Title: The Space Between

Part: 2 of 4

Author: Roguie/ SunSpecOps/ Danae Bowen

Fandom: Eureka

Characters: Jo/Zane

Rating: T

Summary: Zane never reads his emails or listens to warnings. He never does as he's asked. Jo is always chasing around behind him, ensuring he stays as far away from trouble as possible, only this time she's a just a little too late. Now, they only exist in memory. Literally. AU post Lift-Off.

Spoilers: Not really. Up to Lift-Off just in case.

Disclaimer: Eureka obviously doesn't belong to me; I just like to borrow the characters and mutate their inner voices. Please don't sue, my house is small, my car is useless and my dogs are pains in the arse, but they're all I have.

A/N: My muse is on a liberal journey with Jo's life. There's no other explanation for this. There is one line in this that I have giggled over for days and have bowed down to my muse for her genius. Spot it if you can. :D If you can't, then I'm a bigger geek than I thought, because it was damn funny to me. :P

A/N2: Reviews inspire my muse; I find Jo and Zane like a drug to her, but if they're the drug, reviews are the devil's whisper putting that needle in her arm. Please don't leave me hanging, and I promise in return that I won't leave you hanging.

*****E*****

"What the hell have you gotten us into now?"

When she opened her eyes, Jo found herself not in the parking lot at Global Dynamics, not in the infirmary, not in her house, her car or any other place she'd expect to wake up. Instead, Jo found herself in a living room she remembered better than the one she'd lost when Larry's misguided rocket dissolved her home, staring at people that shouldn't have been possible.

"What? Where are we?" Zane lifted a hand to his head even though there was no pain, blinking rapidly as the images filled in around him.

"Home."

The simple word slipped from Jo's lips as she climbed to her feet, moving across the room to where her father sat beside her mother, holding the hand of an infant wrapped in pink swaddling as the baby fed, cooing and gurgling.

"Momma?"

She had to try it; she knew by their lack of reaction that no one knew either her or Zane were in the room, but she had to try just once. A small pack of boys came bounding into the room, round chubby faces, dark sparkling eyes, falling instantly quiet when their father eyed them pointedly and they moved across the room to look down at the new addition to their family.

"Why's he in pink, Daddy?" the oldest boy asked, his nose wrinkled up in distaste.

"Because you have a little sister, now." Patience and love radiated from her father, something she'd always known when she was little, something she'd always taken for granted.

"Say hello to Josephina, boys."

Jo froze in place, swallowing heavily, her heart pounding in her chest as her mother's voice flowed over her in waves, something she should never have been able to hear again, bringing immediate tears to her eyes.

"Hi, Jo." Again the oldest boy stepped up, leading by example as the two little ones moved forward, peeking into the blanket, grinning down at their sister.

Her mother frowned slightly, glaring down at the boys with affection. "Josephina."

Three matching grins, filled with naughtiness, bravely met her gaze. "Jo."

Jo watched as her father's lips twitched, sparkling eyes meeting the sideways glances he received from his boys as he shooed them out of the house, joining them in the yard to help run off some of their energy. She moved to the sofa, tentatively kneeling in front of her mother, committing every exhausted line on the woman's face to memory.

"I think we're outnumbered, Josie," her mother murmured softly to the baby that was quickly falling asleep in her arms.

Jo bit back the tears that threatened to fall, reaching out to her mother, biting her lip when her fingers failed to brush back her hair, instead travelling through the woman as if she weren't in the room. Jo sighed softly. "More than you'll know," she answered for the baby, wishing for nothing more than to close her eyes and let her mother's love wash over her, something she'd taken for granted every day until she was gone.

"You okay, Jo?" Zane asked quietly, knowing enough about Jo's past to gentle his voice, ensuring she was well aware of his true concern.

"I will be when you get us out of this, so get your genius on and figure out what happened."

He hesitated, fingers scratching at the back of his neck as he shrugged quietly. "Yeah. I kind of already know what happened. At least I think I know."

She waited almost a full minute before getting to her feet and walking over to him, one long finger poking into his chest, her eyes sparking dangerously. "Silence coming from you, Zane Donovan, doesn't comfort me. Silence coming from you can mean one of three things. First: I don't know what happened, and damned if I can figure it out, so if I can't sound smart, I'll just shut up. Now, we know that's not the case, since you've already admitted to knowing what this is."

"Jo..."

"Second: I've thoroughly screwed up, so if I just stay quiet and work on the issue, maybe when I fix it she'll forget I caused it in the first place. That doesn't work, by the way."

"So I've noticed."

