Tony adjusted his body armor, strapping down the holster for the stun gun GD had issued him for the evening. "I can't believe they wake all the candidates at 2 AM to do the written test."
Rochester, Jo's second in command, raised his eyebrows, "You, an Army man through and through, can't believe the DOD would wake people up at an inconvenient time."
"Oh, the DOD absolutely. But these science types, well, they're not used to reveille, or combat duty."
"That's kind of the point. The powers that be want to make sure they're actually prepared to handle it if you know, the ship is going to blow up in the middle of the night."
"Makes sense. Thanks for letting me come along when you pick up Jo."
"No problem," Rochester ducked his head close to Tony's away from the others. "I'm kind of hoping you might have some trick to keep her from killing us on sight. Pretty sure she sleeps with at least one gun within reach."
"I've got an idea. Something we used to do when we were kids, so she'll be pissed, but recognize me quickly enough to not be homicidal. I hope," Tony said the sentence under his breath so no one but Rochester could possibly hear him.
"It's entirely possible she might recognize you and turn homicidal."
Tony grinned, "That is a risk I shall have to take." He, Rochester, and the other commandos boarded the back of one of the vans headed to pick up the candidates. They grabbed the first seven on the list without much fuss, only discovered one affair, and pulled up outside S.A.R.A.H.
Rochester lightly knocked once, and the door swung open. Sheriff Carter, who Tony had seen briefly at Café Diem, was standing inside the door, with the lights dimmed, and raised his hand in acknowledgment. "Her bedroom's the one on the left at the end of the hall, try not to get shot," Carter whispered as he walked over to the stairs, but made no move to go up to the next floor.
Tony went up first and waited outside the door, with 4 other guards waiting on the landing beside him, taking a moment to listen and see if she was still awake. No signs, and then the wall light up slightly, and glowing text appeared.
My sensors do not indicate that Jo is awake. She does keep weapons by her bed, so you should take precautions.
Right, a smart house. He wasn't ever going to get used to that. Tony pulled out his iPod and raised it to the camera, trying to indicate he wanted to connect to the sound system. More text appeared on the wall.
Press play whenever you're ready, it'll play in her room.
Tony cracked open Jo's door carefully, waited for a beat, and did not hear anything from inside. He checked that it was at the right point in the song, opened the door, and pressed play.
SHOT THROUGH THE HEART, AND YOU'RE TO BLAME
The knife whizzed past his head, missing his ear by half an inch. Tony heard through the music slight clicks and decided to cut off the half-asleep former Army ranger before he got a bullet in his brain. "Now now, no need for guns," he smiled as he saw it dawn upon her who had barged into her room in the middle of the night.
DARLING YOU GIVE LOVE A BAD NAME
"Tony, what the fuck are you doing here?"
"It's time for the Astraeus written test. Up and at em Josie!" Tony grabbed Jo's arm and hauled her off the bed before wrapping his arms around her waist pulling her tight against him. "Nope, you can't take anything with you, so Rochester, why don't you take that gun?"
"Seriously Chair Force, what do you think you're doing?"
Rochester grabbed her gun with a grin, his white teeth the only part of him easily visible in the dark room, "Now Chief, you said when you hired me you 'wouldn't hold that against me.'"
Jo struggled against his arms, "Are you enjoying this? Put me down Tony, I can walk! Seriously, we're not ten anymore!"
"Hey, if you're going to do something as stupid and reckless as try to go to space, yeah, I'm going to take advantage of the situation. Besides, I'm your brother, I have rights and privileges."
"You're such a dick" Jo grumbled as she was dragged down the stairs, and glared at Carter when she saw him on the couch. "Traitor. You knew they were coming."
"Uh, yeah. S.A.R.A.H. demolished Andy multiple times when she thought he might be a threat to my job, how do you think she would have handled a bunch of commandos trying to break in and kidnap you? They'd be dead ten different ways, assuming they even got into the bunker."
