Chapter Seventeen

Jo watched Fargo leave and then crossed to Zane's bed. He was watching her, his eyes soft, and she smiled at him as she took his hand.

"So could you hear me?" she asked.

He nodded. "A lot of the time, yeah. It was really frustrating, though. I think sometimes I got distracted by trying to make my body work, but every time I came back to the world, I could hear your voice. It was…nice. Really nice."

Jo nodded, not really paying attention. She was looking at his hand and wondering how long she had to memorize everything about it, and how long the memories would have to last.

"Okay, I didn't say that well enough," he said, moving his hand, sliding it up and around her cheek, and turning her face so that she was looking at him. "Imagine suddenly that the world is completely dark, you can't see and you can't move and you can't feel and there's nothing but sound and none of the sounds make any sense and it goes on like that for what feels like forever. And then imagine that the sound turns into the voice of the woman you love. It was a long six or seven hours. Your voice…it was more than nice."

Jo let his hand pull her down to him until their lips met and held. She let his warmth fill her, opening to him and almost desperately trying to give him all the love that she felt in one last kiss.

"Hey, what's that for?" he said, pulling back, using his thumb to brush at the tears that were rolling down her cheeks. "Don't do that."

"It's…" She brushed the tears away, impatiently and concentrated hard for a minute, trying to make them stop. "Your mom figured everything out."

She looked at Diana, who said quietly, "Almost everything. I think I have one question left."

Jo raised her eyebrows.

"Grace Deacon or Alison Blake?"

Jo pressed her lips together. It was too late now. "Alison," she admitted, before asking "How did you figure it out? And so quickly? Was it the ring, because-"

Diana was shaking her head. "No. In a way, Zane told me."

"Zane?" Jo was shocked.

Reaching into her bag, Diana pulled out her phone. She quickly found the video she'd recorded onto it earlier, and turning it, showed Jo and Zane the image of Zane confronting Jo in her office.

Jo sighed. Zane leaned back in the bed and chuckled.

"There were other clues, too," Diana offered. "I believe I would have figured it out anyway."

Jo nodded glumly. She thought back to her conversation with Fargo just that morning, telling him that no law-enforcement agent would come up with such a bizarre theory. There was no way she could have anticipated this law-enforcement agent.

"Yeah, when you told me she was scary, I really wanted to tell you to just tell her everything," Zane said, smiling at his mom. "She's hard to keep secrets from."

"But don't you understand?" Jo asked. "The D.o.D. has a protocol for time travelers…"

Zane was shaking his head. "Doesn't matter," he said confidently.

"Excuse me?" Diana said, seeming slightly offended. Jo just looked confused.

"You hold a trump card, Josefina," Zane said, putting his arm around her and pulling her toward him until she was next to him on the bed. He smiled at Diana and the smile was almost a smirk.

"I have to report this," Diana said. "I don't have a choice."

"Your mom died when you were really young, right?" Zane asked Jo. She nodded, still confused by where he was going with this. "I thought I remembered that," he said. "So you don't know the power you have in your hands. Or…well, other body parts."

"What are you talking about?" Jo asked.

"Oh, you-" realization hit Diana's eyes and she glared at him.

"I suggested seven but she was willing to go for three. I might be able to push her to four or five, if we like the first couple." Zane told his mother. He smiled, a powerful mischief in his blue eyes.

"Damn you," Diana was half laughing.

"Check?" Zane suggested.

"You're mixing your metaphors," she said irritably, but with an undercurrent of amused. "Are we playing cards or chess?"

"Let's call it chess." His voice was agreeable and the smug only showed if you knew him really, really well. "Check?" he repeated.

"And mate," she sighed, pulling out her phone and walking a few steps away from the bed.

"Children?" Jo asked, still confused.

"Well, for you and me, they'll be children. But for her they'll be grandchildren."

Jo was starting to smile. "You think she'll help us keep this secret for grandchildren?"

