AN: You'll recognize some of this but I did tweak a lot of what the show gave us :) Oh and just so you remember that the part in italics is the person speaking over the earwig. I like doing that for some unknown reason. I guess I like differing it from phone calls and communication over their comms. I'm weird like that :D
John slowly opened his eyes. At first he didn't remember what happened until his entire body throbbed with different aches and pains. "Kara," he whispered as realization dawned and he looked around before tensing as he realized he was tied to a chair. Joss was a few feet away across from him sitting in a chair, tied to it, and positioned across from him to look at him.
"Thank god, I was worried she injected you with poison instead of a sedative," she said in relief. John's face paled as he saw the bomb vest Joss was strapped with.
"Oh good he's awake finally." John's head whipped to the side where Kara's voice filtered in from. He watched as Kara walked unhurriedly towards them with Snow in tow, past a table with a laptop on it and a video recorder seated on a tripod. "Hello lover, have you missed me?" she greeted warmly.
"Not really."
Kara smiled. "Your honesty is always charming. Sorry for the theatrics, John, but I have a job to do for the people that saved me in Ordos, and I can't have the pesky man in the suit getting in the way. God, couldn't they have come up with something better than something so drab and boring as the man-in-the-suit?" Kara muttered.
John tugged on his binds. "So if you can't have me getting in the way then why did you kill Donnelly? I would have been in prison," he demanded.
Kara squatted in front of him and rubbed his face almost affectionately. "Because, then I can't toy with you if you're incarcerated, John, there is no fun in it," Kara said as the hand dropped down as she turned to look at Joss. "Your girlfriend is cute, although I wasn't aware that you craved chocolate."
John eyed Kara's profile. "You touch her and I rip your heart out," he vowed.
Kara turned to look at him with a smile. "There's my stone cold killer that I've missed." She gently stroked his face once more before turning to look back at Joss Carter. "I bet he turns into the Boy Scout when you're around. Mark told me all about Detective Joss Carter after you and I got in a fire fight when you tried to help Mark here and butt your nose in my affairs. And then I saw you and John together yesterday, canoodling in your car and I realized you were far more important than I first figured." Kara said. John frowned. That had been earlier, before Donnelly tricked Joss, before he had gone to watch over Kerchner when they met at the encampment, and he should have seen Kara. He should have made sure no one was watching them. It was his fault why Joss was in this situation. It was his fault why Agent Donnelly was dead.
"Go to hell, Kara," Joss said politely.
"I've been to hell already, Joss," Kara retorted.
"Next time I'll be buying you a one way ticket," John murmured.
Kara turned to look at John as she straightened. "Only if you promise to come with me, lover, but I'm here in New York for the people that saved me. They needed my expertise and they offered me something I just couldn't refuse."
"And that is?" John wondered. There wasn't much Kara wanted.
"Revenge," she supplied simply. "I want revenge on everyone including the person that sent us on our trip to Ordos, the one that sold the laptop in the first place. I'm going to get the bastards that gave the kill order, get the CIA, and the person responsible for the laptop. Everyone is going to pay for our trip to hell."
"Kara, trust me when I say that revenge doesn't help. What could is choosing a different path for yourself, you have a chance at a new future. Don't waste it on revenge." All it did was leave you cold and empty as he should know, killing Peter had done nothing to help with the pain of losing Jessica.
She laughed. "Like save people the way you do?—I don't think so. You were always the Boy Scout and I've been always good at tearing shit up. It's more fun that way."
John didn't think appealing to Kara's humanity would work, he doubted there was any left in her after everything she had done. "Kara, let Joss go. She is innocent in this. What happened to us is our past, not hers, so let her go."
"You're right, she doesn't have anything to do with our past," Kara agreed. "But she means something to you now, which means she is of use to me." Kara motioned at Mark to come over. John watched as Snow brought the video recorder on a tripod over, setting it directly in front of him. Kara watched. "Zoom out a bit more, so I can see John from head to toe." Kara ordered and Mark did as he was told. "Perfect. John smile for the camera." Kara stated perversely loving the control she had over him and he just stared at her. "Fine, play it your way." Kara murmured as she armed Joss's bomb vest. "Smile or we all go boom including your detective—who we both know you'd do anything for."
