Disclaimer: I own nothing but my own words the rest belongs to SyFy.

Zane woke up early the next morning, the sun was just starting to rise. He propped himself up on his elbow and contemplated the woman sleeping next to him. She looked so peaceful and so beautiful "Damn she's Hot" even in those moments when he thought he hated her he'd always acknowledged she was the sexiest woman he'd ever seen. Her beauty was something that would punch him in the gut and take his breathe away every time he saw her. He wanted her, he wanted her just as much now as he had when they'd first met. No Zane corrected himself he wanted her more now. He thought back to when he'd arrived in town, the moment he'd seen her he'd desired her. But things had gone wrong from the start. He'd been angry over being sent to Eureka and she had seemed a handy target for that anger. He'd say something to piss her off, she'd retaliate. So it had gone on a vicious cycle escalating until there was nothing left but for the two of them to be adversaries.

But maybe that wasn't how things had been, maybe his memories of things had been messed with. Was that what had happened? Or maybe it was her memories that were off, but that wouldn't explain how she'd gotten the ring. Every time he thought he had it figured out the ring would blow a hole in his line of thinking. Everything had shifted on him starting Founder's day when Jo had come into the sheriff's office accepting a marriage proposal he hadn't made or at least he hoped he hadn't made it. Because if he had that meant two things: One somehow his life and his mind had been screwed with and two she obviously hadn't cared enough to fight to get them back together. It was the possibility of the second thought that angered and hurt him the most.

But that wasn't quite right either she did care, she'd proven that yesterday. She could have simply let Dr. Blake take him to the infirmary until he'd come out of his state of shock, but she hadn't. Instead of going off to lick her own wounds in private, something knowing Jo she would do rather than allow anyone to see she been affected, she'd brought him here and taken care of him herself. She'd shoved aside anything she might have needed for herself yesterday to provide him with what he had needed. What had she said to him the day she threw the ring at him, they didn't fit "Bullshit, we do fit" and she damn well knew it as well as he did.

He had all the pieces he needed to be able to figure out what had happened, he knew it. But there was one piece of the puzzle that he couldn't get his brain to latch on to. Deep inside he knew that one piece was the most important one, the one that would finally complete the picture and tell him everything he needed to know.

He looked at her again, a small smile on her face. She looked like she didn't have a care in the world. He wondered how she managed it. The memory of what she'd been through rose up in his mind, but he shoved it aside. He couldn't deal with it, but he admired her for doing so. Zane didn't think that if it had been him he would have been able to handle it much less go on to live a normal life. But she had, somehow she'd found the strength to do just that. He had no illusions that it had been easy for her or that there weren't times it came back to haunt her. But she had gotten through it, knowing her she'd done it without any help too. It certainly explained her need to control every aspect of her life, it also explained why she was so quick to let her temper take over. He'd felt it yesterday, the rage was the only thing that had allowed her to keep going. One thing he'd learned Jo Lupo had more strength inside her then anyone he'd ever met.

He felt Jo stir next to him beginning to wake up. The second she was fully awake she'd be up and out the door so fast it'd leave his head spinning. Zane instantly made a decision, he had her in his arms where he wanted her and he had no intention of letting her go. When confronting Jo he knew he'd have to sneak up on her, if she sensed an attack coming she'd instantly deflect it and the battle would be lost to her before it even began.

The second her eyes opened Zane shifted their position rolling her on her back trapped between the bed and him. He brought his mouth crashing down on hers hard and insistent putting all of the hunger he felt for her into the kiss. His body was tense waiting for her to shove him away but she responded instantly to him and he nipped at her lower lip with his teeth demanding entrance. Her willing compliance only fueled his desire. He trailed a line of kisses and bites across her jawline and down her throat, loving the taste of her. Zane brought his hand up between them cupping her breast and worrying the nipple into a hard peak. She arched her back up into his touch and suddenly he wasn't close enough to her. He knew she felt the same way when they hurriedly began to divest themselves and each other of their clothing, the offensive material separating them disappearing quickly. The sight of Jo laying on his bed fully naked took his breath away, none of his fantasies had come close to preparing him for the reality.

