Jo parked in front of Café Diem and held onto Zane's arm to prevent him from getting out right away.
Giving him a serious glance, she said, "Zane, we need something about where she came from."
Flashing a smooth smirk at her, he answered, "Already have one, babe. She's going to be your niece or some other relation, as the resemblance to you is more pronounced and she's just taken a liking to me. Now, she just got in late yesterday and she loves cookies. Isn't that right sweetheart?" Zane raised his voice with a smile so that his daughter could hear him.
"Cookies? WHERE?" Erin practically bounced out of her seat as Zane grinned broadly at Jo.
Lifting his eyebrows at her, he said, "See? Got it all under control." Adding, "Oh and because she's five, she calls us mommy and daddy. Nobody has to know about her IQ level." Both Zane and Jo were sure hers was very high, as evidenced by her schooling so far.
Shaking her head and smiling a small smile, Jo got out, hoping nothing would go wrong. She couldn't think of anything worse than her own daughter getting sanctioned for time-traveling. Except maybe Zane getting incarcerated because of time-traveling, except that so far, he was the only one out of their little family that hadn't done it yet. She hoped desperately that that was one thing she wouldn't have to worry about happening to him.
She got Erin out of the car while Zane checked his bike to make sure nothing had happened to it during the night. Locking her car one-handed, she and the bouncy five-year-old waited for Zane who joined them after a minute. Waiting for him, Jo experienced a blinding flash of a horrible headache, her head feeling like it was literally splitting open and then it was all over just a minute later. She almost dropped Erin from the pain and took deep shaky breaths to try to calm her racing heart. Zane was now next to her looking concernedly at her, and he took Erin from her and Jo's hand, to make sure she wouldn't fall over suddenly. "Let's get some food in you," Zane murmured to her as they approached the entrance and went inside.
There weren't a lot of people inside, but Zane and Jo stopped at the counter anyway, since they needed to get to GD soon. Vincent had watched them come in and raising his eyebrows at the young girl, he greeted Jo and Zane with "I have pancakes on the griddle for you Zane and here's your smoothie Jo. And what may I get for you, little miss?" He handed Jo her protein smoothie and then addressed Erin.
"Cookies!" Erin smiled a slow, wide smile and bounced up and down as much as was possible from her father's arms. Both Erin and Zane looked at Vincent at the same time and he was struck by just how much their piercing blue eyes looked the same. In fact, if he looked closely enough, Zane and the girl looked related too. But glancing over at Jo, and then back, he could also see the resemblance between the two girls as well. But before he had a chance to really examine just how much the young girl looked like the two adults with her, Zane distracted him slightly.
"How about a juice box and some cereal and fruit, Vincent?" Zane butted in the conversation hurriedly. Seeing Vincent's disappointment and Erin's mournful expression, he relented and added "Alright and a cookie too. But only one. Someone just got here and can't be all hyped up on sugar, right?" and he fondly bonked Erin lightly on the nose. She fake-pouted and then smacked him playfully on the head. Giggling, she covered her mouth with her hands and managed to still say "Daddy! Stop teasing me!" Chuckling, Zane looked back at Vincent, eyebrows raised and shrugging, said, "what can I say, she's five."
Vincent, who was already charmed by the little girl, asked in a somewhat lower voice, "who is she? I haven't seen her around here before. She's so adorable."
Jo, throwing a glance at Zane, spoke up. "She's my cousin's daughter. He had to go away for a while and his wife is busy. They asked me to take her for a bit and she's quite attached to Zane."
Vincent, looking back at Erin, commented, "She looks a lot like you, Jo. Lupo genes must be very prominent." He said this last with a smile and then asked, "what's her name?"
"My name's Erin Akira Donovan!" Erin grinned widely and all of a sudden, the café was dead silent. The patrons were all glancing at Jo and Zane curiously, as Vincent, adding fuel to the fire, casually added, "Pretty eyes, too. She wouldn't happen to be related to you too, would she now?" aiming his question at Zane.
