Archive of Our Own

The thing about living in a top secret town in the middle of Nowhere, Oregon was that the outside world tended to just pass them by. Sure, they could watch the news on their giant TV and read the morning papers on their AI’s scrolling computer screen but it just didn’t have any relevance to their day to day lives. After all, the world out there believed that the moon landings actually happened in 1969.

So when the world came to an end, the first Jack Carter knew of it was when he watched the pitcher for the Padres get eaten by a group of pitch invaders live on TV.

“Huh,” Jack said trying to make sense of what he was seeing.

“What?” Zoe looked up from doing her homework on the sofa. “Oh, eww! What are you watching?”
“Padres at the Cubs,” Jack replied.

“Very funny,” Zoe rolled her eyes. “Seriously, what is this? I didn’t know there was a new zombie movie out...not that I watch zombie movies or any other movie that isn’t made by Disney,” She added quickly.

“Nice save, Zo,” Jack snorted sarcastically. “SARAH, tell her.”

“Sheriff Carter is indeed watching the live baseball coverage on ESPN,” SARAH confirmed.

“Huh,” Zoe said and tilted her head to one side.

Father and daughter sat in silence for a few minutes. Neither were able to drag their eyes away from the screen where they could see players on both teams using their bats to try and keep the increasing number of crazy pitch invaders at bay. Several more were trying to climb the ivy covered wall to escape.

“There is an incoming call from Dr Blake,” SARAH announced around the time that the commentators were pondering the possibility that the chaos might have anything to do with Steve Bartman.

“Allison, did you know that there are zombies in Chicago?” Jack asked once SARAH connected the call.

There was silence from the other end for a moment before Allison replied, “Not Chicago specifically, no. You should probably come to Global, Carter.”

Jack and Zoe exchanged a wide eyed look. “Wait, you mean they are zombies?” He asked incredulously.

“They’re not zombies, Sheriff,” Stark told him in a longsuffering tone of voice once Jack had made it to GD. “Zombies are fictional.”

“Uh huh. You didn’t just watch them eat half of the Cubs starting line-up,” Jack retorted crossing his arms. “Did you do this? Because I knew you’d destroy the world one day, Stark, but I thought you’d just blow it up.”

Stark rolled his eyes. “No, surprisingly we don’t have a zombie project currently in operation at Global.”

“So, they are zombies!” Jack pointed at the other man in triumph.

“Gentleman, please,” Allison interjected smoothly, “Can we stop arguing over whether they are or are not...the Z word and focus on what we’re going to do about them?”

Fargo looked up from his laptop. “You have to shoot them in the head. Everyone knows that.”

“Fargo!” Everyone growled at once and Fargo dropped back behind the screen with an eep.

“Okay, explain everything to me.” Jack perched himself on the edge of Allison’s desk instead of taking a seat just to piss Stark off.

“Honestly? We don’t know much.” Allison settled back into her chair and Jack tried, mostly unsuccessfully, not to look at her legs as she crossed them elegantly. “We lost contact with Washington about an hour ago. Before that reports were coming in from Canada, various parts of Europe and Japan of some sort of infection which has appeared over the past week or so and has been causing those affected to become extremely violent in a short amount of time.”

Jack frowned. “What do you mean you ‘lost contact with Washington’?”

“They’ve stopped communicating,” Fargo piped up. “I’ve checked the satellites and phone lines; everything’s in working order, they’re just not transmitting from their end.”

“Before they went dark, Mansfield informed us that the idea of evacuating was being considered,” Stark put in. “We have to assume that’s been implemented but, even so, that would only be at the highest levels. We should still be able to talk to someone there so Fargo is attempting to hack into the security cameras to give us some idea of what’s happening.”

“You’re hacking into the Pentagon?” Jack practically yelled at Fargo, “That’s what you’re doing over there?”

“Calm down, Jack. I’m sure they won’t mind in the circumstances,” Allison said. “They’d probably be trying to do the same to us if we suddenly went quiet.”

“They could try,” Stark snorted but everyone ignored him.

Deciding to turn a blind eye for the time being to the unbelievably illegal activity that Fargo was indulging in, Jack got back to the matter in hand. “What do we know about this infection? How is it getting passed along?”

“It appears to be a highly aggressive strain of the rabies virus,” Allison told him.

“Rabies. So it gets passed along by bite.” Jack raised an eyebrow at Stark.

Another tick in the zombie column.

“Anybody come into the infirmary recently with any injuries consistent with getting bitten by anything?” He asked Allison and breathed a sigh of relief when she shook her head. “Okay, in that case I think we should lock down the town. No one in or out until we get a handle on this.”

Allison looked like she wanted to protest but, surprisingly, Stark took Jack’s side and she backed down.

“The smartest people in the world are here,” Stark said when Jack looked at him questioningly. “We have to protect ourselves; we’re the best hope of stopping this.”

“Right.” For a moment Jack had thought Stark was showing some concern for others but he was just concerned about protecting his giant brain as usual. “Well, see if you ‘smartest people’ can work out a better way of protecting the town than roadblocks because that’s all we’ve got right now.”

With that, Jack left to arrange setting up those roadblocks with the GD security teams.

On his way to the station to fill Jo in, Jack called Zoe to make sure that she wouldn’t leave the bunker until he said so.

“Is it really zombies, dad?” She asked, “Because that’s what they’re saying on TV.”

“According to Allison it’s a new strain of rabies,” Jack told her.

“Oh please!” She snorted, “That’s almost as bad as rage infected monkeys...not that I’ve ever watched that movie...”

Jack chuckled, “Bye Zoe. Stay in the house.”

By the time he reached the station Jo was already pulling the biggest guns off the rack.

“I guess you’ve heard?” Jack asked, dryly.

Jo shot him a look over her shoulder as she hefted a gun almost as big as she was onto her desk. “One of the CNN reporters got eaten live on TV, Carter. Of course I’ve heard. Is GD behind it?”

“Surprisingly, no.” Jack sat behind his desk and proceeded to tell her everything he’d learned so far.

Afterwards Jo looked thoughtful. “You know Beverly came back to town yesterday with a big old bandage on her forearm. I saw her at Cafe Diem last night.”

Jack frowned. “You think?”

“It’s worth checking out,” Jo said. “Better safe than sorry.”

Personally, Jack thought that Jo just wanted to parade around town with lots of firepower to make her feel better about not being needed at the roadblocks. But she was right, it probably was best to check.

“Leave the flamethrower, Lupo,” He called back as he walked out of the station and smiled when he heard her curse before running to catch up with him.

The front door to the B&B was wide open when they pulled up outside and Jack began to feel a sense of foreboding. He and Jo silently approached the doorway with their guns out and held down by their sides. Jo tapped his shoulder and pointed to the porch floor where there was an unmistakable smear of blood.