He brought his mouth back to hers their tongues warring with each other. Zane knew this wasn't going to be slow and leisurely, the fire burning between them was too intense, the need for each other too much for that. He fought for control of his hunger, she wasn't as far along as he was and he desperately wanted to get her there with him. But her hands were everywhere driving him insane with a stroke here a caress there, her mouth alternately kissing and biting him everywhere that was guaranteed to send him over the edge. Zane froze, she was touching him with the confidence and knowledge of a longtime lover while he was still exploring and learning her body.

Some of the anger he felt towards her returned. More proof, this was just more proof that there had been something between them. Something judging from the way she was making love to him told Zane it had been incredibly passionate. He grabbed her hands and brought them above her head pinning them to the bed with one of his. He looked at her intently the desire showing in his eyes was now tinged with frustration. He felt her push against him to free herself and he couldn't quite keep the anger out of his voice as he huskily told her "let me have this Jo. Apparently I have some catching up to do. I want, no I need to learn your body as well as you seem to already know mine. Let me."

He waited watching her, almost drowning in her eyes, eyes that were now dilated with passion. His anger evaporated the instant he felt her relax beneath him. She'd just given him something very precious by surrendering herself completely to him. She was showing him that she trusted him. Zane's free hand shook slightly as he began to slowly touch her exploring her body, cataloguing every moan, every intake of breath, every sigh of his name she made for future reference. He had every intention of making damn sure he got to use his new knowledge of her often.

The hard grip of control Zane had on his own need for her was rapidly slipping away as he watched her, eyes now closed writhing in pleasure from his touch. He felt her body tense and knew she was ready for him. "Look at me JoJo, I want to watch your eyes." He demanded of her as he released her arms and entered into her. She opened her eyes and wrapped her legs around him instantly matching the quick hard rhythm he was setting. He felt her shatter and heard her calling out his name only moments before he called out her name and joined her. He collapsed on top of her, kissing her deeply he rolled them over so that she was laying on top of him instead of being crushed by his weight. The last thought that floated through Zane's mind before they both succumbed to a contented but exhausted sleep was very possessive "You're mine JoJo and I'm not ever letting you go."

Jo woke up an hour later and knew she'd just made another huge mistake. An incredibly pleasurable mistake that a large part of her wanted nothing more than to make again. She slowly crawled out of bed being careful not to wake Zane, she needed to get out of there quickly. The lines between the man now sleeping in the bed and the one she loved where too blurred for her to be able to sort them all out with him around. There were still differences, the differences were evident in what had just happened. She and Zane had always been very passionate in their sex life but this had been more intense, edgier. Jo was sure that it was due in large part to the fact that this Zane was harder, more angry with the world.

She was upset with herself for having lost all control of her emotions. One touch from him and she'd completely forgotten she was supposed to be moving on, all the walls and barriers she had put up to protect herself and her heart had crumbled. She wanted to blame him but knew that she couldn't, she'd wanted him just as much as he'd wanted her. She could have stopped it at any time, but she'd allowed her need to dispel the loneliness of the last few months override her sense of self preservation. Angry with herself Jo went into the living room to get her clothes, she needed to take a quick shower then run away. For once in her life Jo was going to allow herself to be a complete coward and run away.

She let the hot water pour over her as she tried to get her emotions under control. She reminded herself that every time you blinked this Zane was with a different woman. Although her conscience whispered to her she hadn't seen him with anyone since he'd broken things off with Zoe. Something he'd done quickly after kissing Jo in Carter's office. "No he's a player, you've seen it for yourself. You're nothing more than the latest in a long line of women and you need to remember that. He is not the man you're in love with." Jo told herself angrily although she was no longer so sure the last statement was true.

Christ she'd just put herself at a distinct disadvantage when she had to deal with him in the future. She'd proven twice now, not only to herself but to him as well, that one touch and she'd melt. All resistance to him gone in an instant. Even now all she really wanted was to get back in bed and do to him what he'd done to her earlier, drive him completely out of his mind with need. She still couldn't quite believe she'd given him complete control like that. She'd never done that before not even with her Zane. She didn't need to be the one in control but she'd always been much more comfortable with a mutual give and take in bed. She didn't know what had possessed her to do it but she couldn't lie to herself, she hadn't hesitated to comply with all of his demands for control both spoken and silently communicated.