John smiled slowly and Kara laughed as she disarmed the bomb. "Good boy, do as you're told and nothing bad will happen to your girlfriend. You see, the bomb vest is a personal homemade recipe, has a ten second count down. Or at a touch of the finger I can do this…" Kara paused and Joss's bomb vest had a timer start from a minute to count down, before disarming it once more. She motioned to her right. John's eyes followed and glanced at the table set with a lone laptop on it and saw the video recorder was hooked to the laptop, before Kara showed John her phone's screen. The video feed was directly linked to her cell phone. "See, I get to see your pretty face, so if you get out of your bindings I'll know, and then Joss will die because of you," Kara said and he flinched. "I don't think you want pieces of Joss Carter all over the place. Like I said, John, Joss is my insurance to keep you out of my hair. And to make this even better for me, I have something for you."
"Oh joy," John muttered, with eyes on Snow as he got close to Joss. So help him if Snow does something to Joss the world was going to burn.
Kara pulled something out of her pocket drawing his attention back to her and it was nude color earwig. "Just for you and Joss, you both get to listen to the mission I'll be having Mark embark on." She murmured as she inserted the earwig into his ear then rubbed his face. "My present to you so you can hear us murder people and can't do a single thing about it, Boy Scout," she whispered in his ear and slid her tongue into his ear.
John tugged on his binds and she laughed as she straightened. "I told you letting Donnelly have you wasn't fun for me. We get to go down memory lane, John, whether you like it or not, with your girlfriend listening. And remember, try anything, she dies." Kara smirked as she turned to look at Snow. "Come along Mark, the moment you've been waiting for has finally arrived," she instructed and they left without another word.
John waited until they were gone. "Joss, are you okay?" he asked.
"Mostly, head hurts still from the accident. I have a few scrapes and bruises otherwise I'm good. What about you?" she asked softly, looking around the video recorder to see into his eyes.
"Fine, I think I have a bruised rib and a headache of my own but otherwise good," he murmured gruffly. He was glad to know that Kara had them muted as he was sure she would comment on them checking on each other. Kara could never resist keeping her mouth shut.
"John, what are we going to do? I tried to see where they were taking us but I was kind of out of it and worried about you," Joss admitted.
"It's okay, we just got to hope that Harold can find us. I can't move, if I do she'll kill you," he whispered. He knew Kara wasn't lying about that.
"Maybe I can get free," she murmured.
"Don't," he snapped. "You might trigger the bomb."
"Snow's been in his a while now and he hasn't accidentally triggered his," she reminded him.
"I don't care about Snow, I care about you."
"John I know but maybe if I can get free of my binds I can call Finch or Fusco for help. She has you on camera, not me. Evidently she thinks I'm a brainless twit," Joss muttered.
He struggled to not smile even at a time like this. "Then Kara is the brainless twit."
"Damn straight she is," Joss agreed as she wiggled her wrists back and forth, ignoring the rope burn it was already causing. The knots in the binds were tight but it was doable especially with the small razor Mark had dropped into her hand while Kara had been busy with John. Seemed to her that Mark was willing to help them to help himself. Typical Snow to the end, thinking about his own well-being, but at least it was beneficial to her and John this time around. "John…" she started but paused when a click sounded in their ears, meaning they weren't muted any longer by Kara.
"John, I've been watching you for the last few minutes and it's boring with nothing good to look at but your knees."
"What do you want from me, Kara, you're the one that tied me to a chair and stuck Joss in a bomb vest?!" he growled.
"I want you to spread your legs for me, give me something good to look at or I'll be displeased and you don't want me like that. Maybe someone who doesn't need to die, dies."
He shuddered as he struggled a bit. "Go to hell, Kara." he snarled, wanting to fight, but his eyes closed as he heard Joss's bomb vest arming. He swallowed hard as he did as she asked spreading his legs, opening himself up for her pleasure. The revulsive memory of Kara undoing his pants with her disgusting smile on her face seared his brain and he carefully shut down.
"Don't disobey me again or someone else will pay for it," she said, just as she always did.
