Disclaimer and Spoilers: See chapter one.

A/N: Warning! Cliffhanger ahead.

ooooooo

Chapter Ten: Might Be Wrong

The incessant beeping was starting to really infuriate him.

He was enjoying the mild weather while watching Grace paint the flora and fauna of Central Park's Shakespeare Garden. From time to time, he would read passages selected from amongst the Bard's works to help enhance the ambiance surrounding them. The setting was peaceful, the scenery, especially Grace, was beautiful, and he would be happy to spend forever here with the woman he loved if it weren't for the irritating noises that kept interrupting.

It sounded like it was coming from close by, but a quick check confirmed that it wasn't coming from either of their phones. Finch started to hand Grace her phone back, but she and all her art supplies had disappeared, and in the next second he found himself in the shell of a burnt out warehouse. Looking down at the phone in his hand, he discovered that it was now a melted mess of plastic and cracked glass.

He recognized where he was and whose cell phone he was holding. In panic, he called out, "John!"

Finch jolted awake with a gasp and suppressed a groan at the pain and stiffness he felt in his back and especially his neck. He felt a weight settle against his leg, and looked down at Bear even as he realized the beeping was back.

"Just a dream, Bear," Harold said as he scratched behind one of the dog's ears, while massaging the back of his neck with his other hand.

Once more in control of his breathing, he pulled himself away from the moment of mutual comfort and concentrated on what was causing the infernal sound.

Given the accompanying data, it was an alert he'd set up quite a while ago, for a cell phone number he had flagged as being one of the many that John had bought since they'd started working together. Finch had made it a habit to keep a GPS lock on all of Reese's phones in case his friend ever needed help sent to him. He had thought it had been destroyed during one of their more lively cases, but apparently he'd been wrong.

Another dialogue box popped up just as he was about to trace the phone's current location. It was an alert for the emergency back-up number they used in order to leave messages to each other when other means of communication were compromised. The timestamps for the two alerts were barely a minute apart. If he'd needed any convincing before this, he wouldn't need it now. It was Reese trying to communicate with him.

As quickly as he could, he retrieved the voice message, concerned that it was barely seven seconds long. When he played the message, his worry for his friend ratcheted ever higher. The only things he heard on the recording were a gasp of surprise followed by a couple of seconds of pained breathing before the message suddenly ended.

He keyed in the command to track the phone's location, hoping it was still active. The scenarios his mind had quickly come up with to explain the surprised gasp did not fill him with confidence. A map of the City materialized on his main monitor with a flashing red dot to indicate the phone's location to within 100 meters, if not John's actual whereabouts.

Harold stood and limped towards the coat rack. While putting on his overcoat, another alert sounded. From the time on his watch, he realized that it was the alarm he'd set as a reminder to call the Detectives. He deactivated the alert and briefly hesitated, trying to decide if he wanted to ask Carter and Fusco for help in retrieving Reese.

His hesitation quickly turned to action as he grabbed Bear's leash. Reese barely tolerated even his help when injured, therefore Carter and Fusco's presence on scene would probably not be welcomed. Finch decided that he would call the others only if absolutely necessary.

He was well aware of the folly in going alone. A stationary signal did not mean that John was still at that location. Anything could've happened in the few minutes since that message had been left; he could be walking in to danger.

On the other hand, Reese could be moments away from permanent injury or death. He had to go; in his mind there was no other choice. To mitigate some of the potential risk, he was taking Bear along for protection as well as for the dog's ability to track. Hide-and-seek had turned into one of John's favorite activities with their four-legged friend. It had also turned out to be a fun-based method of training for Bear. Despite his initial protests, he'd even participated multiple times once Reese explained that it might come in useful sometime in the future if either of them had gone missing and technology failed to help them.

It seemed that future was now.

ooooooo

The amount of traffic on the streets as he drove towards Reese's last known location almost prompted him call the Detectives, since they weren't quite as far away from him, but he held fast to his decision to go alone – or as alone as one could be with a 65 pound dog in the back seat of a car.

In his mind, he was taking far, far too long to get to his friend. Due to an accident on one of the major roads, it had been well over an hour since he'd received those alerts on his computer. What if something had happened to John in the meantime?

Finally he reached his target designation. Checking the app on his phone, he noted that there had been no movement since he'd first tracked the location of the cell phone Reese had used. Finch hoped that somewhere in the surrounding 100 meters, he would find his friend.

He exited the car with Bear's leash in hand, looking up at the abandoned red brick building he'd parked alongside. It made up for the majority of the 100 meters, and from what he knew about Reese, this seemed the most logical hide-out for the ex-operative.

A cold breeze kicked up as he walked around the front of the car. Without warning, Bear started straining on his leash, practically dragging him forward towards the building. Trusting that the animal had caught Reese's scent, he quickly limped towards what seemed to be a side door of the rundown structure. Once they got a few steps inside, he gave the seek command, and let go of the leash.

Nose to the ground for a few seconds, the dog's head suddenly reared up and then Bear was making a beeline towards an opposite interior wall before disappearing around what seemed to be a clever architectural optical illusion. Reaching the wall, he stepped around it and peered into the dimly lit, rectangular room. His eyes weren't quite adjusted to the low light yet, but he knew one thing for certain.

John wasn't there.

ooooooo

To be continued…

ooooooo

A/N: Many thanks to ncimom for her talents as beta!

I'm not sure how effective 'hide-and-seek' is as a training method, but I used to play the game with my dog (a spaniel) and she loved it.

Thanks for reading!