Disclaimer: I do not own Eureka or the characters.
A/N: More Jo/Zane stuff, less plot.
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Jo and Zoe stood in front of the long mirror in Jo's hallway. Jo twisted her fingers together nervously before she forcibly stilled them. Her hair was down, and she was wearing her fourth outfit of the night.
"I love it," Zoe exclaimed again.
"I never wear dresses, Zoe. And only to church." She looked down at the slinky black dress and tried to recall the number of times she wore a dress on a date with Zane. There had ben a few... but the dress had always made her feel more awkward, and less like herself.
Jo shook her head. "No, I'm going back to the jeans and sweater. It's my housewarming party, and I want to be comfortable."
"Don't you want to look cute for Zane?"
"Of course. But I don't want to look like I'm trying to hard either." Jo pulled her hair back and looked at the dress again, imagining what it would look like with her standard slicked-back ponytail.
"Okay, I'll make you a deal. You can wear jeans and a sweater as long as I get to do hair, makeup and accessories."
It had been a little awkward at first when Zoe had said she wanted to help Jo get ready for the housewarming party. But somehow the younger woman had wrangled the details of Zane's ardent plea when they had been in the lab, and now saw it as her personal mission for the evening to help Jo impress Zane.
Jo sighed. "What am I doing, Zoe? Is this even going to work a second time? Zane and I are so different. It was a miracle it even worked before."
Zoe shooed her back into her bedroom where her new closet had erupted clothing all over her room. She put on the first outfit she had chosen - dark jeans and a red cashmere sweater, and sat down in front of the small vanity next to Zoe.
"You are going to look great, show off your house, enjoy yourself with your friends, and be relaxed and friendly with Zane. I don't really know how you used to be with Zane, but do whatever that was. Joke around or whatever. Be relaxed and natural."
Jo chuckled. It usually started out with Zane teasing her, and Jo giving it right back. Since she had been here, though, she had tried to act more aloof, stopping herself from laughing at his immature jokes and pranks. And she had tried to keep the flirting to a minimum. "Relaxed. Natural. Friendly. Got it."
Meanwhile Zoe set about vamping up Jo's makeup. Jo thought there was too much eyeliner, but Zoe waved her off. "It's like playing dress up with a giant barbie doll. Or getting ready for prom with an older sister... not that I would know."
Jo smiled. "Me either. But I guess I do now. Thanks, Zoe. I mean it."
"I'm going to miss you again when I go back to school, Jo," she confessed.
"I'm going to miss you too. But we'll keep in touch better, I promise," Jo smiled. No matter which timeline, she finished in her head.
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Zane rang the doorbell, more nervous now than before any other date he had been on. Yesterday in the lab, Jo had been silent for long after he had asked her for a chance. Begged her for one. She had waited so long to reply that he had been sure her answer was going to be no. But the laws of probability had been kind to him.
In his mind he kept seeing her sad smile, her jerky head nod. Jo had looked sad and hopeful all at once, and he was worried he was going to screw this up. For her, for them both.
So he had brought a gift to her housewarming party, and roses. There were only two roses, and he had brought them because it sort of felt like this was a first date. His mother had told him to always bring a girl flowers if he wanted a second one. Then he had swallowed his pride and called Carter for gift advice. The Sheriff had recommended a particular brand of gun-cleaner, and reminded him Jo had been borrowing his. It was not very romantic, but then again, neither was Jo. Or so he guessed.
The sight of her opening the door took his breath away. Her hair was down and her clothes looked molded to her body. And when she saw him, she smiled. That alone was enough to almost knock him over. "Wow," he said.
"Thanks," she replied, almost shy. Then a noise from inside prompted her to start a little, and she opened the door wider. "I mean, Thanks for coming." She moved back and Zane entered.
It looked like a standard GD home, although a bit higher in pay grade than the average. When she closed the door behind him and turned around, he offered out his gifts to her. "For you... for warming your house."
She looked at the roses in such a funny way, he asked what was wrong.
"Nothing," she shook her head. "It's just..."
"Allergic?" he asked pessimistically.
"No. Nothing. They're perfect." She smiled again, although he had a feeling it disturbed her. He had probably given her roses all the time, in the other time line. He could see Zoe, Grace and Henry in the living room, talking and standing near a table covered with food. No one seemed to be paying them any attention.
Holding the small bouquet between two fingers, Jo loosened the lid on the box holding the gun cleaner. When she saw it, her entire face lit up in delight and shock.
"I heard you needed some, so..."
"Zane! It's perfect! I've been using Carter's, and let me tell you it's subpar. Where did you find it? It usually takes me over a month to get my orders in!"