There was another click meaning they were muted once more. Joss struggled in her binds hoping to get them off sooner, knowing this process was going to be long. She was going to kick Kara Stanton's ass for doing what she was to John. It was disturbing as much as it was toxic to John. Joss was worried that all her hard work at breaking down his walls, getting him to open up was going to be undone with this woman reemerging from whatever hole she crawled out of.
"She always says that," he whispered.
Joss swallowed the lump in her throat. "Kara always threatened innocent people to force you to do something you didn't want to. She used others to her advantage." she said without asking. It was vile. Using John's humanity to exert control over him to her sick pleasure, Kara got a kick out of trying to destroy John's soul and sanity. Thankfully she hadn't been able to even nick one.
"Yeah, no matter what it was: sex, work, or time away from the field. If she wanted something and I didn't, she knew just what to say or do to get me to cooperate." John admitted softly. He had done everything and anything to save an innocent life even if it had been detrimental to his own physical or emotional well-being.
They grew quiet. Joss silently worked on her binds hoping against hope that Finch and Fusco were on their way to rescue them. They needed to stop Kara, whatever she was going to do, couldn't be good.
For the better part of a couple hours Kara would pop on and off explaining some of her plan but nothing in detail or to command John to do something that she wanted to exert her power over him. Kara was enjoying being the puppet-master and she might have the power this time but when they got out of this, that woman was going down! No one strapped her with a bomb, killed innocent people, and harmed John emotionally and got away with it.
However, this time when Kara unmuted them, John and Joss could overhear Snow meeting with someone who was evidently paid up front for something that was formatted to Kara's unique specifications but the heavily accented man wanted more money for it.
"You've been paid already, so give me the damn thing!" Snow snarled. Joss frowned when she heard in the background the guy saying something about the price going up.
"Snap his neck Mark, for John's sake," Kara instructed. Joss closed her eyes at the distinct snap was loud as well as a bullet piercing glass and two resounding thuds of bodies dropping. "Did you hear it John, the snap, just like old times, isn't it?"
"Yes," John answered quietly, knowing she would merely arm Joss's bomb if he didn't.
Joss looked around the camera and saw John's face, seeing him staring off. Kara muted them once more. "It's not your fault John. Don't let her get into your head." Joss pled and nearly cried as the razor sliced into her in the same spot as she sliced herself before. This wasn't exact science. She could feel the blood sliding down her hand, dripping onto her fingers and most likely the floor. But she had to get free. It was their only shot at getting help.
"I tried to find quick and painless ways to kill our targets and I found snapping necks was quick without any suffering," he whispered. "And it was cowardly too. I didn't have to see their faces as I murdered them."
"Oh John, you were just trying to survive. There is nothing cowardly about that."
The conversation lapsed thankfully. Joss wanted it to fade away because the look on John's face made her want to cry. But maybe opening up about the things these people had him do, might mean he could heal from it. And maybe it also meant he realized the simple truth: that no matter what he told her, she wasn't going anywhere.
Joss went back to trying to free herself and each new time that Kara came back on she told them what she was doing they were getting concerned at what Kara was attempting to do. Snow and Kara were going to be breaking into a level 5 DOD facility that was Cyber Security Operations Center. Officially their role was to monitor and protect sensitive government networks from cyber terrorism. But unofficially they were developing weaponized malware.
The more Kara gave them little nuggets of her plan the worse it became. John looked at her. "Joss it sounds like Kara needed that hard-drive she forced Mark to steal a few weeks ago, so she can steal a cyber-weapon from the government. It's cyber warfare, Joss. We need to stop her." he whispered. "Donnelly was right but he had the wrong person, Kara was recruited by one of those private intelligence organizations with Chinese backing, she was saved in Ordos."
"Yea, they offered her something she couldn't refuse and is helping them implement cyber warfare. It could cause massive damage to the United States," she said and John nodded in agreement. Joss felt her binds beginning to loosen and she wiggled and pulled until her right hand came free and she cried triumphantly. "I'm free." she whispered afraid to speak louder for fear that Kara would unmute them to make them listen to her murder some more innocent people. Joss brought her hand forward ignoring the caked on blood at her wrists. Thank god, they were all superficial, she could have hit an artery with the inability to see where she was cutting. She turned and looked at the binds to free her left hand.
