THE TAMING OF THE SHERRIF

Zane had the sherrif right where he wanted - pinned below him, so close that their chest were touching and the man's warm breath fanning his flushed face.

"Ugh...Zane-"

The sherrif was panting and Zane's eyes dropped to watch the man's tongue flicker out to lick dry lips. Blue eyes behind fluttering lashes looked at Zane, waiting for him to make a movement.

"Zane?"

The grass under them, cultivated by one of GD's top botanical research departments, was so green it nearly hurt to look but Zane thought it felt so soft and durable when they fell on it a minute ago. With the afternoon sun casting its golden rays onto the sherrif, all the young scientist saw were the wonderous colours of green behind the bright gold and blue. It was beautiful.

"Zane! Get off!"

"Whoah!" Zane found himself suddenly shoved away to land on his back, hard.

"Did Jo knock you around too much or is the heat getting to you?" growled Carter standing up before dusting himself from dirt and grass.

"I was trying to get the ball-"

"I already passed it to Allison five minutes ago."

Zane got up following Carter and grinned. "I was defending then."

"For what? WE had the ball! And we weren't that far off from touchdown!"

The dark-haired man carelessly shrugged. "I'm more of a baseball man, I guess."

Carter rolled his eyes as he waved Zane away in surrender. Zane's chuckle was more of a wheeze through his heavy breathing. The older man didn't even look winded anymore and Zane just had to admire that.
Then when the sherrif pulled the bottom of his own shirt up to wipe the sweat out of his eyes, Zane saw something else to admire - golden skin and washboard abs that made Zane more dry mouthed than he already was. Suddenly, a hand jerked him to a stop from following the tantalising sight.

"Just so you know, I've already found the perfect place to shove your horny ass into if you start humping my boss on the field," came a voice that used to remind him of hot sex but now sounded chilling that it made his blood run cold.

Zane quivered a bit under Jo's stare but stood firm. "Just my ass?"

The deputy laughed. "You think you're gonna top with him?"

"I might," Zane replied sulkily. "I mean, he's so oblivious that he won't even know I'd be humping him unless we're lying in a bed somewhere, naked."

Jo help up a finger to his nose. "Remember what I said about messing him up? And please, too much information!"

"C'mon Jo! How am I supposed to do this? Oblivious!"

Jo sighed. "I can't believe I'm doing this..."

"What?"

"Look," Jo said, "He's already comfortable with you as a person so you're okay there. The next step is to make him need your company. When you get that, then you make a move-" Jo held up her hand when she saw Zane about to open his mouth, "-something subtle, like a quiet dinner together or give him something he'd really, really like when it's not his birthday. You getting this?"

It was a moment before Zane broke his silence, a surprised smile on his face. "Wow... That's... Thanks, Jo. I wouldn't have thought you'd go this far for Carter that you'd give me love advice on how to woo him."

"It's for you, too, you dumbass," Jo mumbled. "I'm not the only one who can lock you up somewhere if you misbehave. Worse, he's got SARAH. She has more attitude than I have and she might be able to tap into BRAD's memory to learn how torture a person better than all of General Mansfield's men put together."

Zane winced. "Right."

Zane figured it was the lack of oxygen that made him confess to Carter in the most unromantic way ever. There they were, trapped in another one of Eureka's secret and abandoned underground labs when Zane decided that he'd just grab the sherrif by the lapels of his shirt and kiss him, clacking teeth, wriggly tongue and all before passing out with a girly sigh. So uncool.

When he came to, they were wheeling him out on a stretcher and looming over him was Carter with worry in his eyes.

Zane wrenched the oxygen mask from his face and gripped the sherrif's arm. "I meant what I did in there."

Carter looked surprised for a moment before patting at the hand gripping his arm. "Ok, Zane. Ok," he said before he told the medic in a low voice that he thought Zane wouldn't be able to hear, "I think he also hit his head on the ground when he fainted."

Zane was about to protest but the medic was already putting the oxygen mask back on his face and pushing the stretcher towards GD's medic van. All he saw as the doors close was Carter's uneasy look as he waved at him.