Zane smiled smugly. "I have a friend who owed me a favor. He was able to overnight it to me."
"Come on, I'll give you a tour of the gun room while I put it away."
"Gun room?" he asked teasingly. Sounded dangerous. of course, he liked a little thrill in his life.
"I've always wanted a dedicated armory," she explained, "so I had them build one into the house. That and my dojo are the two things I've always wanted but never had before."
"Wow."
"Yeah," she said, clearly proud. She led him into the kitchen where drinks were set up, but went passed stairs. She waved him over to a corner next to the fridge. She had floor to ceiling built in cabinets, only one of the ones on the end did not open like normal. The handle was only screwed in at the top, and when rotated revealed a thumb pad. Jo pressed her thumb to it, and in a second the entire section of wall seemed to separate, move back, and then slide sideways into the wall. Blue lights flickered on, and Zane saw stairs leading down.
"You have a secret lair? God you're so cool."
Jo looked back, as if seeing if he was being sarcastic, but in truth Zane thought it was awesome. Jo was really turning out to be his own personal fantasy superhero, and now he was getting to see her underground layer.
At the bottom of the stairs, he had to do a full 360 degree rotation before he could comment. "I have got to get me one of these!"
Ever wall held guns of various sizes and shapes, although the collection looked a little sparse from what he remembered seeing at the station when she used to store it there. Perhaps she had lost some of them when her house had blown up. "Without the guns, of course," he added.
"You could store your comic book character figurines," she teased, opening up a cupboard and placing her gift inside reverently.
He frowned. "How did you-"
She looked back, arching one eyebrow. It was not an innocent gaze she gave him. It was a look that said that she knew all of his secrets and was not afraid to exploit them. He suddenly felt trapped in a very small cage with a very large animal. Once again adrenaline raced through his body.
Zane cleared his throat. "Shouldn't you be looking after the rest of your guests?" This was a side of Jo he had never seen before and it was a little overwhelming. He was unsure how long he would be able to resist reaching out and kissing that smug look off of her face.
Jo sauntered over, eyes locked with his, and came so close he could feel the heat between them making the hairs on his neck stand up. He felt like a stalked prey, but right when he thought their lips were going to brush, she turned her head slightly away, leaving his lips cool and wanting. She kept moving past him, and up the stairs.
"I guess you're right," she taunted lightly. "Wouldn't want to keep anyone waiting."
She turned and continued up the stairs. He knew his expression was shocked, but as he watched her tight ass ascend, it slowly turned into a smile. This was going to be fun.
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Zoe was delighted how well her plan was working. Jo seemed to feel confident and sexy in her clothes, and Zane had not been able to tear his gaze away from her all night. There could have been a little bit of lingering bitterness over the entire Zane situation; part of her felt like she had 'found' him first, but it was so obvious now how they felt about each other. So instead she reveled in being an amazing social planner and matchmaker.
More than once her father had caught her staring at Jo and Zane, but she had tried to give him what she hoped was a reassuring look. It made sense now why he had been super annoyed about the whole Zane thing. Of course, she thought, it meant that the next guy she dated was going to look a whole lot better in his eyes.
Feeling the need to check up on Jo, Zoe offered picked up a few discarded plates and headed into the kitchen. Vincent was there as well, gushing over the appliances.
"There isn't any juicer, though," he noted.
Jo shrugged. "I go to Cafe Diem for that sort of thing anyway. That and smoothies."
"And almost everything else!" Zoe chimed in. "I came over early to help set up, and there was hardly anything to serve."
"I did just move in," Jo pointed out. "If you had come over yesterday morning it would have been completely bare."
"But still, Jo. You went shopping. Thank goodness you were able to cater on such short notice, Vincent. All she had was peanut butter, steak and olives."
"She's exaggerating," Jo hurried replied, laughing. "I have eggs, too."
"What's wrong with olives?" Zane strolled through the kitchen doorway and Zoe moved out of the way so he was forced to stand closer to Jo.
"Nothing, as long as you like them with feta," Zoe chuckled.
"I do! One of my favorite foods," Zane chimed in.
"I'm not surprised, with your cultured palate," Vincent chuckled. "But I'm surprised you bought them at all, Jo. I thought you didn't even like olives."
"Not in general, but these have grown on me," she tried to explain. Zoe caught the tail end of a swift but heated look Jo sent Zane as well as the thoughtful expression on Zane's face, and did a little internal dance. Jo had probably started eating them because Zane liked them so much. It was super cute.
If she could not set Jo and Zane up before she left for college, she was going to be very surprised. Maybe she could go into business doing this whole matchmaker thing. She was pretty good at it.
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