Back again with another fic! This time it's a lot less steamer than what I've been writing, but I enjoyed writing it. It's takes place a little after episode 17 "Baby Blue", picking up on Carter's departure. I like to thank my buddy Mizliz on Tumblr for helping me edit this story, and I hope you all enjoy it!

Desclaimer: I do not own Person of Interest or the characters. I just own the plot. :)

When It Rains

The days following the Moretti incident were rough. Detective Szymanski died from his gunshot wound that day, and as a result, Detective Carter was unjustly blamed for it. Never mind the fact it was Elias' thugs who had killed him, but apparently, it was Carter's negligence and involvement with Moretti that had killed Szymanski as well. Quarantined to suspension desk work by Captain Lynch and feeling the resentment from her fellow officers left Carter feeling stressed and frustrated.

Yet, there was only one person who had truly hurt her in this, and that person was Reese. Carter still couldn't understand why Reese had been that desperate, especially when there were other options. But why did he feel Elias was worth the risk?

The constant thinking about it was driving Carter crazy, often putting her into a terrible mood; much like the one she was in tonight. Clicking her pen, she slapped it against the folder on her desk and, for maybe the umpteenth time, yanked open the drawer that held the cell phone Reese had given her so long ago. It was still in service and had several unheard voice-mail messages. But what could she have said to him? What was there to say to him?

"Carter?"

Shoving the drawer closed, Carter looked across her desk, and saw Fusco staring at her.

"What," she asked, irritated, as she made herself busy with stacking paperwork.

"Go home, Carter," Fusco said. "You look like crap."

"Thanks, but I'm fine," lied Carter, knowing very well she wasn't. In fact, she was exhausted. But work was keeping her mind off things.

"You're not fooling anyone, Carter. Just do us all a favor and go home," Fusco said, and rose from his desk.

Carter watched him leave, feeling somewhat annoyed. Was it even obvious to Fusco that something was wrong? Was there something wrong? Running her hands through her dark hair, she continued to work for another hour before calling it quits completely. She packed her unfinished paperwork into her file drawer, and took the rest to Captain Lynch's office. Fetching her purse from the station's locker room, Carter waved the remaining officers goodbye and made her way outside.

It was raining; the wet drops falling over the city as a storm brewed above. Using her purse as a makeshift umbrella, Carter hurried across the parking lot to her car. For once, she was glad Taylor was at his grandmother's, because tonight, she needed some personal time to herself—a chance to finally mull over all that had happened.

Arriving at her apartment, Carter parked her car and took a minute to sit and listen to the rain. The drops thumbed against the car's roof in an almost rhythmic pattern, meshing with the thunder as it rumbled in the distance. Exhaling sharply, Carter grabbed her purse once more and climbed out of the car, heading for the stoop steps to her apartment. However, she faltered when she saw a familiar face standing by the door. After frantically looking up and down the street, Carter marched herself up the wet steps and harshly yelled out over the rain, "What are you doing here?"

"It's nice to meet you too, Detective," Reese responded rather sardonically. "You've been avoiding my calls."

She glowered, four weeks of pent up anger bubbling to the surface as she said, "I thought I told you—!

Interrupting her midsentence with a rise of his leather gloved hands, he said, "About that. We really do need to talk, Carter."

"Jesus, for how long were you—wait what," Carter questioned bewildered. Who did he think he was saying that they needed to talk? As far as Carter was concerned, they stopped talking four weeks ago. "You have a lot of balls showing up here, you know that right?"

Reese annoyingly remained quiet, his eyes glancing away from her as if what she said had been juvenile. Unfortunately, that only fueled Carter's anger even more, and she stood there, tightly gripping her slick purse to contain it. However, taking in Reese's soaked appearance; she couldn't help but feel a twinge of remorse. How long had he been out here?

"Fine," Carter said, digging through her coat for her keys, "But you have five minutes."

Walking into her apartment, Carter tossed her wet purse onto the side table by the door and proceeded to shrug off her coat. Reese followed in after her, closing the door behind him, but remained where he stood. She stared at him quizzically at first, but then noticed the wet puddle on the floor. He was probably being considerate, staying where he was, and as of now, Carter was happy he had made that decision. Regardless of how pathetic he looked, she had no desire of inviting him any further into her apartment.

Hanging up her coat, she stood in front of Reese and crossed her arms over her chest, "Five minutes."

