Title: The Space Between

Part: 1 of 4

Author: Roguie/ SunSpecOps/ Danae Bowen

Fandom: Eureka

Characters: Jo/Zane

Rating: T

Summary: Zane never reads his emails or listens to warnings. He never does as he's asked. Jo is always chasing around behind him, ensuring he stays as far away from trouble as possible, only this time she's a just a little too late. Now, they only exist in memory. Literally. AU post Lift-Off.

Spoilers: Not really. Up to Lift-Off just in case.

Disclaimer: Eureka obviously doesn't belong to me; I just like to borrow the characters and mutate their inner voices. Please don't sue, my house is small, my car is useless and my dogs are pains in the arse, but they're all I have.

A/N: Yeah, my muse just couldn't leave them alone, so we're back. This is just a quick little story - four little parts. And yes, I'm revisiting the old PTSD machine; it's just… just… so easy to alter and has so many fun ways to go wrong! And, no, I'm not obsessed with electricity. It's just handy.

A/N2: Reviews inspire my muse; I find Jo and Zane like a drug to her, but if they're the drug, reviews are the devil's whisper putting that needle in her arm. Please don't leave me hanging, and I promise in return that I won't leave you hanging.

~~~E~~~

"Zane, we're starting the sweep in less than an hour; this entire place needs to be evacuated, and you being your stubborn, insolent self isn't helping matters."

Zane Donovan, scientist, felon, all around pain in the ass, looked up from the computer he was working on and frowned in Jo Lupo's direction. His willingness to do as he'd been asked had grown by leaps and bounds in the weeks that had passed since the accidental space module launch, since finding out about the alternate timeline, but still, something in the back of his mind loved forcing Global Dynamic's Chief of Security to rise to his challenge, bringing that tinge of pink to her cheeks, that spark of something indescribable to her eyes.

"Gonna taze me and drag my body from the building, Lupo?" He offered her a raised eyebrow, an invite to take the challenge, before returning his attention to the computer that controlled the experimental equipment that lay spread across his desk.

Her fingers curled into her palms, barely controlled frustration emanating from every cell in her body. "Don't tempt me, Donovan," she growled quietly through tightly clenched teeth.

He grinned up at her and shrugged, blue eyes dancing. "Don't sweat it, Jo, I'm not going to let it get that far, anyway." He winked. "Unconscious is no fun. I'd want to know what you're doing with my body."

"Are you sure about that?" She glared at him pointedly, ensuring he couldn't miss the threat behind her words. She took great pleasure in the rush of blood from his features, leaving him momentarily pale. He studied her for a moment, judging his level of danger, before cocking his head to the side and shrugging.

"What can I say, the possible benefits outweigh the possible dangers. I wouldn't be a scientist if I wasn't willing to play the odds."

"That's not a scientist, Zane, that's a gambler."

Zane grinned up at her. "Same difference some days. Make yourself useful if you're going to stand there and harp at me." He took several instruments from his desk and placed them in her arms. "These things respond to the slightest electrical impulse. That beam they're shooting through here'll fry every last node on the prototype."

She frowned as she watched him pack away several pieces into transport cases, glancing down at her PDA quickly "Zane, did you submit the paperwork for an off site lab? Or even just to remove an active experiment from Global?"

"Did you ask me if I wanted my lab flooded with reams of electrical energy?"

"I sent an email."

"I didn't get it."

Jo rolled her eyes, resisting the urge to slap the back of Zane's head. "No, you got it, you just didn't read it. Or listen to Fargo's two day warning. Or listen to my one day warning. Or for that matter listen to the computer's automatic countdown for the last six hours."

"Don't be overly dramatic, JoJo, I listened to the countdown."

"Zane..."

"This stellar conversation aside, I'm moving as fast as possible. No one is going to be happy if we destroy a million dollar experiment by moving it incorrectly. As much as I love pissing off the little dictator, I'm not blowing the one chance anyone's given me in the last two years to do something interesting because I've got you yipping in my ear, so quit the guard dog routine and help." He paused, drawing in a deep breath, unclenching his jaw before softening his tone dramatically. "Please."

The words that tumbled from her lips were mumbled, a long line of curses strung together in ways that would make sailors look twice, but with a final glare in Zane's direction, Jo did as she was asked, packing away as much of the experiment as she could into lead lined cases, cords looped over her shoulder, a stray receiver hung around her neck. Zane looked much the same, down to hanging a matching receiver around his neck as he took a final glance around the lab, laying specially designed covers over the equipment they were unable to carry. He only hoped the covers, created to resist electro-magnetic pulses, would be enough to save the systems.

