The Unchanged Equation

Summary: What if the new time-line was the original and only time-line? Here's how Season Four would have gone.

Details: Canon Couples, but a focus on Jo/Zane; AU (but a canon one, sorta); story is un-beta'ed

Spoilers: Everything so far aired in the series.

Rating: Mostly T. Mostly because Zane's internal monologue is a bit dirty (big surprise). I'm not so familiar with the intricacies of the rating system so if you feel that a chapter has veered into M territory, please let me know via a review & I'll change it.

Disclaimer: I do not own Eureka or its characters and write this story for pure (nonprofit) entertainment.

Notes: While working on "Problem Solving For Beginners", I started to wonder about Alt-Eureka. How did it get like it was? Why the divergences from the original time-line? I focused on the Jo / Zane dynamic because it's a pretty big change and for some reason, I want those two crazy kids to work it out. I did wonder though what could lead to Zane being so ostracized by Jo, Carter and the rest of the town. So, I took a guess as to what caused that. Also, Eureka has always presented time-line variances as controlled to a certain extent. You can change small things but too big of a divergence (like saving Kim's life) has world-ending repercussions. As a consequence of that, if the five characters did NOT go back in time on Founder's Day, then someone still had to be messing with the time-line. So, this alternate version of the first half of Season Four will still have a time-travel arc, it just won't be the same time-travel arc. Each chapter will correspond to an aired episode, except for the first two which are together. Once you take away the events in 1947, there's not much left of "Founder's Day". I have the first few episodes taken care of but I'll be posting at a slow rate so I can finish the remaining chapters/episodes. Please let me know what you think.

Chapter One: Founder's Day/A New World

Jo Lupo had been braced for impact all morning. She'd gone on her run, showered and dressed knowing that at any moment the other shoe would drop. Founder's Day in Eureka meant too many experiments, too many delicate egos and lots of alcohol. Jo's mind flashed on a cocky smirk in a motorcycle jacket before she could stop herself. She sipped her soy protein shake with one eye on the clock. 8:37 am. They'd already made it four minutes longer than last year. Would it be five?

Her phone trilled. Four minutes it is. "Lupo here."

"Ah, Jo?" Carter already sounded harried and in need of a favor. "I know you're busy today but I have a situation."

"What's going on?"

"Oh, the usual." Carter got that smug tone when he had been right about something.

"No!"

"Yep, caught him in the act." Yesterday, Carter had received an anonymous tip that Zane Donovan would attempt to disrupt the monkey experiment in Section Two. Jo had worked with Carter long enough not to question his sources and besides, for a crazy jackass Donovan had a real weakness for small, cute and furry.

"Thanks for the heads-up. Today is going to be a lot smoother without Donovan making trouble."

"Yeah, see that's the problem. He's in lock-up. Andy's out directing traffic and Fargo's got me doing crowd control on Main Street."

"Donovan can't be left alone. He's dangerous." Jo had made that mistake once, back when she'd been a deputy. There wasn't enough lingerie in the world to make her forget it.

Carter replied, voice hard. "I know. That's why I called you."

Jo's sighed. Everyone on her team was out guarding the equipment for today's demonstrations. Jo didn't really have anyone available either. Except the obvious of course. It wouldn't be the first time she'd managed things while preventing Donovan from being himself with explosives and blithe arrogance. "I'll be there in fifteen."

Zane went straight for his physics journal stash as soon as the door lock clicked into place. The first few hours after he'd ended up in Eureka, Zane had taken advantage of then-Deputy Lupo's poor credit security to score her a few gifts and himself some reading material. The Sheriff had confiscated all his journals as punishment for insulting his deputy's honor & credit history, leaving Zane bored. Zane never handled boredom well. Ever.

Sometimes locked-up in the Sheriff's office, he would stare out at a patch of wooden flooring and try not to remember the shape of the bloodstain left after they carried Zoe Carter out. Sure, he'd saved the town after. But it had been after.

The Sheriff, thankfully, was not a stupid man. Next time Zane ended up in jail, a stack of physics journals had been stuffed behind the loose brick under the window. Somehow, once Lupo took over there, a similar pile magically appeared in the GD holding cells. It was one of the few things verboten in his spats with Lupo. Although he would never admit it aloud, Zane didn't want to risk being locked up with no distractions.

Speak of the devil, she walked in. He'd known Lupo was coming. The Sheriff always called on her when Zane needed babysitting. Once, in his earlier more delusional days, Zane had wondered if she secretly liked being around him. But there's only so many times a man can be tasered, publicly humiliated or handcuffed not in a good way before said man realizes that the woman doing the tasering, etc is a total frigid bitch.

Zane watched the Enforcer unpack a briefcase, say her goodbyes to an already frantic Carter and settle in. He allowed her a minute or two of quiet before talking over the top of his magazine. "Alone again, Lupo? People will talk."

"About how a super-genius couldn't even rescue a few wee monkeys?" She didn't look up from her work as she spoke. She almost never did.

