"Howdy, cop lady."

Joss smiled as she approached Joan with a bag of food and cups of soda from a local fast food joint. "Care to share lunch together?" Joss asked before sitting down beside the woman.

"With you, always, so how is John doing?—hadn't seen him for a few days which is an oddity and has my knickers in a twist," Joan admitted in only Joan's way, with humor. Joss giggled as she pulled out the sandwiches and handed Joan one before she opened one for herself.

"John left town but is back, he's busy working and keeping an eye on Harold, who was kidnapped and is dealing with a bout of PTSD. John's hovering like a mother hen."

"That's John for you, always taking care of someone else and never taking care of himself. But poor fella, Richie Rich looks weird but is nice. I hope he feels better soon."

"I'll let Harold know you said that. And John, I'm sure he'll be visiting you soon as he can."

"Or he'll send his girlfriend in his place until he can," Joan responded coyly.

Joss shook her head. "Okay, you got me, he did ask me to come down here and make sure you were alright but I was going to do it myself anyways. And you're wrong, I'm not his girlfriend," Joss said in between bites of her sandwich.

"Still, geez, John's been puffin out his chest for a while now."

Joss eyed Joan with a smirk. "Puffin out his chest, what era did you come from Joan?"

The woman howled with laughter. "Calling me old, where's your manners cop lady, I think you've been hanging out with John too long," she chuckled before taking another big bite of her sandwich with a smile lighting up her face.

Joss leaned back sliding one leg over the other. "John got a dog," she said before taking a swig of soda.

Joan eyed her in surprise. "You're yanking my chain!"

"Nope, John found him and kept him. John named him Bear and he's a Belgian Malinois , absolutely beautiful dog, extremely intelligent, listens to all of his commands, which by the way, are all given in Dutch. Currently John has the dog being Harold's protector which the dog has taken quite seriously. I think Bear likes Harold." John had taught her a couple words so if she wanted to communicate a command to the dog. And she swiped the English to Dutch dictionary John had given to Fusco because she wanted to surprise John that she knew some without his help.

"Knowing John, that means he stole the dog from someone who wasn't treating it right," Joan said and Joss shook her head forgetting just how well this woman knew John. "But I'm glad, because a dog will help give him a sense of kinship. Maybe if he gets that then he'll get off his ass and do something about you two. I'd like to think you two will figure it out before I'm old and decrepit," Joan jokingly grumped as she munched on what was left of her sandwich.

"You love him don't you?" Joss asked what had been mulling in her mind ever since they took her to the graveyard. She already knew John loved Joan, he wasn't aware of the fact that he treated Joan as a substitute mother, but it was the truth. Joan was only about fifteen years or so older than him but she took care of him when no one else bothered. Joan made sure he ate, slept, and drank something besides alcohol when those necessities went heedless from the wounded man. Joss refused to think of John as broken because he wasn't, god knows the things he went through would have broken someone who wasn't strong, but John's inner strength was about ten men put together. He was battered and bruised with a scarred soul, but not broken.

Joan shifted her green eyes on her. "You're good, cop lady."

She shrugged. "Former army interrogator, knowing people was my business."

Joan nodded her head as she leaned back. "I tried hard not to, but John is easy to love; the boy has a big heart that looks to have been trampled on a few too many times. If I ever had a child I would've wanted him to be just like John, well, maybe more talkative but otherwise just like John," Joan said with a soft smile.

Joss smiled, John was anything but a boy. He was all man as her mind slipped to the impromptu striptease she received in Bishop Texas with that skimpy underwear that clung to every contour and left nothing to the imagination. Man, she was happy she chose that underwear, her body thanked her. Or the morning after with him hogging the bed, holding her to him in a tight embrace, and she rolled over in his arms seeing his sleepy eyes for the first time and the near kiss that hadn't happened. Not to mention his hard and big erection pressing against her side, the desire slicing through the sleepiness, and how he whispered her name like it was a prayer before he rushed off to the bathroom to take a shower, effectively breaking the spell they both had been falling under. Things between them were a little off right now, like they were walking on eggshells, because clearly her 'what happens in Texas, stays in Texas' didn't penetrate his thick skull.

"Cop lady, where did you go?"

Joss blinked as she realized she had been sitting there not paying any attention. "Uh…sorry, just got lost in thought," she admitted, a little mortified. Joan was one sharp lady, she would surely figure out she had drifted off to la-la land because of John and judging by the smirk she already had. "I have to go," Joss said quickly as she got to her feet. "I'll tell our mutual friend that you are A-okay and his worrying is for nothing."

"You do that, Joss," Joan said with a knowing look, but thankfully wasn't going to call her out on it. "You take good care of him."

"I will," she agreed. "We'll be seeing you soon, Joan."

"See you later, cop lady."

