Scene 14

Zane's dark eyelashes fluttered a few times before his eyes opened.

Zoe smiled, a little wistful. Dang, but he was cute.

"Hey, there," she said quietly from her seat at the foot of his bed.

"Zoe?" he asked groggily. He shook his head, slightly. "Wow, weird dreams."

"Not so much," she patted his leg. "You made a very cute wolf."

She watched the emotions flicker across his face as he started to sit up and then lay back; realization, surprise, and then an automatic flirtatiousness that she now saw for the defense that it was. "Well, better a cute wolf than an ugly one, I guess."

"Yeah, I would have loved to have you as a pet." She let the pause linger long enough to make him wonder and then added, pointedly, "If you weren't already taken."

He raised his eyebrows, and she gazed at him evenly. He grimaced and closed his eyes. "That's not…" he let the words trail off. A denial would be a lie; an acknowledgment would be an emotional risk that he wasn't sure he was ready to take.

"You should have told me, Zane." The words were a reproof.

He opened his eyes and sighed with exasperation. "Told you what, exactly? Told you—," he shrugged, spreading his hands up and out, as if he was trying to encompass the incredibly complicated and unwieldy story that was his current relationship with Lupo.

"The cop and the criminal," she said thoughtfully as she smiled at him. "It's very romantic, really. I'm sorry if I got in the way."

He let his hands drop and looked at her. "Romantic?" he shook his head. "No. Annoying, yes. Frustrating, irritating, maddening..."

"Romantic," Zoe repeated softly, amused.

"Captivating…" he added with reluctance. A flicker of movement in the corner of his eye caught his attention, and he turned his head just in time to see Jo backing quickly out of the doorway. "Ah, hell."

Zoe turned to look. She looked back at him inquiringly. "Jo?"

He nodded and then smiled ruefully. "Story of the day. Always something goes wrong." He tried to push himself up to try to chase after her, but collapsed back on the bed. "Why do I feel so horrible?"

"Dr. Glenn thought it would probably be like recovering from a really bad bout of the flu. It'll take a while." Zoe eyed him, and then grinned. "Let's see if I can make it better." Hopping off the foot of the bed, she hurried away.

"Jo," she called as she went through the doorway.

"Ah, hey, Zoe," Jo pushed herself away from the wall. She'd seen Zoe sitting there with Zane, the reverse of the position they'd been in after Zoe had been almost petrified, and it had been like having a combat flashback, where suddenly she wasn't sure where or when she was, and all she could do was concentrate on breathing, one breath after another until she could move forward again. This hurt too much and it kept on hurting. She needed to stay away from Zane, as far away as possible, until it stopped.

"I'm really pissed at you, Jo," Zoe said cheerfully.

"What?" The words and the tone didn't match. Jo didn't understand. She shook her head as if to clear her ears. It wasn't as if Zoe didn't have some right to be mad: there had been that sunrise kiss this morning, which had gotten pretty heated. Well, and the kiss the time before that in her office. And the kiss the time before that, too. But still, Jo was pretty sure that she had done the best she could to stay out of Zoe's way. And in her exhaustion and her pain, Zoe's words just didn't make sense. "What?" she repeated.

"Zane's cute. He's smart. He's funny. And he's a whole lot nicer than people give him credit for. But he's just a guy."

Jo was still looking confused, so Zoe continued. "All you had to do was say, 'mine, hands off.' Instead you let me hurt you. And you have to know that I would never hurt you on purpose. Never. So I'm pissed at you, Jo, that you let me hurt you without even telling me that I was doing it."

"He's not mine," Jo said automatically, picking the one thing out of Zoe's words that did make sense.

"Yeah, nice try. Way too late for that," Zoe rolled her eyes.

"Zoe, I—" Jo looked helplessly at the younger girl, who suddenly seemed so grown-up.

"I'm fine, Jo. And if you're staying away from him for me, you can stop, because I wouldn't touch him with a ten-foot pole now."

Jo was still confused, and Zoe finally sighed in exasperation. "All right," she said. "I'm forgiving you because you are so out of it." She took Jo by the shoulders, turned her around gently, and pointed her in the direction of Zane's bed.

"Walk in there," Zoe said firmly, "and don't stop until you figure it out." She gave Jo a gentle push.

