Chapter 2

When Jo got to her office, she found Fargo waiting for her. Without thinking, she just unloaded all of her frustrations about the way her conversation with Danny had ended. "I am in charge of security at a facility that handles the most sophisticated and the highly classified defense contracts in the nation."

Fargo was slightly taken aback by her seemingly random declaration. "I know. I'm pretty sure I'm the one who gave you that job."

Jo crossed past him and over to her desk. "Why couldn't I say that to him?"

"Who?" Fargo asked, still very confused.

"Never mind," Jo said with a sigh. She leaned against her desk. "What's up?"

"We were doing the team photos." He pulled at the lapel of his Astraeus shirt. "But then they had to evacuated the lab because of the—"

"VASIMR," Jo finished, just to prove that she did actually know things. Which, again, was not really about Fargo. "So this is just a social visit?"

"No," he said quickly. "I heard that Mansfield sent a new liaison. Is he here?"

Of course this was about the new liaison. Jo was so sick of talking about and thinking about the new liaison. "Yeah, he got here this morning. Why?"

"So you and Allison met with him, and nobody thought that I should be told?"

"Um. . ." The easy answer would be to say that was right, but Jo had a feeling that was not the right answer here. She was not sure what Fargo was upset about, but she tried to be tactful in spite of that. "Well, you were busy with the Astraeus mission."

He paced around a little. "Do you think Allison is making a power play? Because she is only the acting director. I still want to be director when I get back."

Now that she understood the problem, Jo prepared to deal with the paranoid little man in front of her. "I think Allison is just doing the job that you asked her to do. I don't think she's trying to steal it."

"She was director before." Fargo sounded unpersuaded. "And I know that none of you think I'm qualified for—"

"That's not true. We all think you're doing fine. Or that you were doing fine when you were—" Jo stopped that train of thought before it got derailed. She pushed off her desk and gave him a reassuring pat on the arm. "I really don't think you have anything to worry about."

There was a knock on the door, and they both turned to see who was there. Jo held back a groan when Danny let himself in without even waiting for a response. She still had not had time to process his being there.

"Sorry to interrupt, but I—" Danny's eyes fell on Fargo, and whatever else he had been about to say was forgotten. "Seriously, Lupo?" he laughed. "This is your physicist, astronaut boyfriend?"

For a second Jo was confused, but then she looked over at Fargo and realized just how close to him she was standing. She took a step back. "What, Fargo?" She shook her head vigorously. "No. No, no, no. He's just—"

Danny stopped paying attention to her as soon as he heard the name. "Fargo? As in the old director?" He held out his hand for Fargo to shake.

Fargo took his hand warily. "I prefer to think of myself as the once and future director."

"Okay." Danny gave him an easy-going smile. "Well, it's a pleasure to meet you. I'm the new DOD liaison, Major Callahan."

Fargo seemed to realize that as the future director, he had a bit of an upper hand now. "Yeah, well, so far I don't like you that much."

The smile did not leave Danny's face as he stole a glance at Jo. "That seems fair."

"And just so you know," Fargo continued. "I have a girlfriend who is beautiful and incredibly smart and very flexible, and—"

"Fargo," Jo said sharply in order to cut him off before this whole thing got even more uncomfortable.

It occurred to Jo in that moment that Danny's need for a tour and Fargo's lack of anything better to do created the perfect opportunity for her to get rid of both of them. Before she could suggest this though, there was another knock on her door, and another man came into her office without being invited. Unfortunately, it was the last man she wanted to see right at that moment.

Zane sauntered in. "Hey, I had some time off, so I thought we could give—" He noticed the other men in the room. "—talking another try. I didn't realize you had company."

"That's her boyfriend," Fargo told Danny.

One minute. If Zane had just waited one more minute before coming to her office, Jo would have had both Fargo and Danny well on their way. And then she and Zane could definitely talk, because they had a lot of things to talk about. She had known that this whole thing was going to fall apart; she just thought that she would get more than fifteen minutes out of it.

For his part, Zane did not say anything. He just made eye contact with Jo, a slightly amused look on his face. That gave Jo the crazy idea that maybe she actually could get away with this. "Right." She walked over to make the introductions before anyone else could say anything. "Zane Donovan, this is the new liaison I was telling you about, Major Daniel Callahan."

He covered it quickly, but Jo could tell that Danny did not find the sight of Zane nearly as amusing as he had Fargo. She felt a stab of petty satisfaction that almost made this whole deception worth it. She rushed on, still trying to control the situation. "So, I was thinking that since Danny still need—Major Callahan needs someone to show him around the facility, and Fargo, you also have some free time. I was thinking it would be the next best—better than getting the tour from Dr. Blake." She gave Fargo a light push toward the door. "So that works out well."

Danny followed Fargo to the door. "Well, it was nice meeting you, Dr. Donovan."

Zane nodded. "It's just . . . Donovan, but likewise."

Jo watched Danny leave, wondering if he had done that on purpose. He just met Zane; how could he possibly have known what kind of degrees Zane did or did not hold? On the other hand, if it had been one of Danny's snide, backhanded comments, it had not had the desired effect because Zane did not seem the least bit fazed by it.

