Hello everyone, sorry I'm still being lame... but I got up a chapter for Christmas! So Merry Christmas! I didn't get to check this over really cause it's 11:50 and I really wanted to get this up while it's still Christmas... so yeah here it is!


Grace sat in a chair by Harold's bed as he slept. Madani had let her in after everyone else left, as long as she promised not to wake him up. She had no intention of disturbing him. She needed time to think. Harold was alive, and he had purposefully stayed away from her. Why? John had said he had to, but what possible reason could there be?

"Oh, Harold," she sighed. She didn't know what she should say to him when he woke up. 'Hi, so I guess you're not dead, but now you might be paralyzed because of me'. No, that definitely wouldn't do. But, she supposed, there really wasn't a 'right' thing to say in this situation; it wasn't something that normally happened. Or ever happened.

Grace stood and walked around the room to stretch her legs. She leaned against the wall, trying to rehearse what she would say. "Grace..."

Everything she had been thinking flew out of her head when Harold called her name. "Harold!" she exclaimed, rushing to his bedside.

Harold tried to turn his head, but something seemed to prevent it. "Please... could you come around in front of me? It's so hard to turn my head."

Grace did as he asked. His eyes were exactly as she remembered, and she tentatively picked up his glasses of a table. "Do you even need these?"

"Very much so," Harold replied. He reached out his hand, and Grace gave them to him. He set them on his face and stared at her without saying a word.

"What?" She asked self-consciously.

Harold shook his head slightly. "Nothing, it's just... I haven't seen you face to face in over three years... you're so beautiful."

Grace felt her cheeks redden slightly, and Harold grinned. The moment ended quickly, though, when his grin changed into a grimace. "What's wrong?" Grace asked. She hoped it was something she could help with.

"The painkillers aren't quite as strong as I'd like," he replied with a sigh. Grace didn't tell him that Madani had given him the strongest meds he had on hand. She didn't envy him when they wore off.

"You look like you're having trouble with your neck, did it get hurt when you fell?"

Harold shook his head as much as he could, which wasn't very far. "An old injury," he replied. Apparently he could see the question in her eyes, because he continued after a moment. "Obviously, I didn't die in the explosion. But I didn't plan it either. The bomb was very real, and for a while I wasn't sure if I'd make it."

Grace covered her mouth. After all that had happened, she'd just assumed he'd used to ferry bombing to his advantage. In one particularly dark moment, she had even considered he might have caused it. Now she realized that Harold really was a victim, and for some reason decided that he couldn't come back to her.

"Why didn't you come back?" She asked. Her voiced cracked slightly, giving her away.

Harold looked at her sadly, and Grace could see he wanted to tell her something. He took a deep breath, then came to a decision. "Because I'm technically a criminal, " he said simply. He looked completely composed, but Grace could see the uncertainty in his eyes. He was worried she wouldn't want anything to do with him, but she couldn't reassure him. Did she want anything to do with him? He just admitted he was a criminal! "It's not what you're thinking, Grace."

"Then what is it?!" Grace crossed her arms. She was sick of him beating around the bush. "Just tell me. Please."

Harold nodded. He seemed unsurprised at her outburst, probably because she had a right to be upset. "I made a Machine," he said quietly.

"A machine? That does what?"

"It sees."

Grace narrowed her eyes in confusion. "It /sees/? Sees what?" She wondered if he was being purposefully vague.

"Everything. It's connected to every device on the planet and can predict crimes based on information it gathers. The government uses it to prevent terrorist attacks, but when I decided to start saving ordinary people... my employers didn't appreciate it."

Grace stumbled back into a chair and sat down. How was this possible? Sure, Harold had always been handy with a computer, but never had she suspected he was capable of something this huge! It must have taken years, and immense effort. "How...?" She asked simply. There were too many questions to ask, she didn't know where to start.

Harold seemed to sense her problem and began to explain. "I started just after nine eleven. It was all I worked on for years, until the Machine introduced me to you-"

"Wait, what?" Grace interrupted.

"My Machine was smarter than I realized," Harold admitted reluctantly. "It decided I needed someone before I even realized I was lonely. I was testing its recognition software in the park one day, and it kept on pointing me to you. I thought it was a glitch, but..."

Grace rubbed her eyes. Harold continued to tell her, in detail, everything. She hadn't realized his explanation would be so complicated, and she stopped him just as he mentioned a woman named Caroline Turring. "I-I need a few minutes," she muttered. Harold nodded as she stood, as if he could stop her if he wanted to.

She hurried out into the waiting room. She was alone, just how she wanted to be. She was a bit surprised John would leave them here by themselves, but she guessed they were safe enough. She sat on the couch to think. Soon enough, she was lying on her side, fast asleep.


Reese drove quickly along the road. He knew exactly where he was going; he'd been going the opposite direction only a few hours before. He'd had little luck with the laptop. He must be getting rusty, letting Finch handle most of the electronic tracking. Fortunately, Reese had left the warehouse largely intact, and it would be easy to search for leads.

Reese pulled up silently and cleared the area before he entered the building for the second time in as many days. He had a sense of déjà vu as he checked the building for signs of life. It was completely empty, even the dead police officers he had left in his wake were gone.

When Reese came upon the room where the confrontation had come to a head, he studiously avoided the dark patch on the floor where Finch had been. He walked toward the hall the shooter had come running out of and raised his gun. This was unexplored territory, and anything could jump out.

Reese felt a flash of fear as he thought of Finch lying alone in a hospital bed while he hunted an HR lackey, but it was fleeting. He had called Shaw to watch the morgue, and nothing was getting past her.

After checking several doors, Reese came upon what appeared to be an office. It was a mess, as if someone had needed to leave in a hurry and tried to clean it out. That made sense; whoever was here wasn't expecting Reese to find them so soon.

After several minutes of searching, Reese was about to give up on finding anything relevant when he spotted something. It was a little blue rectangle of paper sticking out from under the desk. He assumed it had been dropped in the mad rush to get rid of evidence. Reese turned it over to see it was a ticket for a school play. He grinned and pocketed the ticket. He was almost certain he could find out who was here now. Then, he'd know which dirty cop to punish.

Reese could hardly wait to get back to the morgue to start the next phase in his hunt. The drive seemed to take twice as long, even though he was speeding. Finally, he was in the parking lot and entering the building. He smirked slightly at the sight of Grace passed out on the couch, but he didn't slow down. He snatched up Finch's laptop and began his work.

Twenty minutes later, Reese smiled grimly. At the Oswald Elementary School, where the older children were putting on Romeo and Juliet, there were just over forty kids helping with the production. Out of those, two had parents on the police force, and only one was a dirty cop that Reese knew of. "So it was you, Turney," he drawled dangerously. "I hope you enjoy the play your son puts on. You won't be seeing him for a while once I find you."


Again. Sorry I'm such a craptastic person.