Well, this started out as just a cute idea that had been stuck in my head and it just sort of...melted into a season 4 fix-it of sorts. This is rated T, just because there is some very general mentions of certain "things". I'm not entirely certain how I feel about the end, but ultimately I think I'm satisfied. Reviews are loved, and reviewers are worshiped like gods. Any and all concrit is welcomed as well and will be used to the best of my ability.

I do not, nor will I ever own EUReKA.

She sat perched on the rim of the bathtub, chilled in her thin tank top and brightly colored cotton shorts from the cool temperature of the room as she waited. Across from her, laying innocently on the counter, a small plastic stick rested against the edge of the sink. Somewhere far off she could hear the subtle, steady rhythm of a clock ticking away the moments, the only sound in the otherwise tranquil house.

She considered taking out one of her guns and shooting the damn thing to pieces for the sake of holding on to some part of her sanity.

Tugging at some of her unruly bed hair she moved her gaze (glare) from the seemingly innocuous test to the slant of red-orange light that had snuck through the slats of the shutters, it had moved perhaps an inch or two since she had first snuck out of bed. She knew better than to think that being a nervous mess and glowering at everything in view was not the most mature way to handle the situation (let alone doing so while hiding in the bathroom) but then again she had never known the kind of terror that was wracking her body at the moment. The fear crippling her to the point that the only reasonably sane thought she could hold onto was to hole up for awhile until she could regain her senses. She had never been so frightened in all her life.

Her hands trembled some as she rested them in her lap, her long fingers reaching out to pick at the hem of her shorts anxiously. Biting her lips she managed to drag her eyes away from the counter and towards the plain wooden door that separated her from the bedroom. She had been nervous enough to lock it, and even more still as to pull the shutters closed on all the windows and stumble around in the dark with the lights off. Zane was still sleeping soundly (it was Sunday, and it was barely past six in the morning) unaware that she was practically losing her mind in the next room over, agonizing over something that had yet to even be determined. She could imagine him, still sprawled out as she had left him, the covers a tangled mess around him, one arm outstretched laying empty from where she had left it, blissfully unaware that a small plastic device was taking it's sweet time on shaping their future.

Her hands clenched into fists at the thought, and she turned back to the test. Children had never been something she had given much thought to over the years. The very idea had been a paradox really. Settling down and having a family had been a distant thought, something far off and surreal that she could never actually touch or believe in. On one hand she never doubted that she would have children one day, it was a fact. Something she took as certain as gravity keeping her firmly attached to the skin of the earth or as imminent as the pain after the profound impact of a bullet. On the other hand, however, that looming conviction was always something for the eternal tomorrow. She never imagined finding anyone who would be able to drag her away from the Army Rangers (and later on, away from Eureka) that she loved so much in order to start a family. And she had never met anyone who had given her the option of having the balance in between. The confliction had caused more than its fair share of arguments with her father, who was absolutely convinced that the only proof that he had raised her properly in the wake of her mother's death was by her finding a nice husband and having lots of children (and of course naming a son, preferably the oldest, after him). When she had finally brought Zane to meet her family, her dear old Papá practically had to be physically restrained from calling the local minister and have them married right there in the living room.

"Awkward" was putting the outcome of the situation mildly.

Though, she thought, not as awkward as the discussion she was going to have with Zane after the results came in. No matter what the outcome was, they needed to talk about the situation. She wasn't going to bury the issue just because the results (might) be negative. He had the right to know, either way.

The realization that they had never discussed children and how each of them felt on the matter beforehand made her want to laugh at the absurdity that she was now forced to deal with. Though, she had a feeling that if she did laugh she would quickly dissolve in tears over the insanity of the whole mess. It was the perfect storm of unexpected, life changing events. The one thing she had never seriously considered in her life, the one thing that she and Zane had never spoken about, the one thing that she was the most unprepared for, was the one-damn-thing that had been running through her mind since Friday. Since the moment Carter had casually his comment about her recent odd eating habits and his lighthearted suggestion that her recent nausea might be the result of her constantly eating fried egg and jelly sandwiches. It had gotten her thinking, and then it had her realizing (mostly about the fact that she was late, and that thought had her more jarred then her new eating habits), and then it had her sneaking a pregnancy test from GD that night with a cold swirl of panic in her stomach. It had taken her until early Sunday morning to push back the fear and take the test.

