Title: Perchance to Dream
Author: Cat Chester
Rating: T
Paring: Jo/Zane
Disclaimer: Not mine. Please don't sue as all I own are 3 dogs. Actually, you're welcome to the dogs.
Spoilers: Up to Crossing Over
Summary: Following the change in Lupo's behaviour, Zane decides to do some digging but his confrontation is interrupted when the Town in put in peril. Jo and Zane must work together to try and save it.
AN: Thank you for all the kind reviews on chapters one and two and I apologise for the delay in getting this out, real life and illness got in my way. Sorry.
AN2: Still unbetaed because I've made you wait long enough. Please forgive any mistakes.
III
"Okay," Zane announced a few minutes later. "I've reprogrammed the wave generator and set it to the lowest power so we can test it without risking affecting everyone in the vicinity."
Jo looked over to Carter. "Are you sure it's safe?"
Zane turned serious. "I'm as sure as I can be."
Jo nodded. "Do it."
Chapter Three
As Zane approached Carter, Jo's phone rang.
"Lupo."
Zane decided to continue without her. He was worried he would let her down so this was easier to do while her attention was focused elsewhere.
"Okay, Sheriff, here goes nothing." He pressed the buttons on either side of the device and watched as the top glowed white for a second or two before fading. The cylinder sparked, shocking him as a wisp of smoke escaped but he managed to hold on to it despite the pain.
"Damn it!" he said, clenching his teeth in frustration.
"Zane?" he turned towards Jo, ready to see the disappointment in her eyes.
"Jo, I'm sor-"
Jo grinned and Zane looked confused.
"You did it," she said. Zane turned around to see Jack rubbing his eyes.
"What the hell happened?" Jack asked.
Jo rushed to his bedside. "You called me, remember?"
"Vaguely," he groaned. "How long was I out?"
Jo checked her watch. "About three hours."
"And the rest of the town?"
"Still asleep," Zane said. "I turned it down to the lowest setting but the device is fried," he held the cylinder up. "We need to find the new one or I'll have to rebuild it before we try and wake the whole town up."
"I had the weirdest dreams," Jack said as he struggled into a sitting position.
"That's listed as a possible side effect of the drug," Zane explained as he returned to the computer terminal.
"And I have the mother of all headaches," Jack said.
"But at least you're awake," Jo smiled at him.
"True. So what did I miss?" Jack asked.
Zane kept one ear on their conversation as Jo filled him in on what had happened.
"So do we know what they stole?" Jack asked when she had finished.
"Not exactly. It's section five and top secret but that phone call I just got was from the DOD. The helicopter has disappeared so I'm going to guess it was a cloaking device of some kind."
"Can't we track it some other way?" Jack asked. "With infra-red or a displacement scan or something?"
"They're trying but no luck."
"And they won't have any," Zane added.
Jo and Jack looked over to him.
"I've been looking into section five files and I think I've found your cloaking device. Do you want the good news or the bad news?"
"How did you hack into those files so quickly?" Jo asked.
Zane smiled. "Please! I've had backdoors into every branch of this computer since the first week I worked here."
Jo frowned. She wasn't sure if that fact pleased her because it helped them right now, or angered her because Zane just had no respect for boundaries.
"Don't look at me like that," he scolded her.
"Like what?"
"All accusing and disappointed. Do you want to know what I found out or not?"
"Sure." She moved closer to Zane as Jack got out of bed and joined them.
"I don't suppose there are any clothes around here, are there?" Jack asked. His sweat pants were sadly inadequate for the tasks that surely lay ahead.
"There's scrubs in that cupboard," Zane pointed to it. Jack pulled one of the green shirts on as he listened to them.
"So how can we track the helicopter?" Jo asked.
"We can't," Zane answered. "That was the bad news. The good news is, they're gone for good."
"You want to run that by me again?" Jack asked as he joined them.
"Okay. Do you remember that P-Brain incident with Tess Fontana?"
"Zane!"
"No, no," Jack reassured her. "It's not an insult. P-Brains are... dimensional curtains, right?"
"Close enough. They're the barriers that separate dimensions. Crossing into the fifth dimension is the ultimate form of cloaking because you essentially exist outside of regular space. No sensor on earth can detect you. You can literally walk right into the Oval Office and listen in without being detected."