John was following Maxine from a safe distance, unable to get close with the woman's second hot story she was after: the man in the suit. His mind drifted to Joss and how things were somewhat strained since the almost kiss in Texas. It was his fault for both, the strain and the almost kiss. He had tried to keep what nearly happened in Texas left there but his body didn't seem to get the memo. So distancing himself physically was the only approach he had left, so he only called or texted Joss and avoided swinging by her place.

His phone buzzed with a text, making him tug it out of his pocket, and sighed. It was from Taylor, asking him where he'd been and not for the first time. The boy was as persistent as his mother. He felt like a giant ass as he texted: busy with work, back to the young teen. John barely lowered his phone to pocket it when it buzzed with an incoming text and he looked at the screen.

Yankees game: tomorrow at 7, come over?

John frowned as no excuse to not go came to mind, the excuse of working would only hold the boy off for so long before he grew suspicious. He was his mother's son after all. And John knew even with his limited social skills that explaining to a fifteen year old that he was too attracted to his mother to come over wasn't a very good idea at all. John used to be a pretty damn good liar during his stint in the agency and surely could have come up with a halfway decent lie to placate Carter's young boy, to keep Taylor from growing wary of his motivations for staying away. But the problem was that nothing came to mind because he wanted to see Taylor, he missed the kid.

Taylor and Joss were irrevocably, for better or worse, a tether to the world for him. It was unexpected, scary as hell, but yet irrefutably true.

John looked up making sure he still had Maxine Angelus in sight before texting Carter's son back that he'd be over sometime in the evening to catch part of the game with him. Taylor must have been waiting for the reply because the response was immediate with a simple: ok, see you then.

John pocketed his cell phone, before he reconnected with Finch as he followed Maxine from a safe distance. "How am I going to protect her if I can't get close to her? This isn't going to work Finch."

"I'm way ahead of you, Mr. Reese. It seems that Maxine's job doesn't afford her many opportunities to meet nice men so she somewhat reluctantly signed up for a popular online dating site. I took the liberty of back-engineering the matching algorithm to create the profile of her ideal man. She really likes that you love dogs," Finch said.

John paused. "Wait, you're trying to get me a date with her?" He didn't want a date with her. He only wanted one infuriating beautiful detective that had him tied up in knots. But then this was a unique case and getting close to Maxine needed some colorful lies, like he was interested romantically in her.

"Already have, tonight at 8, you two have been flirting all day."

He watched as Maxine grin and giggle. "Finch, what did I just say to her?" because judging by the way Maxine responded to whatever Finch wrote, he wouldn't mind saying it to Joss see if he could get the same reaction.

But Finch didn't play along. "Stay focused Mr. Reese."

Joss was going to kill John, no, that was too easy instead she was going to skin him alive and then kill him. No, no wait, better yet she was going to lecture him until his ears fell off then skin him alive, and THEN kill him. Yea, he hated being lectured.

Fusco smirked at her look. "Go easy on the big fella, Carter, he doesn't mean to be Captain Oblivious."

"Go easy on him," she snorted under her breath as she stormed over to where Maxine and John were, which was near her desk. Oh, she could have tried to go easy on him as Fusco put it had John not pulled his Houdini act on her. Calling and texting her all the time, was she supposed to not notice he was avoiding spending any face time with her? And then there was the fact that she had warned him to stay away from Maxine knowing that she was a rabid dog with her news stories. He had claimed he was going to 'keep his distance', and his idea of 'keeping his distance' was going out with her!

Joss stopped short of where Maxine and John were, which was at her desk filling out their written statements for what happened. Maxine was seated at the chair beside it while John stood beside her fidgeting anxiously as he looked around the precinct. "Alright, Miss Angelus and Mr. Anderson, was it?" she sneered in blatant irritation as she looked to John.

He turned to see her irritated look. "Uh…you can call me John," he offered and Joss tried hard to not roll her eyes, but she didn't think she was successful.

"You found Mr. Zambrano didn't you?" she said hiding her displeasure as she looked at Maxine.

"He was shot. He wasn't breathing." Maxine said quietly, regretfully. "It was all my fault," she said and Joss nearly growled 'you think?' but kept it to herself. The woman looked remorseful already and the reason for her snarling at her had everything to do with the fact that she had been on a date with John and little to do with anything else. "Sorry, I can't, I just need a minute," Maxine requested.

Joss nodded. "Yea, sure," she agreed as she moved away from her desk to give her a minute and touched John's arm, he nodded and walked with her.

He looked at her, seeing her anger. She opened her mouth but he spoke before her. "Your killers are knocked out at the scene, my guess is that they are Toreros Cartel."

"Just one of many organizations that wanted HR's boss dead, just got the wrong guy," Joss said looking pointedly at Maxine before looking back at him. But she didn't let him distract her from her lecture for long. "Let's talk about your idea of keeping your distance: by dating her!"

He sighed. "It's complicated." he admitted as they stood together, huddled in a corner of her precinct. John took a look around making sure no one was looking at them before bringing his gaze back on the disgruntled woman before him.