"You could have warned me!"
"Not a chance. Have fun," Carter waved as Tony and another of her guards pulled her out the door and up the bunker stairs to the van.
Tony grabbed the coffees from the cafeteria for him and Jo. She should be getting out of her test soon, and hopefully, the peace offering would make her less homicidal than she had been a few hours before. That knife had come a bit too close to his head for comfort. He was looking through the throng of bleary-eyed scientists when he heard names being called out, and data pads being handed out. Tony recognized Larry as one of the people handing out pads and called him over.
"They're getting their scores from the written test."
"That was fast," Tony said.
"Yeah, well, Titan waits for no one," Larry said stiffly.
"I guess, but still. Look, if you need someone to give Jo hers, I can drop it off."
"I already gave Ms. Lupo her score. If you'll excuse me."
Oh boy. Jo's got her test scores now. Tony had been hoping that she'd have been given them in private, but Jo would probably be fine. She'd put on the stiff upper lip in front of everyone and go on with her day. He had just been hoping to have chocolate ready when she had to face reality. Maybe the coffee would be enough?
"-any tool can ace orbital dynamics with eight hours sleep and three cups of coffee. That's why they yank you in the middle of the night. They want to see what you're really made of. So you should probably resume your little happy dance. Besides, I was kind of enjoying it." Tony rounded the corner at the top of the stairs and saw the back of Zane Donovan, and he was facing Jo, who was…
Smiling?
"You know, I kinda wish you were going."
"Oh, I'm going, they just don't know it yet," Zane and Jo had been slowly switching places while talking, grinning at each other, orbiting each other. "Hey, Tony."
Jo spun around, her hair whipping Zane in the face. "Tony! Guess, who aced her written Astraeus test."
"Congratulations."
"You sound surprised." Now Jo looked almost as angry as she had been this morning, and Tony shoved her coffee towards her.
"It's not that, it's just, you know, everyone else taking the test has at least one PH.D. And you…"
"Just a bachelor's, but West Point isn't exactly a shabby school. And need I remind you, top of my class, and I was an engineering major. It's not like this is the first time I've had to hit the books."
"I know, I just, look, will you take your coffee?"
"Fine," Jo took her coffee, and then pulled out her PDA as it beeped. "Level Q?"
"Where the hell is Level Q?"
"Honestly, I'm in charge of security for this building, and I want to check a map. I don't think we use it for much. Look I gotta go, thanks for the coffee." She took a sip, then spit it back out. "Is this from the cafeteria?"
"Yeah."
"You do hate me."
"You spent years in the Army, and you're complaining about your coffee? You've gotten soft." Tony laughed as Jo flipped him off as she walked away with her coffee. He stood there with his coffee, alone with Zane. "So, she passed."
Zane just grinned. "She's brilliant. She just needed a chance to show it."
"You didn't have any doubts."
"I've seen her in action. She knows her stuff, and she's a fast learner. I figured she'd get it." Zane's PDA beeped, followed by Tony's. "Look, I gotta run. 'Titan waits for no one.'" Tony looked at his own PDA, and managed to not outwardly groan. What did the Senator want at this hour?
Tony watched as Wen left Dr. Blake standing in the rotunda, not liking the situation at all, but not comfortable enough with his understanding of what the chain of command was supposed to be to interfere. GD was under the Department of Defense, and he didn't think he liked the idea of a sitting Senator exerting so much influence over the place. Especially since the longer he was here, the more he realized how much influence a de-facto director of GD would have over the town, given that she'd also conscripted the Sheriff. Hopefully, this was temporary, and Dr. Blake would be fully back on her feet soon. He didn't understand the scientists, but he really didn't like the politicians. But she was in charge of the money.
The building started to shake, and then-
SCREECH
A male voice came over the loudspeakers. "Uh, sorry, sorry everyone. My bad."
