I'm so tired, Zane thought. He'd had a hard time getting back to sleep after the dream his subconscious had decided to dump on him. He finished off his cup of coffee and poured himself a second one, trying to concentrate on the project he'd been working on for the last few months. He picked up the tablet and looked at the schematics again. His mind was a complete blank. He put the tablet down and rubbed his eyes.

So Jo and Zoe were on a road trip. They'd been friends for years. Grace had said that Jo was exhausted and who better to help her get over that than one of her best friends? Carter was busy canoodling with Allison, so he couldn't spend time with her. And Grace and Henry were perpetually joined at the hip; except for last night, which was weird, but he could figure that out later. Zoe was free to whisk her off for a vacation. That was a horrible thing for him, according to every movie he'd ever seen. The ex and the current girl talked about the guy in question and that ruined everything. But Zoe wasn't really an ex; they'd never really been anything more than friends. And Jo wasn't anything yet, no matter what he hoped.

He was just going to have to bite the bullet and text Zoe.

-How's the road trip to San Fran with Jo?

He hit send and waited for a reply. And waited. Maybe she wasn't up yet. She couldn't be angry with him; she'd been the one to broach the friendship subject. Wait, what if Jo told her about the kiss? Oh, god, this is turning out to be like the movies. Zane put down the phone and picked up his coffee. He spun around in his chair. It didn't matter, he thought, if he had to dig himself out of a bigger hole, he'd do it.

He got up out of his chair and roamed around his living room. He opened the cabinet under his television and picked up a video game controller. Maybe a shoot-em-up, strategy game would take his mind off of things. He flipped through the titles, trying to find the one that would absorb him the most. He picked one; something futuristic looking that he'd never opened and put it in the player. He sat down on the couch, picked up the remote, and his phone buzzed. He jumped over the couch and snatched it up off the table.

-Good. We're talking a lot. Getting a lot of stuff out in the open. Bonding, you know.

They talked about it. Zane thought about banging his head on his desk, but that wouldn't help anything. Okay. How bad was it? He needed to know and there was only one way to find out. He hit the button to call Zoe. The phone rang. And rang. And rang. They were mad. He should just –

"Hello?" Jo's voice floated into his ear.

"Jo?"

"Yeah. Zoe asked me to answer her phone – she's busy."

"Oh. I mean, good, I wanted to talk to you." He hoped he didn't sound as nervous as he felt.

Silence. "What about?" she asked.

"About us. And Zoe." Oh god, the words were spilling out like verbal diarrhea. "You know that there's nothing between me and Zoe, right? She said she'd talked to you."

"Zane, there is no 'us.'"

"But there could be." Silence again. Was he making things even worse? He had to keep going; if he didn't, he'd lose his nerve. "Jo? Don't you think there could be? I know you're still there, I can hear you breathing."

"Zane, I-" she stopped, sounding unsure.

"Jo. I'm not going to push, but please tell me I at least have a chance."

"You have a chance. A small one." Now she sounded relieved. He felt light headed as the fear dissolved from his body.

"That's all I need."

"If you get cocky, the chance gets smaller. I have to go, Zane."

Damn. "Can we talk later?"

"Okay. Goodbye."

"Bye, Jo-Jo." He hung up and smacked himself in the forehead. She hated that nickname. That was probably the worst thing he could have said. Still, she'd said he had a chance and he was going to focus on that. He tossed the controller back into the cabinet. He was too keyed up to play right now. He needed to talk to someone about Jo, but who? He thought for a minute, and then grabbed his keys and the tablet.

A few minutes later, he was knocking on the door to Henry's garage. He opened it and stuck his head in. "Henry? You in here?"

"Over here!" Henry's voice echoed out from underneath something. Zane walked in, looked around, and saw Henry's legs hanging out from under Carter's Jeep.

"Oh man, not again!" Zane laughed. "Carter just needs to get a new car – that one just attracts destruction."

Henry rolled out, grinning. "I've tried to tell him that a hundred times. Jack is just stuck in his ways." He stood up. "What can I do for you, Zane?"

