A/N: September seems to be the time for birthdays among many of the Person of Interest cast, and so having written a Careese story for Taraji's birthday, it seemed only right to do a companion piece for Jim. And it seemed a bit mean to leave poor Reese tasered on the floor. Careese again, of course. Please read and review if you like it!
Reese looked at the display on his phone with deeply mixed feelings. It wasn't like him to allow a call from Carter to go to voice mail, but their last encounter had left him with a severely bruised ego, not to mention the after-effects of a tasering. Sighing, he accepted the call.
"John?"
"Yes, Carter," he said evenly. "What do you want?"
"I hadn't heard from you in a while."
He allowed the silence to stretch.
She sighed. "Look, I'm sorry I tasered you. Truly."
He remained silent.
"Hey, I was provoked! And I do regret doing it, so I'm gonna make it up to you."
"Oh yeah?" he said, finally lured into replying.
"Yeah. It's your birthday in another week or so. So you get to choose your present, okay?"
"Anything?"
"Anything at all."
Reese sat frozen. Of course, he'd forgiven her when she'd sold him out to the CIA, hadn't he? Compared to that, a tasering was pretty trivial, really…
xxxx
Well, this was just straight-out embarrassing. All the fascinating, bewitching possibilities Carter had thrown out in front of him with her offer, and he couldn't think of anything. Well, nothing she'd agree to, anyway.
Okay. Okay. He hadn't run most of his immediate thoughts past her – she still had the taser, after all – but there had to be something, surely? So think, Reese, think.
Night out on the town? Pfft. Besides, they'd had that just a week or so back, though it had ended badly.
Tickets to a game? They'd both enjoy that, true, but it seemed too ordinary to waste on an opportunity like this.
Home-cooked meal? Nope. Despite many talents, she was the first to admit she was no great cook.
Quiet night in? Ohhhhh…. Get your mind back on track, boy.
Still, sitting on her sofa, snuggling up and watching a DVD – now that had definite possibilities. But what should they watch? Something intelligent, of course, something which got you thinking. Edge-of-the-seat drama with a leavening of humour. Characters you got to care about… Of course!
He got his phone out and waited impatiently for her to pick up. "Carter? You still looking for a birthday present? Yeah, there's this TV show I've been watching, Person of Interest? Oh, great, you've heard of it..."