Tony readjusted his uniform, and headed to his office, ready to deal with the paperwork from the DOD, who was breathing down his neck about the mission.
His PDA beeped with an alert, All elevators are down, for the time being, please use stairs or stay where you are until further notice. He felt his forehead pinch and he dialed for the Sheriff.
"Carter,"
"What happened to the elevators?"
"One of them disappeared."
"What do you mean disappeared? Like FTL vanished, destroyed, or do I have to worry about exploding elevators now?"
"There's some debris at the bottom of the shaft, but no sign of most of the elevator according to Andy. We're going to check out Dr. Fung's lab, he's the one who's been making glass break all morning with his signals, so I figure that's a good place to start. Meet us there?"
Tony took a glance at his computer with his reports and locked it. "On my way." Guess I finally get to see what Jo and the General meant by the disaster of the week.
He headed up to Dr. Fung's lab and saw Carter and Andy entering as he got to the end of the hall. "Sheriff! What's with the suit?"
"Senator Wen asked me to wear one while filling in for your sister while she's doing some stress test for a couple of days. God, I did not miss ties." They entered the lab and saw a dark-haired man running around his station. "Dr. Fung, I need to talk to you about a missing elevator."
"I'm sorry?"
"Your communications thingy busted up some glass this morning, and now an elevator was destroyed. Could what you're working on have caused this?"
"Uh, yes, I could have disintegrated the elevator using the right or wrong frequency. But I didn't."
"Really? Cause we heard a pretty nasty sounding sonic boom right before the elevator went bye-bye," Carter said.
"You do realize, I'm actualizing a real-time interplanetary communications network."
"Well, that's a lot of big words, uh, Dr. Fung. But you're playing loose and easy with safety. So—"
"Nothing I've done could disintegrate a tungsten elevator. I swear to you. And frankly, I have to," Dr. Fung was cut off by another loud rumble, and the floor under part of Dr. Fung's lab came crumbling down under their feet as Carter, Tony, and Dr. Fung leapt out of danger. Tony stared at the empty chasm where the floor had been, trying to understand how that happened. He faintly heard Fung say, "You know, I'll be needing a new lab, ASAP."
Carter just looked at his PDA, ignoring Dr. Fung. "That's not my department. Talk to him," as he nodded over at Tony.
"The DOD liaison does have influence over the assignment of laboratories," Deputy Andy piped in. Fung immediately walked over to him, and started insisting on a new lab, and listing what he needed.
"Look, I can assign you a new one, but until we figure out why the building is falling down around us, you'll probably have to move again. So cool it."
"Senator Wen's timeline-"
"The senator is going to have to deal with it. Carter, what's the damage?"
"Another lab and a chunk of the cafeteria just collapsed. Andy, any ideas?"
"Yup. The floor's support beams. They don't seem to be there." Andy said, with a grin.
"Right. Uh, disintegrated by a giant sound wave." Carter said.
"Gosh, no. That would leave a totally different forensic signifier."
"Thank you, totally different forensic signifier." Dr. Fung said.
"So gone as in taken, then?"
"Hmm. Unlikely. Reinforced GD tungsten is awfully tough to cut through. Though there are tiny serrations along the remaining debris." Andy said as he pointed out the damage.
"Okay, well the missing elevator was made out of tungsten."
"Ooh, a pattern!"
"Why would tungsten be disappearing like this, I mean, what could someone use it for?" Tony asked
"All kinds of useful things. They could make support beams, the Astraeus spacecraft. An elevator."
Tony saw comprehension dawn on Carter's face, "Let's talk about the second one." Carter motioned for Andy and Tony to follow him.
"What are you thinking?"
"I'm thinking that Dr. Fung wasn't the only one told to speed up their work on the Astraeus project. Dr. Sanaugstin is working on the hull, she was given a new deadline today. Maybe she needed more raw materials than she had?"
"The new deadline? It's been met."
"What?"
