AN: Hi, so with the holiday quickly approaching I couldn't help but do 12 Days of Christmas but in a Careese style. These oneshots will be connected in some fashion or another and some might be longer than others.

This story is post 3x9 so it's AU with Carter being alive but it's not much after 3x9 and doesn't follow what the show did not like it matters since the show went over a cliff after they killed Carter.

I know I need to update Collide which will happen this week but I'll be mixing updates for that story and this one. Hope you don't mind an overload on Careese ;D

Elaine, I really appreciate you! Thank you for everything XOXOX.

Disclaimer: I still don't own anything.

On the first day of Christmas, my true love sent to me…

A Mystery in a Bouquet

Joss climbed into her car, ready for work, grateful she had taken the time to warm it up so it was nice and toasty when she entered, and turned the radio on, wanting the useless noise. She winced as The Twelve Days of Christmas song blared, which she immediately switched the radio off. It wasn't that she was a Scrooge but it was only December 1st and with Christmas music already playing it must mean that the Christmas season had arrived whether or not she was ready.

It was the most wonderful time of the year, or so they sung; Joss wasn't so sold on it. Nine out of ten times for her during the Christmas season she saw a surge in homicides and suicides. But this year Joss had a little more to celebrate. Just three weeks ago she took down HR, getting justice for Cal so she could finally let herself move on but it didn't come without a cost. Simmons had been in hiding, having gotten away, but appeared to gun John down. Thankfully, she had been wearing her bulletproof vest so that she could apprehend the bastard, but John hadn't been as lucky, not with being arrested for carrying a weapon without a permit hours before. She really should get him some new hardware; perhaps it would be the perfect Christmas gift.

But the reason she had to celebrate more was the fact that John made a full recovery and was back to working the numbers far too quickly for her liking. Shaw and Finch promised to keep a careful eye on him for her.

'Numbers,' she thought with a shake of the head. When Finch and John sat her down to explain the machine and what it was exactly they did, finally, she had been astonished. They got social security numbers of someone about to be involved in a violent crime whether as the victim or perpetrator and it was up to them to figure it out. Now she understood why they couldn't always determine if the person they were following was good or not.

She drove to the station as her thoughts drifted back onto John. The moment they shared at the morgue was left unspoken but the memory warmed her better than any hot chocolate on a cold night could. In that one moment John had allowed her to see past the man-in-the-suit façade and see the vulnerable man beneath it; the one that he hid so well that she was certain he wasn't even sure who he was anymore. But she knew even if he didn't and if ever needed a reminder then she'd be more than happy to give it.

Joss pulled into the parking lot of the precinct, grateful to get there to stop her incessant thoughts about a certain vigilante who got her emotions all tangled up in tight knots. They were first and foremost, friends, the 'whatever-this-is thing' that simmered on top of that was the murky part.

She entered the precinct pushing open the double doors to enter the bullpen, stopping only long enough to remove her wool coat, before making a beeline for the coffee-pot. Joss noted she beat Fusco in. She took a sip of coffee as she moved towards her desk stopping abruptly.

There in the middle of her desk was a bouquet of red roses, beautiful long stemmed ones that smelled heavenly and housed in an obviously not cheap crystal vase. Joss frowned as she looked around the place and saw no one. She moved close and set her coffee down and picked the roses up suspiciously. Last time someone left her flowers it was Elias with a promise of death concealed in the beautiful flowers. And now they were frenemies…times sure have changed.

But this time there was no card; all she was left was flowers given to her by some anonymous person which was already setting her curiosity a twirl.

She lifted her gaze from the lavish bouquet, the heady smell tickling her nose, and watched as Fusco had arrived and moved to his desk. "Roses?" he asked with a smirk. "Hooked another poor sap eh, Carter?"

"Ha, that's funny, except I have as much of a social life as you do," she quipped back. Fusco chuckled as he held his hands out in surrender. "But I have no clue who left these roses for me because they were here before me and the anonymous person that left them conveniently forgot a card."

Fusco took his seat at his desk looking at her from it. "Maybe they're from your kid, Taylor, to butter you up for something he really wants off his Christmas list," Fusco muttered. Joss brightened. Yea, maybe it was Taylor. "And if it wasn't Taylor then ask Mr. Tall, Dark, and Stormy, he should know since he has your desk on lock down."

She cocked a brow up. "Oh, John has my desk on lockdown?" she commented.

"Yea, I mean, come on, Carter, it's you. If you get a paper cut he wants to know about it so he can find what paper did it to you and shred it apart," Fusco muttered with a laugh.

She rolled her eyes at the exaggeration. And while she should be irritated that John had her desk on surveillance she wasn't. There wasn't any way she could ever turn off John's overprotectiveness. It was who John was and perhaps it might have come in handy for once.

Joss drew out her phone and called the said man, who answered her on the second ring. "Hello detective…."

His voice always managed to make little flutters cascade in her stomach and today was no exception. "Hey, John, keeping out of trouble?" she asked with a smile flirting on her lips.

"When have I ever gotten into trouble, Carter?"

She snorted. "You don't want me to answer that do you?" she requested dryly.

"Name one time…"

"Shot and lit on fire," she answered instantly.

"Not shot, just grazed. And I would have made it to civilization sooner or later," John muttered in defense, hating to be called out. "But then I would never have gotten to see your mobile gun collection."

Joss felt warmth fill her at how soft his voice got like it was caressing her. She mentally shook herself as he nearly made her forget why she called him in the first place. "John, I need your help," she said as she eyeballed the roses, gently rubbing the soft velvety petals between her fingers.

"What's going on?" he asked as the teasing lilt to his voice disappeared.

Joss sighed as she explained, "It's nothing bad John, so chill. Just someone left me roses and apparently you have my desk on lock down or so Fusco claims."

"Lionel said that?"

"Yea, we'll discuss surveilling my desk later," she assured darkly. "But could you figure out who left me the flowers?"

"I know already," he admitted.

Joss sat up straight. "Who?" she wondered, so help her he better not say Shaw. But then, if it was Shaw wouldn't it be a bouquet of steaks instead?—that woman put her teenage son to shame with the amount of food she ate.

"Me."

Joss blinked in surprise. She looked down at the roses with new appreciation. "You?" if she hadn't been so shocked she would be appalled at how her voice sounded right there.

"Yes, me, is that so hard to believe?"

She noted the slight edge to his voice and she hastened to explain herself. "Not hard to believe, but usually your idea of gifting is a perp neatly wrapped up in a bow, or zip-tie, with a blown kneecap or two, so I'm taken aback," she murmured.

John was quiet for a moment before finally saying, "I never got to say thank you, Carter."

Joss frowned as she felt there was something left unspoken in that 'admission'. "For what?" she asked.

"For saving me…"

AN: And so it begins. I won't lie I had fun coming up with these titles ;D

Thanks for reading!