Chapter 5

Once Zane had hacked into the Department of Defense mainframe, it was not hard to find detailed records of every place Jo and Major Danny had been during their entire military careers. That was the nice thing about the Army. He found the overlap in Georgia quickly.

When he thought back on everything Jo had told him about the relationship, he was sure the story had ended with the Vassar girl. He did not like the idea that she was hiding something from him. Something kind of big the way Major Danny told it. Of course, Major Danny would want to make things sound worse then they were, and there was always the chance Jo left off the Georgia part of the story because it really was not that important. There wasn't even that much overlap. Zane was not sure whether or not he should find it encouraging that Major Danny had clearly not expected him to know about Georgia.

He knew that he just needed to talk to Jo, and she would be able to clear up this whole thing. However, when he tried to find her, she was not in her office or anywhere else in the facility. That was not unusual; her investigations often took her offsite. So instead of talking to Jo, he sought out Fargo, who just might have some insight of his own.

He found Fargo in his lab, so at least one person was easy to find. Zane jumped into the conversation. "Hey, you and Callahan talked while you were giving him that tour, right? Did he say anything about Jo?"

Fargo shrugged. "Just that they went to college together." He thought about that for a second. "I think there might be more to it though. He did seem really curious about you two."

Zane supposed it was too much to hope that Major Danny had spilled his own version of events to a relative stranger. "And what did you tell him?"

"The truth," Fargo said, like he was not aware there was another option.

Zane found that answer to be too vague. "What truth?" Then it occurred to him that, of all the people in the know, Fargo was the one with the loosest lips. "You didn't tell him about the whole . . . time shift thing. Did you?"

Fargo took offense. "Yeah, I just casually mentioned that to the guy from the DOD," he said sarcastically. "Despite the fact that I've gone this whole time without telling anyone else."

"You told me."

He got defensive. "Because I thought we were going to die! And I only clarified what you already knew because Jo screwed up."

That might have been true. "Okay, so what did you tell Callahan?"

"That it's been going on for months, and you guys think you're doing a good job of keeping it secret, but you're not."

That was actually perfect. It accounted for the fact that they had never used terms like boyfriend and girlfriend or relationship or dating in public up to that point. And it was more or less the truth. "All right," he said, clapping Fargo on the back. "Thanks, man."

"Do you know what the story is between Jo and Major Callahan?"

That reminded Zane of what he had really been hoping to get out of this conversation. "Some of it," he said as he headed out.

Zane checked in on Jo's office periodically, but by the time the end of the day rolled around, she still had not returned. There was a time when not seeing Jo Lupo for an entire workday meant that Zane was having a good day, but that had changed a while ago. And today in particular, he had something he really wanted to discuss with her.

She called him that evening to let him know that she was tired and that she just wanted to crash at her place that night. Again, normally that would be fine, but it would just give him that much longer to obsess about what Major Danny had said that morning. He could have brought it up right then, but it was not really a conversation he wanted to have over the phone, so it would have to wait just a little bit longer.

–

Jo returned to her office on Wednesday to find a rising pile of things she needed to deal with. The day before she may have spent more time away from GD than strictly necessary in order to avoid running into Danny. But it worked. She had a Danny-free Tuesday, she processed his presence in her town, and she was better prepared to move forward. At least that was what she was telling herself.

Things with Zane were going oddly okay. She was not sure why the arrival of her college boyfriend had fixed the tension caused by her withdrawing from the Astraeus mission, but she was glad he finally let it go because she still had not found a satisfactory way to explain that decision to him. When she reflected back on that first night after Danny's sudden arrival, she realized just how easily he had agreed to the whole thing. Sure, he made her jump through some hoops, but not nearly as many as he could have.

When Zane came by her office later that day, she was really happy to see him, despite the fact that she was still backed up on work. As soon as she saw his face, though, she could tell that something was off.

He tried to play it cool. "Hey, I missed you last night."

Jo followed his lead and pretended that she couldn't tell that some kind of hammer was about to fall. "Yeah, but I think I really benefited from getting a full night's sleep."

He smiled at that as he sat down in one of the chairs in front of her desk. Then he feigned a casual tone and posture. "So Major Danny implied that you two were in Georgia at the same time."