"The ship. The hull's done. See for yourself." She led them over to the balcony overlooking the hanger where they saw what looked like a complete ship hull. That would be carrying 20 people, one of whom might be his sister, to Titan. He saw the people climbing on it, putting the finishing touches on it, inspecting it, and couldn't help but marvel at how small they looked next to it. Ants didn't even begin to compare. "Just wait until you see the micro-polymer paint job."
"You said you're going to have to push your guys hard to finish it, maybe I should talk to them," Carter said.
"Oh, well, you might find that conversation a bit one-sided. The ship was built by a team of construction mites."
"Mites as in bugs?"
"Bug-like robots that are programmed to consume tungsten and fuse the raw material layer by layer using laser centering."
"Andy, you said that there were, um, tiny serrations in the lab floor?" Carter asked.
"I see where you're going with that, boss. I would have to measure the bite radius of the mite to be sure. But it sounds plausible."
"I don't think so. Yes, I cranked them to 11 to speed things up, but that wouldn't make them go around eating elevators. They had more than ample raw material to complete the ship's hull." Dr. Sanaugstin said.
"Where are the mites now then?" Tony asked.
"Well, when they complete the task, they go into storage automatically." She opened the door with the data pad to show an empty room. "Huh. They should be there."
"I take it that room isn't supposed to be empty."
"Look, I designed the spacecraft. I didn't program the mites. Why don't you talk to the man who did? A bright kid, Zane Donovan." She left the three men standing in front of the empty room.
Tony felt a headache starting to form in his temple. "That's it, I'm going to shoot him."
"You can't shoot him," Carter said quickly.
"His little bugs are going haywire and are eating the building bit by bit, bringing it down around us, he's a criminal, and he's dating my baby sister. I think I'm legally allowed to shoot him."
"Actually, so far, Mr. Donovan has yet to break any laws that have the death penalty, and he's obeyed all the conditions of his parole. Even if it were to be discovered that the bugs were malfunctioning due to his code, that would be considered an accident, and while there may be a review, he probably wouldn't be redacted." Deputy Andy said.
"He's still dating my sister."
"That's not a crime. Do you intend to shoot every man in Eureka that's asked her out since she got here several years ago?"
Tony side-eyed the deputy. "That's not a bad idea. How long is this list, how many clips am I going to need?"
"Okay, no one is shooting anybody today, got it? Come on, let's just find him and figure out what's wrong with the mites."
"Fine."
Carter pulled out his PDA and dialed, then hung up, "he's not answering, let's just find him."
"Of course he's not. That would be the responsible and reliable thing to do."
"Mr. Donovan is generally quick to respond and is one of the few people in Eureka who, on the rare occasion when his work malfunctions, has always been due to another user's error or someone else's experiment interfering with his. Statistically speaking, it's likely that the incidents are not his fault."
"Maybe the guy's not perfect and due for a screw-up."
"I didn't say he was perfect. Just very intelligent, thorough, and good at his job."
"Fantastic for him," Tony grumbled.
"I'm sure it is. Boss, you seem particularly stressed today. Would you like to talk about it?"
"No, I'm not- All right, um, I'm stressed because Allison's mad at me. I'm stressed because I'm wearing a tie that's strangling me. And I'm stressed because we can't find the one guy at GD who can tell us about a bunch of insect bugs that are running around-" Carter cut off as the door slid open and he fell down with a THUD.
"Lookout."
"Aagh," Carter groaned as he started to lift his head from the metal object he'd run into. "Who put a metal door in the hallway?"
"Actually, it's a hatch for the Astraeus. And I'm guessing they did." Andy pointed at the small, skittering mites that were hurrying away from the hatch they'd just finished building in a random hallway in GD.
Carter stood and turned back to them, apprehension dawning on his face. "Andy, they're not building a hatch. They're eating GD and building a whole ship."
"I'm guessing they didn't get the message that they were done with the hull," Tony said.
"Senator Wen? We have a bug problem."
