Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all the Irrelevants! Thanks all of you who have made this community such a fun and vibrant place to hang out!
This fic was written as a gift for jakela, the prompt was "Reese and Carter meet for the 1st time in 20 years at Finch's funeral." I hope everyone enjoys it. Warning, it's un-betaed, so it's probably full of mistakes.
Detective Jocelyn Ward of the San Francisco Police Department (retired) paused with her had on the door handle of the chapel and took a deep breath. She wasn't sure she was ready for what lay on the other side of this door, but she knew she needed to do this. Before she could change her mind, she pulled the door open and marched in with her head up and shoulders back.
"Carter!" cried her old partner, Lionel Fusco almost as soon as she entered the building. He hurried to throw his arms around her and embrace her in a tight hug. His curly brown hair was reduced to a white fringe around his head and he was just as pudgy and rumpled as ever. Joss could swear he still used the same aftershave he used when they were on the force together. She found this oddly comforting; so much had changed since she had left…
He finally released her from the rib-cracking hug and stepped back. "God you look good!" he said, tears in his eyes. "I swear you haven't aged a day since you left. I guess it's true that black don't crack."
Joss laughed, but she was secretly pleased at the compliment. She had kept herself in shape and her face was remarkably unlined for someone of her age. She was often mistaken for someone much younger. If pressed she would admit that she did dye the gray out of her hair, but other than that, her appearance was due to good diet, good exercise and great genes.
"I've missed you too, Fusco, and it's Ward, not Carter, remember?" She smiled at her old partner.
Fusco nodded, "You'll always be Carter to me, but I'll just call you Joss for now."
"That's fine, Lionel." Honestly he could have called her anything he wanted, she was just glad to see him again.
It had felt so very odd to be called Carter after so long. After she had brought down the corrupt police gang known as HR, she discovered that if there is one thing cops hate more than a dirty cop, it was a clean cop who ratted out dirty cops. Like Frank Serpico before her, she was forced to resign from NYPD for her own safety. As the number of death threats against her and her son mounted, Harold Finch had carefully crafted her a new identity and sent her to live and work on the other side of the country. She became Jocelyn Ward and she had given SFPD many good years of service before retiring a few years ago. Now she spent her time volunteering in an organization specializing legal aid for veterans. She helped them navigate the criminal justice system if they were in trouble and helped them get the mental health services they needed. There were days where she missed the excitement of the streets, but it was rewarding work and she was content.
For his part, Fusco had retired nearly ten years ago. He had continued to work the numbers after his retirement when Team Machine had needed some surveillance work and still occasionally would check with one of his old buddies on the force for information. He had been her link back to New York after she had taken her son and fled west. They talked on the phone every few months and Fusco would give her the run down on the latest police gossip and the status of Team Machine.
Fusco had been the one to tell her of Sameen Shaw's untimely but heroic death taking a bullet for a number only a couple of years after she left New York. Joss had mourned for the petite ex-op and had wanted to return for the funeral, but Fusco had talked her out of it by pointing out that she would not be safe in the city if she was spotted by any of her vengeful former colleagues on the force.
Fusco had also been the one to tell her about Root's passing a several years ago. After Shaw's death, Root had withdrawn from the world. She had passed the rest of her days in the same asylum where she had stayed after discovering the Machine had been set free. She never spoke again; she had simply faded away quietly.
Fusco's latest phone call, only a couple of days ago, was the saddest of all. "Carter, we lost Glasses last night."
Joss had gotten the call at work and she had started sobbing at her desk. Sweet, brave Harold was gone. The man who had given so many people a second chance at life had passed peacefully in his sleep at the age of 76. After the horrible injuries he had suffered in the ferry bombing and the years of surgeries and other health problems following that, his heart had finally just gave out one night as he lay next to his beloved Grace. Joss took some comfort in the fact that he had reconciled with his fiancée and was not alone when he had passed away.
Joss looked up at the casket the front of the chapel and had to blink back tears. When Fusco had called with the news, Joss knew it was time to return to New York. She had to go to this funeral, it was time she faced him.
The man who had occupied so much of her thoughts during the years she had been away from New York was standing next to the coffin, his hand on Grace's arm, talking softly to her. Considering what he did for a living, the years had been remarkably kind to John Reese. His hair had been salt and pepper when she had last seen him, but now it was completely gray, almost white, but it suited him. He still carried himself tall and straight; he was still the Alpha male in the room.
He must have felt her eyes on him because he turned towards her and their eyes locked for the first time in 18 years. While his face retained its usual impassive mask his eyes very briefly filled with tears that he had to blink back. He stared at her with a look that threatened to scorch her with its intensity. As they stared at each other, everyone else in the room ceased to exist and it was just the two of them, just like it had been back in the morgue the night John had helped her to bring HR to its knees.
