Scene 3

Back at GD, Jo perched on the edge of a desk and ate grapes while she watched Zane work. Tonight had been their first real date, and this wasn't how she'd wanted it to go. Between his slow recovery from the werewolf virus and her lack of privacy while living at S.A.R.A.H., they'd been limited in their opportunities to be together.

Neither of those things would have mattered in the old timeline, of course. If Zane had been sick, she would have been staying at his apartment to take care of him. In fact, with her house gone, she probably would have been living at his apartment, while they planned their wedding and a new house together. But this wasn't that timeline and he wasn't that Zane.

"Oh, hell." Zane leaned back in his char. Jo looked at him quizzically. "They were doing long-term exposures—we won't be able to see anything. Best-case would be a blur on a single image. I should have thought of that before."

Jo frowned. "What about other cameras? Are there any security cameras on the observatory that might have caught something?"

Zane shrugged and leaned forward. "Maybe," he said as he started to type.

"None of that," Jo reached out and gently slapped the back of his nearest hand. "Let me do it."

He grinned at her. "I suppose it could be considered bad manners to hack the feeds of the security cameras in front of the head of security." He pushed back from the desk and waved her permission to take over.

"Bad manners would be one way to put it," she said tartly, as she slid into a chair and pulled it over to the keyboard. She typed in her password and entered the database of Global Dynamic security cameras, scrolling down the lengthy list, looking for cameras that might be at or have a view of the observatory.

"Wow, that's…" Zane started to say something and then looked away. She glanced at him.

"What?"

"Sorry, hacker instinct," he shook his head. "I couldn't help seeing you type your password. I just realized what…well, it's familiar." he shrugged.

Jo glanced at the keyboard and thought back, and then flushed. Her password alternated numbers and letters, the numbers and letters of Zane's name and birthday. Studiously not looking at him, she went back to the list of cameras before finally saying, "Does it bother you?"

"Does what bother me?"

"That—that we're out of sync. That my feelings are maybe a lot more intense than yours. I mean, I know you want me but for you, this is a first date and for me…" she paused. "This is hard to talk about, sorry. Wrong time and place. Never mind." She shook her head and bent back to the keyboard.

Zane tugged at the arm of her chair, turning it so that she was forced to face him. Eyes dark, he said seriously, "It really bugs me that you're in love with someone else. I really hate that, actually."

"But—," she started to protest automatically, and then paused. "Fair point. " She wasn't sure she wanted to say the words that were hovering on the tip of her tongue, but she let them out anyway. "Is this just too complicated?" She bit her lip.

Zane's gaze dropped to her mouth, to where her teeth were worrying the soft skin, and he closed his eyes as if in pain. "No," he said firmly, pulling her up and out of her chair and into his arms. The next minutes were lost in a haze of sensation, only finally broken by the ringing of her phone.

He pulled back. "Is it a bad sign that your phone is playing 'Trouble'?"

"Um," she tried to pull herself together. "It's Fargo."

"Oh, yeah, definitely a bad sign." With a sigh, he let her go so that she could answer it.

She pulled the phone out, and answered. "What's up, Fargo?" She was still a little breathless, but Fargo didn't comment, too focused on the reason for his call to notice.

"Hey, Jo, I'm sorry to interrupt your Saturday night. But Carter just called: he's been getting reports of some weird flying creatures over Eureka and he wanted to know what they could be. I'm pretty sure it must be the B.O.U.S. project, but they shouldn't be out. Any chance you can meet Carter at Dr. Kwon's house and find out what's happened?

"The B.O.U.S. project?" repeated Jo, distracted. Zane was watching her, and she couldn't concentrate for the heat in his eyes. Every inch of her skin felt sensitized, every molecule was yearning toward him. She wanted to be back in his arms. Better yet, she wanted to be out of GD and back at the observatory and in his arms under the starry sky. "Oh, wait, what?" she said, Fargo's words finally sinking in.

"The B.O.U.S. project is top-secret. Dr. Kwon shouldn't be testing them without strict protocols in place."

"What is the B.O.U.S. project, Fargo? Any chance they're big black shadowy creatures capable of flying around in the dark? Oh, and with some kind of psychological weapon that attacks anyone who comes within range?"

Zane's eyebrows shot up and he grinned.

"Uh-oh," Fargo replied. "That sounds like you've seen them, too. But they shouldn't have any weapons. They're a DoD reconnaissance program. Camouflaged drones."

"Camouflaged?" Jo was skeptical. "Camouflaged as what? It didn't look like anything I'd ever seen before."

"They're just bats."

"Bats?" Jo repeated. "There's no way the thing I saw was a bat, Fargo. It was way too big for that."

"They're bats of unusual size."

Jo rolled her eyes. "Bats? Bats of Unusual Size? Really? Whose idea was that?"

"No idea," said Fargo, cheerfully. "But I love it, so probably mine. Anyway, can you go check it out?"

Jo sighed. She was getting the feeling that this first date, if that's what it should be called, wasn't going to end well. "All right, Fargo. I'll head to Dr. Kwon's." She hung up and looked over at Zane. "Want to go check out some bats?"

He grinned at her. "Well, I'd rather continue where we left off, but bats might be fun."