Senator Wen looked up from her desk as the three of them walked in. "I just heard about the missing mites from Dr. Sanagustin."
"Not just missing. Eating. Eating and building ship walls. Now we've evacuated the areas with the most damage. But it's only a matter of time before whole sections collapse."
"Recommendations."
"I think we should kill the mites."
"Actually, the construction mites are pretty darn scrappy. They're designed to perform repairs in the extreme conditions on titan. They're impervious to heat, cold, gases, electromagnetic pulses."
"Of course they're indestructible," Tony said.
"Dr. Deacon is working on shutting them off. But, uh, it could be hours without Mr. Donovan."
The senator looked almost relieved when Andy mentioned Zane. "That I can help you with."
"Well, we can't find him. We've tried calling him, and he's not in his lab," Carter said
"No, he's in an isolation chamber in level Q, helping with the psychological tests for the Astraeus candidates. Normally we wouldn't allow any outside contact, but given the circumstances, I think we can make an exception. Talk to Larry, he's conducting the tests," she dismissed them.
"Got it." Carter tapped Tony on the arm and gestured for him to follow as they left the office in search of Larry, who they found standing in front of what looked like another large hatch in the middle of the doorway.
"That's not supposed to be there, is that?"
"I was gone for just a minute. Wait, am I being tested. They are testing the tester, that is so meta"
Carter shushed Larry as he put his ear to the door, and Tony knew what he was listening for. "I know that sound. Is there any chance that the control panel's made of tungsten?"
"Just the crucial bits." Of course, just the crucial bits.
"Is there any way to talk to the people in the iso chamber?"
"No, the panel that you don't see there pretty much controls everything. Communications, electricity, ventilation."
"Okay, okay, is there a way to get them out manually?" Carter asked.
"Sure, but you have to go down to the iso chamber on level Q."
"I've never even heard of level Q."
"I have," Tony said as he felt a sick feeling settle in his stomach. "Jo's down there."
"Yes, Miss Lupo is one of the candidates in the psych chamber. But other than that it's not a very popular level."
"Fair enough."
"Yeah, it can be a pretty confusing place if you don't have a map in your head. Which I do." Andy said.
Tony leaned over to Carter and Larry, lowering his voice. "What does he mean when he says he has a map in his head?" Did he have an eidetic memory, or cyborg tech enhancing his brain, or?
"He's an android. Robot Deputy," Carter explained as he and Andy started heading for the stairs.
"Oh. That's why Jo was so pissed when she was pissed over for promotion"
"Yeah."
"We should probably hurry."
"Yeah, Zane's the only one who can fix his stupid bugs."
"That is likely given the time frame. But regardless the candidates should be evacuated quickly. At this point, the mites would likely be looking for efficient sources of tungsten. The framework of the isolation chamber is the second-highest concentration of tungsten in GD. If the mites were to consume it, the test candidates would be crushed." Andy said.
"What was the first highest concentration?" Carter asked, starting to pant as the toll of climbing so many levels started to take.
"That would be the support bearings for all of GD. Located underneath the isolation chamber. If the mites were to consume that…"
"Let me guess, everyone gets crushed."
"Yup. You're catching onto how things work in Eureka pretty quickly."
"This is normal?"
"I mean, no one's playing with the laws of the universe and ripping them apart, and this would probably stay at GD, not spread to the entire West Coast, so this is actually pretty calm for us," Carter said.
"And here we all thought Jo was the safe one, not getting shot at all the time anymore."
"There was an incident with wormholes and displacement that led to Ms. Lupo having a .50 caliber browning aviation tracer in her chest. It's my understanding she made a full recovery. There are some benefits to living in a town with some of the best doctors in the world." Andy said.
Tony stopped short. "She had a what?" He heard his own voice shaking, sounding far away, and gripped the railing, feeling like the stairs were slipping away beneath him. Had the mites gotten this far?
