Pairings: Reese/OC
Author's Note: Again, I am so sorry for the delay in updating. I've had a lot of time issues lately. I haven't forgotten my story nor would I ever abandon it.
Any feedback or ideas are always much appreciated! Thank you to everyone who has reviewed so far. I read every single one and they always make me feel so good!
Thanks to my Bestie Joaquina for reading over my stories constantly and providing feedback (and humor) and great ideas! I know you know how much they are needed sometimes Can't wait to see you!
Thanks also to my friend ReeseisLAVAhot for your suggestions and hounding for updates! LOL
And last but not least, thanks Grand Master Darkstorm for checking in on me. I didn't forget about you either!
Chapter 9
Ella turned over reaching for the blankets that she had obviously kicked off at some point during the night. Instead of soft material her hand came in contact with something very solid. Her eyes flew open and she immediately had to stifle a scream. Lying next to her wide awake and clearly watching her was John...A completely naked John. She blinked several times trying to come to terms with what she was seeing...in her bed.
"Did I wake you again?" He whispered and then his mouth drew up in a smile.
"What? What do you mean, again? And what are you doing here John?"
"Well, after last night I would think that the answer is pretty obvious my dear." His eyes raked over slowly.
'What the fuck?' She thought. 'My dear?'
"Ok, seriously John. What the hell are you doing here. You left last night. The only person that was here, in my room, was me."
"I'm hurt Ella, that our night together meant so little to you that you don't even remember it."
"Our night toge..." She shook her head. "No, get out John. I don't know what you're on but it's certainly not me. Get out!" She sat up pulling the sheet over her (also very naked) chest.
John leaned towards her, his hand reached out and cupped the back of her neck pulling her down to him. "Come on Ella, let me help you remember."
Before she could pull back, his mouth was on hers. His soft lips consumed hers and she moaned against her will. She knew this wasn't right but as he started deepening the kiss her rational side took a backseat to her overindulgent side. Her hands snaked around his neck as he pulled her down onto her back and then he was rising above her. She knew she should fight it but she was enjoying herself too much. She moaned his name as one of his hands began caressing her breast. Her back arched into him and then his lips were kissing hot trails down her neck. She felt his hand reach down and slide her legs apart and then he was between them. He bit down on her skin gently right where her neck meets her shoulder.
"Oh God, John!" She cried out...and then hewas gone.
Her eyes flew open and she blinked several times. She tried sitting up in the bed...the otherwise empty bed, but she was so tangled in the sheets and blankets that she had to untangle herself first. She was still breathing hard when she had kicked off the remaining blankets and sat up. Ella wasn't sure if she was glad or disappointed in the fact that she was still fully clothed in the shirt and shorts that she had gone to sleep in the night before. She let out a heavy sigh and flopped back down onto her pillow.
"What the hell was that?" She whispered out loud to herself. She swore she could still feel his hands and mouth on her; almost like his touch had burned her skin and was now fading to a light tingling. She glanced over at the clock sitting on the little bedside table. The display read 8:05 AM.
"Shit!" She rolled quickly out of the bed and ran over to the closet. She grabbed a pair of jeans and a long sleeve t-shirt then headed into the bathroom. Harold was supposed to be by her room at eight and here she was not even ready. She was dressed and ready in seven minutes and running to the door of her room. She pulled it open almost expecting to find the hallway empty but instead she saw Harold standing there holding two cups. He grinned at her as he offered her one of the cups.
"Good Morning" He announced.
"Good Morning. I'm so sorry I'm late...were you waiting very long for me?" A sheepish smile played at her lips as she reached out and took the cup he held out for her. She sighed, it was coffee and it smelled absolutely divine.
"No...not long." He cocked his head to the side. "Did you sleep alright?"
She thought he was looking at her oddly. It almost made her a little nervous. She wondered if he had been by earlier and heard her dreaming...She hoped to God that she hadn't talked out loud during her sleep.
"Yes, I slept great. Thank you so much. Oh! One second." She turned and walked back inside leaving Harold standing in the hall waiting for her. When she walked back out she explained.
"I almost forgot my pill."