Zane handed over the tablet. "I've been looking for a way to increase the efficiency without removing any of the equipment, but I'm stuck. You're the master, so I figured I'd ask you to take a look at it."

Henry raised an eyebrow. Zane shrugged, trying not to look like he was trying to be innocent. "I thought you were the master, Zane. Are you preoccupied with something?"

"You could say that. But really, Henry, I'd be grateful for your input on this."

Henry looked at Zane again. Grace had told him about the conversation she'd had with Zane last night. He seemed to be sincere. He looked down at the tablet, flipping the schematics with his finger. He sat down; indicating Zane should pull up a stool and sit with him.

Zane watched Henry as he looked over Zane's project. He'd never spent any time around the older man, but for some reason, he felt very comfortable sitting here with him in his garage. Henry radiated peace and happiness. And he was a genius, even compared to the rest of Eureka.

Henry handed the tablet back to Zane. "Here," he pointed at a section of wiring. "Replace it with a higher conducting material and it should increase it by 10 percent."

Zane zoomed in to the offending section, shaking his head. "I must be really off my game. Thank you, Henry."

"So, was there anything else?"

"Yes." He took a deep breath. "Theoretically, if a person was able to travel in time and changed things so that they came back to a different present, would that mean there were two realities and there was a possible jumping back point?" He looked at Henry. "I mean, theoretically."

"Theoretically? No. Whatever the new present turned out to be, it would be the only one."

"And – theoretically again – that means that there aren't two of the person who went back in time, or of the people who were changed."

"Exactly. As far as we can postulate about time travel, there may be alternate universes, but to any person in any one universe, theirs is the only one that exists and the only one that can be reached."

"Henry!" Grace stood in the doorway, frowning.

Zane jumped. Henry turned around looking guilty. Zane stood up. "Hi, Grace. Henry was helping me with an engineering issue and the conversation turned to… theoretical things."

Grace walked over to Henry and put her arms around him. "You should know better than that, sweetheart. Talking about theoretical things tends to get you in trouble."

Henry kissed his wife on the cheek. "Maybe one day, I'll be as wise as you are. And maybe one day, we can talk about things without getting into trouble." He winked at Zane.

Grace rolled her eyes at her husband and looked over at Zane. "Would you like to stay for lunch? We have jambalaya on the stove."

Zane smiled and shook his head, waving the tablet. "I appreciate the invitation, but I want to get to work on this before I forget how to fix the problem. Another time?"

"Absolutely," said Grace. Zane smiled again at both of them and walked out of the garage. He slipped the tablet into his saddlebag and hopped onto his bike.

After stopping off at Café Diem for some takeout, Zane went home, altered the schematics on his computer, and started running simulations. Henry was right, he thought, this improves efficiency by twelve percent. He leaned back in his chair. I'll have to give him credit when I turn in my report. That should make Parrish's brain explode.

Speaking of exploding brains, Henry had all but confirmed that they had traveled in time. And that there was no going back. So that meant that he was the Zane that had given Jo the ring, but their changes had affected him. And that the Jo that he couldn't stop thinking about, who he'd kissed, and who had kissed him back, was the same Jo that had acted like he was a cockroach on the kitchen floor of the world. That was brain breaking. What was the nursery rhyme? For the want of a nail, the kingdom was lost. Or something like that. At least he was pretty sure he wasn't competing against an alternate version of himself.

He saved his work and then walked back over to the game cabinet. He needed to work off some mental energy; maybe he'd play that game now. He turned on the television and picked up the controller again.

Several hours later, he paused the game, put down the controller, and stretched. It was ridiculously easy to lose a whole day to that kind of escapism. He looked at the clock. Make that nine hours. Wow. Bathroom first, then food. Pizza. Definitely pizza. He'd hit the gym tomorrow.

He was working on his third slice when his phone buzzed again. It was a text from Zoe.

-I'm sending you a video for your eyes only. If you show anyone else or even think about posting it to youtube, I'll tell Jo you have it.

Interested, he sat up and waited. What could this be?