"Boyfriend out of surgery yet?" Zane knew he sounded bitter, but he couldn't help himself, even as he sat down on the bench next to Jo.

"No, and you have to stop."

"Sorry." He was sorry, really he was. He knew he was being unfair, but he couldn't help himself. "It's just been a really weird day," he continued with a sigh.

"You're the one who kissed me with Carter's mouth." She leaned into him, her voice soft but slightly teasing.

He shook his head. "I was – I was caught up in the moment, I guess." He looked at her, then looked away.

"Zane. You have to know how crazy it is to be jealous of something between Carter and me that never happened." She'd turned to face him and he shifted so that he could look directly at her, but then looked down. He didn't want to see her face while they had this conversation.

"Yeah, but the thing is, it's not."

She didn't respond, just looked annoyed, so he continued.

"He's your best friend, JoJo." He looked up. His eyes met hers. This time this she was the one to look away.

He half-smiled but there was no humor on it. "Something goes wrong, you look for Carter. Something goes right, you look for Carter."

"That's not fair," she protested, turning back. "He's my partner."

"Jo . . ." Zane paused. Did he really want to go here? Did he really want to throw away what little he had of her? But he couldn't stop himself, not after he'd started. "He's not your partner. He never was."

She opened her mouth to protest but he put a finger up, covering her mouth and hurried on. "You were his deputy. Past-tense. Now you're the head of GD security and he's the sheriff. Not partners."

"But we –" she started and then stopped. She looked away from him.

"Yeah, you act like partners. But that's a choice, not a job description. It's a choice that you're making every time you turn toward Carter. Which is . . . pretty much every time there's trouble. And in Eureka, well, yeah, that's every day."

"Zane. . ."

He shook his head and tried to smile. "You didn't want to wait for me, you weren't ready to make a decision when I came back. I pushed you into one, but if Carter and Allison weren't together, you wouldn't have chosen me."

"Zane, I did choose you."

"Yeah." He nodded. "Yeah, you did." He looked down at the floor.

Jo put her hand on his arm. "Look, Carter and I have worked together for a long time, and yes, we're friends. But that doesn't have anything to do with you and me."

"It does, though." He sighed and his mouth twisted. "You know, when two people really know each other, they're in sync. You and Carter, you're in sync. You and me – we're not."

"Zane, that's not – that's not true."

"Jo, you've got a best friend. And it's not me. You've got a partner. And it's not me. You and me – we just sleep together. And hey, for most of my life, that arrangement would have been just fine." He grinned and for a moment, he felt like his old self, devil-may-care, able to turn on the charm, but then the grin was gone. "But it's not enough anymore. I don't like being second-best."

"Zane, you're not second-best. I chose to be involved with you. I chose to be with you."

"Sorta." He looked up at the door. Behind it, Allison was operating on Carter. He hoped that Carter came through okay, because he needed to apologize to him.

He needed to stop blaming him for something that wasn't his fault.

It wasn't anyone's fault.* It just was what it was.

He looked back at Jo. God, she was beautiful. Beautiful, smart, tough, funny – the whole package. But it wasn't his. He leaned forward and brushed his lips against hers, feeling the spark between them, but pulling away before it flared into life. She leaned forward, following him, not understanding, and he shook his head, just a little.

"You've got to be kidding me," she said.

His smile was wry.

"You're dumping me because of something that happened in a computer program? It wasn't real. It wasn't me. I wasn't even there!" Jo stood up so that she was looking down on him, the better to yell at him.

He stood up, too. "It's not the computer program that's the problem. It's us, Jo. You and me? We don't fit. Maybe we never did."

* Actually, it's entirely the Eureka writers' fault. They had a wonderful passionate romance to play with and they threw it away!

This story is a spot-the-quote story – three separate episodes are referenced. Anyone care to guess all three?