"Yeah, she's fine, walking around later that day, we don't have time to talk about this," Carter said. Tony looked down, and saw that the stairs and the landing below were in fact, still there, and not being consumed beneath his feet. "Here we are Level Q. Whew. Andy, I don't suppose you're strong enough to break this."
"Sorry, boss. Actually, I could use a little help right now myself." Tony and Carter turned around to see Andy still smiling even as little metallic spiders swarmed up his legs and burrowed their way under and through his uniform. Carter pulled out his PDA as Tony snapped out of himself and started swatting at them, feeling both ridiculous and a little panicked. He was able to swipe many away, and more scurried after, but clearly, the damage was done. Andy swayed before Tony caught him, heavier than he looked, but probably lighter than he should be, and laid him to the ground, as gently as he could. His uniform looked rumbled and more mites scattered out from underneath, slipping through his cuffs, leaving the bottoms of his pants legs lying flat to the ground, hollowed. The smile had left his face, leaving a confused expression as he looked down at the remains of his body, with Tony feeling equal parts confused and sickened.
So, this is what Jo meant by the disaster of the week.
"Henry, those things were like ants at an Andy picnic."
"Yeah, well, something hit this mite, that's for sure. I mean, it's no wonder that they never got the order to shut down. The signal transducers were reduced to dust." Henry showed Carter and Tony the mite with what Tony assumed was a missing signal transducer.
"Uh, a dusted transducer means,"
"Well, if there's no way to override the initial mandate, then the mites continue consuming and building indefinitely," Henry explained.
Tony saw realization dawn on the Sheriff's face, "I think I know what happened. And I think I know where to find our exterminator."
He hurried behind Carter, "Is there any point in this process where I get an excuse to shoot Zane?"
"Really?"
"His mites are causing the building to collapse around us, I think I can justify this."
"I'm pretty sure they're only doing that because Dr. Fung broke the receivers with his sonic booms earlier."
"So they're not completely indestructible."
"No, and Dr. Fung's communications relay did interfere with a few other projects as well, so it's certainly possible," Henry said.
The building's coming down around us, and I don't even get to shoot someone. I hope the shooting range isn't made out of Tungsten. I'm going to need it.
"How long do we have before the iso chamber collapses?"
"At their accelerated rate of consumption, and the amount of tungsten they've already consumed, I'd say in about 30 minutes."
Dr. Fung held up his hands, "Okay, I can make it happen in five, but-"
"Go."
"No, stop. Look, a pulse on that wavelength intense enough to reach the mites from a distance would scramble essential systems all over gd." Dr. Blake said as she rushed in.
"That was the but I was going to mention," Dr. Fung said.
"Look, the mites have all gathered on the isolation chamber. A localized pulse could obliterate them all if we could get it down there."
Senator Wen didn't agree. "But there's no guarantee that we can reach the iso chamber in time. The mites have turned the entire sub-level into a maze of ship walls."
"Yes, and the level was hard enough to navigate on a good day. But I can guide someone using the thermal imaging."
"I'll be the bug bomber," Carter volunteered.
"No, Allison. You just said it was hard enough on a good day. You're feeling that good?" the Senator asked.
"Yes. And no one knows GD better than me."
"Allison," Carter said.
"Jack, come on, you have got to trust me. I can get you there."
"I know."
Senator Wen was still not convinced. "Dr. Blake, I don't know that this is a good idea."
"Do we have a choice?" When everyone turned to him, Tony continued. "The building is going to come down around us, and before it does that, it's going to come down on the people in that chamber. We set that pulse off up here, God knows what's going to happen to the rest of the building. If she says she's ready, she's ready."
"Major Lupo," Sentator Wen started to interject, but Tony kept going. Jo was down there, and she was running out of time.
"Ma'am, I understand that you're an experienced politician, but this situation has more in common with a warzone than D.C. So unless you have another idea that will keep people from dying today, I think we're going to go with the people who have been in this town longer than you or I have." Tony turned to Dr. Blake. "Ma'am, what do you need?"
