Rifiuto: Non Mirena
A/N: Written: 2013.- Licia
"Dear Queen Of Hearts, I'ma grow you white roses
So you can learn to be kind
Tell King Of Hearts, to arm all his forces
So you can learn to be kind."
- Queen of Hearts,
Velvet Moon
Jo had asked Allison, Grace and Henry if they could all meet for dinner at Cafe Diem the next night; she wasn't feeling up for meeting at Cafe Diem tonight, she simply wanted to try and absorb what had happened, and the fact that Mansfield had basically said he would lie to keep her safe. The others readily agreed. Henry finally decided that Jo should take the day, especially given the morning she'd had, and for Zane to go with her. "If I know Jo, she's going to stew about this the rest of the day, which will do nobody at GD any good, so take her home and keep her occupied."
When they got back to the house, Zane sent Jo upstairs to take a shower, and headed into the kitchen, the mail from the last couple of days in his hands. A couple bills for their records, a few flyers, a magazine or two and a letter addressed to 'Josie and Zane' postmarked Germany, which meant it could only be from one of three specific people, but he couldn't remember which of his brother-in-laws was stationed in currently Germany. Absentmindedly, he set the letter down and then went to the fridge, pulling out a carton of orange juice and then grabbing a glass. "I can add the orange juice for you if you like, Zane."
He glanced quickly ceiling-ward. "Contrary to most of the scientists in Eureka, I still prefer my orange juice from the carton. Thank you for the offer, though, AIDA." Absentmindedly, he set the glass under the ice maker on the fridge, turning back to the letter on the island and forgetting to push the button. AIDA added the ice instantly, though. "Thank you, AIDA."
When he finally set the glass on the island, he quickly opened the envelope. "You seem distracted, Zane. And you and Jo are home early. Is something the matter?"
"Just... had a difficult morning. Jo wasn't doing too well, and so Henry sent us both home." He quickly poured the glass and returned the juice to the fridge before taking a sip.
Setting the mail aside, except for the letter, he headed upstairs. He entered the room to see her shimmy out of her underwear and toss them into the hamper with her bra and then wrap the towel laying on the bed around her. Her long dark hair was pulled up in a messy bun, and he didn't bother hiding the lust in his voice or eyes as he spoke, leaning against the door jamb. glass and letter in hand. "Feel better now, knowing that General Mansfield is on our side?"
She jumped, unaware that he'd come upstairs, and turned, hastily tucking in the end of the towel. A moment passed, before he watched her visibly relax, and he chuckled, going to the nightstand on his side of the bed and setting his glass and the letter own before going to her. Without a word, she curled into his chest, and he automatically wrapped his arms around her, pressing a soft kiss to her hair. "I was fully prepared to be thrown in solitary or executed today." Her voice was clogged with tears, and he shuddered, holding her tighter. He was so grateful to Mansfield for not going through with arresting her, and he owed the man a massive debt he wasn't sure he could repay.
He pulled away, meeting her gaze. A moment passed, as he reached up, gently caressing her cheek. "To think I almost lost you to your sense of right and wrong." She blushed, lowering her gaze briefly before returning it to his. "I get it, you were raised military, but Jo, you're former military now. Essentially, you're a civilian working for the government. You can't just think of yourself anymore, you have to think of others."
"I was thinking of others." She whispered, voice small, and he sighed; he'd struck a nerve, blatantly calling her out for turning herself in to Mansfield.
"I know, babe." He pressed another kiss to her hair, before kissing her forehead and then moving down to peck her softly on the lips. "Go take your shower."
She nodded, slipping into the bathroom as he went to the bed, taking a seat and removing his shoes. With a sigh, he turned to the letter, pulling it out and unfolding it. Jo and her brothers exchanged emails, phone calls and video calls often, and it wasn't that strange to see a letter or two in the mail, or a small package of sweets or other interesting things they thought their sister and her family would enjoy. He looked up as the shower started, before returning his attention to the letter. His gaze quickly scanned over the letter, and he chuckled.
"What's so funny?" His head snapped up; he'd been completely unaware that Jo had finished her shower. It took a moment, but he forced himself to swallow as he took in the water glistening on her skin. She raised an eyebrow, and he shook his head.
"Right. Sorry. Uh... Luca wrote us."
Her brow furrowed. "Luca?" She hurried to him.
"Yeah, your brother."