Nodding to his deputy, Jack slipped inside the house following the blood smears into the sunny sitting room where Christopher Dactylos, sculptor extraordinaire, was lying on the floor in a pool of his own blood while Beverly Barlowe munched on his intestines.

“Oh, now that’s just gross!” Jack complained, a little too loudly.

Beverly’s head shot up, looking right at him and hissed. Her eyes were tinged red and blood ran in tracks down her cheeks to match the smudges around her mouth. In a surprisingly acrobatic move, she jumped to her feet and sprinted towards Jack leaving him and Jo no choice but to open fire.

The impact of the bullets knocked her back a few steps but instead of killing her, they just seemed to piss her off. She raised her head and let out a truly inhuman howl before turning and crashing through the unopened window.

“I’ve got her!” Jo cried, the broken glass fragments crunching beneath her feet as she followed Beverly out through the now empty window pane.

Jack put in a call to Allison, who promised to get a team out to him ASAP, and he moved back to wait. He positioned himself where he could keep watch on Dactylos’ body and eyed the stairs, wondering if Beverly had anyone staying there that week.

Jo returned after a few minutes, panting and holding a hand to her side.

“I lost her.” Jo looked extremely annoyed. “She ran into the woods and I tripped over a branch when I followed her in.”

Jack swore. “We’ll have to get a team to try and track her down. Are you okay?”

Jo nodded. “Just pulled something, I’ll be fine.”

“We’ll get the medics to check you over when they come to get Dactylos,” Jack told her.

“I thought he was dead,” Jo said.

“He is; Allison’s sending them to collect the body,” He answered. “She wants to run some tests on it.”

“O-kay but if he’s dead, where did he go?” Jo nodded behind him.

Jack spun around and saw that the sitting room had become decidedly Dactylos-less while he’d been distracted.

“Son of a bitch!”

There was the sound of a floorboard creaking overhead and they both looked up.

“Think that’s him?” Jo asked quietly.

Jack shook his head. “I don’t know. Could be a guest.”

“Well, I’m not going up there without a bigger gun.”

Jack was in total agreement and followed Jo back towards the truck, ignoring her mutterings about the flamethrower. They were almost there when there was a loud smash and Jack turned to see Dactylos launch himself through a second story window.

“What the hell is it with these guys and windows?” Jack yelled as he raised his gun and started firing at the rapidly approaching figure, covering Jo as she ran for the trunk.

Jack quickly ran out of bullets and was considering actually chucking his gun at Dactylos when Jo shouted behind him.

“Carter, get down.”

Throwing himself to the ground, Jack heard a familiar thwap noise and looked up to see Dactylos encased in goo from the chest down.

“Goo gun?” He asked as he rolled onto his back and stared up at his deputy.

Jo shrugged. “Bullets didn’t seem to be working.”

An ambulance, GD van and Henry’s truck all pulled up as Jack was getting to his feet.

“I thought Allison said he was dead,” Henry commented, staring at the struggling and hissing sculptor.

“He was,” Jack said. “It didn’t take.”

“He looks pretty dead,” One of the GD security guys pointed out.

“He’s dead? Damn, he was hot too,” Said another then, when all the assembled people looked at him, he shrugged. “What? Come on, you’ve seen him when he’s all hot and sweaty in that workshop. With those biceps.”

No one could argue with that really so they all turned back to the man in question.

“Any idea on how we get him back to Global?” Henry asked.

“I’ve got one,” Jo replied and lifted the goo gun again.

“You’ve got to admit, she has an amazing aim,” Allison commented as they stood outside one of the rooms off the infirmary and looked in at Dactylos, who was still stuck in the pile of goo with another perfectly placed glob of it over his mouth preventing him from biting anyone.

“She definitely scares me sometimes,” Jack agreed in a proud voice.

“Any leads on Beverly?” Allison asked.

Allison had already sent out a town meeting broadcast, instructing people to contact Jack if they saw Beverly and not to approach her under any circumstances.

“Nothing yet.”Jack shook his head. “Jo’s manning the phones at the station so she’ll call if anything looks promising. What are we going to do about him? That goo won’t hold forever.”

Allison sighed. “I’m not sure. We’ve tried to give him a sedative so that we can move him to a bed with restraints but they’re not affecting him at all.”

“Well, haven’t you got a gadget?” Jack asked. “Like some sort of sleep...zapping...ray gun thingy?”

Typically, that was the moment that Stark chose to join them and he stared at Jack in pity. “Sleep zapping ray gun thingies? Really, Sheriff? I’m afraid we don’t keep those lying around.”

“Actually...” Allison trailed off and gave Stark a look which made him widen his eyes in surprise.

“You really want to try it?” He asked, “It was shelved for a reason.”

Allison shrugged. “I wouldn’t suggest it under normal circumstances but I don’t see any other option here.”

Jack looked back and forth between the couple. “You’re kidding me! You actually have one?”

“We have an extra-aural electromagnetic pulse device,” Stark told him and then, when Jack just stared at him expectantly, he sighed. “It’s a sonic weapon that affects the central nervous system, paralysing the subject for a short time. Certainly long enough to get restraints on them.”

“So, a ray gun thingy?” Jack gave him a smug look.

“It’s not a...” Stark started and then gave up, “Seriously, Carter, your brain must be a wonderfully relaxing place. Like a big empty space filled only with the occasional need for a cheeseburger.”

“Don’t forget beer.” Jack smiled brightly at him, refusing to rise to the bait.

Stark made a growl of frustration, informed Allison that he’d get the EAMPD from storage and stomped off down the corridor. Jack watched him for a moment and then figured he deserved a little fun after the day he’d had and followed the other man, determined to annoy him some more.

“So why was the ray gun shelved, anyway?” Jack asked, falling into step with Stark.

“Extra-aural electromagnetic pulse device,” Stark gritted out.

“Like I’m going to remember that,” Jack pointed out. “Ray gun is easier.”

“It’s not even gun shaped,” Stark muttered but conceded the point. “It had some unpleasant side effects including inducing epileptic seizures in those susceptible.”

“Kind of a drawback in ‘non lethal weapons’, I get you.” Jack nodded.

They arrived at the GD storage vault and Stark paused before keying in his password. “Now there are lots of shiny things in here so try to resist the urge to touch any of them.”

Jack rolled his eyes and shot off a sarcastic ‘Scout’s honour’ before following Stark into the vast room.

It took all of ten minutes before Jack and Stark were on their way back to the infirmary with an egg shaped device.

“That’s it? Really?” Jack was kind of disappointed; ‘ray egg’ didn’t have the same ring.

“I told you it wasn’t a gun,” Stark pointed out.

“How are you supposed to shoot it at people, though? I thought it was a weapon.”