"Third: We're completely screwed. One hundred percent, bonafide, FUBAR. Everyone hope that Carter can blunder into a quick fix, because the geniuses can't do a thing." She lifted an eyebrow, gauging his reaction. "I'm guessing it's option number three."

"Eh, a little of two, a little of three," he tried hopefully, the cold glare that met his blue eyes draining what was left of the mirth in his expression. "Yeah. I've thoroughly screwed up and let's hope Carter can do something, cause in here, I don't have a hope."

"Want to tell me why I feel like I'm in an episode of This is Your Life?"

He shrugged. "I was working on a program with Grace Monroe, sort of an extension of her PTSD machine. Where the PTSD machine could download and share memories, allowing both individuals to share that memory, this is a more," he cleared his throat quietly, "Intimate experience."

"How intimate?"

"Pretty intimate." He chuckled ruefully. "See, both users will be put into a coma state, their neural functions will be monitored by the computers I left in the lab, but the portable receivers are controlled by the units we brought out of GD. One headset is the transmitter, one headset is the receiver. It's designed not to transfer memories but actual consciousness from one to the other, so that a person can physically be walked back through their memories, re-experience them with whomever's on the receiving end."

"So, we're not actually in the past?" Jo breathed a sigh of relief. One trip through time had been quite enough to last a lifetime.

"Nope." He waited for the moment the relief would turn to understanding.

"And since these are my parents, we're inside my head?"

"Looks like."

She frowned, shaking her head. "That doesn't make sense, I don't remember this, why would we be in a time that I've got no memory of?"

He glanced over to her mother and then back to her, shrugging softly. "When the machine fried it probably took us back to the first chemical imprint encoded in your neurotransmitters. Essentially, this is your very first memory, even if you're not consciously aware of it."

"Okay, so how do we get out of here?"

He sighed quietly. "This isn't a program meant to run without people on the outside monitoring. This is meant as an ongoing therapy, requiring repeated sessions, delving into and exploring various memories until the root cause of any remaining psychological problems can be identified and worked through."

"I got that. How do we get out?"

"Without the machines that are probably lying in a puddle of melted plastic and metal at our feet? No idea. I haven't had time to program in a kill command yet, we were just in a beta phase."

"Zane, I am begging you, please tell me we're not going to go through every single moment of my life?"

He cleared his throat in discomfort. "Not every moment." Pause. "Just the significant ones."

Before he could blink she was in his face, her finger jabbing uncomfortably into his chest.

"Careful, Jo, even though our bodies are merely subconsciously reconstructed representations of ourselves, you're as real to me in here as you are out there, and that finger of yours, it hurts."

"I am a girl, Zane, a girl. Whether the world wants to see me as a soldier, or a cop, or Chief of Security, or whatever, under it all, I'm a girl. I have a *lot* of significant moments. Ones I am most definitely not comfortable sharing with you. You more than anybody." Her face blanched as the wall of the living room turned into what could only be described as a projector screen, her memories diversified into hundreds of little monitor boxes, all waiting to be accessed. "Oh my God! Who did I kill in a past life to deserve this?"

Zane walked over to the wall curiously, cocking his head to the side as he studied the series of small images displayed before him.

"Zane! Stop looking!"

He cast a scornful look over his shoulder at her before returning his attention to the images. "Relax, Lupo, this is really cool, actually. Like I said, this is in beta stages so I'm not sure what to expect, but this looks like a control panel of some kind."

"Control? We can control this?" She moved to his side, trying to ignore some of the more embarrassing moments that were displayed on the wall.

"Maybe." With a crooked frown, Zane reached out and tapped a screen, turning to watch as the room they were standing in shifted, a new scene in the same room coming to life around them.

"What'd you do?"

He shrugged. "I picked one."

She recognized the memory immediately, burned so thoroughly into her mind that she'd lived it night after night for years. Tears immediately sprang to eyes that she shut tightly, trying desperately to drown out her father's voice as he walked her six year old self to where her mother lay on the sofa.

"Be very quiet, Jo," her father said to her, pulling his fingers from her grip as she dropped to her knees in front of her mother.

"What do I say, Daddy?" her little voice trembled, drowned out in part by the heavy breath rattling in her mother's chest.

"Anything you like. Your momma's listening, even if she can't say so."

Zane's face grew pale as he realized what he'd done, and he quickly turned to face Jo, stepping between her and the scene playing out before them. "I'm sorry," he whispered, pulling her into his arms, tucking her head under his chin, protecting her silently, praying she accepted the comfort without struggle.

"You didn't know," she whispered back.

