Author's Note: Alright Irrelevants, here we are in the summer hiatus before S3! I'm so excited to see what happens next season with Carter's storyline. This one-shot is based off of neal4grissom's song suggestion: "Dance With The Devil" by Breaking Benjamin. It's also based off of our initial fears that HR was going to hurt Carter in the finale. (Thank goodness that didn't happen!) I added the Carter badassery after seeing how amazing she was in "God Mode".

Here I stand, helpless and left for dead

Joss stumbled backward as the black hood was snatched from her head. The sound of a twig snapping beneath her feet informed of her surroundings even before her eyes became accustomed to the darkness. She narrowed her eyes at Terney. "Is this how you guys in HR dispose of people who get too close? Kidnap them and bring them to the middle of some forest?"

The other detective chuckled. He always seemed to find humor in every situation, no matter how macabre. "Actually, Carter, this is me improvising. I meant to get rid of you the other night but…" He grinned, eyes gleaming cruelly at her in the moonlight. "You just had to shoot an unarmed man and force me to start a whole investigation about your incompetence." She surged forward and he backhanded her across the face, causing her to fall heavily. "Don't be dramatic about this, detective. You knew this was coming, right? We couldn't let you continue snooping around in HR business."

His blow had taken her off-guard and caused her to bite the inside of her cheek. Propping herself up on her elbows, Joss dismissed the pain despite the taste of blood in her mouth. "There's no place for HR in our line of work, Terney. Your organization operates by taking advantage of the people we promised to protect and serve. You all deserve to be behind bars."

"No place for us? Lady, there's no place for you." Terney withdrew his Heckler & Koch pistol, grimacing down at her. "Your way just doesn't work anymore, Carter. You think we'd get half the stuff done that we get done if we didn't ask for favors? Utilize our political connections? Make a few compromises? This city would be overrun without people like us."

"You actually think you're doing the right thing, don't you?" Joss slowly stood, brushing away stray blades of grass from her slacks.

He watched her keenly. "The trash on the streets of New York aren't afraid of goody goodies like you. They run from us because they know we're not afraid to bend a few rules. It's not all black and white. We do what's necessary."

Not all black and white. Doing what was necessary. She lowered her gaze to the ground and sighed. She'd heard it all before. Somehow within the past year, she had become the poster child for operating within a gray area as a straight-lace detective with a solid record assisting a vigilante on the run from the CIA, FBI, and countless other agencies.

And where was the vigilante? Where was the Man in the Suit? The stillness of the woods answered her question for her. He certainly was maintaining his record of never saving her on time. It was funny really. He was always too late for her, but he eventually came. When Bottle Cap had shot her, he'd appeared suddenly like some angel of death to stop him from finishing the job. He had arrived at Taylor's school too late to prevent her son's kidnapping, but he got him back from Elias that very day. His late trend had started long before whatever it was that he and Finch were concerned with now.

Terney interrupted her musings by noisily clearing his throat. "If you're done reflecting on your life, Carter, I'd like to shoot you now."

"With the state that my life is in at the moment, any reflection would be sure to give me one hell of a headache." Joss glanced around as though assuring herself that no one was coming to save her, took a deep breath, and charged at him.

The sound of a gunshot echoed through the woods.

Close your eyes, so many days go by

Easy to find what's wrong

Harder to find what's right

The first time John Reese touched her, Joss was lying on the ground after being shot by her CI at close range. The bullet had embedded itself deeply into her vest, the vest that he had warned her to wear, causing her breath to come out in short pained gasps. Admittedly, her initial thought as he knelt beside her in the dark alleyway was that her chest hurt like hell and it was all Elias' fault. Not the Man in the Suit's.

Then came the shock that it wasn't his fault. For the better half of the year, she had been doggedly searching for him, this ghost of a man who left young gun dealers beaten and harmless and rescued an abused wife from her homicidal husband. It was beginning to dawn on Joss that she wasn't searching for him because he should be locked up. She wanted to see him again. She wanted to sit across from the Man in the Suit six months after he'd walked out of her precinct and see those brilliant blue eyes unclouded by a haze of liquor. She wanted to make sure that he started anew from whatever horrors he'd been running from. This suicide mission he was on couldn't end well for him.

It was almost funny in a way. She'd warned him that he would wind up bleeding out somewhere and yet here she was, writhing on the ground while he comforted her with a warm hand on her shoulder.

She wrestled open the buttons of her jacket in an attempt to give her heavily bruised lungs a break. The Man in the Suit let out a small breath. "Glad you took my advice about wearing that vest, detective." There was relief in his voice, Joss noticed. He had shot Bottle Cap thinking that her informant had killed her.

He'd come to her rescue.

She stared up at him as he continued to speak, greedily sucking in whatever air she could get. "I know this doesn't change anything. I know you'll still arrest me if you get the chance. But you should know…" His hand tightened its grip as her face contorted after an especially painful breath. "Whether you like it or not, Joss, you're not alone."

He stayed for a bit longer, silent and watching. Their silence was almost comforting. His presence beside her felt natural somehow. It wasn't until he heard the sirens approaching that the Man in the Suit stood and slowly made his way back out of the alleyway.

It wasn't until Joss was back at her apartment, stripping off her restricting vest and wondering how Taylor was enjoying his school's Homecoming dance, that she realized what the Man in the Suit had called her.

He'd cared enough to find out her first name.

I believe in you

I can show you that I can see right through all your empty lies

I won't stay long in this world so wrong

For the second time, Joss staggered back, though she quickly recovered to deliver a right hook to Terney's jaw. He dropped the gun to the ground seconds before falling to his knees. Not taking any chances, Joss dove for it. As soon as her hand wrapped around its grip, she had it aimed at Terney's head. "Don't move. Damn it, don't even think about moving."