"Go get help," John instructed immediately.
"I'm not leaving you here, John, for her twisted pleasure," she countered. But she did run for the door. Joss peered out the small square window. "Well she didn't take us very far. We're in Manhattan," she said, recognizing the street they were on.
John caught Joss's gaze. "So if we got loose and she used that bomb on you, it will take as many innocent lives as she can get."
"Well she's not getting anyone including us." Joss promised as she exited the door to find out exactly where they were and saw it was Goodwin's, the small company that had the best damn chocolate in the state. The company had run for the better part of fifty years before just recently going out of business. This factory was up for lease for the last six months.
She re-entered the building and kept quiet as Kara beeped in to let them hear Snow and Kara shooting and murdering some armed guards protecting the DOD facility. Joss closed her eyes as she silently said a prayer to the families before glancing at John seeing what this was doing to him and wished she could protect him from it. The guilt was easily readable on his face.
Joss ran to the table, hoping the laptop could offer any kind of help but doubted it while she listened to Kara torment John with their past transgressions until finally she must have needed to focus on something else as she muted them once again. Joss didn't know how long of a window they had left and she needed to get ahold of Harold somehow but paused as she tugged the chair out. Lying on there was a burner phone. Well, well, well, Mark was going all out in helping them to save his own ass. She looked up and glanced at John holding the phone up.
"Maybe Snow is trying to make it up for trying to kill you," Joss murmured as she immediately dialed Harold's unknown number and waited several rings until he hesitantly answered.
"Harold," she said immediately.
"Oh thank god, detective, you are alright! Is John alright?" Finch rifled off, sounding close to tears.
"I have a bomb vest attached to me and John's tied up, Kara is in the middle of stealing a cyber-weapon and we can't stop her." Yet. But they were going too.
"Oh god," Finch whispered.
"We need your help Finch. I can't call Bomb Squad because they'll want to know who John is and that risks John's real identity. But we can't leave here or we risk innocent lives."
"Where are you, detective?"
"You remember that old chocolate factory in Manhattan: Goodwin's, they just recently went out of business about six months ago…"
"And perfect place to hide two people and one strapped with a bomb vest." Harold finished for her.
She nodded with her eyes on John. "I don't know how much time we have left before Kara unmutes us. Get here as soon as possible."
"I'm already on my way, detective."
"Be careful Harold." she advised and hung up with him. She walked towards John but made sure she didn't cast any shadows onto John for fear that Kara would realize that she was free. "John we are going to get out of this and we are going to stop her," she vowed.
"How, she's already in the process of stealing the weapon?" he wondered.
"We'll stop her after," she said immediately.
They both froze as the click once again sounded. "John, how are you doing?" Kara asked without really caring.
"About as good as expected with Joss strapped in a bomb vest."
"And you Joss, dear, you have been quiet for a while."
"I'm fine you delusional psycho," Joss quipped.
Kara chuckled. "She has spunk. I'll give her that."
"Kara, please don't do this. Don't turn on your country. You steal a cyber-weapon…"
"I'll be in touch John it's nearly finished, and I won't tell you again…spread your legs and remember all the good times we had when I was between them," Kara sneered speaking over him before muting them and he spread his legs open that he had relaxed at some point.
"It's going to be okay, John," Joss whispered, seeing how defeated John looked. "Harold's on his way."
"I hope so because Kara won't have any intention of letting you go."
Joss paced the floor of the closed down factory wondering how long it possibly was without any communication from Kara. And John was forced to sit with his legs spread so the bitch could get her jollies off, looking at where her eyes didn't belong. She curled her hands into her fists, feeling helpless and angry at feeling helpless. But after several minutes of utter silence the click once more sounded.
"It's been fun John, but our time together is just about over." Kara said. John glanced at Joss's bomb vest which made a sound. Joss looked down and they saw that they had five minutes. "Don't try to rip it off her, because there is a pressure sensor which will detonate immediately. So if you can save her in little less than five minutes, then I look forward to seeing you some more, John. If not, at least you both get to die together." Kara said and with that was gone.