“You don’t shoot it; it’s more of a grenade. You set it and then place it out of range from you.” Stark showed him the switch at the base.

“Oh, okay.” Jack nodded, “So it’s more of a...a sonic bomb.”

Stark’s lips twitched as if he was unwillingly amused but he quickly covered it. “You never fail to amaze me with your ability to drag scientific accomplishments to their lowest common denominator, Sheriff.”

“Thanks.”

“It wasn’t a compliment.”

Surprisingly, the implementation of the sonic bomb went off without a hitch. Dactylos was soon properly restrained while Stark had some brainwave on how to adapt something similar for protection and ran off to his lab.

When Jack got back to the station to relieve Jo he found her happily discussing tactics with Taggart. It appeared that any lingering discomfort between them had disappeared now that they had a common enemy to focus their attention on.

“Taggart,” Jack said, looking warily at the man’s appearance.

Taggart was dressed for battle, from the night vision goggles resting on the top of his head to the camouflage paint smeared liberally over his face.

“Heard you had a spot of bother, Sheriff, and that you need to find someone sharpish.” Taggart stood, revealing a plethora of weaponry hung about his person.

Jack dropped into his seat. “Let me guess, you’re here to offer your services?”

“Actually, Allison sent him.” Jo walked across the room and slapped a memo on Jack’s desk.

Jack quickly scanned the contents and his jaw dropped. “She deputised you? Can she even do that?”

“Of course she can, Sheriff. And who better than a man with a wealth of experience hunting in extreme circumstances?” Taggart’s eyes flashed with enthusiasm. “I’ve spent months on the frozen tundra, tracking the Ovibos moschatus. Hiked across the Great Victoria Desert to study the Egernia kintorei. Lived in a tree for a year to get close to the Paradisaea apoda. Walked up the...”

“Alright, I get the idea,” Jack interrupted the increasingly dramatic speech, “But we’re not dealing with animals here; these are people...kind of. You’re hunting someone we know.”

Taggart shrugged. “Tracking’s tracking, mate. You need to find Dr. Barlowe, I’m your man.” He affectionately patted the, in Jack’s opinion, overly large tranq gun slung over his shoulder.

“Tranquilisers aren’t going to work, Taggart,” Jack told him. “They’ve already tried that on Dactylos and got nowhere. They had to use a sonic bomb to knock him out.”

“A sonic bomb?” Jo asked.

“Vibrating metal egg of doom?” Jack tried.

“Oh, the EAMPD.” Jo nodded. “Nice. I thought they’d shelved that.”

Taggart cleared his throat meaningfully and dragged their attention back to him and his giant gun. “As I was about to say, these aren’t any ordinary tranquilisers, Sheriff. They’re my own special recipe. Strong enough to bring down Banisgaru himself.”

“I know I’m going to regret asking this,” Jack said, “But who’s Banisgaru?”

Taggart took on a wistful look and stared into the distance. “The elusive Banisgaru...the biggest yeti of them all.”

“Yep.” Jack nodded. “Definitely regretting asking.”

Taggart snapped back to himself. “Anyway, I just wanted to pop in and put your minds at rest. Taggart’s on the job.”

“I feel so much better now,” Jack muttered as he watched Taggart commando roll his way out of the door.

The rest of the night was quiet, no sightings of Beverly and when Jack checked in with GD security the roads were clear. So, Jack diverted the station phones to the bunker and headed home.

He was woken at 4:27am by a call from GD.

“Stark, do you have any idea what time it is?” He groaned.

“Late?” Stark tried.

“Try early!” Jack said. “Very, very early.”

“Well, some of us were working all night,” Stark snapped in response.

Jack scrubbed his hand over his face. “Okay, was there a point to this call or did you just want to make me feel bad for catching some sleep while I could?”

There was a beat of silence. “I think I’ve got a solution to the roadblock issue. Also, Fargo finally managed to hack into...”

“La la la! Not listening to anything that could get me shot for treason at a later date!” Jack stuck his head underneath his pillow.

“Carter...Carter...CARTER!” Stark’s yelling finally broke through the incredibly off tune singing. “Just get your ass down here.”

Fortified with a flask of SARAH’s strongest coffee, Jack strolled into Stark’s lab an hour later to find Stark slumped over his desk fast asleep. He was tempted to let the other man get some rest if he’d been up all night but protecting the town was more important, he’d just have to make sure Stark grabbed some sleep later.

Smirking, Jack approached the desk and started wafting his coffee beneath Stark’s nose, which began twitching almost immediately. Without opening his eyes, Stark’s arm shot out and grabbed the flask from Jack’s hand.

“Hey! That’s mine!” Jack tried to protest but he couldn’t help laughing; Stark’s hair was standing every which way and he had paper creases on his face.

“Then you shouldn’t have taunted me with it,” Stark informed him as he took a long drink.

Resigning himself to the loss of his flask, Jack went into the break room across the hall and poured himself a mug of the tar like substance the scientists drank. After a pause, he poured an extra one for Stark; he’d probably finished Jack’s already.

“Show me what you’ve got, scientist,” Jack said as he walked back into the lab with the two mugs.

Stark’s head shot up and looked at Jack with wide eyes for a moment before blinking and turning to his laptop. Jack chuckled, Stark really was out of it.

“Here, this might make you focus better.” He put one of the mugs on the desk.

Stark gave a grunt which Jack took to mean ‘thank you’ then hit a few keys on his laptop to bring up a simulation on the wall mounted screen.

“That looks like Eureka.” Jack walked closer to the screen.

“And after only two years of living here. Well done, Sheriff,” Stark drawled, “But we’re focussing on this.”

A transparent dome appeared on the simulation, covering the entire town.

“The EM field.” Jack grinned. “We can use that?”

“I can adapt it so that instead of keeping signals out, we can actually transmit them. An ultrasonic signal to keep any approaching person from getting close to the field and therefore the town,” Stark told him, looking smug.

Jack laughed. “You want to turn the town into a giant sonic bomb.”

Stark rolled his eyes, “That’s a crude way to describe it but, essentially, yes. The main problem was stopping it from transmitting the same signal back into Eureka but I was able to strengthen the microscopic buffer surrounding the field on one side by increasing the...” He trailed off at Jack’s blank look. “Outside bad, inside good.”

“Works for me,” Jack said. “How long can we keep the field going?”

“As long as we have energy,” Stark replied. “Which, considering Eureka is run on 100% renewable energy...”

“Means we can run it as long as we need to.” Jack nodded.

“I should have it up and running by lunchtime, maybe earlier if I enlist Henry’s help.” Stark yawned. “He’s upstairs analysing Dactylos’ blood tests.”

Again Jack was tempted to tell Stark to get some sleep, the man looked exhausted, but there was plenty of time for that after the sonic shield was up.