He raised his hands as if in surrender. "Hey Carter, c'mon." His eyes narrowed when he saw how steadily she was holding the firearm. "You're really gonna shoot me?"

"You framed me so it looked like I was too incompetent and trigger-happy to do my job. You threatened my partner. You were gonna shoot me. Most importantly though…" The anger that she'd felt when he had sneered down at her in the interrogation room earlier that day returned and she tightened her grip on the pistol. "You threatened my son. I'll do what I have to do to keep him safe."

Terney gave a little shrug. "Alright. Let's calm down. I've got a kid too, y'know. I know you, Carter. I know how you operate. Straight and narrow. Always doing what's right. You're not gonna leave my kid without a father, are you, detective?"

Joss backhanded him so hard she felt the tremor from the blow radiate up her arm. He fell backward with a grunt and didn't raise himself up again. She glared down at him. "You were gonna leave my kid without a mother. Seems almost fair." Apart from some groans, Terney was unresponsive.

The gun lifted once again but was quickly lowered when Joss felt quite another kind of pain radiate through her body. Careful to keep the other detective's prostrate form in sight, she lightly pressed her side, eyes widening slightly when she withdrew her hand and saw that her fingers were slick with blood. "Son of a bitch…"

Just as Terney had done, she slowly sank to her knees. Her hand returned to the gunshot wound and applied as much pressure as she could stand. Joss gritted her teeth against the pain. It wasn't just a graze. Shock had prevented her from realizing that she'd been shot through and through at close range.

Shot by a colleague in the middle of the woods. Hell of a way to go out.

Say goodbye as we dance with the devil tonight

Don't you dare look at him in the eye

"Finch, where the hell is she?" John walked quickly and quietly through the forest, his eyes carefully scanning every inch of his surroundings. He'd come as soon as the Machine had spit out Joss' number. It was the same place that IAB officer Davidson had taken Lionel after he found the detective shredding Michael Cahill's file. HR had their particular haunts. If Joss was in danger, this was where they would have taken her.

"I am doing my best to track the detective's phone, Mr. Reese. There's not much signal, you know." Back at the Library, Harold briefly looked away from his computer screens. "John…whatever has happened with Detective Carter…it's not your fault."

John shook his head. "I told her to go after Beecher's killer, Finch. I knew HR would retaliate, I just…I thought we had more time before they acted. I thought we'd be able to help her before they...Wait." His head tilted to the side at the sound of movement fairly close by.

"Look to your right. I was able to track the signal from the phone of the detective who was last seen with her. Detective Terney. Looking into his past…he's even deeper with HR than our own Detective Fusco was."

John immediately changed direction, increasing his pace until he was jogging. It wasn't long before he saw two figures on the ground.

Hold on

Hold on

She'd been trying to get toward the SUV Terney had driven them in but eventually stopped her slow crawl toward the vehicle in favor of propping herself up against its front tire. No need to hurry. No one was looking for them. There was no need to. All her captain and the officers from IAB knew was that Detective Terney had offered to drive her home from the precinct. He played the part of the courteous colleague despite the fact that only an hour earlier he'd told her to keep her mouth shut and let HR control her life. Joss closed her eyes and smiled. HR had another thing coming if they thought this was over.

"Joss!"

One eyebrow lifted quizzically at the sound of the familiar voice coming toward her. It sounded like John. Her face was cradled tenderly between two hands. Then, the hands were pulling at her jacket, searching for the source of the blood staining her shirt. Fighting the extreme tired feeling that had suddenly washed over her, she opened her eyes. "John." Her nose wrinkled at how far away and thick her voice sounded. "Is everything okay?"

He stopped his examination to frown at her. "What?"

"Earlier…you called and I heard sirens in the background. Is everything okay?"

She was sitting in the middle of the woods with a gunshot wound to the side and her first question was if a police chase went alright. John sighed, shrugged off his light coat and gently leaned her forward so he could drape it around her shoulders. "Everything is fine. I'm just worried about you now." He glanced over his shoulder at the man lying on the ground nearby. "Is that Detective Terney?"

"Yeah."

"He shot you?"

"Well, I really don't think I shot myself, John."

He clenched his jaw. "You were talking to him the other night…I should've taken him out right then and there."

"You didn't know he was dirty. I didn't even know he was dirty." Joss lifted a hand to rest on his arm and return his attention to her. "Thank you for coming, John. I honestly didn't think you would make it."

"Is it because I'm always late when it comes to you?"

The undercurrent of frustration and bitterness in his voice didn't escape her notice. "You came. I think that's what matters."

He watched her eyes start to droop and placed a hand at the small of her back and underneath her legs. "I've gotta get you to a hospital."

Joss hissed in pain as he stood with her in his arms. She rested her forehead against chest, eyes tightly closed. "Won't they ask questions?"

"Don't worry." He tapped his earpiece. "I've got Carter, Finch. Can you have Dr. Madani meet us somewhere?"

"Certainly. I'll call him right away. Go to the nearest safe house, Mr. Reese. We'll both meet you there."

"See?" John grinned reassuringly as he pulled open the SUV's passenger door and carefully set her in the seat. "We've got it handled, Joss." He closed the car door.

Her hooded gaze followed him as he rounded the car and jumped into the driver's seat. Her Man in the Suit was always too late but he always handled it once he arrived. He constantly proved that she wasn't on her own. No matter how far away he seemed, he was looking after her.

He drove quickly back into the city, and Joss eagerly let sleep take her away from the pain, a small smile on her face.

I feel like this song is much more angsty than I made the prompt, but I couldn't help but make things okay for them in the end. (Honestly, I think it's I'm still super happy about the Carter/Reese phone conversation in "God Mode"). I hope you liked the one-shot, neal4grissom!

Please review with prompts!