Zane froze the next morning as he came into the kitchen. The smell of bacon had led him in here but the sight that met him was what stopped him.
"You have to mash them." Andrea said, sliding her arms down Jo's from behind and… holy crap whoever thought of mashing potatoes was either a genius or a sadist. He licked his lips and tore his eyes away from the motion Jo was making and smiled at Mrs. Mansfield as she handed him a cup for coffee.
"Harder Jo!" Jo snorted and started laughing. Mrs. Mansfield's eyes rolled as she poured the fabulously caffeinated liquid into his mug. He smiled a thanks at her and attempted to ignore the motion that Jo was using to mash potatoes.
"You are a terrible human being." He heard Jo murmur, which only mad Andrea snort in amusement.
"Zane did you sleep alright?" Denny asked. He smiled at Mrs. Mansfield and nodded before glancing at Jo. She had stopped mashing and was looking at him.
"Yeah. I slept great. Even though Tim snores louder than a proton rocket." He said. Jo snorted in amusement before turning back to the pot of potatoes, oddly enough the only one of the woman to understand his joke. Andrea was sipping a glass of orange juice, frowning at Zane over the rim until her dad came in.
Zane knew that Mansfield had entered the kitchen behind him as the hairs on the back of his neck stood up. While Zane was the king of looking like Mansfield never bothered him it was simply because he had really good facial control. He remembered the time at GD when the RSS had malfunctioned; he never really had let himself consider the fact that he was so bitter about working at GD. After all, the only reason he was there was because Stark got stuck on the data that Zane's experiment created and after that, even when Stark died, he never got the data. He glanced thoughtfully at Jo's back as she was laughing at something that Dre said. He never thought he would see her lose control like she had that day and she kept it together longer than anyone else had.
"Did you steal that cup Donovan?" Mansfield barked behind him.
"Oh Billy don't start. Zane is a guest in our house and if he wants to steal that cup he can." Zane snorted into his coffee at Mrs. Mansfield's reply as he turned.
"Well thank you, but it's not my style." He said, winking at the Generals wife. That was when he got a good look at the General himself. Zane had never seen him in anything other than his military clothes. It threw him to see the General in socks, jeans and a polo shirt. "You know, it just got a little stuffy for me, I think I need some air." He said, setting his cup down on the isle as Tim walked in.
"Dude it's like thirty degrees outside." Zane's eyes shifted toward the white scene outside. The blizzard from the night before had stopped, leaving DC looking like a Christmas card.
"He's had colder." He heard Jo mutter. He frowned over at her slightly before nodding his concurrence, wondering why it seemed to upset her so. He nodded and headed toward the back deck off the kitchen.
Zane shoved his hands into his armpits and watched as his breath drifted out before him in a fog. His eyes scanned the frozen field behind the Mansfield's house as the slight winter wind turned his nose red.
"You're gonna freeze out here man." Zane glanced to the side to see Tim, bundled up in winter attire leaning casually against the door.
"Better than being asked if I stole a cup." He didn't even attempt to hide the bitterness in his voice.
"Yeah. Dad can have a pretty big stick up his ass about some things. You know, like the law." Tim said, causing Zane to smirk in amusement.
"Tiny go inside and bug Jay for me will you." Andrea said, appearing at her brother's side with Zane's jacket. Tim's eyes rolled, but oddly he complied. "You know, you really might freeze to death out here." She said, handing him the coat he had removed the day before.
"Thanks." He said. As he slipped it on Dre sighed dropping her head onto his shoulder.
"You know, you can ignore my dad. He has this huge…"
"Stick up his ass?" Zane provided, smiling at the turn of phrase her brother had used.
"I was gonna say prejudice against men who are cuter than he was." He looked down to his odd friend and watched her nose wrinkle at him. He laughed, slipping an arm around her waist and breathed.
Standing outside with Andrea, feeling the bitter cold wind blow around the house calmed Zane. Sure Eureka got snow and it got cold, but it was nothing like an East Coast chill. The wind picked up pieces of blond curls, blowing them into his field of vision and without thinking he reached up and tucked them under her head.
"I wanted to talk to you about Jo mashing those potatoes."
"You wanted to thank me?" She said, that innocent smile spreading across her face.
"Kill you." He felt the vibrations of her laugh through the thick sleeve.
"You could keep me out here a bit more." He laughed, shoving her through the door and back into the pleasantly warm kitchen.
Andrea and Zane were sitting on the couch later that day, Zane having fully thawed from his stint outside.
"Jay, you are going to chew that nail to a stump." Andrea said, causing Zane to blink. He had noticed that Jo was chewing on her nail, but Andrea was facing away from Jo. Sometimes his blonde friend scared him with the possibilities of what her mind could achieve should she focus on something longer than five minutes.
"Damn Dre, are you psychic?" Zane asked. Jo snorted from her chair, and Zane glared slightly. "It was a joke Lupo."
"I know." She said, looking at him slowly. "You don't believe in psychics." Zane blinked again, before he got irritated. How did Lupo know what he believed in? Just another piece to add to the growing Eureka puzzle. He should probably write those down… then again why should he. He had an eidetic memory, so lists could be stored without a writing.
"Hey football." Andrea declared, so loudly both Zane and Jo jumped. "Somebody is playing somebody else for points." She continued as the sports announcer called a tackle. Thankfully, her voice was at a much more normal decibel.
"Andrea, you follow football more than anyone I know. Including Carter." Jo said, that little Lupo smile tugging at her lips.
