Chapter Four
Zane watched as the machine scanned over Jo's form. He tried to ignore the shifty eye movement and tense posture that indicated Fargo was still in the driver's seat of his girlfriend's body. At least Zane had made Fargo button up Jo's shirt so he wouldn't have to punch him for sneaking peaks at her cleavage.
Now that the shock had worn off, the anger and frustration were really taking hold. It was always something with this town. He fully understood the dangers of living in a community funded by the Department of Defense and founded on the concept of scientific discovery. That often involved taking risks; he was on board with that, probably more so than a lot of other people in town and certainly more than Jo.
That didn't mean that every moment had to be bat-shit crazy. Just when you think life is going well, some experiment was threatening to destroy the town or, sometimes, the entire planet. Let your guard down and the next thing you know you're getting brain-jacked or kidnapped or sent into space. He loved the excitement usually but it was getting way out of hand.
Currently, Fargo was freaking out about getting redacted. Zane had been tuning him out for the most part. He was sure Jo pretending to be Fargo was no picnic either. She was under way more pressure and he'd bet she wasn't lying around whining about it.
"What about neural teleportation?" Fargo shouted over to Grace and Allison. "Doctor Fowler's matter relocation unit blew up in my face this morning. My actual face, not Jo's face," he clarified for the group when he saw Zane's narrowed eyes. "Maybe it affected my synaptic functioning. He said it was having 'issues'," he finger-quoted.
"Lie back, Fargo." Allison warned. "Henry is already looking into every experiment you came in contact with today. All we can do is run neural scans and, hopefully, we can fix this before Warren finds out."
Fargo frowned. "Just hurry up. Jo's in my body talking to Warren. Who knows what she might say!" He flopped back down on the table dramatically.
It was stressful, Zane got it. That didn't curb his anger or annoyance over the situation. Fargo noticed him standing at his shoulder, arms crossed and rolling his eyes at the director's ramblings.
"This is serious," Fargo whined. Zane watched this jaw-clenched image of Jo, tense with Fargo's anxiety. "I was accepted to MIT as a sophomore. Got my Ph.D. at twenty-two. Recruited by Global Dynamics the next year. And now my entire scientific career is at the mercy of G.I. Jane."
For a genius, Fargo was being pretty dense. It wasn't the smartest move to get on his bad side by bad-mouthing Jo.
Zane was feeling strangely protective of her lately. He always had Jo's back, of course, both figuratively and literally. It's just that Jo made it pretty clear that she didn't appreciate anyone being her protector. If anything, she was the knight-in-shining-armor in their relationship. Even back when they were reluctantly starting to like each other, he'd be concerned when she was in danger and would check up on her. But he wouldn't dream of stopping her from doing her thing or warning others to get off her case. This made twice in so many days that he was ready to rip someone's head off for disrespecting Jo, first when Parrish had run off at the mouth in his lab during that fireball fiasco and now again over Fargo.
He'd unpack this new development later, after things were back to normal.
Zane hadn't been wild about standing by as Jo walked out of his sight looking like Fargo. However, there hadn't been any way to stall the inevitable without making Warren suspicious. The least he could do was keep watch over her physical body. The upside was that it kept his nerves from going off the rails. And Fargo was his friend too and it felt right to keep him company. As annoying as Fargo was being right now, it's not like it was his fault either.
"Get over yourself, Fargo, it could be a lot worse." Zane smiled, a teasing gleam in his eye. "Imagine swapping bodies with Carter."
Allison turned from analyzing the machine's readings with Grace and glared at him. Zane straightened at her scrutiny and thought better of pissing off the person who was in the middle of trying to help Jo.
He sat down on the stool next to the bed and turned his attention back to Fargo. "Or you could have switched places with Parrish. At least you know that Jo wouldn't purposely sabotage you like that little snake."
"True." Fargo winced at the suggestion.
Grace frowned at the two of them talking. "Keep still, Fargo. I need to keep these readings steady." Fargo pursed his lips in frustration but remained quiet.
"Besides," Zane added. "I'm more concerned that her body is at your complete mercy. I'm still questioning whether you can be trusted not to take advantage."
Fargo strained to remain still while voicing his displeasure with the man beside him. "Please! If it had been you that had switched places, there's no telling what kind of freaky things you'd do in her body. And while I have your attention, I'd like to request that the two of you stop 'doing it' all over GD."
"We are not 'doing it' all over GD. We may have gotten a little overly-enthusiastic a few times in her office but that's it. Otherwise, we keep it strictly PG-13 … most of the time."
Zane thought Fargo's expression of skepticism was rather convincing on Jo's face. It was true, though. They'd pretty much only made out in her office or his lab and they saved the more adventurous activities for when they had privacy and sound-proofing. Flirting, though, was fair game anytime, anywhere, not that it mattered. Pre- or post-Astraeus, it's not like they had lots of time for snogging at work. They barely saw each other during the day unless one or the other went out of their way.
"I know, I know, I'm one to talk. Once or twice, I can understand. It happens. But all the time? Come on, Zane, it's disturbing. You get paid to work, not to pretend you're on The Real World."
The glare Zane shot his friend and boss was lethal. That was harsh. Fargo knew quite well that he and Jo pulled their weight around GD. He inhaled with purpose, trying to calm his rising temper. As he exhaled, he backed off from Fargo to put some distance between them before one of them said something they'd regret.
He wandered over to the two women leaning over a laptop talking quietly about the results of their tests. "Uh, Grace, we have got to fix this." The irritation in his voice was pretty evident, yet both women were struggling not to laugh. "I'm about to lose it but I'm so glad I can still amuse you." This only broadened their smiles. Allison gave him a pacifying pat on the shoulder and turned back to her computer.
"Don't worry, Zane, we'll take care of it." Grace's confidence was reassuring but it wasn't going to make him worry any less. "Why don't you go get some work done and we'll let you know if anything happens here."
Zane was shaking his head before she even finished. "No way. I want to be here in case something goes wrong or you need help with something or—"
"Zane," Grace said patiently in her 'captain voice.' "I've got Allison here for backup and if you really want to help, then you can get out of our hair."
"And if something goes wrong?" he asked.
"We'll call you." Zane didn't look convinced at all. It felt wrong to just run off to tinker on some experiment when Jo was in trouble. "Look, can you at least go get some coffee or check in with your lab? After that you can come back in to see if there have been any changes. Surely there's something you could be doing."
They were wasting time just talking about it so Zane decided a short break wouldn't be the worst thing. "Fine. I'll just go …" He looked over at Jo's body lying on the exam table, twiddling her thumbs in a very Fargo-like manner. An idea started to take form. "Actually, there is something I could look into that shouldn't take too long. Keep an eye on him for me will you?" He headed for the exit.
"No wandering hands, Fargo," he called over his shoulder.
Fargo's frustrated growl was the last thing Zane heard before he rounded the corner.
TBC ...