“Come on, let’s go and get him.” Jack walked towards the door. “Protect the town first, figure out a cure later.”

After a quick stop for even more tar-coffee, the two men approached the biochem lab to hear raised voices.

“...fine. It’s nothing!”

“Okay, if it’s nothing then just show me.”

“I don’t have to show you anything!”

Jack peeked in the doorway to see Henry arguing with a man that Jack vaguely remembered from his last stay in the infirmary; Dr Bobbin, maybe. Or Dr Dobbin.

“Is there a problem here, gentlemen?” Jack asked, stepping into the lab with Stark on his heels.

“No! No problem!” The doctor (Daubins?) exclaimed and shot Henry a look.

Henry shook his head, sadly. “Dactylos may have bitten Dr Dawkins.”

“Dawkins! Right!” Jack cried and then cleared his throat when he realised everyone was looking at him strangely. “May have bitten you? How can you not know?”

“He didn’t bite me,” Dawkins said determinedly. “Dr Deacon is overreacting, that’s all.”

“Yep, that’s Henry for you. Always with the dramatics,” Jack said. “What happened, Dawkins?”

Dawkins refused to answer and, instead, leaned back on one of the counters.

“He’s been working in the infirmary, taking samples from Dactylos,” Henry said, “And I just discovered that he has an injury on his arm which he’s refusing to let me look at.”

“Just show him, Dawkins,” Stark ordered in his best ‘Director of GD’ voice.

Dawkins snorted. “You’re not my boss anymore, Stark.”

“No but I’m still the Sheriff,” Jack pointed out. “Show us your arm or I’ll arrest you for wasting my time when I really haven’t had enough coffee yet.”

Heaving a huge sigh, Dawkins removed his lab coat and then, in a lightening quick move, grabbed Henry and pressed something against his throat. “You’re not locking me in there with that...thing!”

Stark put his hands out in front of him in a placating manner. “Dawkins let him go. We can discuss this like rational people.”

“What?” Jack laughed. “He’s got a pen! What’s he going to do? Draw a goatee on Henry?”

“It’s not a pen,” Stark hissed at him, “It’s a micro-laser that can cut through glass.”

“Right, okay.” Jack winced. “Dawkins, put the laser...gizmo down.”

“So you can strap me down next to Dactylos and experiment on me until I turn into one of them?” Dawkins yelled. “I don’t think so. Throw your gun and phones out of the door and move against the far wall. Now!”

Checking the safety was still on; Jack tossed his gun into the corridor. Then he and Stark did the same with their cells before moving further into the room as ordered.

“What are you going to do, Dawkins? You can’t outrun this,” Stark told him. “If you let us, we can try to help you.”

“I was helping myself until Deacon interfered.” Dawkins pressed the laser harder against Henry’s throat. “I guess I’ll just have to continue my research elsewhere.”

He dragged Henry out of the lab and closed the door behind them. Jack heard a bang and the sound of sparking electricity from outside and guessed that Dawkins had destroyed the electronic lock, trapping them.

Stark tried the landline, while Jack confirmed his theory about the locked door, but Dawkins had cut the phone cable when they weren’t looking.

“Well, that’s just great!” Stark threw the useless phone across the room.

Jack thought quickly. “Fargo’s still here, right? He’s bound to notice that you’ve gone missing.”

Stark shook his head. “I sent him to get some sleep and Allison went home hours ago to be with Kevin.”

“Okay, I’m due at the station in two hours. If I’m late, Jo will call the bunker and SARAH’ll tell her that I’m here.” Jack worked through the situation aloud. “We know that Beverly was fine for hours after she got to town so Dawkins won’t change before we get out of here.”

“He could still hurt Henry without changing,” Stark said. “The man’s lost his mind.”

Jack shrugged helplessly. “We have to hope that he doesn’t.”

“Hope that he doesn’t? That’s your plan?” Stark asked incredulously.

“If you’ve got a better idea, Stark, then let’s hear it!” Jack snapped, “The door is locked, there are no windows, the air vent is too small to climb through, we have no phone, no one knows that we’re here and that’s totally beside the fact that the world is being overrun by goddamn zombies!”

Stark stared at him for a moment and then reached out, grabbed a fistful of Jack’s shirt and pulled him into a hard kiss. The moment their lips met Jack froze. What the hell?

“What the hell?” Jack pulled away and looked at Stark in shock.

“You were freaking out,” Stark said reasonably. “I thought it might help.”

Jack just blinked at him for few moments, lost for words. “I was freaking out and you thought that kissing me might stop me freaking out? You, kissing me.”

“I thought that it would give you something else to focus on.” Stark shrugged. “You can’t tell me you’ve never thought about it.”

Jack realised that Stark was still holding onto his shirt with his other hand on Jack’s hip while Jack’s hands were still on Stark’s chest from where he’d pushed him back slightly. He quickly removed them and used them to bat Stark’s hands off him.

“Yes I can! I’ve never thought about it!” Jack voice was a little hysterical.

“Really?” Stark tilted his head to one side and studied Jack for a moment. “Huh, never mind.”

Giving a nod, glad that bit of awkwardness was settled, Jack started to walk over to a nearby stool before a thought occurred to him and he turned back. “Does this mean that you’ve thought about it?”

“Of course I have, Carter. You’ve been flirting with me since we met.” Stark gave Jack his patented ‘you moron’ stare.

“There was no flirt...fighting, we’ve been fighting since we met,” Jack insisted. “Remember? You want Allison, I want Allison...we were fighting.”

Stark leaned back on a counter looking entirely too amused. “Yet you haven’t asked Allison out. You know, considering how much you want her.”

“Neither have you,” Jack said.

“She’s my ex wife. Ex for a reason, we just don’t work,” Stark told him. “We have history and I do want her in my life but I don’t want her.”

“Sure you do,” Jack scoffed. “I’ve seen how jealous you get. All that ‘stop eyeing my wife like chum’ stuff.”

Stark didn’t reply, just crossed his arms and raised an eyebrow at Jack who started replaying incidents in his head; from the first day they’d met and had the ‘are you sleeping with her’ conversation while Nathan was half dressed, right up to the subtle emphasis on ‘her’ in Stark’s last sentence.

Jack’s eyes widened. “Oh my god! You were jealous of Allison not me!”

“There you go.” Stark smirked.

Jack stared at Stark, his mouth working but no sound coming out.

“Did I break you?” Stark asked, moving closer. “Maybe I should help you again.”

He pushed his hands into Jack’s hair and kissed him once more, sweeping his tongue briefly across Jack’s lips.

Jack’s brain rebooted at the not altogether unpleasant sensation and he batted Stark away again. “Stop doing that!”

“I don’t know; I’m not sure you really want me to stop.” Stark’s eyes flickered down to Jack’s groin which was definitely beginning to show signs of interest.