Obediently, Jo walked and kept walking until she reached the side of Zane's bed. His eyes were open, and he watched her every step of the way, his face solemn.

Suddenly shy, she asked, "How are you feeling?"

"Pretty lousy, actually."

"Can I get you anything?" she offered. "Is there anything you'd like?"

"Oh, I think you know what I'd like, Jo-jo. I think I've been pretty clear about that," he said. "The question is, what would you like?"

"What would I like?" said Jo. She looked at him and for a moment, the enormity of the question struck her. I'd like to go home, she thought. I'd like our history back. I'd like you to know me the way you used to. But then she realized how much she would hate to lose these memories, how sad it would be if she was with a Zane who hadn't been there saving the town from exploding from too much oxygen generation, who'd never been a wolf falling asleep on her lap, who didn't remember that sunrise kiss in the woods. And she knew that although she truly loved her Zane, she also loved this Zane who was a little tougher, but also a little more vulnerable, a little angrier but also a little less sure of himself.

"You know," she said slowly. "I'm really, really tired. I've been awake for way too long, and right now, what I'd really like is for you to move over and let me fall asleep next to you."

Zane paused. He shook his head—that was so not what he was expecting. Finally, he chuckled, and leaned back against his pillow. "That can be arranged." He shoved the sheet back and opened his arm. Jo kicked off her shoes, climbed onto the bed next to him and snuggled down. For a minute she just relaxed into his warmth, into the comfort of being next to him.

"You know the only reason I'm not arresting you for your little GPS tracker?" she asked drowsily.

"Um, because you used it yourself?"

"Nope, although it did come in handy." Jo pushed herself up on his chest and gazed down at him, wonderingly. "Because you gave mouth-to-mouth resuscitation to a dog."

"I think it was a wolf, technically," he protested mildly, running his hand along her hair, and then pulling out the hair band so that it fell in a curtain around them.

"I knew it was really Kevin and mouth-to-mouth didn't even occur to me," Jo lay back down, tucking her head next to his neck.

"So I save one wolf's life and you decide I can be trusted?"

Jo lifted her head again so she could look him in the eyes. "Not exactly," she answered, amused. "You saved one kid's life by giving mouth-to-mouth resuscitation to a dog, and I decided that you were insane. And insanity's a reasonable defense for pretty much everything you do."

Zane laughed. "Not for this, Josephina," he said, and sliding his hand around the back of her head, pulled her to him until their lips met in a long, slow, lingering kiss.

*** THE END***

A/N Thank you all so much for joining me on this ride. I've had an incredibly good time writing this story, and your reviews have been wonderful icing on the cake. It's given me great pleasure to know that you cared how it was going!

A few technical notes: the marauder's map app is completely feasible although totally illegal. It could exist but doesn't. It is possible to give mouth-to-mouth to a dog, but Zane got the timing wrong—if you ever need to, breathe once every five seconds, not every three. Etorphine and diprenorphine are in fact a real vet sedative used in tranquilizer guns and its antidote, and yes, etorphine kills humans by depressing respiration. The convulsions were just for dramatic effect, though, and the Manning X42 was just a random name for a sedative gun that would only fire one dart at a time. Plus, you probably wouldn't use etorphine on a wolf—it's really for bigger animals. Gamma interferon is actually usually said the other way around (ie interferon-gamma) but it is an immune system component and gizmo was an irresistible name. The complete DNA modification thing, though—total scientific garbage, but since the real Eureka did it first in "Your Face or Mine," I figured I could use it.

A few character notes: Emily Glenn is from "E=MC…" –I really liked her in it and always wished they'd bring her back. Taggart cries the most in "Duck, Duck Goose" but his character is, in general, hard to get a grip on. I meant to do much more with him but every minute of writer's block I had was when Taggart was on-stage so I kept resolving my block by not writing him. I'm sorry if I disappointed any Taggart fans!

Finally, I mentioned the Season 2 outtake—it really is no more than 10 seconds long, so don't get too excited. The best outtakes are actually in from "From Fear to Eternity" in Season 3 when Jo and Zane are stuck together, closely followed by "Your Face or Mine." The outtake on the latter has Zane saying "I love you" to Jo for the first time and it's much sweeter than the official first "I love you."

Thanks for reading!