"Well, if there's any chance I get to see you change into another number like last year, I'd say my forward planning skills are getting better all the time."

"I'm in an Army uniform for this year's dance. Mansfield requested it." Zane rolled his eyes, an act which finally got her attention. "Are you disrespecting the uniform Donovan?"

"I dunno. Does it want to be disrespected?" Zane noticed her fingers twitched, probably wishing she'd brought that damn taser with her. Thank God the Sheriff likes things old school.

"No, it does not."

"Underwhelming as usual, Lupo."

"Disgusting as always, Donovan." Now that they had the pleasantries out of the way, they could both go back to their corners. In his first six months in Eureka, Zane would have continued until unconscious. It had taken several head injuries due to local law enforcement but he learned not to piss off Jo Lupo unless for something really, really worth it. Zane felt a slight pang for those monkeys. However, their frail screeching ghosts were preferable to Lupo-The-Enforcer at full power.

Several journals and a stack of completed paperwork later, Lupo got a call. After a few seconds of explanation from the other end, she stomped over to Zane. "You have anything else planned for today?"

"And not dedicate my full resources to those wee monkeys?"

Lupo nodded, getting one last dig in before going back to her call. "Full resources weren't enough Donovan. Parrish, explain it again." Zane closed his physics journal. He'd worked with Parrish often enough to know that the man did not panic easily or particularly care for Lupo.

"Lupo, what's going on?" At her skeptical frown, Zane pointed to himself. "Super-genius."

"Exactly." She went back to her call. Thankfully, Lupo's thought processes involved a good deal of repeating what she heard, re-ordering things into a sensible explanation. Although she did not have Zane's level of physics knowledge, she excelled at reading the emotional cues of the scientists around her and inferring what the consequences of today's melt-down would be. Zane had never found that quirk attractive at all.

Thanks to Jo's-not-at-all-hot mind, Zane knew that a wireless power signal had been detected a half an hour ago. Someone up to some illicit research somewhere, wouldn't be the first time. Often, it was him except he hadn't been in a lab with that kind of equipment all day and most of last night.

Considering the signal was gaining in strength and beginning to interfere with even shielded equipment at GD, people were starting to worry. Out of control experiments were a dime a dozen in Eureka but these frequencies meant temporal research. As he listened to Lupo go over the details, Zane idly hoped they would get a lid on it. Temporal mechanics were a bitch, at this rate the resulting energy pulse alone would-

Lupo was standing right in front of the window. A window which Zane knew, thanks to his escape attempts, faced the northwest unobstructed by other buildings. The signal currently tracked to somewhere in the woods northwest of town.

"Lupo, get away from that window." The gap between the surrounding buildings would funnel the blast. Thanks to his flawless visual memory, he had a pretty detailed picture of what Jo Lupo would look like after. And he knew it would be infinitely worse than Zoe Carter.

"I thought you said you had nothing planned." She went back to ignoring him.

"Damnit Lupo! Take cover!" She rolled her eyes at him, informing Parrish that she needed to debrief their prime suspect. Parrish thankfully, had never been blinded by Zane's antics and was apparently putting up a good argument for his innocence. There's no way Lupo would listen, not in time.

There was also no way Zane Donovan would ever sit back and watch what the shattering high-velocity shards of a plate glass window would do to a Jo Lupo, for once in her goddamn life, oblivious to danger. She'd be pissed later but he'd burn that bridge went he got to it.

The cell door opened and Zane tackled her out of the way before thinking too much about what punishment Lupo would inflict on him for daring to touch the Grand High Priestess of the Hand Grenade. Just in time, he thought as a muffled "Thump!" echoed in the air and rippled through the ground. A moment later, the window exploded.

Jo woke up slowly, the heavy weight on top of her warm and oddly comforting. Her mind drifted, trying in a diffuse way to remember how exactly she got wherever she was. A masculine groan resonated through the weight into her. The last few moments returned, including a body impacting, wrapping around her own. Her eyes flew open. "Zane!"

The man on top of her winced. "Hold it Lupo. You didn't scream loud enough to get both ears. Do that again." He turned his head.

"Zane!"

"Thanks."

She remembered. The rumbling, her on the phone, Zane's pleas for her to take cover. She froze, half gripping his shirt. "You knew."

He shook his head, one hand on his forehead and the other still wrapped around her, fingers splayed wide. "Yeah, it was the flux reading from the lab. That pattern. Ah!" He rubbed his temple with greater emphasis. "It was a temporal energy cascade."

"What did you do?" Jo said the words slowly, like she wasn't lying underneath someone who had finally blown up half the town.

He froze, glaring down at her. Some part of Jo knew instantly that she'd insulted him beyond their usual mutual agreement to loathe and be loathed. He leaned in, a gesture that in another life could be romantic, whispering fiercely. "I just saved your life Lupo." He leaned back and deftly rolled off of her. "Certainly not my smartest move."

