Fire

Chapter One

"Mr. Reese? Are you there? Answer me John!" Finch found himself screaming into his earpiece, trying and failing to get a response from his partner. The last thing he had heard coming from Reese's end was a loud booming noise, like and explosion and then nothing. No static, no Reese, nothing.

Finch feared the worst. He knew that the new number the Machine had given them was going to be tricky, dealing with drug dealers always was, but he never expected it to turn into this. He pushed himself out of his chair and across the room towards the stairs and out of the library, limping as quickly as his body would allow. He walked onto the street and towards the small lot where he kept a car for emergencies and got the key he kept taped under the driver side door. He got in the car and drove, way over the speed limit to where he knew Reese was.

By his calculations, he had to get there, find Reese and get him out in less than twenty minutes before the police were to get there, and his partner was halfway across town. Finch drove like a madman, and before he knew it, he was pulling into a sight of a burning building, not sure how he got there in the first place.

His car came to a screeching stop and as he got out he scanned the area for a possible Mr. Reese, walking about unharmed and was unsuccessful. "Damn it John where are you?" Finch asked himself and he heard the familiar sound of police sirens making their way to the scene of the crime. He walked closer to the building, feeling the heat form the burning wreckage and knew that their pesky number had probably set the whole thing on fire, but he didn't care, he just wanted to find Reese and get out.

He started to walk around the perimeter but didn't have to go far before he spotted a body on the ground, dressed in what appeared to be a suit. Finch felt his breath quicken as he made his way towards the body, squinting to see if he could identify it in the distance, and he did. He tried to run, but his injuries hindered him greatly, but he reached the spot and kneeled beside a half conscious Reese.

The man looked awful. His clothes were torn, his face was dirty, blackened by ash, but luckily there didn't seem to be any blood on him, at least none that was his own. Finch scanned him and determined that the explosion hadn't harmed him that much, and he let out a breath of relief.

"Finch," Reese said weakly, looking at the man before him. "You came. You came for me."

"That's right. I'm here now, I got you." Finch heard himself say the words out loud but paid little mind to what he was actually saying. His mind was entirely focused on the view before him. He knew Reese was not super human, he knew the man was capable of being hurt just like everybody else in the world, but to see him in this condition, it was unnerving. "I got you." He said again, and he began to lean towards the injured man to get a hold of him and get him on his feet.

"Finch." He heard Reese calling him again and saw that the taller man had his eyes fixed on him. He saw how he lifted his arm toward him to place his hand on the back of his head and saw, or rather, felt himself being pulled forward. It caught Finch off guard but he made no attempt to stop what he knew was about to happen. Reese pulled him into a tight kiss, and Finch could taste the kerosene and sweat on the other man's lips. He had no time to pull himself away because as soon as the kiss started it ended, and Finch was met with an unconscious Reese, his arm still draped behind the shorter man's head.

There was no time to try and think through this logically, or even think of it at all. He used all of his might and managed to get Reese up on his feet and started dragging him towards their only means of escape.

Finch struggled under the taller man's dead weight but he pushed pass the pain and dragged the unconscious form to the back of the car, absentmindedly wishing he had parked closer. He grunted as he shifted the weight to one side of his body using the free side to slide his hand to the handle and open the door to the back seat. With one last push and a louder grunt he managed to get Reese inside, laying him across the entire back seat and making sure his feet weren't hanging out of the car. He closed the door hurriedly, sharply aware of the police sirens that sounded ever closer to their location. He limped to the driver's seat and raced the car out of the scene through a back way where he wished there would be no police.

As he drove, his mind dizzy from the smell of kerosene, he hoped he was not too late. It was all the man could do to keep his cool as he made his way back to the library. The thought of loosing Reese crept into his mind once or twice, but he willed it away, not sure how he would react to such a loss.

-Note- So this is my first Person of Interest story and of course it's a Rinch. I'm not all that confident with it yet but I hope you like it. It will get to the slashy goodness soon but for now I hope you can put up with me and my bad story telling. Reviews are totally appreciated ^^