"Then why isn't it being used already?" Jo asked.
"Because crossing the P-Brain isn't that difficult but de-cloaking, or getting back to this dimension, is much harder to do with precision. In the case of missiles, to stay undetected they would have to de-cloak just moments before impact and that kind of precision isn't a reality yet. In the case of people, it's dangerous."
"How dangerous?" Jo asked.
"Deadly. Aside from Jack and Tess, so far this project has only had one successful test and they haven't been able to repeat that success again."
"But presumably they can de-cloak themselves somehow?" Jo said. "Or they wouldn't have used the device."
"Well I'm betting they thought they had the technology necessary and could keep trying. Unfortunately, for security reasons the two parts of the project were separated. The cloaking device was in lab 5-04 but the de-cloaking testing was happening in 5-01. I took a look at your security logs and nothing was taken from 5-01, so they can cloak themselves but they have no way to uncloak themselves."
"So that's good, right?" Jo asked.
Zane shrugged. "That depends."
"On what?"
Jack sighed. "On if their friends come back looking for the missing piece of the puzzle."
"Then we need to figure how how this was done," Jo said. "To even know about the lab in section five it had to be an inside job. If we can figure out who's behind this we can be ready when they come back."
"It wouldn't have been someone who was working on the project," Zane said, "They would have known about both labs."
"Okay, so lets break this down. First of all they accessed Pollacks lab for both the drug and the gadget to activate it. Second, they poisoned the towns water supply."
"Neither of which is easy to do," Zane added. "The water is processed and recycled on site so they'd need high level security access for both of those stages."
"Okay, next they put the town to sleep, broke in here and escaped on a helicopter."
"Were there any identifying markings on the chopper?" Carter asked, turning to Jo.
"The DOD's looking into it."
"Okay. Something like this would take an awful lot of planning."
"Agreed," She turned to Zane. "Can you see if any employees have been in section five, Pollacks lab and the water recycling plant within the past month?"
Zane nodded and began typing.
"Three people," he told them. "Fargo, Josh Letterman the maintenance guy and Doctor Jose Mendoza."
"What does Jose do?" Jack asked.
"His speciality is telecoms. He's working on a faster than light communication system for use in deep space travel."
All three paused to think the situation through.
"Is it..." Zane's words tailed off.
"What?" Jo asked.
"I just- I know you're his friend and everything, but it was Fargo's ID that was used to access the lab in section five this morning. Could he be the inside man?"
Jack and Jo shared a look.
"What?" Zane asked.
"I doubt it," Jack said to Jo, ignoring Zane. "He's shown poor judgement but he's never been a criminal."
"Except when he stole the organic computer from Doctor Leiber," Jo said.
"Even then he was only taking his own computer back."
"Still, we should check on him," Jo said. "Even if he isn't in on this, it was his fingerprint and iris scan used. He could be in trouble."
"Agreed."
"We should also run a credit check on Letterman and Mendoza, see if either of them had a financial motive."
"I'm on it," Zane said.
"Okay, Carter, why don't you look for Fargo. I'll go check the recycling plant, see if there's any evidence left behind there."
"I'll come with you," Zane said to Jo.
"I'm fine!" Jo snapped. "I don't need a babysitter."
"Don't flatter yourself?" Zane laughed. "I need to check their computer. A strange substance added to the water should have been red flagged even if it was unknown. The fact that it wasn't probably means that the computer's programming was tampered with but I can't tell that from here."
"Shouldn't you be focusing on waking the town up?" Jo tried to cover her embarrassment.
"I already have an idea about that but for now it's probably safest to leave everyone sleeping. If these guys do come back, we don't want innocent people getting hurt."
"Good point," Carter agreed. "I'll call if I find Fargo, you call if you have any news."
III
By the time they reached the recycling plant Jo was getting tired.
"You know, after major surgery it's not considered a sign of weakness to take time off," Zane said as they went in.
Jo chose to ignore his statement. "So what are you looking for?"
"Programming is like handwriting," he said, sitting at the closest terminal. "It's unique to whoever wrote it. If it's distinctive enough I might be able to match it to someone."
Jo nodded, took out a biotelemetric dispersion scanner and began looking for fresh movement patterns.
"There's too much here," Jo sighed. "I cant tell what's related and what isn't."