Jo, not wanting to be outdone, stood with only a fraction less than her usual grace. As with every time their confrontations turned physical, she suppressed whatever disobedient part of her wanted Zane like it wasn't the single most irrational impulse that she'd ever had. Brushing the dust off her clothes, she realized something. "How did you get out? You were in a locked cell!"

He ran a hand through his hair, sheepish expression genuine. "Oh, I, um" He waved across the debris strewn office towards the cell door, wide open and not from the blast. "Those locks are very unsecure."

"How long have you been able to come and go as you please?"

Zane snorted. "As I please? Yeah right. If I went anywhere, you and your taser would soon find me. I learned that long ago." True. His current "escape" record was somewhere between two and four hours and, excepting that cabin of his, never out of town.

She frowned, trying to work it out. "So, you just let yourself be locked up?" Jo hated that she couldn't completely erase the disappointment in her voice. That time she'd kept him locked up for a week while they did sonic cleaning had been one of the highlights of her professional career. It didn't count if he'd let her.

Weirdly, Zane didn't jump at the chance to twist the knife. Instead he just shrugged. "It's not so bad. Quieter than the labs. Plenty to read." He paused, obviously uncertain at bringing up the journals. It may have been the possible head injury, but Jo didn't remind him exactly why there was plenty to read. She had other priorities.

"Temporal? How could you know that?" She took in the state of the window and her position when Zane tackled her, folding her arms across her chest so he wouldn't see her hands shaking. Combat was one thing. Danger, another. But blown away by a window when you had no idea it was coming? That was not the way for a soldier to go.

Zane's jaw clenched. "There's some things too nutso for even me, Lupo. That" He pointed out the now-empty window frame. "was a temporal wave and someone in town is way more dangerous than you think I am."

Jo stared at him. He didn't shuffle or flinch under her scrutiny but then, he rarely did. From any perspective, Zane Donovan had just saved her life. Which was an anomaly. Anomalies should not be left unattended in Eureka. "Come with me, Donovan."

"I did not do this!"

"Maybe. But you figured it out. Which means that I need you with me." She turned, climbing over the debris in the entryway. He'd follow, Zane always did. Never could pass up a chance to ogle. Jo glanced back over her shoulder, catching Zane's head return to a forward and up direction. Jackass.

Outside, they found a disaster area. While the buildings had protected people from the worst of the blast, there were nevertheless a ton of injuries. Upon seeing them exit the jail, Carter dodged through the crowd, his eyes intent on Zane. Jo understood why he wanted to yell at Zane but, now that she thought about it, she really didn't think he did this. Not his style.

Jo stepped in between the oncoming Sheriff & Zane. She could feel the latter's surprise directed at her back as she greeted Carter. "We need to head to GD. Have you got this?"

Carter opened his mouth, but apparently changed his mind before speaking. He glared over her shoulder as he answered. "Yeah. Let me know."

Her car, being parked away from the festivities and behind a tall, wide building made it through the event unscathed. She gave the roof of her vehicle a nonchalant caress before getting in. She ignored the smirk that Zane didn't have the will to fully suppress. Before he could start being like he always was, Jo cut him off with a question.

"What do I need to know about temporal waves?"

On one hand, it made sense that Jo had stopped the Sheriff from tearing him a new one. She did need his super-genius brain unharmed. But on the other hand, Lupo never stood between him and anything she thought he deserved. Allowing him to see the gentle brush of her fingers over her car, that was karma paying him back for all his good deeds. Or not-so-bad deeds. Whatever.

So, he told her everything he knew about temporal mechanics without a single innuendo knowing that it would totally bug her and that she had earned it for holding off the Sheriff. Usually, the only time he & Lupo shared a vehicle, he was handcuffed or tied up and one time, thrown in the trunk of Fargo's car. Having a civil conversation really passed the time.

For an ass-kissing jerk, GD Director Doctor Douglas Fargo was one lucky bastard. Wholly uninjured, he'd beaten them to GD, an Einstein wig & mustache thrown on his desk. As Jo and Zane entered his office, he was in the middle of placating General Mansfield who immediately focused on Jo.

"Good, you've got him. We need to find out what he di-"

"It wasn't Zane." Jo and Fargo said simultaneously.

Fargo tilted his head at Jo, clearly curious about what prompted her defense but answering for them both. "Temporal meddling like we've detected would need some test firings. They would emit exotic particles with a very unique signature. I recalibrated GD's sensors when I got here to detect those particles in case anyone responsible was stupid enough to come back here." He waved to Zane. "No alarms. Not Zane. Moving on. Lupo, what do you have?"

Zane couldn't speak for anyone else in the room but he always found Fargo's brief flashes of competence freaky and disturbing. Jo blinked a few times before beginning her report. The General, of course, did not apologize for wrongly accusing Zane.

At some point, Fargo handed him a datapad telling him to coordinate with Parrish. Now, some weird electromagnetic activity accompanied the temporal waves; they'd even gotten some reports of red lightening in GD. Back on her phone, Jo moved away from the rotunda windows. Zane, as casually as possible, placed himself between wall of glass and her anyway. Lupo paused her conversation a moment, gracing him with a half-frown. Thankfully, she decided that he wasn't insulting her or something. When Zane glanced up at Fargo, he noticed the General watching him, closely eying the distance between him and Lupo. Zane made a gesture like a whip cracking.