“It’s just a reflex,” Jack told him and backed away.

“Uh huh,” Stark said following him until he’d completely backed Jack up against the wall. “Is that what it is?”

“Stark...” Jack said warningly.

Stark leaned his head forward. “It’s Nathan,” He breathed hotly into Jack’s ear, causing a shiver to run through him.

Then Stark kissed him again and it was nothing like the others had been; Stark’s lips moved smoothly across Jack’s, nipping and sucking at his bottom lip until Jack opened his mouth with a groan, letting Stark in.

It was as if that was the invitation Stark had been waiting for. He surged forward, his hands framing Jack’s face and his body pressing against him fully. Jack realised that up until that point the other man had actually been holding back, giving Jack room to say no if that was what he really wanted.

Saying no was the furthest thing from Jack’s mind however as he tangled one hand in Stark’s hair and the other clenched Stark’s shirt in the small of his back, pulling him in even closer. When Stark shifted, pushing his thigh up between Jack’s and rubbing deliciously, Jack’s head fell back against the wall with a thud.

“Oh God,” He moaned and Stark chuckled against his throat, the vibrations moving through Jack and making his head spin.

“Look at me, Jack,” Stark ordered and Jack forced his eyes open, gasping at the naked hunger he saw reflected back at him.

Holding Jack’s gaze, Stark deliberately and slowly moved his hands down to Jack’s buckle. Jack’s breath hitched in anticipation and he nodded his permission, his hips bucking forward slightly of their own accord as Stark...Nathan efficiently undid buckle and zipper.

When Nathan’s callused hand wrapped around him Jack’s head thudded into the wall again. He spared a brief thought to the possibility of sex related brain damage before all thoughts were sent flying from his head by the wonderful rhythm that Nathan started up, leaving Jack a moaning, writhing mess against the wall.

“Gorgeous,” He heard Nathan whisper in an awed voice. “Always knew you would be.”

Jack lifted his head at that and felt a thrill race through him as he realised Nathan was staring at him with all the intensity and amazement that he usually reserved for an especially clever piece of science.

Almost without realising what he was doing, Jack fumbled with the buttons on Nathan’s jeans. He suddenly had an overwhelming need to give Nathan the same pleasure that Nathan was giving him.

There was a moment’s hesitation as he slipped his hand into Nathan’s boxers and remembered that he had no idea what he was doing, but the way that Nathan gave a low moan of appreciation just from the feel of Jack touching him spurred him into motion again. After all, it wasn’t as if he’d never done this to himself, Jack just had to do what had always felt good to him.

When he used a twist of his wrist that caused Nathan to fall forward and bury his face in Jack’s neck with a groan of pure pleasure, Jack grinned smugly. Right up until Nathan repeated the move on him and then Jack felt the fire which had been steadily growing at the base of his spine burn white hot, spreading out to all his limbs.

He vaguely heard Nathan cry out his name and then slowly the rest of the world seeped back in.

“Christ,” Jack muttered as he slid down the wall to sit on the floor.

Nathan chuckled and reached over to grab a box of tissues from a nearby counter before joining Jack in an inelegant sprawl on the ground.

Silently the two men cleaned themselves up and tugged clothing back where it should be. All the while Jack’s brain was stuck on a loop. He just had sex with Stark. He just had really good sex with Stark. He just had sex with another man.

He was a lot less freaked out by the last one than he thought he’d be. Possibly because he’d never had a problem with what gender people chose to sleep with. More likely because it appeared that he’d had a big fat crush on Nathan Stark for the past two years without actually realising it.

The first two though...Jack still couldn’t wrap his head around the fact that Nathan wanted him and had wanted him since they’d first met. That Jack’s view of their entire acquaintance had been so very wrong.

“Stop freaking out, Jack,” Nathan said tiredly, his eyes closed and head resting back against the wall revealing the long line of his throat which Jack had a sudden urge to bite.

Jack inwardly groaned, it was as if he’d had some kind of wall erected in his brain and now that the wall was gone all the things it had been keeping out, things about Nathan and his attractiveness and his insanely sexy voice, came tumbling into Jack’s head.

“I was flirting with you,” Jack stated in a defeated tone of voice and Nathan laughed.

“Yes, you were,” He agreed.

“I didn’t know I was flirting with you though,” Jack pointed out.

“Apparently.” Nathan rolled his head to one side and gave Jack a look that could only be described as ‘fond’. “Although I think you were the only person who didn’t know. Vincent’s been running a book on when you’d finally make a move for the past 18 months. I believe Jo had this week.”

Jack groaned and put his head in his hands.

“Come on, Jack. Is it really that bad?” Nathan asked, his voice carefully neutral.

“Yes!” Jack looked at Nathan incredulously. “We could have been doing this months ago!”

The shields which Nathan had been visibly erecting against Jack’s supposed big gay freak out dropped and he suddenly grinned, pulling Jack into a tired and sloppy but still pretty damn good kiss.

It was another two hours before there was pounding on the door and Jack heard Jo’s voice yelling on the other side. Nathan had been dozing with his head on Jack’s shoulder but he jerked awake at the noise, prompting Jack to start laughing at him; he could get used to seeing Nathan so unguarded.

They both climbed to their feet and watched as a laser cut through the metal. Just before the hole was completed, Jack gave Nathan a quick, chaste kiss.

“We’ll get back to this later,” He promised and Nathan gave him a heated look that assured him they most definitely would.

The cut out piece of metal fell inwards with a loud clang and Jack could make out Jo, Zane, Fargo and Allison on the other side of the door.

“We need to find Henry,” Jack started immediately, “Dawkins went nuts and...”

“We know, Carter.” Allison held a hand up to halt his explanation. “Henry’s fine, he’s getting checked out in the infirmary as we speak. Apparently Dawkins knocked him out when they were clear of the building. He called Jo as soon as he woke up to tell us where you two were.”

It was clear from the relief on all their faces that they’d already noted his and Nathan’s disappearance and had been thinking the worst.

“How’s everything else? Any word on Beverly?” Jack asked.

“No sightings.” Jo shook her head. “And Taggart hasn’t checked in either.”

“So we’ve got two, possibly three infected people out there.” Jack sighed. “Okay, me and Jo will patrol, see if we can spot any of them. Stark, go do that whole sonic shield doohickey and then get some goddamned sleep. We need you sharp, not sleeping on your feet.”

Nathan raised an eyebrow at him and opened his mouth as if to argue but seemed to recognise the genuine concern lurking behind Jack’s words. So he just nodded instead and ignored the look of surprise on everyone else’s face.

As he and Jo were walking away, Jack heard Fargo hiss at Zane;

“I’ve never seen Dr Stark too tired to fight with Sheriff Carter before.”

