Zane was well on the road to recovery before Jo was. It was a minor gunshot wound but Zane had his system scrubbed, nanobots attacking the leftover bits of the genome treatment, and a full regimen of counteractive meds before Jo was even out of surgery. There was little they could do about the data imprinted on his brain.
He was pretty groggy when Jo woke to find him at her bedside. She was worried that might be some lingering effect of the protectiveness he'd felt due to Rawlings' treatment.
"Hey, Jo." Allison stood over her and smiled. She gave a knowing glace at Zane's snoozing form in the chair next to her. "How are you feeling?"
"Like I got shot. But fine, I guess." Jo shrugged. "Are you sure he should be released just yet. He's still acting funny."
"The neurological effect will still be present for the next two or three days but, largely, we were able to clean most of the contaminants out of his system. He's on meds to keep him calm and happy. And we have the NLWPS serenity beam on hand in case he should act up. He was fighting the restraints and he calmed down a lot as soon as we released him and let him be. He's perfectly coherent and his usual self. For the most part. There was some neural scaring where Rawlings tried to fry his brain with data: weapons, tactics, wartime video footage and reports. We can't be sure of what or how much he got in that small dose and it's likely that he'll suffer from PTSD as his brain assimilates. A lot of what was dumped in his brain was video footage of guerilla warfare from Vietnam."
"I feel like a human security blanket." Jo gestured to the dozing sentry.
"Then you're a human security blanket. He's getting over it, Jo, he just needs a little help up." Allison gave a soft smile. "It's not going to kill you." She turned and went to Carter who was also plastered with a smug, knowing smile. He gave her a little wave and a thumbs up.
Great! Perfect. Jo fumed. Just perfect. Now her own friends were plotting and scheming like they knew what was best for her. She shot a resentful glare at Zane as he slept next to her but the sight of his haggard face reminded her she wasn't the only one inconvenienced by recent events. Zane might be a different person when he woke. Maybe he was still in danger, the new pathways burned over important information or involuntary functions, like breathing or regulating his heartbeat. Memories gone.
Jo reached out to straighten his ruffled hair. A hand flew up to grab her wrist. Zane's eyes flew open and he looked surprised at his own reaction. Jo could see it was fringed with fear.
"Good morning." Jo said softly with a bit of cheer. He responded to the soothing tone and released her hand. "How you feeling, champ?"
Zane gave a half-hearted smile. "Alright. You?"
"I'm okay. I've been shot before, loads of times. This is only a flesh wound. I'll be home before supper." She gave a quick smile he gradually returned. He reached out and stroked her arm.
"I'm glad you're alright. I was going nuts when you were in surgery."
Jo felt a heat blossom in her chest and could tell she was blushing. She closed her eyes for a moment to combat the mush away, locking it securely in its cage. Then she felt Zane's finger brush some hair out of her face and the whole battle started fresh. Maybe it was best to keep her eyes open while he was around. That way she could see his assaults coming.
She looked up to see Zane giving his cockeyed smile. It was softer than it had been before, still burgeoning with confidence but… dimmed somehow. He was worried too.
Allison came back by in a little while with news of her release. Jo was giddy with relief. For a moment she had been terrified that she'd have to stay the night in the same room with Zane.
Then Allison handed her the Serenity beam and a clutch of paperwork.
"What's this?"
"Your release papers." Allison pressed a pen into Jo's hand. "And Zane's."
"What?" Jo had to whisper as he was, as ever, a few feet from her being checked over by a nurse.
"We're releasing Zane into your provisional custody until you can ascertain whether he is a threat to society or himself. Nobody can help him the way you can, Jo. He needs you right now. Besides, you're more effective at keeping him calm than the Serenity beam. His brain is still adapting to the new information and forcibly changing his brain chemistry to control him will offset the progress. We'll have a team on call for the next three days. If anything goes wrong, we'll be right there. We'll be monitoring his vitals night and day."
Okay, why me? Why this dependance on me? Is it just because I was there? Why me?
Zane didn't even ask permission as he just walked out of the Infirmary. He took it for granted that wherever Jo was going, he was going too. A company car took them both to Jo's house and Zane helped her into a wheelchair before waving farewell to the driver. With Zane's muscle and SASHA's direction, they managed to get Jo comfortably situated on the couch.
Then came the awkward pause of 'what do we do now?' Zane looked down at her and she could feel the temperature in the room rising.
"SASHA! Call of Duty: Medal of Honor, please."
"Would you like me to load a saved game?"
"No, two player would be fine. Start us matchmaking for a game of 'capture the flag'."
"You play COD?" Zane smiled and Jo was pleased to note it was back to full power. That was good, they both needed the distraction.
She gave a nonchalant wave as she accepted the controller. "Some old boyfriend got me interested in it. We got along fine until I started beating him at it. He was a sore loser." Zane held on to the controller until she met his eyes. He knew which boyfriend she was talking about.
"We'll see about that." His eyes were sharp with challenge.
They were at it for several hours as SASHA reminded them both when they needed to take meds and supplying them with junk food. They made a good team against other online players and competition escalated between them. Exhaustion plummeted the battle royale into tea-bagging comedy as they both rubbed burning eyes and laughed until they were in stitches.
But the minute the game was turned off, the tension was back in the room. Silence sharpened it to an edge. Jo started up a movie play list of musicals that averted the strain for conversation. Somewhere between 'Singin' in the Rain' and 'American in Paris' Jo nodded off.