Joss watched the car John was in drive by. The ISA agents were pissed off by the looks on them. The heavy gunfire they received was enough to keep both her and Shaw hunkered down to remain bullet free. They couldn't even spring up to fire back. "Your boyfriend is dead meat!" Shaw snapped as she reloaded her nano, while Joss reloaded her state issued piece.
"Tell me about it!" she agreed. "Finch, we lost connection with John!"
"His phone has been turned off, most likely from Ms. Stanton." Finch said in their earpieces.
"Stay back Finch, these two are heavily armed," Shaw barked her order as the hail of bullets finally stopped. They both popped up, seeing the SUV that rammed the dark van peeling away down the same street that Kara had absconded with John.
"Damn it, lets' go!" Joss snapped ready to climb into the car to follow in pursuit, but Shaw didn't make a move. "What are you waiting for, they're getting away?"
"Finch, you can come now, the agents have gone in search of Reese." Shaw breathed heavily, keeping her eyes off Carter. When Fusco's car appeared, Finch immediately exited the passenger side, looking panicked at the sight he saw.
"Go with Finch, Carter. I'll take Lionel as backup." Shaw motioned to Finch.
"Excuse me; I think I'm a damned good backup."
"No doubt about it, normally I'd choose you over Lionel any day," Shaw agreed as Fusco appeared in the circle.
"Hey, I'd rather be next to a ravenous bear that hasn't eaten in weeks then be in the same company as you, Shaw, but you don't see me saying that!" Fusco griped.
"Can you two bicker like an old married couple later; I need to go get the man I love back!" Carter declared, not shy of who knew about her love for John. She didn't see any surprised looks anyway.
"Look, Reese went with his crazed ex-partner to lure the ISA agents away from shooting at us and it didn't have anything to do with his need to catchup with his former partner."
"I don't care about the danger to myself, I'm not leaving him and we're losing precious time in finding him talking about this!"
"Reese does care," Shaw said as gently as she possibly could. "And Cahill wants you dead for some reason, she sure the hell was firing at you a lot."
"I don't care, I have to save him!"
Fusco decided to speak up but he was siding with Shaw. "Carter, clearly the big idiot is in love with you, and can't separate his feelings for you from work. You can kick his ass once we get the big guy back. But, Lady Insane is right, seeing you trying to save him won't work the way you want it too. He'll resist."
"Trust in us to go get him back for you," Shaw cajoled. "You'll be with Finch, close, but not in the action." Joss stood silently for a minute.
"Bring him back to me, so I can ream him a new ass!" she hissed.
"With pleasure if I make popcorn to watch the fireworks and to watch Reese squirm," Shaw agreed. Joss didn't bother to remark on it, allowing Finch to gently take her elbow and pull her with him towards Fusco's car. She watched as Fusco hopped into the passenger seat while Shaw climbed into the driver's side, peeled back, before turning the wheel, and gunned the car down the same direction, down 12th Avenue just as the ISA agents and John had done.
"He'll be alright, Jocelyn."
"He better be," she agreed, hating the lump that formed in her throat. "I love him even if he can be thick headed."
"John doesn't mean to be." She sank into the passenger seat while Finch limped to the driver's side and slowly drove them in the same direction.
"What do you mean 'he doesn't mean to be'? John opened up to you?" Joss hurt inside. John could open up to Finch but not her.
"No, Mr. Reese, hasn't said a word to me about his past, he's a bit closed off from the world, not that there is anything wrong with being private," Finch said with a small smile.
"Then how do you know?"
"I know everything there is to know about John, about his previous life, about his life as a CIA agent, and his doubts of the work he did in the government."
"How?"
"I've watched John for a long time, detective."
"That sounds ominous and slightly stalkerish Finch!"
"Perhaps, but John came on my radar a long time ago."
"That tells me nothing, Finch." She eyed her friend who seemed reluctant to tell her anything about it. "You're not going to tell me are you?"