Zane was put under observation for one night after that incident and the next day he continued his work as usual. He stopped hanging out with Jack, though, preferring to confine himself in his lab and Jack never took the effort to go search for him to drag him away from his work like he usually does everytime he thinks that Zane was working too hard or not eating enough.

"Admit it," Jo demanded one day as she was polishing her gun, "You miss him."

Carter sputtered. "Psh. I do not. Well, kinda... but you and I can do the same things he and I do-"

Jo gave him a look. "Sure, Carter. After we drink beer and eat some pizza while talking about Dr Blake and Dr Young's ass, we'll discuss about the new pumps of spring fall."

Carter grinned. "Other than the last one - you'd be my bestest friend ever."

The deputy was about to say something rude to him when the phone rang. Jo made a noise of disgust and picked up the phone. "Sherrif's office."

Carter chuckled and turned to his table to grab his ticket book by the edge. When he heard Jo finishing her call, he spoke from over his shoulder. "You know, other than Allison's & Dr Young's ass we can also talked about their-"

What he saw on Jo's face as soon as he turned around made him pause. "What? What's wrong?"

Jo mouth thinned as if she was trying to hold something back and when she spoke, her voice shook. "It's-It's Zane. He was leaving GD when he crashed into one of the delivery trucks on his way home. I kept on telling him that he should take it easy with the deadlines but -"

He barely remembered letting his ticket book fall to the floor as he grabbed Jo and enveloped her shaking body in his arms.

Zane looked lifeless on the white sheets and the only sound that hinted that the young man was still alive was the beeping of various machines and monitors attached to him.

"There's just 25% chance he'll wake up from the coma," Allison told Carter and Jo when she met them outside the room, "He's on life support now. The cerebrum and cerebral cortex, the part of his brain that controls his thinking and conciousness was shocked by the impact. It's not damaged, its just that we can't pick up enough brain activity in there."

"So, what are you saying?" Carter asked dully, "That he's dead inside?"

Allison sighed. "More like asleep."

"So we wake him up," Carter told her. "We go in and do that!"

"It's not that simple," Allison said slowly, trying to calm him down, "The brain is a very delicate thing. It's not something that can be easily done running in there all gung-ho. One false step can make him fall into a total coma."

Jack lifted his hand to rub his face tiredly. Suddenly, he looked up and said, "The PX-24."

Jo looked a little alarmed. "Carter-"

Allison looked at him, her expression hard. "After you used the PX-24 on Dr Tatcher, we have not allowed any other person to use it. It is still too big of a risk. When you used it the first time, you only went in to rifle through memories. If you get into Zane's brain, you're going to have to do more than that. You have to pull him out of his sleep. If you do it wrong, you'll not only risk him, you'll also risk yourself because any of his neurons that you actively engage with may pull at you instead and you'd end up in a coma yourself."

"Not if we're able to watch over him to pull him back out if it comes to that."

The three turned to Henry who was walking towards them, his hands in the pockets of his multi-purpose overalls.

"Henry-" Allison began before Henry cut her off.

"Dr Sharat and her team has developed a neurological machine - the PX-30i that is used to monitor the various sections of the brain. If we connect it to the PX-24, I can easily monitor Jack's brain when he goes into Zane's. If he goes too far, we can pull him out, especially if he's in danger of being overwhelmed by the neurons when and if Zane starts to respond."

"That does not cover the fact that using the PX-24 is still risky," Allison argued, "Remember when you came out of it the first time you used the technology, Carter. You were a mess and it didn't wear off for 24 hours. It might affect you more the second time and may take longer for you to recover."

"It's gone over 90% of testing since the first time," Henry pointed out.

"But there's still a 10% chance that it won't work!"

Carter laughed.

"This is not funny, Carter!" yelled Allison.

"Of course, not," Carter scoffed, "But this is Eureka and in my experience 80% is more than enough for a win. How many times have we gone through with lesser odds?"

Allison looked at him forlornly. "Carter-"

"Allison, please."

What she saw in Carter's eyes shocked Allison. The only person she knows that would evoke that sort of desperation would be Zoe and although she has seen Zane and Carter just about attached to the hip everytime she saw them, this moment made her realise how much closer the sherrif was to the young scientist in reality. The sherrif is not a selfish man when saving lives but to the people he cares he acts with such fervour that one wonders if he has lost his mind in the process of worry.