"I know who he is, but... Luca's been out of the service for... six years. Honorable discharge. He and his wife and kids live in Boston."
"No, babe, Luca's stationed in Munich-" He stopped as it suddenly hit him. "Right. Sorry. I forgot, two separate timelines." Jo blushed, relieved she wasn't the only one that had forgotten. "In this timeline, your brothers are all still active duty. Ricco is in Afghanistan, Davie's in the Philippines, and Luca's in Munich." He handed her the letter, and she turned her attention to it.
"I'm the only one stateside." It was more question that statement, and Zane nodded. She handed the letter back to him and worked on drying off and getting dressed. Taking a sip of his juice, Zane cleared his throat.
"'Dear Josie and Zane, I hope everything's going well for you both. Things here are going as well as expected. Munich is Munich and Germany is Germany; it's not like I haven't been stationed here before, and while it was nice to catch up with old friends I haven't seen since my last deployment here...'" Jo snorted softly at her brother's words; of the three of them, Luca was perhaps the most honest and upfront. He never minced words, always got straight to the point, and often was so blunt, the cut was deeper and more jagged than if his words were sharp and precise.
She was closest to Luca, not just in age but just in general, and the two often teamed up against Ricco and Davie when they were children. In the Alternative timeline, Luca had been honorably discharged and returned stateside, marrying his high school sweetheart, Callie. They had two boys, who Jo adored; she'd seen them before going up to Canada during her walkabout. And in the original timeline...
In the original timeline, Luca had returned home not long after Jo, only he had come back in a flag draped coffin. The death of her closest brother had sent her into a downwards spiral she hadn't been able to get out of, and Jo had gone so far as to turn to scripts and self-harm as a way to cope. She had been truly grateful to Evan; he'd stuck by her the entire time, and it had been his offer to come up to Vancouver that had helped save her life- he was planning on starting a new tech company, and he wanted her as his business partner, but he would only allow her the position if she got herself clean. The promise of starting up a new business, of having something to distract her from her grief had done the trick, and in a matter of months, she'd been clean and sober. It was one of the reasons why Jo always refused painkillers if she could. She never wanted to feel that dependent on something that addictive again.
"You okay?" She looked up as she pulled her dress back on; it was soft and comfortable, and she wasn't feeling like pulling something else on. A moment passed, as she took her hair down, and tucked a strand behind her ear, unaware that Zane had finished reading the letter and that she'd heard next to nothing after those first initial lines. "Hey, don't do that, Jojo."
"Sorry, I just... in my original timeline," She swallowed thickly, feeling his gently brush the tears off her cheeks. "Luca didn't come home. Not to Jersey." She forced herself to swallow again. "Arlington."
He nodded slowly, pulling her into his arms. When she finally calmed down, he pressed a kiss to her head and pulled away, going ot the nightstand and grabbing his glass before going to the door. "Coming?" She took his offered hand and followed him out of the room and down the stairs.
Once they reached the kitchen, Jo settled on one of the stools at the island, taking Luca's letter and reading it as Zane fixed lunch for them both. He set a cup of coffee in front of her, earning a smile in return, before returning to work on lunch. Jo stayed quiet, watching him work out of the corner of her eye as she scanned Luca's letter.
Zane had never been much of a cook in either of the previous timelines; he'd relied entirely too much on Vincent, as many in the town did, and found the idea of actually having to cook ridiculous. In the original timeline, Jo had tried to get him to look at cooking as another form of experimenting, but he hadn't bought it, and in the alternate-
"If you're going to ask, ask. Otherwise stop pretending to not watch me out of the corner of your eye, babe."
A flush appeared on her cheeks and she set the letter down, slightly surprised she'd been caught. "I didn't know you could cook. You never- in either of the other timelines- you didn't see the need for it, what with Vincent running Cafe Diem." She amended. He snorted, reaching for the parsley on the spice rack in the center of the island.
"Let me guess, neither version of me believed it to be anything more than 'domestication', right?" He didn't wait for her response, but a glance at her face told him he was right. "I look at cooking as another form of science, open to experimentation and testing. The right ingredients," He scooped a little of the sauce he was working on into the spoon and held it out. Jo glanced at him before tasting it, and he grinned at the look on her face as she savored the cacophony of spices he'd mixed into the dressing for the pasta salad he'd fixed. "often bring about the best results."