“If that’s not a sign of the world ending, I don’t know what is,” Zane agreed and Jack hid a smile.

Cafe Diem was packed to the rafters when Jack and Jo called in there during their patrol and they had to fight their way to the counter. Everyone wanted an update on what was happening; outside Eureka, inside Eureka, at GD but Allison had been sending out town bulletins every couple of hours so there really wasn’t much the two of them could add.

“I always knew that Beverly Barlowe was no good,” The crazy chicken farm lady told Jack as he finally reached the counter. “Beady eyes.”

“Well, it’s not really her fault, Carol. It’s an infection,” Jack said.

Carol sniffed, “Tell that to Christopher Dactylos. Such a shame, he had lovely arms.”

Jack was saved from having to think up a reply to that by Vincent placing a couple of Vinspressos on the counter.

“Thank you,” Jack told him gratefully and fought his way back over to Jo, who hadn’t even been able to make it halfway to the counter.

Just then Seth Osborn burst through the door and brandished a pair of blood splattered night vision goggles that he’d found on the edge of his field for everyone to see.

“Tag,” Jo whispered and Jack reached out to squeeze her shoulder.

“He might still be okay. This is Taggart we’re talking about,” He whispered back but Jo just shook her head sadly.

The rest of the patrol through town yielded nothing which, on one hand, was a relief as no one else had gone missing but on the other made Jack very nervous about where Beverly and Dawkins were hiding. He was almost grateful to get called back to GD.

“We have a problem,” Allison told them when they walked into her office.

“You’ll have to narrow it down, Allison,” Jack said. “We’ve got lots of problems right now.”

“This is a new one.” She nodded at Fargo who put a simulation up on the screen. The same one that Nathan had used earlier.

Instead of the transparent dome, however, there were hundreds, maybe thousands, of little pink dots on one of the roads leading into town.

“What are they?” Jo asked.

Fargo pushed his glasses up his nose nervously. “This is a simulation based on the information we’re getting from the GD satellites. Each dot represents an object in motion. People sized objects.”

“So you’re saying that all those dots are people who are headed straight for us?” Jack asked, closing his eyes briefly when Allison and Fargo nodded. “Do we know if they’re infected?”

“There’s no way to tell,” Allison replied grimly, “But from the sheer numbers it’s reasonable to think that they are.”

“How long until they reach us?” Jo’s hand was resting comfortingly on her gun.

“About two hours,” Fargo said.

Jack stared at the screen. “How long until the sonic shield is up?”

“About two hours,” Allison sighed. “Nathan, Zane and Henry are all working on it but it’s a delicate operation and if they go too quickly we risk destroying the field entirely.”

Jack slumped back into the chair and looked at Allison. “Evacuate to the emergency bunkers?”

She nodded. “I’ll send out another bulletin to let everyone know and then get the security teams to escort everyone there.”

“Okay,” Jack agreed. “When everyone’s in the bunkers, get the security teams to gather as much weaponry as they can and meet us at that roadblock. We’ll hold them off for as long as we can to give you guys time to get the shield operating.”

“Jack.” Allison frowned. “I can’t let you do that. There’s too many of them.”

“We have to, Allison,” Jack told her. “If we don’t Eureka will be overrun before the shield goes up, which will make it useless.”

Jo gave a determined nod to show that she agreed with Jack.

Allison narrowed her eyes and looked from Jo to Jack and back again, obviously formulating arguments.

“The town’s safety comes first.” Jo said, cutting Allison off before she started. “If anyone can stop what’s happening out there in the rest of the world, it’s Eureka.”

Allison eventually sighed in defeat and picked up the phone to make the arrangements.

“You complete moron! You’re going to get yourself killed!” Nathan yelled in the middle of the empty lab that he’d just dragged Jack into.

“Well, that’s not exactly Plan A,” Jack replied calmly.

“Don’t!” Nathan pointed at him. “Don’t you dare make jokes about this! It’s a suicide mission, Jack!”

“Protecting the town; it’s my job, remember?” Jack told him, “Save the scientists, save the world.”

Nathan’s shoulders slumped, all the anger leaving him. “I can’t talk you out of this.”

It wasn’t a question but Jack shook his head anyway and bit his lip before continuing. “Nathan, if I don’t...I need you to...you have to look after Zoe for me.”

Nathan crossed the room in three strides and pulled Jack into a bruising kiss that left him breathless and a little unsteady.

“I won’t need to; you’re coming back.” Nathan pressed his forehead to Jack’s. “I haven’t waited all this time to lose you just when you finally get a clue. Besides, you have whole new ways to torment me now and I know you’re going to want to take full advantage of that.”

Jack chuckled quietly and kissed him once more before turning and walking out of the room.

He collected Jo from the armoury where Zane had been trying to persuade her to have a good luck tumble in the hay and, fully stocked with the newest hi-tech weaponary that GD had to offer, they headed out. First to escort Zoe to the town evacuation bunkers, Jack felt better knowing that she wasn’t on her own, and then out to the roadblock.

Most of the security guys seemed a little nervous, which was fair enough really, they were security not the Marines, but apart from some pacing they all tried to hide it and didn’t complain about being there. Neither did they complain about taking orders from Jo, who had a lot more battle training and was therefore put in charge. In fact, they all seemed a little in awe of her which made Jack smile despite everything.

He checked his watch and looked up at the sky for the thousandth time. He didn’t really know why he kept doing that, it wasn’t as though he’d be able to tell when the shield did come online; it was invisible. The first they’d be able to tell was when zombies weren’t able to cross the boundary line about fifty yards in front of them.

“Listen,” One of the GD guys, Gus, suddenly said.

The entire group went quiet and they were able to pick up the sound of howling in the distance ahead of them.

“I think it’s safe to say that they’re definitely infected people sized objects,” Jack noted and Jo nodded.

They all stood still, keeping their eyes on the horizon as the howls grew louder and watched as a massive crowd of zombies came into view.

Then Jack picked up another noise from behind them. Not just any noise, singing.

He turned around and was greeted with the sight of the entire town walking towards them, all of them brandishing weapons and singing at the tops of their voices.

“What the hell?” Jack said.

“I think it’s their war song.” Gus frowned.

“Of course it is.” Jack rolled his eyes, only the people of Eureka could pick ‘The Elements Song’ as their battle hymn.

He climbed up on top of his truck and held his hand out to make them stop. “What do you think you’re doing? Get your asses back down to the bunkers and lock yourselves in.”

“Sorry, Sheriff,” Vincent called back, holding possibly the largest kitchen knife Jack had ever seen. “This is our town and we’re going to defend it.”

He lifted the knife into the air and there was a chorus of cheers from the crowd behind him.