Harold nodded. "Good, I don't want you having a relapse." He turned and started down the hall with Ella stepping in beside him. "I have to apologize but I'm not going to be able to show you around this morning. We had four numbers come in all at once early this morning."
Ella gasped. "Is that normal...for you to get more than one at a time?"
"No, it hasn't happened before...at least not since John has been here. And speaking of John, he's already been and gone this morning." Ella immediately felt herself blushing at the mention of John. She knew she had to control herself. It wasn't real, he hadn't been there, in her room, kissing her...and God knows what else. She had absolutely nothing to be embarrassed about. However, the thoughts that she was having about him, remembering the dream and how she responded to him was cause for embarrassment if Harold were able to read her mind. She stopped her train of thought as Harold continued. "He's en route to the location of one of the numbers now. We should get down to the NOC room."
Ella looked over at him. "The what?"
"Our NOC room - Network Operations Center. I need to try and find out some more information on our four numbers."
"Well, Let's go then!" She thought she sounded just a little too enthusiastic to her own ears but Harold didn't seem to walked through the halls and Harold began giving her a brief history of the building along with some general information on the layout. He apologized again for not being able to show her around like he had promised but she waved him off as they arrived at the viewing room.
"It's OK Harold. John told me that not even he has been given the tour."
He looked over at Ella as she sat down next to him. "John doesn't stay here so I really didn't see any reason for it.
Ella snickered. "Well, he seems to think that it's because you don't trust him enough."
"Did he say that?" Harold asked cocking his head.
"Mmm, not in so many words but that's the feeling I got, just from what he did say. I told him that it probably wasn't that at all. It was that you were always too busy for something as mundane as a tour. Right?"
Harold didn't respond, instead he started typing, which brought up several camera locations on the different monitors.
"Don't ignore me...Mr. Finch." Harold looked over at her with one brow cocked. She watched as one corner of his mouth quivered in his attempt to keep from smiling.
Ella shook her head as they watched John appear on one of the monitors. There were police lined up along the sidewalk in front of an apartment building. Harold explained that the building was where Claire Ryan, one of their four numbers, lives. Ella watched in awe as John walked up to one of the unmarked cars, opened the trunk and emerged with a CSU jacket and what she assumed was a CSI kit. She was even more surprised when one of the officers standing at the crime scene tape lifted it for John, who then proceeded to disappear right into the building like he belonged going in there.
"Does he do that often?" Ella asked as John disappeared from view.
Harold shook his head. "Unfortunately, it's not always that easy."
A couple of minutes later they heard the call ring in from John on the speakers.
"Finch..."
"Mr. Reese?"
"You said the Machine would give us the number in time...it didn't."
Ella looked over at Finch. "Does that happen often?" She asked quietly.
Harold frowned. "Fortunately, no. More often than not, we're there in time." He sighed.
They both watched as John exited the building from the side entrance and walked down to the sidewalk and began talking again. "I'm done at Clair's, Finch. I need you out on the street. You gotta help me get eyes on the remaining three."
"I'm more useful here trying to find connections between them."
"No point in that, if they're all dead." John's answer sounded frustrated, desperate. Ella was sure that was coming from seeing their first number dead.
"Tracking people down is your area of expertise."
Ella sat forward on her chair. "Harold." She whispered. "I can do it."
Harold answered by shaking his head at her as John responded.
"I can't track three people down and I don't want to lose anyone else. I need you out here."
"Harold..." Ella interrupted again.
"I'm on my way." Harold said back to John, ignoring Ella.
"No!" Ella hissed.
"I'll take Wendy." John responded. "I'll put Fusco on Paula. Can you track Matt?"
Ella once again pleaded. "Harold. Let me do it. I track people all the time."
"I can track Matt...on my way."
The call ended and Ella put her hand on Harold's arm.
"No Ella. You're not even a hundred percent well yet. Stay here in case I need you for anything."
"Harold, I'm no computer expert. What could I do for you back here? I'd be more help out there."
"Ella. I promised John when this arrangement was made, remember?…You can't go out into the field until you're well and have had training from him and ultimately, it's his decision when you're ready." His fingers flicked over a few keys. "I've set up the phone speaker system so that you can hear both John and I. Press this button if you need to speak to John…and this one if you need to speak to me. The Machine will also track us both. You can watch in this monitor for me, and you can watch John here. He pointed to each of the monitors for her. Oh, and here's your phone." He handed her a cell phone. "It has my number programmed in speed dial 1 and John is 2."