Leaving her to wait.

She sighed, looking up at the test again, and froze at the realization that during her internal panicking the time had fully elapsed and she finally had her answer. Swallowing she stood, shakily, and took the small step that separated her from the counter. Jo stared down at it, feeling...she didn't know what she was feeling. Reaching down she gently scooped the test up and examining it closer with shaking hands. After a moment she sighed and tossed it into the trashcan, splaying her hands wide on the counter top as she leaned on it for support. Bowing her head she allowed her hair to fall around her like a curtain, hiding her from the world as she processed the results. She could, she supposed, wait to get another test before she said anything. As advanced as the technology in Eureka was there was still the chance that it was inaccurate...

She shook the thought out of her head, peering up though her long locks to see her reflection. It was still dark in the bathroom, but the light that had crept in was shining in on her and making her skin glow in the muddled hues of the morning. Taking a steadying breath she stood up, straightening her shoulders, and prepared to take on the task of telling Zane the news.

His arm was cold.

Flexing his fingers he felt only air, his side empty where Jo wasn't lying. Blearily he opened his eyes, turning his head to search for the missing Deputy. She usually curled up against his side, fighting tooth and nail for the comforter (they were both sheet hogs and both too stubborn to let the other one win the nightly war) while she burrowed her head in his shoulder. She didn't like getting up early on weekends and in their weekly role reversal he would be the one to get out of bed first and make breakfast to entice her downstairs to face the day. The fact that she was not there curled up beside him was unsettling to the routine he had gotten used to over the years.

For a moment he wondered if Carter had called her in to help with another Eureka based disaster of some sort, but quickly dismissed the thought. Jo's being pulled out of bed on her day off was the equivalent a Hiroshima bomb being set off in the bed as far as sleeping through it went (he'd resigned himself that there really was no sleeping through her cursing out the idiot scientist who had caused the end of her weekend, no matter what level of pillow-muffling-methods he tried). Sitting up onto his elbows he looked around, not knowing what he expected to find. The sun was off colored, orange tinged as it splashed on the floor in the (very) early morning light. The room appeared empty apart from him and he sat up further. More awake at her absence he rubbed at his face tiredly, glancing towards the bathroom. The door was swung wide open, empty save for the sun shining in. He didn't smell the tell-tale promise of coffee or cooking, nor did he hear her moving about the house (not that he normally did, she was practically a freakin' ninja when she wanted to be). Something unpleasant settled in his stomach at the thought that she might not be in the house at.

"You're up early." There was a flutter of movement, a small shadow shifting just at the corner of his eye and he turned his head to follow the sound of her voice. Jo was curled up in the small window seat, her feet coiled up to her chest as she leaned against the glass. Sometime while he had slept she had stolen one of his overly large sweatshirts. The shirt was one of his favorites, an ancient beaten monster of a thing he had snatched up years ago during a short stint in Chicago. It was so large on her that she nearly disappeared in the sea of grey fabric and it completely covered the tank and tiny pajama shorts she was wore beneath it. Zane smiled at the sight of her, the sight of her wearing his clothing always made something smugly possessive in him grin like an idiot.

He shrugged in response to her greeting, nodding his head towards the empty space beside him. "I could say the same thing about you..." He watched as she fidgeted with her hands, a distinctly non-Josefina action that caused the hairs on the back of his neck stand up nervously. He pushed the feeling away as best he could, giving her a careful look. "Something wrong?"