"Momma? Daddy's sad, 'n so am I."

She fought the tears, but they came anyway, bridging over and falling down her cheeks, dampening Zane's shirt. He held her silently as she listened to her own small voice, explaining to her mother how much she was going to miss her.

"Daddy says I have to go to Grandma's tonight, and you won't be here when I come home. Daddy says that you're going to visit God, and that you're gonna build us a new home in Heaven for when we come to see you, but that won't be for a long, long time."

Jo heard the breath stall in her mother's chest and it was as simple and as quick as that. One moment the air was filled with the sounds of pained breathing, the next moment there was silence. She'd gone without so much as a whimper.

There was an audible catch in her father's voice as he put his hand on his little girl's shoulder, trying to pull her away before she realized what had happened. "Say goodbye now, Jo, your grandmother is waiting."

"Bye, Momma."

When little Jo looked up, her dark eyes were filled with tears, the spark of youth that filled the gaze of all children faded. Zane watched in silence as she was led from the room, the scene freezing around them, the wall splitting into the series of images around them only after the memory had ended. Unfortunately, the scene had merely stopped, it hadn't disappeared, so when Jo lifted her head from Zane's shoulder, taking a deep breath before turning, she was left facing the body of her mother that remained still on the sofa.

"Pick a new memory, Zane." She pleaded quietly, unable to stop herself before stepping forward, moving towards the sofa, kneeling down beside her mother, tracing a finger over the unmoving hand, wishing she could actually touch her.

She was startled when Zane kneeled down beside her, resting a hand on her leg as he looked down at her mother quietly. "You look a lot like her, you know."

"Yeah. My dad used to tell me that. I tried so hard to be perfect after she died, tried to be just like the boys."

"Anything we can do..."

"I could do better." Jo nodded, a small smile tugging at her lips. "It was hard."

"I know." And he did know. He knew what it felt like to lay awake at night and wonder if his dad would be proud of him. He knew what it felt like to grow angrier and angrier at the world when phone calls and letters from his father grew fewer and farther between. He knew what it felt like to feel alone, even when he had the unfaltering love of the one parent he had remaining.

"So." Jo paused, gathering her thoughts as she said a silent prayer for her mother and climbed to her feet. "You have my entire life at your fingertips, Donovan, how do you want to rip my heart out next?"

"Jo, I..." He remained still, unsure of what his next actions should be.

She sighed softly, walking back to the wall of images. "So many memories." She reached out and tapped the box for one, almost immediately confused when nothing happened. "Okay? Did I break it?"

He swallowed thickly, moving to stand beside her. "I think the program believes I'm your therapist; in theory, all the control over this is mine so that I can pick the memories that will be most... useful."

He could feel the frustration radiating off her, taking no pleasure in it this time. He'd known Lupo a long time, this one or the other, it really didn't matter, Jo was all about control. He silently studied a few of the scenes playing out on the wall, immediately understanding why; it was something she'd never had growing up. A dozen of the memories were of packing and moving, a dozen first days at school, a dozen times making friends. He watched her brothers tease and torment her, watched her rise to their challenges, watched her break bones, fall through windows, pick herself up off the ground dirty and bleeding. His eyes lingered on one memory in particular, a barely teenage Jo and a gangly boy in a dark room. Zane closed his eyes for a moment as that gangly boy reached out for her and her eyes flashed fear before the memory reset to the start and began playing again. He'd have to choose that memory to see how it played out, but something made him stop, made him look at Jo who had her head hung in shame, waiting for him to select a scene to torment her further.

He couldn't do it, couldn't see the lack of trust in her eyes, the walls she was building in preparation for his immanent betrayal. Instead of choosing for her, he took her hand in his and lifted both to the wall. "How about you show me one you want me to see?"

She looked at him cautiously, gauging his honesty. Against her better judgement she shrugged. "I don't know what to show you."

He fought the urge to tease her, sensing the fragility of the peaceful bond between them. "Show me the first time we met."

Her eyes instantly flicked to one of the last few memories on the board, the look of happiness on her face as she rushed into the jail cell where he sat wearing that awful blue shirt and the smirk of disbelief on his face. He immediately recognized the scene and knew the sadness that would fill her sparkling brown eyes moments from then when he failed to recognize the change in her before speaking. Quickly, he shook his head, turning to capture her gaze with his own.

"Not the first time you met this me, Jo." He watched as his words quickly sank in, shock and anger chasing away the look of vulnerability that had too recently filled her caramel depths. He took a small measure of comfort in the harder expression that crossed her face, offering her a crooked smile, shrugging while she forced herself back to a state of calm. "The very first time."

