Rifiuto: Non Miriena
Zane felt his heart plummet into the earth below him. He had to have heard wrong. She... she hadn't really said...
"What the hell was that?" The blonde asked, breaking through Zane's shock. Jo shook her head.
"I... I don't know, but... but we went through it." She gestured between Zane and herself, and then picked up the camera. Then, she pushed past Zane, leading the way back to the parking lot. "Come on."
"Where are we going?" Zane asked, finally catching his breath. The others turned to stare at him.
"We are heading back to headquarters. You can stay here if you want, but if you want to survive, I suggest you come with us. Ev and I can give you a ride." She said, her authoritarian showing through. For a moment, Zane was looking at his wife. "You coming or not?"
"So, who is this guy?" Toby asked, glancing over her shoulder at Zane as he sat on the sofa upstairs, trying to take everything in. Jo sighed and shook her head.
"He said... that I was his wife. He... called me Jojo." She said, looking at Toby. The young woman scoffed in surprise.
"What? He used Evan's pet name for you?" She nodded. "Did he say where he was from?"
"Eureka, Oregon." Jo replied, going to the coffeemaker and pouring a cup. As she headed up the stairs to the second floor, Toby behind her, she said, "Just hearing the name of that town leaves a bad taste in my mouth."
"Why?" She stopped, turning back to Zane. He held his cup, staring up at her with confused blue eyes.
"Sorry?" He swallowed the lump in his throat.
"Why does 'Eureka' leave a bad taste in your mouth?" She thought a moment, crossing her arms over her chest. Zane found himself drinking in the little details- the graphic t-shirt, the messy bun- things Jo would never wear or do unless they were at home or at the cabin for a weekend. He set his cup on the table, waiting. She shrugged.
"Why wouldn't it? Eureka is... a horrible, corrupt place." He shook his head, eyes closed momentarily.
"No it's not."
"Yes it is." He shook his head harder.
"No, it's not. And you would never say that. You know why? Because you live you. You've lived there ever since you were honorably discharged from the Army at nineteen." She scoffed, eyebrows raised.
"Me? Live in Eureka? Right!" She turned to go, following Toby down the stairs.
"It's true." She stopped on the stairs. "You live in Eureka. You're GD's Head of Security. I'm the Director of Section Five. We have... three beautiful children." She turned around, going back up the steps and making her way towards him. "Erica, Jamie and Salli. You don't... hunt dinosaurs or whatever you do here. You save the world on a daily basis-"
"From psychotic scientists and out of control experiments, right?" She asked. He nodded. "Because Eureka always needs someone to blame, but itself. So it blames the scientists or the GD employees, but never itself. And there's always someone there to take the fall." A moment passed, before she turned on her heel and headed back downstairs. Zane watched her go, too stunned to say anything.
"Thirty-five mil, really?" Mac asked, as Toby snatched a thing of negatives out of his hand.
"Digital tech's unpredictable around large scale magnetic events." Evan said, as Jo cleared the last stair and wandered over to them.
"'Large scale magnetic events'?" Dylan asked, watching them. "It was a doorway. To somewhere. That you went through." She said, turning to Jo. "With him." Everyone turned to see Zane come down the stairs, cup in hand.
"It's a-"
"Closed curve temporal spacial intersection." Jo supplied, cutting her husband off as she snuck up behind him and wrapped her arms around his waist. He pulled her into his side, pressing a kiss to her temple.
"A... a what?" Zane asked, as everyone turned to Toby's laptop screen.
"You two finally track down a magnetic anomaly, and it spits out dinosaurs." Toby cried in excitment. Jo sighed. "That big fella is a Utahraptor. It's so cool-"
"Cool and dangerous, Toby, remember that." Jo said, moving closer to Toby to get a better look at the image she'd snapped. Just as she opened her mouth to say something else, the door opened and Ange walked in.
"I just got the text Jo sent. Catch me up to speed?" She asked, making her way towards them. Evan grinned. But before either he or Jo could say anything about the dinosaur, Ange stopped and turned to Dylan and Zane. "Who are you two? Um... Evan... why is there a guy here who... looks like you?"
"Are you going to be okay, sweetheart?" Evan nodded. Not long after explaining the whole confusing run in with Zane and Dylan while chasing an anomaly, Jo had called Drake, and the older man had told Dylan everything. On the way to help him capture another Utahrapor, Evan, Dylan, Jo and Mac had listened to Drake's screams over the phone as the man had been murdered by the creature. Now, they stood watching as paramedics brought his body out. "Come here, sweetheart." She wrapped her arms around her husband's neck, holding him close. He buried his face in her hair, taking a deep breath. "I'm so sorry, sweetheart. So sorry." Jo pressed a kiss to his neck, holding tight to him.
"Mr. and Mrs. Cross?" The pair broke apart when someone tapped Jo on the shoulder.
"Who are you?" She asked, brushing strands of hair off her cheeks. The man was scruffy, small, slender.