“Vincent, we appreciate the gesture but you really need to...” Jack trailed off and stared in shock as the director of GD stepped out of the crowd in a stylish dress, heels and a flamethrower attached to her back. “Allison, you of all people can’t be here; you have to get all these people...Zoe Carter!” He yelled, suddenly spotting his daughter in the crowd wielding a shotgun.

“We put it to a town vote, Carter,” Allison said, pulling his attention back to her. “We’re not going to sit back and let you fight our battles for us.”

“Give it up, Dad. We get that you’re noble and everything but we’re all in this together,” Zoe said fiercely clutching her gun to her chest.

“Zoe...” Jack pinched the bridge of his nose, wondering where he should even start. “You don’t know how to use a shotgun.”

“Of course we do. Jo showed us at the range behind the station last year,” Zoe scoffed.

Pilar, standing next to Zoe with her own shotgun, nodded enthusiastically and Jo suddenly found something very interesting to look at in the bushes at the side of the road.

“This isn’t paintballing,” Jack told the crowd. “It’s not some virtual game. This is dangerous. You could get killed.”

“We get it, Sheriff. It’s perilous and all very serious,” Fargo told him and then, apparently unable to resist, held his own shotgun aloft and cried, “This is my boomstick!”

Jack covered his face with his hand. “Jesus Christ!”

He opened his mouth to try again but Jo tapped his ankle and pointed behind him at the zombies who by this time had almost reached the boundary.

“Okay people,” She yelled, resuming her role as commanding officer, “GD teams in front; on my mark, shoot anything that moves. Townspeople, you mop up anything that gets past us.”

The GD teams moved into position and Jack just had time to catch Zoe’s eye and mouth ‘I love you’ before Jo yelled, “Fire!”

The road was pretty narrow with a steep drop on either side which meant that the zombies had to stream into town rather than all run in at once; it made shooting them a lot easier and for the first few minutes, Jack thought that they could do this without involving the townspeople behind them.

Of course, stopping to reload and the fact that everything except headshots let the zombies climb back to their feet inevitably caused the frontline to slow down and zombies started to trickle past them.

Jack tried to glance back as often as he could to see what was happening behind him, especially when he heard screams or loud yells coming from back there. At one point he saw a zombie sink his teeth into the shoulder of one of the Baker twins causing the other twin to give an enraged war cry and lop the zombie’s head off with some sort of electrified machete. Another time, he saw Seth wielding what appeared to be a double ended lightsaber, cutting down any zombie in his path.

Jack thought his heart was going to give out when he spotted a fully changed Dawkins run at the crowd from behind, headed straight for an unaware Zoe and Pilar. Then Hairboy appeared out of nowhere with a cricket bat in his hands and started hitting Dawkins over and over, quickly joined by a bunch of nurses from the infirmary who, as it turned out, hadn’t liked the doctor very much even when he’d been alive.

Twenty three minutes into the battle an odd shimmer appeared in the air in front of them for a moment and then every zombie from the town boundary and out for 20 yards literally exploded, covering most of the frontline in disgusting human gloop. But it didn’t matter because the shield was up and, judging from the way that the rest of the zombie hoard outside it were cringing back, it was holding just fine.

Jack and the GD teams then turned their attention to shooting the zombies still left inside the shield.

“Allison, down!” He cried and took out a zombie waitress edging up to her.

“Thanks, Carter,” She said as he pulled her back to her feet. She had a huge grin on her face as she wielded her flame thrower. “Here comes the cavalry.”

She nodded over Carter’s shoulder and he turned to see Henry’s truck screech to a halt before Henry, Zane and Nathan all tumbled out.

Nathan was obviously on some sort of high after his success with the shield and he threw Jack a cheeky wink before joining in the fight.

“Did...did Nathan just wink at you?” Allison asked in an astonished voice, setting what looked like some kind of zombie boy band on fire.

“I’ve no idea what you’re talking about,” Jack replied, flushing. Then he ran to help Vincent out and pretended that he wasn’t actually running away from Allison.

With the additional help of Henry’s floating wood chipper and Zane’s laser chainsaw gun (Jack really didn’t want to know why some of these things had been invented) the rest of the zombies within the shield were dispatched in short order.

When Jack had shot the last one in the head and could finally breathe again, he took stock of the chaos surrounding him. The Eurekans were victorious; sharing abysmally bad high fives, giving hugs and starting up the singing once more.

Jo was on the ground, straddling a dazed looking Zane and thoroughly thanking him for laser-chainsaw-shooting a zombie who’d been headed straight for her. Likewise, Zoe and Hairboy were making out by Henry’s truck but the kid had saved her life so Jack graciously decided not to walk over there and scare the shit out of Lucas just yet.

Obviously, not everyone had made it. Baker twin number one, Larry, Dr Hood and Seth were among the dead. Even more were being shipped back to GD’s infirmary with bites and other injuries including Fargo, who had received a nasty bite to his thigh. But Jack realised that it could’ve been so much worse and probably would’ve been if the townspeople hadn’t shown up the way they had. Twenty three minutes was too long for Jack, Jo and the GD teams to have held off the zombies by themselves and Eureka would have been completely overrun before the shield went up.

Scanning the crowd, Jack caught Nathan’s eye and sent him an exhausted smile which Nathan returned with interest before his gaze drifted over Jack’s shoulder and his eyes widened in horror.

Time slowed down as Jack spun around. He was too late to lift his gun before Beverly Barlowe launched herself at him. He dimly heard Nathan yell his name followed by Zoe screaming as Jack braced himself for the impact and the feel of teeth tearing through his flesh. But just before Beverly could reach him, something else barrelled into him from the side, knocking Jack to the ground, while at the same time slicing Beverly’s head right off with an actual samurai sword.

Winded and blinking in shock, Jack stared up at the body lying on top of him.

“G’day, Sheriff. Looks like I missed a good party,” Taggart grinned back.

“Taggart?” Jack wheeze-laughed. “Man, I never thought I’d be so happy to see you.”

“I told you I’d get her, mate. An Aussie always gets his man,” Taggart told him and Jack couldn’t help but agree, smiling helplessly at the other man before he suddenly realised something.

“Taggart? Are you naked? Again?” Jack asked.

Taggart looked thoughtful for moment. “I was tracking, at one with nature, Sheriff. It seemed like the thing to do.”

“Okay then,” Jack said. “Do you think you can get off me now?”

“Right-o.” Taggart scrambled off Jack just in time for Zoe to reach them, with Nathan, Allison, Henry and Jo hot on her tail.

“Okay, eww!” Zoe said and shielded her eyes from Taggart until Jack got to his feet then the tiny blonde pulled her father into a bone crushing hug.

“I thought she got you,” She whispered into Jack’s chest, her breath hitching.

“She didn’t, I’m fine.” He kissed the top of her head and held her until her breathing returned to normal.