Her fingers shook as she moved his hand to a memory only three years old, the day a very young Zane found himself in the cell at the Sheriff's office. They watched as the memory unfolded before them, the lingerie that appeared for her, the teasing that almost instantly erupted between them.

"I was young," Zane murmured quietly, watching as the boy before him turned his sparkling blue eyes on Jo with a confidence that almost completely covered the anger and sadness that lived in his heart.

"Mmhmm. We both were." She smiled at the scene with a warmth Zane didn't know she had, a soul deep sadness burning behind her gaze.

"How about our first date?"

She moved his fingers slightly against the panelling, changing the scene around them to Cafe Diem. They stood beside their counterparts as they conversed, Zane lost in the sight of Jo in that little white sun dress, her hair down, almost glowing with the sun coming through the windows behind her. She stole his breath away as surely as she had the first time, his face breaking into a grin that mimicked the smiling disbelief his younger self radiated.

"How the hell did I get this lucky?" he asked quietly, making Jo laugh softly and roll her eyes.

"Wait for it."

Zane's face fell the very moment the argument started over practical versus theoretical physics. He watched as the younger Jo shut herself down, cutting their date short, leaving his younger self watching after her, lost as to what he'd done wrong.

Zane cringed, shaking his head. "I was very young."

"Mmhmm."

She let the scene skip ahead to where Zane finally wore her down, watching with a grin as her Zane breathed a sigh of relief. "Why didn't I ever think of that?" he questioned, quietly. In his timeline when Jo had turned him down, he'd not pressed the issue. He'd backed off, turning to greener pastures, only ever occasionally regretting what they'd missed. Now he silently kicked himself for ever having given up on them.

"C'mon, Jo, you choose one." He stood behind her, letting her lead his fingers across the board, watching her carefully choose the moments of their story to tell.

When the room shifted around them once more, Zane was startled to find himself in the dark, a cool blue light forming slowly around them, illuminating the tiny room they were surrounded by. He frowned as a jacket materialized in front of him, batting at the fabric with annoyance, growling as his hand went through the generated particles. He stepped back, bumping into Jo, closing his eyes to calm himself before turning around.

"We're in a closet."

"Yep."

"Why are we in a closet?"

"Watch."

As the doors to the closet slid open, the world came to life around them, music thumping, people talking, SARAH's gentle voice audible above it all. His annoyance with their situation faded, however, the moment their younger selves slipped into the room, lips locked, hands moving desperately over each others bodies, fingers travelling under shirts to meet heated flesh.

"Holy hell, Jo…" his eyes were wide as he drank in the sight of them feasting from each others bodies, his body instantly turning rock hard, the jeans he was wearing suddenly constricting and uncomfortable.

"These were the first days," she murmured, watching laughter bubble from her own lips as Zane's lips moved from her mouth, down her jaw, over her neck to nip lightly at the pulse point in her throat. "We were like teenagers, dancing around each other until our very first kiss; from there everything just exploded."

"Why didn't you show me that one?"

She shrugged, unable to help herself as she moved closer to him, their shoulders bumping together, her fingers sliding down his arm to entwine with his. "Kissing in the Sheriff's office? We've been there and done that, not something you needed to see again."

"Kissing you will never be something I get tired of, JoJo."

She chuckled softly, resting her head on his shoulder, calming her heavily beating heart. "Yeah, well, kissing you is dangerous. For instance, we're supposed to be making sure Zoe stays out of trouble, and instead, we can't keep our hands off each other. You kept… distracting me."

Zane laughed out loud at that, turning to face her, fingers still entwined, his voice incredulous. "I distracted you?"

She swallowed thickly, her body instantly responding to the lack of space between them, to the heat radiating off his body, the sudden lack of oxygen in the tiny room. "Yes. You are very distracting."

"Would it be distracting if I did this?" His fingers trailed up her arm, across her shoulder, thumb skimming lightly over the soft flesh of her throat. A small whimper escaped her lips, her pulse jumping rapidly under his touch and against her will she leaned forward until their foreheads touched. "I'll take that as a yes."

When his lips moved to hers, claiming her soft flesh as his own, a groan quickly escaped his throat and they immediately deepened the gentle touch to something harder and heavier. It was almost with panic that he held her to him, moulding her soft curves to his hard planes, not the slightest bit startled by the perfection in their fit together.

She melted against his body's immediate response to her, any coherent thought chased away by the feel of his lips against hers, his tongue delving in and drinking from the warm depths of her mouth, her heart moments from exploding in her chest as she drowned in the feel, the scent, the very taste of Zane with her again.

