AN: just want to repeat the disclaimer that I don't own anything that's recognizable because there is a certain store that gets brought up lol.


"What are we going to do with a kid?" Shaw demanded as she drove, speeding away from the Reed residence. He didn't know, but he did know they needed to get the boy safe, clean, and fed. John had the little boy in his lap, staring up at him. The boy was really tiny, so small that he was afraid he was going to hurt him. Shaw turned up the heat because the child didn't have a coat and he shivered. That worried John, it was nearly summer and the little guy was shivering. The boy was traumatized which could explain it, plus he was in a new environment with people he'd never met before. John worked a bit to remove his suit blazer from his shoulders, wrapping it around the boy, covering his tiny bottom half which was still completely naked.

"We need to get him clothes, Shaw, plus the Kid's Meal he was promised," he said before looking at the little boy in the eyes. He had such large blue eyes. "What's your name?" he asked the boy gently.

"Si-mon," he answered oh so quietly. John wondered if he spoke so softly because he was afraid he would get hit, making his gut tighten. The toddler said his name as if he was trying to sound it out, like it was the first time in a long time that he had said the name 'Simon'.

"Your name is Simon?" John asked and the boy nodded his head.

"Ara, call Si-mon…" the boy answered in bits and pieces, barely above a whisper as if speaking might conjure up the Reeds, large tears filled his eyes again, and John rubbed his arm affectionately. John noticed he wasn't flinching as badly anymore. Simon was having trouble speaking, Shaw was looking at the child confused, and he tried to figure out the boy's words. 'Ara'…possibly could mean Clara?

So he took a shot in the dark. "Clara would call you Simon?" John asked quietly looking into the boy's eyes, the tears still glittered there as he nodded his head up and down. "Would Declan speak to you too?" He shook his head no. Okay, so Simon knew Clara and Declan's name which was most likely why when he said their names he cried. He seemed to know his own too, maybe Simon could tell them what they had done to him, but that would be later. He was too traumatized right now, he needed to know he wasn't going to be hurt anymore. "Do you remember what my name is?" he asked and the boy nodded his head yes, trying to mumble his name, clearly not knowing how to pronounce his name. "I'm John," he said as he tapped his own chest, speaking clearly and slowly.

"J-awn," Simon repeated.

"Great we have a parrot," Shaw griped and John threw her a glare, quickly silencing her. If Simon could only learn speech through hearing words, he was sure what he heard from Declan and Clara Reed weren't all that great of words.

"Good job Simon, I'm John, and this is my friend Shaw," he motioned to the woman beside him who was driving. The little boy leaned more into him, as he peeked at Shaw, clearly scared of her. He wondered if the abuser was mostly Clara Reed, judging how he was reacting to Shaw. "How old are you Simon?" he brought the child's attention back to him rather than looking at Shaw fearfully.

When the boy gave no answer it was clear he had no idea, which bothered him. "It's okay, Simon. Shaw is taking us someplace to get you some clothes, then we are gonna get you that Kid's Meal I promised. Do you know what they give you in a Kid's Meal, Simon?" John asked as the boy bounced in his lap, and clapped his small hands together almost as if Declan and Clara Reed were a distant and disturbing memory for the boy.

"N-oh,"

"They give you a toy to play with while you eat."

"Yaaaaay," a small smile lit up the boy's face and John smiled too. He seemed so sad just two seconds ago.

"Hey, kid, who are your parents?" Shaw demanded. John glared at her when the boy immediately clammed up, cuddling close to John's chest, hiding completely from Shaw.

"Shaw, use a softer voice."

"That was my softer voice!"

"Work on getting it softer,"He insisted, making Shaw grumble irritably. Changing the subject he asked, "How did you distract them anyway?"

"I discreetly made my way out of the back of their car while they were busy walking up to their front door to go bust you, then pretended to be interested in the house where you were parked at that was up for sale; the Reeds' were awfully welcoming of us living next door to them."

"Good thinking, Shaw." He said before he clicked a button in his earpiece. "Finch we have a problem."

"Yes, Jocelyn called me with a concern."

"Wait, what did Joss call you about?"

"Oh, never mind…what's wrong, Mr. Reese?" He narrowed his eyes, for now he was going to let it go since the small boy was their first priority, then he would find out what concern Joss had.

He looked down to the boy who was putting his hand up against his hand, giggling at how big John's hand was compared to his. "I found a toddler in one of the Reeds' closets, clearly unwashed, in a dirty shirt that's for a dog(John wasn't over the fact that the dog was treated better than the child), he's too thin and he has bruises on his body." John whispered not wanting to upset Simon with talk about the Reeds. John couldn't say that their numbers coming up might not be because he was going to kill them for what they did to this boy and god knows what they did to the other children, wherever they were being held.