Jo caught Zane's gesture out of the corner of her eye. Couldn't leave him be for five freaking minutes and he was taunting Generals. She should have known better than to take his brief moment of chivalry at face value. She ended her call, hoping to head of the inevitable explosion.

"Oh crap." Fargo stared at his computer in horror, breathing heavily.

"Doctor Fargo?" The General prompted.

Fargo gulped, gazing up at the General. "The temporal wave, sir. It broke containment on the ELF."

"What?"

"Whoa, what's an ELF and why does it need to be contained?" Jo's question caused both men to shuffle a bit. Before the General could respond, Zane answered for them.

"A white-list project." At the General's furious stare, Zane added smirking. "I hear stories."

Mansfield huffed in a way Jo knew signaled a yelling fit that Donovan probably deserved but wouldn't do any good. Once again, Fargo intervened. "We could use him."

Without taking his eyes off Zane, the General responded. "It's on you."

Jo held her breath. Fargo maybe a sniveling coward of a boss but he knew how to bet on a winner. It's how he finagled the Director's job in the fallout from Dr. Stark's death and it's how he had kept that job. Jo waited, not letting herself think too much about why she cared.

"Fine. Come with me-"

"You rat bastard!" Tess Fontana entered the Director's office followed by Carter. She rolled to halt in front of Zane, finger in his face. "Just because I took you off my team, good riddance by the way, doesn't give you the right to destroy months of work getting your jollies out Donovan!"

Carter, noticing the other people present, explained. "Tiny had a bit of a power array issue. Minimal damage."

Wrong thing to say. "Minimal! This jackass ruined half the system's components!"

Zane ignored Fontana, but he'd never paid her much attention anyway except when it annoyed the Sheriff. Instead, he spoke to Fargo. "That testing, could it have affected containment before the main pulse hit us?"

Tess halted mid-angry-hand-wave. "Containment for what?"

"The ELF." Fargo typed rapidly, studying the results a moment before replying. "Yeah, there were several mini-pulses in the last two days." He shook his head, speaking to the General. "It could have been loose this whole time."

"A white-list project?" Now Fontana's quieter fury directed itself toward her boss. "You, you brought a white-list project into my Section Five and don't even give me a heads up. You paranoid-"

"He was under orders, Doctor Fontana." The General's rebuke snapped her mouth shut.

As her boss crossed the room, he attempted in his distinctly Fargo way to mollify her. "The project has been in a specially shielded room. Your increased project reporting frequency was so I could ensure the project did not negatively impair your work. Which it did NOT until some lunatic and their temporal meddling ruined my containment!" Fargo took a deep breath. "So please stop yelling at me."

Tess's jaw clenched and unclenched a few times before nodding. "Fine. What's the plan?"

"The General and I will go down the ELF lab and determine the extent of the problem. You three-" Fargo pointed to Tess, Jo and Zane. "be on the lookout for positronic build-up and keep people out of affected areas."

Now, Carter spoke up. "If there could be injuries, we should let Alison know."

Tess nodded. "I'll tell her on my way to inspect the back-up power system." She and Carter left together.

Jo took a step closer to Zane. "We'll inform Parrish on our way to the main server array." Zane raised his eyebrows at her but Jo wasn't stupid enough to leave him alone with a grumpy General and Fargo or worse unattended to pull a stupid prank while everyone's attentions were focused elsewhere.

She left the Director's office quickly, confident that if Zane Donovan had a free opportunity to taunt her, he'd take advantage. A voice piped up from behind her left shoulder. "Alone with me twice in one day Lupo. A guy could wonder." Jo sighed. Yahtzee.

"No one's keeping you here Donovan."

Now matching her stride, he looked up from his datapad. "Technically, I'm still in holding for 'disrupting an experiment'." His eyes narrowed. "And, you're not above reminding me of that with great physical emphasis." Jo decided to ignore his typical ability to make her want to demonstrate 'great physical emphasis'. She's certain her preferred definition would make him loose that damn smirk fast. Of course, he'd be insufferable after.

Zane apparently noticed the clenching of her fists. As they took their final steps to Parrish's lab, he leaned over closer, whispering. "I could make a run for it, if you're feelin' ansty."

If her foot extended a little too far out on the next step and if Zane stumbled over it and into the doorway of the lab, causing everyone to turn and stare, that was just ungraceful of him. Jo breezed past her expletive mumbling companion, heading straight for Parrish.

"Lupo. Donovan." Dr. Parrish took in Zane's unbound state but, wisely, made no comment. "What's the situation?"

