Chapter Three

'Not again.'

That plea had been her mantra for the past thirty seconds.

Her eyes were squeezed shut even though she knew there was only darkness surrounding her. She'd been in dozens of places like this before; crouched down in dark facilities, stealth, speed and courage her primary weapons. Where was she this time? Maybe a jungle or a war-torn city? One of the numerous desert backdrops she'd "visited" over the years?

Shutting out the world and cowering in a corner weren't going to help her. She was stronger than that. Jo opened her eyes and tried to adjust to the darkness.

'Stay grounded. This is not real. I'm in Eureka and the past can't hurt me.'

Jo let out a long breath and panic seized her again. The urge to remain silent and hidden while she figured out her surroundings was overwhelming. She was supposed to be over this.

Flashbacks and post-trauma delusions were a very real thing in her past before coming to Eureka and she was terrified about what was happening to her. She hadn't blacked out like this in years and it was always due to some kind of strong trigger. The last thing she remembered was being in her office with Zane. He had never been associated with her attacks, quite the opposite, in fact.

He had come to see her, supposedly to talk, but that then turned into flirting. She had been calm and relaxed. Happy. They'd been making out one minute and then the next …?

Her head was throbbing and she'd been dizzy for a full minute. The darkness and the silence were bearing down on her, the anxiety fighting to gain control. Which nightmare was it this time? Somalia? Iraq? Afghanistan? They'd lost good people during her many missions. Was she still trying to save them in her mind?

It had been so long since she'd needed a trauma therapist that it was hard to focus on her old strategies for getting through these attacks. Deep breaths were good. She softly inhaled, long and slow, and then let it out.

'Feel the space around you,' her therapist had said. 'Ground yourself in this reality, in the present.'

Jo focused on testing her limbs, listening for sounds, identifying the area surrounding her. She was in protective gear but it felt off; too light for Kevlar, padded but sparsely so. There was technology attached. When she felt the gun in her hand, she stiffened and brought it up to her face for a better view. It wasn't a true weapon. It was likely filled with microchips and hardware rather than ammunition. Laser technology?

She wore protective goggles of some sort but not standard and hardly effective. No gear to cover her head, no military issued uniform. What the hell was going on?

'Stay grounded. This is not real. I'm in Eureka and the past can't hurt me.'

As Jo got to her feet, she sensed other things that seemed weird. Her body didn't feel right, like her balance was off or something. Her arms felt weak and heavy with the gun in her hand, even though she'd routinely carried firearms and gear twenty times its weight, easy.

Sudden movement caught her attention as a short, stout figure whizzed by her shooting in her direction. His battle cry echoed in the enclosed space just before a tone emitted from her chest area. She glanced down in time to see it light up, indicating a direct hit. There was no pain though.

Her first instinct was to draw her weapon and shoot back but the figure had already passed her by. As a precaution, she took cover and held her weapon drawn at her side in accordance with her training.

"You are getting schooled, Dr. Fargo." The voice came from behind a partition, across a stretch of exposed space.

Warren Hughes? It took only seconds for her now sharper brain to pinpoint his location in the room and confirm his voice. He had called for Fargo but Jo couldn't sense anyone in the immediate area other than the two of them.

Now that her eyes had adjusted, she could see more details of the room. She'd been here before. There was a familiar layout of barriers and passageways and to her left was the GD logo in white.

The laser tag room, of course. Fargo must be in the middle of his evaluation. Thompson's first report of the day recounted Warren's intention to use recreational therapy in the crews' assessments. But why was she here? And how did she get here? If she found out Zane had played one of his pranks on her, he was a dead man. God help him if it somehow compromised Fargo's evaluation.

She heard Warren shuffling around across the room and decided to creep closer to the wall for protection. Fargo was going to have to take a rain check on his session with Warren because there was no way she was going to play games with the two of them when she had real work to do.

"Warren," she yelled out.

A pause.

A moment of realization.

She looked again to her left and caught her reflection in the mirrored logo. His reflection.

The anxiety returned with a vengeance, this time directed and focused. She touched her cheek, then her neck before checking her chest to make sure it was as flat as she expected. It was sad that body swapping and face stealing were not surprising things to happen to her anymore.

The discovery felt similar to when Julia had stolen her body while keeping her trapped in the scientist's old one. There was confusion and disbelief and a lot of anger.

"This is my worst nightmare," she said aloud.

Her body tensed, at the faint sound of footsteps. She'd momentarily blocked out the actual situation she was in and missed Warren moving a few feet closer to her. "I'm your worst nightmare. I expected more from the laser tag team captain. Perhaps, you're not as ready to lead as you thought, Dr. Fargo."

"Hey, Fargo, is a great leader." She may be pissed about her current predicament but defending Fargo came second nature these days. Besides, she didn't want to tip Warren off that anything was amiss, and that included not compromising Fargo's evaluation if she could help it.

And Warren had promptly given her something to focus on besides the rising terror of being stuck in Fargo's body. It didn't matter who had screwed up, she just wanted to get started on the 'fixing it' part.