She shut her eyes in defeat as Harold rose and walked over to put on his coat.
"If Ineed you to look up anything, I'll ring in and walk you through it." He turned and started walking as quickly as he could down the hall to the stairs that led down to the entrance of the building.
"Shit." Ella mumbled. She got up and jogged after him. "Harold."
He stopped and turned looking up at her from halfway down the stairs.
"Be careful." Her brows knit together in worry for the little man whom she liked very much.
Harold smiled. "Thank you Ella. I will be."
He continued down the stairs and out to the street.
She began watching the monitors again as John walked along the side of the building where a minute later he was joined by a heavy-set man. She listened in as John spoke to the Detective and told him to keep an eye on Paula Vasquez. Harold had filled her in on who Detective Fusco was and his role in their operation when he had told her about everything else just a few short days ago. Ella watched as the Detective walked away presumably to find Paula and hopefully keep an eye on her. John then turned and started down the sidewalk to track his number Wendy. Harold was on his way in his town car to track Matt.
Ella felt completely helpless sitting here behind a desk. She had never been happy to just sit, even as a child she was always out doing something. She hated it even more that she wasn't in control of what she could and couldn't do. She had lived for years not having any control and it felt stifling again but she couldn't go against her agreement with John and Harold. If she didn't feel this overwhelming need to be a part of this operation with them, she wouldn't think twice about doing what she wanted and would be out there helping right now.
She took a sip of her now lukewarm coffee and made a face. She got up and headed to the kitchen figuring she had time to grab a fresh cup of coffee and run to the bathroom before there would be any action to watch.
After Ella had run back up to her room, only because she wasn't sure where any of the other bathrooms were, she poured out her old coffee and got some fresh from the carafe on the kitchen counter. It smelled just as wonderful as the first cup but she just hadn't been able to bring herself to drink it cold. She walked back to the NOC room just in time to see John stop at the corner of a building and take cover in the shadows. He watched something intently across the street. She wasn't sure which one of the monitors were showing what John was seeing but at least she could hear him talking to Harold. He said that Wendy was at the salon. She searched the active monitors and found the only one with a salon in view.
She watched as a black motorcycle pulled up to the front of the salon. The rider got off and walked to the front door, she saw John immediately come into view. He was right behind the rider who had just walked in the door. It was hard to see through the glare on the glass at the front of the building but she was able to see John reaching under the back of his jacket and she knew full well what John kept hidden at the small of his back. She still couldn't see what was happening but she released the breath she'd been holding when the rider came walking back out and calmly got back onto his bike and drove off.
She could hear John talking to a woman, who had introduced herself as Wendy. She was asking him about his grey hair? Ella could almost see the woman fawning over John and it made her want to jump through the camera and slap her. John was mumbling about just wanting to make an appointment and Wendy just would not take no for an answer. Ella got it, she knew how attractive he was but really, the woman had just blatantly asked him if he was single...Oh God, he had just said yes...Oh good GOD, Wendy had just announced it to the whole damn place. Now Ella really did want to do some physical harm to this woman. Gee...she thought, maybe Wendy's number came up because of me? Then she laughed at her own little joke. She didn't know where this irrational and insane feeling of jealousy came from. She shook her head as if she could shake the thoughts out of her brain.
She heard Wendy say she would be right back and then John was on the phone with Harold who said that he had followed Matt Duggan to a Ducati dealership. He asked Harold if anyone had followed Matt. Harold said he wasn't sure and that he wasn't very good at this. Ella had to hold herself back from saying her version of 'I told you so'. She heard a beep on the line and John told Harold to keep an eye on Matt and that he'd call him back. John was then talking on the line with Detective Fusco. Ella didn't realize that she was going to be able to hear both sides until she heard Fusco say that Paula had figured out that he had been following her. The next words out of the Detective's mouth was that Paula had lost him and that she may have bought a weapon too. She chuckled humorlessly as John told him not to quit his day job. Ella put her head on her hand. 'Shit', she thought. This could get ugly really quick.
