Chapter Two

Zane had only meant to stop in for his sunglasses and give Jo an abbreviated update on the simulation equipment. Truly, that was his intention.

But Jo's ass was looking too good in those jeans for him not to take advantage. He was really digging the more casual work attire she'd adopted of late. She'd chastised him recently about how they didn't need to jump each other's bones all the time. Yet, his newfound habit of wanting her close was one he had no interest in breaking. Until she got sick of him loving her up all the time, he was going to keep reaching for her.

That's why what started off as a little flirting and maybe an attempt to do some light cuddling turned into a bit of a make out session in Jo's office. Thankfully, Jo was more than willing to humor him. He moaned in appreciation as he felt her tongue sneak in to explore his mouth.

Just when he'd finally moved his hands down to palm the part of her anatomy that had first gotten his notice, he felt her back straighten before she jumped away in alarm. Zane looked around to see if someone had busted in on them but found no one else in the room.

"What's wrong?"

He watched as her eyes darted back and forth, confusion clouding her expression. She turned to him as if noticing for the first time where they were and what they had been doing. "What the frak, Zane!" She stiffened and glared at him, arms akimbo.

Zane was still holding his arms up, not having recovered from Jo's abrupt ejection out of his embrace. "Uh, is there a problem, JoJo?"

"Jo? Where is she because this is really weird and she needs to know about this or take my sexual harassment complaint or something! I realize we're buddies now and everything, but this—" she indicated by gesturing between them and frowning in disgust, "—this is too much." She reached a hand up to stroke her forehead as if trying to shake the cobwebs from her brain.

"Okaaay …" Zane wasn't sure how to even respond to Jo's, frankly, insane change of mood. Approaching her slowly where she was still frantically taking in her surroundings, he tried to get her attention. "Maybe we should go see Allison because you're acting really bizarre right now."

She scowled even more fiercely while slowly retreating from him. "I can't believe this, Donovan. This is low even for you." Her face fell and sadness overwhelmed her expression. "I'm still in mourning and I'm vulnerable. You shouldn't be taking advantage."

Zane was at a complete loss about where this had all come from.

"Now, I'm your boss and I say cut it out so I don't have to report you to HR. Someone is acting bizarre here but it's not me."

Zane sighed. "Jo, seriously, are you playing a joke on me or something? I'm sure I've had it coming for a while but this is getting out of hand."

"Exactly! Jo isn't even here! She'd kill you if she were." She looked around as if searching for someone. "I don't even know how I got here. One of your pranks, no doubt," she accused, crossing her arms.

She froze and looked down. In stunned silence, Zane watched as she took in the appearance of her hands and then her arms. She reached up to touch her hair and run her fingers through the tendrils that she had left loose at his insistence this morning. Finally, she drew her eyes down and up her body until they rested into the opening of her button down shirt.

"Holy socks! I'm Jo!"

"Uh, yeah."

Jo shook her head and started gesticulating wildly. "No, no, no. I'm Fargo but this is Jo's body."

Zane took a step towards her, trying hard to avoid her frantic pacing. "Jo, you're talking crazy. What's going on?"

Jumping back from him again, she raced around the room looking at herself in anything with a reflection. "This cannot be happening. I was just in the laser tag room with Warren Hughes doing my evaluation and now I'm in Jo's body?"

"Right." If this was a practical joke, it was now officially unfunny.

Yet, rewinding her behavior over the last few minutes, he could see the similarities between his best friend and his girlfriend; the twitchiness, the cadence of his words, the facial expression. Too bad 'body swapping' was impossible. But there were plenty of other plausible calamities that could explain why Jo was acting off her rocker.

They stood there silently for a few moments in a frustrated stalemate.

"Infirmary then?" Zane asked, finally.

"Yep."

As they left her office, Jo's stiff, quick-paced shuffle stirred the beginning threads of panic inside Zane's gut. For the first time ever, Zane tried to ignore the view of Jo Lupo from behind.