Inwardly wincing, as he'd forgotten about the last name issue, Zane outwardly stayed calm and shrugged. "Don't think so, I mean, I never had many relatives. The nicknames she has for Jo and I is her way of getting comfortable in her environment." Casually grabbing the food cartons and hanging on tightly to Erin, he turned and headed slowly for the door, speaking in what seemed like an overly loud voice to Jo, faking cheerfulness. "Yes, pancakes, my favorite!"
Jo was very conscious of all the people still staring at them as they exited the restaurant. Once they were back in the car, Jo gripped the steering wheel tightly and exhaled loudly. Zane just sat back and closed his eyes, holding his forehead for a moment.
Without moving, Jo mumbled to Zane, "That was complete bullshit. Everyone in that café now knows she's related to both of us, and that she's our daughter."
Zane sighed and agreed. "As much as I hate to say this, we both know it's true. The news will be all over the town by tonight." Glancing through the doors of the café, he could see almost everyone in the café gathered around the counter, and he glimpsed money changing hands.
"And they started a betting pool." He remarked, sliding his eyes over to Jo who hadn't moved.
"About what? Everything's painfully obvious already."
"Probably about whether or not I was telling the truth about not being related to her." He reached over and stroked Jo's hair once.
"Do you still have that headache?" He moved his arm back after asking.
Jo didn't answer for a moment and when she did it was only with "it's on and off. It just got worse a moment ago, but now it's receding."
Both adults looked to the back when Erin leaned forward in her seat belt and addressed them. "Mommy? Daddy? I'm hungry. Can I have my cookie now?"
Zane and Jo smiled at how adorably innocent Erin was and Zane reached back and ruffled her hair. "Sure kiddo, but you need to eat your other food first. We're going to stop at Mommy's other house for a minute too, though, ok?"
"Mmkay!" uttered Erin happily as Zane popped her food carton open and passed it back to her as Jo started the car.
"JoJo, I'm going to take my bike, but I'll drop by your house on my way to make sure you're ok. Make sure you grab some aspirin before you leave home. Also, do we really want to bring her to GD? I'm not sure I like the thought of our daughter going into that danger zone." He said the last part lower than the rest.
"I don't like the idea either, but we won't be able to keep her a secret for long and she'll have to get checked out. Plus I want Allison to examine her to make sure she's ok from her little journey." Jo glanced back at Erin and Zane saw her maternal protectiveness at the forefront of her emotions and it made him feel protective of both her and Erin.
"I also want you checked out." Zane said as he kissed her and got out to take his bike. Rolling down the passenger's side window, Jo looked ready to argue until she winced and a hand went to her head.
"See? That's worrying me and I want you checked, just to make sure it's nothing more than a headache." Zane strapped on his helmet and got his bike gear on.
Jo rolled her eyes and said drily, "I didn't know you cared, Donovan." He grinned in response and told her "I love you too, Josephina." At this point, Erin rolled her own window down and waved energetically at her father.
"Bye Daddy!" She called, over the roar of his engine starting. Zane waved to both of them and gestured for Jo to precede him to her house. She pulled out and he followed, not noticing most of the crowd at Vincent's pressing their faces against the windows, watching the three of them. They'd heard the last parts of their conversation and the betting pool was growing larger by the second.
Vincent smiled, as he collected money by the door. He knew something was up, and was very close to finding out exactly what.
Aaaaaaaaaaand thusly concludes the Café scene! I had the cutest little movie playing in my head the whole time I was writing this. Little Erin was bouncing around everywhere, hyper off cookies, while Vince was standing around, scratching his head and trying to figure out her relationship with Jo and Zane, who during the awkward pancake scene were very self-conscious and Jo was slightly blushing and Zane was like ( panicmode) in his head and all Mr. Smooth on the outside. Very fun little chapter. Next one should be up soon! *authoress dies on table and starts snoring 'cause it's 1 in the morning and I spent the mostly the whole night writing this and listening to the owl in my backyard* bye for now yall!
