An Occasion of Chemical Joy

Were her suspicions making her paranoid?

And where the hell was Andy?

"Andy, you're a robot, how can you be unavailable? I need you to help me find..." Jo let the words trail off, closing her phone as she saw the object of her search leaning on her car. "Donovan. What changed your mind?"

He sighed and pushed himself up and off the car. "I don't know. Curiosity, I guess. I want to know why the SkyCruiser crashed."

He looked serious, and a little tired. Not his usual look. Did she actually miss that lopsided smirk of his? No, definitely not. "Did you steal Dr. Ramsey's TAP fluid?" Would he answer the question? Would he tell her the truth?

"What are you talking about?" He shook his head slightly, looking confused.

It was an answer, of sorts. It wasn't the snarky, "Why, of course, sweetheart," she still half expected from him and which meant nothing, but it wasn't the cocky "Yep," he would have tossed at her if he had taken it, either.

"If you didn't take it, then there's got to be more to this. I'm going up to the crash site to find Andy and see if I can figure this out." She was getting her keys out as she walked toward her car, frowning thoughtfully. At the door, she turned and looked back at him. "You want to come with?" she asked uncertainly.

He smiled, just a little. "You'd be aiding an escaped prisoner."

"Huh," she held back the laugh. Little did he know how many other people were also trying to help him. "I'll arrest myself later." As she got into the car and waited for him to take his seat and buckle up, she thought about those strange interactions, the ones that were making her wonder if she was paranoid.

Alison had been desperately worried when she'd told Jo about the hyperoxia, or oxygen poisoning. Jo had tried to reassure her that Donovan seemed fine, but Alison had been adamant that she wanted him moved from the cell to supervision in the medical wing for at least three days of observation. Three days that she'd been surprisingly willing to forget about when Jo told her that she'd already released him.

And then Fargo had come dashing up to Jo in the rotunda, almost pleading for Jo to find a delaying tactic to stall Mansfield. "Tell him that Zane needs debriefing," he'd hissed at her. "Don't let Mansfield transfer him."

Why and how had Donovan gotten Alison and Fargo on his side? And if Carter were here, what would he be doing?

"Why'd you let me go?" he asked, breaking the silence in the car.

She glanced in his direction. "I know you think I'm stupid, but I'm not blind." She was trying to keep her voice cool, but a slight hint of the bitterness she felt couldn't be hidden. She'd graduated top of her class at West Point, one of the best schools in the country. She'd been a straight A student her entire life. Coming to Eureka and being looked down on by the brainiacs – well, she was used to it by now, but that didn't mean she liked it. And Donovan was one of the worst. If you didn't know your particle and theoretical physics, you might as well be invisible.

"I don't think you're stupid!" He sounded almost shocked.

She tried to chuckle. "Yeah, right. Whatever. Not the point, anyway."

"Seriously, I don't think you're stupid." He seemed far too adamant, and yet almost sincere? Damn it, what was wrong with him? He continued, "You're so intuitive. And you're one of the most observant people I've ever met. You notice everything."

Did Donovan just compliment her? Okay, the world was coming to an end. Maybe he was terminally ill? Maybe she was terminally ill? Or maybe she was actually asleep and this was all just a really strange dream. Hmm…that last seemed possible, because her head was swimming. "Uh, I'm feeling…" She started to say, glancing over at Donovan.

His head was shifting, moving up and then down. Was that him or her vision blurring?

"I'm dizzy," he mumbled.

"Me, too." He was disappearing in front of her, dissolving into patches of color, the dark of his hair, the pale of his skin, the green of the trees behind him, and then her head was bumping against the door and for a second she tried to remember. She was doing something, what was it? And then the car was sliding sideways, and she was dropping into darkness.

Her mouth was dry.

That was the first thing she noticed.

The second was that she wasn't in her bed. And wow, her head hurt.

At a knock next to her, she startled upright. Andy. What the-?

As she rolled down the window, he said, "I wouldn't start her. One spark and she could blow."

"What happened?" Jo was confused. One minute, she'd been – was it dreaming? Or talking to Donovan?

"The area's a tad combustible," Andy said cheerfully. "You hang tight. I'll have you back at GD in a jiff." He gave them a thumbs up and walked away and Jo shook her head. Donovan looked as confused as she felt, but as he started to point at Andy and say something, Andy began pushing the car up the road.

Back at GD, they went straight to Henry. As he and Donovan ran tests on Andy, Jo tugged at her lip thoughtfully. Andy's combustion, the oxygen in the system, the empty gas tank – it was clear that the accident wasn't Donovan's fault. Somehow the TAP fluid was responsible. But even as she puzzled over the missing TAP, she was watching the way Donovan interacted with Henry, and trying to analyze what was wrong with it.

Was the problem Henry's behavior? Donovan was being his weird new self: no snarky comments, none of the automatic insubordination that drove people crazy. But Henry – Henry almost seemed to take his improved attitude for granted. They'd always gotten along pretty well – better than Donovan got along with anyone else anyway – so maybe Donovan was usually like this around Henry?

When had Donovan changed? The first time that Jo had noticed anything unusual was in the jail on Founder's Day, but whatever had happened couldn't have happened then. He'd been normal going in, there'd been that one moment, and then he'd been normal again. And she'd been in the room the whole time. If something had happened then, surely it would have affected her, too?

Could it have been the positronic lightning? Could Donovan have been hit? Were there side-effects from being so close? But again, she'd been in the room with the lightning, too. Why wasn't she affected?

Then there was the RSS, but how could it have caused a permanent change? That just didn't fit with Jo's understanding of how the technology worked.

"I'm sorry, what?" Jo woke from her reverie as she realized that Henry and Donovan were looking at her expectantly. They'd been talking about what was happening – the rapid oxidation, the concentration of oxygen – and she'd only been half paying attention.

"Ramsey's TAP fluid," Donovan repeated patiently. "You mentioned it was missing?"

Damn it. He was never patient. He should be mocking her momentary lapse of attention. But she shook off the frustration of not being able to figure him out, and said, "Yes, he called me to say that some was missing just a little while ago."

"That could be bad," Henry said. "TAP fluid is very stable and the wavelength necessary to activate it is precise, but if it has been activated, then everything around Eureka could become as explosive as – as Andy."

Oh, hell. Maybe it was time to focus on the immediate problem, the one that might kill them all if they didn't solve it quickly.

Fire is the reuniting of matter with oxygen. If one bears that in mind, every blaze may be seen as a reunion, an occasion of chemical joy – Tom Robbins, Even Cowgirls Get The Blues