"I think my mom would do pretty much anything for grandchildren," Zane agreed, then pulled her close and whispered, "Although we're probably lucky she's not bargaining for more."

Jo laughed and relaxed into Zane. "You know, we should try to convince Alison to make the beds in this infirmary bigger," she said thoughtfully. "We seem to spend a lot of time here."

"Maybe we could try to stop spending so much time here instead?" he suggested.

"Yeah, that doesn't seem to work," she turned her face to his and began kissing him, taking his mouth hungrily.

"Ahem," Diana's cough was a quiet but determined interruption.

Jo pulled back, embarrassed, but Zane just smiled and held on, his arm around her. "Weren't you on the phone?" he said.

"I have to wait for a call-back from a secure line," she told him.

"So how did the DoD get you to come out here, anyway?" he asked Diana. "I thought you were never coming to this "godforsaken hellhole"?" He put finger quotes around the last two words, and then said to Jo, "She didn't really enjoy the summer we spent in Oregon."

Diana was smiling. "They offered me something I wanted. Something I wanted almost as much as I want grandchildren."

Zane looked wary. "What was that?" he asked cautiously.

"They expunged your record," Diana told him. "Congratulations, you're no longer a criminal." She smiled sweetly.

Zane pushed himself up in the bed. "They can't do that! I'm on parole!"

"You know, actually, you're right," Diana told him, and this time she was the one who was smirking. "They had to get you a presidential pardon for the federal part. And then - since the President didn't want to have to admit that he'd pardoned you - they sealed the records. Expunged, pardoned, and sealed. You haven't had this clean a background since you were twelve." She frowned. "Or maybe ten."

Jo was trying to hold back the laughter that was welling up, but Zane could feel it anyway. He leaned back again, pulled her a little closer and growled, "I like being a criminal."

"Nothing wrong with breaking a few laws," Diana said, scornfully. "But getting caught is just a mark of incompetence."

Jo laughed all the harder, burying her face in Zane's shoulder. "My dad would like it if you weren't a criminal," she offered, when she could finally stop laughing.

He sighed. "Well, seems like I can't do much about it," he said grumpily. Jo smiled up at him.

"Mansfield can never threaten you again," she pointed out.

"Ooh, it'd be almost worth it to see his face when we tell him. Or better yet, let's not tell him and the next time he threatens to throw me in jail, make him do the paperwork. It'd be so fun to watch him go crazy trying to find the records."

"That's just mean," Jo said happily. "He's not a bad guy, really."

"Speaking of bad guys," Diana said, leaning forward. "You had some tough choices to make today. That Beverly is a piece of work. You showed amazing restraint in not shooting her."

Jo sighed. "I was very tempted. But she was right, I can't shoot someone in cold blood. Oh!" She pushed herself up off Zane. "But what are we going to do about her? Even if you don't tell, she's going to talk."

"Don't worry about it," Diana shrugged it off.

Jo still looked worried. "If anyone can find a way to cover it up, it's my mom." Zane tried to reassure her.

"Really, Zane, haven't you learned anything from this? It's always the cover-up that burns you, never the crime." Just then Diana's phone rang, and she glanced at the caller ID, then answered.

"Good evening, sir. I'm sorry to have called so late, but I need your help with some final details in resolving the Eureka case." She listened for a moment, and then laughed and said, "Well, yes. But I had some good help on this one." She paused again and then said, "No, actually, both the director and the head of security strike me as very competent. Mansfield is a bit of a bully, but credit where credit is due - he's hired good people out here."

Jo looked at Zane, eyes asking the question. Who was Diana talking to? He shrugged, and they kept listening.

"Well, and a bit of luck. Beverly Barlow actually returned to Eureka, and we managed to catch her. She seems willing to talk so I hope we'll be able to pick up more of her organization. But we're going to need to put the information under the highest levels of security clearance: some of it is very sensitive." Diana listened for a while, frowning thoughtfully. "Yes, that sounds as if it would work."