She heard him disconnect the call and ask someone in the shop about Wendy. The woman said Wendy had some kind of emergency but that she was free. 'Ugh', Ella thought. Then John clicked back over to the line with Harold asking him if he had an update on Matt. Harold said that Matt had used cash for a down payment on a brand new Ducati and that he was headed out of the shop now. John told Harold to make sure he kept his eye on Matt because both girls had just given him and Fusco the slip. Ella looked up at the screen that had Harold in view. She quickly scanned the monitor and immediately she noticed the baby stroller with no mother in sight.
"Harold...the stroller by the car. Where's the mother?" Ella said frantically to Harold.
Harold responded back to John. "Hold on, someone left a stroller."
"What are you talking about?" John asked.
"There's a baby stroller by the car, I don't know where the mom...Oh, there she is."
Ella pushed back from the table. She knew what it was before the words could leave her mouth. "Harold, it's a bomb. Get away!"
"Oh my God, it's a bomb." He told John.
John told him to get down but Harold yelled that he had to warn Matt.
"Harold, no!" She yelled. She watched helplessly as he limped towards the car. "Stop!" She screamed as a bright light filled the monitor. She saw several things fly through the air, one of them being Harold. Ella prayed that he was ok. The next few seconds were so long as she watched the huge fire burn hoping that Harold was alright. Then she saw him sit up slowly and she let herself breathe again.
She switched over to John's line. He was trying to get Harold to respond. "Finch, are you OK? Harold!"
Ella broke in. "John, I can see him. He seems OK. He's sitting up but, with as close as he was to the explosion, he's probably not able to hear you right now."
John disconnected his call from Harold.
"John?" Ella started but her voice cracked and she stopped.
"I'm on my way. He's only a couple of blocks from here. I'll pick him up and head back to HQ."
She swallowed hard. "OK. See you in a little bit." She exhaled and backed up until her knees hit the chair. She sank into it and then she let her tears fall. She couldn't help herself. She hated it, but she couldn't help it. She couldn't stop thinking that if she had been there instead of Harold that she would have noticed the woman or the stroller. That made her angry because she didn't want to think any less of Harold, especially since he was hurt but then again, if she had fought a little harder to go out instead of him then maybe he wouldn't be in this situation. It was just a vicious thought cycle. She sobbed loudly letting herself get this out of her system before John got back with Harold because she didn't want either one of them to see her like this.
Ella wasn't sure how long she sat there crying before the cell phone that Harold had left for her, buzzed on the table. She leaned forward and picked it up wiping her eyes so she could see the screen. It was a text message from John. I have Harold. Almost back to HQ. Five min. ok?At first she wasn't sure why he was letting her know but then it dawned on her...she hadn't disconnected the call. John could still hear her. "Shit." She mumbled and then got up. As she was walking back up to her room she received another text. Don't step in it. Ella couldn't believe what she had just read. She giggled to herself and then text'd him back. Thanks. Needed that...IOU.
Ella walked into her room and headed straight for the bath. It had always been the place for her to relax and regroup. She started the water getting it to the hottest temperature she could stand and then poured in the luscious smelling bath gel she had used last night. She twisted her hair up and secured it with a clip and stepped in. No matter what had been going on in her life, even when she had been with Daniel, she could always sink down into the hot water and she would feel better...at least for a little while...
Ella wasn't sure how long she had been dozing but she felt like it had been hours. The water had gone tepid and she shivered when she sat up and the air hit her wet skin. She stood and grabbed the fluffy white towel hanging next to the tub and quickly dried so she could slip on her robe. She glanced at herself in the mirror as she was heading to the closet to get dressed and had to stop. Her eyes weren't as puffy but her skin looked awfully pale. She didn't typically fuss much with makeup but she was not exactly comfortable letting Harold and especially John see her looking like...this. She looked through the drawers in the bathroom and surprise surprise there were bottles of different brands of liquid makeup, moisturizers, compacts and shadows galore. Sheesh, who did Harold think she was, Tammy Faye?
