Chapter Text
Jack concentrated on the road, still too angry to speak. Well, angry and horrified; if he hadn’t been able to catch up with Zoe in Seattle he’s not sure what might have happened and it makes a swooping feeling appear in the pit of his stomach every time he thinks about it. He thought things had been getting better with Zoe. She was always eager for his custody weekends and he’d been enjoying getting to know the young woman she had somehow become while he’d been too buried in his work to notice. And Zoe had seemed to let up on some of her old resentments against him. Oh, she still became massively upset if his work impeded on one of their weekends or on his ability to see her school activities, but she had seemed more willing to accept that he never actually wanted to cancel on her. Heck, she had even been wildly accepting of his new boyfriend – which was saying something, considering she absolutely hated Abby’s current love interest.
And then she had gone and run away. Again. To Canada.
Jack just didn’t know what to do. Where was his little girl who came at him with tackling hugs whenever he walked in the door? Or even the laughing teenager who had been mocking his fashion choices two weekends ago?
What had brought this on?
He sighed deeply. He felt out of his depth and wanted someone else to talk to about this, to commiserate with and to tell him that he wasn’t a complete failure as a father. He really wanted to call Nathan, even if his advice was of the unhelpful sort (because about half the time Nathan’s advice was something Jack chose to ignore completely), but Zoe was in the back of the car and that would feel awkward. He could close the partition to block sound, but even though Zoe had refused to talk to him for the last two hours he didn’t want to be the one shutting off contact.
Instead he found himself simply thinking about Nathan. He might not be able to call the man at the moment, but thinking about him was always distracting and it might take his mind off the furious tumult of other emotions currently swirling in his head.
He had met Nathan Stark in D.C. eight months ago when a case had had him temporarily assigned to the nation’s capital. It hadn’t been anything glamourous, they had simply met at a bar. Jack had had a long day and had just wanted a beer. He hadn’t been looking for a one-night-stand, but, well, Nathan was gorgeous and had pushed all the right buttons and Jack hadn’t been able to resist bringing the man back to his hotel.
It had been the first time he’d been with anyone since Abby. The divorce had been hard and he had been very reluctant to get on that horse again to go out and try dating. And he’d never been very good at one-night-stands – he got attached too easily. If he was interested enough for that first night, then he’d be interested enough to want much more.
Luckily, his one-night-stand with Nathan had not ended with one night. They’d spent most of the weekend locked in his hotel room, and continued to get together for many subsequent nights while Jack was in D.C. When he finally left to return to L.A., it was with Nathan’s number in his phone and a promise of finding a way to make things work long-distance, even from opposite sides of the country. And they had. They were both buried in demanding jobs which skewed when they were available, but they still both made the effort for frequent phone calls and semi-frequent flights to visit each other for a weekend.
Jack was still surprised sometimes at how happy he was. After things fell apart with Abby, he had felt like maybe he was incapable of sustaining a relationship. He’d felt that he’d never be able to recapture the happiness of those early years of their marriage. Nathan was nothing at all like Abby, but they understood each other in a way that Abby with all her psychoanalysis hadn’t. Maybe it was because Nathan had also come out of a long, drawn-out divorce where he’d been accused of being “an ego-centric workaholic with entitlement issues.” (And his ex-wife hadn’t even had a psychiatric background.)
Two weeks ago things had changed again. Nathan had said he was moving back to the West Coast (although not to L.A. unfortunately). More importantly, he had said he was tired of the long-distance dating and the seeing each other only once a month or so thing – and not in a ‘we should break up’ way, but in a ‘will you marry me’ way. Which, wow.
Jack could feel a silly little smile trying to creep its way across his face. Nathan was his fiancé, he still couldn’t believe it. Oh, they hadn’t figured out how and where they were going to manage the whole co-habiting part of the equation, but they were working on it. Nathan and his super-genius brain were apparently marketable enough to get a job anywhere, even if he was currently at the whim of the Department of Defense. Jack had gotten the impression though that this new transfer was a dream job, and so Jack himself had started to look at private security jobs in the Portland area. He loved being a U.S. Marshal, but he loved Nathan too, and maybe if he had a job that involved less travel and risk he could increase his custody of Zoe – although he also wouldn’t be nearby to see her at the drop of a hat either.
Of course, he still didn’t know exactly where Nathan was currently living, other than it being a huge, top-secret research facility about an hour outside of Portland.
He glanced at the sign on the highway as he passed. Now there was an idea. It was still a full day’s drive back to Los Angeles, and it was only mid-afternoon now but he wasn’t looking forward to driving the whole night through after the previous sleepless night of chasing down Zoe.