"Oh dear, is the boy alright?!"

"We are taking him someplace to get some clothes and then to get him some food. We'll be heading to the safe house in an hour or two. Send Joss to the local Walmart, we are going to need her help!" John explained as Shaw slowed down to turn into the entryway of Walmart.

"Detective Carter is in the middle of a hearing, testifying." John winced, remembering that. "I'll send Detective Fusco to your coordinates; he had a child once upon a time too." John sighed. Yes, Fusco could help, they needed all the help they could get.

"Tell him it's urgent and to text us when he gets here," John said before he disconnected with Finch, just as Shaw pulled up to a parking space.

"Go on," Shaw motioned.

"Me?"

"Yeah, you wanted to take him with us."

"So you'd rather leave the child there, with them?" he demanded quietly so that Simon didn't hear. Shaw sighed. He looked at the boy. "Simon, I'm going to go shopping for some clothes for you okay, you'll be safe here with Shaw." The little boy looked at Shaw then back at him, large crocodile tears welled up in the boy's large eyes.

"No!" Well it seemed Simon knew the word no by the way he was crying it. "Nooooo!" he begged as he bounced in his lap, grabbing his arm as if it was a lifeline.

"Okay, you're up Shaw."

"I can't Reese; I don't know anything about rugrats or what to buy them!" Shaw snapped, which irritated John. As if he did! They were both in way over their heads! He looked at Shaw, then the boy, at a loss.

Shaw sighed roughly. "Fine, we'll all go in, the more hands grabbing this crap the quicker it will be; once Lionel gets here he can help us figure out the necessities. Turn the shirt inside out, that way people won't see how dirty it is," Shaw said, helping him take the shirt off the boy, both glaring at it because on the back it read 'I'm Pawsome.' John looked at Simon and stared at the deep bruises on the little boy's torso, and he saw red. He forced himself to flip the shirt inside out, putting it on once more, and it looked a tad better, but not much. It hung on him, covering his body for the most part. "Can't hide his bruises well." She sighed, but then she lunged for the glove compartment, opening it as if getting an idea, making the boy jump in his lap. "Here." She handed him concealer makeup. "Don't start with me, Reese, it covers bruises up if I'm in a pinch."

He didn't bother to tease Shaw about the fact that she had makeup in her car, instead he immediately began opening the cap and applying a lot to the boy's neck and upper arms. Simon giggled at the coldness. "Ticklish huh?" John smiled at the kid. He touched the little boy's tummy gently, mindful of the bruising, and he giggled harder.

"Stop playing with the kid, Reese!" He glared at Shaw, wishing she be more un-Shaw like at the moment. The boy was petrified of her, she wasn't helping matters, and now she was scolding him for playing with the child! Simon looked scared, probably had no human contact besides the Reeds who probably only yelled at him and beat him, hopefully at a minimum. He was going to show the boy there was more to people than being hit and yelled at.

Once they were satisfied the bruises were hidden as best they could, John wrapped the boy in his suit blazer once more, and they climbed out of the car with him in his arms. Simon latched his arms around his neck. He tucked the boy against his chest, keeping the suit blazer snuggled around him to keep him warm, hiding the fact that the boy was naked from the waist down and way too skinny, which he was going to fix both.

As they entered the sliding doors Shaw immediately made a beeline for the carts, several other people were walking in and John tensed a bit. But no one paid them any attention; Simon was a quiet boy and he waited as Shaw grabbed a cart, both deciding against putting the boy in the seat, then immediately headed for the little boy's clothing section. "Fo, me?" Simon asked as he looked up into John's eyes.

He smiled softly. "Yes for you, and you can pick out whatever you want, Simon." Simon bounced slightly in his arms in happiness.

It seemed the boy immediately found his favorite theme which so happened to be Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. John eyed the pajamas that Simon picked, they had 4 turtles wearing masks and had different weapons. Shaw suspiciously knew what they were and tried to explain them to Reese. John had to bite the inside of his cheek to keep from teasing Shaw about her extensive knowledge of the cartoon. But he decided that Simon was after his own heart as he plopped the two different sets; one long sleeve and pants, the other short sleeve and shorts of TMNT pajamas into the cart, now knowing that they were ninja fighting turtles.

"What is the big emergency that I needed to go to Walmart of all places, in search of you wonder-boy, and you Lady Insane?!" Lionel griped as he appeared beside Shaw, then his eyes widened as he got a load of Simon in his arms. "Who's kid?"