Dr. Blake refocused the map and zeroed in on a section a little ways away from where the mites had gathered. "Dr. Fung, get that frequency pulse finished. Now. Carter, get fitted with an earpiece and a laser cutter, you might need one. And both of you, get down to Level Q."
"Sheriff Carter!" Tony called out as he cut his way through the metal that had sprung up around GD.
"Oh thank God" Tony heard faintly. "Guys, the cavalry's here."
"Okay Sheriff, you said earlier you were stuck in the wall, so I'm going to cut through another spot, then cut you out of the wall when I'm on your side. Where are you stuck…" he trailed off as he saw a flap of fabric sticking through a wall. "I'm going to knock on the wall, tell me if I'm in a clear spot or if I'm going to step on you." Tony heard an affirmative from Carter and got to work, while the voices of his sister and the others stuck in the chamber drifted over to him.
"This is going better than the last time Zane and I were in a small metal chamber that was threatening to kill us. So it could be worse."
"Do I want to know?"
"Your briefing included information on what incident got the Senator's attention?" Jo asked.
"You mean the accidental launch of a rocket with a new engine that no one I talked to can agree as to whether or not it was manned?" Tony asked as he started cutting the hole, and slipped through, small metallic corpses skidding across the floor when he stepped on them.
"It was intended to be an unmanned launch a month later." Fargo clarified. "Key phrase intended to be."
"No one sent missiles at us, we're not on a collision course, we're not running out of oxygen, and we even have a bathroom and food. Believe it or not, today is going much better than the launch." Zane said.
"Okay then. By the way, you might want to have someone check out Deputy Andy," Tony said.
"Yeah, Carter mentioned the bugs went after him," Fargo said, "someone'll get him checked out, but it sounds like he should be fine. No permanent damage."
"Yeah, but before that, he mentioned something odd. Maybe get his memory or processing checked because it really just couldn't have been right. I mean, Jo would have mentioned something like this?"
"Oh, right, sorry Jo, I forgot to warn you, Andy told him about the thing with wormholes and uh, displacement and you being displaced."
"Why do Andy and Sheriff Carter seem to be under the impression that you had a bullet in your chest, and somehow I just forgot about it?"
"You didn't forget about it, I didn't tell you."
Tony took a deep breath before bringing the cutter to Carter's tie, slicing him free before turning to Jo, who was hidden behind Holly, still stuck in the narrow doorway. "Why the fuck wouldn't you tell me?"
"You didn't have the clearance at the time."
"You could have come up with something."
"You were all overseas, what could you have done, worried? Besides I was fine, back at Carter's that night. He fussed enough for the three of you, didn't let me get up for anything. He even brought me a beer," she said, like any of that made the situation better.
"Should you have been drinking right after surgery?"
"Clearly the Cervesas didn't kill her. And neither did the bullet for that matter, she's fine." Carter said, irritation creeping into his voice.
"Fine. We're finishing this conversation later." He took the laser cutter and started cutting at the door, a solid foot away from Dr. Marten, slicing the outer third of the door off. Behind it, he saw Zane and Fargo place their hands on the piece that he was cutting away, and grab it before it fell, bracing it against a wall. Dr. Marten stretched out her limbs, her shoulders popping as she rolled them.
"Zane, please tell me you weren't joking about getting the bathroom working again." She said as she rushed into the side room.
"You should be good," at Tony's confused face, Zane clarified, "Larry had me break the bathroom for the psych test. I put the part back in while we were waiting for you."
"How chivalrous of you."
"Holly seems to think so."
"Guys, let's just get out of here. Tony, what's the damage now?" Jo asked, back straight, all business. He handed her the bag with everyone's clothes and PDAs he'd been given upstairs and started to update her.