It was only seconds before the door slid open again and Carter's voice poured cold water across not only their subconscious counterparts but themselves as well, four identical sheepish expressions meeting Carter's amused gaze.

"Did I hate him as much then as I do right now?" His words were cut by his panting gasps for air, his fingers tightly wound into hers, not letting her back away further than was necessary.

Jo giggled, a light blush darkening her face as she shook her head, watching the scene freeze around them. "No, he respected you and you, him."

Zane chuckled quietly. "You come from a very weird Mojo universe, you know that?"

Jo shook her head. "Geek speak. Some things never change."

When the wall appeared again, Jo raised Zane's hand without hesitation, taking only a moment before choosing the next memory she wanted to share with him. He felt her stiffen, her gaze wistful and sad, as the scene shifted to the infirmary at Global Dynamics, and a beaten looking Zane laying in the small bed looking up at Jo with awe.

"I love you, Jo."

"I love you, too."

His heart twisted painfully in his chest, his jaw jerking as he glanced up from the scene, watching as complete evisceration tore across Jo's face, masked almost instantly by a look of blasé non interest. He wondered why, for just a moment, she'd choose this as the memory to follow the heat and humour of the last, when suddenly he understood.

"First time?" he asked quietly.

"Nope. You spent a lot of time in here. I tried to get Allison to dedicate a bed just for your danger-crazy ass, but she said it wasn't in the budget."

"Not what I meant, JoJo."

"Yeah."

He let it rest at that, unsure if her affirmation was towards his question or her understanding of what he was asking. It mattered, yet didn't matter; happened, yet hadn't happened.

"We've had a lot of firsts," he said casually, glancing at the short films of the memories she hadn't chosen.

"Yeah, and you're not watching the naked ones, so don't go there."

He grinned, not expecting her to take the bait quite so fast; rather than rise to her challenge, he lifted his eyebrows, feigning surprise. "There's naked ones?"

"That innocent expression? Yeah, doesn't work on me; you know damn well there is." She paused. "And remind me to personally thank Fargo for that knowledge when we get out of here."

Zane grimaced quietly. "Guess I owe him an apology." He shrugged. "Eh, I'll send flowers."

"So, any idea how we're getting out of here?"

He shrugged. "Not a clue. I can't even tell how long we've been in here. The way we originally laid this out, exploring one memory would take up an entire extended session, meaning twelve to fourteen hours a scene."

"But we've been through... you mean... God, we've been here a week?"

He shrugged again. "Give or take."

"Give or take what? An hour? A day?"

"I don't know, Jo, beta stages, remember?"

"How the hell did you design something that was almost ready for human testing and you didn't put in a fail safe or a kill switch or a freaking off button?"

Zane found himself wondering, just for a moment, how it was possible for a person to change attitude as quickly as Jo. Still, as his own frustration began bubbling to the surface, mimicking and responding to hers, he increased the distance between them and well used walls fell into place on both sides.

"Beta. Stages. How many times do I have to say it? And even if I did put an off button in here, how would you imagine pushing it? This isn't Star Trek, we're not on a holodeck, you can't just walk up to the freaking panel and say, "Computer, Arch" and expect it to..."

He blinked and fell instantly silent as the panel depicting Jo's memories faded, leaving in it's place a solitary door.

"What the hell?" He gaped at the door in disbelief, his gaze travelling to where Jo glared at him, his expression sheepish. "I swear, I am not this big of a geek. This is not my programming."

"Mmhmm."

"Seriously."

"Yeah. Got it, Zane. It isn't your inner nerd writing in the backdoor access. Not really the important issue at hand."

"Do you think we just..." he mimed opening the door uncertainly.

"Oh my God. You went from acting like Super Dave Osborne to being Scooby freaking Doo. Can't you find an in between? People live happy lives in between!" She reached out and grabbed the doorknob, firm in her hand as she twisted and stepped through without hesitation.

The last thing she was aware of before her world turned white was Zane's voice calling for her. She was too far gone to turn around and wait for him; she could only hope he followed her through so that wherever she was going, she wouldn't be alone.

~~~TBC~~~

In the Next Part:

When the white light cleared, Jo was surprised to find herself not in the infirmary at Global Dynamics, but in the Sheriff's office, watching as Zane silently paced the cell in which he was confined.

It was with a silent, 'why me?', that Jo turned around, facing the door, unsurprised when first her Zane appeared, followed by her subconscious self.

"Well. That didn't work."

Coming Soon!