Once Zoe had calmed down enough to head back to Pilar and Hairboy, Allison cracked a smile. “You had us worried there, Carter.”

“Yes.” Henry chuckled. “Even Nathan was concerned.”

Nathan rolled his eyes in a typically Stark gesture. “Obviously, I was just afraid of losing the person whose job it is to clean all of this mess up.” He indicated the state of the road, zombie gloop and all.

The standard retort rose in Jack’s throat but then he really looked at Nathan; the fists clenched in his pockets, his eyes reflecting the panic and barely checked need to make sure for himself that Jack really was uninjured.

“Screw it!” He said, before dragging Nathan into a heated kiss right there in front of everyone.

Jack vaguely heard the singing and general happy noises of the crowd taper off into silence for a long moment before Vincent shouted, “Who had the 17th June?”

“Yes! That’s me!” Zoe cried, met with chorus of laughter.

Jack went to pull away so that he could glare at his daughter but Nathan just slid his hands down Jack’s back and tugged him closer with a possessive growl which made Jack forget all about the rest of the town for a little while.

---

A whole year had passed since The Battle of Eureka, as Vincent had coined it, and sometimes Jack wondered if they were the only uninfected people left. Other times he imagined other towns out there that had somehow managed to successfully barricade themselves from the zombie hoards and were continuing to live their lives just like the residents of Eureka were. They probably had less crazy science and a lot less creature comforts though.

He stared out of the truck window at the mass of zombies congregated outside of the barrier, so many of them that he couldn’t begin to see where the crowd ended, and sighed. It was definitely the former time today.

Jack shook himself out of the melancholy mood that always came over him when it was his turn to patrol the barrier and turned the truck around to head back into town, thankful once again that Henry had managed to come up with a device to block out the unholy howling – that had driven more than a few people to distraction in the early days.

“Carter, come in. Over.” The radio crackled to life.

“Jo, if you’re out of bed I swear to God that I’m going to put you back in that cell.” Silence answered Jack’s statement until he rolled his eyes and added, “Over.”

Jo was due to give birth any day but had kept showing up to work as if nothing was wrong with a heavily pregnant woman toting a laser cannon around the place. Finally, Jack, Allison and Zane had locked her up until she agreed to go on maternity leave.

“I’m at home but I need you to come and arrest Fargo. I’d do it myself but you confiscated my badge and Zane’s hidden all my keys to the gun cabinet. Over,” Jo’s disgruntled voice replied.

Jack grinned. “He’s doing it again isn’t he?”

Ever since Jo had discovered she was pregnant, Fargo had made it his personal mission to educate the first baby born in new Eureka; mostly by reading Buffy the Vampire Slayer scripts at the bump until Jo tried to shoot him.

“He’s doing the voices! Over,” Jo said, plaintively.

Overcome with the image of Jo unsuccessfully struggling to get to her feet and attack Fargo while he did his impersonation of Spike, it took Jack a few moments before he could reply without laughing outright. “I’ll come and evict him on my way home, Jo. Or find Zane to do it for me.”

“Just make sure one of you gets here before he reaches the musical episode. Over and out.”

He called into the station to double check that all his work had been done then locked up for the day and headed over to Global. It always amazed him that the building was as bustling as it had ever been. At least nowadays there were less explosions and world threatening catastrophes; the scientists had had their fill of that it seemed. It probably helped that the majority of projects focussed on searching for a cure to the infection or finding ingenious new ways of growing crops and generally making life easier in this new world rather than working on military weapons projects.

Jack spotted Zane climbing into an elevator and rushed to catch up with him. “Fargo’s harassing your wife again.”

Zane groaned. “How bad is it?”

“Apparently he’s doing his best Sarah Michelle Gellar,” Jack told him with a smirk.

“Great. I’d better get there before she beats him unconscious with his own false leg then.” Zane sighed.

The zombie bite Fargo had sustained to his thigh meant that the leg had to be removed to stop the infection spreading. Nathan had made him a new bionic one which had prompted hours of Fargo quoting the opening titles to the Six Million Dollar Man and he still couldn’t leave a room without making the na na na na na noise. Actually, now that Jack thought about it, it was a wonder no one had tried that method of shutting him up before now.

Jack left the elevator and was walking down a corridor towards one of the bio labs where he knew Allison and Henry would be holed up with their latest idea for a cure when a hand darted out of an open doorway, grabbed him by the wrist and dragged him into a room.

The door slammed shut behind him, plunging the room into complete darkness before Jack had a chance to get his bearings and then he was shoved forcefully against the closed door. One of Jack’s hands automatically reached for his gun while his other hit out towards his attacker but before either could complete their task, they were grabbed and his wrists pinned above his head then a hot mouth descended over his.

Moaning into the familiar kiss, the tension left Jack’s body and he kissed Nathan back eagerly.

“Not that I’m not appreciative of the effort,” Jack panted as Nathan pulled back to kiss along Jack’s jaw line, “But that stunt could’ve got you shot.”

Nathan chuckled against Jack’s skin. “It’s a special occasion, I couldn’t resist.” He rolled his hips forward and whispered, “Happy anniversary, Sheriff.”

The movement combined with that voice in such a husky tone caused Jack’s knees to buckle slightly.

“We have a perfectly good bed at home, you know,” Jack gasped; a token protest at best.

“And who says we aren’t going to use it later?” Nathan asked, silkily. “I’ve got all sorts of plans for you tonight.”

“Oh god!” Jack groaned helplessly and his hips bucked at the memory of some of Nathan’s other plans.

The past year hadn’t exactly been plain sailing for the two of them; being in a relationship hadn’t changed their personalities or the positions they held within the town. They’d had some legendary fights which resulted in them refusing to speak to each other while snapping at everyone else. Finally Zoe and, rather surprisingly, SARAH had taken matters into their own hands.

Zoe had arranged or bribed, Jack still wasn’t sure which, a significant portion of the town’s residents to move all of Nathan’s belongings into the bunker while he was at work. Her reasoning being that it was more difficult to stay mad at someone if you had to share the same house; and the fact that when he and Jack weren’t fighting Nathan pretty much lived at the bunker anyway. SARAH, for her part, had banned all work talk from the house and seemed to enjoy coming up with punishments for them if they broke that rule; ranging from turning off the hot water mid-shower to giving them small shocks if they used anything electrical.

Surprisingly, it had worked. If only because they kept trying to get around SARAH’s rule by using increasingly ridiculous codes which made it difficult to keep a straight face, much less carry on an argument.

As Nathan kissed him again, all passion and urgency, Jack got swept away. This was one of the reasons he loved this man; Nathan could make him forget about the rest of the world. The thousands of zombies outside town, the daily struggles and worries and guilt he felt trying to do right by the people who’d put their faith in him to protect them; it all just faded away and Jack knew that as long as he had this, he would be okay.