Title: The Space Between
Part: 3 of 4
Author: Roguie/ SunSpecOps/ Danae Bowen
Fandom: Eureka
Characters: Jo/Zane
Rating: T
Summary: He 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 is 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.
A/N: This part got away from me a little, so we've had to upgrade from a three part to a four part fic. Sorry for the delay in this, Zane and Jo have not been cooperating with me. I want tender loving romance, and they want to fight. We've been put in our prospective corners and the muse is the referee right now, so here's hoping they start working with a girl instead of against for the final part.
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~~~
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."
Jo bit her lip without comment, turning so that her back was to Zane as the scene unfolded before them. She watched as she met Zane with a smart ass comment, watched as he handed her the lingerie box he'd been holding, watched as she opened it and found the ring inside.
"You've already made an honest man of me, so let's make it official. Marry me, JoJo."
She heard the startled intake of air from her Zane but remained unable to face him. She purposely walked over to herself in the moments she took for realization to kick in.
"Say yes, idiot." She murmured quietly, shaking her head when Carter appeared and Zane climbed to his feet, storming away in anger. "Stupid girl."
She couldn't look at Zane, couldn't watch as the scenes shifted without control, couldn't admit to the nights she lay awake crying, or the rage she only contained in public. She ignored the scenes that vividly depicted her emotional evisceration, spelling out her grief in Technicolor, every minute displayed to Zane as he watched her breakdown in awe.
He stepped closer to her, his hand finding her shoulder unerringly even while his eyes never left the broken Jo that hid in her bedroom at SARAH, her mask come undone as the nights grew long and her loneliness overwhelming.
"You could've told me, you know?"
She shrugged, her eyes on the ground while the scenes continued to spiral out of control. "How well would that have worked, Zane? It took a while, but I got through it."
"Really?" A hint of disappointment tinged his words as he pulled her towards him, her back flush against his chest, his chin resting on her head, their hands clasped in front of her as they watched now familiar scenes play by them.
She shrugged. "You wanted me, I needed something more."
He pressed a gentle kiss to her head before dropping his lips to her ear, whispering softly, "There's always been something more where we're concerned." With a gentle tug at her hands he pointed himself out in her own memory. Once again, GD's infirmary appeared around them, only this time it was Jo lying in the small bed, monitors surrounding her as she turned quietly, surprised to find Zane waiting at her side.
Jo frowned at Zane, shrugging softly. "I remember this just fine." Her fingers moved to the slight scar left on her chest, smoothing away a tinge of phantom pain.
"But you only remember what you were awake for, JoJo."
With a careful effort, Zane gathered control over the scene around them; it was difficult, focussing his mind on something he wasn't even sure would work, but with in minutes, he'd reversed the scene in front of them, taking them back hours before Jo had opened her eyes.
"I remember more."
Jo watched incredulously as Allison settled her body into the infirmary bed, setting up the machines and the nurses rounds to check in on her. At first she didn't notice Zane's quiet form waiting in the shadows, his fingers twisting nervously as he did everything possible to look entirely nonchalant. She watched as Allison noticed him, nodding him over to the chair she set by Jo's bedside. She watched as he sat silently, studying her face, wincing with her when she unconsciously whimpered in pain. He alternated between taking her hand, stroking his thumb across her soft palm and leaning back in the chair as if he was utterly unaffected. He sat quietly, he paced with frustration, he checked her monitors, he whispered to her quietly. Only when she awoke did the mask of aloof coolness drop back into place, a joke ready at his lips to cover any lingering emotion she may have seen in his eyes. It was all an act, covering for what?
"Why?" she asked quietly, struggling to come to terms with the care and loyalty Zane had displayed so early in this timeline.
"C'mon, Jo, why do you think?" He shrugged lightly. "Okay, so maybe I don't exude forever, but all I ever wanted was a chance. With you."
She shook her head softly, moving away from the circle of his arms, backing away slowly. "What about the blonde in reproductive biology? Or the one in molecular genetics? Or the brunette in the condensed matter lab?"
"You can stand there and name off every single woman at GD, knowing I can't deny half of them. I'm a jackass, I know it, you know it, and each of the women you're thinking of know it because none of them ever meant a damn to me. A bit of fun here, a lot of fun there, some of them could bring a guy to his knees with what they're willing to do for me, but none of them ever mattered." His blue eyes sparkled as he caught her gaze and held it firmly. "They served their purpose."
"Spare me the details." The disgust was apparent in Jo's voice as she struggled to keep the shock at his honesty from devastating the frail hold she had on her own battered emotions.
"Their purpose, Josephina, if you'd just listen for one godforsaken minute of your life, was to get your attention. You made me beg like a dog just for a chance at going out with you, but you could never get over your obsession with what this stupid town thought of you. You heard convicted felon and hauled ass as far away from me as you could get. The only time you ever seemed human were those days you'd catch me leaving GD with one or another of the more than willing female population. That's the only time that the ice princess barrier thing you had going would crack enough to show me that this beautiful girl I stumbled on my first day here still existed."
