Hi all, I'm back. I can't say goodbye to John and Joss. So, this builds on my previous story where Joss moves to Chicago and John follows her. I'm not completely sure where I'm going with this, but I have an idea. So, stick with me.

Love Undercover

Chapter 1- Meeting Again For the First Time

John and Joss sat quietly intertwined on her giant sofa. Her back rested against John's chest and their fingers were interlinked. Joss thought that if she wasn't scheduled for work the next day, she could stay in the same spot forever. And only part of it was John. Her sofa was truly amazing. After being in Chicago for all of three days of seeing multiple commercials featuring the three singing Smithe brothers, she wondered if Finch had purchased it from Walter E. Smithe or whether he'd found it in an even higher end boutique furniture store. She loved that for the first time in months, she didn't have to worry about HR or hers and Taylor's safety or compromising John in any way. Instead, she could concern herself with such inconsequential things as her new sofa.

"What are you thinking about?"

John's voice was soft but Joss could feel his chest vibrate as he spoke. The sensation made her smile.

"The sofa." Joss couldn't help laughing as soon as the truth crossed her lips.

"Ouch." John moved her away from his chest. "Are you already bored with me, Detective?" He placed his hands over his heart. "I'm wounded. Maybe you miss the suits. I remember how you used to check me out."

"Is that right?" She chuckled and flopped her back against his chest once more. "What I remember is your eyes popping out of your head when I wore a certain dress to the safe house." John smiled even though he knew Joss couldn't see the look on his face. "Did you happen to bring that dress with you to Chicago?"

John looked down at their hands. He marveled at how small Joss's hands were compared to his. He smiled as he thought about how her small frame might fool someone into thinking she wasn't absolutely fierce. Soon, her voice pulled him from his thoughts.

"You know I couldn't bring my clothes with me for safety's sake. Lucky for you, I think Finch knows what you like. " She dropped her voice to a low purr. "You'll see what my wardrobe contains when you finally take me on that date." Though they had been in Chicago together for five days, the weather had kept them inside for the entire time…not that either one of them were complaining.

"About that. We need to talk about where we go from here."

Joss's body stiffened and she immediately pulled herself away from John's embrace. "Have you changed your mind about coming here? About us?" She took a deep breath and reminded herself that she should give John a chance to speak. But before she could follow her own advice, she added, "Because if you did it's o.k."

John smiled at her. He wondered when she would get that only death would separate them…and after everything that had happened, he wasn't completely sure that death would fully keep them apart. "Jocelyn, you are stuck with me." He kissed various points on her face between each word. "Got it?"

"Got it." She smiled. "So, tell me what we need to talk about."

He pushed a strand of her hair that had fallen onto her face to its rightful place behind her ear. "Well Joss, you are very good at many things…" He leaned in as if he planned to kiss her but touched his nose to hers instead. "But lying isn't one of them."

She crinkled her nose at his statement. "That's a good thing, right?"

"It is, except you're going to make friends here. I don't want you to have to lie about how we met. You can't tell people I was a drunken bum that was brought into your precinct." John dropped his gaze. "I don't want you to."

She quickly turned her body to face him so that he could see her frowned expression. Then for extra emphasis she used her hand to force him to make eye contact. "Listen to me. You were so much more than that even then, got it?"

"Got it." His lips brushed hers softly before he pulled her back against his chest. "Still, I want to give us a better story to tell. In fact, what I want to give you is the chance for your soon-to-be friends to see how we meet from the beginning."

Joss ran what John was saying through her head. Suddenly, she began to laugh.

"What's so funny, Joss?"

She turned to look back at him. "So, you plan to stage it to look like we're meeting for the first time AND you expect people to believe that we've never met? I'm a cop, not an actress. People are going to know we've met, the first time they see our eyes meet."

John arched an eyebrow, which he punctuated with a smirk. "Why Joss, are you saying people will know you find me completely irresistible?"

"I was talking about the way you look at me." She shoved his chest causing John to fall deeper into the plush sofa. He didn't mind; the sofa felt like a cloud. He looped his arm around her shoulder, causing her to lie against his chest once more.

"So, tell me more about this genius plan of yours." Joss snuggled against his chest. She smiled as she felt him kiss the top of her head.

"I can't you're a cop not an actress. You'll be more believable if the element of surprise is there."

She released a deep sigh. "Can you at least tell me when?"

John's back stiffened. This was the moment he dreaded. He knew she was going to hate what he had to tell her.

She could always read him. At least, she could read him better than most could. "John, what's wrong?" Pulling her knee beneath her, she turned to face him.

He lifted his hand and pushed her hair behind her ear once more. Then he leaned in and kissed her gently. "I have to go away for awhile."

"Away? Where? Back to New York? For how long?"

A faint smile crossed his lips as his hand continued to linger in her hair. "I'm going on a case, Joss. That's all I'm going to tell you because I don't want to compromise you or your new position by sharing information like we used to."

Joss sat up a little straighter. She turned to face him, hoping that there would be some clue as to what he was talking about. "Compromise me? What are you talking about?"

"I don't want anyone tracing what I do back to you. It can't be like it was in New York. I won't come that close to losing you, again." He stroked her cheek while his eyes burrowed straight through hers to her soul. His intense gaze accompanied by his tensed jaw made it very clear to Joss that his decision was nonnegotiable.