"Fargo's been experimenting with anti-matter ELF generation. That blast wave interfered with the containment. We need to be on the lookout for-"

"Positronic lightening." At their expressions, Parrish motioned them in the direction of a bay of monitors. "We've seen several incidents already. I had feared it a side effect of a more complex" Jo's mind substituted 'more dangerous'. "series of temporal experiments then we had detected thus far." Parrish frowned, speaking to Zane. "Fargo really did this?"

"Yeah, white-list project." Zane and Parrish shared a look of disbelieving envy. Jo attempted to cover her grin with one hand, only to have Zane catch the motion. GD scientists loved to dismiss Fargo but Jo had come to...appreciate her boss's talents such as they were. Sometimes, Jo thought the only reason Fargo hadn't been assassinated was because of moments like this when the scientist outperformed the sycophant. Twisting the knife a bit, she let Zane see her open smirk enjoying the way his body tensed.

When Jo pulled herself away from her nonverbal taunting, Dr. Parrish waited pointedly blank-faced. In certain respects, there are no secrets in a town full of hyper-observant super-geniuses. Jo snapped orders. "Keep us informed of any major incidents." She hiked a thumb in Zane's direction. "He needs to inspect the servers for any data loss. Let us know if there's any of this, lightening, building up in that area."

"Of course." With that, Dr. Parrish moved away to berate a junior researcher for their poor data display configuration. Jo and Zane exited the lab with admonishments to 'properly account for human visual acuity in the conveyance of critical information' ringing in the air.

While Jo gave a prayer of thanks that the walk down to the server bay lacked any excitement attributable to positrons or Zane, she knew the man well enough to keep a lookout for possible lines of attack. The stiffness of his stance and pointed ignoring of a chance to hit on her meant vengeance of some kind brewed in that super-genius mind.

She winced at his back as he went straight to work upon entry to the server room. Zane rarely focused on anything any longer than he absolutely had to. Except when pissed. Mocking his scientific acumen was always playing with fire. Unabashedly fun fire. Jo rarely let herself back down from dangerous fun.

Parrish's voice crackled over the intercom. "Posi(static)moving(static)(static)get(static)."

"Zane?"

His hands moved deftly over the screen of the pad. "Interference, probably from a positronic build-up."

"Here?"

"No, two floors down." Zane raised his head to direct his sarcasm more pointedly only to freeze. Jo noticed that his face glowed an odd red color. In the distance, she could have sworn she heard Carter yelling. Jo turned only to be once again tackled by Zane. For good reason, too. A red flash blinded Jo as she and Zane landed in a heap.

Jo mentally gave a small prayer of thanks that at least she hadn't passed out this time. Not that her situation was much improved. It wasn't that Jo hadn't touched or been touched by Zane in all the time she'd known him. Certain physical contact had been required to apprehend him on multiple occasions. But, in all those instances, Jo had ensured that Zane was too angry to pay attention to what said contact did to her. Now, he pressed on top of her without the shielding of their usual insults and supremely confident in his own attractiveness. Which would not do. "You've got to stop this, Donovan."

His smirk dominated Jo's vision. "You know me and bad habits."

"Ahem, guys?" Jo lifted her head to see Carter standing over their entangled feet. "The lightning's gone."

Zane sighed, increasing the pressure on Jo's chest a split-second before he stood. He did not hold out a hand to help Jo up and Jo would not have taken it. She cleared her throat before speaking. "Thanks for the heads-up Carter."

"Radio's out."

"Really?" Zane's sarcasm faltered at the Sheriff's expression. Jo felt a familiar and amused flutter in her chest. From the moment Zane hit Eureka, he never for one second underestimated Sheriff Jack Carter. In fact, back before, well a lot of things, Jo had maybe found that perceptive streak in Zane just a tiny bit attractive.

Carter pretended not to notice Zane's reaction. "We need to head down to Section Five." He grinned ominously at Zane. "Fargo has a plan." Jo swore to buy Jack a beer tonight as payment for putting that look of terror on Zane's face.

Zane understood normal people weren't looking forward to walking in a room filled with positronic lightening. As he and the Sheriff geared up, he sent a thank-you to the universe that he led a supremely abnormal life. If Zane had known how much fun averting disasters could be, he would have put forth a lot more effort not to be locked up when they occurred.

Carter noticing his expression, attempted to get Zane focused on the danger. "Andy's going to draw away most of the lightening but we're still going to get some hits."

"Great." And it was. Danger free of reprimands or tasers.

"Do you have any normal hobbies?"

Zane found exasperated Carter no end of hilarious. "I play a mean game of Yahtzee."

"Yacht or Yahtzee scoring?" Jo's voice interjected, causing the Sheriff to sigh and Zane to stare. He actually did play a mean game of Yahtzee, loved playing with his mom as a kid in fact. Of course, she played and played well because Jo Lupo could never be less than thoroughly awesome at anything. Of course, it was just one more thing about her than made Zane want her until his balls were permanently blue. Damn her.

To cover, he answered eyebrows waggling. "Original recipe. It's easier to cheat."

"Figures." She shook her head, turning around. But in the reflection of a computer monitor, Zane saw just the tiniest grin. Yahtzee.