"How is it quantified?" Allison asked Henry without taking her eyes off Carter.

"100% acitivity at 3000 neurons."

"Alright," the woman conceeded, "But the moment we see your neurons falling to 2000, we're pulling you out."

Carter's smiled gratefully. "Deal."

The lab was more or less the same as it was the first time he was brought in to use the PX-24. From the grey dentist chair he was sitting on to the picture of Skippy on the otherwise bare white walls. The only difference was the neurological monitor attached to the PX-24, manned by Dr Sharat and assisted by Henry and instead of a chair identical to his own that would seat another test subject, Zane was lying on one of the clinic beds that has been wheeled from the sick bay.

He was gazing at Zane's pale face when Allison walked up to him to help him through with the process.
"Remember," the doctor said as she carefully guided the machine around Carter's head, "It will be all clutter when you get inside so you might not be able to recognise him. You might mistake his memories, his thoughts or his dreams for the real target, but what you need is his conciousness. Think about, the essence of his soul, if you may. Once you find it, give him a nudge and get out as fast as you can."

Carter's mouth quirked in a smile. "A nudge, got it."

Allison gave him a smile of encouragement for a moment before turning towards Dr Sharat who nodded. "Cerebrum and cerebral cortex - neuron count at 3000."

"Good luck, Jack," Henry said.

"Thanks," Carter replied, settling himself on the chair more comfortably. Not more than 3 seconds later, a million and more flashes of images, words and thoughts bombarded his mind.

Carter felt like his mind about to explode.
Zane. All Zane. It was much too much.

There was Zane grinning at him cheekily from a computer terminal as if he was about to do something spectacular and not entirely legal.

A flash and he saw Zane, this time sitting on a fallen tree trunk in the woods, brooding and silent.

Another flash and he saw Zane again, bold but uncertain and afraid. Just like what Carter imagined Zane would be feeling when Carter started to avoid him.

Carter saw and felt so much that he started to become disoriented, trying to remember what he was supposed to be searching for.

"2750... 2550..."

"Jack! Be careful!"

The sherrif gritted his teeth and trudged on. More flashes of images and thoughts and it hurts but he refused to give up.

"2300... 2250..."

"C'mon, Carter," Allison whispered fiercely.

Just as he felt like he was about to go crazy the sound and images stopped without warning and the unexpectedness made him gasp as if he had just been pulled out of ice cold water to be thrust into the chilly air.
It was quiet around him. Sounds were muted and the only images he saw were blurs appearing and disappearing all over the place - far, close, closer.

"2000!"

"Allison, we have to get him out now!" Henry yelled.

"No! Just a bit more! He's close! I know it!" Carter pleaded, trying to find the person through the muted noise and distracting blurs.

"1900!"

"Jack! I'm pulling you out!" Allison commanded.

"No!" Jack cried, "Just a bit more! Just a bit-"
Carter mentally blinked, "Wait. He's- He's here-" He slowly held out his hand and whispers, "Zane."

To his amazement, the blurs crowding around Jack slowly solidified and there was Zane looking at him, surprise in his electric blue eyes as Jack stared at him. Zane opened his mouth and the muted sounds around them seemed to pulse before it crackled once and cleared to make way for a voice that made Jack laugh with relief.

"Carter?"

"Yeah, I'm here Zane. Look, you're in a coma....you gotta wake up, kiddo," Jack explained, squeezing Zane's shoulder.

"I am?" Zane looks lost. "But it's nice in here. Quiet... Peaceful."

"Eureka needs you, Zane," the sherrif reasoned, "Everyone needs you."

"They do... They do, don't they? Saving the world and stuff. With you... Hey, are you going to come with me?"

Carter smiled. "Sure."

"You promise?"

Zane's voice sounded so child-like and uncertain that Jack very nearly wanted to hug him. Instead he lifted his hand and cupped the back of Zane's neck in a comforting gesture. "I promise."

"You don't hate me, do you?" Zane asked tentively, "Coz you did. I know you did."

"I don't!" Jack insisted, "I wouldn't be here if I hated you."