Jo gave a small shrug, looking down to where her long fingers danced with each other over the grey material of her shirt. "No, not...exactly wrong..." Her voice was low in the still room, wavering under the weight of being unusually restrained. It wasn't tense or angry (as far as he could tell), but it wasn't calm either. He mentally did a checklist of things he could have potentially done to upset her (and after three years together, it was a long list) and found that (at least at a glance) he hadn't done any real trouble making of recent. "Just thinking...about a lot of things..."

There was a few beats of silence as she finished speaking, her gaze steadfastly avoiding his while he scrutinized her small frame carefully. "Thinking" could be a very dangerous thing (or it could be when said thinking was done with such a serious face so early in the morning), and he had learned that so called "Thinking" usually meant over-thinking when it came his Jo Jo. "That sounds ominous...mind sharing what sort of thought process has you up at such an ungodly hour?"

She smirked a little, a good sign all in all, before nibbling at her bottom lip. "Oh just all the things we've never talked about..." She looked up at him finally, her usually open face (at least to him) veiled. He felt his stomach drop dramatically at the statement, his mind running at the implications of that statement. Swallowing his tried to remain calm, if he'd learned nothing else from her over the years (and he had, he'd learned so much from her) he'd learned how to control his impulse control (well...mostly, enough for this at the very least).

"Oh." His voice sounded strangled, less "controlled" and more "on-the-brink-of-emotional-overload" and did much more to reveal the growing fear than he would have liked. The chill in the air seemed to hit him much harder at that moment, reminding him violently that while Jo had been clever enough to grab something to keep herself warm he was still shirtless in the cold morning. She was still watching him carefully, expression guarded, and he realized that she was expecting...something from him. He tried to take control of his vocal chords, tried to spit something out to derail whatever run-away thought was consuming her mind and instead could only manage another: "Oh" before his voice left him completely.

Fantastic.

Another silence fell over them as he tried (very, very hard) not to breakdown and let his own over-active mind take over and jump to conclusions. She couldn't be ending it, could she? It was...they were happy weren't they? They had their hard times, but they worked through them. That's why they had made it as far as they had despite their contrasting personalities, they managed to get through the tough times. And she hadn't been acting like she was getting ready to up and run on him...so, so what? Was she trying to scare him for some reason? From where he sat it looked like mission accomplished. "What do you think of kids?"

Her words were quick and jarring and he could tell by the way she sucked in a quick breath of air that not even she expected to let that one fly. He blinked, his mouth opening silently as he tried to make whatever contortionist-gymnastics-maneuver of a mental leap that she apparently had just made, before giving up on that line of thought completely. His brow furrowing his hand came up to run through his wild hair in frustration. "Kids?" He could practically feel his mind burning in his head, his neurons firing in such a rapid succession that they finally shorted out completely and left him feeling disoriented and even more confused than before (Kids, what in the world did kids have to do with what they were talking about before?). He shook his head, at a loss. "I don't understand...kids? What..." He finally gave her a hard look, determined to get some answers. "Are you...trying to break up with me?" Thinking it had been hard enough, saying it had been almost impossible and the fear that she might be doing just that made him feel sick to his stomach.

Jo looked stunned, her whole body freezing as a confused (and slightly insulted) look took over. "What? No!" She shook her head violently, her long hair flying. "Why would..." Her expression suddenly slackened before his eyes and any relief he felt at her reaction melted away as a hurt expression fought to take control of her face. "Do...you want to break it off?" Her voice was softer, edged with hurt and he could practically see her too-quick mind running off into a full blown tizzy at the idea.

He wanted to scream in frustration, or grab her and hold on until she understood that there was no way he was going anywhere. She'd been left before. Abandoned without a word by Taggart, left behind by the robotic Raynes. There were others too, he knew. A long list of idiots that had made her love them and then tossed her aside. Despite what people thought Jo Lupo did in fact have her insecurities, and it had been an uphill battle for both of them to put aside their strong personalities and let the other see each others' weaknesses. And now they sat, separated by only a few feet of air, both terrified of the very same thing. If the situation wasn't so direly serious, he would have laughed. As it was she was looking ready to bolt and he needed to calm her (admittedly well hidden) mounting panic before she made a snap decision and shoved him away in an attempt to protect herself.