"Zane." Carter demanded his attention. "Can you do this?"

For the first time since arriving in Eureka, someone wasn't blackmailing him to save the day or making him clean up his own damn messes. No, he'd be cleaning up the Director's mess of his own free will, which had to count for something. He met the Sheriff's eyes seriously. "Yeah."

Fargo appeared, holding a compound bow. "Gentlemen, we're about ready. Any propellant would ignite in that room so we're going old school today. Who is the shooter?"

The Sheriff took one look at the bow and pointed to Zane with a disbelieving shake of his head. Zane grinned maniacally as he took it causing Fargo to step back. He covered for the action by barking out instructions. "Now, after Andy's drawn the charge, the drill needs to get down 2000 feet into the bedrock for the ELF to be dissipated. Then, you need to shoot this" He gestured to the bow and arrow. "into the dump coil-."

Carter snickered. At their looks, he explained. "I'm sorry but every time you say it."

"Dirty, right?" Zane agreed with the Sheriff, grin wide.

"Guys!" Jo's eyebrow raised, arms crossed, giving all the signs of a Lupo who has just about had enough of your bullshit. Zane tilted his head in her direction. "Killjoy." Carter shrugged his shoulders, way too smart to agree with Zane in front of his former deputy.

The Sheriff waved off any further comment from Fargo. "We got it. Dump Coil. Wire. Ground." He and Zane moved towards the lab doors, standing next to the waiting Deputy Andy.

"Zane!" He slumped, turning to see Jo approaching him purposefully. Something in him snapped and wilted. He'd saved her life twice. He'd been cooperative and helpful and was currently geared up to saved the goddamn day. She was not going to ruin it.

"Lupo, I won't fuck this up alright? Dump coil's huge. I could hit it blindfolded at three times the distance. So relax." Zane called over to Fargo at the door control. "Let's do this." When the doors opened to reveal a room swathed in red lightening, Zane did not hesitate.

What followed was loud, bright and exhilarating. Andy drew the lightening. Jack operated the drill. When Zane pulled the bowstring taunt, releasing the arrow, he pictured Jo not contrite with his victory or even apologetic for doubting him. No, Zane saw her hidden smile directed to a computer instead of him. The ozone making his chest tight, he vowed. One day Lupo. One day.

When Zane and Carter exited the lab flush with victory, she was gone.

Jo spent the first few hours after the ELF had dispersed as busy as possible. Anything to block out the image of Zane, arm pulled back as he shot that arrow upwards. Saving the day like he couldn't be electrocuted at any moment. Honestly, what was Fargo thinking? Zane should be in GD lock-up where, she had checked, absolutely no incidents of positronic lightening had occurred.

Jo risked a glance across the rotunda, where the man in question directed repairs to the inter-company data-grid like he hadn't walked into a room full of red, flashing death a few hours ago. When Fargo had given their report to the General, Jo had seen Zane's expression. Jo knew with precognitive certainty that Zane would no more be able to resist repeating this experience than he was able to stop himself from hitting on anything with breasts. Once he realized that she had no cause to lock him up for saving the day, Jo would never hear the end of it.

As she ordered her team into clean-up details, Jo heard his smarmy horn-dog voice in her head. "Why yes Lupo, I did blow-up that out of control experiment. Too bad you can't lock me up for it. Perhaps you'd like to put your handcuffs to better use." Absent the release of arresting Zane, she just might have to deal with her definition of 'great physical emphasis'. She might just make Zane deal with it too which, judging by the lust in his eyes sometimes, he would enjoy the hell of. And after? She swallowed, after would suck.

"Hey Jo." She turned, grateful for Carter's presence and a distraction.

"Carter. How are things in town?" He'd left after taking care of the ELF. With Deputy Andy down for the count, there was no one else to oversee the Main Street clean-up.

"Great. My office looks like a bomb went off in it but, great."

"At least it wasn't an actual bomb this time."

Carter looked across the rotunda to where Zane stood, directing scientists with casual authority. "No, it wasn't." He shrugged off the dark turn of thought. "How's GD? And you, almost getting zapped?" Carter didn't point out, almost except for Zane saving her. But then one of the reasons Carter was Carter was because he didn't have to.

Jo ignored the hint. "GD's fine. Singed in places. The infirmary is an absolute wreck. Tess mentioned you had stayed back to help Dr. Blake." Jo had seen Alison and Jack after, before Carter returned to town. They'd hovered around one another like teenagers, way more than usual. Two could play this game.

"Yeah, it was bad." Carter shuffled his feet guiltily before continuing. "I may have, um, kissed Alison."

Long time coming, Jo couldn't help but think. Still, like always he had the worst timing when it came to Dr. Blake. "What about Tess?"

"Um, yeah. Last night, I may have asked her to move in. With me." Carter trailed off weakly.

"Jack." They didn't really do hugs, but Jo figured he needed a pat on the shoulder at least. Carter gave her a mopey-grin before changing the subject.

"So, Zane the hero. Who would have thought?"