Her eyes opened and he smiled at her, before leaning over and kissing her soundly on the mouth. It wasn't very long, not less than a few seconds, but it conveyed everything he felt in that moment. The hurt that she'd so willingly handed herself to Mansfield, the fear at seeing her in handcuffs, the surprise at Mansfield releasing her and promising to keep her secret, and the relief at having her come home with him. He gently nudged her nose with his as he pulled away, kissing her forehead before returning to the pasta.
She blushed, returning her gaze to the letter on the table to hide her emotions. He cleared his throat, taking a sip of his orange juice before speaking again, as he dished the pasta onto two plates. As they settled down to eat, he said, "My grandmother."
An eyebrow rose. "What?"
"My grandmother taught me how to cook. She always said that, 'Men and women are one in the same; they have dual roles in life- their work lives and their home lives. A man who doesn't know how to cook is simply unaware of his second role; but a man who refuses to cook is ignorant of his role and therefore does not deserve the life he may seek from a woman.'"
Jo chuckled. "She sounds like a very wise woman."
A wistful look settled over his features. "She was. Told me that I needed to look at marriage like a deck of cards." She furrowed a brow, and after a moment, he got up, slipping into the study and coming back with a deck of playing cards. He quickly took them out of the box and spread them across the island counter. "A deck has fifty-two cards, four suits. Clubs, spades, hearts and diamonds."
"Okay."
He pulled the Ace of Spades and the Ace of Clubs. "Certain people look at marriage as coming in spades, but aren't willing to put in the effort to make it so." He set the card in front of her. "Oftentimes, people don't even think, they just see the diamond, and think it's the most important thing, and then don't bother working on the marriage," He set the Ace of Diamonds before her. "They believe that because they have the diamond, the rest will come without having to work at it."
"No effort in the marriage."
He nodded, setting down the Ace of Clubs. "Right. Then there are those who get married and spend more time collecting 'clubs'- reasons to make a marriage fail- than they do making sure their partner is happy and content. The fighting becomes the ground their marriage is built on, and so they don't bother changing it or attempting to because that would require effort, and it's-"
"Easier to fight that fix the problem."
"Exactly." She watched as he then removed the two of the court cards. "In order for a marriage to succeed, the man must remember that," He sighed. "that in order for him to be the King of Hearts, he needs to care for and respect his Queen. Because without the Queen of Hearts, there is no suit. Each of these suits consists of thirteen cards; thirteen things built up over time, to determine the strength and validity of the marriage. The diamonds are built entirely on the idea of the marriage; the clubs on the other hand focus on everything wrong in a marriage that will make it fail. The spades don't believe in working to make the marriage work, there may be a high amount of love, but if they don't work for it, that love won't last long."
"And the hearts suit?"
He set the King and Queen of Hearts before her. "According to my grandmother, of the four suits, the hearts is strongest, because the heart represents love,"
"And love is what makes a marriage work."
"Bingo." He sighed. "The King has to have love for his Queen, in order to make their marriage work. They have to be willing to work together for the sake of their marriage in order to make it last. If they have love, and they work at it, their marriage is sure to last. It's when they give up that things start to fall apart." Something flashed briefly in his eyes, and Jo couldn't help wondering if it had to do with her. But before she could ask, it was gone, and he smiled at her. He heaved a sigh.
"But the King is the strongest card in the deck; he outranks the Queen-"
"Maybe so, but how do you think he got there?" She shrugged, meeting his gaze. A tiny smile tugged at his lips. "The King may be strong, but like in Chess, the Queen is stronger, though silent. She is the one that controls the King. And when they work together, only then, does the Ace outrank them both-"
"Because they're working together as one."
He nodded; neither were unaware that Zane had moved closer to her, reaching up and brushing a curl off her cheek. "Exactly."
Before either knew what was happening, they were kissing again; sweet and tender, broken only to be reunited longer. When finally they parted, he rested his forehead to hers. She swallowed, meeting his gaze. "I know I'm not her, but... do you think we can really make this work? Until we find what it was that sent me here and how I can get home?"
He pulled away, giving her a quick smile, trying hard to hide the pain that had cut through his heart at her words. A moment passed, before he nodded. "I think we can, but we have to work together-"
"As an Ace."
A soft nod, a gentle peck. He was going to do his best to keep the pain her words had cause him from coming to the surface. "As an Ace."