"Well this might help," Zane said. "The code added to the system tricked it into thinking the drug was Sodium Silicofluoride, something routinely added to water."
"How does that help us?"
"Because the code was added three days ago."
"So?"
Zane turned towards her and held his hand out. "Gimme."
Jo sighed but handed the scanner to him. He opened the casing and began playing around. Jo couldn't help leaning over him to see what he was doing.
"I'm not going to break it," he said.
"No, I... I didn't think you were, I'm just interested."
Zane clicked the casing back into place and handed it to her. "It's set to only scan for movements between 50 and 70 hours ago."
"Thanks." Jo turned it on and saw that the number of footprints was down to two.
"Any time." Zane turned back to his computer and Jo began a through sweep of the room.
Only one set of prints led directly up to the reservoir and Jo saved the scan so they could compare the shoe prints to their suspect.
"You nearly done?" Jo asked as she returned to Zane.
Zane was frowning. "Yes and no."
"Can't you ever give a straight answer?" she snapped.
"Unfortunately life is rarely black and white," he retorted. "In this case I can identify the code, but it doesn't make a lot of sense."
"How so?"
Program code isn't just specific to people, it's specific to places too. The way that people are taught to program affects the way they write code." He brought the new programming code up on screen for her to see. "This code is British."
"So the British stole the cloaking device?"
"It looks like it, but none of our suspects are English."
"They could be hired hands," Jo reasoned.
Zane shook his head. "The background checks here go back generations," he reasoned. "They don't let just anyone in."
"They let you in," she dead-panned.
"Very funny," he rolled his eyes.
"But you're right," she said, thought fully. "Okay, what about those bank robberies where they blackmailed the bank managers into robbing the vault for them by kidnapping their families."
Zane smiled, impressed with her reasoning. "I'd say that was worth looking into."
Jo's phone rang and she answered it, putting it on speaker to Zane could hear Carter too.
"Did you find Fargo?" she asked.
"I did. He's sleeping like a baby down here in section five, dressed in shorts and a Sarah Michelle Gellar T-shirt."
"Please take a photo for me," Zane grinned.
"Then we can rule him out," Jo said, ignoring Zane's quip. "We're working on the theory that someone was forced to do this," she informed him. "So we need to track down Letterman and Mendoza's families."
"I'll take the janitor, you take Mendoza," Jack said. "Text me his address."
"Will do."
As they stood to leave, Zane's phone beeped.
"That's the financial checks. Aside from credit cards and mortgages, they're clean. Nothing unusual and no missed payments."
"Okay, so the blackmailed theory is looking better and better."
"Do you, uh, want some company when you check out Mendoza's house?" Zane asked as they headed towards the door.
"Shouldn't you be working on a cure?"
"Already am," Zane tapped his temple.
Jo was torn. She did enjoy working with him but it was dangerous for her. If she became too emotionally attached, she'd end up being hurt again. Sure, Zane was being friendly towards her but that was a far cry from loving her, or even just wanting to be her friend. Every instinct she had was telling her to keep her distance and refuse him.
"Okay," she smiled slightly.
III
Jo stopped the car a few houses down from Doctor Mendoza's house and got out.
"Why are we stopping here?" Zane asked.
"Because if anyone's awake in there we don't want them to see us drive past." Jo had taken the time to stop by the armoury for equipment before they left and she pulled a gun from the holster on waist band.
"Hey, can I get one of those?"
Jo hesitated for a moment leant down to removed a smaller gun from her ankle holster which she handed to him.
"How many more guns do you have on you?" he grinned.
Jo frowned. "Two. Why?"
"Nothing," he grinned. "There's just something really hot about a woman packing that much heat."
"Whatever," she ignored the fluttering feeling in her stomach and pulled a pair of binoculars from her utility waistcoat.
"That's a good look for you," Zane quipped. "Much hotter than the power suits."
"Okay, stop," she held her hand up. "I need to focus now."
"Am I making you uncomfortable?" he asked, quite obviously enjoying her discomfort.
"You know you are, that's why you're doing it. You're like a kid seeing how much he can get away with before he's grounded."
Zane help up three fingers. "I'll behave. Scouts honour."
Jo raised her eyebrows. "Wrong hand."
Zane grinned but he knew when to shut up and as Jo headed through the neighbours garden towards the house, he followed silently in her wake.