"No. Absolutely and one hundred percent not." He shook his head violently in the hopes that she would understand just how much he meant those words. The whole conversation (if it was indeed not a bizarre attempt to end their relationship) was about something that she apparently was unwilling to clue him in on just yet. Jo held all the cards and was expecting him to be able to take the whole crazy thing in stride. With all the stumbling around in the dark, it was no wonder that they got a little bumped and bruised. He took a deep breath, trying to make her see. "All I want is to know what's going on in that head of yours..." He offered a small smile and, slowly, the tension began to leave her body. "Now what is going on? What about kids?"

Jo shifted on her perch, forcing her body to relax with a deep, slow breath. She offered him a small, slightly shaky, smile. "It's just..." She shrugged, "Kids, that's one of the things we've never talked about." She gestured with her hands, the long sleeves of the shirt she wore falling almost comically past her finger tips as she did so. "I mean, I want to have children and I love kids but we've never talked about it before and I-" She motioned towards him, looking at him a little pleadingly. "I need to know what you think of kids." He must have looked confused (he certainly felt it) and before he could ask she held up a hand. "Please...just," She squirmed in her seat. "Answer the question...I promise I'll explain everything I just, I really need to know..."

He remained silent for a long moment, thinking over her words carefully before finally nodding. "Fine." Zane sighed, his shoulders dropping in defeat. He'd just have to wait for her to clue him on what was going on. "Fine, if it means I get some answers and it gives you some piece of mind..." She looked relieved and he paused to think over the question. "Sure, yeah. I love kids. Can't get enough of them, older kids, younger kids, babies, doesn't matter. And I would love to have kids, and I mean tons of kids - like, enough to populate a small country - but..." He leaned against the headboard, arms crossing before him. Watching her carefully he saw her hands clench slightly, trying very hard to control the apprehension he could plainly see creeping into her small frame. He grinned at her, eyes softening as he caught her gaze. " They have to be just as beautiful and brave and as absolutely wonderful as you are." He tilted his head, shrugging as his expression turned sly. "And, you know, my genius mind and stellar charm of course."

He expected a chuckle or a smile, maybe even a quick retort about just how "charming" he could be. He did not, however, expect her to tear up. Instantly his smirk faltered, concern taking place as he attempted to figure out just what he had said to upset her. He opened his mouth to say something (he didn't know what he could say, but anything was better than gapping like an idiot as she cried) but was stopped by her suddenly standing. For a moment he worried that she would go running from the room, leaving him in confusion as she disappeared. She didn't and instead rushed towards him, arms wrapping around him as she crushed her mouth against his. After a split second of sitting stunned, he reached up and cupped her face, one hand running through her hair as he kissed her back.

The kiss deepened, to his immense enjoyment, and he felt her smile into his mouth as her hands ran up and down his back and chest. He moved his hands, tracing the curves of her body as he moved lower. He wasn't certain what was going on in Jo's mind, but if every morning conversation ended this way he could quickly get used to it. Grabbing the hem of the sweatshirt he began tugging it up, only to stop as she placed her hand atop his and pulled away. He fought the urge to be disappointed (she was still laying on top of him, and he always thought of himself as a glass half full kind of guy) and waited as she rested her forehead against his, pausing to catch her breath. After a moment she opened her eyes, her dark gaze catching his light one and she smiled at him. "I never told you what this was all about."

His mind felt like had been wrapped in a warm blanket, slow and stupid and only able to concentrate one thing at a time. The weirdness that led him to this particular situation had already flown out of his mind as his attention focused on the entirely more pleasant kiss and what (he hoped) it would soon lead to. At the mention of what had ultimately led them to the situation they where now, however, he forced his mind to behave itself (at least for a little while) and focus on what she was saying. With everything they had just gone through in such a short amount of time, he had no doubt that what she said next was going to be important. "No, no you didn't...any chance you'd be willing to fill me in?" The hand that hadn't been wrapped up by her smaller one ghosted across the skin along her thigh (really, there was only so much concentration to be had with her laying there like she was). She smiled, eyes still somewhat watery, and sat up. Pulling away from him some she grabbed at his other hand, pulling them both up so they rested before her.