"That doesn't matter-" Only barely listening as he talked, Jo turned back to the scene, watching as Dylan identified Drake. Tears came to her eyes, and she eventually turned back to the matter at hand as her husband choked up.
"- people are dead. My best friend's one of them, okay?" He asked; Jo placed a placating hand on his chest.
"Shh, Evan, shh-"
"-you're going to get more bodies. Not cool."
"Not cool?" He sniffled. "You have to give us more than that."
"Evan, calm-" The man seemed to think for a moment, as if weighing his options.
"The creatures are the loose threats. You two pull the wrong one, history unravels. So you just have to put everything back where it came from." Evan glanced at Jo, and seemed to think for several minutes, putting the pieces together. Her hackels rose, and she stepped closer to her husband, gaging the threat the man posed. "Understand?"
"Understand." Evan whispered, sniffling. "You-"
"You say it like it's so easy." Jo cut in.
"It's not easy, Mrs. Cross. Not even a little bit." He glanced over their shoulders; Mac was making his way towards the trio, and suddenly, he turned, walking off with a soft, 'Good luck.'
"It's not enough!" Evan cried, arms open. Jo inserted herself in his arms, taking his face in her hands.
"It's have to be, sweetheart. For now, it will have to be. We'll figure it out. I promise." She whispered, kissing him softly.
"I don't like this. I don't like it at all."
"I know, Jojo. But we have to-" He stopped, hearing Toby's voice over the radio, followed by a child's. "Trevor?"
"Can you get my dad?" Jo stopped, looking up at him and Dylan.
"It's a little boy." She choked out, tears gathering in her eyes. Dylan watched Evan squeeze his wife's hand, before following her. Jo took the radio from him, taking a deep breath before speaking, "Sure we can, bud, but first, where are you?"
"I'm lost."
"Not for long, pal." Evan replied, as the three rushed through the woods. "Look around, tell me what you see." Several seconds passed, before they heard,
"The monster." Jo looked up at her husband, before taking off.
"Come on!"
He chased her through the woods, the sight of her long black hair the only thing that kept him from losing sight of her. Suddenly, she skidded to a stop, and Evan grabbed her arm, as they came face to face with the dinosaur. Before either could say anything, Dylan had fired, tranqing the bird, to no affect- not that they could see. "It could take a few minutes to have an affect." Dylan told them, as they too hit it with darts.
"We don't have time for that." Evan replied, removing his bag and dropping his gun.
"Evan, where are you going?" Jo cried, grabbing his arm as he rushed towards the animal. "Evan!" Jo rushed after him, sliding to a stop behind her husband, gun still in hand. She grabbed his arm, slamming them both to the ground as the bird attempted to peck, and then watched as he climbed to his feet and rushed towards the boy as Mac and Dylan fired on the bird.
"I gotcha, buddy." Evan murmured as he scooped the boy up; Jo climbed to her feet, rushing towards them and pulling them away as the bird attempted half-heartedly to peck at them again. As it began to loose focus, Evan set the boy down, and Jo felt small arms go around her waist, as the boy buried his face in her stomach. She glanced at Evan, running a calming hand through the boy's hair. He nodded to her, breathing a sigh of relief.
"Evan! Jo!" The pair turned, in time to see the other Utahraptor charge on them, and in quick thinking, Evan pulled Jo and Trevor to the side, throwing all three of them to the ground. As they all climbed to their feet, the animal turned back, slowly making its way towards the trio. Trevor clung to Jo, burying his face in her side, and she looked up from the boy to find that her husband had stepped between them and the raptor. He glared at the creatures, willing and ready to put up a fight to protect not only the child, but the woman he loved-
And just as Mac and Dylan closed in, the bird went after the raptor, digging its beak into the raptor's side.
The door shut softly, and she turned, jumping as her husband joined her. "Sorry, Jojo, didn't mean to scare you." She sighed, reaching out for him. He went to her, wrapping her in his arms. She was cold, shivering actually, and he wrapped his sweater around her, cradling her against his chest. They'd spent a few minutes in the back of the freezer, remembering the day that changed their lives forever. The day that had nearly seperated them for good. She turned back to the stairs; Zane was pacing the floor, lost in his thoughts.
"What do we do with him?" She asked, turning back to him. He sighed, before pulling away and taking her hand. She followed him up the stairs; he stopped when they joined him.
"You have a place to stay tonight?" Evan asked; Jo turned to him, eyes wide in shock.
"Evan!" Zane thought a moment.
"Just my cousin's but-" Evan nodded, understanding.
"Come on, you'll come home with us for the night, until we get everything straightened out." And then the two turned, heading back down the stairs. Zane watched them go, saw how Jo never let go of his hand. "You coming?" A moment passed, before Zane nodded, following them.
"Yeah. I... I'm coming." As he followed them out to the car, he couldn't help feeling that he wasn't in Eureka anymore.