At the fence Jo paused and looked through the binoculars. While Zane had tucked his gun into his waist band he noticed Jo still had hers in her right hand.
"I'm reading four heat signatures, all still."
"Unconscious?" Zane asked quietly.
"Looks like it but we can't be sure until we're inside."
"He has two teenage children, it's probably just the family. Can I?" he pointed to the binoculars and Jo handed them to him. "They're in slightly odd positions," he noted.
"I know. It looks like they're restrained but we still need to be careful. One of them could be faking."
They scaled the fence and entered the house through the back door. It was locked but Zane quickly picked it and quietly they crept from room to room. Zane had taken his gun out but kept it lowered, leaving Jo to clear each room ahead of him since she was the professional.
The house was all on one level and they found the doctor and his wife in the master bedroom. The wife was handcuffed to the headboard, unconscious, while her husband was restrained with duct tape beside her.
In the other two bedrooms they found the children, each also handcuffed to their headboards. Jo put her gun away and returned to the master bedroom to check the soles of the doctors shoes.
"Same tread marks as in the recycling plant," she sighed.
"Why the sigh?" Zane frowned. "Your theory was right, he was blackmailed into helping."
"Maybe, or they could have tied him up as a cover to make him look innocent. Either way, unless he wakes up and we can get some information from him, this doesn't really help us." She sat down on the otterman at the end of the bed.
"You're not very trusting, are you?" he observed, sitting beside her.
"I'm not trained to be trusting."
"You trusted me," he said. "And you and I were the only two people left awake. Time was when that alone would have been enough to earn me some jail time."
"But you..." She realised that logically, she should have suspected him. The only reason she didn't was because she knew how to read him, she could tell when he was lying. Or at least she used to be able to. She looked into his eyes. "Were you involved?"
"No," he answered, holding her gaze. "Do you believe me?"
"Yes. But that doesn't help us." She looked to the two bodies tied to the bed. "I'd better tell Carter."
"You know, it's possible I can get one more burst from this thing," Zane said as he pulled the remote control from his pocket.
"So you could wake him up?"
"Maybe," he said firmly. "This device is fried but I might, and I stress 'might', be able to get a short burst from it. I don't know if it will be enough to wake him up though."
"Do it. I'll call Carter," she said, holstering her gun and taking her phone out.
Zane popped the casing off the device again and withdrew Eureka's version of a Swiss Army Knife from his pocket. He used the laser attachment to resolder two of the connections, bypassing some of the damaged circuitry while Jo called Carter. She began pacing as they talked, discussing options and theories.
When he was finished, Zane replaced the casing and tried the device. He could feel the heat from it immediately and after a few seconds it caught fire. He hissed, dropped it and scrambled to put the small fire out with before it caught the carpet alight.
"Zane!" Jo was at his side in a second. "Carter, I'll have to call you back," she hung up the phone.
"It didn't work," Zane nodded towards the bed where both occupants were still sleeping soundly. Jo didn't turn to look.
"Let me see your hand," she said, reaching for it.
"It's nothing," he pulled it away.
"Let me see." She grabbed for his hand again and this time he allowed her to look. He watched her as she studied the palm of his hand like it was the most important thing she'd ever seen. She gently traced her fingers over the burns, careful not to hurt him. "You have second degree burns," she said, looking up, into his eyes. He was touched by the care and concern he saw in them.
"It's nothing," he assured her.
"You need to get it treated," she argued.
Zane wished she would look that way at him but he didn't think she wasn't really seeing him at all. She was seeing the other Zane.
"Does it hurt?" she asked, her voice soft and warm.
"Jo..." he said, trying not to sound harsh. "I'm not 'him'."
"I... What? How did you...?" She looked down at his hand, embarrassed and unsure of what to say.
"You walked into the Sheriffs office and said you'd marry me. It's not that big of a stretch, Jo."
"Oh," she kept her attention firmly focused on his hand. "How long have you known?"
"Once I figured out the time travel bit, the rest fell into place."
"Right," she took a deep breath and met his gaze. Zane could see the pain and confusion in her expression, that same look of vulnerability that had convinced him to help her and got him involved in this mess in the first place.
"I know you're not him," she said with a sad smile. "I know that everything I shared with him is gone. That he's gone. But sometimes you say something or do something and... and it's like he's here again." She blinked back the tears that stung her eyes. "I'm trying very hard to think of you as his twin."