They both thought they were going to die that night. With nothing left to lose, John had told her what she meant to him, and then he had kissed her, gently, tenderly. As his lips touched hers, she remembered thinking she could die happy now because at least she knew that John returned her feelings. She finally knew what "Whatever This Is" really was. It was love.
But fate had other ideas. After the news that Joss had destroyed HR had broken in the media, Joss had been bombarded with death threats from angry cops. Finding a dead rat in her desk became a daily occurrence, along with piles of threatening notes and emails. During a raid on a suspect's home, several bullets from her own SWAT Team and come very close to killing her, one actually did graze her arm. The SWAT leader apologized with a shrug and a smirk explaining that sometimes during raids "Things get confusing and it's hard to tell friends from foes." A late night visit from John had forced the smirking commander into medical retirement, but he was only one of many vengeful law enforcement officers determined to punish Joss for breaking the code of silence.
John and Sam had done everything they could to protect her, but Joss knew that they couldn't follow her around 24/7 and still work the numbers. She decided that she would not be able to live with herself if an innocent person died because Team Machine was too busy guarding her, and she was forced to take Finch up on his offer to give her a new name in a new city. Reluctantly she packed up and left New York, and John, behind.
She had asked John to come with her, but he had refused. "I'm not done here yet," he said, his eyes begging her to understand. Joss did understand, he was a soldier with a mission and he had to see it through. They had left it at that, but she had never stopped hoping that someday his mission would be complete and he could leave New York.
She had gone on and lived her new life to the fullest in her new home. She had worked diligently for the SFPD, catching numerous killers in the City by the Bay, and earning many commendations for her work. Taylor enrolled in Cal Berkeley, graduated, got his law degree, got married and produced a couple of grandsons for her to spoil. She retired, passed the California Bar and began her second career as a veteran's advocate. It had been a good 18 years. She even dated a few men, but none of them could make her heart pound and her palms sweat with a simple sentence, "Hello, Detective."
Now she was back in the same room with the man who could and it felt like she had left New York only yesterday.
John gave Grace's arm a final pat and slowly approached Joss, as if he was unsure of his reception. Joss gave him a tiny smile to let him know it was OK. Then she frowned as she realized the he was leaning heavily on a cane and limping.
John reached her and looked down at her with the old familiar smirk that she had missed so much on his face. "Hello Detective", he purred in his familiar soft voice. Her body tingled with delight at the greeting, she had missed this, much more than she had admitted to herself. She smirked back. "Nice suit," she shot back.
Lionel snorted as he watched the two of them stare at each other. "Feeling like a third wheel here. I'm gonna go say Hi to Caleb." He left without either one of his companions noticing.
Say something! Just stand there staring like a love sick teenager! Joss inner voice screamed at her. "You know, I'm not a detective anymore. I retired a few years ago. I'm legal aid for a veteran's group now."
John's smirk grew a tiny bit. "I know."
"You do?" Joss could not keep the surprise out of her voice.
John looked a bit hurt at that. "Lionel has been kind enough to keep me up to date on you and Taylor." He paused and looked at her, his eyes soft. "I never stopped missing you."
"Oh," was all Joss could think to say. She swallowed hard. "You could have come to visit. San Francisco is a lovely city."
John looked down at his feet for a second then he met her eyes again. "I was afraid that if I did I wouldn't have come back," he whispered.
"Oh," she said again. His words had sucked all the air from her lungs and she wasn't able to say anything else.
"Don't me tell this is the famous Joss Carter?" came a cheerful voice at her elbow, pulling both Joss and John out of the moment. They turned to see a tall, blonde woman in her late 30s standing next to them with a big grin on her face. Joss was highly amused to see the woman was wearing a dark suit and white shirt.
"Alison Pedersen," The woman said as she extended her hand to Joss.
Joss shook the woman's with a small smile. "Yes, I'm Jocelyn Carter, but I go by Ward now. Too many people wanted Joss Carter dead."
"So I heard. It's a pleasure to meet you finally. Reese, Fusco and Finch talk about you like you were a candidate for sainthood. For putting up with them, I supposed you are." Alison winked at her. John shot Alison a dirty look but she cheerfully ignored it. "The fastest way to get John to talk on a stakeout was to ask about you."
"Oh really?" Joss said with a sly smile in John's direction.
John rolled his eyes and let out a huff of annoyance that made Alison grin wider. "Alison and Derek Cortez over there," John nodded his head in the direction of a squat, bald Hispanic man who was built like a barrel with legs, and who was also wearing the dark suit and white shirt uniform, "work the numbers now."
"Can you keep on working the numbers now that Harold is gone?" Joss asked Alison quietly.
"Of course, Finch was mostly retired those last few years, Phipps is the admin now," Alison said pointing to a man that Joss recognized as a gown up Caleb Phipps. Was Caleb really in his mid-30s now? Had she really been gone that long? Joss sighed, at least she could take some comfort in the fact that the numbers would not be abandoned. The innocents of New York would still have their defenders.