"Yeah, he tackled me away from that window just as the blast came through." Jo tried to shrug it off but Jack, as always, honed in on the uncomfortable truths.

"Window?" He frowned. "The initial blast? Why wasn't he locked up? I left him locked up, didn't I?"

Jo fidgeted a moment, knowing this would be a tricky conversation. "About that, Carter….."

Lupo had been staring at him for the past freaking hour. He'd done good today and the Enforcer had no right to rain on his parade.

As Zane assisted in the repairs, he thought furiously. For two years, Zane had considered himself solely responsible for generating excitement in this town only to find himself jailed and ostracized for his trouble. But saving the day was plenty exciting and, as yet another scientist gave him a "Good work Donovan" on their way by, the payoff orders of magnitude improved. Two years wasted. He shook his head. Moron.

Zane's fingers jammed down on the screen. Lupo was looking at him again. Who was she kidding? He had excellent peripheral vision. She & Carter were talking, probably about what to do with him. Zane focused intently on his datapad as they exchanged some pretty emphatic gestures. Zane huffed in resignation. Carter might make an argument for him but he'd go with his former deputy in the end.

Abruptly, Carter walked away from Lupo, headed his way. Zane went back to his work. It wouldn't really fool the Sheriff but, hey, appearances. Carter came to halt a few paces away, stance deceptively casual.

"So, cell locks?" Carter inquired like Lupo hadn't already told him everything.

Zane nodded across the room to where said woman rallied her troops. "She's got me writing a report on it. You'll get a copy."

"I've had those locks for a year and a half, Zane." Zane didn't know why Carter bothered to ask. Ever since bringing him back from his cabin, Carter had understood what few in town ever bothered to figure out: that Zane was exactly where he chose to be. Besides, that same brand of locks had played a major role in his first FBI esc-Wait a minute.

Zane narrowed his eyes at the Sheriff. "Who picked out those poor excuses for security anyway?" The Sheriff shrugged as if he had not spent the last year and a half counting on Zane's rumored to be nonexistent self-restraint.

Carter did after a moment reply. "Zoe helped." Zane flinched. If anything Zoe Carter had every reason to put him in a cage for the rest of his life. Carter nodded at the movement, oddly satisfied.

Remembering the way Jo had stilled underneath him, accusing him of trying to destroy this town, Zane pointed across the room. "Could you have let her know?"

"Oh, I could have." Carter's voice possessed a familiar hardness. The Sheriff may have bet on him not running but that didn't cut him any more slack. Zane stared across the rotunda at Lupo. Her Donovan radar pinging, Jo turned to them, eyebrow raised across the distance. The only sign of her gratitude was that the gesture completely lacked its usual derision. The Sheriff clamped a hand on Zane's shoulder. "I look forward to your report." Zane acknowledged the warning with a nod. The Sheriff walked off hands in his pockets.

Lupo approached him, preemptively suspicious. "What did Carter want?"

"The usual."

She paused for a moment, probably filing the exchange in a mental folder labeled 'Donovan does something weird. Next time there's an explosion, tie him up and ask him about it'. Zane waited, the day wouldn't be complete without the Enforcer flexing her muscles (not in a good way).

"I just wanted to -" She hesitantly stuttered out the words, staring at the floor. Zane's breath caught in his throat. "I just wanted to say thank you for, um, your quick thinking today." Jo paused, picking at her jacket cuff. "At the jail. And the server room."

It wasn't contrition or apology but her statement exposed more vulnerability than Zane had ever imagined Jo possessed. Now that he's seen it, Zane found himself missing the Enforcer. Which was insane, missing head injuries and tasers. Jo Lupo shouldn't ever look like this, that waver in her voice. Zane opened his mouth, hoping his mind would supply just the right jackass remark to bring back his Lupo only to be cut off by a shout.

"Lupo! Donovan! Over here." The General called from the rotunda entrance by the Director's office. Lupo's face transformed, Enforcer mask (and holy shit, it was a mask!) sliding into place. As they strode across the rotunda together, for the first time in his life Zane felt genuinely grateful to General Mansfield.

In some respects, Jo knew she shouldn't be upset with the General. Zane's face in the moments after her thanks, she didn't need to look at him to see it coming. Jo resented that part of her too honorable to let his actions go unremarked. Because if not for the General's interruption, Zane would have done what he always did. Take the inch she'd given up and demand a mile.

She huffed, earning a sidelong glance from Zane as they entered Fargo's office. Why couldn't the General wait? If Zane had gotten off his usual inappropriate zinger, then when Jo looked back on the event she'd have absolutely no chance of romanticizing what he'd done. Romanticizing Zane Donovan would never lead anywhere but tears. She sighed again. As they came to a halt in front of the General and Fargo, she shot a look at Zane hoping to convey the importance of not messing with Mansfield. Jo stopped short though, as Zane was frowning thoughtfully at her.

Once again, the General ended the moment. "Dr. Donovan, I read your report on the temporal pulse." Jo's eyebrows went up. General Mansfield continued as if hell hadn't just frozen over. "The Director and I were especially concerned about the implications you pointed out regarding the shield."

