Work Text:
Deputy Jo Lupo enjoys arriving to work early most mornings. That half an hour between 8:30 and 9:00am is often her favorite part of the day, (well, except when she gets to shoot things). She usually has the station to herself and can catch up on her paperwork without any distractions. Then, by the time her partner/boss rolls in she is ready for her cup of coffee and the latest bizarre incident of living in Eureka.
On this morning, when Jo looks up and realizes it is already 9:05 with no Carter in sight, she isn’t particularly worried. While the Sheriff isn’t one of those people who’s chronically late, he is also not always exactly punctual – and he really isn’t a morning person. In fact, it was not unusual for Jack to swing by Café Diem first on his way to work (always bringing an extra vinspresso for her too), and depending on the crowd or Vincent’s chattiness it could easily delay him fifteen minutes.
When the clock ticks past 9:30 with no sign or word from her partner, Jo finally decides she should call him – either to give him a hard time about oversleeping or to berate him for not letting her know he’d gone out on a call. Unfortunately, the phone just goes to voicemail after ringing out. There are, however, places in G.D. and in the woods around Eureka that don’t have particularly great cell reception, so her next step is to check the station’s phone logs and case notes. If Carter had managed to arrive at the station before her and been called out on a case there would be signs – but that unlikely scenario soon proves false as well.
It’s not until she finally calls SARAH that Jo really begins to worry. According to SARAH, Jack left the bunker late last night after receiving a text and never made it home after.
Grabbing two guns and an extra knife, Jo slips into her car heading to G.D. in order to check their security logs and, if necessary, recruit more help in tracking down her wayward partner.
Unfortunately, the G.D. security logs don’t list any entry for Carter since the orange foam incident three days ago, when the sheriff had been the one to bear the brunt of the gelatinous explosion and had spent a solid fifteen minutes afterwards yelling alternatively at the scientists at fault and Dr. Stark (who Carter thought was always at fault). The trail of orange sliding down from his eyebrow had rather ruined the menacing look Jack had been attempting however, and Stark had clearly been smirking with barely contained humor when he’d finally dragged the sheriff away to the decontamination showers. When they had finally returned to the lab – Stark must have been tormenting his rival by keeping Carter in the freezing decon shower extra long – Jack had declared that Jo was going to handle the next G.D. case on her own. Of course, Jo doubts that her partner would actually refuse a call if one came in, hence the need to check the security logs. It seems he’s kept his word though since he hasn’t stepped foot in the building since, but that does not answer his current whereabouts.
Personal questioning also proves fruitless. Henry has not seen Carter. Allison has not seen Carter. Even Fargo has not seen Carter. In fact, it isn’t until Jo’s now expanded and worried mob goes to check with the Director for possible problems at any of the off-site labs that they encounter the next wrinkle – no one has seen Dr. Stark that morning either.
Stark isn’t answering his phone, and the security logs show his last entry as checking out at 10:27pm last night. The group is anxious now – either there is a problem at an off-site lab (since last night?) and Stark called Carter in (without any other backup?) or something much larger is going on. Jo likes to be prepared for all contingencies, and the fact that the Director of G.D. and Eureka’s sheriff are both missing (possibly for over twelve hours by this point) – that doesn’t smell like a coincidence.
While Fargo stays to keep watch at G.D. and Henry and Allison head over to the bunker and Stark’s house respectively to look for any clues, Jo decides to circle around the outskirts of Eureka looking for either Carter’s jeep or Stark’s distinctive BMW.
When Allison calls she sounds spitting mad, but Jo inhales a breath of relief at the first sentence. “They’re here. They’re both here and I cannot believe that while we were worrying ourselves sick they were just…” Allison breaks off suddenly with a series of coughs. “I can’t…”, she whispers, and then Jo hears the thump of a body hitting the ground, the phone clattering after.
It only takes Jo fifteen minutes to get back to town and have a team of security agents wearing gas masks surrounding Stark’s house. She wants to be prepared for anything and she’s still not sure either why Allison had been so angry or what exactly had taken the other woman down mid-conversation. The coughing suggested gas (hence the masks), but with Eureka anything is possible.
The ground floor is clear when the team sweeps into the house and Jo takes the lead as they head up the stairs. Allison had said both men were here a bare quarter of an hour ago, and if they and Allison have vanished during that time than that means that someone else…
Oh. Never mind.
Well, that certainly explains Allison’s tone earlier.
Both men are here – in Stark’s bedroom, in Stark’s bed, naked. (At least presumably naked, the quilt is thankfully covering up their lower halves.) The sheriff is sprawled on his stomach taking up half the mattress – and half of Stark too, who has his nose buried in Carter’s hair and an arm wrapped tightly around the other man. Clothes are scattered around the room haphazardly and Jo follows the trail with her eyes until she sees Allison crumpled on the ground to the side of the bed, a cellphone lying just beyond outstretched and limp fingers.
She barks a command at her team and they finally move out of the doorway, carrying the three bodies out to the waiting ambulance (the two men hastily wrapped in sheets). They search the room carefully until they find the small hole drilled through the wall behind the bed leading to an air tank outside wedged under the eaves. The team is professional as ever, although she hadn’t missed the initial wide eyes and sly glances when they’d first entered the bedroom. Jo considers ordering them to keep quiet about exactly what they saw, but then thinks of the EMTs receiving the nearly naked men and Allison’s shrill fury and realizes there is no way this news won’t be circulated across town by the end of the day.
Carter was due for so much teasing anyway.
Two hours later, Jo has the perpetrator locked in her cell at the station while Henry calls the General about redacting Dr. George. (Intentionally drugging the head of a top research facility because of a grudge about budget cuts is apparently enough to get the Army on board with a quick prosecution. Also, without a second person there breathing in half of Dr. George’s experimental gas the results could possibly have been fatal.)
That all taken care of, Jo finally checks in with the infirmary. Allison’s lower dose apparently had her waking up over an hour ago and storming off in a huff. The two men, however, are only just coming around meaning Jo’s timing is perfect.
Carter’s expression is hilarious as he slowly realizes that a) he’s in the G.D. infirmary, b) he’s still naked, and c) Stark is in the next bed also just beginning to stir. He gives Stark a very wide-eyed sideways glance only to be met with his boyfriend(?)’s carefully blank face.
“Er. Hey, Jo. Mind telling me how I-we ended up in here?” She snickers at Jack’s obvious discomfort and he pouts at her. Stark rolls his eyes.
“Well, what’s the last thing you remember?”
Carter’s face goes red and he opens and closes his mouth without actually saying anything. Stark just eyes her shrewdly.
“Good sex.”
Jack balks at Stark’s answer, his ears turning red now. Finally he leans back (pouting again) before throwing a pillow at Stark. “It was great sex,” he grumbles, ignoring both Stark’s dodge and ensuing smirk.
Jo’s snickers turn into full guffaws.