Joss ran to where he was seated and helped get him out of his binds. "Harold will be here any moment, John," she said shaking. Once the binds loosened he immediately stood up and shut off the video recorder mistrusting of Kara not to watch. He trembled as he eyed the vest. "I've seen a lot of these in Iraq," she muttered.
"Me too, but, we never did get many crash courses on how to disable them," he said softly.
"No we didn't, did we?" she gave a humorless laugh.
The doors burst open and Harold dragged his leg with him as he ran towards them. "Oh thank god I got here in time," Finch cried. "When I saw the factory still standing I thought it was an illusion," he admitted as he rushed towards her.
Joss felt tears welling up. "You're here in time, just don't know if you want to stay," she admitted as she turned and Harold eyed the countdown. "We got minutes." she whispered banishing the tears away refusing to allow them to fall.
Harold eyed her. "That is more than enough time, Jocelyn."
"Have you ever defused a bomb before?" John demanded as he kept a hand on Joss's arm as Harold eyed the phone and semtex.
"Can't say that I have but I understand the basic principles."
"Well that's encouraging," Joss said, trying to sound optimistic.
Finch didn't appear to be listening, eyes sharp on the ticking down bomb. "It appears she has wired the phone to a capacitor based trigger, if the components halt it will charge the capacitor which will in turn release its charge at a…"
"Finch," John snapped.
"Sorry this is my process."
"Can you shut off the timer?" he demanded as he clutched Joss tighter.
"Can't get at the battery; I need to hack the phone's lock code," Harold said as he tugged out his own cell phone.
"Can you do it?" Joss asked quietly.
"I have built some of the most complex computer systems in the existence. I can certainly unlock a phone. All phones have a universal unlock code based on their model and the unique IMEI number. Okay, for this it is one of five number combinations," Harold said as he immediately hacked the phone that was strapped to Joss's bomb.
"That's good," John said feeling slight hope now.
"Problem is we only get three attempts before the phone locks us out permanently."
"That's not," John muttered feeling the hope slide away.
Joss looked at John and smiled as Harold tried one option and it failed. She looked back at Harold. "It's okay, Harold, take a deep breath and try again," she whispered. "I have faith in you."
Harold looked up and stared into her eyes. "I won't let you down, Jocelyn," he said calmly which was not what he was feeling at the moment. Harold eyed the four choices and made his selection and cringed in agony as yet again it was wrong. He shook as he realized he had only a minute left.
"Pick the winner, Harold," she said as she grabbed John's hand which he fiercely held.
Joss forced bravado she wasn't feeling but grateful she had John holding her hand while thinking about her son. If her time was up she wanted to spend the last minute thinking about her son and holding John's hand. Joss didn't even look down as Harold started typing. She stood still and waited, watching Harold's face and when she saw elation she blinked in realization that he had stopped it. Her eyes fell down and saw the timer was at 7 seconds and wasn't moving.
Finch nearly let out a cry of relief when the timer on the bomb quit ticking down. Tears were streaming down the detective's cheeks now as John immediately began tugging the vest off her. The moment it was off she touched her chest before turning and launched herself into John's arms and the unmistakable sound of John crying had the power to crush him. It was not a theory any longer: Mr. Reese and Jocelyn were as he suspected: something more than just friends. Harold gave the pair a look before walking away to give them a moment alone.
Joss cried into John's chest: the pain from the accident, stress from the ordeal, and utter relief of being free of that bomb vest had her emotions all over the place. He was holding her to him so tightly she thought he was trying to pull her through him.
"I'm okay," she whispered in his ear, trying to soothe him nearly as much as she tried to soothe herself. "I'm okay," she said again stronger this time. And for a good few minutes they stood together in the old empty factory just holding each other until the trembling faded.
AN: The part I referenced with Kara and Joss was where Joss got into the firefight in 2x7. I know that this is definitely AU from what the show did but I enjoyed embroiling Joss far more than what the show had. Next chapter is the aftermath of sorts :)
Thanks for reading!