Fusco rejoined them. "John, Grace would like to talk to you," he said with an apologetic look in Joss's direction.
John nodded and turned to Joss. "I'll be back," he said. His eyes begged her to stay.
Joss gave him a reassuring smile. "I'm not going anywhere," she said softly. John limped off to see to Grace.
"Why didn't you tell me he was hurt?" Joss hissed at her former partner as soon as John was out of earshot.
Fusco shrugged. "John asked me not to."
Alison's grin faded from her face. "It was a bomb blast last year. We lost Lee Choy that day. He was a good man. John nearly lost his leg and he blamed himself for Lee's death." She paused and looked intensely at Joss, a look that reminded her of John in a lot of ways. "We're in a dangerous business, and it's a miracle Finch got to die peacefully in his sleep in his own bed next to the one he loved. I think John deserves the same. It's time for the old wolf to lay down his burdens."
Joss met Alison's fierce look with her own. "I agree," she said softly and Alison smiled again.
They didn't have a chance to talk any further; the minister requested everyone take their seats so the service could begin. John, Alison, Cortez and Phipps all sat up front with a clearly grieving Grace. Joss and Fusco took seats a couple of rows back next to each other.
Joss took a minute to look around. She didn't recognize most of the people there, which wasn't surprising considering she had been out of the loop for 18 years; but there were a few people she did know. Zoe Morgan was there, giving her a nasty side eye. Joss's take-down of HR had deprived her of several lucrative clients and Zoe had never forgiven her for it. Leon Tao was also there, his hair now iron gray, but from the thumbs up and the wide grin he gave her, she guessed his spirit was unbowed. She smiled as she wondered how many times John had saved the incorrigible accountant's life over the years.
Caleb Phipps took to the podium and gave a moving, tear filled eulogy for Finch. He described how Finch had saved his life by talking him out of suicide when he was a teenager and how Finch had continued to be mentor for him through the rest of high school and college. He talked about Finch believed in second chances and backed that up by giving saving lives and giving others a purpose.
After Caleb spoke several other people got up to talk about how Finch had affected their lives. Throughout the service, John sat stoically next Grace even though Joss knew John was grieving deeply for his friend. She could see how stiffly he was holding himself and she could feel the tension in his body as he held his emotions in check. Joss just wanted to take him in her arms and comfort him, but now was not the time.
The service was not overly long and refreshments were served in the adjacent meeting room afterwards. Joss circulated around the room; quietly waiting for her chance to talk to John again. Suddenly he appeared out nowhere at her elbow. "How long will you be in New York?" he asked softly, making her jump, then smile.
"I'll be here a couple of days. I have a couple of old friends I wanted to look up and visit my parents' graves, that kind of thing."
John tentatively reached out to touch her cheek, but grew bolder when she didn't pull away, cupping her face in his palm. "Are you sure it's safe?"
Joss giggled, he was still the same old protective John. "I was hoping I might have an escort," she said coyly.
The corners of John's mouth crept up until he was smirking again. "I think that can be arranged." He looked down at his bad leg and his cane. "Pedersen and Cortez have things under control, I think they can spare me."
"Why didn't you want Fusco to tell me you were hurt?" Joss asked.
John sighed and dropped his hand. "I didn't want to admit it was over. That is was time to stop working the numbers. Just as I accepted that, Finch's health took a turn for the worse and Grace needed my help."
Joss nodded her understanding. "So you had one more mission to complete."
John bowed his head. "Yes," he said in soft whisper, his voice tinged with grief. "We knew he had very little time left, and after everything we had been through together I had to be here when it happened." He looked over at the large portrait of Finch at the front of the room and Joss could see the tears pooling on his bottom lids. He blinked them away and smiled over at Joss. "My mission here is complete."
Joss sucked in her breath sharply as the full meaning of his words struck her. She put her hand over her mouth and closed her eyes. The day she had waited for so long was finally here. Then she smiled and her fingers brushed the top of his hand where it rested on his cane. "You know, San Francisco is very nice this time of year."
"I hear the city has its attractions." John lifted his hand to her face again and lightly rubbed his thumb along her cheekbone, sending a jolt of electricity through Joss's body. "I've been told it's very beautiful," he whispered in a voice choked with emotion. "I think once I go, I'll never want to leave."
Joss ignored the tear that trickled down her cheek. "Let's go get a drink. I think we have a lot to discuss."
John nodded. "We do." He offered her his arm. "Let's go."
Their exit did not go unnoticed. Fusco and Alison watched them go with smiles on their faces. "Finch would have approved," Alison said softly.
"Yes, yes he would have," Fusco said. He turned to the refreshment table. "You want a soda or something?"