She ran her hands through her hair. The last twenty four hours had been a roller coaster ride of one bad decision after another and she desperately wanted off. She brushed a tear away impatiently as she stepped out of the shower to get dressed. If she was going to finally break down she'd damn well do it at home not here with him.

The instant Zane woke up he knew he was alone in the bed. He opened his eyes and saw Jo across the room getting dressed. She was pulling her top over a purple silk bra, one that he recognized instantly as one he'd bought her. "I don't think so sweetheart." Zane thought as he jumped out of bed and pulled on a pair of sweats. "going somewhere?" he asked Jo aggressively as he crossed the room to her.

Jo whirled around surprised he'd been able to sneak up on her but she'd been lost in her thoughts. Not fully meeting him in the eye she responded "Yes, it's time I went home. I have…I have things I need to take care of."

Of course she wasn't going to make this easy, well if it was a confrontation she wanted it was a confrontation she was going to get. If Jo managed to get out of the apartment before they'd worked things out Zane knew it'd be months before he would be able corner her again. There was no way in hell he was going to go another couple of days with her avoiding him much less months. Glowering at her he ground out "God Damn it Jo I've had enough. Perhaps you'd like to explain to me exactly why it is you seem so hell bent on pretending there's nothing between us. I'm done with you avoiding me, us."

He was angry, fine angry Jo could do, angry was safe. She looked him fully in the eyes this time her tone matching his. "What us? We both had a horrible day yesterday and we slept with each other to deal with it, relieve the pressure. That makes it sex not a relationship. I know for someone like you it might be difficult to distinguish between the two."

"Bullshit, that's complete bullshit and we both know it. Nothing about what happened between us this morning was about blowing off steam." He yelled back at her, then taking a deep breath continued a little more calmly "We wanted each other we always have, it's that simple. I knew exactly what I was doing this morning and it was all about having a relationship with you."

Jo was taken aback by what Zane had just said. "We can't, too much has happened. Everything's different, we…we don't fit." Jo said not really sure she even believed what she was saying.

Zane ran a hand through his hair Frustrated with her 'Is that what you tell yourself to justify everything, that we don't fit?" He walked over to his dresser and yanked open a drawer, he reached in and grabbed a hold of something. Turning back around to face her he held his grandmother's engagement ring up between them. "What about this? Did we fit when you got this?" He walked back over to her practically shoving the ring into her face. "What, did you feel relieved when you suddenly found yourself out of the relationship. Are you happier now, now that you managed to escape making such a big mistake? God knows you wouldn't want to have to spend the rest of your life attached to a felon, the resident troublemaker. How lucky for you that whatever happened to you did so before there was an actual wedding." He finished sarcastically. He was suddenly drained he didn't know how to get through to her.

Jo however felt her temper snap "Is that what you fucking think, screw you! Never once have I given a damn about your past. We both know compared to what I did your hacking into the DEA was child's play. I took two lives because I wanted revenge and I damn well got it."

"Jo you had no choice, you…"

"Shut up, just shut the hell up I'm talking now. " She snapped out "I'm so sorry that when I got back to Eureka and suddenly found everything in my life had changed I didn't deal with it the way you think I should have. That I didn't know how to handle the fact that you weren't you anymore. That the relationship I'd been in for over two years had never even happened. Am I happy no, but I got the message it was never meant to be." Judging from the stunned look on Zane's face Jo knew she'd let her temper get the better of her and said too much. She leaned her head against the wall and closed her eyes "Shit."

An Image quick but vivid flashed through Zane's mind of a him that wasn't him standing in the jail cell handing Jo a box. A box he knew from Jo's memory had the ring in it. The final piece of the puzzle fell into place and Zane's mind raced to put all of the pieces together to form a picture. He sank down on the bed and put his hands over his face. "A parallel universe? No that doesn't fit. The exotic particles the ones that had put all of that old crap all over town, the ones that had put that bullet in Jo's chest, that would only happen if time was collapsing on itself." Zane looked up at Jo noticing how worried she now looked. "Fuck if she or any of the rest of them get caught they're in for a whole shit load of trouble. Time travel, the whole lot of them can get sanctioned for that."