"His twin?" he asked, thinking that was a clever way to distinguish them.
"Yeah. Zane's evil twin, Pain, as in 'the ass'."
Zane laughed softly and despite herself, Jo found a smile forming on her lips too.
"I'm not that bad, am I?" he teased, trying to lighten her mood.
"No," she said seriously. "You're annoying, irritating, juvenile and criminal, but I think underneath it all you have a good heart."
She sounded sincere and Zane began to wonder if perhaps she could feel something for him one day. He had never considered himself good enough for her, even the tougher version of her from his timeline. Jo had integrity and a strong moral code, which unfortunately were both areas he was sadly lacking in. When he'd learned about the time travel and realised she must have been engaged to a version of him in another time line, he hadn't thought much of it, other than as fodder for some light banter. But now he was beginning to think that maybe they did have a chance.
"Do I?" he asked seriously. "Or does he?"
"Both," she answered honestly. "You are different, yes, but you're also similar."
"You can't turn me into him," he said kindly, brushing an escaped lock of hair behind her ear.
"I know. Even if I could, I'm not sure I want to. I feel like it would cheapen his memory somehow."
As Zane looked down at her he felt he was finally seeing the real Jo, the woman beneath the warrior. In his mind he could separate his feelings for both Jo's but then he had never loved his Jo. Lusted after her, maybe, but not loved. Certainly not like this Jo loved her Zane.
On impulse he lowered his head and kissed her softly. She put her hands behind her neck to draw him closer and he wrapped his arms around her waist and held her tightly as he deepened the kiss.
Jo felt like she was dreaming. Zane was here with her, loving her, everything was right with the world again. Then she remembered it wasn't the right Zane.
She broke off the kiss but stayed in his embrace, their foreheads touching. Both of them were breathing heavily and right now Zane wanted nothing more than to take her back to his apartment and forget about the town and it's problems.
"I've wanted to do that since the day I met you," Zane said softly.
"Oh god," she whispered.
"It wasn't that bad, was it?" he teased.
Jo looked into his eyes and he could see how flustered she was.
"This is all just too confusing," she said honestly. "I... I feel like I have a history with you, a connection with you that I don't. I..."
"Don't over think things, Jo Jo," he crooned.
"This isn't just something I can just gloss over."
"I know," he pulled away slightly and ran the back of his uninjured hand across her cheek. "Do you like me, Jo? I mean for who I am, without bringing him into the equation?"
"Yes. But where does he leave off and you start? What if I'm-"
"Shh," Zane placed a finger over her lips. "Don't over think it. I like you, the new you and the old you, though I have to confess I like the new you more. I want to get to know you so how about we take it slow. We'll start with dinner. Or brunch, brunch is informal."
A shadow of doubt passed over her face.
"He took you to brunch, didn't he?"
"Yeah."
"Okay, scratch brunch. How about a movie and drinks afterwards?"
"Okay," she smiled, almost coyly. "I'd like that."
"Good, then it's a date. And if I start moving too fast, just let me know."
Jo felt like a child on Christmas eve but there was a part of her that was also terrified by this development. What if things didn't work out? What if he stayed a selfish jackass and was just using her for a get out of jail free card? What if she tried to move things to fast? It had taken Zane long enough to commit to their relationship the first time round, this time she was two years ahead of him in the emotion stakes.
"Hey," realising what she was doing, he put one finger under her chin and tilted her fact up until she was looking at him. "What did I tell you?"
"Don't over think things," she repeated and took a deep breath. She leaned in and hugged him. "You're right."
"I'm always right," he quipped, holding her tightly. As expected her fist hit his back but with less force than he'd been anticipating. He held her tighter, wondering why exactly he felt such a deep connection her when in reality he'd only known this version of her for a few weeks.
Before either of them could find the answered they were looking for, Jo's phone beeped and she pulled away to look at it.
"The alarms in section five have gone off," she said, heading out of the house.
"Didn't you lock it down before we left?" he asked, following her.
"Yeah. They won't get in but if we can get back in time, we can catch them trying."
Zane thought that it seemed a little soon for anyone to be returning and he realised that whoever had masterminded this must still be in town.
As they got into the car she called Carter and before Zane could even fasten his seatbelt, she took off towards GD.