"Ah, now we're hearing some backbone. Defend yourself!" Warren shot wildly in her general direction, coming nowhere close to hitting her target.

Jo rolled her eyes and checked her weapon. Frustration was the best motivator for dismissing Warren as fast as she could. She needed to get the hell out of here and figure out what had happened to her. Silently stalking the administrator, she assessed her target, lined up her shots and took out Warren Hughes in lighting quick fashion worthy of her old Ranger days. When the beeping from Warren's device had shut off, his expression screamed skeptical astonishment. She'd worry about what that meant for Fargo later. There were bigger problems at hand.

However, when the shock wore off, Warren relaxed and smiled. "Now that's more like it! Congratulations! You passed the first phase of your review."

That wasn't on the top of Jo's list of things she wanted to hear right now. "There's more?"

Warren laughed and Jo mimicked him nervously. "I'm gonna get changed. You weren't kidding when you said you'd 'bring it.' Look who schooled me after all," he chuckled, walking past her to the locker room.

Jo returned the gun to the holster at Fargo's hip. "Amateur," she murmured under her breath.


Intending to head to her office to find Fargo, Jo walked towards the exit only to be met by the cavalry. There was no getting used to watching her walk towards herself. Well, it was her, but it clearly wasn't her judging by the fidgeting and furtive glances coming from her body's limbs and face.

Following closely behind Fargo was a frustrated Zane, a worried Allison and a curious Carter.

Having a new target for her simmering anger, Jo turned her attention to Fargo standing in her body. He didn't look as panicked as she thought he should.

"Fargo, what's going on? What button did you push?"

"Hey, that's not fair! I didn't do it this time." Jo glared at him. "Don't look at me like that! Only I can look at me like that!"

Zane put a hand on Jo's shoulder, well Fargo's shoulder now. "The real issue here is what are we going to do about this."

Allison shook her head, trying to follow the conversation between her three friends. "So this is really happening. You guys actually swapped bodies?"

"Or swapped brains or, rather, brain patterns, most likely. This isn't exactly my area of expertise although I gotta admit, it's kinda cool now that the initial shock has worn off. I mean, I'm standing in here all strapped in for laser tag and then, BAM, I'm inside Jo." He grinned at the group, barely containing his bubbling enthusiasm.

Jo cringed and walked over to smack him on the head. "Never phrase it that way again." Fargo cowered away from Jo and rubbed his head. Jo was sure the role reversal of the badass security chief shying away from the nebbish head of Global would be amusing if not for the circumstances.

Fargo continued to sulk but immediately became distracted with running his hands through Jo's hair. "You're only hurting yourself you know," he whined.

"It was worth it," she replied.

Allison sighed. "We should go see Grace. Maybe she's got some idea of how this could happen. And if Warren finds out about this, we can kiss our jobs goodbye."

Everyone nodded; all except for Fargo who was busy examining his new body. "Seriously guys, this is so weird." He ran his hands down his hips and back up again before moving his fingers around his lower back and his torso. Jo took a step towards him planning another form of attack but Zane got to him first.

"You mind not feeling up my girlfriend," he asked gripping Fargo's wandering hand as it came dangerously close to one of Jo's breasts. "Seriously, dude, I want your hands at your sides where I can see them."

Fargo snatched his hand from Zane's grasp. "I've had more than my share of groping from you today. If there's anyone who should keep their hands to themselves, it's you."

Jo pursed her lips angrily, clenching her fists to keep from smacking Fargo again. Remembering what she and Zane had been doing before the switch, she felt a warm blush rise in her—Fargo's—cheeks. Zane simply rolled his eyes but kept watch over Fargo's extremities. She noticed that he stayed standing between the two of them, probably to prevent her from doing any serious damage to her own body.

"Hey kids!" came the exuberant greeting from Warren Hughes. It was like he appeared out of nowhere and everyone jumped.

Warren considered the large group gathered around Fargo and Jo. "It's so nice to see such support for your fearless leader. But it's time for phase two, Dr. Fargo. Let's go look at some art." He nodded to the other occupants of the room and proceeded to the exit, clearly expecting Fargo to follow.

Jo dropped her head and shuffled behind the auditor. For once in her life, she was hoping some sort of emergency would spontaneously break out requiring their immediate attention.

"Do something!" she whispered loudly as she passed by the group.

They all wore some variation of puzzlement, even Fargo who was standing next to Zane with his hands stiffly at his side.

Carter opened and closed his mouth, apparently having no kind of brilliant plan to spring her.

Allison flashed her a guilty look and a smile of encouragement.

Zane shrugged, brows furrowed with worry as she walked away. As least she wasn't the only one.

"Fine. But DO NOT leave him alone with my body!" Fargo gaped, incredulous at her implications. In response, she pointed at him and sternly shook her head.

Jo then shuffled away to trail Warren in Fargo's body, resigned to her fate. Turning back once more, she glared at her closest friends who were huddling idly while she walked into the hazy abyss of Warren Hughes psychotherapy.

TBC …