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Title: Nearly Shadowed
Author: MelWil
Fandom: Spooks
Rating: PG
Spoilers: Character spoilers to end of season 4 (to be safe). Please don’t spoil past 5.6 in the comments
Summary: Jo sits on a strange bedroom floor.




*

Jo sits, curled up, on the floor, her arms wrapped around her legs with her fingers tapping on her elbows. She leans her head forward, and to the side, and watches the shadows on the other side of the room. She wonders how she got there, how she came to be on nearly naked on a strange bedroom floor.

“What are you doing?”

The voice is sleepy and filled with an odd, sad note. Jo lifts her head and opens her eyes and tries to make clarifications.

Zaf is rumpled and bleary eyed when he wakes, absently pulling his fingers through his hair. He stands in the doorway of the empty room, ducking his head away from the light.

“I’m testing the floor.” It sounds ridiculous, even as the words are spilling from her mouth. She laughs, a short laugh, hiding her words. But Zaf crosses the room, lowers himself to the floor next to her, wraps his own arms around his legs.

“I wanted it to be easier than this.” Zaf digs his chin into his kneecap. “I thought it would be dinner and drinks first.”

Jo turns her head to look at him, to consider him from this new angle. She’s never pegged him as a traditional romantic, as an awkwardly shuffling guy, who would give her flowers when he arrived on her front door. She’s always seen him as the flashy, fast moving guy, with the sort of motions he went through the night before.

She forgets that she made the first move.

She wriggles across the floor to be closer to him, to feel his heat warming her skin. She leans towards him, exhaling as his arm drapes around her shoulders, as he pulls her into her body. She can feel the tears pooling in the corner of her eyes as he drops a light kiss on her forehead, just below her hairline.

She doesn’t know what will happen next, what will be around the next corner. She doesn’t know if there will be chocolate or roses; if they will share long, sleepy phone calls or sweet Sunday mornings under the covers. She has no idea what is to come.

She just wants to sit on the floor with his arms around her, watching the shadows play their way across the floor.

on 2007-09-11 11:22 pm (UTC)
Posted by [identity profile] londonsophie.livejournal.com
Oh, thank you for writing Jo/Zaf, my absolute favourite and sadly underwritten couple. I liked this a lot, because it's always hard to work out how they'd break out of being friends and become more, and this seems very real for both of them. I love "I thought it would be dinner and drinks first." More please...

on 2007-09-12 06:48 am (UTC)
Posted by [identity profile] melwil.livejournal.com
Oh, I'm glad you enjoyed it. I've written Zaf a couple of times now, but Jo was new, and she's a little tricky. She's definitely not Sam or Helen, despite filling the same role in the show. She's a little tricky. I'm looking forward to writing her more.

I'm also looking forward to finishing series 5 in the next week or so - then I'll be able to read your fic *g*

on 2007-09-12 01:49 pm (UTC)
Posted by [identity profile] moth2fic.livejournal.com
I enjoyed that. I agree with your friend who thinks they're an underwritten couple, but maybe the fact that they are real life romantic partners makes people shy? You know, as if they're verging on RPS? They aren't, of course, but that might be what holds them back. I think it's why we didn't get much Tom and Zoe, either, though nearly every other paring of both of them has been tried often! Anyway, I liked Jo's uncertainty about the future and her exploration of the floor.

My own favourite pairings (Harry/Ruth and Malcolm/Colin) have been written into canon which I regard as very sneaky on the part of the BBC.

on 2007-09-12 07:50 pm (UTC)
Posted by [identity profile] melwil.livejournal.com
I didn't realise they were a real life couple. Of course being spoiler phobic (I'm still only up to 5.7) I miss a lot of the real life stuff.

I think I'm getting closer to writing almost every couple. This is my 52nd fic and I've never written a couple more than 3 times. . .

on 2007-09-13 10:09 am (UTC)
Posted by [identity profile] moth2fic.livejournal.com
I only know these things because we haven't time to read a newspaper so we get the Radio Times to sort out our viewing (which is mostly recorded and watched at strange times). If it's in RT then I'll know...
Yes, they are a real life couple though they aren't married like Zoe and Tom.
Zoe/Keeley had to leave because she was pregnant - and all her last scenes were shot very carefully to avoid full body shots! I think Ruth left for the same reason. An actor friend is a friend of Tom (Matthew McFadyen) so we do get info via that route too. I haven't time to follow the stars' real lives except by happy accident!

on 2007-09-13 03:06 am (UTC)
Posted by [identity profile] afiakate.livejournal.com
Lovely; it was tender and sweet without being schmaltzy.

on 2007-09-13 08:26 am (UTC)
Posted by [identity profile] melwil.livejournal.com
I'm glad you enjoyed it

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