"Let it be," Jo repeated Carter's words in a whisper, going over those same three syllables again and again like a mantra - let it be, let it be, let it be…

She was trying so desperately hard to let it be, but she couldn't. Here Zane was, lying in her bed, idly tracing her spine with his fingertips as he drifted off to sleep. Jo stayed wide awake. Let it be. Let the old Zane go: forget the brunch at Cafe Diem, forget her sun dress and his rose, forget his grandmother's ring and just: Let. It. Be.

But she still loved him. The old Zane - her Zane - not this one. As much as she cared about the man lying in her bed and as much as she could, quite easily, grow to love him - it still wasn't Zane lying there. It wasn't the man who first tried to chat her up by buying boxes upon boxes of lingerie, it wasn't the man who she had curled up on the bed with in the GD infirmary, however against the rules it might have been, it wasn't the man who had asked her, Josefina Lupo, to marry him. "Not him," she reminded herself. "It's not him."

But still they came to each other's beds every few nights, still they kissed and had sex and held each other until the small hours of the morning. Jo knew that one day she would have to leave it behind; move on, let it be. She couldn't compare the two Zane's any longer - looking for their similarities and only seeing the differences would eventually drive her insane. She took a deep breath and let it out slowly, her breath catching in her throat. Let it be.

Yeah, awesome advice, Carter.

—

Zane knew something was on Jo's mind. She was always quiet after they'd slept together - he didn't want to think about her reasons why, that she regretted it, she wished it had never happened - but this time it was different.

He was tracing the tiny undulations of her back with his finger absentmindedly, feeling her smooth olive skin and the rise and fall of her lungs, when she breathed in deeper than before and let it out slowly, her breathe uneven, catching as it hit his chest.

His hand stilled. He knew what she was thinking about: him. The other him. The him that had given her his grandmother's ring - the him that she had fallen in love with.

Zane was just a poor substitute, something to fill the hole in her heart and keep the wound raw and open, and he knew it. But no more. He cared about Jo, more than he would like to admit, and he wanted to carve out his own spot in her heart - but first he had to help the other one heal. He at least had to try.

He took a deep breath - the wrath of Lupo was one he'd prefer not to face; he'd take the Kobayashi Maru instead any day.

"Hey, JoJo?" he asked quietly.

Silence. He was about to speak up again, unsure that she had heard him, when he felt more than heard a shaky "Yeah?" mumbled against his chest.

"Tell me about him," he said. "Like, really tell me."

—

AN: So, what do you think? My first fic in a long time...

Disclaimer: Not mine. Never mine. Don't even ask.