His blue eyes were determined as he stepped forward into her personal space, bending just enough that they were on eye level, that his words brushed over her lips in soft puffs of air. "The next day your emotional force field would always be back in place and you'd seem completely unaffected until I'd meet the business end of your tazer and end up in your cell. Either of your cells. Got to the point that I'd tell Parrish I had a date and he'd just schedule me off the next day. It worked; I got to spend the day ogling your ass, you got to spend the day ensuring that I knew without a doubt I'd never be touching it, and neither of us got behind on our work." He shrugged. "Rinse and repeat."
Jo stared at him in disbelief for a moment, ignoring the heavy beat of her heart as his words whispered over her lips, the inches between them seeming to disappear as his lips curved into a wicked grin. "Don't even consider kissing me after that story."
"Aw, but, JoJo, it was all about you."
She couldn't help the small grin from curling her lips upwards, the sparkle in his eyes irresistible even while she pressed her hands to his chest and shook her head, backing away. "First we get out of here, after that we can discuss your insane logic."
"And then kissing?"
She laughed out loud, unable to stop herself as her own dark eyes began to shine. "Maybe."
"I can do maybe." He straightened up, eyes trailing over the space around them. "Okay, so considering the absolute geekdom of the last backdoor command, we have to assume that Fargo is manipulating the program from the outside."
"Safe assumption."
"Since by now a day or so has probably passed since we accessed the first backdoor, it's likely that he's written in a new subroutine. The question is, what will he have used as a trigger?"
Jo shrugged quietly. "Quotes from science fiction programs? Not really my strong point."
He chuckled. "No, this is probably more geared towards me. Help me think, Jo, you know him better than me; what would he assume I'd say in random conversation?"
"Females of the population bow at my feet?"
Zane looked at her with a raised eyebrow, lips curved down, unsure if he was annoyed or amused. "Not really the time for bad jokes, Lupo."
"I thought it was a pretty good joke."
"In a passive aggressive I'm still pissed with you and you're not going to forget it kind of way."
"Zane…"
He shook his head, lifting his fingers to the back of his neck and scratching lightly as he paced. "No. You're pissed and now I'm going to spend the next week hearing about it one way or another, and while there are certain things I'm not opposed to trying in public, having you finally snap on me in Café Diem after we've come this far is not what I'm looking for. So either forgive me for not kissing your feet for the last two years and moving on until there was a chance for us, or taze my ass and get it over with."
She frowned at him, her dark eyes lacking warmth as she pulled back into herself, pulling away. Just another day, just another fight. "Just get us out of here."
Instead of letting frustration overwhelm them, Zane turned back to the control panel and went through every line he could think of from two decades of science fiction. Time passed slowly and Zane began to run out of quotes. He shook his head, thinking hard, but by the end nothing else was coming to him.
"Seriously, this is the stupidest thing I've ever had to do."
Jo offered him a weak, half grin. "I've found it amusing."
"It helps when you don't understand the context."
She frowned. "Unfair. I recognized Help Me Obi-Wan Kenobi, you're my only hope."
"Congratulations, you recognized Star Wars. Not the biggest brain teaser out there, Lupo."
She flinched quietly, bit her lip and looked back at the control panel in silence.
"Sorry."
She nodded quietly. "Yeah."
He sighed, moving towards her slowly. "No, Jo, really, I'm sorry. Fargo was right. I'm an ass-hat."
A small sound came from behind him and Jo's gaze was dragged up and over his shoulder. Zane closed his eyes briefly, clicking his teeth together before taking a deep breath and turning. The door had reappeared, this time swinging easily inwards, not white light but darkness held behind.
"He has a sick sense of humour, doesn't he?" Zane shook his head, pinching the bridge of his nose before moving forward and taking Jo's hand into his own. He was relieved when she didn't pull away, but that relief was short lived by the curt shrug of her shoulders.
"Don't underestimate him, Zane, he knew you better than you knew yourself, didn't he?"
He paused, stopping her from walking through the door, presumably to safety on the other side. "You gonna forgive me?"
She shrugged again. "Depends on how fast I find my tazer."
"Jo…"
"Let's just see where it goes, hmm?"
"Us or the door?"
"What does it matter? It's all in my head either way you look at it." She shook her head and walked forward, pulling the less resistant Zane through the black doorway.
~~~TBC~~~
In the Next Part:
The need to get away was almost overwhelming. Since the moment she'd opened her eyes to the Global Dynamics infirmary, Zane had been a constant presence in her recovery. It didn't help that he shared a bed not six feet from her own, those expressive blue eyes of his tinged with concern as she grew quieter and quieter while the day wore on.
Coming Soon!