Tony applauded in confusion for the happy couple as everyone crowded around Grace and Henry. He really didn't understand this town, but at least everyone else had seemed as confused as him for a change. Conversation slowly resumed around the busy Café, and Tony couldn't help but overhear the next table's conversation.
"Better than the last proposal that happened here. Hey Vince, you want to make that a rule, no proposals unless they're already married?"
"Oh hush it," Vince said as he went to refill that table's drinks.
"I'm just saying, that was painful to watch. I mean, I'm not exactly drinking buddies with the guy, but come on. Lupo didn't have to be such a heartless bitch." Tony felt his heart drop into his stomach. He put his drink down and looked to where his sister had gone after Henry and Grace's announcement, unsurprised to see her standing outside next to Donovan. He headed over and heard the last bit of their conversation.
"-Won't be because I have to be here. It'll be because I want to be." Zane said. He and Jo were standing at the railing staring at the stars, not looking at each other.
"Jo, can I talk to you for a second? In private."
She looked up quickly, and walked over to him, "Yeah, sure, what's up?"
Now that she was there, Tony didn't know what to ask her, or how to ask it. What was the most delicate way to go about the subject?
"Who proposed to you?"
Her face went white, and she suddenly looked as though a stiff breeze would knock her over. "What are you- Tony where did you, who said?"
"I overheard someone inside say that the last proposal inside Café Diem ended with you saying no. At least, you saying no was implied. You did say no right?"
"They said…"
"They said Lupo, and last time I checked, we were the only Lupos in town. I think I'd remember if someone asked me to marry them, especially since I haven't been here very long."
"Okay, wow, someone brought that up? That was probably over a year ago, yeesh." Zane said, coming over and putting an arm around Jo's shoulders.
Tony pointed between the two of them, "That wasn't?"
"Wasn't me, it was just a public event."
"Then this doesn't concern you, this is between my sister and me. Excuse us." Tony glared at Zane, who just grinned in a way that didn't reach his eyes.
"Actually, the conversation is almost over."
"Jo-"
"Look, someone proposed to me over a year ago. You never got an email saying you were getting a brother-in-law. Do the math."
"Why am I finding out about this now?"
"Because it's a small town, and people around here can't keep their mouths shut."
"And I didn't find out about it back then. I didn't even know you were seeing someone at the time."
"Clearly, I didn't think there was a reason for you to meet them, and there wasn't. We're done here." She went to walk away, but Tony grabbed her arm and pulled it so she was looking at him again.
"Uh, no. Where is the guy?"
"Why? We're not together anymore, it's not like you can give him the shovel talk."
"Maybe I'm just curious about the guy who was serious enough about my sister to almost marry her!"
"There was no- I did not come close to that, okay." Jo's voice was tinged in desperation that niggled at Tony, told him something was wrong here, something was wrong with this picture. He knew the whole thing reeked, he just couldn't figure out why.
'Dude, chill. The guy left town after he got dumped, he's not even here anymore," Zane butted in.
"Everything okay out here?" Carter asked, stepping out onto the patio, looking like he didn't want to have to diffuse the situation.
"Yeah, just finding out exactly how little my sister tells me about her life."
"That's kinda how little sisters work. Look, your conversation is very loud, and at the moment, very public."
"Like her proposal apparently was."
Carter just looked stunned. "What are you," at a look from Jo, he changed his tune. "Right, that, look, it's been a long day for everyone, and it was also pretty stressful, what with the whole building collapsing on people thing. How about you two finish this conversation in the morning, when your heads have cooled a bit, huh?"
"Look, Sheriff-"
"Tony, I know that look on Jo's face. I don't want to have to lock either of you up to stop a homicide, but I will. So go home." The look on Sheriff Carter's face had shifted to serious, and Tony knew that if he didn't let the matter go, he'd probably spend the night in a jail cell with a recovering robotic deputy for company.
"Fine. I'll talk to you tomorrow." He stared at his sister, then walked away without waiting for a reply, wondering when they'd become such strangers to each other.