"I came—we want to apologize," Reese started off, but right off the bat Carter doubted that was true. She was almost certain Reese had come via his own omission; his friend probably not knowing he was even here. However, this wasn't what she wanted to hear from him.

"I don't want an apology, John," she said. "I just want to know why you felt the need to do what you did."

"I told you I had no choice."

"And I told you that there was a choice! I was that choice, John!"

Silence soon fell between them with Carter holding herself to quell her anger and Reese looking distantly away. Sighing roughly, though, Carter finally replied, "Why wasn't I worth the risk?"

"You were an asset that we—that I didn't want to lose," Reese told, rather coldly.

She frowned. "An asset? I thought I was a partner."

"In the beginning, I thought that was all you were…to me. An asset," Reese struggled, his features contorting into confusion and uncertainty. The look bothered Carter. It was something she wasn't expecting from him. "But Carter, you became more than that. You became needed—irreplaceable..."

His voice trailed off then, and once again, he refused to look at her. Carter bit into her bottom lip and stared at him, her eyes following the wet drops running down his face and from his hair. He was getting to her, and he was doing it by being honest. Reese might have been uncomfortable with it, but Carter knew when someone was sincere—it was her job.

"Do you remember when I had told you your moral compass…was pointed in the right direction," he suddenly questioned.

Carter gulped and shifted her feet, "I do…"

"Well, I still think it is…Joss," he said softly.

Turning around, Carter retreated down the hallway. She needed a distraction, but more importantly, she needed to stall. Five minutes be damned, there was no getting around this—whatever this was. Entering her bathroom, she grabbed two large towels from the cabinet and took them back to the front room.

"Here, you look awful," Carter said awkwardly, and handed Reese the two towels. "Dry off."

"You're getting a little soft, Carter," Reese commented, a ghost of a smile spreading on his lips as he ran the towel through his hair.

Carter rolled her eyes in response, but quickly vacated the room when she caught herself staring. The last thing she wanted was to be swayed by attraction. Walking into the kitchen, she switched on the coffee machine and poured in some coffee grounds. She needed to stay calm, and coffee was her genius solution. Grabbing two cups from the kitchen cabinet, she sat them down onto the counter and called out, "How do you take your coffee?"

"Any way is fine," Reese answered with a slight grunt. "I have no preference."

Carter raised a doubtful eyebrow, but took out the bottle of cream anyway; he'll just have to do with lots of cream and lots of sugar. Returning to the front room, she found Reese with several things removed from his person. A whole set of weaponry was laid onto the side table next to her purse while his wet coat was hung on the coat rack. He had folded his suit jacket and dress shirt and sat them onto the floor, leaving him in just his thin white undershirt and dark slacks. His usual styled grayed hair was a wild mess on top of his head with several strands sticking out in all sorts of directions, giving him a very wild look. He was mostly dry, but shivering, trying to hide the fact with his arms crossed over his chest.

"Don't worry, the coffee will be done in a minute," Carter said, grabbing his attention.

He smiled, "I'm fine."

"You…you want to sit down or something," Carter gestured to her small living room.

"I thought I was quarantined here," Reese pointed out with a smirk, "and I'm still a little wet."

"I've…changed my mind," she said carefully, because she honestly couldn't explain why she had the slight change of heart. However, she wasn't making any promises—at least not yet. "The couch will dry, and I'm tired of standing."

In that moment, the coffee machine finally rang. Excusing herself, Carter reentered the kitchen and began preparing the two coffees. She was still stalling, their discussion seemingly long forgotten in the wake of casual conversation. However, it had hardly left her mind. If anything, she was more confused now than she was on that day. Her decision back then had been based on her merits as a cop, but it was also because she had felt untrusted. For a man who had told her she wasn't alone, he had made it sure to keep her isolated during that situation. Was that Reese's real intention all along?

"I just don't know," Carter murmured quietly, and with the two coffee cups in hand, turned to head into the living room. However, she was caught off guard when she found Reese standing within the archway of her kitchen. She jerked backwards from the surprise, and nearly dropped the two cups in the process with some of the coffee spilling onto the tiled floor, "Shit!"

"Did I startle you," Reese asked amused.

"I thought I told you to sit in the living room."

"I wasn't aware that was a demand, Detective."

