Alright. She'd admit it. She was sulking. Jo ran a hand through her hair, the dark curtain hiding her from the rest of the world, or so she felt. The rest of Café Diem was hidden at least, so Jo didn't notice one of the sources of her misery walking in and covertly spotting her, hidden in one of the back booths that had a view of the whole café.

First Alison, now me, she thought, sighing tiredly. Why is it that I can never catch a break? Peering miserably out from behind her hair that she'd taken to wearing down recently, she looked up in time to see Zoe arrive at the café and hug Zane.

Zane caught her watching and stared at her behind Zoe's back.

Jo, embarrassed at being caught, turned away to her almost empty Vincespresso cup. She'd been downing a lot of them lately, as she'd been losing sleep for the past month. Between the contractors for her new house bugging her continuously, being truly alone for the first time in a long time, work piling up and a tall, dark and handsome man starring in repeated, rather vivid (and sometimes slightly erotic) dreams was affecting her more than she'd like to admit.

On top of it, the wear-and-tear was starting to show. Dark circles under her eyes appeared, frayed nerves, and fewer meal breaks meant that the clothes she'd had to buy to replace what she'd lost when Larry's rocket blew up her house were a size smaller than her old clothes. She was losing weight she couldn't afford to lose.

Luckily, by keeping her 'Enforcer' mask on 24/7, working long hours in her office and avoiding Zane, not a single person had noticed so far. Or so she thought.

Looking out the window, Jo absently noted it was snowing, another reminder of the soon approaching holidays…

Wait. Snow? Jo sighed and reached for her phone. Wait for it, she thought. A beeping noise sounded from the device and she grimaced. Can't have 15 minutes to myself… she answered, knowing it was either Carter or her boss, Fargo.

"Lupo."

Meanwhile, a pair of dark blue eyes followed the oblivious, olive-skinned young woman still on the phone to the door. Zane had all but given up on listening to the chatty Carter who'd just arrived back from Harvard for summer break.

More like winter break, Zane mused absently to himself.

As soon as the retreating car had disappeared with Jo in it, he switched his attention to Zoe and caught the tail end of her continuous stream of chatter, his eyes back to the normal blue color they always were when he wasn't around a certain sexy-commando-turned-head-of-security.

I have to put up with her for 2 months? Zane inwardly groaned. As much as he liked the adorable college Carter, he was beginning to think he'd made a mistake. A big mistake.

He just couldn't get the petite Enforcer out of his mind. She was like some sort of fetish that he was obsessed with. He snorted, thinking dirty thoughts involving a pair of handcuffs and the power he could wield over a certain woman with those things.

His phone snapped him out of his reverie and distracting Zoe for a moment, so that she actually shut up for once. Yanking the phone out of his jeans, Zane held a hand up to Zoe, signaling her to pause.

"Zane," he answered, and immediately had to pull the phone away from his ear, Fargo was yelling so loud.

"Dammit, Fargo, speak like a normal person, why don't you?" Zane hissed into the phone, his ears still ringing. Fargo continued like Zane hadn't just subtly threatened him.

"Zane, Zane, we just had a report of folding matter just north of town, on the way to GD. Jo was headed that way just a few minutes ago. I've called her cell twice and I can't reach her. Go look for her and see what you can find out about the particle disturbance while you're at it." Fargo ended his instructions and hung up without letting Zane ever get a word in edgewise.

Zane just stared at his phone for a second, letting the information sink in. Jo's in trouble, prompted his mind to jumpstart.

"Gotta go, Zoe. Jo's in trouble and there's matter folding in upon itself just outside of town," Zane stuffed his phone in his jacket and flashed a vague smile in Zoe's general direction as he buckled his helmet and glanced outside at the icy snow still pouring down.

"Wait, what? Jo's in trouble?" Zoe cried after him, worry for her surrogate sister etched onto her features. Zane, however, did not answer her as he'd already blown out the door into the freezing cold and was gone, the rumble from his motorcycle echoing through the quiet town loudly.