Shot Through the Heart

Zane paced nervously outside the infirmary. It was lucky he'd gotten Jo back as fast as he did. After she collapsed, Zane scooped her up and put the pedal to the medal. Once she was in the infirmary, Allison rushed her into surgery and kicked Zane out so he wouldn't hover, saying she would come get him when they were done. Hovering? Please. Zane Donovan didn't "hover."

But that was nineteen minutes ago! Why hadn't Allison come out yet? Were they still in surgery? Was there a complication? Zane rushed to the door, ready to barge in and ask what was taking so damn long, but then he remembered: hovering. Right. He had to keep his cool. He turned around and sauntered over to the far wall and leaned on it casually, stuffing his hands in his pockets and assumed the typical cool-Zane pose. And if it also happened to give him a clear view into the infirmary, that was by complete coincidence.

Three agonizingly long minutes later, Jo was wheeled out in a hospital bed and Zane hauled ass inside in a very calm and nonchalant manner. He stood over her, noting her heart monitor and life signs were blinking happily above her, and that she was breathing slowly but was still apparently unconscious. He grabbed a chair, plunking it next to her bed, and sat down. Her face looked serene and almost angelic as her silky black hair cascaded down around her shoulders and onto her chest, which was gently heaving up and down. She was okay. She was okay.

But was he okay? He thought about the events that had recently transpired again in order to collect his thoughts. Zane realized he'd been thinking about those moments a lot, especially as of late. From their first contact in the jail cell (some things never change) to their exciting minefield excursion, courtesy of the lady of the hour herself. Of course, he'd spent much more than an hour thinking about her. So much in fact, that he'd lost track of the time. Hell, he'd spent more time thinking about Jo in the past few weeks than he'd ever spent on any particle physics problem or code glitches. Zane never thought he'd live to see the day when he would spend more energy on a woman – besides his own mother – than on science. But that was just it - she wasn't just another girl or another equation to solve, she was so much more. Looking at her now, he could feel the spot on his cheek burning where she'd kissed "hallucination" him. He didn't know exactly how she was so much more, he just had an overwhelming gut feeling that he couldn't suppress. And so what if he didn't know yet? He would just have to find out.

Zane shook himself out of his mini reverie and looked down at Jo's hand. Should he take it? Isn't that what people normally did in these situations? No, that might be weird since she wasn't aware of his decision to pursue her. She wasn't aware because she wasn't conscious. So maybe he could hold her hand? It's not like she would be awake to see it. He just wanted to be close to her, to feel the life flowing through her body. He needed to be certain she was really there, that she was really alive and willing to follow through on that promise of a second chance. As he leaned forward, silently debating whether or not it would be overstepping his boundaries, Jo's eyes fluttered open. She released a small groan and placed her hand on her chest. She then turned towards Zane and upon seeing him, her pained frown dissolved.

"Hey."

"Hey yourself. How are you feeling?"

She rubbed her chest again. "Not so good. God, I feel like I've been shot."

"Well we did find this in your chest" said Allison as she walked up with Carter in tow, handing Jo a bullet. "It just missed your heart – you were extremely lucky Jo. And it's a good thing Zane managed to get you in here so quickly."

Zane gave himself a mental pat on the back.

Jo raised her eyebrows and took it. "Wow, that's a .50 caliber Browning Aviation Tracer."

Allison smiled and shook her head. "Yeah, I had to search the military database for a good ten minutes to find that out."

Carter chuckled and squeezed Jo's shoulder. "That's my girl!"

Jo's wealth of knowledge never ceased to amaze Zane. He grinned broadly at and unabashedly at Jo and when she noticed, she gave him a coy smile in return – okay, he could get used to that. She then turned back to the bullet and quickly examined it again.

"Collectors would go nutsfor this."

"Why?" Allison inquired. "They still make them."

"Yeah but they stopped painting the tip in the 1950s" Jo replied, indicating to the blue point. "Wait… so they painted them in the 1940s…"

Carter's eyes widened in recognition, "I knewI'd seen that plane that appeared in the café before!"

Allison cleared her throat and attempted to discretely jerk her head at Zane, but Jo stopped her.

"It's okay guys, he knows."

"But he – but we – but – what? How? When?" Carter sputtered with an incredulous look on his face.

"Don't worry, I won't tell. I promise." Zane looked Carter and then Allison in the eyes, for once not attempting to shield any sort of deceit. It worked, and after exchanging glances with Jo to corroborate whether or not his sincerity was just an act and each giving Zane a once-over, they returned to the problem at hand.