"Who's idea was it to flood the labs with this beam anyway?" Zane muttered quietly as they waited impatiently for the elevator to take them to the rotunda.

Jo shrugged. "No idea. The orders came in from the DoD two days ago. Apparently it's to fry any recording devices that may have been set. Don't know what the sudden urgency is about, but..."

"When the DoD says jump, Fargo leaps from the nearest sky tower." He sniffed quietly, shaking his head. "Even if he'll fry every computer in the building."

Jo sighed, struggling to carry the heavy cases as they moved towards the exit, too slowly for her comfort. "Most people moved their equipment to their assigned storage labs when the email came out, Zane, so don't blame Fargo for this. If you'd bothered to do as you were asked, all of this would be protected downstairs in rooms specifically designed to do so."

"Don't you think I know that?"

The pure venom that dripped from his words stopped Jo in her tracks and she turned to stare at him, wide eyed. It hadn't occurred to her that he was well aware of his error, that their entire conversation was more of a forced habit than him actually blaming anyone but himself. She swallowed thickly, the protective walls she kept around her heart slipping slightly as she met his gaze. Jo found she was at war with herself as much as Zane and his ridiculously heavy equipment; her resolve to stay away was bending - this town, this building, and this situation weren't helping at all. To see him struggle, desperate over something that mattered beyond himself, it was impossible for her not to redouble her efforts, forcing herself to haul the containers to the door and out into the parking lot, staying as close to Zane as possible as they began stuffing the containers into the back of her car. In the back of her mind she heard the last seconds of a dual warning ticking away, the computerized voice reiterating that they were just moments from the electrical pulse, almost drowned out by an internal voice, reiterating that she was mere moments away from forgetting the promise she'd made to herself not to get close.

When both voices stopped, the silence that followed was immediately notable. Birds stopped singing. The sound of vehicles passing on the road quietened. The wind ceased blowing. Trees quit moving. The hum that generally filled the atmosphere surrounding GD faded. Jo and Zane stopped what they were doing, freezing in place, looking at each other with mirrored horrified expressions.

Jo found that she was calm when she saw the shield lit up around them a moment later. It was pretty in a way, a dome of blue light that surrounded Global Dynamics and, quite unfortunately, it's parking lot. She would have much rather been on the road, watching the light show from a safe distance, rather than be standing in the center of it, watching as it zeroed in on her and Zane.

"You owe me a new car," she muttered quietly, no anger in her voice, unerringly calm in what could be her final seconds of life.

When she met his gaze she could see every ounce of the sorrow in his eyes for what they were about to go through. For the first time, no sarcastic response came to his lips, only an understated apology as he reached for her hand, squeezing it lightly while they waited for the dome of light to close in on them.

It was funny how her mind continued working long after her body had hit the ground, watching the small piece of equipment that she and Zane had both stupidly hung around their necks light up, sparking, fizzing, popping, arcing streams of power between them. She felt no pain, her body didn't seize as though electricity were flowing through it, she was just laying on the ground staring at Zane laying on the ground staring at her. Neither closed their eyes until the receivers sparked their last spark and whirred to silence, the light fading away leaving the plastic and metal twisted and misshapen, bonding to the dark fabric of her jacket, bonding to the reddening skin of Zane's neck.

Her last thoughts before letting the world slip away were of her father and brothers overseas, of her mother's last moments, of Zane, both who he is now and who he was before, of her friends in Eureka, and of God.

For his part, Zane silently hoped he didn't pee himself. Fargo'd never let him live it down.

*****TBC*****

In The Next Part:

"What the hell have you gotten us into now?"

When she opened her eyes, Jo found herself not in the parking lot at Global Dynamics, not in the infirmary, not in her house, her car or any other place she'd expect to wake up. Instead, Jo found herself in a living room she remembered better than the one she'd lost when Larry's misguided rocket dissolved her home, staring at people that shouldn't have been possible.

"What? Where are we?" Zane lifted a hand to his head even though there was no pain, blinking rapidly as the images filled in around him.

"Home."

Coming Soon!