She frowned as she crossed her arms. "It's not that complicated, John: you avoid me and date another woman who is looking to splash you all over her stupid newspaper," she stated with a defiant tone. "I mean if stick thin and lack of brain cells is your thing, then go ahead and date her, but I think you can do much better. She didn't even do any checking into the info her source gave and got a guy killed for it," she huffed.

"Joss…" he started but she cut him off.

"What? I'm not supposed to realize that you are avoiding spending any face-time with me? When have you ever had the self-control to resist breaking into my home?—you haven't been there for days, my son has noticed. He's been asking for you," she continued, glancing up into his eyes that were behind those wire glasses that made him look even adorable than usual. But even his intense cuteness couldn't zap her irritation at him. "But that empty-headed pole over there gets a date with you and probably wants more bedtime than face-time with you, John."

"I'm only dating her because it was the only way I knew how to get close to her without having to be the man-in-the-suit. Finch engineered it," he tried to explain.

She snorted. "Of course he did, because you and the bag of bones have nothing in common. What did she eat for dinner, a piece of lettuce?"

John's lips twitched into a smile. "If I didn't know any better, Carter, I would say you were jealous."

She scoffed. "Of her? I'm not!" she said and his small smile grew. "I'm not!" she insisted and when his smile didn't fade she rolled her eyes. "I'm just worried about you being found out as the vigilante man-in-the-suit by being undercover on a date with the woman that is like the living and breathing version of Lois Lane."

"Who?"

Joss's mouth dropped open. "You know from the Superman comics with Clark Kent…Lois Lane…" she trailed off when he stared at her. "Seriously, John, you never read comic books when you were a kid?"

"Did you?" he asked.

"Of course I did I…" she went blithely on before pausing as she saw him smiling like the Cheshire cat. She narrowed her eyes realizing the little rat had done that on purpose. She never told anyone that she used to read comic books when she was just a kid. "You read comic books when you were a kid didn't you?" she asked softly.

And his smile grew. "I did and now I know you did too. Tell me Carter, which one was your favorite?"

She laughed humorlessly. "I'm not telling you that." she sniffed. "I only tell people who see me and don't avoid me that sort of deep dark secret," she assured him. If he wanted to know then he had to agree to stop being stupid.

"I'll come over tomorrow night," he said. John purposely didn't tell her that her son already asked him to come by and he agreed. She didn't need to know that, he was curious to know what Joss read when she was a young girl.

Her face brightened up. "You are?"

"Sure,"

"Batman, my favorite was Batman, I had to have every issue," she admitted. "No one can know that secret so if you tell Fusco, Finch, or Joan I will have to kill you."

He chuckled. "Your secret is safe with me, so you like your vigilantes in rubber suits instead of spandex?—I'll have to remember that," he teased and she glared at him. He looked around and saw Fusco who eyed him. Yes, it was time to leave before someone else noticed him. "This isn't the best place for me to be but I'm not leaving Maxine. Can we leave?"

"Yea, can't leave your toothpick behind," she sniped.

"Joss…." he warned.

Joss sighed. "Your girlfriend was probably the unwitting perpetrator in this one, so case closed. I'll send the twig on home by herself."

"She's not my girlfriend. She may be the perpetrator and victim. Until I know for sure that she was just an unwilling perpetrator and is safe, I need to stay close," he said and she sighed, of course John was right. "Can I get her out of here, we gave our statements?" he asked.

"Yea, fine," the less she had to see her, the better. And if they could make sure that Maxine was alright then John wouldn't have to pose as an eligible bachelor wanting to date her any longer then necessary.

"Thanks Joss," he said quietly before turning to walk towards where Maxine sat waiting, feeling Carter behind him. He touched her shoulder as he came up behind Maxine. "Come on, Detective Carter said we can go."

Maxine moved to grab her purse. "Some first date, huh?"

"And your last one, you big bag of wind," Joss muttered under her breath.

Maxine looked at her. "I'm sorry, detective, did you say something?" she asked.

Joss pasted on a false smile with lots of her pearly whites which seemed to make John frown but Maxine didn't know she was being less than sincere. "Nope, not a thing," she reassured sweetly her before frowning as Donnelly entered the bullpen. Her heart stopped as she took a subconscious step towards John to try to shield his face from the agent.

"Maxine Angelus," Donnelly commandeered, ceasing Maxine's movements and John looked before turning his face away immediately. "Special Agent Donnelly, FBI; you are going to answer some questions," Donnelly said before leading her towards one of the interrogation rooms, leaving Joss and John looking between one another.

"Go outside, once he is through questioning her I'll send her out," Joss said with a faint touch to his forearm.

"Are you sure Joss?" John murmured.

"Yes, go, I don't want Donnelly to see you."

John nodded and didn't need to be told twice as he turned and hurried for the exit while she was forced to wait for Maxine Angelus to be done getting her ass chewed for what happened with Zambrano.

AN: I do so love writing jealous Joss and if you're wondering John will be having his turn eventually ;D Next chapter deals with 2x6.

Thanks for reading!