Zane made a face as if he was considering. It was at the same time that Carter felt a distant tug in his mind and he realised that the young man was probably sifting through his feelings and memories to see whether the sherrif was lying or not.

Carter chuckled. "Stop that."

Zane grin widened a notch and didn't pause with his browsing until Carter suddenly coloured in embarassment. "Zane. Seriously, stop that."

"Alright, I believe you," Zane said cheekily and Carter breathed a sigh of relief after the young physicist stopped playing around with the more intimate areas of his brain. "And since this is probably only the only time that it won't matter-"
Before he knew it Zane was kissing him and he was feeling Zane's passion for him, all his thoughts, all his emotions and he was so overwhelmed that he wanted to weep.

"1850! Allison!"

"That's it, Carter!" he heard Allison from behind the engulfing touch, "We're pulling you out!"

Just as suddenly, he was back in his own mind and body and the feeling of being pulled away from another entity that he melded with for what was like an eternity but was actually just a brief period of time left him feeling weak and bereft. It was too much for him that he sobbed, hugging his own body and trying to push the intense feeling out of his mind.

"Are you alright?" Allison demanded, grabbing Carter's arm non too gently.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Carter sniffed, "He was there. I found him. Dr Sharat?"

"Give us a minute-" Dr Sharat replied, as she and Henry scrambled to detach the wires of the PX-30i from Carter's side to immediately attach them to Zane's a few seconds later. There was a moment of tense waiting as the female scientist and Henry refocused the monitor onto Zane's brain.

"It's still barely there...."

Jack looked anguished but not before Henry spoke in an excited manner, "Wait! Wait! It's rising! Cerebrum and cerebral cortex count at 100, 200, 700.... He's slowly gaining conciousness!"

Allison laughed while Carter stood up unsteadily to lunge at Zane's bed and coached the young man into waking up. "That's good! C'mon Zane! You can do it!"

"1500, 2500, 3000!" Henry whooped, "He's made it back!"

Allison and Henry joined Jack to crowd around Zane and when they saw the eyes slowly start to open, they held their breath in anticipation.

"Zane? Zane! How are you feeling?" Allison questioned, hoping that Zane brain has not been damaged in their experiment.

"Ugh.... like a truck just hit me," Zane groggily replied, "Or like I just hit a truck... But at least I got to cop a feel at Carter's brain."

"Which is totally unasked for," Carter groused, "I feel so violated."

Zane wanted to laugh but it turned into a tired sigh, his eyelids fluttering closed, giving them a sign that lethargy was quickly consuming him.

"Alright, that's enough," Allison told Jack and Henry quietly, "We need to get him back to the sick bay and let him sleep."

Jack nodded and as he watched Zane being wheeled out of the lab of the PX-24, Henry walked up to him and asked. "Can we run some more tests on you, Jack. Just to make sure all of you got back in one piece."

"Oh, c'mon, Henry," Carter whined, "when you pulled me out, what did it read on my conciousness level?"

"That your cerebrum and cerebral cortex count is at 3000 neurons..."

"See, one piece," Carter said, tapping his own noggin.

"Well, also, the anterior cingulate and a few of the areas associated with sexual response showed an increase in neurons. If Zane did play around in there, we need to make sure that it's not permanent."

Carters eyes went wide and he blushed. "Err... yeah. Let's - Let's check it out then," the sherrif mumbled as he quickly sat down on the grey chairs, ignoring the amused smirk from Dr Sharat and Henry.

It was a few days later when Zane was finally able to receive visitors and Jack held himself back, letting other people have their time with the patient while he tries to figure out what to say to the young man when he sees him.

A week after the day Zane came out of his coma, did Carter finally have to gutts to step inside the sick bay where the physicist was held, two packets of food in hand.

When Zane saw him, the young man gave Jack a smile. "Hey."

"Hey."

"So, you finally showed up," Zane said, pressing on a button to elevate the top part of the bed so that he may see Carter better. The young man was still feeling weak on intervals and Dr Sharat has told him that his body was still trying to adjust in response to his brain activity coming back life after the coma.