"There is nothing to say," she doubted that by the way he tightened his knuckles on the steering wheel. But she would allow him his secrets because they didn't do anything to alleviate her fear for John. She was worried about him being with his former partner Stanton and with the ISA agents following him.
"I recognized the woman operative that is after John. The one that Shaw said was named Colby Cahill." She said quietly.
"What do you mean you recognize her?"
"She ran into me, literally, with a cup of coffee the day my place was set ablaze. It was after I met up with John in a park, we talked about our feelings and he walked away. Then when I left too, she plowed right into me. She said I will die this time, which means…."
"She was the one behind your near death in your home, not Ms. Stanton," Finch said. "So they were studying John, seeing how to approach him. It appears they got tired of waiting, attacking him while he was meeting with his former partner."
"They want to capture him, Finch."
"Only possible explanation as to why they wish to capture John that I can come up with is because of the machine."
"Why would they think that he has any interaction with the machine?" She asked.
"Because of me." He looked away. "The ISA is looking for us to help find the machine's whereabouts, detective, and when Ms. Shaw and I hatched the plan of erasing John from the entire CIA database it must have ruffled the feathers of someone knowledgeable about us."
"Still, they don't know that John knows about the machine at all."
"Which is why I'm sure they sent the team to capture him; they'll interrogate him and knowing John, he won't give up our location or give away that he has any knowledge at all about the machine. They'll kill him, Jocelyn, once they learn he won't tell them anything." She heard Finch beginning to panic. "Oh dear, John cannot be killed because of me."
"He won't, we won't let that happen, Finch. John's not getting away from us that easily," she promised the elder man. She had been so shortsighted in her own pain over Fisher's death she hadn't realized the guilt and pain Finch must have experienced over it too. "I'm sorry," she whispered.
"For what Jocelyn?" he asked as he shifted his gaze from the road briefly to send her a perplexed look.
"For what happened with Fisher, for his death."
"It wasn't your fault."
"No, I came to terms with his death, it took me a while, and it took John's help to realize I wasn't at fault. But wrapping myself in my own pain and not realizing that other people cared about Fisher too, was my fault and was selfish. I'm so sorry, Finch."
"Jocelyn, you have absolutely nothing to apologize for, we all grieve in our ways. Ms. Shaw got angry, you blamed yourself and buried yourself in what ifs, and I did the same." She smiled, feeling better. His phone rang, furrowing his brows before he answered it on speakerphone. "Hello?"
"Hello, Harry." Joss's eyebrows lifted when she recognized that voice. It was Root, she remembered when she had disappeared on them, fleeing from their cage and hadn't been seen or heard from since the fiasco happened with Arthur Claypool. Something about another machine along with two terrorist groups they needed to stop; but she sighed, one issue at a time. They needed to save John from his former partner and the ISA!
"Ms. Groves?"
"She wants me to tell you where he's at, your new helper monkey."
"Where is he?"
"42nd Street and 12th Ave., near eyes that can't see. See you soon Harold." She hung up, leaving both Finch and Joss perplexed. The end part made zero sense while the beginning did. She immediately grabbed her cell, calling Fusco who answered on the first ring.
"We just got a call from Root."
"What did she want?" Shaw demanded.
"To help," she thought she heard Shaw exhale roughly. Something was between those two women, what it was she wasn't sure. "42nd Street and 12th Avenue, the thing that got weird is her other little helpful hint; near eyes that can't see," Joss said.
"What the hell does that mean?" Shaw asked.
"What is 'Fruit Loops' now, 'The Riddler?' What the hell, did we just walk into Gotham City or something?" Fusco demanded before hanging up. Finch drove them down 12th Ave. towards 42nd Street, they were at 18th Street and Joss felt like they wouldn't ever catch up.
"So Cocoa Puffs, is helping us now, huh?" Fusco said to Shaw.
"I guess so," Shaw agreed darkly, wondering what that woman was up to. They hadn't heard from her in a while, so whatever it was, it couldn't be good. She was trying to stop Samaritan since she claimed it fell into some bad hands, which she hadn't been kind enough to let them in on who exactly the bad hands were. But it didn't matter because they had their hands full with Vigilance, then Reese's number came up, and everything went to hell.
