shocked and Fargo looked downright giddy. In unison all three of them said "Stark!" Jo recovered first and started issuing orders "get it some clothes and get it to isolation" she barked out.

"It" Zane thought "From where he stood it looked like a human being, a very I'm supposed to be dead human being."

"Oh hell, No!" Carter said

Jo snorted at him "Do you have any idea how happy I am that I'm not the one that has to tell Allison?"

Fargo was so happy to see his former boss he started walking towards him. Jo grabbed him by the collar and said "Down it's not really him and you're not wearing the proper protective gear to touch it." Fargo looked a little crestfallen but subsided.

Fargo walked over to Zane "The containment field isn't very stable" he said.

"Whatever, I'll look at it" Zane hissed out.

"Um ok, thanks" Fargo said backing away and heading towards Jo. "He's in a foul mood today."

"Yeah I noticed" Jo said a little worriedly.

At the sound of the lab door Jo looked up to see Dr. Hendricks arrive she and Jack walked over to him. "Ah good my instantaneum is here can I get through the field to set it up? He asked them.

"We'll need to check with Zane" Jo answered. The three of them headed over to the lab table Zane was working at. Jo placed her hand on Zane's arm trying to gage what was going on with him but he shrugged it off.

"Not good" Jo thought to herself, but to Zane said "Dr. Hendricks needs to get through the containment field for a while."

"Fine I'll work on it" Zane snapped.

"Great I'll go get my guys" Hendricks said and headed back out the door.

Jack idly picked up one of the canisters sitting on the table and started turning it over in his hands. Seeing what Jack was doing in a panicked voice Jo said "Don't it's got a manual" she and Zane looked down to see that they each had a foot stuck in the instantaneum "Release value." Jo finished. Jo rounded on Jack as best as she could with one foot planted to the ground. Jack wisely backed up out of her reach seeing the look on her face.

"Seriously, seriously you didn't learn your lesson the last damn time?" She hissed at him.

Fargo seeing what had happened headed for the door mumbling he had calls to make. No way was he staying there to get caught up in Jo's wrath.

"I'll find Hendricks" Jack said and made to follow Fargo, not all that sure Jo wouldn't find a way to kill him even if she couldn't reach him.

Zane and Jo were basically left alone except for a few scientists on the other side of the lab working on Stark 2.0 in the isolation chamber. They looked at each other, she with a quizzical expression wondering what was up and Zane looking at her like she was some particularly difficult math problem that for once he didn't know how to solve. Jo knew she needed to say something to try and figure out what was going on but, from the look on Zane's face she was very much afraid she was about to get her heart broken again.

"Well it could be worse one of us could have been stuck here with Fargo" she tried to Joke

Zane wasn't in the mood "I need to figure a way out of this, instantaneum is a nano polymer foam that binds at a…"

"Molecular level, yes I know" Jo finished

"And how do you know that Jo?" Zane asked angrily "Your knowledge of all things scientific isn't exactly legendary now is it."

Jo pulled back thinking "Did he just call me stupid?" Now she was starting to get angry. "What in the hell is your Problem?" She snapped at him. "You geeks talk I listen, I'm fully capable of comprehending things without a science for dummies book."

"Is it that or is that you and your friends already know what's going to happen before it does. " Zane snapped back at her. He found that now that he was with her again he couldn't contain the anger he felt. He had been falling for her and now he'd found out it was all a lie. This wasn't how he had wanted to handle things but he knew that he wouldn't be able to stop himself. He and Jo were going to have it out right there. At least she couldn't run away and avoid this conversation this time.

The other scientist in the room noticed a fight was brewing between Lupo and Donovan and they scurried out of the lab as quickly as possible, before the real fireworks got started. All of them had witnessed fights between the two before and didn't want to repeat the experience.

Jo began to feel a sense of panic rising. Zane was smart, really smart had he figured out what had happened. She decided caution was the better part of valor and tried to get a feel for where the conversation was going. "What is that supposed to mean? We're not fortunetellers Zane."

"Could have fooled me" Zane began "Carter seemed to know more about what that it is than I do" he waved his hand indicating Stark "Why is that none of you seemed particularly surprised to see our dead boss standing there very much alive?"

"That's not Stark, it's a bio computer created by the ship" Too late Jo realized she'd just walked into Zane's trap.

"Is that what you are a computer? Is this ship how you and the other four managed to travel between universes?" Zane queried. Zane had been one of the people walking around in a trance building the plasma generator and the experience had left a bad taste in his brain. The thought that the five of them might have been behind that royally pissed him off.

Jo's face drained of all color, Zane knew. But what he'd just said didn't make sense that wasn't how Henry had explained things to her. What other universe? Jo knew Zane was very angry and she wasn't feeling particularly benevolent towards him at the moment, but she tried to hold on to her temper. "What ship? We went through a worm hole. Don't ask me how you'd need to talk to Henry about it. It had something to do with the bridge device."

A worm hole, he knew there was no way a worm hole could gap two separate universes. It would remain within its own and that meant time travel. Something Zane knew was impossible, Einstein had already proven that. "Really" he thought to himself "is that the best cover story they could come up with?" Jo was still lying to him, she knew she'd been caught and she was still lying to him. Zane's anger rose even higher. He was deeply hurt by her and he wanted to return the favor. Knowing there were a lot of similarities between this Jo and the one he knew he went for what would hurt the most.

