**

Jo hadn't taken any time off after Ben's funeral, though Harry had said that she could. But she could see that with only five of them left, now was not the time. Adam wasn't here any more but she knew what he would have said if he was. That she should put her chin up, her feelings to the side and keep going. So she did.

She could see others around her doing the same. Harry, Ros, Malcolm, Lucas. Lucas seemed to have perfected it in fact, seemed to have mastered that skill almost since his first day back on the grid. She supposed his time in prison had made him practised in the art of soldiering on. Even the loss of his wife didn't seem to have affected him visibly, though who could tell what was going on in the inside.

So Jo had pulled herself together and followed Adam's advice, though there were moments when the stress told. For example it had shown one cool autumn morning when she had sat quietly in the records room hunting through a pile of dusty files looking for a lead Ros and Lucas were searching for, still exhausted after a late night on the grid.

Everything had been fine until Jessica Morgan and one of her friends from Section C had entered the room and scowled at her. Jessica was a rather plain brunette in her late 20s and Jo knew from previous encounters she possessed a rather vicious tongue.

Ever since Jo could remember, Jessica had fancied Zaf and had showed it with a rather alarming lack of subtlety. But Zaf had never once looked her way, only ever in Jo's direction. Jessica had detested Jo and ever since she'd arrived she'd taken every opportunity she could to make that clear.

Within minutes of entering the records room, Jessica and her friend seated themselves at a table near Jo and after exchanging giggling comments, Jessica whispered loudly to her friend, "She's looking a bit peaky these days but them I suppose that's to be expected given that she's probably in the throws of some kind of melodramatic breakdown."

She threw Jo a spiteful look and then raised her voice. "Perhaps she'd some kind of black widow you know – first Zaf, then Adam Carter and you know she had a thing for him when she started and now her latest boyfriend and did you hear what those Redbacks did to her when they took her? I'm sure that any time soon she'll be shipped off to that place in the country and locked up for good."

Her friend twittered nervously. Jo had turned pale and was now hastily trying to collect her scattered files with as little noise as possible.

Everyone in the room had failed to notice Lucas North's arrival a few minutes earlier. He was now standing at the door, quite still, and listening to their conversation, his face becoming progressively darker by the second until he strode over to the table and hastily picked Jo up by the elbow with one hand and gathered her remaining files in the other, and commanded, "Jo, come with me," then marched her from the room.

A minute later he returned and appeared at the other desk. "Ladies, a word if you please," he said, his smooth manner belying the foulness of his temper.

"I seem to have overheard you talking about Joanna Portman during your little chat. You made some interesting observations. I thought that I, in turn, would share a few observations with you."

'"You will, of course, understand that as a senior member of Section D I have access to all sorts of personal information, the kind of personal information that is so essential to our daily lives. So essential in fact that life could become very difficult if, for example your bank account were to be closed or your National Insurance Number were to be deleted from the system or your name accidentally added to the criminal database. And interestingly enough in our world its now possible to do these things without leaving a trace of evidence behind. "

He paused to flash a rather charming smile at them both, "Now I'm not saying that these things would necessarily happen it's just that I think you might find that the saying what goes around comes around applies if you continue to air your rather ungracious thoughts so freely in the future."

Outside, Jo had paused for a moment in the corridor to collect her thoughts as she wondered what exactly was happening inside. Lucas had quite a temper when he was angry. She was just pleased that this time she wasn't on the receiving end of it - or at least she hoped she wasn't. To be honest she found it a little hard to tell for sure. Still, she was glad to be out of that room.

As she made her way back to the grid she decided she would stay late that night to continue writing up the security report she was working on so that it would be ready for Lucas first thing tomorrow morning rather than at lunchtime, given that he'd said it was a priority.

**

Ahhh, had to have another scene where Lucas is a bit awesome in a gallant kind of way, but also in a way that makes Jo not quite sure whether he's cross with her or not, cos I like the thought that he comes across a bit dangerous

To the reviewer who said first they first thought that Ros Lucas would make a good couple but now they think that Lucas Jo would be great for each other - I completely agree.

Ros/ Lucas just makes me go aaah, no! Mainly because I think that Ros would make any man she was with completely miserable sooner or later. Things might go alright for a year or two (or more likely a month or two) but sooner or later I'm pretty sure she'd kick him to the curb and he'd end up a bowl of quivering jelly and have to go into therapy for the rest of his life. And I like Lucas! And I don't want him to be unhappy!

Lucas Jo would be much sweeter and much more likely to last.

Besides which there is so much Ros fic out there already. And quite frankly I don't think that Ros has that much to be angsty about - apart from Adam. And the Daddy complex is a bit weird and disturbing for a 40 year old woman, and not in a good way.

Anyway, enough of that - we are nearly finished this fic – just one or maybe 2 more chapters to go now. But I have decided to write another little Lucas Jo fic but this time with a post apocalyptic setting, but not 2012 but set series 8 time and to start from scratch as if all the stuff in this story had never happened and they are just work colleagues at the start. I have written a bit of it already but not the beginning yet, but its not too far away, only a couple of days.

Also I have written another Spooks fic – if you haven't read it and you liked this one you might enjoy it. It's called The Return of Zaf. You can get it by clicking on my username – first 2 chaps are a bit slow but I promise it gets exciting thereafter.