They were at it again: the back and forth banter. And although she enjoyed it, this was not the place or the time for it. Sitting the cups back onto the counter, Carter ripped a piece of towel paper from its roll and ran it through warm water, determined to clean up the mess on her own. However, once again, Reese surprised her, and took the paper towel from her, wiping up the mess himself. She stared with a mixture of warmth and annoyance, more so at herself than toward him.

"You didn't have to do that," she told, watching him throw away the soiled paper towel.

"I wanted to," he said, turning toward her with a small smile and a shrug.

Carter huffed and lifted one of the coffees from the counter. Taking a slow sip of it, she was glad to find it still warm. She kept drinking as Reese went to the sink and washed his hands; her eyes wandering down his shoulders and along his back, noticing the old wounds that peeked through his undershirt. Wiping his hands clean, Reese turned around and grabbed the remaining coffee, taking a drink of it himself as he kept his gaze on Carter.

Grunting softly, he replied, "This is good, Carter."

"Thanks. It keeps you awake," she answered in good humor. "You don't get much sleep doing what I do, but it's worth it."

"Was working with us worth it…Joss," Reese questioned quietly as he rested against the counter and sat his coffee down. "Do you regret it?"

Carter ran a finger around the rim of her cup, "I don't regret it, John. I wouldn't have agreed to do this if I had regretted it. We did…fine work, but you and your friend crossed the line. And something like that just doesn't get fixed overnight."

"I wish it did…"

Reese sounded considerably selfish then, but the remark was far from daunting. His features softened and he took a leisurely step towards Carter, "I'm sorry, Joss."

Carter gulped, "I…I thought I told you that I didn't want an apology."

She was nervous, licking her lips and gripping her cup tight as she stared up at him. She was trying to figure out where this was going, but Reese was giving her no hints. Carter was effectively left in the dark.

"I'm not apologizing for what happened, Joss," he told, standing inches apart from her. "I'm apologizing for disappointing you, for giving you the impression you didn't matter, and for betraying your trust."

Carter was speechless, her eyebrows rising in shock as her mouth fell open slightly. If it wasn't for the iron grip she had on her coffee, she would have dropped it. Keeping her gaze, Reese brought his hand forward and grazed his fingers lightly through her hair. Carter sucked in a deep breath, feeling something vague yet familiar swell inside her chest from the touch.

"Y-You…" Carter began quietly, but her words dropped off when Reese suddenly leaned closer.

It was obvious where this was going now, but Carter had no desire of stopping it. She wanted to not think about it—to just let go. Leaning in close herself, Carter shut her eyes, feeling his breath tickle her face as he grew nearer. However, before Reese's lips could touch hers, a phone rang. The ringing came from Reese's pants, his cell phone ringing loud and insistently in the now embarrassing silence. Pulling away from him, Carter quickly drank the rest of her coffee and asked, "You…going to get that?"

Shoving his hand into his pocket, Reese pulled out the cell phone and answered it. Carter watched from the side, absentmindedly playing with her coffee cup as she went over what almost happened between them. Maybe they had gotten carried away, the almost-kiss resulting from their emotions needing an outlet. However, Carter doubted if that was true.

"Uh…Carter?"

Looking at Reese, Carter saw him give her an apologetic smile, waving the phone in his hands as he replied, "I've been caught."

"I figured as much," she told, a smile pulling on her lips as she turned to place her cup into the sink. "So…"

"I'll wait, Joss," he said cryptically, but Carter knew exactly what he was referring to.

"You make it sound like I will come back," Carter said, turning around to look at him indignantly only to feel his lips against her forehead. Her eyes widened a dumbfounded look on her face as Reese pulled away from her.

"Think about it Joss," he said through a gentle smile. "We both have our differences, but I can always…adjust."

He walked off then, rummaging around in the front room to what Carter assumed was him redressing. Blinking out of her stupor, she sauntered back into the front room just in time to catch Reese pulling the door open. She wanted to say something, but the words weren't coming to her. So she watched him leave, Reese giving her one last look before disappearing into the street.

Walking up and closing the door afterwards, Carter stood and rested her head against it; her mind trying to process all that had happened tonight, "What now?"

Reviews are welcomed and loved!

I am considering a sequel to this, so feedback on where I should pick up from here are very much appreciated!

*EDIT* Made some minor changes, and adjusted some things since "Identity Crisis". Also a sequel to this is being written, but bear with me, I'm a slow writer and a busy college student entering finals week. :D