Chapter Eleven
Delete: Part III

Jo was trying to pull herself together. It was a difficult task.

She'd jumped through hoop after hoop to get the crew to safety. There had been guns pointed at her head, hostility from her closest friends. She'd even been willing to sacrifice herself to ensure the success of the mission. So why had she returned to GD only to find Zane with a bullet through his chest? It wasn't fair. Jo prided herself on keeping calm under pressure but her mind was screaming, "Screw this program!"

She was furious with Zane but more than that she was terrified. She could not lose him again, not when they were so close. As she held him up, she could feel him steady enough against her but he was going to fade fast when the shock kicked in. The most frustrating part was how he joked as if this was nothing when he was mostly just wasting his energy trying to keep her from freaking out.

Assessing his condition, she noticed that half of Zane's shirt was now soaked with blood from the leaking wound. His eyes didn't seem as alert and even though he was standing on his own two feet more or less, he still had a significant portion of his weight on her too. She watched Fargo slip out of his sweater and hand it over to Allison to hold against his wound.

'Where are you, Carter?' Jo directed at the universe. 'Any time now.'

Anything could still go wrong at this point. Zane could die with all traces of him shut down, both in here and out in the real world. Hell, they could all die trapped in the program if rescue came too late. Not to mention that, despite the Henry and apparently the Carter NPCs being out of the picture, who knew what other Eureka character might pick up where they left off. Larry? Vincent? Maybe Jenna sporting a simulated hand grenade or kid-sized machine gun to keep them from escaping? Of course, that was absurd but everything about their situation exceeded normal parameters.

Plans had already been set in motion though. Zane just needed to hang on a little while longer.

Doing her best to keep her spiraling emotions in check, Jo turned to Allison. "What happened?" she asked. It wasn't necessary to explain what she meant. Fifteen minutes ago, she had left Zane in a perfect state of health, albeit annoyed with her, and he now stood in her arms bleeding from a virtual gunshot wound.

"Your boyfriend Carter happened," Zane answered instead. "But it's been taken care of." Jo furrowed her brow in confusion and he grinned. "You are so adorable, you know that?" She frowned at him. Was he was delirious? The situation was serious and he was talking about how adorable she was?

Allison scowled at him as well. "Cut the chit-chat, Zane. You need to conserve your energy." Turning to Jo she explained, "It was Carter but we'll have to fill you in on the specifics later." Rather than proceeding to the rotunda as Zane had expected, she signaled to Jo to begin moving him forward towards the infirmary.

Allison wasn't panicking which Jo considered a good sign … maybe. On second thought, she realized that, in actuality, Allison rarely panicked. So if she was calm, did that mean that Zane's condition was more serious than she was willing to let on? She also wasn't in full-on triage mode, although she did seem sufficiently worried about Zane. Jo just couldn't tell what the doctor was thinking and it was driving her crazy.

Turning her head, Allison gave Grace a once over as well while she followed along with them. "Thank God you guys made it."

"Barely," Grace responded, clearly shook up. Zane redirected his attention to her, curiosity written all over his face. He was no doubt wondering what had gone down with Henry. Even injured he was one of the nosiest people she'd ever met. His curiosity would have to wait.

"Eureka is coming apart at the seams," Jo noted, taking in their surroundings and the cracks forming all around them.

"Yeah, waiting to be rescued is not an option," Fargo commented. "This is a nightmare." Fargo was always good for stating the obvious Jo mentally snarked. She bit her tongue to keep from vocalizing her irritation. It would be the stress talking and it wasn't Fargo's fault that things didn't seem to be going according to plan at the moment.

With some effort, Zane lifted his head to look behind him at the hallway they just passed. He had taken notice that they were headed in a different direction than he was expecting. "Wait, where are we going? We need to get down to the rotunda."

Allison ignored his question as did Jo who cocked her head to the side in thought. "Wait, what if that's it?"