"And I suppose I don't get a say in this?" Joss bristled.

"No." Immediately, John's mind flashed to Joss's crusade against HR that almost cost her life. He also thought about the way she decided to move to Chicago without talking to him. It made him bristle a bit. "You of all people should understand, Joss."

She knew exactly to what he was alluding and it killed her argument. She flopped dramatically against the sofa. "When do you leave?"

"Tonight."

Joss let loose an audible sigh. "How long will you be gone?"

"I don't know. But when I get back, I'm back. I won't be leaving again unless Finch absolutely needs me." He touched his hand to her cheek, loving the way it fit perfectly in his hand. "And when we meet again, get ready to fall in love with a whole new man."

Anxious to avoid an argument on John's last day with her for a while, she refrained from articulating the thought that was screaming aloud in her mind: "What if I don't want a whole new man?"

Eight Weeks Later

Joss sat at her chair on the 5th floor of the Dirksen Federal Building, which was in the heart of Chicago's downtown area, known affectionately as "the loop." Somehow, she'd landed an office with a window that overlooked the courtyard below. Part of her hoped that she'd see a familiar figure in the black suit and trench coat stalking through the square, but so far she'd seen no trace of John. Not actually, that is. The truth was she had seen John in a number of people that turned out to be complete strangers.

"Do you really think you have time to be staring out of your window mooning over some lost love? Besides you're being pretty dramatic, don't cha think?"

"You can't be serious. That's a little pot versus kettle isn't, it?" Joss shook her head before releasing the smile she'd been holding ever since the woman began speaking. This woman, Lena Johnson, was an attractive African-American attorney, who was about 50, but looked 30 and had deemed herself Joss's new best friend. Although Lena was no more than ten years older than Joss, she possessed more wit and wisdom than a woman of eighty.

"Not from where I'm standing. When I walked in here, I thought I walked onto the set of General Hospital with all of the brooding by the windowsill."

"Whatever Lena." Joss rolled her eyes in mock disgust. Lena was one of her wonderful new coworkers. She expected to hate practicing law; she had the first time she gave it a try. But this was different. She was making a difference here. They were taking bad men (and women) off of the streets.

It also helped that her new coworkers had incredible senses of humor and that down-to-earth approachability that seemed very common in her new hometown. Yes, she still missed John and Taylor and the rest of the men in her life, but these people made her feel at home, despite the fact that she was a stranger.

Lena walked into her office and plopped in a chair opposite Joss's desk. "We have got to find you a man so you can stop mooning over…"

"Please don't say his name."

"Yes, please don't say his name." Natalie, the office's pretty, redhead paralegal who was no more than 25, dramatically threw her hands in the air. Though the women were very different, Natalie felt completely at ease with Joss and Lena. She was never shy about giving her opinion, especially when he came to the things Joss could do to rejuvenate her love life.

"Joss," Natalie stretched out the s sound in her name, "that ship has sailed. It's time for you to move on. Go out and get your groove on. Saddle up, girl."

Joss felt the heat rise to her face. She wondered what Lena and Natalie would say the first time they saw John. Of course, at this point, she wondered if they would ever meet John. After six weeks, she'd heard from him exactly four times, one of which was Valentine's Day, when she could have sworn she heard the voices of angry men, rapidly speaking Spanish in the background. It had already been two weeks since she'd last heard from him. Joss sighed, "I'll meet someone when the time is right."

"The time is always right." Natalie retorted. "Half of the guys in this office would be willing to show you a good time if you only gave them a chance…especially, Roger."

Lena curled her lip up toward the left side of her face as she eyed Natalie suspiciously. "Sweetie, no body is thinking about Roger, but you. And he's not thinking about you. He's got his eyes on Gary."

"Shut up." Natalie snapped a Lena before breaking into a laugh. "Let's go to lunch."

Soon all three ladies were laughing until their bellies hurt. Joss loved every single second of it. While what she'd come to have with these women was different than what she had with Fusco or Finch or especially John, it still made her feel good to be connected to something.

The women decided to walk around the corner to the Exchequer Pub, which served some of the pizza Joss had ever had. Chicago was still freezing…even in early March. She pulled her beautiful new coat, which she found in her closet courtesy of Finch, closer to her body. They were nearing a busy crosswalk when she heard Natalie yell.

"Oh my gosh! That guy is so busy texting that he's walking into the street!"

Joss looked up just in to see a man, in grey wool coat and a newsboy cap walking blindly toward the intersection after the light had already turned red. At the same time, a cab was picking up speed less than a block away. All of Joss's training as a cop along with a double dose of adrenaline kicked in and she began running at full speed directly toward the man. While she ran, she screamed, "Sir, sir…" She could hear Lena and Natalie screaming the same in the distance.

As she ran, she noticed that neither the man nor the cab was coming to a stop. By the time she reached the man, she pulled him backward with enough force to send both of them flying to ground near the curb with the man landing on top of her. As the man lay sprawled across her body, she realized that he was much taller than she'd originally thought. The impact of hitting the ground knocked the cap off of his head and Joss noticed that his hair wasn't long, but wasn't exactly short. And finally, as the man rolled off of her she felt the slight scrape of his facial hair brush her cheek. Then, as she looked at him, behind the wire frame glasses, she saw the clear blue eyes she'd recognize anywhere. And just above a whisper, his name escaped her lips.

"John?"