The apartment was quiet when Jo finally arrived back after the most hectic first day she could have possibly imagined.
She'd had the lot – terrorists, snipers, fake identities, reports, undercover, trauma, and flirting.
At least, she thought it may have been flirting.
It had never even occurred to Jo that joining the Service might mean breaking ties with people she knew. Her flatmate Kelly was snoring on the sofa (Jo could hear the sound from the hallway), probably with an empty bottle of wine propped up on the coffee table. It had been something of a tradition for them to get hideously drunk and tell each other secrets. Fine when it comes to boyfriends, but not ideal when concerning national security.
When a guy she had just met called Zaf offered her a room in his flat, the only thing she could think to say was 'I'll think about it' because she didn't know him but wanted to be polite and still keep the offer open if she needed it. And when Adam (not Nick Harding) had caught her flat-hunting and she told him about Zaf's offer, he had told her to take it, saying there were plenty of times in the first year when she wouldn't want to be alone.
But she wasn't alone – she had Kelly. And Jo and Kelly were good friends, and Jo knew that she could cut back on drinking and bite her tongue when it came to work conversations. But she also knew that she was making excuses because she was scared to dive in at the deep end and become a spy straight away, working with spies all day and coming home to a spy who flirts.
Was he flirting? The question still rattled around Jo's head as she cleaned her teeth. She had woken Kelly and dragged her to her own bed because it was past midnight - the whole team had stayed to find out how Nazim and his family were doing before they were being driven up to Ireland tomorrow, a new life waiting.
Jo concentrated on scraping her teeth with the minty bubbles, blocking out the image of Nazim's wife face as she heard the gunshots from the room in which her son was being held. It scared Jo how that woman's life could have ended right there with the death of her son, a tiny young boy with a life already disrupted by his wrongly accused father.
Jo wondered if she would ever be in that position, where a friend or family member would be put in danger in that way. The thought made her shudder.
But was he flirting? Jo was using this trivial question to block out the doubts that were beginning to crowd her. She had rolled into bed but a car alarm outside was loud enough to stop her from sleeping. Then again, she didn't resent the sound - she had used that very noise to alert her new colleagues in the safe house that they were about to be attacked.
The sound of Kelly's snoring suddenly cut through the wall. Jo rolled over onto her side and stared at the pile of clothes splayed across her floor, wondering what to wear for another day at work tomorrow.
Work. As a spy. The words were still completely unusual. She had always been 'Joanna the Journalist' and had loved her work as a writer, but awake in the middle of the night with only the car alarm and Kelly's snores for company, Jo knew that life was behind her now. She would say yes to the room and yes to this new life and have to accept that everything she knew wouldn't be the same anymore.
Even though Jo was new to this and had a fair share of doubts and confusions, the thought of moving in with someone like Zaf had made her smile.