"It's the only way they could have gotten away, sir." By the time security teams made it to the hidden warehouse in the woods, it had been cleaned out. Even after a search of the surrounding forest, her security teams had found nothing and no one. Jo frowned. As Security Chief any 'implications' regarding the town shield were her business.

"Sirs?"

Fargo answered, eyes on Zane. "Donovan pointed out that the perpetrators had to use overhead coverage in order to evade our teams on so tight a schedule. Do you really think you can replicate the effect?"

Jo shut her eyes. The EM shield was supposed to be impenetrable to satellite scans. If someone had devised a way around that, well, Eureka's security became nonexistent. Jo directed her next question to Zane. "Replicate?"

He casually shrugged. "It's a tuning issue with the EM field. Took some digging but I found the backdoor in the shield generators that they used. This means anyone who knew when and how to look could see in here. If we tuned the satellites instead, we'd have coverage in the woods and no one else would be the wiser." That was...brilliant actually.

The General watched Zane closely for a few moments before nodding slightly. "Get to work on it, Donovan."

"I can't, sir." That idiot was constitutionally incapable of not screwing a good thing up. Jo moved to berate him into submission only to be stopped by a gesture from the General.

"Can't or won't?" Mansfield did not appear happy that Zane failed to appreciate his magnanimous gesture of good faith. Jo crossed her fingers behind her back, hoping that Zane for once in his life pretend to be cooperative.

"Can't, sir. Only people with their own labs are allowed projects of that clearance."

Few things are more annoying than Zane Donovan when he is one-hundred percent correct. At least for a moment, the General recognized him for something other than blowing shi-

"Why doesn't this man have a lab?"

Fargo responded in the slow even voice you use to speak to children and dangerous animals. "You forbid it, sir. You said 'it would be a cold day in hell before that lunatic" Fargo pointed at Zane, mimicking the General's stance absurdly well. "would have free reign at GD'."

"Well, it's snowing outside and I want him in a lab yesterday Fargo!" With that proclamation, the General stomped out of the room. Fargo and Jo shared a shocked look before Zane's voice caught their attention.

"I just got my own lab?" Zane took a few deep breaths, repeating himself with increased bafflement. "I just got my own lab?" He blinked. "And General Mansfield gave it to me?"

In spite of herself, Jo smiled at him. "Looks like it." Now, Zane eyed the Director, stance wary. Fargo's response was to causally inquire, "Was there a space that you had your eye on?"

"Who-hoo!" Next thing Jo knew, Zane had swooped her up in an embrace and twirled her around several times before realizing what he was doing and with whom. Zane almost dropped her he let go so quickly. He cleared his throat as Jo attempted to straighten her jacket and not let Zane see her blushing. "Is that lab by the cooling towers still free? It would be wicked handy if I had to do any serious computing."

"Of course." Fargo, who had noticed Jo's reaction, made a quick series of taps on his personal assistant before nodding in her direction with a nervous twinkle in his eye. "Lupo will escort you there and help get you set up." Then, her sneaking coward of a boss disappeared out the door of his own office.

Lupo's silence made him nervous. Sure, he should not have lost it and embraced her like that. That smile was just a 'Congratulations, random GD scientist' smile and Zane really should not have pushed his luck. He clenched his fists as they walked, fingers still tingling from the smooth material of her jacket. His shoulders burned where her hands had rested, too surprised to push him away.

Zane risked a side-long glance only to see her jaw clench. Yeah, she was pissed.

They paused at the door to his lab. His lab. In another universe, where he somehow was even cooler, Zane knows it's possible that his hands don't shake when he hits the door control to his own lab for the first time. Not this universe, though. Lupo, miraculously, says nothing as Zane enters, his mind instantly cataloging what needs to go and what he needs to requisition.

He's working up the courage to apologize for the whole touching-when-they-weren't-dying-thing when Jo finally bursts his bubble. "Don't screw this up."

Zane whirled on her, rumbling through clenched teeth. "I didn't screw up today!"

"No, you did not." Her quiet but emphatic tone stopped his anger short. Zane's chest tightened at Jo's probing expression. It suddenly occurred to him that he'd never paid enough attention to her eyes. She broke the stare with a deep breath. "Send me a list of any equipment you need. I'll review it and meet with you prior to approving the requisitions." Her eyes roamed around the room a moment. "Nice choice, Donovan."

With that, Jo Lupo exited his lab with her usual unhurried gait. If Zane stared at her ass a little longer than could be deemed appropriate, well, he had been a very good boy lately.

He smirked at the retreating figure. But not too good. It would confuse Lupo.

THE END (for now)

Coming soon...

As Jo clicked the handcuffs into place, she noticed Alison hovering around them scanner pointed at Zane's head. Whatever the scanner said, Alison frowned. "His brain is overheating."

Zane smirked over his shoulder at Alison. "Are you sayin' that I'm hot?"