"We stole him." Shaw shrugged. John glared at her to explain further while he attended to Simon who started fussing for his attention. "Kid was being abused, he doesn't have any clothes on underneath that blazer," Shaw said quietly. John turned so that Simon could face Lionel too; John saw the flicker of anger cross the man's face, before it was expertly covered over.

"I see, so 'glasses' called me because neither of you have kids of your own?"

"And Joss is at a parole hearing," John added helpfully.

"Yeah, testifying against a killer getting paroled," he sighed. "Well first off, he looks maybe 3 if that, he's pretty small. Where did you guys find him?" Lionel whispered as they huddled close to the cart that held Simon's prized pjs.

"In a closet, on newspaper," John snarled while trying to keep from upsetting Simon.

"Get him pull-ups, I'm 99% positive if they were leaving this boy in the closet on newspaper then he hasn't been potty trained. I'll get a pack, we'll open it, and Shaw will change him in the restroom, at least he'll have something on then."

"ME?! Uh, I don't think so, Reese took him, he can change him!"

"Whatever! I'll change him, he needs something on. Fusco, just get him whatever pull-ups he needs while we finish this area," John snapped, pointing at the clothes.

"He's needs a few other things too, wonder-boy."

"Fine, get whatever he needs!"

"Mr. Sunshine, you're going to need another cart too." Shaw glared at Fusco as he motioned at the cart she was leaning against. She shoved away from the cart pushing it to Fusco, who smirked taking it by the handle and wheeling it away. John rolled his eyes as Shaw stormed away, to go get another cart for them.

"Simon, your Aunt Shaw and Uncle Fusco are crazy about one another," he teased the little boy. When Shaw got back with another empty cart, he had been gently rubbing Simon's back with his free hand, the boy almost asleep against his shoulder. He perked up when John motioned for him to continue picking out clothing. It took another fifteen minutes in the clothing section, letting Simon grab a bunch of similar t-shirts all with TMNT on it, some with some other cartoon characters he had no clue about, and John found a tiny plain sweatshirt to keep him warm just in case his shivering was due to coldness. Shaw and he sped things up a bit grabbing Simon tiny boy jeans that looked small enough to fit him, some sweat pants, shorts, underwear, and socks. They even got him to choose his sneakers quickly, picking a pair of black sneakers that had Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles on the side that lit up when he walked too.

"Finally, let's go find Fusco." Shaw said exasperated.

"Right behind ya," they both paused and turned at Lionel's voice. Fusco did stand behind them, John eyed the other cart that Fusco had taken with Simon's pjs on the bottom, but they weren't visible anymore not with the boxes on top of them. Fusco held out a blue pull-up that almost looked like a diaper but wasn't. On the front it had Spiderman. John snatched it out of his meaty hand, left without further talk, Fusco and Shaw followed him to the restrooms bickering about the amount of items in their carts. He sighed, who knew that buying Simon some things was going to turn into this sort of chore. He carried Simon into the men's room, entered the stall, and shut the door. He removed his suit blazer off of the boy, placing it on the hook. He just happened to notice a big warm wet spot on his favorite blazer. Oh, what had he gotten himself into?

"Alright, Simon, here you go." John set him on his little feet. He giggled at the apparent coldness to the tiled floor and John sort of wished he didn't have to put his bare feet on this dirty floor. He quickly picked him back up, and unceremoniously sat on the toilet seat with Simon in his lap. Thank god no one could see Mr Badass now. "Need help?"

"N-oh," Simon said, his voice so tiny, just like him.

"Oh so you're a big boy, huh." John teased and Simon leaned his head back to look up at him and nodded. Simon took the pull-up, put one leg through then the other and pulled up. John smiled before he clapped a little. "You are a big boy," John agreed and Simon grinned at the praise. He snuggled him into his arms once more. Then John wrapped the suit blazer around Simon once more to keep questioning gazes off the fact that he was much too skinny, carefully avoiding the wet spot that was no longer warm. Forget the dry cleaner, he, thought, he needed to replace this blazer a long time ago. He exited finding Shaw looking ready to kill herself from boredom and Fusco talking to her. "Let's go," he motioned.

As they walked together towards the front of the store, towards the checkouts, John looked down at Simon and saw the child staring behind them almost unblinkingly. He paused in walking beside Shaw and Fusco. He turned to see what the boy was eyeballing and sighed. The toy section of the store was directly behind them in full view of Simon. The little boy wasn't kicking or screaming to go over there, rather just silently looking, with a longing look in his face. Poor kid probably never had a toy and didn't know how to ask for one.