She listened again and then chuckled. "Of course. And yes, it's simple. The military protocol about time travelers - I need it broken." She paused, laughed. "I know, it does sound exciting, doesn't it? But it was a one-shot deal, an accident. It didn't change anything." Looking at Zane and Jo cuddling on the bed, she rolled her eyes and mouthed the word "much" and then continued, "but several people are involved and for obvious reasons, I'd like to make it for your eyes only. We won't be able to do that if…mmm-hmmm…yes. Yes, I'll have Henry Deacon write the report…Yes, I only met him today, but he seems like a good guy…I will give him your regards." She paused again, this time for longer. "Well, thank you, sir. I really appreciate that. And my best to your family."

She disconnected, and slipped the phone into her bag. "There you go." She smiled warmly at Jo.

"What did you just do?" Zane asked.

"Protocols were made to be broken." She glanced at her watch, and said, a little plaintively, "You know, it's three hours later on the east coast and it's been a very long day. Is there any chance of some dinner in the near future?"

"But who was that?" Jo asked.

"The Commander-in-Chief," Diana shrugged. "Not everyone in the DoD likes taking orders from a civilian, but fortunately, we have a constitution. And I've always found him to be a very agreeable man. Quite bright."

Jo stared at her. Her blue eyes were glinting with mischief, a look that Jo recognized. She looked at Zane and the matching blue eyes smiled back at her. He dropped a kiss on her lips and then whispered in her ear, "She's very good at solving problems. You just have to be careful if you're the problem."

Then he laughed and said, "Café Diem? Alison had to go to get Jena but she said I could leave if I felt well enough, and I'm starving, too."

Epilogue

Hours later, Jo was cozied up next to Zane on the couch in front of the fire in Café Diem, drowsily watching the flames. Dinner had turned into an impromptu and yet wonderful celebration. Relief and the release from an ever-present undercurrent of anxiety had made the time travelers giddy with joy, and their delight was contagious, with more and more townspeople arriving and then sticking around instead of leaving. Only the select few knew what they were celebrating, but everyone enjoyed the party.

Jo could tell that Zane still felt slightly wary about the easy, casual acceptance that the time-travelers showed him, but over the course of the evening, he'd relaxed and enjoyed himself, too. He might not know all the history, but the friendship was still real. And Jo had enjoyed talking to Diana. She wasn't quite ready to answer all Diana's questions, specifically, the pointed "when is the wedding?" question, but she was pretty sure that she was going to like her mother-in-law a lot. Although maybe not enough to have seven children.

But all parties must end eventually and over the course of the last hour, people had slowly headed out into the cold night.

"Are you falling asleep there, Josefina?" Zane murmured. "Time to go home?"

"Hmm," Jo turned her face into his chest and rubbed it sleepily against his shirt. He was so wam. "Your home or mine?" she asked. "My furniture was supposed to arrive today. I never checked on it, but they were supposed to set it up."

"Either," Zane said agreeably.

Jo looked up at him, "You really don't care?"

"Anyplace with you in it, Jo-jo, is home enough for me," he said bending his head and taking possession of her lips. She lost herself in the kiss, the warmth spreading, and then rapidly turning into fire in her veins, racing through her, until breathless, she broke away.

"Okay, then," she said, laughing. "Let's go home."

A/N Over the course of the last six weeks, I've written almost 65,000 words about Eureka (well, my version of Eureka). Even omitting a few hundred for the lines of dialog I stole, er, borrowed, from the show, that's as long or longer than the average novel. I'm really quite surprised at myself. But I've had a wonderful time, and a huge part of that has been because of your reviews. It seemed almost karmic at times that when I was feeling stuck or annoyed or bored or uncertain, my email would ding and it would be a review. Even the ones as simple as "please update" motivated me to give it another ten minutes of effort - which was often just enough to get me out of the hard part and back into the fun of it. So thank you - to everyone who's written a review and to everyone who's just read all of those many many words - your pleasure has been the reward for my efforts. Well, that and the satisfaction of giving Jo and Zane their happy ending!