She applied a few quick dabs of concealer and a tinted moisturizer and went to get dressed. She threw on some jeans and a black v-neck T. She decided to go ahead and take her medicine before heading back down to the NOC room.She remembered to grab her phone and noticed that there was an unread text response. It was the response to her last text to him. She headed down as she pulled up the message. I might have to collect on that. Later-heading back out. May have found Wendy and Paula. Be good.
Ella's eyes lit up and she smiled. She read it over several times wondering if he was being serious, then she would roll her eyes at herself for thinking that, then she would read it again and second guess herself, and then she was smiling again. Harold looked up at her as she walked into the room. He didn't look like his normal 'put-together' self but he didn't look disheveled like she was expecting either. She walked over and sat down next to him.
"You OK?" She asked him. Setting her hand on his forearm.
He shrugged. "I'm sure I'll be sore tomorrow, well, more so than I am now anyway." He looked over at her. His eyes looked more owlish than usual staring at her behind the thick black frames. "You can say it Ella."
She frowned. "Say what Harold?"
"Oh, I told you so. That would be appropriate, I think." He blinked.
She could feel her chin trembling slightly and she took a deep breath to keep from letting herself start crying again. "No Harold. I won't say that. I may have been thinking it earlier tonight but I won't say it. I will say that I wish it hadn't happened to you and I'm sorry I wasn't watching the monitors closer. Maybe I should have seen it. I knew you weren't used to being out in the field." She took another deep breath and then surprised Harold when she leaned over and hugged him. "I'm sorry Harold. That's something else I'll say."
Ella leaned back into her chair. "So John text'd me and said that he may have found Wendy and Paula?" Harold turned back to face his monitors and nodded.
"Yes, apparently the two girls are foster sisters and they witnessed a car crash with Matt and Claire. The person involved in the crash was a congressman's son who happened to have a million dollars in cash in the car with him along with an exorbitant amount of cocaine. Matt, Clair, Wendy and Paula split up the money between the four of them. The people who the money belonged to have been tracking down the four of them since then. Turns out Wendy and Paula took the money to help out their mother. She's at St. George's hospital, she had a fall and broke her hip. We think that's where they may have gone after someone tried to kill them earlier. John was there when it happened but they took off while he was fighting off their attacker."
"Shit." Ella mumbled.
"Indeed. I was just getting ready to call John."
"OK."
Harold pressed the key to be connected to John and they heard the call beep as they were connected.
"Mr. Reese?"
"I'm at the hospital. Wendy's here. No sign of Paula. What do you have?"
Ella listened as Harold filled John in on where Jamie Hallen had been headed the night of the crash and how he was going to test his theory surrounding Jamie's Haitian Orphan Fund.
Harold got up and looked down at Ella. "I promise, there won't be any bombs on this trip. I'm going to pay a visit to the late Jamie Hallen's father. I shouldn't be gone long at all."
She wasn't sure she felt any better about Harold leaving again but at least this time he was going to visit someone of importance. Not someone that was being hunted by assassins. "OK, call me if you need anything."
He nodded and then headed out again. She looked over at the monitors and found John standing in the hallway of a hospital. He knocked on the glass of one of the rooms and a woman walked out a couple seconds later. So that was Wendy. Ella hit the button to listen to their conversation via John's phone. John asked her about what had happened the night of the crash when they took the money. Wendy explained that they had seen the crash along with Matt and Claire and that they had split the money between the four of them. She knew it was wrong and that they should have called 911 but all they were thinking about was their mom and how the money would fix everything. While she was talking Wendy received a call. When she looked at the display she said it was Paula but when she put it on speaker it was a man's voice saying that he had Paula and that Wendy was to bring the money to the third level of the parking garage, alone, if she wanted her 'friend' to live.
Ella wondered to herself if this day was ever going to end. John waited out in the hall while Wendy got the bag of money from her mother's room. She heard him make a call out while he was waiting.
"I hear you've been taking some heat because of me."
Ah, Ella thought. He must be calling Detective Carter. "Maybe... Maybe you can come in here and help me explain some things."
He chuckled. "No thanks. But I can help you look good in another way."
"Oh yeah?"
"The people who killed Claire Ryan and Matt Duggan. The parking garage, St. George's Hospital."
"When's it goin' down?" She asked.
"I have to go."
