A/N: This story is set immediately following the events of the Person of Interest season 3 episode "The Devil's Share". As such, it contains obvious spoilers to the "Endgame" trilogy of episodes. There is no direct crossover with Grimm other than the Wesen identities of the characters.
When you find that one person who connects you to the world, you become someone different, someone better. When that person is taken from you, what do you become then?
Having secured Root in her personal Faraday cage, Harold slowly limped back to the room where Mr. Reese silently slept, hooked up to IVs and monitors that indicated that he was, despite appearances, still alive.
As the Seltenvogel gingerly settled into the chair next to the bed, Bear curled up in a large furry ball at his feet, his head resting dejectedly on the floor. The Malinois had been that way ever since Harold and Miss Shaw had brought John back to the Library. It was unusual for a dog to be so devoted to a Blutbad; most dogs, even trained working dogs, were afraid of Blutbaden and ran away from them at first scent, but not Bear.
An unusual dog for an unusual Blutbad. One who now lay motionless and silent, lost and broken.
John had given everything he had in his relentless hunt for the man who murdered Detective Carter. No, Harold corrected himself, not 'Detective Carter.' Joss. But even Blutbaden had their failing point. Harold and the others had caught up to him in time to save his life - or at the very least to keep his body from dying. To be perfectly blunt, Harold was far more concerned with John's shattered emotional state.
Had he loved Joss? Harold could definitely see the attraction for a Blutbad in a strong, vibrant person like Joss, despite the fact that she was merely human. 'Merely human,' indeed. She was more like a force of nature, indomitable and unstoppable, both beautiful and dangerous. But that was merely physical attraction. There was more than biological chemistry to draw John to her.
Much more, in Harold's opinion.
What had Joss been? Despite everything - despite looking into the heart of darkness, gazing into Nietzsche's abyss, she had never been cruel or cowardly, never giving up and never giving in.
Unlike Miss Shaw, who on a physical level would be equally attractive (probably more so, Harold conceded) to the average Blutbad, Joss had a strong moral compass, an innate sense of both goodness and justice. And yet, she wasn't like John's first lover, the long-Jessica, who had been a symbol of purity and innocence, something to be protected and cherished and placed on a pedestal. No, that ideal for John was long gone.
Joss... had been the shield to John's sword, the thumb on his scales of justice. Where he might go too far, she kept him to just far enough. She made him better. She made everyone around her better.
Whether or not the love John had felt for Joss was romantic or that of a friend, Harold concluded, there was no doubt in his mind that it was, indeed, love.
And now she was gone. Struck down at her very moment of triumph over the corruption and decay that was HR. Murdered by a bitter and desperate man who had nothing to gain by killing her other than what petty personal revenge such an act could offer him. Harold's jaw twitched slightly. Former Officer Simmons had been apprehended by Detective Fusco - Harold wondered how tempted the pudgy Fuchsbau had been to complete John's quest for vengeance. Joss had been good for Detective Fusco, too, it seemed, because he arrested Simmons instead of killing him.
Sighing softly, Harold silently watched John's chest shallowly rise and fall. It wasn't the first time he'd seen John near death; the CIA's bullets had nearly ended his life two years before. But this time, it was so much worse simply by the knowledge that Joss Carter had been cruelly, unjustly murdered, had bled out in John's arms. Even now, his face was pale and bloodless and as still as the corpse she left behind.
He had seemed so weak and broken when they found him, after drawing on his Blutbad strength and endurance for hours, just to keep moving despite his grave injuries. It had inevitably worn out, making the normally fearsome Blutbad terrifying easy to overpower and all but drag to safety.
John had to grieve, Harold knew. It was the Blutbad way, especially when it came to those they loved. But John hadn't allowed himself that luxury. And if he didn't, in the end it wouldn't matter if his body healed.
Harold reached over to the book he had left on the nearby table, his eyes not leaving John's unmoving form. For now, all he could do was wait and hope. "I don't know that you can hear me, Mr. Reese, but on the off-chance that you can, I picked out a book that I think you would appreciate. It's not a first edition, but it'll do."
Bear, at least, perked his ears up at the sound of Harold's voice. John made no reaction other than to continue his slow, steady breathing. Harold, smiling tightly, cracked the book open to the first page and began reading. "The Count of Monte Cristo, by Alexandre Dumas. Chapter One. Marseilles - The Arrival. On the 24th of February, 1815, the look-out at Notre-Dame de la Garde signalled the three-master…"
Story Notes: The title of the story comes from Alexandre Dumas's The Count of Monte Cristo: "Life is a storm, my young friend. You will bask in the sunlight one moment, be shattered on the rocks the next. What makes you a man is what you do when that storm comes."
Jim Caviezel starred as the title character in the 2002 movie adaptation of the Dumas novel, which also featured James Frain (who played Eric Renard, the half-brother of Grimm's Sean Renard).
The first line of the story comes from the pilot episode of Person of Interest; Reese spoke it in voiceover regarding the loss of his love, Jessica, and his degeneration into a drunken bum on a New York subway.