When they walked into the infirmary, it was testing all of Zane's willpower not to throttle the personality taking up residence in his girlfriend's body.

A few minutes ago, he thought body swapping was impossible. A five minute stroll and one long elevator ride later, he was pretty sure science had overlooked this particular phenomenon because right now, the quirky, often brilliant, and consistently annoying essence of Fargo was most definitely in the body of his girlfriend.

"Bodyswapping IS a thing! Or body-copying at least. It happened to Jo when my girlfriend Julia tried to steal her body to hook up with me."

Zane rolled his eyes. "Now I know you're crazy because everything about that sounds ridiculous."

Jo, or Fargo rather, shook his head, arms flying around in cartoonish fashion. "No, it's true. You don't know her because she works for Google and married an astronaut." Zane scoffed as they rounded the corner. Fargo then lowered his voice. "It was, you know, 'before.' Jo totally got drunk and made out with me. You were so pissed! But then we found out it was Julia in Jo's body and they both almost died. It was nuts!"

Thankfully, Zane spotted Carter's profile immediately and figured that Allison couldn't be too far away if he was there. Even with his continued hostilities toward the old guy, he was thrilled to see him so they could get down to the bottom of what's going on. When Allison came into view next to Carter, with what looked like her tongue in his ear, he cringed at how accurate his prediction had been.

He pulled Jo's form towards the two and cleared his throat to get their attention. He needn't have bothered.

"Dr. Blake, PDA in the workplace is against GD policy. And with Warren here?" Fargo shook his head to chastise her while frowning in disapproval.

Carter turned from Allison's embrace to laugh heartily at Jo's statement—or who he thought was Jo. "That's rich coming from you. I can't count how many times I've caught the two of you in a compromising position, not even considering the times you've been busted in my own house. And for the record, I do not think Zane's flimsy 'excuse' that he might be leaving town after his pardon justifies a last minute hook-up in your office."

Fargo shifted his disapproval from Allison to Zane.

"Yeah, your timing was stellar that day. It's a good thing we had other opportunities to say our farewells." His scowl transformed into a grin. "Those were good times, though. I do love that cell of hers."

"Like you were really going anywhere," Carter added with an extra chuckle. "Wait. 'Times' as in more than once?"

Fargo's shocked expression appeared completely exaggerated and creepy on Jo's face. "Zane! You two are so gross!"

"Do you really want to go there? I seem to recall you taking a little pre-launch delight with Holly in one of the labs not so long ago." Fargo flashed him a guilty, sad smile at the reminder.

Allison's eyes widened. "Excuse me? Is there something you'd like to share with us, Jo?"

"Right," Zane said, returning to the issue at hand. "This isn't Jo, it's Fargo."

"What!" Carter and Allison replied in unison.

Fargo fidgeted in Jo's body, crossing and uncrossing his arms while shifting from one foot to the other. "We swapped bodies or something. One second I'm in the laser tag room trying to get through my evaluation with Warren and the next I'm in Jo's office making out with him," he pointed in disdain at Zane. "Is anyone working around here?"

Allison didn't seem convinced. "Ok, this is insane. Maybe you're having flashbacks from that situation with Julia?"

Fargo smacked Zane in the arm. "See, I wasn't lying about that! Allison just backed me up." He turned back to Allison. "This doesn't feel like a transformation thing that we saw before. I think we switched places, Freaky Friday style."

Allison looked from Jo's body to Zane and then back to Jo. Both were nodding their head in agreement. "If you're Fargo, then where's Jo?"

Fargo shrugged. "She must be in the laser tag room with Warren potentially mucking up my evaluation!"

"Calm down Fargo," Zane shouted, earning them a few turned heads. "Can we just go find Jo? If I have to spend too much time with my girlfriend acting like this, I am going to be permanently scarred."

Fargo huffed. "You should be so lucky. I am a catch."

Zane looked to Carter and Allison. "Can we please go?" They both nodded.

TBC …