"Why'd you stop, let's go, Reese?!" Shaw sounded close to whining.

"Not yet, we have to get him toys."

"Reese, we aren't keeping him. He's got the essentials, who cares if he has toys at the safe house or not!" Shaw said quietly, keeping her voice low.

"Shaw, he's getting a toy." He snapped walking towards the toys which perked the boy right up. Neither, Shaw or Fusco said anything as they followed them to the toy department. "What do you want, Simon?" he asked as he walked him down the boy toy aisle. Simon grabbed an expensive remote control monster truck that was blue. "You want this?" John asked.

"Uh-huh," his sandy blonde head shook up and down in adamant happiness.

"Okay he's got a toy, let's go." Shaw tried but John ignored her, seeing a large section of the boy's evidently favorite show he'd probably never even seen, TMNT. The child nearly lunged out of his arms grabbing at the action figures and he let the boy grab them. Once Simon had plopped every TMNT action figure that was different into the cart, Simon pointed at this large playset thing that the action figures he had just grabbed could play in. Simon looked at John who sighed, realizing already that he was having a hard time telling this kid no to anything. He looked at Fusco, then pointed at the playset, making the large man grumble while he bent down and grabbed the playset, plopping it into Shaw's cart. The box was large; it hung out of the cart awkwardly. "Reese, that thing costs like a hundred bucks and assembly is required."

"Shaw, he clearly never had toys or at least none recently," He justified quietly, as he allowed the boy to plop action figure after action figure (Batman seemed to be a hit with the boy too), Lego box set after Lego box set, and tons of different cars to play with. Some were remote control, others not. But the boy cried in happiness as they left the aisle, finding on the front display a large stuffed Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle with a blue mask on its face, Shaw explained to him it was named Leonardo, which was as big as Simon. He sighed telling himself this was it, grabbing it for Simon, and the boy clutched it to him tightly, obviously loving the thing already. The boy would not relinquish it as they strode towards the checkout lines.

Lastly, Fusco reminded them they needed a car seat, otherwise, they would be transporting Simon illegally. They finally checked out, having spent several hundreds of dollars on the toys, clothes, and other things while both Shaw and Fusco pushed the full carts out to the exit. "This kid isn't even ours and he costs an arm and a leg!" Shaw griped as she opened her trunk.

"Well, Mr. Sunshine bought him tons of toys and clothes!"

"He had nothing," John defended. He was not going to let this boy suffer during their care. He had no toys, no clothes, he was abused, scared, and he was damned well going to make sure Simon had a better life than he was shown previously. "Who's idea was it to buy the Mommy's Helper Cushie Step Up Potty Seat?" John demanded as the box was placed into the trunk.

"Trust me, wonder-boy, I had a son who went through potty training. You need this, the ex-wife and I had to makeshift this thing since it wasn't made back when we were potty training Lee! It fits onto any normal toilet, it has a little step stool so the kid can reach. It snaps off easily for the grownups."

"Will you two women stop arguing about the stupid potty seat and help me get this kid's crap into my trunk!" Shaw snapped. They had to put the kid's things around Shaw's weaponry. While Shaw and Fusco continued to place Simon's things into the trunk, he carried the boy to the driver's side backseat, opening the door, and put him down onto the seat while he tried to figure out how to install the car seat. He could break down and reassemble every weapon he could think of with his eyes closed and standing upside down, but the car seat assembly almost got the best of him. Finally, with the help of Fusco and Shaw, Simon soon was safely in his seat, clutching his stuffed turtle contentedly.

Simon quietly sat; watchful of what John was doing as he slid the door closed. John tore his gaze off the child to look at Lionel. "Fusco, meet us at the safe house." The man nodded his head absently, before walking away while John walked around the car to climb into the passenger seat. He looked back at the little boy and smiled. "See I'm still here."

"Whatta, bout tuttle?" he asked as he held out the stuffed turtle for him to see. Shaw glared at him.

"See? This is what you get for getting him toys!" She sniped at him. He sighed, unclicking his own seatbelt, opened his door, and opened the backdoor behind his, and positioned the turtle in the seat next to Simon then snapped the seatbelt over the stuffed turtle.

"He's safe now just like Simon." He said quietly sliding the door shut, and John wasn't going to let anyone hurt this little boy ever again.


AN: See this is why it has it's own chapter because I could not find anywhere to cut and the other chapter was already long as it was, so that's why it got split up. I had to keep in the adventures of buying Simon stuff.

Okay well there is the two for one special, hope it was a nice read. Thanks as always and see you next Friday XOXOXOX