A/N-Some of you are getting ahead of me :) (Also, please don't kill me)
Previously…Zoe goes to GD with the intent to snoop through Jo's office, only to find that Zane has already done so. Zane finally succeeds in hacking the security system, and promises to let Zoe know if he sees anything. In the meantime, he's pushing himself harder than ever to finish the DED project and Zoe is feeling a little left out.
If there was one thing Zane trusted about Lupo, it was that she was good at her job. He could testify to that firsthand. Second, he would say she was loyal, perhaps to a fault, and dedicated to the protection of the greater good. Dedicated, as well, to the protection of innocent individuals. She was loyal to GD, to Fargo, and to Eureka as a whole.
So he couldn't figure out how Grant had slipped past her.
When they'd asked him to hack the Pentagon (a fun challenge, to be sure), he'd seen that Dr. Oldspice (perfect nickname, a la Carter) was not who he said he was. At least, he'd faked his IDs and records. If Zane could spot that, so could Jo. So either she was off her game or she knew he was a fake and was covering for him.
Actually, those could both be true, and related. If she was being coerced into covering Grant's tracks, that could explain why she'd been so off and unfocused lately. It didn't explain the others who were involved…Carter, for sure. Fargo, probably. Blake, Henry, and Grace, maybe. Unless Grant had something over all of them. What could he possibly do to six of the most influential members of town?
Zane added "Watch Grant" to his mental list of things to do this week. He would watch for Grant and Jo, while he still had access to the security system, and he would finish this project, whether it killed him or not. Scratch that, that was like tempting fate in Eureka. He'd finish the project no matter what, but it wouldn't kill him.
Zane refocused on the monitors in front of him. He was now running four systems; the DED system, which he'd reconnected on Sunday and was run off of GD's mainframe, his tablet, his work laptop, and his personal laptop. He'd carefully placed his personal computer behind the others, angled so that you couldn't see the screen from the other stations or from the security cameras. Displayed on that screen were several feeds; one for Lupo and one for Grant. The other three he was using for the project.
He had made great progress yesterday, and had most of the main programs written. A secondary support program, however, was giving him trouble. The main program needed it to run, but the runtime of this secondary program was nearly a week—and what good did that do a defensive response weapon?
He'd begun counting down the hours—fifty more to go. Fifty hours to pare down this runtime from 6.5 days to twenty minutes. Fifty hours until Mansfield came into town expecting an effective test. Fifty hours to make or break his chances at the Big Bang.
He glanced at the security video again, and saw two things.
One, Jo was still in her office. She was shuffling through papers on her desk with one hand. As she selected one and sat back to read it, he saw that with the other hand she was fingering something at her neck. The camera, while high end, was too far away and too unclear to be able to tell what it was. A necklace of some kind, it must be. She absentmindedly moved it back and forth across her fingers. It was a habit, he could tell. But he'd never seen her do it. How did that happen? He'd tell Zoe, and maybe Zoe could find out what it was.
Two, he saw Grant leave his office. This wouldn't have been suspicious if the historian wasn't looking around shiftily and hurrying through corridors, avoiding people as much as possible. Or maybe Zane was projecting. But, no, nobody went down a floor just to find an unused staircase to go back up three floors to a door that led directly to the parking lot. He watched Grant drive away from the last camera that was situated at the main gate. Where was he going?
He could go break into Grant's office and search for clues. But that would put him (even further) behind on this program. It was also likely to get him into extra trouble with Lupo, because she'd made it pretty clear that she wanted him to drop his suspicions of Grant.
No, better that he wait until Grant came back. He could just pick him up on the cameras again. In the meantime, he was going to focus in on solving this runtime.
Zane had forgotten the rush he got from solving a complex equation. It had been so long since anything challenged him. But this elation, it was a wonderful feeling and he had to share it before he burst. Plus he might burst anyway if he spent any more time in GD.
So it was that at nine o'clock Wednesday night, Zane left GD for the first time in what felt like days. Forty-one hours to go, and the bulk of the work was done. Who to share it with? Well, pretty much, Zoe. Who else would care that he'd accomplished something? Maybe Fargo, in the sense that it would get Mansfield off his back.
Zane made his way to S.A.R.A.H. Zoe would be happy for him. Maybe he'd even have some free time to spend with her. He laughed to himself. Maybe Carter would be there, and he could watch him fume. Nothing was more entertaining than an angry, blustering Carter.
Zoe was alone in the living room when he arrived, however. She jumped up when she saw him, a big grin spreading over her face.
"Zane! I didn't think you'd escape the hole until Saturday?"
"I have great news," he said, and he couldn't stop himself from smiling either.
"Mr. Donovan," S.A.R.A.H. interrupted, "my sensors indicate that you are severely lacking in several essential nutrients, including but not limited to vitamins A, C, and especially D, iron, phosphates—"
"Thanks, S.A.R.A.H., but I'll have to catch up on all of that later."
"What was your news, Zane?"
"A few things. Small or big first?"
Zoe considered for a minute before deciding, "Small."
"I think I found something on the security cams." Zoe stood up straighter. "Jo was sitting in her office, playing with something around her neck. I figure it's a necklace, but I couldn't tell what it was."
Zoe looked thoughtful. "I've seen her doing that. You're right, it is a necklace. But she always keeps it tucked into her shirt, so I've never seen what's on it either. She wears it all the time. But she only touches it when she's really distracted and thinks no one is looking."
"Do you think you can find it, when she's not wearing it?"
"Covert infiltration of Jo's room? Yeah, I can do that."
"You sound just a tad too excited about that."
Zoe grinned again. "So, if that was the small news, what's the big news?"
"I'm almost finished with the project Fargo gave me. I finally got the runtime of the program down, by almost five hundred percent."
"Oh, Zane, that's great!" She threw her arms around his neck, knocking him backward. By the time he recovered enough to start hugging her back, she was already pulling away. Not far, though. Suddenly, her face was right in front of his, and she was—oh crap.
Her mouth was on his. It wasn't a tiny, friendly-like kiss, either. It was a full on lip-lock that she was pretty enthusiastic about.
It's not that he hadn't known about her feelings for him. She wasn't subtle, and he wasn't stupid. What had he been thinking?
No, seriously. What kind of a dumbass idea was that, leading her on? A fun one, that's what. Stuck as he was in Eureka, he didn't have a lot of face-to-face contact with the outside world. Zoe was one of the few (only) people who had always treated him like a human being, not just in the last five months. But he hadn't meant for it to go quite this far. Crush on the (good looking, intelligent) tutor? Totally understandable and normal. Anything more than that? Maybe a little too much.
He pulled back, probably much sooner than Zoe wanted. She didn't look disappointed though, only happy. She also looked like she was thinking about going back in.
"Look, Zoe, I have to go back to GD. I just wanted to share the great news. I'll see you later? I think I'll be done by Friday afternoon. There were some people going up to the lake then. I might try to stop by."
And even though he was bolting—pretty obviously—she didn't look upset. She just smiled again and agreed to meet up with him later.
A/N-*curls into ball in that corner* When I—when I say I'm not shipping Zane and Zoe, I mean that I personally don't want them together. Within the story, however, well...Zoe wholeheartedly approves of the two of them together. But I think a teensy bit of my own opinion may have been projected onto Zane's thoughts. Maybe.
This story originally had 6 chapters, but then it grew plot and evolved the alternating perspective. I'm through about 4 of them, now.
Thanks for reading! I apologize for where it is right now, but it will end up in a better place.
Reviews are lovely :)
