My first fanfiction ever, not my native language.

There definitely will be some mistakes, I hope you can still enjoy the story!

Summary: This is a Careese story. Joss Carter is living a dangerous life as a NYPD detective. She used to deal with this on her own but she has some backup now.

Genre: Hurt/Comfort, Romance

Characters: John Reese and Joss Carter mainly, but of course our other friends will make an appearance.

Disclaimer: Unfortunately, none of this belongs to me, neither POI, nor the characters, and so on…

1 - A day off

"Good morning Detective"

She sighed. This was her first day off for a couple of months and now he calls her at 8am!

Muttering a curse she promised herself if this wasn't very, very urgent she would tell him pretty detailed what she was going to do with him the next time they saw each other.

"You better have a damn good reason to wake me up this early John..."

His lips curled into a small smile. He knew she's a late riser. A little bit of guilt crossed his mind but he shook it off immediately as he thought of her reaction to his surprise.

"Not a morning person, huh? I promise you won't be mad anymore within an hour if you get out of bed now."

She was torn between just wanting to sleep and being curious about how he was trying to keep his promise. There was something about him that make her obey to everyone of his wishes without her even noticing it.

"I know you tend to keep your promises. And I'm curious now. What's up?"

He got her. He knew exactly how to push her buttons. Grinning he announced her his plans for the early wakeup.

"Well, actually I just wanted to ask you if you like to have breakfast with me?"

To say she was shocked would be an understatement, a huge understatement. Was he really trying to tell her he woke her up on her free day at 8am just to have breakfast with her? She realized her mouth was wide open now, so she shut it fast. His next words didn't make her situation any better.

"… I'm a pretty good chef too."

It wasn't until then that she smelled something, something like eggs and … was that bacon? She disconnected the call and rose up from her bed, suddenly very awake.

Taylor should be in school already and his cooking skills were equally miserable as hers. Joss put on some jeans and a shirt which was lying around. After she cleaned herself up a little bit in the bathroom she opened the door of her bedroom. Slowly walking down the hall to the kitchen, the smell got more intense. Just as she was about to sneak around the corner of the kitchen door she heard his voice which made her heart jump for a second.

"I didn't exactly know what you like for breakfast since you rarely eat anything in the morning so I just made some of everything."

There he was, with a smirk on his face and sparkling blue eyes. His dark suit jacket off, the sleeves of his white shirt were rolled up while the first few buttons of it were open. John Reese was definitely a gorgeous looking man. He knew it, she knew it and he knew she knows it too. Which didn't make things any easier.

She took a look around, there were plates with food on it all over her dining table. Scrambled eggs, bacon, pancakes, toast, meat, cheese, yogurt and even fresh fruit. She took a step to the side to take a look behind Reese at her kitchens work surface. Everything was looking just the way she left it yesterday, maybe even cleaner.

No, she really couldn't be mad for him any longer. Damn this man for making her feel this way. So she rose a eye brow at him. "You really gotta need to learn some things about the privacy of people, you know? Sneaking inside a detective's house?"

"To be honest, Taylor let me in. Seems like he thought, that you could need a nice breakfast, too. He's a smart kid." he tried to explain her, thinking of their small conversation at the door earlier.

"Then let's take a seat before everything's cold." she suggested, peering at the table. Suddenly her stomach decided to speak for itself and made a loud noise.

John smiled and went over to pull out a chair for her. Joss sat down, a pot of coffee right in front of her. Tasting it she couldn't refuse a smile. Cream, no sugar, just as she liked it. He looked way to confident about her reaction.

"So you do have a day off, too? Or to what do I owe the honor of getting this?"

He watched her as she grabbed a toast and started putting a spoons of the scrambled eggs and a few slices of bacon upon her plate. So his guess of her favorite would've been correct. Regarding the fruits… well, his mind was already forming another idea of using them. He quickly dismissed the thoughts as she was staring him already, waiting for an answer.

"As you should know by now, I never have a planned day off. Just wrapped up a recent number early this morning and thought you might appreciate being woken up like this. Am I being forgiven?" he said with a low voice that made her heart melt right away.

"Just stop doing this puppy dog eye thing right now! That's unfair! You couldn't just wait another two hours, could you?" she pleaded, then tasted the eggs together with some bacon. "Mhhhm, I can't remember the last time I got such a good breakfast being cooked for me."

He gave her a surprised look. "Not even on mother's day from your son?"

"That wouldn't end well, most likely with the kitchen being on fire, or worse." She laughed at that thought and John couldn't help himself but to join her, she had such an infectious laughter.

Those were the moments that kept him alive, being able to freely laugh with such a wonderful person, such a beautiful woman. Back at the time before they met he thought he would and also should never be happy again. But now with her in his life, he slowly realized people can change themselves and become a better person.

"Okay, so I guess I'll have to do this more often from now on." John said, as both of them were able to calm themselves down. She gave him a happy look. "All right, this way you can make up for all the times of me saving your ass!"

"It's a deal then!" They grinned at each other. "I just want you to know that you're not alone anymore, Carter. There are people who care for you." He said giving her a warm smile.

"I know. And I want to thank you for that." She whispered looking directly into his eyes. Those baby blue eyes she could get lost in forever…

The silence was broken as John suddenly stood up and tapped his ear piece.

"Finch?" he answered the silent phone call while walking around. "Yes, Mr. Bell was taken care of. He won't be threatened again." Carter gave him a look which said 'I don't want to know about this!' "Okay, I'll be there in twenty minutes."

"Another person to protect?" she asked after clearing her throat.

"I don't know yet, gotta go to meet Finch. I hope you will enjoy the rest of your breakfast, Detective." He smirked at number of full plates on the table.

"So you're just going to let me sitting here all by myself with this massive amount of gorgeous food? I think there should be some law against making a woman have to eat all of this." She teased him. "Just go, I don't wanna be responsible for letting Finch wait."

With a last smile he grabbed his jacket and went out of the door.

I hope you liked it so far.

A review would be nice :)