Title: These Shoes Were Not Made For Climbing
Author Name: BithaBlu
Characters: Jo, Zane
Rating: PG13
Warnings: Language (?)
Disclaimer: Don't own it. Spoilers for 4.13
Summary: Some days, Jo missed the old timeline more than anything.
"My boots," Jo thought as she clung to metal pole covered in condensation and tried valiently to stop her slow slide downwards. "Right now, I miss my old deputy boots more than anything else."
On any given day, Jo ran through a list of things she missed from the old timeline a number of times. Some days, she missed the picture of her and her mother from her first ballet recital. Larry's rocket had reduced the photo to ash and that had been one of the few pictures she couldn't replace by scanning her brothers' photo albums.
Other days, Jo missed being able to talk to people without having them flinch. Apparently Enforcer!Jo had been an enormous bitch because even Vincent had a tendency to twitch when Jo got even the slightest bit snippy. In the old timeline, Jo had friends outside of Zane, Carter, Zoe, Allison, Taggert, Henry and Fargo. Not many, admittedly, and not anyone she was particularilly close to but there had been people she could talk to.
Most days, Jo tried not to think about it but, more than anything, she missed waking up next to Zane. Every morning she woke up and grinned at the way his hair stuck out everywhere. She missed the way he smirked in his sleep and the way he flopped an arm over her when she tried to get out of bed. Every morning she had woken up laughing and rolled her eyes at his barely conscious antics.
Now, she woke up every morning feeling how very much alone she was in the bed.
Mornings sucked.
During the week, she'd wake up early for a run, shower, and then get dressed. Instead of the comfortable and familiar deputy's uniform, Jo would throw on some suit and try to appreciate being able to wear something nice to work. Something fitted and tailored. Something pretty. Of course, then Jo would put on a nice pair of heels to go with the perfectly tailored power suit and that just led back to the situation that she was in now- hanging precariously from a damp and slidy pole, trying to get some traction to climb up the wall in a pair of said heels.
Slipping further down the pole, Jo got angry. Yeah- her deputy boots would be perfect right now but the damn heels shouldn't be this much of a problem. With a sudden burst of determination, Jo ground those pointy heels against the wall and tried to climb her way out of the reactor pit.
She was still screaming for her old boots in her head as Zane pulled her up and out of the pit. As he rolled her away from the edge, Jo lamented the loss of her practical footwear. But when he grinned down at her, his face so close to hers and the feeling of him so familiar it hurt, Jo's old boots fell from their top spot in her list of missed things.
Boots, though useful, could never be as missed as that grin in the morning.