It was not stated as a question, but Jo knew that he was waiting for an explanation. "Of course he did. I attended Ranger School while he was at Georgia Tech, and part of that does take place in Georgia."

"And that's all he meant?"

"No." Jo told herself that she had planned to tell Zane about this eventually, but she knew that was not true. "I got to Fort Benning a few days—almost a week early. And for some reason, Callahan just happened to be on base at that same time. It wasn't even that long after graduation, just over a year I think. But it felt like we really had distance from everything that happened before. And we . . . " It was difficult for her to get the words out. She could not even find a euphemism that she liked, so she left it alone. "And then I found out . . ." Yeah, she definitely did not want to talk about this.

"That he was married?" Zane supplied for her.

That took Jo completely by surprised. "What? No! Is that what he—No, he was not married." She paused. "He was engaged though."

It did not look like the distinction made that much difference to Zane. "But to clarify, you did sleep with him?"

"Yeah." That should not have been news. Even if she omitted the details about Georgia, she was sure that she had been upfront about that happening at West Point. "Maybe I should have told you earlier, but it's not really something I'm proud of. And as soon as I found out, I stopped it. And it was only a few days anyway. He went back to Atlanta, and I went off to Ranger School, which is an excellent place to work out aggression. And I didn't see him again until he showed up here. I'm not really sure why it matters."

Zane stood up. He seemed much more upset about this than was reasonable. "It matters because before, it was a one-time thing, but now, it's a pattern. I needed to know that."

"It's not a pattern." He was making way more of this than it was. "It's just a mistake that I made years ago."

"Yeah, well, I'm pretty sure he thinks you're going to make that mistake again."

Jo had not thought about that; she had been purposefully avoiding thinking about what Danny's expectations might be. But now it was out there, and she could not deny that Zane might have a point. "He might," she admitted reluctantly.

"Are you?" When she did not immediately respond, he asked it in a different way. "Do you think you're going to sleep with him?"

Jo had not realized that would be such a difficult question to answer. After a pause that was a little too long, she said the only thing she could think of. "I don't want to."

He laughed drily. "That's not an answer."

She knew that, and she wanted to tell him no, but she also did not want to make him any promises. It bothered her that she couldn't say with certainty that it would not happen over the next six months. But the thing was that she could not really be certain about anything in the next six months. It was a long time, and this whole thing with Zane wasn't real. Or least it was not real enough. She tried to find another way to say probably not, but they all sounded just as wishy-washy as her first answer.

Zane got tired of waiting. "Is that why it was so important to you that he not think you were single? Were you trying to put up some kind of barrier to keep you from doing it?"

She had no idea what she was thinking when she said those things to Danny. It had just been an impulse, no thought process involved. Yet, this was another thing that, once Zane said it, she couldn't really deny it. "I guess that might have been part of it."

He nodded. "Then maybe you should have chosen a fake boyfriend who wasn't leaving in three weeks."

"I didn't choose you."

"That's right; Fargo did." At that, he just walked away.

Jo was not sure if he was leaving or if he was just pacing. "That's not what I meant. I—"

Zane turned back and leaned over the chair he'd been sitting in, placing his hands on the backrest. Something had changed in him. "No, it's fine," he said in an easygoing tone. "We'll just keep up appearances for the next three weeks, and then after I'm gone, you can do whatever you want; I don't care." He pushed off from the chair and headed back to the door.

This time he really did leave. Jo was not sure what had just happened. At first, he had been completely overreacting, but she realized that was preferable to the way he ended things. Something about the way he said he didn't care worried her because he actually sounded like he meant it. But she was certainly not going to chase after him, and she still had all this work left to do anyway. As long as he was willing to keep up appearances, Zane's issues, whatever they were, could wait.

–

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Author's Note: There are reasons this took so long, and the Season 5 premiere is one of them. Even with the way the episode ended, it was still. . . troubling. (And not because of Jo/Zane, either. It's because there is no time, no space, no way Jack and Allison don't end up together.) But there were other, writing related reasons too. Also, now that I'm not trying to beat the premiere, it might be more like once a week anyway.