"Wait...Thank you. For savin' my life."
"You're welcome." John stood there for a minute and Ella smiled. That, she knew, is why he does what he does.
Wendy walked out and showed John the bag of money and they headed out to the parking garage. When they arrived John took out his CA-415 and set it on the roof of one of the cars and told Wendy to call the kidnappers. He told her that they don't see the money until he sees that Paula's safe. She nodded and made the call. The kidnappers agreed and Ella spotted Paula across the garage in the next line of cars and so did John. He told Wendy to walk towards Paula but if he told her to run, she needed to run.
Ella saw someone walking up behind John. They would see the gun. She hit the button so that John could hear her.
"John! There's someone coming up behind you."
He immediately dropped the gun along the side of his body so that it was hidden and turned towards the person.
"You again? Have you lost your car?" The woman asked him, like she had seen him before.
"I'm waiting for someone." He responded.
"OK. Night then." She said as she walked off. Ella watched her and then the woman spun around towards John with a gun. Ella yelled. "John! Behind you!" Then the woman started shooting at him.
John dove to the ground and yelled for Wendy and Paula to run. He shot at the heating vent right above one of the kidnappers who was still holding Paula. It released steam and the man let her go falling to the ground. John yelled for them to run again and they finally did.
"John, she's comin' up on your six." Ella watched as the armed woman walked past where John was hiding between two cars. He rose up so quickly behind her that she barely had time to react before he was disarming her. She tried to head-butt him but he pulled back and then rammed his head into hers. John then spun her around into a car smashing the back window in. He threw her to the ground and then turned to take care of the other kidnapper who was trying to shoot him. He took him down in a quick succession of shots. He got up and walked towards Wendy and Paula who were huddled together behind one of the pylons.
Ella exhaled and put her head down on the desk just as Harold was walking into the room.
"Is everything alright? Is John hurt?"
Ella looked up with a smile, albeit a strained one. "He's fine. Their all taken care of, Wendy and Paula are both fine and I...am beat."
"You should probably go to bed. I have a few things to do before I'm done for the night but you need to go get some rest."
"Well, is John coming back by tonight or was he going...to his place? I was going to stay up for a while if he was going to be here. Just so I... nevermind. I'll be right back."
Harold cocked his head and looked at her in his odd little way as she walked out of the room. In a few keystrokes he had the doll cam pulled up on screen and he was going through Carter's movements in the past few hours. He stopped it when she picked up the phone and was talking to John. It was actually a touching conversation; her thanking him for saving her life. It was probably the nicest thing she'd said to him since...well, ever. He fast-forwarded the feed and then stopped it when the Detective picked up the phone. He listened as she dialed Agent Mark Snow and told him where he could find John.
Harold stood up quickly and immediately tried to call John but his phone was off. He considered trying to find Ella but decided against it and rushed out of the building to his town car. A few minutes later Ella walked back into the NOC Room and found it empty. She called out for Harold but she didn't get a response. She scanned the monitors and saw the screen that was paused showing Detective Carter. She grabbed the mouse and rewound the feed and then watched as the Detective picked up the phone and dialed. Ella froze when the person Carter had called, picked up and announced himself.
"Snow." She barely heard Carter because of the rush of blood she could hear pounding in her ears when she heard that voice.
"Yeah, he just called. I know where he's gonna be."
Ella started screaming at the screen. "What the fuck are you doing! Fucking bitch!" Oh God, she thought. That must be where Harold is. Ella punched in the number to John's phone but he didn't pick up. She tried two more times before giving up and calling Harold's number. He picked up almost immediately.
"Ella, I'm on my way to the hospital. Detective Carter called the CIA and let them know where John's at."
"I know! I just watched the feed you had up," Ella wailed. "What the fuck is she doing! He just fucking saved her stupid life!" She tried desperately to keep herself from breaking down. It wouldn't do anyone any good right now.
"Ella. I'm going to try to keep reaching John. I'll call you back and let you know as soon as I know anything. OK?"
"Yeah. Hurry Harold." The call disconnected. She fought to not lose it completely.