"I suppose there's a chance..." She tugged at his hands, placing them gently over her stomach as she leaned forward, her mouth hovering near his lips. She hesitated for a moment, before finally whispering her news. "I'm pregnant." She pulled away, her long hair falling around her face as she nervously waited for him respond.

He stared at her, frozen for a long moment as he absorbed the news. His mouth twitched into a smile, eyes searching hers hopefully as he sat up more. "I'm...I'm going to be a dad?" She nodded, her grin widening as his did. He looked down to where his hands were splayed across her fabric covered stomach in amazement. What do you think of kids? The pieces clicked into place almost violently and he looked up at her again. He leaned forward and kissed her gently, one hand moving to cup her face as he pulled away. "Marry me."

It was Jo's turned to look stunned, her smile falling as her face turned into a look of stunned surprise. He swallowed, suddenly nervous and blindly reached for his bedside table. After some fumbling he managed to pull open the top draw and grab the small velvet box he had been stashing away for so long. This wasn't how he planned it, not even in the slightest. What he had planned was a little reminder of how they had met, him in her cell, a box of Liza's Lingerie. "You've already made me an honest man of me...so...let's make it official..."

She stared at the box, eyes wide. Reaching up to take it he noticed her hands shaking, and as she slowly lifted the lid he heard the air leave her lungs in a small squeak-like noise. "I..." She swallowed, looking up at him. "I don't know what to..." She stopped suddenly, smiling as she clutched the box tightly and nodded. "Yes, yes." She laughed, getting teary once again and he grinned, moving to remove the ring from the satin cushion it rested in. He felt as if he was going to float right off the bed as he gently pushed the ring onto her finger. The diamond glinted in the early morning light and he looked up to catch her gaze. Tugging her towards him gently he fell back onto the bed, one hand resting on her stomach as she other played with the ring on her finger. She burrowed her face in the crook of his neck, "I love you..."

He smiled, burying his face in her hair. "I love you too..." He felt her shift in his arms, her much smaller hand moving to rest over the one he held against her stomach. A long moment of peace fell over them, the sun now bright in the sky as the light fell against the bed gently. She suddenly chuckled against his skin, catching his attention. "What's so funny?" He tilted his head, adjusting, so that he could look down at her.

"Just thinking about what you said..." She looked up at him through her lashes, a sly look on her face. "And there is no way I'm having more than three kids."

He grinned at her, "Nine."

"Three."

"Eight."

"Three." Her tone left room for no argument as she gave him a steady (if not awkward, considering how they were laying) gaze. He couldn't resist the challenge.

"Seven?" She punched him in the shoulder lightly, now glaring at him. He laughed and shook his head. "Alright, alright, we wait and see how this first one goes and take it from there, deal?" She drew a pattern on his shoulder, thinking. Finally she smiled at him, and hmmed her agreement to the offer. He kissed her forehead.

They would, eventually, have to get out of bed and face the world. They would go and tell everyone the news (even her father, though he suspected that that insane little incident would be put off for a while yet) and have the entire town of Eureka go insane over both the wedding and the baby. People would try to touch Jo's stomach and gasp over the ring on her finger driving her towards a homicidal rage. Carter and Taggart would come and warn him (as they had already done many times before) that if anything happened to her that his death would be slow and painful and that his body would never be found. They would go through hundreds of thousands of names, never quite being able to agree on one, decide on a song to dance to at the wedding, choose a paint color for the nursery, she'd find a dress.

For now though, they curled around each other quietly, ignoring the rest of the world. It was a whole new world now, and he couldn't wait to see what it had in store for them.