At the next gas station, he pulled out his maps. Zoe made a snarky comment about being lost while on the main highway, but he just gave her an exasperated smile. (Hey, it was the first thing she’d said to him in two hours.) Jack carried several detailed road atlases in his car, which had come in handy in tracking down criminals who liked to go to ground in the most out-of-the-way locations. Moreover, cross-referencing with topography maps of the terrain often helped him predict natural hiding spots. This time he simply examined the radius around Portland. (Nathan had planned for Jack to fly out in two weeks, and had said he’d drive the hour to meet up and spend the weekend in Portland.) Jack was pretty sure the town wasn’t to the north, as that would place it across the Washington border. Additionally, there had to be enough space for this secret facility, and the secrecy meant it was probably very remote and topographically hidden. Several quick scans later and he had his finger on Eureka, Oregon – because hopefully a town of crazy scientists would use a crazy science name and not something boring, and hence more inconspicuous, like Watertown.
Jack knew he could simply call Nathan and ask, especially since it was probably a little rude to just show up on the man’s doorstep. However, Nathan had been pretty clear that the town’s location was supposed to be a secret – hence why he was going to meet Jack in Portland. Asking meant putting his fiancé in the awkward position of breaking that secrecy or lying to him. If Jack just showed up in town though? Well, he’d have gotten there all on his own and the town was on the maps. For all the security around the research facility, the town couldn’t be completely classified. Heck, he could have simply driven into it by accident if he had been lost!
His delinquent daughter was still mocking his sense of direction as he started folding everything away, so he ran a hand through his hair and turned to look in the back of the car, trying to keep his voice even.
“Uh, I thought that instead of driving all night, we could stop for a bit – provided you’re not going to immediately run away again. Nathan just moved up near here and I figured we could crash with him overnight.”
Zoe turned away, scoffing “Nathan. Of course.”
Now Jack was confused. His daughter had been enthusiastic when she’d first met the man she’d termed his “new mysterious lover,” and she’d never seemed to mind when Nathan’s in-town visits overlapped with Jack’s custody weekends. He swore sometimes the two of them ganged up on him in their teasing. And two weeks ago when he’d told her about Nathan’s proposal, she’d seemed genuinely excited. She had even said he’d be “pretty cool” as a step-father – high praise indeed from a moody teenager! So what was this about?
Jack was sure he had a baffled look on his face, but Zoe continued to glare in the opposite direction and crossed her arms.
“Zoe, what is going on here? I thought you liked Nathan!” Looking at her more shrewdly, he guessed, “Does whatever this is have anything to do with why you ran away?” Drawing on his experience in interrogating hardened criminals, Jack gazed steadily at her, waiting for her to crack.
“You’re moving!” she finally burst out. “You’re marrying Nathan and you’re moving away. Probably up here I guess. I suppose it doesn’t matter anyway, it’s not like I ever get to see you outside of occasional weekends, and I have to show up at your apartment myself to get you to even take me sometimes! Because of course your work always comes first. Except now, for him, you’re putting it second!”
Zoe had gotten progressively more worked up throughout her rant, while Jack’s eyes had just gotten wider and his mouth had dropped open.
For a moment, he could do no more than sputter. “Zoe?!... What?!... This… I…” This was all way out of left field as far as he was concerned. “Wait, where did you even hear about the moving thing?”
“I heard you telling Mom.” Her glare was barely covering the hurt in her eyes.
“Zoe…” He sighed again, shaking his head. He hated talking about his emotions (a problem Abby had complained about, although it was a trait he now shared with Nathan) – but this was his daughter. His daughter who didn’t think he wanted her. The ‘I’m a failure as a father’ feeling was hitting his stomach again. But apparently he was the reason she’d run away, and if for no other reason, he had to make sure that didn’t happen again. He took another breath.
“I want to make one thing clear before we discuss anything else. You are my daughter, and I will always love you. And neither Nathan nor the Marshals nor your running away is going to change that.
“Yes, I’m marrying Nathan, but he’s adding to our family; he’s not replacing you. As for the moving thing… I don’t know yet.” He held up a hand at her triumphant look. “I have thought about maybe trying to move up here, but Nathan’s also talked about moving to L.A. We haven’t decided anything yet.
“Either way, you were going to be part of that equation. If you still wanted to live with your mom during the school year, then maybe you could stay with me for the entire summer and Christmas breaks or something. I hadn’t discussed it with you yet, because we haven’t actually made any decisions.”
Zoe’s quiet “Oh,” was a little sniffly, and without a second thought Jack got out of the car and unlocked the back cage. In a flash, Zoe was in his arms and it was like she’d reverted back to when she was six and she’d thought her daddy could save her from everything bad in the world.