She searched the monitors frantically to try and catch a glimpse of John. At first she didn't see anything but then she watched as one of the monitors blinked and the angle changed. It looked like a view from one of the cameras higher up on the hospital and she watched as a man in a suit, that she immediately recognized as John, walked across the rooftop of the parking garage. It was fairly dark but she knew it was him. He was almost to the far side of the building when the area got much lighter. Then she saw it. The black SUV came into view driving slowly towards John. She punched the key to call John but it didn't connect. She punched the other key so that she could try and at least listen through John's phone, hoping to God that it wasn't shut off. Ella watched as John turned around to face the vehicle. Both front doors opened at the same time. A man stepped out of the driver's side and a woman stepped out of the passenger's side. They both walked towards him and then she heard it again...that voice, and Ella fought the overwhelming urge to vomit.
"Hello John."
"Mark."
"Glad to see you're still alive."
Ella whispered. "Run John." She knew he couldn't hear her but she said it anyway.
"I bet you are."
"I'm surprised to see you ended up in New York City. Thought you'd get yourself a cabin up in the woods. Montana maybe."
"Whadda ya want Mark?"
"It's time to come home John. Slate's been wiped clean."
That was when Ella noticed the man on the roof with the sniper's rifle pointed towards John.
"You know that'll never happen." Were the last words she heard him say. She watched him fall backwards as if someone had pushed him. Two flashes aimed towards the SUV from the gun that John had pulled out as he fell. Then she saw him jerk on the ground and then more flashes towards the vehicle. He was shooting out the headlights! She breathed a sigh of relief as she watched him move towards the door over on the side of the rooftop. There were no more shots fired as John slipped through the door. Thankfully Mark hadn't seen him to be able to follow him.
Ella could hear John's heavy breathing. It sounded like he was making his way down the stairs. She assumed he was going to try to make it to the street. She was just getting ready to call Harold when she heard John speaking again.
"Hey Harold."
"John, I've been trying to call you."
"Yeah, I've been kinda busy" John sounded so tired. It scared Ella.
"Where are you?" Harold asked him.
"In the parking structure. It's not looking good."
"Carter sold you out. They got to her."
"Yeah, they're clever like that. I wanted to say thank you Harold...for giving me a second chance."
"It's not over John. I'm close. Just get to the ground floor."
No! You stay away. Don't even risk it."
It got very quiet for a minute. Ella could barely stand it but she knew Harold wouldn't pick up if she called him right then. She heard a loud metallic noise and car tires screeching. She was hoping that it was Harold's car and not the agents finding John.
The next thing she heard made her blood boil.
"Hold it!" Carter. Ella wanted to kill her. "You?" Shit, she must have recognized Harold.
Damn her! Wasn't it enough she had almost got John killed after he had saved her ass? Then she heard something that she hadn't been expecting.
"Get him outta here. Come on."
Ella's heart stopped. Had Carter just said...to get him out of there?
There was some shuffling sounds and then a rushing sound of air, presumably from John...getting into the car? Then Carter spoke one more word. "Go."
Ella heard the car door slam and then it was quiet again.
AN: This chap was so hard for me to get through. I have tried so hard to get some action scenes into my story but I've spent so much time building Ella's character that I've kind of lost that. I am a HUGE Reese/Carter shipper (which you might know if you've read Control or Shades of Green, but I am thoroughly enjoying setting up this story and having things happen that run parallel with the actual POI epis. I would SO appreciate any reviews likes or dislikes about the story or ideas/things you'd like to see.
I also wanted to give a shout out to some of my favorite authors and stories. If you have some time- check out these fantastic fics and leave lots of reviews please!
Joaquina's POI fics are Exotic Underworld and 2 Broke Girls Meets Person of Interest
Exotic Underworld is a neat case fic and 2 Broke Girls Meets Person of Interest is a cross-over fic that is hilarious
ReeseisLAVAhot has 4 POI fics that are also fantastic (mature) romps with her and her co-author's OC. Teacher's Pet OUR Person of Interest Episode , The Ties That Bind our 2nd Person of Interest Ep , Walking the Thin Red Line our 3rd Person of Inte , Deus Ex Machina our 4th Person of Interest Episo
Some of my other Faves are:
Buns1974
Persnikitty5
TJR05
The others listed in my faves are also all fantastic authors