"What? Going the wrong way and getting us killed?" Zane shot back. Allison glared at him for insisting on arguing with them when she'd told him to conserve his energy.

Jo rolled her eyes as well. "No, what if all we have to do is wake up, the same way Zane woke up when Martha shocked him."

"That could work," Grace jumped in. "A big enough shock could have disrupted the electrical impulses between Zane's brain and the Matrix computer."

"Uh hello?" Zane whined. "Bleeding guy wants to know what's going on."

"Hush!" Allison shouted at him finally. Turning to Grace she added, "But Zane was lucky he didn't get electrocuted. If we try to replicate it, you could wake up for a second or never wake up again."

They turned the corner into the infirmary and immediately steered Zane onto an examining table. Allison gently got him situated at the head of the bed, being mindful of his wound, while Jo swept his legs up and over the side. Normally, Zane would be irritated by this kind of coddling but Jo could see that his energy was fading fast—probably from all that unauthorized butting-in he'd been doing. Having gotten him settled, Allison nodded at Jo who reached over to apply the pressure to his chest while she gathered her supplies and equipment. Fargo's sweater felt heavy and drenched with his blood.

Jo shifted her weight against the one arm pushing down on Zane's injury and with the other, she squeezed his good shoulder in support. He simply stared up at her with those gorgeous eyes of his, too tired to do anything but rest. When his breathing returned to a normal pace, she swiftly moved her hand across his body to rip his shirt down the middle. Allison would need better access to the wound if she was going to clean it and stabilize him.

Zane raised an eyebrow at her and flashed a faint smile. "You love doing that." She grinned back and raised an eyebrow at him.

But the truth was that she hated doing this. And she hated seeing how pale he had become just in the few minutes it took to get him to the infirmary. Jo didn't want to worry him so she covered his lips playfully with her index finger indicating that he should be quiet.

"Just trying to lend a hand." Her appreciative glance across his chest was meant for him to notice. The uninjured half of his torso was so clean and beautiful that she could almost ignore the mess that her hand was currently covering. She gently caressed his chest before positioning her other hand over his wound to help stop the bleeding. "Instead of running that big mouth of yours, what I want you to do instead is think about all the things we might want to do later once we get everyone out of here. I'm assuming that we're going to have a ridiculous amount of sex tonight."

He laughed weakly, wincing when it turned into a painful cough. He chose to remain silent but he did move his hand to rest against her hip and squeezed lightly. Once he got his breathing back to normal again he added, "Ridiculous, huh? I'm game if you're game, JoJo." That was her Zane. Staring at the brink of catastrophe, he wanted to go out teasing and playful with the promise of exciting intimacies when they eventually overcame the impossible.

Jo caught a glimpse of Allison shaking her head beside them, but with a slight, exasperated grin. She approached the other side of Zane, rolling a tray of equipment and supplies with her. Coordinating with Jo, she gingerly replaced Jo's hands and the soaked-through sweater with a healthy pile of specially-treated GD triage gauze. The bleeding appeared to have slowed a little but the wound still looked pretty bad.

Jo leaned back and clenched the edge of Zane's bed. Her tight grip was a dead giveaway of her frustration. However, she turned her attention back to the problem at hand.

"If we try this, if we intentionally shock my body to separate the brain from the computer, there's also the problem that I'm not with all of you in the real world. Even if I woke up, I couldn't get all of you out." She sighed and gazed around the infirmary. "I don't even know why I'm still here. Henry and Beverly were supposed to eject me as soon as they detected the heat spike and communicated your location. Something must be up."

Fargo winced. "Just a few small issues," he noted, unable to hide his nervousness.

Zane lolled his head over to Jo and moved his hand from her hip to cover her clenched fingers. He was trying not to growl in pain at Allison's actions; she only had time for a mild, local anesthetic before treating him. "And who the hell said that it'd be you taking the plunge. I think you've tempted fate a few too many times today." His words were starting to get a little slurred increasing Jo's unease. But his tone was very cross; it was mainly out of concern that he dared to say anything at all so she let it slide.