"Well we're almost to 42nd Street, but what the hell does it mean: 'near eyes that can't see.' Couldn't 'cuckoo clock' at least make it easier to figure out?"
"I'm not sure it was Root's idea or if she just enjoys playing with us," Shaw murmured. If she had to venture a guess, she'd say the machine wanted them to figure it out themselves rather than it just give them the answers. Shaw drove them towards 42nd Street, where she slowed down. She looked around seeing the cameras on the corners of the intersection. Well those could see, maybe they were the eyes. But that didn't make sense because technically the machine could use them to see. Shaw beat a hand on her steering wheel. "Forget it, let's think like a former CIA agent, where would you go to stash your ex-partner?"
"Gee, when you put it that way it makes it so much easier to figure out. I mean I always run into homicidal former CIA agents that have a beef with their ex-partner," Fusco griped. He scoured in search for this 'near eyes but can't see' thing. "Wait, Shaw…look." He pointed.
"Forget about the burger joint, I saw it too, Fusco; we can get a burger with extra meat, with a large fry after we save Reese's sorry ass."
"It's not food related, Shaw; ignore the rumbling of your stomach for once!" he snapped. She followed his pointing finger, seeing a sign with a cat that had a moving tail that was lit up with neon lights and with large eyes staring across the street towards a rundown building.
She snorted. "Well of course you'd see the strip club's sign, you're a guy; what an awful name Here's Titties." Shaw made a face. "Couldn't they come up with something more original than that?"
"Shaw….the clue….near eyes that can't see," he supplied. "Get your mind out of the gutter, like I'd ever go to a place named that! I have more self-respect, thank you very much."
"Could have fooled me, Lionel, but you are smarter than you look and act," Shaw snarked.
"So are you, so let's go." He winked and she grinned as she pulled up beside the rundown building that could at any moment fall down. "Place is big and dilapidated, wonder-boy can be anywhere in there," he said quietly as they exited their car. They both pulled their guns out as they walked around the back alleyway, seeing the car that Kara stole. Well, John was here, just where and where the hell was Cahill.
"We need to be careful, Fusco, the woman that is after Reese, the ISA agent named Cahill, is highly trained."
"Oh yeah?"
"Yeah, I should know since I trained her."
"Any chance that you trained her to ask questions first, then shoot to kill?"
"What do you think, Lionel?"
"Great so we got a trigger happy nut-job with a bad case of killing fever that you trained, and a whack-nut former CIA agent who has gone loco and would kill anyone in her way? Life with you guys is never easy, you know that!?" They moved to the back entrance, he on one side and her on the other. She motioned she would enter first, he nodded. She made a gesture of 3, 2, then 1 and he grabbed the handle opening it, and she aimed her weapon. When she saw no one she entered and Fusco followed behind. There wasn't a single sound in the old rundown building. She eyed the long corridor.
"Perfect, a bunch of damned rooms where Reese could be hidden in." Shaw sighed.
"Plus there is an upstairs." Fusco added quietly as they moved slowly, checking in the open doors.
"No, Stanton won't risk taking Reese upstairs."
"Why not?"
"Easier to move him out of here if need be if he's on the bottom level." She explained and Fusco just merely nodded. They moved quietly as possible in search for their missing partner. Tonight, one way or another, this was ending!
AN: Perfect way to end one chapter isn't it? The calm before storm number two! I love writing Shaw/Fusco scenes they just have that type of relationship where they can say anything to one another, that gets another lame or witty comeback depending on who you ask! Okay, so I'm posting chapter 22 tonight as well, and I'm going to TRY to post Sunday but I'm not sure if I will be able to or not it all depends on when my company leaves. If I can spare some time to post chapter 23 I will...but I have to post chapter 22 tonight it's like the huge climatic chapter of the entire story! So no teasers :D
Thanks for reading everybody!