"Yeah. I was dumbing it down for Genius Super-Man here." She said, in that tone of hers that sounded like having to clarify herself was pointless. Zane only had a moment to shoot the blonde a look before Jo feel into a full blown giggling fit. The sound did things to Zane he didn't want to admit.
Zane had never made it a secret that he wanted to rip Lupo's clothes off and take her where ever they happened to be. But her giggles didn't do that. They made him want to do everything in his power to hear them again. And that thought terrified him. No woman, especially Lupo the Enforcer, had ever made him want to make them laugh.
"Dinner." Denny announced, before Zane has the opportunity to find out what Jo thought was so damned funny.
EE
Her friends were idiots. They sat on either side of her; Jo was intently focused on Tim and Zane was chatting up her mother while she and her father starred at each other uncomfortably across the table. Jo was still diligently ignoring what happened the night before, Andrea's bruised stomach notwithstanding.
"So Jo…" She said loudly, ceasing all conversation at the table. Jo's hazel eyes turned to her slowly with a hint of amusement and question in them. "Why was Zane not understanding football so funny earlier?" At the sound of his name, she felt the blue eyes turn to her, boring into the back of her head.
"Actually, it was the fact that you thought Zane couldn't understand something." Everyone had the table… including her father laughed at Jo's statement. So in essence they were laughing at her. But there was an interesting thing that only Andrea seemed to pick up.
Andrea Mansfield and Josephina Lupo had known each other for about twenty years. Andrea had grown up learning all of Jo's tells. The two had met shortly after Jo's mom had died and Andrea had been the first one who really got Jo out of her shell. It was Andrea who decided that they should follow the four older brothers around.
So, when Jo Lupo had something that she wasn't saying, it was easy to hide it from her other friends and family. She couldn't hide it from Andrea. The very faint, small twitch in the corner of her mouth, and a very slight tightening around the eyes gave away her best friend. As Jo looked over during the laughter from her family, she leaned in slightly.
"You know… except emotions." Jo whispered.
"No secrets." Zane announced, having witnessed the small exchange. Out of the corner of her eye, Andrea caught her father's reaction to Zane; a much more obvious tell than Jo Lupo. Her father's whole demeanor changed whenever a Donovan was so much as mentioned. Just to anger him, as was her whole point of existence, she spun her torso to face the gorgeous genius her best friend was in love with, feeling the wicked gleam pulling into her features.
"I have to have secrets Zaney, otherwise you would know me way too well." She purred, pulling her fingers through the short hair at the base of Zane's neck.
"Andrea Marie, while I have no misunderstandings of your sexual standing, can we not discuss it at the dinner table." Her hand pulled back from Zane's neck, but she did smile at her mother. Her father was practically purple across the table.
"Thanks Mom. I didn't need to know the details of my sisters sex life." Tiny said, causing her head to snap back to the other side.
"Oh that wasn't details, but I can give them to you should you wish me too." She said sweetly. Tiny shook his head, a hilarious look of disgust on his face which broke the ice Andrea had created. The ice was broken further as she saw a hand sneaking over to her plate, headed for her cranberry sauce. "One more inch Zane, and the cranberry sauce won't be the only red liquid on the table." She said, not having moved her head.
"You have too many pairs of eyes." He said, but he did remove his hand from her plate.
"We are a little protective of moms cranberry sauce." Tim supplied with a chuckle.
"Best on the east coast." Zane said, bringing out that Donovan charm that her father hated so much.
"Well, I would like to say something." Her father announced. Andrea froze, her eyes slowly moving to her father's frame. "This year has been tough for our family. But today is a day of thanks, remembering the sacrifices of the long journey to get to this land. We are a strong land, a proud land. A land worth fighting for. I am thankful for having Timothy home for Thanksgiving for the first time in three years." She caught her brothers eye and smiled at him. She truly had missed him. "For having Jay here with us again. It has been too long since our whole family was together." Jo's soft smile was thank you enough. The General and Jo were only this soft with each other outside of Eureka. "And that Andrea is not in jail yet." Her smile flashed across the table at her father. "And that Donovan has not gotten nuclear codes from my computer."
"The weekend is still young daddy." She said, causing an unintentional snort to come out of Zane.
"And my darling Denny, for putting up with this family and everything that we throw at you on a daily basis. You are the strongest person I have ever met, and I am thankful, and honored every day that you said yes." Andrea allowed herself a smile private smile as her parents shared a kiss.
"So where are these codes?" Zane whispered, receiving an elbow in the rips.
"At least he was nice-ish to you." Zane laughed, reaching over and squeezing her knee.
By far, the most difficult thing that Andrea would ever have to do is get Zane to stop being an ass while simultaneously get Jo to stop being stubborn. Strategy was something at which she excelled but this problem was like trying to scale a slick brick wall with nothing but her bare hands. There was so much fear and curiosity from the two. She had to figure a way to find out if Zane would spill Jo's secret should he know.
Jo was afraid that of course Zane would; he hated her when she showed up in this timeline so logically he would do whatever he could to hurt her. But the Zane that Andrea knew apparently had never been one to follow the rules; ever. He hijacked NASA when he was nine for Christ sake.
Logically, her brain tells her that Zane would only pursue Jo harder should he know the extent to which she is currently breaking the law. If only she could get Jo to realize that if Zane knew, she could rely on him as another confident. But she knew her best friend. It was going to be much easier to get Zane to stop being an ass, than to stop Jo being stubborn. So that was her focus. Zane. The blue eyed pain in the ass sitting to her right.
"You ok?" He asked, blinking over at her. She nodded, smiling. The poor thing wasn't going to know what hit him.