Rolling her eyes, Jo moved her fingers to grasp his hand more securely so that he could hold onto her while Allison worked. She tried to ignore the slickness of his blood covering both of their hands. "You're one to talk," she chastised. Between the pain and the blood loss, his eyes were struggling to keep their focus, she noticed. If he had to endure much more of this, she was afraid he'd pass out. Or worse.

Yet he still found the energy to object. "I'm serious, Jo. I'll do it. I'm already injured and I wouldn't mind getting out of here early since the clock's ticking a little faster for me."

Jo was about to protest when Allison interrupted. "We're not even going to get into it," she said looking directly at Jo. "Zane, you're in no shape to do what Grace is suggesting. Your system is unstable and we don't actually know how this technology works. Even if you weren't injured, it would be a huge risk. But with your vitals all over the place, I can't allow it. You're going to have to sit this one out."

Now that Zane's bloody shirt was gone and Allison had been working on cleaning and neutralizing his wound, both women were relieved to see that the bullet hit him closer to his shoulder than his chest. That was a much less scary prospect, not that the amount of blood he'd lost wasn't still a concern.

"I'll do it then," Fargo said from behind the group. He was wringing his hands and shifting back and forth on his feet. But he also appeared determined. "I'm head of Global. All of you have been risking your lives all day and it's time for me to man up and get my people home safe." Jo smirked over his reluctant bravery and Fargo blushed. "Besides," he added, "you'll need a computer geek to help decipher the program."

Allison looked up from where she was treating Zane. He was still conscious but his earlier protest had sapped what remained of his extra energy and left him in no shape to hold a conversation. She glanced at Grace and then at Jo. It was apparent that she did not like this plan one bit but also didn't have anything better to offer.

"Fargo, I don't know what you'll be walking into," Jo explained. "Beverly said that most of the people watching over you guys are scientists but there's bound to be a few goon-types with guns there as well. You'll have to watch out for them too."

He pursed his lips, obviously not having considered that angle. However, he squared his shoulders with only minimal hesitation. Director Fargo was on it. "I'll get it done, guys. I promise." He clapped his hands together and returned to the inappropriate enthusiasm that was more common for him. "Let's go! Once I'm out, stabilize Zane and get down to the rotunda to buy some more time."

Fargo pulled another examination table over to where Allison was working and climbed up on it. Tossing off both of his remaining shirts, he situated himself and glanced around the room. Everyone offered expressions of encouragement and pride as best they could through their fear—and pain in Zane's case.

"Okay. Ready as I'll ever be. Hit me."

Allison had slowed Zane's bleeding and seemed content to leave him unattended for the few moments it would take to execute—literally execute—this unexpected part of the plan. She had also already placed a defibrillator on her cart as a standby in case Zane's condition became worse. Jo imagined that as a doctor, this must be difficult and strange for her to be administering an electrical shock to an otherwise healthy person. But on the Eureka scale of odd remedies, this barely registered.

She moved the paddles so that they hovered over Fargo's body. They were both tense, their tightly coiled anxiety almost painful to watch. Allison didn't seem at all convinced that this was the way to go. In fact, she looked sick to her stomach about it which was unusual for her. Jo touched her arm and gave her a confident smile. "It's okay, Allison. Let's do this."

"Hit me," Fargo insisted. As Allison reluctantly lowered the paddles he whispered, "Fargo, you are The One."

They all jumped a little when Allison delivered the electrical jolt to Fargo's system. And they stood stone-still waiting to see what would happen. The shock had caused Fargo to fall unconscious and his body remained inert on the examination bed. Suddenly, they saw his form shimmer and dissolve slowly as if it had turned to vapor and was being blown into the wind. Even Zane, exhausted from his injury and treatment, stared in awe at the area that his buddy had occupied several seconds ago.

"Good luck, Fargo." Jo directed at the last remnants of her friend, now their last hope for survival.

TBC...