Jack ducked his head in embarassment as he placed one of the packets on Zane's bedside table. "Yeah, busy and all. Here's something from Vince's place. I wanted to just get you a cheeseburger but he insist I take this one. To recover your mental and physical energy, he says."

Zane sniffed the air knowingly. "And yet why do I still catch a whiff of deliciously char grilled beef patties on you."

The sherrif grinned, placing the second packet beside vince's takeaway. "I insisted on the burger as well. Of course, I know which one you'll enjoy."

Zane sniggered. "Ah, you know me so well," he said before their mirth tapered off to awkward silence.

"So," the young man continued, "I heard you used the PX-24 again. Must've put a strain on you."

"You have no idea," Carter replied with gusto, "It felt as if my brain was gonna split! I'm never gonna do that again!"

"Ah, I have a feeling you would," Zane said with a sigh, turning his eyes away from Carter to look at the ceiling, "You're just that kind of person."

Carter was about to laugh it off, but stopped when he saw that the good-humour in Zane's expression was lackluster.

"Hey, what's the matter?" the sherrif asked, worried.

"Nothing."

"What, tell me. Do you need a nurse?"

When Zane looked at him, Carter was sure he saw tears in the young man's eyes. "I love you, you know."

The sherrif stopped and looked back at Zane in embarassment. "Yeah, I know."

"No, you don't know," Zane said, immediately frustrated, "I LOVE you. After what you did to save my life .... There was a reason the PX-24 was still in experimental stages. You could lose your mind with that thing! I mean, just look at Skippy-"

"Allison said that the autopsy was inconclusive," Zane heard Carter say under his breath, making him want to laugh or groan. Instead he said, "I just- I love you. It hurts so much that you can't understand that."

"I-I'd do it for anyone else," said Carter.

"That's the you that I love." Zane said lowly in resignation as he placed his arm across his eyes, trying to gather himself and partly to hide from Carter's pitying look. He could already guess what Carter was thinking as the sherrif was staring at him going into mental breakdown but it was less worrisome than the fact that Jack has not said anything to comment on his behaviour.

He was already imagining the sherrif walking out the door when he felt something soft brushing against the top of his lips before he was being hesitantly kissed. Zane started to open his eyes to see what was happening but a strong hand gripped his arm from moving. He gasped, opening his mouth against the kisses and chasing after the shy tongue from the person's mouth while licking and nipping the lips above him.

After a moment, the kisses stopped and the grip on his arm loosened. When Zane opened his eyes, spots danced in his eyes for a few seconds before he was able to fully focus on the sherrif who was looking at him, flushed and embarassed.

Carter rubbed at his mouth, wet with Zane's saliva, and cleared his throat. "So."

Zane smiled at the sherrif with awe. "So. Does this mean that we're gonna go steady now?"

"No!" Carter sputtered, "It was just a kiss!"

"Third kiss," Zane said.

"The first time you were under duress and the second time wasn't even real!" the man protested.

"Hmmm... it felt real to me," Zane purred.

Carter made a sound that was between a groan and a growl. Zane thought it sounded sexy.

"I'm just saying, Zane, that it's- it's ok, if you... you know." Carter motion with his hand, flipping from Zane's direction to himself.

"Ok for what, Carter?" Zane asked, grinning.

Carter struggled. "Well..."

"You mean, me liking you?"

A nod. "Yeah."

"The kissing?"

Carter blushed, his head jerked oddly in a form of a nod. "m-Hm."

"Can I take you out on a date?"

The sherrif gave Zane a look that said that he didn't mind. "Hm."

"Stay over some night?"

"Ok, don't get ahead of yourself," Carter quickly replied, putting his palm up.

Zane chuckled. "Ok, then. We'll start with dates. As soon as I'm up and about, we'll go somewhere where we can have fun."

Carter gave him a look. "Zane."

"What?" The young man gave an amused laugh. "Some place where we can watch football, or baseball, have a steak, drink beer or play some pools."

Carter blinked before sratching the back of his head in embarassment. "Oh. Right. Yeah. That - That sound's good."

Zane smiled and when Carter smiled back, looking shy and handsome, the young man knew that he would forever remember this moment, no matter what happens after this.

"Good."

"Good."

-End