Zane waited until Danny was out of earshot before saying anything. "So, boyfriend?" He smirked at her.

Jo walked over to her desk just to create some distance between them. "I never said boyfriend. Technically, I never used that word." She knew that was semantics, but it was all she had.

He followed her deeper into the office. "You're saying Fargo just took it upon himself to inform the new guy that you have a boyfriend, even though that's not strictly true?"

Jo considered shrugging and making a comment about who knows why Fargo does anything that he does, but no. No, they had to discuss this, because it was happening now. "That's not exactly what happened. There was some lead-in." She paused to think of how she should start, but there was no good way, so she just jumped in. "Danny asked if I was seeing anyone and I panicked. And then he thought it was Fargo, and that's why Fargo said what he did."

"You panicked," Zane repeated thoughtfully. "So, how well do you know Major Danny?"

She supposed he had the right to know, both as her potential co-conspirator and her . . . whatever he was to her. "We were in the same class at West Point. And we. . ." She sighed. "Danny was my first real boyfriend." After a second, she reluctantly added. "He was my first a lot of things. And I really liked him, and then I found out that he was also 'seeing' some girl at Vassar." That was enough information for Zane, for now.

"I still don't understand why you panicked."

Jo could see how that might sound strange, even if it was a completely accurate description of what happened. "I wasn't expecting him, okay? My ex-boyfriend just showed up out of nowhere. And he's already a major, which you probably don't know this, but that's really impressive. He was handpicked by Mansfield for this job; his career is going really well, and I'm . . ." She could not really explain why her own career was suddenly inadequate. "I just needed to win."

That did not seem to clear up his confusion. "Win what?"

"Life," Jo answered, thinking it should be obvious. "Don't you have someone in your past, some ex-girlfriend or whatever, that if you run into them you need them to think that your life is going better than theirs?"

Zane simply shrugged in response, which frustrated Jo. She changed tack. "And anyway, I didn't really lie. He asked if I was seeing anyone, and I said yes. And we're seeing each other, right? I seem to remember seeing quite a bit of you in that detention cell a couple weeks ago."

"That's right." Zane glanced at the cell behind him, smiling at the memory. "Over by that desk too, if I remember correctly," he said turning back to her. "So that's all you said, and Fargo just ran with it?"

"Yes," Jo said quickly. Then she remembered the rest of her conversation with Danny. "No. That might not have been all I said."

"What else did you say?"

Zane was smiling, enjoying this. Jo found that very annoying so she avoided answering the question. "Look, if you're going to be an ass about this, I'll just tell Danny that he misunderstood." Because I lied, she added silently.

He watched her for a second, thinking. That was when Jo realized she had tipped her hand. He now knew she would rather not tell Danny that. After a second, he said. "You don't have to do that; I'll pretend to be your boyfriend." He looked so smug as he leaned in closer. "If you'll tell me why I'm the perfect guy to make your ex-boyfriend jealous."

He was still being an ass. "I never said you were."

He cocked his head as though to disagree. "You did say that having me as your boyfriend would be 'winning at life.'"

She supposed she had said something along those lines, but it was not what she meant. She had not even been thinking about Zane when she was talking to Danny, at least not at first. "No, I just didn't want Danny to think I was single."

"Okay, but if you want me to go along with this, you're going to have to tell me what makes me the perfect guy. Those are my conditions."

It was such a simple thing, but Jo balked at it. The last thing Zane needed was an ego boost, and odds were the truth would come out eventually. She knew that it was better to stop this madness now, but telling Danny that she lied was an even more unpleasant prospect.

Before she could make a decision, she got a message on her phone. Allison wanted her to come down to the Astraeus Lab. She breathed a sigh of relief. "Sorry," she said to Zane. "I have actual work to do."

"That's fine," Zane said with a shrug. "But the sooner you let me know, the better. Because I'd hate to run into Major Danny and not know what I'm supposed to say."

All that relief she'd been feeling dissipated. She thought this distraction would give her time to sort everything out, but Zane had turned it into more of a time crunch than before. She made the only rational decision. "I'm going to tell Danny the truth," she informed Zane on her way out. The the image of Zane and Danny talking to each other without her there to referee popped into Jo's head, and she knew that she would be worrying about that all day. She turned around. "But maybe you could try to avoid him today anyway."

Zane gave her a knowing nod, like he thought she was going to back out of it. All Jo meant by it was that she needed to be the one to make any corrections that needed making. And really, she would prefer if Danny and Zane never talked about her, but knowing the two men as she did, that was unlikely. She was about to clarify this for him, but then she thought better of it. Until this whole thing was cleared up, she preferred to let Zane believe whatever he needed to believe to keep him from talking to Danny. So instead of getting defensive, Jo continued on to the Astraeus lab, leaving things exactly the way they were.

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Author's Note: Two things about Zane not having a doctorate: (1) He was kicked out of every school he went to, and (2) S.A.R.A.H. called him Mr. Donovan in "The Ex-Files." (Just preemptively defending that choice in case anyone had questions.)