Carter put his hands on his hips and shifted his stance. "So, if things are appearing from the 1940s, then it's probably related to our little… field trip. But they're just popping up randomly! And why did it suddenly start happening? Why now?"

"Well, I did overhear Fargo and Henry talking about some unofficial testing of the Bridge Device, so maybe something went wrong with one of Henry and Grace's tests," Jo remarked. "You should probably start with them."

"And maybe the objects aren't materializing randomly. Maybe they're emerging in a location that corresponds with where they were positioned in 1947," Zane chimed in. "I could try to pull up some schematics of the town layout from back then."

"Great." Carter clapped his hands together. "Zane, you're with me. And you," he said pointing at Jo, "get better. Someone's got to root for the eye patch guy."

"I can help with that," Allison said before Carter gave her a peck on the lips. "The getting better part at least, I'll leave the reality TV watching up to Jo."

"I have the utmost faith in you," he replied in utter infatuation before leaning in for another kiss.

Zane scrunched his nose up a little bit. He wasn't going to act like that, was he? Like a lovesick puppy? Luckily, before his train of thought chugged somewhere much too mushy for Zane's taste, Jo snapped them all back to attention.

"People! Things appearing everywhere! Like in my chest! Could you at least pretend that there's some urgency to this and save the goopy romance for the bedroom?"

Zane smirked. You go, Jo.

"Right! Urgency!" Carter said, refocusing. "Let's go."

Zane turned back to Jo before he left with Mr. Love Struck, making sure she was fine. She gave him a nod and a small smile. He returned the gesture and went to catch up with Carter. This whole having Jo vouch for him thing wasn't half bad. She trusted him.

That was a nice feeling.

Jo blinked her eyes open from her nap. She hoped the drowsy side effects of the surgery medication would wear off soon. Maybe she should ask Allison about it. Speaking of the good doctor, Allison saw Jo was awake and headed over.

"Here's another little souvenir to add to your collection. He had it sent up here because he's pretty busy working and can't bring it himself," she said, handing Jo a magazine. Jo snorted upon recognizing the Military Ma'am title. She knew who sent it. Allison placed a comforting hand on Jo's shoulder.

"You already seem perkier than you've been in a while, Jo. And from what Carter says, Zane's really trying. I'm happy for you." Allison was practically beaming at her.

"Thanks Allison." Jo thought about it for just a moment before admitting, "I'm happy too."

"Well then, I'll leave you to it. Oh and this," she suddenly procured and placed a mini tub of Rocky Road and a spoon onto the bedside table, "is to bring up your blood sugar and give you some energy. Eat up – doctor's orders."

"Twist my arm, Allison, really," Jo said jokingly.

Allison smiled and squeezed her shoulder softly. "Call me if you need anything."

Jo thanked her again and then opened up the magazine to the first page, finding a sticky note that read:

Just a little something to help you pass the time.

- Zane

Jo's heart fluttered. Okay, so it was just a magazine, but that plus the way he'd been acting today… Whoa, not again. She was notfalling for this guy. Sure she'd followed Zoe's advice about giving him another chance, but that was just to prove that he wasn't some juvenile asshole, not so he could woo her! But at the same time, there seemed to be something more to this equation.

Obviously, there had always been a spark between them - regardless of the timeline, according to the stories Zoe had told her - but there was something else too. There was an unspoken comfort; immediately after their first civil conversation ever in this reality during their little elevator rendezvous, their guards collapsed. In the car he felt completely comfortable rocking out and managed to make her laugh within mere minutes of their decided toleration, and that was something. The walls that had taken other Zane years to breach were expediently demolished with the wrecking ball that is this Zane.

And it wasn't just because he was the spitting image of the old Zane – they were two different people. Yes, they were physically identical and similarly brilliant, but just because they both had an inclination to eat toasted peanut butter and bacon didn't mean they were identical. There were still things to learn about this Zane because she was basically meeting him for the first time.

And that was exciting for Jo. It was a second chance for her to find that certain something everyone deserves, and she was ready this time. She was a different woman too. Now she was ready to meet Zane, to understand him, to fight with him, to learn from him, to love him – in more ways than one. Yes, she was ready. So what if she didn't love him unconditionally and eternally and whatnot right this very second? They had all the time in the world, and there would be no holding back, no regrets.

Not this time.