Zane studied Jo her face a mask of dread and resignation. He watched her eye the bedroom door and quickly stood up placing himself between her and her only means of an exit. "This conversation is far from over Jo." He told her forcefully.

All the anger drained out of Jo, she was tired. Tired of fighting with him, tired of having to constantly pretend she was alright. She eyed him wondering how much damage she would have to inflict to get him out of her way. Before she would have been faced with an angry sarcastic Zane who would back down if threatened now she was facing a Zane that was more than willing to take her on physically. He'd lose but he'd put up a good fight first, a fight she really didn't have the energy for now. "Get out of my way Zane. You have your answers now leave me the hell alone." She left the threat implied but unsaid.

Zane could tell what she was thinking and automatically prepared to defend himself against an attack. He figured he only had one chance at getting Jo to listen to him so he better not screw it up. "The answer about what happened was never as important to me as how it had affected us." He started trying to buy himself some time to finish forming his hypothesis of what the time travel had really meant. If he couldn't get her to believe what he did he'd have a long uphill battle trying to get her to give them a chance.

"Please I know you Zane, you're not happy until you have all the answers." She wasn't willing to give an inch. To do that meant she'd be risking more heartbreak and she just couldn't afford to do that right now.

Zane gave a self-depreciative smirk "True, but I know how to prioritize and what was always most important was the two of us JoJo."

"What us? Do you remember an us, a date, an evening spent quietly together, making up after a fight, anything? Do you remember giving me that ring? No you don't because there was no us." Jo replied all the pain of what she'd lost ringing clearly in her voice. Jo looked down at the floor and wondered why she was still there talking to him. It didn't change anything, it wouldn't change what had happened.

Zane closed the distance between them, placing a finger under her chin he raised her head up to look at him. He needed the beautiful but incredibly stubborn woman standing in front of him to believe what he was about to say. If she didn't he wasn't sure he'd ever get through to her. "Listen to me, just listen to what I have to say before making any decisions." She didn't say anything just continued to stand there looking at him so he continued "No I don't remember any of that and we could have a whole separate conversation about how much that fucking pisses me off, but you do remember. I understand that for you it must have been like you were suddenly presented with an evil twin but, that's not what happened, there aren't two of me out there in the universe. You, all of you, changed things with what you did. You didn't travel to a whole new world Jo, you changed the one you've always lived in."

Zane pulled Jo over to the bed and gently pushed her to sit down. Kneeling in front of her he took her hands in his and looked at her intently all of his emotions reflected in his eyes "I may not remember any of those things you mentioned, but I am the man that gave you that ring. I know I'm different than what you remember, you're different from my memories too. What hasn't changed, what's not different is us. I've wanted you since I first saw you and from what you said we were together the entire time. The constant in all of this is us, not as individuals, but together. The one thing you didn't change was our desire to be together we proved that this morning. We do fit Jo and we were meant to be." He looked her steadily in the eyes willing her to do what he was about to ask. "Don't give up on me now Jo, don't give up on us." He'd laid it all out there, now all he could do was wait to see how she'd react.

"Was he right, have I been looking at this all wrong the entire time?" Jo tried to sort everything out in her head. She thought about Kevin the other person that had undergone the most dramatic change. Yes Allison had struggled at first with how to deal with the now not autistic teenager, but Allison had never once mourned the loss of her children. No Allison had simply accepted that Kevin was her son, different yes but still her son, not some other Allison's. Could she do that, could she accept that he was her Zane, different but still hers. For the first time in a very long time she started to feel hope. If she didn't take this risk what was she left with but more loney nights. Nights of wanting nothing more than to be with the man right in front of her. She didn't need to think about it, she new what her decision was already.

Jo let a playful smile spread across her face "What's in it for me if I don't give up?"

Zane responded instantly laying her down on the bed kissing her deeply. He poured everything he felt for her, everything he wanted from her and for them into the kiss. Jo quickly and efficiently switched positions with him pinning his arms above his head. She leaned down and whispered "My turn to play."

Both of them knew they were finally where they belonged, with each other.