"Maybe you do need that science for dummies book after all. What you're talking about is impossible. Did you honestly think you" he looked at her with disdain "could fool me? You're not the sharpest knife in the drawer around here Josephina."

Jo tried to reply but Zane's feelings of anger and betrayal were gathering a head of steam and he was going to get it all out. "What exactly where you playing at with us, were you lonely and just decided to use me as a substitute until you could get home to your Zane? Throw in a little Marcus on the side in case in didn't work out. Tell me does your Zane know just how unfaithful you are to him? You Know, now that I think about it, you and Marcus are perfect for each other, neither one of you gives a damn who you hurt just so long as you get what you want." It hurt Zane very deeply to think that it had never been him Jo was responding to when they'd kissed. He continued all emotion now drained out of his voice "It was very clever of you to use his ring to wind me up. You had to know once you threw it at me I'd never be able to resist the mystery."

Jo was heartbroken "was this really what he thought of her?" She couldn't deal with any more heartbreak after months of it, but anger she could deal with and she let her control over hers snap. "What do you think I just woke up one morning and said hey Jo what can you do today to completely screw up your life? I never asked anyone to send me back to 1947 just so I could come home and find every part of my life had been rewritten." Zane started to reply, he'd had enough of the time travel garbage. Jo cut him off "Shut up! You've had your turn now it's mine" she hissed at him. "There is not now nor has there ever been any other Zane besides you."

It had taken Jo a while to figure it out but she knew it was true. Their lives had been rewritten but he was still the same man she had always loved. "You had no memory of us, how was I supposed explain that? What was I supposed to say to you? You really need to stop trying to date every woman in town, we're getting engaged and you love me. Sorry you can't remember it but hey it's the truth. I threw the ring at you because I was hallucinating not because I was trying to trap you into anything." Sadly she continued "I was right we don't fit."

The doors opened and a no longer glowing Allison walked in with Hendricks. "Welcome to Dr. Bonehead's lab" Jo ground out.

Hendricks looked taken aback but walked over to Zane "Let's get to work on getting you two out of here."

"Fine by me, the sooner I can get away from her the better" Zane replied.

Allison came up beside Jo and the two started whispering to each other furiously. Zane couldn't catch what they were saying except a few choice phrases Jo made damn sure he could hear. "The man's a jackass"; "I know 5 year olds I'd trust first"; "For someone with such a high IQ he's a complete idiot"; "Remind me again what I ever saw in him". By the time Zane and Hendricks had come up with a way to destroy the instantaneum Zane had had enough of Jo's running commentary. He looked at her and said "Just so you know this passive aggressive thing is really annoying."

Eyes narrowing Jo replied "You want to go for just aggressive?"

Zane's temper snapped again "Bring it Lupo, you think I won't take you on. The other Lupo could be a vindictive bitch sometimes but wow, she had nothing on you sweetheart."

Hendricks didn't know what the two were fighting about but he knew he wanted as far away from them as he could get. He started to explain there would be a small explosion but the tiny trapped woman cut him off "Just do it" Jo snapped out. Jo knew exactly what was coming and her entire body tensed in preparation. The same second the instantaneum exploded and released her she rounded on Zane and planted her foot into his chest sending him flying over the lab table to land four feet from where he'd just been standing. She walked around the table and leaned over him. "Do you still want to go for just aggressive?" she breathed out in a very low and deadly voice. Zane shook his head no very carefully since any movement at all was painful. Jo's eyes and toned softened "For your own sake Zane turn me in." With that she headed for the door pulling out her PDA as she went. Her voice, still loud enough to be heard by Zane and Allison, took on a sultry tone as she spoke into the device "Marcus about that date" after a slight pause she continued "Tomorrow night would be perfect." Jo walked through the doors and headed out of Global. She was pretty sure if she stayed there she really would end up killing someone.

Allison bent over Zane and began to feel for broken bones. She looked up at him anger and disappointment showing across her pretty face. "Lucky, Jo held back so nothing's broken. Too bad, I was really looking forward to resetting something without the benefit of anesthesia" Allison Snapped. Then standing up to look down at the young man she continued. "You know I've always thought you were a fairly decent person, I see now that I was mistaken. Nothing that happened was Jo's fault, it was an accident. One that we've all had to figure out how to live with. Jo did the best she could when we got back here to get on with her life and stay out of yours. If I'm not mistaken you're the one that's been chasing after her not the other way around."

Even though Zane was still trying to catch the breathe that had been knocked out of him he managed to get out "I'm not the one that lied"

"No and maybe she should have told you. But based on what I just saw and heard I don't blame Jo for not trusting you with the truth. I don't get it you push everything good for you away, Eureka, Global, Jo. Well Eureka and Global will still be here for you despite your attitude, Jo I'm not so sure about." With that Allison turned to leave and pulling out her phone called Henry.

"Zane knows you need to come down here and talk to him." Allison listened for a moment "No, right now we don't want Jo in the same hemisphere with him and truthfully I'd probably help her. " Allison listened some more "Thanks; you'll find him lying on the floor in section 5." With that she headed out the door very worried that they were going to have to use their backup plan. Allison really didn't want to have to leave Eureka and start over somewhere else like Grant, It wouldn't be fair to Kevin and Jenna, but she was very much afraid they were going to have to.

Somewhere halfway over the table Zane's anger had subsided. He put his head back down on the cool floor wondering if maybe Allison hadn't been right and he'd just blown it. Had Jo been telling the truth and they'd some how managed time travel? He was also thinking about just how badly every part of his body hurt.