Jo clicked down the hallway of Section Five two hours later thanks to the wonders of modern Eurekan medicine and ice cream. Allison had told her that Zane and Carter were working on a new lead with Henry down in Lab 32, and Jo had been itching to get back on the job. Once some crazy off track experiment puts a bullet in her chest, it's understandable that she would want to figure out what the hell was going on. Here it was, Lab 32. The doors swooshed open as she walked in, and the three men looked back at her from a large screen.

Carter grinned. "Back on the job already, huh?"

"Hey, just following your orders."

"For once."

Jo just ignored him and walked closer to the display. "What're we looking at?"

"It's a display of all the appearances," Zane said, gesturing to the locations of the trees, plane, and minefield. "We've programmed this system to track any impending influxes of the exotic particles so we have some sort of warning besides just witnessing the cloud forming."

Henry spoke now, his frustration leaking through his normally calm demeanor. "The thing is we can't figure out how to stop the wormholes from forming. The Bridge Device is off and isn't giving off any more power, so I don't see how else the wormholes could be opening."

"Well since a wormhole connects two points in space time, maybe your whole traversing the timeline deal created a link," Zane offered. "And since you've all been here for months, the link must be deteriorating."

Jo frowned. "What, so now it's glitchy?"

"In a sense," Henry answered. He tapped a button on the control panel and the outlines of another map appeared on the display. "This is the town's layout from 1947. And just as Zane suspected, the location of the appearances correspond with their location back then. The reactivation of the Bridge Device must have activated some trigger, and now the two points in space time are trying to merge."

"How wonderfully catastrophic," Carter sighed. "And there's no way to reverse the effect?"

"Well…" Henry and Zane shared a look. "There is one way, but I don't like it."

"I can reprogram the Bridge Device so that as the next wormhole begins to open, we can counteract it," Zane stated as Henry rubbed his chin worriedly.

"That's great! So why are you saying it like it's problematic?" Carter asked warily.

Henry and Zane walked over to the Device as Henry explained "We can only test it during a materialization and we'd have to be within thirty feet of the wormhole, which, as you have gathered from earlier experiences, isn't exactly the safest distance. But, it's really our only option."

"Then let's get to it," Zane said as he began to make adjustments on the machine. Henry joined him and within a few minutes, they stepped back.

Henry sighed. "I'm not even sure if this will work."

"Well, now's your chance to find out," Jo said, tapping the screen where yellow lines had suddenly begun to emanate from a glowing red dot.

"Where's the source?" Zane asked. But his question was quickly answered as the ground began to rumble and orange streaks swirled through the air of the lab. The four of them rushed behind the panel and Henry and Zane began to tap and twist various instruments on the board frantically. And just as objects began to solidify on top of them, the Bridge Device pulsated, slamming everyone against the wall and causing the orange rays to dissipate.

Jo groaned as she picked herself up, as Carter whined, "I thought you said we'd get a heads up!"

"I didn't say it'd be a long one," Zane countered. Jo just rolled her eyes and straightened her suit jacket. She winced and rubbed her chest, suddenly feeling the sting of the bullet again. Zane saw her expression of pain and walked over concernedly. He placed a hand on the small of her back.

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm just…" she suddenly became aware of their very close proximity and her breath caught in her throat. Zane looked like he was about to say something, but it was at that exact moment that her phone decided to buzz. Jo took a small step backwards to clear her thoughts as she checked the text:

All clear. –F

"Hey guys, it looks like your modifications worked. Fargo just gave us the all clear."

Everyone made small noises of relief, and Carter gave Henry a healthy pat on the back. "To the now plane-free Café Diem! Beers all around!"

Jo started to follow after the guys, but Zane gently pulled on her arm. She turned back to him with a seemingly hopeful expression on her face. Wow, second time touching her in five minutes and he was still breathing. That was encouraging.

"Hey, so about what we were saying earlier. About getting to know me better." Jo shifted and licked her lips, so Zane continued. "I know this place nearby that has a great view of the sky. And it's supposed to be really clear out tomorrow night, so I was wondering if you wanted to go stargazing with me."

His heart was pounding and he realized he'd been speaking a bit faster than normally. What the hell was wrong with him? He'd asked plenty of girls out in his days. Damn Jo and her ability to make him all flustered. But even with his somewhat pathetic proposal, her lips quirked up and she placed a hand on his arm.

"I'd love to."

Zane grinned, but then a thought popped up in his mind.

"I just want to be sure of something first. Are you saying yes… to me? Or…?"

"You. Definitely you." And then she flashed him a smile that punted all of his doubts out the window like a kicker from a football team, never to be seen again.

He was ready.