After they’d both calmed down, he leaned back to look at her seriously. “I know you were mad at me, but no running away again. If I hadn’t found you…” His fingers clenched on her arms.
“Yeah, Dad. Yelling and crying fest first, without the running away. Got it.”
Deciding that was as much seriousness as he was going to get currently, Jack turned to the second question. “So, are we crash-landing at Nathan’s or do you want to keep going and find a hotel later?” Now more than ever, he really wanted to see his fiancé, but if Zoe was still upset he’d wait on that for now and just call Nathan later tonight.
Cocking her head suddenly, she looked up at him. “You haven’t told him we’re coming?”
“Nope, and he hates surprises as much as me.” Jack’s unrepentant grin was met with a twin.
And because Jack was now reasonably sure she wasn’t going to run away again – and because Zoe would never forgive him for embarrassing her in front of all of Nathan’s neighbors – he even let her move up to the front seat.
********
Nathan was annoyed. He had only been back in Eureka for two weeks and he had spent much of it trying to clean up King’s messes. Warren King had been fired for incompetence, but as Nathan slowly pieced through the haphazard records of his predecessor he still wasn’t sure if the former director had only been guilty of gross negligence or if he had actually been involved in more shady activities. There were a number of discrepancies in the requisition files and Nathan had been trying to quietly conduct a full inventory and audit of all projects and departments, particularly in Section 5.
Now he’d been called out into the woods because of a new disaster, with a partially-temporally-displaced trailer and a dead dog. This was followed by Fargo telling him that one of the Syntek chips was missing from Section 5. It couldn’t even be laid solely at King’s feet, since it seemed to be a recent disappearance. Someone with high clearance was almost certainly involved, although an electromagnetic disruption had been used to deliberately tamper with the security system and knock out any camera evidence.
Sheriff Cobb of course chose to wander over during the tail end of Fargo’s report, and Nathan was forced to deflect his questions since he did not want to bring in law enforcement until he had a handle on the situation and had completed his secret audit. The sheriff, however, was demanding that all of G.D. be shut down until this current crisis had been resolved. Did he have any idea how many sensitive projects would be lost or damaged by being temporarily halted? Not to mention the number that could become volatile without constant monitoring.
He did not have time for this! He still had dozens of files he was working through to catch up on current projects, and had been hoping to finish a large enough chunk to be able to reward himself with a few hours to work on his own projects this evening. Instead, he was stuck out here surrounded by idiots who kept trying to make his life more difficult.
He felt his phone vibrate in his pocket and fished it out to find a text from Jack.
Was in the neighborhood and decided to stop by – mind if Zoe and I crash with you tonight?
What? Jack was supposed to be flying up to Portland in two weeks, but last time Nathan checked, the paperwork hadn’t gone through yet to get clearance for Jack to visit Eureka. In fact, he had never even mentioned Eureka by name to Jack.
You’re in Oregon?
The response was swift.
Ths is Zoe – Dad driving
Eureka is rlly weird – an 8-yrold w/ a quantum physics bk?
Wheres yr house anywy?
Blinking, Nathan absorbed the brief barrage – and the horrendous text speak. He was still curious how Jack and Zoe found their way to Eureka, but he’d interrogate Jack later. Apparently he would not be getting any science done this evening though.
Despite himself, he felt his shoulders relax a little. Jack – and Zoe too, to some extent – had the miraculous ability to calm Nathan down by his very presence. He still regretted the lost science time, but was willing to accept the tradeoff of unexpected time with his fiancé. He was pretty sure Jack would be more than willing to help Nathan work off all his stress in a mutually satisfying way.
As he texted his address to Zoe, he tuned back in to the conversation taking place behind him as Deputy Lupo mentioned something about a U.S. Marshal nosing around. Apparently Jack had been busy since arriving in Eureka and had managed to both annoy and impress the local sheriff’s office while finagling his way into a crime scene.
When he heard how Jack took less than five minutes to find the missing boy for whom the intrepid sheriff had spent an hour organizing a whole search party he could barely restrain his smirk. After a moment, he decided what the hell and smirked anyway. Sheriff Cobb might be very dedicated to his job and had probably been a good soldier, but he did not think outside the box as often as was necessary in a town like Eureka. While his fiancé sometimes had the same distressing law enforcement tendency to see things in black and white (and how had Nathan managed to fall in love with a man like that again?), Jack’s leaps of intuition meant he, at least, didn’t as regularly fall into the same trap of focusing solely on the most obvious answer.
Impatience growing, Nathan forcefully wrapped up the discussion with a demand to both Fargo and Cobb to be informed of any further incidents. Returning to his car, he headed home to meet up with his future husband and step-daughter while thoughts and ideas ticked around in his brain.